Category Archives: History

The United States has vetoed dozens of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions critical of Israel, including at least 53 since 1972, according to UN data.

With the latest escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians now in its tenth day, the US has stuck to that playbook. On Monday, Washington blocked a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas the USs third such veto reportedly within a week.

The USs unequivocal support of Israel has seen it thwart resolutions condemning violence against protesters, illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank built since 1967 and even calls for an investigation into the 1990 killing of seven Palestinian workers by a former Israeli soldier.

Critics say Washingtons blanket support of Israel encourages a disproportionate use of force against Palestinians, including Israels current bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 219 Palestinians, including 63 children.

Here is a list of some of the major vetoes cast by the US over the years:

Palestinians in Gaza began protesting at the Israeli border fence in March 2018, calling for the right of return to ancestral homes from which their families were expelled in 1948 during what Palestinians call the Nakbah, or the creation of the state of Israel. The UN estimates 750,000 Palestinians were expelled that year.

Palestinians faced sniper fire from Israeli forces during the year-long protests, which killed at least 266 people and injured roughly 30,000 more, according to Gazas health ministry.

A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strips border with Israel during weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strips frontier with Israel on September 28, 2018 [File: Khalil Hamra/AP Photo]On June 1, 2018, the UNSC drafted a resolution (PDF) expressing grave concern at the escalation of violence and tensions since the protests began and deep alarm at the loss of civilian lives and the high number of casualties among Palestinian civilians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, including casualties among children, caused by the Israeli forces.

The US vetoed the resolution (PDF), with then-US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley saying it presented a grossly one-sided view of what has taken place in Gaza in recent weeks.

Haley blamed Hamas for the violence.

East Jerusalem is meant to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, as outlined in international agreements. But the area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, when Israeli forces defeated forces from Jordan which controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank at the time Egypt, Syria and allied Palestinians, to occupy all of historic Palestine.

The status of occupied East Jerusalem was meant to be determined through peace negotiations. International law, including UNSC resolutions, state that East Jerusalem is not to be considered Israeli territory.

Palestinians evacuate a wounded man during clashes with Israeli security forces in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalems Old City on May 10, 2021 [File: Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]But former President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December 2017.

A draft resolution (PDF) from December 18, 2017, wrote that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

In vetoing the resolution, Haley said (PDF) the US had the courage and honesty to recognize a fundamental reality. Jerusalem has been the political, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people for thousands of years.

The Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, ignited on September 28, 2000, when then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, accompanied by heavily armed forces, entered the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

The provocative act sparked long-simmering frustrations over the failed promises of the Oslo Accords to end Israels occupation of Palestinian lands.

The Oslo Accords were signed by then-Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993.

But the occupation continued into 2000, with Israeli settlements increasing and Palestinian sovereignty nowhere in sight.

In December 2001, a slew of suicide bombings led Israel to retaliate by destroying much of Arafats Ramallah headquarters, essentially forcing him into house arrest. The Second Intifada, a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian tension, began in late September 2000 [File: Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images]In contrast to the First Intifada in the late 1980s and early 1990s that was largely peaceful, the Second Intifada was very violent, with Palestinian armed groups attacking Israeli forces and a sharp increase in suicide attacks against Israeli civilian centres.

The death toll stood at over 3,000 Palestinians and close to 1,000 Israelis, along with 45 foreigners, according to a BBC tally.

A draft UNSC resolution (PDF) from December 2001 expressed grave concern at the continuation of the tragic and violent events that have taken place since September 2000, condemned attacks against civilians and called for peace talks to resume.

When vetoing the resolution, then-US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte said the draft resolution before us fails to address the dynamic at work in the region. Instead, its purpose is to isolate politically one of the parties.

The US has vetoed at least four UNSC resolutions condemning Israels settlements on Palestinian land, which are considered illegal under international law.

There are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers in at least 250 settlements (130 official, 120 unofficial) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

These settlements have exploded under the rule of hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who began his current term in 2005. They have long been considered a major roadblock to achieving a Palestinian state.

US vetoes of resolutions condemning Israels settlements date back to at least 1983. The most recent was in 2011 (PDF), when a draft resolution aimed to reaffirm all Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of peace on the basis of the two-State solution.

Then-US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington agreed that settlement activity is illegal, but we think it unwise for this Council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians. Therefore, regrettably, we have opposed this draft resolution.

Rice served under former President Barack Obama, who caused diplomatic controversyin 2016, months before he left office to be succeeded by Trump, when he instructed the US to abstain from vetoing a similar UNSC resolution against settlement activity.

US President Joe Biden, who served as Obamas vice president, is known for his support of Israel. But he is facing pressure from progressive Democrats and others to take a greater role in supporting Palestinian rights.

Biden publicly voiced support for a ceasefire on Monday, a demand posed in a letter signed by 25 Democratic lawmakers. But he has also stuck with Washingtons long-established policy of failing to acknowledge the deeply asymmetric nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by expressing his unwavering support for Israel and its right to defend itself.

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A history of the US blocking UN resolutions against Israel - Al Jazeera English

As concerns have grown about violent crime, she released a policing and public safety plan that includes hiring a civilian police commissioner and creating a new commission to decide whether to fire officers accused of misconduct. She was early in urging Mr. de Blasio to fire his police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea, after his aggressive response to last years protests.

Yet she has also distanced herself from the defund slogan, saying the term means different things to different people. In contrast, Ms. Morales has embraced the movement and pledged to slash the $6 billion police budget in half a stance that has endeared her to left-leaning voters, less so to more moderate ones.

At the same time, some business and civic leaders fear that Ms. Wiley is too liberal; in a poll of business leaders, Ms. Wiley was near last place with just 3 percent. They also question whether Ms. Wiley has enough experience as a manager to run a sprawling bureaucracy with a $98 billion budget.

Maya is terrific, but business is looking for a manager, not an advocate, said Kathryn Wylde, the leader of a prominent business group.

At the moment, Ms. Wiley is simply looking to connect to as many voters as she can, in person and on social media, where she posts campaign diaries recorded at home.

She lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with her partner, Harlan Mandel, in an elegant house built in the Prairie School architectural style made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright. They have two daughters, Naja, 20, and Kai, 17. Ms. Wiley is Christian and Mr. Mandel is Jewish, and they belong to Kolot Chayeinu, a reform congregation in Park Slope.

The last woman who came close to being mayor, Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker, said she regretted that she tried to soften her hard-charging personality during her campaign. Her advice for Ms. Wiley was to be herself.

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Maya Wiley Has 50 Ideas and One Goal: To Make History as Mayor - The New York Times

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull didnt feel great in the bullpen before Tuesday nights game in Seattle.

No, thats being too kind. It was some of the worst stuff Ive ever had, he said.

But Turnbull didnt panic, didnt even worry. If there was a theme of the best start of his career, it was that the Tigers 28-year-old right-hander, in the 50th big-league start of his career, pitched without overthinking, without hesitation and without fear.

The whole night I was like, Im not going to be afraid to make any pitches, Turnbull said after the celebration had abated. Im not going to second-guess or doubt or have any fear about anything.

The result was an evening of historical proportions.

Turnbull threw just the eighth no-hitter in the Tigers 120-year history and the first in 37 years by someone not named Justin Verlander. He allowed just two walks in the Tigers 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.

I dont really know how to think of it from a historical perspective, Turnbull said. But for myself, obviously, its the greatest achievement of my life so far. Or at least my baseball career. Its by far the best night of my life. Its one of those landmark stamps on my career up to this point. Im just happy to be here and happy to be a part of it and happy to have my name written on something that can never be taken away.

When it was over, he had a long embrace with catcher Eric Haase, with whom he had shared the three-hour battle, and was mobbed by teammates. He hugged each of them, giving extra emphasis to Jeimer Candelario, who made a brilliant defensive play in the seventh to extend the no-hitter.

Turnbull said he didnt focus too much on the looming feat in the ninth inning, when he felt that pressure was inevitable and it would be pointless to ignore it.

Once I got to that point, I was like, All right, Im going to be nervous. This is just crazy. But Im going to go out there and keep doing the same thing, Turnbull said.

The fact that he had already walked one batter in the fourth inning and thus no longer had a perfect game may have actually eased the pressure somewhat, Turnbull said. It also meant that he didnt get flustered when he led off the ninth inning by walking Jose Marmolejos.

Two outs later, he was facing Mitch Haniger, who had twice hit him hard on a night when Turnbull was getting almost exclusively soft contact.

But it only took three pitches to strike him out. Fastball, slider, fastball.

I made probably the best three pitches I made all night, Turnbull said. I not only wanted to make my nastiest pitches, but I wanted to execute them as perfectly as possible.

Then the celebration was on. Turnbulls girlfriend was in Seattle and could share in the accomplishment.

That was really special. Im really, really thankful that she was here. Just a dream come true on probably the best day of my life, Turnbull said.

There was also a small group of fans behind the dugout who had good-naturedly razzed Turnbull in the first inning, predicting a no-hitter.

Afterwards, Turnbull shouted, You guys called it!

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Best night of my life: How Tigers Spencer Turnbull made history in Seattle - MLive.com

Margaret Atwood has always been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Born in Ottawa in 1939, Atwood has been consumed with the specter of a sudden totalitarian takeover, like the one she imagined in her 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale, since she was a girl. She watched with trepidation, then, if not necessarily surprise, as Donald Trump was swept into power in 2016. When the TV adaptation of her book debuted on Hulu in the early months of his administration, it was heralded as an allegory for our times. But Atwood sees herself less as an oracle than a student of history including her own. The fourth season of the series, now streaming on Hulu, follows June as she attempts to escape to Canada, as Atwoods own ancestors did: Protestants driven out of France, and United Empire Loyalists who fled north after the American Revolution. They were all kicked out of somewhere for being on the wrong side of something, Atwood says.

The author recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the inspiration for The Handmaids Tale and its companion text, The Testaments, written during Trumps tenure, her fears for the future, and the one plot point she vetoed from the Hulu series.

Ive been fascinated by the added cultural resonance The Handmaids Tale took on during the Trump administration. The TV show premiered only a few weeks after his inauguration in 2017No kidding! What a coincidence. What a series of adventures led up to that coincidence happening. I noticed from looking at my notes that I started actually thinking about [the book] in 1981. What had just happened? Ronald Reagan had been elected, and the religious right was on the rise in those years, the early Eighties. The Seventies was a fermentous time, with second-wave feminism making a lot of gains but not the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment, which got nixed, basically, by Phyllis Schlafly, who got a lovely little cafe named after her in The Testaments. And then there was a backlash. There are always backlashes. In the Eighties, that is when people started saying things like Women belong in the home. And I started thinking, Well, if they do, how are you going to get them back in there?In the Fifties they were stuffed back in with some pretty amazing propaganda.

Youre talking about after World War II, when women had gone to work in factories and other places.Dial back even more. In the Thirties, during the Depression, it was considered bad manners and not permissible, once you got married, for you to have a job if you were a woman. You were supposed to give up that job so that some man could support his family. Then it was the Forties and Step up, gals, roll up your sleeves. We need you to work at a factory, have a victory garden, do all of those things. Women were doing all kinds of things they never would have in the Thirties: driving trucks, earning salaries. A very big social stir-up, fermentation, and an equally big unsettling of previously received sexual mores. How can I put this? A lot of partying while the bombs were falling!

Along comes the Fifties: Back into the bungalow! You can have a bungalow now, and you dont have to have a servant, because youve got a Hoover and a washer-dryer. That gave rise to another backlash in the form of Betty Friedan: educated women who felt stuck in the box. Then we got the birth control pill about the mid-Sixties, and then, not coincidentally, the miniskirt and, not coincidentally, the so-called sexual revolution. A lot of thinking went on around that: Should women behave like men? How did men behave? Should you have wide-open freedom, or would that turn into a different form of oppression? In the Fifties you were supposed to say no, and in Seventies, you were supposed to say yes, and if you didnt, then you were a prude. Sex, drugs, and rock & roll, that was the undercurrent of the Seventies. A huge amount of feminist writing took place some of it pretty extreme, some of it historical. Then arrived the Eighties and Ronald Reagan: This has gone too far. Lets roll it back. And The Handmaids Tale came out of that.

My ever-present question, since I was born in 39, is: If there were to be a totalitarianism in the United States, what would it look like? What would be the slogan? What would be the excuse? Because they all come in with: Were going to make things so much better, but first, we have to get rid of those people.

Knowing your fascination with the looming shadow of totalitarianism in the U.S., how did you watch the rise of Donald Trump?With trepidation! Weve seen this before. Its right out of the playbook. The big propaganda lies, the replacement of people in pivotal positions in the judiciary because every totalitarian regime controls the judiciary. The attempt to subvert the Constitution, the attempted coup. These are motifs that have occurred many times throughout history. The attempt to seize control of communications media. They couldnt actually do that, but they could try to erase belief in the media as a trustworthy source of information, and replace that with other sources that were telling you there are blood-drinking Democrats in the cellar of a pizza parlor that didnt have a cellar.

It was either Hitler or Goebbels who said if you tell the big lie often enough, people will believe it. Make the lie big, and make it often. We saw that. And its not a question of left or right so-called left regimes have done the same thing. Its a question of totalitarianism or not totalitarianism.

One of the hallmarks of a totalitarian regime is intolerance for peaceful protest. Youve said that if you can protest and not get shot, youre not living under a totalitarian regime.Yes, absolutely.

Now there are these laws that have been passed, in Florida and elsewhere, basically legalizing the act of running protesters over with your car.What? What? What? When did that happen?

In Florida, the governor recently signed a new law protecting drivers from civil and criminal liability if they hit a protester with their car.So theyre legalizing murder? Thats the name for it: murder. You might as well just go out with the Night of the Long Knives and knock on peoples doors and shoot them. Its extrajudicial murder, and there is no other name for it.

Im curious how you view our current moment. Earlier we were going all the way back to the 1930s, talking about the cyclical nature of some of these things throughout history. Where do you think we are right now, post-Trump? What are your thoughts or fears for the future?Were in a very unsettled moment. Since there is no the future, not graven in stone, there are a number of potential futures, and how people react to these things now is going to determine what kind of the future we have in, say, two, three, four, or five years. It has never been any different. Were in a moment, much like the Thirties, in which things [are] pretty polarized. And we have just seen anotherThirties-era thing happen, which is this huge better not use that word, huge, so many words have been trashed the enormous infrastructure plan that the Biden government has just proposed, a lot like FDRs.

Is this a moment of crisis for America? Yes, it is. How should America respond? It should respond with positivity and some realism. People in the United States have taken for granted for so long that theyre top dog, that they can afford these battles and in intramural wars that theyve been having, but maybe they cant afford them. Maybe to indulge yourself that way is going to be to slip from world power. And when you slip from power I give you the Battle of Waterloo as an example when you turn around and start to run, you will be ruthlessly pursued, because other people want your power.

What has it been like for you to see the handmaids costume, from this story you wrote in the Eighties, take on so much resonance in the last four years?The reason it has is because its very visual and we live in a visual age. People with cell phones, well, weve seen the power of those, but also just television, taking pictures, putting them up on social media, et cetera. You can convey a message without having to say anything.

You can also get into a state legislature [with the costume]. They cant bar you, as things are now but maybe youll get run over by a car on the way there but, as it is, youre not creating a disturbance, because youre not saying anything, and youre not immodestly dressed, lord knows. So thats one of the reasons. The other reason, of course, is the television show. It made the narrative available to a lot of people who would not have necessarily seen or understood it before.

Is it ever surreal for you just how ubiquitous of a symbol its become?Everything is surreal to me. Take your choice! Its all pretty surreal when you come to think of it. But against what normal are we measuring this? That is the problem. What is normal? Looking again back to history, once we get to a period of recorded history, there are a great many unsettling events, and very few periods in which there were no unsettling events.

You started writing The Testaments as Trump was on the rise.Thats right.

Did you have, at the time, almost a sense of dj vu to this period in the Eighties when you were writing The Handmaids Tale?During the two Obama elections we had some of the Republicans saying these kinds of things quite amazing things, like, theres real rape and not-real rape. What was it?

If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.The body has ways of shutting things down. Yeah, it was a very peculiar understanding of the female anatomy and physiology. They said things like you have to carry a dead baby until it got birthed naturally because thats what cows did. Do you remember that? There were a lot of comments like that, which I think had something to do with them losing the election to Obama. So I was taking note of those. They were gaining adherents, believe it or not, and thats why a pussy-grabbing presidential candidate didnt turn the election. There was already that happening during the Obama years not so much under George W. Bush, who now seems like some kind of paragon of old-world gentility. I mean, he made some disastrous foreign policy decisions, but he was not on a crusade to smoosh women into the ground partly because he had a pretty smart and literate wife. So, yeah, Id been thinking about it not just when Trump was on the ascendant, but before he even appeared as a presidential candidate. But in those two elections, although the clouds loomed on the horizon, what with the women are like cows, et cetera, it didnt happen. But people were already using Handmaids Tale imagery in those elections, and then came out in full blossoming form during the Womens March, and then internationally after the television show was launched.

June (Elisabeth Moss) and Janine (Madeline Brewer) in Milk Episode 404 of the Handmaids Tale

Hulu

What has your involvement with the show been like, and what has it been like for you to see it develop over each successive season?Im called a consultant that means I dont have any actual power. I get to read the scripts, and voice opinions, and I talk with Bruce Miller, the showrunner. And he was happy to have The Testaments in hand, because it gave him some ideas about where things could go next. But as we all have said [both myself and] people in the writing room who are actually writing the show nothing goes in that doesnt have a precedent in real life, either in history or now, elsewhere or here. All of that has been respected. They are exploring the possibilities of what might happen next in such situations. And I was interested to read the other day, which I didnt know, and I should have known, that Audrey Hepburn was a resistance fighter in World War II. She was a teenager, and they used teenagers a lot as messengers, because they were less likely to be suspected. She was helping rescue downed British airmen. It was very, very risky, of course. So theres a lot of precedent for girls and women doing these kinds of things. It is not out of line for women in The Handmaids Tale to be working underground in this way. There would always come a moment when theyve felt that their cover was about to be blown, or when people would try and get them out. No spoilers, but there would be these issues and it has been that way with Canada and the United States before. Canada was the destination of the Underground Railroad. Canada was the destination of, I think, 250,000 draft dodgers during the Vietnam period. Canada was a destination during the American Civil War for people who wanted to sit it out they went to Montreal, apparently.

Miller has said that you will occasionally put the kibosh on some of the ideas from the writers room. Whats something youve nixed?I did say you cant kill on Aunt Lydia. That time they pushed her over a banister and stuck a knife into her, I said, You cannot do not kill Aunt Lydia! No! Ann Dowd is so brilliant as Aunt Lydia. Brilliant.

You wrote in The New York Times in the first season about one of the scenes I think it was the slut-shaming of Janine. You said it was horribly upsetting to watch. One of the criticisms of the show, especially in recent seasons, is that it can be so hard to watch what these women are going through.History is hard to watch. The present moment is hard to watch, which is why a lot of people dont watch it. What is happening to the Uighurs in China all of these things are hard to watch, but if you have a personality that includes empathy, which most people do, unless theyre psychopaths This is painful. Ouch. This hurts. Yes, its true, it is hard to watch.

The show was, for a lot of people, an almost cathartic escape at the very beginning of the Trump administration. You might think that thats the time when people would want to turn away from something that feels so resonant with their reality.Theres another way of looking at it, which is: It hasnt happened yet. And no matter how bad you are feeling about what has happened, at least its not there.

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Weve Seen This Before: Margaret Atwood on The Handmaids Tale and How History Repeats Itself - Rolling Stone

By Staff | on May 20, 2021

It was just 70 years ago today, May 20, 1951, when the latest Communist offensive was defeated and brought to a halt on the eastern half of the front line in Korea. Remember the 750,000 Chinese Soldiers that walked all the way from Eastern China to fight in Korea, well they had now been used up, sacrificed in an all-out attempt to break through the UN Forces and conquer South Korea and win the War. The UN Soldiers were shocked at the fanaticism of the Chinese and North Korean Soldiers, which seemed almost suicidal. Communist casualties were heavy, over 70,000 in April and another 90,000 for May, so heavy that the battlefield was covered with their dead. Once again UN Soldiers couldnt advance without stepping on the dead or pieces of the dead enemy soldiers. It looked like the UN now had a chance to win the Korean War.

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This Day In History, May 20th, 2021 - "Fields of Dead" - Signals AZ

There is a breathtaking moment near the end of the first episode of High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, a new four-part Netflix documentary based on the 2011 book by the scholar Jessica B. Harris.

The scene unfolds in Benin, a country Dr. Harris has visited a dozen times in her work chronicling the connection between the foods of West Africa and the United States. She tenderly leads the series host, Stephen Satterfield, to the Cemetery of Slaves. The beachfront memorial marks the mass grave of thousands who died in captivity before they could be loaded into ships at one of the most active slave-trading ports in Africa.

Mr. Satterfield, a reserved 37-year-old who moved from a restaurant career to one in media, begins to cry. Im so glad I can tell them thank you, he says. And Im so glad that finally, I get to bring them home with me. They get to come home.

He breaks down into coughing sobs. Dr. Harris, nearly four decades his senior, holds him and reminds him to breathe. Its OK, sweetie, she says. Walk tall.

To say there has never been a food show like this is not a stretch. Historically, American food TV has largely reduced African American cooking to Southern or soul food. Even when it came to barbecue, producers favored white cooking personalities over Black ones.

The way we talk, entertain, dress, create all of that stuff has been recognized, but not our food, said Adrian Miller, one of the historians featured in the series, who recently published Black Smoke, a book about African Americans and barbecue.

High on the Hog the phrase refers to the location of the best cuts of meat on a pig but has come to connote wealth marks a departure from the days when all the Black folks on these shows were just caricatures, said Tanya Holland, a Bay Area chef and food TV veteran.

Ms. Holland, 55, polished her cooking technique in France, and holds a degree in Russian language and literature. But that made no difference to television executives 20 years ago. In 2000, when the Food Network cast me in Melting Pot, they were like, Can you do a brunch with your girlfriends sitting around going, Hey, girl? she said. Every show, they kept telling me be more sassy.

High on the Hog is an overdue corrective.

The documentary is framed as Mr. Satterfields journey. It begins at the Dantokpa Market in Benin, and ends at Lucilles in Houston, where diners discuss Black culinary excellence over a meal that the chef Chris Williams prepared for Toni Tipton-Martin from Ms. Tipton-Martins book Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking.

In between, Mr. Satterfield travels to the Gullah Geechee rice belt in South Carolina, samples pepper pot made with oxtail in Philadelphia and visits New York to pay homage to Thomas Downing, king of the citys oyster culture in the 19th century, and to the young shuckers carrying on his legacy. In Texas, Mr. Satterfield rides a horse (for the first time), goes to a Black rodeo and learns to make son-of-a-gun stew from offal the way the first Black cowboys did in the 1800s.

And in a segment that may change how a new generation views boxed macaroni and cheese, the foodways teacher and historian Leni Sorensen recreates an early American version of the dish from a recipe developed by James Hemings, an exceptional French-trained chef whom Thomas Jefferson kept enslaved.

It isnt about the mac and cheese, said Karis Jagger, one of the shows producers. Its about survival, and showing how fantastic and brilliant some of these figures were who we just dont know enough about.

The seeds of the show were sown six years ago when the food journalist Jeff Gordinier was reporting an article for The New York Times on African American cooking. Alexander Smalls, the chef and co-owner of the Cecil, in Harlem, told him to read Dr. Harriss book. Mr. Gordinier did, then told a friend, the producer Fabienne Toback.

Ms. Toback read High on the Hog in one sitting, and wept. She and Ms. Jagger, her longtime creative partner, were raw from the 2014 killing of Michael Brown Jr. by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and were looking for material that had more depth and meaning to them. They quickly asked Dr. Harris for the rights.

She said yes to a couple of scrappy middle-aged Black women, and we were so grateful, Ms. Toback said. We wanted to make something grand, like she is.

Dr. Harris called the women angels. They were just hellbent on getting it produced, she said.

Although her work has been used for other projects, including the food programming and cafeteria menu at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, turning her book over to documentary producers was different. Its like giving your child up for adoption, and you have to trust the adoptive parents, said Dr. Harris, who appears only in the first episode.

Although it took five years to turn what is essentially the first half of her book into a documentary, the timing of its release is perfect, Dr. Harris said.

What we are seeing is extraordinary, she said. This is a social movement writ large, and food is a very big part of it.

To acquaint themselves with new keepers of Black food culture to feature alongside established historians, the producers started their own food blog, Hey, Sistah, and scoured the internet.

That led them to cooks like Jerrelle Guy, a popular food blogger and photographer who wrote the 2018 cookbook Black Girl Baking (and who contributes to New York Times Cooking). In the documentary, as she creates desserts for a Juneteenth celebration, she has a tearful discussion with Mr. Satterfield.

I feel like the kitchen is one of the safest spaces for me, she tells him. It gives me a feeling of empowerment, and I think that is really important for a lot of Black women who maybe dont have a space like that.

The series director, Roger Ross Williams, whose 2010 documentary, Music for Prudence, won an Academy Award, didnt anticipate so many emotional moments.

Each and every episode, we were moved to tears, he said in a phone interview from Mexico City, where he is directing a feature film. And it was not just a couple of people. There were moments when everyone was in tears. We felt the spirit every single day of shooting.

High on the Hog was particularly meaningful for him. His mother died two months before production began. Although he was raised outside Philadelphia, his family is Gullah Geechee and settled in Charleston, S.C. He remembers visits to the Lowcountry as a child filled with farm work and okra soup.

Thats why the okra soup that the culinary historian Michael W. Twitty cooked over a fire near a slave cabin on a plantation in South Carolina was by far Mr. Williamss favorite dish in the series.

We know that food is an emotional thing for people, but I think its something completely different for African Americans because of all the pain were holding inside with our history, he said. But it wasnt all sorrow and pain. There was great joy around the table for us as a family.

As a food-show host, Mr. Satterfield is as introspective as Stanley Tucci is effusive or Anthony Bourdain was bold. He turned out to be exactly the host the show called for, Mr. Williams said. Mr. Satterfield is well respected among people committed to social and political change through food, and he had no preconceived ideas about how to anchor a documentary.

I would describe him as wonderfully green, said Shoshana Guy, the NBC journalist who was the series showrunner. When someone is green, its like an unpainted canvas.

Mr. Satterfield, the founder of the media company Whetstone, had no idea he was being recruited when he met with Ms. Toback in Los Angeles. He simply thought she was asking for some help as they prepared to pitch the series to Netflix, which quickly embraced the project. When he realized they wanted him to host, he agreed immediately.

Dr. J for me has always been an intellectual titan, a cultural titan, he said, using a nickname for Dr. Harris. The only thing I can liken it to is if you grew up idolizing Michael Jordan or LeBron, and now you are teammates.

Mr. Satterfield, who recently moved from Oakland, Calif., back to Atlanta, his hometown, is trying not to worry about how the show will be received or the spotlight that will shine on him.

When I think about what I want from the show, peoples imaginations being reconfigured is at the top of the list, he said. Theres a celebratory vibe to this show that feels like an arrival. It feels like a victory for so many of us. It has that emotional quality of liberation.

Originally posted here:

The Making of High on the Hog, Bringing Black Food History to TV - The New York Times

Oklahoma County prosecutors filed charges this week on a woman who allegedly left her dogs to die in a southwest Oklahoma City apartment. Two of the animal cruelty charges dated back to 2019 when Cassandra Leaverton allegedly abandoned two dogs and one of the animals died.

Oklahoma City animal welfare workers were alerted to the most recent case last month.

Residents at an apartment complex near Southwest 59th and Western Avenue had not seen the dogs' owner in several days.

We did find two dogs that were emaciated, very skinny, OKC Animal Welfare Superintendent Jon Gary said. Conditions of the apartment were not sanitary for the animals to be in.

Animal control started looking into Leaverton's history and found a pending case from 2019.

Court records showed Leaverton was accused of leaving two dogs in another apartment. Police described the place as being trashed and covered in feces and urine. It was later determined one of the dogs had internal bleeding which caused its death.

So, we have a pending case and now a new case, Gary said. Thats really what made this rise to the level of felony. Theres a lot of history there.

Leaverton was charged with four counts of felony animal cruelty.

Most of the time they dont end up with any kind of charge because animals are being cared for, Gary said. But these abandonment cases we do work several of them a month. Very few actually rise to the level of this case. This was one of the more severe, when you talk about abandonment.

Gary said thankfully the dogs were rescued in time and now living new lives.

One has been adopted and in a loving home, Gary said. We transferred the other one to one of our partners that we work with.

Leaverton is not currently in custody but there is an active warrant for her arrest.

See more here:

OKC Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty, Accused Of Having History Of Abandoning Dogs - news9.com KWTV

Shafer faces reelection to the party post in June, so he and his allies used the report as a chance to tout his pro-Trump leadership rather than an examination of what went wrong and how the party can win in 2022.

The document only made brief mention of the fact that Republicans lost Georgia for the first time in a presidential race since 1992 and were subsequently swept in the U.S. Senate runoffs.

Much of its pages were framed through the lens of Trumps false claims about Georgia election fraud, blaming Raffensperger for foolish legal settlements and feckless emergency rules.

The Georgia Republican Party, on three separate occasions, sued the Secretary of State to force him to obey the law and do his job, the report states.

12/14/2020 Atlanta, Georgia Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta, Monday, December 14, 2020. (Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com)

Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

Left unmentioned was the fact that Raffensperger and other officials found no evidence of widespread irregularities. Three separate tallies of the results confirmed Bidens victory, an audit of absentee ballot signatures found no cases of fraud, and pro-Trump lawsuits were dismissed from court.

The report provides a window into the ongoing focus from state GOP activists who continue to repeat pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the election despite no proof of any systemic wrongdoing.

It lists five separate lawsuits the state party filed against Raffensperger, each of which failed to yield any substantive victories. (The report asserts that one case led the secretary of state to expand access for poll watchers before asserting without evidence that massive violations of state law remained unchecked.)

Shafers allies defended the document. Joseph Brannan, the state GOP treasurer, called it a great summary of the work done by the grassroots under Shafers leadership that tells the story of the unprecedented level of engagement by the party.

Not surprisingly, it elicited cackles from Democrats.

If the Georgia GOP defines success as losing the presidency, both U.S. Senate seats and a House seat, we wish them nothing but success going forward, said Scott Hogan, the executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

1/4/21 - Dalton, GA - President Donald Trump holds a rally in Dalton, GA, to campaign for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on the eve of the special election which will determine control of the U.S. Senate. (Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@ajc.com)

Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com

Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com

But the outrage over Trumps defeat has also been a boon to Georgia Republicans. A surge of new faces gathered at weekend GOP meetings held in 13 of Georgias 14 congressional districts, where many heard from speakers who echoed Trumps false claims of a rigged election.

The uptick in participation evoked memories of the round of Republican meetings in 2016, when Trump brought legions of new conservative supporters to sleepy party gatherings often dominated by establishment figures or long-standing volunteers.

In west Georgias 3rd Congressional District, former state Sen. Josh McKoon asked for a show of hands and was surprised to find more than half of the 274 delegates had never attended a convention before.

Likewise for Brandon Phillips, chair of the 2nd Congressional District in South Georgia, who posted a picture of dozens of newcomers with the caption: Yall better keep up in Atlanta.

Metro Atlanta conventions held their own, too. Marci McCarthy, the chair of the DeKalb County GOP, said an influx of new faces who are turning their anger into action and advocacy signed up as convention delegates for the first time.

And Brad Carver of the 11th Congressional District, which covers a stretch of northwest Georgias suburbs, said more than half of the delegates who attended Saturdays convention had never shown up to a GOP meeting before this election cycle.

In all, Shafer said there was record turnout for district meetings and that roughly half of the members participated for the first time.

Newcomers to Georgia Republican meetings raise their hands during the 1st District GOP convention on May 15, 2021.

Credit: Brandon Phillips

Credit: Brandon Phillips

Veteran activists welcomed the new members, but they also stressed the need for party unity at a time when Trumps feuds with Republican officials have exacted damage.

Raffensperger is a decided underdog in his 2022 reelection bid, Kemp faces promises of payback from grassroots Republicans angry that he refused to overturn the election results, and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who also drew Trumps fury, announced this week that he wouldnt run for another term.

The only way back to where we need to be is getting everyone back to wearing the Team R logo and behind Gov. Kemp, John Wood said, pointing to the increase in GOP attendance in South Georgia.

That doesnt happen if you dont get out there and do the work, said Wood, a longtime conservative grassroots leader from coastal Georgia. Thats where victory lies.

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The Georgia GOP tries to rewrite the 2020 election history - Atlanta Journal Constitution

We dont know exactly what Arthur Smith and Dave Ragones offense will look like in 2021 for the Falcons, but there are certain expectations that are quite reasonable to have. There will be more of an emphasis on a consistent ground game, heavy tight end usage, and a passing attack that is based more on efficiency than volume, meaning Matt Ryans attempts might plummet but his effectiveness will hopefully rise.

Theres one other expectation that we havent spent much time on to this point that seems very reasonable to gird your loins for: The running backs not being a major part of the passing game, at least as receivers.

Earlier this offseason, I suggested that part of the appeal of Mike Davis was his versatility, as hes a capable blocker and receiver as well as a runner. Taking over for an injured Christian McCaffrey in 2020, after all, Davis was targeted 70 times (4th on the team) and wound up with 59 receptions for 373 yards and 2 touchdowns. proving to be a reliable pass catching option for Teddy Bridgewater out of the backfield. The Falcons then went out and added Cordarrelle Patterson, who has spent most of his career as a nominal receiver and dabbled in the backfield in Chicago, as a listed running back. Rookie Javian Hawkins, already a darling of the fanbase, has all the tools to be a successful pass catching back in this league even if he didnt get a ton of run as a receiver at Louisville. A coordinator who loves to target backs, like Kyle Shanahan once did with Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman in Atlanta, would find plenty to like here.

Nonetheless, it seems likely that Arthur Smith will not exactly prioritize his backs as receiving threats.

History gives us plenty of evidence, as Smith has not prized targeting running backs in the passing game in his work in Tennessee, and with capable tight ends and A.J. Brown at his disposal, its hard to blame him for not doing so. The Titans were actually last in the NFL in running back targets in 2020, and in 2019 they were second-to-last, separated by the Rams by a single target. Under Dirk Koetter, the Falcons were 14th in both in 2019 and 2020, and they got more value out of those targets than they did a completely stagnant run game. If you prioritize an efficient passing game, you dont particularly prioritize passes to running backs, who generally average less per reception than tight ends and far less than receivers.

Ah, you say, but Derrick Henry is not exactly a huge receiving threat! Youd be right about that, and Smith has promised to tailor his offense to his personnel rather than turning Davis into Henry Lite. But in an offense that might feature Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Kyle Pitts, Hayden Hurst, Russell Gage, and interesting depth receiving options like Olamide Zaccheaus and Jaeden Graham, I think its fair to argue that tailoring your attack to pump passes to Davis and Patterson would be a mistake. Remember, Smith had Dion Lewis in Tennessee, who caught 59 passes on 67 targets in 2018. Once Smith took over as the teams offensive coordinator in 2019, Lewis got just 32 targets and 19 catches.

Its not an accident that Ryan Tannehill was among the top 5 in the NFL in terms of yards per attempt and air yards per attempt in each of the last two seasons, leading the league in the former in 2019. Smith and this offense are going to prioritize explosive plays, something he talked about all the time in Tennessee and continues to talk about in Atlanta, and that largely means throwing the ball to Atlantas many explosive threats at receiver and tight end.

Im excited about Mike Davis in this offense, and Patteron and Hawkins will bring deeply intriguing speed to this backfield that should only help them be more creative and effective. Unless Arthur Smith has turned over a new and very unexpected leaf, though, dont expect any of these guys to be on the receiving end of a lot of Matt Ryan passes in 2021.

Read more:

Given Arthur Smiths history, we shouldnt expect RBs to get many targets in the Falcons passing game - The Falcoholic

This Friday, 450 Habersham Central High School seniors and 17 seniors from the Habersham Success Academy will receive their diplomas. Graduation will proceed as normal without strict COVID-19 safety protocol.

County school superintendent Matthew Cooper believes this years graduation may bring the largest graduation crowd in the history of Habersham Central, after he and HCHS Principal Jonathan Stribling made the decision to host a normal graduation.

The last seventeen months have been difficult for education, with the COVID-19 pandemic sending the class of 2020 into virtual learning and causing many graduations across the country to be canceled. Habersham Schools have set themselves apart from many school systems in Georgia, choosing to hold in-person classes in the 2020-2021 school year, with a brief return to online learning in January due to rising COVID-19 cases among faculty and staff.

We had the hope that here in Habersham County we could deal with it [the COVID-19 Pandemic] as good as anyone and better than most, Cooper tells Now Habersham. Over the course of this school year we overcame many challenges. Despite some unknowns, our administrators, teachers, support staff, parents, and students responded time and again with grace and strength. Throughout this year, the Habersham County School System has not wavered in its commitment to our mission of Success for all Students.'

With COVID-19 vaccines readily available throughout the county, and many staff fully vaccinated, a return to normal learning is in the cards. The school system plans to return to school as usual this August. This graduation serves as more than a celebration of the students who overcame the challenges of receiving an education during a global pandemic, it also serves as a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel for the Habersham community.

The HCHS class of 2021 navigated this unique school year with focus, patience, and grace, Stribling says. This graduation promises to be a memorable event for the Class of 2021 and their families.

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HCHS graduation traffic and livestream information

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HCHS may have "the largest graduation crowd" in its history - Now Habersham