Category Archives: Politics

Culture, Politics, White House

Founder of a right-wing organization

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The founder of a right-wing organization whose members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the assault on the United States Capitol spent around six hours on Wednesday, January 6, talking to the committee by Zoom from a prison in Oklahoma to the committee.

Image: Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes poses during an interview session in Eureka, Mont., on June 20, 2016.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes during an interview session in Eureka, Mont., on June 20, 2016.Jim Urquhart / Reuters file


According to one of his attorneys, the United States Marshals Service holds Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, who is now in custody in the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing. Rhodes appeared virtually before the House committee on the Cimarron Correctional Facility. The detention institution is under contract with the United States Marshals Service, transferring Rhodes to the Federal Detention Center in Washington, D.C.
According to his attorney, Jonathan Moseley, Rhodes claimed his Fifth Amendment rights between 20 and 30 times but ended up talking for an extended period about the history of the Oath Keepers instead.
Moseley, a Virginia-based attorney whose other clients have included Kelly Meggs, Zach Rehl, a member of the Proud Boys, and other January 6 defendants, said the committee allowed Rhodes to “talk very freely” about the history of the organization. However, his attorneys prevented him from answering questions that could affect his criminal case. Rhodes is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes.
As long as they weren’t particular to November, December 2020, or January 2021, Moseley stated, “A lot of things about what they do and how they do it were discussed, as long as they weren’t specific to November, December 2020, or January 2021,” “He gave examples of how they operate and what they do,” said the author.
The ex-wife of the commander of the Oath Keepers claimed that he was “fulfilling his own narrative.”
Initially, the committee asked a series of “test questions” to determine what Rhodes would and would not share, according to Moseley. Still, it ended up asking “a lot of questions about the Oath Keepers that he was able to answer,” which Rhodes was able to answer, according to Moseley. Additionally, Kellye SoRelle, who took over as interim leader of the Oath Keepers when Rhodes was jailed last month, appeared before the committee on January 6.
According to Moseley, “I’m sure they were most interested in the stuff that criminal lawyers wouldn’t let him answer,” including communications with other groups such as the Proud Boys, contacts with key figures in former President Donald Trump’s orbit, and fundraising for events scheduled for January 6, among other things.
A request for comment from a committee representative did not respond instantly.
One of the committee’s aides recently said that the panel had heard testimony from more than 475 witnesses and had acquired more than 60,000 pages of documents as part of its probe.
Moseley said that Rhodes had previously promised to assist the committee to the extent that he was able before he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia. Additionally, he claimed that Rhodes talked about his previous work with the Oath Keepers during the interview and that Rhodes became emotional when he told him about how members of the organization helped to secure a shop in Ferguson, Missouri, amid unrest after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014.
Federal prosecutors allege that Rhodes is the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy aimed at maintaining Trump in power despite the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. In his statement to the other defendants, prosecutors claim, Rhodes said that there was “no standard political or legal way out of this,” and that they should be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
The United States Marshals Service is now in the custody of Elmer Stewart Rhodes III. According to his attorney, Jonathan Moseley, he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights between 20 and 30 times. Rhodes was stopped from answering questions that may have impacted his criminal prosecution by his counsel. They questioned him about contact with other organizations, such as the Proud Boys, and funding for the activities on January 6, among other things. In its inquiry, the panel heard testimony from more than 475 witnesses and acquired more than 60,000 pages of documents. Individuals should be aware that everything we do or say on the internet leaves a technical imprint on the world.

Reference

Oath Keepers founder spent six hours on Zoom with January 6 panel. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/oath-keepers-founder-spent-six-hours-zoom-jan-6-panel-rcna14667?fbclid=IwAR2hlUnUijt4xSgzpMDBufVR0d6iT7LP2ayOBII-JY8eU_LwKZSrq4j9eLk

Culture, equal rights, Ethics, government, Politics, Religion, Social Justice, White House

United States Supreme Court will hear arguments

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Amy and David Carson desired that their daughter Olivia attend Bangor Christian Schools, a private religious elementary through secondary school. Maine has said that it would not subsidize religious education. The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the state violated the Carsons’ constitutional rights. Carson v. Makin is the most recent in a series of lawsuits petitioning the Supreme Court for a ruling on religious liberty. If the court decides widely, it might have a profound effect on the ability of religious organizations to receive public financing.

Getty Images (2); TIME


It has the potential to “eviscerate” rules prohibiting public sponsorship of religious education. Maine parents have filed a lawsuit against the state for failing to include their favorite schools in a tuition aid program. Plaintiffs and supporters contend that the state discriminates against religious individuals. The case follows a series of previous judgments on public support for religious organizations. The case sets the free exercise provision of the First Amendment against the establishment clause.
According to some legal experts, Carson v. Makin is likely to become an extension of Espinoza. Officials in Maine assert that religious schools do not give an education “equivalent to a public education.” Carson v. Maine calls into question the relationship between religious liberty and LGBTQ rights. Maine contends that Bangor Christian and Temple Academy in Maine discriminate against members of other faiths and instructors and students who identify as LGBTQ. Advocates fear that government money may flow to discriminatory schools if the plaintiffs win.
Maine is just a few states that give this kind of tuition assistance to pupils who live in areas without public school choice. However, experts are concerned that other states may experience similar pressure from religious groups to implement similar schemes. This possibility concerns Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Reference

This Supreme Court Case Could Take a ‘Wrecking Ball’ to Separation of Church and State.https://time.com/6125676/maine-religion-schools-supreme-court-carson-makin/?fbclid=IwAR2y4KzyfGY6NuggKM8mZIgYpKYuhD_YqmKoiKzgnDJ7WUKGTBkFzCmgyW8

Culture, Ethics, History, human rights, Politics, Social Justice, White House

March on Washington for Voting Rights

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Voting rights are essential for all individuals. The March on Washington for Voting Rights commemorated the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington. Marchers are urging Congress to enact voting-rights legislation to halt the implementation of restrictive voting laws in states around the country. The John Lewis Voting Act would reinstate the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s pre-clearance provisions, lower in the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder. The Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the march’s organizers, contended that the filibuster could not obstruct progress. Democrats currently dominate the Senate but have been unable to overcome filibusters on voting-rights legislation.

Washington march voting rights
With the Washington Monument in the background, the Rev. Al Sharpton, center, holds a banner with Martin Luther King, III, and Democratic Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green of Texas, during the march to call for sweeping protections against a further erosion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 28, 2021. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana


To enact voting rights legislation, moderate senators have resisted attempts to weaken or remove the filibuster. The organizers planned to bring attention to problems such as reparations for slave descendants and a $15 minimum wage. The march was led by New York Rep. Mondaire Jones, who has advocated for the filibuster’s removal.

Reference
‘Old battles have become new again’: Thousands march in Washington, DC, and across the US to push for voting-rights legislation. https://www.businessinsider.com/march-voting-rights-legislation-washington-dc-cities-filibuster-2021-8

equal rights, Ethics, History, Politics

Voter fraud or irregularities

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The notion that massive voter fraud or irregularities exist in Texas elections is perilous, racist, and lacking evidence. He asserts that the threat to Texas voters of all political stripes is not voter fraud but voter suppression. All Texans deserve a system of elections that is free, fair, and accessible. Instead, Senate Bill 1 in Texas would prohibit 24-hour and drive-thru voting, restrict early voting, and make voting more difficult for voters with disabilities or language difficulties. Additionally, it would make it more difficult for Texas judges to accommodate voters during a natural disaster or pandemic.

Texas Senate Bill 1 is a band-aid response to an issue that exists only in the damaging language of those spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. It is past time for legislators to abandon divisive falsehoods and focus on ensuring that all Texas voters have fair, equitable, and free access to the voting box.

Resource
Texas’s Proposed Voter Suppression Law, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/texass-proposed-voter-suppression-law

Ancestry, Behavioral Science, Culture, equal rights, government, History, human rights, Politics, Social Justice, White House

Judicial aspect of race in the America

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Judicial Aspects of Race in the United States: A Nation Fighting for Minority Rights by [Kenneth Dantzler Corbin]
New book on Amazon

This book is about the Judicial aspect of race in the America. In the United States, legislation aimed at regulating interactions between racial or ethnic groups has grown through various historical periods, beginning with European colonization of the Americas, the triangular slave trade, and the American Indian Wars. Racial legislation has been linked to immigration laws, which have sometimes contained explicit clauses targeting certain nations or ethnic groups, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1923 US Supreme Court decision the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. In the antebellum period, all slave states and a few free states enacted similar legislation. Ozawa v. the United States and the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind are the two most notable instances. Takao Ozawa, born in Japan and lived in the United States for 20 years, sought citizenship but was rejected because he was not deemed white. Americans of Italian and German ancestry and Italian and German citizens were also imprisoned, although on a far lesser scale, even though Italy and Germany sided with Japan in the war against the United States. In 1954, in Hernandez v. Texas, a federal court determined that Mexican Americans and all other ethnic or “racial groups” in the United States may have equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

Politics, White House

President Donald Trump is increasingly isolated

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In his accusations of electoral fraud, President Donald Trump is increasingly isolated. His intelligence chief says that international rivals are seeking to weaken trust in democratic processes. Attorney General Bill Barr has disappointed Trump by saying that the Department of Justice has found no proof of systemic fraud. An election security officer shot a tweet about what Trump called a “highly misleading” election comment. “It’s clear to me, and I think most Americans,” Krebs told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday, “that the election is over. “We’ve got to get this past.”
Some of the administration officials Krebs served with the most closely on the election were bolder in their rebukes to the President. Commissioner Ben Hovland of the Election Assistance Commission called Trump’s comments “misleading” and “insulting” The country’s top counter-intelligence official said Wednesday that he was worried about post-election conspiracy theories.While Trump rants about votes, Why none of his election security officials support him?

Reference
While Trump rants about votes, none of his election security officials support him. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/trump-election-security-officials/index.html

equal rights, Ethics, government, human rights, Politics, Social Justice

Judicial system sentence more African Americans for non-offensive crimes

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The judicial system sentence more African Americans for non-offensive crimes while whites have committed the worst crimes. African Americans are more likely to spend more time in jail than whites. The judicial system in American is rigged to punish Africans more than whites. African Americans pay more fines than whites. African Americans pay higher fines than whites.

“A 63-year-old man who was serving a life sentence in prison for stealing a pair of hedge clippers has been granted parole, CBS affiliate KLFY reported. The Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole voted this week to release Fair Wayne Bryant after he had served 23 years in prison.” This person should take the system to court for unjust sentencing. Do you think the crime is ridiculous and does not warrant 23 years in jail?

Man who spent 23 years in prison for stealing hedge …. https://www.ozarksfirst.com/local-news/national-news/man-who-spent-23-years-in-prison-for-stealing-hedge-clippers-granted-parole/

Culture, government, History, Politics, Social Justice, White House

Why are Trump stoking ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris?

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President Donald Trump claims he has “overheard” Democratic candidate Kamala Harris “does not meet the requirements” to serve as US vice-president, enlarging a fringe legal theory pundits decry as racist.

She was born in the US to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on 20 October 1964.

As such, she is qualified to function as president or vice-president.

For a long time, Mr Trump presented a untrue “birther” theory that ex-President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Ms Harris, a California senator, was named on Tuesday as the first woman of color to work as running partner on a principal-party US presidential ticket.

Reference:

Trump stokes ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53774289

Culture, environmental, equal rights, Ethics, government, History, human rights, Politics

Ethnic Inequities Will Grow Unless We Consciously Work to get rid of it

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The economic after-effects from the coronavirus pandemic guarantees to affect families throughout the United States and future decades for years to come. The downturn will probably hit African Americans hardest, exacerbating huge, long-standing racial wealth spaces. Because these inequities possess historical roots, looking at how they contribute to intergenerational inequality will help citizens, policymakers, and stakeholders create policies that move the country toward racial collateral.
We cannot start 20, 50, or even a century ago; we need to start. Four hundred years ago, white people trafficked and enslaved African people to build their particular wealth.

Centuries of systemic and structural racism followed, and it was not really until 1865 that the 13th Amendment passed and officially released Black people from bondage. For almost 100 years, Jim Crow laws and regulations and discriminatory practices forced racial segregation and impaired efforts to reduce or eliminate the racial wealth gap.

Limited covenants and redlining avoided Black people from buying homes in many neighborhoods; the Black Codes prohibited many Black people from creating profitable businesses, and white mob violence destroyed the firms of many other Black business owners and being denied entry to better-paying jobs got more difficult for Black family members
to accrue savings to get down payments on homes or accumulate cash about business investments.

Reference:
Racial Inequities Will Grow Unless We Consciously Work to …. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/racial-inequities-will-grow-unless-we-consciously-work-eliminate-them

Culture, environmental, equal rights, Ethics, Health, Politics

How We Ought to Talk about Racial Disparities

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America’s dominant cultural lens and narrative center on white persons and portray the country’s past primarily as a tale of social innovation and progress.

Within this narrative, contemporary problems like poverty and crime are individual and communal failings. By extension, racial disparities shows poor options or behavioral patterns, not historical and continued discrimination.

This narrative minimizes or removes the impact of human trafficking and bondage and the following terrorizing and humiliation of Black people through assault, the Black Codes, and Jim Crow. This implicitly perpetuates the belief that white people are doing better as they are inherently better or are operating harder, laying the bedrock for white supremacy.

Reference

How We Ought to Talk about Racial Disparities https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-we-should-talk-about-racial-disparities

Healthy Mendocino:: Resource Library: Health Equity and .http://www.healthymendocino.org/resource library/index/view?id=204973681343966914