Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature
Trump Stooge Wants To Indoctrinate Kids With MAGA-Themed Children’s Book
“Kash Patel, a former Republican aide on the House intelligence committee who Donald Trump weighed installing as deputy CIA director, is publishing a children’s book on Monday that perpetuates the false claim the Steele dossier sparked investigations into Russian collusion. The book features characters such as “King Donald” and his enemy “Hillary Queenton”. In the book, titled “The Plot Against the King” and set to be published by Brave Books, Patel repeats Trump’s false claim that the FBI began investigating links between his campaign and Russia based on a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. The 35-page tome, complete with an epilogue that details Donald Trump’s false claims about the FBI inquiry, bizarrely uses the tool of children’s fictional characters to provide a revisionist account of the probe that dogged the first two years of the Trump presidency and eventually led to a special counsel investigation.”
Martin County School District investigating alleged photo of students spelling out racial slur
The Martin County School District is investigating after a photo showing six middle school students spelling out a racial slur was posted on social media.
Tuesday afternoon, district officials confirmed the photo was authentic.
They said it was taken by students at Hidden Oaks Middle School in Palm City.
Each student in the photo is holding a letter spelling out a common racial slur aimed at the Black community.
Officials said the students made the letters in an art class.
“It’s disgusting,” said district spokesperson Jennifer Deshazo. “And it’s against everything that the Martin County School District stands for.”
Coincidentally, the school board was scheduled to hold its regular meeting Tuesday, just hours after the photo was posted.
Discussion of the photo was not on the agenda, but people still packed the room to voice their opinions to the board.
“It’s racism,” one woman said.
“I am appalled,” said another woman.
“What is happening is not OK,” said a third person stepping to the podium.
Outside the meeting, the president of the Martin County chapter of the NAACP expressed his concern.
“I was very heartbroken,” said Jimmy Smith.
Smith said he wanted people to know this is not just kids being kids.
He said it’s about so much more than just a photo.
“We all have made mistakes,” Smith said. “But when you get to that degree and that depth to come up with an idea like that, there’s something else going on.”
Many people at the board meeting took it even further, saying it’s just a small step from a photo to the racially motivated shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo over the weekend.
“We better take this very, very seriously or we will have Buffalo blood here in Martin County,” said local attorney Marwan Porter.
District officials said there is no question the students in the photo will be punished.
They said the exact punishment would be determined by the outcome of their investigation.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/us/florida-education-critical-race-theory-bill/index.html
Florida bill to shield people from feeling ‘discomfort’ over historic actions by their race, nationality or gender approved by Senate committee
A bill backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit Florida’s public schools and private businesses from making people feel “discomfort” or “guilt” based on their race, sex or national origin received first approval Tuesday by the state’s Senate Education Committee.
The Republican-controlled committee approved the bill with six Republican senators in favor of the bill and three Democratic senators opposed to it.Although the bill, named “Individual Freedom,” does not mention Critical Race Theory, the term is used in the attached bill analysis that was given to senators.DeSantis also referred to CRT when he announced the proposed legislation at a media event in December, saying the proposed law would help keep CRT out of the schools and out of the workplace, calling it “state-sanctioned racism” that creates a “hostile work environment.”Under Florida Department of Education rules that took effect last June, CRT cannot be taught in schools.Critical Race Theory is a concept that seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the US. The term also has become politicized and been attacked by its critics as a Marxist ideology that’s a threat to the American way of life.The legislation would prohibit individuals from making people “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”It would also prohibit employers from providing training or instruction that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels” individuals to believe “that an individual bears responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex or national origin.”Instructors would be able to address topics of sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, racial discrimination in an age-appropriate manner. However, the bill states that “classroom instruction and curriculum may not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view inconsistent with the principles of this subsection or state academic standards.”Democratic State Senator Shevrin Jones, the committee’s vice chair and its only Black member, told CNN by phone that the bill is an attempt to revise history and keep White people from feeling uncomfortable.“This isn’t even a ban on Critical Race Theory, this is a ban on Black history,” he said. “They are talking about not wanting White people to feel uncomfortable? Let’s talk about being uncomfortable. My ancestors were uncomfortable when they were stripped away from their children.”In a statement emailed to CNN, DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw said the governor’s position was that “discrimination based on race, color, sex, and national origin” had no place in Florida.The bill “makes clear that no Floridian — student, worker, or anyone else — should be subjected to discriminatory content and rhetoric,” she wrote.“Every Floridian deserves an equal shot at success, regardless of skin color. This means considering each person as an individual with unique attributes, experiences, and aspirations, rather than stereotyping them as a member of this or that identity group,” she said.Pushaw added: “It is frankly disturbing that anyone would find these ideas controversial in the year 2022.”
Fox News host gives Republican Governor bad news live on air
Republican leader called Democrats “pedo grifters” for giving baby formula to immigrants
Republican leader called Democrats “pedo grifters” for giving baby formula to immigrants
Rep. Elise Stefanik with Donald TrumpPhoto: Office of Congresswoman Elise StefanikOne of the top Republicans in Congress is calling Democrats “pedo grifters” because immigrant detention centers have baby formula.
House Republican Conference chairperson Elise Stefanik – the third-highest member of House GOP leadership – said that “pedo grifters” are sending food to immigrant babies as the right continues to use baseless accusations of pedophilia as insults against pretty much anyone who disagrees with them.
Related: Gymnast abused by team doctor comes out swinging at rightwing claims of LGBTQ “grooming”
“The White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border,” she wrote. “Joe Biden has NO PLAN.”
Stefanik’s casual use of the word “pedo” shows just how mundane it has become for rightwingers to call anyone they disagree with a pedophile.
For years, the rightwing QAnon conspiracy theory has claimed that there is a secret cabal of pedophiles operating a Satanic international child sex ring led by Hollywood celebrities and Democratic elites. Effectively, the QAnon conspiracy theory allowed believers an intellectual shortcut: instead of trying to understand why people would disagree with their policy preferences – a process that requires listening to others and the ability to understand multiple ideas at once – they could just accuse anyone who disagreed with them of being a Satanic pedophile, and who really cares why Satanic pedophiles believe what they believe?
The casualization of accusing political opponents of pedophilia heightened over the last couple of months as conservatives started referring to LGBTQ people – especially teachers – as well as anyone who supports LGBTQ equality as pedophiles and groomers. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) accused Tyra Banks of grooming children because she produced a documentary about teen drag queens. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) press secretary accused anyone who opposes the Don’t Say Gay bill of being a groomer or supporting grooming.
Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBTQ Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” regularly accuses LGBTQ teachers of “grooming” even though she has no evidence of sexual abuse occurring. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said it was grooming for a science camp to have non-binary counselors, and conservatives even called the anti-suicide organization The Trevor Project “a grooming organization.”
While Stefanik may have been saying that those who want babies in detention centers fed so that they can later be sexually abused, it’s more likely that she does not have any ability to engage her political opponents other than to accuse them of pedophilia. Actually presenting a plan for what to do about baby formula shortages in the U.S. – and then arguing why that plan is better than the Biden administration’s plan – is a lot harder than just calling people pedophiles.
And the baby formula shortage is real. Currently, 40% of formula is out of stock in the U.S., which has led parents to stockpile formula, exacerbating the shortage. The shortage follows the recall of a major formula producer’s products because deadly bacteria was found in a factory, the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on supply chains, and restrictive trade policies around formula.
Stefanik was echoing rightwing complaints that immigrants forced to live in processing centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What is infuriating to me is that this is another example of the ‘America Last’ agenda the Biden administration continues to perpetuate,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) said last week, not presenting any alternative to immigrant access to formula other than letting babies in processing centers starve.
President Joe Biden announced a plan to address the crisis last week that included making it easier to use WIC benefits to buy formula of different sizes and types, increasing imports of formula, and cracking down on price gouging.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the House will soon vote on a bill to grant emergency authority to WIC to address supply chain disruptions and relax certain regulations not related to the safety of baby formula.
In a later statement Stefanik’s office said that “pedo grifters” was referring to the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans and former Republicans who advocated against the reelection of Donald Trump. They are not involved in the baby formula shortage and they aren’t in charge of presenting a plan to end the baby formula shortage, so it’s unclear how that statement explains what she said.
Federal judge stops Alabama from throwing trans-supportive doctors in jail
Photo: ShutterstockA Trump-appointed federal judge has blocked portions of Alabama’s so-called “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” a law that punishes adults who help transgender children access gender-affirming healthcare.
The law, which went into effect on May 8, was immediately challenged by families with trans kids, gender-affirming medical professionals, and the U.S. Justice Department. The law threatened prosecution against trans-supportive adults and 10 years in prison for trans-affirming medical professionals.
Related: Gay Alabama lawmaker’s righteous rant goes viral as Republicans criminalize trans-friendly doctors
Last Friday, Judge Liles C. Burke of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama temporarily blocked parts of the law that made it a felony to prescribe hormones and puberty blockers to trans youth, saying that the law is likely to cause irreparable harm if it goes into effect while the lawsuits works their way through the court system.
Burke’s decision said parents have a fundamental right to provide their children with medically-accepted treatments. Hormones and puberty blockers are used to treat various medical conditions in non-trans youth. But since Alabama’s law only sought to punish the drugs’ use by transgender youth, the lawsuit alleged that this part of the law was driven by unconstitutional sex-based discrimination.
Burke allowed other parts of the law to stand, including one requiring school teachers and nurses to out trans students to their parents and another forbidding doctors from performing gender-affirming surgical procedures on trans youth.
“Doctors had testified that such operations were not being performed on children in Alabama before the law had been enacted,” The New York Times noted.
Alabama lawmakers said that the transphobic law is meant to protect kids from “irreversible” and “experimental” medical treatments “aggressively push[ed]” by doctors and “ideological interest groups,” state lawyers said in court documents. But Burke said Alabama failed to provide “credible evidence to show that transitioning medications are ‘experimental,’” adding that hormones and puberty blockers are “well-established, evidence-based treatments for gender dysphoria in minors.”
“Parents, pediatricians and psychologists — not the state or this court — are best qualified to determine whether transitioning medications are in a child’s best interest on a case-by-case basis,” Burke wrote in his decision.
When signing the bill into law, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said, “I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl. We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.”
However, her religion-based opinion goes against the best practices of trans-related pediatrics outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association. The organizations find that gender-affirming medical care is medically necessary and reduces suicide and depression among trans youth.
Comedian John Oliver mentioned the state’s law on the Sunday night installment of his cable news program Last Week Tonight.
In the program, Oliver interviewed 15-year-old transgender girl Harleigh Walker, who said, “If I did stop my gender-affirming care, my physical outside wouldn’t reflect who I was inside, and that would, like, completely destroy me mentally and physically.”
Oliver said, “If you can look at Harleigh, or any child, and comfortably say, ‘Take away their care that gives them peace and a sense of self,’ you are a bad person.”
During a hearing in front of the Alabama legislature last year, Dr. Morissa Ladinsky explained that surgery and hormonal therapy for trans youth both involve “lengthy informed consent [and] lengthy mental health oversight.”
Oliver quipped, “Of course, doctors are going to be thoughtful and rigorous when caring for their patients because, unlike the Alabama Legislature, they actually care about kids’ well-being,”
“To trans children in Alabama right now… you are important,” Oliver added. “Your lives are important. I cannot imagine trying to build self-esteem in childhood as your own government attempts to undermine your very existence, but you should know: You are profoundly valuable and you are irreplaceable.”
As of May, 15 Republican-led states have either passed bans on medical care for trans youth or are considering similar laws. Some of the bans have equated gender-affirming care with child abuse and threatened to arrest parents of trans youth, de-transitioning their kids and placing them in state care. Others attack doctors and threaten them with jail time for providing gender-affirming care to trans youth.
These laws are part of a larger nationwide push by Republicans to pass laws targeting LGBTQ youth. Other such laws have attempted to ban trans youth from playing sports or to ban any LGBTQ content from classrooms. These bills’ supporters have said that anyone who opposes the laws are pedophilic “groomers”, language which encourages violence against LGBTQ people and allies.
Recently, LGBTQ lawmakers in 19 states announced their efforts to establish their states as safe harbors for trans kids and families persecuted by laws criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare. These lawmakers will introduce legislation that explicitly protects trans youth’s access to gender-affirming medical care.
Ivey also recently signed a transphobic “bathroom bill” requiring students to use changing and restroom facilities matching the gender listed on their original birth certificates, as well as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill limiting discussion of LGBTQ topics in state classrooms.
Three TYT videos on the Buffalo shooting, white extremeism, racism, and how Carlson promotes replacement theory.
“A teenage gunman entranced by a white supremacist ideology known as replacement theory opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo on Saturday, methodically shooting and killing 10 people and injuring three more, almost all of them Black, in one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history.”
“Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, and other GOP lawmakers came under scrutiny Sunday for previously echoing the racist “great replacement” theory that apparently inspired an 18-year-old who allegedly killed 10 people while targeting Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo. The baseless conspiracy theory claims that politicians are attempting to wipe out White Americans and their influence by replacing them with non-White immigrants. The theory was cited repeatedly by 18-year-old shooting suspect Payton Gendron in an online document that appeared to have outlined his intention to carry out his planned attack in Buffalo because of its significant population of Black people. Eleven of the 13 people shot at a Tops Friendly Markets store on Saturday were Black, according to police.”
India and Pakistan heatwave is ‘testing the limits of human survivability,’ expert says
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/02/asia/india-pakistan-heatwave-climate-intl-hnk/index.html
Temperatures in parts of India and Pakistan have reached record levels, putting the lives of millions at risk as the effects of the climate crisis are felt across the subcontinent.
The average maximum temperature for northwest and central India in April was the highest since records began 122 years ago, reaching 35.9 and 37.78 degrees Celsius (96.62 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).Last month, New Delhi saw seven consecutive days over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), three degrees above the average temperature for the month of April, according to CNN meteorologists. In some states, the heat closed schools, damaged crops and put pressure on energy supplies, as officials warned residents to remain indoors and keep hydrated.The heatwave has also been felt by India’s neighbor Pakistan, where the cities of Jacobabad and Sibi in the country’s southeastern Sindh province recorded highs of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) on Friday, according to data shared with CNN by Pakistan’s Meteorological Department (PMD). According to the PMD, this was the highest temperature recorded in any city in the Northern Hemisphere on that day.
People cool themselves in a canal in Lahore, Pakistan, on April 29“This is the first time in decades that Pakistan is experiencing what many call a ‘spring-less year,” Pakistan’s Minister of Climate Change, Sherry Rehman said in a statement.Temperatures in India are expected to improve slightly this week with maximum temperatures across northwest India expected to drop by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the IMD said. Temperatures in Pakistan are also expected to be closer to average — about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) — later this week.But experts say the climate crisis will cause more frequent and longer heatwaves, affecting more than a billion people across the two countries.India is among the countries expected to be worst affected by the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).“This heatwave is definitely unprecedented,” said Dr. Chandni Singh, IPCC Lead Author and Senior Researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. “We have seen a change in its intensity, its arrival time, and duration. This is what climate experts predicted and it will have cascading impacts on health.”Loss of crops
India often experiences heatwaves during the summer months of May and June, but this year temperatures started rising in March and April.In the northern state of Punjab, known as “India’s bread basket,” that’s causing heat stress, not only for millions of agricultural workers, but for fields of wheat they rely on to feed their families and sell across the country.Gurvinder Singh, director of agriculture in Punjab, said an average increase of up to 7 degrees Celsius (12.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in April had reduced wheat yields.“Because of the heatwave we’ve had a loss of more than 5 quintal (500 kilograms) per hectare of our April yield,” Singh told CNN Monday.Chandni Singh, from the IPCC and no relation to Gurvinder Singh, said agricultural workers were more likely to suffer from the oppressive heat.“People who work outdoors — farmers, those in construction, manual labor — will suffer more. They have less options to cool down and can’t stay away from the heat,” she said.
The Yamuna River on May 1 in New Delhi, India.School closures and power cuts
In some parts of India, demand for electricity has led to a coal shortage, leaving millions without power for up to nine hours a day.Last week, coal stocks at three out of the five power plants Delhi relies on to supply its power reached critically low levels, dropping below 25%, according to Delhi’s Power Ministry.India canceled more than 650 passenger trains through the end of May to clear tracks for more cargo trains as the country scrambles to replenish coal stocks at power plants, a senior official from the country’s Railways Ministry told CNN.Indian Railways is a key supplier of coal to power plants across the country.Some Indian states, including West Bengal and Odisha, have announced school closures to deal with the rising temperatures.“Children who have to traveled to school, many of them are getting nosebleeds, they can’t tolerate this heatwave,” West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters last week.In recent years, both the federal and state governments have implemented a number of measures to mitigate the effects of heatwaves, including shutting down schools and issuing health advisories for the public.But according to Chandni Singh, more should be done to prepare for future heatwaves.“We don’t have a heat action plan and there are gaps in planning,” Singh said. “You can only adapt so much. This heatwave is testing the limits of human survivability.”Correction: This story has been updated to correct a conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit.
Child Whips Front Door Of Black Family
I watch a lot of videos. But this is one of the most important ones on racism and bigotry I want people to watch. It is short, but powerful. This is what really is being taught to young white kids by maga / racist parents. Notice that when the black guy with damage to his door and car tries to talk to the racist white farther of the child, the white man discharges a gun. Can you imagine living next door to them? Notice the open threatening hostility of a child’s birthday cake with a political message that drums into them violence if they don’t get their way even while they are too young to understand it. The cake was for a ten year old. This is happening in the US. This is happening as the Republicans champion racism while decrying that democrats and teacher are grooming / indoctrinating kids because they teach the real racist history of the US and are tolerant of the LGBTQ+ kids who are different from the mainstream. This the part of the US we need to understand has had a real resurgence since tRump an dnow supported activly by the Republican party. Hugs
Gay Class President Censored By Florida High School
“Florida high school senior Zander Moricz was called into his principal’s office last week. As class president his whole high school career — and his school’s first openly LGBTQ student to hold the title — this was a fairly routine request. But once he entered the administrator’s office, he said, he immediately knew “this wasn’t a typical meeting.” ***
Scottie's Playtime 