Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Year: 2023

Colorado GOP asking US Supreme Court to overturn ruling disqualifying Trump from 2024 ballot

Colorado GOP asking US Supreme Court to overturn ruling disqualifying Trump from 2024 ballot

The Colorado Republican Party said it’s asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that barred former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 ballot.  Earlier this month, the Colorado Supreme Court, in a 4-3 vote, overturned a lower court ruling that allowed Trump to appear on the ballot as a presidential candidate. The initial ruling said a president is not among the officials subject to disqualification on a ballot.  “By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials,” attorneys for the state Republican party wrote in a petition of the Dec. 19 ruling.  POLL SHOWS BIDEN HITTING RECORD LOW APPROVALS, FALLING BEHIND AGAINST TRUMP IN 2024 MATCHUP Fox News Digital has reached out to the Colorado GOP.  In their opinion, the justices on the state’s high court wrote that Trump “incited and encouraged” the use of violence to prevent the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, when many of his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol as congressional lawmakers were certifying President Biden’s election win.  The case is being appealed based on three main arguments: whether the president is among those officials subject to disqualification by Section Three of the 14th Amendment, the so-called insurrection clause; whether Section Three is “self-executing,” meaning that it allows states to remove candidates from a ballot in absence of any congressional action.  The last point rests on whether denying a political party the ability to choose a candidate of its choice in a presidential primary and general election violates the First Amendment Right of Association. The attorneys said by excluding Trump, Colorado’s highest court has concluded that individuals, courts and election officials can possess legal authority to enforce Section Three.  “Rejecting a long history of precedent, a state Supreme Court has now concluded that individual litigants, state courts, and secretaries of state in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have authority to enforce Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the state party wrote. The party also said that other states may follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from their ballots as well. Disqualification lawsuits relating to Trump’s appearance on the ballot are pending in 13 states, including Texas, Nevada and Wisconsin. “With the number of challenges to President Trump’s candidacy now pending in other states, ranging from lawsuits to administrative proceedings, there is a real risk the Colorado Supreme Court majority’s flawed and unprecedented analysis will be borrowed, and the resulting grave legal error repeated,” the petition states.  In the lower court ruling, Colorado District Judge Sarah B. Wallace allowed Trump to stay on the ballot, but found that he “engaged in insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Biden won Colorado by 13.5 points in 2020. On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an attempt to remove Trump from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot. “Significantly, Colorado’s election laws differ from Michigan’s laws in a material way that is directly relevant to why the appellants in this case are not entitled to the relief they seek concerning the presidential primary election in Michigan,” Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote Wednesday, explaining the court’s ruling.

In bid to counter China, US ramps up effort to boost military ties in Asia

In bid to counter China, US ramps up effort to boost military ties in Asia

On May 30, the United States accused China of intercepting one of its spy planes in an “unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre” over the South China Sea. The American RC-135 plane, according to the US military, was conducting routine operations over the sensitive waterway when the Chinese fighter jet flew directly in front of its nose. A video shared by the US Indo-Pacific Command showed the cockpit of the RC-135 shaking in the wake of turbulence of the Chinese jet. Days later, on June 5, the US again accused China of carrying out what it said was an “unsafe” manoeuvre near one of its vessels. This time it was around a warship in the Taiwan Strait. The US Indo-Pacific Command again released a video of the incident, showing a Chinese navy vessel cutting sharply across the path of a US destroyer at a distance of some 137 metres (150 yards), forcing the latter to slow down to avoid a collision. Washington said the near misses showed China’s “growing aggressiveness”, but Beijing said the US was to blame, accusing its rival of deliberately “provoking risk” by sending aircraft and vessels for “close in reconnaissance” near its shores – moves it said posed a serious danger to its national security. The close calls evoked memories of a deadly incident on April 1, 2001, when a Chinese fighter jet and a US surveillance plane collided in the sky over the South China Sea. The impact caused the Chinese jet to crash and killed the pilot, while the US plane was forced to make an emergency landing in China’s Hainan. Beijing held the 24 American aircrew members for 11 days and only released them when Washington apologised for the incident. While the two countries were able to de-escalate tensions then, there are worries that a similar mishap today could widen into a bigger conflict due to the deterioration in relations between the rivals. The US views China as the biggest challenge to the Western-dominated international order, pointing to Beijing’s rapid military buildup – the biggest in peacetime history – as well as its claims over the self-governed island of Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas. The US military’s so-called “freedom of navigation exercises” in the contested waterways near China are part of a push by the administration of President Joe Biden to deepen and expand its diplomatic and military presence in the Asia Pacific. The campaign – which has accelerated over the past year – stretches from Japan to the Philippines and Australia, and from India to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The “once in a generation effort,” as Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, puts it, involves the opening of new embassies in the region, deployment of troops and more advanced military assets, as well as obtaining access to sites in key areas facing the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. For its part, China accuses the US of pursuing a policy of “containment, encirclement and suppression”, all aimed at holding back its economic development. And its leaders have pledged to resist. Chinese President Xi Jinping said the US campaign has “brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development”, and in a speech in March called on his countrymen to “dare to fight”. His former Defence Minister Li Shangfu, during an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, condemned what he called Washington’s “Cold War mentality”, and said Beijing would not be intimidated and would “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, regardless of any cost”. Analysts say tensions will only heighten further as competition between China and the US –  a contest about who gets to set the rules on the global stage – intensifies. While the superpower rivalry could bring benefits to countries in the Asia Pacific in the short term – particularly in the form of infrastructure loans and foreign direct investments – these nations could, in the future, find having to navigate between China and the US more challenging. “This is a competition over what the rules-based order looks like, at least in Asia,” Poling told Al Jazeera. “It’s about whether or not the existing global rules continue to apply to Asia or whether China gets to carve out a huge area of exemption in which its preferred rules predominate. “Clearly, the next couple of decades at least are going to be characterised by this growing competition. Unless China changes its strategy on this … then we’re going to see competition continue to heighten and tensions continue to heighten not just between the US and China, but also between China and most of its neighbours.” China’s rise Japan’s defeat in World War II ushered in an age of US dominance in Asia. But in recent decades, China’s growing military and economic might has brought an end to that uncontested primacy. Under Xi, who took office in 2012 championing what he calls the “Chinese dream of national rejuvenation”, a vision to restore China’s great-power status, Beijing has invested heavily in modernising its military. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a  London-based think tank, China has more than doubled its military spending over the past decade, with expenditure reaching $219bn in 2022 – although this is still less than a third of US spending during the same year. China has also embarked on a naval shipbuilding programme that has put more vessels to sea between 2014 and 2018 than the total number of ships in the German, Indian, Spanish and British navies combined. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has since also commissioned guided missile cruisers as well as nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. In June 2022, it launched its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian. The PLA’s rocket force has also modernised its capabilities, including with the development of hypersonic missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles. According to the US military, the PLA also plans to accelerate the expansion of its nuclear arsenal to as many as

When death metal becomes one of 84,000 ways to practise Buddhism

When death metal becomes one of 84,000 ways to practise Buddhism

Taipei, Taiwan – In the past few years, many of Taiwan’s largest music festivals have seen the unlikely ensemble of a shaven Buddhist nun introducing a band of five black-clad musicians whose faces are smeared blood red. When the first riffs break through the sound system, their hard yet atmospheric music immediately sounds like death metal – an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal that emerged in the United States in the mid-1980s and is characterised by guttural vocals, abrupt tempo and relentless, discording guitar riffs. But the beastly growl of the band’s Canadian singer is not conveying the genre’s typical lyrics of sickness. He is actually chanting genuine Buddhist mantras, blessing everyone in the audience. Taiwan’s Dharma are probably the first band in the world to combine ancient Buddhist sutras in Sanskrit or Mandarin Chinese with the contemporary sound of death metal. Since their beginnings in 2018, they have stood out from thousands of other heavy metal bands around the world with their distinctive style, and have even had two Buddhist nuns, Master Song and Master Miao-ben join them on stage. Last month, the band played its first overseas show – at the International Indie Music Festival in Kerala – and is ready to bring Buddha’s message further afield after receiving offers of interest from North America and Europe. “We believe that in the 21st century, both heavy metal and ancient religions need to change,” said Jack Tung, Dharma’s founding member and drummer, a pivotal figure in Taipei’s underground music scene. Heavy with spiritual strokes Dharma is unique because the group subverts most people’s understanding of metal music and its fans – an obnoxious, loud genre for degenerates. Since the 1990s, heavy metal has been often associated with Satanism and delinquency – think of the second wave of Norwegian black metal, with bands like Mayhem, Emperor and Burzum, whose alienated teenage musicians shocked the world with their behaviour – from burning churches to murder – in the name of “musical authenticity”. A Dharma fan crowd-surfs in the lotus position [Courtesy of Joe Henley/Dharma] For heavy metal and its subgenres, these events constituted the climax of what British sociologist Stanley Cohen described as “moral panics” in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics, a 1972 study on the then-emerging British subcultures of mods and rockers. Cohen argued that moral panics were characterised by an intense feeling of fear, largely exaggerated, about a specific subcultural group that a community perceives as tarnishing its core values. Thirty years later, with heavy metal and its derivatives underpinning music scenes in countries from Botswana to Egypt and Iraq, Dharma believes the genre’s globalised tropes can be changed into an effective vehicle for Buddhist teachings. Founding member Tung had his spiritual awakening back in 2000, when he was greatly surprised to hear the Lion’s Roar of Buddhism “as it was completely different from the Buddhist scriptures I had heard since childhood”, he told Al Jazeera. In the Mahayana school of Buddhism prevalent in East Asia, the “Lion’s Roar” is a metaphorical principle signifying the awe-inspiring power of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas when expounding the Dharma (which means, in a nutshell, the Buddha’s teachings and practice), bringing peace and auspiciousness. At the time, Tung was already a metalhead and a drummer and sensed a connection between the chanting style of the Lion’s Roar and the driving rhythms of a metal band. For him, death metal’s stereotypical imagery and lyrics were just an outlet to release emotions and a form of representation not dissimilar to the way Buddhism spread from India to China and other places using Buddha statues with angry features. “From my understanding, this angry appearance was used mainly to protect monks and believers, and we think that it is somewhat similar to how death metal musicians propose their messages,” said Tung. “We hope to use the tremendous energy of death metal music to increase the power of the spells and use music and costumes to manifest the anger or protection of Buddha and Bodhisattva. […] We have not changed the essence of Buddhist scripture mantras, but rather hope to strengthen them [with death metal].” A special kind of dedication It took Tung about a decade from conceiving Dharma’s concept to finding the right people to form his “enlightened” band because being a member also meant being highly involved with the teachings of Buddhism. In 2018, Tung recruited a former bandmate, guitarist Andy Lin, to start working on Dharma’s first songs, and in 2019, welcomed Canadian singer Joe Henley, a freelance writer and long-term Taiwan resident, on vocals. Prior to making his live debut, Henley spent months studying the sutras he would sing on stage under the guidance of Master Song, a devout Buddhist nun, until he entered the Three Jewels, becoming a Buddhist himself and receiving Song’s ultimate blessing to perform the sutras in public. Master Song, who due to health reasons can no longer perform on stage with Dharma, passed their duties to Master Miao-ben and discussed the issues extensively with Tung before endorsing the band. She hopes they may play a subtle role in spreading Buddhist beliefs among young people on the self-ruled island and beyond. “Through music, we hope to influence the younger generation, especially those who like different music genres, as we are born equal, and no one should be abandoned because of their preferences for any specific music style,” Master Song told Al Jazeera. “We believe that faith does not necessarily have to be Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism or Islam, as it can also be the sheer belief in goodness and love for the world.” Master Miao-ben and Joe Henley, right, on stage [Courtesy of Joe Henley/Dharma] Given the general reluctance of heavy metal fans to accept bands that deviate from metal’s well-defined style, Dharma’s successful reception in Taiwan came as a huge surprise to Henley. “It seems that from day one, and our very first show, opening for [Swedish black metal band] Marduk, we were welcomed with open

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 673

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 673

As the war enters its 673rd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, December 28, 2023. Fighting Two people were killed and four others injured in the southern Odesa region after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in a nighttime air raid. The Ukraine air force said it shot down 32 of the 46 Iranian-made drones that Russia had launched with the others mostly hitting near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region. Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid, leaving about 70 percent of households in Kherson city without electricity. The Institute for the Study of War said that Russia’s claimed capture this week of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine would not provide it with a springboard for major battlefield gains. But it noted that “localised Russian offensive operations are still placing pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in eastern Ukraine”. Ukraine opened a war crimes investigation into the alleged execution by Russian forces of three Ukrainian prisoners of war earlier this month near the village of Robotyne in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, the general prosecutor’s office said. Politics and diplomacy India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said relations between the countries were progressing even amid turbulent times. Jaishankar, who is on a five-day visit to Moscow, also met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who said they discussed “the prospects for military-technical cooperation, including the joint production of modern types of weapons”. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, is on a five-day visit to Moscow [Alexander Nemenov/Pool via AP Photo] Russia condemned sanctions imposed by the United States against the Arctic LNG 2 project as an “unacceptable” move that would undermine global energy security. The sanctions are part of an attempt to limit Moscow’s financial ability to continue its war in Ukraine. Russia charged six Danes for joining the Russia-Ukraine war as “foreign mercenaries” on Ukraine’s side, the Russian embassy in Denmark said in a statement. The six face as many as 15 years in prison if they are found guilty. The embassy said 20 Danes had been identified as mercenaries and some had been killed. Weapons The US announced a $250m military aid package for Ukraine that officials say could be the last unless a $61b funding bill currently held up by Republicans in Congress is passed. The latest aid includes air defence munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, artillery ammunition, anti-armour munitions and more than 15 million rounds of ammunition. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, told a briefing that the defence sector would increase production of weapons and military equipment significantly next year and that output was three times higher in 2023 than in the previous year. Kamyshin said Ukraine was now producing six Bohdana self-propelled artillery units per month. Bohdanas are the only Ukrainian-made self-propelled gun using NATO-standard 155mm rounds instead of the 152mm rounds used by artillery based on Soviet technology. Russia warned Japan that its plan to provide Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine would have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties. Sergei Chemezov, the head of the Rostec state defence company, said Russia would soon deploy its newest howitzers against Ukrainian forces. Chemezov told the RIA news agency that testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery units had been completed and mass production was under way. Adblock test (Why?)