#who are part of a minority which is prosecuted by the church for something they are born as

[zhoras-bitch]

Romancing Vesper or f!Onyx in WTC is particularly juicy because this way MC gets to hate herself not only because of her 'unholy' powers, but also because she's gay, which is x2 religious trauma combo.

[alistonjdrake]

The Rusnak Party

Of Blood and Stone, The third book in The Saints’ Song Series,  showcases the Escana Empire on the verge of crumbling as a murdered king and a divided government threaten to tear the country apart. As some grapple for power and wealth, others decide to jump ship.

Season One World Building Posts:  1 2  3  4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

Season Two World Building Posts:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Season Three World Building Posts:  1 

Bonus Episodes: 1 2 3 

Main Wip Intro here 

People are never completely sure where Vito Rusnak came from. Born in 1698 (after the fall of our Saints), he was likely of Abenian origin or raised in Palogne. Both are usually considered, sometimes a combination of the two, for his supposed education and for his future work and attachment to Abenland as a country. Most of what is known about him was provided by the man himself as backstory during his involvement in the late 1730s riots that eventually lead to the creation of the Republic of Abenland in 1743.

In Rusnak’s own words, he was raised partially in a Dackten conservatory, a minority sect of the Santivian church which preached for the dissolution of of the “aristocratic” hierarchies of the church as well as holding all properties in common and the collective ownership of the “charity of Santivian men”. Presumably talented in music, Rusnak would leave this conservatory at the age of sixteen to attend Doxseth College in Nomworth, Palogne. He took his Dackten ideals with him. Nomworth, often being dubbed the city of scholars and made up of a supremely diverse population for its predominantly foreign students. It was not long, according to Rusnak, until he switched out of the school of music and landed into a study of law after joining a literature group where they read books likely continuing the criticism of the Santivian church’s power structure as well as antique philosophers (an assumption made on Rusnak’s future proclamations about primitive society and the happiness and richness of cultures and societies that had not yet discovered poverty, a claim also found in some antique writing).

At some point, Rusnak began writing his own work. His early pieces were reflections of the Dackten sect and their eventual prosecution by the more dominant Santivian groups throughout the east, but he eventually landed on writing what would later be called idealized pieces about egalitarianism, communal ownership, and the redistribution of property behind the world of the church. Rusnak was very likely influenced by the amount of failed protests going on in the east that was fueled by anti-monarchy sentiments and the increase of religious prosecution as Oskyan Orthodox Santivians rose to prominence in the region. 

Similar bodies of work to Rusnak’s work were outlawed by eastern governments in the aftermath of minor rebellions, but Rusnak sold his work as Utopian fiction and was able to bypass the book bans that targeted most of his colleagues, although any positive references to Dacktism had to be removed. 

Rusnak graduated in 1721 at the age of twenty-three with a law degree and moved back to Abenland where he struggled to find a job and would eventually find himself working as a music teacher for another conservatory. Although by the time he would return to Abenland, the Dackten groups had all been removed and he would instead find himself under the employment of Oskyan officials. As the Abenian government weakened, Oskyan influence in the country grew greatly. Many of the dukes of Abenland were paying for their favors. This was the spark of decades of uneasiness in Abenland, as the weakened government and the advantages taken by Oskyan officials allowed ruling dukes to get richer and gain more power while the rest of the country was stuck in a stagnant struggle. One that would eventually lead to the dissolution of Rusnak’s job as the commodification of education resulted in private tutors for the children of dukes instead of more open institutions. 

When the riots of the 1730s began, there was no such thing as the “Rusnak Party”. However, Vito Rusnak did become a prolific figure during them. It should be noted that while he was allied to many of the early leaders of the anti-duke and anti-Oskyan protests by the Abenian lower classes, he openly rejected armed revolution and instead advocated to “re-education” for the benefit of a classless society. However, due to the popularity of his writing at the time and the fact that he is credited with the messaging system rebels used to communicate, Rusnak is also usually to blame for the Kirdan Massacres.

The Kirdan Masscares is the term used for the event in which, as a reaction to the discovery from spies that many of the dukes had written for help from Oskyan forces (something that would surely squash the rebellion), so they planned a series of attacks on affluent dukes by smoking them out of their homes with controlled fires and shooting them down. Surviving members of noble families and those that fled the country in the aftermath of this event ultimately planned Vito Rusnak due to him being the most known rebel. As such, going forward all references to the rebels became dubbed as the “Rusnak party”.

The Kirdan Masscares are named after Arseniy Kirdan, the general of the Oskyan army at the time and the presumed receiver of the Abenian dukes’ letters. In the rebel party, they used Kirdan’s name to sign off all messages related to this plot. This event is also called “the Culling” by supporters and survivors on the rebellion side for obvious reasons. 

In the aftermath of this, the ruling party was so scattered and weakened, it allowed for the creation for what would be known as the Republic of Abenland in 1743. Rusnak was quickly recognized as someone who would help reframe and rebuild the country.

It should be noted, that not all of the nobility left. In fact, what is known as the Abenian Republic was actually a relatively small collection of its states united under the former rebellion council. The massacres only weakened them and further pushed the nation into poverty as the Oskyans pulled out in fear of similar attacks as it was clearly apparent to King Niclas at the time that they had no insiders in the party and could not predict their movements, and he had no reason to help Abenland if they could not pay him. 

With Rusnak’s familiarity with law, he was often called upon for insight on how to run the republic. It had its failings. The first being they had no money and the second being they were arguments about the future of governance. In the beginning, Rusnak wanted to turn to widespread Dacktism and political order based on popular sovereignty. He continued his criticisms about private property and in the injustices of unequal wealth and social classes, and while plenty agreed with him due to the bad taste left after the Oskyan Orthodox Consistory, there were few eager to back a movement fueled by religion.

The Republic also had many enemies since it’s creation. Many of the surviving dukes had fled to Oskya or Slovy and there were several attempted coups or the blocking of roads to isolate Abenians from much needed supplies. The remaining duchies also continually launched attacks in order to retake the Republic.

The Republic would crash in 1759 as a result of the failed assassination of Urs Felganhaur, a returned Abenian duke who had survived the massacres and had presumably captured someone with intel of the innerworkings of the Rusnak party. The shooter’s gunpowder would be too damp due to rain on the night of the plan and his capture would lead to the arrest of several of the republic’s key figures (including Valera de Martí, Rusnak’s mentee and then just sixteen going on seventeen). The invasion of Oskyan forces, now under the banner of King Vadik who took a much harsher stance against them, and the installation of dukes back to their abandoned duchies, killed the Republic and its leaders either went into hiding or continued to rebel in secret. 

This would result in the continuation of bloody altercations, affairs similar to the Kirdan event, planned food shortages, and mass executions of those considered to be part of the party. Vito Rusnak at this point likely gave up his ideals of revolution without arms as it would be said that going forward Rusnak rebels usually carried guns or would be to blame of bombings and other violent forms of protests. 

His books, along with the work of Valera de Martí, were banned and burned by the Oskyan forces. A jail sentence of four years was carried out on anyone to be found owning any of their writing, an increase of a year based on the amount of books owned. Rusnak himself went deep into hiding while his mentee spent much of his time in and out of Abenian prisons where he would write poetry, a brief history of the Republic, and further criticisms of the ruling class until he would be forbidden from having pen and paper during his repeated sentences. 

Vito Rusnak would eventually be found and arrested in 1767 after an increased Oskyan presence and the slaughter of several other rebel groups. He had time before his arrest to warn his own daughter, Darya Rusnak, and Valera de Martí to flee the country and the east before he was taken in by Oskyan forces. Some months later, Darya would be arrested trying to cross the border and she would give out the names and presumed locations of all of her father’s allies in exchange for her own life. 

in 1768, Vito Rusnak would be executed in Porsdal, Slovy in front of a crowd of Oskyan soldiers who would then take his head on a tour throughout all the major cities in Abenland to warn away any hiding or remaining rebels. 

Likely unbeknownst to the Oskyans at the time, the execution of Vito Rusnak only sparked a continuation of his ideology. 

Surprisingly, Valera de Martí escaped execution and was able to flee to Escan which exiled him instead of handing him over to the Oskyan government due to his being an Escana citizen. He is credited with spreading Rusnak Ideology to the west as he translated much of his mentor’s work and continued writing his own (before its eventual ban by the Escana government, much of his work was taught in schools due to his start in poetry). In fact, Valera was often more criticized for his open support of atheist beliefs. Much of Valera’s work was easier to swallow in the west, as even when he bemoaned about the things he thought was plaguing society the western (and importantly the Escana) powers saw it more as a criticism of the east instead of the inherent power structures carried by both nations. 

Rusnak and de Martí were not the only people who were critical about private property, social classes, and wealth distribution but they quickly became the most famous to the point where most writers and speakers from this era (and beyond them) either get lumped under Rusnak or Valerist theory. At their core, both ideals are the same except Rusnak and people like him tend to take a stance rooted in religious idealism whereas Valera, born from the pioneers of the Escana middle class, and the people who came after him tend to focus more of plights afforded to working and lower class people as well as mocking individualism or earlier sentiments that stopped at “common good” and “common wealth”. Most Valerists are considered to believe that that the Rusnak party was not ambitious enough and that a further step needs to be taken for the advancement of society.

There is however, very little record of just how much de Martí may or may not have disagreed with Rusnak as very little is known about their relationship beyond what Darya Rusnak said about them when she was imprisoned, claiming that her father saw de Martí as more of his own blood than her. Although, de Martí himself would go on to reflect on the Republic years later and would not be very kind to its leaders while he talked about all the missed opportunities. 

Even after Valera de Martí’s exile from the Escana Empire and the complete eradication of a rebellion in Abenland, the Rusnak party quickly spread throughout the continent and survives in much smaller but still active groups during The Saints Song series. All of the books outlining their early roots are illegal although a few are kept in university libraries in Palogne for the preservation of knowledge and it is also illegal for Rusnaks to assemble in parties larger than groups of four but whether or not that stops anyone is dependent on who you ask. 

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Karel Ooms - By the Nile - 

oil on panel, Height: 27 cm (10.6 in); Width: 36 cm (14.1 in)

Karel Ooms (27 January 1845, Dessel - 18 March 1900, Cannes) was a Belgian painter of portraits, genre paintings and history paintings. He was also known for his Orientalist scenes and Oriental landscapes.

Karel Ooms worked in various genres including portrait painting, history painting, landscape painting and genre painting. He is now mainly known for his Orientalist and genre paintings and portraits.

Portraits make up about one third of Ooms' known output of 220 works. The sitters for his portraits were mainly from the wealthy bourgeoisie in Antwerp and the Campine. His self-portrait of 1896 depicts the artist holding his palette. The colours on the palette show his preference for earthy pigments, which was typical for artists like him who worked in the academic tradition.

His career received a boost from the success of his 1876 history/genre painting entitled The prohibited reading (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). This painting depicts a historical scene of an old man and a young woman who are huddled over a bible. The pair is gazing in apparent concern or alarm, over the old man's shoulder, towards something outside of the picture. The scene is likely set in the 16th or 17th century when Protestants were prosecuted, amongst others, for reading the bible in the vernacular, a practice prohibited by the Catholic Church at the time. One of the reasons of the success of Ooms' picture was that the situation of the small minority of Protestants in Catholic Belgium of the late 19th century was seen as having parallels with their situation in the 16th century. The painting was immediately acquired by the Belgian state. In 1885, Ooms made a reduced copy of the work, probably for his own use. The composition was also copied by other painters, for display in Protestant religious venues and homes. It was also circulated through prints. The composition shows Ooms' principal interest in portrait painting as the faces of the two figures are in the centre of the composition and are clearly painted in more vivid colours and detail. A painting with a similar theme of religious persecution is The Jews in the Middle Ages (1890, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), which deals with the persecution of Jews.

Ooms painted many more history paintings which showed his interest in the 16th century history of his country.

Inspired by his travels in the Middle East, Karel Ooms painted many Orientalist compositions. A portion of these are landscapes he painted on site. These include works such as By the Nile and View of Jericho. Others depict dancers and public festivities. Karel Ooms further painted a few works such as Dreaming in the harem, which reflected the contemporary interest in the theme of the harem and the odalisque in Orientalism. One of his Orientalist works – a portrait of an Egyptian woman entitled The woman of Cairo - is part of the Shafik Gabr Collection in Cairo.

Karel Ooms painted many genre scenes, some of which doubled as family portraits. An example is the Aristocratic family enjoying winter, which was commissioned by the Belgian aristocratic family "Meeùs-Honnorez" in 1885. It shows the three family members riding a horse-drawn sleigh, with the local distillery in the background, which the family owned and which was a major source of the family's wealth. They are in elegant dress and royal poses and bring to mind similar portraits of the Russian Czar Romanov family.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

one of each for each otp,,,,, for brilliance/sienna: 3, 10 (prose boy...... ), 19, 31! for raini/ecstasy: 1, 14, 23, 26!

YES now my plan to make you care about my paladin you’ve never met can really come to fruition.....it worked for cog it can work for this gay bitch too.....

Super super minor nsfw for 23 and 26 for Raini, and I guess technically 31 for Brilliance but honestly not really. Enjoy!

Brilliance & Sienna

3. If they complimented each other, what would they say? Not to sound like a lesbian, but Brilliance thinks Sienna hung the moon. She’s so beyond smitten with this woman, and if anyone makes the mistake of asking her about her fiancée (which her party would never do because they’re a) hets who b) don’t care about rp) Brilliance would easily be able to spend hours talking about everything that makes Sienna the absolutely amazing woman she is. Brilliance admires Sienna’s patience, her quiet determination to get things done right, and her easy, calming presence. She’s compassionate and honest, and she makes the people around her want to be better than they are without having to say a word. She’s beautiful, inside and out, and Brilliance thanks Sune every day that fate brought them together. And check this out! Sienna loves Brilliance just as much! They’re in love! Sienna admires how willing Brilliance is to take charge in difficult situations, and that her primary concern when taking charge is making sure the people under her are safe. She’s intentional and unwavering in her resolve and devotion to the people she loves. Sienna loves how Brilliance is able to find beauty in just about anything, and how fiercely she’ll fight to protect the light and beauty she sees in the world. She loves her insistence on giving people second chances, even when they may not deserve it. Brilliance embodies the phrase “get behind me”, and while Sienna often wishes Brilliance would let her share that burden, she understands that Brilliance does what she does to show love.  10. Write a ~300 word argument scene for them.  It’s been three days since Conviction’s death. Since they found his body at least; he’d been missing longer than that. It was murder, anyone could see that, but no one has any delusions about it being investigated as one, let alone prosecuted. He shouldn’t have been involved with those rebels, people say. It’s his own fault for stirring up trouble where there didn’t need to be any. There’s been multiple times where Sienna’s quiet touch to Brilliance’s arm has been the only thing to keep her from lashing out at someone who implied that and while she’s grateful for the temperance, part of her can’t help feeling that grief hardened by anger might hurt less.  It’s been three days since they pulled her brother’s body out of the sewers, and Brilliance knows she needs to go home. Her mother is devastated, her father considers his obligation to help fulfilled by paying for the funeral, and as loathe as she is to return to her childhood home Brilliance knows it’s her duty to be there. Sienna comes back to their tiny (Sienna calls it cozy to make Brilliance laugh), dingy (”lived in!” she insists) apartment to find Brilliance packing, and the pity in her gaze makes Brilliance tugs her arm free when Sienna reaches out for her.  “I have to,” Brilliance says, resolutely keeping her focus on the suitcase laid out in front of her. “Sienna, my heart, I have to. My mother--” Sienna reaches out to cup Brilliance’s cheek, to tilt her face toward her. Brilliance, though reluctant, allows it. “Your mother,” Sienna chides gently, “is a grown woman, who is welcome to stay with us. We’ll make room. But starlight, you don’t need to be in that house. Not ever again, and certainly not right now. Stop for a minute, sit down, we can talk about this...” The conversation begins to unravel from there. Sienna is right; her father’s house is the worst place for Brilliance to be to grieve. Brilliance is right; Sienna is an only child, who lost her mother when she was young. She has no context to understand what Brilliance is going through. Neither of them raise their voice, but there’s an edge to their words that normally has no place in their home. Brilliance gets frustrated, feels herself start to get angry, and she makes the decision to walk away and cool down. She comes back to find Sienna asleep or feigning it, back to the door in a way that feels pointed. At that point it’s well after midnight, and Brilliance doesn’t know what to do about the conversation she’d walked out of. Eventually she goes to bed as well, facing the door, sleeping further from Sienna than she has since they moved in together. She knows better than to go to bed angry, but right now Brilliance can’t stomach the thought of reigniting their argument again that night. She closes her eyes, and hopes they can work things out in the morning before Brilliance leaves for home. 19. If they could each write a single line in their marriage vows, what would they be? Brilliance: You are my peace, my joy, my steadfast foundation; my world is better for having you in it, and I will work for the rest of my life to make sure you can always say the same. Sienna: Whatever I did to earn it, thank you, starlight, for trusting me with you heart; it is my privilege and my honor to be for you what you are to so many others. 31. What do they love to do after sex? Probably, like. Kiss a bunch? Ew!!  But like honestly? Yeah! I think they’re a Big fan of soft, sleepy morning sex, especially on days where Brilliance isn’t needed at the church until the evening and Sienna has the day off. Why not indulge on those days when you can doze off again for a little while, with your beloved asleep on your chest? Brilliance is running her fingers through Sienna’s hair and pressing the occasional kiss to the top of her head, Sienna is tracing absentminded shapes against Brilliance’s collarbone, and they’re just enjoying being warm and sleepy and together with no prospect of that changing anytime soon. 

Raini & Ecstasy

1. What are things they both find funny? I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and say. Shitty people’s misfortune? Not necessarily objectively shitty people, just people they’ve decided they don’t like. Ecstasy telling a story about the dumbass fantasy customs agent she “tricked” (because tricked is a strong word, really. It wasn’t all that hard, and that’s what makes it So funny) into marking her ship with its cargo full of stolen goods and also probably like fantasy weed as “clean” to enter some city? Hilarious. Raini talking about casting Mage Hand under the table at some stuffy negotiations and pulling just hard enough on the chair leg of the asshole who’s already leaning back further than he should be and sending him crashing out of his chair? Fucking hysterical. They’re assholes, but they’re assholes together. And, at the end of the day, that’s what matters! 14. What would be a dealbreaker? At risk of sounding too predictable, for Raini it would have to be something along the lines of finding out that Ecstasy is and has been seeing someone else seriously while they’ve been together together. It’s one thing to sleep around a little when you’re still just a booty call, or even to meet someone pretty and check with your partner that they’re okay with you having a one night stand. If you’re communicating, and everyone involved is okay with it, that’s fine! However, it’s another thing entirely to find out that you’ve been playing second fiddle in terms of your long term girlfriend’s affection for god knows how long. Honestly, I’m not sure Ecstasy would survive an argument started by Raini finding something like that out. I won’t speak too much on Ecstasy’s dealbreaker so I don’t overstep or guess Wrong, but I feel like if we hadn’t gotten our memories back things would have eventually fallen apart. I don’t know if I think there would have been some big climactic fight to end things so much as a sort of just... fading away? A heartbreaking parallel to how slowly they’d entangled themselves in each other’s lives before, and really? Who could blame Ecstasy for pulling away from a situation like that. And without the memories and the context to know why it hurts so much now that things are different, I don’t know if Raini would have gone chasing after her.  23. Write a ~300 scene between them with no dialogue, only body language. They’re supposed to be keeping an eye out for some diplomat, Raini thinks. It’s some trouble about wanting to make sure he hadn’t been intimidated into feeding information or supplies to some foreign power, potentially by doing some intimidating themselves. It seemed important at the time, when they made plans to secure invitations to a ball they’d knew he’d be attending. It had seemed important when she’d stayed up the night before sewing hidden pockets into the folds of the dress she’d be wearing so that she would have some way of smuggling spell components in with her. In fact, it had seemed important up until Raini looked up toward the source of commotion across the ballroom and found herself staring at a tiefling who had absolutely no right to be here. She’s wearing a starch pressed naval uniform -admiral, at least, and almost certainly stolen- that looks like it was made for her, golden buttons and unearned medals gleaming in the candlelight, boots that hug her calves like it’s their damn job, head thrown back as she laughs at something she said-- Raini’s eyes widen then narrow, shocked then indignant that this criminal had the gall to show her face here. They make eye contact seconds later and Raini scoffs at the way the pirate’s eyebrows shoot up at the sight of her. And then she has the audacity to wave? A lazy, two fingered acknowledgement that has Raini glaring daggers in return and setting aside the champagne she’d picked up so that she can stalk across the room to give the pirate a piece of her mind. The pirate seems to have the same thought, and excuses herself from the conversation she’d been having to intercept Raini halfway.  Her cocksure grin has only widened by the time their paths collide, and she effortless cuts off the scathing diatribe Raini had at the ready by extending her hand as an invitation to dance, and raising an eyebrow as a challenge to refuse. Raini, at a loss for words for one of the first times in her life, huffs and crosses her arms, turning up her nose in disdain. The audacity! The gall! The sheer impudence, it’s- It’s staggering. ...still. Raini’s eyes cut back to the fit of the pirate’s stolen uniform, to the shine of its gilding and her buffed leather boots, to the way she holds herself with the confidence that she has every right to be here and every expectation Raini will agree to dance. It’s absolutely infuriating; it’s the hottest thing Raini’s ever seen in her life.  The pirate’s hand is warm when Raini takes it, and the hand that settles low on her waist is even more so. The hand that slips around to the small of her back when the song finishes, turning her toward the open glass doors that lead out to a well-manicured, dimly lit garden sets a similar heat burning across her cheeks, and the hands that lay her out in a dark corner of the garden and creep up her thighs under the hem of her dress are a searing, white hot. 26. What are their favorite parts about physical affection/sex? Raini enjoys the chase! The flirting, the banter, the circling around one another and drawing each other in inch by inch until one of you caves and makes the first move. She loves feeling eyes on her back even though she acts like she doesn’t notice, loves feeling her own pulse begin to race and knowing that across from her Ecstasy’s is doing the same. She loves watching the edges of Ecstasy’s grin go sharp, watching her tail lash against the floor, while all the while she’s carrying on their conversation like nothing has changed. She loves the way her robes start to feel too hot, too heavy, and the way Ecstasy’s gaze tracks her movements as she reaches up to pull the collar open just a bit wider. The brush of a hand on her waist when the tension becomes too much, a silent order to follow to somewhere more private so you can both make good on everything your flirting promised. The sex is good, without question. But the build up? The anticipation? The Showmanship? That’s how you get repeat customers!  She also loves getting her pussy ate to the point that her thighs tremble and resent having to hold her up afterward, but really who wouldn’t? Nothing hotter than your sexy pirate girlfriend fucking you senseless then coming up for air, face wet from nose to chin, wearing an absolutely shit eating grin.

[confrontingbabble-on]

“State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that more than 1,000 child victims were identified in the report, but the grand jury believes there are more.The investigation is the most comprehensive yet on Catholic Church sex abuse in the United States.

The 18-month probe, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, on six of the state's eight dioceses - Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg - and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses.

Shapiro said that the report details a "systematic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican."

The nearly 1,400-page report's introduction makes clear that few criminal cases may result from the massive investigation. "As a consequence of the coverup, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted," it reads.

"We subpoenaed, and reviewed, half a million pages of internal diocesan documents. They contained credible allegations against over three hundred predator priests.

Over one thousand child victims were identifiable, from the church's own records. We believe that the real number - of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward - is in the thousands."

Some details and names that might reveal the clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the report's release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Shapiro said they will work to remove every redaction.

The report has helped renew a crisis many in the church thought and hoped had ended nearly 20 years ago after the scandal erupted in Boston. But recent abuse-related scandals, from Chile to Australia, have reopened wounding questions about accountability and whether church officials are still covering up crimes at the highest levels.

The new wave of allegations has called Pope Francis's handling of abuse into question as many Catholics look to him to help the church regain its credibility. The pope's track record has been mixed, something some outsiders attribute to his learning curve or shortcomings and others chalk up to resistance from a notoriously change-averse institution.

The Pennsylvania grand jury report follows the resignation last month of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a towering figure in the U.S. church. The former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was accused of sexually abusing minors and adults for decades. Both have further polarized the church on homosexuality, celibacy and whether laypeople should have more power. It has also triggered debate about whether statutes of limitations should be expanded.

"We're dealing with a long-term struggle not only about the meaning of justice, but about the meaning of memory," said Jason Berry, a reporter and author who has covered the sexual abuse crisis for decades. "And how honest church has been about this crisis. Most bishops, besides apologies, have not been on the cutting edge of change."

"Canon law is not equipped for this kind of thing. It's an enormous criminal sexual underground. It's been surfacing like jagged parts of an iceberg for 30 years," Berry said.

"Accountability from inside the church is not happening," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which that tracks sexual abuse cases. "But secular society is beginning to affect the most change." (!!)

Todd Frey, 50, who says he was abused when he was 13 by a priest in Lancaster County, spoke to the grand jury. He said he told church and law enforcement officials over the years, but nothing was done. The report will be his first opportunity to see if the priest is accused of abusing others, and who in the church knew. “

Read in full...https://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2018/08/hundreds_of_accused_priests_li.html

Also... “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the grand jury wrote in its report...

In Erie, a 7-year-old boy was sexually abused by a priest who then told him he should go to confession and confess his “sins” to that same priest.

Another boy was repeatedly raped from ages 13 to 15 by a priest who bore down so hard on the boy’s back that it caused severe spine injuries. He became addicted to painkillers and later died of an overdose.

One victim in Pittsburgh was forced to pose naked as Christ on the cross while priests photographed him with a Polaroid camera. Priests gave the boy and others gold cross necklaces to mark them as being “groomed” for abuse.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-on-sex-abuse-in-catholic-church-will-list-hundreds-of-accused-predator-priests/

Further...“For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal...”  https://wqad.com/2018/08/14/report-details-sexual-abuse-by-more-than-300-priests-in-pennsylvanias-catholic-church/

1,356 page report: “We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this. We know some of you have heard some of it before. There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale. For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere...” http://media-downloads.pacourts.us/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf?cb=22148

[expertshelf2-blog]

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Is Cyprus dangerous?

If you are looking for a place for retiring, you might consider Cyprus as one of the most comfortable retirement destinations. Compared to other European countries, the price for houses and apartments in Cyprus are some of the most competitive in Europe.

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Possible buyers are suggested to work out extreme care when acquiring property, particularly if the title deed is not easily offered, which is a typical situation when purchasing brand-new property in Cyprus. Cypriots typically prefer to have long lunches and also late suppers, when temperature levels have actually been up to a more pleasurable degree. Restaurants (relying on location) will generally not open up until 7pm, with the majority of clients showing up from 8 or 9 onwards. The variety of dining establishments includes standard tavernas and the somewhat more formal estiadoria, along with a whole host of international themed restaurants, so you are never short of choices. You can find something to suit all budget plans as well as palates, with rates differing according to location and the type of food served.

Locate Apartments & Houses Available In Cyprus

The intrusion price regarding 6,000 Greek Cypriot as well as.500 Turkish casualties (20 July 1974). Juliet Pearse, "Troubled Northern Cyprus fights to keep afloat" in Cyprus. Grapheion Dēmosiōn Plērophoriōn, Foreign Press on Cyprus, Public Details Workplace, 1979, p. 15. After the hostilities of 1974, the United States used an arms embargo on both Turkey and Cyprus. The stoppage on Turkey was lifted after three years by President Jimmy Carter, whereas the stoppage on Cyprus remained in place for longer, having actually most lately been implemented on 18 November 1992.

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On 23 July 1974 the Greek armed forces junta collapsed mainly because of the events in Cyprus. On 24 July 1974 Constantine Karamanlis returned from Paris as well as was vouched in as Head of state. He kept Greece from entering the battle, an act that was extremely criticised as an act of treason.

What is the main source of income in Cyprus?

No, the Republic of Cyprus is a first world country. It is a relatively prosperous nation and a full member of the European Union. But it is far from a third world country as well.

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How much does it cost to see a doctor in Cyprus?

Health care in Cyprus is comparable with the cost of medical techniques and treatments in commercial clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example, a regular visit to the doctor will cost 50 euros, the cost of a one-day stay in hospital (without treatment) is about 150-200 euros.

In December 2019, the US Congress raised a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus. In a report prepared by Mete Hatay in behalf of PRIO (Tranquility Research Study Institute Oslo), it was approximated that the number of Turkish mainlanders in the north that have actually been given the right to elect is 37,000. This number nonetheless leaves out mainlanders who are wed to Turkish Cypriots or adult children of mainland inhabitants along with all minors.

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When acquiring property in Cyprus and how to ensure that property acquisitions move ahead efficiently and efficiently, this upgrade outlines the leading 10 mistakes to stay clear of. Lots of EU and also non-EU high-net-worth people look for to acquire property in Cyprus with a residency-by-investment application or the citizenship-by-investment programme.

Cyprus has the tenth-largest signed up fleet in the world, with 1,030 vessels making up 31,706,000 dwt since 1 January 2013.

Variation in the Turkish lira, which experienced hyperinflation every year up until its replacement by the Turkish new lira in 2005, exerted descending stress on the Turkish Cypriot standard of living for many years.

In November 2012 global lending institutions negotiating a bailout with the Cypriot government have actually agreed on an essential resources proportion for banks and a system for the market's supervision.

They additionally set a core Rate 1 proportion-- a procedure of monetary stamina-- of 9% by the end of 2013 for banks, which might then increase to 10% in 2014.

Under the most up to date financial protocol (signed 3 January 1997), Turkey has actually undertaken to offer lendings completing $250 million for the function of carrying out projects included in the protocol related to public money, banking, tourism, and privatization.

Its geographical placement at the crossroads of 3 continents as well as its proximity to the Suez Canal has advertised seller delivery as an essential industry for the island country.

Both business financial institutions and also cooperatives will certainly be managed by the Central Bank as well as the Ministry of Money.

Do you need a visa to live in Cyprus?

Currently, most non-EU country nationals require a visa for Cyprus. However, Cyprus grants non-EU nationals, who do not require a visa, a 90 day stay in the country. Note, that this does not entitle you to work. If you plan to stay in Cyprus for more than 90 days, you may need to get a visa before you travel.

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The authorities will certainly be called as well as you might be prosecuted if you're located to be in belongings of phony Euro banknotes. Irish mobile phones with a roaming facility will certainly operate on the Cypriot network. The Embassy strongly discourages obtaining any kind of health-related solutions in northern Cyprus because of the absence of regulation and the reality that its legal system runs in the context of global non-recognition of the 'TRNC'. A UN peacekeeping force carries out a buffer area between the north and also the south of Cyprus. The Government of the Republic of Cyprus controls the southerly part of the island.

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Shortly hereafter Nikos Sampson relinquished the presidency and Glafcos Clerides briefly played head of state. Russia desires future participation on Cyprus after "harmful" levy, Reuters. In 2010 U.S. authorities cracked down on Russian "Illegals Program" in the USA. One of the suspects, Christopher R. Metsos, was detained on June 29, 2010 while attempting to leave from Cyprus for Budapest, yet was launched on bond and after that went away.

Is Cyprus a 3rd world country?

Overall, Cyprus is a safe country and has seen less violent crime on the streets or elsewhere than other European countries of similar size. However, crime-related incidents do occur as does the petty crime.

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The Federal government of Cyprus has actually announced a progressive re-opening of airports from 9 June-- 20 June for flights from a restricted number of nations. Trips from Ireland are not consisted of in the first phase of re-opening. Whatever the instance may be, cigarettes and hand-rolling cigarette are no longer as inexpensive in the Republic of Cyprus as they as soon as were, though they're still significantly reduced priced than in the UK. Tourist (especially from Russia as well as UK) is a massive component of the Cypriot economy, so most locations are able to accommodate English and Russian.

What is the minimum wage in Cyprus per hour?

Cyprus has no general minimum wage requirement. However,a minimum wage rate or €870 per month is required for shop assistants,nurses' assistants,clerks,hairdressers,and nursery assistants. The minimum wage rises to €924 after six months' employment.

The Guardian created that "his loss has actually highlighted Cyprus's close ties to Russia, and the potential that Moscow helped him get away from the Mediterranean island". In 2015, Cyprus was applauded by the Head of state of the European Payment for embracing the austerity measures and not hesitating to adhere to a hard reform program.

The Republic of Cyprus has actually been a member of the EU since the 1 Might 2004. On 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the Eurozone and also the regional money is the euro. Business traveler flights to Cyprus are banned up until 9 June, with limited exemptions to repatriate Cypriots resident abroad.

The report also estimates the variety of Turkish mainlanders who have not been provided the right to vote, whom it labels as "transients", at a more 105,000. In Limassol, upon the fall of the Turkish Cypriot territory to the Cypriot National Guard, the Turkish Cypriot quarter was burned, women raped and also youngsters shot according to Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot eyewitness accounts. The rapes apparently consisted of those of "very young girls", that were revived home after being raped and "thrown over the limit." 1300 people were then caused a jail camp.

https://telegra.ph/Where-to-Discover-Home-Available-Online-06-16 embraced the euro as its main currency on 1 January 2008, changing the Cypriot extra pound at an unalterable fixed currency exchange rate of CYP 0. Cyprus takes seriously the ownership of fake euro banknotes and checks are made at the majority of retail outlets.

Germany mitigates Greek Cypriot concerns over Kosovo ruling Archived 27 July 2010 at the Wayback Maker 24 July 2010 Today's Zaman. Depiction of the Church of Cyprus to the European Union, The post-byzantine symbol of Jesus Christ goes back to the Church of Cyprus London, January 2011. Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington (Consular Office of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington) Recovered on 11 November 2012.

[littlemunchkitty]

About to lose it. A rant about buzzwords and head canon hypocrisy.

When you accuse someone of being homophobic in the wrong context, you delegitimize that word. Saying that someone has no basis of being gay and assuming that they are gay is exactly the same as someone assuming that someone is straight with no basis. I don't care what you headcanon. The point is, don't you dare call those who delegitimize your argument for the same reason you delegitimize theirs, homophobic. Especially If it is 2 sides of the same coin. If you want to go down that road then you'd be heterophobic (and just so you know, that’s still not okay either). Asking why you decided to make this character gay and that it doesn't make sense to the continuity of the show is not homophobic. Questioning someone's sexuality and demeaning them for it is. Saying "those characters can't be gay because it's disgusting" is very homophobic. Don't delegitimize one sides arguments if you are going to turn around and cry "homophobe" if they do the same to you. Don't use that word like a random buzzword. And don't use it to look as if you are suddenly in the right when you are also in the wrong. Also, stop using it to delegitimize an argument in the wrong situation. Ship who you want and they can't force you otherwise. But stop calling those who simply disagree for a constructive reason "homophobic". Buzzwords will be the fucking death of this world. Use the word right or not at all.

Under this cut is in response to a specific rant made by someone about me and i’d like to let my piece be known. I am the “homophobic anon” and you will find out why i don’t care what you call me under the cut.

Now on to that bullshit you call a rant

1) The point of highlighting that phrase was because it didn’t just say “dude what the hell are you doing” he specifically stated “What are you doing taking off ANOTHER MAN’S shirt” This isn’t about the sexual harassment. It’s about the wording. Obviously Yuma didn’t appreciate a man, SPECIFICALLY A MAN, ripping his shirt off. It does’t matter about previous relationship. Even if you hated someone, why would you specify why are you ripping off “ANOTHER MAN’S shirt”. Why would you point out the fact that he is of the same gender as you if it didn’t matter? 

2) I chose Laito because he is extremely aroused by the thought of watching another man have sex with a woman and the thought of it makes him aroused. He physically doesn’t care who is doing it as long as the act of sex is getting preformed. Which does hint at some pansexuality or bisexuality. Kou? I did choose him because the way he carries himself. 

3) Im so tired of hearing this same recycled bullshit. These boys have been portrayed as straight by Rejet. They have only been portrayed by rejet as liking girls. If they wanted to portray them as any other sexuality, they would have hinted at it at the very least. They fight tooth and nail for ownership of the heroine. Just because something isn’t clear doesn’t make it fact. If it’s not clearly stated either way you can’t use that as an argument. That’s like saying “Ayato is not Asexual” so you assume that he’s transgender? What kind of sense does that make? Saying “I like girls” doesn’t suddenly mean they are bi nor does it allude to it it can contribute but it is not grounds to say that. So that’s not an argument. Second part of this post you talk about gender roles. Obviously this game was made for girls and even if a guy were to play it, that doesn’t change the game in the slightest. If a boy played with barbie dolls does barbie suddenly become a man to fit their demographics? You can say “Sure” but that doesn’t make it an adamant truth. But don’t be alarmed when someone tells you Barbie is portrayed to be a cis-woman and not a man. If you are going to project something onto a character, fine, but don’t sit around and CRY when people say, “That’s not how the relationship really is”. Nobody is saying “You can’t be here” Just stop acting flip when someone says anything that goes against your agenda and engage in constructive arguments instead of hitting block when someone challenges an idea. FFS

4) If you knew how the mind work and how children actually learn to make opinions and have opinions in the first place you’d realize that this point is bulllshit. Yuma was a child in the church, no doubt about that. His environment was made up of centuries ago church teachings. Whether you denounced god or not, you still hold onto some of those morals and teachings. You don’t just become a blank slate. You can learn, but those morals will always be there whether you change them or not. How do you know that he just doesn’t like gays? He won’t say that they are going to hell. But he may find them off putting. There’s simply no way to know. Unless of course you ask Rejet. You can head canon all you want to. But someone is always going to challenge that. Unless you have definable evidence, someone is going to find a way to challenge your thought. That’s what your brain is for. To think.

5) What is your point? There are plenty of LGBT catholics. I know some too.  However most were afraid to come out due to the church and how they would be seen. The only reason for gays being prosecuted WAS the church after the fall of the roman empire. The argument stands that if you are homophobic and religious then often times your hate stems from those teachings. Religion and the LGBT community are still at odds in case you forgot about Westboro Baptist Church. Damn it’s like you don’t watch the news at all. 

6) Tellling a bi person that the character that they don’t personally know, FAVORITE or not, might have conflicting views is logical and is called begging the question. How do you know Yuma’s stance on the LGBT community? I don’t care how hard you shutter. Using your brain shouldn’t be that painful. You don’t know a damn thing about these boys political lives. For all we know all of these boys could be the most homophobic, racist, sexist, ablest, ageist bastards on the planet and you would have no fucking clue. We already know that they are sexist and ableist and in lost eden, some were racist against the ghouls. So what is stopping them from being homophobic? That’s right, your mental barrier. You and i could be totally ignorant to that fact forever if rejet doesn’t say anything in any capacity. Does that matter to your head canon? No, and it shouldn’t. But when people challenge your idea’s don’t make a fucking mockery of yourself by just throwing around buzzwords and prance around thinking you’ve won (or defended yourself for that matter) after blocking them. 

7) I don’t know if you know this, but you don’t understand the definition of the word homophobia. Besides, How do you know why they disagree with you if you block everyone the moment the go against your idea? You don’t know why these people disagree with your choice in head canon because you are to scared to engage with them. You assume it’s because they “don’t like gays”. That’s not true if you just fucking ask them instead of straw manning them to get to your own conclusion and look like righteous LGBT friendly SJW blog owner. So you have no right to call anybody “homophobic” when you are so closed off to another way of thinking. Even if it is in the LGBT community. Just because you are an oppressed minority doesn’t make everything you say undeniable fact and if you disagree you are *Insert -ist/est, -phobic, here*. 

Don’t fucking play with me and paint me as an enemy. I will show my face as “Homophobic” anon. Cause that word carries no value with the way you use it towards me. If you see this. You know who you are and i don’t care what you feel about this but don’t EVER try to make a fool of me. Flattered, Disgusted. It doesn’t fucking matter if this message makes you ball up into tears. If you attack me after you start some antagonizing bullshit, then it’s not going to be pretty. Rant over.

[commonsenseapocalypse]

Cultural Racism

The events over the last several months have left me wondering. Is there really that much racism in our beloved country, enough where everyone is racist? I read a quote that said “if everyone is racist, than no one is”. How true can that be? How true is it that everyone is racist? I’ve pondered these questions and the following is completely my own opinion, not based on any research study or polling, but by simple observation. I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character and this is where my opinion is based, solely in my ability to read people. Because I have acquired that skill, either by birth or experience, or a little of both, let me preface by saying I am a misanthropist. What that means is that I have a general contempt for humans and human nature and nothing, absolutely nothing, brings that feeling in me to the forefront more than social media. That being said, this is about racism, xenophobia, secularism, nativism and my perception of culture. I’ll save the social media rant for another day.

I do believe that racism exists in our country and throughout the world as we know it. I do not believe that it is as rampant of an issue as is the perception of racism due to cultural influence is. I’ll try to touch on each point as coherently as I can. If you know me, you know my mind wanders like a desert nomad without a compass.

Today’s so called “progressives” have strayed so far away from the traditional democrat platform that they should break off into their own political party. That being said, the traditional democrat party is on the verge of being lost in the fog of progressivism, socialism and communism (yes, there are significant differences between them), but they are all inclusive in the house of democrats. Don’t get me wrong, I find plenty of fault with the republican party as well, beginning with the separation of church and state (or lack thereof) as well as the promotion and protection offered to big corporations and the rampant insider trading that any of the rest of us would get arrested and prosecuted for… again though, discussion for another day.

There is a group of people, be it millennials, progressives or what have you, that by far do more damage to the reputation of the group as a whole than then help. Protesting the president just because you don’t like him is a colossal waste of time and completely hypocritical. This group is solely responsible for election of Donald Trump, and now they’re mad about it. When you are a white progressive who is in college at an ivy leave $40,000.00 a year college, but you’re protesting against white privilege, you are in fact a hypocrite. You have the right to state your opinion, but you have no credibility, so your opinion weighs less. You call everyone racist, when in fact you have no idea what it’s like to be a minority, you have no idea what it’s like to face those challenges and that makes you a hypocrite. Not only that, but your level of self-hate an embarrassment not only to your own race, but your species as well.

I understand why black people hate white people. History. However, it’s just that… history. It’s time to live in the now and accept the fact that race isn’t as important of a factor as culture. Not to be confused with nationalism, you can come from Ethiopia or Somalia and have east African culture, no one wants to take that away. The culture I’m talking about is learned, taught and passed on from generation to generation. The hip-hop culture, gangsta culture, urban culture. The cultural issues that teach youth to hate based on skin color, teaches young impressionable minds that it’s ok to sell drugs and kill people over it, it’s ok to beat and rape women, it’s ok to not work, it’s ok to not contribute to society, it’s ok to be a thug, when it fact… it’s detrimental to society.

Racism isn’t promoted by who is president, it’s promoted by the perception of people.  It’s promoted by people who can’t change their way of thinking, it’s promoted by people who have been conditioned to hate by generational influence, biased media and social media. The biggest problem with the internet is that people believe everything they read on the internet and a majority of what is posted on social media is just untrue. Not only is it untrue, but malicious in nature. We need to change the way of thinking and that’s not only a monumental task, but fundamentally impossible. When people take fake news stories and believe them with all of their heart, you can’t change their way of thinking.

Today’s generation has been programmed that everything should be politically correct, no one should have their feelings hurt, everyone should be on a level playing field and everyone should get the same reward regardless of how much or how little effort you put in. The 18 – 21 year olds in 1945 fought in World War II in horrible conditions half way around the world. 18 – 21 year olds in 1968 fought in the Viet Nam conflict in terrifying conditions again, half way around the world. 18 – 30 year olds today live in a bubble of comfort. Starbucks, free wi-fi, 40mpg cars, drive-thru restaurants and every other lazy convenience they can imagine. They haven’t seen world war, they have only been witness to 9/11 and the aftermath, which has been sugar coated by the media. They have no idea how much of an issue the middle east is… they live in such a comfort bubble that they refuse to believe that there are billions of people around the world who: don’t have clean running water, hot showers and flushable toilets with water treatment plants that control and kill disease, don’t have a Starbucks or Walmart on every corner. Don’t have access to education, don’t have access to doctors, lawyers, police or other things that keep them safe. Most people in other parts of the world hate us for our arrogance, ignorance and our broad freedoms that we absolutely take for granted. It’s the liberal progressive who promotes that world-wide hatred. Bottom line.

I would invite any millennial, liberal or otherwise “educated” democrat to spend an extended period of time in Mogadishu or Aleppo, Kandahar or Tehran. By all means, please feel free to visit the “happy places” too, like where socialism “works” like, Helsinki or Caracas. I would implore these kids to live like these people do before you spout off that we should follow their examples. Nothing in this world is free, nothing. Ever. Someone has to pay something for everything. If you want to keep looking back at the examples of our previous generations to make your point… like slavery, the civil rights movement, then you MUST also look back on the work ethic, the commitment to community as well as the desire and will to succeed through hard work and education. You MUST change the culture of hate and violence that thrives in urban areas and you MUST open yourself up to a 50/50 view of liberal and conservatism in order to make this work. No one can please everyone, no one can support whole heartedly the extreme left or the extreme right without making some concessions. It’s the millennial mentality of “I was raised getting my way, getting everything handed to me on a silver platter and now that I have to do it myself, I can’t cope”. So then they riot and protest, which is just an adult temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way. They throw out names like racist, xenophobe, misogynist and the like, not really understanding the meaning of those words. It’s a sad America we have created and what’s more sad than that is what it’s going to take to unify us once again.

We spend too much time medicating kids and not enough time disciplining them. We have grown lazy and just do everything for our kids instead of making them to some of the work. We hand our kids money, video games, cell phones, lap tops, and everything their little heart desires, but that doesn’t make you a good parent, that makes you an enabler and creates a generation of dependents. We don’t teach, we don’t discipline, we don’t guide. The mess we’re in is our fault, not the dumb ass kids that don’t know any better because WE FAILED to teach them.

     �����

[racingtoaredlight]

Opening Bell: February 3, 2017

Senate Democrats have borrowed from Senate Republicans’ playbook and started to boycott the final committee votes of some cabinet officials. While this tactic has only delayed committee votes by about one business day, it shows the extent to which Senate Democrats intend to return the favor to Senate Republicans who promised to do everything to block appointments and legislation submitted or favored by the Obama administration over the previous eight years. Though some observers have called this intransigence the rise of the “Tea Party of the Left,” I think it too early to call it anything other than a reaction to the manner in which Donald Trump has governed to this point. That said, the only cabinet nominee in danger of not being approved, Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, seems liked to slide past the Senate with the help of Vice President Mike Pence.

Meanwhile Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose wife Elaine Chao was confirmed this week as Secretary of Transportation, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post decrying initial Democratic opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch is almost certainly to be confirmed, though certainly not without a contentious Judiciary Committee hearing. 

Amidst the reports on the closeness of Treasury-nominee Steven Mnuchin and his failure to disclose approximately $100 million in assets prior to his confirmation hearing, something which I mentioned in this space last week, Mnuchin’s position that funding for the IRS must be increased has been lost. The Brookings Institution analyzes, with excellent data, how Mnuchin’s proposal would benefit both the IRS itself and the federal government as a whole.

 The CEO of ride-sharing app Uber has quit the economic advisory council to which he was named by President Trump. His resignation is apparently due to the negative public reaction to his connection the Trump administration’s executive order on administration which was issued last week.

Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics has an early analysis on those congressional districts whose vote shifted measurably to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and those Democrats which sit in districts which suddenly seem less friendly to their constituents. This is a fascinating analysis and provides an excellent first step towards the 2018 midterm elections. Midterm elections have traditionally gone against the party in the White House.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump was a vociferous supporter of Israel and of Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. This position stood in stark contrast to that of the Obama administration, which sought to restrain Israeli expansionism as a first step to returning to comprehensive peace talks, a policy which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was openly contemptuous of. This week, in a surprise, the Trump White House said that the expansion of Israeli settlements—construction of 2,500 new homes was recently announced by the government—was not helpful in getting parties to return to the peace table.

During the daily White House press briefing yesterday, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn made an appearance and declared that a recent Iranian test of a cruise missile was unacceptable and that therefore Iran was “on notice.” What this constitutes exactly is unclear as cruise missile tests were not covered in the Iran nuclear agreement with the United States and several European nations. Newly sworn in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will likely be forced to address this in a more formal manner in the near future.

More details have emerged from the U.S. special forces raid in Yemen, the first of the Trump administration, which resulted in the death of one special forces operator. While criticism has been railed against the Trump administration for perhaps acting too hastily, some reports indicate that the Navy SEALS who carried out the mission came into contact with Al-Qaeda fighters who used civilian women and children as human shields. While in office President Obama relied heavily upon raids and missions by special forces detachments to take care of emerging threats or targets of opportunity. It will be interesting to see to what degree President Trump uses the same commandos.

Recently, Kurdish resistance fighters in Syria began showcasing new armored vehicles allegedly received from the United States. The shipment was, apparently, one of the last acts of the Obama administration, but it also creates a question of the type of support which the Trump administration can be expected to provide. Recall that Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the region, regards the main Kurdish political organization in the region, the PKK, as a terrorist organization, responsible for bombings throughout the nation.

Yesterday, the Treasury Department announced an adjustment to a sanction against the Russian state security agency FSB—the successor the KGB in the post-Cold War period—which made a technical change to a sanction which the Obama administration had enacted in December. The original sanction prevented any U.S. business from doing business with the FSB. The adjustment now allows technology licenses to be purchased by the FSB from American companies so long as the transaction does not exceed $5,000 per calendar year. Many viewed this as an initial step to lifting other sanctions against Russia which the Obama administration implemented, but Foreign Policy explains why everyone is viewing this small change incorrectly.

This week, the USS Antietam, a guided missile cruiser based in Japan, grounded in Tokyo Bay. 1,100 gallons of fuel were leaked, which the Navy has already promised to cleanup. The cruiser is headed to dry-dock for what will likely become extensive repairs.

Austin, Texas is the capital of the Lone Star State and also one of its most liberal cities. During the deportation of the Barack Obama’s first administration, Austin became a magnet for undocumented immigrants; a sanctuary city. Now it is being targeted both by the federal government but also by Texas Governor Greg Abbott who this week withheld a $1.5 million grant to Travis County, in which Austin is located, which was unrelated to immigration policy. Austin, which has a Democratic mayor and a Sheriff who was elected with 60% of the vote in November, is shaping up to be the first battleground with the Trump administration over the viability of sanctuary cities.

Last week, or perhaps it was the week before—with the whirlwind of activity in Trump’s first two weeks in office, keeping track of time has become difficult—I linked to a story about President Donald Trump floating the creation of a vaccine safety commission which would be headed by vaccine-skeptic Robert Kennedy, Jr. Though no movement on the creation of such a commission has occurred in the interim, the Washington Post notes the enormous amount of public support for vaccination programs.

Stuart Rothenberg on Donald Trump's first two weeks in office. Rothenberg examines the actions by Trump as compared to his actions during the campaign, with the result that there is not much dissimilarity between the two. The question then, Rothenberg explicates, is whether Trump’s actions will have unintended consequences which many of his followers do not like and did not anticipate.

Unbeknownst to many Americans, the First Lady of the United States, i.e. FLOTUS, hires her own staff as a means to pursue her own policy objectives. The First Lady’s office is located in the East Wing of the White House—as opposed to the West Wing where the Oval Office and most of the president’s senior advisors sit—and typically focuses on relatively non-partisan issues which are meant to better certain parts of the American public. Though First Lady Melania Trump has returned to New York City, she continues to follow the pattern set out by previous First Ladies by filling out her own personal staff, which includes an Obama administration appointee as social secretary.

Five juveniles who were arrested for defacing a historic black school in Virginia with racist propaganda have been given an unusual sentence by the district judge. Three of the juveniles were themselves minorities and spray-painted “Brown Power” to go along with the “White Power” graffiti of their co-assailants. The judge presiding over the case, upon the prosecution’s recommendation, ordered that the assailants read a list of books by Jewish, Afghan, and black authors and that reports of each book be prepared. The judge further ordered that the juveniles prepare a research paper on the subject of hate speech and that they each visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. If the juveniles fulfill all of these requirements, then the case against them will be dismissed and their records expunged.

The woman at the center of the incident which lead to the detention and lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, has apparently recanted the story which lead to Till’s brutal death. Till who was 14 years old at the time, was assaulted and ultimately hanged by a group of white men after he allegedly made an advance on a white woman in public. Till’s mother insisted on an open casket funeral so that his mutilated corpse would be seen by the nation. His death, along with those of the choir girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, a subject I’ve written about here before, is considered one of the catalysts of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Welcome to the weekend.

[canaryatlaw]

Well today was fine, though I'm in sort of a somber mood now just because I'm so frustrated by everything that's going on in our country. I just feel so helpless. Were I a real lawyer, you bet your ass I would be down at the airport working to get people out of detainment, but I'm not a real lawyer, and there's nobody I can work under in this circumstance, even if I can write a kick ass habeas petition. Sigh. Almost there. I'm glad lawyers are stepping up and changing things. They let everyone who was being held at O'Hare go, so that makes me happy for Chi. And of course I'm proud the stay was issued out of my home city. It's not hopeless, we just have to keep fighting. Sigh, I don't want to rant about this too much because I could keep going for hours. Anyway. Alarm was set for 11:15, which seemed to be a good time to wake up and not be too exhausted, lol. Ate breakfast, got ready, and walked to the train. Still cold, but not as bad as yesterday thank god. I had a little soreness in my abs from yesterday, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when I hurt them over the summer thankfully, because that was horrible (lying down hurt like hell). So hopefully this will go to knowing my limits and not pushing myself too much (even if I really want abs). Took the train to school, and met up with the people from PAD mock trial. They kept like, being super thankful to me for stepping up and helping haha which was sweet. They were mostly 1L's, which is what I expected. So we get started and split into our two "teams," each with four members, two prosecution and two defense (this obviously wouldn't verse each other in a round, but make up one team). We were going through the defense case in chief, and they were very much, well, 1L's. And I'm not trying to be an asshole when I say that, it's just that they haven't had evidence yet and they don't know things like objections or admitting stuff into evidence or how to impeach, so I kind of had to chill out and let them figure that out for a while, but it was fine. The girl on the prosecution of my team isn't a regular 1L, she's in some alternative program, I would guess a dual degree or a two year JD, and she's in evidence now so that should be helpful. But yeah, it was fine, just directing my witness which is pretty basic being that I've done it numerous times at this point. We finished up with some objection practice, where the coach would ask a series of questions and have us object when we found something objectionable, and I was of course trying to let the other ones answer, but I got pretty much all of them one way or another haha. So not bad at all. The coach we have is the PAD president from last year, and I happen to know she's quite fond of me so that always helps. I knew she does some education law work with like IEP's and such (like fighting for a kid's right to get one) and given last night's development I wanted to see if she knew anything about title IX stuff, so we walked out together and ended up taking the red line to our respective homes. She doesn't work with much title IX stuff in her job, but she knew it from her civil rights law class. So I explained the situation, and she told me about one case they read where a teacher at a catholic school filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment and the school fired her because they claimed she violated their religious belief in "supporting the community" or some bullshit like that, and she didn't remember how it came out but she would send it to me, so that was good. Other than that we just talked about other law stuff, like passing the bar and all that. Apparently she works with a lot of foster kids as well, because she technically works for a social work agency. But yeah, took the train back home and I was pretty beat by the time I got there, I think it's just making that substantial walk in the cold that really tends to tire me out, so I wasn't exactly in the mood to do any reading. I checked my assignments for the week and I have like 50 pages each for trial ad and crim pro (I've given up on reading for mission based lawyering) which isn't terrible but I should probably still get started on it tonight, but...I didn't want to, so I didn't, lol. My roommate was home for the night, and it's kind of rare that we're both home any given night so that was cool. I ordered pizza because I fucking wanted pizza, and we watched a couple house of cards episodes (she's been watching it, I've never seen it before but it seems up my alley from what I saw) and then decided to watch minority report the movie, because after watching the tv series that's largely a sequel to it I of course wanted to see the source material. It was....interesting. Not really what I expected. I guess I thought it would be more about the system itself, not about this one guy running from the police for like 3/4ths of the movie haha. But it was an interesting plot, plenty complicated and a bit hard to follow at times, but overall it worked pretty well and I was happy with it. At the end they definitely make it sound like Agatha is not related to the twins (with the whole "her mother was coming for her" thing) but of course in the tv series they're all portrayed as siblings, so that was interesting. It's already such a complex idea, so for the twist to be even more complicated than that with finding the hole in the system was just like, rather mind boggling haha but overall it was pretty good. So when that was over I of course wanted to watch the last episode of the tv series that I had left, which was also interesting. I knew we weren't going to get as much closure as I was hoping for, but for what it's worth they did a fairly good job tying up loose ends. I had to wonder at what point did they get the cancel notice, and how long were they originally planning to make it, because the whole genetic modification as the main villain thing kind of came out of nowhere somewhere around episode 7 and then becomes the focus of the show. I liked the characters though, and it was a good story, so I can appreciate that. Not sure what I'll watch next, maybe crazy ex-girlfriend. We'll see. And yeah, that was my day. I'm excited to go to church tomorrow and get to hold babies, because that's pretty much the best part of my week at this point 😂 (I just really love babies, okay, and we don't see many of them in law school). So I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, we'll see how the rest of the day goes. My eyes want to close now so I am going to let them do so. Goodnight babes. Hope you had a lovely Saturday.

[ibilenews]

Beyond the language of denial: Men talk mental health in Ghana

Accra, Ghana - Oti Agyemang Prempeh recalls the time in 2017 he found the courage to talk to his father about living with depression and anxiety.

"Even if I couldn't tell him, that 'by the way, I tried to kill myself two days ago' I wanted to tell him that I am going through some things and I just really need you to be there for me in any way that you can," the 26-year-old says, solemnly.

When Prempeh was 12, his parents' marriage ended and his mother moved to the United States. Even though he was still in regular contact with her, he says he felt abandoned.

"As time went on, [that feeling] became anger and at the same time, I started to withdraw from people; I became less social," he says. "The first thing I started struggling with was social anxiety. I would panic in social situations or even worse, I would avoid interacting with people."

In university, it got very bad. "It was anxiety with episodes of depression where I just didn't want to do anything. I wasn't going to class; I wasn't trying to see anybody, I would just stay in my room all day."

"I ended up basically failing my first year of university, I had to take it all over again," he says.

With the help of his girlfriend, he managed to get back on track and completed a degree in banking and finance in 2017. But after graduating, their relationship ended.

"This sent me down another spiral. That was when I think my anxiety was the worst it had ever been." He was also unemployed at the time and all his bottled up emotions overflowed and led to a near breaking point.

'I did not want to be vulnerable'

But Prempeh's conversation with his father about his mental health did not go as planned.

"He just kept on saying I should pray more and that the next weekend, I should come to church with him and that once I accept Christ as my Lord and personal saviour, all these things will go away. It made me pretty sad, it was disappointing," says Prempeh, who identifies as an atheist.

He opened up about the incident to his friends, and one of them told him about a clinic run by a non-governmental organisation where he could sign up for talking therapy - a form of treatment which involves patients engaging in open discussions about their thoughts and feelings with a licensed psychologist. Another friend stayed with Prempeh over the weekend and then drove him to the clinic the next Monday.

The sessions "actually helped; being able to talk and say things out loud," he now says, even though he was initially hesitant to attend.

"I think a part of me didn't want to be vulnerable in front of another man who I don't know. But [the therapist] was a kind, young man, not much older than I was, and he was just very reassuring. He never made me feel like I was silly, stupid or being melodramatic about everything that was happening to me," he says.

But at 120 cedis ($20) per session, Prempeh - unemployed at the time - was only able to afford three sessions.

Even for those with a job, mental healthcare comes at a high cost. The minimum monthly wage in Ghana is 320 cedis ($55), and Ghana's national health insurance scheme does not cover the cost of talking therapies and many other treatments for mental health conditions.

There is also a shortage in the number of qualified practitioners in the country. There are currently 538 counsellors and psychologists licenced by the Ghana Psychology Council to practice in a country with a population of about 30 million.

Sparking conversation

In the recently released short film, 'Boys No Dey Cry' (Pidgin English for Boys Don't Cry), Joojo, the lead character, tries to take his life. He asks his therapist: "What kind of man will I be if I cry?"

The film explores men's mental health and hyper-masculinity in hyper-religious Ghana, its screenwriter Joewackle J Kusi said. At the end of the film, it is revealed that the therapist is actually Joojo talking to himself.

A scene from the film Boys No Dey Cry that explores men's mental health in Ghana [Photo courtesy of Boys No Dey Cry]

Kusi says he wanted the film to "spark a conversation that we should have had a very long time ago. We live in a space that does not allow us to have certain conversations that people would rather like to pretend do not exist."

"I just wanted to create a conversation where men will feel it is okay to talk about their mental health and define masculinity [for themselves]," he says.

In this deeply religious society, where 94 percent of the population profess a religion, mental health conditions are commonly perceived as the work of sinister supernatural elements like witches and evil spells. People living with psychosocial disabilities can face torture in prayer camps where they are often shackled in chains.

While prosecutions are rare, attempting suicide is a crime in Ghana, another example of the many laws introduced during the British colonial era that are still in force across some independent Commonwealth countries. During a recent discussion in Parliament on its decriminalisation, the minority leader said attempting suicide was an "unacceptable behaviour [that] must be punished and deterred".

In Ghana, mental health is "laden with a lot of stigma, mostly because of a lack of understanding about what mental health is," Accra-based psychologist Dr Carol Mathias-O'chez said. "At the core of it, we associate mental health with mental illness and the naked person walking on the street."

Again, in Ghana (and across Africa), there is a language of denial that exists with comments like 'Africans don't get depressed' common in everyday conversations.

Aside from the societal barriers, there are also institutional challenges including access to mental healthcare and the quality of that care, Dr Mathias-O'chez explains.

For Ghanaian men, there is also the added battle with patriarchy and its idea of what masculinity is. "As a society, we associate mental health challenges with weakness, and we are not very forgiving or accommodating of men showing weakness," Dr Mathias-O'chez says.

Normalising discussions

Despite the challenges, Dr Mathias-O'chez acknowledges that Ghana is rapidly modernising and gender socialisation is also becoming less rigid, thanks to increases in women's education, urbanisation and return migration from the West. This means a new generation of middle-class, young and educated men are unafraid to broach the topic of mental wellbeing.

While most of her private clients are women, Dr Mathias-O'chez says she has witnessed an increase in the number of male clients at her private practice.

In 2018, the country's first men's mental health summit was held and, every quarter, there is a breakfast meeting in Accra for both men and women to convene and commune about their mental health.

In 2018, a popular rapper talked openly on television about his two-year battle with depression. And he has not been the only one to do so recently. In his latest album, 'For My Brothers', hip-hop artist Kojo Cue tackles masculinity and explores mental health in the song 'Never Mind'.

"I have had my own issues with depression, and I have realised that most of the time, sharing helps," he said. "It was easy to make the song, what was not so easy was to put the song out. When you are on the verge of releasing the song, you start to think of how people will receive it. Even in the song, I say that there are certain things that I am still not confident enough to talk about."

On social media, a growing number of men are also talking about their mental health, their struggles and coping mechanisms. Last November, Prempeh received a lot of praise after he tweeted about his experience. He says he received many messages from young men also dealing with their own mental health conditions. "I couldn't offer to fix their situations but the fact that we had that solidarity, it felt good on my part, and I hope it felt good on their part, too," he says.

But in other spaces, change is happening more slowly. Prempeh says he has a good relationship with his father and is no longer angry about the encounter in 2017. However, "that was the last time, I have ever tried talking to him about [mental health]. If I ever feel like I need to talk to a parent, I just call my mum," he says matter of factly. Prempeh says he still "struggles with anxiety" and hopes to be back in therapy as soon as the coronavirus pandemic ends.

For lasting change to occur, Dr Mathias-O'chez says there is a need to normalise open discussions about mental health "so that people don't feel like it is something to be ashamed of".

She uses Twitter to raise awareness about mental health, debunk myths, and to spread information about the currently available resources to her 2,600 followers and beyond. "I have seen that it has had some impact in terms of people being willing and bold and able to speak about their mental health challenges," she says.

It is a discussion rapper Kojo Cue wants to contribute to positively. He says he hopes that by speaking openly about mental health, his largely young male fan base will "understand that they are not alone" and find "the courage to also speak about it or at least seek help".

[itsfinancethings]

October 07, 2019 at 10:13PM

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to seek reelection next month after failing to fulfill many of the promises of his first term.

A record 35 candidates filed nominations Monday for the Nov. 16 election, with former defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa considered the favorite.

Rajapaksa, who served as defense chief under his brother, former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is popular for his part in ending the government’s long civil war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels a decade ago.

He has been accused of condoning rape, torture and the shadowy disappearances of critics, but is considered a hero among ethnic majority Sinhalese for his role in defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sirisena, who would have had difficulty beating Gotabaya Rajapaksa, did not pay a deposit by a Sunday deadline, making him ineligible to file a nomination.

Rajapaksa represents a party that broke away from Sirisena’s party and has the loyalty of a majority of its members.

The end of Sirisena’s presidency is marked by unfulfilled expectations of good governance, ethnic harmony and economic progress.

Sirisena pledged to abolish a powerful executive presidential system within 100 days of coming to power, change the constitution to allow power sharing with minority Tamils and investigate alleged abuses committed during the final stages of fighting between the government and Tamil rebels.

He also promised to take action against the Rajapaksa family, whom he accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Sirisena’s election in 2015 elevated Sri Lanka’s status in the international community, which had shunned the country during the Rajapaksa administration over its human rights record.

His alliance with current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose party Sirisena had worked against throughout his political career, was seen as a new kind of political culture and something that other countries could emulate.

But Sirisena took over the leadership of his previous party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which Rajapaksa had led, against the wishes of his partners. As a result, many former members of the Rajapaksa government accused of corruption who opposed the policies of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance joined the Cabinet and began to have a bigger say in the government.

Instead of abolishing the presidential system, Sirisena only diluted its powers. Under pressure from the Rajapaksa camp he announced that he would not allow any government soldiers to be punished for alleged war abuses, despite having promised the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate and prosecute suspects.

His party delayed presenting its views on a new constitution to share power with Tamils, and the process has now stagnated in Parliament. The administration also failed to punish members of the Rajapaksa family for alleged wrongdoing.

In the meantime, Rajapaksa formed a breakaway party and with his popularity from ending the civil war won over a majority of Sirisena’s supporters, weakening the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

His relationship with Wickremesinghe also turned sour with a tussle for power and exploded last year when Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place, seemingly in the hope of securing his support for reelection.

A court decision restored Wickremesinghe, and Rajapaksa has not given Sirisena the expected support and instead fielded his brother as a presidential candidate.

Sirisena’s failure to prevent suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday triggered public anger against him. The suicide blasts, blamed on two local groups inspired by the Islamic State group, killed more than 260 people at three churches and three hotels.

Sirisena’s presidency, however, has probably been the best for freedom of the media and speech. Trade union and student activism have been at their peak.

“We elected Maithripala Sirisena with so much hope, and now feel so cheated by him,” said Nalaka Gunawardene, a media analyst.

“He missed a historic chance to heal our divided society and instead deepened its polarization,” he said. “He did end the Rajapaksa era authoritarianism and restored our freedoms, but these alone cannot redeem him.”

Though Sirisena’s political future looks bleak, he is holding talks with the Rajapaksas in the hope of gaining a political position in exchange for the votes of his supporters.

He told a recent public meeting that his focus is not on the presidency, but on being a force in a powerful government.

The 35 candidates for the presidency are the most ever in Sri Lanka, after 22 candidates in 2010.

Rajapaksa said after filing his nomination that he is confident of winning.

His main rival is Sajith Premadasa from the governing coalition. He is a son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated in 1993 by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

“We are extremely confident that the vast majority of the Sri Lankans of all ethnic backgrounds irrespective of cast and creed will support this monumental, path-breaking program that will make our country prosperous,” Premadasa said. “We shall embark on a democratic political program ensuring that the rights of all citizens are protected.”

Also among the candidates are two Buddhist monks, four people from the predominantly Buddhist country’s Muslim minority and two Tamils. There is one female candidate.

It is likely that the Muslim and Tamil candidates will attract protest votes against the main parties, which are led by ethnic Sinhalese.

Tamils are displeased that Sirisena’s government failed to deliver on promised power-sharing arrangements and answers to families whose relatives went missing in the civil war.

Muslims are unhappy that the government failed to stop the persecution of Muslims after the Easter Sunday bombings.

[newstechreviews]

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to seek reelection next month after failing to fulfill many of the promises of his first term.

A record 35 candidates filed nominations Monday for the Nov. 16 election, with former defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa considered the favorite.

Rajapaksa, who served as defense chief under his brother, former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is popular for his part in ending the government’s long civil war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels a decade ago.

He has been accused of condoning rape, torture and the shadowy disappearances of critics, but is considered a hero among ethnic majority Sinhalese for his role in defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sirisena, who would have had difficulty beating Gotabaya Rajapaksa, did not pay a deposit by a Sunday deadline, making him ineligible to file a nomination.

Rajapaksa represents a party that broke away from Sirisena’s party and has the loyalty of a majority of its members.

The end of Sirisena’s presidency is marked by unfulfilled expectations of good governance, ethnic harmony and economic progress.

Sirisena pledged to abolish a powerful executive presidential system within 100 days of coming to power, change the constitution to allow power sharing with minority Tamils and investigate alleged abuses committed during the final stages of fighting between the government and Tamil rebels.

He also promised to take action against the Rajapaksa family, whom he accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Sirisena’s election in 2015 elevated Sri Lanka’s status in the international community, which had shunned the country during the Rajapaksa administration over its human rights record.

His alliance with current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose party Sirisena had worked against throughout his political career, was seen as a new kind of political culture and something that other countries could emulate.

But Sirisena took over the leadership of his previous party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which Rajapaksa had led, against the wishes of his partners. As a result, many former members of the Rajapaksa government accused of corruption who opposed the policies of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance joined the Cabinet and began to have a bigger say in the government.

Instead of abolishing the presidential system, Sirisena only diluted its powers. Under pressure from the Rajapaksa camp he announced that he would not allow any government soldiers to be punished for alleged war abuses, despite having promised the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate and prosecute suspects.

His party delayed presenting its views on a new constitution to share power with Tamils, and the process has now stagnated in Parliament. The administration also failed to punish members of the Rajapaksa family for alleged wrongdoing.

In the meantime, Rajapaksa formed a breakaway party and with his popularity from ending the civil war won over a majority of Sirisena’s supporters, weakening the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

His relationship with Wickremesinghe also turned sour with a tussle for power and exploded last year when Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place, seemingly in the hope of securing his support for reelection.

A court decision restored Wickremesinghe, and Rajapaksa has not given Sirisena the expected support and instead fielded his brother as a presidential candidate.

Sirisena’s failure to prevent suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday triggered public anger against him. The suicide blasts, blamed on two local groups inspired by the Islamic State group, killed more than 260 people at three churches and three hotels.

Sirisena’s presidency, however, has probably been the best for freedom of the media and speech. Trade union and student activism have been at their peak.

“We elected Maithripala Sirisena with so much hope, and now feel so cheated by him,” said Nalaka Gunawardene, a media analyst.

“He missed a historic chance to heal our divided society and instead deepened its polarization,” he said. “He did end the Rajapaksa era authoritarianism and restored our freedoms, but these alone cannot redeem him.”

Though Sirisena’s political future looks bleak, he is holding talks with the Rajapaksas in the hope of gaining a political position in exchange for the votes of his supporters.

He told a recent public meeting that his focus is not on the presidency, but on being a force in a powerful government.

The 35 candidates for the presidency are the most ever in Sri Lanka, after 22 candidates in 2010.

Rajapaksa said after filing his nomination that he is confident of winning.

His main rival is Sajith Premadasa from the governing coalition. He is a son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated in 1993 by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

“We are extremely confident that the vast majority of the Sri Lankans of all ethnic backgrounds irrespective of cast and creed will support this monumental, path-breaking program that will make our country prosperous,” Premadasa said. “We shall embark on a democratic political program ensuring that the rights of all citizens are protected.”

Also among the candidates are two Buddhist monks, four people from the predominantly Buddhist country’s Muslim minority and two Tamils. There is one female candidate.

It is likely that the Muslim and Tamil candidates will attract protest votes against the main parties, which are led by ethnic Sinhalese.

Tamils are displeased that Sirisena’s government failed to deliver on promised power-sharing arrangements and answers to families whose relatives went missing in the civil war.

Muslims are unhappy that the government failed to stop the persecution of Muslims after the Easter Sunday bombings.

[thisdaynews]

The Prosecutor’s Race Making Arlington Interesting

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-prosecutors-race-making-arlington-interesting/

The Prosecutor’s Race Making Arlington Interesting

One sign that this era of agitated civic life is not merely a reflection of Donald Trump or Twitter is that the agitation has penetrated, of all places, into Arlington County, Virginia.

In normal times, Arlington politics are polite and consensus-driven, almost proudly dull—the perfect opposite of the national capital that it borders just across the Potomac. A Democratic primary election for local prosecutor on Tuesday, however, underlines that these are not normal times. An ill-tempered monthslong battle between incumbent commonwealth’s attorney Theo Stamos and her aggressive challenger from the left, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, is drawing notice and money from criminal justice advocates nationally.

Story Continued Below

A political action committee funded by billionaire George Soros has pumped in nearly $600,000 on behalf of Dehghani-Tafti, who argues that Stamos is an overly rigid prosecutor who is too zealous in pursing marijuana cases and whose policies are particularly unfair to minority and economically disadvantaged defendants. The overall spending in the race, approaching $1 million, is roughly four times greater than usual.

The choice, and especially the racially and ideologically charged rhetoric around it, has confronted the tight, earnest community of civic players in Arlington with the preeminent question of Trump-era politics:Which side are you on?

Arlington Democrats say they can hardly recall a race that took on such personal dimensions, or offered such a sharp edge on issues. The contest has produced bracing arguments on highly charged national subjects like police brutality and mass incarceration.

In this case, however, there is a curious twist: One has to squint pretty hard to see examples of these in Arlington, certainly in comparison to places that have drawn the spotlight elsewhere. If a place as placid as Arlington is being riled up this way, something notable is going on.

Arlington’s jail population, as Stamos notes, has fallen lately to a five-year low under her tenure as top prosecutor (She was first elected in 2011, after 24 years as a deputy in the same office). There have been no notorious Chicago-style incidents of police violence, no riots protesting racial injustice.

Dehghani-Tafti, 45, who has been a public defender in the neighboring District of Columbia but has no experience as a prosecutor, is an Iranian American with two black children and identifies as a woman of color, and says this perspective helped inspire her campaign. She said she welcomes money from Soros, and says that is because she is at the vanguard of a new approach to law enforcement that makes finer distinctions about which defendants present a true threat to public safety, and is more attuned to systemic prejudice in the criminal justice system. She points out that Arlington reflects some galling national racial disparities: Although less than 10 percent of its residents are black, a majority of its inmates are.

She says the race is “very personal to me,” informed in part by her disgust after Trump’s election in 2016 and in part by watching a friend be falsely convicted before being exonerated after five years.

“I know there are some people who need to be locked up,” she told POLITICO, “but I prefer to go about this in a way that’s informed by evidence and data and bring[s] Arlington into the 21st century, not just in terms of technology but also in terms of what makes us safer but is also more humane.”

Stamos, 61, who is white, has complained that her opponent’s appeals for compassion often overlook compassion for the victims of crime. Bridling at the criticism, Stamos notes that she helped start a “drug court” to provide a better path to adjudicating these nonviolent cases.

“I’m still a prosecutor,” she said. “I’m not going to apologize for being a prosecutor. I think it’s very misguided to back away from the actual work of prosecution because that’s what does keep communities safe, it’s what gives voice to victims of crime.”

Stamos leaves little doubt that the criticism of her supposedly reactionary style is ticking her off. “Arlington County is of the most educated, progressive, engaged and enlightened communities in the country,” she said. “To postulate that unbeknownst to this very active community for the past three decades, all under the watchful eye of Chief Judge William T. Newman, who is an African American pioneer in this community, there has been this malignant and oppressive force at work … is preposterous.”

She was offering a view of her county as Pleasantville that has a familiar ring. Famous for the Pentagon, and the national cemetery, and the Iwo Jima memorial, Arlington beyond those landmarks cuts a low profile even in the Washington area. If you moved to the capital and wanted a place in the suburbs that doesn’t feel very suburban, you might choose Arlington. It has plenty of ethnic diversity, decent schools, bike trails, wooded neighborhoods a short walk from Metrorail stations with smartly planned mixed use developments around them. (As it happens, the POLITICO newsroom looks out on Washington, but is actually across the river in Arlington.) If you are in the mood, there are Asian and Hispanic restaurants galore; if not, you are rarely more than a few minutes from a Starbucks.

On the other hand, if you were an ambitious local reporter covering Arlington you typically would be finagling for a new assignment. Back in the days when theWashington Postcovered local news more seriously than it does now, it still had a hard time paying attention to Arlington. The all-day Saturday board meetings droned on interminably, marathon sessions of process and piety, and the county mostly lacked the inflamed grievances and personal rivalries and power plays that typically make local politics interesting.

In 2019, however, Arlington political veterans say the place has more dry tinder than Stamos probably realized.

The contours of the race—an established and well-known Democrat versus a china-smashing insurgent—at a superficial level invite comparisons to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her upset last year of longtime incumbent Joe Crowley.

But the Arlington case is more complicated. There is a healthy roster of well-known establishment players in Arlington (and in neighboring Falls Church, also part of this commonwealth’s attorney district) who are backing the challenger.

In part this is because Stamos evidently underappreciated the partisan nature of the moment. In the past, she had supported an independent with a Republican past, John Vihstadt, for the otherwise wholly Democratic County Board. In normal times, this might have produced grumbling and eye rolls. But in the hyperpartisan atmosphere of Trump’s Washington, many Democrats were genuinely offended by the gesture.

A more serious blunder, at least in narrowly political terms, came in 2017, when Stamos joined mostly Republican prosecutors from around the state in opposing then-Governor Terry McAuliffe’s plan to restore voting rights to convicted felons who had served their time. Stamos said she didn’t object to the concept, but to the broad-brush way McAuliffe was trying to implement it en masse instead of assessing individual cases.

The former governor wasn’t interested in this nuance. “I’ll do anything I possibly can do to try and help you,” the unforgiving McAuliffe told Dehghani-Tafti during his endorsement announcement.

Stamos can also be rigid in ways that left critics eager to pounce. A group of 109 defense attorneys endorsing Dehghani-Tafti wrote a letter alleging that the prosecutor pumps up charges against defendants in order to induce them to accept plea bargains, and she refuses to use technology in ways that would make it easier for them to gain access to relevant discovery evidence on behalf of clients without physically going to the courthouse. (Some of those details ended up driving theWashington Post’s endorsement of the challenger.) The picture they offered was not necessarily of an abusive prosecutor, but of an unmistakable hard-ass. In earlier times that is a reputation a Virginia Democrat would covet—a way of countering criticism of being a bleeding heart.

But in a liberal-minded community the old ways may be outdated, just as Joe Biden is learning on the presidential campaign trail, when a one-time talking point—his sponsorship of the 1994 crime bill—is now something that throws him on the defensive.

Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a senior fellow at the liberal Brennan Center’s justice program, said the Arlington primary battle is “reflective of a national trend.“ In recent years, Soros’ PAC has funded a number of progressive challengers in prosecutor’s races across the country. Kim Foxx was elected in Cook County State, Ill., with hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into her campaign. Similarly funded Aramis Ayala was sworn into office overseeing Orange and Osceola counties in Florida, shortly after which she drew fire for saying she would not ever pursue the death penalty. In Philadelphia, Larry Krasner defeated a Republican candidate with 21 years of experience in prosecution, delivering a hard-hitting campaign with more than $1 million from Soros. In Oakland, incumbent Nancy O’Malley was reelected, but only after facing a challenger supported by Soros.

Progressive challengers not backed by Soros have also unseated incumbents in Durham County, N.C., Kansas City, Kan., and St. Louis County, Mo. Even in open races, candidates with little to no background in politics—but calling for an overhaul of the criminal justice system—have prevailed over candidates with long histories in the prosecutor’s office. In Brooklyn, N.Y., for example, Eric Gonzalez won the title over five Democratic candidates—all former prosecutors.

“We’re seeing bipartisan agreement that our criminal justice system is broken,” Eisen added, “and in need of change … [which] I think fits squarely with what we’re seeing across the country with this wave of new prosecutors wanting to transform the office.”

It has been a while since such a wave—if it ends up knocking down someone like Stamos—has hit the shores of Virginia, where prosecutors often stay put for their entire careers. Fairfax County, which is adjacent to Arlington and is the largest locality in the Washington area and the state, has had only two people serve as the commonwealth’s attorney since 1967. The current occupant, Raymond Morrogh, is also facing a Soros-funded challenger in Tuesday’s primary. In Prince William County, to the west of Fairfax, prosecutor Paul B. Ebert is retiring after 52 years in office.

Beth Arthur, who has been Arlington sheriff for almost 19 years, said she doesn’t welcome elections for the office becoming politicized in the fashion they have this year. She has endorsed Stamos. “It had been my intention not to weigh in on the race publicly, but when her ethics were attacked and the police department’s ethics were attacked, I felt like it was wrong.”

But Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor whose district included Arlington, said the issue is less about personalities than changing standards. “In the ‘90s, when I first started doing mostly criminal cases, I was ‘put them away, throw away the key, hang them high,’” Rossi said. “But then when I entered the new century, I realized this was fool’s gold, that mass incarceration is not the answer.”

“The current commonwealth’s attorney is a good person, she’s a good trial attorney, she’s got integrity, she’s been in that office since they invented fire and the wheel,” Rossi added. “I don’t think she has the mental state of mind to move as fast as I would like in the realm of criminal justice. Virginia is moving, but it’s moving very slowly … I want it to move like a bolt of lightning.”

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[thewebofslime]

A former Roman Catholic priest who was defrocked and convicted of molesting two boys in New Jersey has found a new vocation in a new location — teaching children English at a private school in this resort town. The former priest, Hadmels DeFrias, 47, told the NBC News reporter who tracked him down that he is no longer a threat to minors and also claimed to be a bishop in the "progressive Celtic church." "I don't see the children with those eyes anymore," DeFrias said in an extensive interview outside the Colegio del Caribe school in Punta Cana, where he watched over dozens of young boys and girls while shielding himself from the sun with an umbrella. “For me they are children and they need to be treated like children because that is what they are,” he said. “I don’t feel the attraction. I am not telling you that maybe someday it won’t be there, because I can’t predict the future.” As a priest, DeFrias, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, was assigned to the St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when he was accused of fondling two brothers, both under 14, in 2001 and 2002 while the brothers were working in the church rectory, according to court records and published reports. Charged with criminal sexual contact, DeFrias pleaded guilty in August 2004 and was sentenced to three years of probation, court records show. As part of his sentencing agreement, he was barred indefinitely from any future contact with children under 18 in the state of New Jersey. After being contacted by NBC News, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey issued a statement disapproving of DeFrias' position working with children. “It is deeply concerning to hear that a defendant prosecuted, convicted and sentenced here for criminal sexual contact with children has resurfaced overseas, apparently with supervisory capacity over children,” the office said. “We would urge anyone in any jurisdiction to be vigilant and immediately report allegations of such conduct to local authorities.” NBC News has reached out to both the Dominican Republic educational officials and the school where DeFrias is employed to find out if they were aware of his criminal past. So far, neither has responded. In the interview, DeFrias expressed regret for assaulting the brothers but insisted that his urges are under control and that he has been in therapy for a decade. He said he told school officials about his criminal past before they hired him, even though he claims he didn’t need to “inform them.” The Colegio del Caribe private school where Hadmels DeFrias teaches English to children in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.Evelyn Gruber / NBC News “What they have to know is if I committed a crime in the country, which I haven’t,” DeFrias said, referring to the Dominican Republic. “So when I presented my criminal background here, it’s clean. So they don’t even have to be aware of what happened in the States.” The ex-priest said that he has a teaching assistant in the classroom with him so he’s never alone with his young charges, and that the classroom has no doors. Asked if he regrets what he did, DeFrias said, “I never meant for it to happen.” “It is something that is always present and will always be present in my life,” he said. “If I let it go then it’s like forgetting the Holocaust. Then we are letting ourselves open for the possibility that it may happen again.” Should parents be concerned that he is teaching their kids? “Perhaps they might be,” DeFrias said. “That is normal behavior.” DeFrias’ name resurfaced last month when Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, released a list of more than 60 priests dating to 1940 who had been “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.” DeFrias was one of just a handful of Roman Catholic priests who had been criminally prosecuted for sexually abusing children. “That is definitely the same person,” said John Esmerado, an assistant prosecutor in the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, who led the case against DeFrias in 2003. Esmerado was shown a photo of DeFrias dressed in a habit that appears on the website of his new church, the Iglesia Anglicana de Rito Celta Dominicana del Caribe. “The same eyes, the same face,” Esmerado said. “It’s him, 16 years later.” Maria Margiotta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Newark, said the diocese lost track of DeFrias years ago. “Fr. Hadmels DeFrias was permanently removed from ministry and all ties with the Archdiocese of Newark were permanently severed when he was laicized by the Vatican at our request,” Margiotta said in an email. “We’ve had no contact or involvement with any of his actions after he was laicized.” And by laicized, Margiotta means DeFrias “is barred from all priestly ministry.” DeFrias told NBC News he was not aware that the archdiocese had posted his name. “I think it’s a good thing because the church needs to be honest,” he said. “We cannot pretend it never happened. It happened. “ DeFrias said he has been diagnosed with ephebophilia, which according to a 2004 report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and known as the John Jay Report, means a sexual attraction to adolescents. DeFrias said he succumbed to temptation due to a “combination of depression and not having proper sexual education.” “Because that’s not what happens in the church,” he said. “I mean, you are put in a role that you are in charge of so many things and you have to abstain from sexual stuff, but they don’t teach you how to manage it. Now they are beginning to work with it.” DeFrias was born in the Dominican Republic. He received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Seton Hall University in 1995, according to Laurie Pine, spokeswoman for the school in South Orange, New Jersey. Four years later, in 1999, DeFrias was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, according to church officials. After his ouster from the priesthood, DeFrias was the owner of B&D Autobody, in West New York, New Jersey, for seven years, according to his LinkedIn page. Then from March 2011 to March 2012, DeFrias worked as a telemarketer — something he also told an NBC News reporter. But DeFrias apparently never left the religion business. In an online profile on the business-networking site Zintro that went up in February 2013, DeFrias referred to himself as a “Reverend” as well as a “Wedding Officiant, Management, Spiritual Counseling, Customer Service.” “An ordained minister holding theological degrees from Seton Hall University that includes Scripture and Pastoral Counseling,” the profile says. “Have work (sic) in mental health and as online marketing executive. Now I am affiliated with a non-denominational church in a wedding ministry.” A Zintro spokesman said that DeFrias has not visited the page since it went up and would be removed due to his criminal history. From June 2012 to March 2013, DeFrias lived in Largo, Florida, according to available records. On his LinkedIn page, DeFrias described himself as a minister with “American Marrige (sic) Ministries” beginning in January 2013. “Service the community by performing marriages, funerals and other religious services. All inclusive ministering to all including the LGBT community,” it reads. Sometime after that, DeFrias was back home in the Dominican Republic. And in 2017, he started a local chapter of an interfaith group called The Order of Eremitic Servants, according to Archabbot Bjorn, who manages the OES chapter in Idaho. The OES, according to its website, is “an interfaith monastic community of men and women whose primary purpose is to alleviate the suffering caused by religious intolerance and to promote peace and understanding in the local and global community through interfaith dialogue and charitable acts.” It has chapters in North Carolina and Canada as well. On the group's Facebook page, DeFrias goes by Father Rafael and is listed as the "Prior for the Dominican Republic." Bjorn, who goes by Father Archabbot, was surprised to hear of DeFrias' past. “I was not aware he was a convicted child molester,” he said, when informed of DeFrias’ past by NBC News. Asked whether this could affect DeFrias’ standing in the order, Bjorn declined to comment. Starting in February 2018, according to his LinkedIn page, DeFrias began teaching English in Punta Cana, a sun-splashed tourist mecca of about 50,000 that is famous for its beaches. DeFrias also described himself as “a priest with the Progressive Celtic Church, an independent catholic jurisdiction within the Anglican tradition of churches.” “I am currently working on setting up a Celtic Mission in the Dominican Republic. As Celtics we view things from a different perspective than mainline churches,” he wrote on his LinkedIn page. “We follow Pelagian and not Augustinian thought where there is not original sin, but original blessing. God wants all to be saved, thus every religion can lead to salvation.“ DeFrias, in his interview with NBC News, said his new church is an offshoot of the Anglican Church. The Anglicans disagree. “They are not part of the Anglican Church in North America, nor are they affiliated with the Global Anglican Future Conference,” said the Rev. Canon Andrew Gross, a spokesman for the Anglican Church in North America. On its website, DeFrias’ church says it is associated with another Celtic Anglican church in Syracuse, New York. But NBC News could not locate any such church in Syracuse. "I've never heard of the Celtic Anglican church," said Meredith Kadet Sanderson, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. NBC News also reached out by email to the Progressive Celtic Church website, which lists a Most Reverend Metropolitan Archbishop Alban Mason Kirk as its Syracuse representative. There was no response. Using the address on DeFrias’ church website, an NBC News reporter also tried and failed to locate a Sunday service in the Dominican Republic. A local guide said there are a number of religious groups in the area that don’t have a sanctuary and that hold services in public parks and other facilities. On the church’s website, there are photos of children and their families participating in services as well as a photo of DeFrias dressed in a brown habit. DeFrias said he misses being a Roman Catholic priest. “I miss it because I don’t even celebrate the Eucharist anymore,” he said. “I mean, I am a bishop in the (Celtic) church. I’m elected bishop but it’s just a role to direct other priests.” “I don’t like speaking in terms of what I lost because I think the children lost more,” he added. “But I lost most of my life. When you are trained as a priest you were trained as a priest and nothing else.” DeFrias said he wound up teaching kids because he needed a job and “probably by next year I will not be here.” Asked about his plans, DeFrias said, “it’s going to be in real estate.” “We are opening a company related to real estate so it’s not going to be kids,” he said. “I do want to work in education somehow. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be with children. I want to work with training teachers.” Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, whose efforts to expose pedophile priests were dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” said the Catholic Church has a history of washing its hands of problem clergymen and he’s not surprised the Newark Archdiocese was not keeping tabs on DeFrias. “Just because a priest is publicly named as a pedophile doesn’t mean they keep a close eye on them afterward,” Garabedian said. “If the Catholic Church defrocks a priest, they don’t keep track of that priest, and that is a calculated move. They don’t want to know him."

[hellofastestnewsfan]

When Representative Ilhan Omar recently complained about “the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” many noted accurately that she had deployed a trope—dual loyalty—that had been used against Jews for years.

But this accusation has a broader history in the United States, having been used against several religious minorities—including Muslims like Omar. Indeed, many battles over religious freedom have revolved around dual-loyalty claims.

[Read: Ilhan Omar just made it harder to have a nuanced debate about Israel]

In the 19th century, many attacks on Catholics stressed that these immigrants were pawns of a foreign power. In the 1830s, Samuel Morse—then a prominent painter and later the inventor of the telegraph—urged Americans to build “walls” and “gates” to keep out Catholic immigrants, who would always be loyal to Rome. Because these Catholic immigrants were decrepit—“halt, and blind, and naked”—they were easy to control. With their “darkened intellects,” they “obey their priests as demigods.” The Vatican could deploy these “senseless machines” to seize power in America.

When Al Smith, a Catholic, ran for president in 1928, he faced constant charges that he was the puppet of Rome. A picture of the recently built Holland Tunnel in New York City was used to suggest that he would extend it all the way from America to the Vatican. One editorial cartoon depicted him as a busboy serving liquor to bishops.

Smith sometimes tried to deflect the charges with humor. When challenged with the content of a papal encyclical that was supposedly incompatible with American democracy and ostensibly would determine his decision making, he quipped, “Will somebody please tell me what in the hell an encyclical is?”

One of the most sophisticated expositions of the dual-loyalty argument happened in these very pages. In a 1927 article in The Atlantic, a Protestant lawyer named Charles C. Marshall cited various Vatican rulings to prove that Smith would have to defer to the pope: “Here arises the irrepressible conflict. Shall the State or the Roman Catholic Church determine [legal issues]? The Constitution of the United States clearly ordains that the State shall determine the question. The Roman Catholic Church demands for itself the sole right to determine it, and holds that [it is] superior to and supreme over the State.” Smith, he argued, would have to make decisions based on his loyalty to the Church.

[Read: Is the term ‘Israel-firster’ anti-Semitic?]

Smith responded in The Atlantic with an essay of his own, arguing that the behavior of actual American Catholics bore no resemblance to the scare version conjured from bits of papal encyclicals or the dark chapters of European history. Most important, as governor of New York, he’d never had any trouble putting his loyalty to New Yorkers first. He made the point that was missing from so much of the anti-Catholic literature—and from modern-day discussions about Islam, Judaism, and other religions. American Catholics had the capacity to juggle their adherence to Church teachings with their love of country. “You seem to think that Catholics must be all alike in mind and in heart, as though they had been poured into and taken out of the same mould. You have no more right to ask me to defend as part of my faith every statement coming from a prelate than I should have to ask you to accept as an article of your religious faith every statement of an Episcopal bishop, or of your political faith every statement of a President of the United States. So little are these matters of the essence of my faith that I, a devout Catholic since childhood, never heard of them until I read your letter.”

In order to dispel the dual-loyalty charge, John F. Kennedy, in 1960, came out strongly for separation of Church and state. America’s approach to religious liberty guaranteed that dual allegiances could never get traction. “I believe in an America where the separation of Church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote,” Kennedy declared. The First Amendment ensured that Kennedy would never be tempted to put his faith over his country.

The dual-allegiance charge against Jews was enshrined in the most notorious anti-Semitic document, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which claimed that Jews would always place the interests of world Jewry over that of their host country. After the birth of Israel, Jews were sometimes accused of putting Israel’s interests before America’s, such as when some critics of the Iraq War suggested that Jewish neoconservatives were pushing the nation into a foolish conflict to advance Israel’s foreign-policy goals. More recently, American Muslims have been most subject to the dual-loyalty charge, something that Omar, as a trailblazing Muslim woman, should consider.

[Jeremy Ben-Ami: Stop alleging anti-Semitism just to score political points]

In the case of Muslims, the slander has come in the form of the campaign against Sharia, the broad body of Islamic law. The anti-Sharia efforts have maintained that American Muslims—like American Catholics—must abide by a foreign law created by a foreign religion in a foreign land. Brigitte Gabriel, the leader of ACT for America, has argued that if you’re a devout Muslim, you by definition cannot be a loyal American: “A practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day—this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”

Emphasizing the influence of the law enabled opponents to strip Islam of its legitimacy as a religion. “Islam is a political ideology … It definitely hides behind being a religion,” Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, once said.

And being a political system—controlled from abroad—means it does not merit First Amendment protection. “Far from being entitled to the protections of our Constitution under the principle of freedom of religion,” declared a report by the Center for Security Policy, Sharia “is actually a seditious assault on our Constitution which we are obliged to prosecute, not protect.” Conservatives who criticize Omar for her divided-loyalty comments but then also support the anti-Sharia crusade are applying a double standard.

Of course, dual-loyalty slanders are usually constructed around an element of truth. American Jews often do support Israel, Catholics often follow the teachings of the Church on important issues, and Muslims do observe elements of Sharia at odds with majority culture (such as eating halal foods). It’s totally fair to point out that these religious minorities—like all other Americans—are subject to cross-pressures.

But dual-allegiance charges go much further than offering a polite disagreement on policy. They imply not only that a group is un-American, but that its adherents have no agency. They cannot be patriotic, because they are thoroughly under the influence of a foreign power or code. And when the spell is being cast by a religion, it is deemed an especially powerful form of mind control. If you’re a good Catholic, you have no choice but to follow the pope. If you’re a good Muslim, you have no choice but to follow Sharia (and therefore support terrorists).

The truth is that American Catholics, Muslims, and Jews have charted their own course, sometimes listening to guidance from abroad but more often ignoring it. Recently, a West Virginia Republican group put up a poster of Omar in front of an image of the smoldering Twin Towers. If this is not exactly a dual-loyalty claim, it is a close cousin: An American Muslim is really the same as a terrorist Muslim. They read from the same holy book, follow the same Sharia law, and certainly can’t be trusted to be loyal Americans. This is where the logic of divided loyalties—a logic Omar is herself applying to American Jews—ultimately leads.

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2XEjP2T