Looking Forward to 2023

Alicia Keys - December Back 2 June

Is This What the World is Coming To?

Eight teenage girls have been charged with the murder of a 59-year-old man in Toronto, Canadian police say.  The girls, aged between 13 and 16, are accused of stabbing the victim in what police describe as "a swarming" just after midnight local time on Sunday.

The man, who has not been identified, had been living in a shelter for the homeless at the time of the attack.  Toronto Mayor John Tory said he was "deeply disturbed" by the case in a statement.

A group of bystanders flagged down emergency services after finding the man with stab wounds shortly after midnight on Sunday, Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Terry Browne told reporters.  The victim, who had only recently moved into sheltered housing, later died in hospital.

The girls, whose identities are protected under Canadian law, were arrested near the scene of the attack and a number of weapons were seized.  They had met via social media and three of them had had previous contact with police, Detective Sergeant Terry Browne said. "We don't know how or why they met on that evening and why that destination was downtown Toronto."

They were believed to have been involved in an earlier altercation the same evening, he added.  A resident of a nearby homeless shelter told CBC Toronto the victim was stabbed in the stomach after trying to protect her when the girls approached her for alcohol.  "I didn't know if they had a knife or what. I was just scared," she said, explaining how she walked away from the attackers and sought refuge in the shelter.   "I am extremely troubled by the young age of those accused and by the number of people allegedly involved in this murder," Mayor Tory said. "My thoughts are with this man's friends and all those who knew him as they mourn his loss," he added.

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State of Emergency Powers in El Salvador Lead to Widespread Abuse of Police Power

A pair of NGO's operating in El Salvador have reported that “widespread” rights violations have occurred in El Salvador since a state of emergency was declared to combat gang violence, and called for authorities to offer “credible evidence” for its continuation.

Prepared by Human Rights Watch and Salvadoran rights group Cristosal, the report titled “We Can Arrest Anyone We Want” documents arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of detainees over the last nine months.

After more than 80 gang-related deaths occurred in just three days in late March, President Nayib Bukele requested a one-month state of emergency, which his party-controlled congress quickly granted.  Lawmakers have since extended the emergency declaration multiple times while expanding police powers and increasing prison sentences for gang activity.  According to the government, over 59,000 suspected gang members have been detained under the emergency, which allows for warrantless arrests.

But the NGOs’ report says that “hundreds of people with no apparent connections to gangs’ abusive activity” have been detained, often based off their “appearance and social background” or anonymous calls and uncorroborated allegations on social media.  “We found that human rights violations were not isolated incidents by rogue agents,” the NGOs said in a report summary, but were committed “repeatedly and across the country… by both the military and the police.”

Some 90 people detained under the emergency declaration have died while imprisoned, the NGOs said, adding that they were unable to confirm the causes of death due to a lack of official documentation.  In an appeal to the Bukele administration, the NGOs said that the state of emergency should be ended without “credible evidence that its restrictions on fundamental rights are proportionate and strictly necessary.”  Bukele issued a one word reply via Twitter, saying “No.”

The 40-year-old Bukele, who was elected in 2019, enjoys broad support in El Salvador over his promises to fight organized crime and improve security in the violence-wracked country.  He has come under fire for creeping authoritarianism, with the United States, United Nations, and the Organization of American States demanding his administration respect human rights amid its gang crackdown.

Have a Grinchy Christmas!

Privacy Warning if You're Traveling Internationally These Holidays

International travelers may know U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can scroll through your phone in a "random search." But new details paint a picture of broad and messy data collection that puts your privacy at risk.

Data copied from devices at entry points into the United States - including airports and border crossings - gets saved for 15 years in a database searchable by thousands of CBP employees without a warrant, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell reported this week. The data includes contacts, call logs, messages and photos from phones, tablets and computers, according to CBP. It could also contain social media posts, medical and financial information, or internet browsing history, according to a report from the New York think tank Brennan Center for Justice.

Customs officials have copied Americans' phone data at massive scale.  It's unclear to what extent federal agents can use the copied data because there are few meaningful safeguards, said Saira Hussain, a staff attorney at the privacy rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).  Hussain has argued in court that CBP's current data collection practices violate Americans' constitutional protections. Based on her interviews with search subjects, agents often profile people from Muslim or Muslim-adjacent communities, she said, but these searches impact people from "all walks of American life."

"You don't have to have committed a felony to want to keep some parts of your life private from meddling government agents," said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. "That could be medical diagnoses, mental health struggles, romantic associations, information about our children, you name it."  A CBP spokesman said in a statement that the agency searches devices "in accordance with statutory and regulatory authorities" and that its guidelines make sure each search is "exercised judiciously, responsibly, and consistent with the public trust."

Unlike other law enforcement, border authorities don't need a warrant to search your device. They may conduct a basic search - in which they scroll through your device inspecting texts, photos or anything else they can easily access - even if they don't suspect you of wrongdoing. But if an agent suspects you pose a "national security concern," they can run an advanced search using a digital forensics tool to copy the data from your device.

How you prepare to cross the border with your devices depends on what risks you're willing to tolerate, said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.  If you're more worried about agents rifling through your messages and photos in a basic search, removing files from your device would do the trick. If you're a political dissident, human rights activist, journalist or anyone else looking to avoid government surveillance or overreach, your focus will likely be preventing agents from accessing your device at all.

If you're an American citizen, you can refuse to unlock your devices for CBP agents and still enter the country. (This may not be clear from the information sheet agents are supposed to give you during the search, which says the process is "mandatory.")

If you decline to cooperate, CBP can hold onto your device. It says detention generally shouldn't last longer than five days, but Hussain said she's spoken with people who didn't get their devices back for months.  Noncitizens, meanwhile, aren't guaranteed entry if they decline to unlock their devices.

The fewer devices you travel with, the fewer opportunities for searches, Wessler said. Consider adopting a separate phone or laptop for traveling without sensitive data saved.  Power down devices before going through customs. This guards against advanced search tools that may bypass the screen lock on devices left powered on, according to EFF.  Encrypted data gets scrambled into a format unreadable to people who don't have the code - in this case, a password. iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS all come with built in full device encryption options.

Most contemporary smartphones are encrypted by default (make sure you lock your device). Here are general directions for Windows and MacOS.  The quickest methods to unlock your device - such as face ID or a weak passcode - are also the least secure. If you decline to unlock your device for a search, CBP may try to unlock it themselves, Wessler said. A strong password with both letters and numbers, or a passcode with at least six digits will make this harder.

CBP guidelines instruct agents to review only the data that's stored on your device itself - not all the information apps like Facebook and Gmail send to the cloud. If you consent to a search, flipping your device into airplane mode will limit the inspection to what's saved or cached.  You may choose to move your data to a cloud storage provider- such as iCloud, Google or Microsoft OneDrive - and then wipe or factory reset your device. This would protect your data from a basic visual search. But be aware: Most methods of file deletion leave behind traces a forensic search would uncover. Furthermore, walking through customs with a blank device could arouse suspicion and make you more likely to become a target, Hussain said.

Different states have different laws governing what CBP can inspect at U.S. entry points. In Arizona, for example, CBP can only search devices without a warrant if they're looking for specific digital contraband. If you want to protect your privacy, it might be worth flying into a state with more stringent boundaries for CBP.

Armed Extremists Showing up at LGBTQ Events Across the Country

Last month’s mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club—or more precisely, the mainstream right’s “they had it coming” response—seems to have spurred far-right extremists to a higher level of action. Since those murders, groups like the Proud Boys, armed militiamen, and various neofascist groups that have been turning out to harass LGBTQ communities under the rubric of labeling them “groomers” since this summer have begun ratcheting up their politics of menace.

This past weekend alone, as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports, neofascist thugs showed up to menace planned LGBTQ events—all of them drag shows—in Columbus, Ohio; in Lakeland and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and in New York City. Additionally, there are suspicions that the gun attacks on two electrical substations resulting in a massive power outage in Moore County, North Carolina, may have been targeted at a drag show there.

The largest and most concerning of these occurred in Columbus, where a school operated by the First Unitarian Universalist Church had planned to hold a “Holi-drag” storytime event. A group of Ohio-based Proud Boys announced that it planned to show up to protest. Their post warned: “It’s gonna be wild!”  On the morning of the event,  officials at the school were forced to announce they were canceling the planned event, claiming Columbus police officials “offered nothing” to provide security, describing their response to their concerns as only a "casual, distant acknowledgement" of the event.  After a week trying to reach out to the local police department, event organizers were told they could hire a special duty officer-- but that officer may or may not show up because they're understaffed.

The cancellation did not affect the far-right extremists who came marching to protest across the street from the church: not just Proud Boys, but also masked neofascist Patriot Front marchers, armed Oath Keepers and other militiamen, and neo-Nazi White Lives Matter activists. The various factions marched to the church site from different directions, and mostly appeared to remain clustered within their respective organizations once they got lined up across the street from the church. Columbus police officers were recorded chatting amiably with the marchers, but told people recording them that they were just trying to keep things even-keeled. 

In Florida, a group of neo-Nazis wearing masks and waving swastika-adorned banners showed up to protest outside of a Lakeland event featuring drag performers. The Lakeland marchers, nearly all of them masked, performed Hitler salutes and marches outside the Lakeland venue, some of them shouting, “Heil Hitler!” The men wore black pants and red shirts, and carried a banner proclaiming: “Drag queens are pedophiles with AIDS.” They also displayed a sign equating Jewishness with communism, as well as a Christian nationalist banner with a Crusader-style red cross. The masked Nazis frightened the children and their families inside the event. They remained sheltered in place until after police arrived.

 In New York, a smaller group of neo-Nazis led by notorious New York neo-Nazi Jovanni Valle, aka Jovi Val, attempted to make a scene at the Lincoln Center, which was also hosting a draq-queen storytime event, and met even stiffer resistance.  At least a dozen counter-protesters were there to meet them outside the venue and chased them away unceremoniously by fighting them.

“The goals are clear,” tweeted author Andy Campbell: “Cancel community events by mobilizing violent bigoted gangs, and ultimately, flood the narrative with ‘groomer’ until all drag/LGBTQ is accepted as inherently threatening.”

"The world is getting more and more unsafe for the LGBTQ community,” Cheryl Ryan of the Red Oak Community School told NBC News. “We have to do better."

 

Thomas Rhett - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Happy Holidays from the Addams Family

Never Underestimate the Igenuity of Moroccans

Fourteen Moroccans evaded Spanish police after they ran from a plane at Barcelona’s airport after it made an emergency landing to obtain assistance for a pregnant woman who simulated that she was about to give birth, authorities said.

The office for Spain’s government in the Catalonia region said the incident occurred when a Pegasus Airlines flight from Casablanca, Morocco, to Istanbul with 228 passengers on board requested an emergency landing at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat​ Airport.  A pregnant claimed that she had gone into labor and was suffering painful contractions.  After the plane landed, airport officials proceed to evacuated the woman from the plane.  Taking advantage of the confusion, 27 passengers exited the aircraft without authorization and tried to flee.  Police were able to stop thirteen of them, with the other fourteen managing to elude police at the airport and who still remain at large.

The woman who faked her labor pains was detained on charges of public disorder after doctors at a hospital determined that, although pregnant, she was not about to give birth.  Of the 13 fleeing passengers grabbed by police, five agreed to get back on the plane and continue on to Istanbul. The other eight were deported from to Spain and put on another Pegasus flight back to Casablanca.

Looks Like Frosty is About to Get Plowed

GOP Lawmaker Behind "Don't Say Gay" Bill Facing Fraud Charges

Republican Florida Rep. Joe Harding was all too quick to insert his alleged good Christian values on the state’s LGBTQ students and their families, but he apparently forgot all about those same values when it came to getting some illegal money from the federal government.

Harding—the lawmaker behind HB 1557, which supporters call the “Parental Rights in Education” bill but most refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill—was indicted Wednesday on a six-count charge of money laundering, wire fraud, and making false statements after a federal grand jury concluded that he fraudulently claimed to have employees in two dormant business in an effort to receive COVID-19 loans in 2020.

According to reporting from the Miami Herald, Harding, 35, applied to the Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans for $150,000 during the pandemic for businesses that did not legally qualify. He additionally created false bank statements as his supporting documentation.

Politico reports that Harding is being accused of using the Vak Shack, a company that sells discounted vacuum bags, and a 46-acre cattle and horse farm called Harding Farms to try to dupe the government out of pandemic-related loans. Both businesses were officially inactive from May 2017 to December 2020.  Harding also filed paperwork in Florida at the time falsifying that both companies were still in operation, according to the indictment.  Harding faces 35 years in prison but has not been remanded into custody. His trial begins on Jan. 11 in Gainesville, Florida.

 

Holiday Ho-Ho-Ho

Free Brittney!

It was a significant moment for President Joe Biden-- who has been under public pressure to bring Brittney Griner home.  It took more than nine grueling months to get to this point, but despite the celebrations the administration failed to win freedom for Paul Whelan. 

Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February on drugs charges when vape cartridges containing a small quantity of cannabis oil were found in her luggage - just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. She pleaded guilty but said it was an honest mistake.  The Biden administration declared she'd been wrongfully detained and swung into action. It has made the release of U.S. hostages a priority and created a special envoy for this purpose. But Griner's case was shadowed by added layers of complexity and pressure due to the backdrop of war in the Ukraine. 

Still, the administration in April was able to win the release of an American marine imprisoned in Russia, Trevor Reed. It exchanged him for a Russian pilot sentenced to cocaine trafficking charges in the U.S., demonstrating that the two countries could keep open a channel separate from their geopolitical tensions.  This, together with the publicity surrounding Griner's detention, galvanized the families of other detainees who banded together to lobby for more action from the White House. 

In July, Griner sent a handwritten letter to Biden saying she was afraid she'd be detained indefinitely and pleading with him not to forget her.  Just days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly expressed frustration that Russian counterparts were refusing to engage with what he called a "substantial offer". That was a highly unusual move in the discreet world of hostage diplomacy and a window into what Biden called "painstaking negotiations".

It became clear the Russians wanted a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout - a notorious arms dealer who was serving a 25 year sentence in prison. In Russia he is referred to simply as a businessman, known to have carried out risky aviation trips to dangerous places. It's not clear whether he had connections to Russian intelligence but both Russian and U.S. experts agree that he must have known quite a lot, which is probably why the Kremlin wanted him back.  

It was a big ask and the administration negotiated hard to include Whelan - a corporate security executive who's been jailed for nearly four years. He has been convicted of espionage and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.  Despite Blinken's public statement in July, officials said the talks were stonewalled for months.  In the meantime, Griner received a harsh nine year prison sentence, lost her appeal, and was sent to a remote penal colony in November.  Things looked dark for the basketball player - until Thursday's sudden announcement.

The final agreement came together in the past 48 hours; the sticking point appears to have been the two-for-one deal being pursued by the Biden administration. The Russians made clear Griner was the only option.  "This was not a choice of which American to bring home," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "The choice was one or none."  Biden made the "very painful" decision to go ahead and Griner and Bout are reported to have passed each other on the tarmac at the Abu Dhabi airport where the exchange took place.  Shortly afterwards the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia released a statement saying their joint mediation efforts had helped secure Griner's release.

Biden thanked the UAE for providing a location for the swap but the White House played down the notion of a formal mediation role. The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was grateful to Saudi Arabia for raising the issue with Moscow but the deal was negotiated by the U.S. and Russia.  Biden officials repeatedly said they regretted that Whelan was not included in the deal and vowed to continue efforts to secure his release.  

There are also reports that Russia refused a multi-person trade to release Paul Whelan because they specifically desired a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody-- even as the U.S. offered up the names of several other Russian prisoners in U.S. custody that they would be willing to trade. Biden was unable to deliver on the request for the ex-colonel, Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany.

A deal for Whelan also would have been a  difficult sell to the Russian public-- to the average Russian it is a bigger deal to trade away a spy than a sports star.  It was a stark reminder that there are other Americans who've been detained for much longer than 9 months who don't have celebrity status to help propel their case. 

Pentatonix & Meghan Trainor - Kid on Christmas

Iran Begins Hanging Protesters

Iran announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest.  Mohsen Shekari was hanged after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of "moharebeh" (enmity against God).

He was accused of being a "rioter" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.  An activist said he was convicted after a "show trial without any due process".   "The international community must immediately and strongly react to this execution," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, said.  "If Mohsen Shekari's execution is not met with serious consequences for the government, we will face mass execution of protesters," he added.

Iran Human Rights said Shekari was "denied access to his lawyer throughout the interrogation phase [and] legal proceedings".  It also said the hard-line Fars news agency aired his "forced confessions" hours after his execution. In the video, a bruise on his right cheek is visible.  Opposition activist collective 1500tasvir tweeted: "While his family were still hoping for an appeal and had no news from the case, the Islamic Republic unexpectedly executed him."

The judiciary has so far announced that at least 11 other people have been sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts on the charges of "enmity against God" or "corruption on Earth" in connection with the protests. The defendants' identities have not been disclosed.  Amnesty International has said the courts operate "under the influence of security and intelligence forces to impose harsh sentences following grossly unfair trials marked by summary and predominantly secret processes".  Amnesty International also said Shekari's execution "[exposed] the inhumanity of Iran's so-called justice system as dozens of others face the same fate". 

Mohsen Shekari's arrest, trial and execution took less than two and a half months.  Iran is taking a chance that a rushed execution of a young protester might deter others from taking to the streets-- but it is more likely to provoke anger on the part of protesters, not fear. Protesters have proven over and over again that they no longer have any such fear. The funeral of each one killed by security forces has turned into an anti-government demonstration.The hanging is yet another huge gamble for the regime and one that might give fresh impetus to the protests on the streets.

 

Breaking News: Peru is Breaking

Peru's president has reportedly been detained and accused of sedition after he announced the dissolution of congress and the installation of a "government of exception" to rule by decree - just hours before he was due to face an impeachment vote.  Lawmakers ignored the announcement, and in an emergency meeting impeached the president.

The country's national police tweeted on Wednesday that "former president" Pedro Castillo had been detained, shortly after the country's congress voted to remove him from office on Wednesday and replace him with the vice president.

That vote came after Castillo ordered a night-time curfew and the reorganization of the judiciary and prosecutor's office, which is investigating him for alleged corruption and influence-trafficking - charges which he denies.

The congressional vote put an end to Castillo's tumultuous 17 months in power which has already seen five cabinets, six criminal investigations and two failed attempts to impeach him.

 

Argentina VP Facing Jail Time for Corruption

A court in Argentina has sentenced Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in jail for corruption in a case that has shaken the country. Fernández was found guilty of "fraudulent administration" over the awarding of public works contracts to a friend.

Prosecutors said Fernández had led an unlawful partnership during the time when she was president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015. They said she had created a kickback scheme which steered lucrative public work contracts towards a friend of hers in return for bribes.

Businessman Lázaro Báez, the owner of a construction firm who was accused of being the main beneficiary of the scheme, was also sentenced to six years in prison. He had already been sentenced to 12 years in prison last year for money-laundering. Eleven other people were on trial. Seven were found guilty and sentenced to between three and a half and six years in prison, three were released and one had their case dismissed.

The prosecutors said that they uncovered irregularities in dozens of public work tenders awarded in the southern province of Santa Cruz, Fernández's political stronghold. Many of the construction projects were never completed.  Prosecutor Diego Luciani described it as "probably the biggest corruption operation the country has known". He also said the alleged kickback scheme had caused the Argentine state a loss of at least $1B.

Fernández has vehemently denied all charges, and is unlikely to serve actual jail time.  She has some immunity via her government roles and is expected to launch a lengthy appeals process. She has also been banned from public office for life, but will continue in her role as vice-president while the case goes through higher courts.

It is the first time ever that a vice-president has been convicted of a crime while in office in Argentina, and consequently, the case has proven highly divisive.   Supporters took to the street outside her apartment in Buenos Aires to show their backing for the vice-president. At times, they have faced off with critics of Fernández, who accuse her of being a "thief".  It was during one of these gatherings in September that Fernández became the target of an assassination attempt.   A 35-year-old man pointed a gun at the vice-president's head, but the weapon jammed as he aimed it at her. The man in that incident is facing charges of murder.

Indonesia Takes a Step Backward in Appeasing Hardliners

Indonesia's parliament has passed new laws that ban anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and also restrict political freedoms. Sex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years.

The raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.  The laws are widely seen as a "disaster" for human rights, and a blow to tourism and investment.  It's expected the new laws will be challenged in court.

The new laws apply equally to locals and to foreigners living in Indonesia, or visiting holiday destinations such as Bali.  Under the laws, unmarried couples caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year. They are also banned from living together - an act for which people could be jailed for up to six months. Adultery will also be an offense for which people can be jailed.

Ajeng, a 28-year-old Muslim woman living in the West Java city of Depok, said she was now at risk for living with her partner for the past five years. "With the new law, both of us can go to jail if one of the family decides to make a police report," she told reporters.  "What if there's one family member who has a problem with me and decides to send me to jail?  "I think living together or having sex outside of marriage is not a crime. In my religion, it's considered a sin. But I don't think the criminal code should be based on a certain religion."

Rights groups say the new provisions disproportionately affect women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities.  Many businesses had also been opposed to the legislation, saying it discouraged visitors and investment.  But lawmakers have celebrated overhauling laws dating back to Dutch colonial rule. "It is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind," law minister Yasonna Laoly told parliament.

The new legislation contains scores of new clauses criminalizing immorality and blasphemy and restricting political and religious expression.  Human Rights Watch's Asia Director Elaine Pearson said it was a "huge setback for a country that has tried to portray itself as a modern Muslim democracy".  The group's Jakarta-based researcher, Andreas Harsano, said there were millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates "especially among Indigenous peoples or Muslims in rural areas" who had married in specific religious ceremonies.  "These people will be theoretically breaking the law as living together could be punished up to six months in prison."   He added that research from Gulf states, where there are similar laws governing sex and relationships, showed women were punished and targeted by such morality laws more than men.

There are now also six blasphemy laws in the code, including apostasy - renouncing a religion. For the first time since its independence, Indonesia will make it illegal to persuade someone to be a non-believer.  New defamation articles also make it illegal for people to insult the president or criticise state ideology.

According to Ajeng, "People are angry that their liberty is being taken. Indonesia has plenty of problems like poverty, climate change and corruption, but instead of solving a problem they've created a bill that only adds to the problem."

Sad But True

Let Me Tell You a Story of a Hawaiian Hippie Nudist Camp

Where the road ends on Kauai’s north shore, a group of hippies in the early 1970s lived in an off-grid Hawaii community of tree houses, grew their hair long, smoked weed and chose to go nude.

Taylor Camp, as it would become known, was named after Kauai resident Howard Taylor, the brother of actress Elizabeth Taylor. Howard owned the 7 acres of land in Haena, a scenic coastline of white sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and a tropical abundance of streams, caves and green cliffs. It was in 1969 that Howard welcomed homeless men, women and children to live on his beachfront property, with no rules or rent to pay.  “We’ve had no trouble,” Howard said in a 1970 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article. “Most of them are just here while they make up their minds to return to the ‘Establishment’ world and what they want to do there.”

When Howard moved to Kauai, he never expected to create a hippie community. He had been living on Oahu, working at the University of Hawaii, and fell in love with the Garden Island. He bought the beachfront property in Haena, moved his family to Kauai, and planned to build a home for his wife and five kids.  After Howard bought the property, he couldn’t get a building permit and no one would tell him why. He eventually found out that the state had plans to create a state park out of the land.

Left in limbo with no way forward, Howard bought land elsewhere on the island and abandoned his Haena land, until he found a purpose for it in 1969. 

Grammy Nominee Keeping it [Too] Real?

Best New Artist Grammy nominee Omar Apollo is reassuring fans that the queer themes evident in his work are very much a reflection of his true self.

The singer-songwriter had a very, um, detailed response this week after a fan on Twitter questioned whether he was “queerbaiting” audiences by peppering his songs with lusty allusions to same-sex love.

 Moments later, he continued to set the record straight by adding:

 

Unlike artists such as Nick Jonas and Harry Styles, Apollo has never been coy about his sexuality. His debut album, “Ivory,” released in April, features tracks with explicit references to men, performed in both English and Spanish.  Though Apollo has said he’s not fond of traditional labels when it comes to his sexuality, he told NPR in April that he is “very gay.” 

“Maybe I was trying to keep the mystique, you understand? But I don’t even care anymore,” said the musician, who is Mexican American. 

 

Backstreet Boys - Christmas in New York

Keeping it Real in Britain

 

Rosetta Stone a New Symbol of British Colonialism

The debate over who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums, and the spotlight has fallen on the most visited piece in the British Museum: The Rosetta stone.

The inscriptions on the dark grey granite slab became the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after it was taken from Egypt by forces of the British empire in 1801.  Now, as Britain's largest museum marks the 200-year anniversary of the deciphering of hieroglyphics, thousands of Egyptians are demanding the stone’s return.

"The British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of Western cultural violence against Egypt," said Monica Hanna, dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, and organizer of one of two petitions calling for the stone's return.

The acquisition of the Rosetta Stone was tied up in the imperial battles between Britain and France. After Napoleon Bonaparte’s military occupation of Egypt, French scientists uncovered the stone in 1799 in the northern town of Rashid, known by the French as Rosetta. When British forces defeated the French in Egypt, the stone and over a dozen other antiquities were handed over to the British under the terms of an 1801 surrender deal between the generals of the two sides.   It has remained in the British Museum since.

Hanna’s petition, with 4,200 signatures, says the stone was seized illegally and constitutes a "spoil of war." The claim is echoed in a near identical petition by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister for antiquities affairs, which has more than 100,000 signatures. Hawass argues that Egypt had no say in the 1801 agreement.

The contention over the original stone copy stems from its unrivaled significance to Egyptology. Carved in the 2nd century B.C., the slab contains three translations of a decree relating to a settlement between the then-ruling Ptolemies and a sect of Egyptian priests. The first inscription is in classic hieroglyphics, the next is in a simplified hieroglyphic script known as Demotic, and the third is in Ancient Greek.  Through knowledge of the latter, academics were able to decipher the hieroglyphic symbols, with French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion eventually cracking the language in 1822.  The stone is one of more than 100,000 Egyptian and Sudanese relics housed in the British Museum. A large percentage were obtained during Britain’s colonial rule over the region from 1883 to 1953.

It has grown increasingly common for museums and collectors to return artifacts to their country of origin, with new instances reported nearly monthly. Often, it’s the result of a court ruling, while some cases are voluntary, symbolizing an act of atonement for historical wrongs.  New York’s Metropolitan Museum returned 16 antiquities to Egypt in September after a U.S. investigation concluded they had been illegally trafficked. On Monday, London’s Horniman Museum signed over 72 objects, including 12 Benin Bronzes, to Nigeria following a request from its government.

The British Museum has acknowledged that several repatriation requests have been made to it from various countries for artifacts, but there is no confirmation that any items from their collection have ever been rightfully repatriated.  For Nigel Hetherington, an archaeologist and CEO of the online academic forum Past Preserves, the museum’s lack of transparency makes clear its motives. ‘‘It’s about money, maintaining relevance and a fear that in returning certain items people will stop coming,’’ he said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has since invested heavily in its antiquities. Egypt has successfully reclaimed thousands of internationally smuggled artifacts and plans to open a newly built, state-of-the-art museum where tens of thousands of objects can be housed.  For Hanna, Egyptians’ right to access their own history should remain the priority. "How many Egyptians can travel to London or New York?" she said.

Both Hawass and Hanna said they are not pinning hopes on the government to secure its return. ‘‘The Rosetta stone is the icon of Egyptian identity,’’ said Hawass. ‘‘I will use the media and the intellectuals to tell the (British) museum they have no right.’’

 

Turkish Mine Explosion Leads to Controversy for Erdogan

Turkey's president is facing criticism for linking the deaths of 41 miners in an explosion to "destiny", saying such accidents "will always be". Recep Tayyip Erdogan's comments triggered protests in Istanbul, with some describing the accident in northern Turkey as "a massacre".

Relatives of the dead claim they reported being able to smell gas for more than a week.  The blast at the facility on the Black Sea also left 28 injured.  Erdogan made the remarks during a visit to the site in Bartin province.  "We are people who believe in the plan of destiny," he told reporters, as he was surrounded by rescue workers. Such accidents "will always be, we need to know that too", he added.  However, he added that he didn't want to see "deficiencies or unnecessary risks", according to Euronews.

But the comment angered many. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu demanded to know "in which century we are living?".   "Why [do] the mine accidents happen only in Turkey?" he said.   Emin Koramaz, who leads the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, dismissed the idea the blast could be described as an accident, alleging on Twitter that the miners had been sent "hundreds of metres underground without taking the necessary precautions, without inspection and without creating safe conditions".

The official cause of the blast is not yet known. Authorities said Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into the cause of the explosion, with preliminary findings suggesting it was caused by firedamp, a term referring to methane forming an explosive mixture in coal mines.   Angry families suspect gas may have played a role. The father of a man in his early 20s who died in the explosion told Pakistan's Associated Press that his son had also reported smelling gas for 10 days.

In the village of Makaraci, which lost four men, a tearful woman told Mr Erdogan at her brother's funeral: "President, my brother knew, he said there was a gas leak 10, 15 days ago. He said 'they will explode us soon'. How come it's negligence? He said 'they will explode us here'... He knew it."

According to news agency AFP, after a moment of silence, Mr Erdogan replied: "Sorry for your loss, may Allah give patience."

Around 110 people were in the mine at the time of Friday's blast, almost half of them at more than 300m (984ft) deep. Some 58 people working in the mine when the blast went off were rescued or got out by themselves.

 

New Spin on Rope-a-Dope

A 79-year-old Japanese man managed to get a 90-inch jump-rope stuck in his bladder after shoving the rope up into his penis.

Doctors wrote in a September study published in Urology Case Reports that the unidentified man inserted the rope through his urethra-- but the handle-less rope became tangled and stuck in the man’s bladder. The man was forced to seek medical help, complaining that he was suffering from a condition called dysuria — difficulty with urination — only for doctors to find the rope.

Medics unraveled the medical mystery by investigating his bladder where they found “a large object accompanied by acoustic shadows.”   It was then the man admitted what had happened — although he did not explain why he did it — and was transferred to a hospital. An X-ray then revealed this object was “a wire-like coiled foreign body.”

According to doctors, there was no way to remove the rope the way it went in, so they had to perform surgery on the patient. “Transurethral extraction was difficult considering the length of the rope and its entanglement in the bladder,” said Professor Toshiki Kijima, co-author of the study.  “Traditionally, grasping forceps and retrieval baskets are used to remove foreign bodies,” continued Kijima. “However, wires inserted into the bladder usually curl up as the bladder contracts; therefore, special consideration is required for wire-like foreign bodies.”

The medical team had to retrieve the rope through an incision made in the man’s abdomen to remove the rope in full.  The man recovered from the surgery and suffered no long-term injury.

This patient is not the first to suffer penis-related problems. Also in September, a teen somehow managed to get a USB cable stuck in his penis which was, thankfully, also able to be extracted via surgery.

 

Critics of Anti-Cheating Technology Being Silenced by Lawsuits

 n 2020, a Canadian university employee named Ian Linkletter became increasingly alarmed by a new kind of technology that was exploding in use with the pandemic. It was meant to detect cheating by college and high-school students taking tests at home, and claimed to work by watching students’ movements and analyzing sounds around them through their webcams and microphones to automatically flag suspicious behavior.

So Linkletter accessed a section of the website of one of the anti-cheating companies, named Proctorio, intended only for instructors and administrators. He shared what he found on social media.  Now Linkletter, who became a prominent critic of the technology, has been sued by the company. But he is not the only one.  Linkletter’s continuing case illustrates how vicious the fight over so called e-proctoring has become. At the height of the pandemic, it was estimated to be in use in nearly 63% of US and Canadian colleges and universities, and is thought still to be available in many of those, despite students’ return to classrooms.

And while there are a number of companies which offer versions of the contentious software, Arizona-based Proctorio, which has a partnership with education giant McGraw Hill, is among the largest providers. It has been carving a name for itself by taking on its critics both in and out of court.  The company, founded in 2013 by its current CEO, Mike Olsen, uses face and gaze detection among other tools to surveil test takers and ensure they are consistently interacting with an exam. Algorithms based on artificial intelligence flag abnormal behavior to university administrators for review.  However, how effective e-proctoring technology is at detecting cheating, or even deterring it, is the subject of debate. And a notable instance when the software was unable to recognize a Black student’s face has brought unflattering attention.

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Keeping it Real on Thanksgiving

More Misogyny in the Mothership of Mohammed

An American woman has been detained in Saudi Arabia after she posted on Twitter to say she’d been trapped there since 2019. California native Carly Morris, 34, told relatives three years ago that she was taking her 8-year-old daughter to Saudi Arabia for a short stay so that her child could meet her paternal grandfather. Once there, Morris became stuck in a years-long battle to take her child back out of the kingdom against the wishes of her Saudi ex-husband. Draconian male guardianship laws in the country have hampered her efforts to leave. On Tuesday, the State Department confirmed Morris’ detention. Her arrest came after she was summoned to a public prosecutor’s office Sunday over an allegation of “destabilizing public order.” The summons followed a statement posted by Morris on Twitter warning other women and children to stay away from Saudi Arabia, saying she and her daughter had been kept “against our will” in a hotel in “extreme and direct circumstances” since 2019.

 

Native American Gothic

Signs of Faltering Ticket Sales at the Qatar World Cup

England faced the prospect of playing their first match of the World Cup in a stadium with empty seats, with tickets still available as if Monday for their fixture against Iran.  England was scheduled to play Iran in Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium, which has a capacity of 40,000 according to Fifa’s official guide. That makes Khalifa the smallest stadium for an England opening World Cup game since 1990, when they played Ireland in a sold-out Stadio Sant’Elia in Cagliari. Even so, it seems likely that tickets will remain unsold. 

Estimates suggest that between 3,000 and 4,000 England supporters are expected to travel to Qatar during the group stages, although they have been thin on the ground around central Doha. Several England supporters, three wearing Newcastle United shirts, came to England’s training base on Friday morning in the hope of glimpsing the players, but were left disappointed.

As of 48 hours before the opening game of the tournament between Qatar and Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium north of Doha, there were tickets available for 14 of the group matches on the portal for non-Qatari customers. That included three of the home nations’ matches: England vs Iran, Wales vs USA and Wales vs Iran.  Tickets are available via three methods. The first is FIFA's official sales portal, which lists seven games as having available tickets at the Category 1 price of 800 rials ($220).  Fifa also offers a resale platform, where supporters with unwanted tickets can sell them at face value. On that resale platform, tickets are sold quickly and so only a snapshot is possible. Last Friday evening, it was possible to buy tickets for 14 matches on the resale platform at the 800 rial price-- they included Croatia vs Canada, Switzerland vs Cameroon and Ecuador vs Senegal.  Finally, there is an official match ticketing center at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in West Bay, among Doha’s cluster of skyscrapers. Over the weekend, the ticketing center displayed a sign advertising tickets for three games, including England vs Iran-- again, these were priced at 800 rials.

Ashley Brown, the Football Supporters’ Association head of supporter engagement, told the BBC last month that he was certain that England supporters were not going to be traveling in similar numbers to previous World Cups due to well-documented factors: cost, timing and concerns about the tournament as a whole.

 

The World Cup of Disgrace

It is a disgrace that in this day and age, that the World Cup is hosted by a country that has has lured millions of people from the poorest countries on earth - often under false pretenses - and then forced them into what many call “modern slavery”.  A huge underclass of people work in an autocratic surveillance state, amid an interconnected network of issues that make it almost impossible to escape.   Qatar hosting one of the world's premier sporting events is the most elementary example of “sports-washing”.

"Nations with deep pockets and poor human rights records are undoubtedly aware of how sport has the potential to reshape their international reputation,” says Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International’s UK chief executive. “This is the modern playbook. The calculation appears to be that a new investment in sport may bring some temporary criticism, but that this will be outweighed in the longer term by the substantial rebranding benefits.”

The reason that Qatar shocked the world in 2010 was because they didn’t seem to have support or even infrastructure, given Fifa’s own report described their bid as “high risk”. They did have a lot of money, though. Whistleblower Phaeda Almajid has since claimed she was in the rooms as members of Fifa’s executive committee were offered bribes of $1.5m. It has similarly been reported by the Sunday Times that Mohamed bin Hammam, the driver of Qatar’s bid, had used secret slush funds to make payments to senior officials totaling £3.8m. Bin Hammam was banned for life from all Fifa related activities by the ethics committee, although this was later overturned due to lack of evidence, but then reinstated over conflicts of interest.  In April 2020, the United States Department of Justice alleged that three FIFA executives received payments to support Qatar. The FBI’s William F Sweeneystated how “the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the governance and business of international soccer with bribes and kickbacks, and engaged in criminal fraudulent schemes”.

Since then, the one issue that has most dominated coverage of Qatar is the report of 6,500 migrant worker deaths first set by The Guardian. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been for years forced to work in searing summer months, which FairSquare describes as a “demonstrable risk” to workers’ lives due to “clear evidence linking heat to worker deaths”, especially when allied to strenuous work.  A report Qatar itself commissioned found workers are “potentially performing their job under significant occupational heat stress” for a third of the year. One in three workers were found to have become hyperthermic at some point.   The country’s list of “occupational diseases” does not include deaths resulting from heat stress.  Instead, Amnesty’s study claims that approximately 70 per cent of migrant worker deaths are reported with terms such as “natural causes” or “cardiac arrest”.  The International Labour Organization [ILO] has meanwhile noted there is likely under-reporting of migrant deaths, because companies want to avoid reputation damage or paying compensation.

Qatar is supposed to be welcoming the world, but a lot of the world just doesn’t feel welcome.  “We’re not traveling to this World Cup,” says Di Cunningham of the U.K.'s Three Lions Pride organization. “That’s in spite of the fact we traveled to Russia. There is a toxic environment for LGBTQ and other minority groups.”  Article 296 of Qatar’s penal code specifies that same-sex relations between men is an offence, with a punishment of up to three years in prison. The week before the World Cup saw the latest in a series of alarming statements, with former Qatari international Khalid Salman describing homosexuality as “damage in the mind”. It feeds into a culture that has seen Human Rights Watch report that the Qatar Preventive Security Department forces have arbitrarily arrested LGBTQ people and subjected them to ill-treatment, with six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022. 

Transgender women had their phones illegally searched, and then had to attend conversion therapy sessions as a requirement of their release.  One transgender woman reported that an officer hit and kicked here while stating “you gays are immoral, so we will be the same to you”.  Another described the Preventive Security as “a mafia” who beat her every day and shaved her hair, while making her take off her shirt to take pictures of her breasts. Thomas Beattie, a former professional footballer who came out in 2020, said, “Awarding the privilege of hosting a global foreign event to nations which embody this mindset is really damaging to my community, especially because you kind of send this message that we’re a secondary thought and we don’t really matter,” he says. “I don’t think I would feel any safer.”

One of many poignant scenes in a documentary called The Workers Cup is when Kenneth, from Ghana, talks of when he was first lured to Qatar. A recruitment agent made the 21-year-old think he would be transferred from a construction job to a professional football club. That didn’t happen.  It should be acknowledged that most workers come of their own accord, since a meager salary in Doha can be transformative in Nepal or Bangladesh. That’s also where the exploitation starts.   There’s a haunting line from another migrant in the documentary, Padam from Nepal.  “When I discovered the reality it was too late.”

That reality, according to Isobel Archer of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), involves illegal recruitment fees amounting to “hundreds, or even thousands of dollars and is one of the worst drivers of abuse in the region”. It has been estimated that Bangladeshi men have paid over $1 billion in fees between 2011 and 2020. 

Since most workers can’t afford this, and need to arrange loans or wage levies, it instantly puts them in debt and, essentially, a financial trap. Their general salary is between $220-350 a month, meaning they can never make enough to free the debt and “leaving them vulnerable to a range of exploitative practices,” according to Michael Posner, director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.  “Since 2016, we have recorded 89 cases of migrant workers paying recruitment fees in Qatar,” Archer adds. “Undoubtedly there are workers looking after football fans and teams this month who toil under the burden of debt.”

In a recent Amnesty report on security workers, many interviewers said they couldn’t remember their last day off, with over 85 per cent saying those days were usually up to 12 hours long. Yet, when one interviewee claimed he tried to take a sick day, he was told he would be docked wages and felt in fear of deportation.  “You are like a programmed computer; you just get used to it. You feel it is normal, but it’s not really normal.  “Denying employees their right to rest through the threat of financial penalty, or compelling them to work when ill, can amount to forced labor under the ILO Convention on Forced Labor. This is one of many descriptions around Qatar that just shouldn’t be used in 2022, let alone for a football tournament.

Professor Tendayi Achiume, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, described “indentured or coercive labor conditions” that recall “the historical reliance on enslaved and coerced labor in the region”. The workers themselves are more blunt. One in The Workers Cup says they “are staying in Qatar against their will”. “Modern slavery”, another interjects. 

There are around two million people in this situation right now, comprising 95 per cent of the Qatari workforce, and mostly coming from East Africa, South and Southeast Asia.  The workers arrive in exorbitant debt and have to hand over their passports, despite laws prohibiting this. All of that ensures companies have total control of their lives, as they travel to what Deshmukh describes as “squalid, overcrowded accommodation with no air-conditioning and exposed to overflowing sewage or uncovered septic tanks”. The workers aren’t allowed leave without permission, which is rare.  To only add to the everyday misery, there are huge fines for mistakes, forced work in searing heat without shelter and many not receiving overtime or not getting paid altogether.  It is then almost impossible to change jobs. 

“The culture and structure of the Qatar state effectively enables the abuse of migrant workers, regardless of legal challenges,” Deshmukh says. “Workers cannot organize to protect their own rights by forming or joining trade unions. They still risk being arrested or deported if their employers cancel their visas, refuse to renew their residence permit or report them as having ‘absconded’. They are living and working in a country where dissent in any form is not tolerated.”

Pay discrimination on the basis of nationality, race and language is reported by more than a third of interviewees in one Amnesty report.  “You may find a Kenyan is earning 1,300 [riyals], but the same security from the Philippines gets 1,500. Tunisians, 1,700,” one security guard says. Pay is according to nationality.”  It goes even deeper. The security guards are always black Africans. Women from the Philippines are preferred as maids. Nepalis, Bangladeshis and Indians form the majority of the workforce in hazardous jobs.  Academics such as John Chalcraft talk of how this is not just intentional, but another insidious form of control. Migrant workers used to come from other Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, only for the Gulf elites to find that made it easier for them to band together and discuss problems. Splitting groups by nationalities prevents this.

David Beckham’s face is all over Doha right now, on billboards that look like they’re really maximizing that reported £150m deal. The England star isn’t doing many promotion interviews, though, and it’s hard not to think an obvious question would be whether he feels such money should also go to migrant workers.  That points to one of the most obnoxiously offensive elements of this World Cup. Qatar has more than enough money to equitably reform their labor system, and has had 12 years to start restructuring. The state has instead decided to spend fortunes on public relations, pushing back against criticisms rather than addressing them. This is as base sports-washing as you can get.

Tribute to a Great Leader

Nancy Pelosi announced this week that she’s stepping down from Democratic leadership, marking an end to the most consequential speakership of our time. Under her leadership, the U.S. House twice passed historic bills creating pathways to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants: in 2019 and again in 2021. The Dream and Promise Act, which addresses young undocumented immigrants and temporary status holders, and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which addresses farmworkers, were finally passed after years of immigration obstructionism by Republicans John Boehner and then Paul Ryan.

It was during the latter’s tenure as speaker that Pelosi broke a House filibuster record, in February 2018 speaking for more than eight hours in defense of young immigrants. Reports said she did not sit or take any bathroom breaks during that time, and made the speech while in heels. It’s a moment worth revisiting as her historic role in Democratic leadership comes to an official end.

“Ms. Pelosi read heart-rending testimonies from Dreamers who had written their representatives about their lives,” The New York Times reported at the time. “There was Andrea Seabra, who is serving in the Air Force, and whose father was a member of the Peruvian Air Force. There was Carlos Gonzalez, who once worked as an aide to former Representative Michael M. Honda, Democrat of California. And there was Al Okere, whose father was killed by the Nigerian police after articles he wrote criticizing the Nigerian government appeared in a newspaper.”

Pelosi, who was House minority leader at the time, had been among those unsuccessfully pushing for permanent relief to be included as part of a budget deal. The insurrectionist administration had the prior September rescinded the successful and popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, announcing that renewals would stop within six months. With Ryan and then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refusing to hold standalone votes on a clean DREAM Act, its passage as part of a budget deal appeared to be the only possible vehicle for passage. 

In her eight-hour-plus speech, Pelosi said that every day that passes without legislative relief is another day “the American Dream slips further out of reach. As members of Congress, we have a moral responsibility to act now to protect Dreamers who are the pride of our nation and our American in every [way] but on paper.”

Among the stories shared by Pelosi was that of Laura Alvarado, who was brought to the U.S. by her family when she was just 8 years old. Ineligible for financial aid due to her immigration status, Alvarado worked two jobs to pay for college, graduating with honors in 2006. “Laura wanted to become a lawyer but was unable to pursue this dream, Mr. Speaker, because she was undocumented,” Pelosi said. “Six years, long years later in 2012, President Obama established DACA and Laura’s life changed.” Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants have been able to work legally and live freer from the threat of deportation under the policy, which faces extinction due to Republican lawsuits.  Pelosi said Laura and many other young undocumented immigrants “have so much to contribute to our country. Will American be a stronger country if we deport Laura?”

Pelosi’s first big challenge as Democratic House leader was when George W. Bush introduced a plan to privatize Social Security and turn it over to Wall Street in 2005.  Pelosi was asked when she would come up with a Democratic plan. She defiantly responded: “Never. Is never good enough for you?”  The defeat of the GOP’s Social Security privatization scheme marked a turning point in Bush’s presidency. Due to the Democratic victory on this critical issue, Bush’s approval ratings dropped below 50% for the first time during his presidency and he never recovered. The Democrats rode that momentum to win a huge victory in the 2006 mid-term elections in which they regained control of the House and the Senate.

After the economy collapsed in 2008, Pelosi worked with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to save the banking system from a meltdown by helping pass the controversial TARP bill.  After the big Democratic victory in 2008, Pelosi helped engineer the greatest Democratic legislative victories since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in 1965–66. When the Democrats had the majority in both Houses in 2009–10, Pelosi supplied the necessary Democratic votes to pass the 2009 Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act, cap and trade legislation and Wall Street reform.

In the 2017–2018 cycle, Pelosi recruited a diverse set of candidates that consisted of both progressives and moderates. Those Democrats went on to win 40 seats in the House. It was the best showing in the mid-terms for the Democrats since 1974.  That 2018 triumph laid the foundation for Pelosi’s most significant accomplishments as Speaker in 2021–2022. While presiding over a narrow Democratic majority, Pelosi helped President Joe Biden pass the most ambitious and far reaching legislative agenda since Lyndon Johnson. Under her leadership, the House passed the American Rescue Act, a bi-partisan infrastructure bill, the first gun reform bill since 1994, a veteran’s health bill, landmark climate change legislation and prescription drug pricing reform.

At the end of the day, Nancy Pelosi will be seen as towering figure in American history. She will go down in history as the greatest Speaker of the House in U.S. history, topping Henry Clay and Sam Rayburn.