About 20,000 people killed in Gaza, Health Ministry says
Israel launched a ground invasion and airstrike campaign after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
Trump pressured Michigan canvassers not to certify 2020 election in recorded phone call, report says
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel was also involved in the call.
DeathSantis keeps claiming that no books are being banned in Florida, that it is a hoax spread by groomers and democrats. Which to him and his ilk are the same thing. But he also claims the don’t say gay laws don’t target the LGBTQIA, but the way the laws are written they do have the effect of wiping out any representation of the LGBTQIA or the symbols of those groups from schools. Even anti-bullying programs had to be stopped because the way the laws are being interpreted they can not tell cis kids not to target or bully LGBTQIA kids. The real object is to drive any kid who is not cis or straight into the closet, into hiding, and instead of teaching respect, tolerance, and acceptance it teaches hate and bigotry. Hugs. Scottie
A quote from the linked article.
“It’s creating this culture of fear within our media specialists and even teachers who just want to have a library in their classrooms, so kids have access,” said Castor Dentel, a former OCPS elementary school teacher.
Parents, she said, can restrict what their own children read, making it hard to justify pulling so many books from classrooms. “They’re in a pile of we’ll-get-to-it-later and in the meantime, no one can read those books.”
The harm of so much censorship far outweighs the benefits of finding “a book or two that is offensive,” Castor Dentel added. “Look at all the chaos that has been created. It’s not worth it.”
A total of 673 books, from classics to best-sellers, have been removed from Orange County classrooms this year for fear they violate new state rules that ban making “sexual conduct” available to public school students.
The list also includes popular novels by Stephen King, Sue Monk Kidd and Jodi Picoult, classics like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “Jude the Obscure,” and “Madame Bovary,” and award-winning books like “A Thousand Acres,” “Beloved,” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.”
The rejected books include ones teachers say were once regularly taught in high school classes, such as “The Color Purple,” “Catch-22,” and “Brave New World.
Orange schools reject 673 books from classroom libraries for fear they violate new Fl law. The rejected books include "Paradise Lost," "East of Eden," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Madame Bovary." Story and list (first obtained by @FLFreedomRead): https://t.co/xNWZldrgeS
To fact-check Ron DeSantis’ claim that book bans in Florida are a “false narrative,” we started with the Florida Dept. of Education’s list of currently banned books https://t.co/rzGRjGtmRf
Yet as bad as these bans are, the thing that truly does piss me off the most about what Governor Puddingmitts and his fascist Rethugs are doing is they then LIE about it and insist they aren’t banning any books at all, not a one.
“It’s not censorship, if we do it. It’s restoring ‘parents’ rights’ to approve the curriculum.” That would be certain right-wing parents’ rights, and no one else’s.
Fudd looks kinda like Vivian Vance, like in that wonderful story from Tim Gunn’s childhood about meeting Miss Vance in J Edgar Hoover’s office, except that J Edgar wasn’t there too.
Paradise Lost, a 17th Century epic poem by John Milton which has been banned along with dozens of other absolutely classic works of literature, has NO sexual content, gay or otherwise.
It is being removed solely because radical fundamentalist Evangelicals object to its subject matter, namely the depiction of a former high angel who becomes jealous of Yahweh’s new favorite hominid toys and leads a revolt. As a consequence, Lucifer and his allies are cast down to Hell. That’s it. That’s the story.
But fundies hate it because Lucifer isn’t portrayed entirely as an unsympathetic character and because the story it tells doesn’t comport with their biblical dogma.
I’ve was suspicious that the buybull only tells one side of the story about Lucifer’s fall and his mission against humanity. Shouldn’t we hear from the other side too? I just love mythology.
The real message in Milton’s poem is a common but very true theme: “No one believes they are the villain in their own story.”
Essentially, what he was trying to do was to create a framework, a rationale to explain how and why a figure like Satan could come to be. In the end, the conclusion really was that the former angel Lucifer essentially got what he deserved.
But like I said, this whole story gets in the way of radical fundamentalist dogma, which when you think about it is at the core of all these book bans.
We know that tRump hung out with mobsters, and acts like a mob boss wannabe. The maga cult is all thugs and gang bangers who want to rule by force in might makes right violence. I have often looked at how fast Lindsey Graham went from tremendously anti-tRump to in one gold game with tRump coming out a whole owned servant to tRump’s and a person willing to do crazy things to support the hard right. We know many republicans are owned / paid by Russia. That may include blackmail as this congress person admits. If you watch the video, he says the people behind it want to control the world. He claims Jeffery Epstein was killed as he was blackmailing people, both men and women, selling that information to foreign intel agencies, and he knew too much while not being useful behind bars. Hugs. Scottie
December 21, 2023
“Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff like what we’ve been seeing out of Congress? Here’s how it works. You’re visiting, you’re out of the country or out of town or you’re in a motel or at a bar in DC and, whatever you’re into – women, men, whatever — comes up and they’re very attractive and they’re laughing at your jokes. And you’re buying them a drink. Next thing you know, you’re in the motel room with them naked.
“And next thing you know, you know you’re about to make a key vote. And what happens? Some well-dressed person comes out and whispers in your ear, ‘Hey, man, there’s tapes out on you.’ Or, ‘Were you in a motel room or whatever with whoever?’ And then you’re like, ‘You really ought not be voting for this thing.’
“You know? And what do they do? It’s human nature. And, you know, no man or no woman actually is an island. And they know what to get at. You know, if it’s women, drugs, booze, it’ll find you. And they say, and in most elected offices, and that’s what people of power and influence do.
“And it’s just, you know, I’ve been in this game my whole life. I spent 16 years in the state legislature in Tennessee and eight years as county mayor. And now I’m in my fifth year in Congress. But it’s just — the stakes are higher. But the game is still the same.” – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, speaking to far-right podcaster Benny Johnson.
And how many out of town motel trysts are necessary for one or enough of them to be honey-traps? His explanation doesn’t sound like he’s made any attempt at monotony, I mean monogamy.
“Responsible nonmonotony” and “responsible nonmonopoly” are how Dr. Deborah Anapol riffed on “responsible nonmonogamy” in her (useful and otherwise quite serious) book Polyamory: The New Love Without Limits.
(It includes a chapter on various scenarios of “making the transition to polyamorous relating”. Easiest case: you’re currently single and unattached. Hardest: you’re in a monogamous relationship and one of you has cheated. In between: you’ve made a monogamous committment you wish you hadn’t.)
You too, huh? I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I’m walking along, minding my own business, and the next thing you know, I’m having naked motel sex with a stranger or strangers, depending.
It’s so inconvenient. I wish there were something I could do about that.
Interesting that he only focused on conservatives votes being blackmailed this way. Could it be that those who constantly trying and regulate the sex lives of others are more likely to succumb to this kind of activity?
It’s like they say: DC prostitutes, male and female, LOVE it when Republicans become majorities in Congress. “…because Democrats don’t have to pay for sex.”
Actually, DC prostitutes love it when the republicans and christians are in town for a convention. Business booms. They cry when the doctors are in town, because they never want to hook up.
Remember state national guards are under the control of both the state and the DOD, and have to observe military rules. Deathsantis created his own militia, totally under the singular control of the governor of Florida. It is the governor’s private army. The republican legislature gave Deathsantis a huge amount of money from the Florida taxpayers for this, and then twice added even more millions. Normally these types of state national guards are there to help with national disasters like floods and hurricanes and are trained for that work. But the governor’s private army is training with weapons, boats, and aircraft to attack people, non-white people. Right now DeathSantis makes it seem Florida is being overrun with migrants and illegal immigrants, but remember when he needed a press stunt to fly immigrants out of state they had to go to Texas to get enough to partially fill the plane. We get most of our undocumented immigrants from Cuba, but because there is a huge republican voting group of Cubans in Florida. While DeathSantis keeps pretending to be a tough man by threatening to “flatten” the Bahamas, which is a place that has never threatened or been a threat to the US, yet he ignores that Cuba once did have Soviet bases they were going to put missiles in, and now has a Chinese spy base designed to hear US military traffic. But that is what happens when you are pretending to be a tough guy instead of being one. Oh, and did I mention you have to pass the ideological screening to be a member, which means you have to be a republican maga white supremacist Christian nationalist bigot who hates the LGBTQIA and wants kids indoctrinated with Christian hate. Oh did I mention that DeathSantis insisted that they be given arrest powers so they can arrest / detain, and remove people including those the governor thinks shouldn’t be voting. Hugs. Scottie
A select group of volunteers expected to help Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis intercept migrants at sea gathered at a Panhandle combat training facility this fall for lessons on how to use rifles and pistols, treat “massive hemorrhages” and practice “aerial gunnery.”
A $1.2 million purchase order signed in August makes clear the DeSantis administration felt it had an “immediate and emergent need for specially trained personnel” to intercept migrants traveling by boat.
A draft plan of instruction shows the vendor, Stronghold SOF Solutions, offered to recruit, vet and train volunteers at its facility in Defuniak Springs. The contract was executed without a competitive process, made possible after DeSantis declared a state emergency in January related to illegal immigration.
Read the full article. Earlier this year some members of DeSantis’s private army quit during training, saying they didn’t sign up to be part of what they feel is a militia.
You can’t charge someone with breaking a law until they have broken it. It’s more likely than not, the FBI has underground observers in the ranks. The FBI is unlikely to announce who and what they investigating.
“States have the power to create defense forces separate from the national guard, though not all of them use it. If Florida moves ahead with DeSantis’ plan to reestablish the civilian force, it would become the 23rd active state guard in the country, DeSantis’ office said in a press release, joining California, Texas and New York. These guards are little-known auxiliary forces with origins dating back to the advent of state militias in the 18th century. While states and the Department of Defense share control of the National Guard, state guards are solely in the power of a governor.
The Florida State Guard was created in 1941 during World War II as a temporary force to fill the void left behind when the Florida National Guard was deployed to assist in the US combat efforts. It was disbanded after the war ended, but the authority for a governor to establish a state defense force remained.”
The stupidity here is that it’s the migrant farm workers who are picking Florida’s oranges and winter vegetables. Go right ahead and shoot yourself in the foot … morons!
Oh they’re going to do away with child labor laws and send the little brats out to do that work. Kids don’t need education–they might get woke and start thinking for themselves and grow up to vote democrat. (sic) And what the hell? 6 year olds with machetes. What could go wrong?
Friendly reminder that the isolationists trying to cut off aid to Ukraine today were the ones trying to cut off aid to Britain before we were forced to enter World War Two.
The New York Times ran this headline recently:
Polish parliament’s Speaker to take action against MP who targeted Jewish holiday celebration
Szymon Hołownia, the Speaker of the Sejm [Parliament], told reporters that a complaint will be filed with the prosecutor’s office against Grzegorz Braun, a member of the far-right Konfederacja party, Gazeta Wyborcza reports.
Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out a Hanukkah menorah in the parliament.
On the eve of the German occupation of Poland in 1939, 3.3 million Jews lived there. At the end of the war, approximately 380,000 Polish Jews remained alive, the rest having been murdered, mostly in the ghettos and the six death camps: Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
To republicans in government being poor is a sin, it is the poor person’s fault. I guess they should have chosen to be born in a wealthy family. The republicans love the phrase pull yourself up by your bootstraps which is impossible to begin with, but even more impossible if you don’t even have boots. The governor won’t say why he is refusing the assistance for poor kids but normally these programs come with nondiscrimination clauses, but also the state would have to pay an estimated 300,000 dollars to administer it. It would keep an estimated 150,000 kids from going completely hungry when school is out, but the governor said there were other places the kids could go to get food, like summer camps. But normally the only free camps are religious sponsored ones that preach the bible and Jesus to kids. Is this the governor’s way to get the kids into churches? Hugs. Scottie
“If it’s an ideological issue, how can deciding that economically disadvantaged children are better off going hungry make moral sense?”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided not to participate in a new, more permanent Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program aimed at supplementing other efforts that target child hunger. (Courtesy of Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided that Nebraska won’t be participating in a new national child nutrition program that could have delivered an estimated $18 million in grocery-buying benefits next summer to kids and their families.
The decision comes despite a months long effort by food banks and other advocates to persuade the governor to opt into the Summer EBT program.
A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards that are used by states to issue benefits is displayed at a convenience store in Richmond, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
States across the nation face a Jan. 1 deadline to let the federal government know if they intend to be part of the summer electronic benefits transfer program.
Pillen spokeswoman Laura Strimple, responding to a query from the Nebraska Examiner, said free meals continue to be available to youths during the summer through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and summer camp programs, schools and community centers.
“In addition to in-person meals, those locations offer recreational, educational and other enrichment opportunities, as well as resources, that are of added benefit to kids and important for their development,” Strimple said.
She offered no additional explanation.
Nebraska Appleseed and area food banks were among groups urging Pillen to opt into the program. Eric Savaiano, Appleseed’s food and nutrition access manager, said the nonprofit was “deeply disappointed” and found the decision “difficult to understand.”
“Come summer, we know that more families will struggle with food insecurity because of this decision,” Savaiano said.
Appleseed estimated that 150,000 Nebraska kids would have benefited next summer if the state had opted into the new program. Modeled after pilot projects and a nationwide pandemic-era initiative that’s now ended, Congress authorized the more permanent summer program through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
The program offers an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card to children whose household income makes them eligible for free and reduced school lunches during the school year. Each of those Nebraska youths would have received a card loaded with $120 to help buy food during months that school is out.
Based on Nebraska’s participation in the pandemic program, Appleseed’s review showed that Nebraska would have to pay up to $300,000 annually to administer the Summer EBT program, which was a change from the pandemic-era program, where the federal government paid all administrative costs. States would be tasked with outreach efforts and would facilitate collaboration among involved agencies.
Said Savaiano: “If it’s a money issue, how can spending a mere $300,000 in state funds for administrative costs and receiving $18 million — a 60-fold return on investment — not make financial sense?”
State Sen. Jen Day of Gretna. (Courtesy of Craig Chandler/University Communication)
He added, “If it’s an ideological issue, how can deciding that economically disadvantaged children are better off going hungry make moral sense?”
A group of 15 state senators, upon learning of the decision, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the administration to rethink the situation. The letter said that while the governor has the final say, DHHS and the Department of Education “also have decision-making power on this matter.”
“So many Nebraskans are struggling with the cost of living right now and, as a result, people are growing hungry,” said Sen. Jen Day of Gretna, who led the letter-writing effort. “Opting into this program is imperative and not doing so is a huge moral and economic failure.”
In addition to Day, those signing the letter: Sens. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, Jana Hughes of Seward, Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, John Cavanaugh of Omaha, Megan Hunt of Omaha, Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, Tony Vargas of Omaha, Terrell McKinney of Omaha, George Dungan of Lincoln, Jane Raybould of Lincoln, John Fredrickson of Omaha, Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, Lynne Walz of Fremont, Carol Blood of Bellevue.
The funding for the program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is intended to supplement, not replace, existing programs that help families, including summer meal sites and the year-round SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
According to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees such nutrition programs, more than 29 million children across America could benefit from the 2024 Summer EBT program.
When grown-up jellyfish love each other very much, they make huge numbers of teeny-tiny potato-shaped larvae. Those larvae grow into little polyps that cling to rocks and catch prey with their stinging tentacles. But their best trick is when they clone themselves by morphing into a stack of squirming jellyfish pancakes.
The boy in the article was bullied so bad he had to drop out of school. This policy not only harm trans kids and make them feel untrusting of their teachers, but it also encourages other students to attack the trans kids. How would you like your boss or co-worker to constantly misgender you, use the wrong pronouns towards you, or called you by the wrong name. And please tell me what about using the preferred name or pronoun that a person prefers is against the Christian bible? Where in the bible does it say a person can not change their name? Where in the bible does it say to call a person by a different pronoun is a sin? It is just using religion to justify hate, being mean, and being cruel. Just how it is loving to treat someone like crap, it sure doesn’t make them want to join your church. Plus as the boy in the article points out, cis kids do this stuff all the time and no one cares. Also the headmaster refused to let him change his names claiming it might confuse the younger student? Using the protect little kids to cause harm to another child. Plus kids are not confused by name changes and wearing different clothing. They really don’t care unless they are told to care / be upset by it. Plus in higher education the rule requires the request to use preferred pronouns or names must take into account how the other cis students will feel. WTF. If I was a kid in those schools I would misgender the teachers that misgendered me, I would not respond to the wrong pronouns or name. I would put my preferred name on all homework and tests. Hugs. Scottie
“It’s inexcusable to say a child needs to have permission to experiment with their name or wardrobe. Cis kids do that all the time without their parents being informed. The politicians behind this guidance don’t know what it is to be trans, they’ve never listened to a trans voice so they don’t know what damage it will cause.”
Schools and colleges are also required to consider the impact of affirming trans students on cis students. It also says no student or teacher can be required to use a trans student’s correct pronouns.
Newton Carey was bullied so badly that he dropped out of school. He says new guidance requiring teachers to out trans students would be disastrous.
A 15-year-old trans boy opened up about his own upsetting experience coming out at school in the wake of England’s new draft guidance that would allow teachers to misgender trans students and require them to out trans kids to their parents.
“Transphobic bullying is rampant and I think 100% this guidance only fuels that fire,” Newton Carey told The Guardian. “If I’d been able to exist in my school as a trans kid from the beginning, nobody would have complained because I wasn’t asking for anything special. The only reason other kids saw the difference was because it was pointed out to them.”
One of the bills would ban Pride flags even on government buildings
Carey detailed informing his teacher of his trans identity at the age of 11 and said the first thing he did was report it to the headteacher. The headteacher then called Carey’s mom to make sure she knew he was trans and ask if it was okay with her. “I wasn’t included in the conversation at all,” he said.
The headteacher then refused to let Carey change his name on school documents, claiming it could upset younger students. At the same time, he quit playing sports because the other boys were making fun of him.
“When I started secondary school I was allowed to use the disabled toilet but the lock on the door didn’t work and it didn’t feel safe,” he continued. “I was badly bullied and my mental health plummeted so I stopped attending and was home schooled for a year.”
Carey ended his story by blasting the politicians responsible for the new guidance that will undoubtedly cause trans students across the country to endure similar struggles.
“It’s inexcusable to say a child needs to have permission to experiment with their name or wardrobe. Cis kids do that all the time without their parents being informed. The politicians behind this guidance don’t know what it is to be trans, they’ve never listened to a trans voice so they don’t know what damage it will cause.”
According to the new guidance – which must still undergo a 12-week public consultation before it is finalized – schools do not have a “general duty to allow a child to ‘social transition’” and in the case of primary school-aged children (under 11), schools are banned from using pronouns that do not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
School officials must inform parents if students request to change their pronouns or name or ask to wear school uniforms that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, except in “very rare situations where informing parents might raise a significant risk of harm to the child.”
Schools and colleges are also required to consider the impact of affirming trans students on cis students. It also says no student or teacher can be required to use a trans student’s correct pronouns.
Mermaids, an organization that advocates for transgender youth, called the guidance “unworkable, out of touch and absurd.”
Scottie's Playtime 