I hate to use CNN. I am sorry for those who use CC as it really is horrible on CNN. But they do the most reporting on the horrible crimes Russia is doing to Ukrainian people. Hugs
At least 18 people are dead, dozens wounded and several missing after a Russian missile attack on a mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. CNN’s Salma Abdelaziz was at the site of the strike where Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators are collecting evidence to prove what they say is another Russian war crime.
The documentary filmmaker who filmed with Donald Trump and his family in the months before and after the attack on the Capitol says he now needs armed protection.
Alex Holder, who testified to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection last week, spoke candidly about the risks his disclosures have put him in during a BBC TV interview Wednesday.
When asked if he felt threatened because of the evidence he’s given to the panel, Holder said: “Well, my life changed about a week ago and I now literally have two armed guards outside this studio right now that follow me around everywhere.”
Read the full article.
“According to some, I’m an undercover FBI agent; some think I’m an MI6 spy, and there’s all sorts of conspiracies and threats that are coming through.” https://t.co/nr3XBWZwRS
America First Legal (AFL), a right-wing group whose team includes several former Trump administration officials, is urging theSupreme Courtto do even more to shatter what’s left of the wall between church and state.
On Tuesday, June 28, the group issued astatementessentially calling for a total overhaul of theFirst Amendment’s establishment clause, a key provision separating church and state.The statement arrived one day after the Supreme Court cracked part of the clause’s foundation with itsruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton. In that case, the court’s far-right majority ruled that public school officials in Bremerton, Washington, violated the First Amendment rights of high school football coach Joseph Kennedy when they fired him following a controversy stemming from his ritual of praying at the 50-yard line during football games. The 6-3 decision effectively overruled a 1971…
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is pushing out a pediatrician from a board in charge of running the state’s Healthy Kids program because of her viewpoints on vaccines for children under five.
The brief email did not go into great detail, but said that Patronis — a Republican running for re-election this year — was removing Gwynn from the Florida Healthy Kids Board because she had made “some very political statements that do not reflect the CFO’s point of view, even going so far as to as to say that the state is ‘obstruct(ing)’ access to vaccines.”
“The CFO does not share your opinion and believes the state has gone to great lengths to protect lives in the face of the Coronavirus,” reads the email sent to Gwynn by Susan Miller, who is Deputy Chief of Staff for Patronis.
In an interview with Florida Politics, Gwynn said the Healthy Kids Board of Directors has only met once since her appointment in March.
But Gwynn has appeared in approximately ten interviews with television, radio and print media since Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state won’t make COVID-19 vaccines available for children under five years of age at local county health departments.
The local health departments play a key role, Gwynn said, in childhood vaccination efforts. Some of the state’s poorest children in the state go to the county health departments to get vaccinated.
But health departments also play a key role in helping distribute vaccines to pediatricians who work in rural areas or in small group practices.
Pediatricians who don’t have access to large amounts of cold storage capacity rely on the local county health departments to supply COVID-19 vaccines for their patients. Additionally, pediatricians who don’t meet the minimum number of doses required to order through the state system also rely on the health departments to provide them vaccines for their patients.
“Pediatricians can still do that to this day for kids over five,” Gwynn said of relying on the health departments to provide them with COVID 19 vaccines. “They, the Governor and the state Surgeon General, just chose to not allow the under 5 to be carried (by the health departments). This is about health equity and children that live in poverty. That’s what this is about.”
The Healthy Kids Corporation provides subsidized health insurance to children throughout the state with funding that comes from both the federal government and the state.
Gwynn, a South Florida pediatrician who cares for poor children, told Florida Politics she never identified herself as a member of the Florida Health Kids Board in any of the interviews.
“I don’t like to play this game. That’s not my intent to engage in this political war,” she said.
Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat who has been talking to Gwynn about the impact of the DeSantis administration’s decision on vaccines for small children, criticized Patronis’ actions.
“I am appalled at the decision of the CFO to oust Dr. Lisa Gwynn, the President of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, an expert in pediatric care and vaccines, from the Florida Healthy Kids Board because she spoke out against the administration in an effort to get her youngest, most vulnerable patients a life-saving vaccine,” Polsky wrote in a text. “The tyranny of this administration continues to smother any dissenting opinions (e.g. Dr. Scott Rivkees). All Floridians should know how an acclaimed doctor has been treated by the DeSantis regime.”
Gwynn says the board has only met once since her appointment in March. Florida’s surgeon general, mentioned below, is associated with the anti-vax extremist group America’s Frontline Doctors.
Things are getting worse in Florida.
The #DeSantis regime is retaliating against pediatricians for speaking out against their unprecedented obstruction of COVID vaccines for kids.https://t.co/VAildh9WG8
Florida's decision not to pre-order COVID vaccines for children six months to five years old will lead to delays since doctors and hospitals in the state will be responsible for ordering them. https://t.co/pBCb2WyN7f
At yesterday's briefing, Dr. Ladapo made clear neither he nor Gov. DeSantis believe Florida parents should have the choice to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus at county health departments, the primary point of care for 33,000 Florida kids.
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (@COVIDOversight) June 29, 2022
At yesterday's briefing, Dr. Ladapo made clear neither he nor Gov. DeSantis believe Florida parents should have the choice to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus at county health departments, the primary point of care for 33,000 Florida kids.
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (@COVIDOversight) June 29, 2022
Sooooo, move heaven and Earth to protect the unborn zygote but if it’s an actual, live, miniature human being it “Die motherfuckers”. Republican “logic”….
Thank you for a grand point by point breakdown and sharing this information, and as always the comments are right on the mark. Well worth sharing as widely as possible. Hugs
Trump knowingly rallied an armed, violent crowd and sent them to attack the Capitol as Congress certified the electoral votes that would remove him from office and replace him with Joe Biden. Game, set, and match.
Trump knew they were armed, he demanded that the Secret Service take away the magnetometers (metal detectors) from the entrances to his speech because his mob couldn’t get in unless they disarmed. “I don’t care if they have weapons, they aren’t here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away… Let them in. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally is over.” He wanted the optics of a packed rally and was upset that the crowd wouldn’t look big.
Pat Cippollone told her to limit Trump’s movements: “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we go up to the Capitol.” – this…
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Wednesday criticized comments that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) made on Sunday in which she called for ending the separation of church and state in the United States.
Boebert said in a speech at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt, Colo., that she is “tired” of the principle and falsely claimed that the Founding Fathers did not intend to keep religion separate from government.
Kinzinger condemned Boebert’s comments and compared them to the views of the Taliban, the militant Islamic fundamentalist group that rules Afghanistan.
“There is no difference between this and the Taliban. We must oppose the Christian Taliban. I say this as a Christian,” he tweeted.
Boebert argued that the separation of church and state “junk” is not in the Constitution and was only in a letter that “means nothing like they say it does.”
She appeared to be referencing a letter that then-President Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Church Association in Connecticut. In the letter, Jefferson wrote that the American people had built “a wall of separation between Church and State.”
The constitutional interpretation of separation of church and state comes from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The Supreme Court applied this provision also to the states through the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which prohibits states from passing laws that restrict people’s “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
But the court has more recently signaled a willingness to allow religion in public spaces, striking down a law in Maine earlier this month that prevented religious schools from receiving tuition aid from public funds. It also ruled in favor of a high school football coach who was placed on leave for violating the school’s policy against staff encouraging students to engage in prayer.
Boebert argued that the church should direct the government, and not the other way around.
Boebert won the Republican nomination for reelection to her seat on Tuesday, after winning election to the House in 2020 and gaining a reputation as a far-right conservative with hard-line views,
There is no difference between this and the Taliban. We must opposed the Christian Taliban. I say this as a Christian
It’s not like Bimbobert actually read any history books about our forefathers…or any actual books at all. Her kind will walk around with lil’ booklets of the Constitution and pocket Bibles and wave them in everyone’s faces…implying that they’ve actually read, let alone understand either of them.
And she obviously has never read The Bible, or she’d know her lies and calls for violence are in direct contrast to the teachings of Jesus. Did you ever see Beneath The Planet Of The Apes? She reminds me of those fucked up people who lived underground and worshiped a nuclear missile.
Here we have a Protestant wishing for a Medieval hierarchical (and patriarchal) structure where the church (the RCC) had control over government and the law. The very thing Madison, Jefferson, Washington, etc. didn’t want.
The not-so-quiet part about when Bobble-head says “church” is that she means Christian church. They’re fine with religious privilege, as long as it’s the right religion.
When Bobble-head says “church”, she means Christian Church. And when she says “Christian Church”, she means Evangelical Protestant Christian Church. And when she says “Evangelical Protestant Christian Church”. . .
The phrase “wall of separation between church and state” comes from Thomas Jefferson who, as President, wrote a letter to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptist Association dated January 1, 1802. They had written to President Jefferson with concerns about the First Amendment. The phrase was later used in two landmark Supreme Court rulings, Reynolds v. United States (1879) and Everson v. Board of Education (1947.) Reynolds held that “religious duty” (in this case, Mormon requirement for polygamy) was not a defense against criminal charges. Everson held that states are bound to secure Constitutional rights, specifically that “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion…” also applied to state legislatures.
So it surprises me not at all that the Dominionists, who usually fetishize the “original intent” of the Founders, are desperate to ignore this piece of original intent.
Two employees with a North Carolina company say they were fired after refusing to participate in the firm’s daily Christian prayer meetings, which they said went against their respective religious beliefs, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial, was filed in U.S. District Court in Greensboro on Monday on behalf of John McGaha, a construction manager at Aurora Pro Services, and Mackenzie Saunders, a customer service representatives at the Greensboro residential services company. The EEOC announced the lawsuit Tuesday in a news release.
Mary Kate Littlejohn, a Greenville, South Carolina, attorney representing McGaha and Saunders, declined comment Tuesday. No one from Aurora Pro Services was immediately available for comment Tuesday and questions on the lawsuit were referred to an email address from which there was no immediate answer.
In the complaint, the EEOC says daily prayer meetings are part of Aurora’s business model, though there is no reference to it on its web page. Attendance at the prayer meetings was mandatory for employees and was a condition of employment regardless of a worker’s religious beliefs or affiliation, the complaint said.
On occasion, prayers were requested and offered “for poor performing employees who were identified by name,” according to the complaint. Also, the complaint noted, the company owner took attendance and would reprimand employees who did not attend.
McGaha, who identifies himself as an atheist, was hired by the company on June 8, 2020. He said the prayer meetings, which initially lasted around 15 minutes, stretched in length to around 45 minutes and even longer. Saunders, who worked at Aurora from November 2020 until Jan. 21, 2021, describes herself as an agnostic. She also acknowledged that the prayer meetings became longer over time.
According to the complaint, McGaha said the longer the prayer meetings went, the less tolerable they became. He said he was asked on one occasion to lead the Christian prayer, which he refused. In late August 2020, he asked the owner of the company to be excused from those parts of the meeting that pertained to religion because of his conflict with it, but the owner refused and told him “it would be in his best interest to do so.”
McGaha asked again in September to be excused. The complaint said the owner told him that he did not have to believe in God nor did he have to like the meetings but he had to participate. McGaha refused and he was fired, the complaint said. Before he was fired, the owner reduced his base pay from $800 to $400 and his commissions were withheld after his dismissal, the EEOC said.
In January 2021, Saunders stopped going to the prayer meetings because they conflicted with her religion. She was fired, the complaint said, adding that the owner told her she “was not a good fit” for the company.
The complaint also seeks a permanent injunction to prevent the company from engaging in employment practices that discriminate on the basis of religion and subject workers to a hostile work environment “by coercing participating in daily prayer.”
The plaintiffs, one an atheist and the other an agnostic, say the daily prayer meetings went against their respective religious beliefs. https://t.co/ar11LbtrLf
After I told the Supervisor who was in charge of my sexual harassment complaint on how his brother in law called me a faggot, knocked me down, pinned me to the floor and spit in my face he said I needed to forgive everyone (especially his brother in law) and “turn it over to Jesus”.
These “moral” people and their enablers are freaking evil.
I worked for a state agency here in Oklahoma. It was a industrial setting (a fossil fueled power plant) where I worked in the Operations Department. This was before I transitioned so I guess I stuck out with the good old boys for not wanting to degrade and generally trash women. They assumed I was a gay male so I caught abuse from both the wife beaters and the religious nuts. On top of that I had no help from management.
Well, after my mental break I was able to go on SSDI. Even after years of therapy there are problems. Still uneasy around tall buildings. Had two coworkers throw rocks at me off a six story building.
SCOTUS ruling: Atheists and agnostics have no religious beliefs, are spiritually defective, have no rights, and we hereby proclaim they are not human. Prison for both plaintiffs, until they see the error of their ways.
And so the erasing of same sex couples begins. Just students know that a teacher is married to someone of the same gender is now forbidden in Florida. How does this protect children? It does clearly make gay married teachers a lower class of people than straight married teachers. What next limiting benefits to gay married teachers or just making it illegal to have gay teachers? WTF, I am going out of my mind that the US in a few short years snapped back into a theocracy. Hugs
Representatives for Orange County teachers sounded alarm bells Monday after word spread from principals that Orange County Public Schools would impose strict restrictions on classroom behavior after Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, a.k.a the “Don’t Say Gay” law, took effect.
According to representatives of the county’s teacher association, teachers and staff members will be disallowed from wearing rainbow articles of clothing, including lanyards distributed by the district last year. Elementary-level teachers reported being discouraged from putting pictures of their same-sex spouse on their desk or talking about them to students.
“Safe Space” stickers aimed at LGBTQ students may have to be removed from doors, teachers will have to report to parents if a student “comes out” to them and they must use pronouns assigned at birth, regardless of what the parents allow, the CTA reported.
"teachers and staff members will be disallowed from wearing rainbow articles of clothing, including lanyards distributed by the district last year… teachers reported being discouraged from putting pictures of their same-sex spouse on their desk"https://t.co/rGqqNeeKQn
— Christian Vanderbrouk 🇺🇸🇺🇦🌻 (@UrbanAchievr) June 29, 2022
Florida has no law barring such discrimination nor does the federal government. There’s no basis for such a suit and should it actually go into court the current right wing courts will rule against us. This is why we are so fucked and this is just the beginning.
Give it time. If Thomas gets his no ‘substantive due process’ case, that would undermine Loving. And there’s cases every year about one wedding or another not allowing an interracial couple to celebrate there – and the venues do win the cases if they are sufficiently private.
Hear, fucking, hear. I think a lot of Americans, including people on this forum, really haven’t grappled with what’s happening. For all the country’s history of injustice against Blacks, Native people, women and LGBT people, most of us have only ever known life in a nation of democracy, freedom and rule of law.
We’re now entering a phase of history that people in Europe and other countries such as Chile have already seen – where democracy, freedom and rule of law all collapse and are replaced with dictatorship, oppression and lawless rule by decree. It’s disorienting, like the sudden death of a loved one, and it takes a while to wrap your head around it and realize that what you have always known as normal is now gone.
They already are. I am in a number of online groups for music teachers. They are leaving in droves. I guess the MSM will wait and report on this in September when schools can’t open for lack of teachers. (Always a day late and a dollar short our US excuse for journalism!) So it’s already bad, but yes this will make it worse.
The books that have been banned are like “And Tango Makes Three” showing two male parents and no sex. But stories like Goldilocks with a Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear are not banned.
It is about indoctrinating their version of what a family looks like, what a couple looks like.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late Before you are six or seven or eight
Giant water bugs — aka “toe-biters” — pack one of the most painful bites of any insect. But they make the best dads ever. Rather than leaving the survival of his eggs to chance, dad will haul them around piggyback style for weeks, until they hatch right off his back. SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! https://www.youtube.com/user/kqeddeep… Please join our community on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/deeplook DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. — This summer, as you cool your bare feet in a stream somewhere in California – or almost anywhere in the world, really – you might feel a painful nip. The menacing culprit: a giant water bug. Lurking just below the surface of that flowing creek or refreshing pond, these bugs resemble enormous aquatic ticks, with googly eyes and praying mantis arms. And although they won’t seek you out for an attack, they also won’t hesitate to take a defensive bite if you get too close, earning them the nickname “toe-biters.” They puncture the skin with dagger-like mouth parts and have a bite known as one of the most painful of any insect – sharp and stinging like a wasp’s. You may not even get a chance to spot the offending insect before it dashes off, but you’ll undoubtedly be left with an indelible impression. And a swollen, throbbing toe. — What do giant water bugs eat? Giant water bugs are voracious predators that will take down any small animals they can subdue. They have a long needle-like mouth and their bite contains a cocktail of chemicals that paralyzes their prey and digests their tissues. Then the giant water bugs slurp up its meal. Giant water bugs hunt other insects, tadpoles and frogs, small fish, and even the occasional duckling. — How do giant water bugs breathe? Giant water bugs spend their lives in freshwater, but they must return to the surface to breathe. Giant water bugs have two little air straps that protrude from their backside. The air straps work like a snorkel to pull air into a bubble trapped under their wings. — What do giant water bugs taste like? In Southeast Asia giant water bugs are sometimes eaten as a regional delicacy. Like other arthropods, giant water bugs are said to taste a bit like shrimp with a slightly sweet flavor. —+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:
Armed and Dangerous! 
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