From Reuters News:
Wagner’s convicts tell of horrors of Ukraine war and loyalty to their leader
Reuters tracked down and interviewed five Russian prisoners who fought in Ukraine in return for freedom. They gave the most detailed insider account yet of Wagner’s convict army.
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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie
US, Russia on the hunt for downed drone
Both the U.S. and Russia have signaled an interest in hunting for an advanced, $32 million drone downed over the Black Sea on Tuesday, but the search is complicated by the fact the unmanned aerial aircraft plunged into deep water near Crimea.
Read in The Hill: https://apple.news/A07oIr427Q06qFsycpf7mDA
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The white nationalist religious racist maga fanatics are not satisfied with wiping out the LGBTQ+ from schools and making their lives difficult in Florida. Now they want to whitewash the racist history of the US to wipe out the mistreatment and economy of the slave states built of free slave labor that gave no benefit of that labor to the black people but instead benefited only the white people. This started with outlawing any teaching that would make white kids uncomfortable, with no care how the black kids in the same classes / age groups felt. It was totally geared to the comfort and image of the white students. This current drive removed the historical context as to why the standard economic situations are so different when you compare white economic status to the average black family’s economic status. This denies the systematic racism that has existed in the US even to today. Red lining preventing community up grades, loans for businesses in majority black areas, the taking of black areas by the government so businesses could make profit that again destroyed black communities. Mass transit was often denied to lower income black areas that needed it for work because they couldn’t afford cars. There are so many ways the systems are designed to disadvantage blacks that make the current economic situation clear it is not the black communities fault. Look at the difference in funding and supplies between traditional majority black public schools compared to white majority public schools. This is being done so that racist can make a case that the situation black people are in is their own doing, they are less intelligent than whites, they care less about their families than whites, they care less about their homes / property than whites, the reason police action against blacks is they don’t respect police or follow their directions like white people do leaving out the context of the way blacks are treated by police in the US even in the modern day.
We must fight back against this with everything we have. Florida has already become the Meca paradise for the white supremist white Christian nationalist crowd backed up by thug gang enforcers that love the Gov. DeathSantis attacks anyone who is different while acting like a king with any who disagrees with him, threatening what little free press remains. Oh ya, this is the free state of Florida according to DeathSantis campaign slogan. Hugs
The New York Times reports:
In Florida, textbooks have become hot politics, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign against what he describes as “woke indoctrination” in public schools, particularly when it comes to race and gender. Last year, his administration made a splash when it rejected dozens of math textbooks, citing “prohibited topics.” Now, the state is reviewing curriculum in what is perhaps the most contentious subject in education: social studies.
In the last few months, as part of the review process, a small army of state experts, teachers, parents and political activists have combed thousands of pages of text — not only evaluating academic content, but also flagging anything that could hint, for instance, at critical race theory. The Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group, has urged the state to reject 28 of the 38 textbooks that its volunteers reviewed.
Bypass the paywall via this gift link.
They’re even going after Rosa Parks.
Hey Teacher … what does “different sorts of groups” mean?
Why did a lady being asked to move her seat go to the Supreme Court?
Kids won’t ask such questions. I remember being told “savages” liked being civilized by European invaders when the country was founded
I thought that sounded wrong but I didn’t speak up as a kid
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
– democratic Socialist George Orwell.
I can’t wait for FL kids to learn about the War of Northern Aggression and the reign of the Tyrant Lincoln. /s
It “focuses too much” on the “negative side” to our genocide of the collective tribes and nations of the Native American cultures?
So they’re saying they want us to celebrate genocide then?
Figures. They are neo-nazis after all.
I’m glad we are getting some actual examples now of what these changes entail. They are even worse than I imagined. So bad that the students, I hope, will be correcting the teachers.
A whole state full of white supremacists. That’s what ROnda Sandtits is shooting for
Because no one will know that white people did anything wrong .
DeSantis vs. diversity: Blacklists have universities playing defense as Republicans attack<.b>
” In more than a dozen interviews with the Herald, faculty and staff described a quiet calculus on campuses as educators navigate an increasingly hostile work environment resulting from vague and ever-evolving directives coming from Tallahassee.
Police killed his son. Prosecutors charged the teen’s friends with his murder.
This story is published in collaboration with the Phoenix New Times.
Read in The Appeal: https://apple.news/A8B5QX8H6SPev2npLeIcptw
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Over the last 50 years while the democrats pursued only the highest offices in the land the republicans were pushing hard to take over state government and the churches rushed to take over the school boards. I remember that in the 1990s in Palm Beach Conty that the big churches were fielding stealth candidates to take over the boards and change what was being taught. It was underway back then! Now the right wing /maga republicans are using their complete control over the levers of state power to end right, roll back protections, to take the states back to a time of strict gender roles for the sexes and a time when minorities were second class citizens who either knew their place or they were not allowed in society in any way. In fact they are not just trying to return society where gays were a shame to the family but they want a time when gays could be arrested along with denied working for any level of government being banned from security clearances. They are driving hard for this. Look at the red states trying hard to bring back banned conversion therapy that has been well and full debunked as not only something that doesn’t work but was found to be very harmful to those subjected to it. They again want to deny the medical science because it shows their ideology is wrong. Being gay or trans is not a choice, it is not a disease needing to change or cured. People are born gay / trans and while some manage to hide it, they should have to. They should be able to live their lives freely as they really are. Plus now they want to set up secret hidden police where neighbor spys on each other and reports to hotlines those not following the party rule. Hugs
From the Arizona Department of Education:
Arizona schools chief Tom Horne has launched the Department of Education “Empower Hotline” so that Arizonans can report inappropriate public school lessons that detract from teaching academic standards.
These include those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content.
The hotline provides the opportunity for constituents to provide feedback, concerns or complaints, which is a standard service offered by multiple government agencies and private-sector businesses.
It is available at 602-771-3500, or through email at empower@azed.gov. The phone line will be staffed during normal business hours, but after-hours phone calls as well as emails will be accepted at any time and followed up appropriately.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory were banned, they would defy the law.
“They would not have signed if they were not already teaching it. They come from 25 school districts, including the largest ones. Teachers must teach academics, not use their power over a captive audience, to promote their personal ideology. That is unprofessional conduct.”
Horne added, “I promised to establish this hotline so that anyone could report the teaching of inappropriate lessons that rob students of precious minutes of instruction time in core academic subjects such as reading, math, science, history and the arts. That promise is being kept.”
While Arizona state attorney general, Horne threatened to sue cities that recognized out-of-state same-sex marriages. That same year he proposed legislation allowing public school teachers to carry guns. Horne has faced multiple allegations of campaign finance crimes and has a lifetime trading ban by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to an investment firm he founded before running for public office. As you can see below, he is a supporter of QAnon freak show Vaseline Woman.
I hope that students flood the call line with reports of teachers talking about their heterosexual spouses, or wearing crosses and talking about their faith.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate
study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I
have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement
promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory
were banned, they would defy the law.
He missed a great opportunity to use the phrase “I have here in my hand…”
They were pulling that up in New Hampshire after passing their law banning “divisive concepts” in the classroom.
Now they’re whining about a big teacher shortage because all the good ones who could got the hell out and moved here to Massachusetts or elsewhere.
“The whole function of education is to create a Nazi.” ~ Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister, February 1938
This Canadian immigrant, son of Polish immigrants, cost Arizona millions of dollars when as Attorney General he got the Republican-run legislature to ban Mexican studies here in Tucson. Went all the way to the Supremes, who told this old fuck to fuck the fuck off. The bill he promoted banned well-known history books because they mentioned discrimination against Mexican-Americans. Always interesting to see immigrants coming to the US and promoting hatred towards other immigrants (e.g., Rupert Murdoch).
Superintendent Horne said, “There’s nothing more outrageous than religious prejudice…”
Nothing? I can think of a few things:
– pastors who sexually abuse children
– revivals
– evangelical parents who brainwash their children
– “ex-gay” torture
– Anti-Semitism
– racism
– rape
– laws that dehumanize and persecute LGBTQ people
– Republicans
– Trumpvangelicals
– QAnon cultists
– White/Christian Nationalists
– book bans
– the dissemination of far-right propaganda
– everyone who works at Fox
A Texas Man’s Pathetic Attempt to Terrorize His Ex-Wife’s Friends Over Her Abortion
It’s the latest frontier in the battle over reproductive rights.
Read in Slate: https://apple.news/AIWDjaE_nSGS2piFc_ZN1Pg
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Why Republicans Are Blaming the Bank Collapse on Wokeness
The only problem with this line of attack is that it makes no sense.
Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/AUFIgcEj6RjeHj89e4gjxZQ
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You need to read the article. As it states this is a blatant attack on the LGBTQ+ community. With adults checking out the books and taking them to the police. At the same time the librarian notes that these same people including the prosecutor attack books with LGBTQ+ themes don’t care at all about the many more books for teens that deal with heterosexual sex or pictures and noted the library has the straight Joy of Sex book that I remember well had many depictions of sex, how to have sex, sex organs, and sex positions. They don’t care about that at all, because that reenforces their world view that sex between boys and girls is great / normal but anything not that is a horrible evil sin against gods ways done by degenerate evil people that want to corrupt the country. Notice that Lauren Boebert who attacks the gay / trans community nonstop and calls teachers who support equality for the LGBTQ+ community groomers while attacking any and all sex education in any level of public schools announced her 17 year old son got a girl who is now 14 (somewhat sketchy under the laws in that state) pregnant and Boebert couldn’t be happier. She left school because she was pregnant at 16 and because her son got no education to even use a condom when he had sex he got a minor girl pregnant. He is also know for driving his four wheelers at breakneck dangerous speed in the local streets endangering small kids and pets along with being an asshole.
Some quotes from the article:
“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.
Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron.
One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.
Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.” The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library.
But most telling was this set of quotes from the article.
Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”
To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.
“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”
Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.
“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.
“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.
The article is below and includes so much more bigotry and hate from the right in it. Hugs
Amy Churchill, director of the Lapeer District Library, is facing the possibility of criminal charges from a conservative county prosecutor in a fight over an LGBTQ-themed book. (Bridge courtesy photo)
- A Michigan county prosecutor is raising the specter of criminal charges over a controversial book
- ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ is an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel
- The book will be discussed at what is expected to be a heated meeting Thursday
Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller says he may file criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District Library if an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel isn’t removed from the shelves.
Miller told Bridge Michigan on Monday the illustrations in the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” could rise to the level of accosting, enticing or soliciting a child for immoral purpose, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
“I hope that is not the outcome of this,” Miller said. “I want this to come to a conclusion” that the community agrees on that would “remove the book from the library.”
Related:
- Michigan GOP official: Shut down ‘by force’ public library with LGBTQ books
- After LGBT book spat, Michigan family gives $100K to library they haven’t seen
- Why LGBTQ books may imperil west Michigan library: ‘This isn’t New York’
The threat of criminal charges against librarians is believed to be a first in the state, and is an escalation of cultural wars that have spread across public and school libraries in Michigan over the past year.
The book, an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel with illustrations of sex acts, has caused controversy in libraries in Michigan and across the country, and Miller’s threat follows a controversy over the book that has brewed since fall in this rural county in Michigan’s Thumb.
Miller cited the specific criminal code — 750.145a — he believed the book’s presence in a public library could violate.
The law is often associated with police sting operations of adults who prey on minors, barring enticing anyone under 16 “to commit an immoral act, to submit to an act of sexual intercourse or an act of gross indecency or to any other act of depravity or delinquency.”
Amy Churchill, director of the library, said she’s undeterred by Miller’s threat.
“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.
“I am not hard to find,” she added. “If Mr. Miller wishes to arrest me, I am in my office working for the patrons and staff of the Lapeer District Library Monday through Friday.”
Miller said he, “along with other county officials,” will urge the library to remove the book at a Lapeer District Library board meeting Thursday evening. Library officials are considering a patron request to remove “Gender Queer” from the library’s collection.
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” was the most banned book in school libraries in 2022, according to PEN America, a group that advocates for writers, and the most challenged book by the American Library Association.
The graphic novel is the story of author Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts.
“Gender Queer” was one of the books that caused an uproar in Ottawa County last fall, when voters defunded the Patmos Library. That library is operating on donations for now but officials do not believe they can stay open indefinitely without taxpayer support.
No criminal charges against librarians have been publicly contemplated there, but library officials have received several threats of violence.
Keeping books some consider inappropriate away from children is drawing attention among some in Lansing as well. House Bill 4136, sponsored by Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, would require public libraries to keep “obscene” books in an area where children do not have access.
Most public libraries are not designed in a way that would allow a restricted book area, Deb Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, told MLive.
Lapeer District Library serves about two-thirds of Lapeer County, east of Flint. There are seven small branch libraries in the district, with a main library in the city of Lapeer.
Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron. Soon afterward, some residents began objecting to the book.
One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.
Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.”
The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library.
Lapeer’s library board doesn’t approve individual book purchases, Churchill said. According to the library’s policies, Churchill, as director, has final approval of purchases.
Churchill said she was shocked by the FOIA, sent on official stationery of the Lapeer County prosecutor’s office, since she had never spoken to Miller or anyone in his office, and the information could have been gleaned with a phone call.
The FOIA letter stated Miller would “pay personally” for any charges incurred by the library in fulfilling the request.
“A FOIA is an extremely aggressive way to communicate with someone,” Churchill said. “Usually you’d try to talk to them first.”
Miller said he became involved when several county commissioners approached him with copies of books that had been checked out from the Lapeer library.
He said he dismissed concerns about two of the books – one with LGBTQ themes but no illustrations, and a second that had to do with race relations.
The third was “Gender Queer,” with illustrations that Miller said shocked him, “and that takes a lot for a prosecutor,” he said. “I’m an attorney, I’ve studied the constitution, I’ve passed the bar exam. My job is to take a position that protects our innocent and our youth. And if this isn’t child sexual abusive material, … it borders on it.”
Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”
To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.
“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”
Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.
“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.
“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.
Miller declined to say who he would consider charging — Churchill as the director, library board members or the author of the book.
“I’m waiting for the community to chime in (before deciding whether to file criminal charges), to say this is something that should or should not be in the library,” Miller said. “The majority of the voices I’ve heard think it shouldn’t.”
Georgia is considering a bill that would allow school librarians to be charged criminally for objectionable books, as is Indiana, Texas and Wyoming.
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