Douglas Macgregor

Douglas Abbott Macgregor (born January 4, 1953, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a U.S. Army Colonel (retired), government official, author, consultant, and television commentator.
On July 27, 2020, the White House announced that President Donald Trump intended to nominate Macgregor to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany. On November 11, 2020, a Pentagon spokesperson announced that Macgregor had been hired to serve as Senior Advisor to the Acting Secretary of Defense.
Early life and education.
Macgregor was educated at the Wm. Penn Charter School in Philadelphia and at the Virginia Military Institute, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a BS in general engineering in 1976. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in international relations in 1987.
Military career.
Macgregor was the "squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting" during the Gulf War. Facing an Iraqi Republican Guard opponent, Macgregor led a contingent consisting of 19 Tanks, 26 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 4 M1064 Mortar Carriers through the sandstorm to the 73 Easting at roughly 16:18 hours on 26 February 1991 destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U.S. casualties in a 23-minute span of the battle. Macgregor was at the front of the formation in the center with Eagle Troop on the right and Ghost Troop on the left. Macgregor designated Eagle Troop the main attack and positioned himself to the left of Eagle Troop. Eagle Troop Scouts subsequently followed Macgregor's Tank through a minefield during which Macgregor's crew destroyed two enemy tanks. As Macgregor was towards the front of the battle involved in shooting, he didn't "request artillery support or report events to superiors until the battle was virtually over, according to one of his superior officers." The risks he undertook "could have been criticized had the fight turned ugly."
At a November 1993 exercise at the Army's National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, Lt. Col. Macgregor's unit vastly outperformed its peers against the "Opposition Force (OPFOR)." The series of five battles usually end in four losses and a draw for the visiting units; Macgregor's unit won three, lost one, and drew one. Macgregor's unit dispersed widely, took unconventional risks, and anticipated enemy movements.
Macgregor was a top Army thinker on innovation, according to journalist Thomas E. Ricks. He "became prominent inside the Army" when he published "Breaking the Phalanx", which argued for radical reforms. "Breaking the Phalanx" was rare in that an active duty military author was challenging the status quo with detailed reform proposals for the reorganization of U.S. Army ground forces. The head of the Army, United States General Dennis Reimer, wanted to reform the Army and effectively endorsed "Breaking the Phalanx" and passed copies out to generals; however, reforming the U.S. Army according to the book met resistance from the Army's "de facto" "board of directors"—the other four-star Army generals—and Reimer did not press the issue. "Breaking the Phalanx" advocated that "the Army restructure itself into modularly organized, highly mobile, self-contained, combined arms teams that look extraordinarily like the Marine Corps' Air Ground Task Forces". His article called "Thoughts on Force Design in an Era of Shrinking Defense Budgets" was published in Dado Center Journal (The IDF Journal on Operational Art).
Many of Macgregor's colleagues thought his unconventional thinking may have harmed his chances for promotion. While an Army NTC official called him "the best war fighter the Army has got," colleagues of Macgregor were concerned that "the Army is showing it prefers generals who are good at bureaucratic gamesmanship to ones who can think innovatively on the battlefield." Macgregor was also seen as blunt, and to some, arrogant. Despite Magregor's top post-Gulf War NTC showing, his Army career was sidelined. The summer of 1997 marked the third time the Army refused to put him in command of a combat brigade, "a virtual death warrant for his Army career, relegating him to staff jobs as a colonel for the remainder of his service."
Macgregor was the top planner for General Wesley Clark, the military commander of NATO, for the attack on Yugoslavia.
In the fall of 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had read "Breaking the Phalanx", insisted that General "Tommy" Franks and his planning staff meet with Colonel Macgregor on 16–17 January 2002 to discuss a concept for intervention in Iraq involving the use of an armored heavy force of roughly 50,000 troops in a no warning attack straight into Baghdad.
Macgregor left the Army in June 2004.
Post-military career.
Macgregor is the vice president of Burke-Macgregor, LLC, a consulting firm based in Reston, Virginia, and he appears as a guest commentator on television and radio. Macgregor has been a regular guest on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program since 2017. When John Bolton was removed from the White House in 2019, Macgregor was one of five finalists under consideration for selection as President Trump's National Security Advisor.
In 2012, he challenged general James F. Amos' stance on the United States Marine Corps. Macgregor argued that the military capability and pertinence of the Marines, along with Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, made them both "as relevant as the Army's horse cavalry in the 1930s". In 2014, he stated that U.S. Army is designed to benefit four-star generals, not brigade readiness.
In 2019, Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, Chief of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) General Staff made MacGregor's 2003 book, "Transformation under Fire", required reading for all officers in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and above. On February 17, 2020, Macgregor traveled to Israel as a guest of the IDF Chief of Staff to meet with the IDF General Staff, and many of his senior officers to discuss General Kohavi's ongoing initiative to transform the IDF for future warfighting missions in the 21st century.
U.S. Ambassador to Germany nomination.
On July 27, 2020, the White House announced Donald Trump's intent to nominate Macgregor as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Following the announcement, Macgregor's history of controversial remarks received media attention. He has asserted that Muslim immigrants (referred to as "Muslim invaders") come to Europe "with the goal of eventually turning Europe into an Islamic state". Macgregor has argued that the German concept of "Vergangenheitsbewältigung", used to cope with Germany's Nazi past and its atrocities during World War II, is a "sick mentality." Macgregor has also stated that martial law should be instituted on the U.S.-Mexico border and argued for the extrajudicial execution of those who cross the border at unofficial ports of entry. Macgregor has also made statements in support of Israel having defensible borders, the annexation of the Golan Heights, and the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. In a column in The Washington Post he was described as "a racist crackpot who is pro-Russia, anti-Merkel, anti-Muslim and anti-Mexican." His nomination stalled in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. On January 3, 2021, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.
Senior Advisor to the Acting Secretary of Defense.
On November 11, 2020, a Pentagon spokesperson announced that Macgregor had been hired to serve as senior advisor to the new Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.
Views.
Views on the Iraq War.
In 2004, Macgregor stated that he strongly supported war against Iraq. During the beginning of the Iraq War, Macgregor disagreed with those who wanted to slow the advance into Baghdad in order to fight Fedayeen paramilitary forces. In 2006, after seven retired generals criticized then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the war, Magregor faulted the generals themselves for poor war planning and the resulting complications in Iraq. In 2008, Macgregor stated he would argue that American military action in Iraq and Afghanistan "has produced very serious and negative consequences for American national-security interests". Macgregor's 2009 book, "Warrior's Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting", argues that the failure to finish the battle with the Republican Guard in 1991 led to Iraq's second major confrontation with the United States in 2003.
Macgregor says that David Petraeus, Martin Dempsey, and other generals consistently exaggerated or falsified the effectiveness of the Iraqi army because "the generals were simply cultivating their Bush administration sponsors in pursuit of further promotion".
By 2020, Macgregor's website called the war in Iraq a failure.
Views on Russian annexation.
In 2014, after Russia tried to annex Crimea and was engaged in a conflict with Ukraine over its eastern parts, Macgregor went on Russian network RT where he called for the annexation of the Donbass in accordance with the results of 2014 referenda and said residents of the region "are in fact Russians, not Ukrainians, and at the same time, you have Ukrainians in the west and in the north, who are not Russians The 2014 referenda results are not officially recognized by any country, including the United States, Russia, or the members of the European Union. The governments of Ukraine, the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have criticized the referenda as unconstitutional and illegitimate.
Views on the Kosovo War.
In 2014, Macgregor went on Russian network RT to express his opposition to U.S. intervention in the Kosovo War.


Ruedi Lustenberger

Ruedi Lustenberger (born 2 April 1950) is a Swiss politician and President of the Swiss National Council for 2013–2014.
Lustenberger was elected to the National Council in 1999, on the list of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC) in the Canton of Lucerne.
Lustenberger is a carpenter and contractor. He is married and has five children.


Pia Dijkstra

Pia Dijkstra (born 9 December 1954 in Franeker) is a Dutch politician and chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Dutch House of Representatives. Ms Dijkstra is a member of Democrats 66 (D66) and has been an MP since 17 June 2010.
Before she was elected to parliament, she was a television (news) presenter. From 1988 to 2000 she was news anchor of the main Dutch public news broadcaster NOS Journaal.


Petru Lucinschi

Petru Lucinschi (), also Russified with the patronymic as Pyotr Kirillovich Luchinsky (; born 27 January 1940) is a former Moldovan politician who was Moldova's second President (1997–2001).
Biography.
Early life and education.
Petru Lucinschi was born on 27 January 1940 in Rădulenii Vechi village, Soroca County, Kingdom of Romania (now Florești district). Lucinschi carries a transcribed version of the Polish surname Łuczyński, but has never publicly identified with a Polish heritage. In 1962, he graduated from Chisinau State University. During his studies, he was the secretary of the local Komsomol. From 1963 to 1964, he was engaged in Komsomol work in the Soviet Army. He has a PhD in Philosophy (1977) from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Career in the Communist Party.
In 1964, he was admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1971, Lucinschi was a member of the Executive Committee (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moldavian SSR. He was the only native Moldovan in the leadership of Communist Party of Moldova at that time, when the leadership of Moldavian SSR was almost completely in the hands of people from outside the republic or Transnistrians.
From 1978 to 1989, he was First Secretary of Chișinău City Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova. In 1978, Ivan Bodiul sent him to work for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow, where Lucinschi remained until 1986. From 1986 to 1989, Lucinschi was second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan. Upon his return to Moldavian SSR in 1989, he became first secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova. His appointment followed the civil unrest on 7 November during the 72nd anniversary celerbations of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
In early 1991, he was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, so he again left Moldavian SSR for Moscow.
Post-Soviet career.
In 1992, he was appointed as Ambassador of Moldova in Russia. On 4 February 1993, he was elected as Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, being re-elected on 29 March 1994 for a new term. He held the position until 1997.
Presidency.
Lucinschi was elected Moldova's second president in November 1996. Upon his assumption to office, many Western media outlets portrayed him as a Moscow man who remained oriented toward the Soviet past. He was often seen as the lesser evil to Vladimir Voronin from the Party of Communists. Under his leadership, the reforms started by his predecessor Mircea Snegur were continued. It also marked the beginning of Moldova's distance from the nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States and closer relations with the European Union. Over his four years in power, the Lucinschi administration was marked by fierce confrontations in Parliament. He served until 2001, when he called a snap election, and the Parliament voted in favour of Vladimir Voronin.
Post-presidency.
Since leaving office, he has continued to meet with his former counterparts, including Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Estonian president Arnold Rüütel, and Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk. Upon the death of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, he described him as a politician who "paid a lot of attention to the national aspirations of countries of the USSR conglomerate", saying in addition that he "played an essential role for young independent states like Moldova". In 2018, he published his book: "Pyotr Kirillovich Luchinsky - Member of the Politburo and President", authored by Russian writer Mikhail Lukichev. In early 2019, President Igor Dodon invited Lucinschi together with ex-president Mircea Snegur on a tour of the newly renovated Presidential Palace, which was in need for repairs for over a decade. In 2020, Lucinschi, along with 49 fellow members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center based in Baku, called for international action to tackle new waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Personal life.
Lucinschi was married to Antonina (d. 2006), a retired schoolteacher, and has two sons, Sergiu and Chiril. Chirill is a businessman and politician who was as member of parliament as well as a professional basketball player.


Council of Agencies Serving South Asians

CASSA (Council of Agencies Serving South Asians) is an umbrella organization that supports and advocates on behalf of existing South Asian agencies, groups, and communities. CASSA's goal is to empower the South Asian Community. CASSA is committed to the elimination of all forms of discrimination from Canadian society. CASSA is dedicated to a number of projects and events that inform the public, aiming for equity and access for all South Asian groups. Their flagship project is "Racism Free Ontario". CASSA states their mission is to "facilitate the economic, social, political and cultural empowerment of South Asians by serving as a resource for information, research, mobilization, coordination and leadership on social justice issues". The Canadian organization allows individuals to become members for a fee of $10.00 and organizations for a fee of $20.00.
Projects and initiatives.
Welcoming communities initiatives.
A three-year project that is funded by Canadian Heritage that promotes immigrant engagement through informative meetings and events.
They organize bridging programs for immigrants to match their skills, experience, and certification to Canadian jobs because they feel that "today's newcomers face significant obstacles and are faring worse than their predecessors based on their source country". CASSA was featured in a 2008 publication of the Toronto Star expressing their opinion on the discrimination that South Asian women face and how this becomes an issue with regards to their employment.
Racism Free Ontario.
A 100-day anti-racism campaign that took place December 10, 2011. Their mission statement was to "create broader public awareness so that Ontarians accept and acknowledge that racism (structural, institutional and individualized) is still alive in our province". They succeeded in implementing the "Elimination of Racial Discrimination" (CERD) through a joint report submitted with MTCSALC and COPC to the UN Committee. Canada is required to report on their discrimination record every four years.
Brown Canada Project.
A two-year community-led project that shares South Asian history.
Their most recent collective entry point was a theatrical performance based on the 1914 Komagata Maru incident.
Health and Equity for South Asians.
A website designed for South Asians to improve the quality of their health care.


Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville

Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156 (1972), was a United States Supreme Court case resulting in a Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance being declared unconstitutionally vague. The case was argued on December 8, 1971, and decided on February 24, 1972. The respondent was the city of Jacksonville, Florida.
Facts.
Eight defendants were involved in this case. Each had been convicted of violating a Jacksonville, Florida, vagrancy ordinance that criminalized vagrancy, loitering, and related activity.
Vagrancy ordinance.
Jacksonville's ordinance at the time of the defendants' arrests and conviction was the following:Rogues and vagabonds, or dissolute persons who go about begging, common gamblers, persons who use juggling or unlawful games or plays, common drunkards, common night walkers, thieves, pilferers or pickpockets, traders in stolen property, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons, keepers of gambling places, common railers and brawlers, persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object, habitual loafers, disorderly persons, persons neglecting all lawful business and habitually spending their time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses, or places where alcoholic beverages are sold or served, persons able to work but habitually living upon the earnings of their wives or minor children shall be deemed vagrants and, upon conviction in the Municipal Court shall be punished as provided for Class D offenses. Class D offenses at the time of these arrests and convictions were punishable by 90 days' imprisonment, a $500 fine, or both.
Defendants' conduct.
Four of the eight defendants—Margaret Papachristou, Betty Calloway, Eugene Eddie Melton, and Leonard Johnson—were charged with "prowling by auto" under the Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance. Papachristou and Calloway were white women; Melton and Johnson, black men. At the time of their arrest, which was early on a Sunday morning, they were driving in Calloway's car in Jacksonville. The arresting officers denied that the racial makeup of the car's passengers was a factor in the arrest; rather, the officers claimed that they arrested the defendants because they had stopped near a used-car lot that had been broken into several times. The morning they were arrested, however, there had been no evidence of breaking and entering. Shortly after the defendants' arrest, someone from the police department had called Papachristou's parents and told them she had "been out with a negro."
A fifth defendant, Jimmy Lee Smith, was charged with being a "vagabond" under the vagrancy ordinance. He and a companion had been waiting for a friend to lend them a car when he was arrested. It was before 10 a.m. on a weekday. It was a cold morning, so Smith and his companion had walked into a dry cleaning store to wait. The dry cleaning store owners asked Smith and his companion to leave, and they did. Smith and his companion then walked back and forth a few times over a two-block stretch looking for their friend. The dry cleaning store owners became suspicious and contacted the police, who searched the two men. The police found no weapon, but proceeded to arrest them. The arresting officers said they arrested Smith and his companion because they didn't have identification and because they didn't believe their story that they were waiting for a friend. Smith was also a "part-time organizer for a Negro political group" at the time he was arrested.
Henry Edward Heath was arrested for being a "common thief" under the ordinance. He had driven up to his girlfriend's home, where police officers were already in the process of arresting another man. When he started to back out of the driveway, the officers told him to stop and get out of his car. He did so, and officers searched him and his car. The officers found nothing but arrested him, charging him with being a "common thief" because that was allegedly his reputation. (Heath's co-defendant, who was not one of the eight defendants in the "Papachristou" case, had been charged with loitering for standing in the driveway; the officers conceded that he was only doing so at their command.)
Thomas Owen Campbell was also charged with being a "common thief." He was arrested as he was going home early one morning. Officers claimed to have stopped him because he was driving quickly, but they did not charge him with speeding.
Finally, Hugh Brown was charged with "disorderly loitering on street" and "disorderly conduct -- resisting arrest with violence." He was arrested when a police officer saw him leave a hotel. The officer summoned Brown to his police cruiser and began to search him. A police witness later testified he had a reputation for being a "thief, narcotics pusher, and generally opprobrious character." As the officer was searching Brown, he touched a pocket where Brown was storing heroin, and Brown began to resist. Brown was charged under the Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance; he was also charged with a narcotics violation, but that was .
Procedural history.
Jacksonville Municipal Court convictions.
Each of the eight defendants in this case was first convicted in the Jacksonville, Florida, Municipal Court for violating Jacksonville's vagrancy ordinance.
Circuit Court decisions.
The municipal court convictions were then affirmed at the state trial court level. A Florida Circuit Court judge held that the convictions were not unconstitutional.
"Brown v. City of Jacksonville".
After losing in municipal court and at the trial court, the defendants sought review in one of Florida's intermediate appellate courts, the District Court of Appeal of Florida, First Circuit. The case at this phase was named "Brown v. City of Jacksonville" after defendant Hugh Brown; it would later be renamed after Margaret Papachristou as lead petitioner.
The three-judge panel unanimously dismissed the defendants' petition for review, on June 9, 1970.
The appellate court held that the trial court had not exceeded its authority or failed to uphold the law when it affirmed the defendants' municipal court convictions. Rather, the court explained that the trial court had properly followed existing Florida state law at that time, given that in a previous case, "Johnson v. State", the Florida Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of a statute similar to the vagrancy ordinance at issue.
Writ of certiorari to U.S. Supreme Court.
On June 14, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petitioners' petition for writ of certiorari.
Decision.
Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the court. It was a 7-0 decision, with Justices Powell and Rehnquist not taking part in deciding the case.
Holding.
The Supreme Court held that Jacksonville's vagrancy ordinance was unconstitutionally vague.
Reasoning.
The vagrancy ordinance was unconstitutionally "void for vagueness" for two reasons. First, it failed to provide fair notice to individuals about what conduct was forbidden by the law. Second, it encouraged arbitrary arrests and convictions.
Insufficient notice.
The Court cited a series of Supreme Court precedent standing for the proposition that a law must give fair notice about what conduct it prohibits, including "Lanzetta v. New Jersey", "Connally v. General Construction Co.", and "United States v. L. Cohen Grocery Co."
The Court reasoned that the Jacksonville ordinance did not give sufficient notice about what was forbidden and that, as written, it could in fact criminalize a variety of innocent activities.
For example, the ordinance forbid "habitually living without visible means of support," which the Court noted may be involuntary. Similarly, the ordinance labeled as vagrants men who were "able to work but habitually liv[e] upon the earnings of their wives or minor children." The Court reasoned that this would encompass both men who were unemployed due to a recession or structural employment, as well as men who had married rich women.
The ordinance also prohibited "nightwalking," which the Court observed that many people do simply when they can't sleep, and "wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object." Far from being criminal, the Court stated, wandering about with no purpose is an activity that is "historically part of the amenities of life as we have known them," and has even been extolled by the likes of Walt Whitman, Vachel Lindsay, and Henry Thoreau. The Court held that such an activity is not only inherently innocent but also constitutionally protected.
Arbitrary arrests.
The Court held that the vagrancy ordinance was also unconstitutionally vague because it gave too much arbitrary power to the police. ("Another aspect of the ordinance's vagueness appears when we focus, not on the lack of notice given a potential offender, but on the effect of the unfettered discretion it places in the hands of the Jacksonville police.")
The Court pointed to the dangers inherent in such a law, which could offer a pretense for a bad-faith arrest and which "permits and encourages an arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of the law." The Court acknowledged that poor people and minorities would often be the ones implicated by this kind of imprecise law, rendering the equal and even-handed administration of justice impossible.
The Court also rejected the City's argument that the vagrancy ordinance allowed them to "nip crime in the bud" as "too extravagant to deserve extended treatment."
Impact.
"Loitering-plus" laws.
"Papachristou" did not strike down loitering and vagrancy laws altogether. Rather, by declaring Jacksonville's ordinance unconstitutionally vague, the decision imposed clarity requirements on future laws of this type. It also strongly suggested that criminalization of "mere" loitering or vagrancy would be unconstitutional.
Thus, in response to "Papachristou", many local governments amended their loitering and vagrancy laws in an attempt to make them constitutional. Cities no longer prohibited simply loitering or wandering around but instead enacted so-called "loitering-plus" laws that imposed additional elements.
For example, some loitering-plus laws require one or more of the following: that the individual lack an apparent or sufficient purpose for loitering, that the individual fails to give a satisfactory explanation for loitering, that the individual fails to obey a police order to disperse, that the individual obstructs others from passing, and/or that the individual constitutes a threat to public safety.
Examples of loitering-plus laws.
Examples of loitering-plus laws that municipalities enacted or kept on the books after the "Papachristou" decision include:
"City of Chicago v. Morales".
The loitering-plus laws were still subject to the same judicial scrutiny as previous ordinances that prohibited mere loitering or vagrancy. In 1999, the ACLU challenged the constitutionality of Chicago's loitering-plus law, in a case called "City of Chicago v. Morales". The ACLU brought the case on behalf of 66 defendants who were arrested and prosecuted under the ordinance.
The ordinance at issue in that case, entitled the Gang Congregation Ordinance, forbade "criminal street gang members" from loitering in public places, defined as "remain[ing] in any one place with no apparent purpose." Under the ordinance, a police officer who observed someone whom he or she reasonably believed to be a gang member loitering with one or more other people could order them to disperse. Anyone who did not obey would be considered in violation of the ordinance and subject to arrest.
A plurality of the Supreme Court declared the Chicago ordinance unconstitutionally vague for similar reasons as had doomed the Jacksonville ordinance.
"Papachristou" has been cited in over 1,500 opinions since 1972.


Califano v. Goldfarb

Califano v. Goldfarb, 430 U.S. 199 (1977), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the different treatment of men and women mandated by 42 U.S.C. § 402(f)(1)(D) constituted invidious discrimination against female wage earners by affording them less protection for their surviving spouses than is provided to male employees, and therefore violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case was brought by a widower who was denied survivor benefits on the grounds that he had not been receiving at least one-half support from his wife when she died. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the court, ruling unconstitutional the provision of the Social Security Act which set forth a gender-based distinction between widows and widowers, whereby Social Security Act survivors benefits were payable to a widower only if he was receiving at least half of his support from his late wife, while such benefits based on the earnings of a deceased husband were payable to his widow regardless of dependency. The Court found that this distinction deprived female wage earners of the same protection that a similarly situated male worker would have received, violating due process and equal protection.
Background.
Leon Goldfarb, a widower in the state of New York, applied for survivor benefits under the Social Security Act. Leon Goldfarb's late wife had worked as a secretary for New York City public schools for nearly twenty-five years and paid all of her social security taxes until her death in 1968. Upon his wife's death, Leon Goldfarb applied for survivor benefits but was denied. The relevant statute, 42 U.S.C § 402(f)(1)(D), mandated that surviving widowers must meet the burden of proving that they had been receiving over half of their financial support from their wives. The law made no such requirement for widows, who would be provided survivor benefits regardless of their dependency on their husbands.
Goldfarb challenged the constitutionality of the statute in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was represented by Nadine H. Taub, Rutgers Law School professor and attorney at the Women's Rights Litigation Clinic of Rutgers Law School-Newark and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation. The lower court ruled in Goldfarb's favor, holding that the provision of the Social Security Act that denied benefits to widowers was unconstitutional as discriminating against widowers on the basis of sex. The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
Goldfarb was represented by future Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who at the time was co-founder and general counsel of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. This case was one of several gender discrimination cases that Ginsburg successfully argued in front of the Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976. Similar to her arguments in "Frontiero v. Richardson", Ginsburg argued in her brief that a reliance on gender stereotypes which served to devalue women's roles as breadwinners constituted gender-based discrimination in violation of equal protection. She argued that the social security statute in question "assume[d] gainful employment as a domain in which men come first, women second," and that the statute favored "one type of marital unit over another."
Court Decision.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the District Court. Justice Brennan's opinion, which was joined by Justice White, Justice Marshall, and Justice Powell, determined that the gender-based distinction violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Court agreed with Ginsburg's arguments, noting that the distinction in the federal requirements "deprive[s] women of protection for their families which men receive as a result of their employment." The Court based its decision on the precedent established in prior cases "Frontiero" and "Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld:""Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld", like the instant case, presented the question in the context of the [Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance] program. There the Court held unconstitutional a provision that denied father's insurance benefits to surviving widowers with children in their care, while authorizing similar mother's benefits to similarly situated widows... Precisely the same reasoning condemns the gender-based distinction made by § 402(f)(1)(D) in this case. For that distinction, too, operates ‘to deprive women of protection for their families which men receive as a result of their employment’: social security taxes were deducted from Hannah Goldfarb's salary during the quarter century she worked as a secretary, yet, in consequence of § 402(f)(1)(D), she also ‘not only failed to receive for her (spouse) the same protection which similarly situated male worker would have received (for his spouse) but she also was deprived of a portion of her own earnings in order to contribute to the fund out of which benefits would be paid to others.’ The Court rejected the government's argument that the Court should focus solely on the distinction drawn between widowers and widows, based on the notion that the statute discriminates not against the covered wage earning female, but rather against her surviving widower, who was burdened with proof of dependency. The Court disagreed, stating that Mrs. Goldfarb "worked and paid social security taxes... at the same rate as her male colleagues" yet received narrower insurance protection than a male colleague. The Court found that this distinction requires the equal protection challenge in the case to focus on the gender-based discrimination against women and not only the distinction between widowers and widows.
Based on an examination of the legislative history of the statute, the Court found that there existed "an intention to aid the dependent spouses of deceased wage earners, coupled with a presumption that wives are usually dependent" in the statute. Rejecting the "archaic and overbroad" generalizations that a wife is more likely to be dependent on her husband than a husband on his wife, the Court concluded that these presumptions cannot justify a gender-based discrimination when distributing employment-related benefits.
Justice Stevens’ concurrence.
Justice Stevens wrote in concurrence with the majority. Rejecting that the rationale behind the statutory scheme was justifiably based on administrative convenience or based on a 'policy of cushioning the financial impact of spousal loss upon the sex for which that loss imposes a disproportionately heavy burden,' he concurs with the Court's judgment as to the lack of justification for the disparate treatment of genders, but is "persuaded that the relevant discrimination in this case is against surviving male spouses, rather than against deceased female wage earners."
Justice Rehnquist's Dissent.
In his dissent, which was joined by Chief Justice Burger, Justice Stewart and Justice Blackmun, Rehnquist disagreed that the classification was discriminatory. Rehnquist argued that Congress' purpose in adopting these provisions for dependency was "to avoid the burden and expense of specific case-by-case determination in the large number of cases where dependency is objectively probable." Because of the likelihood that a widow would be dependent on her husband, and not the other way around, Rehnquist argued that such a justifiably rational basis is permissible under the Fifth Amendment for the purpose of aiding administrative functions.
Implications.
This ruling required an amendment to the Social Security Act in order to eliminate the burden of proof for widowers. The new language provided equal protection for both genders.


Halifax Atlantic

Halifax Atlantic is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
The Member of the Legislative Assembly since 2013 has been Brendan Maguire of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party.
It is located in the Halifax Regional Municipality, just south of the Halifax peninsula. It includes Spryfield, Herring Cove, Sambro, and Harrietsfield.
Statistics.
Population: 21,360 (2003)
Avg. Income: $27,570 (2003)
Members of the Legislative Assembly.
This riding has elected the following Members of the Legislative Assembly:
Election results.
2013 general election.

2009 general election.

2006 general election.

2003 general election.

1999 general election.

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Mozambican metical

The metical (; plural: ) is the currency of Mozambique, abbreviated with the symbol "MZN" or "MT". It is nominally divided into 100 centavos. The name "metical" comes from Arabic ("mithqāl"), a unit of weight and an alternative name for the gold dinar coin that was used throughout much of Africa until the 19th century.
History.
First metical.
The metical () replaced the "escudo" at par on 16 June 1980. It was divided into 100 "centavos". The metical underwent severe inflation. After the revaluation of the Romanian leu on 1 July 2005, the metical briefly became the least valued currency unit, at a value of about 24,500 meticais per USD, until the Zimbabwean dollar took the title in late August 2005.
Second metical.
On July 1, 2006, Mozambique redenominated the metical at a rate of 1000:1. The new ISO 4217 code is . New coins and banknotes were introduced on July 1, 2006, and the transitional period during which both old and new meticais could be used lasted until December 31, 2006. During the conversion, the new currency was locally abbreviated as MTn, but has since largely returned to MT.
Old meticais were redeemed by the Bank of Mozambique for a period of six years, until December 31, 2012.
Coins.
First metical.
In 1980, coins were introduced in denominations of 50 centavos, 1, , 5, 10 and 20 meticais. The 50 centavos, and 5 meticais were minted in aluminium, with the 1 metical in brass and the 10 and 20 meticais in cupro-nickel. In 1986, aluminium 1, 10, 20 and 50 meticais were introduced. A new coinage issued in 1994 was composed of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 meticais, with the lower four denominations in brass clad steel and the higher denominations in nickel clad steel. 5000 meticais coins were introduced in 1998, followed by 10,000 meticais in 2003.
Second metical.
From July 1, 2006, coins were issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 centavos and 1, 2, 5, 10 meticais.
Banknotes.
First metical.
The First Metical had three issues of notes as follows:
i. In 1980 (16 June 1980), notes were introduced in denominations of 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 meticais.
ii The same notes and denominations were reissued in 1983 (16 June 1983) with the new state logo, 5,000 meticais notes were introduced in 1989 (3 February 1989).
iii. In 1991 (16 June 1991) 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 notes were issued followed by 50,000 and 100,000 meticais in 1993 (16 June 1993), 20,000 meticais in 1999 (16 June 1999) and 200,000 and 500,000 meticais in 2003 (16 June 2003).
Second metical.
From July 1, 2006, new banknotes were issued in denominations of 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 meticais. On October 1, 2011, Banco de Moçambique has issued a new family of banknotes that are similar to the 2006 series, but with enhanced security features. The three smaller denominations are now printed on polymer while the higher denominations remain printed on paper. The higher denominated metical banknotes are printed by De La Rue.


Fundy Isles

Fundy Isles () was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada.
It was created in 1994 from Charlotte West and Charlotte-Fundy and was dissolved in 2006 into Charlotte-The Isles and Charlotte-Campobello.


European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive

The European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive comprises the governing council of the major conservative grouping in the European Parliament. They are responsible for policy and internal governance decision-making, and are constituted of MEPs from every member party.
Membership.
As of 12 July 2019, the Executive of the European Conservatives and Reformists had the following members:
Election.
Members of the Executive are elected on a nomination and seconding basis by free election of all member MEPs.


South Cork (UK Parliament constituency)

South Cork, formally known as the Southern division of County Cork, was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1885 to 1922 it returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Until the 1885 general election the area was part of the Cork County constituency. From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament, as it was no longer in the UK.
Boundaries.
This constituency comprised the southern part of County Cork, consisting of the barony of East Carbery, West Division, that part of the barony of Ibane and Barryroe not contained within the constituency of South East Cork, that part of the barony of West Carbery, East Division not contained within the constituency of West Cork, and that part of the barony of East Carbery, East Division contained within the parishes of Ballymoney, Desert, Desertserges, Island, Kilgarriff, Kilnagross and Templebryan.


Ouder-Amstel Anders

Ouder-Amstel Anders is a small local political party in the municipality of Ouder-Amstel in the Netherlands.


John Nisbet

John Nisbet (1627–1685) was a Scottish covenanter who was executed for participating in the insurgency at Bothwell Brig and earlier conflicts and for attending a conventicle. He took an active and prominent part in the struggles, of the Covenanters for civil and religious liberty. He was wounded and left for dead at Pentland in 1666 but lived and fought as a captain at Bothwell Bridge, in 1679. He was subsequently seized and executed as a rebel. He was a descendant of Murdoch Nisbet, a Lollard who translated the Bible into the Scots language.
Life.
He was the son of James Nisbet an Ayrshire tenant farmer at Drakemyre, and his wife, Jane Gibson.
He travelled to mainland Europe where he participated in the Thirty Years' War as a professional soldier. He attended the 1650 coronation of Charles II at Scone, where he subscribed the covenant, swearing his allegiance to ‘all the acts of reformation attained to in Scotland from 1638 to 1649’. After returning to the family home at Hardhill, near Loudoun, he married Margaret Law in 1651.
In 1664 he incurred the displeasure of the Episcopalian incumbent of his parish, for having had a child baptized by one of the ejected ministers. The curate declared from the pulpit, that he intended to excommunicate him next Lord's day, but was prevented by sudden death.
After the Restoration he took an active and prominent part in the struggles of the covenanters for religious and civil liberty. He refused to countenance the curates, and attended the ministrations of the ‘outed’ ministers, renewed the covenants at Lanark in 1666, and was one of the small band who published the declarations of the Societies at Rutherglen, Glasgow, and Sanquhar. He fought at Rullion Green (28 Nov. 1666) till, covered with wounds, he fell down and was stripped and left for dead upon the field. At nightfall, however, he crept away unobserved, and lived to take part in the engagements at Drumclog (1 June 1679) and Bothwell Brig (22 June), where he held the rank of captain. For this he was denounced as a rebel and forfeited, three thousand merks (£165 sterling) being offered for his head. On the 16 of April 1685, Nisbet and Alexander Peden was almost captured in Nisbet's house. In November 1685 he was surprised, with three others, at a place called Midland, in the parish of Fenwick, Ayrshire, his captor being a cousin of his own, Lieutenant Robert Nisbet. His companions were instantly shot, but for the sake of the reward he was spared, and, being brought to Edinburgh, was tried and condemned to death.
Death.
Nisbet was eventually captured at Fenwick and following trial was executed in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh on 4 December 1685 by hanging. Nisbet is buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, and there is a memorial monument at Loudoun Parish Kirk in Newmilns.
Family.
He married Margaret Law in 1651. By his wife, Margaret Law, he had several children, but only three sons survived him, namely, Hugh, James, and Alexander. Serjeant James Nisbet was son to John Nisbet of Hardhill, and died in 1726, in Edinburgh Castle. His diary is chiefly religious. For extracts see Appendix to "Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson." His speaking portrait of Peden will be found in "The Fifty-Years' Struggle," by Dodds, p. 339.
Works.
With a short account of his last words on the Scaffold. December 4, 1685. Dr. Tweedie said: "Few, perhaps, would now approve of all the sentiments emitted by John Nisbet; but there can be as few who do not admire the fortitude with which he endured for what he reckoned the truth, and the patience with which he suffered rather than consent to violate his conscience or compromise his convictions.". [The first edition appeared in 1718, with a preface by James Nisbet his son, then in Edinburgh Castle.]


Islands council areas of Scotland

Between 1975 and 1996 there were three islands council areas of Scotland:
The islands council areas were the only unitary councils created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which came into force in 1975. Notably, they were the only unitary authorities created by the local government reforms of the 1970s in Great Britain; which otherwise applied a two-tier structure. They did not form districts within the regions of Scotland because their remoteness made it unviable.
Single-tier council areas were not created throughout the rest of Scotland until 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, which came into force in 1996. In most of Scotland, from 1975 to 1996, local government areas consisted of regions and districts.
The islands areas still exist, but have no special status. They are now simply classed as three of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, having identical powers and responsibilities as the mainland councils.
Pre-1975.
The Orkney and Shetland areas were also the areas of county councils which were abolished in 1975. The Western Isles area combined areas which were previously within the county council areas of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire.


7 Medium Artillery Regiment

7 Medium Regiment was based in Benoni, South Africa, and was responsible for the training of soldiers allotted to Field and Medium Artillery.
History.
The original 7 Medium Regiment.
Formed on 16 September 1939, this Regiment served in East and North Africa, but later merged with the 23rd medium regiment and was then referred as the 7/23rd Medium Regiment and served with the 6th Armoured Division in Italy.
Transvaal Scottish influence.
In July 1946, the first intake of post war recruits into the 3rd Battalion Transvaal Scottish Regiment were reformed as the 7th Medium Regiment SAA (3 t.s.) with its headquarters in Benoni. The first officer commanding was Commandant A.H. Guy. The members continued to wear Transvaal Scottish buttons and shoulder titles but now wore artillery cap badges and collar badges. The regiment was equipped with two eight-gun batteries of 5.5 inch guns. This 7 Medium Regiment was disbanded on 28 February 1960.
Rebirth of 7 Medium Regiment.
With the reorganization of the Artillery Corps in 1974, it was decided to once again establish a medium regiment and this became the 7 Medium Regiment SAA (fd), a Citizen Force unit with its headquarters once again in Benoni.
Amongst others this new unit comprised members from Regiment Laeveld (previously known as 2nd Medium Regiment) from Nelspruit, which formed the nucleus of the ranks when it was the 7th Field Regiment based in Pretoria under command of Commandant J.E. Coetzee.
Operations.
The regiment saw action during several operational tours of the Border War. It also had the unique distinction of being the first artillery unit to fire live rounds at the new Army Battle School range at Lohatla during September 1978.
During 1979 it fell under the command of Commandant K.W.J. Ward and had an effective officer’s strength of 37 with a complement of warrant officers and 650 other ranks. The regiment’s three batteries were referred to as 71, 72 and 73 in line with the modern practice of naming batteries after the Unit’s number.
At this stage the Regiment fell under the command of 7 South African Infantry Division.
Freedom of the City.
7 Medium Regiment received the Freedom of Benoni in August 1981. An artillery flag was draped over the breech of each gun. This then became standard practice when their guns were on ceremonial parade.
Amalgamation.
During the reorganization of the army in 1991, the Transvaal Horse Artillery absorbed 7 Medium Regiment and 2 Locating Regiment.


Italian torpedo

The Italian Torpedo (sometimes referred to as the "Belgian Torpedo") is a term used in private international law to describe the act of bringing a case before a court in a state which suffers from major delays in judicial proceedings, such as Italy or Belgium, as to delay the judicial resolution of the dispute or the proceedings.
The "lis pendens"-rule in article 29 of the Brussels-Ibis Regulation (no. 1215/2012) provides that when proceedings involving the same cause of action and between the same parties are brought in the courts of different member states, all courts, other than the one first seized, must stay the proceedings until the first court seized has ruled upon its own jurisdiction.
The European Court of Justice has left little possibility to counter an Italian Torpedo as it has ruled that the principle of mutual trust between the member states is of utmost importance and cannot be overridden in order to counter a torpedo.
However, using an Italian Torpedo is excluded for matters in which a court has exclusive jurisdiction as provided in article 24 Brussels-Ibis, such as proceedings which have as their object rights "in rem" in immovable property, the validity of entries in public registers etc.


Roland Hedley

Roland Burton Hedley, III is a fictional character in the comic strip "Doonesbury" by Garry Trudeau, inspired by the on-air style of the veteran US reporter Sam Donaldson.
Hedley is a journalist who covers sports at the Saigon bureau for "Time" and, once called back, is commissioned to write an article about Walden Commune, where most of the strip's characters live during the 1970s. They fill his head with a lot of nonsense, convincing him that the hippie movement is coming back and that they represent a national trend. He is even convinced that Zonker's lilacs are marijuana plants.
Later he resurfaces in the strip as a television reporter for ABC News. By this point he has developed an extraordinarily large ego, which remains his defining trait to this day. He is a sensationalist, willing to stretch the truth and say anything that would further his career. Often he is sent on dangerous assignments, and it is implied that his superiors send him on these intentionally, hoping get rid of him. He plays along, knowing that the danger of his job will earn him higher ratings.
As a result, he has covered many of the dangerous political developments of the last 30 years, although he often greatly exaggerates the danger he personally faces in order to boost his ego. Any news story, no matter how important, can get sidetracked when he begins to talk about his three Emmys, his high ratings, his date with Christiane Amanpour, and so forth.
His most surreal appearances are two trips into the brain of Ronald Reagan, first to try to comprehend what the then presidential candidate was thinking during the 1980 presidential election, and then to try to unlock his memories of the Iran Contra Affair. Reagan's brain is depicted as decayed, calcified, and unable to process thoughts and memories, mocking Reagan's old age. It also contains a subconscious inhabited by a persona of Nancy Reagan called the "She-Mommy," a fornix filled with memories of “an idyllic America, with 5-cent cokes, Burma-Shave signs, and hard-working white people,” and a visual cortex which instead of viewing time normally "is only able to see backwards, through a rose-colored mist.” The story arcs were one of the most iconic and controversial strips in the history of "Doonesbury", with many newspaper editors and critics characterizing them as mean-spirited. Trudeau revived the idea in a 2019 strip in which Hedley enters the brain of Donald Trump in a tour culminating with a visit to Trump's amygdala, which is portrayed as a literal echo chamber that amplifies conspiracy theories and caves in when Hedley shouts "Soros" into it.
After leaving ABC, Hedley works a brief stint as "chief content provider" for Yap!com, but goes back to television when the site is downsized by the AOL-Time Warner merger. He then works for CNN and later for Fox News. In this post he gets in trouble with his fellow journalists Rick Redfern and Mark Slackmeyer when they find out that he is taking bribes from the White House in order to give them "softballs" at press conferences. He ceases to do so, and his colleagues decide not to blow the whistle on him. In March 2009 he begins to tweet and that October Trudeau published "My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?: The Tweets of Roland Hedley", the first collection of tweets from a single author. The Twitter account was closed in 2010, but Roland begins tweeting again a few weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump.
In 2009 Fox news attempts to fire him as the High Definition format shows his facial skin in a gruesome way. He survives the attempt after threatening to sue his employers for discrimination against his allegedly work-related disability.
Over the history of the comic strip, this character's name has been given as Roland Hedley Burton Jr, Roland Burton Hedley, Jr. and Roland Burton Hedley III. The "Washington Post"'s website at Doonesbury.com uses the last of these, although as recently as July 12, 2008 he identified himself as "Junior." Hedley's three names evoke the preppie "last name as first name" aura and may have been taken from names on the masthead of Time—Los Angeles Correspondent Roland Flamini, Boston Bureau Chief Sandra Burton and Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan.


National Action Network

The National Action Network (NAN) is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, "Vanity Fair" called Sharpton "arguably the country's most influential civil rights leader".
Organization.
The organization's Board of Directors is chaired by Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon. The Board of Directors has a tradition of including those most recognized in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as it was first chaired by Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Pastor Emeritus of Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, and former Executive Director to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In addition to Dr. Walker, the late Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. King, supported the organization and her son, Martin Luther King III, participates annually in the Keepers of the Dream Awards Dinner and National Convention.
National Action Network's Annual Convention draws more than 8,000 delegates and leaders from media, business, politics, entertainment and the civil rights from across the country. The 2007 convention featured six presidential candidates and was dubbed by the media the "Sharpton Primary". In Barack Obama's speech during the 2007 convention he said that Rev. Al Sharpton was "The voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden." In 2011 President Barack Obama delivered a keynote address at their convention, applauding NAN's activism by saying: "National Action Network is not the National 'Satisfaction' Network; it's the National 'Action' Network". At the National Action Network's convention in April of 2014 close to 7,000 people attended, making it the biggest in the history of the organization and the largest civil rights convening of the year in the nation. During the 2014 convention President Barack Obama returned to address over 1,200 convention attendees where he addressed voting rights and said "We've got to create a national network committed to taking action. We can call it the National Action Network."
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spoke at the Silver Anniversary 2016 National Action Network Convention. "You stand up and always have against gun violence, advocate for criminal justice reform, help young people find jobs, hold corporations accountable, and in a million ways, lift up voices that often go unheard," Clinton said during her speech.
The National Action Network is headquartered in Harlem, New York and has regional offices in Washington, D.C.., Atlanta and Los Angeles. It currently has over 105 chapters in cities around the nation.
Issues of focus.
The National Action Network is widely credited with drawing national attention to critical issues such as racial profiling, police brutality, and the US Naval bombing exercises on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Notably, the organization was prominently involved with the police brutality cases of Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismond (New York) Eric Garner (all in New York), and Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri).
In 1999, the organization launched The Madison Avenue Initiative (MAI), a program designed to address the inequities in the advertising industry. MAI was created after a racially charged memorandum, infamously dubbed, "The Katz Memo", was circulated among certain radio stations, stating that advertisers wanted "prospects, not suspects". The recognition of this memorandum set off an investigation into the spending practices of corporations, specifically examining whether their advertising budgets with African-American and Latino publications and advertising agencies were commensurate with their consumer bases.
In 2000, the organization launched the Truth Hamer Voter Registration and Education Initiative. The Truth Hamer Initiative set out to register one million women to vote, targeting populations in traditionally overlooked areas, such as public housing developments, transitional housing communities and rural areas.
Sharpton's organization has been heavily courted for endorsement by presidential candidates, including both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Walgreens.
In 2011, Walgreens announced they would be ending their relationship with Express Scripts, a prescription drug program serving mostly poor individuals that gave them discounted prescriptions. This would have resulted in low-income individuals paying up to 30 percent more for their prescriptions. A coalition of minority groups, led by Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network, sent letters urging Gregory Wasson, CEO of Walgreens, to reconsider. Groups sending letters were National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality, Hispanic Leadership Fund, and others.
Comcast NBCUniversal MOU.
In 2011 National Action Network, joined forces with the National Urban League and NAACP to negotiate an agreement between three of the leading civil rights organizations and Comcast NBCUniversal. As part of their filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Comcast NBC Universal agreed to a written African American Memorandum of Understanding to provide four television stations owned and operated by African Americans (two of which were designated to Magic Johnson and Sean "Diddy" Combs). The MOU was a comprehensive commitment covering all business units and focusing on the following five areas: corporate governance, employment/workforce recruitment and retention, procurement, programming and philanthropy and community investment.
Trayvon Martin.
On February 26, 2012 seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, who said that he had acted in self-defense. A month later National Action Network and other civil rights organizations came to Sanford, FL for a series of protests and marches to call for Zimmerman's arrest. Six weeks after the shooting, Zimmerman was arrested. On July 13, 2013 George Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder. He was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge. On July 20, 2013 National Action Network organized rallies in 100 cities around the country to speak out against the Zimmerman verdict and stand-your-ground-laws.
On March 10, 2014 the National Action Network led a march to Florida's state capitol to rally against stand-your-ground laws. Among those present were the family of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Oscar Grant. The family of Marissa Alexander, who was sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun at her estranged husband and the family of Michael Giles, a U.S. Airman sentenced to 25 years in a self-defense case also joined.
Stop and frisk.
On June 17, 2012 National Action Network joined the NAACP and SEIU and 115 other organizations in a march down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, NY to call for an end to Stop-and-frisk. This New York Police Department policy, National Action Network had been opposed to and spoke out against for years due to its bias towards individuals of color and the databases created by people stopped by Stop-and-frisk. The NYPD released data that nearly 90 percent of those targeted by stop-and-frisks in the city in 2011 were either black or Hispanic. Blacks and Hispanics together make up less than 53 percent of the city's population. A total of 685,724 people — 8.6 percent of the city's population — were detained by cops for "reasonable suspicion." Out of the total of the stop-and-frisk stops 605,328 were totally innocent (88 percent).
In January 2014 the City of New York under the leadership of Mayor Bill de Blasio reached an agreement which resulted in the withdrawal of the City's appeal of the landmark stop-and-frisk case, Floyd v. City of New York.
Shop and frisk.
On October 29, 2013 National Action Network along with other civil rights groups formed a shop-and-frisk task force and convened their first meeting with Barneys CEO Mark Lee. The meeting was brought about when a young African American man claimed that after making a purchase of a designer belt Barneys, after leaving the store he was confronted by undercover New York Police Department officers, who said a Barneys employee raised concerns over the sale. In court documents, Christian says he showed officers his receipt, debit card and identification but was told "he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase" before being placed in a cell for more than two hours. Ultimately, no charges were filed. At this initial meeting Barneys CEO Mark Lee promised a thorough review of Barneys' practices and procedures to ensure they reflect the company's "continued commitment to fairness and equality." Following this meeting the task force met with Macy's Inc Chairman Terry Lundgren to address similar concerns. One of the outcomes from these meetings was the creation of a 'Customers' Bill of Rights' that was then posted in 2013 during the holiday shopping season. Among those rights outlined in the document is a requirement for store security personnel — some of whom roam the aisles in plainclothes — to identify themselves when interacting with customers. Prohibited is "the use of excessive force" or "threatening, vulgar language" when detaining people suspected of theft. People suspected of engaging in a crime can be detained "only in a reasonable manner and not for more than a reasonable time."
March on Washington 50th anniversary.
National Action Network organized the 'national action to realize the dream' march in honor of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, on August 24, 2013. The march was led by Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III with: US Attorney General Eric Holder; Congressman John Lewis; Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader; Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer; the families of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till; and many more. National Action Network brought down 1,000 buses carrying activists and marchers.
Ministers March for Justice.
On August 28, 2017, the National Action Network organized the Ministers March for Justice. The event, which focused on fighting racism, was attended by thousands of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh ministers. The march also criticized President Donald Trump's response to the Unite the Right rally, in which one person was killed by a vehicle attack.
Tax and salary controversies.
The United States and the New York State governments have investigated the organization for tax payment irregularities. As late as 2006, the National Action Network owed $1.9 million in payroll taxes and penalties.
Many donors to the National Action Network were subpoenaed in connection with a 2008 tax probe, including Anheuser-Busch.
According to IRS filings, the organization paid Sharpton $241,402 plus personal expenses for 2011. Sharpton's rate of pay remained around the same until 2014, when he was given a 71% raise to $412,644, which included a bonus of $64,400. The organization's explanation for the increase was that it represented repayment of loans previously made by Sharpton to the National Action Network. The organization's 2018 IRS Form 990 listed Sharpton's compensation at about $1.05 million.
Controversial donations.
Sharpton has engaged in controversial donation policies — specifically the practice of threatening protests and boycotts of corporations while simultaneously soliciting donations and sponsorships from them. According to the "New York Post", several major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch and Colgate-Palmolive, have donated thousands of dollars to the National Action Network. The "Post" asserted that the donations were made to prevent boycotts or rallies by the National Action Network.
Grace Church Websites.
In 2016, an associate of Rev. Sharpton and a member of his NAN national board, Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber, along with businessman and philanthropist Don Vaccaro launched Grace Church Websites, a non-profit organization that helps churches create and launch their own websites.


Gottfried Kunz

Gottfried Kunz (12 December 1859 – 5 January 1930) was a Swiss politician and President of the Swiss Council of States (1912/1913).


Ukrainian corvette Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia (U206) is an anti-submarine corvette of the Ukrainian Navy. Prior to joining the Ukrainian Navy she was a former KGB Border Guard patrol ship named Dnepr. In March 2014, she was seized by Russian soldiers and de facto came under control of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The ship was returned to the Ukrainian Navy from Crimea on 19 April 2014.
Class and role.
"Vinnytsia" is a 1124P project corvette (NATO reporting name: Grisha II class, Soviet classification: "Albatros" class ). In Soviet service she was designated as a Border Guard Patrol Ship, modified versions of the naval Small Anti-Submarine Ship design.
The Grisha-class anti-submarine ships were designed to search for and destroy enemy submarines found in coastal areas. They were equipped with a variety of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapons. All were fitted with retractable fin stabilizers. The Grisha II class were modified variants built for the border guard between 1972 and 1983. These ships had a second gun mounting replacing the SA-N-4 missile system forward.
Service.
The corvette "Dnepr" was laid down on 23 December 1975 at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard, Zelenodolsk, Republic of Tatarstan. The ship was launched on 17 June 1976. The corvette was moved from Zelenodol'sk to the Sea of Azov along the Volga and Don. The corvette was initially based at Sevastopol for trials.
On 24 December 1976 an act was signed adding the ship to the Border Guard Service of USSR. The Soviet Maritime Border Guard flag was raised on the ship on 31 December 1976.
Service in the Coast Guard.
"Dnepr" saw service throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, guarding the state border and the economic zone of the USSR and patrolling off the coast of the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea.
In 1977 "Dnepr" patrolled the Black Sea between Zmiinyi Island and the Kerch Strait. In 1978, the ship was assigned to patrol between Odessa Port and Novorossiysk Port. In 1979, her patrol area stretched from Cape Tarkhankut to Novorossiysk Port. In 1980, "Dnepr" patrolled between Cape Tarkhankut and Ochamchire Port, and in 1981 along the southern coast of Crimea.
In June 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union "Dnepr" and her sister ship "Izmail" joined the Coast Guard of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
Service in the Ukrainian Navy.
In late 1995 it was decided to transfer the Grisha-class vessels "Dnepr" and "Izmail" to the Naval Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian naval flag was raised on the ship on 19 January 1996. "Dnepr" was renamed "Vinnytsia" and reclassified as a corvette.
Following her commissioning into the Ukrainian Navy, "Vinnytsia" participated in many joint training exercises with other nations. In July 1996 "Vinnytsia" participated in the naval multinational exercise Cooperative Partner—96 off Bulgaria. In August of the same year, the corvette was a participant in the strategic exercise Sea—96, following that up with the naval multinational exercise Classic—96 off Romania.
In April 1998 the ship was among the vessels that took part in a Ukrainian-Russian naval exercise. She spend the better part of 1999 in naval exercises, the highlight being the Ukrainian-Russian naval exercise Farvater Miru—99 () in August. In 2000, again the ship participated in naval exercises, including the multinational Cooperative Partner—2000 in June. In 2002 "Vinnytsia" performed in a multitude of naval exercises including the naval multinational exercise Breeze—2002 and strategic exercise Farvater Forpost—2002. She repeated that a year later in 2003, participating in the naval multinational exercises Breeze—2003, Farvater Miru—2003, Cooperative Partner—2003, Black Sea Partner—2003 and the BLACKSEAFOR Activation. In 2007 the corvette took part in the strategic exercise Artery—2007, Morsky vusol—2007 (). Her captain in 2009 was Captain, 3rd rank Alexander Kostyuk.
On 22 March 2014, during the Crimean Crisis, "Vinnytsia" was seized by Russian soldiers at her pier in the Southern Naval Base. Crimean separatist units lined up the crew and gave them the choice of remaining in Crimea and taking the oath of allegiance to the Republic of Crimea or leaving the peninsula. Half of the crew remained in Crimea, and on 19 April the corvette was towed to Odessa after Russia returned seized Ukrainian Navy ships. At Odessa, she became a training ship. By May 2016 the ship's complement numbered less than 30. Due to the need for major repairs and lack of spare parts for the ship, the Ukrainian Navy planned to decommission her in 2017, but the ship remained in service as of May 2016.
In October 2017 the ship was placed in dry dock in order to evaluate her condition. Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko, the commander of Ukraine's Navy, commented that despite being over 40 years old the ship may be repaired and continue service as Ukraine's forces desperately need anti-submarine assets in order to counter Russia's growing submarine fleet in the Black Sea region.


Zaur Avidzba

Zaur Avidzba (1953–2015) was a politician and businessman from Abkhazia who was murdered in 2015.
Early career.
In 1993, Avidzba was appointed Deputy Minister for Defence.
Member of Parliament.
On 8 February 2011, veteran Parliamentarian Vladimir Nachach died after a long illness. On 9 March the Central Election Commission decided that the by-election to elect Nachach's successor in constituency no. 16 would be held on 30 April. Zaur Avidzba was one of three candidates to be nominated by an initiative group, and he won the election with 1028 votes to 753 and 166.
In the 2012 elections, Avidzba failed to be re-elected. He won a 33.76% first round plurality against i.a. former Prime Minister Anri Jergenia, but lost the second round to Leonid Chamagua.
Murder.
On 20 October 2015 at 7:35am local time the Ministry for Internal Affairs was informed with a phone call of a burning car in Gudauta's Pushkin Street. In the car, a Mercedes S-600, the corpse of Avidzba was found with burn and bullet wounds along with four spent 7.62mm cartridges.
On 22 October, a suspect was detained who confessed to the murder and identified the murder weapon.


Mid Tipperary (UK Parliament constituency)

Mid Tipperary was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922. Prior to the 1885 general election the area was part of the Tipperary (UK Parliament constituency). From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament.
Boundaries.
This constituency comprised the central part of County Tipperary.
1885–1922: The baronies of Eliogarty, Ikerrin and Kilnamanagh Lower, that part of the barony of Kilnamanagh Upper not contained within the constituency of North Tipperary, and that part of the barony of Slievardagh contained in the parishes of Ballingarry, Buolick, Fennor, Kilcooly and Lickfinn.
Elections.
Elections in the 1890s.
Mayne resigns, prompting a by-election.
McCarthy dies, causing a by-election.


Condor (TV series)

Condor is an American thriller television series based on the novel "Six Days of the Condor" by James Grady and its 1975 film adaptation "Three Days of the Condor" written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel. The series stars Max Irons. The series was created by Todd Katzberg, Jason Smilovic, and Ken Robinson and premiered on June 6, 2018 on Audience. In July 2018, the series had been renewed for a second season, although in January 2020, Audience announced it would be ending operations in its current format. The second season, already filmed at the time of the announcement, premiered on June 9, 2020, on C More and RTÉ2.
In December 2020, its existing two seasons were picked up by Epix, which will air them in 2021.
Premise.
"Condor" is described by DirecTV as following
Joe Turner is a young CIA analyst whose idealism is tested when he stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant plan that threatens the lives of millions. Turner is an idealistic millennial who secretly joins the CIA hoping to reform it from within. But when everyone in his office is massacred by professional killers, this brilliant analyst is forced out of his ivory tower think tank and into battle with the most dangerous elements in the military-industrial complex. If he is to have any chance of surviving, Joe will have to do things he never imagined himself capable of – and discover that no one knows their true character until they’ve been tested under fire.
Episodes.
Each episode's title is borrowed from a quote, which is displayed along its author.
Production.
Development.
On May 13, 2016, it was announced that DirecTV had given the production a series order. Production companies involved with the series were reported to include Skydance Television and MGM Television. On February 6, 2017, it was announced that Jason Smilovic and Todd Katzberg would write the series. Smilovic will also act as showrunner and executive produce alongside Katzberg, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross. On March 27, 2017, Andrew McCarthy mentioned in an interview with "Parade" that he would serve as an executive producer for the series and direct a few episodes. On April 6, 2017, it was announced that Lawrence Trilling would direct the series' first three episodes and act as an executive producer.
On July 27, 2018, it was announced during the annual Television Critics Association's summer press tour that the series had been renewed for a second season.
Casting.
On February 6, 2017, it was announced that Max Irons had been cast in the series' lead role. In April 2017, it was reported that Brendan Fraser, William Hurt, Bob Balaban, Leem Lubany, Kristen Hager, and Angel Bonanni had joined the main cast and that Mira Sorvino, Christina Moses, Katherine Cunningham, Gabriel Hogan, Kristoffer Polaha, and Kate Vernon had been cast in recurring roles. On August 25, 2017, it was announced that Mouna Traoré and Ellen Wong had joined the cast in a recurring capacity.
Filming.
Principal photography for the series was expected to last from April 23 to August 15, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Filming primarily took place at Cinespace Film Studios' Kipling Avenue facility. On May 30, 2017, Jack Lakey, a "Toronto Star" columnist, contacted the city's film liaison office, after "Condor" crew members allegedly bullied local residents. In Lakey's follow-up article the next day he quoted film industry workers, who supported those working on the production. Filming for the second season began on April 29, 2019 and ended on August 29, 2019.
Release.
Marketing.
On February 22, 2018, Audience released a behind-the-scenes video for the series.
Premiere.
On March 10, 2018, the series held its official premiere in Austin, Texas at the annual South by Southwest Film Festival. Audience also hosted an interactive experience called "Condor Headquarters" during the festival. Guests to the exhibit were offered the chance to participate in authentic CIA activities such as skill tests, physical and digital technology tactics, lie detection, and environmental analysis. The experience also allowed guests to win prizes and screen exclusive content from the series.
In June 2018, the series was screened at the annual ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. A question-and-answer session followed the screening featuring director/executive producer Lawrence Trilling and cast members Leem Lubany, Katherine Cunningham, Kristen Hager, and Kristoffer Polaha.
Reception.
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 6.67 out of 10 based on 14 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: ""Condor" never aspires to be a realistic depiction of spy games – instead, it excels at evoking a uniquely 21st century brand of paranoia with its slick concept and propulsive pacing." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
In a positive review, "IndieWire"s Ben Travers praised the series calling it "a Smartly Expanded Adaptation" and saying that it was "a solid spy story that updates the right elements without tarnishing old treasures."


Deacons for Defense and Justice

The Deacons for Defense and Justice is an armed African-American self-defense group founded in November 1964, during the civil rights era in the United States, in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana. On February 21, 1965—the day of Malcolm X's assassination—the first affiliated chapter was founded in Bogalusa, Louisiana, followed by a total of 20 other chapters in this state, Mississippi and Alabama. It is intended to protect civil rights activists and their families. They are threatened both by white vigilantes and discriminatory treatment by police under Jim Crow laws. The Bogalusa chapter gained national attention during the summer of 1965 in its violent struggles with the Ku Klux Klan.
By 1968, the Deacons' activities were declining, following passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the entry of blacks into politics in the South, and the rise of the Black Power movement. Blacks worked to gain control of more political and economic activities in their communities.
A television movie, "Deacons for Defense" (2003), directed by Bill Duke and starring Forest Whitaker, was aired about the 1965 events in Bogalusa. The movie inspired Mauricelm-Lei Millere to meet Deacon Hicks at his Hicks House in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Robert "Bob" Hicks House in Bogalusa commemorates one of the leaders of the Deacons in that city; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Fundraising continues for a civil rights museum in Bogalusa to honor the work of the Deacons for Defense; it was expected to open in 2018.
History.
The Deacons were not the first champions of armed-defense during the civil rights movement, but in November 1964, they were the first to organize as a force.
According to historian Annelieke Dirks,
Even Martin Luther King Jr.—the icon of nonviolence—employed armed bodyguards and had guns in his house during the early stages of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. Glenn Smiley, an organizer of the nonviolent and pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), observed during a house visit to King that the police did not allow the minister a weapon permit, but "the place is an arsenal."
Smiley convinced King that he could not keep such weapons or plan armed "self-defense", as it was inconsistent with his public positions on non-violence. Dirks explored the emergence of black groups for self-defense in Clarksdale and Natchez, Mississippi from 1960 to 1965.
In many areas of the Deep South, local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan or other white insurgents operated outside the law, and white-dominated police forces practiced discrimination against blacks. In Jonesboro, an industrial town in northern Louisiana, the KKK harassed local activists, burned crosses on the lawns of African-American voters, and burned down five churches, a Masonic hall, and a Baptist center.
Scholar Akinyele O. Umoja notes that by 1965, both the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE supported armed self-defense, although they had long promoted non-violence as a tactic to achieve civil rights. They began to believe that changes in federal law were not sufficient to advance civil rights or to protect activists locally. National CORE leadership, including James Farmer, publicly acknowledged a relationship between CORE and the Deacons for Defense in Louisiana. This alliance between the two organizations highlighted the concept of armed self-defense embraced by many blacks in the South, who had long been subject to white violence. A significant portion of SNCC's southern-born leadership and staff also supported armed self-defense.
Robert F. Williams, president of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina, transformed his local NAACP chapter into an armed self-defense unit. He was criticized for this by the national leaders of the NAACP. After he was charged by the state with kidnapping a white couple whom he had sheltered during local violence related to the Freedom Riders in 1961, Williams and his wife left the country, going into exile in Cuba. After Williams' return in 1969, his trial on these charges was scheduled in 1975; that year the state reviewed the case and withdrew the charges. Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was another activist who armed herself; she said that in 1964 during Freedom Summer, she kept several loaded guns under her bed.
Founding of the Deacons for Defense.
African Americans were harassed and attacked by white KKK vigilantes in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana in 1964 including the torching of five churches, a Masonic hall and a Baptist center. Given these threats, Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick founded the Deacons for Defense in November 1964 to protect civil rights workers, their families and the black community against the local KKK. Most of the Deacons were veterans with combat experience from the Korean War and World War II.
Born in Jonesboro on November 20, 1935, Thomas grew up in the segregated state decades after the white-dominated state legislature had disenfranchised most blacks at the turn of the century and imposed Jim Crow laws. Drawn into local rivalries between black and white children for swimming hole rights, Thomas learned that rights and access come not to those who ask but rather those who fight.
In 1964, during Freedom Summer and a period of extensive voter education and organizing for registration, especially in Mississippi, the Congress of Racial Equality established a Freedom House in Jonesboro. It became a target of the Klan who resented white activists staying there. Because of repeated attacks on the Freedom House, as well as the church burnings, the Black community decided to organize to defend it.
Before The Deacons of Defense and Justice officially formed, two groups were operating in Jonesboro to protect African Americans. One group acted as sentries outside the Freedom House. This group was led by Percy Lee Bradford, a stock room worker, and Earnest Thomas. Fredrick Douglas Kirkpatrick, a high school teacher, organized a second group that volunteered to monitor police arrests of African Americans while also working to keep the community safe. Thomas was one of the first volunteers to guard the house. According to historian Lance Hill, "Thomas was eager to work with CORE, but he had reservations about the nonviolent terms imposed by the young activists." Around this time, CORE began protesting the segregation of a public swimming pool as well as the Jonesboro Public Library. In response to the protest the Ku Klux Klan and local police organized a caravan to intimidate the protesters and the African American community in Jonesboro. Thomas and Kirkpatrick organized a twenty men group to protect the citizens of Jonesboro, effectively starting the Deacons.
Thomas, who had military training, quickly emerged as the leader of this budding defense organization. He was joined by Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, a civil rights activist and member of SCLC, who had been ordained that year as a minister in the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. Coretta Jackson acted as treasurer for The Deacons Of Defense and Justice. We Had been arrested for possession of a concealed weapon while protecting protesting students. The Deacons had strict membership criteria for applicants. They accepted only male American citizens over the age of 21. They preferred married men with military service, as well as registered voters. They refused men with a reputation for "hotheadedness." They vigorously upheld their stance of only acting in defense. They continued guarding CORE as a means to further the overall civil rights agenda. Every member of the Deacons had to pledge his life for the defense of justice, black people, and for civil rights workers.
During the day, the men concealed their guns. At night they carried them openly, as was allowed by the law, to discourage Klan activity at the site and in the black community. In early 1965, Black students were picketing the local high school in Jonesboro for integration. They were confronted by hostile police ready to use fire trucks with hoses against them. A car carrying four Deacons arrived. In view of the police, these men loaded their shotguns. The police ordered the fire truck to withdraw. This was the first time in the 20th century, as Hill observes, that "an armed black organization had successfully used weapons to defend a lawful protest against an attack by law enforcement." Hill also wrote: "In Jonesboro, the Deacons made history when they compelled Louisiana governor John McKeithen to intervene in the city's civil rights crisis and require a compromise with city leaders — the first capitulation to the civil rights movement by a Deep South governor."
After traveling 300 miles to Bogalusa, in southeast Louisiana, on February 21, 1965, Kirkpatrick, Thomas and a CORE member worked with local leaders to organize the first affiliated Deacons chapter. Black activists in the company mill town were being attacked by the local and powerful Ku Klux Klan. The police and sheriff in Bogalusa as well as most government organizations were all infiltrated by the Klan. As a result, the only protection the people of Bogalusa had against the Klan was the Deacons. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed, blacks were making little progress toward integration of public facilities in the city or registering to vote. Activists Bob Hicks (1929-2010), Charles Sims, and A. Z. Young, workers at the Crown-Zellerbach plant (Georgia-Pacific after 1985, later acquired by another), led this new chapter of the Deacons for Defense. Charles Sims, a World War II veteran was the president of the Bogalusa chapter of the Deacons. He acted as spokesman for the Deacons, demanding fair treatment and threatening violent retaliation in the event of attack. Sims considered the Deacons a "defense guard unit" who had formed simply "because we got tired of the women, the children being harassed by the white night-riders."
The Chicago Chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice was formed by Earnest Thomas, vice president of the Jonesboro chapter, in 1965. The Deacons intended to spread throughout the North and the West but were ultimately unsuccessful because their tactics were less effective outside of the South.
In the summer of 1965, the Bogalusa chapter campaigned for integration and came into regular conflict with the Klan in the city. The state police established a base there in the spring in expectation of violence after the Deacons organized. Before the summer, the first black deputy sheriff of the local Washington Parish was assassinated by whites.
The Deacons' militant confrontation with the Klan in Bogalusa throughout the summer of 1965 was planned to gain federal government intervention. These tactics proved successful when "in July 1965, escalating hostilities between the Deacons and the Klan in Bogalusa provoked the federal government to use Reconstruction-era laws to order local police departments to protect civil rights workers."
The Deacons also initiated a regional organizing campaign, founding a total of 21 formal chapters and 46 affiliates in other cities.
Role.
The Deacons had a relationship with other civil rights groups that practiced non-violence. Such support by the Deacons allowed the NAACP and CORE to formally observe their traditional parameters of non-violence.
The Deacons provided protection for CORE leader, James Farmer in 1965. Farmer arrived in Bogalusa in order to aid in desegregation and required the protection of the Deacons. They ensured his safety from the time he arrived at the New Orleans airport and provided security while Farmer spoke and marched at desegregation events.
The Deacons attracted media attention for their protection of Charles Evers' desegregation campaign in Natchez, Mississippi. Attention was given to them because, unlike similar groups that had come before, the Deacons did not hide their names from the media. This coupled with their use of armed self-defense, and modest beginnings, made them heroes to harassed black communities.
After the successful integration of the Jonesboro Public Library, the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses in response. The Deacons wrote leaflets threatening to kill anyone who burned a cross. The leaflets were distributed into the homes of white people by their black house workers. The cross-burnings stopped in response.
On July 8, 1965, at a nonviolent march on city hall, hundreds of whites gathered to throw rocks at the assembled protesters. The white antagonists surrounded the protesters. A twenty-one year old insurance salesman and Air Force veteran named Henry Austin confronted the mob and fired a warning shot. He then shot an advancing attacker three times in the chest. After the shooting the mob dispersed. Both Austin and the attacker survived the encounter.
In Bogalusa, the Deacons worked with CORE on their campaigns. When the local police and Ku Klux Klan joined forces to attempt to harass two white CORE members and drive them out of town, the Deacons intervened on behalf of the white volunteers, protecting them from the police. The Deacons stood guard outside CORE headquarters and patrolled the African American community. The Deacons would protect both white and black activists as they canvassed looking for voters. They would also transport civil rights workers into and out of Bogalusa. There were by-laws that each member had to uphold. Sims was very clear about the roles of the Deacons: they were to act in self-defense only.
The Deacons were instrumental in other campaigns led by the Civil Rights Movement. Activist James Meredith organized the June 1966 March Against Fear, to go from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. He wanted a low-key affair, but was shot and wounded early in the march. Other major civil rights leaders and organizations recruited hundreds and then thousands of marchers in order to continue Meredith's effort.
According to in a 1999 article, activist Stokely Carmichael encouraged having the Deacons provide security for the remainder of the march. After some debate, many civil rights leaders agreed, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Umoja wrote, "Finally, though expressing reservations, King conceded to Carmichael's proposals to maintain unity in the march and the movement. The involvement and association of the Deacons with the march signified a shift in the civil rights movement, which had been popularly projected as a 'nonviolent movement."'
Stokely Carmichael had first made a speech about Black Power in Mobile, Alabama in 1965, when marchers demonstrating for the vote reached the state capital from Selma. In 1967 Carmichael said, "Those of us who advocate Black Power are quite clear in our own minds that a 'non-violent' approach to civil rights is an approach black people cannot afford and a luxury white people do not deserve."
In his 2006 book, Hill discusses the difficulties in achieving change on the local level in the South after national leaders and activists left. He wrote,
the hard truth is that these organizations produced few victories in their local projects in the Deep South--if success is measured by the ability to force changes in local government policy and create self-governing and sustainable local organizations that could survive when the national organizations departed ... The Deacons' campaigns frequently resulted in substantial and unprecedented victories at the local level, producing real power and self-sustaining organizations.
According to Hill, local (armed) groups laid the foundation for equal opportunities for African Americans.
According to a 2007 article by Dirks, the usual histories of the Civil Rights Movement tend to overlook such organizations as the Deacons. She says there are several reasons: First, the dominant ideology of the Movement was one of non-violence. Second, threats to the lives of Deacons' members required them to maintain secrecy to avoid terrorist attacks. In addition, they recruited only mature male members, in contrast to other more informal self-defense efforts, in which women and teenagers sometimes played a role. Finally, the organization was relatively short-lived, fading by 1968. In that period, there was a national shift in attention to the issues of Blacks in the North and the rise of the Black Power movement in 1966. The Deacons were overshadowed by The Black Panther Party, which became noted for its militancy.
FBI investigation begins in 1965.
In February 1965, after an article in "The New York Times" about the Deacons in Jonesboro, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover became interested in the group. His office sent a memo to its Louisiana field offices: "Because of the potential for violence indicated, you are instructed to immediately initiate an investigation of the DDJ [Deacons for Defense and Justice]." As was eventually exposed in the late 1970s, the FBI established the COINTELPRO program, through which its agents were involved in many illegal activities against organizations that Hoover deemed "a threat to the American way".
The Bureau ultimately produced more than 1,500 pages of comprehensive and relatively accurate records on the Deacons and their activities, largely through numerous informants close to or who had infiltrated the organization. Members of the Deacons were repeatedly questioned and intimidated by F.B.I. agents. Harvie Johnson (the last surviving original member of the Deacons for Defense and Justice) was interviewed by two agents during this period. He said they asked only how the Deacons obtained their weapons, never questioning him about the Klan activity or police actions they were responding to. Although the FBI and white media regarded the Deacons as bringers of race warfare, they actually worked closely with CORE in their nonviolent protests as a way to bring about change in Bogalusa. The Federal Government finally intervened and forced local police to uphold the law and protect citizens' right. As a result of the Deacons' actions the Klan had to restrict themselves to night terror raids. The Deacons served as a symbol of power and pride, and undermined the stereotype of black submission.
According to columnist Ken Blackwell in 2007, activist Roy Innis had said that the Deacons "forced the Klan to re-evaluate their actions and often change their undergarments".