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The Supreme Court decides the religious right asked it for too much

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The Supreme Court handed down a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a90_6j37.pdf">brief order</a> Friday evening — it is literally just one sentence long — denying relief to a group of Maine health care workers who object to the Covid-19 vaccine on religious grounds. This means that nearly all workers in health care facilities licensed by the state must be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.
Yet, while this order, which is also accompanied by a one-paragraph concurring opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and a longer dissent by Justice Neil Gorsuch, is quite brief, it is significant because it suggests that there may be some limit to the conservative majority’s solicitude for religious conservatives.
Earlier in the pandemic, the Court handed down a pair of decisions that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/12/22379689/supreme-court-amy-coney-barrett-religion-california-tandon-newsom-first-amendment">revolutionized its approach to religious liberty cases</a> and granted churches and other houses of worship broad exemptions from public health orders intended to control the spread of Covid-19. The Court’s Friday evening decision in Does v. Mills, by contrast, appears to have been decided on the narrowest possible grounds. Though it is a loss for the religious right, it is not an especially significant one.
Maine requires nearly all health care workers to be <a href="https://www.vox.com/22737016/supreme-court-covid-vaccine-religious-liberty-brett-kavanaugh-amy-coney-barrett-does-mills">vaccinated against Covid-19</a>. It argues that this requirement is necessary because those workers are unusually likely to interact with patients who are vulnerable to the disease, and because the state’s health care system could potentially be disabled if too many health care workers are infected. The state does exempt a very narrow slice of health care workers, however: those who risk adverse health consequences if they are vaccinated, such as people with serious allergies to the vaccine.
The plaintiffs <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A90/196983/20211020152710123_Application%20-%20Emergency%20Writ%20of%20Injunction%20Pending%20Cert%20FINAL.pdf">argued</a> that religious objectors must be exempted from this requirement because the state also provided an exemption to people who could suffer health consequences if they are vaccinated — an argument that is, at least, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/12/22379689/supreme-court-amy-coney-barrett-religion-california-tandon-newsom-first-amendment">plausible under the Court’s recent religion decisions</a>. They were supported in an <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A90/197569/20211025201136751_Does%20v.%20Mills%20amicus%20brief%20_%20Final.pdf">amicus brief</a> by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, arguably the nation’s most sophisticated law firm representing religious right causes.
In a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a90_6j37.pdf">dissent</a> joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Gorsuch essentially agrees with the plaintiffs, making the case for granting a religious exemption to the state’s vaccine mandate. Quoting <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17656243762288077494&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr">Tandon v. Newsom</a> (2021), one of the Court’s two recent decisions granting places of worship an exemption from certain public health rules, Gorsuch claims that a law is constitutionally suspect “if it treats ‘any comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise.’”
Thus, under Gorsuch’s approach, the state must exempt religious objectors because it has a single exemption — again, for people who could suffer serious health consequences if they receive the vaccine.
Had Gorsuch’s approach prevailed, it’s likely that religious objectors would be exempted from nearly any law. Speed limits, for example, typically exempt police, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles responding to an emergency. Even laws banning homicide typically contain exemptions for self-defense. (Although, in fairness, Gorsuch concedes that a religious exemption is inappropriate when the “challenged law serves a compelling interest and represents the least restrictive means for doing so.” So Gorsuch probably would not allow religiously motivated murder.)
In any event, Gorsuch’s view did not prevail — though it is far from clear that it will not receive five votes in a future case. Though Justice Barrett joined a majority of the Court in allowing Maine’s vaccine mandate to take effect, her opinion (which is joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh) clarifies that she did so on exceedingly narrow grounds.
Essentially, Barrett argues that the Supreme Court has discretion to decide which cases it wants to hear. And her opinion suggests that she would exercise her discretion to not hear this particular case.
That’s consistent with an approach she <a href="https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4734&context=ndlr">laid out in a 2017 essay</a>, where she argued that Supreme Court justices who encounter an argument that they think is legally valid but that would lead to disastrous results should exercise their discretion <a href="https://www.vox.com/21497317/originalism-amy-coney-barrett-constitution-supreme-court">not to hear a case raising that argument</a>.
For now, at least, the bottom line is that Maine’s vaccine mandate is in effect. Public-facing health care workers will need to receive the Covid-19 vaccine unless they have a medical excuse.
Again, it’s not a huge loss for the religious right. But the decision in Does suggests that there is, at least, some limit to the Court’s willingness to carve out legal exemptions for religious conservatives.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22753429/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-maine-does-mills-religious-right-exemption-liberty-constitution">https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22753429/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-maine-does-mills-religious-right-exemption-liberty-constitution</a>

vox The Supreme Court decides the religious right asked it for too much

The Supreme Court handed down a brief order Friday evening — it is literally just one sentence long — denying relief to a group of Maine h...

Spend November reading Such a Fun Age, a witty and biting social satire

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The Vox Book Club is linking to <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub&referrer=vox.com&sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games&xcust=___vx__p_22416548__t_w__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22516582__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games","xcust":"___vx__p_22516582__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Bookshop.org</a> to support local and independent booksellers.
The American literary canon isn’t short on nightmarish Thanksgiving scenes, but I think the cringiest Thanksgiving I’ve ever read about appears at the climax of Kiley Reid’s witty and biting debut novel, <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/such-a-fun-age/9780525541905">Such a Fun Age</a>.
That Thanksgiving begins with white liberal mom-fluencer Alix lying awake the night before dinner, proudly counting in her head the number of Black guests she’ll have at her table. There will be five of them, one of whom is her daughter’s babysitter. But unbeknownst to Alix (pronounced uh-leeks; notably, she is not French), someone else is going to arrive at her Thanksgiving dinner — an ex-boyfriend who once witnessed her do something that Alix feels perfectly justified in doing, but which she acknowledges could make some people think that she is racist. Everything will spiral from there.
If you’d like to experience this Thanksgiving dinner in its full horror, join the <a href="https://www.vox.com/vox-book-club">Vox Book Club</a> as we spend November digging into the smart racial politics and social satire of Such a Fun Age. Then, at the end of the month, we’ll be meeting Reid live on Zoom, and <a href="https://voxmediaevents.com/vox-book-club-such-a-fun-age">you can RSVP here</a>. In the meantime, <a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/533DCA62F59CA120">subscribe to the Vox Book Club newsletter</a> to make sure you don’t miss anything.
<h4>The full <a href="https://www.vox.com/vox-book-club">Vox Book Club schedule</a> for November 2021</h4>
Friday, November 19: Discussion post on Such a Fun Age published to Vox.com
Tuesday, November 30, 5 pm Eastern: Virtual live event with author Kiley Reid. <a href="https://voxmediaevents.com/vox-book-club-such-a-fun-age">RSVP here</a>. Reader questions are encouraged!
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22752541/such-a-fun-age-kiley-reid-vox-book-club-announcement">https://www.vox.com/culture/22752541/such-a-fun-age-kiley-reid-vox-book-club-announcement</a>

vox Spend November reading Such a Fun Age, a witty and biting social satire

The Vox Book Club is linking to Bookshop.org to support local and independent booksellers. The American literary canon isn’t short on ni...

Biden’s $27 billion bet on forests

As the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/28/president-biden-announces-the-build-back-better-framework/">revealed</a> Thursday, President Joe Biden has stripped a lot from his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">Build Back Better framework</a> to placate moderate Democrats. Free community college is out, as is Medicare coverage of dental and vision services, among several other priorities.
But there is one surprising area that’s so far survived the congressional gauntlet as part of a big <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">climate spending</a> proposal: forest management and conservation. The bill — which Democrats are trying to pass with a simple Senate majority using the reconciliation process — allocates roughly $27 billion for spending related to federal, state, and tribal forests.
While that’s just a sliver of the roughly $1.75 trillion spending package, it’s an enormous and historic number, said Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “It’s the most significant investment ever in our national forests,” O’Mara told Vox. “It’s an astonishingly big deal.”
A large chunk of those funds would go toward preventing wildfires — which release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and have <a href="https://www.vox.com/22652678/dixie-caldor-wildfire-california-sierra-nevada-drought-climate">devastated Western towns</a> — and toward more equitable access to green spaces. The bill would also set aside billions of dollars for ecosystem restoration and more environmentally friendly farming practices.
Biden’s framework reveals that conserving forests and biodiversity is a core component of the nation’s plan to tackle climate change, as many scientists say it should be: Trees and soil are a natural sink for carbon dioxide, making forests a key solution for cutting climate pollution. Yet for decades, biodiversity conservation and climate change have largely been considered separate issues. The bill also shows that the US government has recognized the growing threat of climate-fueled wildfires and is willing to fund the Forest Service to do something about it.
But a few big questions remain, including whether the bill will pass. And some forest advocates fear that the boost in spending could actually increase commercial logging — which, in turn, fuels climate change.
More than half of the $27 billion for forests would go toward reducing the risk of wildfires, such as through prescribed burns, largely within the wildland-urban interface. That’s where forests meet human developments and wildfires tend to do the most damage.
Putting billions into fire prevention isn’t a huge surprise. Climate change is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/7/25/22592004/wildfires-climate-change-reconciliation-bill">making forest fires worse</a>, and they spew a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the air. This summer, for example, fires in the American West belched <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/climate/wildfire-emissions-climate-change.html">130 million tons of CO2</a> into the atmosphere — that’s equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 28 million passenger cars.
The past decade — and especially this past year — has made the risk of wildfires hard for Congress to ignore, O’Mara said. “There are so many members of the Senate that have been affected by these massive fires,” he said. “The lack of care and restoration [of forests] has had devastating consequences.”
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<figcaption>A firefighter clears a tree and branches in a forest in California Hot Springs, California, in anticipation of fire conditions in September 2021.</figcaption>
<cite>David McNew/Getty Images</cite></figure>
In the past, the US Forest Service’s wildfire budget hasn’t matched the challenges posed by climate change. Biden’s framework would dramatically boost spending, according to Brett Hartl, the government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy organization. “It’s a huge investment,” he said.
It also allocates $2.5 billion for urban forestry projects that seek to provide more equal access to forests and parks — roughly six times more than the government spends on those projects today, according to Joel Pannell, the vice president of urban forest policy at the nonprofit American Forests. “We’ve never seen this sort of investment in urban and community forestry,” Pannell said.
But while many conservation groups have responded positively, key questions remain about whether the Forest Service will spend the money for fire prevention effectively, Hartl said. The growing threat of wildfires is linked to both climate change and years of mismanagement of the nation’s forests, he said. Historically, the Forest Service has tried to manage forests and reduce wildlife risk partly through commercial logging, he added, which environmental advocates say <a href="https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/logging-carbon-emissions-us-forests/">increases</a> carbon emissions.
According to Dominick DellaSala, the chief scientist at Wild Heritage, a forest advocacy organization, the Forest Service often uses fire prevention as an excuse to sell timber. “By putting more logging on the landscape, you are not going to reduce fire intensity,” he said.
The Forest Service told Vox it does not comment on pending legislation. A spokesperson for the agency said it “is committed to the thoughtful stewardship of our national forests and their carbon storage potential.” The spokesperson continued, “Our nation faces a forest health crisis due, in part, to the effects of a changing climate, including drought, unprecedented wildfires, and other stresses and disturbances.”
If the bill passes, the agency should instead direct that money toward hiring and training a new generation of forest stewards who will focus on restoring public land with ecological and climate goals in mind, Hartl said. (The bill does include funding for the Civilian Climate Corps, which would hire young workers for restoration, among other conservation activities.)
“It’s promising, but I think Congress has to have a laser-like focus on the implementation of this money in the years to come,” Hartl said. “It’s an enormous investment in these public lands. One would hope that there are no more excuses for doing a bad job.”
President Biden’s framework would also provide billions of dollars for conserving biodiversity. The bill allocates $50 million for protecting old-growth trees and another $50 million for conserving and restoring habitats for threatened species in public forests. It would put another $50 million toward reducing human-wildlife conflict on these lands, such as between ranchers and wolves.
Remarkably, the framework also includes a huge and historic sum for conservation activities on US farmland, O’Mara said — another $27 billion or so. “We think it’s the biggest investment in climate-smart agricultural practices ever,” O’Mara said (meaning, farming practices that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions or make crops more resilient to climate change).
It includes $9 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which helps farmers make their land more sustainable, such as by improving soil health, and $4 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/csp/">largest conservation program in the US</a>, according to the government. The CSP helps farmers make habitats for wildlife, reduce the need for synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, and make their crops more resilient to extreme weather.
“This support can increase a farm’s adaptive capacity in the face of extreme weather events and other climate-related impacts,” the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition <a href="https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/release-nsac-urges-congress-to-pass-historic-budget-reconciliation-package/">said</a> in a statement Thursday.
Efforts like these to make working lands including farms more sustainable are part of Biden’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/7/22423139/biden-30-by-30-conservation-initiative-historic">push to conserve at least 30 percent of US land by 2030</a>. The administration will have a hard time hitting that figure without including sustainably run farms and ranches.
The bill also includes several provisions that directly target the conservation of wildlife. It would allocate roughly $200 million for the Endangered Species Act — largely considered the most important law for wildlife in the US — and another $250 million for wildlife refuges and state wildlife management areas, according to the US nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife. It even provides some money for conserving and managing wildlife corridors.
“We were worried that a diminished bill might cut imperative funding for endangered species recovery, but we are thrilled to see these provisions and many more have made it through,” Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a <a href="https://defenders.org/newsroom/build-back-better-contains-many-wins-wildlife-and-combatting-climate-change">statement</a> on Thursday. “This bill, as it stands now, would be a historic investment.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2021/10/29/22752019/build-back-better-bill-climate-forest-fires-wildlife">https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2021/10/29/22752019/build-back-better-bill-climate-forest-fires-wildlife</a>

vox Biden’s $27 billion bet on forests

As the White House revealed Thursday, President Joe Biden has stripped a lot from his Build Back Better framework to placate moderate Demo...

The coup in Sudan, explained

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Sudan’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/11/18306002/sudan-news-bashir-coup-protests-khartoum-auf">move toward democracy</a> is in peril, after the military seized control of the country’s transitional government in a coup.
The country’s democratic project began just two years ago, after Sudan’s longtime dictator <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/11/21133429/sudan-al-bashir-icc-genocide-darfur">Omar al-Bashir</a> was <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/11/18306002/sudan-news-bashir-coup-protests-khartoum-auf">ousted amid mass protests in 2019</a>. Civil society and protest leaders and the military ultimately reached <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/19/20812054/sudan-power-sharing-deal-al-bashir-trial">a power-sharing arrangement</a> that put both in charge of the country with the commitment of transitioning to full civilian rule, which would lead to a new constitution and elections in 2023.
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1049058158/the-coup-in-sudan-could-threaten-u-s-influence-in-a-strategically-important-regi">Monday’s coup</a> has upended that entire endeavor, fracturing what was already a tenuous arrangement between the military and civilian factions and jeopardizing any gains made. Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s top general, orchestrated the power grab, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/27/sudan-prime-minister-military-coup/">detaining the civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok</a> and other civilian leaders, and <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2021-10-28/sudan-s-ousted-ambassador-us-says-resorting-gun-doesn-t-aid-revolution">firing ambassadors who resisted the takeover</a>.
But the coup also reignited resistance, as protesters returned to the streets in cities and towns across Sudan to denounce the military takeover. The Sudanese <a href="https://qz.com/africa/2079718/sudan-shuts-down-the-internet-after-a-military-coup/">military shut down the internet</a>, making it difficult to fully understand the scope of the resistance — and the security forces’ response to it — especially outside major cities like Khartoum. At least 170 people have been injured, and at least seven people killed in Monday’s protests, <a href="https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/sudan/">according to data</a> compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Some pro-democracy leaders have <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-10-27/sudan-arrests-3-coup-critics-as-pressure-mounts-on-military">reportedly been detained</a>.
All of this makes for a very volatile, and unpredictable, situation. Despite <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-sudan-khartoum-96e7b33b6e1045fce01189e81b36814a">international</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/27/african-union-suspends-sudan-over-coup">regional pressure</a> on the Sudanese military to restore the transitional government, experts said it is difficult to see a way forward under the same framework. “The trust has been broken,” said Michael Woldemariam, director of the African Studies Center at Boston University. “The military has really bared its teeth here — and the more that we see violence deployed by the security forces, the more difficult it’s going to be to go back to this old arrangement.”
That offers a bleak outlook for Sudan’s democratic experiment. But Sudan’s civil society, which helped bring about the revolution that ousted al-Bashir in 2019, remains well-organized and strong. Civil society groups are calling for large-scale protests <a href="https://twitter.com/MoOsman88/status/1453983707124183041?s=20">on October 30</a> in the latest act of defiance against the coup. From the beginning, protesters did not trust the military to usher in democracy, and they’ve continued to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58943013">distrust the armed forces and push for civilian contro</a>l, even before the takeover this week.
The coup proved the pro-democracy camp right, which is strengthening their demand for a civilian-led government. How they can achieve that is uncertain, but the ongoing protests are a sign the military cannot fully undo the democratic project Sudan started.
“What’s being spread around now is that ‘we’ve done this before, and we can do it again,” said Sarah O. Nugdalla, a Sudanese researcher currently based in Washington, DC. “That is the spirit right now. It’s again ‘we have nothing to lose.’”
There were plenty of warnings that Sudan’s democratic transition was in danger. The transition process was always a bit unstable. “This entire time, it’s been a very uneasy marriage,” said Akshaya Kumar, director of crisis advocacy for Human Rights Watch.
The core of this uneasy marriage was a pact between the Transitional Military Council, led by al-Burhan, and the Forces of Freedom and Change, the coalition of civilian opposition groups, led by now-deposed Prime Minister Hamdok. The ultimate goal of the transitional government was to ease into a fully (and eventually democratically elected) civilian-led government, with the military exiting from ruling powers.
A <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sc14323.doc.htm">2020 peace deal</a> also brought rebel groups into the transition — a vital part of the process, but one that added new factions with competing interests. All of these tensions had been rising in recent months, as pressure grew on the military to keep to its commitment to hand over its powers to the civilian-led government. It also came amid calls for more government accountability, especially over abuses by security forces, including those <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/world/africa/sudan-protesters-bodies.html">related to a 2019 massacre of peaceful protesters</a>. The military likely felt that it needed to protect its interests — political ones and, just as importantly, economic ones that come from being entrenched in power for decades. “They just didn’t want to give that up,” Woldemariam said. “They felt like this is going to be their last shot to hold on.”
And military leaders may have assumed that the rest of the region wouldn’t really care at all about a coup, including Egypt, and Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These countries have grown close with Sudan, and also aren’t exactly known for embracing democracy. The Sudanese military “perhaps had confidence — or an assumption — that the region would turn a blind eye to this,” said Joseph Tucker, senior expert for the Greater Horn of Africa at the US Institute of Peace (USIP). “I think that’s a key part of this, just we don’t know the particulars of what messaging, if any, the military got.”
The full unraveling began in September, after authorities thwarted <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/measures-being-taken-contain-failed-coup-attempt-sudan-official-source-2021-09-21/">a coup attempt</a> allegedly staged by al-Bashir loyalists. That thrust the divisions into open view, with the military leaders accusing civilian politicians of creating the conditions for a coup <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/22/sudan-military-blames-politicians-over-failed-coup">by ignoring the needs of the people</a>, specifically <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sudan-military-coup-leaves-no-clear-path-out-of-nations-political-economic-crises-11635272325">Sudan’s dire economic situation</a>. Civilian leaders criticized the military <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/22/sudan-military-blames-politicians-over-failed-coup">for threatening the democratic transition</a>. An alliance of rebel leaders and some civilian leaders joined with the military <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/military-forces-arrest-senior-civilian-figures-sudan-al-hadath-tv-2021-10-25/">to call for the government to be dissolved</a>. Protests broke out across Sudan in October, including one big pro-democracy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/21/africa/sudan-pro-civilian-protests-intl/index.html">pro-civilian government-led protest in Khartoum last week</a>.
And then, on Monday, the military stepped in for real. The military detained Hamdok and other civilian leaders. Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency and claimed he was dissolving the transitional government because the divisions within it were so intense that it risked possible civil war. “The experience during the past two years has proven that the participation of political forces in the transitional period is flawed and stirs up strife,” <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/26/sudans-pm-hamdok-at-my-home-says-military-leader-al-burhan">he said</a>.
Al-Burhan said the military would instead appoint a technocratic government — read, the people they like — and they would plan for the elections in July 2023. He also, bizarrely, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/26/sudans-pm-hamdok-at-my-home-says-military-leader-al-burhan">claimed that Hamdok was taken to al-Burhan’s home for his safety</a>, though the prime minister has since returned <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/27/sudans-abdalla-hamdok-released-remains-under-heavy-security">to his own residence but under security</a>.
This is obviously pretty standard coup stuff — claim that the government is in crisis, say that you’re still into democracy, you just want to get there on a totally different path than originally agreed to, and only if you can call the shots, oh, and we’re just going to shut the internet down in the process. But a big portion of the public seems unlikely to buy this self-serving justification. “I don’t think that holds water among the public that are out there protesting,” Tucker, of USIP, said.
Sudan’s transition was imperfect, but it also was a remarkable achievement for a country <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sudan-a-coup-laboratory">that had seen military coup after military coup</a>. The military interceded in al-Bashir’s ouster in 2019, but a revolution led by civil society actors and professionals and grassroots organizations <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/11/18306002/sudan-news-bashir-coup-protests-khartoum-auf">ushered in the dictator’s downfall</a> and this current transition.
These are still powerful forces in Sudan, and they are already mobilizing against the military takeover. Pro-democracy groups called on their supporters to protest, and the Communist Party directed workers to go on a mass strike, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/10/25/thousands-protests-as-pm-officials-detained-in-sudan">according to Al Jazeera</a>. Nugdalla, who has been in contact with friends and activists on the ground in Sudan, said, at first, there was a sense of depletion. “My friend told me women in the streets were holding each other and crying just in disbelief that they were back in the same place, again, fighting for their democracy again, something that they had just done.”
After depletion, there was action. Activists connected on social media and email, and if the internet was out, they found ways around it — handing out papers in smaller neighborhoods or getting local mosques to announce civil disobedience actions. “They know what to do; now, they know what not to do,” Nugdalla said.
In Sudan, now that the democratization process has started, the military is unlikely to be able to undo all of the gains. It can, and did, usurp the transition process, but the transition itself was transformative, even if incomplete. It made <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/3/sudans-government-rebels-set-to-sign-landmak-deal">peace with rebel groups</a>, it <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_sudanese-christian-muslim-leaders-agree-promote-religious-freedom/6197705.html">expanded religious freedoms</a>, it <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/11/21133429/sudan-al-bashir-icc-genocide-darfur">put al-Bashir on trial</a>. “These are all changes that I don’t think a military transitional government can overcome,” said Alden Young, an assistant professor of African American studies at UCLA. “I think we’ve seen a broad democratization of where people come from to participate in civil protests and the depth of that participation.”
Sudan is also facing real crises, beyond one of governance. The country is in deep economic disarray. There is the Covid-19 pandemic and one of the world’s lowest <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58911911">vaccination rates</a>, plus <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/9/15/sudan-and-ethiopia-are-nearing-a-fight-over-land-and-water">increasing tensions</a> with Ethiopia, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22370629/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-amhara-war-ethnic-cleansing">which is in the middle of its own catastrophe</a>. The military bet that it could blame civilian leadership — “the politicians” — for failing to solve these problems and try to exploit disillusionment with the transition process. But so far, the backlash on the streets suggests a lot of the population is still putting the blame on the people doing the coups, and the military that’s been in power for decades. “What can be said is that the civilians have shown within the last few years that they are not willing to just accept things as they come,” said Christopher Tounsel, assistant professor of history and African studies at Pennsylvania State University.
The resistance from the Sudanese public doesn’t make the military coup any less troubling and threatening to Sudan’s democratic experiment. Few experts thought that the transitional process could be salvaged in its current form; many said Sudan’s best hopes, even with an active public, will be for progress down the road. “We’ve seen many times in Sudanese history where it’s never too late to pull things back from the brink or to negotiate a new dispensation that creates a broad enough coalition to move things forward,” Tucker said. “That’ll be very hard to do in the near term; I think we’re looking at a medium- to long-term situation unfolding here.”
That medium- to long-term situation still may be pretty tense for the region. Sudan was a bright spot in a region otherwise in distress: dictators in neighboring <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/son-of-chad-s-autocratic-president-takes-over-after-father-s-death-1.4543845">Chad</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/11/the-light-that-failed-south-sudans-new-dawn-turns-to-utter-nightmare">South Sudan</a>, and <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/eritrea-20-years-dictatorship-two-decades-no-independent-media">Eritrea</a>, and Ethiopia — <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/10/11/20909642/nobel-peace-prize-2019-abiy-ahmed-ethiopia-eritrea-peace">once a success story</a> — <a href="https://www.vox.com/22370629/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-amhara-war-ethnic-cleansing">now engulfed in conflict</a>. This coup could destabilize the region even more.
The international community is also trying to put pressure on Sudan. Its democratic transition helped it reestablish ties with the US and other Western allies, and this coup may undo all that. The US has said it is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-sudan-khartoum-96e7b33b6e1045fce01189e81b36814a">suspending $700 million in aid</a> to Sudan. The “troika,” the team of the US, United Kingdom, and Norway that has traditionally engaged with Sudan, has <a href="https://www.state.gov/troika-statement-on-military-takeover-in-sudan/">condemned the coup</a>, and has continued to recognize Prime Minister Hamdok. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/27/african-union-suspends-sudan-over-coup">The African Union has suspended Sudan</a>.
The US is trying to <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-saudi-foreign-minister-prince-faisal-bin-farhan-al-saud/">put some pressure on</a> the Gulf states, like Saudi Arabia, to get them to use their influence to avert a deeper crisis. Whether such international pressure will work is an open question — especially since the US Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa <a href="https://www.state.gov/visit-of-special-envoy-for-the-horn-of-africa-jeffrey-feltman-to-sudan/">met with Sudanese officials in early October</a> to tell them to stick to the democratic transition or risk losing US support. (And then, yeah, they went ahead and did the coup a few weeks later.)
But for now, the Sudanese pro-democracy and civil society groups are mobilizing to preserve the democratic experiment they’ve started. Nugdalla said now there is no other option but to fight for full civilian rule. “People are tired, they’re angry, and they’re ready to die, unfortunately, if that’s what it takes,” she said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22751437/sudan-coup-protests-al-burhan-hamdok">https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22751437/sudan-coup-protests-al-burhan-hamdok</a>

vox The coup in Sudan, explained

Sudan’s move toward democracy is in peril, after the military seized control of the country’s transitional government in a coup. The coun...

The uphill battle facing the reconciliation bill

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_cQIW9xCrWkhqQowWHS9A1-RRRA=/0x0:4209x2204/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22966403/1236186985.jpg" /></div>
Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill was supposed to be an ambitious piece of progressive legislation that would be President Joe Biden’s signature legislative achievement. Democrats hoped to push the bill through while holding narrow 50-50 control of the Senate and a slim majority in the House. But as the bill continues its arduous journey forward, fewer of Democrats’ policy priorities are making the cut.
When President Biden unveiled the latest iteration of his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">Build Back Better agenda</a>, coming in at <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">$1.75 trillion</a>, he touted funding for universal child care, $555 billion to address the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22738414/democrats-manchin-climate-reconciliation-plan-b">climate crisis</a>, and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/10/28/22751022/billionaire-tax-elon-musk-build-back-better">surtax</a> for the country’s wealthiest.
It could be transformative for large parts of American society. But some progressives are disappointed because the framework is drastically scaled down from the original $3.5 trillion spending bill, leaving out earlier promises for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22749595/paid-leave-sick-parental-leave-biden-build-back-better-bill">paid family leave</a>, free community college, and expanded Medicare coverage.
Democrats’ hope is that that these updates will be an agreeable middle ground to get all 50 senators on board, including moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have been holdouts on the bill so far.
But it’s also possible this framework ends up just “another attempt by Biden to put a stake in the ground while key divisions remain unresolved,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">writes Vox staff</a>.
And while senators deliberate on the final version of the plan, the timeline of when the House will vote on it, along with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, is <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2021/10/29/dems-head-into-weekend-without-agreement-494903">its own issue</a>.
Follow this storystream to stay updated on the reconciliation bill’s progress and Vox’s analysis of how these policies could impact you.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22752414/reconciliation-bill-biden-build-back-better-spending">https://www.vox.com/22752414/reconciliation-bill-biden-build-back-better-spending</a>

vox The uphill battle facing the reconciliation bill

Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill was supposed to be an ambitious piece of progressive legislation that would be President Joe Biden’s ...

Build Back Better Bill Includes $2.25 BILLION for CLIMATE POLICE

A provision in Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act allocates over $2 billion to the creation of a “Civilian Climate Corps,” or Climate Police, warns Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"></figure>
According to text appearing in the most recent version of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-117hr5376rh/pdf/BILLS-117hr5376rh.pdf" target="_blank">H.R. 5376</a>, an agriculture provision dedicated to national forest system restoration discusses how $2.2 billion would be appropriated for “to support the development of a Civilian Climate Corps.”
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-124803" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/1climatecopss1.jpg" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/1climatecopss1-300x289.jpg 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/1climatecopss1-768x739.jpg 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/1climatecopss1.jpg 800w" /></figure>
Furthermore, Gaetz adds, the climate cops will not be limited to working only on federal lands.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" readability="4.9148936170213">
Think the Climate Police is just going to work on federal land?
Not so. <a href="https://t.co/o6JyWXUJAL">pic.twitter.com/o6JyWXUJAL</a>
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1453809086542368775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-124806" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/climatecops3.jpg" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/climatecops3-300x273.jpg 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/climatecops3-768x698.jpg 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/10/climatecops3.jpg 800w" /></figure>
Does this mean feds can encroach onto private land?
News of the climate cops spread like wildfire, and already Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has introduced amendments to defund them.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="4.7486631016043">
I introduced 3 different amendments to defund the Climate Police and prevent them from hiring illegal aliens. <a href="https://t.co/9YZnQNWZzi">https://t.co/9YZnQNWZzi</a>
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepBoebert/status/1453854909669969926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://banned.video/watch?id=6178f65bf07eec1ab7f1f9f3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Congressional Obsession With The Number Of The Beast</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/build-back-better-bill-includes-2-25-billion-for-climate-police">https://www.infowars.com/posts/build-back-better-bill-includes-2-25-billion-for-climate-police</a>

news Build Back Better Bill Includes $2.25 BILLION for CLIMATE POLICE

A provision in Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act allocates over $2 billion to the creation of a “Civilian Climate Corps,” or Climate Police,...