Chris Hedges's Blog, page 635

Police, Protesters Clash in Barcelona After Separatist Leader’s Arrest

UPDATE: Crowds are clashing with police in downtown Barcelona as angry Catalans protest the detention of fugitive former leader Carles Puigdemont in Germany.

Police dressed in riot gear are striking demonstrators with batons as they try to push back a large crowd that wants to advance on the office of the Spanish government’s representative in Catalonia.

Catalan police have blocked the street and issued a call for people not to gather.

Thousands answered the call by a pro-independence grass-roots group to protest in the city center hours after Puigdemont was detained by German police.

BARCELONA, Spain—Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and an ardent separatist, was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark.

Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium where he has been staying since fleeing Spain following a failed bid by his regional government in October to declare independence from Spain, said his lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas.

The Spanish government told The Associated Press it had received “official confirmation from German authorities of the arrest” of Puigdemont in response to the warrant issued by Spain’s Supreme Court.

Spanish state prosecutor said it was in contact with its German counterparts to carry out its request to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges including rebellion that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.

German highway police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads into Germany, police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said. State prosecutors in the northern town of Schleswig are now in charge, but they couldn’t be immediately reached for further details.

German news agency dpa said that Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the northern town of Neumuenster. Dpa photos showed a van with tinted windows believed to be carrying Puigdemont as it arrived at the prison. Video footage also showed the same van leaving a police station in Schuby near the A7 highway.

A Spanish police official told the AP under customary condition of anonymity that Spain’s National Center for Intelligence and police agents from its international cooperation division helped German police to make the arrest.

Dpa reported that deputy state prosecutor Ralph Doepper, who is based in the northern town of Schleswig, said that a German court would likely decide by Monday whether Puigdemont would remain in custody pending the outcome of his extradition case.

Doepper said that “we are at the very beginning of our assessment.” He added: “we had information that he would be in Germany or would enter Germany.”

A Spanish Supreme Court judge reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatist who fled the country.

Grassroots groups both for and against Catalan secession have called for protests later on Sunday in Barcelona. The pro-independence National Catalan Assembly has called on its supporters to march from office of the European Commission to the German Consulate, while pro-Spain supporters will gather at the office of Spain’s government representative for Catalonia.

Puigdemont, 55, is a former journalist and mayor of Girona who was thrust to the forefront of Catalonia’s independence push when he was handpicked by predecessor Artur Mas to become regional president in 2016. He withstood intense political pressure from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain’s courts as he piloted the secession bid.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in three decades when Puigdemont’s government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament’s subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities that they say won’t be lifted until a new government that respects Spain’s Constitution is in place.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont’s extradition from Belgium after he moved there, but later withdrew the request until judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week. Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

Puigdemont was also able to successfully run a campaign as the head of his “Together for Catalonia” bloc in a regional election in December in which separatist parties maintained their slim majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament.

He had wanted to be re-elected as Catalonia’s regional president — albeit while remaining abroad to avoid arrest — but eventually was stopped by a Spanish court.

Separatists in Catalonia are currently trying to elect a leader for the regional government before a two-month time limit is up and new elections are called.

Spain’s Constitution says the nation is “indivisible” and any changes to its top law must be made by its national parliament in Madrid.

Nine people who promote Catalan secession have been placed in pre-trial custody to prevent what Llarena considered a flight risk or intention to continue with independence efforts.

Polls show Catalonia’s 7.5 million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue.

___

Kirsten Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.

What Facebook’s Privacy Policy Allows May Surprise You

NEW YORK—To get an idea of the data Facebook collects about you, just ask for it. You’ll get a file with every photo and comment you’ve posted, all the ads you’ve clicked on, stuff you’ve liked and searched for and everyone you’ve friended—and unfriended—over the years.

This trove of data is used to decide which ads to show you. It also makes using Facebook more seamless and enjoyable—say, by determining which posts to emphasize in your feed, or reminding you of friends’ birthdays.

Facebook claims to protect all this information, and it lays out its terms in a privacy policy that’s relatively clear and concise. But few users bother to read it. You might be surprised at what Facebook’s privacy policy allows—and what’s left unsaid.

Facebook’s privacy practices have come under fire after a Trump-affiliated political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, got data inappropriately from millions of Facebook users. While past privacy debacles have centered on what marketers gather on users, the stakes are higher this time because the firm is alleged to have created psychological profiles to influence how people vote or even think about politics and society.

Facebook defends its data collection and sharing activities by noting that it’s adhering to a privacy policy it shares with users. Thanks largely to years of privacy scandals and pressure from users and regulators, Facebook also offers a complex set of controls that let users limit how their information is used—to a point.

You can turn off ad targeting and see generic ads instead, the way you would on television or in a newspaper. In the ad settings, you’d need to uncheck all your interests, interactions with companies and websites and other personal information you don’t want to use in targeting. Of course, if you click on a new interest after this, you’ll have to go back and uncheck it in your ad preferences to prevent targeting. It’s a tedious task.

As Facebook explains, it puts you in target categories based on your activity. So, if you are 35, live in Seattle and have liked an outdoor adventure page, Facebook may show you an ad for a mountain bike shop in your area.

But activity isn’t limited to pages or posts you like, comments you make and your use of outside apps and websites.

“If you start typing something and change your mind and delete it, Facebook keeps those and analyzes them too,” Zeynep Tufekci, a prominent techno-sociologist, said in a 2017 TED talk.

And, increasingly, Facebook tries to match what it knows about you with your offline data, purchased from data brokers or gathered in other ways. The more information it has, the fuller the picture of you it can offer to advertisers. It can infer things about you that you had no intention of sharing — anything from your ethnicity to personality traits, happiness and use of addictive substances, Tufekci said.

These types of data collection aren’t necessarily explicit in privacy policies or settings.

What Facebook does say is that advertisers don’t get the raw data. They just tell Facebook what kind of people they want their ads to reach, then Facebook makes the matches and shows the ads.

Apps can also collect a lot of data about you, as revealed in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The firm got the data from a researcher who paid 270,000 Facebook users to complete a psychological profile quiz back in 2014. But the quiz gathered information on their friends as well, bringing the total number of people affected to about 50 million.

Facebook says Cambridge Analytica got the data inappropriately — but only because the app said it collected data for research rather than political profiling. Gathering data on friends was permitted at the time, even if they had never installed the app or given explicit consent.

Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech communications professor who built a tongue-in-cheek game called “Cow Clicker” in 2010, wrote in The Atlantic recently that abusing the Facebook platform for “deliberately nefarious ends” was easy to do then. What’s worse, he said, it was hard to avoid extracting private data.

If “you played Cow Clicker, even just once, I got enough of your personal data that, for years, I could have assembled a reasonably sophisticated profile of your interests and behavior,” he wrote. “I might still be able to; all the data is still there, stored on my private server, where Cow Clicker is still running, allowing players to keep clicking where a cow once stood.”

Facebook has since restricted the amount of types of data apps can access. But other types of data collection are still permitted. For this reason, it’s a good idea to check all the apps you’ve given permissions to over the years. You can also do this in your settings.

Loyola Proves It Is Far More Than a Feel-Good Story

ATLANTA—Loyola-Chicago is more than just the feel-good story of the NCAA Tournament.

Much more.

Sure, smiles from 98-year-old chaplain Sister Jean and visits from members of Loyola’s ground-breaking 1963 championship squad generated plenty of warm and fuzzy feelings.

Those stories have overshadowed the fact these guys can play.

The nation’s hottest team is in the Final Four, and Loyola’s dominating 78-62 South Regional final win over Kansas State on Saturday night was the most convincing evidence yet that the Ramblers belong. The pride of the Missouri Valley Conference deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the nation’s elite.

“I think we left no doubts out there that we deserve to be in the Final Four,” said center Cameron Krutwig.

Don’t call Loyola upstarts any longer. It’s time to look past Loyola’s No. 11 seed and mid-major background. The Ramblers’ 14-game winning streak, the longest active streak in the nation, and 32 wins — including a regular-season victory at Florida — are no mirage.

“It’s amazing when you believe,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “They have believed and believed and believed. It’s awesome to see.”

The margin of victory in the Elite Eight was the biggest surprise for a team which won its first three tournament games against Miami, Tennessee and Nevada by a combined four points.

“We were a feel-good story after those buzzer-beaters, but I think people really started to take notice of us after that game against Tennessee , that we could be a legit team to go all the way,” Krutwig said, wearing a clipping from the net in his cap in the Loyola locker room.

A legit team, indeed.

Loyola (32-5) led by 23 points midway through the second half and took the lead for good at 7-5 when Ben Richardson, who scored a career-high 23 points, made his first of six 3-pointers.

“They were tougher than us from the get-go,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said.

Loyola displayed its toughness, unselfishness and balance in its two wins in Atlanta. Richardson was only the latest to take his turn in the spotlight on a team which doesn’t lean on one star.

“It’s because we all believe in each other,” said Clayton Custer, who had seven points and five assists. “For me and Ben and everybody, we’re just a bunch of guys that everybody laughed at us when we thought we were going to play Division I basketball. Nobody thought we could do any of this.”

Richardson had scored a combined 14 points in the Ramblers’ first three tournament wins. Saturday night was his time to lead.

“We’ve got so many unselfish guys, and we have so many weapons,” Richardson said. “And like we’ve been saying, it can be anybody’s night. We’ve shown that so far this tournament. Each one of these guys has had a big night.”

They have, and the Ramblers are getting attention for what they’re doing on the court — not just for the lovable Sister Jean.

There were no doubters left in the Kansas State locker room.

“They are a really good team,” Wildcats guard Cartier Diarra said. “They are really disciplined. We had no answer for them. So all credit to them, they are a great team and hopefully they make it all the way.”

‘March for Our Lives’: How About Some Sensible Gun Laws? (Photo Essay)

The Washington, D.C., March for Our Lives, Saturday’s student-led rally to protest gun violence, was one of more than 830 “sister” demonstrations organized by students across the United States and around the world.

The rally was planned by survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which left 14 students and three faculty members dead. It follows a nationwide student walkout earlier this month.

I documented the March for Our Lives demonstration for Truthdig.

Browse through the exclusive photo essay of the March for Our Lives here: A Cause With Many Rebels

Early Friday morning in Washington, D.C. (Michael Nigro / Truthdig)

 

 

 

Young People Give Pope Francis a Piece of Their Mind

VATICAN CITY—Young Catholics told the Vatican on Saturday they want a more transparent and authentic church, where women play a greater leadership role and where obeying “unreachable” moral standards isn’t the price of admission.

In a fascinating final document from a weeklong Vatican-initiated conference, 300 young people from around the world joined by 15,000 young people online gave the older men who run the 1.2-billion strong church a piece of their collective mind.

They urged Pope Francis and the bishops who will gather at the Vatican in the fall to back their recommendations that church leaders must address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is used and abused. They warned that “excessive moralism” is driving faithful away and that out-of-touch church bureaucrats need to accompany their flock with humility and transparency.

“We, the young church, ask that our leaders speak in practical terms about subjects such as homosexuality and gender issues, about which young people are already freely discussing,” they said.

Among the participants, however, there was no consensus on hot-button issues such as church teaching on contraception, homosexuality, abortion or cohabitation. The document said some young people want the church to change its teaching or better explain it; others accept the teachings and want the church to proclaim them more forcefully.

But overall, the young people concluded, the church often comes off as too severe and its “excessive moralism” often sends the faithful looking elsewhere for peace and spiritual fulfillment.

“We need a church that is welcoming and merciful, which appreciates its roots and patrimony and which loves everyone, even those who are not following the perceived standards,” they said.

The 300 young people who attended the conference were mostly selected by their national bishops’ conferences, universities or church movements. A handful of non-Catholics and non-Christians, as well as some atheists, also participated, and their views were incorporated into the final document.

Their reflections will be formally presented to Francis on Sunday — Palm Sunday — and will become one of the working documents that will guide discussions during an October synod of bishops at the Vatican on better helping young people find their way in the church.

On four separate occasions in the 16-page document, the participants demanded greater and equal roles for women in the church, calling for “real discussion and open-mindedness” about ways to promote the dignity of women so they feel accepted and appreciated.

“Some young women feel that there is a lack of leading female role models within the church, and they too wish to give their intellectual and professional gifts to the church,” they said.

The young people also made it clear that they love their technology and the church must get hip to that or lose relevance. At the same time, the document said young people are looking for guidance as to how to responsibly use technology and combat online addiction, pornography and cyberbullying.

They called for the Vatican to issue a teaching document about technology, and use it better to spread the faith.

The final report is brutally honest in places, responding to Francis’ call on the first day for the participants to speak freely and courageously.

It noted that young people are leaving the church in droves, in part because they have experienced “indifference, judgment and rejection” by the institution.

Church leaders, they say, are too focused on administration than community, and use words like “vocation” and “discernment” that young people often don’t understand.

But mostly, they say, the church needs to admit that it is human and makes mistakes, and that its mentors aren’t perfect people but forgiven sinners. The document cited the clergy sex abuse scandal as both an error that has driven people away and an ongoing issue that requires admission of wrongdoing.

“Some mentors are put on a pedestal, and when they fall, the devastation may impact young people’s abilities to continue to engage with the church,” they said.

‘March for Our Lives’ Live Blog: ‘Don’t I Deserve to Grow Up?’

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the scene of a mass shooting Feb. 14, have been joined by hundreds of thousands as they march in a nationwide protest demanding sensible gun control laws. More than 800 protests are occurring, in every American state. About 20 speakers—all of them students—are speaking to the huge crowd in Washington, D.C.

The march follows a nationwide student walkout earlier this month. Another walkout is planned for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Truthdig’s Michael Nigro and Clara Romeo are reporting from the main march in Washington, D.C., and Stoneman Douglas alumna Lauren Goldenberg is covering the sibling march in Los Angeles.

Scroll down to see Truthdig’s live multimedia updates.

2:30 p.m. PDT: Many celebrities have gathered at the L.A. sibling march to give motivational speeches and performances. Actress and activist Laura Dern and her daughter, seventh-grade student Jaya Harper, are among them.

“School shootings: Those two words should have nothing in common,” Harper said.

At the Los Angeles #MarchForOurLives, actress/activist @LauraDern and her daughter, 7th grader Jaya Harper gave a moving speech. (video captured by @lauren_bylauren) #NeverAgain#MarchForOurLivesLApic.twitter.com/s37aB8VNUt

— Truthdig (@Truthdig) March 24, 2018

Goldenberg also spoke with a fellow Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alumnus at the Los Angeles march:

#MSD alumnus Shane Fedderman talks with fellow alumnus @lauren_bylauren at the #MarchForOurLivesLA #MarchForOurLives #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/O4MJKrriim

— Truthdig (@Truthdig) March 25, 2018

2:00 p.m. PDT: Clara Romeo captured this video of thousands chanting “Vote them out!” at the D.C. march:

Hundreds of thousands chant “vote them out” at the #MarchForOurLives. Watch out incumbent #republicans– the people have spoken and they have had enough. Check out our #liveblog for full coverage of the rally. https://t.co/UdEXuFkQ1fpic.twitter.com/1vvDKTsUsL

— Truthdig (@Truthdig) March 24, 2018

1:00 p.m. PDT: Tens of thousands showed up for the sibling march in downtown Los Angeles.

Student Jessica Flaum said, “When I saw these Parkland students standing up, and people were really listening to them, it felt like this time was different, that something was going to change, and the fact that it was student-led really inspired me to get involved.”

Photo credit: Lauren Goldenberg

12:30 p.m. PDT: Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, where Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is situated, issued a statement urging the protesters to find common ground with their opponents.

“While protests are a legitimate way of making a point, in our system of government, making a change requires finding common ground with those who hold opposing views,” he said.

Noon PDT: Clara Romeo reports that the crowd remains strong at the D.C. march.

Clara Romeo / Truthdig

Clara Romeo / Truthdig

11:40 a.m. PDT: Emma Gonzalez, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student and a leading voice in the #NeverAgain movement, led a moment of silence at the D.C. march that lasted for the amount of time it took the Parkland shooter to fatally gun down 17 people.

She said, “Since the time that I came out here, it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle and blend in with the students so he can walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives before it is someone else’s job.”

11:30 a.m. PDT: Matthew Soto, 19-year-old brother of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim, addressed the crowd in D.C.: “We do not have to wait for others to make us safe, he said. “We must do it ourselves. … It is our time to stand up. Register to vote. Bring power to the polls. Our lives are not more important than a gun.”

11:00 a.m. PDT: Christopher Underwood, an 11-year-old from Brooklyn who lost his brother to gun violence, spoke during the Washington event:

“My brother survived for 14 days and died on his 15th birthday, July 10, 2012. At that time, I was only 5 years old,” he said. “Senseless gun violence took away my childhood and nothing in my life was ever the same because I no longer have my best friend. Losing my brother gave me the courage to be a voice for my generation. … I would like to not worry about dying, and focus on math and science and playing basketball with my friends. Don’t I deserve to grow up?”

10:40 a.m. PDT: Yolanda Renee King, the 9-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, took the podium at the D.C. march.

“My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by their character,” she said. “I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world, period.”

Then she led a chant: “Spread the word/ Have you heard?/ All across the nation./ We are going to be/ a great generation.”

10:00 a.m. PDT: Former President Barack Obama tweeted his support of the nationwide march.

“Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today’s marches happen. Keep at it. You’re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change,” he wrote.

Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today’s marches happen. Keep at it. You’re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 24, 2018

9:30 a.m. PDT: While counterprotests are visible, most of those at the D.C. march are children, teens and families demanding gun safety.

Clara Romeo / Truthdig

Clara Romeo / Truthdig

9:00 a.m. PDT: Clara Romeo reports that counterprotesters have gathered in the District of Columbia’s Chinatown, advocating for broader interpretations of the Second Amendment. The New York Times reports that counterprotests in support of gun rights are planned in cities including Salt Lake City, Greenville, S.C., and Helena, Mont.

4:00 a.m. PDT: Organizers’ estimates for the number of demonstrators in the nation’s capital have climbed gradually toward a million.

Michael Nigro / Truthdig

 

Erin Schaff of The Associated Press offers a live stream of the march below:

 

Michael Nigro / Truthdig

Michael Nigro / Truthdig

 

The night before the march, Lauren Goldenberg spoke on Twitter on the significance of marching as an alumna of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:

Lauren Goldenberg is a proud alumna of #MSD. She is supporting the #MarchForOurLives as an activist and has a message to share. pic.twitter.com/mzVoTAQ1H3

— Truthdig (@Truthdig) March 24, 2018

 

Hundreds of Thousands ‘March for Our Lives’ Nationwide

Follow Truthdig’s live blog of Saturday’s demonstrations.

WASHINGTON—Summoned to action by student survivors of the Florida school shooting, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied in the nation’s capital and cities across America on Saturday to press for gun control in one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam era.

“If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking,” David Hogg, a survivor who has emerged as one of the student leaders of the movement, told the roaring crowd of demonstrators at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington.

He warned: “We will get rid of these public servants who only care about the gun lobby.”

Chanting “Vote them out!” and bearing signs reading “We Are the Change,” ”No More Silence” and “Keep NRA Money Out of Politics,” the protesters packed Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House.

Large rallies with crowds estimated in the tens of thousands in many cases also unfolded in such cities as Boston; New York; Chicago; Houston; Fort Worth, Texas; Minneapolis; and Parkland, Florida, the site of the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.

Protesters complained over and over that they are afraid of getting shot in school and tired of inaction on the part of grown-ups after one mass shooting after another.

They called for such measures as a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type rifles like the one used by the Florida killer, tighter background checks and school security, and a raising of the age to buy guns.

“I’m really tired of being afraid at school,” said Maya McEntyre, a 15-year-old high school freshman from Northville, Michigan, who joined a march by thousands in Detroit. “When I come to school, I don’t want to have to look for the nearest exit.”

She added: “I want to get to the problem before it gets to me.”

In Atlanta, Ben Stewart, a 17-year-old senior at Shiloh Hills Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia, took part in a march in Atlanta to press for what he called “common-sense gun laws.”

“People have been dying since 1999 in Columbine and nothing has changed. People are still dying,” Stewart said. “It could be prevented.”

President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend. A motorcade took him to his West Palm Beach golf club in the morning. As of early afternoon, he had yet to weigh in on Twitter about the protests.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter in the morning, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”

About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of FBI headquarters in Washington, standing quietly with signs such as “Armed Victims Live Longer” and “Stop Violating Civil Rights.”

Organizers of the gun-control rally in the nation’s capital hoped their protest would match in numbers and spirit last year’s women’s march, which far exceeded predictions of 300,000 demonstrators.

“We will continue to fight for our dead friends,” Delaney Tarr, another survivor of the Florida tragedy, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students’ central demand: a ban on “weapons of war” for all but warriors.

In Parkland, the police presence was heavy as more than 20,000 people filled a park near the school, chanting slogans such as “Enough is enough” and carrying signs that read “Why do your guns matter more than our lives?” and “Our ballots will stop bullets.”

Gun violence was also fresh for some in the Washington crowd: Ayanne Johnson of Great Mills High in Maryland held a sign declaring, “I March for Jaelynn,” honoring Jaelynn Willey, who died Thursday two days after being shot by a classmate at the school. The classmate also died.

Rallying outside the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord, 17-year-old Leeza Richter said: “Our government will do more to stop us from walking out than it will to stop a gunman from walking in.”

Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years — yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA and its supporters.

Organizers hope the passions of the crowds and the under-18 roster of speakers will translate into a tipping point starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall. In addition to pushing for tighter gun laws, the students have been working to register young people to vote.

Polls indicate public opinion in the U.S. may be shifting on the issue.

A new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 69 percent of Americans think gun laws in the U.S. should be tightened. That is up from 61 percent in 2016 and 55 percent in 2013.

Overall, 90 percent of Democrats, 50 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of gun owners now favor stricter gun laws.

At the same time, the poll found that nearly half of Americans do not expect elected officials to take action.

___

Associated Press writers Terry Spencer in Parkland, Florida; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; Ed White in Detroit; Ben Nadler in Atlanta; and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

The Price We Pay for Unnecessary War

“If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty.”

~ Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” (1990)

Violence begets violence. The empire, it seems, always comes home … eventually.

No doubt, Albert Wong, who shot up a Veterans’ Home in California last week, was an anomaly. There is no excuse or justification for this sort of horrific act of murder. Still, Americans must grapple with one inconvenient fact: Wong was a combat veteran. In fact, we both served in Afghanistan in 2011-12—not a pleasant period in that ongoing disaster of a war.

What are we to make of Wong’s act and his status as a veteran? Certainly not that all, or even most, vets will take such extreme actions. Murderous outbursts such as his remain, thankfully, exceedingly rare. That said, this heinous event should spark some debate and raise uncomfortable questions about the social cost of creating millions of new “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) veterans.

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Maj. Danny Sjursen: Dissent Is Patriotic (Audio and Transcript)

That’s what Americans have done, after all. An apathetic citizenry quietly acquiesced as a tiny fraction of Americans waged 17 years’ worth of unnecessary, unwinnable wars.

The outcome is messy—a few million damaged and often disgruntled souls—set loose in society, warts and all. Most veterans, mind you, do just fine; still, for a great many, life, in one way or another, is a constant struggle. Don’t act so surprised: we—the voting public—did this. The social cost is America’s to bear. Our leaders chose war. Send a few million to battle in vain (some on multiple tours) and the results are apt to be ugly. Uglier, in fact, than most would have predicted at the outset of America’s perpetual crusade in the Great Middle East. U.S. politicians and citizens mortgaged the communal costs of the inevitable veterans when they gambled on risky regime changes in an anarchic region. The chickens, so to speak, have come home to roost.

Veterans, many of them anyway, are in pain. Some significantly suffer. The statistics are staggering:

About 22 veteran suicides daily.
Some 2,700 homeless Iraq and Afghan vets sleeping on the street any given night.
At least 20 percent of the 2.7 million Iraq/Afghan vets suffering from PTSD (that’s 540,000!).
High rates of drug and alcohol abuse.
970,000 GWOT vets with some degree of officially recognized disability.
As compared to the civilian population, elevated rates of car crashes, homicides, divorces and mental illness.
6,800 killed in action; 52,000+ wounded in the various theaters of our post-9/11 wars.
$4.8 trillion in tax dollars spent so far; estimated total cost including future veteran’s affairs costs and interest payment = $7.9 trillion by 2053.

Nonetheless, this raw data rarely reaches the reading public. It’s too cold, too empirical, lifeless even. Consider, then, one real unit—the small scout platoon I led in Iraq from 2006-07.

We called ourselves the “Ghostriders,” a catchy nickname for 19 (mostly young) men assigned to 2nd platoon, B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Cav scouts trained in motorized reconnaissance, our unit spent 15 months working as standard infantrymen in and around Baghdad. You could write a book—I did—about everything that happened to these boys. Still, you’d inevitably miss half the details. So much of the heroism, and tragedy, is forever lost. Each individual journey warrants its own story. Suffice it to say, the Ghostriders endured a daunting road.

The platoon suffered 50 percent casualties: 3 killed, 6 wounded. An improvised explosive device (IED) took two young men—Alex Fuller, of Massachusetts, and Mike Balsley, of California. Another killed himself while on leave—James Smith, from Texas. Sergeant Ty Dejane, of Ohio, took a bullet in the back—he sports a wheelchair now and full VA disability. Sergeant “Ducks” Duzinskas, of Chicago, took shrapnel to the face, then, a month later, lost part of an arm in an IED. Staff Sergeant Micah Rittel, of Pennsylvania, took bomb shrapnel to the elbow. Ed Faulkner, of North Carolina, was shot by a sniper in the forearm, then, a few years later, took the brunt of a rocket blast in Afghanistan. He later left the army, suffered severe PTSD, and fatally overdosed.

We all navigated a tough road—the bravest battles waged alone and in our heads. Most suffered PTSD and some level of depression. Several received VA benefits. I lost count of how many—including myself—went through divorces in the immediate years following Iraq. One soldier did some time in an Arkansas prison. A couple others became cops. Many of us drank too much.

We lost touch, mostly, spread to the four winds across the continental United States. When we see one another it is truly special; when we part, the loneliness is palpable. This, of course, was just one platoon, in one small subsection, at one moment in time, of one big war. Some had it easier, plenty had it worse. All bore the countless costs of an abortive war in a faraway place.

No author, this one included, can communicate the accumulated costs and emotional trauma inflicted on this entire cohort of GWOT veterans. There are too many stories to tell, too many individual secrets concealed. Nonetheless, pragmatic fatalism does not obviate us of the responsibility to try; and try we must.

Of this much, I’m sure: America asked too much, perhaps the impossible of its veterans—invade sovereign nations, overthrow regimes, maintain order, “spread democracy,” “build” nations, counter insurgents, kill terrorists, protect the innocent, build a functioning economy, improve public health, and somehow … deep breath, stay sane doing it.

Some tasks are unachievable, some wars unwinnable. Optimism is admirable, but—in war—realism preferable. Today’s wars touch relatively small segments of the population—about 1 percent—but that’s still 2.7 million men and women who dutifully executed a hopeless crusade in America’s name. This is a generation of vets who tilted at Mideast windmills like so many camouflaged Don Quixotes while the citizenry watched reality TV.

Now, Americans pay, and will continue to pay—literally and figuratively—the monetary and social costs to care for my legion of veterans for decades to come. I use VA hospitals and facilities; I’ve been in the waiting rooms and braved the serpentine lines; the joints are just brimming with Vietnam-era veterans. To their number we’ve added nearly 3 million GWOT veterans, and counting—the war isn’t over by a longshot!

And for what? The U.S. lost in Vietnam, unable to force an illegitimate government through external, foreign sponsorship. The old sprawling US military bases closed decades ago; all that remains are the scarred vets in their black ball caps and motorcycle vests. The US has already lost its war for the Greater Middle East. It just doesn’t know—or hasn’t accepted—it yet.

Someday soon, when the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) close and perverse local autocrats once again reign supreme, we, a new generation of exhausted veterans will be all that’s left: 2.7 million reasons to remember that—for every war … there’s a cost.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author, expressed in an unofficial capacity, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

We Should Not Reward the Authors of Torture

President Trump vowed during his campaign to bring back torture as a weapon against terrorism. Now the Senate must stop him from installing as CIA director a woman whose resume includes overseeing a disgraceful episode of torture—and then joining in a cowardly effort to cover it up.

This should not be a close call. In other respects, Trump’s nominee, CIA veteran Gina Haspel, seems to have been an exemplary public servant. But that’s like saying that except for one unfortunate incident, Mrs. Lincoln had a lovely night at the theater. The torture of suspected terrorists was a singular transgression of this nation’s values—as well as a violation of U.S. and international law—and it simply cannot be rationalized or ignored.

This obscene chapter in our history took place during the George W. Bush administration. For a time, Haspel was in charge of one of the CIA’s secret overseas prisons—a “black site” located in Thailand. She is credibly reported to have been the boss there when a detainee named Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged planner of the deadly attack against the USS Cole, was subjected three times to the torture known as waterboarding.

You will recall that the Bush administration used the Orwellian term “enhanced interrogation techniques,” perhaps in an attempt to convince those implementing the policy that what they were doing was legally and morally acceptable. But the euphemism is a despicable lie. Waterboarding is torture, and it is clearly against the law.

After World War II, at the Tokyo war crimes trials, a number of Japanese soldiers found guilty of waterboarding prisoners of war were hanged or given long prison sentences. U.S. victims testified to the gruesome horror of these episodes of simulated drowning. No one questioned the fact that waterboarding was a particularly sadistic form of torture. No one should question it now.

The torture of al-Nashiri was videotaped. Acting on orders from her CIA supervisor, Haspel wrote a cable ordering the destruction of those tapes—even though she and the supervisor had been told to preserve them as evidence in an ongoing investigation. The videotapes were indeed destroyed.

A stopped clock is right twice a day; Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., somewhat less often. But Paul is a hero for raising a racket about the torture issue and announcing his opposition to Haspel’s nomination.

“What is known is that Haspel participated in a program that was antithetical to the ideals of this country. She destroyed evidence in defiance of our ideals,” Paul wrote in a Politico op-ed. “I simply do not believe she should hold the post to which she has been nominated.”

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Initial reports that Haspel oversaw even more torture appear to have been wrong, and her supporters will try to make the debate about that error—thus diverting attention from the central issue. But the al-Nashiri torture has not been disputed, and Haspel clearly ordered destruction of the evidence. That is reason enough for the Senate to vote no.

It is unclear what other mistreatment Haspel may have overseen in Thailand—depriving detainees of sleep, subjecting them to extreme temperatures, forcing them to remain in painful positions for extended periods of time. Some of these “techniques” probably also qualify as torture, in my view. About waterboarding, however, there is not really a question.

Given the overall chaos of the Trump administration and the president’s erratic conduct of foreign policy, it would be good to have an experienced, internally respected CIA veteran at the helm of the agency. And it would be a milestone for the CIA to be run, for the first time, by a woman. But these pluses are outweighed by one big minus: torture.

It can be argued that Haspel was just following orders, but she should have known that those orders were illegal. And if she and others who played a role in waterboarding did nothing wrong, then why did they destroy the videotapes of those supposedly legitimate “enhanced interrogation” sessions? In most U.S. courts, such action would be seen as an indication of “consciousness of guilt.”

Despite Trump’s bluster, his outgoing CIA director, Mike Pompeo, flatly ruled out any return to torture during his confirmation hearings. It is understandable that agency officials would want to put the whole sordid affair behind them. We may never be able to hold the authors of torture accountable, but we can, and should, insist that they not be rewarded.

I hope Haspel is at peace with the choices she has made. The Senate’s choice should be to say no.

Will the Next ‘Black Panther’ Be a Latino Superhero?

“Black Panther” has introduced a new generation to a black superhero, but when Latinos watch a Marvel movie, they see they are not well represented. El Peso Hero wants to change that.

Created by Hector Rodriguez, “El Peso Hero” is a comic book series influenced by the modern-day challenges people on both sides of the United States-Mexico border face. The main story centers on El Peso Hero, a contemporary Mexican who speaks only Spanish and stands up against Mexico’s cartels, human traffickers and corrupt officials. The rogue hero defends the rights of immigrants and the disenfranchised, and fights all forms of injustice.

“El Peso Hero” is gaining recognition by providing a superhero who is relatable and relevant to Latino culture. With the origins of El Peso Hero rooted in Mexican history, Rio Bravo Comics, the comic’s independent publisher (also founded by Rodriguez), wants to bridge the representation gap in media.

“Latinos are not adequately represented in local, state and federal government. They are even less represented in comics, books, music, TV shows and movies,” Rodriguez told Truthdig. “Latinos make up 25 percent of moviegoers, even though they’re only 18 percent of the population.”

The demographics are changing. In numbers, Latinos passed whites in California a few years ago, and today they total 15 million. Next are Texas (11 million) and Florida (5 million). Those three states make up over 55 percent of the Latino population in America, which is 55 million, or 17 percent of the country. By 2050, the United States is projected to be majority minority. And by 2060, Latinos are expected to make up over 28 percent of the total U.S. population, or 119 million people.

“This rapid population growth presents a unique set of opportunities and challenges that policymakers are in a position to address,” noted Rodriguez.

Representation matters.

Representation dispels stereotypes (like the myth that many Mexicans coming to the U.S. are “criminals, rapists and drug dealers”).

Representation humanizes people and affects how people are perceived and valued.

“There’s this body of research and a term known as ‘symbolic annihilation,’ which is the idea that if you don’t see people like you in the media you consume, you must somehow be unimportant,” Nicole Martins of Indiana University explained in a 2017 Huffington Post report on why representation matters. Researchers George Gerbner and Larry Gross created the phrase in 1976 in a seminal paper, “Living with Television”: “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation.”

Last but not least, representation pays. “Black Panther” is the highest-grossing Marvel film in domestic box-office history, at $631 million and counting, even if some people believe it’s enemy propaganda.

Could the next “Black Panther” be a Latino superhero?

Yes. But racial change takes time. Remember the words of Frederick Douglass from 1857: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. … This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

Latinos are still seeking their moment. At some point, superheroes can no longer be ignored.

For now, the focus for El Peso Hero is on the recently released origin prologue for the  upcoming book, “El Peso Hero: La Patrona”:

Mexico has known many heroes through her long and eventful history. Perhaps none have captured the imagination and stirred the hearts to the degree that Los Niños Héroes (Heroic Children) have. In 1847, six brave young cadets fought valiantly for their country during the Mexican-American War at the Battle of Chapultepec. Tragically, they died defending her honor.

We also honor the story of adelita Petra Herrera. Petra spear headed the siege of Torreon during the Mexican Revolution in 1913. This battle was crucial in allocating resources for Pancho Villa’s army. Unfortunately Petra la Soldadera was never given credit for her pivotal role. Portraying their stories has never been done in comic book form.

Viva El Peso Hero.