Inviting Russia back to G8 seems likegood idea

Harvey Glatt, in his Dec. 14 letter, writes, "But (Vladimir) Putin, since Russia's membership (in the G8)was suspended, has stepped up both his aggression in Ukraine and his efforts to undermine democratic nations, including the United States."

He follows up with the complaint that President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Brian Mast voted to allow Russia back into the G7 summit. Since exclusion, by Glatts own admission, is not working, allowing Russia back seems like a good idea. The adage of "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" would seem to apply.

President Barack Obama was cowardly and incapable of facing anyone down. He only bowed and pandered to the world, while demeaning the United States. He did nothing when Russia invaded Crimea, and sent "blankets" to help Ukraine protect themselves from a Russian invasion.

I hardly think trying to isolate Russia is going to accomplish anything except to encourage them to partner up with China It's hard to negotiate anything when you aren't willing to talk.

So kudos to Trump and Mast for their courage and reason in leaving the door open.

Maureen Cotter, Vero Beach

Chelsea Manning during A Conversation with Chelsea Manning at Bard College, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Annandale-on-Hudson on Wednesday, February 21, 2018. Manning was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents, including battlefield reports on Iraq and Afghanistan and State Department cables, while working as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq. She has said the leaks were intended to expose wrongdoing.(Photo: John Meore/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Presidential clemency in history

David Horsmans snarky Dec. 15 letter decrying interference by "President Bone Spurs in the military justice system displays a woeful ignorance of presidential clemency involving U.S. military personnel.

President AbrahamLincoln, who did not serve, issued more than 60 pardons for military-related crimes before being assassinated. His successor, Andrew Johnson, granted clemency to many thousands of Confederate troops Christmas Day1868.

More recently, President Bill Clinton, who did not serve, granted posthumous clemency to Henry Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point, found guilty of embezzlement but dishonorably dismissed from the Army. President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to many thousands of draft-dodgers from the Vietnam era.

President Barack Obama, who did not serve, commuted the 35-year sentence of Chelsea Manning, who had pled guilty to espionage, freeing the former Army intelligence specialist decades before her scheduled release date of 2045. I must have missed Horsmans letter on that one.

Jim Trout, Sebastian

I wonder why people who stop for a red light stop four car lengths behind the car in front of them.

When the light changes to green, it takes much more time to move through the intersection before the light changes to red again. I am confused as to why so many people think that is a good idea.

Barbara Beach, Stuart

A Dec. 11 Opinion piece about the Listen First Project recommends we listen to one another, particularly in matters of political discussion.

Thats difficult.

When, in a discussion, topics such asMedicare for all, free college tuition, forgiveness of college loans, welfare and driver licenses for non-citizens, etc., come up, and are challenged, you'll get, Well both sides do that; both sides make promises.

Asked for an example from the other side, the person calls you a name, refuses to argue whenin fact you were hoping for a discussion. We see examples of this every day.

This has gradually become the modus operandi of today's Democratic Party. It is not your father's or even grandfather's party. It is not the party of JFK, who famously said, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Today, that party has as one of its more prominent spokespersons Bernie Sanders, who says he's calling for socialism, but claims not to be looking at Cuba or Venezuela, but Denmark and Sweden.

The first two are socialist, the second two are not. (Actually, some Scandinavian countries that did try socialism years ago have since privatized industries and repealed regulations.) Denmark's prime minister recently refuted Sanders statement with, Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. In fact, in economic freedom Scandinavia is near the top. Their emphasis is on self-reliance and hard work.

Socialism crushes freedom as seen in Venezuela and Cuba. It is a system of ownership of the means of production and distribution by government, not individuals. Obviously, as our Constitution is based upon individual rights, it would have to be repealed or revoked by pen or sword to become our system here in the United States.

Audrey Taggart, Hobe Sound

The Dec. 16 letter from teacher Lynn Nissen was well articulated with regard to defining the elements involved in the dissemination of learning to students. In simple terms, teaching involves a behavioral technology designed to stimulate the brain to be receptive to the transmission of important lifelong information.

Indeed, it is not the responsibility of a teacher to function as a social worker, keeping antisocial behaviors from distracting from the learning process. That is the responsibility of educationally trained social workers, who ideally would function as guidance counselors or behavioral therapists.

Unfortunately the current composition of many families does not meet the standards of "the nuclear family. The concepts of single-parent households, dual-wage earners, divorce, and other situations often place an overwhelming and stress-laden burden on supervisory parenting.

When this deficiency manifests, mayhem, physical injury and gunshots may permeate the classroom.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of local school boards along with the FloridaBoard of Education to meet and address this situation. Parents and teachers must understand their designated roles and join together to create the positive classroom atmosphere. Hopefully when each participant fulfills their obligatory duties the educational process shall be enhanced.

Gary S. Weiner, Port St. Lucie

Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/readers/2019/12/24/letters-editor-dec-24-2019/2701811001/

View original post here:
Letters to the Editor: Dec. 24, 2019 - TCPalm

Surprise, anger, parenting and Lizzo: That's one way to sum up NPR's list of our most engaging stories in 2019, as those themes drew a huge amount of interest from our readers this year. Other big topics included consumerism and climate change and officials behaving badly.

People often linger for several minutes on these popular pages. Collectively, NPR's readers spent the equivalent of more than 35 years' worth of time reading our top five stories. The top draw was a story about how to help kids handle anger; altogether, readers spent nearly 16 years' worth of time reading that report.

1. How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger

At the top of the world, the Inuit culture has developed a sophisticated way to sculpt kids' behavior without yelling or scolding. Could discipline actually be playful?

2. American With No Medical Training Ran Center For Malnourished Ugandan Kids. 105 DiedWhen she was 19, Renee Bach founded a charity that went on to care for more than 900 severely malnourished babies and children. Now she is being sued by two of the mothers whose children died.

3. 'The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,' Says 'Secondhand' Expert"Your average thrift store in the United States only sells about one-third of the stuff that ends up on its shelves," Adam Minter says. His book explores what happens to the things that don't sell.

4. U.S. Charges Dozens Of Parents, Coaches In Massive College Admissions ScandalActresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among 33 parents who paid large sums of money to cheat admissions standards at prestigious schools, federal prosecutors say.

5. Trump Tweets Sensitive Surveillance Image Of IranThe tweet had experts picking up their jaws from the floor when they saw a photo of an Iranian space facility an image that was almost certainly taken by a classified satellite or drone.

6. The Mysterious Death Of The Hacker Who Turned In Chelsea Manning

Adrian Lamo was a hero in the hacker community for years. Everything changed when he began exchanging messages with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

7. FACT CHECK: Trump's State Of The Union AddressNPR reporters provided context and analysis in real time as President Trump delivered the annual speech to Congress: "Remarkably, President Trump did not acknowledge the new power dynamic in Washington."

8. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Releases Green New Deal Outline"Even the solutions that we have considered big and bold are nowhere near the scale of the actual problem that climate change presents to us," Ocasio-Cortez said.

9. 'Game Of Thrones' Season 8, Episode 5: 'Let It Be Fear'In the series' penultimate episode, the quality of mercy gets seriously strained. And stabbed. And set aflame. And razed. And several characters meet their final fates.

10. NPR's Book ConciergeThe end-of-year Book Concierge recommends more than 350 great reads across 30 genres hand-picked by NPR staff and trusted critics.

In terms of page views, a slightly different list emerges. While some of the top stories are the same, here are the top 10 most-viewed stories that didn't also appear in the above list. All of the pages drew more than 1 million views on NPR's website, not including traffic on other platforms, such as Apple News or Facebook.

1. Lizzo: Tiny Desk Concert

Backed by a band assembled just for this occasion, the breakthrough pop icon performs three joyfully showy songs from Cuz I Love You.

2. Patient With 'Tree Man' Syndrome Says He 'Can Finally Live A Normal Life'The man, who lives in Gaza, has undergone a pioneering treatment by Israeli surgeons for a severe case of this rare condition.

3. Speaker Pelosi Revokes Vice President Pence's House Office SpaceRepublicans had given Pence, a former House member, a first-floor bonus office in the House side of the U.S. Capitol shortly after President Trump was inaugurated.

4. Court Says Using Chalk On Tires For Parking Enforcement Violates ConstitutionA federal appeals court in Michigan cited the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures.

5. 'Not One Drop Of Blood': Cattle Mysteriously Mutilated In Oregon

Five young, purebred bulls mysteriously showed up dead on the ranch this past summer, drained of blood and with body parts precisely removed.

6. 3 Indiana Judges Suspended After White Castle Brawl That Left 2 Of Them WoundedA fight apparently started when one of the judges raised a middle finger at two men yelling from a passing SUV. The Indiana Supreme Court found that the three had "gravely undermined public trust."

7. Workers Are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen CountertopsIrreversible lung disease has started to show up among young workers who cut, grind and polish countertops made of increasingly popular "engineered" stone. The material is more than 90% silica.

8. Taylor Swift: Tiny Desk ConcertAs she settled in for the set at NPR's offices, Taylor Swift looked out over the crowd. "I just decided to take this as an opportunity to show you guys how the songs sounded when I first wrote them."

9. Notre Dame Cathedral Fire Extinguished; Spire Collapsed, Towers Still StandingAs night fell on Paris and the fire continued to burn, people knelt and sang "Ave Maria" as they watched the blaze.

10. Florida Governor Declares State Of Emergency As Hurricane Dorian Gains ForceAs the storm neared, the National Hurricane Center said Dorian's winds could top 115 mph making it a Category 3 storm.

NPR senior manager for digital analytics Christina Macholan contributed to this report.

Link:
The 20 Top Stories On NPR In 2019 - KRWG

captionWhitney Houston.sourceKevork Djansezian/Getty Images

As 2019 and another decade comes to a close, Google has shared the top trending searches of the past 10 years.

These are the people, places, things, and news events that saw the biggest spikes in traffic for a continuous period of time compared to the previous year, providing a glimpse into the topics that dominated the public interest over the past decade.

The 2010s brought the tragic deaths of celebrities like Whitney Houston, Robin Williams, and Paul Walker, major news events included Hurricane Irma and the trial of Casey Anthony, and two FIFA World Cups. Nearly every year, a hurricane dominated the search terms.

Heres a look back at the top 10 trending Google searches from each year of the past decade.

In 2010, Spain won its first FIFA World Cup title by defeating the Netherlands in extra time, becoming the eighth nation to win the tournament. Hundreds of millions of fans watched the 64 matches, which were played across nine cities in South Africa and marked the first time an African country hosted the tournament.

Also that year: A massive trove of classified communications between US diplomats was given to Julian Assanges organization Wikileaks by Chelsea Manning, then a soldier in the US Army. A devastating earthquake left hundreds of thousands dead in Haiti. Chatroulette, a website that randomly connects users in webcam chats, launched and quickly became popular. Former child actor Corey Haim died of pneumonia after struggling with prescription drug abuse.

Top 10 trending searches in 2010:

Following the tragic death of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony in 2008, her mother, Casey, stood trial in what became one of the most widely televised cases of the decade. The nation tuned in for drama-fueled testimony and people literally fought to get into the courtroom to watch live. A jury ultimately found Anthony not guilty of first degree murder in 2011.

Also that year: Image-sharing website Pinterest took off. Google entertained users by letting them search do a barrel roll to make the website do a 360-degree spin and let it snow to blanket the page in snowflakes. Hurricane Irene hit the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving dozens dead and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Top 10 trending searches in 2011:

Legendary singer Whitney Houston, the Queen of Pop, died in 2012 at the age of 48. Houston won six Grammy awards and was nominated for 25 for her vocal performances, and remains one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Also that year: Mexican-American Banda singer Jenni Rivera died in a plane crash. 27 people, most of them children, were killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Top 10 trending searches in 2012:

Actor Paul Walker, best known for his role as Brian OConner in the popular Fast and the Furious movie series, passed away in 2013 in a car crash at age 40. Walkers death prompted an outpouring of support, especially from fellow cast and crew members, who had grown incredibly close over the years.

Also that year: Glee start Cory Monteith died of a drug overdose. The U.S. government temporarily halted most of its operations after Congress failed to approve its budget. Jodi Arias was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend in a trial that became a cable television spectacle.

Top 10 trending searches in 2013:

Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide in August 2014 at age 63 after struggling with severe depression as well as dementia. Williams starred in a number of well-known films such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting, and Disneys Aladdin.

Also that year: mobile game Flappy Bird went viral, earning its creator, Dong Nguyen, $50,000 per day before Nguyen abruptly pulled the plug. Protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, over law enforcements treatment of African-American residents after police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager. Russia controversially invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula, a region of Ukraine, prompting criticism from the international community.

Top 10 trending searches in 2014:

Two-time NBA Championship winner Lamar Odom was hospitalized after being discovered unconscious in a Nevada brothel in 2015, an incident that left him fighting for his life at the time and dominated the news cycle that year. Odom, who was also previously married to the reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, made headlines more recently for his newly announced engagement to personal trainer Sabrina Parr.

Also that year: Terrorist attacks shocked Paris: attacks in November that killed 130 and injured more than 400, and a shooting in January at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A mobile game called Agar.io skyrocketed in popularity after Frank Underwood, the main character from Netflixs House of Cards played by Kevin Spacey, was seen playing it in the shows fourth season.

Top 10 trending searches in 2015:

The Powerball jackpot hit a record $1.6 billion in 2016 and went to three lucky winners in Tennessee, California, and Florida. The odds that they would land on all of the winning numbers 4, 8, 19, 27, and 34 as well as Powerball 10 were 1 in 292.2 million.

Also that year: A new take on the classic mobile game Snake called Slither.io topped App Store charts. Most of the years other search trends were dominated by the 2016 US presidential election.

Top 10 trending searches in 2016:

Hurricane Irma was the most powerful storm outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean when it hit Florida and the Caribbean in 2017. It reached maximum sustained wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, and maintained that intensity for a record 37 hours.

Also that year: Fidget spinners became the years hottest toy, a rare solar eclipse was visible in parts of the United States, and a gunman opened fire and killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

Top 10 trending searches in 2017:

France emerged as the victor among the 32 countries that competed in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in what has been perceived as being the best tournament yet. France took the coveted title after a landmark match against Croatia, winning by two points.

Also that year: Iconic fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead in her New York City apartment at age 55, renowned chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain died by suicide, the Marvel film Black Panther topped the box office.

Top 10 trending searches in 2018:

Disneys highly-anticipated streaming service debuted in November 2019, offers movies and TV shows from Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television properties for $7 per month. That means you can get classic Disney movies, Pixar films, Marvel content, and more in one app.

Also this year: Cameron Boyce, the Disney channel star known for his role in the TV show Jessie, died at age 20 after suffering an epileptic seizure, and the HBO phenomenon Game of Thrones finally came to an end.

Top 10 trending searches in 2019:

See the rest here:
These are the top Google searches of the past decade: From Disney Plus to Whitney Houston and the World Cup - Business Insider

This past decade has brought about a seismic shift in how Americans view gender and gender expression particularly when it comes to the ever-expanding awareness of what it means to betransgender.

For this you can give at least partial credit to the many powerful pop-culture moments over the years from the coming out of Caitlyn Jenner and Chelsea Manning to the premiere of television shows like Transparent and Pose.

And while its impossible to pick just one as having had the most cultural impact, it is worth noting that theres been one young woman whose very public, very proud gender transition has been a consistent influencer now for more than a decade: Jazz Jennings.

Jazz is the Florida teen, reality-show star and transgender activist who first leapt into public view at age 6, during a candid and groundbreaking20/20 interviewwith Barbara Walters in 2007. And she remains squarely in the public eye today, allowing a massive and devoted audience to trail her and her loving family first through a 2011 Oprah Winfrey Network documentary and, as of 2015, on the TLC reality series, I Am Jazz as she goes through pretty much every milestone of adolescence, from dating and dances to college acceptance, not to mention her most personal experience of all: her gender-reassignment surgery.

The show averages over one million viewers per episode, which equals one immense social impact and thats not even counting the other ways Jazz has gotten her story out there over the years.

It's pretty surreal, to be honest, Jazz, now 19, tells Yahoo Lifestyle about her unique and lengthy experience in public view.

When we first decided to share our story, we had no idea how huge of an impact our family would have on so many other lives, she adds, so I think just seeing the way culture has shifted around gender, and people being more open and accepting to transgender people it's just really cool to know that we played a part in all of that.

The Jennings family first went public, through a local newspaper, in response to Jazzs kindergarten not allowing her to use female pronouns or wear dresses; the story was picked up nationally, and then snowballed from there to ABC and beyond. Her story was, for many Americans, their first time hearing about anyone being transgender especially someone so young. I think the main reason why we wanted to do it was just help others who were like me, transgender kids out there, to help them realize that they're not alone in their journey and that there's others like them, Jazz recalls.

When our family first shared our story, there really weren't any transgender kids in the public, or there weren't many who heard of transgender kids. And now I feel like you'll hear about trans kids more frequently, she adds. I think that shift is really amazing to see, because people are finally able to step out of the shadows and be their true authentic selves.

Her story has taken many other forms, as well, certainly widening its impact. In the years since Jazz spoke with Walters as a kindergartener, she returned as a braces-wearing tween for a follow-up in 2012 (and has sat for many other interviews as well), and she has co-written a childrens picture book, calledI Am Jazz, as well as a memoir,Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen.

She has also become aYouTube sensationwith 675,000 followers and blossomed as a reality star, first on the OWN Networks I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition, and then again on TLCs I Am Jazz, which enters its 6th season on Jan. 28. She has starred ina short film, Denim,about a trans teen who gets outed at school, and has conquered social media, amassing 961,000 followers onInstagram, where shes shared everything from her post-surgery debut in a swimsuit to news that she deferred her acceptance to Harvard. She has also starred ina commercial, was named one of Time magazines most influential teens of 2014 (and again in 2015), and became the youngest honoree ever to make both Outs Out 100 and the Advocates 40 under 40.

It is a lot of pressure, she admits.

Jazz Jennings, at 13, flanked by Elle Fanning and Alex Newell onstage during the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles in 2013. (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for GLAAD)

But the still-rippling impact of her ongoing journey has been unprecedented and groundbreaking, explains Nick Adams, director of transgender representation atGLAAD, which advocates for fair and accurate LGBTQ media representation.

"I think that Jazz and her family's decision to share so many details of her life as a young transgender girl going through both a social and medical transition have had impact in two ways, Adams says. It has allowed Americans who think theyve never met someone who's transgender to get to know Jazzs family and to know what it means to love and support your transgender child. And for families who do have transgender children, it's given them hope and critical information about what their journey may be like as they support their child."

Now, as we slide out of the 2010s and into 2020, hope on the transgender equality front is needed perhaps more than ever. While media visibility has reached an encouraging high point, the Trump administration has triggered a transgender rights rollback in a slew of areas, from serving in the military to receiving medical treatment. And as of Dec. 7 2019 got the dismal distinction of becoming the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans. That date is whenNikki Kuhnhausen, 18, was found dead in in Vancouver, Wash., becoming the 27th transgender homicide victim of the year.

Jazz posted about Nikkis murderon Facebook, saying, simply, She was only 18....the murders must stop.

So does visibility really have the power to bring about change? Adams believes it does.

Backlash has grown against many different marginalized groups of people, he says, but it is often fueled by stoking peoples fears and ignorance about people different from them. So, I believe that the more we can have visibility, the more we can combat that ignorance and that fear and for people who have the safety and privilege to do that, I think it can make a difference. They can change hearts and minds.

Lets take a look back at some moments during the past decade that aimed to do just that.

"The last decade has seen a tremendous increase in visibility for people who are transgender, and media representations are starting to portray trans people in more real and authentic ways, Adams says. Growing cultural awareness about people who are trans has also sparked more conversations among non-trans people about the rigid and outdated gender-based expectations that affect all of us.

Billy Porter attends the 91st Annual Academy Awards. (Photo: Dan MacMedan/Getty Images)

Some of those conversations have come out of basic yet groundbreaking moments whenTide featured a stay-at-home dadin a 2011 commercial, for example, and whenTarget announcedin 2015 that it would eliminate separate boys and girls sections for toys and bedding. Those seemingly tame moments caused both celebration and outrage over the collective message: The time for gender stereotypes had come to an end.

Those gave way to bigger, bolder milestones in gender fluidity such asBilly Porter wearing a gownon the 2019 Oscars red carpet, and Jonathan Van Ness (who would soon announce he was nonbinary) making a similar moveat the 2019 Emmy Awards.

Actor Asia Kate Dillon. (Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Back in 2015, Miley Cyrus noted that she does not relate to being boy or girl, whileAmandla Stenberg opted for they/themsingular pronouns in 2016, and nonbinary actorAsia Kate Dillonmade history on Billions. Later that same year,Jill Soloway, creator of the groundbreaking Transparent series, came out as nonbinary and embraced the singular they, followed bySam Smithin 2019. Its no wonder Merriam-Websterdeclared theyits word of the year.

The transgender milestone moments, meanwhile, deserve their own timeline.

In 2010, there were two major moments at the federal government level: President Barack Obama made a high-profile transgender appointment in Washington, D.C., withAmanda Simpson, to the Department of Commerces Bureau of Industry and Security while the State Department made it possible for trans people, no matter what state they lived in and regardless of whether or not theyd had gender reassignment surgery, to change the gender marker on their U.S passports.

Lea Tbecame known as the first transgender supermodel in 2010, while the first of what would soon become a handful of pregnant transgender men to gain notoriety, Thomas Trace Beattie, made it into Guinness World Records in 2010.

Chaz Bono helped to bring transgender men into the public eye. (Photo: Getty Images)

Chaz Bono also brought transgender men into the spotlight in 2011, by releasing the documentary of his transition, Becoming Chaz, and by being cast on Dancing With the Stars. In 2012, TV show Glee introduced its first transgender character, Unique. And the American Psychiatric Association announced that its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) would remove the term, Gender Identity Disorder, replacing it with Gender Dysphoria, assuring that transgender people may no longer be subject to a lifelong default diagnosis of their mental health,noted GLAADat the time.

In 2013, on the eve of her 2013 sentencing for sharing classified military documents with WikiLeaks,Chelsea Manningcame out as a transgender woman. That same year would seeLaverne Coxstarring in Netflixs hit Orange is the New Black and gracingthe cover of Time magazine.

Transparent debuted on Amazon in 2014 and also that same year,Katie Couric had a public learning momentthat helped observers, too: During an interview with Cox and transgender model Carmen Carrera on her daytime talk show, Couric asked a question about the state of Carreras genitalia, and was promptly schooled by Cox about that being too invasive. Couric later apologized and admitted shed learned a valuable lesson.

That was one of the most important moments in the last decade, Adams says. All of journalism woke up and went, Oh my god, were not supposed to be asking trans people about their genitals?

But 2014 ended with the widely covered, heartbreaking suicide of Ohio transgender teenLeelah Alcorn, which educated people worldwide on the importance of empathetic parents. Her suicide note on Tumblr read, [My mom] told me that I am wrong. ... If you are reading this, parents, please dont tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people dont ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That wont do anything but make them hate them self. Thats exactly what it did to me.

Former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning speaks to the press before a Grand Jury appearance. (Photo: Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner brought a new level of celebrity to being trans first by coming out as a transgender woman on a 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer that pulled in a whopping17.1 million viewers, and then by appearing in a white corset on the cover ofVanity Fair and kicking off her reality show, I Am Cait, on the E! network.

A backlash in the form of some politicians using scare tactics to prevent trans people from using the bathroom matching their gender identity went full steam ahead in places around the country, with North Carolina signingHB2, or the bathroom bill,into law in 2016. It required everyone to use the bathroom corresponding with the sex they were originally assigned, but the nationwide protest was so intense that the bill was repealed in 2017.

Also in 2017, transgender activistAshlee Marie Prestoncalled Caitlyn Jenner a "fraud" in a video that went viral, bringing awareness to the vast diversity of opinions within the trans community. That year also saw greater visibility in terms of trans actors:A Fantastic Woman, starring transgender Chilean actress Daniela Vega, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The groundbreakingTV series Pose featuring the largest cast ever of transgender actors in scripted roles and written by trans activist Janet Mock debuted on FX in 2018, fictionalizing the queer ballroom culture of the 80s and 90s that was first brought to light by the documentary Paris Is Burning, whileSupergirl season 4starred actress Nicole Maines as TVs first trans superhero, Nia Nal.

While Pose was bringing acceptance, visibility and fame to so many, however, the rate of murders of trans women, particularly black trans women, was climbing, sparking protests and vigils in cities across the country. Thecollective grief was oddly juxtaposedwith the excitement of Pride Month and the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in June.

As Adams says today, We still have a long way to go before people can be true to themselves without fear of discrimination and violence.

Still, in spite of the continuing threat against trans people, Jazz says she remains ever faithful to the power of representation. I definitely think visibility has a lot of value, she says. I think the more people hear about transgender individuals, the more they can be open to accepting us for who we are. And I just think it needs to continue.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us onInstagram,FacebookandTwitterfor nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

See the original post here:
Jazz Jennings, Chaz Bono and Caitlyn Jenner: How the last decade changed the way we see gender - Yahoo Lifestyle

In order to evaluate the claims of massive human rights violations of the Uyghurs, an ethnic and religious minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, it is important to know a few facts.

Xinjiang Province in the far western region of China is an arid, mountainous and still largely underdeveloped region. Xinjiang has significant oil and mineral reserves and is currently Chinas largest natural-gas-producing region.

It is home to a number of diverse ethnic groups, including Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetans, Tajiks, Hui and Han peoples.

Xinjiang borders five Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, where more than 1 million U.S. troops and even more mercenaries, contractors and secret agents have operated over four decades in an endless U.S. war.

What is happening in Xinjiang today must be seen in the context of what has been happening throughout Central Asia.

Xinjiang is a major logistics center for Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Xinjiang is the gateway to Central and West Asia, as well as to European markets.

The Southern Xinjiang Railway runs to the city of Kashgar in Chinas far west where it is now connected to Pakistans rail network under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a project of the BRI.

The U.S. government is deeply hostile to this vast economic development project and is doing all it can to sabotage Chinas plans. This campaign is part of the U.S. militarys Pivot to Asia, along with naval threats in the South China Sea and support for separatist movements in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet.

Map features Central Asia and China, including Xinjiang.

No U.N. report on Xinjiang

The U.S. and its corporate media charge that the Chinese government has rounded up 1 million people, mainly Uyghurs, into concentration camps. News reports cite the United Nations as their source.

This was disputed in a detailed investigative report by Ben Norton and Ajit Singh titled, No, the UN did not report China has massive internment camps for Uighur Muslims. (The Grayzone.com, Aug. 23, 2018) They expose how this widely publicized claim is based entirely on unsourced allegations by a single U.S. member, Gay McDougall, on an independent committee with an official sounding name: U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed that no U.N. body or official has made such a charge against China.

CIA/NED-funded human rights

After this fraudulent news story received wide coverage, it was followed by reports from the Washington-based Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. This group receives most of its funds from U.S. government grants, primarily from the CIA-linked National Endowment for Democracy, a major source of funding for U.S. regime change operations around the world.

The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders shares the same Washington address as Human Rights Watch. The HRW has been a major source of attacks on governments targeted by the U.S., such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Syria and China. The network has long called for sanctions against China.

The CHRDs sources include Radio Free Asia, a news agency funded for decades by the U.S. government. The World Uighur Congress, another source of sensationalized reports, is also funded by NED. The same U.S. government funding is behind the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation and the Uyghur American Association.

The authors of the Grayzone article cite years of detailed IRS filing forms to back up their claim. They list millions of dollars in generous government funding to generate false reports.

This whole network of supposedly impartial civil society groups, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks and news sources operates under the cover of human rights to promote sanctions and war.

CIA-funded terror

Central Asia has experienced the worst forms of U.S. military power.

Beginning in 1979, the CIA, operating with the ISI Pakistani Intelligence Service and Saudi money, funded and equipped reactionary Mujahedeen forces in Afghanistan to bring down a revolutionary government there. The U.S. cultivated and promoted extreme religious fanaticism, based in Saudi Arabia, against progressive secular regimes in the region. This reactionary force was also weaponized against the Soviet Union and an anti-imperialist Islamic current represented by the Iranian Revolution.

For four decades, the CIA and secret Pakistan ISI forces in Afghanistan sought to recruit and train Uyghur mercenaries, planning to use them as a future terror force in China. Chechnyans from Russias Caucasus region were recruited for the same reason. Both groups were funneled into Syria in the U.S. regime-change operation there. These fanatical religious forces, along with other small ethnic groups, formed the backbone of the Islamic State group (IS) and Al-Qaida.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center bombing, the very forces that U.S. secret operations had helped to create became the enemy.

Uyghurs from Xinjiang were among the Al-Qaida prisoners captured in Afghanistan and held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo for years without charges. Legal appeals exposed that the Uyghur prisoners were being held there under some of the worst conditions in solitary confinement.

U.S. wars dislocate region

The U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the massive U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 created shockwaves of dislocation. Social progress, education, health care and infrastructure were destroyed. Sectarian and ethnic division was encouraged to divide opposition to U.S. occupations. Despite promises of great progress, the U.S. occupations sowed only destruction.

In this long war, U.S. prisons in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq were notorious. The CIA used enhanced interrogation techniques torture and secret rendition to Guantanamo, Bagram and the Salt Pit in Afghanistan. These secret prisons have since been the source of many legal suits.

According to U.N. investigations, by 2010 the U.S. held more than 27,000 prisoners in over 100 secret facilities around the world. Searing images and reports of systematic torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram airbase in Afghanistan surfaced.

Exposing coverup of war crimes

In July 2010 WikiLeaks published more than 75,000 classified U.S./NATO reports on the war in Afghanistan.

In October of that year, a massive leak of 400,000 military videos, photos and documents exposed, in harrowing detai,l torture, summary executions and other war crimes. Army intelligence analyst former Private Chelsea Manning released this damning material to WikiLeaks.

Based on the leaked documents, the U.N. chief investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, called on U.S. President Barack Obama to order a full investigation of these crimes, including abuse, torture, rape and murder committed against the Iraqi people following the U.S. invasion and occupation.

The leaked reports provided documentary proof of 109,000 deaths including 66,000 civilians. This is seldom mentioned in the media, in contrast to the highly publicized and unsourced charges now raised against China.

Prosecuting whistle blowers

The CIAs National Endowment for Democracy pays handsomely for unsourced documents making claims of torture against China, while those who provided documentary proof of U.S. torture have been treated as criminals.

John Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA between 1990 and 2004 and confirmed widespread use of systematic torture, was prosecuted by the Obama administration for revealing classified information and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Chelsea Mannings release of tens of thousands of government documents confirming torture and abuse, in addition to horrific photos of mass killings, have led to her continued incarceration. Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is imprisoned in Britain and faces deportation to the U.S. for his role in disseminating these documents.

Rewriting history

How much of the coverage of Xinjiang is intended to deflect world attention from the continuing crimes of U.S. wars from Afghanistan to Syria?

In 2014 a Senate CIA Torture Report confirmed that a torture program, called Detention and Interrogation Program, had been approved by top U.S. officials. Only a 525-page Executive Summary of its 6,000 pages was released, but it was enough to confirm that the CIA program was far more brutal and extensive than had previously been released.

Mercenaries flood into Syria

The U.S. regime-change effort to overturn the government of Syria funneled more than 100,000 foreign mercenaries and fanatical religious forces into the war. They were well-equipped with advanced weapons, military gear, provisions and paychecks.

One-third of the Syrian population was uprooted in the war. Millions of refugees flooded into Europe and neighboring countries.

Beginning in 2013, thousands of Uyghur fighters were smuggled into Syria to train with the extremist Uyghur group known as the Turkistan Islamic Party. Fighting alongside Al-Qaida and Al-Nusra terror units, these forces played key roles in several battles.

Reuters, Associated Press and Newsweek all reported that up to 5,000 Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs from Xinjiang were fighting in various militant groups in Syria.

According to Syrian media, a transplanted Uyghur colony transformed the city of al Zanbaka (on the Turkish border) into an entrenched camp of 18,000 people. Many of the Uyghur fighters were smuggled to the Turkish-Syrian border area with their families. Speaking Turkish, rather than Chinese, they relied on the support of the Turkish secret services.

China follows a different path

China is determined to follow a different path in dealing with fanatical groups that are weaponized by religious extremism. Chinas action comes after terror attacks and explosives have killed hundreds of civilians in busy shopping areas and crowded train and bus stations since the 1990s.

China has dealt with the problem of religious extremism by setting up large-scale vocational education and training centers. Rather than creating worse underdevelopment through bombing campaigns, it is seeking to engage the population in education, skill development and rapid economic and infrastructure development.

Terrorist attacks in Xinjiang have stopped since the reeducation campaigns began in 2017.

Two worldviews of Xinjiang

In July of this year, 22 countries, most in Europe plus Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, sent a letter to the U.N. Human Rights Council criticizing China for mass arbitrary detentions and other violations against Muslims in Chinas Xinjiang region. The statement did not include a single signature from a Muslim-majority state.

Days later, a far larger group of 34 countries now expanded to 54 from Asia, Africa and Latin America submitted a letter in defense of Chinas policies. These countries expressed their firm support of Chinas counterterrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang.

More than a dozen member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the U.N. signed the statement.

A further statement on Oct. 31 to the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly explained that a number of diplomats, international organizations, officials and journalists had traveled to Xinjiang to witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of counterterrorism and deradicalization.

What they saw and heard in Xinjiang completely contradicted what was reported in the [Western] media, said the statement.

Go here to see the original:
Behind the U.S. anti-China campaign - Workers World