Daily Archives: August 6, 2023

When it comes to the Republican primaries, attacks on wokeness may be losing their punch.

For Republican candidates, no word has hijacked political discourse quite like woke, a term few can define but many have used to capture what they see as left-wing views on race, gender and sexuality that have strayed far beyond the norms of American society.

Gov. Ron DeSantis last year used the word five times in 19 seconds, substituting woke for Nazis as he cribbed from Winston Churchills famous vow to battle a threatened German invasion in 1940. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, speaks of a woke self-loathing that has swept the nation. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina found himself backpedaling furiously after declaring that woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy.

The term has become a quick way for candidates to flash their conservative credentials, but battling woke may have less political potency than they think. Though conservative voters might be irked at modern liberalism, successive New York Times/Siena College polls of Republican voters nationally and then in Iowa found that candidates were unlikely to win votes by narrowly focusing on rooting out left-wing ideology in schools, media, culture and business.

Instead, Republican voters are showing a hands off libertarian streak in economics, and a clear preference for messages about law and order in the nations cities and at its borders.

The findings hint why Mr. DeSantis, who has made his battles with woke schools and corporations central to his campaign, is struggling and again show off Mr. Trumps keen understanding of part of the Republican electorate. Campaigning in Iowa in June, Mr. Trump was blunt: I dont like the term woke, he said, adding, Its just a term they use half the people cant even define it, they dont know what it is.

It was clearly a jab at Mr. DeSantis, but the Timess polls suggest Mr. Trump may be right. Social issues like gay rights and once-obscure jargon like woke may not be having the effect many Republicans had hoped

Your idea of wokeism might be different from mine, explained Christopher Boyer, a 63-year-old Republican actor in Hagerstown, Md., who retired from a successful career in Hollywood where he said he saw his share of political correctness and liberal group think. Mr. Boyer said he didnt like holding his tongue about his views on transgender athletes, but, he added, he does not want politicians to intervene. I am a laissez-faire capitalist: Let the pocketbook decide, he said.

When presented with the choice between two hypothetical Republican candidates, only 24 percent of national Republican voters opted for a a candidate who focuses on defeating radical woke ideology in our schools, media and culture over a candidate who focuses on restoring law and order in our streets and at the border.

Around 65 percent said they would choose the law and order candidate.

Among those 65 and older, often the most likely age bracket to vote, only 17 percent signed on to the anti-woke crusade. Those numbers were nearly identical in Iowa, where the first ballots for the Republican nominee will be cast on Jan. 15.

Mr. DeSantiss famous fight against the Walt Disney Company over what he saw as the corporations liberal agenda exemplified the kind of economic warfare that seems to fare only modestly better. About 38 percent of Republican voters said they would back a candidate who promised to fight corporations that promote woke left ideology, versus the 52 percent who preferred a candidate who says that the government should stay out of deciding what corporations should support.

Christy Boyd, 55, in Ligonier, Pa., made it clear she was no fan of the culture of tolerance that she said pervaded her region around Pittsburgh. As the perfect distillation of woke ideology, she mentioned time blindness, a phrase she views as simply an excuse for perpetual tardiness.

But such aggravations do not drive her political desires.

If you dont like what Bud Light did, dont buy it, she added, referring to the brands hiring of a transgender influencer, which contributed to a sharp drop in sales. If you dont like what Disney is doing, dont go. Thats not the governments responsibility.

Indeed, some Republican voters seemed to feel pandered to by candidates like Mr. DeSantis and the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, whose book Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate Americas Social Justice Scam, launched his political career.

Lynda Croft, 82, said she was watching a rise in murders in her hometown Winston-Salem, N.C., and that has her scared. Overly liberal policies in culture and schools will course-correct on their own, she said.

If anyone actually believes in woke ideology, they are not in tune with the rest of society, she said, and parents will step in to deal with that.

In an interview, Mr. Ramaswamy said the evolving views of the electorate were important, and he had adapted to them. Woke corporate governance and school systems are a symptom of what he calls a deeper void in a society that needs a religious and nationalist renewal. The stickers that read Stop Wokeism. Vote Vivek are gone from his campaign stops, he said, replaced by hats that read Truth.

At the time I came to be focused on this issue, no one knew what the word was, he said. Now that they have caught up, the puck has moved. Its in my rearview mirror as well.

Law and order and border security have become stand-ins for fortitude, he said, and that is clearly what Republican voters are craving.

(The day after the interview, the Ramaswamy campaign blasted out a fund-raising appeal entitled Wokeness killing the American Dream.)

DeSantis campaign officials emphasized that the governor in recent days had laid out policies on border security, the military and the economy. Foreign policy is coming, they say. But they also pointed to an interview on Fox News in which Mr. DeSantis did not back away from his social-policy focus.

Along with several other Republican-led states, Florida passed a string of laws restricting what G.O.P. lawmakers considered evidence of wokeness, such as gender transition care for minors and diversity initiatives. Mr. DeSantis handily won re-election in November.

I totally reject, being in Iowa, New Hampshire, that people dont think those are important, he said of his social policy fights. These families with children are thanking me for taking stands in Florida.

For candidates trying to break Mr. Trumps hold on a Republican electorate that sees the former president as the embodiment of strength, the problem may be broader than ditching the term woke.

As it turns out, social issues like gender, race and sexuality are politically complicated and may be less dominant than Mr. Trumps rivals thought. The fact that Mr. Trump has been indicted three times and found legally liable for sexual abuse has not hurt him. Only 37 percent of Republican voters nationally described Mr. Trump as more moral than Mr. DeSantis (45 percent sided with Mr. DeSantis on the personality trait), yet in a head-to-head matchup between the two candidates, national Republican voters backed Mr. Trump by 31 percentage points, 62 percent to 31 percent.

The Times/Siena poll did find real reluctance among Republican voters to accept transgender people. Only 30 percent said society should accept transgender people as the gender they identify with, compared with 58 percent who said society should not accept such identities.

But half of Republican voters still support the right of gay and lesbian people to marry, against the 41 percent who oppose same-sex marriage. Fifty-one percent of Republican voters said they would choose a candidate promising to protect individual freedom over one guarding traditional values. The traditional values candidate would be the choice of 40 percent of Republicans.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, responded simply: Americans want to return to a prosperous nation, and theres only one person who can do that President Trump.

Mr. Boyer, who played Robert E. Lee in Steven Spielbergs Lincoln, bristled at having to make a choice: Its hardly an either-or: Why wouldnt I want someone to fight for law and order and against this corrupt infiltration in our school systems? he asked.

But given a choice, he said, the primary job of government is the protection of our country and theres a tangible failure of that at our border.

Read more here:

Republican Attacks on Woke Ideology Falling Flat With G.O.P. Voters - The New York Times

CHICAGO Nearly 16,000 librarians from public, school, prison and military-base libraries, along with publishers, authors and vendors, gathered here at the McCormick Place June 22-27 for the American Library Association conference. The gathering took place amid increased attacks on constitutional rights, rewrites of well-known authors whose views clash with todays politically correct inquisition, and bans on books from various political forces.

As part of the conference, volunteers staffed a large Pathfinder Press booth in the exhibit hall, featuring works in several languages by Socialist Workers Party leaders and other working-class revolutionaries worldwide. The booth was a nonstop center of discussion on an array of topics, including the need for unions, womens emancipation, racism, antisemitism and the example of the Cuban Revolution.

Many were interested in Spanish-language titles, saying they wanted to expand their libraries Spanish collections.

Volunteers introduced participants to Pathfinders newest title, The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward by SWP leaders Jack Barnes, Mary-Alice Waters and Steve Clark. Many participants pointed to the opening sentence on the stakes for the working class in defending and using constitutional freedoms, and discussed the dangers in the Democrats unrelenting drive to criminalize political disputes, targeting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump along with his supporters. Others were drawn to the discussion in the book on the labor movement, saying they were union members or involved in unionization efforts at their libraries.

An important component of the ALA gathering was the organizations campaign against censorship of reading material and of library collections. There were many presentations on this issue, including in the opening session where the featured speaker was well-known childrens author Judy Blume. Her popular fiction, which addresses issues faced by adolescent girls, has been the target of censorship efforts for decades.

The ALA campaign focused almost entirely on titles challenged by forces aligned with former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. But the fact is, many working-class parents are genuinely concerned about what their children are being taught in the schools, which is increasingly saturated with woke political indoctrination and sexually explicit material, all the way down to kindergarten. They demand a say in their childrens education, which has less and less to do with learning to read, write, do mathematics and understand history and the physical world.

Little was said at the ALA event about liberal cancel culture, which seeks to ban books, authors and public speakers and others who do not bow to political correctness. Conference organizers set up a banned books display that included none of the works by William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, J.K. Rowling, and others targeted as racist, offensive, or, as a recent bill before the California legislature put it, lacking inclusive and diverse perspectives. No objection was raised against increasing efforts to strip or rewrite books that some claim use upsetting words.

Along with Blume, the opening session of the conference featured Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who campaigned for a law that would pull state funds from libraries that selectively remove books. Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in signing the bill slandered its opponents as racists, claiming its purpose is to prevent white nationalism from determining whose histories are told.

As in years past, the ALA conference was an important forum for librarians involved with prisons and jails to discuss their work. Pathfinder volunteers Mark Severs and Jim Rogers participated in many of these meetings, showing prison librarians Pathfinder books. A Maryland librarian told one of the panels, I would like to thank our friends from Pathfinder for the work that they do. Some came to the Pathfinder booth, buying books and arranging to be contacted after the conference.

Among the hundreds of panels and other activities, some dealt with current political developments. Two panels addressed Russias war against Ukraine and Moscows attacks on libraries and culture. Also addressed were expanding library services to non-English speakers and people with visual impairments.

Pathfinder volunteers introduced Abram Leons The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation to participants, including at a reception of the Association of Jewish Librarians. Six people bought copies, and others signed up to be contacted later.

Sales of Pathfinder books at the booth were significantly higher than at previous ALA conferences. A total of 129 books were sold, along with 19 subscriptions to the Militant. Top-sellers included The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us; Womens Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara; The Jewish Question; and Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution by Cuban revolutionary leaders Vilma Espn, Asela de los Santos and Yolanda Ferrer. One person bought Farrell Dobbs four-volume series on the Teamsters union movement in the 1930s.

Pathfinder volunteers across the country have begun to call the over 100 people who signed up to be contacted. Two young women invited Pathfinder to a librarians conference in Indiana this fall. And as a librarian in the Bay Area told volunteer Jim Altenberg, I really appreciate you following up. I was very impressed by your collection.

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Discussions on unions, politics mark librarians' conference The ... - The Militant

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Isaiah 40:18, Isaiah 40:22-23

What ought to be the Christians relationship to authority?

On the one hand, we ought not to despise human authority because we recognize that God is behind its establishment. We would have to remove large portions of Scripture to come close to the idea that the Bible is a revolutionary tract undermining rulers. Yet, on the other hand, we also understand that no human authority has ultimate or permanent authority. God ordains the rise of leaders and He also orchestrates their demise. No matter how powerful they seem in a moment, for a season, or even during a lifetime, within a relatively short time their power will be gone and in almost every case the world will remember them no more.

We must remember whom we ultimately servethe sovereign God to whom all other rulers are grasshoppers. Therefore, when the authority of man seeks to oppose the authority of God, we are to ask, along with the apostles, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to [rulers] rather than to God (Acts 4:19)and we are to answer as they did.

In Acts 4, the apostles spend a night in prison after healing a lame man. When they are released, they gather with the other believers and regain true perspective by remembering that they serve the sovereign Lord, the Creator of the earth, sea, and everything in it (Acts 4:24-26). Applying this truth, they then recognize that though they are under subjugation by the Roman authorities and facing the persecution of the Jewish religious establishment, these leaders are only doing what Gods hand and plan had predestined to take place (v 28), while they have been commissioned to preach the good news to the ends of the earth by the ascended King, Jesus Himself. With that perspective, they continue to share the gospel boldly and openly.

Can the same be said of us in our age? Will we obey God and share Christ even if those who wield earthly power over us are commanding us to silence or compromise?

What is it that silences us? One answer is surely how quick we are to forget that God is sovereign and that the nations and rulers of the world are under His authority. Having forgotten that, we succumb to a political correctness which makes us increasingly fearful of telling anybody that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. So, have you lost sight of Jesus kingly rule and reign? Do those who are ultimately grasshoppers to your Lord loom too large in your view of who to listen to and how to live? Then join the early believers in remembering, recognizing, and proclaiming the truths that God is the incomparable Creator of everything and that ultimate authority belongs to Him.

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Serving the Sovereign - Magnolia Tribune

Texas A&M University will be paying Kathleen McElroy $1 million as part of legal settlement over the universitys botched efforts at trying to hire her, and then trying to not hire her.

The New York Times reports: Texas A&M University acknowledged on Thursday that top university officials, fearing criticism from conservatives, had made significant mistakes' in the process. See here and here for further details.

Among those top university officials was the then-interim dean of Texas A&Ms College of Arts and Sciences, philosopher Jos Luis Bermdez. He has since stepped down from that position.

Bermdez had been communicating with McElroy during the process, discussing with her the successively less attractive job offers the university extended to her and the political pushback over her hiring, owing to conservative political correctness. He appeared to be playing the role of ally to McElroy while serving as an agent of M. Katherine Banks, the university president at the time, who was trying to engineer ways for the university to back away from its offer to hire her.

In general, it isnt unusual for university employees or officials to occupy this kind of dual role during a hiring: keeping the candidate happy while pursuing the interests of the employer. But the specifics of this case have led to criticisms of the former dean and former president.

TheChronicle of Higher Educationyesterday reported on the communications between Bermdez and Banks, sharing the record of their text messages. Their exchanges are reposted below:

Obviously there is room for criticism here, but I think it is important to also note that this case illustrates, among other things, the difficult position public university administrators are put in when intense political pressures are brought to bear on their decisions, and when they must act under the heightened threat of interference from legislators and other political powers.

(Thanks to Joseph Shieber for the pointer to theCHEpiece.)

UPDATE (8/5/23): A new article atThe Chronicledetails some of the external pressures referred to in the last paragraph of the original post, above. For example:

On June 16, Jay Graham, a member of the Board of Regents, texted Banks and John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M system.

He said hed seen the news about McElroys hiring and hoped it wasnt true. But since it is not April Fools Day, I assume it is, he wrote.

I thought the purpose of us starting a journalism department was to get high-quality Aggie journalist [sic] with conservative values into the market, he wrote. This wont happen with someone like this leading the department.

Michael V. Hernandez, another regent, put it bluntly in an email to Banks and Sharp a few days later: Granting tenure to somebody with this background is going to be a difficult sell for many on the BOR. Hernandez wrote that he saw the selection of McElroy, who had built her career in New York City and Austin, Tex., as exactly the opposite of what we had in mind for someone in that position.

As it turns out, McElroy wasnt just a tough sell for the board. Two outside alumni groups the Sul Ross Group and the Rudder Association, both of which have many conservative members were gunning for her too, Bermdez said in a July 8 text to Blanton.

They have no power of course, he wrote. But people who do have power listen to them.

Related: Texas A&M professor prepares to bike coast-to-coast to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity

Continue reading here:

A Philosophers Role in the Texas A&M Debacle (updated) - Daily Nous

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 5, 2023

By Mike London mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS South Rowan head football coach Chris Walsh was out walking the dog when a lady spied his Raider T-shirt and let him know South had zero chance of beating her A.L. Brown Wonders.

She wasnt worried about being diplomatic. She wasnt worried about political correctness. She said what was on her mind.

Were playing yall this year and yall are gonna get beat, she told Walsh cheerfully.

Im sure she had no idea who I was, but she saw my shirt, so she had to say something, Walsh said with a laugh. Its all cool. It let me know theres interest out there in the community. People are jazzed about having a new head football coach in Kannapolis (Justin Hardin). People are jazzed about South Rowan and A.L. Brown playing each other again in football. A.L. Brown has a good football team every year, but thats OK. We play a lot of good football teams. This is a game that means a lot to the community, and we should play em. We need to play em.

The game is scheduled for Sept. 8. You never know. South may be 2-0 (plus one open date) when that meeting occurs.

The schools, neighbors who are 6.6 miles apart, havent met in a regular season game since 2016. The score of that 2016 encounter Wonders 65, Raiders 7 tells you why they havent met lately. It was hard to call it a rivalry at that point. It was getting hard to call it a good way to spend a Friday night.

But there was a time when the South-A.L. Brown game was big in Kannapolis and there was a time when the game meant everything to South Rowan. Back in the early 1980s, the programs actually played three straight overtime games. They both were really good.

Those games were classic battles between the sons of men and women who worked together in the mills, attended the same churches and ran into each at the barber shops, beauty parlors and restaurants.

There are football fans in Landis, China Grove and Enochville who cant name the first three presidents of the United States, but they can tell you the scores of all eight games over the years in which South, almost always the underdog, managed to knock off the Wonders.

Except for me and Coach (Dean) Mullinax, who went to A.L. Brown, the guys on our coaching staff now are South graduates and they have their great memories from those games, Walsh said. Our young guys have watched film of past South-A.L. Brown games. Their eyes get big when they see how many people are in the crowd. How could you not want to play in high school football games like that?

When Walsh was hired in May 2021, he asked what he could do to help the Raiders re-connect with the fan base. The suggestions he heard most frequently were a return to the traditional South helmet and getting the Wonders back on the schedule.

The helmet we were able to handle right away, Walsh said. The schedule took a little longer, but now that game is back.

Walsh describes himself as an eternal optimist, but when he took command at South, he promised no quick solutions, just sweat and blood and a gradual growing process. South went 1-9 in 2021. South went 1-9 again in 2022.

When Walsh was a first-year coach at South, he was joined by a strong freshman class that Raider fans pinned their future hopes on.

A few members of the Class of 2025 took their lumps as varsity freshmen. Quite a few more learned the ropes as varsity sophomores.

Now they are all on the varsity squad as juniors. That one big class accounts for more than 40 percent of the players in Souths program.

Juniors are older, wiser, bigger and stronger than sophomores. So theres not much doubt South will be better than it was in 2021 and 2022. How much better remains to be seen, but there are reasons to believe things are going in the right direction.

We have a color-coded depth chart on the wall, with green for seniors, yellow for juniors, red for sophomores, Walsh said. Last year, the board was just about all red. Now its yellow and green. Practice has been awesome so far, and I do believe that what were doing is working. The coaches are excited. The players are excited. I realize that outside the program expectations for South may not be high and I know well be picked to finish well down in the conference race. But we have guys now who have won football games. Theyve won middle school games and theyve won jayvee games. They expect to win varsity games, and were going to hold them to a high standard and high expectations.

Whats happened to South football?

For one thing, Carson opened five miles away in 2006, fragmenting the southern Rowan talent pool.

Over the last 13 seasons, South is 22-113 in football, winning roughly one of every six games. Ten of those 22 wins came in the four years that South played in the 2A Central Carolina Conference. There were a few nights in the CCC where South had the athletic advantage, but there havent been any of those nights in the SPC.

Walsh knows what the record books says. He has become a student of South football history since he was hired. He knows that winning three or four games this season would be a significant breakthrough. He knows South hasnt won more than three in a season since it won nine in 2009.

How many games we will win, I dont know, Walsh said. I do know well be improved. I do know well be more competitive. We should be in more games and we should have a chance to win more games. But we play in a league (3A South Piedmont Conference) that is a very underrated football conference, and now you add a very strong Robinson team to that league. There are no easy teams in the SPC.

Walsh said Souths football numbers are in the low 70s, which is a reasonable turnout for a school expected to have about 930 students. Not counting Lake Norman Charter, which doesnt compete in SPC football, South and Concord will be the SPCs smallest schools. While it is moving up from the 2A ranks by request, Robinson will fall in the middle of the SPC as far as student population. Central Cabarrus is the largest SPC school, by quite a bit.

Walsh will have an experienced quarterback, which is critical.

A year ago at this time, Brooks Overcash was coming off a devastating injury and competing for a varsity position. Now Overcash is entrenched as Souths starting QB as he heads into his junior year. He had a scintillating finish to the 2022 season, throwing for 294 yards and 295 yards the last two weeks. He broke a long-standing school record for passing yards in a game. Then he broke his own record.

At the start of last season Brooks was understandably nervous, Walsh said. But theres been a growing process, and he puts in the work. Now hes gotten a lot stronger and hes got the arm to get the ball down the field. He ran track but he still got in some football throws in the spring. Hes confident. He knows hes our guy. Hell be asked to lead the offense.

Also keep an eye on the Richards brothers.

Senior Landon Richards will be the Raiders top running back. Junior Conner Richards will be the middle linebacker.

Conner is a stocky kid who likes contact, Walsh said. He could make 100 tackles. Hes a tough, old-school linebacker. We like to say that if he had another 6 inches, hed be Brian Urlacher.

Richards will be a leader for the defense, which is being guided by coordinator Ronnie Riddle. Defensive assistants include Andrew Deal and Mullinax.

Coach Mullinax is our ROTC teacher and Coach Deal is chief of police, Walsh said. Our defense will have some toughness.

Deals late father, Larry, was Souths head coach for many winning seasons in the 1980s and 1990s, including a school-record 11 wins in 1983.

Only time will tell if the Raiders can ever recapture glory days like that, but Walsh is giving it his best shot.

South will scrimmage North Rowan in the Rowan County Jamboree at Carson at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 11.

South will host Monroes Union Academy on opening night. on Aug. 18.

Our first two games are against Union Academy and South Stanly, Walsh said. Sometimes its good to break the mold and go out and play teams that your kids know nothing about. They play enough games against schools where they know every guys name and number.

Season previews for all the Rowan County schools and A.L. Brown will be coming up in the Post as opening night approaches.

Originally posted here:

High school football: Walsh confident South is making progress ... - Salisbury Post

Let me dispense with any political correctness and say it loud and clearly that, any attempt to invade Niger Republic by a Nigerian led ECOWAS Army in the guise of safeguarding democracy, will be a declaration of war on northern Nigeria and its people because we are the ones that will bear the full brunt of this misguided war. We in the region will not support any act of unprovoked aggression against Niger Republic under any pretense.

We in the north are tired of wars, we have been at war with Boko Haram for 14 years and for 9 years with Bandits and kidnappers. Thousands of our people continue to be killed and kidnapped while millions have been displaced from their ancestral homes, including the 300,000 that have sought refuge as IDPs in Niger Republic. Our economy, education, infrastructure and social fabrique have all been devastated. How can we support any foreign war when our house is on fire?

At a time when Nigeria is facing the worst insecurity of our lifetime with nauseating corruption, bad governance, youth unemployment and drug abuse, discontent of the citizenry, excruciating poverty brought about by chaotic economic policies, a military invasion of Niger Republic will be reckless with grave consequences beyond the subregion.

Instead of starting a new war, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should channel all his energy on finding ways to stop the bloodshed in our land by ending the wars on Boko Haram and Banditry as soon as possible, reconcile warring communities, resettle all IDPs and rebuild our communities and the regions economy.

Niger Republic is a landlocked country with a total area of 1,267,000 km. Northern Nigeria shares with it a vast 1,100km long border stretching along Nigerias entire Northwesterly to the Northeasterly border. The seven northern states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, and Borno share a common religious, cultural and ethnic (Zabarmawas, Hausas, Fulanis and Kanuris) heritage with their kinsmen in Niger.

The conditions that led to the recent pandemic of military coups in the ECOWAS subregion are unfortunately present in all 15 member countries. Military coups though unacceptable and retrogressive, will continue to be a looming danger to democratic governments in the region as long as the political class continue to ignore the sufferings of their people and keep on perpetuating corruption, bad governance, flawed electoral processes, impunity that push their people deeper into poverty, hopelessness and worsening insecurity.

The Coup in Niger resulted from ethnic and geopolitical power play. The ethnic dimension is that the Zabarmawas (Zarmas) who are the second largest ethnic group (22%) after the Hausas (53%), have always dominated the military and power since independence in 1960. Military coups mostly happen each time anyone from the other ethnic groups (Hausa, Fulani, Touareg or Arab) are in power. Mohammed Bazoum is an Arab ethnic group (0.4%).

Resource control and proxy war between Russia and NATO are the geopolitical factors that are in play here. Niger is the world's seventh-biggest producer of uranium which is widely used for nuclear energy radiation, cancer therapy and in nuclear weapons.

In spite of its rich mineral resources, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world, it has been plagued by recurrent droughts, worsening climate change and the presence of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. France has been exploiting the countrys rich mineral resources with little or no benefit to the country or its people.

Another natural resource in play is Nigerian Gas which is to be transported through the Trans Sahara Gas pipeline from Warri, Nigeria, and end in Hassi RMel, Algeria, where it would connect to existing pipelines leading to Europe. Europe sees this project as a potential opportunity to diversify its gas sources as Russias war in Ukraine continues.

America and its NATO partners are unsettled by Russias inroad into Africa through the Wagner Group which is already deployed to African countries like Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Central African Republic, and Mali, focusing principally on protecting the ruling elites and critical infrastructures. As payment, Wagners boss Prigozhin receives exclusive rights to mining minerals such as Gold.

The ECOWAS has literally declared war on Niger Republic by imposing biting economic sanctions on a country heavily dependent on foreign aid, it has ordered closure of borders with member states and imposed a no-flight zone hoping to curb the juntas influence and hinder any potential allies from providing aerial support. The junta has also been given a weeks ultimatum starting from July 31, 2022 to vacate power or face military action.

Nigeria has unilaterally terminated the treaty between the 2 countries signed in the 60s for Nigeria to provide electricity to Niger in exchange that it will not obstruct the flow of water to the countrys hydroelectric Dams in Jebba, Kainji. This treaty has ensured that Nigeria supplied 70% Nigers electricity. Today, Niamey, the capital city is in darkness.

While many leaders of African Francophone countries are severing ties with their colonial masters France, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his desperate desire to gain international legitimacy for his government, is blindly dragging Nigeria into the dangerous waters of the proxy war between Russia and NATO without consulting with or seeking the consent of the people or their elected representatives.

SUGGESTIONS

1. ECOWAS should take off the table any threat of military action against Niger Republic because it will not achieve the desired goal.

2. Embark on a sincere, well thought through diplomatic option.

3. Nigeriens should be allowed and supported to decide what they want for themselves.

4. The Military Junta should be pressured to give clear time of transition back to democratic rule as soon as possible.

5. Nigeria should restore electricity supply to Niger Republic in accordance with the bilateral agreement.

6. Foreign Aid which accounts for 40% of Nigers annual budget should be restored to prevent it from falling into Russias embrace.

7. The Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline Project should continue as contractually agreed.

8. ECOWAS should insist on good governance, reduction in corruption and the respect for constituted institutions among member nations.

7. Finally, I call on all men and women of goodwill particularly northern elders, traditional rulers, clerics, academics, the media, elected representatives, Labour organizations, businesses leaders, student unions, women organizations and civil society organizations to say no to Nigeria being dragged into this proxy war between Russia and NATO.

Usman Yusuf is a Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation.

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War On Niger Republic Will Be War On Northern Nigeria, By Prof ... - SaharaReporters.com

Puzzle lovers, rejoice: Reason is now publishing a weekly crossword. The first one is available here.

"Puzzles are having a moment," says Stella Zawistowski, Reason's new crossword constructor. "Just in the last five years, a lot of markets have started to have a crossword for the first time or are expanding their offerings."

Zawistowski is a professional puzzle solver herself and ranks among the world's fastest finishers of crosswords.

"I've been solving puzzles for well over two decades," she says. "A conservative guess is I have solved at least 30,000 crosswords in my lifetime. I do 61 a week."

Her own puzzles have appeared in The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. But Zawistowski has long believed that Reason should run its own puzzles.

"There aren't a lot of puzzles with a pro-capitalism, profree market voice out there," she says.

Indeed, broader debates about political correctness and wokeness-run-amok have not left the crossword world alone. In January 2022, Kotaku noted that "at a time when debates about language anchor political discourse and incorrect pronouns spark vicious attacks, the fact that culture wars are being played out in crossword puzzles makes sense."

"Puzzle debates represent a microcosm of larger cultural conflicts surrounding race, class, and gender," wrote Kotaku. "Questions arise: should dictators appear in crosswords? Serial killers? What about Donald Trump? Or Hitler? Are terms like 'hag' okay?"

An August 2020 article in Time, "The Crossword Revolution Is Upon Us," detailed efforts by crossword editors to make the puzzles more "inclusive."

Choice is one of the blessings of liberty, and people should be free to enjoy whatever crosswords best suit their interests. But now, at last, there's one that caters to the libertarian puzzle solver.

"Until today, there was no such thing as a free marketfocused crossword puzzle," Zawistowski says. "I'm very excited."

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Introducing the Reason Crossword, a Weekly Puzzle for Libertarians - Reason

Clearly, to tolerate, or respect, people is not the same as to tolerate all their attitudes, beliefs and ideas. Its easy to see how the same can be said about conduct: to be tolerant of a person is different from being tolerant of all their behaviours, especially if damaging to others or lawless. Obviously, restraining someone from engaging in a criminal act does not violate any meaningful standard of tolerance.

Yet it has become a norm for politicians, academics and educators alike to accuse others of intolerance due to mere disagreement on a particular subject. When disagreement is definitionally removed as a key component of tolerance, disagreement itself becomes unacceptable. In that case, no idea or thought can ever be confronted, regardless of how graciously, without invoking a charge of civil offence or hate crime. Any difference in views becomes equated to intolerance or even hatred. This is, sadly, a widespread practice.

With a redefinition a near upending of tolerance, the new normal has become to approve of, embrace or even promote potentially anything, without judgment. One can see how this had to happen for relativism to continue on its course. If tolerance means to have respect for people while practicing discernment and moral judgment, this definition has to go to facilitate the relativistic mindset.

Political Correctnessand Onward to Wokism

Since their pompous entry into university classrooms, relativism and tolerance were turned into ideological weapons through the introduction of yet another related concept, a rival of any intellectual discourse, political correctness (PC) and, more recently, an even more radical descendent.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, PC means conformity to prevailing liberal or radical opinion, in particular by carefully avoiding forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. To avoid expressing disagreement is essentially the same as to show tolerance. Hence, PC is akin to tolerance, yet not of anyopinion or behaviour one may disagree with; instead, it is externally imposed tolerance towards a designatedview.

Beckwith and Koukl call PC an offspring of cultural relativism. Indeed, if no culture has any superiority in advancing the knowledge of truth, then all opinions become reduced to what a majority (or, in some instances, a ruling elite or a determined opinion-forming minority) in a given culture perceives as correct/incorrect and just/unjust. In this case truth, including moral truth, becomes subordinate to dominant societal norms, varying from society to society and in some cases within a society.

This is in essence what Barbara Herrnstein-Smith, author of Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory, conveyed by saying, all value is radically contingent, being neither a fixed attribute, an inherent quality, or an objective property of things. Further, there is no knowledge, no standard, no choice that is objectiveEven Homer is a product of a specific culture, and it is possible to imagine cultures in which Homer would not be very interesting. Herrnstein-Smith does not seem to have considered the possibility that a culture which cannot appreciate Homer is deficient in some way, because Homer isnt the problem.

Indeed, if discussion of absolute truth was revolving merely around ones literary preferences, Herrnstein-Smiths statement would not be as horrifying. But imagine it equally applied to societally agreed-upon anti-Semitism, child sacrifice or euthanasia. At the end of the day, moral assessment of these matters, along with all others, is limited to an individual culture, isnt it? Herrnstein-Smith would evidently have agreed.

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From Relativism to Wokism: A Path of Confusion, Fallacy and Self ... - C2C Journal

Heres a question.

Why are the people who complain the loudest about political correctness and the cancel culture among the first to scream when someone disagrees with them or expresses a contrary opinion?

The furor over country singer Jason Aldeans Try That in a Small Town song and video is but the latest example.

Both the tune and the video are a messy mishmash of MAGA-style chest-thumping, assertions of victimhood that somehow are supposed to justify violence and vigilantism. Logically and factually, the song and its pairings in the video with incendiary images make about as much sense as an old Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

The lyrics threaten dire retribution for those who:

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face

Stomp on the flag and light it up

Yeah, ya think youre tough.

If anything, the video is less subtle. Its filled with images from, one presumes, Black Lives Matter protests, intercut with footage of Aldean and his band lip-syncing before a courthouse festooned with a giant American flag.

The courthouse, it turns out, is one from which a Black man was lynched in 1927.

Thats not surprising. The MAGA crowds understanding of history seems to have been gleaned from 1940s comic strips and old movie serials.

Curiously, both the song and the video ignore one high-profile instance of police officers being disrespected, assaulted and attackedthe Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol that escalated quickly into a riot and then an insurrection.

Maybe thats because many of those who ransacked the temple of American democracy were from small townsand embraced the values celebrated in the song and video.

But then, the purpose of the song wasnt to persuade.

It was to inflame.

Which is what it has done.

Country Music Television CMT has pulled the video from its rotation, prompting the easily wounded MAGA crowd to whine that theyre being persecuted. They even say Aldean is being censored.

They arent.

And he isnt.

The people who run CMT have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else. That means they can choose to say what they wish and choose not to say things they dont wish to say.

If theirs was a completely open forum, theyd be playing rap or soul and not limiting their offerings to endless and often nasal celebrations of pickup trucks, lost loves and illusory vanishing lifestyles.

CMT likely made the decision to drop Try That in a Small Town from the playlist because encouraging people to settle political differences by grabbing grandpas gun wouldnt advance the brand or the business plan.

The MAGA mob has responded by yelling they will give CMT the Bud Light treatment.

By that, they mean that theyll punish CMT by trying to hurt its sales and perhaps even drive it out of business. These same MAGA voices were so upset by a rainbow-themed can of beer itself an expression, somewhat like a song that they initiated a national boycott and took to shooting up cases of the brew.

Senses of irony and self-awareness apparently are beyond the capacities of these folks.

Whats dumbfounding about this dustup is its complete disconnection from reality.

No one has suppressed Aldeans noxious earworm. If anything, hes likely to sell more copies because hes made himself the latest poster boy for the ongoing MAGA self-pity party. Hell be able to feel sorry for himself all the way to the bank.

No, the misfortune here is not that a country stars management team figured out a slick hustle to elevate his act from the pack for a moment.

Rather the greater harm is that this song continues and reinforces the slur that people in small towns are simple folk with primitive moral compasses, souls untroubled by racial injustice, gun violence or the travails of others.

The fact is that life in a small town is just as complex as it is in the biggest metropolis on the planet. The people who live in small towns wrestle with the same demons and seek the counsel of the same better angels of their nature that we all do.

Treating people who live outside cities as fully functioning human beings capable of subtle reasonings and conflicted feelings and not as stick figures is long overdue.

Showing respect for people because theyre people?

Try that in a small town.

John Krull is director of Franklin Colleges Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Send comments to [emailprotected].

The rest is here:

John Krull: Try this in a small town - Pendleton Times-Post

By Vincent Czyz

Poe Ballantine is often compared to Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. Id say hes closer to the former than the latter, but hes more polished than either and funnier than both put together.

Rodney Kills at Night by Poe Ballantine. Independently published, 205 pages, $9.99.

Fate can be described as a circle, but then again, so can a CHEESEBURGER [all caps his]

Rodney Kills at Night

Poe Ballantine? Is that a real name? (No.) Wheres he from anyway? Born in Denver, Colorado, he grew up in San Diego, and after years of drifting across the US, staying weeks to months in one town or city or another, he settled in Chadron, Nebraska. Nebraska? Are you kidding me? he writes in his memoir/noir mashup, Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. Most people would live in an outhouse in Bangladesh before they would voluntarily move to Nebraska. (If the mystery of how he ended up in Chadron is too much for you, pick up the book; its worthwhile reading and, as a bonus, the audio version is narrated by Ballantine.) If hes so good, why havent I ever heard of him? A lot of superb authors, more than ever before Id wager, go unrecognized by the literary-industrial complex and populate the margins i.e., the small presses and lesser-known literary magazines with their work.

Ballantines published some 13 books (Goodreads puts the number at 20, but theres some double counting), including six essay collections, six novels, and a short story collection. Ive read four, two of them twice. My first book-length encounter of the Ballantine kind was with 501 Minutes to Christ. The eponymous essay was included in Best American Essays 2006 and clearly belonged there. So did several of the other essays; it must an oversight on someones part that theyre not. Since Ballantine has a penchant for writing about his adventures and mishaps on the road, eccentric characters (many of whom hes actually met), far-flung towns Ballantine imagines Rod Serling describing, struggles with addiction (Methamphetamine for Dummies in 501 Minutes may be his finest hour in nonfiction), hes often compared to Bukowski and Kerouac. Id say hes closer to the former than the latter, but hes more polished than either and funnier than both put together.

Rodney Kills at Night, published in November of last year, traces an unlikely trajectory that joins Las Vegas and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (Chadron, Ballantine notes on the back cover, is 26 miles from Pine Ridge). Despite the ominous-sounding title, the novel doesnt recount the gruesome exploits of a Hannibal Lecter knockoff. The last three words are simply an Anglicized surname (think Kevin Dances With Wolves). While its true Rodney is an adept hunter, not necessarily nocturnal, the name comes to be something of a double entendre (youll see).

Another of Ballantines oddball outcasts, Rodney lives on the rez in a trailer home that leaned like a cardboard box in the rain and was surrounded by five stripped Pontiacs, hoods up in surrender. Pine Ridge, as you may have surmised, is not on any magazines list of Most Desirable Places to Live, particularly not in the early 1980s, when the novel takes place. The Sioux generally inhabit lopsided shacks or dilapidated mobile homes like Rodneys and rarely have the luxury of indoor plumbing or electricity.

Rodney, however, doesnt just want off the rez; he fantasizes about becoming a stand-up comedian. The barriers are manifold, not least among them the fact that there were more ducks on the moon than Indian comics. In fact, There were no Indian anything except revolutionaries, sidekicks, powwow dancers, and Buffy Saint-Marie. And then theres white bias, which the narrator sums up this way: Rodney was an Indian, you see, unreliable, shiftless, sinister, probably drunk. His people were arrogant, volatile, belligerent, stubborn.

Rodneys fifth stepfather, Kimo, is a a mixed-blood sellout who, as an underling of infamous tribal chairman Dick Wilson, had made a lot of money terrorizing innocent people and stealing government funds. (For more about Wilson, his goons, and the evils of life on the Sioux reservations, get hold of Lakota Woman, an eye-opening memoir by Mary Brave Bird). Rodney punches out Kimo during an argument, accidentally killing him, but decides against turning himself in: The government was content with Indians killing each other or Indians dying by their own hand but kill one of theirs, a toka [mixed-blood] loudmouth and a friend of Dick Wilson and it was like dialing up the Federal Bureau of Investigation yourself.

Seizing his chance to put the rez in his rear-view, Rodney thumbs his way to Las Vegas, mugs drunken gamblers to pay his bills, takes his shot at stand-up comedy with a bunch of other amateurs, tanks miserably, gets beaten to a pulp by a gang of Mexicans whose turf he encroached on, and is taken in by Orianna, a biracial transplant from Wales. Once a singer, Ori was caught in the disastrous 1980 MGM fire and so badly burned that shes become an invalid. She has a great heart, however, and she and Rodney connect on a level that, depending on the metaphysical school you belong to, might be called spiritual, platonic, or plain old human.

Rodney goes on gathering material for his act and showing up on amateur night until he develops something of a following. Still fearful hell be nabbed by the cops, he makes a habit of altering his appearance, eventually cutting his hair and dying it blond while performing under one assumed name after another. Sure enough, just when hes hitting the big timea tv spot no lesshis past catches up with him, and hes suddenly the most wanted man in Vegas.

Writer Poe Ballantine. Photo: Dave Jannetta

Theres a lot to admire in this novel, including the way Ballantine handles issues facing the Sioux without resorting to self-righteous whining or a screed marinated in political correctness. Instead, Rodney works his grievances into his stand-up routine, blunting them with humor.

I admit I was somewhat put off by his interim career choice (rolling drunks) and the way Rodney soothes his complaining conscience (Its not stealing if your survival depends upon it.), but he doesnt lose too much sympathy as a character, partly because the Mexican gang administers a beat-down worthy of any inner city, but also because theres something else going on. Throughout the novel Rodney is scrupulous about refusing handouts even a free meal when hes famished a commentary on Lakota (Sioux) mentality: they are, as Ballantine reminds us, a warrior people, and stalking drunks might indeed seem more honorable to them than a fast-food windfall.

Midnight muggings aside, I enjoyed this novel for its quirkiness. For its accurate portrayal of the Lakota (dont take my word for it; Ballantine got the imprimatur of people like Lee the Bullrider). I enjoyed it for its humor, present both in Rodneys act and his daily interactions. For its unsentimental take on Oris personal disaster, the ruin the reservation system has made of the Lakota and Rodney, on life in general. Moreover, the characters are engaging company, and in the end, while the novels plot moves along at a good clip, this is a character-driven book. Finally, I enjoyed the writing, which is polished, concise, and quietly lyrical.

Does Rodney eventually give those flatfoots the slip? Does it matter? As Mr. Kills at Night reminds us, a happy ending is just a story cut short.

Vincent Czyz is the author of Adrift in a Vanishing City, a collection of short fiction that was awarded the Eric Hoffer Award for Best in Small Press; The Christos Mosaic, a novel; and The Three Veils of Ibn Oraybi, a novella. He is the recipient of two fellowships from the NJ Council on the Arts, the W. Faulkner-W. Wisdom Prize for Short Fiction, and the Truman Capote Fellowship at Rutgers University. His work has appeared in many publications, including New England Review, Shenandoah, AGNI, Massachusetts Review, Georgetown Review, Tin House, Tampa Review, Boston Review, and Copper Nickel.

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Book Review: "Rodney Kills At Night" -- Engaging Company - artsfuse.org