Wisconsin school district vows change after Title IX probe, complaints from nonbinary student
The Rhinelander, Wisc. school district enters Title IX deal with Education Dept.’s civil rights arm after probe due to nonbinary student’s complaints.
Florida schools remove works of literature under state’s new law
Florida’s ‘Parental Rights in Education’ law allows the banning of access to some works in classrooms such as Paradise Lost by John Milton and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn.
Josh Hawley falls in a hole, finds a shovel, and keeps digging
Josh Hawley got caught trying to deceive the public with a fake quote about the U.S. being a Christian nation. His response to the flap made matters worse.
These are old now but remember I have not been feeling well and just now getting on my feet. Oh, it seems that the state of Florida has now required a new expense for people on pain medications. I will explain later. As if us poor people needed more medication costs. Yet the wealthy and well-connected get to lie as much as they want to get everything they need. Hugs
President Biden went off script in a speech in Ireland, Fox News is rumored to be seeking a settlement to avoid more embarrassment in the Dominion lawsuit, and details continue to surface about the suspicious relationship between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire Harlan Crow.
This is the person I want in the Senate!!! Plus I want more like her in all of our federal and state congresses! She is a working person, she knows how hard life can be, she understands so much that those multimillionaires like Manchin have forgotten and done care about. Think how great the lives of the average person in the US, the public, could be if we had more like her. Please if you can vote for her, donate to her campaign, and do what we can so she wins. Hugs
Rep. Katie Porter tells Stephen that she doesn’t take money from lobbyists, she thinks Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is guilty of hypocrisy, and she finds it hard to go to work every day with Marjorie Taylor Greene as a colleague. Rep. Porter’s new memoir, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” is out now.
EPISODE SUMMARY Long before Governor Ron DeSantis declared a new war on wokeness, Florida lawmakers in the 1950s and 60s tried going after the NAACP, suspected communists and gay people in Florida schools and universities. The lawmakers upended life for countless numbers of their fellow Floridians before being upended themselves by their own zeal for the cause. Now that DeSantis is bringing this playbook to a presidential campaign, Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson ask what we can learn from the last time Florida went down this path.
For those that are hearing impaired or prefer to read instead of listen, the transcript is here.
Long before Governor Ron DeSantis declared a new war on wokeness, Florida lawmakers in the 1950s and 60s tried going after the NAACP, suspected communists and gay people in Florida schools and universities. The lawmakers upended life for countless numbers of their fellow Floridians before being upended themselves by their own zeal for the cause. Now that DeSantis is bringing this playbook to a presidential campaign, Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson ask what we can learn from the last time Florida went down this path.
Twin brothers Blake Krenzer, 19, and Brandon Krenzer, 19, of Gambrills have been charged for alleged involvement in the vandalism of the Black Lives Matter and Pride signs at the Ark & Dove Presbyterian Church. Officers responded to the Odenton church on the morning of June 14, where they found the vandalized signs. An investigation revealed the vandalism had happened around 10 p.m. the previous evening. Police said the Krenzers were identified with the help of the public.
While the Court’s decision only addresses expressive original designs, I’m deeply concerned that the decision could invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans. More broadly, today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women.
American Christianity isn’t “merely” anything. It’s a foul pestilence that should be righteously and vociferously mocked and shunned as the anti science, anti logic and reasoning millstone dragging society down to stupidity that it is.
If you want context that this is a made up political issue watch this
If Republicans are truly worried about members of the first family improperly benefitting from their name, Mehdi says there are two people besides Hunter Biden that they should be looking at: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Because that was the price for the top-secret intelligence documents Kushy obtained from his FIL’s top-secret stash at Mar-A-Shitto and passed on to Saudi intelligence….
At least that’s what I believe. I fear that someday, we will discover that Kushy did more damage to the US than every other convicted spy combined. No wonder Skanky is trying to distance herself from Daddy…..
I wonder if any of her GOP opponents in the upcoming debates are going to have the guts to call her “Nimrata” and ask her why she insists on trying to pass as White…and oh by the way, why hasn’t she released her “long form birth certificate” to prove that she was really born in the USA and not India?
It goes back to Aristotle and Aquinas plus back to Old Testament where a man “plants his seed.” The DNA for the complete human being is in the man’s seed, just like a plant. The woman is just the furrow where the seed is planted.
I’m reminded of the Comstock Act, especially as it pertained to mailing birth control or abortifacients in the 1870s. It was expressed that one of the underlying reasons for this was In reaction to the influx of the Irish Catholics (especially in NYC), and the need to insure that English Protestants didn’t become a minority.
if students wanted their loans forgiven, why the fuck didn't they just take Sam Alito on a luxury fishing vacation and tell him how to vote? I mean, show some initiative, people
Sam_Handwich5 days ago edited In my very blue neck of the woods a “controversy” has arisen after the local zoo posted pictures on FB of Pride decorations in some of the animal enclosures. Not sure this would even be an issue were it not for the right’s renewed tantrum that gay people exist. I have mixed feelings about zoos as a thing, haven’t been there in years, but might visit today or tomorrow.
DeSanctimonious is a dangerous religious maniac, craven for power, and there is nothing he won’t say or do to achieve his goals. It is a relief to see the Orlando Sentinel has stood up to this fascist bigoted governor. More leaders need to stand up and do the same thing.
Floridians are not ready for a new fight to begin. They overwhelmingly reelected a fascist governor who hates us. Down here in SWFL, there is a practical news blackout on the the horrible new laws taking effect in a couple of days. Nobody seems to care. It feels like what 1930’s Germany must have felt like to live there.
Dennis5 days ago They spent billions to indoctrinate Republican voters to become far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists and now they are trying to stop someone who is representing such views..
They never liked trump, they thought they could control him. That went badly. Now they see a nazi that they don’t need to babysit and they are rightly afraid the orange shit stain is gonna rain on their parade.
The only reason they want to stop Trump is because they can read the polls which say he will lose to Biden in 2024.
In other news, the New Hampshire House passes legislation to ban gay and trans panic defenses 271-98 with the Senate concurring. I am so pleased to see this LGBTQ civil rights measure head to Gov. Sununu's desk and am happy to have played a part in drafting the bill's language. pic.twitter.com/lzGDB7HX5x
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) June 29, 2023
Yves R. Mektin5 days ago So they plan on doing absolute zilch nada zip for the American people or their constituents. Nothing but performative obstruction.
I’d ask on what grounds, but it’s just petty political vindictiveness that will only serve to waste time and taxpayer money; in other words, business as usual for the GQP
Conversion therapy is complete and utter quackery, and it’s a crime that it’s not outlawed federally. This practice should be outlawed regardless of age, not just for minors.
At least a large chunk of states are picking up the slack.
We’ve been far too tolerant for all manner of quackery (Dr Oz for example) for far too long. Frauds and scammers should be put out of business. This isn’t a first amendment issue. This is an issue of lying to people (or their parents) and inflicting harm on them.
It is psychological terrorism. The pray away “movement” coincided with APA’s declassification of same sex orientation as illness. Evangelicals were pissed not to have a “sick” scapegoat.
Great news. Once again, if it weren’t already obvious, LGBT rights expand under Democrats and contract under Republicans. The folks who are always saying the Dem’s do nothing aren’t paying attention.
They know their voters are captured assets. They only listen to propaganda and have inoculations in place to keep any outside information of getting in.
Message of the year: How do you spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest. 🏆 @GovPritzkerpic.twitter.com/X8BvFq5215
Read the full article. There’s much more. Gift link here. This same developer has given DeSantis and wife rides on his private jet and was in the news just last week for an unreported $27,000 golf simulator he had installed at Florida’s governor’s mansion.
Read the full article. Hunt last appeared on JMG in February 2023 when she responded to an anti-drag bill with a troll amendment that would bar parents from enrolling their children in “religious indoctrination camps.” The final April 1st tweet below is pinned to the top of the hate group’s feed.
A Nebraska lawmaker filed a defamation lawsuit against a local far-right political action committee after members claimed she was grooming her transgender son.
DmR4 days ago I live near her district, which is in a blue pocket in an otherwise bright crimson state. She is making quite the name for herself and the Wingers do not like the attention and support she is getting.
I’m not as disturbed by the picture at the Governor’s mansion as I am concerned for her children. The height of their creativity is a brainwashed image of a picture of torture? Where are the flowers, magic fairies, animals?
This deliberate violation of church/state can’t be prosecuted either.
Evangelicals now have their required threshold majority in key places. Once they are the solid majority wherever they are they are the de facto standard and NOTHING can remove them. That’s why we’re becoming a failed nation. Once a nation is ruled by Bronze Age religious mythology it collapses.
Something tells me in coming years the entire LGBTQ community will be required to march and fight for our rights all across this country…. Even us quiet, middle aged suburban gays are needed to get more involved.
The DeSantis message is kind of amazing: "You might have thought Trump is a bigot, but occasionally he seems to say non-bigoted things. I'll be all bigotry all the time!" https://t.co/CYZblJAwgY
Team DeSantis boasting, like all normal socially adjusted people would, that his laws "literally threaten trans existence" https://t.co/8GbdWauFgg
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) July 1, 2023
GayOldLady3 days ago Peanuts 🥜 DeSantis trying to prove his manhood by leaning into the Pulse massacre! This bastard is a danger to our community and we ignore him at our own peril. We must proactively stand against him. 🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🌈
We will fight him in the orchards, we will fight him in the mangroves, we will fight him on the beaches, we wll fight him in the cornfields, we will fight him any fuckin place he challenges our Civil and Human rights
Well, at least DeSantis has finally shown his true colors. His ridiculaous campaign has NOTHING to do with “Protect the Children” and everything to do with “Hate the Gays.” Which we knew all along.
This is not only deranged and idiotic, it’s a not so subtle call for violence against LGBT people. The subtext is that DeFascist will get rid of these people once and for all. And of course the Log Cabin quislings are surprised the leopards are eating their faces.
Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️4 days ago With Supreme Court LGBTQ decision, marriage equality is at risk The court’s decision demeans our nation’s aspirations to equality and inclusion and thereby diminishes us all. By Laurence H. Tribe and Jeffrey B. Abramson Until this week, under long-standing state public accommodations laws, if a business wanted all the benefits that came from being generally open to the public, then it had to serve all customers equally. Since 1964, this principle has applied to a motel in the heart of Atlanta, Ollie’s barbeque joint in Birmingham, Ala., and social clubs and private schools that advertised to the general public. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted about the historic case involving Ollie’s, it would not do for the owner to have said, “I’ll serve Blacks but only on a takeout window, not inside my restaurant because that sends a message that I endorse integration.”
By twisting free speech into a license to discriminate, the court has now carved out an exception from public accommodations law for businesses that recast their services in ways that highlight their expressive features. But the court offers no workable principle to cabin that exception in any meaningful way.
Todd20036 Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️4 days ago Sodomy laws are next Hiv meds could be no longer covered by insurance We could be arrested for holding hands in public or kissing in public Don’t think that’s impossible
One would think that the court would find for the nation’s best interests to encourage a fair, equitable, and cohesive society, not to promote the very toxicity that tears society apart, no matter whether it’s disguised in “free speech” or “religion.”
I knew the night RBG died that we were fucked and would be fucked for longer than I’ll likely be alive. Right wingers have made no secret that they hated anything that gave rights to minorities. They like to frame it in a libertarian argument so it sounds like freedom, but the freedom they want is the freedom to be bigots. Everything is going to be ruled unconstitutional and that’s going to affect the blue states, not just the red. And especially the blue islands in red states! So very fucked and not in the good way.
Tie up the courts, the judges, and waste lawyers time along with the time of Congress…. …for not wanting to put on a CDC recommended mask when in the company of others.
It’s all very interesting that after years of these fascists whining that they couldn’t breathe when wearing a mask, so many of them now show up at protests…WEARING MASKS!
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)
The other names weren’t a surprise, but I have to admit, Ralphie didn’t ring a bell for me. Had to look him up, and wow, shocker, real estate mogul old white guy. Jokes about sexual assault. Negligent with firearms. Used the supposedly MAGA hated remote voting to skip town to get to CPAC. Hates student loan forgiveness, but got some $300k+ of PPP loans forgiven. Wanted Steve King back after his boot for white nationalist comments. Wants to impeach Biden.
Weird, he hits all the same marks as the MTGs and Boeberts and such, but I had absolutely no recollection of him. Wonder if he’ll join the GOP presidential clown car next…
northalabama Gene Perry4 days ago standing, schmanding! it’s 2023, you just have to invent a plaintiff out of thin air, then have enough billionaires lined up to pay your expenses for years until you win, easy peasy.
It amazes me that these decisions so blatantly favour the rich and privileged. Striking down Affirmative Action can only harm the less privileged. Student loans are used by those who need them and don’t have their own resources. and the LGBT community can now be refused services by public commercial operations. Nothing here for the poor or the minorities can take any comfort in. It looks like the Supreme Court has found their own ‘protected class’ of wealthy privileged bourgeoisie.
What Paxton and his office did not say: The law firm that produced the report, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, has been paid more than $500,000 in public money to defend him against whistleblowers who sued the agency for wrongful termination because they went to the FBI with allegations of corruption.
With Supreme Court LGBTQ decision, marriage equality is at risk
The court’s decision demeans our nation’s aspirations to equality and inclusion and thereby diminishes us all.
By Laurence H. Tribe and Jeffrey B. AbramsonUpdated June 30, 2023, 3:43 p.m.
The same-sex marriage equality decision stands for now, but it should be added to the list of endangered precedents.GLOBE STAFF/ADOBE
This week, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that businesses generally open to the public can nonetheless discriminate against LGBTQ customers.
At issue in the 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis case was an evangelical Christian website designer from Colorado who did not wish to offer the same services to a same-sex wedding couple that she would offer to a heterosexual couple. The court ruled that, as an artist, the designer would be engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment by selling her customized services and thus could not be compelled to serve those whose wedding plans contradict her beliefs about marriage. Indeed, she could not be required to take down a message saying that she won’t serve gay couples.
Until this week, under long-standing state public accommodations laws, if a business wanted all the benefits that came from being generally open to the public, then it had to serve all customers equally. Since 1964, this principle has applied to a motel in the heart of Atlanta, Ollie’s barbecue joint in Birmingham, Ala., and social clubs and private schools that advertised to the general public. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted about the historic case involving Ollie’s, it would not do for the owner to have said, “I’ll serve Blacks but only on a takeout window, not inside my restaurant because that sends a message that I endorse integration.”
By twisting free speech into a license to discriminate, the court has now carved out an exception from public accommodations law for businesses that recast their services in ways that highlight their expressive features. But the court offers no workable principle to cabin that exception in any meaningful way.
One major problem with the court’s premise is that no reasonable observer would attribute to the website designer the message that she endorses gay marriage merely because, as required by a state antidiscrimination law, she designs a website for a couple regardless of their sexual orientation. The designer isn’t speaking for the couple — she just creates a medium for their message. And Colorado’s law doesn’t prevent her from making that clear to everyone.
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch relied on a prior case in which the court ruled that the organizers of the Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade could not be compelled to include a float bearing a banner for the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston. But the unanimous opinion in that case stressed that while parade organizers could exclude the banner, they could not exclude marchers simply because they were gay or lesbian. So that case does not remotely support this decision’s radical misuse of free speech doctrine.
The court left conspicuously unanswered the sensible questions justices asked at oral argument last December: What if a website designer refused wedding business from an interracial couple because of moral objections to such marriages? Or interfaith marriages? Only Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion even mentioned the 1967 Supreme Court decision striking down bans on interracial marriage, adding: “How quickly we forget that opposition to interracial marriage” often reflected religious beliefs akin to those of the web designer in this case. What if a photographer doesn’t want business from a person with disabilities? What if a photo store doesn’t want its “Scenes with Santa” to include photos of a white Santa holding a Black child?
These questions show that there is no way to cabin the decision and limit it to LGBTQ customers or to limit the demeaning message the court’s decision itself sends to any particular category of individuals. As the dissent powerfully shows, the court’s decision demeans our nation’s aspirations to equality and inclusion and thereby diminishes us all.
During oral argument, Justice Samuel Alito tried to distinguish between “honorable” religious objection to same-sex marriage, worthy of respect in his view, from opposition to interracial marriage, which he rejected as indecent even if religiously motivated. His voice was absent from this ruling, and the majority opinion by Gorsuch avoided basing the decision on judgments about which religious messages are honorable and which are prejudiced. Every law student learns that government has no authority to decide whose religious beliefs depart indecently from the norm.
Of course, discrimination against interracial and interfaith marriage is indecent. But who is any justice to tell us that discrimination against same-sex couples is different, not really a matter of prejudice but honorable when religiously inspired?
Recently, the Boston Red Sox released a pitcher who had posted homophobic tweets about gay people being bound for hell unless they repented. The fact that the player was sincere in his religious beliefs did not keep the Red Sox from seeing the harm that his speech caused. But the Supreme Court does not see, or care about, the harm its decision portends.
For many years, the court stopped short of overruling Roe v. Wade, until it did in 2022. For many years, the court stopped short of declaring affirmative action unconstitutional, until it did this week. The same-sex marriage equality decision stands for now, but it should be added to the list of endangered precedents.
As Sotomayor rightly concludes, “It is a sad day in American Constitutional law” when the highest court in the land closes its term with a decision that affronts the basic dignity of us all, for “the promise of freedom is empty” if government “is powerless to assure that a dollar in the hands of [one person] will purchase the same thing as a dollar in the hands of a[nother].”
Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Jeffrey B. Abramson is professor of government and law emeritus at University of Texas at Austin and a former Middlesex County assistant district attorney.
I start my allergy shots this week, and the sooner the better. All the troubles I have had with my heart, breathing, and with thinking came from needing my allergy shots and needing to stop the medications keeping my heart rate in check.
Here is the list of things I am allergic too, some at life-threatening levels, which is why I have EpiPens. Positive allergy test for Australian pine, Bermuda grass, dust mites, cat, cockroach, dog, cedar, nettle, short ragweed. Also food allergy test was positive for crab, lobster, and shrimp. Total IgE was 102 KU/L. But that was not all. Also there was this second set of testing. Positive allergy test for fire ant, wasp, yellow hornet, yellow jacket, and white faced hornet.
Interesting thing is to be allergic you have to react greater than the normal range of <0.10 and on most of the panels I was higher than that, some by a lot. For cats, I was not that bad, just 0.14 instead of <0.10. For dogs, I was 0.17 instead of <0.10. Most things like mite house dust I am 8.90 and to the house dust mites I am 10.70.
We long ago took steps to get rid of carpets and other things that trap the pollen. I stay inside most of the time. Ron cuts the grass. The only plant we have is in the family room and is a big friendship bamboo randy sent me. I have been taking allergy shots on and off since the 1990s. Every time I get to a maintenance dose and they think I have stopped reacting, they tell me I can stop the shots. But I gradually get sick again. Testing confirms my allergies have come back and some stronger. My allergist says he thinks I will just have to stay on the maintenance dose forever to have relief. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 