Category Archives: Freedom

Stroll into any fly shop in Eastern Oregon and chances are the person that walks in behind you has never fly-fished before. Theyre looking to get into the sport and dont know how to start.

Heres what happens. Somebody has invited them on a trip. Perhaps its a bucket list thing they need to check it off as something theyve done. Maybe they just moved here from California and have always wanted to fly-fish. Maybe they saw a movie with the young Brad Pitt casting a fly on a rollicking cutthroat stream.

For whatever reason, they are here and ready to fly-fish. Theyre a bit scared, afraid what other people might think when they see them hang a fly in a tree.

Heres the thing. We all start at zero, ground level. No one is born knowing how to tie a knot or execute a roll cast or dead-drift a dry. We have to learn it. Sometimes at an early age. Sometimes later. Fly-fishermen, despite our self-righteous tendencies, are welcoming. We like to see people learn to cast, select a fly and take it to water.

Yet the first-timers fear, it lingers.

Picture the president of a successful company. He does everything well, he is admired, successful and now he wants to fly-fish. He knows he has no skills, he knows he has to start at ground level and work his way into a sport in which he is a latecomer. Some people never get past this point. It is time to face the fear, pick up a rod and learn a new way of life. Thats what it is.

Lets say you are fishing next week. This might be the first time, it might be the first time in a long time. If you want to hide the fact you are a rank amateur, here is how to get ready for the first trip.

Take a casting lesson

Youre going to have to admit to someone that you dont know how to cast. Go into a fly shop. Schedule a lesson. Learn the simple pick-up and lay-down, the basic overhead and the roll cast. It can all be taught and absorbed in an hour.

Learn a knot

Go online and learn to tie the improved clinch knot. Thats the only one you really need to know right now. Later on you will want to learn the blood knot and the surgeons knot, but that can wait.

Get a fly rod

Dont borrow someone elses gear. Get your own. It doesnt have to cost a lot of money. There are combo outfits on the shelves at sporting goods stores. Put it together, watch some YouTube videos and practice simple casts in the backyard.

Hang out in a fly shop

Wander around, buy a fly box and a few trout flies, look at the recommendations of where to fish that are usually posted on the wall. Listen to other anglers. You need to pick up a few buzz words to know what theyre talking about. Lines, line weights, rod actions, leaders, tippets, wet flies, dry flies, nymphs. There is a lot to learn, but it is easy to pick up.

Read a comic book

This is important. Curtis Creek Manifesto was written in a style that appeals to the 11-year-old in all of us. Pick it up and read it cover to cover. Other options: The Secrets of St. Anthonys Creek by Michael Rahtz or Get Started Fly-fishing by Craig Schuhmann. All are available from Frank Amato Publications and can be found in any fly shop. Either book will help to lay a foundation for a fly-fishing future.

Buy a funny hat

Stick a fly in it. Stick another fly in it. You need a hat anyway, to shade the eyes while you watch for fish. If you have flies in your hat it implies you have fished before and rejected those patterns for something better.

Get a fishing license

And not just a day license. Dont wait for Free Fishing Weekend. Get a license for the whole year. Youre either a fisherman or youre not.

Last summer my youngest daughter bought her fishing license and we packed the canoe in the back of the Ford. At the lake, I made her leave her spinning rod in the truck.

Its time to continue your fly-fishing education, I said.

She frowned when I handed her a 3-weight fly rod. But she remembered what she knew about fly-fishing and caught and released nine trout.

You have a fly rod of your own, I reminded her as we put the boat back on the truck.

Yes, I should use it more.

Thats what I was thinking.

Gary Lewis is the author of Bob Nosler Born Ballistic, Fishing Central Oregon and other titles. To contact Gary, visit http://www.garylewisoutdoors.com.

Read the rest here:

On the trail: Seven steps to fly-fishing freedom - East Oregonian

New Orleans musician Jon Batiste just released his new song "Freedom," and his video makes the streets of New Orleans sing. Batiste, clad in a pink suit, gets New Orleans community members on their feet, singing and dancing throughout Treme, the Seventh Ward, City Park and under the Claiborne Expressway. Colorful houses throughout also embody the beauty of the Marigny and Bywater. The St. Aug Marching 100 were also prominently featured, which is where Batiste went to school. Batiste's music company tweeted the link to the music video Friday, calling it a "tribute to New Orleans."The song's lyrics lend itself to be a happy anthem calling for acceptance in all forms. According to Apple Music, Batiste described the song "Freedom" as "like an old movie," comparing the likeness of the video's movements to James Brown and Elvis. If you think about movies back in the day, you wouldnt show a Black man with a white woman, or you wouldn't show a Black relationship, or you wouldn't show a woman in a certain role. That is our sexuality and how people are represented. That's what people like James Brown, or when we saw Elvis with the twist in the hips, did. They were unlocking something in people that they were trying to hold in. These people became beacons of freedom, and you look at the way they move and the way that they express who they are onstage. That becomes the way that you want to be in life," Batiste said. 'Freedom' is one of the songs on Batiste new album "We Are."Watch the video here.

New Orleans musician Jon Batiste just released his new song "Freedom," and his video makes the streets of New Orleans sing.

This content is imported from YouTube.You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Batiste, clad in a pink suit, gets New Orleans community members on their feet, singing and dancing throughout Treme, the Seventh Ward, City Park and under the Claiborne Expressway.

Colorful houses throughout also embody the beauty of the Marigny and Bywater.

The St. Aug Marching 100 were also prominently featured, which is where Batiste went to school.

Batiste's music company tweeted the link to the music video Friday, calling it a "tribute to New Orleans."

The song's lyrics lend itself to be a happy anthem calling for acceptance in all forms.

According to Apple Music, Batiste described the song "Freedom" as "like an old movie," comparing the likeness of the video's movements to James Brown and Elvis.

If you think about movies back in the day, you wouldnt show a Black man with a white woman, or you wouldn't show a Black relationship, or you wouldn't show a woman in a certain role. That is our sexuality and how people are represented. That's what people like James Brown, or when we saw Elvis with the twist in the hips, did. They were unlocking something in people that they were trying to hold in. These people became beacons of freedom, and you look at the way they move and the way that they express who they are onstage. That becomes the way that you want to be in life," Batiste said.

'Freedom' is one of the songs on Batiste new album "We Are."

This content is imported from Twitter.You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Watch the video here.

This content is imported from YouTube.You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Read more here:

New Orleans' Jon Batiste new song 'Freedom' an ode to everything New Orleans - WDSU New Orleans

Prepare for a disappointment. No prime minister who is committed to an irreversible departure from lockdown and who has told world leaders that the same mistakes must not be repeated can now end it on 21 June. A delay is certain, given the dramatically worrying figures released by Public Health England on Friday about the growth and deadliness of the Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India.

Hopes that large gatherings such as weddings might be given the go-ahead if everyone attending is tested, even while the rule of six, mask wearing, working from home and social distancing rules remain, are looking wobbly. The US Food and Drug Administrations scathing criticism on Thursday about the effectiveness of Innovas lateral flow tests, widely used in Britain by NHS Test and Trace in a 3bn contract as part of Operation Moonshot, has forced a review that may lead to their suspension. Spending billions on a testing process only supported by scant and partial data was a risk too far.

As the EUs vaccination and testing programmes rapidly catch us up, the bloc is less exposed to the deadly Delta variant because the EU never risked the same volume of incoming travellers from India in April. (We were overly anxious about a potential post-Brexit trade deal.) And suddenly the UKs pandemic management is exposed as more erratic and the performance overall more ordinary.

Why, it will increasingly be asked, is there an ideological resistance to a Covid pass? Had there been one in use now or at least one planned the almost 30 million adults who have been fully vaccinated could have spearheaded a return to normality and so permitted the transitional risks on the way to a full relaxation to be much better handled.

The Delta variant is now the driver of the pandemic nine out of 10 new Covid-19 cases are Delta, reports Public Health England. It is 64% more transmissible than even the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, which so worried us earlier in the pandemic. Yes, those who are fully vaccinated are better protected but not completely. Twelve who have died from Delta were fully vaccinated.

In any case, only 54% of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Not even the World Health Organization can indicate what proportion of a population needs to be fully vaccinated to stem the spread of Covid-19, but it is certainly above 70% and may be above 80%.

Given the extraordinary transmission rate of the Delta variant, it would surely be prudent to get the proportion as close as possible to 80% by immunising another 15 million people.

Hence the imperative of delaying the ending of lockdown by at least four weeks to give the remaining 12 million people who have had their first jab their second, a feasible inoculation rate of about 3 million people a week, while giving some millions more, mainly the under-40s, their first jab that offers some protection. Then, and only then, can a further easing of lockdown rules be safely considered.

With the economy recovering, if more slowly than other industrialised countries, the economic costs compared with the risks of deaths and hospital admissions are trivial. The case for a four-week delay is open and shut.

It is all about the management of risk, as the Tony Blair Institute for Global Changes recent Less Risk, More Freedom paper argued, also proposing that the government should bring forward a Covid pass. Even when we hit, say, an 80% full-vaccination threshold, Covid will still be in circulation and the risk of catching Covid and suffering long-term consequences will remain very real, even if the risk of dying for the fully vaccinated will be tiny compared with now.

Here, the gulf between the political classs opposition to the idea of a pass and the view of the public is yawning and exposes the acute dysfunctionality of our democracy and the quality of its decision-making. It has become literally a matter of life or death.

The libertarian wing of the Tory party portrays a Covid pass as a menace to civil liberties, a forerunner of Big Brother surveillance that should be resisted to the last. The Labour party, meanwhile, climbing on what it imagines is the union jack bandwagon, proclaims the idea to be not very British and promoting vaccine apartheid. Both stances are wildly divorced from everyday experience.

What are you and I supposed to do in everyday life going to a pub, a concert, a sporting event, catching a train, shopping? At the moment, I know the rules, accept they work and can expect others to follow them and know that I am expected to follow them too. The risks are being collectively, socially managed. But when lockdown is over and the virus is still circulating,even though 70% to 80% of us may be fully vaccinated, I no longer have that assurance. The man without a mask coughing on the train or restaurant table next to me? Even if I am fully vaccinated, I run a risk and for many people that will be a risk too far. Recovery will be inhibited, not advanced.

Which is why the EU is introducing its digital Covid certificates for all its citizens from 1 July, leaving Britain behind. When the Office for National Statistics reports that 95% of us would accept vaccination if offered a number that is surely higher now given the evidence of vaccine effectiveness the threat of vaccine apartheid is wildly overstated.

It has not stopped Wembley, quite rightly, requiring everyone at Sundays England-Croatia game to provide evidence that they are either vaccinated or have tested negative. These checks should be improved and made universal.

Of course, the now 3% or 4% who dont want vaccinations on principle should be respected, but that cannot veto the freedoms of all, including the freedom to travel. This is not Big Brother or unBritish: it is the social management of risk for all our betterment a cardinal Labour principle.

Lets delay the end of lockdown for at least a month. Lets vaccinate at least another 12 million people before we do. And lets introduce a Covid passport.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist

See the original post:

Its too soon to end lockdown. But give us the best route to early freedom Covid passports - The Guardian

Its very like a mirage, isnt it, the route out of lockdown? From Aprils distance, freedom day, 21 June, seemed likely to the point of being inevitable. It was so obviously going to happen that there wasnt much else to be said, beyond: Oh ho, thats convenient, isnt it, so close to the prime ministers birthday on 19 June?

I was planning a housewarming, delayed since November. Mr Z absolutely loves parties gigantic ones. His ideal scenario is to pack a room so tight that somebody will definitely get set alight because, in the end, with enough candles and enough bodies, its just a numbers game and the only creature who can move around freely is a cat (which we dont have), like in Breakfast at Tiffanys. You can raise any objection 200 people? Really? What will they all eat? and his answer is always: Frazzles.

By May, we were talking about the Delta variant and Boris Johnson was saying there was nothing to worry about, which is a very decipherable code for: This is the point to start worrying.

The mirage was still very much intact, for me. Its just the orientation of my character. There was the bright, sparkling pool though, OK, it was starting to shimmer suspiciously and maybe those distant wildebeest were looking a bit hazy. Last month, we were still very much having a party we just hadnt invited anyone. Your basic Kevin Costner play: if you build it (in your mind), they will come. They just dont know it yet.

It wasnt the only event hanging on the road map. A young relative is getting married at the end of June and counting on the government lifting the 30-person limit on English weddings. Its my family reunion at the start of July, when all the core Williamses from across the country congregate in a house and go: This was much more convenient when we did it in Nottingham, and: Ah, but when we went to Newport, the Isle of Wight contingent was there and theyre the funny ones. Then we start to rank branches of the family in order of conviviality and then we have a fistfight. Im least worried about the reunion, as we didnt do it last year, for the first time that I can remember, and relations between us all have never been better.

Im most worried about the wedding. In your middle years, on your second or third marriage, you have quite a lot of flexibility around nuptials. They can be delayed, or the wedding breakfast can be replaced with a scone at the last minute, and nobody minds, because its more or less what they expected of you.

In the first flush of youth, a wedding is like a planet: loads of satellites hanging off it, hens and stags, honeymoons and rehearsals, post-match analysis barbecues. Six months ahead of the event, youve already been arguing about the guest list for what feels like half your life. If you have to knock down the numbers, you will inevitably lose untold deposits to marquee suppliers and macaron-mongers, whose contracts are so watertight they ought to have a side-hustle in international law.

The UK Weddings Taskforce estimates that 50,000 weddings have been planned for the four weeks from 21 June. It helpfully calculated the number of individual stems of flowers that would go to waste if the lockdown doesnt end (300m), the amount of food in tonnes (275). If you picture the volume of cake, the tragedy of cancellation becomes mountainous. But its so much worse than that it knocks the stars out of alignment. Some time soon, therell be a plague of mice.

By the start of June, the government was still gung-ho, but key newspapers broadly speaking, the ones that you should always take with a pinch of salt except when they are delivering bad news while the official line is still good news were speculating that, on a data not dates approach, the data wasnt in our favour. Rishi Sunak signalled to this paper that he was comfortable with a four-week delay, which is chancellor-speak for: If anyone makes the wrong call and we end up in a third wave, dont stick it on me. At least someones thinking ahead.

Now, were almost close enough to touch the freedom. The most up-to-date rumours are that the full lifting is unlikely, but the rules for weddings will be eased, so maybe the prime minister is of my mind about the cake (and the mice). People up and down the country are making the best choices they can with the information in front of them, of which there isnt any.

Johnson is in Cornwall for the G7 summit, nosing up to the hardest of hard deadlines to make the decision. He took a plane there, which doesnt have the best optics the carbon profligacy of air travel and all that but he probably didnt mean to. Most likely, he meant to get a train and missed it only after a cascade of other, also missed, appointments. You should beware of thinking about this too deeply, since youll land on: A man who finds it this hard to say whether or not a party will be allowed next week realistically, how useful is he going to be on the global challenge of the climate crisis? And then youll really be spooked; freedom or no freedom, mirage or no mirage, youll forget you were even thirsty.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

See more here:

Were almost close enough to touch freedom. But is the end of lockdown a mirage? - The Guardian

Will oppose fringe politicians trying to create barriers to voting

With some politicians spreading lies about our elections to divide us, Governor Tom Wolf today vowed to protect the freedom to vote and oppose legislation that would create barriers to voting and silence the voices of some Pennsylvanians. These are the same lies that led directly to the appalling assault on our U.S. Capitol and our democracy on January 6, and now, just a few short months later, the same people who fomented, encouraged, and joined that mob are again emerging to undermine the fabric of our nation.

Pennsylvanians deserve leaders who deliver for our families and uphold our rights, said Gov. Wolf. Today, I reaffirm my commitment to the people of this commonwealth that I will always uphold our democracy. I will stand up for your freedom to vote, and I will not allow bad actors to put up barriers to voting.

Not only will I stand against any efforts to roll back our freedoms, I will continue to push for changes to take down the barriers that still exist.

Some bad actors in the legislature and across the country are spewing debunked conspiracy theories as they try to undermine confidence in the November election and its outcome. In Arizona, fringe politicians have forced a sham audit that is an embarrassing and chaotic mess, and it is dividing the public and Republican politicians.

Some Republicans are wasting taxpayer money so they can spew dangerous lies to divide the people and spread doubt about an election. The infighting theyve created, the lies theyve spread, and the public money and resources theyve wasted to do it is shameful.

Pennsylvanias 2020 election was fair and secure, and the results were confirmed by two separate professional audits that were scientific and transparent. There was no evidence of fraud in Pennsylvanias election, and state and federal courts have extensively reviewed the allegations and repeatedly dismissed legal challenges. Politicians who continue to imply otherwise are disrespecting every election worker and volunteer who carried out their duties in November during a pandemic and historic turnout.

The governor was joined by Acting Secretary of State VeronicaDegraffenreid for a press conference at the Camp Curtin YMCA, which is a polling place in Harrisburg.

Election officials in each of Pennsylvanias 67 counties already have completed two audits of the 2020 election results, said Secretary Degraffenreid said. Audits follow processes and procedures. They are scientific. They are bipartisan and they are transparent.

Gov. Wolf also reaffirmed to the people of Pennsylvania that he will protect our democracy and will oppose efforts to roll back mail-in voting, impose unnecessary voter ID limitations or encourage the same dysfunction and chaos occurring in Arizona.

It is wrong to pass laws that take away someones freedom to vote for your own political gain, said Gov. Wolf. We have not forgotten the insurrection that took place in our nations capital less than six months ago. Lies and disinformation about fair elections drove our nation to the brink of disaster on January 6, and now the same people who spread those lies, who encouraged the mob that attacked our nations leaders, are attacking the freedom to vote.

Pennsylvania voters have embraced the new freedom to vote by mail, which is made possible by Act 77, the landmark voting law passed with bipartisan support before the pandemic. In the November 2020 election, more than 2.6 million mail and absentee ballots were cast, 38 percent of the 6.8 million ballots cast in the election.

Original post:

Gov. Wolf Vows to Protect the Freedom to Vote Amid Attacks on Our Democracy - pa.gov

In previous years, Muslims in America faced various obstacles on the path to the American dream ranging from Trump-era policies, such as the controversial "Muslim ban," to widespread racist statements and remarks from both politicians and ordinary citizens.

As Anti-Muslim hate infiltrates the U.S. Congress putting pressure on lawmakers the row between one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, Ilhan Omar, and a Jewish group of Democrats peaked on Thursday following a tweet in which Omar seemingly compared the United States with the Taliban.

"Freedom of speech doesn't exist for Muslim women in Congress," Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said on Twitter. Her tweet came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats said in a joint statement that drawing any comparison between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban "foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all." Tlaib said the House Democratic leadership should be "ashamed of its relentless, exclusive tone policing of Congresswomen of color."

"The benefit of the doubt doesn't exist for Muslim women in Congress," she wrote, adding that she was tired of colleagues "demonizing" Omar.

"Their obsession with policing her is sick," Tlaib said.

This week's flareup involving Omar, 38, was the most recent instance in which she has clashed with fellow Democrats over the Middle East. Two months after she arrived in Congress in 2019, the House approved a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry without mentioning her after she made remarks that critics say accused Israel supporters of having dual allegiances.

The latest confrontation between Omar and fellow Democrats began when she tweeted a Monday exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a video conference in which she called for justice "for all victims of crimes against humanity. In remarks that drew the most attention, she said, "We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Late Wednesday, Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill. and 11 other Jewish House Democrats issued a statement labeling those remarks offensive and misguided. They said she should "clarify what she meant.

On Thursday, Omar tweeted that it was "shameful that fellow Democrats who sometimes seek her support on issues did not ask her for an explanation by simply calling her. She also states that her comments were "not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel."

"The islamophobic tropes in this statement are offensive. The constant harassment & silencing from the signers of this letter is unbearable, she wrote.

"Every time I speak out on human rights I am inundated with death threats, she wrote in another tweet where she posted an excerpt of an expletive-laden voice mail she said she had just received with a caller saying he hopes she gets "whats coming for you.

Muslims are terrorists. And she is a raghead n*****. And every anti-American communist piece of s*** that works for her, I hope you get whats f***ing coming for you, the man's voice could be heard saying.

Omar also said her comments did not reflect prejudice and she cited an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation on the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"You might try to undermine these investigations or deny justice to their victims, but history has taught us that the truth cant be hidden or silenced forever, she wrote. In her later statement, Omar said her conversation with Blinken "was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel. I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems.

Omar, an immigrant from Somalia, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2018. In April 2019, she said she faced increased death threats after President Donald Trump spread a video that purports to show her being dismissive of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She also became embroiled in controversy following her remarks criticizing Israel's influence on U.S. foreign policy. Omar is part of a group of like-minded congresswomen known as "The Squad," who are admired on the left for challenging the Washington status quo since taking office in January 2019.

Mehdi Hasan, a host on "The Mehdi Hasan Show" on MSNBC and NBC's Peacock TV, also defended Omar Thursday by saying that "Muslim Americans are fed up of constantly being accused of supporting terrorism including by liberals and Democrats! when they/we simply make factual points about international law or foreign policies or war crimes. Its cynical, dehumanizing and, yes bigoted."

In 2018, Tlaib and Omar became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush, also a member of The Squad, said she expects criticism from Republicans, but it was "especially hurtful that Omar was facing backlash from Democrats. "Were your colleagues, she tweeted. "Talk to us directly. Enough with the anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.

Original post:

No freedom of speech for Muslim women in Congress: US Rep Tlaib | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

Staff report| Erie Times-News

Macy's fireworks kicks off Fourth of July celebrations in New York

Macy's has staged several secret fireworks displays across New York up until the Fourth of July to keep crowds from gathering during the pandemic.

USA TODAY, Storyful

In this moment, what does freedom mean to you?

As we approach the July Fourth holiday, it's a good time to reflect on the past 15 months of COVID lockdowns, video conferences, vaccines, a contentious election season and our own various setbacks and successes in the daily rhythms of life.

So with that, we're interested in how you define freedom right now.

Contact news director Christopher Millette at cmillette@timesnews.com or 814-870-1712.Include first and last name and your municipality of residence. If you send an email, include the word "freedom" in the subject line. We may contact you and include your thoughts and stories in an upcoming feature ahead of the holiday.

See more here:

Tell us: As July Fourth approaches, what does 'freedom' mean to you? - GoErie.com

This years Group of Seven (G-7) summit of world leaders will be on June 1113, at St. Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The summit brings together the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy. The G-7 need to act with unity to improve economic growth by recommitting to principles of economic freedom. Growth will both improve the lives of their citizens and assert the value of the freedoms that are fundamental to market democracies

The Group of Seven was founded in 1973 in the midst of then-unprecedented economic crises and amidst the need for unity among the worlds largest industrial democracies when the Soviet Union appeared to be winning the Cold War. Today, the need for unity is equally pressing, as the worlds democracies are being pushed both economically and politically by the power of China. If the G-7 refuse to stand by their principles and prefer instead to cut short-term deals with a regime that fails to respect human freedom, they will forfeit their claim to leadership.

Here are five key recommendations for G-7 leaders as they prepare to gather in the United Kingdom.

1. Back A U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Deal. The in-person June G-7 summit of heads of state will be President Bidens first. So far, his Administration has not taken a clear position on the direction of U.S. trade diplomacy. The U.S. has a great stake in the promotion of trade freedom, and, since 1945, the U.S. has led the way in the pursuit of lowering barriers to trade between the developed nations and around the world. Although the continuing threat to the world trading system from Chinas predatory and aggressively mercantilist practices must be steadfastly confronted and resisted by G-7 leaders, a wholesale retreat from U.S. post-1945 aims would both send a wider message of American withdrawal and be a fundamental policy error. The U.S. needs to take advantage of every opportunity to build on its post-1945 heritage of free trade among free nations.

The prospect of a U.S.U.K. free trade area is one such opportunity. U.S. policymakers should work as closely with the U.K. as possible. A free trade area between the U.S. and the U.K. would be a vital contribution to grounding that freedom in policies that would help restore prosperity. A U.S.U.K. free trade area should eliminate tariffs and quotas on visible trade, promote visa liberalization, develop new approaches to trade in emerging areas, and develop systems of mutual recognition of standards in high-value areas such as pharmaceuticals.

2. Advance U.S.European Trade Liberalization. Liberalizing trade between the U.S. and the European Union should be a transatlantic priority. The U.S. and the EU should be leading the way for free trade and should aim to abolish tariffs and non-tariff barriers that diminish the freedom to trade. An agreement that genuinely promotes free trade between the U.S. and the EU would benefit not just the economies of the two parties, but the rest of the world as well. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic shocks, the U.S. and the EU must learn from the failed Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Any new agreement should be negotiated rapidly and not fall into the trap of pursuing overly broad objectives that fail, thereby giving rise to further animosity.

The ultimate goal of any U.S.EU trade agreement should be to increase the amount of market-based competition in the transatlantic market. If the U.S. and the EU can agree on this, there is a basis for a robust U.S.EU trade agreement that will boost a U.S.European economic recovery. To get the best trade deal possible, the transatlantic community must refuse to fight protectionism with protectionism, avoid regulatory harmonization, and promote competition in the marketplace of public policy, just as it does in the market for goods and services.

3. Post-Pandemic: Promote and Protect Innovative G-7 Biopharmaceutical Sectors. Longstanding and vigorous protection of patents in the United States has stimulated unimaginable innovation and growth in the American biopharmaceutical sector. Thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the dedicated efforts of U.S. companies, vaccines to protect Americans and the rest of the world from the deadly COVID-19 virus were created, produced, and brought to market in record time.

The World Trade Organizations (WTOs) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement is the global mechanism to protect member countries intellectual property rights (IPR). Unfortunately, the Biden Administration supports the deliberate waiver of international IPR protections for American-made COVID vaccines. Other countries would be allowed to issue compulsory licenses to permit their domestic pharmaceutical companies to manufacture drugs invented and patented by (in this case) U.S. companies without adequate compensation.

The net result of compulsory licensing is to legalize the theft of the intellectual property of the vaccine innovators. A TRIPS waiver also signals that the United States will not seek to enforce IPR protections in other cases of infringements of American companies patents. Furthermore, and practically speaking, the actual manufacture and distribution of pirated American vaccinesa capital-intensive, state-of-the-art technological process that, among other things, requires an advanced infrastructure for cold supply-chain distributionby countries such as India and South Africa is not very realistic.

Germany and France have already indicated opposition to waiving TRIPS protections for vaccines. The Biden Administration should reverse course and join them. The U.S. should join with other G-7 nations in opposing the waiver of TRIPS under Article 31bis.

4. Maintain a Resolute G-7 Stand Against Predatory Tactics by China. Among the many downsides of the compulsory licensing of COVID vaccines produced by G-7 countries is the potential for the theft of those patents and illegal manufacture by the Peoples Republic of China. In the U.S., senators from both sides of the aisle have registered their alarm at exactly that possibility.

More broadly, as Heritage analysts have reported, the rise of China poses the most persistent and consequential economic, political, and military challenge that will confront the United States (and the rest of the G-7) for the next several decades. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, China served as an irresponsible global actor that threatened American interests and values worldwide. Evidence of this challenge affects a wide range of American interestsfrom freedom of the seas to the security of U.S. allies and even security at home, particularly in cyberspace.

The Biden Administration should continue the leadership demonstrated by the previous Administration to rally the G-7 to confront and push back against the threat to Western nations and their values from China. To deal with the China that has emerged on the global stage, G-7 allies must demonstrate the determination to protect their vital interests for the long term and sustain this determination through multiple generations of Chinese leadership.

5. Recommit to Promoting Economic Freedom Among Free, Market-Based Democracies. The annual Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom evaluates the extent and effectiveness of government activity in four key areas (rule of law, size of government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets) that are known to have a significant impact on levels of economic growth and prosperity. Policies that allow greater freedom in any of the areas measured tend to spur growth. Growth, in turn, is an essential element in generating more opportunities for people to advance themselves economically, thereby reducing poverty and building lasting prosperity

The data reported in the 2021 Index confirm the importance of economic freedom in promoting rapid growth and sustainable social progress. Citizens of free or mostly free countries enjoy incomes that are more than double the global average and more than six times higher than in repressed economies. Countries are free and prosperous due to robust and market-based economic growth. Massive government spending and controls hamper that growth.

People in economically free societies enjoy longer and healthier lives. They have access to higher quality social goods such as education, health care, and a cleaner environment. As economic freedom has grown since the end of the Cold War, the global economy has more than doubled, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and helping to promote more effective democratic governance.

G-7 nations are among the leaders in economic freedom globally. It is incumbent upon them to maintain that lead for the benefit of their own citizens and as an example to the world. The Biden Administration should insist that the final statement of the G-7 heads of state recommit their nations to the principles of economic freedom.

The G-7 leaders face a series of vital and interlinked challenges. As the world seeks to recover from the devastating personal and economic effects of COVID-19, the democracies are equally seeking to regain the initiative from the worlds autocracies. From Russias aggressions in the Caucuses and Ukraineand its murderous attack by poison in Salisbury, close to the route from London to St. Ivesto the much broader economic, security, and political challenge of China, the democracies are back on their heels, which is where they were when the G-7 first came together in 1973.

The United States must be clear in its principles, based on the foundations of economic freedom. If the U.S. does not stand by these principles, it will have neither the message nor the resources necessary to resist the autocracies. The solution to meeting the autocratic challenge rests in advancing free market policies that, undergirded by the rule of law and the protection of free speech and the other rights fundamental to all, create the conditions for job creation, economic growth, and human flourishing.

Ted R. Bromund is Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, at The Heritage Foundation. James M. Roberts is Research Fellow for Economic Freedom and Growth in the Center for International Trade and Economics of the Davis Institute.

Read more from the original source:

The G-7 Must Act with Unity for Growth and Freedom - Heritage.org

Early one morning in February, Keliss 11-year-old son, Knight, walked into the main house on the farm where they live two hours southeast of Los Angeles, and said, I see a foot hanging out of a sheeps butt. Until that moment, Kelis hadnt even known that the sheep was pregnant. Like so many of us, whenever Kelis doesnt know how to do something, she consults YouTube, whether its for guidance on canning the fruits and vegetables she grows on her farm or helping a sheep deliver a lamb, when she realized that the sheep was, in fact, pregnant and in labor. Kelis called her sister, who is a veterinarian. Keliss sister asked if she had gloves. She didntnot the kind shed need for the task at hand. But necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. Kelis had her son get a garbage bag, which she used to craft a makeshift glove, and then gently put her hand where it needed to go as she helped the sheep give birth to a ram. Not long after, another sheep went into labor with twins. This time Kelis was ready. Shes a fast learner. You become farm people quickly, Kelis told me. None of my friends wouldve pegged me as a farm person, but Im as farm as it gets at this point.

Lots of people, when they want to change their lives, talk about how theyre going to move to the country and live more simply, off the land. But Kelisa pop star with six studio albums and a song for the ages in her 2003 hit Milkshake, who has performed all over the world and collaborated with some of hip-hops and R&Bs biggest artistsactually followed through on her dream.

It was a bright, sunny day. Kelis was on her farm, a sprawling property in Temecula, California, surrounded by vineyards. She was sitting outside barefoot, hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, wearing a loose white T-shirt and camouflage pants. It all seemed very bucolic, enchanting even, and throughout our conversation she was brimming with joy and enthusiasm. By the end she had nearly convinced me to return to my Nebraska roots and take up farming. When the pandemic hit in March of last year, Kelis was in Europe, with Knight and her younger son, five-year-old Shepherd, in tow, touring in celebration of the 20th anniversary of her debut album, Kaleidoscope. But in an instant everything changed, and she was back home in California. She and her husband, photographer Mike Mora, had sold their L.A. home and bought the farm the previous summer.

None of my friends wouldve pegged me as a farm person, but Im as farm as it gets at this point.

It was jarring at first, to go from life on the road to the stillness of the country. But, Kelis said, It ended up being a blessing; I was able to be home and learn this land. The experience has become, she said, a second coming-of-age. She turned 41 during the pandemic. She had another baby last fall, a daughter who is now eight months old. She has been learning to live differently, and has started to rediscover herself in the process. After I had the babyIm 41. It wasnt the easiest, she said. It wasnt like when I gave birth to my older son when I was 29. Looking at how I was going to build myself back up, the first thing I started doing was the food, and I was able to get myself back to a place where I felt physically strong again.

The move also got Kelis thinking about Black bodies and how we nourish ourselves, how all too often we dont have access to the foods that would best serve us, and how since the beginning of the slavery era we have been pushed further and further away from who and what we once were. In 1920, roughly 14 percent of the countrys farms were run by Black people. Today that number has dwindled to less than 2 percent, or around 45,000 Black farmers, and the majority of those farmers do not own their own land. In cities, Black people often live in food deserts, areas where there are high rates of poverty and few or no grocery stores selling fresh food. The project of the food justice movement, and making fresh, healthy food accessible to Black and brown people everywhere, has become critically important.

We were proud agriculturists, Kelis said. The idea of farm-to-table is not a new, trendy thing. Thats an African concept. We were thriving because we were able to work the land in such a way that it was feeding our people and for generations. She sometimes encounters resistance among her family and friends. They will say things like, Black folks dont eat that. But we do, Kelis said. Because if its soul food, thats not really soul food. Thats American food, and theres nothing wrong with it. I love it. But when was the last time you saw cheese in any of the diaspora? When there is assimilation you lose something. Something has to be lost in order to properly assimilate. Part of being here is wanting to get some of that back and wanting to be able to have my children understand the balance of that. Its not to say we never have a burger. Thats ridiculous. But how do we gain some control back? How do I control the quality of what were intaking?

Kelis wasnt always so meditative about her new home. There was, as one might expect, a learning curve. The first month out here, I had a full-on panic, she said. What have I done? she asked herself, to which her husband responded: Yo. You did this.

I came out here with a completely different idea of what was going to happen. I really thought I was going to have cute farm things, and I was going to be cute.

Moving to the country wasnt spontaneous. She and Mora discussed the idea for years, but it took some time to find the right place. I dont think he really believed we were going to do it, she said. Early on, she thought shed be able to make life on the farm conform to who she was. That doesnt happen, she said. You change. I came out here with a completely different idea of what was going to happen. I thought I was going to be cute. I really thought I was going to have cute farm things, and I was going to be cute. That is not the case. Kelis has been busy cultivating the property, building an outdoor kitchen, and caring for the livestock (more than 30 animals, with names like Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, and Huey P. Newton) along with their Great Pyrenees, Grits, Biscuit, and Gravy. Finding her way has taken a combination of research and intuition. The ducks have been difficult to manage. The garden quickly became an overwhelming project as they expanded it too quickly. Rabbits are constantly attacking the produce. There are gophers burrowing around and birds swooping in. Kelis has had a really hard time with corn, and we bonded over this. My wife and I planted a few stalks in our garden last year, but, alas, they refused to thrive; by the end of the summer they had withered into dried stalks of nothing. Corn is hard, I lamented. She nodded vigorously.

Kelis is no stranger to food. Her mother was a chef and had a catering business. Kelis worked in her kitchen to stay out of trouble. But her mother, she said, was not a teacher. It was up to Kelis to watch, learn, and apply whatever knowledge she gleaned. Kelis often worried that her own cooking didnt measure up. But in 2008, she went to culinary school, at Le Cordon Bleu. It was there that she found her own voice. She has since released a cookbook, My Life on a Plate, and under the banner of her company, Bounty & Full, she now produces oils, salts, and her own line of signature sauces. Culinary school was such a defining moment, she said. I went in there cooking like my mom, and I left there with my own set of skills and tools.

Slowly but steadily, Kelis and her family have gotten a handle on things on the farm. They are growing kale, broccoli, herbs, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, eggplant, lettuce, arugula, different kinds of peppers. There is a citrus grove. There are olive trees from which she presses her own olive oil. Food, she said, just hits you differently when its from your own garden. I was like: Oh, my God, this arugula is, like, pow. It is so funky. It had so much flavor, she marveled. Its because we grew it hereliterally with sunshine and water and lots of prayer and positive thoughts.

Kelis is still working on new music. But there is something poetic about her latest turn. She is giving her children a legacyof land ownership, of what it means to be in control of the food you put into your body. Her boys play outside, get dirty, climb trees, learn how to grow and nurture things and be free. More than anything Kelis loves that she is giving them the experience of true power. No one dictates how they live on their small piece of earth. They are safe. They are as much in control of their lives as people can be. I asked Kelis what she hoped for her kids with this transition. She paused, then smiled. To be able to say: I belong here. I own this. Its mine, she said. I want them to have the proper understanding of what wealth is.

Hair: Maisha Oliver for Behind The Black Hat; Makeup: Alana Wright for Chanel Beauty; Manicure: Kimmie Kyees for Tammy Taylor.

GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF BAZAAR

Original post:

Kelis on Finding Freedom Through Farming - HarpersBAZAAR.com

All persons held as slaves shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.

In our day when attention-grabbing news that occurs anywhere can be common conversation everywhere within hours, Juneteenth is a bit hard to fathom. The news that millions of people were free took two-and-a-half years to travel from Washington, D.C., to Galveston, Texas.

While 1860s communication technology was primitive, the telegraph was capable of spreading such information across the country within a day or two. But a closer look at President Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation suggests why its news traveled so slowly.

Because the proclamation only applied to slaves in Confederate states, the South and its slaveholders had no incentive to comply until forced to do so. Meantime, it was in their personal interest to keep the news from their slaves.

The slaves in and around Galveston, Texas, only learned of their freedom on June 19, 1865, after Union forces landed there with the news both of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Confederate Armys surrender. Imagine the Galveston slaves joy upon suddenly learning that the War was over and they were free!

Juneteenth, as that event came to be called, has been a special time for African-Americans ever since. That it has not been observed more widely and universally over the 156 years since is yet-another indictment of American societys racial attitudes.

As the subject of racism in American life has returned to the forefront in recent years, one of the more positive things that has happened is that Juneteenth commemorations are becoming more numerous and widespread. And this isnt just occurring in major metropolitan areas with large black communities, but also in smaller, more rural communities that nevertheless have had significant black populations as a part of their heritage.

Thats been especially true here in the Alleghenies. Because so many of our communities were founded and developed around industrial mills and mines, African-Americans were drawn here as laborers during the Great Migration of people from the South to the Northeast and Midwest from 1916 to 1970.

Everett has a Juneteenth Program scheduled for June 19 at the Train Station Museum. Stories and displays will tell the history of African Americans in that community. For information, (814) 652-9174.

Johnstowns Juneteenth events have been on and off over the past decade but are back on in a big way this year. June 12 will feature a music festival with six performing acts, food and merchandise vendors at Peoples Natural Gas Park. Then there will be a variety of programs and activities June 13-19, mostly at Central Park. For information, visit the Johnstown Branch NAACPs Facebook page.

The City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have blossomed with Juneteenth programming over the past few years. From June 18-27, there will be a WPA Juneteenth and Black Music Festival along Fifth Avenue with three stages, a parade, 75 food booths and 40 exhibitors.

A Juneteenth National Freedom Day will take place over the weekend of June 18-20 at Mellon Park with entertainment, soul food, and vendors. Musical entertainment over the three days will range from a battle of the bands to hip-hop and classic soul.

For information on all of the Juneteenth activities in and around the Steel City, use Juneteenth Pittsburgh in your favorite search engine.

Juneteenth provides great opportunities to enjoy African-American culture in a positive way, learn history that we all need to know and ponder the reasons why it is taking so long for true freedom to reach Black people.

More here:

Celebrating the news of freedom | Local | huntingdondailynews.com - huntingdondailynews.com