May 4, 2019

After surviving ISIS and a civil war, these Syrian women built a female-only village

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/05/04/middleeast/jinwar-syria-female-only-village-trnd/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F


After surviving ISIS and a civil war, these Syrian women built a female-only village

By Loumay Alesali and Christina Zdanowicz, CNN

Posted at 12:25 AM ET, Sat May 4, 2019

(CNN) — Fatma Emin's life changed forever when her husband died in the Syrian war, killed by ISIS in a land mine attack.

It triggered a series of events that would bring her to Jinwar, a village built and inhabited by women -- a refuge for Syrian women and their children fleeing a rigid family structure, domestic abuse and the horrors of civil war.

Jinwar means "women's land" in the Kurdish language. The village welcomes Syrian women and children, regardless of religion, ethnicity and political views. It is a mosaic of diverse women who want to experience freedom, democracy and a new form of life.

"Jinwar is a response to every person who thinks of violating a woman's freedom, or sees the woman as the weaker sex in the society, or that she can't manage her life or manage her children," Emin told CNN by phone in Arabic. "On the contrary, a woman can build her house. Here we are -- we built a village not only for Kurdish women, but we have Arab, we have Yazidi and some of our foreign friends are also living with us."

Fatma Emin is a working single mother who didn't receive support or acceptance from her in-laws.

After Emin's husband died in August 2015, the stigma of being a widow weighed heavily on her.

The 35-year-old had to fight to keep her six children -- her husband's family repeatedly took them away from her, she said. They didn't want her to work, and demanded she give up a job she loved in Kobani's local government to raise her daughters under the family's supervision. She says they viewed her and her children as weak, with no man left to protect them.

"The people that I was mixing with didn't value this and didn't accept me as a strong or a working woman, or raising my kids after my husband's death," Emin said. "I worked at the (Kurdish) administration and I was good and excelling at my work."

When she managed to get her children back with the help of a Kurdish women's movement group, she moved to Jinwar -- a village in northeast Syria built from the ground up by Kurdish women two years ago.

A refuge from war

All women in Jinwar take part in building and maintaining their village.

Brown, rectangular houses constructed of handmade bricks sit on land that looks dry and parched. But on the inside, the homes are painted and decorated, showing the touches of the families who live in them. Today, Jinwar is home to 16 women and 32 children.

Men are allowed to visit during the day as long as they behave respectfully toward the women, but they can't stay overnight. Working in shifts, the women keep track of who comes and goes from Jinwar. They only carry a weapon during night shifts for security.

May 3, 2019

Wild raccoon moves in with zoo raccoons. Allowed to stay.by law

ld raccoon has moved into Heidelberg Zoo in Germany and keepers can't kick him out.

German daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung reported Friday that zoo staff recently discovered the uninvited guest inside the raccoon enclosure, where he seemed to be getting along fine with the seven original residents.


The newspaper reported that the interloper — nicknamed Fred — can expect free board and lodgings for life, because European Union rules forbid him from being released back into the wild.

Under a 2015 EU directive, raccoons are considered an invasive alien species that might pose a threat to European plants and animals.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-a-wild-raccoon-german-zoo-20190503-story.html
I

May 2, 2019

Sanders and Conway are so far down the path of deceit in the service of Trump that one can't imagine

Sanders and Conway are so far down the path of deceit in the service of Trump that one can't imagine them turning around, copping to what they have done and choosing another straighter path.

But Barr had the option to take a different route. Other men at the end of their careers, like former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and former Chief of Staff John Kelly saw what was at stake and, with their resignations, walked away. Barr didn't heed their example -- and instead followed the President.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/opinions/william-barr-donald-trump-playbook-dantonio/index.html

May 1, 2019

This two-legged dog is teaching a two-legged puppy how to stand.

https://twitter.com/Texas_Dexter/status/1123414766318436352

May 1, 2019

CNN headline: William Barr is in deep trouble

William Barr is in deep trouble

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/politics/william-barr-robert-mueller-mueller-report/index.html

Attorney General William Barr did two strange things between the time he received special counsel Robert Muelller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and when he released it to Congress and the public.

The first came on March 24 when, two days after receiving the Mueller report, Barr released a four-page summary letter in which he made clear his conclusion that the report found no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians and that Mueller hadn't made any recommendation as to whether President Donald Trump should be charged with obstructing justice.

The second came on the morning of April 18 when Barr, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein by his side, held a press conference to reiterate those findings -- in remarkably Trumpian language -- 90 minutes before actually making a redcated version of the report public

On Tuesday night, those two moves came into far sharper -- and more troubling -- focus when it was revealed that Mueller sent a letter to Barr on March 27 expressing concern about the ways in which Barr's summary document described the evidence surrounding obstructive behavior. Mueller did not make issue with any of the factual statements in Barr's four-page letter but rather the lack of nuance on obstruction -- and the resultant media coverage, according to CNN's Laura Jarrett's reporting.

April 30, 2019

What's up, n*****?' White man repeatedly calls woman the N-word after she asks for his insurance inf

What's up, n*****?' White man repeatedly calls woman the N-word after she asks for his insurance information following crash






Video shows white man with blonde hair repeatedly calling a woman the N-word after a traffic accident
Description of the video claims unnamed motorist unleashed racist tirade after hitting the woman's car
In the footage, he accuses the woman of grabbing his arm and pushing him against the door of his car

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6977133/Man-repeatedly-calls-woman-N-word-asks-insurance-information-following-crash.html

n the video, the unnamed male motorist sporting a cropped blonde haircut is seen dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, and carrying a smartphone in a lime-green case.

Wearing a broad smile on his face, he points the device at the woman, asking her, 'What's up, n*****? What's up, n*****?'

The man with the green phone case then accuses the victim of his verbal attack of grabbing his arm and pushing him against the door of his own vehicle.

You pushed me in my door, you n*****,’ he rages on.

The man then asks rhetorically, ‘You think I'm gonna call the police and file a report?’ before the video abruptly cuts off mid-sentence.

The description of the video alleges that the man unleashed his vile tirade after the female motorist asked for his insurance information because he had struck her car.

April 30, 2019

Swarthmore students surround / occupy frat house known for sexual violence & bigotry for past 4 days

‘CLOSE THE RAPE ATTIC’: Swarthmore students occupy fraternity after disturbing documents leak
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/30/close-rape-attic-swarthmore-students-occupy-fraternity-after-disturbing-documents-leak/?utm_term=.fe5715dc92c1

For two years, Maya Henry regularly spent time at Swarthmore College’s two fraternity houses. Every week, the modest stone structures would transform into dens of drunken revelry as partygoers packed in sweaty rooms imbibed on cheap alcohol and danced the night away to a soundtrack of the latest Top 40 hits.

Henry, however, never attended those parties by choice. She had a job to do.

“Most days, my job was to prevent sexual violence and my job was to make sure that somebody wasn’t going to get harmed,” Henry, now a junior, told The Washington Post. The 20-year-old is a member of Swarthmore’s SwatTeam, a student-led organization that works to ensure safety at public campus events where alcohol is served.

“I would sprint up the stairs that lead to the bedroom that’s referred to as the ‘rape attic’ because I knew that there was only one woman up there and a bunch of fraternity brothers,” Henry said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For three days, students at Swarthmore College, the elite institution known for its progressive politics, have occupied a picturesque stone house in the middle of campus, the quarters of one of the college’s two fraternities. Activists in the building say that it is the site of rampant sexual violence.

The students have refused to leave until college administrators meet their demands: disband the fraternities and take away the two campus buildings that they lease to the groups. The sit-in is part of a long battle around attempts to kick the Greek system off campus, but more broadly, it is about officials’ handling of rape cases.

The demonstration also comes after documents leaked to student journalists, purportedly chronicling years of bigotry and sexual assaults by one fraternity, Phi Psi, whose house the students have seized.

?crop=900:600&width=1440



?itok=W1DwRluL

The most recent campaign against the fraternities was set off by a group of six or so students who said they saw social media postings by a fraternity member making light of sexual assaults and prejudice against LGBTQ people.


Shortly after the Tumblr anecdotes went public, the student newspapers at Swarthmore, The Phoenix and the left-leaning publication The Voices, published a trove of Phi Psi “meeting minutes” and other documents from 2012 to 2016. They detail fraternity members using illegal drugs and playing explicit drinking games and contain references to rape and derogatory terms for women, students of color and queer students. Sometimes the fraternity members would include photos of female students in the minutes.

The activists have pitched tents both in the yard around the house and inside it. The building is not a traditional large-scale fraternity house -- its main floor is open and is akin to a dance floor for parties, and it has a basement and a single bedroom upstairs. The students leading the protest have hung banners that read, “This is our house” and “Decades of violence behind this door.”

Only one fraternity member lives in the house, and the protesters worked with local police to allow him inside to retrieve his belongings, Goldberg said. Police, unaffiliated with the campus, have been called on students multiple times, but Anskis said no one has been arrested. Goldberg said that students told police they would not damage the property.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/30/swarthmore-students-sit-fraternity-house-after-sexual-assault-allegations

April 30, 2019

Trump ignores hints to hang up during interview

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/04/30/president-trump-wont-hang-up-phone-interview-fox-moos-ebof-pkg-vpx.cnn

Trump ignores hints to hang up during interview


A Fox Business anchor struggled to get President Trump to hang up at the end of their phone interview. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.

April 30, 2019

Trump tightens asylum rules, will make immigrants pay fees to seek humanitarian refuge

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-issues-memo-calling-for-changes-to-handling-of-asylum-cases/2019/04/29/df41b5f2-6adb-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html?utm_term=.eaeb0441de20

President Trump ordered major changes to U.S. asylum policies in a White House memo released Monday night, including measures that would charge fees to those applying for humanitarian refuge in the United States.

Trump’s directive also calls for tightening asylum rules by banning anyone who crosses the border illegally from obtaining a work permit, and giving courts a 180-day limit to adjudicate asylum claims that now routinely take years to process because of a ballooning case backlog.

The order, announced in a presidential memorandum, comes as the president is seeking to mobilize his supporters with a focus on illegal immigration ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign.

“If the Democrats don’t give us the votes to change our weak, ineffective and dangerous Immigration Laws, we must fight hard for these votes in the 2020 Election!” the president wrote on Twitter after the White House published his order.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-issues-memo-calling-for-changes-to-handling-of-asylum-cases/2019/04/29/df41b5f2-6adb-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html?utm_term=.eaeb0441de20

April 30, 2019

Tech Company Asked For 'Preferably Caucasian' Candidate On LinkedIn Job Posting

Tech Company Asked For ‘Preferably Caucasian’ Candidate On LinkedIn Job Posting
Cynet Systems later apologized and said it had fired the people involved in the racist job listing.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cynet-systems-racist-job-post-linked-in_n_5cc71633e4b0fd8e35bfc914

?cache=cwsucepsn2&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale

Cynet Systems later sent HuffPost a statement from Co-CEO Ashwani Mayur, expressing regret for the ad and stating that “Both of our owners are Indian-Americans, our workforce is over 60 percent minority, and we are certified as a diversity supplier by the National Minority Supplier Development Council.”

The company said it is “looking at measures to catch offensive or outside-of-policy ads before they ever go live to ensure this can’t happen again.”

----


(S) Harold 🍿 █████████ (b)(5)
@haroldsmith3rd
Replying to @hacks4pancakes and 3 others
“You said the quiet part out loud”

804
9:31 AM - Apr 28, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
29 people are talking about this

Book Minded Mag
@BookMindedMag
Replying to @misshelenasue and 2 others
I’m not shocked by this but I am shocked the listing doesn’t say “preferably Caucasian male.” Cuz we all know that’s exactly what they mean.

402
7:41 AM - Apr 28, 2019