August 8, 2023

Tuesday, August 8,2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

The President jokes with the oldest manager in baseball, Dusty Baker of these World Champion Astros.

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I didn’t know this. It made me smile.

Ironman!

I knew this.

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4 more comments on American women’s soccer.

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When we see it, we will know it.

Recognize the authoritarian’s phrases and goals. Recognize Authoritarianism. Get ready to fight like hell.

New charges against Trump focus on lies. Scholars see an authoritarian playbook.

The latest federal case against Donald Trump is putting a spotlight on the role of false and baseless claims in his presidency. The indictment alleges that the former president and his co-conspirators used lies for the criminal purpose of overturning the 2020 election. For some scholars of history, its forensic look at how speech underpinned an alleged conspiracy to illegally retain power helps to situate Trump into larger historical patterns.

"All authoritarian leaders have cults of personality," said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University and author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. "Meaning, they propose themselves as all-powerful, as the only solution possible to the nation's ills. 'I alone can fix it.' "

At times, the drumbeat of false assertions during Trump's candidacy and presidency perplexed the American press and public. So did Trump's invocation of baseless conspiracy theories, which invariably situated him as a persecuted victim of a "deep state." But Ben-Ghiat said in her studies of authoritarian leaders such as Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Silvio Berlusconi and Jair Balsonaro, there was precedent for this.

"The use of lies takes place in a larger effort to turn the public against alternate sources of authority," she said. Those sources might include independent courts, legislative bodies and law enforcement agencies. Or — it may be the fourth estate.

If you're looking to see if somebody's going to be a strongman, what you find is even when they start campaigning, they immediately start trying to turn the public against the press, saying [the press is] biased and that they are the truth teller against the establishment," said Ben-Ghiat. As that leader's supporters increasingly come to believe that he is the only source of truth, she said, they will be primed to believe his claims of a stolen election.

"What Trump is doing is, he's asking for personal loyalty to him to outweigh the rule of law," said Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. "We see this in any authoritarian takeover of a system. We see the authoritarian say, 'Devotion to me is more important than the rule of law.' "

The case will likely focus on statements that Trump and co-conspirators allegedly made in the weeks between the 2020 election and the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Nonetheless, Stanley said it may illuminate some of the mechanics that have contributed to a profound shift in American culture and society.

"What jumped out to me is that we finally have a structural understanding of the way lies can undermine democracy, of the way trust is central for our democracy," he said. "Democracy relies on faith in its institutions and laws. Otherwise, there's no stability." (NPR).

More Trump blather. See below.👇 Just to keep you in the know.

Last night, Judge Chutkan responded to the Government’s request.There will be a hearing.

One more thing.

Security increases for judge assigned to Donald Trump’s January 6 criminal case.

Security for the federal judge assigned to oversee the criminal case against former President Donald Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election has been increased in the federal courthouse in Washington, DC.

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Kind hearts and daughters are why patriarchy will lose.

Where ‘No One Wanted Girls,’ a Dad in India Takes On the Patriarchy.

A delivery room epiphany transformed a village headman into an unlikely and highly successful campaigner against prenatal sex testing, which often led to aborting female fetuses.

Sunil Jaglan, center, discussing health issues with women in a farming village in Haryana State in India, where he has led a campaign against prenatal sex testing.

When the nurse stepped out of the delivery room, her face turned somber as she approached with a baby in her arms wrapped in a blanket. Her voice dropped to a hush, almost like she was ashamed, as she announced to the family: “It is a daughter.”

Nothing about the nurse’s negative demeanor surprised Sunil Jaglan, the newborn’s father. Growing up in the northern Indian state of Haryana, he was accustomed to parents’ strong preference for having sons over daughters.

But something within him snapped, he said, when he offered the nurse money as a thank you gesture, and she refused because she had not handed over a boy.

“Are you also ashamed of yourself?” Mr. Jaglan recently remembered asking the nurse when his daughter was born 11 years ago.

That episode transformed him into an unlikely champion of women’s rights in a deeply patriarchal society. He turned the nurse’s four words, uttered almost as a curse — “It is a daughter” — into a slogan for a campaign that health officials say is responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of girls in Haryana.

Mr. Jaglan at home with his family. His wife, Deepa Dhull, is at far left. His daughter Yachika, 9, sits on the lap of her grandmother, Anita Redhu. His daughter Nandini, 11, looks on.

Historically, Haryana had one of the most imbalanced sex ratios in the country. In 2012, the state had 832 females per 1,000 males. And Mr. Jaglan’s own village of Bibipur, with about 1,000 households, had one of the most skewed sex ratios in favor of males in the entire state.

“No one wanted girls,” said Mr. Jaglan, 41. “But everyone wanted a woman to do everything in their homes, from working in the farms to household chores.”

In India, the world’s most populous nation, and one which has experienced tremendous economic progress, gender inequality remains deeply entrenched. In many households, especially in rural areas, girls are considered a social and financial burden whose parents still pay thousands of dollars in dowry gifts to a husband’s family after arranging a marriage.

Despite an official ban on prenatal sex testing, advertisements for the service were pasted on market walls and highways across Haryana, and aborting fetuses because they were female was common. Although there are some restrictions, legal abortion is widely available in India through the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Shortly before his own daughter’s birth, Mr. Jaglan had won an election as the village headman, and he was now determined to use his new role to begin a controversial campaign against the prenatal sex testing that he was sure was responsible for the alarming gender gap in his village, his state and many places across India. (New York Times).

Click here to read more about Mr. Jaglan and his activism for girls in India.

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Finally, a Reminder.

Today is the day of the special election in Ohio.

Today, Ohio voters will participate in a special election to decide “State Issue 1,” a ballot measure that has galvanized supporters and critics alike, especially because it could affect another upcoming vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Issue I is a ballot measure that seeks to make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution through - yes- future ballot initiatives.

Currently, a ballot initiative in Ohio needs as simple majority to pass. If issue 1 passes, the threshold would be raised to 60% of the vote.

Vote NO today in Ohio and in November, you will be able to vote to include Abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution.

If you live in Ohio, vote. The rest of us should call anyone we know in Ohio, and GET OUT THE VOTE.

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