Ronald Reagan Makes Racist Comment To Richard Nixon In Newly Released Audio

Ronald Reagan called United Nations delegates from African countries “monkeys” in a 1971 telephone call with then-President Richard Nixon, according to a newly released recording of the private conversation.

The National Archives released audio of the call between Nixon and Reagan, who was then the GOP governor of California, earlier this month. Nixon, dogged by the Watergate scandal, resigned the presidency in disgrace in 1974. Reagan went on to serve two terms as president in the 1980s.

“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries. Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” Reagan told Nixon, reportedly in reference to members of the Tanzanian delegation dancing in the United Nations’ General Assembly following its vote to recognize the People’s Republic of China.

Reagan also reportedly lobbied Nixon during their exchange to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. over the other members’ support of China.

In a subsequent telephone call to then-Secretary of State William Rogers, Nixon said Reagan “saw these cannibals on television last night, and he says, ‘Christ, they weren’t even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,’ and so forth and so on.”

The National Archives first released audio of the Reagan-Nixon call, which Nixon had taped in the White House, in 2000, but Reagan’s racist comment was redacted. Reagan died at age 93 in 2004.

Tim Naftali, the director of the Nixon Presidential Library from 2007 to 2011, requested a review of the redaction. The National Archives released the full clip earlier this month, and The Atlantic shared it Tuesday, along with Naftali’s commentary. 

“The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines,” wrote Naftali, referencing President Donald Trump’s recent racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color,  Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and the city of Baltimore.

“This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior,” Naftali added. “The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.”

Hamza, Son Of Osama Bin Laden, Is Confirmed Dead

Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden and heir to al Qaeda leadership, is dead, according to media reports.

Officials confirmed to The New York Times that the younger bin Laden was killed in the past two years, but that it took time to confirm his death. The United States reportedly had a role in the killing, though details of the death are still unknown, according to the Times.

NBC first reported the news earlier Wednesday that the U.S. had obtained intelligence that bin Laden is dead, though President Donald Trump declined to comment to the network whether the information is true.

A composite image showing Osama bin Laden, left, and a young Hamza bin Laden

Bin Laden’s exact date of birth has been disputed, but The Associated Press said most put it in 1989, a time when his father, Osama, was already forming al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan in 1996 and declared war against the U.S., and sometimes had Hamza appear in al Qaeda propaganda videos.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks carried out in the U.S. by al Qaeda, Hamza bin Laden and other members fled to Iran, where other al Qaeda leaders hid them in safe houses. In April 2003, Iranian intelligence officials detained as many al Qaeda members as they could, according to the AP. Since then, bin Laden had been reported to be in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, and in Syria, the Times reported.

The last known public statement from bin Laden was a video released last year by al Qaeda’s media arm denouncing Saudi Arabia and calling on people in the Arabian peninsula to overthrow the monarchy.

In February, the United Nations Security Council listed bin Laden as being associated with al Qaeda, and the State Department announced a $1 million reward for information on his location. Bin Laden likely had already been killed by then, though his death was not confirmed at the time by military and intelligence officials.

Osama bin Laden died in 2011 in a U.S. Navy SEAL team raid in Pakistan, which led two of his top lieutenants to begin grooming Hamza bin Laden to take his father’s place, the Times reported.

Delta Air Lines pilot arrested on suspicion of intoxication, escorted off plane

A pilot was escorted off an aircraft and then arrested at the gate on Tuesday, after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff smelled alcohol on his breath and suspected he was intoxicated.

Gabriel Lyle Schroeder, 37, was in the cockpit of a fully boarded plane, conducting pre-flight checks on a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to San Diego, when the Airport Police Department intervened and arrested him.

Suspicions arose about the pilot, according to an arrest report provided to Yahoo Lifestyle by Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Patrick Hoger, when he backtracked and left a security screening area, realizing that TSA officers were performing additional screening in the “Known Crew Members” line.

After he was arrested, Schroeder was found to be in possession of “an alcoholic container” and was suspected to allegedly be impaired.

The pilot was charged for being under the influence “of alcohol/drugs” as an aircraft operator, but has since been released, pending toxicology reports and a subsequent formal complaint.

Hoger declined to provide additional comment because the case is still under investigation.

Pilot Gabriel Schroeder (Photo: Provided by LETG Jail Inmate Detention)
Pilot Gabriel Schroeder (Photo: Provided by LETG Jail Inmate Detention)

The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that pilots should wait “8 hours from ‘bottle to throttle,’” and maintain a blood alcohol level lower than 0.04 percent. It’s unclear whether Schroeder’s BAC was higher than this at the time.

In a statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, Delta Air Lines confirms that it is working with authorities to address the incident.

“Delta’s alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry and we have no tolerance for violation,” the statement reads. “Delta is cooperating with local authorities in their investigation.”

The flight was delayed approximately one hour as a replacement crew member was called in.

This isn’t the first time Delta Air Lines has been under the spotlight recently. On July 10, a Delta flight was forced to make an emergency landing after an engine issue, which a passenger captured on camera. On July 15, a passenger allegedly overdosed and died onboard, and people called out the airline for not carrying the life-saving Narcan on board.

American farmer: Trump ‘took away all of our markets’

The White House recently announced that it would be providing an additional $16 billion in aid to American farmers affected by the trade war between the U.S. and China.

But the problem for American farmers has becomes bigger than something a bailout can fix.

“This trade thing is what’s brought on by the president and it’s really frustrating because he took away all of our markets,” Bob Nuylen, a farmer from North Dakota who grows spring wheat and sunflowers, told Yahoo Finance. “We live in an area where we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. It costs us a lot of money — over $1 a bushel to get our grain to markets.”

In this July 13, 2017, photo, farmer John Weinand surveys a wheat field near Beulah, N.D., that should be twice as tall as it is. Drought in western North Dakota this summer is laying waste to crops _ some of which won't even be worth harvesting. (AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)
A farmer surveys a wheat field near Beulah, N.D. (Photo: AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)

‘As low as I’ve seen them in a long time’

Since trade tensions began in 2018, farmers have faced major financial challenges, since China was once a major U.S. agriculture buyer.

And losing customers has become a major issue. Soybean farmers have been dealing with this, as China has turned to other countries like Brazil for soybeans. Nuylen said this is also happening for wheat farmers, as China has begun importing wheat from Russian regions.

“All these countries went to different countries to get their grain,” Nuylen said. “How are we going to get the relations back with them to buy our grain again and be our customers?”

Between 2016-2017, China was the fourth-largest wheat buyer in the world, importing more than 61 million U.S. bushels. In 2019, the top U.S. export destinations for wheat include Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, and Nigeria — China is not even among the top 10.

“Our prices are probably as low as I’ve seen them in a long time,” he told Yahoo Finance. “We were losing just about $70 an acre just by putting our crop in [the ground] this spring.”

While a deal between the U.S. and China would take months to be reached, farmers are remaining “cautiously optimistic,” Glenn Brunkow, a Kansas-based corn and soybean farmer said.

“Our hope is that the playing field is leveled up and these tariffs on the other side are taken away,” Brunkow said. “We feel like with the technology we have, the advantages we have, we can produce the crops as economically as anyone else in the whole world.”

FILE - In this June 11, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, an ethanol producer in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trump has repeatedly told U.S. farmers he loves and supports them and in return they largely continue to support him even though some of his promises, better trade deals and strong support for corn-based ethanol, haven't been fully kept. For many farmers and the politicians representing them criticizing the policy failures but not the president himself is a delicate dance. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
President Donald Trump has repeatedly told U.S. farmers he loves and supports them and in return they largely continue to support him even though some of his promises, better trade deals and strong support for corn-based ethanol, haven’t been fully kept. (Photo: AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

‘Farmers are profoundly wary of the trade war’

This isn’t the first time that the USDA has doled out aid to struggling farmers. The Trump administration pledged two installments of a farmer bailout program. The first round of payments totaling $4.7 billion was paid in September 2018, while the second round was distributed in December. By February 2019, the total aid payments reached $7.7 billion.

“Payments are a welcome help for the bottom line of Missouri farmers,” Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, told Yahoo Finance in an email statement. “Although the trade payments vary widely from county to county, they’ll keep more than a few farmers in business for another year. …

“Having said all that,” the statement added, “farmers are profoundly wary of the trade war, embarrassed that ad hoc government subsidies are all that stands between many of us and financial ruin, and ready for the return of more normal times.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that farm bankruptcies in three major farm regions reached their highest level in at least 10 years. Much of this is because crop prices have been dragged down dramatically due to a decrease in consumers. Overall, U.S. farm debt soared over $409 billion in 2017, which is “the largest sum in nearly four decades and a level not seen since the 1980s,” WSJ wrote.

A guest wears a hat that reads
A guest wears a hat that reads “Make Potatoes Great Again” as President Donald Trump speaks at a meeting to support America’s farmers and ranchers. (Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

And it doesn’t help that farmers are facing unprecedented severe weather. Flooding has damaged crops across the Midwest. When combining that with bankruptcies, lower prices, and trade war struggles, mental health problems among rural Americans are becoming more prevalent than ever before.

“People think that farmers are just loaded with money but … just about every dollar a farmer makes, he puts back into the economy and their state and in the nation, because our inputs are so high,” Nuylen said. “We spend just about all the money we make back into the communities. If we’re struggling, everybody’s struggling.”

He added: “We kind of get a bad picture that we’re all big money and drive all this big equipment. In reality … these are record low incomes for farmers in the last couple of years. It’s getting tough out there. We’re going to start seeing a lot of suicide and a lot of farmers going out of business. So, that’s not a good thing.”

The concern is that farmers may reach a breaking point as things drag on.

“It’s going to be a scary situation if it doesn’t turn around pretty soon,” Nuylen said.

‘Serving under Trump is embarrassing’: Fifth Republican congressman retires in just two weeks as GOP fears more exits

A fifth Republican congressman appears set to quit the party in the space of two weeks amid ongoing tension over Donald Trump’s presidency.

Representative Mike Conaway will not seek re-election to his Texas seat in 2020, the Politico website reported. He has not confirmed his decision or reason for retiring but he is set to make a statement to the media.

The move has prompted worries within the party that others will follow suit and step down, because of the difficulties that come with serving under Mr Trump and working with a Democratic majority in Congress.

“Serving in the era of Trump has few rewards,” Tom Davis, a former senior Republican congressman, told The Hill website. “He has made an already hostile political environment worse.

“Every day there is some indefensible tweet or comment to defend or explain. It is exhausting and often embarrassing.”

Mr Conaway, who has served in congress for 15 years, will join Republican representatives Paul Mitchell, Pete Olson, Martha Roby and Rob Bishop in announcing his retirement.

Mr Mitchell had told the House that “rhetoric overwhelms policy and politics consumes much of the oxygen” in Washington DC.

One of his former campaign workers Jamie Roe, later said that Mitchell had “been frustrated with the fact that things don’t get done here”.

While he did not explicitly attribute blame to the president, he was one of the first Republican congressmen to complain about Mr Trump’s recent racist remarks about the group of Democratic congresswoman known as the squad.

“We must be better than comments like these,” he tweeted after the president suggested Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan should go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries.

Mr Mitchell added: “I share the political frustrations with some members of the other party, but these comments are beneath leaders.”

Ms Roby said she would not vote for Mr Trump in 2016 as his behaviour had been “unacceptable as a candidate for president” but has since improved their relationship and received an endorsement from him in 2018.

The Republican Party is facing a difficult task in reclaiming the House in 2020 after Democrats were victorious in last year’s midterm elections.

Mr Trump’s approval ratings remain low, currently at about 43 per cent on average, and his divisive political agenda could prove costly in congressional elections next year.

Mr Conaway, Mr Mitchell, Ms Roby and Mr Bishop all represent safe Republican districts that are expected to pick candidates from the party in 2020.

However, Mr Olson’s district could be competitive – the Texas congressman saw his majority cut to 5 per cent in 2018.

Even in safe districts, the prospect of returning to the House in 2020 may be unappealing for many conservative representatives as Democrats are expected to win a majority again next year.

In a general ballot, recent polling has shown Democrats lead Republicans by 5.6 per cent for the 2020 election, according to an average by political analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

All 435 voting seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election in 2020, along with 34 seats in the US Senate.

Obama Foundation Announces Wally Adeyemo as President

Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals.

CHICAGO — Today, the Obama Foundation announced that former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo will join the organization as its first-ever President.

In this role, Adeyemo will work closely with current Foundation leadership, including Board Chairman Martin Nesbitt and CEO David Simas. Adeyemo will manage the Foundation’s day-to-day operations, helping to implement the organization’s overall strategic goals and vision. Over the last several years, the Obama Foundation has grown from a staff of a dozen to nearly 200 and launched a number of programs to support the next generation of leaders making positive change in their communities.

“Wally is the ideal person to help lead the Foundation team as we continue to grow the impact of our global civic engagement programs and advance the Obama Presidential Center,” said Nesbitt. “Given his executive experience in both the public and private sectors and previous service with President Obama, Wally is well positioned to help us continue to translate our sky-high ambitions into operational reality through daily leadership of our talented staff.”

Adeyemo is joining the Foundation as it advances its work to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and grows its civic engagement programming. Since 2017, the Foundation has launched a series of programs that support leaders around the United States and the world who work to create positive change in their communities, including the Obama Foundation Fellows, Leaders, Scholars, and Community Leadership Corps, as well as the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and Girls Opportunity Alliance initiatives.

The Foundation recently convened 200 rising Leaders in South Africa to discuss grassroots change across the continent. And in August hundreds of young leaders in Chicago and Hartford, Connecticut, will gather to learn tangible skills for engaging and problem-solving with their local communities as part of the Community Leadership Corps. The Foundation is now in its third year of civic engagement programming and expects to expand globally later in 2019 and 2020.

“I am thrilled Wally is joining the Foundation and look forward to working hand in hand with him to execute our mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world,” said Simas. “Wally has led diverse teams at the highest levels of government, and the Foundation will benefit from his perspective and experience standing up new organizations.”

Adeyemo was appointed in 2015 as President Obama’s senior international economics adviser, responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also has held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff. He also helped launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011 as its first Chief of Staff. He is currently a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Adeyemo serves on the board of a number of organizations devoted to community empowerment and addressing inequality, including the Golden State Opportunity Foundation and Demos. His full bio can be found below.

Adeyemo’s work will span responsibilities such as:

  • Leading the implementation and execution of the Foundation’s strategic plan;
  • Ensuring the Foundation’s organizational structures and policies are aligned to support its goals and vision as it grows and continues to implement its second full year of programming; and
  • Managing and supporting all major Foundation functions and teams.

“I am excited to be joining in the work of the Obama Foundation — inspiring, empowering, and connecting young leaders focused on changing the world,” said Adeyemo. “I look forward to working with the talented staff of the Foundation to build an organization devoted to supporting the work of changemakers — whether in Chicago or around the world.”

Wally Adeyemo
Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals. As Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, he served as President Barack Obama’s senior international economic adviser and was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also served as the President’s representative to the G7 and G20 and held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, as well as chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s provisions on macroeconomic policy.

In addition to his work on macro-economic policy, Adeyemo also served as the first chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that capacity, he helped to build the bureau’s initial executive leadership team and served as a member of the CFPB Executive Committee, helping to protect American consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive consumer financial practices.

Adeyemo is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, which promotes widespread economic opportunity and the competitiveness of America. He also serves on the boards of Demos, a New York-based think tank focused on social, political and economic equity issues, as well as on the Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which works to provide financial security to low-income working people throughout California; and Just Homes, a faith-based affordable housing initiative based in Washington, DC.

He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Trump must release tax returns to be able to appear on California primary ballot

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Democratic governor signed a law Tuesday requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the state’s primary ballot, a move aimed squarely at Republican President Donald Trump.

But even if the law withstands a likely legal challenge, Trump could avoid the requirements by choosing not to compete in California’s primary. With no credible GOP challenger at this point, he likely won’t need California’s delegates to win the Republican nomination.

“As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in his veto message to the state Legislature. “These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence.”

New York has passed a law giving congressional committees access to Trump’s state tax returns. But efforts to pry loose his tax returns have floundered in other states. California’s first attempt to do so failed in 2017 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed the law, raising questions about its constitutionality and where it would lead next.

“Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” he wrote in his veto message. “Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?”

While the law is aimed at Trump, it would apply to all presidential contenders and candidates for governor.

The major Democratic 2020 contenders have already released tax returns for roughly the past decade. Trump has bucked decades of precedent by refusing to release his. Tax returns show income, charitable giving and business dealings, all of which Democratic state lawmakers say voters are entitled to know about.

Candidates will be required to submit tax returns for the most recent five years to California’s Secretary of State at least 98 days before the primary. They will then be posed online for the public to view, with certain personal information redacted.

California is holding next year’s primary on March 3, known as Super Tuesday because the high number of state’s with nominating contests that day.

Democratic Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg said it would be “inconsistent” with past practice for Trump to forego the primary ballot and “ignore the most popular and vote-rich state in the nation.”

McGuire said his bill only applies to the primary election because the state Legislature does not control general election ballot access per the state Constitution.

Social media dialogue highlights the devastating effects of corporal punishment in the Nigerian school system

It started with a Facebook discussion forum and metamorphosed into a much more serious issue – the dire effects of bodily punishment in the Nigeria’s education sector. 


By Anthony Obi Ogbo

After watching a video of how the Russian President Vladimir Putin veered from a Victory Day Parade protocol in Moscow to embrace his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, a Nigerian social media commentator, Doris Chii Nwike, recanted her own school experience with teachers. This was not a joke.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop to hug my maths teacher, Mrs. Okigbo and my Religious knowledge teacher Sister Rose – a Catholic Nun,” Doris wrote.  She continued. “Mrs. Okigbo flogged me mercilessly because I couldn’t make head or tail of what she teaches in mathematics, not only me but almost everyone. We take math lessons in fear! Sister Rose wields her cane with relish all the time; she relished pleasure in the canes and flogging. There is no pity in her dictionary, that is why till today, I find it hard putting any of my kids in a school being run by reverend sisters.”

But Doris was not done. In her narrative, not all her teachers were brutal. There was one teacher that she would hug any day. According to Doris, “When we would be assembling in the staff room to be punished, it is only Mrs. Florence Onyema Obiechina that would look at this lanky fair-skinned girl with a red birthmark on her left arm, and would motion me to kneel by her side to prevent Sister Rose from flogging me and my skin turning red. She will be the one I’ll give my hug and some of my other kind-hearted teachers.”

Doris Chii Nwike (left),  Mrs. Florence Onyema Obiechina… Doris’s experience highlights the disturbing effects of corporal punishment in the Nigerian school system

Doris’s account thus generated a long discussion thread of forum participants, mainly from Nigeria, narrating their own experience. Interestingly, Mrs. Obiechina joined the discussion thread to explain the secrets behind her successful classroom instructional strategies. According to Mrs. Obiechina, “I strongly believe that students can perform excellently well without being flogged. Flogging scares students and makes them hate the subject. A teacher who wants her students to perform well must have a good knowledge of the subject, lay a good foundation for the students and make serious efforts to instill knowledge into the students using instructional materials while ensuring active participation of the students in the class.”

In further explanation of what might contradict the traditional corporal punishment approach, Mrs. Obiechina, an alumni of the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada stated, “I taught with no cane and it worked perfectly for me since my students perform excellently well in all schools I was opportune to serve. Whenever I meet my students, they always show great appreciation.”

In Nigeria’s school system, corporal punishment remains a disturbing classroom supervision tool. Children are beaten, flogged, slapped, spanked, punched, or even kicked for violating common rules. They are hit with objects, ordered to kneel down  under severe weather for extended time periods, and in the other circumstances, restrained not only by teachers but also by elder pupils authorized to supervise newer ones.

In Nigeria’s school system, corporal punishment remains a disturbing classroom supervision tool. Children are beaten, flogged, slapped, spanked, punched, or even kicked for violating common rules. They are hit with objects, ordered to kneel down under severe weather for extended time periods, and in the other circumstances, restrained not only by teachers but also by older pupils authorized to supervise newer ones.

“I strongly believe that students can perform excellently well without being flogged. Flogging scares students and makes them hate the subject. A teacher who wants her students to perform well must have a good knowledge of the subject, lay a good foundation for the students and make serious efforts to instill knowledge into the students using instructional materials while ensuring active participation of the students in the class.”

Florence Onyema Obiechina

Last year, for instance, students were being tied to makeshift crucifixes and flogged with horsewhips for coming late to school. This happened in a private school in Abeokuta, Ogun State south-west Nigeria. After a public uproar, the police arrested three people, including a school principal suspected to be involved in the incident for questioning. 

In Nasarawa State,  a video of ruthless beating of some students of Government Science Secondary School Nasarawa-Eggon went viral on the social media, prompting the Commissioner for Education, Ahmed Tijani to ban corporal punishment in public schools in the state. He went further to announce that the State had established a committee to investigate this incident. His Ministry also issued a memo to all public schools informing the management of the various schools on the ban on corporal punishment.

Without the doubt, managing school children is not an easy task.  The challenge entails supervising a set of different individuals from different social and economic backgrounds; managing their conduct and conception levels; Creating a conducive learning environment to inspire their hope, improve learning, and reinforce their academic guidelines and required standards. Corporal punishment does not fit the aforementioned values. 

If nothing else, Doris’s account highlights one of the devastating effects of corporal punishment – a gap in the relationship between the teacher and student. Her closeness with her favorite teacher, Mrs.   Obiechina was based on her transformational teaching strategies – a teacher-student approach that prioritizes cultivation of knowledge as a foundation for success. This approach replicates a study by Clayton et al., which underscores how the foundational aspect of a positive school experience is reliant on positive impact of a strong teacher–student relationship.

Students cannot learn under excruciating circumstances of fear and tyranny perpetrated by instructors who they see as Killer-Dinosaurs. Thus, building relationships remain the most effective classroom management technique. This approach instills confidence, love, and knowledge in the learning system. It creates an encouraging environment where rules are hardly broken because students are more focused on academic accomplishments.  

This article does not advocate a disregard of lawlessness in the classrooms. Rather, it emphasizes a learning environment immune from torture and bullying. The setting must instill love, trust, hope, and aspiration. Good teachers are explicit about their expectations regarding classroom behavior. They often explain the rules and applied them in a non-brutal, fair-minded, and consistent manner.  The classroom should be a family not a torturing camp. 

♦ Anthony Ogbo, PhD, Adjunct Professor at the Texas Southern University is the author of the Influence of Leadership (2015)  and the Maxims of Political Leadership (2019). Contact: anthony@guardiannews.us

Pitiless ICE Agents run amok in brutal deportation showdown

  • Nigerian immigrant moaned and cried as he was restrained in a home-bound flight.

  • Brutal take-down of a Somali immigrant while his wife watched and cried.”

  • ICE busts car window to arrest undocumented immigrant

  • Immigrant father arrested by ICE outside Austin child custody hearing

International Guardian, Houston TX – Ongoing raids by the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is getting excessively brutal. Images and videos of ruthless apprehension and arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants are circulating all over the social media, leaving the world with a clear impression of what America currently looks like.

On July 12, President Donald Trump announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would begin raids that would target roughly 2,000 immigrants at specific areas. This raid was billed for Sunday, July 14. On July 15, Trump boasted that the operation had been “very successful,” adding that “many, many were taken out.”

But this raid was not just a weekend affair. ICE Agents had since beefed up their deportation process in the most cold-blooded manner; tearing families, bursting into homes, smashing car windows, and brutally tackling suspects on the streets.

In a one of the videos that is being shared worldwide, a Nigerian man moaned and cried as he was restrained in an airplane. He cried and struggled with ICE agents. Another video witnessed a street brutal apprehension of a suspected undocumented immigrant, with an inscription: “American government trying to arrest a Somali immigrant but succeeded in killing him before his wife.”

In another incident captured in a widely viewed video, a man was arrested by ICE in Kansas City and deported right away to Mexico. The arrest, captured in a widely viewed video taken by his girlfriend. The video drew attention from activists and elected officials who questioned the actions of the ICE agents and the involvement of local Kansas City police.

There were other videos that left observer shocked about ICEs’ latest showdown. For instance, two days ago, ICE busted a car window to arrest an undocumented immigrant, Florencio Millan-Vazquez who refused to leave the car without seeing an arrest warrant. He was deported to Mexico on July 24.

The process got worse when ICE agents arrested an undocumented immigrant-father outside an Austin child custody hearing. In Tennessee however, the story lines read differently as neighborhood residents in Hermitage formed a ‘human chain’ around man after ICE tried to arrest him.

Furthermore, on Thursday, the National Public Radio reported how Francisco Erwin Galicia, a U.S. citizen, was picked up by Border Patrol officers, processed into detention and held for 26 days. “It nearly broke him,” Galicia’s lawyer, Claudia Galan told NPR. “He said the conditions were horrible, and inhumane. And he was about to sign a deportation order … even though he was born here.”

Galicia, 18, was in a van with his brother Marlon and three other high school friends on June 27. They were on their way to Houston for a recruitment event when they were stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas — about 50 miles from home and within the corridor of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector.

These raids could only get worse. For instance, a sweeping expansion of deportation powers unveiled this week by the Trump administration is expected to intensify the ongoing ICE takedown. To make it worse, uncertainty about how the policy might play out has created confusion and made it harder to give clear guidance to immigrants. The new rules will allow immigration officers nationwide to deport anyone who has been here illegally for less than two years. Currently, authorities can only exercise such powers within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border and only target people who have been here less than two weeks.

Trump blames White House air conditioning on Obama

Trump speaks to members of the media in the Oval Office on July 26. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Donald Trump’s view, even the inadequate air conditioning at the White House is Barack Obama’s fault.

Trump offered the new gripe about his predecessor as he explained in the Oval Office Friday why he’ll be spending some time at his New Jersey resort in August.

The president says “it’s never a vacation” when he goes to Bedminster, New Jersey, and that he would rather be at the White House.

He says that some of his time away from the White House gives crews time to do maintenance work.

He says, for example, “The Obama administration worked out a brand new air conditioning system for the West Wing. It was so good before they did the system. Now that they did this system, it’s freezing or hot.

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