April 9, 2023

Sunday, April 9, 2023. 🐇 Annette’s News Roundup.

To read an article excerpted in this Roundup, click on its blue title. Each “blue” article is hyperlinked so you can read the whole article.

Please feel free to share.

Invite at least one other person to subscribe today! buttondown.email/AnnettesNewsRoundup

_______________________

Joe is always busy.

Opinion by Joe Biden on the first night of Passover, April 2023.

Joe Biden: To fight antisemitism, we must remember, speak out and act.

(CNN) — Tonight, Jews around the world will gather around the seder table to celebrate Passover. They will recount the miraculous story of the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt to freedom. It is a timeless, powerful story of faith, hope and redemption that has inspired oppressed people everywhere for generations.

But Passover is more than just a recounting of the past. It is also a cautionary tale of the present and our future as a democracy. As Jews read from the Haggadah about how evil in every generation has tried to destroy them, antisemitism is rising to record levels today.

According to the FBI, more than half of religious hate crimes in America in 2021 targeted Jews and were motivated by antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League similarly found that in 2022 antisemitic incidents in America reached their highest levels on record since it started tracking incidents more than 40 years ago.

We see this evil across society. Terrorist attacks on synagogues. Bricks thrown through windows of Jewish businesses. Antisemitic flyers left on the front lawns of Jewish homes. Swastikas on cars and cemeteries.

Antisemitic graffiti and acts in elementary, middle and high schools. Jewish students harassed on college campuses.

Jews wearing religious attire beaten and shot on streets.

Antisemitic conspiracy theories rampant online. Antisemitic tropes treated as honest public debate. Celebrities spouting antisemitic hate. All of it – flagrant embraces of extremism in public life.

These acts are unconscionable and despicable. They carry in them terrifying echoes of the worst chapters in human history. And they’re not only a strike against Jews, they’re also a threat to other minority communities and a stain on the soul of our nation.

To the Jewish community, I want you to know that I see your fear, your hurt and your concern that this venom is being normalized. I decided to run for President after I saw it in Charlottesville, when neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s.

Rest assured that I am committed to the safety of the Jewish people. I stand with you. America stands with you. Under my presidency, we continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn. Failure to call out hate is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we will not be silent.

As the Passover holiday teaches, our work starts with the sacred duty to remember. Last year, I visited Israel once again to reaffirm America’s unshakeable commitment to its security. I returned to Yad Vashem to honor the 6 million murdered Jews, to keep alive the truth and horror of the Holocaust and to remind us all of our shared responsibility to make real the promise of “Never Again.”

It was a promise my father first instilled in me at our family dinner table, educating my siblings and me about the horrors of the Shoah.

It’s a lesson I’ve passed on to my own children and grandchildren by taking them to Dachau, a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, to understand for themselves the depths of this evil and the culpability of indifference.

And it’s a message that Jill and I have continued, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, by bringing Holocaust survivors to the White House and to the State of the Union – so the entire nation bears witness.

But Passover teaches that remembering is not enough; we must also speak out. The word “Haggadah” means “telling” – and it reminds us of our moral obligation to state clearly and forcefully that this scourge of antisemitism must stop.

That’s why I appointed Deborah Lipstadt – a Holocaust expert – as our first Ambassador-level Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism around the world. The Second Gentleman – the first Jewish spouse of a vice president in our history – has also been a leading voice against antisemitism and visited Poland and Germany to promote Holocaust awareness. And I hosted the first United We Stand Summit at the White House, convening governmental and non-governmental leaders from across the country to declare that hate-fueled violence can have no safe harbor in America.

But as we speak out, we must also act. Central to the seder are actions, rituals and reenactments that help us feel the exodus experience and collectively reinforce the truth that words alone are insufficient.

That’s why I signed a bipartisan law to help state and local law enforcement better identify and respond to hate crimes. And the Justice Department has made combating hate crimes one of its top priorities. My administration also secured the largest-ever increase in funding for the physical security of nonprofits, including synagogues, Jewish community centers and Jewish day schools. Because nobody should have to fear walking down the street wearing symbols of their faith.

We’ll also be releasing the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism, which will outline comprehensive actions the federal government will undertake, and that reflects input from over a thousand Jewish community stakeholders, faith and civil rights leaders, state and local officials and more.

Taking action also means reinforcing that Jewish culture and values are essential to the fabric of America. That’s why we hosted the first High Holiday reception at the White House and lit the first permanent White House Hanukkah menorah in our nation’s history.

But government alone cannot root out antisemitism and hate. All Americans, including businesses and community leaders, educators, students, athletes, entertainers and influencers must help confront bigotry in all its forms. We must each do our part to create a culture of respect in our workplaces, in our schools, on our social media and in our homes.

Because hate never goes away, it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen. And it is our obligation to ensure that hate doesn’t grow or become normalized. It is our duty to preserve and protect the sacred ideals enshrined in our Constitution: religious freedom, equality, dignity and respect. That is the promise of America.

And that is the story of Passover – a story of redemption, resilience and unity. A story of people coming together with a shared faith, a shared hope for a better tomorrow and a shared resolve to reach the Promised Land.

We were reminded of this enduring story in the aftermath of the hostage-taking at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, last year. Hate did not pierce a community’s goodness and grace. Heroic law enforcement officials were joined by local faith leaders, including an imam and Baptist minister who offered their help. The nearby Catholic Church opened its doors to the hostages’ families. At sunset, a group of Muslim women, friends of the rabbi’s wife, arrived with the rabbi’s favorite foods. They hugged and wept and held strong together.

That’s the America that I know. From darkness, we find joy and hope and light. Rather than driving us apart, faith can move us together. Not just faith in a higher power, but faith to see each other as we should – as fellow human beings.

As we celebrate Passover, let us reflect that like the four children in the Haggadah, despite our differences we sit at the same table, as one people, one nation, one America. Let us join hands across faiths, races, and backgrounds to make clear that evil will not win; hate will not prevail; and antisemitism will not be the story of our time.

Let us remember, speak out and act to restore the soul of America together. (CNN).

Biden to visit Ireland, mark Good Friday accord anniversary.

The President is proud of his Irish heritage.

____

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland next week in part to help mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday accord, a U.S.-brokered agreement that helped end decades of deadly sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

Biden will first visit Belfast, Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., from April 11-12 to mark progress since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was signed a quarter century ago and to underscore U.S. readiness to support Northern Ireland’s economic potential, the White House said.

Biden will then spend April 12-14 in the Republic of Ireland, holding engagements in Dublin, County Louth and County Mayo, where he will deliver an address celebrating the “deep, historic ties” between the United States and Ireland, the White House said.

The president will address Ireland’s version of parliament on April 13 and attend a festival in County Mayo on April 14, where he could also deliver remarks, said U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. (AP)

_______________________

The Trumper Judge stopped an FDA decison on mifepristone. The President and Vice President promised action. Merrick Garland stepped forward.

The Justice Department tonight [April 7, 2022] issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland following the district court decisions in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v.FDA and Washington et al. U. FDA:

"The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA and will be appealing the court's decision and seeking a stay pending appeal.

Today's decision overturns the FDA's expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The Department will continue to defend the FDA's decision.

Separately, the Justice Department is reviewing the decision of the District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in Washington et al. v. FDA. The Department is committed to protecting Americans' access to legal reproductive care."

_______________________

ProPublica answers Clarence Thomas. Read the response. 👇

Clarence Thomas Defends Undisclosed Trips. Here Are the Facts. — ProPublica.

In response to a ProPublica report, Thomas explained why he did not disclose lavish travel provided by billionaire Harlan Crow. But legal experts maintain the justice was required to make these disclosures.

In a rare public statement, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas responded Friday to a ProPublica report that revealed that Thomas has, for decades, accepted luxury travel from billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and failed to disclose it.

Thomas’ brief statement acknowledges joining Crow and his wife, who he described as among his “dearest friends,” on “a number of family trips” over the years. He also defended his failure to disclose them.

But seven legal ethics experts consulted by ProPublica, including former ethics lawyers for Congress and the White House, said the law clearly requires that gifts of transportation, including private jet flights, be disclosed. If Thomas is arguing otherwise, the experts said, he is incorrect.

A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for Thomas about the specifics of the advice he was given or who he consulted.

ProPublica’s story Thursday revealed that Thomas had taken international cruises on Crow’s superyacht, flown on Crow’s private jet and regularly vacationed at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. In one instance, Thomas flew on Crow’s jet from Washington Dulles airport to New Haven, Connecticut, then flew back three hours later.

Thomas did not respond to detailed questions for that story. His statement Friday did not dispute ProPublica’s reporting about his trips. It also did not address broader criticisms from ethics experts and other judges that by repeatedly accepting such trips, he broke long-standing ethical norms for judges’ conduct.

In a previous statement to ProPublica, Crow said that Thomas “never asked for any of this hospitality” and that his treatment of the justice was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

A law passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Ethics in Government Act, requires Supreme Court justices and many other federal officials to report most gifts to the public. Justices are generally required to report all gifts worth more than $415, defined as “anything of value” that they don’t repay the full cost of. Gifts are disclosed in an annual financial report that is made public.

There are exceptions, and experts parsing the legality of Thomas’ failure to disclose the travel have been focused on a carve-out known as the “personal hospitality” exemption.

The exemption states that gifts of “food, lodging, or entertainment received as personal hospitality” don’t have to be disclosed. The law defines “personal hospitality” in a way that further limits the exception. It only applies to gifts received from an individual at that person’s home or at properties that they or their family own.

ProPublica asked the seven legal ethics experts about the exception and Thomas’ statement. All said that the law’s language clearly requires that gifts of transportation, such as private jet travel or cruises on a yacht, be disclosed and said Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to report them.

“I don’t think you can make an argument that private jet flights need not be included under the statute,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus and ethics expert at New York University law school.

”It is absolutely impossible that anyone could reasonably interpret that exception to apply to private jet flights,” said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. “Not in any universe.”

Richard Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer for the George W. Bush White House, said Thomas’ explanation of why he didn’t disclose the trips “makes absolutely no sense.” Painter emphasized that the exemption only covers three categories: food, lodging and entertainment. Private jet flights would fall into none of those, he said.

“Justice Thomas likes to focus on the language of authoritative texts, and that’s not what he’s doing in this statement,” said Kathleen Clark, a legal ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Thomas himself disclosed at least one private jet flight from Crow, in his financial disclosure for 1997. He has not disclosed a trip on Crow’s plane in more than 20 years.

Reviewing other federal judges’ financial disclosure filings, ProPublica found at least six examples of judges disclosing gifts of private jet travel in recent years.

In the Ethics in Government Act, Congress explicitly stated that the law covers Supreme Court justices. But Chief Justice John Roberts has raised questions about Congress’ power to impose rules on the Supreme Court.

“The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court,” Roberts wrote roughly a decade ago in an annual report on the judiciary. “The Justices nevertheless comply with those provisions.”

Thomas’ statement Friday does not cite the law itself but rather “disclosure guidelines” for the judiciary. The guidelines elaborate on how the law applies to the courts and are issued by the policymaking arm of the judiciary.

Thomas’ statement refers to a March update of the judiciary’s guidelines for financial disclosure. “It is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he said. The new guidelines explicitly say that transportation is not food, lodging or entertainment and so must be disclosed.

Questions about Thomas’ compliance with the disclosure law have come up in the past. In 2011, he announced that he was amending years’ worth of his disclosure forms because he had failed to disclose the sources of his wife, Ginni’s, income.

At the time, he cited a “misunderstanding of the filing instructions.”

________

ProPublica is holding a conversation on Thomas. Below 👇 is the invitation.

For over 20 years, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow without disclosing them. The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas has no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court.

This week, ProPublica published a bombshell report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that shook Washington, sparked national outrage and caused lawmakers to call for tighter ethics codes for justices. On Tuesday, ProPublica’s Editor-in-Chief Steve Engelberg and reporter Joshua Kaplan will share the inside story of how the investigation came together and discuss what the revelations mean for our justice system.

Clarence Thomas’ Secret Life of Luxury
Tuesday, April 11
3-3:45 p.m. Eastern time

Register Here

______________

Justice Clarence Thomas’s megadonor friend collects Hitler memorabilia.

The Republican megadonor whose gifts to the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas have come under the spotlight has a private collection including a garden of statues of dictators, including Mussolini and Stalin; Nazi memorabilia; and paintings including two works by Adolf Hitler, the Washingtonian reported.

“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” the Washingtonian quoted an anonymous source as saying, regarding a visit to Harlan Crow’s Texas home. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.”

Crow, the source said, also had paintings “done by George W Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler”. (The Guardian).

_______

Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Benefactor Collects Hitler Artifacts - Washingtonian.

In 2014, when Crow’s house was included in a public tour of historic homes, a reporter from the Dallas Morning News visited. Apparently, Crow was visibly uncomfortable with questions about his dictator statues and Hitler memorabilia, preferring to discuss his other historical collections: documents signed by the likes of Christopher Columbus and George Washington; paintings by Renoir and Monet; statues of two of Crow’s heroes, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. 

But despite Crow’s discomfort, the reporter did manage to see the garden of dictator statues, describing it as a “historical nod to the facts of man’s inhumanity to man.” Among the figures in the “Garden of Evil” are Lenin and Stalin, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito. 

These are apparently not statues that Crow has commissioned—Crow has said that they’re bona-fide artifacts from public squares across Europe and Asia that citizens toppled at the end of dictatorial regimes. According to Crow, the white streaks on the Lenin statue are the remnants of paint thrown by furious Russians, and the chunks missing from Stalin are evidence of the wrath of the anti-Communist hordes. Crow says that the Gavrilo Princip statue had to be smuggled across the border between Serbia and Croatia disguised as rubble for fear that the Croatian border guards might destroy it in a rage. 

The person we talked to who visited Crow’s home says that it felt sort of like a museum (“just a bunch of collectibles everywhere from major historical events”) and describes the Crows as “such hospitable Texas hosts.” The evening wasn’t unpleasant, they say, “just strange—they had family photos in one room, then all this WWII stuff in another room, and dictators in the backyard.”

_______________________

Time passes. It will be harder to ‘Never Forget.’

Benjamin B. Ferencz, Last Surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor, Dies at 103.

Benjamin B. Ferencz, right, at the signing of an agreement between West Germany and Israel in Luxembourg in 1952. Mr. Ferencz helped Jewish groups negotiate a reparations settlement under which West Germany agreed to pay $822 million to Israel and to groups representing survivors of Nazi persecution.

_______

Benjamin B. Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, who convicted Nazi war criminals of organizing the murder of a million people and German industrialists of using slave labor from concentration camps to build Hitler’s war machine, died on Friday at an assisted living facility in Boynton Beach, Fla. He was 103.

His son, Don, confirmed the death.

A Harvard-educated New York lawyer whose concept of evil was formed when he was a Jewish soldier in Europe and a war-crimes investigator at Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Dachau, Mr. Ferencz (pronounced fer-RENZ) campaigned after World War II for restitution of property seized by the Nazis. For much of his life he crusaded for an international criminal court, and for laws to end wars of aggression.

“Nuremberg taught me that creating a world of tolerance and compassion would be a long and arduous task,” he recalled on his website. “And I also learned that if we did not devote ourselves to developing effective world law, the same cruel mentality that made the Holocaust possible might one day destroy the entire human race.”

To read the full obituary of this remarkable man, click here.

_______________________

Flying into Heathrow for the May 6th Coronation? Check out these dazzling hotels.

This is a clickable list and images of hotels that are going all out for the Royals on Coronation Day, with pictures of a way of life that stir the imagination. First, below 👇 are details of what one of these hotels, Claridge’s, has in mind.

5 London Hotels Where You’ll Get the Royal Treatment.

Claridge’s, a classic London hotel that has long attracted royal guests, will recognize the upcoming coronation of King Charles III with a display of royal memorabilia from past coronations.

The lobby of Claridge’s hotel, which dates to the mid-19th century.

_______

1. Claridge’s

A glamorous and enduring stop for afternoon tea, this 269-room-and-suite Art Deco-style hotel dates to the mid-1800s and has long been a destination for royals and dignitaries. Lately it’s made some handsome additions, including a cafe that opened in February with coffee, kombucha and Champagne to-go; a cocktail bar called the Painter’s Room; and a spa by the Hong Kong-born designer André Fu, who drew inspiration from Japanese temples and Zen gardens in Kyoto. In May, the hotel, part of Maybourne Hotel Group, will put some of its historical archives on display in the lobby’s Coronation Archive Windows, including fans created in 1911 for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary, Claridge’s menus and cocktail cards made for the coronations of King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, pages from Queen Victoria’s diary, as well as original coronation photographs, programs and official souvenirs. Guests who stop to see the visages of famous guests at the hotel’s Talking Heads Gallery will also find a new portrait of Charles by David Downton, known for his fashion illustrations.

A cocktail card made for Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation is among Claridge’s royal memorabilia.

2.Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

3.Art’otel London Battersea Power Station

4.The Lanesborough

5.One Hundred Shoreditch

(New York Times)

_______________________

A good Easter, Passover, and Spring to all!

Enjoy your Sunday!

I am taking a day off. See you on Tuesday.

_______________________