Category Archives: Government Oppression

Some UF students are condemning a state bill that limits Floridas colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law May 15. It denies public colleges from offering courses that distort significant historical events, teach identity politics or are based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.

The Black Student Union and Black Student Leaders at UF released a joint statement May 20 denouncing DeSantis signing the bill.

The organizations expressed heavy concerns over the bills power to silence minority voices.

This bill works to erase the accomplishments that people of color have worked toward for centuries while harming the efforts and protections set in place to make students of color feel represented on their college campuses in the state of Florida, the UF BSU wrote.

With this year marking 55 years of the organization at UF, there is an overwhelming concern regarding the idea of freedom and expression, according to the UF BSU.

The organization urgently requested prohibiting the bill from interfering with cultural efforts.

The statement from BSU also encouraged students to contact university administration to express their concerns about the bills impact.

BSU will continue to commit itself to cultivating a community, according to its statement.

Contradictions between the DEI bill and the K-12 AAPI education bill have raised concerns over where the governments interest lies.

The contradictory approaches to DEI and the passage of the K-12 AAPI education bill speaks to the control that white supremacy has over the Model Minority Myth, said Joaquin Rafaele Marcelino, a student government senator and founder of the Pan-Asian Caucus.

While the K-12 AAPI educational bill will uplift Asian American communities, it doesn't take away from the detriment of the DEI bill nor our support for other groups impacted, they said.

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Contact Nicole at nbeltran@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @nicolebeltg.

The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.

Nicole Beltrn is a first -year journalism and economics major, reporting for El Caimn. When she isn't writing, she enjoys reading, journaling, and listening to musical theater.

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UF community condemns bill defunding DEI initiatives - The Independent Florida Alligator

Kabs Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 22 May 2023:

Sierra Leoneans should give President Maada Bio the boot at the ballot box on June 24, 2023. Bio is not fit to rule human beings anywhere. He should be kicked out into the dustbins of history to make way for a government that will repair the mess he has created in Sierra Leone and bring back relief to the people.

Below is a list compiled by Sierra Leoneans and circulated on social media about how prices of food and basic commodities have escalated in Sierra Leone since 2018 when Britain and some countries, in the interest of regime change, imposed Maada Bio and the SLPP on Sierra Leone to punish former President Ernest Koroma and the APC for their obsession with China, a country that had become one of Sierra Leones topmost trade, investment and development partners.

The former British High Commissioner, His Excellency Mr. Guy Warrington, vowed on his manhood that APC will never return to power in Sierra Leone. He also vowed that only over his dead body will the APC see power again, hence they have decided to establish a very tight partnership with China.

This geopolitical powerplay that never, ever benefit the poor people of any country, has cost Sierra Leoneans everything.

The President Maada Bio that they imposed on us has destroyed Sierra Leone in a manner nobody ever imagined. He has destroyed all the institutions of governance and accountability, including the judiciary, parliament, civil society, media, womens movements and the ministries, departments and agencies ( MDAs ) which he has bloated with his tribesmen and women.

Additionally, President Bio has committed egregious and horrible human rights abuses, characterized by extrajudicial and politically motivated killings, and the unnecessary harassment of opponents or people demonstrating their rights to protest against the misrule of his government.

President Bio also destroyed the Sierra Leone currency, the Leone, through a failed policy of redenomination that has caused horrendous inflation and drop in the value of the currency. The US Dollar is now equivalent to almost two million Leones, making it very difficult for industries, importers, wholesalers and other businesspeople to import foods and basic necessities.

The hopelessly inept Bank Governor appointed by Bio, who spearheaded the redenomination, has fled the country and is now seen daily on TIKTOK, dancing his shameful heart away in the Bahamas, where he has retreated with his own slice of the loot.

The exchange rate of the Leone to the dollar was Le 750, 000 to U.S. $100 in 2018 when the APC left power. Today, it is Le 2, 340,000 under President Bio.

Correspondingly, living expenses and cost of foods have gone through the roof because of the corruption and disastrous economic policies of the failed and oppressive Maada Bio government. Things have become very expensive in Sierra Leone, so expensive that you wonder how people manage to eat and survive in the country.

When Maada Bio came to power in 2018, a bag of rice cost Le 200,000 but in just five years of Bios rule, a bag of rice is now Le 870,000. With basic monthly salaries hovering around Le 250,000, how does President Bio expect the people to buy just one bag of rice to feed their families?

A bag of sugar that was Le 350,000 when President Bio was imposed on Sierra Leone is now Le1,230,000

Look at the other price variations between 2018 and 2023:

ONE LITRE OF FUEL Le6000 in 2018 now Le 22,000

ONE BOLIED EGG Le1000 in 2018 now Le5,000

ONE RUBBER BARREL OF PALM OIL Le170,000 in 2018 now Le740,000

ONE CUP OF GARRI Le500 in 2018 now Le3,000

ONE RUBBER COOKING OIL Le200,000 in 2018 now Le670,000

ONE PLASTIC SACHET OF WATER Le2000 in 2018 now Le7,000 in 2023

These are just a few of the frightening price increases people have seen in Sierra Leone since President Bio came to power in 2018.

Sierra Leoneans have become very frustrated. People are seen walking on the street talking to themselves because of the harsh and brutish economic life in the country, coupled with the oppression, suppression, human rights abuses, blatant tribalism, and the Presidents complete lack of interest in the welfare of the people.

Meanwhile, President Bio is busy politicking, mouthing shameless lies and impossible promises, buying over vulnerable members of the opposition and setting in place mechanisms to rig the forthcoming elections.

So, the question is, how does President Bio plan to win the elections on June 24? The answer indeed is through ballot rigging, but he and the Sierra Leonean people will clash if he succeeds in his nebulous plans.

Link:

Prices of basic commodities and foods have gone insane in Sierra ... - Sierra Leone Telegraph

As protesters chanted in the background, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday a hotly contested bill that dismantles diversity, equity and inclusion at Floridas public universities and colleges.

The governor called DEI a distraction from the core mission of colleges during the ceremony at New College in Sarasota, a school that DeSantis wants to lead the way for a return to what he calls classical education.

DEI would be better called discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, DeSantis said. What this bill says is that this whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in Florida.

The law also bans courses that distort significant historical events, teach identity politics, or are based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.

DEI initiatives, generally designed to increase participation and promote opportunities for underrepresented groups, include academic courses focusing on women writers and LGBTQ+ history and aid for disadvantaged students.

If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley, DeSantis said. But for us, with our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.

Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida, which represents more than 25,000 faculty members across the state, said providing students with the chance to learn about a variety of subjects and perspectives is a bedrock of democracy.

The government has no role in banning or censoring subject matter in higher education, Gothard said in April.

Democrats, who opposed the bill in the session that ended May 5, blasted DeSantis for signing it.

Indoctrination drives the DeSantis agenda not because he is worried educators are indoctrinating students, but because they arent indoctrinating them with HIS ideology, state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said in a statement. This is sadly the latest example of government overreach into Florida classrooms as his administration continues its authoritarian assault on ideas and information.

Earlier this year, DeSantis remade New College, a small liberal arts school of about 700 students, by appointing a majority of conservatives to its board, including Christopher Rufo, a member of the Manhattan Institute who helped devise the plan to dismantle DEI across the nation.

They quickly fired the colleges president Patricia Okker and replaced her with former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a staunch DeSantis ally, with a compensation package of $699,000 a year.

At Mondays ceremony, Corcoran thanked the governor and Legislature for $35 million in new funding for the school this year, about $50,000 per student. He said New College had already banned DEI and changed its curriculum to focus on values and technology.

Corcoran also joked that the protesters chanting outside the ceremony were upset with him for shutting off the air conditioning in the dorms, not the changes at their school.

Noting that DeSantis is known for saying Florida is where woke comes to die, state Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, added, When you hear whats going on outside, thats what it sounds like when woke dies.

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If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley: DeSantis bans diversity, equity and inclusion in Florida colleges - The Mercury News

Today, I am delivering a speech celebrating the life and legacy of William Gladstone at Gladstones Library in Hawarden. Why is a former president of Armenia a nation long championed by humanitarians in Britain applauding a 19th-century figure of British politics whose name was recently scrubbed from a building at the University of Liverpool for his familys links to slavery?

The answer is simple: Gladstone was the greatest prime minister of the 19th century. I do not mean this as a tribute purely to his political shrewdness but also, first and foremost, to his principled humanitarianism. Yes, his father, Sir John Gladstone, profited from the slave trade, and young William defended the rights of slaveowners early in a career that spanned almost all of the 19th century.

William Ewert Gladstone was born in the first decade of the 19th century (1808) and died in its last (1898), and as happens with human beings, his views evolved as he aged. He shed opinions he espoused in his youth, served an unprecedented four terms as prime minister without subordinating his values to politically expedient concessions, and earned the title of defender of the oppressed.

As a politician, Gladstone established himself as a staunch advocate of liberal principles and individual liberty. He believed in limited government intervention, economic freedom and the protection of civil liberties. Indeed, his commitment to liberal values formed the foundation of his political ideology and guided his policy decisions. He was fabled for his mastery of finance and his commitment to fiscal responsibility. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he implemented rigorous budgetary discipline, reducing government spending and advocating for free trade policies. His economic reforms laid the groundwork for Britains prosperity and helped shape the global landscape of trade.

At the same time, Gladstone was a fervent supporter of electoral and parliamentary reforms. He furthered efforts to expand suffrage and build a more inclusive democratic system. His advocacy contributed to the extension of voting rights, including the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884, which enfranchised a significant portion of the British population.

Gladstone recognised early on the importance of education in achieving social progress and individual empowerment, and prioritised education reforms.

Perhaps Gladstones most notable (and contentious) political endeavour was his pursuit of Irish Home Rule. Gladstone sought to grant Ireland a significant degree of self-governance within the British Empire in the hope of addressing the grievances of the Irish people and fostering reconciliation between Britain and Ireland. His attempts to pass Home Rule ultimately faced significant opposition but let us for a moment imagine our world had his visionary endeavour sailed through: Britons would have been spared generations of strife and trauma.

Gladstone, beginning as what I would call a conservative populist, was one of those rare politicians who became more radical as he aged. He voted to admit Jews to parliament and condemned what he called the earth-hunger of his colleagues who dreamed of expanding British imperial rule.

But the cause that really distinguished Gladstone in his later life was Armenia. His involvement in the Armenian Question, driven entirely by moral considerations, began in the late 19th century.

On his 85th birthday, in December 1894, Gladstone received an Armenian delegation at his library in Hawarden, where he was given first-hand reports of the atrocities against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Abdul Hamid II had set his troops loose that year on Turkeys Armenian communities.

The Hamidian massacres, as they came to be known, began with a wave of attacks against Armenians in the eastern provinces of Sasun and Zeitun. Mass slaughter was accompanied by forced conversions, looting and destruction of Armenian property. Gladstone, who had raised his voice against Ottoman violence in the Balkans, was appalled, but his advanced age imposed severe limits on the help he could offer.

The violence escalated further in 1895, spreading to other regions, including the cities of Istanbul and Izmir. Armenians were targeted in organised pogroms, often incited by state officials, religious leaders and local militias. Other minorities were also persecuted. Gladstone, though a year older by now, decided to act.

On August 6 1885, the 86-year-old former prime minister walked the 10-mile distance from his castle at Hawarden to Chester Town Hall. Thousands of people had gathered there to hear him. Gladstone denounced the Ottoman Empire as perhaps the worst in the world and rallied the crowd to stand with the Armenians, one of the most pacific, intelligent and industrious [nations] in the world.

The meeting, chaired by the Duke of Westminster, ended with a resolution in support of Armenia. And such was its effect that the Turkish censor banned every single English newspaper the following day because each carried extensive coverage of Gladstones speech.

Gladstones support for Armenia was untiring. He deployed his influence as the Grand Old Man of British politics to drum up support for the Armenian cause. He engaged in diplomatic efforts, met leaders, and leveraged his vast network to push for international intervention. His moral authority, coupled with his matchless oratory, made him a compelling advocate for justice.

Gladstones last public speech, in September 1896, was at a protest meeting against the Ottoman killings of Armenians. Though he was by then partially deaf and almost blind, Gladstones speech roused six thousand people to their feet in the Circus Building in Liverpool in support of Armenia. It was perhaps the greatest piece of oratory in his career. All human beings, Gladstone thundered, have the same claims upon our support. The ground upon which he stood, he told his audience, is not British, nor European, but it is human.

Gladstones influential pamphlet, aptly titled The Armenian Question, was published the same year. It became a catalyst for raising global awareness about the suffering endured by Armenians. In this seminal work, Gladstone passionately detailed the plight of the Armenian people, shedding light on the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire. His eloquent prose and powerful rhetoric struck a chord with readers worldwide, drawing attention to a horror that had been overlooked or dismissed. He warned that the massacres of Armenians would give way to something unimaginably worse if Europe remained content to listen rather than act. History tragically vindicated Gladstone.

When Gladstone died, in 1898, he was given a state funeral. His coffin, however, was draped not with the national flag but with a silk shroud of white, blue and gold the standard of the Armenian nation given to his family by the Armenian Church.

Gladstones moral imperative was clear: international action was needed to address the Armenian Question. He urged governments, politicians, and ordinary citizens to take a stand against oppression. And his advocacy, transcending political boundaries, left a lasting impression on the hearts and minds of those who heard his voice.

Gladstones support for Armenia serves as a reminder to this day of the power of international solidarity. By challenging the indifference of the global community, he demonstrated the transformative potential of collective action in the face of injustice.

Had he been alive today, Gladstone would almost certainly be raising his voice in support of the peoples of Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, Syria and countless other conflicts. A hundred years after his great speech in Liverpool, there is a pressing need for a new Gladstonian approach to humanity on this planet.

Dr Armen Sarkissian served as the 5th prime minister and 4th president of Armenia. His next book, The Small States Club: How Small Smart States can Save the World, will be published later this year

Original post:

Don't cancel Gladstone. He was a true friend of freedom at home ... - The Telegraph

KARACHI: Within moments of the violent protests that broke out across the country on May 9, hours after PTI Chairman Imran Khans arrest from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), videos of people vandalising public and private properties, torching buildings, and clashing with police began circulating on social media.

Alarmed, the authorities quickly pulled the plug on mobile internet and blocked public access to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The rationale was to not allow the protesters and in some cases, genuine miscreants to continue mobilising using the reach of social media.

The government, clearly wary of PTIs social media prowess, seems to have been satisfied with blocking the three platforms, likely believing the move would be enough to blunt its main rivals most potent tool.

The PTI is, after all, a juggernaut on the three aforementioned platforms, with an aggregate following of over 17.6 million. However, the government left a flank unguarded: TikTok. They either did not take the platform seriously, or were totally clueless about its potential in narrative warfare.

TikTok is uncharted territory in the social media landscape of Pakistani politics. Only two parties the PTI and PML-N have official TikTok accounts. Between the two, the PTI is far ahead in the game. The traction it enjoys is overwhelming.

Its official TikTok account has three million followers and has accumulated over 167.4m likes on its video content. Meanwhile, the PML-Ns follower count stands at a measly 41,300, with just over 770,000 likes on its content.

With Twitter inaccessible, the PTI and its social media team checked the governments move by leveraging TikTok. It went full throttle on the platform. In four days from May 9, when Mr Khan was arrested, to May 12, when the Supreme Court ordered his release 164 videos were posted on PTIs official account; an average of 41 videos per day.

These videos were viewed by over 100 million people, garnered over 62 million likes and 191,000 comments. They were shared by around 260,000 people. The average engagement on each video was: over 618,000 views, 378,000 likes, 1,165 comments and 1,583 shares.

The PTI shared messages from PTI leaders and montages of Mr Khan in action. While TV screens dedicated themselves to scenes depicting violence, the PTI posted videos showing peaceful demonstrations.

It also effectively used the platform to mobilise workers with calls to gather at specific locations in various cities.

Radio silence

The numbers show that the PTI enjoyed an open field on TikTok. The only other political account the PML-Ns posted only two videos in the same period, which were viewed for a total of around 134,000 times. Their cumulative engagement was around 9,400 likes, 348 comments and 908 shares.

Videos with the hashtag #fitnaarrested including those posted by the PML-N official account and its followers got only about 2.7m views. Meanwhile, videos with the hashtag #ReleaseImranKhan, used by PTI and its followers, got a total of over 233.6m views.

The efficacy of the governments move to shut down three major social media platforms was debatable, as most people easily bypassed the gag by using a VPN.

As for the objective behind the move to curb the PTIs power to mobilise the numbers from TikTok show that it failed to achieve it. These numbers also showed the futility of attempts to curb the spread of information during a time when theres a vast range of social media platforms available.

Whether governments the incumbent and subsequent learn that lesson is yet to be seen.

PTIs TikTok juggernaut

On the face of it, TikTok and political discourse do not seem to go hand-in-hand. Fun videos is the phrase generally associated with the platform. However, it is a lot more than that. The place is populated by Gen Z those born between 1997 and 2013 who make up almost 39 per cent of its total users.

For them, TikTok has silently become a forum for serious debate on some of the most contentious issues of our times: from racial justice, climate change and politics, to gender-based violence, etc.

The social side of Pakistani politics

The PTI is credited with being the pioneer in using social media for narrative building. The book, Pakistans Political Parties: Surviving between Dictatorship and Democracy, co-authored by Niloufer Siddiqui, Mariam Mufti and Sahar Shafqat, describes PTI as an early mover on the social media front when it turned to Twitter and Facebook in order to mobilise the coveted youth vote.

A 2014 research report on PTIs use of Twitter by Saifuddin Ahmed and Marko M. Skoric found that its use of Twitter was the most distinctive as it involved greater interaction with the public, more campaign updates and greater mobilisation of citizens to vote.

Master TikTokers

It is important to try and understand how the PTI and PML-N differ in their use of TikTok and what their content tells us about their strategy, narrative and messaging. As part of our research, we analysed the content published on both accounts. We took a sample of 144 videos from PTIs account and 100 videos from PML-Ns account.

Since PTI publishes several videos every day, we restricted our sample to videos posted across five dates: March 8, March 14 to 16, and March 18. These dates were chosen as the account witnessed the most activity on these days.

On March 8, PTI workers came face to face with the police and a supporter, Ali Bilal, aka Zille Shah, died. From March 14 to 16, police laid a siege at the PTI chairmans Zaman Park residence to arrest him, leading to another face-off with police. On March 18, Mr Khan arrived in Islamabad to appear before a court, resulting in a new standoff between the police and PTI workers.

On the face of it, PTIs TikTok works like a well-oiled machine. The 144 videos were posted over a period of five days almost 29 videos per day on average.

Given that most of them needed to be pieced together and edited for music and graphics, it appeared to be the work of a dedicated team of social media specialists. The PML-Ns 100 videos spanned over 82 days from January 1 to March 25 at an average of 1.2 videos per day.

The art of narrative-building

Niloufer Siddiqui explains that in the political context, a narrative is an idea of a political partys ideology and what it stands for. Narrative-building is a buzzword in politics these days as political parties want to take the lead in setting the discourse. For Ms Siddiqui, who teaches political science at the University of Albany, PTI is clear in what its narrative is. It stands as anti-corruption, anti-status quo and anti-elite.

Our analysis showed that PTI used TikTok to effectively take the lead in setting the narrative. Across the five days, the account consistently posted videos showing how authorities targeted the partys workers. Of the 31 videos posted on March 8, 10 accused the police of torturing, tear gassing and killing a party worker.

Out of the 77 videos posted between March 14 and 16, a total of 18 were about the alleged torture of PTI workers, teargassing at Mr Khans house, polices attempt to breach the Zaman Parks door, and claims about the use of chemicals in water cannons and expired tear gas canisters. On March 18, the account posted 34 videos, of which 10 accused the government and security agencies of torturing and teargassing PTI workers and conducting an illegal search operation at Zaman Park.

The PMLN apparently failed to counter this narrative on the three dates. In fact, only two videos were posted on the partys official account between March 10 to March 24. They both featured Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

The analysis showed that the PTI used TikTok as an effective tool to mobilise its workers and demonstrate public support for its chairman. In 22 of the analysed videos, PTI leaders directly addressed the workers and urged them to reach Zaman Park.

These were in addition to the use of hashtag #ZamanParkPohancho** in the description of the analysed videos. Till April 7, the videos under the said hashtag not all of them posted by the official PTI account had over 242m views. There were also 41 videos on the apparent public support for Mr Khan, showing the crowd gathered outside Zaman Park and during his court appearance.

For Ms Siddiqui, a big reason for the clarity in PTIs messaging is Mr Khan being the partys face. The fact is that whatever Imran Khan says becomes what PTI says. So, the PTI and Imran Khan are really synonymous.

This contrasts with the PML-N, whose narrative, like the house of Sharifs, appears to be divided between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Ms Nawaz. Of the 100 analysed videos, the narrative of 40 videos centred around PM Shehbaz. These were clips of his meeting, interviews, media talks and governance. Ms Sharif was the focus of 23 videos. Most of these videos were her addresses, rallies, and public support.

The PML-N strategy witnessed an apparent shift after January 28 the day Ms Sharif returned to Pakistan. All but one of the 23 videos featuring Ms Sharif were posted after this date. Before the PML-N leaders return, the partys narrative was focused on PM Shehbazs governance. Out of the 40, 33 videos featuring the prime minister were posted before this date.

The Imran factor

The analysis showed that the PTI is clear in its approach: centre the entire narrative around Chairman Imran Khan his popularity, supporters willingness to sacrifice their lives for him, his fight for peoples rights, and him being a one-man army against the states oppression.

Of the 144 videos analysed, the narrative in 62 centred around Mr Khan, ranging from the conspiracy to kill him, reasons for his attempted arrest, the gag on his speeches, the cases against him, etc. In 36 out of 144 videos, Mr Khan was the sole appearance. These were clips of his speeches and his messages to PTI supporters.

This Imran-centric content did yield results for PTI. Nine of the 14 videos on PTIs account that crossed over a million views featured Mr Khan. Not only for his party, but the PTI chairman also fetched eyeballs for the rival PML-N. Of the ten most-viewed videos on the PML-Ns account during the period in consideration, four were directly critical of Mr Khan.

The voter is changing

While political campaigns run on Pakistani social media leave a lot to be desired, the presence of the two biggest political parties on TikTok indicates an effort to reach out to voters where theyre concentrated. In surveys conducted by Asfandyar Mir and Niloufer Siddiqui to understand what platforms people use to access news and determine its trustworthiness, the numbers were 58pc for Facebook, 63pc WhatsApp, 47pc YouTube, 17pc Twitter and 30pc TikTok.

This change is not limited to how people consume news; it has a wider implication for Pakistans political landscape. The voter is changing, Ms Siddiqui said while explaining this trend.

While political parties with inherently weak organisational systems have relied on electables and patronage to attract votes, things have started to change. Social media and urbanisation, severing feudal and biradri ties are changing party affiliations.

And the PTI has capitalised on this.

Ms Siddiqui said the PTI also relied on electables, but it simultaneously managed to capture peoples attention with its anti-status quo and anti-corruption narrative. The PML-N and PPP, the other two major parties, failed to catch up. They are still stuck in electable maths.

This was helped by PTIs openness to exploring new platforms to amplify its message. As Mr Ahad explained, the party has always been more conducive to experimenting with social media, while their rivals fear the backlash their leaders might receive on these places.

The PTI has been dominating the narrative so much, and for so long, other parties are apprehensive in countering it, he said.

*The number of likes, shares, comments and views are approximation as TikTok rounds off the figure after it reaches five digits

**All hashtags originally in Urdu script have been rewritten in Roman Urdu.

This story has been done in collaboration with Media Matters for Democracy.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2023

Excerpt from:

TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars - DAWN.com

Seventy-five years have passed since the Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed and forcibly expelled from their homes, lands, and property in their ancestral land during the 1948 Nakba (meaning catastrophe in Arabic). Palestinian society was decimated during the Nakba, 531 Palestinian villages were destroyed, and more than 70 massacres were carried out against innocent civilians, killing more than 15 thousand Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. The legacy of the Nakba events is that about two-thirds of the Palestinian people became refugees in and around 1948 and a quarter of those who remained within historic Palestine geography were internally displaced and denied their right to return to their villages, towns, and cities of origin ever since.

Since 1948, Israel established a regime of racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian people primarily in the domains of nationality and land. In the immediate aftermath of the Nakba, Israel adopted a series of laws, policies, and practices, which sealed the dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian people, systematically denying the return of Palestinian refugees and other Palestinians who were abroad at the time of the war. At the same time, Israel imposed a system of institutionalized racial discrimination over Palestinians who remained on the land, many of whom had been internally displaced. Such Israeli laws have constituted the legal architecture of the Israeli apartheid that continue to be imposed on the Palestinian people today.

The 1950 so-called Absentee Property Law became the main legal instrument of dispossession. Israel used it to confiscate the property of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons, who were deemed absentees despite the State denying their return. Seventy-five years later, this Absentee Property Law continues to advance Israels Judaization of parts of the West Bank including the city of Jerusalem and to alter its Palestinian character, demographic composition and identity.

In turn, the 1950 Law of Return and the 1952 Citizenship Law cemented Israels institutionalized racial discrimination in law. Establishing domination, both in law and in practice, Israel granted every Jew the exclusive right to enter the State as an immigrant and to obtain citizenship. At the same time, Palestinian refugees have been categorically denied their right to return, to their homes, lands, and property from which they were illegally dispossessed.

Such Israeli laws compose the legal foundation of Israeli apartheid, perpetuating its systematic racial domination and oppression over all Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, and refugees and exiles. Seven and a half decades on, Israel has strategically fragmented the Palestinian people into at least four separate geographic, legal, political, and administrative domains as a tool to impose and maintain apartheid. Israels strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people ensures that they cannot meet, group, live together, or exercise any collective rights, particularly their right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. Strategic fragmentation is further entrenched through the illegal closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Annexation Wall, and Israels permit regime consisting of checkpoints and other physical barriers, severely impacting the freedom of movement of Palestinians.

As we commemorate 75 years since the Nakba, the Israeli government continues its de jure and de facto annexation of the West Bank, which represents the continuation of Israels land grab, pillage, and displacement of Palestinians through the maintenance of its apartheid. As reaffirmed by successive United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Israels continued annexation plans are a testament to Israels 21st-century apartheid, leaving in its wake the demise of the Palestinians right to self-determination.

The crimes of the Nakba, including the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Palestinian refugees, extensive destruction of Palestinian property, mass killing, and the prolonged denial of Palestinian refugees right to return, have never been prosecuted or remedied. Just five years ago, the Israeli occupying forces, implementing its shoot-to-kill policy, mass killed some 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip on the eve of the 70th Nakba commemoration. The injustices of the Nakba and the ongoing denial of the right of return led to the Great Return March civil demonstrations every Friday in Gaza for two years, which Israel repressed with lethal force, with impunity.

This year, as Palestinians commemorate the 75th Nakba, Israels most right-wing and racist government intensifies its oppression of the Palestinian people, including daily raids and extrajudicial killings in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. On 9 May, Israel carried out a 5-day horrific unprovoked military assault on the 16-year besieged Gaza Strip targeting residential buildings resulting in the killing of 33 Palestinian civilians, some of them in their sleep, including six children and four women. In addition, 147 others were wounded, including 48 children and 26 women.

On Nakba Day, we call on States, the UN, international organisations and civil society organisations from around the world to take effective legal and political measures to bring perpetrators of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Situation in Palestine. The ICC Prosecutor Mr Karim Khan must expedite his investigation and start issuing arrest warrants, and deliver justice to Palestinian victims of mass atrocity crimes.

At this critical juncture in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, support is also needed for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) until a durable solution to the Palestinian refugee question, based on the full realization of the Palestinian peoples inalienable human rights.

Finally, we call on all stakeholders to recognize and join the human rights movement crystalising consensus that the situation on the ground is that of Apartheid imposed on the Palestinian people. There are many possible paths to a just future, but none should be based on permanent occupation, settler colonialism, and the domination and oppression by one group of people over another. Apartheid has no place in our world and Israels apartheid must be dismantled now.

See how the Nakba has transformed Palestine since 1948 with this map by Visualizing Palestine marking the Nakba at 75: https://today.visualizingpalestine.org/?blm_aid=8507392

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Israeli Apartheid - The Legacy of the Ongoing Nakba at 75 [EN/AR ... - ReliefWeb

KARACHI: Top decision-making body of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday condemned the May 9 attacks and vandalism on military installations and demanded those responsible should be brought to justice and punished, accordingly.

President PPP-P Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari co-chaired the hybrid meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Pakistan Peoples Party in Bilawal House, Karachi.

The meeting passed a resolution condemning the events of May 9.

The PPP strongly condemns the incidents that happened in different cities of the country on May 9, the damage to the martyrs memorial in Sargodha, the burning of Jinnah House, the vandalism at FC Fort in Dir, Mardan, breaking the statue of Shaheed Colonel Sher Khan, burning the Swat Motorway Toll Plaza, burning the Rawalpindi Metro Station and the Peshawar Radio Station to ashes, destroying the Chagai Model and Edhi Ambulance in Peshawar, and burning passenger buses in Karachi, reads the resolution, a copy of which is available with daily Pakistan Today.

The resolution described the attacks on private, public and military properties and sensitive installations as defying the writ of the state of Pakistan.

The resolution further said that PPP leadership suffered political victimsation for decades but following the instructions of leadership, its leaders and workers never took the path of violence.

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was judicially martyred, Mir Shahnawaz Bhutto and Mir Murtaza Bhutto were martyred too, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was martyred, but PPP raised the slogan of Pakistan Khappay, which is a bright example for the political workers of all parties, the resolution added.

Former President Asif Ali Zardari was imprisoned for over a decade during different regimes including PTIs government while Ms Faryal Talpur, the Central President of PPP Womens Wing was arrested in the midnight and transferred from hospital to prison on the eve of Eid, but despite worst political oppression, the PPP never staged a rally against the country and its institutions, the resolution reads.

The resolution demanded those responsible should be brought to justice and punished, accordingly.

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PPP's CEC condemns attacks on army installations, calls for ... - Pakistan Today

12.16EDT

In his presidential campaign announcement speech, Tim Scott recounted his upbringing from poverty, discounted the impact of racial inequality on Americans lives and restated conservative policy goals, from cutting taxes to building a wall along the US border with Mexico.

As he wrapped up his address, he vowed to promote on the campaign trail a friendlier form of conservatism.

This cant be another presidential campaign. We dont have time for that. We need a president who persuades not just our friends and our base, he said. We have to have a compassion for people who dont agree with us.

He closed with these words: I am living proof that God and a good family and the United States of America can do all things, if we believe. Will you believe it with me?

In the months to come, well find out if Republican voters share his faith.

Updated at 12.16EDT

Tim Scott has said the magic words.

Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb and thats why Im announcing today Im running for president of the United States of America, the senator said to applause and cheers in his kick-off speech in North Charleston, South Carolina.

He began the speech by recounting his upbringing from poverty and downplaying the impacts of racial disparities in the economy, saying Im living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.

When it comes to policy, the senator is outlining familiar conservative priorities.

On my first day as commander in chief, the strongest nation on earth will stop retreating from our southern border, he said.

He embraced the conservative demand to deploy the military against drug traffickers, and vowed to restart construction of the border wall pioneered by Donald Trump.

When I am president, the drug cartels using Chinese labs and Mexican factories to kill Americans will cease to exist. I will freeze their assets, I will build the wall and I will allow the worlds greatest military to fight these terrorists. Because thats exactly what they are.

Updated at 12.02EDT

Tim Scott is on stage now announcing his presidential bid.

America is the greatest nation on Gods green earth, the senator began. And our greatness doesnt come from politicians, doesnt come from the government. It comes from we, the people.

And when I think about the greatness of America, I have to start with my favorite American, Scott said, before inviting his mother up. Thank you for your hard work and your dedication. Thank you for believing in me when no one else did.

Updated at 12.23EDT

The senates number-two Republican John Thune just gave an introductory speech at Tim Scotts campaign kick-off event in South Carolina, where he called him the real deal who would make a great president of the United States.

Bloomberg reports that Scott has picked up support from another high-profile, and deep-pocketed, ally: Larry Ellison, CEO of tech juggernaut Oracle:

SCOOP: Oracle Corp. chair and co-founder Larry Ellison, will be in attendance at South Carolina Senator Tim Scotts formal campaign launch today in North Charleston, SC.

Updated at 11.14EDT

Republican senator Tim Scott will in a few minutes officially kick off his presidential campaign with a speech in North Charleston, South Carolina, making him the latest entrant to the increasingly crowded Republican field.

A senator since 2013, Scott is the only Black Republican in the chamber, and will be the second South Carolinian in the presidential race, after former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

He will probably not be alone in announcing his bid for the White House this week. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is expected to kick off his presidential campaign with a speech on Wednesday.

Updated at 10.58EDT

Joe Biden will meet with Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in the Oval Office at 5.30pm eastern time, the White House has announced.

The goal will be to reach a deal to increase the debt ceiling before 1 June, when the US government may run out of money and default on its obligations for the first time in history. McCarthy and the GOP have demanded spending cuts in exchange for this votes to raise the limit, a prospect that Biden has resisted.

The president cut short his trip to Asia last week over the impasse, and returned to Washington yesterday from Japan in order to ensure a deal is done before the end of the month.

Updated at 10.39EDT

If Donald Trump is so dominant in the polls, why are Tim Scott and other Republicans jumping into the race to challenge him? Partly because election day is more than a year away, and things could change. Partly because running for president is what many politicians aspire to do. And surely because, though they wont say it, the former president appears to be in a lot of trouble perhaps enough to eventually derail his campaign. Heres the latest from the Guardians Hugo Lowell on the investigation into his alleged possession of classified documents:

Federal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump was put on notice that he could not retain any classified documents after he was subpoenaed for their return last year, as they examine whether the subsequent failure to fully comply with the subpoena was a deliberate act of obstruction by the former president.

The previously unreported warning conveyed to Trump by his lawyer Evan Corcoran could be significant in the criminal investigation surrounding Trumps handling of classified materials given it shows he knew about his subpoena obligations.

Last June, Corcoran found roughly 40 classified documents in the storage room at Mar-a-Lago and told the justice department that no further materials remained at the property. That was later shown to be untrue, after the FBI later returned with a warrant and seized 101 additional classified documents.

Updated at 09.56EDT

A major story happening today is the ongoing negotiations over the debt ceiling, which must be raised by about 1 June in order to prevent a potentially devastating default by the US government. Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are supposed to meet at some point today to make progress on an agreement, though the timing of that rendezvous has not yet been announced. Heres the latest from Reuters on the talks:

US president Joe Biden and House Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy have held a productive phone call on the continued impasse over the debt ceiling and promised to meet on Monday after Biden returned to Washington.

McCarthy, speaking to reporters after the call, said there were positive discussions on solving the crisis and that staff-level talks were set to resume later on Sunday.

Asked if he was more hopeful after talking to the president, McCarthy said: Our teams are talking today and were meeting tomorrow. Thats better than it was earlier. So, yes.

Updated at 09.40EDT

The task for any Republican candidate not named Donald Trump this year is simple: try to convince the GOP rank-and-file to choose you over the ex-president.

The problem is that Trump tops just about every poll looking at the GOP primary field these days, and usually with a mammoth gap. But Tim Scott plans to do his best, and a Republican adviser strategist told Politico more about his path to overtaking Trump.

Their demeanors, their messages, their life stories are just so diametrically different, the adviser said, and Scott will likely highlight that distinction when he speaks in North Charleston, South Carolina to kick off his campaign.

Scott has also received a boost from his colleagues in the Senate. Politico has confirmed that the second-ranking GOP lawmaker in the chamber, John Thune, will endorse his candidacy.

While today is his official campaign launch, Scott has been touring the country for a few weeks now, particularly early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. The Guardians Joan E Greve spent time among the crowds who greeted him in the Granite State for this look at what his pitch is to Republican voters:

About 45 minutes into his New Hampshire town hall, Tim Scott said he needed to reveal a secret to the Republican voters who had gathered to hear from the presidential hopeful.

Listen, this might surprise some of yall, Scott told attendees with subtle laughter in his voice. He paused briefly: Im Black.

The line was met with loud laughter from the mostly white crowd, and it underscored the unique role that Scott faces in the Republican presidential primary ahead of the 2024 election. The 57-year-old senator of South Carolina and erstwhile Donald Trump ally, who filed paperwork on Friday to declare his presidential candidacy ahead of a formal launch event on Monday, hopes to become the first Black politician to win his partys nomination and go on to defeat Joe Biden in the general election next November.

Updated at 09.07EDT

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today at 11 am eastern time, South Carolinas senator Tim Scott will officially announce his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He joins an increasingly crowded field of challengers to Joe Biden that already includes former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and Arkansass ex-governor Asa Hutchinson, and will soon see the arrival for Florida governor Ron DeSantis. But when it comes to the Republican field, the question today remains the same as it has for months, if not years: can anyone unseat Donald Trump from his post as the most popular man in the GOP? Polls consistently show the former president at the front of the pack, with DeSantis a distant second and Scott in the single digits. The senator is the GOPs only Black lawmaker in the chamber, and with his slogan Faith in America appears ready to adopt a more optimistic tone compared to Trumps fear-and-grievance driven campaign. Well see if its enough to break through the field.

Heres what else is happening today:

Joe Biden will at some point today sit down with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy to once again try to find agreement on raising the debt ceiling, as the 1 June default deadline grows alarmingly near.

Speaking of senators, Delaware Democrat Tom Carper will this morning announce if he will run for another term, but even if he steps aside, the seat is considered safe territory for Bidens party.

Kamala Harris is continuing her trip to California, where shell meet with the leaders of tech firms to talk about semiconductors and the Biden administrations efforts to spur more domestic manufacturing of the vital component.

Updated at 08.29EDT

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Tim Scott says Im running for president of the United States in announcement speech live - The Guardian US

How did America become a land of economic extremes, with entrenched, grinding poverty for those struggling at the bottom even as most poor adults who are not seniors are working?

Desmonds greatest contribution is changing the lens from individual behavior the hoary focus of so many books about poverty to asking and answering the larger question, Who benefits from practices that keep people poor? Poverty, he argues, results from three quintessentially American habits: exploitation of the poor; subsidization of the rich; and the intentional segregation of the affluent and the poor such that opportunity is hoarded and social mobility is rare.

Desmond acknowledges the role of anti-Black racism in perfecting Americans antipathy to spending for public benefits. Other books engage directly with the dog-whistling politics that dissuade working and middle class people from voting their economic interests. Desmond focuses more on making transparent the systems that fabricate scarcity and offers solutions.

He paints a clear picture of the morally fraught systems we all participate in. Well-paid professionals like me benefit as consumers from the poverty wages paid to others in an economy where Uber is a verb and surveilled and squeezed gig workers respond to and deliver our every need. Our stock investments swell as companies cut or outsource jobs, stagnate wages and oppose unions. We get free checking; the poor get usurious fees from banks and payday lenders. Meanwhile, zoning codes that allow only single-family homes create artificial housing scarcity that enhances our property values while foisting high costs and homelessness on others. Segregation encourages private opulence and public squalor, Desmond argues, as affluent people withdraw from public institutions and society systemically disinvests in the public goods ordinary people need.

Desmond also shows how the federal government, through the tax code, greatly subsidizes the affluent. In 2021, the U.S. spent $1.8 trillion on tax breaks, forgoing revenue that otherwise would have been paid in taxes, much of it going to very rich people. For example, each year the U.S. loses more than $1 trillion in unpaid taxes because of the tax avoidance strategies of multinational corporations and wealthy families.

What to do about this system of American-designed poverty? Desmond offers a bold proposal. He argues that we could bring nearly every family in America above the official poverty line without adding to the deficit simply by collecting unpaid federal income taxes from the top one percent of households from closing loopholes to going after tax cheats. That would amount to an estimated $175 billion annually; those resources would then be allocated to expand broadly popular programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, that directly alleviate poverty. He also advocates for structural reforms that reverse the practices that deny poor people choices in housing, banking and employment.

If it is utterly easy as Desmond claims to find plenty of money to abolish poverty by closing nonsensical tax loopholes, then why dont we do it? He notes that in 2019 other western democracies like France and Germany raised as much as 38 percent of their GDP in tax revenues and invested broadly in public goods while U.S. total revenues were at 25 percent and the U.S. lavished government benefits on affluent families and refused to prosecute tax dodgers.

After laying out his analysis, Desmond urges readers to become poverty abolitionists, to spread an ethic that shuns companies that exploit workers and supports government policies that rebalance the social contract toward alleviating poverty rather than helping elites grow their wealth. Importantly, he is not arguing for redistribution per se. He is arguing that if the rich pay their taxes and the government stops over-subsidizing them and instead invests in the general welfare with aid to the poor, poverty can be eliminated, without adding to the deficit.

It remains to be seen whether an ethic of poverty abolition can take hold or overcome the rigging of electoral politics, particularly by Republican-dominated legislatures that constrain majority will through voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering. But Desmonds surprising insights and proposals offer much needed new thinking.

This brings me back to the role of racial division and the necessity of transcending it if America is to dismantle extreme systemic inequality in which people of all colors suffer.

Desmond notes that white families with accountants benefit most from government largesse. They have the strongest antigovernment sentiments and vote more often than those who both need and appreciate the role of government. And race-coded rationalizations justify hostility to government benefits a false, debunked propaganda that public benefits create welfare dependency being first among them.

Herein lies the rub. Decades of anti-Black racial coding, including Ronald Reagans stoking of the welfare queen stereotype, helped perfect anti-tax and anti-government attitudes and consolidate Republican power, especially in the South. Just as the forces that perpetuate poverty are structural, so are the politics that undergird it.

(Oddly, Desmond doesnt mention political culture-warring against the IRS which underfunded and undermined the agency, itself something of a tax cut for the rich, even as the IRS audited poor wage earners at five times the rate of everyone else. Hopefully, the Inflation Reduction Act will reverse these trends with its $80 billion increase in IRS funding over the next decade.)

Desmond finds hope for a transcending scenario in polls showing that most Americans believe the economy benefits the rich and harms the poor; that the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes; and that there should be a $15 federal minimum wage. Invoking abolition as a mantra for the transformation that needs to occur aptly describes his ambition, though advocates for racial equity or reparation for the legacy of slavery, redlining and other forms of racial oppression may wince at his call for universal strategies for all races. The deep irony is that anti-Black policy and rhetoric were central to the creation of savage systems of inequality that harm everyone, and anti-Black processes continue to sustain segregation. But direct efforts to repair the economic and social damage to Black people inevitably produces backlash or is weaponized by the political right to woo voters, as was done with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Desmond admits that Black people have been disproportionately harmed, especially from historic and contemporary redlining and discrimination in housing. But he suggests that the universal reforms he recommends would disproportionately benefit Blacks while broadening political coalitions to end poverty.

This is an important debate. For my part, I have called for the abolition of Americas residential caste system and argued in support of policies that promote racial equity and repair for historically defunded Black neighborhoods and the citizens who have most suffered predation and disinvestment by government and private institutions. And I applaud local governments that are doing this work. But in wrestling with the conundrum of how to repair the damage of anti-Black racism, I have also been greatly influenced by the late stage thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and contemporary Black civil rights visionaries. They pursued a fusion politics that Desmond also admires.

In the final months of his life, Dr. King envisioned a national Poor Peoples Campaign that intentionally built a multiracial coalition to demand an economic bill of rights. In the 2010s, Reverend William Barber II successfully led the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina and recently revived a Poor Peoples Campaign that brings conservative poor whites into the movement for economic fairness. The North Carolina movement paid off in 2023 expansions to Medicaid in the state, for example. They are a sign of hope in a nation riven by division, racism and hate. I see traction for a bold politics that joins the aspirations of all economically oppressed people, similar to the exciting rhetoric and moral claims of the new-South Justins who are building multiracial power in Tennessee by speaking to a rainbow of humans seeking freedom from gun violence and oppression of all kinds. The alternative is more of the same, a nation divided, with systems that elevate the wealthy and crush others.

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Opinion | America's Poverty Is Built by Design - POLITICO

After months of near-unanimous public outcry over a bail system often described as catch-and-release, the Trudeau government finally tabled Bill C-48, their proposal to curb the number of repeat violent offenders being chronically released from custody. Although, theres good evidence that it probably wont do anything of the sort.

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Another day, another bail hearing for a random attack suspect. These do seem to be getting more common: It wasnt too long ago than when a Canadian felt like shooting or stabbing someone, they at least took the time to make eye contact first.

Anyways, it was the usual story: Dozens of prior convictions. Domestic abuse charges. A couple manslaughter cases. And his only testimony at the hearing was just the word stab, which he repeated in a kind of mantra.

There are unempathetic people out there who would look at this individual and see evil. But what I saw was a victimized individual; an innocent bystander caught within the wheels of systemic social oppression and unable to get out. Society has clearly failed when we have boys growing up into men whose favourite thing to do is attack random teenagers at bus stops. As I gave him bail, it only strengthened my resolve that we must all do better.

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Im well aware there are certain reactionaries out there who think that fighting crime is a matter of putting bad people in jail. But this is the opinion of a child; the same facile reasoning which holds that addiction can be solved by not doing drugs.

The evidence is clear: Jails are engines of criminality. Like policing generally, they are a dangerous, discriminatory legacy of a colonialist past that serve only to oppress marginalized groups and create disorder where there was none before.

So anyways, thats why I have to keep extending unconditional liberty to remorseless, chronically violent sociopaths who keep treating random civilians as pincushions for no reason.

Another random attacker, this time with an even 48 prior convictions, and he seems to like trying to attack police officers with broken bottles whenever hes caught violating his parole conditions. But we cannot ignore the hand of systemic racism and stigma in driving all this alleged criminality. Bail.

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Everybody knows that the best measure of an efficient incarceration system is whether the ethnic composition is a precise representation of wider society: If 1.9 per cent of Canadians have Arab heritage, you damn well better have a prison population that is exactly 1.9 per cent Arab-Canadian.

Jeez; another random attack bail hearing. People, its pretty easy: If you avoid eye contact, keep your head on a swivel, dont intervene and avoid downtown areas and public transit at most times, you probably wont get randomly assaulted.

The prosecutor is yammering on about public safety and innocent bystander clinging to life in hospital, but Im frankly tired of it all. If it was up to those crypto-fascists, theyd hand out 20 years of solitary confinement for stealing a pack of gum.

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The Canadian judicial system is working, goddammit. I know that a handful of far-right provocateurs have gotten you all ginned up over some imaginary crime wave, but this is how an equity-minded, rehab-oriented, decolonialized, post-national criminal justice system is supposed to work.

If youre going to panic every time we have some minor hiccup of nationwide stranger attacks, then we might as well just go back to the days when we hanged cattle rustlers and put adulterers in stockades.

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'Pity these oppressed random attackers': Inside the thoughts of Canada's bail system - National Post