Daily Archives: November 26, 2023

To the Editor:

Re Progressives Arent Liberal, by Pamela Paul (column, Nov. 17):

Ms. Paul bemoans the failure of labels to accurately describe what a persons beliefs are, in this case liberals. Instead, she should be championing the demise of labels for the very reason that whether progressive or liberal, conservative or libertarian, labels are a lazy way of organizing people into groups primed by the echo chamber we live in and devoid of any nuance.

Labels allow a labeler to define us without the heavy lifting of critical thinking that truly informs who and what we are. The use of labels gives permission to easily dismiss another person as a this or a that while blinding the labeler to shared beliefs that if understood would foster greater dialogue and the opportunity to achieve goals that break down societal divisions.

In the end, we should applaud the failure of labels and encourage a deeper understanding of one another.

Jonathan Karmel Chicago

To the Editor:

Thank you so much for Progressives Arent Liberal. It was spot on! The talk show host Bill Maher has been saying for years that he is a classic liberal, but not at all like modern progressives. I have always identified with him whenever he made comments like that.

Ms. Paul took it a step further by adding the history behind the divergence of the two terms and absolutely nailing down the essence of each. Bravo!

Jim Haddox Denton, Texas

To the Editor:

How about it doesnt matter whether progressives are liberals? We must move beyond the old labels. We are separated by rationalists and irrationalists.

What was once liberal is simply (as it mostly always has been) common sense, common decency, and management of inevitable change for the benefit of the general welfare and liberty and justice for all. Basically, what any reasonable and broad view of society would see as doing the right thing.

Almost anyones reading of social and political history would agree that we live in a better, more decent and fair nation because of the right things that rationalists did: abolish slavery, rein in the robber barons, establish labor laws, and approve womens suffrage, civil rights, voting rights, Social Security and Medicare. The right things to do, which the irrationalists opposed.

In this new century social attitudes have changed, geopolitical power has changed, technology has exploded, the climate has changed. But what hasnt changed is the need and desire to do the right and decent thing. And there is only one side that continues that fight.

When we finally pull our heads above the surface of the water were swimming in, we might see that there is no longer a divide of right and left, red and blue, liberal and conservative; its one simply of right and wrong. Rationality vs. irrationality.

Lyndon Dodds San Antonio

To the Editor:

Much as I enjoyed Pamela Pauls recent attempt to distinguish liberals from progressives, she neednt have gone to all that trouble.

Heres my far briefer version: If youre more worried about pronouns than you are about ending child labor and capital punishment, youre a progressive.

William Cole Barcelona, Spain

To the Editor:

Re Climate Study Shows Restoration of Forests Isnt Enough by Itself (news article, Nov. 14):

Some scientists have questioned relying on todays forests to combat climate change. Some of their reservations may have merit, but I worry that their doubts will obscure a full appreciation of just how valuable trees and forests are.

They not only can reduce global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide. They also provide homes for wildlife, clean the air, prevent soil erosion, shade and beautify the land, and, most important, produce a significant portion of the oxygen that animals (including humans) need to live.

Researchers have found that children typically have a deep affection for trees, perhaps reflecting an intuitive sense of their value. This love of trees usually dies out as they get older. It would be good for the planet if it could be preserved.

William Crain Poughquag, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Managing and conserving the worlds forests to restore and maintain their more natural state have the potential to be an extraordinarily powerful climate solution, but it wont happen without investments comparable to those in the renewable energy and green transportation sectors.

World leaders should take a cue from California. This month a committee advising the state on climate policy called for investing $10 billion in restoring, conserving and managing the states forests and other natural and working lands. The proposal would achieve up to 400 million tons of carbon reduction in California alone over the next 10 years.

While newly planted trees take decades of intensive management to capture significant carbon, standing forests can be managed to sequester vast amounts of carbon in just a few years, bringing us much closer to reaching the Paris Agreement goals by 2030.

Investing in our forests and other lands now is the fastest, lowest cost and most effective way to get the planet out of the woods and on our way to a more climate-friendly future.

Laurie Wayburn San Francisco The writer is the chair of the California Natural and Working Lands Expert Advisory Committee and co-founder and president of Pacific Forest Trust.

To the Editor:

Re No, Immigrants Arent Poisoning Our Country, by Paul Krugman (column, Nov. 14):

Thank you to Mr. Krugman for pointing out what economists and social scientists have seen for years: Immigration provides significant economic and social benefits to communities.

Right now, there is heated rhetoric about the increase in migration to New York City and the rest of the state. While the influx of many new arrivals over a short period of time causes short-term challenges, it also offers many long-term opportunities.

New York State is currently leading the country in out-migration and population loss. In just one year, from 2021 to 2022, New Yorks population decreased by more than 180,000. This has led to work force shortages in key industries. The increase in new arrivals could be critical in recovering our labor force and tax base.

New York has a long history of welcoming immigrants, and this history has been critical in building our vibrant state. When we hear dangerous rhetoric that dehumanizes immigrants, we must fight back and remind people that when we create welcoming communities, our entire society benefits.

Carola Otero Bracco Mount Kisco, N.Y. The writer is executive director of Neighbors Link.

More:

Opinion | The Labels We Attach to Political Beliefs - The New York Times

By Scott Bauer, AP

MADISON, Wis. (AP) Democrats urged the Wisconsin Supreme Court to overturn Republican-drawn legislative maps on Nov. 21, with conservative justices questioning the timing of the redistricting challenge, while liberals focused on the constitutionality of the current maps and what the process should be for adopting new ones.

The fight comes ahead of the 2024 election in a battleground state where four of the six past presidential elections have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes, and Republicans have built large majorities in the Legislature under maps they drew over a decade ago.

The lawsuit was brought by Democratic voters the day after the court flipped to majority 4-3 liberal control in August. They want all 132 state lawmakers to stand for election under new, more favorable maps in 2024.

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley most aggressively questioned the motives of Democrats and repeatedly referenced newly elected liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz saying during her campaign that the current maps are rigged.

Everybody knows that the reason were here is because there was a change in the membership of the court, Bradley said.

Attorney Mark Gaber, from the Campaign Legal Center, said the timing of the lawsuit had nothing to do with the election result. He said the challenge over whether the districts are unconstitutionally not contiguous would have been filed, regardless of the makeup of the court.

I dont see that as a partisan issue, Gaber said.

Taylor Meehan, attorney for the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature, said the lawsuit was meritless, brought too late, and that Democrats only filed it because control of the court flipped.

They are a wolf in sheeps clothing designed to backdoor a political statewide remedy, Meehan said.

The court was expected to issue its ruling no later than early 2024. The state elections commission has said maps must be in place by March 15 if the new districts are to be in play for the November elections.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been controlled by liberal justices since Protasiewicz took her seat in August after her April election victory. She called the GOP-drawn maps unfair and rigged during her campaign, leading Republicans to threaten to impeach her before she had even heard a case. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos backed off, but kept the threat alive if she votes to strike down the maps.

Protasiewicz asked mostly technical legal questions during oral arguments, and was not as involved in the back and forth with attorneys as other justices.

There was some tension between liberal and conservative justices, with Bradley accusing Justice Jill Karofsky of interrupting her and in another instance asking the liberal justice: Are you arguing the case?

The Democrats case in Wisconsin centers on whether the districts are not contiguous and if they violate the Wisconsin Constitutions separation of powers doctrine.

Though the Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts to consist of contiguous territory, many contain sections of land that are not actually connected. The resulting map looks a bit like Swiss cheese, where some districts are dotted with small neighborhood holes assigned to different representatives.

This shocks people across the country who look at this map, Gaber said during oral arguments. Wisconsin is the only state that has anything that looks anything like this.

The Legislature argued for a more liberal definition of contiguous that allows for the creation of districts where all land masses are not physically touching. The Legislature also argued that Wisconsins redistricting laws, backed by state and federal court rulings over the past 50 years, have permitted districts under certain circumstances to be noncontiguous.

The Legislature argued that if new maps are ordered, nothing should be enacted any sooner than the 2026 election. And if maps are ordered, the Legislature should be given the first chance to draw them, Meehan said. Both she and Rick Esenberg, attorney for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, urged the court not to get into the political thicket of drawing maps.

Bradley said ordering elections for all 132 lawmakers, including half of the Senate midway through their current terms, was absolutely extraordinary.

I cant imagine something less democratic than unseating most of the Legislature that was duly elected last year, she said.

Liberal justices asked who would recommend new maps to the court if they ordered them, and what criteria should be considered when creating new lines.

Justice Brian Hagedorn, a conservative who sometimes rules with liberals, asked how the court can determine when a map is too partisan.

How many Republicans are permissible? he asked. How many Democrats?

Attorneys seeking new maps argued that in a competitive state like Wisconsin, who has control over the Legislature should shift from election to election based on which side gets more votes.

Theres no magic number in this situation that needs to be met, said Assistant Attorney General Anthony Russomanno, representing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

The legislative electoral maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 cemented the partys majorities, which stand at 64-35 in the Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate.

A then-conservative majority on the court picked Republican-drawn maps in 2022 over maps drawn by Evers, and Hagedorn on Tuesday questioned why attorneys hadnt raised their arguments then about contiguous districts and separation of powers.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, another conservative, expressed concern that the court was being asked to overturn its ruling from only a year earlier.

Is there any end to this litigation? Ziegler asked.

Litigation is ongoing in more than dozen states over U.S. House and state legislative districts enacted after the 2020 census.

New Yorks highest court heard arguments on Nov. 15 about whether an independent redistricting commission must take another crack at drawing congressional districts. New Mexicos Supreme Court heard arguments on Nov. 2- about an appeal of a lower court ruling that rejected assertions the Democratic-led Legislature had illegally gerrymandered the states congressional districts. On Nov. 17, a federal judge in North Dakota ruled that state legislative districts drawn by the Republican majority violated the voting rights of two Native American tribes and must be redrawn by Dec. 22.

Associated Press writers David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Harm Venhuizen in Madison contributed to this report.

The rest is here:

Wisconsin Supreme Court hears oral arguments in legislative district ... - PBS Wisconsin

GEORGE YANCYS NEW BOOK Until Our Lungs Give Out: Conversations on Race, Justice, and the Future is not for the faint of heart. The volume, a collection of interviews with leading intellectuals, explores the historical trajectory of whiteness and anti-Blackness and their manifestation in education, healthcare, politics, and religion. The books range is as geographically broad as it is intellectually all-encompassing, yet despite what might seem an unwieldy range of topics, there are certain structuring themesin particular, the persistence of anti-Black racismthat give the volume a coherence of vision and purpose. Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the text is the diversityracial, gender, cultural, national, and religiousof its participants. The volume is not dominated by one disciplinary perspective, and as a result, the interviews/dialogues never become one-dimensional or myopic.

What Until Our Lungs Give Out recognizes above all is that race haunts the foundational assumptions and categories of American discourse, and thus race taints or colors central aspects of American history. In this regard, especially given the recent spate of conservative attacks on Black academics, I must stress that Yancys book is not intended to spread indoctrination, foster hatred of whites, legitimize unpatriotic views, encourage anti-white racism, promote revisionist histories, or mobilize critical race theory to undermine the basic institutions of American society. Rather, Yancys hope is that readers will neither become incapacitated by the hard truths his book reveals nor, alternatively, grow resentful and defensive. Instead, he wants them to be moved by a powerful, generative, and encouraging form of address. I invite you to tarry, to remain with and to engage in the critical conversations, the dialogues, and the passionate inquiries that are contained within these pages. A profound ethical concern propels the book, one premised on the responsibility of respectfully addressing the other, as well as listening, being attentive and responsive to the voice of the other.

Yancys book is an effort to establish mutual grounds for racial healing and the experiential transformation of self. He reminds us that these goals require exposure, vulnerability, and openness, while underscoring that [t]hey signify fundamental ways in which none of us are asocial epistemic subjects [answerable] only to ourselves. He develops the notion of parrhesia, which means courageous speech or truth-tellingthe kind often misidentified, in the aforementioned conservative attacks, as anti-American rhetoric. Yancy also invokes the notion of kenosis, a mode of emptying and detoxifying the self that gives rise to the possibility of a different or new self. Yancy maintains that eradicating racism requires a form of kenosis, an existential purging through which we cleanse ourselves of the poisons of racism.

Rebutting misleading claims that critical race theory is a form of indoctrination, Yancy correctly identifies this body of work as a framework for critiquing liberalism and the founding myths of the U.S. Furthermore, he believes that whites should jettison liberalism as the grounding for their political identity since it leads them to view themselves as asocial beings, a view that ignores the importance of communal relationships in constituting ones understanding of self. Mark Lewis Taylor, in his contribution to the volume, supports this argument, alleging that, in its embrace of an abstract individualism, liberalism scants the concrete worlds of nature and bodies. Urging blindness to these things is not a positive goal but rather leads to ignorance of the ways in which the sociopolitical world is a human construct that provides us with the collective resources to forge identities and to obtain meaning and purpose in life.

Just as liberalism hobbles our efforts to understand the communal aspects of everyday life, it also distorts our understanding of past events, especially those that are racially tinged. Robin D. G. Kelley, for example, maintains that narratives about the Tulsa Race Massacre are too dependent on the structural logic of liberalism, which sees the event in terms of property, property rights, property destroyed. Kelly argues that we need [] to advance beyond land as property toward a vision of freedom not based on ownership or possession.

Although most whites claim fidelity to liberal principles, Noam Chomsky calls attention to the fact that some whites are also the victims of liberalism. They simply do not realize or will not acknowledge the ways in which neoliberalism has ravaged their lives. Instead, they prefer to blame their perceived losses on others, particularly people of color. White politicians, especially Republicans, masterfully employ Richard Nixons infamous Southern strategy, according to which social gains made by Blacks are exploited to fuel white resentment and grievance.

Perhaps one of the most salient failures of liberalism is its inability to recognize the nature of institutional or systemic racism. Indeed, the average American uncritically embraces the language of liberalism as an interpretive frame, and many have expressed anger at those who emphasize the persistence of institutional racism and the restrictive nature of the liberal understanding of racism. Joe Feagin points out that the common liberal tendency to frame racism as an individual phenomenon, using the concepts of prejudice, bias, and bigotry, is inadequate and ineffective since it lacks a concept of systemic racism, including the important concept of its white racial frame, [which is] necessary to fully understand U.S. racial matters.

Viewing racism as an individual failure conceals its systemic nature. Defeating what Feagin calls the white racial frame is not a matter of declaring fidelity to liberal values and principles in the abstract or, for that matter, of urging that we treat people as individuals rather than as members of racial groups. What is required is a persistent and intense transformation, not simply in our ways of thought but in our patterns of life.

In another context, David Kyuman Kim refuses to frame whiteness/white supremacy in either biological or sociological terms, instead treating it as a project of being, a style of living, a framework for structuring the world that warrants repudiation. Since white supremacy is a way of existing, it is best defeated through a transformation of ones way of life. Kim, like Yancy, argues that loveparticularly a love that involves risk and sufferingis the tool needed to undermine the toxicity of white supremacy. Love is an underutilized natural resource for our democracy, he says. None of us can afford to give up on that.

By enfolding Blackness within the space of slavery, Wilderson explains why anti-Blackness is unique and not just another form of regrettable human behavior. Afropessimism underscores how the concepts, categories, and principles used to address human suffering and harm do not always accommodate the unique historical circumstances of the violence perpetrated against Blacks. Rather, Blackness exists in a condition of exile that allows humans (i.e., whites) to have meaning. In a sense, the human is not absolute but relational because it requires Blackness to define its own terms of intelligibility. Afropessimism thus argues for the ontological dependence of humanness on the nonhuman (i.e., the Black).

Wilderson does not link Blackness with a crude biological essentialism but rather distinguishes the possession of black or dark skin from ontological Blackness. Black people became Black through the imposition of social death, but Blackness did not have a prior plentitude of subjectivity and relationality, he argues. When the anti-Black world is destroyed, there will still be people like you and me, [] but they will not be Black. There will be a new epistemological order.

I highly recommend Until Our Lungs Give Out for anyone who desires to obtain an informative and insightful understanding of a range of urgent issues. The careful reader will enjoy a truly rewarding intellectual experience. Moreover, open-minded white readers need not be offended or made to feel guilty by the powerful critique of American society the book mounts. Following Yancy, I believe that the courageous reader will experience an initially traumatic but ultimately invaluable kenosis.

View original post here:

Purging the Poisons of Racism: On George Yancy's Until Our Lungs ... - lareviewofbooks

The Freedom Party (PVV) of xenophobic leader Geert Wilders has won a resounding victory in the November 22 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. With 37 seats out of a total of 150 in the lower house (Tweede Kamer) of the countrys bicameral parliament, Geert Wilders has made his party the leading political force and the favorite to attempt the formation of the next government.

In second place, the coalition of social democrats and left-wing environmentalists, GroenLinks/PvdA, led by former European Commission vice-president and Green Deal responsible Frans Timmermans, won 25 seats. The right-wing liberals of the VVD, Mark Ruttes outgoing 13-year long PM party, won 24 seats. In fourth place, the new center-right New Social Contract (NSC) of Pieter Omtzigt (former CDA MP, Christian Democrats) storms the parliament with 20 seats.

A few clues can help to understand this unprecedented, but not too surprising, outcome.

First, the early fall of the Rutte IV government, which was triggered by the issue of the so-called asylum crisis: the disaster of the management of refugee centers and the inability to humanely accommodate a growing number of people fleeing war zones. In a bid to improve his election result, Prime Minister Rutte dissolved the government coalition and launched a campaign centered on a tough talk of restricting immigration. Alas for his follower, Turkish-born ex-minister of justice and current VVD party leader, Dilan Yeilgz, no one has a tougher discourse against immigration than Geert Wilders. Wilders is a veteran politician who has built his career around the slogan Dutch people first, anti-Muslim hatred and his stance against EU policies.

Secondly, deteriorating living and material conditions for the majority of the population made bestaanszekerheid (life security) one of the key issues in this election. The working class in the Netherlands is suffering from the effects of an enduring economic and social crisis, the result of 13 years of austerity-driven, liberal-conservative governments. The number of people living in poverty (800,000) has increased, people face higher housing, health and energy costs, as well as a general increase in the cost of basic commodities in recent years. More and more workers in the Netherlands are unable to make ends meet, forcing thousands to resort to voedselbanken, free food distribution centers for people in a situation of poverty.

In this context, Geert Wilders successfully managed to link the economic crisis with migration. His proposal to favor the Dutch over the privileges enjoyed by asylum seekers or foreign workers (gastarbeiders), to invest public resources in increasing retirement pensions or reducing spending on environmental policy, has resonated with large sections of the poorest population, hit by the crisis, and facing their daily situation and their future with increasing insecurity.

Thirdly, the shortage of land in the country is a real problem affecting access to housing, and is linked to the environmental crisis caused by the excess of nitrogen in agricultural land the so-called stikstof crisis. The housing crisis affects the population as a whole, forced to spend an increasing percentage of its income on housing. On the other hand, the conventional farming sector has engaged in a permanent mobilization for two years over what they see as a vital threat to their livelihoods. The Rutte government had been planning to close farms to bring nitrogen levels in line with EU requirements. This move generated widespread unrest in the sector, and was the key to the massive electoral success of the BBB (Boeren Burger Beweging, Citizens Farmers Movement, agrarian populist right) in the March 2023 provincial elections, winning in all 12 provinces of the country, an unprecedented event.

Now that the results are official, the difficult negotiations to form a government begin. In the last five legislatures, the exclusion of the PVV by the other political forces from any government formation has been a matter of consensus. This time, that will not be easy. On the other hand, while the VVD and BBB are expected to be inclined to reach an agreement with Wilders, the big unknown is the position that Pieter Omtzigt and his NSC will take. In the coming weeks, these four parties are expected to conduct negotiations to form a government, which would form a solid majority of 86 MPs. If negotiations fail, the PvdA/GroenLinks could try to attract VVD and NSC, but they would need a fourth party, which could be the left-liberals of D66. It is not uncommon for negotiations to last weeks or months, with several parties managing to form a more or less stable government alliance.

What can we expect from a possible Wilders cabinet? A tougher line against immigration and discriminatory rules against Muslim and migrant workers communities, greater orientation of public policies according to criteria of racial discrimination and origin of people living in the country the infamous etnische profileren -, drastic reduction or elimination of investment in policies to combat the climate crisis, increased public spending on security, greater tension in the relationship with the European Union in the political and regulatory sphere and unrestricted alignment with NATO policy, as well as unrestricted support for the State of Israel in its policy of occupation and genocide against the Palestinian people.

Internationally, it is necessary to analyze the outcome of the Dutch elections in the context of the deepening crisis of capitalism and the advance of conservative forces and right-wing populism in increasingly radical forms. The exclusionary, populist, racist right is now capable of reaching ever greater heights of institutional power in Europe. This fact must stimulate the mobilization and political organization of the popular classes around unity actions to defend the interests of the working class, regardless of their origin, holding international solidarity high.

So far, in the Netherlands, the response of popular and left organizations, as well as the Muslim communities in the country, has not been long in coming. At a time when solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people has millions of people mobilized throughout the country on a daily basis, rallies have already been held to reject the possible new Wilders government, and a calendar of mobilizations and united actions is being planned to propose active resistance to the regressive, discriminatory and anti-popular policies of the possible new government.

Read the original here:

The Netherlands turn to the radical right - Peoples Dispatch

Nevada is a state thats difficult to explain to outsiders.

For many, our backyard is considered to be little more than a vacation destination a place to escape normalcy for a long weekend. However, for those of us who call this state home, its far more than a tourist-dependent economy or vast tracts of undeveloped land in the middle of the American West.

All around us there are cues that this state isnt quite like the others. Sure, the slot machines in gas stations, the brothels tucked away in rural counties and the dominance of the Las Vegas Strip are all reminders of just how different we are but the truth is, Nevada is so much more than the hedonistic stereotypes cultivated by those marketing gurus at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The sprawling landscapes of our sparsely populated state are almost too grand to put into words. The unexpected vibrancy of the Spring Mountains, the eerie stillness of Walker Lake and the cold deep waters of Lake Tahoe are natural wonders that mesmerize all who explore them.

And while traveling from one natural wonder to the next, it becomes apparent no community in the Silver State is content with being just another dot on the map. Each town, every little neighborhood tavern and every city hall offers its unique take on what it means to be Nevadan and each is just as arresting and endearing as the last.

From mining towns to ghost towns, this state is marked by communities that revel in their unique slice of Nevada history each giving rise to a similarly unique sense of what our states future can (or should) look like. Its therefore no surprise that our politics here are equally as diverse with deep ideological and political fault lines running through the electorate.

Like everywhere else, we certainly have our partisan tensions and cultural divides: rural vs. urban, south vs. north and red vs. blue, just to name a few. Much of Nevadas diverse ideological tendencies share an independent streak that guides our approach to how we try to solve our states social and economic challenges.

Our states complex cocktail of political preferences often confounds outsiders who operate in states that fit neatly along a more traditional political spectrum. Compared with states such as California or Utah, Nevadas voters are far more hesitant to color themselves with a blue or red brush a tendency that is evidenced by our ever-growing share of non-major party registrations and our currently divided government.

Unlike other states with Republican governors, for example, Nevadans continue to favor liberal protections on abortion and unlike other states with large Democratic majorities in the Legislature, weve maintained a relatively low-tax environment for businesses. In many respects, weve long adhered to a more laissez faire approach to issues as diverse as tax policy and marijuana legalization, even when it means bucking the national trends of ones preferred political party.

Indeed, to outsiders were a confused mismatch of voters from all over the political spectrum. (Much to the chagrin of political parties that prefer partisan pandering over pragmatic governing.) And our sense of independence isnt relegated only to politics.

As a rule, we hesitate to let others define our state. We balk at those who describe Las Vegas as a suburb of Los Angeles (even if we joke about it ourselves), and we recoil at those who insist were destined to forever be a mere tourist economy run by casino interests. Instead, we boast that were the lithium capital of North America, that Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world, Reno is the worlds biggest little city, and that Tonopah is one of Americas top 10 true Western Towns.

In every corner of this state, we know were unique and we take pride in it.

To be sure, such ideological and geographical diversity can often make for frustrating public policy battles and political environments. However, its also what makes this state such an interesting, intriguing and promising place to call home. Were more than a mere swing state with some quirky idiosyncrasies; were a state that revels in being different from the other 49.

Nevada is a land full of romance, absurdity and promise all at once offering a plethora of reasons for almost anyone to fall in love with the people, places and diversity that can be found within our borders. Its a land full of grand desert landscapes, sprawling suburban communities and far-flung rural outposts. Its a land of cowboys, metropolitans, entrepreneurs and blue-collar workers all comprising a fiercely independent and diverse electorate with a niche for nearly any policy preference.

Yes, Nevada is a confusing and complex state thats unlike anywhere else, making it difficult for outsiders to fully understand. However, thats what endears it to those of us who have chosen to live here and why so many of us are thankful to call it our home.

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder ofSchaus Creative LLC an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him at SchausCreative.com or on Twitter at@schausmichael.

Go here to read the rest:

Be thankful we're a little different in Nevada - The Nevada Independent

November 21, 2023

Many people, when they first visit Arizona, expect to find sand on the floor of its famous Sonoran Desert. What they find, instead, is dust.

Fine as flour, this dust sits atop hardened soil, where it is easily carried off by the wind. When the winds are strong, the results can be severe: irritated lungs, blinded drivers and felled trees beneath dust clouds that swallow cities.

The compacted earth from which this dust is born looks barren. But there is a secret web of dynamic life woven through this dirt. Nurturing this life may well be the key to reducing Arizonas airborne dust.

Biocrust (pictured above) is a mesh of bacteria that, like plants, get their energy from sunlight. They can be found in nearly any place in the world that has a dry climate and little vegetation. In Arizonas desert, biocrust holds down dust like a sticky net.

They grow in these long filaments and they kind of weave themselves together like a tapestry. Its basically like throwing a carpet over the surface, says Brian Scott, shown above installing a dust monitor. Scott is a postdoctoral researcher at theBiodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, which is directed by Regents Professor Ferran Garcia-Pichel.

RELATED:ASU Regents Professor awarded for pioneering approach to soil restoration

Human activity, including farming and construction, disturbs the native layer of biocrust on top of the desert soil. When the biocrust is gone, it leaves behind a surface layer of exposed, loose dust that can feed dust storms.

It can take decades for biocrust to grow back on its own and gain enough ground to suppress that dust once more. But Scott is working in Garcia-Pichels lab (as shown below) to hone that regrowth process down to just a year or two.

The team is cultivating biocrust in the lab with the goal of planting it in biocrust-depleted areas like abandoned farm fields, which are the biggest sources of dust.

Biocrust grows readily enough in the labs controlled settings, but when its moved to the wild, it dies. The challenge is to grow heartier biocrust that can thrive and grow in harsh desert conditions. Scott and the team are testing how biocrust growth responds to factors like soil type and bacterial composition.

Biocrust is a colony of different microorganisms, and when we grow it, we have to be careful that we maintain the integrity of the community, Scott says. There are many organisms involved, and if you take a few of them out, the whole thing falls apart.

To make sure all the right bacteria are present in the right amounts, the researchers sequence the DNA of the biocrusts they cultivate. Once a biocrust is successfully transplanted to the wild, it will become more complex by adding organisms like fungi and algae to its community.

Not all land areas have the same uses or needs, so reducing dust effectively means developing and field-testing a combination of solutions. (Above, Scott examines one of the biocrust test beds at the Polytechnic campus.)

Planting biocrust is a long-term solution to control dust from abandoned land and restore the native ecosystem. But farmers also need a short-term solution for fields that they leave fallow for just a season.

Researchers from the center worked with local Casa Grande farmer Patrick Dugan, owner of Du-Brook Dairy Inc., who provided plots of land where they could test their solutions. (Below, Assistant Professor Emmanuel Salifu and graduate student Thuong Cao install a dust monitor at the dairy.)

Being environmentally friendly was important to me, Dugan says. The farmers we want to be a part of the solution, too.

While Scott focuses on biocrust treatment, another group from the center is working on creating a treatment that uses chemistry to temporarily harden the topsoil. It works by forming a layer of calcium carbonate, a compound found in materials like limestone and eggshell.

This technique mimics a natural process called abiotic crusting, through which the soils properties allow it to harden on its own. Scott believes that adjusting the timing of weeding and field plowing could be a simple solution that allows this type of soil to crust before monsoon storms begin.

Much is known about dust storms, biocrusts, soils and land-use practices, but this research is unique for bringing all these puzzle pieces together to examine the system as a whole.

However, its a complicated issue, Scott acknowledges. Addressing dust storms will require updates to policy, including water allocation, as well as buy-in from more farmers and rural communities. The center is currently working on creating an integrated plan. As they do so, they seek input from farmers and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

Part of our job is to help sort all that out and put it into something that's actionable, Scott says. I think we have a good chance, if we could implement those measures, that the severity of dust storms would go down.

This research is supported by the Arizona Board of Regents.Photography and content direction by Andy DeLisle

Communications Specialist , ASU Knowledge Enterprise

480-727-5616 mkass@asu.edu

Read this article:

Directorial debut on the horizon for ASU grad at 67 - ASU News Now

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribunes daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

For years, three large lumpy rocks bedecked in bright paint announced events or bore symbolic messages at the University of Texas at Dallas a cornerstone of campus life.

Sometimes the messages were political, Vote Blue. Sometimes not, Welcome Scholars!

But Monday morning students found the university uprooted their beloved boulders, known as the Spirit Rocks, overnight and replaced them with freshly planted trees.

The rocks removal came weeks after student groups took turns painting pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages on their surfaces in response to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Oct. 7 terrorist attack, and ensuing assault on Gaza, has triggered intense debates over the decades-old conflict as many urge for a ceasefire. College campuses like UT Dallas have become a nexus of those debates and, in some cases, a test of students freedom of expression.

In the weeks since Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage, Israel has maintained an airstrike campaign on Gaza. The relentless assault resulted in the deaths of more than 11,000 people in Palestine, most of whom are women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza. On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage exchange agreement and a multiday pause in fighting.

Student protests across the country, often accompanied by calls for an end to occupation of Palestinian land by Israeli forces, have prompted backlash by those who perceive these protests as antisemetic, endorsements of Hamas. College administrators have since been tasked with navigating those accusations, while not suppressing student voices.

In a Monday statement following the removal of the rocks, the university affirmed the importance of free speech and said the recent paintings related to the Middle East conflict strayed too far from the original purpose of the public message board.

The spirit rocks were not intended to be a display for extended political discourse, and because painted messages have been negatively impacting people on and off campus, our best solution was to remove them, read the statement.

The university removed a page from its website outlining the purpose and guidelines around painting the rocks earlier this week. UT Dallas did not respond to a list of questions about the rocks and websites removal.

For students, the removal came as a complete surprise.

Not only was this a 180, but also the reasoning given was hypocritical, lacking and contradictory given the 15 years of history, said Alex De Jesus, a senior political science student.

De Jesus said students have used the rocks to protest last years abortion ruling, police brutality and a push to limit LGBTQ+ rights. He said students have largely managed the rocks themselves in the 15 years the quirky public forums have existed on campus. In the past when hateful speech appeared on the rocks, students have painted over those messages.

A series of photos, published by the UT Dallas student newspaper The Mercury, showed that between Oct. 11 and 15 the rocks were painted in the likeness of an Israeli flag, a Palestinian flag and a split of the two.

During that week, the largest of the spirit rocks oscillated between the two flags within hours. At noon on Oct. 12 one of the rocks was painted to reflect the Palestinian flag and bore the message, No [peace] on stolen land. Two hours later, half of the rock was painted white and blue, in the style of Israels flag, with the message, We are winning.

The following week, UT Dallas President Richard Benson released a statement condemning the attack and applauding students civil disagreements about the conflict.

Students are conversing about their differences; they are gathering donations and peacefully protesting; they are shaking hands, Benson wrote on Oct. 16.

In response, students criticized Bensons lack of acknowledgement of Palestinian suffering stemming from Israeli airstrikes. On Oct. 24 the UT Dallas Student Government passed a resolution calling Benson to amend his earlier statement to consider the plight of Palestinians.

The following day, Benson responded to the resolution, acknowledging the pain felt on both sides of the conflict and asked the campus to rededicate ourselves to presuming good faith on the part of others and to listen with kindness and empathy.

Roughly one month later, the spirit rocks were removed.

How free speech is regulated on college campuses has been a perennial issue for decades. Conservatives have long argued their political speech has been stifled in traditionally liberal settings. More recently, Texas Republicans have passed legislation to create free speech protections in years past.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices at Texas public universities, which they argued limited free speech on college campuses.

The timing of the rocks removal, De Jesus said, is especially painful because that new law, eliminating UT Dallas DEI office, will take effect in 2024. And the rocks caked in years of paint, which serves as a special place for student groups of color and the LGBTQ+ community to share their message are no longer part of campus life.

And so for us, this is a new chapter in something else that's darker, he said.

Disclosure: University of Texas - Dallas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Continued here:

UT Dallas removes spirit rocks after pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian ... - The Texas Tribune

Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honour to be here with you today.

Firstly, thank you very much to Caroline for your wonderful words, and I too acknowledge the traditional owners of land on which we meet today.

Mike, thank you very much for your inspirational words, for your leadership within the community and for your co-presidency here.

To Sue as well, in her absence, she's obviously overseas at present.

I want to say Pauline, thank you very much to you for your time today, for the brief tour that we were able to have and I want to do it justice, and I hope that we may come back and hear more of your family story and many more, but for the work that you've done as a past President, thank you very much.

To the entire Holocaust Museum Board, to all of the donors and supporters who are here today, who have contributed to this amazing story, thank you very much.

To Jane, again, thank you for the work that you do as a CEO.

I want to acknowledge the presence today of the Prime Minister, and also the Premier of Victoria, Premier Allan, thank you both for your support of this museum, for bringing it to fruition.

It's an incredibly important monument for our state of Victoria and for our country as well.

I'd also like to acknowledge today my former colleague Josh Frydenberg and his work in obtaining and driving for the funding, for here and for other Holocaust museums across the country. It should be noted, and the work of former Prime Minister Morrison in securing that funding as well.

To Abe Goldberg today, we're all looking forward to your contribution, to hear your words, they will be particularly poignant. So, thank you.

We knew this event would be a profound moment, an emotional moment.

But all the more so now.

We stand here today in the wake of the barbarity visited upon Israel on the 7th of October.

We stand here today having been filled, through our television screens, of the hate-fuelled mobs marching through major democratic cities calling for the slaughter of Jews.

We stand here today in the aftermath of obscene and unfathomable acts of anti-Semitism on our own soil.

In the context of these events, the opening of this museum today, is even more poignant and pertinent.

We are witnessing an unmasking, a resurgence, of the same hateful thoughts and behaviours which led to the Holocaust.

Perhaps, naively, we thought our century or at very least, democracies in our century would be immune from the anti-Semitism of the last century.

Vasily Grossman, on the other hand, understood the irrational nature of anti-Semitism.

He was a Jewish Ukrainian war correspondent for the Soviet army who encountered the Nazi death camps.

In 1944, he wrote The Hell of Treblinka the first journalistic account of the Holocaust.

But it was in his 1960 novel, Life and Fate, which best evokes the insights into anti-Semitism.

Grossman described anti-Semitism as a unique phenomenon which can take many forms.

He said it can reside in the soul of an old man and in the games children play in the yard.

He noted how anti-Semitism is unconstrained by time or by place.

He said it has been as strong in the age of atomic reactors and computers as in the age of oil-lamps, sailing-boats and spinning wheels.

Grossman illuminated the pervasive, dehumanising and demonising nature of anti-Semitism.

His cautionary words reinforce that no society however civilised and no country however tolerant is immune from anti-Semitism.

Grossmans words and the lives this museum commemorates impart the same lesson:

Whenever and wherever the forces of anti-Semitism are on the march, there is a need for moral courage and moral clarity.

Right now, there is a need for unequivocal and unqualified condemnations of the anti-Semitism we are witnessing.

There must be no tolerance for that which is not tolerated.

Moral courage and moral clarity can take many forms.

For everyday Australians, a simple act of moral courage which leads to moral clarity is to visit this museum, including with your children.

To hear the voices of those who died and those who survived.

To understand how hateful ideas so easily transform into evil deeds.

To confront the truth.

Grossman wrote about a duty to confront the truth, however gruelling.

Only then will we understand the truth of the monster we are dealing with.

After that horror committed by the Nazis, humanity made a solemn commitment with a simple refrain.

The forces of civilisation said, Never again. Full stop.

It is our solemn duty to ensure that refrain does not become a Never again which ends in a question mark.

It is our solemn duty to ensure that refrain never becomes an Again.

That duty starts with our providing moral courage and moral clarity.

With our responsibility to confront the truth and to have reverence for the truth.

Thank you very much.

See original here:

Address at The Grand Opening of the Melbourne Holocaust ... - Liberal Party of Australia

(November 26, 2023 / JNS)

That Hamass Oct. 7 rampage of barbaric atrocities has become a symbol of Palestinian liberation on campus is unsurprising. The pro-Palestinian movement and its ideology have long been a specter haunting the university.

This moral descent of academia has resulted in proposals to reinvigorate protections for free speech and appeals to university presidents to ensure safety and respectful interactions. These are laudable goals but insufficient. They cannot change a dynamic that is anchored in the universitys dedication to a radical vision of social justice, which compromises and corrupts what was once taken for granted as the core principle of higher education: the advancement of knowledge.

A progressive ideological vision has acquired sacred status on campus. It has taken command of the very words spoken in classrooms and lecture halls. A colonization of language has permeated every scholarly discipline, with a particularly degrading effect on the study of the Middle East. As a result, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer seen as a struggle to be resolved by compromises on tangible goods, such as land or holy sites. It is propagandized as a battle over a past in which, according to the permitted vocabulary, the wrong side of history prevailed.

An age of atonement for the sins of colonialism has entombed Palestinians in the iconography of radical social change. On campus, the Palestinians are placed comfortably on the fault line dividing the old oppressive order from the messianic vision of a just progressive world. Enveloped by a narrative of catastrophic defeat (nakba), the Palestinians have become the enduring icon of the victim and, in the social justice lexicon, the open wound and unfinished history. Israels War of Independence in 1948 is understood less in terms of its military outcome than as a first cause of infinite suffering, a dislocation that, in totalitarian fashion, defines politics anywhere and everywhere. Palestinian identity has become a symbol of displacement, alienation and indignity.

Consumed by a proclaimed compassion for the downtrodden and oppressed, supposedly wronged by the twin evils of colonialism and racism, campus activism is driven by a presumed moral imperative to convert the curriculum into an instrument for redeeming those downtrodden and oppressed. This, it is held, requires totalitarian measures. If speech in the classroom triggers trauma or discomfort, it must be controlled or suppressed. Thus, nuanced conversations, the exchange of diverse views and engagement with different ideas are no longer the goals of education. The goal is the weaponization of feelings, which demands constraints on reason and critical thinking.

This transforms the university into nothing more than a mechanism for addressing trauma. But sensitivity to emotions cannot grant intellectual legitimacy without at least the appearance of a theoretical architecture. So, emotions have become the foundation of an all-encompassing social justice narrative that mangles historical analysis into a tale of good and evil shaping public discourse and, on the most basic level, how people think and talk.

This vocabulary has not been invented to deepen understanding of Israel or the Palestinians. It has evolved as an echo chamber that imposes an indelible stamp of guilt on Zionism and Israel while infusing the Palestinians with a brooding pessimism and passivity. The Palestinians are told that because they are confronting an enemy so implacable and evil in character, they cannot control their own destiny through ordinary politics. They must rely on international mobilization and terrorism for deliverance.

The once solid liberal embrace of Israel is thus undermined, not only because the public consciousness of 20th century Jewish history has been deliberately suppressed, but also because of the way ideas circulate. Digital remarks can deliver instant validation akin to a dopamine hit. Adding up likes requires much less time than logical analysis. Thus, the Middle East conflict becomes a soap opera, a narrative of smoldering inevitability akin to the ancient tragedies, in which grievances can never be rescinded. It imposes on students a false understanding of the past by permitting them to view it only through the lens of oppression and victimhood.

To say that this is an obstacle to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an understatement. To consider it a viable approach to the study of politics and history is absurd. To believe it will sustain the legitimacy of an academy that once emphasized analytical skills and the acquisition of knowledge is delusional.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to receive emails from JNS and our advertising partners

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.

Read this article:

A specter haunting the university - JNS.org - JNS.org