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International Human Rights Day: The Legacy Of Eleanor Roosevelt

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Eleanor Roosevelt’s biographer says if she were alive today she would celebrate the  advancement of the LGBT, economic and social human rights movements globally

Today marks International Human Rights Day around the world. It is the day that we recognize the important role and place of human rights in people’s lives who inhabit the globe from the Arab Spring uprising to the transformative elevation of women’s and girl’s human rights. Indeed, there is a planetary recognition that all people yearn to be free, despite the best efforts of despotic regimes to oppress, suppress and shackle those who are different.

This year’s International Human Rights Day celebrates the right to free speech with the tagline of “My Voice Counts” and touted in a promotional video by luminaries like Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu, an outspoken advocate for LGBT human rights, who has spoken forcefully in recent days about Uganda’s “kill the gays bill”.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), considered the foundational document from which all human rights law emanates, was drafted under the tutelage of Eleanor Roosevelt, a leader in the establishment of the United Nations after the conclusion of World War II.  Arguably, Roosevelt’s greatest legacy was the adoption of the UDHR and the development and adoption of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, has not been ratified) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and ratified  by Congress under President George H.W. Bush in 1992).  Indeed, in 1945 she was appointed U.S. delegate to the UN by then-President Harry S. Truman where she took charge of establishing what many believed at the time, an organization that would end all wars and peacefully negotiate all disputes.

Roosevelt was no push over, according to  Blanche Wiesen Cook, Distinguished Professor at John Jay, City University New York who shared her thoughts about Roosevelt with The New Civil Rights Movement this afternoon.  Wiesen, who resides on the Upper West Side with her partner Clare Coss, is Eleanor Roosevelt’s most recent biographer and most eloquent trenchant story teller about the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, will publish a third volume of a completed trilogy next year.  It was during the short period between the end of World War II and when the Communist “Red Curtain” came down over Soviet controlled Europe that Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for the inclusion of not only civil and political rights, but also included economic and social rights. Truman told her he would not support economic and social rights because they were socialist. In a push back, according to Cook, Roosevelt told Truman she would resign, insisting you can not convince hungry people of the merit of human rights. Truman relented and asked her not to resign.

What would Eleanor Roosevelt think about the state of human rights today?

 “She would really celebrate the work of The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (U.S. based human rights organizations)–she would support the rights of all people across the globe.

How would she feel about the drone utilization of targeted killings by the U.S. government?

“Eleanor would be appalled by the drone policy and targeted killings.  Certainly, these policies contradict the UDHR.  We have upended the Magna Carta with these policies.”

How did she resolve the political issues around civil and political rights versus social and economic human rights?

“In the end she divided these rights into two different covenants, thinking she could get them through the Senate much more easily for ratification.  But it took until President George H.W. Bush to ratify the civil and political rights.”


 

Eleanor Roosevelt was a pioneer on a number of fronts and made a pact to remain with FDR, although he had betrayed her by engaging in a life long romantic relationship with Lucy Mercer Rutherford, and maintained a close relationship with his long serving secretary Missy Leland.  She turned to others for emotional support and intimacy, including a several-years relationship with Lorena Hickok, the first AP reporter assigned to follow the First Lady who happened to be Eleanor Roosevelt.  According to Cook, the two women loved each other and wrote daily letter that contained intensely political and loving references throughout the duration of their relationship.

Not withstanding her private and perhaps complicated life, Roosevelt was appointed U.S. Delegate to the UN where she was a force to be reckoned with and not even Harry Truman was willing to risk damaging his reputation by forcing her resignation.  Indeed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is arguably one of Eleanor Roosevelts’s greatest achievements, and no doubt she would be amazed how that document has evolved to encompass the human rights of LGBT persons, peoples with disabilities and more recently, the embrace of indigenous peoples by the world community.

 

In fact, Eleanor Roosevelt’s distinguished accomplishments to establish the UDHR and the Human Rights Commission has galvanized a global movement to erect a memorial in her honor which is memorialized in the above video.  We are once again reminded why we remain  in her debt 64 years after this singular, triumphant  accomplishment that extends hope to the entire world with these words: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.

Tanya L. Domi is the Deputy Editor of the New Civil Rights Movement blog.  She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and teaches human rights in East Central Europe and former Yugoslavia.  Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi has also worked internationally in a dozen countries on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights and gender issues.  She is chair of the board of directors for GetEQUAL.  Domi is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

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Trump Says Progressive Dems Will ‘Attack Christianity’: ‘They’re Animals!’

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President Donald Trump teased his upcoming Faith and Freedom Coalition speech on Friday with a long screed fear-mongering that progressive Democrats will “attack all Religions, but in particular, Christianity.”

Trump posted the warning to his social media platform, Truth Social shortly before he was scheduled to speak to the conservative advocacy organization at its annual conference.

“I will be speaking at 1:30 P.M. to The Faith and Freedom Coalition, and one of the Statements I will be making, perhaps the most important of them all, concerns the recent Election of Communists in our Country. Communism is very easy to sell. I’d be the Greatest Communist in History. I’d give free rent, free houses, free food, everything is free. Unfortunately, after two or three years, the Country where this is taking place would fail. It always does, and then you’ll start living in squalor. There will be no food, there will be no housing, there will be no Military, there will be no nothing,” Trump wrote.

READ MORE: ‘Rededicating the Country to God’: Trump White House Hosts Evangelical Christian Festival

“You’ll be Third World every way, and everyone will suffer or die. I’m sorry to say, but Assassinations of those who oppose them is a very important element of their Ideology. They’re animals! In many cases, not smart but, in some cases, they are,” he continued, railing against the Democratic party establishment for not “fighting back” against them, saying establishment Dems are not “smart enough or tough enough” to block progressive Democrats from winning primary elections or serving if elected.

“If they fought them the way they fight Republicans, or me, they’d be victorious, but they don’t have the courage to do so,” Trump said.

Referring to progressives that have recently won primaries—most notably in New York where the three candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani trounced establishment Democrats this Tuesday—Trump said they were not “social Dumocrats” but “hard core, godless Communists.”

Of the three candidates, while Claire Valdez does not appear to have discussed her religious affiliation, Brad Lander is Jewish and Darializa Avila Chevalier is a convert to Islam, according to the Guardian.

Trump called the candidates the “most serious threat to our Country since its existence 250 years ago.”

“These ruthless Communists will attack all Religions but, in particular, Christianity – They always do. All Communist Countries attack Religions violently. As you know, we recently struck Nigeria, and largely ended the slaughter of their Great Christian population. They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and, in that, they don’t want to get involved. I am saving Christians throughout the World, even though we are not in those various Countries, by hitting these Terrorists violently and hard. They will close your Churches, they will kill your people. This is what they’re about. This is the Greatest Threat to our Country since its Founding 250 years ago!” Trump wrote.

progressive dems truth social 6-26 full text

Trump ordered strikes in Nigeria last year after accusing its government of not stopping the persecution of Christians, according to The Guardian. At the time he accused Islamic State militants in the country of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”

Nigeria’s government has countered claims that extremists are primarily targeting Christians, but rather people of all faiths. While some clashes have been along religious lines, like between Muslim herders and Christian farmers, the Guardian reported, the skirmishes have been over land and water rather than religion. Likewise, though priests have been kidnapped in Nigeria, the cause is related more to money than religious persecution, according to the Guardian.

“Terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security,” the Nigerian Foreign Ministry said at the time of Trump’s strikes.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is holding its Road to Majority Conference at the Washington Hilton Friday. This marks the first time Trump has returned to the Hilton since the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this year. During that dinner, a shooter was stopped by Secret Service agents from carrying out an alleged assassination attempt against Trump, according to The Hill.

Image via Reuters

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Trump Threatens ‘100% TARIFF’ on Countries Who Levy Digital Services Tax on U.S. Companies

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President Donald Trump used his favorite threat, a tariff, against countries that levy a digital service tax against American companies.

Trump made the threat on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.

“Numerous European Countries have been discussing the imminent implementation of a Digital Services Tax on American Companies. Some of these Countries are close to actually doing this. Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America. This TARIFF will supersede Trade Deals made with the Country, whether implemented, signed, or not. Additionally, the 100% TARIFF will be immediately imposed, if they proceed. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote.

READ MORE: Senate Dems Give Trump Administration 90 Days to Refund Tariffs

This is not the first time Trump has threatened a tariff over a digital services tax. Earlier this month, he threatened French exporters with a 100% tariff on wine and champagne.

“I asked [French President Emmanuel Macron] not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” Trump told The New York Post. “All he has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure.”

Digital service taxes are a way to tax income on companies without a physical presence in a country, but do business there via the internet, according to Public Citizen. It’s a tax on gross revenue earned from users in a specific country. As an example, if someone in Freedonia buys a book off Amazon.com, a DST would cause Amazon to pay income tax to Freedonia based off that sale. (Amazon does not have a presence in Freedonia on account of it being a made-up country from the film Duck Soup.)

A number of countries have or are considering implementing digital service taxes, and not just in Europe. Canada had one until recently, but it was repealed earlier this year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has been organizing a proposal, Pillar One, which would set up a international DST across its more than 130 member nations.

Though Pillar One has not yet been enacted, a number of European countries have implemented DSTs, including Poland, Hungary, Denmark and Portugal. Many other countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Austria have DSTs that will be repealed should Pillar One become law, according to the Tax Foundation. In France, for example, big tech companies pay 3% based on gross revenue earned from the country, earning the nation $700 million last year, according to Quartz.

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GOP Rep. Jim Jordan Says He Hopes U.S. ‘Hockey Team’ Wins World Cup

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Unlike many folks around the world, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) clearly doesn’t have World Cup fever—he just said he hopes America’s hockey team can take home the cup.

In a clip surfaced by journalist Aaron Rupar, Jordan made the comment as a button for a Friday morning Newsmax report about the House Judiciary Committee threatening to hold the Southern Poverty Law Center in contempt.

“Hi, Chairman. Wednesday night, 8 o’clock Team USA. What are our chances? How far can we go?” Newsmax host Shaun Kraisman asked.

“Well, I hope we go all the way to the championship and win it. I mean, golly, we’re on a run. Look at the hockey team, look at the UFC fight… where the American beat the Spanish guy in the main event. I mean, we’re on a roll, so let’s hope the hockey team can do the same,” Jordan said.

READ MORE: ‘Threats and Intimidation’: House Republicans Publicly Blast Jim Jordan’s ‘Tactics’

“World Cup, baby, I’ve got the fever. I know Chairman does too,” Kraisman replied.

Jordan appeared on the show to talk about the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, threatening to hold the Southern Poverty Law Center in contempt. He says the anti-hate research and activist group has not turned over documents relating to sources embedded in hate groups.

“The committee has made several good-faith efforts to work with your counsel to obtain documents responsive to the subpoena,” Jordan, wrote in a letter to SPLC’s incoming president and CEO Ryan Haygood, according to right-wing news outlet the Daily Signal. “To date, the committee has still not received any such documents. Therefore, the SPLC must promptly produce all materials responsive to the committee’s subpoena as soon as possible, but not later than 5:00 p.m. on July 9, 2026.”

The Trump administration has gone after the SPLC, alleging that it has manufactured extremist rallies and funded hate groups via its policy of paying informants. The DOJ has accused the organization of wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements, according to CNN. The SPLC denies these charges.

“We’ve already asserted in our filings that we did not lie to our donors, that we did not fund any hate groups,” Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO told the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. “The Department of Justice knew that we were working with them.”

Image via Reuters

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