June 5, 2016

News and Views

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/why-the--ali-summit--remains-a-transformational-moment-in-u-s--history-180346704.html

Why the 'Ali Summit' remains a transformational moment in U.S. history
Eric Adelson,Yahoo Sports
June 4, 2016

Video -- Muhammad Ali: Remembered Greatness

The most iconic image of the late Muhammad Ali, who died Friday at 74, is likely that of him standing triumphantly over the fallen Sonny Liston in 1965.

The most important image might be something else entirely.

It was taken on this day – June 4 – in 1967, at a news conference in Cleveland. Ali is speaking into a microphone. On his right, listening intently, sits Bill Russell. On his left sits Jim Brown and Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Assembled there, in one photo, are four of the greatest athletes in history. They are flanked by other athletes, including future NFL Hall of Famer Willie Davis, and community leaders such as Carl Stokes, who would become the first black mayor of a major U.S. city. They are not at the news conference to speak about sports.

Jim Brown presides over a meeting of top African-American athletes on June 4, 1967, to show support for boxer Muhammad Ali's refusal to fight in Vietnam. (Tony Tomsic/Getty Images)They were there to lend visible support to Ali's decision to object to his induction into the war in Vietnam. The "Ali Summit," as it later came to be known, was pulled together by Brown at the offices of the Negro Industrial Economic Union and became a crucial step in the civil rights movement. As Bill Rhoden of the New York Times described the scene in a 2014 story, "the moment itself would be remembered as the first – and last – time that so many African-American athletes at that level came together to support a controversial cause."

It's hard to imagine anything like this happening today. There have been sporadic sports protests in recent years, like LeBron James and others decrying Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist remarks, or NBA players wearing "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts to call out police brutality, or even the U.S. Women's National Team filing a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer, but the power of that 1967 conference is as resonant now as it was then. They are not in warm-ups or T-shirts or uniforms; they're in business suits.

"The Liston image, that's what most people wanted to see – black men fighting each other," says Lou Moore, a professor at Grand Valley State University who specializes in boxing history. "They wanted you to be a tiger in the ring but a pussycat when it comes to politics. That picture of them standing together is them being a tiger off the field."

The bravery of this is hard to overstate. This was even before the era of free agency, before the era of the seven-figure endorsement contract, long before athletes worked with consultants to come up with cute logos for their "brand." Athletes now can carve their reputations with edited essays or carefully produced ads. Back then there was no filter, and the media was often antagonistic in a way we can't grasp today. And the hate went way beyond the sports world; Ali was refused service at a whites-only restaurant after he was already an Olympic gold-medalist. His anti-war stance cost him his U.S. passport and very nearly his career. Two weeks after the news conference, he was banned from boxing and sentenced to prison.

On his Facebook page Saturday morning, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote about Ali's power:

"At a time when blacks who spoke up about injustice were labeled uppity and often arrested under one pretext or another, Muhammad willingly sacrificed the best years of his career to stand tall and fight for what he believed was right. In doing so, he made all Americans, black and white, stand taller. I may be 7'2" but I never felt taller than when standing in his shadow."

John Wooten, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Bobby Mitchell stand behind Muhammad Ali. They all reunited in 2014. (AP)Ali didn't just mention his beliefs on occasion, or when there was a news story on a topic he cared about. Ali was a constant reminder of injustice. He made people see what they did not want to see. There were others who spoke up before and during the Civil Rights Era, like Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis, and Brown and Abdul-Jabbar voiced unpopular views for decades (and still do), but Ali was brash and flash, exposing inconvenient truths with beautiful boxing and turns of phrases.

"I am America," he once said. "I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me."

There are few comparable quotes to that in today's sports world. Cam Newton drew a lot of controversy earlier this year when he said, "I'm an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven't seen nothing they can compare me to." That was refreshing honesty from the NFL MVP, but Newton did not risk government backlash with his words. Ali and the others risked everything.

"We didn't care about any perceived threats," former Browns lineman John Wooten told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2012. "We weren't concerned because we weren't going to waver. We were unified. We all had a real relationship with each other and we knew we were doing something for the betterment of all."

Most of today's athletes (and people) seek to make others like them. Ali sought to disrupt, to discomfit, to dare. Saying, "I'm the greatest" and "I'm so pretty" wasn't just the trash talk we know today. It was political, cultural, iconoclastic.

"When he said, 'I'm the greatest' – people realized they treat [black people] like animals," says Moore. "People would say our skin is ugly. He's saying 'I'm pretty.' That's a big deal."

Sometimes it was crass or callous, but that's part of the genius of it: Words were never near as ugly as the truth Ali illuminated.

"There were plenty of other young activists," Moore says. "But he's an athlete. America has never allowed athletes to do that in their prime. They had to wear the mask. Ali didn't have to do that. He refused to do that."

Jim Brown: Muhammad Ali was a very outspoken, courageous man

Hall of Famer Jim Brown talks about his relationship with Muhammad Ali and the social conscience he brought to African American athletes in the 1960s.

President Barack Obama released a statement on Ali's passing on Saturday morning, saying, "His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today."

Obama's presidency itself is evidence of Ali's legacy.

In his statement, Obama mentioned that he has a copy in the White House of that iconic photo of the fighter – the one of Ali standing over Liston. That moment, albeit sterling, was a sports moment.

But the photo of him, and Brown and Alcindor and the others, in Cleveland: that was a group of athletes shining a flashbulb in the faces of an incongruous, unfair society. That was bravery beyond sports.

That was the truest image of a champion.


I was a student at the unabashedly liberal UNC-CH when Muhammad Ali became “the greatest.” There was something about his youthful exuberance that caused me to warm toward him. His “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” was so cute and clever that I didn’t see him as a violent person. When he joined the Muslims, changed his name and then refused to go into the Army, he became a campus hero. He has appeared on interviews showing his benign personality and black pride in the anti-war and Civil Rights movement. In his later years, he has met political leaders, including US Presidents and, surprisingly, Fidel Castro. He was the sort of ambassador who does not represent the might of the US government, but the power of one man meeting with another. He was my kind of human being. Rest in peace.



Sanders, Trump and the Daily Trail of the Washington Post
Opinion and News (EXCERPTS)

This somewhat disconnected collection of material is entertaining and full of information, so get out your pick axe and dig for gold.


NAMES -- Democratic National Committee vice chair, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard
-- Congressman Raúl Grijalva


SANDERS EMAILS, JUNE 4, 2016
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard

Lucy -
It’s no secret that when we started this campaign, we had no money, very little name recognition, and we were taking on the entire Democratic establishment in this country.

So when a Democratic National Committee vice chair, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, was disinvited from our first debate after calling for more of them, people took notice. And when Tulsi quit her post at the DNC to endorse our campaign, it sent shockwaves through the political establishment.

For the last several months, Tulsi has been a tireless surrogate for our campaign. She has joined me at rallies, appeared in ads, and now we’re campaigning across California where almost every recent poll shows us within just a few points of Hillary Clinton.

Today, I want to ask you to join me in accomplishing two goals: help us win in California on Tuesday and ensure Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is re-elected in November.

Split a contribution between our campaign and Tulsi Gabbard’s re-election, and we will have the resources we need to win in California on Tuesday while supporting a great progressive leader we need in Congress.

If you've saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will automatically be evenly split between Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie 2016:

Congresswoman Gabbard is one of the important voices of a new generation of leaders. As a veteran of the Iraq War, she understands the cost of war and is fighting to create a foreign policy that not only protects America but keeps us out of perpetual wars that we should not be in.

Tulsi has been a great friend to our political revolution. And because of people like her, and people like you, we have a great chance to win California on Tuesday night and close this primary out strong. That’s why splitting your contribution today is so important.

In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders



The first to see our potential
Bernie Sanders

Lucy,
When we started our campaign, we had the support of hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters beginning to build the movement that we know today. And the first member of Congress who saw the potential of our political revolution was Congressman Raúl Grijalva.

Raúl was the very first member of Congress to endorse our campaign, and he did so proudly. He is a progressive leader in Congress who's not afraid to stand up to the political establishment.

And now, as we enter the final primaries of the campaign, I will be campaigning in California with my friend Raúl Grijalva by my side once more. He is the exact kind of progressive hero we need in Congress, and that's why, with the polls so close, I need to ask you to help us win.

Split a contribution between our campaign and Raúl Grijalva’s re-election, and we will have the resources we need to win in California on Tuesday while supporting a great progressive leader we need in Congress.

When we faced some of the most disingenuous attacks in our primary, it was Raúl who was out in front with the media to defend our campaign. It was Raúl who helped organized young Latinos in states across the country. And it's Raúl's solid progressive vision that we need to continue to have in Congress.

Every single poll in California shows it's going to be extremely close. That's why Raúl is spending the last days before this primary right by my side, earning every vote we can.

We need your help now to win California, and Raúl needs your help to win his re-election to Congress in November.

Split a $28 contribution between Bernie 2016 and Raúl Grijalva's re-election campaign and help us both win.

In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders


TRUMP EMAIL -- JUNE 4, 2016

The Daily Trail: Donald Trump says he has no regrets, on a day Paul Ryan might
The Washington Post Jun 3 at 9:22 PM
By Rebecca Sinderbrand June 3 at 9:20 PM

Donald Trump has said for months that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge hearing the case against Trump University, could not be impartial because his parents emigrated to the United States from Mexico. Still, the return of that attack yesterday, the same day the presumptive GOP nominee was endorsed by House speaker Paul Ryan, seemed to leave some in the party scrambling.

Today, Ryan himself described Trump's remarks about Curiel as "out of left field," saying he "completely disagreed with the thinking" behind it. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley went further, saying Trump-style brand of rhetoric could lead to tragedy. And Mitch McConnell spoke...very carefully. "Donald Trump is certainly a different kind of candidate," he said. (This is true.) Everyone seemed to be waiting for the storm to pass.

Then this happened:

"In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that aired on Friday, Trump doubled down on his racially charged accusations against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling two class-action lawsuits against Trump University in San Diego," reported Sean Sullivan and Jenna Johnson. "Curiel was born in Indiana but his parents are from Mexico, which Trump has repeatedly said keeps Curiel from rendering unbiased decisions.

Here's what that sounded like:

Tapper: "If you are saying: He can't do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?"

Trump: "No. I don't think so at all."

Tapper: "No?"

Trump: "No, he's proud of his heritage. I respect him for that."

Tapper: "But you're saying he can't do his job because of it," Tapper said.

Trump: "Look, he's proud of his heritage, okay? I'm building a wall. Now, I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics."

Tapper: "He's a legal citizen."

Trump: "But we're building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico."

If that answer made any campaign staffers happy, they are probably not campaign staffers who work for Donald Trump.

Katy Tur ✔ @KatyTurNBC
NEW: Trump aides not happy with Trump's attack on Judge Curiel impartiality, telling me “these are the things that will defeat us."
4:53 PM - 3 Jun 2016


Play Video2:20
Elsewhere in California, Clinton was defending Judge Curiel:

Follow
Liz Kreutz ✔ @ABCLiz
"Donald Trump is apparently of German heritage. What does that mean?" Clinton tells @abc7elex about judge comments
5:48 PM - 3 Jun 2016
60 60 Retweets 57 57 likes
So. OK.

(The full quote: "The judge was born in Indiana. Yes, he's of Mexican heritage! Donald Trump is apparently of German heritage. What does that mean? We're all Americans.")



THE VIEW FROM THE FIELD:

Trump protest in San Jose descends into violence
Play Video2:11

If you missed last evening's chaos in San Jose, where anti-Trump protests descended into chaos with attacks on some Trump supporters, you can catch some of it above. Today, Trump said "thugs" were to blame. Clinton said some of the blame belonged with Trump. And some Democrats, reported Sean Sullivan and Jose DelReal, said they worried that no matter where the fault lay, those incidents could wind up functioning as a sort of in-kind contribution to Trump:

"Democrats and Hispanic activists said Friday that they are increasingly alarmed by a spate of violence at Donald Trump rallies instigated by anti-Trump protesters, fearing that the incidents — widely viewed on television and social media — will only help the GOP candidate and undermine their attempts to defeat him.

"The latest flashpoint came Thursday in downtown San Jose, Calif., where a demonstration outside a Trump campaign rally quickly escalated out of control. Several protesters assaulted Trump supporters, ripped pro-Trump signs away from them and stomped on vehicles in the area. A flurry of video clips circulating Friday morning showed bystanders who sustained bloody injuries.

"The chaotic scene was part of a long-running trend of violence at Trump rallies, where uncomfortable ethnic tensions have taken center stage in response to the candidate’s proposals to deport illegal immigrants en masse and temporarily ban foreign Muslims from the country. But unlike several violent eruptions earlier this spring, when the attacks were mostly carried out by Trump supporters against protesters, young anti-Trump protesters have been the assailants at several recent events. ..."


Ken Thomas ✔ @KThomasDC
.@BernieSanders: "I understand the anger but we are not going to defeat Trump by throwing eggs or getting involved in violence of any kind."
8:42 PM - 3 Jun 2016


Modesto. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post)
The good news for Bernie Sanders seems to come with asterisks already appended. For example: there are signs that he may have finally figured out how to appeal to non-white voters (and just maybe have reached terrain where non-white voters are more sympathetic to his message.) That's good news for the Vermont senator. It might be slightly better news if there was more than a week and a half left in the Democratic primary season.

"Sanders is in striking range of a victory in the nation’s largest state thanks to an early decision to play here and a long campaign to convert nonwhite voters that has taken root here in ways that it didn’t in other states that front-runner Hillary Clinton won," reports Dave Weigel from California. "The principal reason? Young Latinos and Asian Americans, who have registered in huge numbers here in part to oppose Donald Trump, and who seem to be coalescing around Sanders.

"It may be too late for Sanders. He could win California Tuesday and still effectively lose the nomination the same day, when five other states will also hold primaries. And the campaign worries that Clinton’s virtually insurmountable delegate lead could lead television networks to call the race early and depress late-in-the-day turnout on the west coast.

"But in the Sanders stump speech, and in his interactions with voters, there are clues to how he broke through with non-white votes. Immigration is now an issue of morality and workers’ dignity; gone are the days when, in sync with some labor leaders, he said that only people like David and Charles Koch wanted 'open borders.'"


Culver City. EPA/MIKE NELSON
(We're old enough to remember what that labor-oriented Sanders immigration message sounded like. Then again, so is anyone old enough to read this story — here's what his immigration position sounded like last year:

"There is a reason why Wall Street and all of corporate America likes immigration reform, and it is not, in my view, that they’re staying up nights worrying about undocumented workers in this country," Sanders told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce last summer. "...I frankly do not believe that we should be bringing in significant numbers of unskilled to workers to compete with [unemployed] kids. I want to see these kids get jobs.")

His concerns of last summer may still be a part of his policy agenda, but they're necessarily part of his stump speech. "At a Thursday rally in Modesto, Sanders promised to legalize workers by executive order if Congress did not pass 'comprehensive' reform," reported Weigel.

"'Today, there are 11 million undocumented people in this country, and when you are a worker, and when you are undocumented, you get cheated and you get exploited every single day,' he said. 'What your employer can do to you if you are an undocumented worker is a disgrace.'"

That message is resonating. "...In the first six months of 2016, 1.8 million new California voters were registered. Latino registration was up 123 percent compared to the same period in 2012. The rise of Donald Trump propelled that increase, but Sanders seemed to reap the benefits."



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rape-victim-to-ex-stanford-swimmer-brock-turner-assault-is-not-an-accident/

Rape victim to ex-Stanford swimmer: "Assault is not an accident"
CBS/AP
June 4, 2016, 5:11 PM

Video -- Former Stanford swimmer Sentenced
Video -- Ex-Stanford Swimmer Found Guilty


PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A six-month jail term for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman is being decried as a slap on the wrist.

A California judge sentenced Brock Turner to six months in county jail and three years' probation after the woman who was assaulted read the court an emotional statement that has gone viral.

Turner, 20, faced a maximum 14 years in state prison. Prosecutors had asked for a six-year term.

He is expected to serve three months with good behavior, CBS San Francisco station KPIX reported. Turner will also have to register as a sex offender for life and complete a sex offender management program.

The young woman Turner assaulted told the court she should not be viewed as "a drunk victim discarded behind a dumpster" nor should the scales of justice be tipped in favor of "the all-American swimmer."

"This is not a story of another drunk college hook­up with poor decision making. Assault is not an accident," the victim said, according to a complete transcript of the statement published by Buzzfeed and the San Jose Mercury News. "Somehow, you still don't get it. Somehow, you still sound confused."

She described how the attack left her "closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty."

"I pretended the whole thing wasn't real," she said, later adding in a direct address to Turner, "You bought me a ticket to a planet that I lived in by myself."

A light sentence, she said, would make a "mockery of the seriousness of his assaults." She said she has not been able to forgive Turner because he has not acknowledged that he sexually assaulted her.

"You have been convicted of violating me with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol," the victim told Turner. "Do not talk about the sad way your life was upturned because alcohol made you do bad things. Figure out how to take responsibility for your own conduct."

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said in handing down the punishment that a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on Turner. Persky said he took into consideration Turner's age and the fact that he'd never been convicted of a serious crime before.

The case has become a flash point in what advocates have called an epidemic of violence against women on college campuses.

Turner, who dropped out of Stanford last year, appeared emotionless during the judge's sentencing in a Palo Alto courtroom. On March 30, a Santa Clara County jury found Turner guilty on three charges of sexual assault, KPIX reported at the time.

Despite his boyish looks, prosecutors have described Turner as the "quintessential face of campus sexual assault" and jurors agreed.

Turner, who had ambitions of competing in the 2016 Olympics, was accused of attempted sexual assault as well as the penetration of a woman who was either unconscious or too drunk to consent to sex.

The assault happened after a night of heavy drinking at a campus fraternity party.

KPIX reported in January that Turner admitted to sexually fondling the woman after consuming nine alcoholic drinks at an on-campus fraternity party on Jan. 18, 2015, but denied raping her, according to a report from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

The victim was not a Stanford student. She has not been publicly identified.

Police and prosecutors say the victim had three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system when the assault occurred - that she was blackout drunk and unable to agree to sex. Turner's blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Turner took the stand in his own defense and said he could walk and talk normally. He testified that the young woman agreed to go back to his dorm room.

He also claimed that she was a willing participant in the admittedly drunk sexual encounter that happened in the bushes outside the fraternity party.

The jury decided that Turner was involved in something far more criminal.

The Stanford Daily, the university's student newspaper, said Turner read a statement at Thursday's hearing in which he expressed remorse to the victim and her family.

"I can never forgive myself," he said. He said he hoped that his work in a high school program warning students about the dangers of alcohol would help him atone for his actions.

After the sentencing, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said the punishment did not fit the crime.

"This predator failed to take responsibility, failed to show remorse and failed to tell the truth," Rosen told KPIX.

Turner was immediately remanded into custody, but even his defense attorney acknowledged many people wouldn't be happy with the judge's decision.

"If my daughter was the victim of this, I'd be livid. I'd be furious," attorney Mike Armstrong told KPIX. "I'd be asking for a very serious punishment."



“A six-month jail term … a maximum 14 years in state prison … a six-year term … three months with good behavior” – Really? This has been going on for years and years, “the battle of the sexes.” For some good entertainment go to the library for a copy of the cartoon book of that title, by James Thurber. Old, though his work is, it remains giggly humor par excellence if you’re willing to tolerate come uncomfortable subject matter.

But about this very serious case, I think it may be yet another Affluenza case, as I said yesterday about another naughty and wealthy young man. When I was in my twenties, the clever male comment was, “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker!” There is also the fact that Sports is king, especially on college campuses. It isn’t just the masculine love of unintellectual competitions, but also the fact that colleges probably make at least as much money on the prestige that comes from sports as they do from tuition, though that now costs in the tens of thousands per year in so many places. We clearly need Sanders’ free tuition at state universities. We also need legislation against sexual assault that “has some teeth in it!”



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rodrigo-duterte-president-elect-philippines-citizens-shoot-bad-guys/

Filipino president-elect tells citizens to go kill bad guys in the streets
CBS/AP
June 5, 2016, 9:01 AM

Photograph -- Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks during his election victory celebration in Davao city in southern Philippines June 4, 2016. REUTERS/LEAN DAVAL JR
Photograph -- Philippine presidential candidate and Davao city mayor Rodrigo Duterte kisses the Philippine flag during a political campaign rally before the national elections at Rizal park in Manila, Philippines, May 7, 2016. REUTERS


MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine president-elect has encouraged the public to help him in his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods.

In a nationally televised speech late Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte told a huge crowd in the southern city of Davao celebrating last month's presidential victory that Filipinos who help him battle crime will be rewarded.

"Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun - you have my support," Duterte said, warning of an extensive illegal drug trade that involves even the country's police.

If a drug dealer resists arrest or refuses to be brought to a police station and threatens a citizen with a gun or a knife, "you can kill him," Duterte said. "Shoot him and I'll give you a medal."

Critics have long dubbed the "Filipino Donald Trump" a "butcher" for advocating the murder of drug traffickers and other criminals.

The 71-year-old Duterte won the May 9 presidential election on a bold promise to end crime and corruption within six months of his presidency. That vow resonated among crime-weary Filipinos, though police officials considered it campaign rhetoric that was impossible to accomplish.

The brash Duterte has threatened to close down Congress and form a revolutionary government if legislators stonewall his government.

This has alarmed the political establishment, which fears that Duterte will squander the hard-won economic progress under outgoing President Benigno Aquino III. Aquino has called Duterte a threat to democracy, and likened him to Adolf Hitler.

His campaign manager says the brash image, the obscene jokes, the outlandish promises that became the Duterte persona were a strategy to attract voters.

Human rights watchdogs have expressed alarm that his anti-crime drive may lead to widespread rights violations.

Duterte has been suspected of playing a role in many killings of suspected criminals in his city by motorcycle-riding assassins known as the "Davao death squads," but human rights watchdogs say he has not been criminally charged because nobody has dared to testify against him in court

In his speech on Saturday, Duterte also asked three police generals based in the main national police camp in the capital to resign for involvement in crimes that he did not specify. He threatened to humiliate them in public if they did not quit and said he would order a review of dismissed criminal cases of active policemen, suggesting some may have bribed their way back onto the force.

"They go back again crucifying the Filipino," he said. "I won't agree to that."

"If you're still into drugs, I will kill you, don't take this as a joke. I'm not trying to make you laugh, son of a bitch, I will really kill you," he said to loud jeers and applause.

The foul-mouthed longtime Davao mayor and former government prosecutor said crimes were committed by law enforcers because of "extreme greed and extreme need." He said that he would provide a small amount to an officer who was tempted because his wife has cancer or a mother died, but that those who would break the law because of extreme greed "will also be dealt with by me. I'll have you killed."

Duterte, who starts his six-year presidential term on June 30, repeated a plan to offer huge bounties to those who can turn in drug lords, dead or alive.

While it remains to be seen what will happen to his threats when he takes office, some policemen have heeded his call for a tougher anti-crime approach.

In suburban Las Pinas city in the Manila metropolis, police have apprehended more than 100 minors who defied a night curfew, and men who were either having drinking sprees in public or roaming around shirtless in violation of a local ordinance. The crackdown was dubbed "Oplan Rody" - after Duterte's nickname - or "Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth."



“While it remains to be seen what will happen to his threats when he takes office, some policemen have heeded his call for a tougher anti-crime approach. In suburban Las Pinas city in the Manila metropolis, police have apprehended more than 100 minors who defied a night curfew, and men who were either having drinking sprees in public or roaming around shirtless in violation of a local ordinance. The crackdown was dubbed "Oplan Rody" - after Duterte's nickname - or "Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth."


“The foul-mouthed longtime Davao mayor and former government prosecutor said crimes were committed by law enforcers because of "extreme greed and extreme need." He said that he would provide a small amount to an officer who was tempted because his wife has cancer or a mother died, but that those who would break the law because of extreme greed "will also be dealt with by me. I'll have you killed." Thank goodness we do have court system and Bill of Rights in this country. The Philippines, a former US territory, are now a nation in their own right since 1945, but they are departing from the democratic plan of government, apparently, in a very similar way to the Trump fiasco in this country.

I don’t know that Trump would actually try to dismantle the rule of law as this man has done in anticipation of taking office, but the way his reasoning patterns SEEM TO go, it wouldn’t surprise me. I do think that the FBI, DOJ, both houses of Congress, BLM, the Pentagon, the state National Guards and the Bernie Sanders followers would spontaneously make it very hard for him to succeed. The article does say, however, that in that country the police have “taken heed” and are becoming massively aggressive to the ordinary rowdies that the nation has, following Duterte's lead. Unfortunately, police in this country do seem to be more “conservative” in nearly all ways than we liberal “good guys” are, so who knows. They may pull out their Pentagon gifts and “clear the streets” like the old USSR used to do. The world is clearly, as I’ve said a few times, “going to hell in a hand basket!”

You will have noticed by now that whenever I find something interesting and especially quirky, I look it up on Google. The article about this phrase is one of my favorites. In it are a couple of ancient origins; for instance the blue devil on the medieval church window in Gloucestershire may really be the origin of the phrase – also perhaps of the name of the famous Duke Blue Devils of Durham, NC -- though in early times there may have been multiple stories about devils being blue. The people in those days had a great imagination about spiritual matters. My grandfather spoke about attending séances as a young man in the late 1800s in which “the table would rise” when the contact with a spirit was made. As far as I know, they knew nothing about marijuana in those days. The writer’s “going to hell in a hovercraft” is also original, though it doesn’t have the same rhythmical snap to it. My overall pick, though, would be the baskets in which to carry a poor aristocrat’s head. Did they bury it afterwards, I wonder, or post it triumphantly on a stake by the highway as a warning to wandering royalists to stay out?



http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html
The meaning and origin of the expression: Going to hell in a handbasket

Meaning

To be 'going to hell in a handbasket' is to be rapidly deteriorating - on course for disaster.

Origin

It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. If Hollywood films are to be believed, the decapitated heads were caught in baskets - the casualty presumably going straight to hell, without passing Go.

The first version of 'in a handbasket' in print does in fact relate to an imaginary decapitated head. In Samuel Sewall's Diary, 1714, we find:

"A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it."

Sewall was born in England but emigrated to America when he was nine, and this citation reinforces the widely held opinion that the phrase is of US origin. That is almost certainly the case and, even now, 'hell in a handbasket' isn't often used outside the USA. The expression probably had English parentage though. The English preacher Thomas Adams referred to 'going to heaven in a wheelbarrow' in Gods Bounty on Proverbs, 1618:

Oh, this oppressor [that is, one who was wealthy but gave little to the church] must needs go to heaven! What shall hinder him? But it will be, as the byword is, in a wheelbarrow: the fiends, and not the angels, will take hold on him.

Hell in a handbasket' Going to heaven in a wheelbarrow' was a euphemistic way of saying 'going to hell'. The notion of sinners being literally wheeled to hell in barrows or carts is certainly very old. The mediaeval stained glass windows of Fairford Church in Gloucestershire contain an image of a woman being carried off to purgatory in a wheelbarrow pushed by a blue devil.

The thought behind the phrase is 17th century, but the precise wording 'going to hell in a handbasket' and its alternative form 'going to hell in a handcart' originated in the US around the middle of the 19th century. The 'handbasket' version is now the more common.

'Going to hell in a handbasket' seems to be just a colourful version of 'going to hell', in the same sense as 'going to the dogs'. 'In a handbasket' is an alliterative intensifier which gives the expression a catchy ring. There doesn't appear to be any particular significance to 'handbasket' apart from the alliteration - any other conveyance beginning with 'H' would have done just as well. The similar earlier phrases 'hell in a basket' and 'hell in a wheelbarrow', not having the same catchiness, have now disappeared from common use. Let's launch 'going to hell in a hovercraft' and see if that flies, so to speak.

The first example of 'hell in a hand basket' that I have found in print comes in I. Winslow Ayer's account of events of the American Civil War The Great North-Western Conspiracy, 1865. A very similar but slightly fuller report of Morris's comments was printed in the House Documents of the U.S. Congress, in 1867:

Speaking of men who had been arrested he [Judge Morris] said, "Some of our very best, and thousands of brave men, at this very moment in Camp Douglas, are our friends; who, if they were once at liberty, would send the abolitionists to hell in a hand-basket."

'Hell in a handcart' is found in print before 'hell in a handbasket'. The earliest citation I can find for that is in Elbridge Paige's book of Short Patent Sermons, 1841:

[Those people] who would rather ride to hell in a hand-cart than walk to heaven supported by the staff of industry.

See other phrases that were coined in the USA.



http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/04/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-convention/

Sanders: 'The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention'
By Eugene Scott, CNN
Updated 11:29 PM ET, Sat June 4, 2016


Washington (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday vowed to continue his fight for the Democratic nomination beyond the primary season, telling reporters at a news conference in Los Angeles that he plans to go after Hillary Clinton's superdelegates.

Clinton currently has 2,313 total delegates -- 1,769 of which are pledged and 544 of which are superdelegates -- and she is expected to cross the 2,383-delgate threshold in the next few days to clinch the nomination. But Sanders, who has 1,501 pledged delegates and only 46 superdelegates, says he can still woo enough of her superdelegates between now and the Democratic convention in July to swing the nomination his way.

It's a tall order.

Pledged delegates emerge from primaries and caucuses, while superdelegates are party leaders -- elected officials and former ones who have individually committed to a candidate. It would be unprecedented for the number of superdelegates Sanders needs to switch allegiances, and, like Clinton this year, then-Sen. Barack Obama entered the 2008 convention without a majority of pledged delegates.

Sanders is making this pledge to keep his fight alive in the closing days of the California primary campaign, sending a signal to his supporters that the race isn't finished.

"The media is in error when they lump superdelegates with pledged delegates. Pledged delegates are real," Sanders said. "Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. Won't happen. She will be dependent on superdelegates."

He vowed, "The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention."

Yet that decision isn't entirely his alone. If enough superdelegates pledge their support to Clinton -- and President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and other party leaders weigh in next week -- Sanders will face new pressure to reconsider his fight.

The Vermont senator accused the media of lumping together pledged delegates and superdelegates, noting that superdelegates don't formally cast their votes until the convention in late July, or, as Sanders put it, "six long weeks from today."

Sanders, however, acknowledged that it's unlikely he'll be able to turn around his fortunes.

"We understand that we have a steep climb," Sanders said. "I'm not here to tell you that tomorrow we're going to flip 300 superdelegates. You don't hear me say that. But I am saying we are going to make the case."

At a rally outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday night, Sanders fired up the crowd by repeating his pledge to go to the convention, citing his performance in polls with him and Trump.

"And what I hope that the delegates going to the Democratic National Convention understand is that in virtually every state poll we do much better against Trump than does Secretary Clinton," he said.

Clinton won the caucuses in the Virgin Islands Saturday, and Puerto Rico holds its primary on Sunday, when Clinton will likely get her earliest opportunity to clinch the nomination. California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota hold their primaries on Tuesday. Washington, D.C., holds the final nominating contest of the primary season on June 14.

Superdelegate process under scrutiny

For months, Sanders and his campaign have railed against how the Democratic National Committee and Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz have handled the primary process, claiming it has helped Clinton with debates held on Saturday nights, closed primaries in major states such as New York, and the use of superdelegates.

"That is called an anointment process, not a democratic process with a small or large d," Sanders said on Saturday.

He was joined in his criticism of the superdelegate process on Saturday by fellow progressive stalwart Elizabeth Warren, who said at the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention that she "doesn't believe in superdelegates" -- even though as a senator, she is one.

"I don't think that superdelegates ought to sway the election," the Massachusetts senator said, MassLive.com reported, an apparent reference to Warren's desire for superdelegates to not give the nomination to Sanders.

Warren has not endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primary fight. But behind the scenes, discussions between the Warren and Clinton camps have been markedly increasing, especially as the freshman senator has begun to a [sic] play a more prominent role attacking Donald Trump, a source close to Warren has told CNN.

CNN's Maeve Reston, Jeff Zeleny, Betsy Klein, Dan Berman and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.



http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/271577-sen-warren-takes-heat-on-clinton-sanders-battle

Sen. Warren takes heat on Clinton-Sanders battle
By Peter Schroeder
03/02/16 08:26 PM EST


Supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are lashing out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for staying neutral in the Democratic primary.

Some Sanders fans are particularly upset that Warren didn’t tilt the scales in the Vermont senator’s favor in her home state of Massachusetts, where Hillary Clinton pulled out an important win on Tuesday.

“Senator Warren, you’re all talk, no walk. Used to respect you but now I’ll take that respect and give it to Tulsi Gabbard, who actually deserves it,” said one commenter on Warren’s Facebook page, referring to the Hawaii lawmaker who recently stepped down from a position at the Democratic National Committee to back Sanders.

A glance at Warren’s social media shows that she is inundated by Sanders backers, who are offering a combination of pleas and recriminations over her choice not to endorse so far.

One recent post on her Facebook page about paid family leave had more than 1,000 comments, and nearly all were about her not endorsing Sanders.

“Coward,” said one critic with a Sanders logo for an avatar.

The online fervor over a potential Warren endorsement is so high that The New York Times had to publicly disavow a fake news article announcing Warren was backing Sanders.

Warren, who did not comment for this story, has been feeling pressure from all sides in the fractious Democratic battle.

She’s the only woman in the Senate who hasn’t endorsed Clinton, and her colleagues have pressed her to do so.

“I’m hopeful she’ll join us. I’m hopeful she’ll join the revolution that will allow us to come together to elect” the first female president, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told The Hill last month.

There’s no real doubt that Warren will eventually endorse the Democratic nominee for the White House.

Warren’s outsize presence in the Democratic Party virtually ensures her a plum speaking spot at the national convention, where she could play a role in uniting the party.

Leaders of liberal groups backing Sanders for president say they’re not bothered by her neutrality and credit her with helping to move Clinton to the left.

“I don’t think she’s been on the sidelines,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, which has endorsed Sanders. “What she does is hugely helpful for Bernie. She continues to keep the campaign focused on the issues.”

Chamberlain also said Warren’s decision not to endorse Clinton yet is actually an implicit endorsement of Sanders.

“She’s the only female senator who has not made an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. That’s almost an endorsement right there,” he said. “It is saying, flat out, that I won’t just go along to get along.”

The anger Warren sees from the most vociferous Sanders supporters does not mean she’s in bad graces with most people on the left, either.

Videos she posts to her Facebook page pull in millions of views, underlining the fact that she remains one of her party’s most popular figures and a progressive hero.

Given that standing, many believe Warren could be a central player in rallying the party around its nominee after a tough primary.

“There’s a growing belief that Elizabeth Warren will play a large role during the unification moment,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has not endorsed in the primary. “Her influence is right in the middle of the race, and it’s because her hands are clean and she hasn’t endorsed one candidate.”

Warren could also be maximizing her leverage by not endorsing a candidate.

“If you endorse Bernie now, then you’ve marginalized yourself,” said one financial lobbyist who has watched Warren closely for years. “Why would you do it now, when you already have somebody who’s bringing Hillary over to the left?

“I don’t want to overstate it, but she is the most important person in the party in many ways,” the lobbyist added. “She is the person that everybody needs.”

Throughout the primary, Warren has offered praise for both Clinton and Sanders, often when they have taken a tougher stance on overseeing Wall Street.

She praised Sanders’s financial reform plan, which includes breaking up the nation’s biggest banks, and also offered kudos to Clinton for vowing to fight against GOP efforts to roll back the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

“She’s been very good about rewarding them,” said Green. “Once someone has endorsed, there’s not much reason for the other candidate to listen to them.”

One area where Warren would like to exert some influence is on the staffing of the next Democratic administration.

She has picked fights with the Obama administration over high-ranking officials she deems unsatisfactory. She has repeatedly challenged watchdogs like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for what she sees as a lax approach to financial wrongdoers. And she upended the White House’s efforts to place Antonio Weiss, a former investment banker, in a top Treasury Department position. Weiss ultimately ended up in an advisory role at Treasury.

And Warren made clear in a January op-ed in the Times that she will be expecting the eventual Democratic nominee to promise tough-minded regulators.

“Personnel is policy,” she wrote. “The next president can rebuild faith in our institutions by honoring the simple notion that nobody is above the law, but it will happen only if voters demand it.”


CNN -- " …The media is in error when they lump superdelegates with pledged delegates. Pledged delegates are real," Sanders said. "Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. Won't happen. She will be dependent on superdelegates." …. "We understand that we have a steep climb," Sanders said. "I'm not here to tell you that tomorrow we're going to flip 300 superdelegates. You don't hear me say that. But I am saying we are going to make the case." …. "That is called an anointment process, not a democratic process with a small or large d," Sanders said on Saturday. He was joined in his criticism of the superdelegate process on Saturday by fellow progressive stalwart Elizabeth Warren, who said at the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention that she "doesn't believe in superdelegates" -- even though as a senator, she is one. "I don't think that superdelegates ought to sway the election," the Massachusetts senator said, MassLive.com reported …. He was joined in his criticism of the superdelegate process on Saturday by fellow progressive stalwart Elizabeth Warren, who said at the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention that she "doesn't believe in superdelegates" -- even though as a senator, she is one. "I don't think that superdelegates ought to sway the election," the Massachusetts senator said, MassLive.com reported, an apparent reference to Warren's desire for superdelegates to not give the nomination to Sanders.”


The Hill – “Senator Warren, you’re all talk, no walk. Used to respect you but now I’ll take that respect and give it to Tulsi Gabbard, who actually deserves it,” said one commenter on Warren’s Facebook page, referring to the Hawaii lawmaker who recently stepped down from a position at the Democratic National Committee to back Sanders. …. If you endorse Bernie now, then you’ve marginalized yourself,” said one financial lobbyist who has watched Warren closely for years. “Why would you do it now, when you already have somebody who’s bringing Hillary over to the left?” …. One area where Warren would like to exert some influence is on the staffing of the next Democratic administration. She has picked fights with the Obama administration over high-ranking officials she deems unsatisfactory. She has repeatedly challenged watchdogs like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for what she sees as a lax approach to financial wrongdoers. And she upended the White House’s efforts to place Antonio Weiss, a former investment banker, in a top Treasury Department position. Weiss ultimately ended up in an advisory role at Treasury. …. The online fervor over a potential Warren endorsement is so high that The New York Times had to publicly disavow a fake news article announcing Warren was backing Sanders. Warren, who did not comment for this story, has been feeling pressure from all sides in the fractious Democratic battle. …. One area where Warren would like to exert some influence is on the staffing of the next Democratic administration. She has picked fights with the Obama administration over high-ranking officials she deems unsatisfactory. She has repeatedly challenged watchdogs like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for what she sees as a lax approach to financial wrongdoers. ….
“Personnel is policy,” she wrote. “The next president can rebuild faith in our institutions by honoring the simple notion that nobody is above the law, but it will happen only if voters demand it.”


I think Warren is trying to avoid massive criticism for an endorsement that will strongly displease hundreds of thousands of people, whoever she picks, and she would like to be the next in line for the presidency. So if she follows the wisdom of the old Southern Belles of sitting with her beautiful lace fan, while some five or six young beaux court her. If she were really totally committed to Sanders she would have a different reaction to the situation, I think. She is probably “running” this year for Vice President, herself, no matter which of the two becomes the 2016 candidate. The game she is playing, however may damage her influence in future years, because many will remember this, and won’t trust her as being committed to the one correct Democratic philosophical bent. As the Facebook commenter said, “Senator Warren, you’re all talk, no walk. Used to respect you but now I’ll take that respect and give it to Tulsi Gabbard, who actually deserves it …” Politics is a very tricky sport. We do want the right principles, but personal trustworthiness is necessary as well.



http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/06/04/480624491/seizing-on-popes-remarks-women-meet-in-rome-to-discuss-female-priesthood

Seizing On Pope's Remarks, Women Meet In Rome To Discuss Female Priesthood
Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday
SYLVIA POGGIOLI
June 4, 2016 8:05 AM ET

Photograph -- Pope Francis hugs Sister Carmen Sammut, a missionary sister of Our Lady of Africa, at the Vatican on May 12. The pope said he was willing to create a commission to study whether women can be deacons in the Catholic Church, signaling an openness to letting women serve in ordained ministry currently reserved to men. AP
Photograph -- Pope Francis celebrates a Jubilee Mass for priests in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Friday. AP
RELIGION -- Pilgrims Trace Women's Role in Early Church
Photograph -- Posters touting the Women Priests Project along a wall., Sylvia Poggioli/NPR


All across the Mediterranean, early Christian frescoes and bas reliefs carry the names of women deacons and even bishops — such as Phoebe, Helaria, Ausonia, Euphemia and Theodora.

Yet in 1994, Pope John Paul II not only decreed that women are definitively excluded from the priesthood, he even banned all discussion of the topic.

Pope Francis broke that taboo last month when he announced he would create a commission to study whether women can serve as deacons as they did in early Christianity.

Seizing this new sign of openness, supporters of a female priesthood converged on Rome this week, to coincide with the Vatican's Jubilee for the all-male clergy.

Marinella Perroni, a theologian and New Testament scholar who teaches at a Pontifical College in Rome, was one of the participants on a panel. She recalled that John Paul's 1994 edict even urged students to report errant teachers.

"In Rome, several professors were denounced to the congregation of the doctrine of the faith," she said. "This had immediate consequences on their right to teach and it led to paralysis."

Father Tony Flannery, whose support for women priests was one reason the Vatican suspended him from public ministry, also took part in this week's discussion. He rejected the claim that since Jesus' disciples were male, only men can minister the sacraments in persona Christi, or "in the person of Christ."

"Now that is such a ridiculous argument," he said. "In fact, that argument has its rightful place back at the time of the flat earth and the persecution of Galileo."

Panelist Jamie Manson, columnist and book editor at the National Catholic Reporter, said a female priesthood would be an important signal in a world where women suffer disproportionately from violence, poverty, lack of education and trafficking.

"Imagine if a church of one billion people, with this charismatic, rock star pope, suddenly said to the world, that women are equal to men," Manson said. "Imagine the power that would have over cultures across the world, where this patriarchal idea of women's subservience to men is at the root of all that women suffer globally."

The next day, the organizers of the unofficial jubilee of women priests gathered in the shadow of St. Peter's dome in their first official public demonstration in this city.

There are some 150 women worldwide who function as priests, in defiance of the Catholic Church. They perform baptisms and weddings and celebrate mass in house churches.

But after Pope Benedict issued a decree in 2010, all those women were automatically excommunicated from the church.

Some of those pioneering women priests also came to Rome this week, and they scored another first.

Janice Sevré-Duszynska, who was ordained by a bishop in Kentucky in 2008, says she and another woman were received by an official in the Secretariat of State, one of the Vatican's top departments.

"We talked to a wonderful priest, we were able to give our letter to Pope Francis, our petition to lift our excommunciations [sic] and stop all punishments against our supporters as well as begin a dialogue with women priests," she said.

While we spoke, police officers approached. A policewoman in civilian clothes asked, "You're here to promote the role of women in the church? To let women become priests like men? Put them on an equal footing?"

When asked what she thought about this, she laughed and said, "Oh, I'm just a police officer."

But it does seem the policewoman went out of her way for this group. She and her men escorted the protesting women all the way into St. Peter's Square, where Pope Francis was preparing to celebrate mass for thousands of ordained male priests.



"Imagine if a church of one billion people, with this charismatic, rock star pope, suddenly said to the world, that women are equal to men," Manson said. "Imagine the power that would have over cultures across the world, where this patriarchal idea of women's subservience to men is at the root of all that women suffer globally."


I agree 100% with Jamie Manson, who places the cause of multiple types of abuse, worldwide, that women endure, on the extreme lack of respect toward women, which goes back to our earliest civilizations; this is due to a long tradition of societally sanctioned female subservience. It is true that, according to one of the classical Greek dramas – the Aristophanes comedy Lysistrata – all the women in the city joined in a pact to stop having loving relations with their husbands until they stopped the incessant warfare. That was a pretty gutsy thing to do, but as far as I know Greek women actually had no place in the world outside the home. With such a view of the world in place, though a given husband might be personally inclined to be “gentle” to the women in his household, it is not the norm except in most of Europe and North America. That is one of the worst problems in human society. It leads to societies that are, by my standards, “primitive.” The idea that the beautiful young Pakistani woman Malala Yousafzai was shot for going to school is, pardon me, totally disgusting. She won in the end, though, when she got a Nobel Prize!

As for the question of women in the Catholic Church being elevated to the position of Deacon, it isn’t decided yet, but the Pope is going to look into it. These partly symbolic, but still groundbreaking, events are very interesting to me. I wonder how many of these several kinds of advancement by women, in countries all around the world, are actually based in part on the Women’s Liberation Movement of the late 1960s and 70s. Foreign women in places like Saudi Arabia are following suit in asking for their own cultural advancements. I’m really glad to see it. It looks like progress, in a world of current regressions.

An earlier article several months ago was on this same subject of female priesthood. Again the women were being considered for being Deacons, only, with no suggested path upward to the priesthood. It wasn’t clearly stated in the case of the ladies in Rome, exactly why police officers were sent to “escort” the group to the mass at St. Peters. They had just delivered a request for the lifting of their excommunications to an official at the Secretariat of State, so the guard was presumably to see them safely to the courtyard.

The reaction of the policewoman was encouraging. She asked them in detail about their mission as though she were possibly approving their goals, then “laughed” when asked what she thought of that. Though she indicated that it wasn’t up to her to approve or disapprove, I imagine she was actually very interested. Pope Francis really is a fascinating person, and very courageous, I believe. It crosses my mind occasionally, that since several Popes in this century have been attacked for making fewer “radical” changes, his life is very possibly in danger.