Category Archives: Freedom

Kansans will be glad to see the last of Gov. Sam Brownback, whose disastrous supply-side economic policies have turned the state into a dysfunctional Brownbackistan with spiraling deficits and public services in tatters.

But Brownback, President Donald Trumps pick to lead the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, brings to the office a religious rsum that is bizarre to say the least.

A practicing Catholic himself, Brownback is closely linked with the New Apostolic Reformation. He has appeared at numerous NAR events, including The Response, the huge 2011 prayer vigil hosted by then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Brownback was the only other governor to attend); the Kettle Tour, a national series of events meant to link prayers to those of past generations; and four iterations of The Call, prayer rallies organized by NAR leader Lou Engle. Brownback was once even roommates with Engle for several months after his Washington, D.C., condominium burned down.

Brownback was pressured to denounce the movement, which many Pentecostal Christians believe to be a cult, in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He refused to do so, though he said Engle has said things I dont agree with and that they only worked together on human rights and helping people live better.

When Brownback won, NAR leader Chuck Pierce boasted that his prayers had gotten Brownback elected.

Modern Day Prophets

Its easy to see why Brownback wants to distance himself from the NAR as soon as you start learning about the NAR.

NAR founder C. Peter Wagner, Engle, Pierce, and other NAR leaders believe themselves be modern day prophets who will establish dominion over all aspects of American society to prepare it for the Kingdom of God.

For the NAR, the restoration of the Kingdom of God will be the result of active efforts on the part of these new prophets, including the dominion of Christians over the seven mountains of culture and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. When apostles hear the word of God clearly and when they decree His will, history can change, Wagner said in 2001.

The churchs vocation is to rule history with God, said Engle.

Because the NAR derives its authority not just from the Bible but also from present day prophecies, the results can be bizarre. For example, NAR leaders have ascribed the problems of citiesliberalism in general, but also specific disasters like earthquakes and terrorist attacksto the cities being controlled by demons. The demon Baal controls the Freemasons; the demon Jezebel controls the Democratic Party.

As The Daily Beast reported two years ago, Wagner said in 2011 that the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima was a result of the Japanese emperor having had sex with the sun goddess, that there is a lot of demonic control in Congress, that it is important to cast spells to protect politicians from witchcraft, and that non-Christian religions are part of the kingdom of darkness.

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His successor, Pierce, said in 2011 that God told him in 2005 that a black man would be elected president; that, in 2008, God said President Obama would cause the United States to split into two nations by abandoning Israel; and that the resulting civil war would tear down, raise up, overthrow, [and] rebuild our society. He added that Obamas 2011 speech about Israel had caused tornadoes in Missouri and that his own prayers can cause earthquakes (as well as electoral results).

Dominion Over United States Politics

Among all the various sects of the American fundamentalist right, the NAR is the most overt about seeking dominion over politics, culture, and all other aspects of daily life. As Pierces comments indicate, the NAR sees no distinction between secular and religious. It is uniquely unapologetic about obliterating the church-state line in order to bring about the End Times.

And, paradoxically, it is open about working in secret, holding that deceptive tactics are necessary to do Gods work.

In 2009, for example, two NAR prophets told Rick Perry that God had anointed Texas to lead the United States into revival and that Perry himself would play a central role. Perry, in turn, organized the Christians-only prayer rally the Response, which drew 30,000 people and which, Perry said, was based on a prophecy from the Book of Joel, which NAR leaders often cite.

Perrys 2012 and 2016 runs for president may have been a sideshow for most people, but for the NAR, they were the hoped-for culmination of dominion over United States politics. Sen. Ted Cruzs candidacy was also framed in explicitly messianic, dominionist terms by his father, Rafael Cruz, a well-known dominionist pastor not affiliated with the NAR.

It Is Time to Cause a Revolution

In this context, seemingly innocuous statements begin to take on a sinister resonance.

For example, at a Washington gathering of the Kettle Tour, Brownback said, Weve made it up the mountain a long way, but we have to make that final assault on the peak. We can make that final leap to the top, if we stay on our knees.

Innocent metaphor? Or reference to Seven Mountains dominionism, which refers to government and other institutions as mountains that must be conquered by believers?

Later, after becoming governor, Brownback declared several statewide Days of Restoration. Does restoration simply mean restoring Christianity to the center of American religious life, or does it refer to the NAR doctrine of restoration of Christian rule over the Earth?

In 2014, Brownback spoke at a Topeka prayer gathering whose organizer said, We need revival, we need a Great Awakening, but it is time to cause a revolution. We need to get some freedom fighters up and going to take this country back.

Typical Christian right rhetoric? Or something more literal and more ominous?

Or, as is more likely the case, something in between, with meanings elastic enough to mean different things to different people?

Even the human rights work that Brownback said he did with Engle, including staged apologies to Native Americans and African Americans, were part of the NAR policy of Identificational [sic] Repentance and Reconciliation, aimed at removing barriers that prevent non-white people from becoming evangelical Christians.

According to Wagner, these barriers are actually demons such as Baal, Leviathan, and the Queen of Heaven, fed by the sins committed against these groups. Brownbacks apology to Native Americans was literally an exorcism.

Redefining Religious Freedom for the World

Once again, the trouble with people like Brownback isnt the beliefsits the actions.

As governor, Brownback delivered on his dominionist promises. He convened multiple prayer gatherings and campaigns. He regularly consulted with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. And he issued a wild executive order in 2015 decrying the recent imposition of same sex marriage by the United States Supreme Court and specifically exempting all religiously affiliated organizations from having to recognize legal same-sex marriages or accommodate them in any way.

As the United States new point man on religious freedom, Brownback will surely take his expansive redefinition of religious freedom onto the international stage. Programs that empower women violate the religious freedom of religious conservatives. LGBT equality is against religious freedom. Promoting anything other than the so-called natural family is against religious freedom as well.

Indeed, its an easy step from the dominionist notion that religion must be all-pervasive in all aspects of society to the redefinition of religious freedom to allow discrimination in the workplace, discrimination on the part of public employees, and nullification of legal marriages. There is no place for the secular in this understanding of religion.

Brownback and his allies in the NAR already have a built-in international network of religious extremists. The sponsors of Ugandas Kill the Gays law, for example, were trained by Kansas Citys International House of Prayer, affiliated with Lou Engle, and Engle frequently exhorted his followers to support the backers of the bill.

We dont know, thanks to Brownbacks equivocation, how much of the dominionist theology of the NAR he believes and how it might impact his actions in his new international role.

Does Brownback see his role as a secular one promoting the value of religious freedom for people of all faiths? Or does he, like his partners in numerous religious events and political initiatives, see it as a divinely ordained mission? Or, once again, somewhere in between? Does the United States chief international representative for religious freedom believe that he must rule history with God?

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Does Trump Religious Freedom Pick Sam Brownback Believe in Dominionism? - Daily Beast

The White House wants to rebrand an Obamacare effort on Capitol Hill, endorsing the term freedom bill on Thursday over "skinny repeal," as people following the Senate Republican push have been calling the plan.

Look, the administrations been working hand in hand on pushing repeal and replace of Obamacare, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. We actually like the term freedom bill a lot better because we think it addresses what this bill actually is.

Story Continued Below

Senate Republicans believe the skinny repeal legislation that, rather than totally repealing the 2010 law, would gut Obamacares individual and employer coverage mandates may be their only hope to pass a bill and move to talks with the House about health care legislation.

Despite its nickname, health policy experts say the skinny repeal could destabilize Obamacares insurance markets, spiking premiums and raising the number of uninsured Americans by millions.

But the nickname also could make the skinny repeal a tough sell to constituents because it suggests its a minimized form of the full repeal of Obamacare that Republicans have campaigned on for seven years,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed his caucus Thursday outlining the bills provisions. The employer mandate would be repealed for at least six years or eight years, according to sources who viewed the email.

The chamber will hold a series of votes later Thursday in a "vote-a-rama" to test what senators will support in an Obamacare replacement bill.

It removes a lot of those mandates that allow people to have the type of freedom, have states have the freedom that they want, Sanders said of the skinny bill, and that was one of the big priorities for this administration. Were, you know, happy about that progress, and were gonna wait and see where this bill ends up later this evening.

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Continued here:

White House tries to rebrand 'skinny' Obamacare repeal as 'freedom bill' - Politico

Fact meets fiction in director Christopher Nolans Dunkirk, the latest film to dramatise the second world war. Photograph: Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

Four generations have been born since the end of the second world war. The infants of today Generation Z in demography-speak arethe great-great-grandchildren of the wartime generation. Since the defeat of Germany and the capitulation of Japan, countless terrible conflicts have been fought, andtens of millions have died in them. Indeed the numbers killed in wars since 1945 will, in the coming decades, inevitably exceed the death toll of the second world war. Yet even as we approach the third decade of the 21st century, and as 1945 slowly slips beyond living memory, it remains the case that when we talk about the war, everyone understands that we are referring to the calamitous conflict of 1939-45.

The borders between numerous nations, the widespread acceptance of the principle of national self-determination, the transnational institutions that for 70 years have attempted to order theworld economy, and the political power still ascribed to the victorious nations of 1945 are all legacies of the war. Yet, as Keith Lowe powerfully argues, the seemingly simple fact that the war made the modern world does reward further examination. The conflict remains a staple of TV, publishing and cinema two second world war movies, Churchill and Dunkirk, are currently on release in the UK. Meanwhile, our understanding of what the war meant to the people whose lives it shaped both combatants and civilians is distorted by layers of myth, the lingering echoes of wartime propaganda and the act of forgetting.

In The Fear and the Freedom, Lowe asks us to question the most critical delusion of all: that the allied powers acted as morally as the circumstances would allow and that this war, more perhaps than any in history, was a good war, fought against an ultimate evil for entirely laudable aims. One of the more discomforting voices raised against this view of the war comes from Yvette Lvy, a Jewish inmate of a Nazi labour camp in Czechoslovakia. She saw little to distinguish the conduct of her various liberators. The Tommies, she says, behave just as bad as the Russians The English soldiers said they would give us food only if we slept with them. We all had dysentery, we were sick, dirty and here was the welcome we got! The notion of allied moral purity is further undermined by Lowes account of the mass rape of German women and widespread looting by the Red Army in 1945.

As a historian of the modern era, Lowe enjoys an enormous advantage over scholars who write about more distant epochs: he is able for the moment at least to draw into his writing the experiences of those who lived through the conflict. Perhaps no historian since Gitta Sereny, in The German Trauma, hasgrasped that opportunity as firmly as Lowe, or done so much with it.

As every journalist knows, the art ofthe interview rests on two principles: asking the right questions and putting them to the right people. With journalistic nous, Lowe has assembled a remarkable chorus of voices and asks the most probing of questions. Their testimony, combined with the authors pointed analysis, elevates a laudable volume into a very readable and startling book.

These are not well-rehearsed stories, worn thin by overtelling. We hear from Leonard Creo, a decorated former GI, aveteran of a war in which all allied soldiers, whether frontline troops or back-office clerks, were designated heroes. From old age he recognises that his single, dramatic experience of combat made him neither hero nor victim. For him, the war and the American GI Bill opened doors to opportunities that would otherwise have remained closed. Another of the more memorable voices is that of Ken Yuasa, a former Japanese army surgeon, who expresses acceptance and guilt. He was one of the infamous doctors who practised surgical procedures on innocent Chinese peasants. These dehumanised human guinea pigs died on the operating table. Only when Yuasa read the words of the mother of one of his victims was he able to acknowledge his crimes.

Disturbing in a different way is the testimony of those who found the war exhilarating. Consider Ogura Toyofumi, a witness to the nuclear attack onHiroshima, who recalls marvelling at the destruction and the loss of life, finding himself able to locate beauty inthe atomic flash and its aftermath.

Lowe shows how the conflict was not just European but fought across the world by people of many different nationalities

Established beliefs are thrown into question. The famous postwar interview in which Robert Oppenheimer tearfully recalled how the scientists ofthe Manhattan Project reacted to thesuccessful test detonation of the atomic bomb is overturned by one of the books most remarkable passages. Oppenheimer did, as he later explained, recite a line from The Bhagavad Gita: Iam become Death, the destroyer of worlds. But he spoke these words of Lord Vishnu not while lamenting the manifest horror of the weapon he had helped bring into existence, but while strutting around like Gary Cooper in the Hollywood western High Noon.

The second world war is still too often written about and imagined as essentially a European conflict. Lowe shows how it was fought across the globe by people of many different races and nationalities. Adding to this global perspective are the insights of Sam King, a celebrated Jamaican-born RAF veteran. Kings story helps Lowe make one of his more nuanced points that the war was as capable of generating diversity as it was of drawing lines of ethnic division on the new map ofEurope.

It has been said that the most impressive and worrying features of human behaviour is our capacity to adapt to the most terrible of circumstances. As one of the messages of theBritish war recently turned into anostalgic cliche suggests, most people have the capacity to keep calmand carry on. Yet the testimony in these pages demonstrates that adaptation to the extremes and horrors ofwar was made possible only by the forging of myth. Both combatants and civilians came to define the war as a clear-cut struggle between good and evil, or as a conflict that would save future generations from the abyss. This myth was an essential tool of survival. Now it is an obstacle to a proper understanding of how this most terrible of allwars continues to shape our lives.

David Olusogas Black and British: A Forgotten History is published by Macmillan. The Fear and the Freedom is published by Viking. To order a copy for 21.25 (RRP 25) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

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The Fear and the Freedom by Keith Lowe the moral surprises of the second world war - The Guardian

The Trump administration has approved a plan to regularise US freedom of navigation operations against Chinas claims and actions in the South China Sea. The White House will now know in advance about upcoming patrols, which will supposedly quicken the approval process. An official said this means operations will be implemented on a very routine, very regular basis. The US move could lead to dangerous misunderstandings and be counterproductive.

Under the Obama administration, the Defence Department (Pentagon) forwarded requests for such operations to the National Security Council (NSC), where they would often languish, over concern about getting anybodys feathers ruffled, the official said. Indeed, the Obama administration paused freedom patrols in the South China Sea from 2012 to 2015 and only approved a few last year, apparently so as not to upset relations with China.

The operations were requested, considered, and approved on a case-by-case basis, a process subject to delays at each level of decision making. This sometimes resulted in their implementation being interpreted as a response to some transgression by China, rather than routine operations.

Many Southeast Asian countries perceive these provocative probes as political statements

Joseph Liow of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies observes that the frequency of such patrols is often seen as a litmus test, for better or worse, of American commitment. Indeed, many Southeast Asian countries perceive these provocative probes as political statements. Some at home and abroad argue that these patrols are the tip of the spear of a strategy to support the US hub-and-spoke regional security architecture, and to persuade China to comply with the international rules-based order.

This order includes the Hague arbitration decision against Chinas nine-dash line sovereignty claim in the South China Sea. Indeed, despite US attempts to downplay the political meaning of the operations, most Asian nations, including China, interpret them as a signal of US resolve to remain the dominant power in the region.

Early in the Trump administration, requests for freedom operations against China were still not being approved. When US anti-China analysts and politicians complained, it was explained that Defence Secretary James Mattis did not want to approve patrols there until an overall strategy was devised. In May, a bipartisan group of senators formally urged the Trump administration to restart the patrols, arguing that: US engagement in the South China Sea remains essential to continue to protect freedom of navigation and overflight and to uphold international law.

Subsequently, the US conducted three such patrols in the South China Sea, the first on May 24, when the destroyer USS Dewey sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.

Under the new plan, patrol requests will be forwarded by the Pentagon simultaneously to the NSC and the State Department to ensure they do not conflict with any diplomatic strategy or initiatives. This is supposed to speed up approval, but therein lies a problem.

If there is disagreement or, as rumoured, unusual tension between State, Defence and the White House, a request may still be delayed or modified in favour of diplomatic concerns. This means patrols will still be approved on a politically determined case-by-case basis, and a counterproductive cycle will begin all over again.

It would start with raised expectations of aggressive navy operations, a delay in implementation resulting in recriminations from the anti-China commentariat and angst among fence-sitting friends and allies, and culminating in a knee-jerk, catch-up response.

This would confuse friend and foe alike, and could have dangerous consequences, such as underestimating US resolve or intent.

The second problem is that freedom operations are ineffective. China has not ameliorated its claims or militarisation of features it occupies in the South China Sea, and is unlikely to do so, regardless of the frequency and nature of the US patrols. It may even respond to these regularised operations rather negatively.

On July 2, the USS Stethem sailed within 12 nautical miles of Chinas long-claimed and occupied Triton Island in the Paracels. Harshly condemning the act, Chinas defence ministry said it seriously damaged the strategic mutual trust and undermined the political atmosphere surrounding the development of Sino-US military ties. It warned that the Chinese military would bolster its efforts in the waters including an increase in the intensity of air and sea patrols according to the extent of the threat that its national security is facing.

Moreover, this is counterproductive to Donald Trumps lets make a deal approach to foreign policy. The USS Stethem incident occurred just hours before Trump called President Xi Jinping () to urge China to do more to help with restraining North Korea. Not surprisingly, Xi told Trump during the call that negative factors were affecting US-China relations.

As professors Peter Dutton and Isaac Kardon of the US Naval War College put it: Conflation of routine naval operations with the narrow function of a formal FONOP needlessly politicises this important programme, blurs the message to China and other states in the region, blunts its impact on Chinas conduct, and makes the programme less effective in other areas of the globe.

Why do them at all? The US could protect its legal position by declaring it and recording its objections in diplomatic statements and communiqus, rather than resorting to what some see as gunboat diplomacy. The diplomatic option seems to be sufficient for many other nations whose rights the US claims to be protecting. This programme of freedom patrols against China should be re-evaluated as to its effectiveness and necessity.

Mark J. Valencia is an adjunct senior scholar at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Haikou, China

Read the original:

US 'freedom' patrols in the South China Sea are risky, and may backfire if China is pushed too far - South China Morning Post

The first trailer for CW Seed's Freedom Fighters: The Ray has arrived. The animated series is set in the same continuity as other CW superhero shows, but is set on an alternate universe (like Supergirl) where the Nazis won World War II.

Check it out:

And here's the official description:

Raymond Ray Terrill was a reporter who discovered a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction. But before he could report on his findings, the project head exposed Ray to a genetic light bomb. The bomb failed to kill him and instead gifted Ray with light-based powers. With these abilities, Ray realized he could go beyond reporting on injustice he could take action to help stop it. Calling himself The Ray, he was recruited by Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to fight violence and oppression wherever it exists.

The series will feature other Freedom Fighters incuding Black Condor and Red Tornado.

Freedom Fighters: The Ray debuts on CW Seed later this year.

Originally posted here:

First FREEDOM FIGHTERS: THE RAY Trailer - Newsarama

On a hot and languid morning in the city, as police made their usual patrols on littered streets with boarded-up buildings, a jubilant scene bloomed inside the gymnasium of Thirman L. Milner School.

Hip-hop thumped from a portable speaker at half court, the post-breakfast soundtrack for dozens of Hartford children who freestyled dance moves with shoulder leans and leaps into the air, fists raised to the ceiling minutes of unabashed joy that cut through the gym's stuffy humidity.

The elementary students were here for a summer literacy program called Freedom School, and for many there was nowhere else they'd rather be.

When the school's namesake arrived in his tan suit and offered a "good morning," the response for 83-year-old Thirman Milner, who was Hartford's first African American mayor, came to the beat of a drum.

"G-O-O-D M-O-R-N-I-N-G!" the kids chanted, before translating the greeting to Spanish. "Buenos dias!"

Midway through the six-week Freedom School program, a national initiative in its second summer at Milner, students had become well-versed in Afrocentric call-and-response, in affirmation and exultation, in letting their guard down enough to dream. They had taken field trips to farms, museums and bowling alleys, and picnicked near the pristine roses of Elizabeth Park, less than three miles from Milner's concrete courtyard.

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

Milner is a chronically low-performing neighborhood school in the North End. During Freedom School, children are told that they can be good readers and that they are worthy.

Messages of self-empowerment, and of helping one's community, are in the songs they sing and the culturally relevant books they read. As a guest reader that morning, Milner, the ex-mayor, brought a children's book version of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

"It builds their confidence up to make them believe in themselves that they can do anything," said Tamara Jones Roberts, one of the Milner mothers who took cellphone photos of their children dancing in the gym. The free spirit is part of a morning ritual called "Harambee!," which the program translates to "let's pull together" in Swahili. Students at the Milner site range from kindergartners to those who just finished third grade.

"Sometimes, outside of school," Roberts said, "they don't get that positive energy."

The network of Freedom Schools was founded by the Children's Defense Fund and the Black Community Crusade for Children in the 1990s, rooted in social justice tenets dating back to the civil rights movement. Now the Children's Defense Fund oversees sites in more than 25 states across the country, including three Freedom Schools in Connecticut all in north Hartford, where the programs preach a love for reading as an antidote to the blight of poverty.

Educators for Freedom Schools say the immediate goal is to stem summer reading loss, although the bigger vision revolves around literacy as power and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately hurts black and Latino students.

"We don't want them to slip off in the summer," said Danny Baker, 23, of Hartford, one of the college students helping out children at Milner's Freedom School. "We want them to know that learning is a year-round thing ... . And I tell my students that they are the best, so don't let anybody tell them they're less than that."

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

A Hartford church group hosted an early version of the summer program in the mid-'90s, recruiting college students known as "crusaders" who helped students with their academics and self-esteem.

It would be another two decades before the current model took root in Connecticut's capital. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, gave a speech at the University of Hartford three months after the Dec. 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

Addressing hundreds in the audience, Edelman "challenged us to start Freedom Schools to have a more peaceful environment, so that's how it started," said Marge Swaye, a former director of literacy and language arts for the Hartford school system who helped set the wheels in motion.

The Women's League Child Development Center on Main Street, near SAND School, became a Freedom School site last summer and hosts 50 elementary students with $62,000 in funding, Swaye said. Milner's program is sponsored by Christian Activities Council, a community organizing group down the street from the school that raised $100,000 from a mix of public, church and philanthropic sources for the full-day program that regularly draws about 75 students who attend for free.

"It's designed to infuse a social-action component into literacy," said Cori Mackey, executive director of Christian Activities Council. "It really fits our mission of developing leaders."

Phillips Metropolitan CME Church on Main Street also hosts a Freedom School in a modified program, said Swaye, who is looking to expand to more Hartford schools and community groups.

The Hartford school system provides breakfast and lunches, as well as certified teachers in the case of Milner, which is designated as one of the district's Early Start summer schools. While not all of the Freedom School students at Milner attend the school during the regular academic year, many of them do and school leaders say it is critical to improve their reading skills by third grade.

Third-grade reading is a fundamental benchmark in education: Research has shown that children who fall behind at this pivotal point are less likely to graduate from high school, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Year to year, test scores show that few Milner third-graders are proficient in reading.

Experts say this achievement gap is why summer literacy initiatives are especially crucial for children in poor neighborhoods, who are more prone than wealthier students to losing reading skills during the extended break. Upper-income families have more resources to invest in camps, lessons or arrange for other structured activities that often weave in literacy, such as writing a script for a play at summer camp, said Catherine Augustine, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation.

Milner teacher Susan Hunt-LaKose, who usually teaches fifth grade during the year, said her Freedom School students had just read "Destiny's Gift" by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, the story of a local bookstore on the verge of shutting down because rent is too high. An African American girl named Destiny, who loved hanging out at the store, rallied the community to try to save it.

"All you heard was, 'This reminds me of ... ,'" Hunt-LaKose said of her students. "It empowers them, even from a young age, to know that they make a difference."

Program leaders at Women's League and Milner said they assessed a sample group of students last summer, and found that at the end of the program, the vast majority had maintained or improved their reading level. Hunt-LaKose, in her second Freedom School summer, said the book selections with themes such as immigration and overcoming racism are enticing for kids because they can connect the reading to their everyday lives.

In a Milner classroom, students were asked what special talents they could use to help their community. Cesar Feliz, 7, who will be entering third grade soon, spoke of living his truest self.

"I'm just me. I'm my own person, and I will always be that person, and I will always be myself," Cesar told his teacher. "I am not a weapon I am me."

Go here to see the original:

At 'Freedom' Summer School, Hartford Students Get Immersed In Literacy And Liberty - Hartford Courant

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, STF

Click through to see lawmakers' reaction to the proposal.

Paul announced that he would not support the bill in its current form, but would be "open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor." He stated: "It does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.

Paul announced that he would not support the bill in its current form, but would be "open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor." He stated: "It

Cruz also announced that he will not support the bill in its current form. He states: "As currently drafted, this bill draft does not do nearly enough to lower premiums. That should be the central issue for Republicans repealing Obamacare and making healthcare more affordable. Because of this, I cannot support it as currently drafted, and I do not believe it has the votes to pass the Senate."

Cruz also announced that he will not support the bill in its current form. He states: "As currently drafted, this bill draft does not do nearly enough to lower premiums. That should be the

Lee also stated that he will not support the bill. He tweeted: "It does not appear that health care bill draft will repeal Obamacare and lower health care costs as we promised to do."

Lee also stated that he will not support the bill. He tweeted: "It does not appear that health care bill draft will repeal Obamacare and lower health care costs as we promised to do."

Johnson told reporters that he will not vote for the bill, and that Republicans and Democrats should start over on a bipartisan health bill.

Johnson told reporters that he will not vote for the bill, and that Republicans and Democrats should start over on a bipartisan health bill.

Collins was noncommittal, and her office issued the following statement: "Senator Collins will carefully review the text of the Senate health care bill this week and into the weekend. She has a number of concerns and will be particularly interested in examining the forthcoming CBO analysis on the impact on insurance coverage, the effect on insurance premiums, and the changes in the Medicaid program."

Collins was noncommittal, and her office issued the following statement: "Senator Collins will carefully review the text of the Senate health care bill this week and into the weekend.

Franken criticized the bill, tweeting: "Minnesotans understand that the GOP health care bill will harm the well-being of millions of people in our state and across the country."

Franken criticized the bill, tweeting: "Minnesotans understand that the GOP health care bill will harm the well-being of millions of people in our state and across the country."

Hatch praised the bill, stating: "The discussion draft released today is an important step in our effort to replace Obamacare with patient-centered reforms that address costs, provide more choices, and ultimately put Americans not Washington back in charge of their health care."

Hatch praised the bill, stating: "The discussion draft released today is an important step in our effort to replace Obamacare with patient-centered reforms that address costs, provide more

Heller expressed "serious concerns" about the bill and issued the following statement: "Throughout the health care debate, I have made clear that I want to make sure the rug is not pulled out from under Nevada or the more than 200,000 Nevadans who received insurance for the first time under Medicaid expansion. At first glance, I have serious concerns about the bills impact on the Nevadans who depend on Medicaid."

Heller expressed "serious concerns" about the bill and issued the following statement: "Throughout the health care debate, I have made clear that I want to make sure the rug is not pulled

Scott was supportive of the bill, calling it "a much better plan than Obamacare."

Scott was supportive of the bill, calling it "a much better plan than Obamacare."

Blunt offered his support of the bill, stating: "The draft health care legislation preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens Medicaid and does not change Medicare, gives people more health insurance choices, and allows people to stay on their family health insurance plan until they are 26...American families need a more reliable and affordable health care system, and this bill takes important steps in that direction.

Blunt offered his support of the bill, stating: "The draft health care legislation preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens Medicaid and does not change

Like other members of his party, Murphy unloaded on the bill. He tweeted: "No tweaks by amendment can fix this monstrosity. If you vote for this evil, intellectually bankrupt bill, it will ruin millions of lives."

Like other members of his party, Murphy unloaded on the bill. He tweeted: "No tweaks by amendment can fix this monstrosity. If you vote for this evil, intellectually bankrupt bill, it

Senate rejects health care measure with Cruz 'Freedom Option'

WASHINGTON A proposal containing Sen. Ted Cruz's measure to allow insurers to sell skimpier, low-cost policies next to Obamacare plans was voted down in the Senate Tuesday night.

The Texas Republican's "Consumer Freedom Option" was part of the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

NO. 1 ISSUE: Poll shows Americans rank it at the top for the first time

The vote came after Republicans were able to break an impasse and begin debating a long-delayed health care bill on the Senate floor.

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The 57-43 vote was three shy of the 60 needed to pass a procedural hurdle to advance the latest version of the bill.

The vote was among the first of dozens that are expected in the coming days as Republicans seek to fashion Obamacare replacement legislation.

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Senate rejects health care measure with Cruz 'Freedom Option' - Chron.com

A demonstration outside a courthousein Istanbul, Turkey in solidarity with the staff of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet on trial over alleged support to terrorist groups, July 24, 2017.

A journalist prosecuted for allegedly helping a group which he spent years criticizing in his work. Emails received but not answered from people the government views as undesirables, and newspaper clippings presented as evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A cartoonist in the dock.

Kafkaesque is an over-used term. But it seems appropriate when trying to capture the prosecution of 17 journalists, editors, and other staff at Cumhuriyet newspaper that began this week over charges that they have aided and abetted groups the government has designated terrorists.

That the groups in question the armed PKK group and the Gulen movement have diametrically opposed agendas hardly seems to matter.

And the evidence against the defendants appears to consist largely of the newspapers content: articles, op-eds, as well as social media posts and phone records. There appears to be nothing that would indicate any kind of criminal wrongdoing, much less helping terrorism.

Cumhuriyet has been in the states sights for some time. Its former editor Can Dndar and the Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gl were convicted in May 2016, and sentenced to more than five years imprisonment for allegedly revealing state secrets by publishing video and photographic evidence of arms being sent to Syria. They are still on trial in a separate process accused of aiding a terrorist organization. An opposition member of parliament alleged to have shared the footage of the arms transfers with the newspaper was jailed in June.

The Cumhuriyet staff are hardly alone. As a recent Human Rights Watch report showed, critical journalism has been under assault by the Turkish state for several years, with the crackdown greatly accelerating after the failed coup attempt in July 2016.

Over the past year, hundreds of outlets have been shuttered or taken over under state of emergency powers. More than 160 journalists and media workers are now in prison or pretrial detention, according to Turkish media watchdog NGO P24. They include 10 of the Cumhuriyet staff currently on trial.

For those hoping that the courts will see the flimsy evidence brought against journalists for what it is, it is worth noting that in March, a court ordered the release on bail of a group of journalists who had already been in pretrial detention for an extended period. But after criticism in pro-government media that decision was reversed and the judges involved were suspended from duty.

International scrutiny of Turkeys record on media freedom and solidary for its embattled journalists has never been more important.

Link:

In Turkey, Freedom of Expression is in the Dock - Human Rights Watch

Growth continues near Freedom Field

Jacob Reynolds, WMAZ 7:10 PM. EDT July 25, 2017

Sakari and Company

Growth continues near the Freedom Field area in Houston County.

Within the last year, the part of the County near Freedom Field has seen the addition of streetlights, sidewalks, and now a new traffic light.

Local store owners say the area's growth has been great for business and has brought new businesses in.

At Sakari and Company, the new traffic light at their intersection of Cohen Walker Drive and Lake Joy Road is good news.

Being in this location, we noticed that it was difficult for our customers to get here. It was just a weird intersection to be in. So, having that traffic light traffic is a little bit better and it's easier for people to get to our location which helps business, said store manager Lily Ricketts.

Shes been with the company for a year, and a manager at the three-month old clothing store since it opened.

They opened off Lake Joy Road to expand from their existing location in Cordele. Ricketts said they picked this site, because of Houston County's growth.

Knowing what it looked like five years ago, and seeing how it evolved to what it is now, we thought it'd be a good opportunity to be a part of its growth. Because, we saw what it did in a matter of five years, Ricketts said in their store around lunchtime.

Houston County and the City of Warner Robins have spent nearly a million dollars helping expand this part of the County.

That includes streetlights, sidewalks, recreational areas and the new traffic light.

David Dean owns The Butcher Shop off Lake Joy and 96. He says in his three years of ownership, sales have tripled thanks to growth around the store.

I've been here for 45 years and this used to be cow pastures out here. So I mean I've seen the growth ever since I've been here, but I mean yeah just in the last three years we can not only see the difference, but here at the store we've- our customer base has grown, Dean said in his office.

The new traffic light at Lake Joy Road and Cohen Walker Drive also means a smoother ride for his customers.

First of all, the intersection there is a lot easier, I've actually had customers tell me how much easier it is to get in and out of here, Dean said.

That's exactly what County leaders wanted. They said the light is meant to help the flow of traffic and improve safety.

The County spent roughly $200,000 from SPLOST funds to install the light and pedestrian signals.

Construction on the sidewalks along Cohen Walker Drive is still underway.

2017 WMAZ-TV

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Growth continues near Freedom Field area of Houston Co., including new traffic light - 13WMAZ

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Democrats came out Monday with their agenda for the 2018 election, and to everyone's surprise, it's not terrible. In fact, it's sorta half-decent!

The slogan is "A Better Deal," and the agenda includes anti-trust reforms, cheaper prescription drugs, and a plan to create 10 million jobs with infrastructure spending and tax credits. There's a lot to like here, particularly in the clever and true way Democrats cast anti-trust reforms as a way to increase Americans' freedom. But Democrats are also missing the chance to sell universal social programs this way. These programs also increase freedom the freedom to not have to choose.

Republicans (and a significant fraction of neoliberal Democrats) often fetishize choice. They use blatantly circular reasoning to present any free-market system as evidence of free choices being freely made. But this is nonsense. Market concentration often reduces freedom.

A deep market with lots of independent sellers is one thing. But a market with just a few or one seller is quite another. (For cable internet at my apartment in D.C., for example, I have the "choice" of Comcast or nothing.) The Better Deal agenda presents this quite nicely, showing that monopolies and oligopolies are not just economically inefficient, but also a sharp abridgment of individual liberty. People are forced not only to pay whatever the monopolist demands, but also to accept its (generally horrible) regulations of service.

Worse, unlike a government-run monopoly like the Post Office or a power utility, people have no democratic say in the operation of a monopoly. Its corporate management gets to invoke the violent authority of the state to enforce its (invariably foot-thick) contracts getting cops to drag a paying customer off a plane if the airline decides he doesn't get to fly, for example while making no concession to democratic oversight. It is, in essence, statist authoritarianism.

But another aspect of valorizing market choices as the fountainhead of freedom is how it implicitly leaves out non-market options in particular, the freedom to not choose. As anyone who has tried to corral a pack of millennials trying to figure out which bar to attend for happy hour can attest, making decisions takes work and the more complicated the decision, the more work it requires. Americans today are constantly forced to make staggeringly complex decisions about the most important issues of life health care, education, retirement, and more.

Even for people with good health insurance, simply accessing it properly is often a dreadful chore. You've got to make sure you've got the right program, correctly navigate the rapidly shifting coverage networks, and schedule an appointment all done under the looming knowledge that one screwup could cost thousands as the provider seizes the opportunity to mercilessly price-gouge an out-of-network patient. Afterwards, there's a good chance you're in for a prolonged battle with the provider and the insurer about who will pay and how much.

Wouldn't it be better and simpler to just have straightforward health coverage ensured by the government and not have to make all these frustratingly complex choices?

The experience of investing for retirement is even worse (though the potential negative consequences not as bad). Which mutual fund to select? What portfolio balance? How much to contribute? Answering these questions cleverly would be extremely challenging for average people even without the associated industry of swindlers who make their money tricking people into high-fee plans.

Then there is the sheer fact of having to interact with financial companies at all. Like many in my generation, coming of age precisely when Wall Street crooks blew up the world economy instilled a strong dislike for and suspicion of the financial system. Those feelings strengthened exponentially as I did more research and discovered the role of Big Finance in skyrocketing inequality, monopolization, and asset-stripping thousands of American companies as well as immense crimes like systematic mortgage fraud, money laundering for drug cartels and terrorists, and market rigging. The fact that retirement tax benefits are thinly disguised tax shelters for the rich, and that banksters invariably get off with, at worst, a wrist-slap fine, added fury to my dislike.

Wouldn't it be better and simpler to just make Social Security more robust and spare most Americans from dealing with these crooks?

Private monopolies that rob consumers of choice obviously limit Americans' liberty. Democrats are right to crack down on corporate America with aggressive anti-trust reform. But not all choice is good. Indeed, for the basics of life education, health care, retirement, and so on people don't want to waste away precious hours and days navigating needlessly complex choices, many of which are deviously engineered to screw over normal working stiffs. Most of us just want decent schools for our kids, good health care for ourselves and our families, and a retirement that won't leave us starved and forgotten. We don't want to make endless choices every step of the way.

A Medicare-for-all health-care system or expanded Social Security benefits (which have increasing support among Democrats, but are not contained in their Better Deal plan) would allow citizens to not bother. Instead of being forced to "take responsibility" for such things individually, they would simply always be there, paid out of taxes. The motivation is not to get "free" benefits from the government. I, for one, would be happy to pay a large premium in taxes to get such benefits, if only to save myself from multiple future stress-induced heart attacks.

I might be somewhat out of the ordinary in just how much I dislike being rammed into Neoliberal Decision Hell. But I think it's safe to assume the percentage of people who actually enjoy figuring out insurance networks or poring over mutual fund packets is small. People have better things to do than become amateur experts in a dozen different white-collar professions. Democrats should realize this. A Better Deal ought to mean saving Americans from ever having to deal with this maddening nonsense.

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Democrats should embrace the freedom to not choose - The Week Magazine