Author: David M. Rock

New York Times – by Caitlin Dickerson

The Trump administration is working with like-minded sheriffs from around the country on a plan to channel undocumented immigrants from local jails into federal detention, according to several sheriffs involved in the discussions. If it succeeds, it could vastly expand the dragnet that has already begun to transform immigration enforcement in the United States.

The plan is intended to circumvent court decisions that have thus far limited the role of local law enforcement in immigration. It involves a legal move regarding detainers, which are requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to local sheriffs or police departments to hold people who are suspected of being in the country illegally, even after they have posted bail, finished their jail sentence or otherwise resolved their criminal cases.  Continue reading “Trump Administration Moves to Expand Deportation Dragnet to Jails”

Washington Post – by Chico Harlan

BRANDENBURG, Ky. — The leaders in this small town said they wanted history to be preserved, not erased, so they piled into a car last summer for what they considered an important mission: to save a Confederate monument from possible destruction. The monument had stood in Louisville for 121 years — 70 feet tall, more than 100 tons of granite. But Louisville wanted it removed and called a public meeting to help determine its relocation. One speaker said the structure should be “obliterated.” Another said he would gladly help drop it into the river. And then, one by one, up to the microphone came the people from Brandenburg.

“I think it would be well-received by the county and the residents,” the county judge executive said.   Continue reading “A 121-year-old Confederate monument was coming down. This Kentucky town put it back up.”

AP

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — The huge raised-relief images show a Confederate trinity sitting astride their horses, high above the ground. Hats held across their chests, President Jefferson Davis and Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson ride across the face of Stone Mountain into faded glory.

Part theme park and part shrine to Dixie’s Lost Cause, this granite outcrop east of Atlanta — sculpted like a Mount Rushmore of the Confederacy — is once again an ideological battlefield as a new fight rages over rebel symbolism across the South.  Continue reading “Stone Mountain another (huge) test for Confederate symbols”

Washington Examiner – by Joel Gehrke

An exhibit alongside the nation’s chief memorial to Thomas Jefferson will receive an update that reflects “the complexity” of his status as a founder of the United States and a slaveholder, according to stewards of the National Mall.

The decision reflects an acute awareness of the furor currently surrounding Confederate statues across the country. A non-profit group that provides critical support for the National Mall is bracing for similar protests against the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, although “there has been much broader support for maintaining them,” as one official put it. But the Trust for the National Mall, which depends on private donors to fulfill its mission, is getting out in front of the uproar.   Continue reading “Jefferson Memorial exhibit update will acknowledge slavery record”

ABC 13 News

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas President Greg Fenves ordered the immediate removal of statues of Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederate figures from a main area of campus, saying such monuments have become “symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”

Fenves announced the move late Sunday night as crews were in place to begin taking the statues down. The school also blocked off the area during the process, and the statues are expected to be gone by mid-morning Monday, a spokesman said.   Continue reading “UT-Austin begins swift removal of remaining Confederate statues”

Jerusalem Post

Is it OK to punch a Nazi in the face?

That’s the question animating much of the discussion of Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which quickly devolved into a brawl between rally-goers and a contingent of anti-fascist counterprotesters known as antifa. Following the clashes, a white supremacist rammed his car into the counterprotest, killing Heather Heyer, 32.

Leaders and activists across the spectrum — except President Donald Trump — have unequivocally condemned the racist, anti-Semitic rally. But they are divided on whether physically attacking white supremacists is justified simply because they are white supremacists.   Continue reading “Antifa: The Group That Fought White Supremacists In Charlottesville”

Jerusalem Post

We cut the statue below the knees within minutes,” a Hungarian student said, recalling the exciting scene in October 1956 at Varosliget, Budapest’s version of Central Park, where 200,000 Hungarian rebels shouted “Russians go home!” while felling Joseph Stalin’s 25-meter idol to the ground.

The bronze sculpture’s collapse, the disembodiment of its head and the mutilation of its body memorably sparked the bloody anti-Soviet uprising that shook the world.  Continue reading “Middle Israel: Who Moved My Statue?”

The JC – by Colin Shindler

One hundred years ago in August 1917, the London Gazette published an official announcement that “a Jewish regiment” had been established. Based on the international regiments of small oppressed nations in Europe that had fought in foreign armies against great empires during the 19th century, it heralded the Israel Defence Force in 1948. Its formation marked the success of attempts by Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky to symbolise the rebirth of a Jewish nation.  Continue reading “Birth of a fighting force for Zionism”

College Fix – by Matthew Stein

Officials at Yale University recently censored a stone work of art on campus depicting an armed Native American and Puritan side by side, which has been described as a “hostile” image by the Ivy League institution’s alumni magazine.

The stone carving was edited to cover up the Puritan’s musket, while the Native American’s bow was left as is, reports Yale Alumni Magazine.   Continue reading “Yale University censors ‘hostile’ historic artwork”

NPR – by John Henning Schumann

The events that unfolded in Charlottesville last weekend are a stark reminder of how far we haven’t come as a nation. Like so many Americans, I am horrified that white supremacist and neo-Nazi adherents have recently found sanction to put hateful ideologies more overtly on display.

Seeing images of torch-bearers one day and heavily-armed men as would-be militias the next, it’s unsurprising that violence erupted, leading to injuries and death.   Continue reading “After Charlottesville, A Doctor Reflects On Hateful Patients And His Own Biases”