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  Amanda Gorman Captures the Moment, in Verse By Alexandra Alter The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history read “The Hill We Climb,” which she finished after the riot at the Capitol. “I’m not going to in any way gloss over what we’ve seen,” she says. Two weeks ago, the poet Amanda Gorman was struggling to finish a new work titled “The Hill We Climb.” She was feeling exhausted, and she worried she wasn’t up to the monumental task she faced: composing a poem about national unity to recite at President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration. “I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career,” she said in an interview. “It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I’m just going to pass out.” Gorman managed to write a few lines a day and was about halfway through the poem on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed into the halls of Congress, some bearing weapons and Confederate flags. She stayed awake late into the night and finishe

  President Biden photos Masking America’s Greatest Natural Monuments by aletho By James Bovard | AIER | February 6, 2021 The Biden administration just issued an edict that will spur endless pointless conflicts for Americans seeking to peacefully enjoy hundreds of national parks. On Groundhog Day, the National Park Service (NPS) mandated wearing face masks on all National Park Service lands “when physical distancing cannot be maintained, including “narrow or busy trails, overlooks and historic homes.” Probably 95% of the Park Service’s 800+ million acres is uncrowded 95% of the time. But the new mandate is an entitlement program for anyone who wants to harass anyone on federal land who is not wearing a mask, regardless of social distancing, wide open spaces, or trails wide enough for 18-wheel trucks. As the Idaho Statesman noted, “It’s unclear how park officials will enforce Biden’s federal mask mandate.” The Outdoor Society hailed the new regulation: “It is straight forward and very s

  Mets’ Jackie Bradley Jr. pursuit may not be over: Sherman By Joel ShermanFebruary  The Mets have reached agreement with Albert Almora pending a physical, and it is possible that settles how they will approach center field this season, with the former Cub serving as a caddy for Brandon Nimmo. But they have done so much background work on Jackie Bradley Jr. that I will continue to believe that if the designated hitter is adopted by the NL and Bradley remains a free agent at that time, the Mets will at least consider him. In the last week, the Mets had an extended Zoom meeting with Bradley that included team president Sandy Alderson, acting GM Zack Scott, hitting coach Chili Davis and first base/outfield coach Tony Tarasco. Scott, in particular, knows Bradley well from their shared time working with the Red Sox. The problem has been that Bradley never fully fit the Mets, as they are constructed without them being able to use a DH. His presence would have forced the Mets to decide every

 'You're Not Allowed Here': Soldiers Remove Arabs From West Bank Site at Settlers' Request Hagar Shezaf The Arab family, all Israeli citizens, was picnicking at a site near Ramallah, not far from an outpost, when settlers harassed them and called the army Israeli soldiers ejected an Israeli Arab family from a site near Kafr Jibiya in the Ramallah area of the West Bank on Saturday, where the family was having a picnic. The soldiers arrived on the scene after Israelis from a nearby Jewish settlement outpost, called them to the site. In two video clips of the incident, the settlers are first seen approaching the family and telling them to leave, although though the site is not within the confines of any West Bank Jewish settlement. When the family refused, one of the settlers took their belongings and threw beverages from their cups onto their campfire. The settler then called the army. The family filmed a soldier who arrived on the scene, who told them that they had to le

  Photo Credit: Henry Ridgwell (VOA) via Wikimedia Biden to Remove Iran-Backed Houthis from Foreign Terrorist Organization List By Hana Levi Julian The US State Department on Friday confirmed to reporters that President Joe Biden has directed his administration to remove Yemen’s Iranian-backed militia, the Houthis, from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. “Secretary (Antony) Blinken has been clear about undertaking an expeditious review of the designations of Ansarallah (Houthis – ed.) given the profound implications for the people of Yemen, home to the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak publicly. He added that the “decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens. We are committed to helping Saudi Arabia defend its territory against further such attacks,” the official

https://on.rt.com/b18t  (L) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas © Reuters / John Thys; (R) Belarusian protesters rally in Minsk, Belarus, on December 13, 2020. © Reuters   ‘Genie’s out of the bottle’: German FM pledges €21 million to help Belarusian opposition in fight to remove embattled Lukashenko Germany has set aside €21 million ($25.3 million) as part of its new “action plan” aimed at supporting opponents of the Belarusian government, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has told an improvised pro-opposition online conference. Seemingly in an effort to cement an image of Berlin as the leader among European nations sponsoring anti-government movements in the post-Soviet space, Maas on Saturday addressed the so-called Belarus Solidarity Conference. This was a virtual event organized by the World Belarus Congress, a forum of Belarusian expatriate diasporas and opposition-supporting groups. “The Genie of democracy is out of the bottle. There is no way to put it back,” Berlin's chief diploma

  Pentagon goes rooting for ‘extremists’ among its 3.6mn trained killers Helen Buyniskiis an American journalist and political commentator  The US military is making a big show of cleansing its ranks of ‘extremism’ – because nothing says tolerance like raining fiery death on innocent strangers at the command of a guy who just stepped down from Raytheon’s board. With “domestic extremists” now officially the enemy du jour in Washington, the top order of business has become finding some. On Wednesday, newly-anointed secretary of defense (and former Raytheon board member) Lloyd Austin ordered a two-month stand-down so that commanders could engage in “needed discussions” with their subordinates on the issue. Did we mention they have a lot of subordinates? There are 3.6 million service members in the most expensive military in the world, and evaluating every single one of them for a characteristic that lacks even a universally-agreed-upon definition is certain to be both time-consuming and f