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
Class president and first openly LGBTQ student at his school Zander Moricz is taking on his school for censorship. Jayar Jackson and Jessica Burbank break it down on The Watchlist.
“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.” ***
A new Alabama law that targets trans youth went into effect on May 8 and is causing concern for LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies. Signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey on April 8, the “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act” makes it a felony for doctors to prescribe hormones and puberty blockers for those under age 19, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The law is part of a wider swath of anti-trans youth legislation cropping up across Republican-controlled states, but this bill is uniquely extreme in targeting health care providers with potential felony charges. Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, an Alabama pediatrician who treats gender dysphoria in children, testified during the bill’s federal court hearing: “This will force us into a place of risking a felony conviction for providing evidence-based care.”
As of this writing, the law is in effect, meaning that providing gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Alabama is a felony. According to AL.com, the law is being challenged by a lawsuit filed by parents of four transgender youth who argue the law will “deprive their children of access to established medical care that is safe, effective, and necessary.” Also party to the suit are a child psychologist who works with trans youth, a pediatrician, and a pastor. In the meantime, plaintiffs are asking for a temporary hold on the law.
Trans advocates and experts are sounding the alarm. As Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, told Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman during a May 9 appearance on the program, this “[creates] an absolutely terrifying sea change in the reality on the ground for trans people, their families, and their doctors in Alabama — and not just in Alabama, but across the Southeast.”
I have been working in trans legal advocacy for 18 years and today is probably the most upsetting day with a felony ban on health care going into effect in Alabama. Not much noise nationally from our “allies” either.
“The University of Alabama has a gender clinic that is serving trans adolescents and their families, not just in Alabama, but in Georgia and Florida and Tennessee and Mississippi,” Strangio continued. “And in a matter of hours, all of that care is becoming a felony, which means families are uprooting their lives. They’re trying to figure out what, when, and whether they can get life-saving care for their adolescent children.”
In other states, legislators are pushing to adopt “trans refuge” policies that would welcome trans people and their families from hostile states. California senator Scott Wiener, who sponsored a bill in his home state as part of this effort, publicly criticized Alabama’s law. “At midnight, Alabama’s vile law criminalizing trans youth accessing gender-affirming care — threatening parents & doctors with 10 years in prison — went into effect. We’re working in coalition w/19 other states to pass laws granting refuge to impacted families. We have your backs,” Wiener wrote on Twitter.
According to Bay City News, the proposed California bill would stop other states from subpoenaing medical records from California in order to separate trans children from their parents or to penalize families for seeking gender-affirming care, and would bar law enforcement from, as reported by the outlet, “making or intentionally participating in the arrest of an individual with an out-of-state warrant for allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care.”
Twenty-one LGBTQ lawmakers in 16 states have committed to introducing similar legislation, according to the Victory Institute, an organization that promotes LGBTQ politicians.
Republican lawmakers are echoing the anti-immigrant rhetoric. An MSNBC political panel joined American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss the danger of touting lies about immigrants.
Ten people were killed and three injured during a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket Saturday afternoon, according to the city’s police commissioner. The manifesto left by the perpetrator of the hate crime appeared to get his talking points straight from Tucker Carlson, Fox News, and the Republican Party Video by Francis Maxwell.
Prayer in school has been a recent debate in the Supreme Court.
The case involves Joe Kennedy, a former high school football coach who was fired for allegedly pressuring students to perform Christian prayers.
Back in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that New York state public schools could not begin school days with a state-composed prayer.
The court’s opinion was that the practice violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause since it amounted to government-sponsored religious instruction.
The Supreme Court now leads with more conservative judges and seems to be searching April 25 to rule in favor of a former coach who was fired for praying.
In the United States, Pew research shows a recent sharp decline in Christianity.
65 percent of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade.
Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12 percent in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population
So what’s next for the Wylie ISD teacher? She has since refused to resign and says this can go on her record.
It was also expressed that one Wylie teacher retired early because of a threatened lawsuit.
“We need to stand firm in our principles and faith,” Parrish said.
Since news broke of her firing, Parrish said she feels “blessed” by the response she’s gotten in the following statement:
“Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out. You have no idea how much it means to me and my family. Being a teacher and coach is one of my greatest blessings. I’m so thankful to God for the special amazing students and athletes that he placed in my life. You all have blessed me more than you’ll ever know. Our family appreciates your continued prayers. Blessings to you.”
Nellie Parrish
The Wylie ISD superintendent has since responded, disputing her claims:
“Nellie Parrish’s contract termination was not because of prayer or Christianity,” said Light.
“This is false information and district personnel matters will not be discussed due to privacy,
Parrish said the school would play Christian music in the cafeteria alongside holding a prayer before football games, adding that Joey Light, the district’s superintendent, is known to lead a prayer on the first day of school.
Her claims are bullshit. They can’t just terminate her for no clear reason. If she was new to that district and still probationary status, they could non-renew her contract. That would make me wonder if she had been released from other districts for similar reasons. Something is missing from this story.
A gentle reminder: Not all Christians proselytize.
I’m married to a devout Christian man. He’s never – in the 48 years we’ve been together – proselytized in any way to me. Like all good and compassionate people of faith, he keeps his personally-held religious beliefs to himself, with no desire to “convert” anyone to anything.
He’s far from alone.
There are many many good and compassionate people of faith.
This is the part of right wing media that drives me nuts. Outright racist lying to create anger that the base will never bother to check if it is true and they wont accept the truth when you tell them. Hannity, who proudly says he is an opinion host not a journalist, makes a big display and statement and they accept it with no question. When you point out the lie of the entire thing, they attack you and ignore anything you say because they disagree with you. Clearly you get the point. They have been indoctrinated to believe only their cult leaders on Fox backed up by other smaller right wing media. Any other information is fake or false to them and those that tell them are clearly the enemy they must destroy. How do we have a country when this is the stuff going on? Yes the cult is only like 15 to 20% of the population, but they are the most violent and thuggish part, and they are dragging the country further down with them. On top of that there are the ones using them to gain what they want to take the country culturally back a century or more. I don’t have the solution but we better find one quick. I love what the leader of NZ said when asked why they did not have a problem with their covid response, she replied we did not let Murdock set up a fox station here.
“Look at that,” Sean Hannity said on Fox News Thursday night, pointing to a photo being shown next to him, “pallets and pallets of baby formula for illegal immigrants and their families even as hardworking American” — and now there was another photo — “families, we are now suffering a massive nationwide shortage.”
The photos had been provided to Fox by the office of GOP Rep. Kat Cammack, whose account of someone in the Border Patrol telling her of “pallets” of formula being sent to a border processing center had set off a whole outrage cycle on the right. They were used Friday morning as well on “Fox & Friends” during an extended interview with Cammack.
And they did not show baby formula. The photo Hannity pointed to, and the one that followed it, showed boxes and boxes clearly labeled NIDO. As anyone at Fox could have discovered with about a minute’s worth of fact-checking, NIDO is not baby formula; it is powdered milk. As its maker, Nestlé, specifically notes: “NIDO® products are only intended for children ages 1 year and older.”
This is beyond frustrating. While shelves here at home are empty, pallets of formula make their way to the border courtesy of the U.S. government. https://t.co/0DyFRcDDZd
— Congresswoman Kat Cammack (@RepKatCammack) May 12, 2022
Pallets of baby formula available at the border. But on shelves here at home, a crisis-level shortage for American families. This is Biden's America Last agenda on display. https://t.co/o2GcOoqggM
— Congresswoman Kat Cammack (@RepKatCammack) May 12, 2022
Kat Cammack torches Biden admin. on baby formula shortage: Exactly what 'America last' looks likehttps://t.co/eEP0G61RJ2
The genius of Donald Trump is his understanding that the greatest lie you can tell someone is the lie that the person wants more than life itself to believe.
Asking Fox to fact check their reporting is like asking Trump to stop lying. I can find pallets of powdered milk in nearly every grocery chain in America. I just checked Costco’s website. Even they have it.
As anyone at Fox could have discovered with about a minute’s worth of fact-checking, NIDO is not baby formula; it is powdered milk. As its maker, Nestlé, specifically notes: “NIDO® products are only intended for children ages 1 year and older.”
Asking Fox to fact check their reporting is like asking Trump to stop lying. I can find pallets of powdered milk in nearly every grocery chain in America. I just checked Costco’s website. Even they have it.
So, why can't we just import baby formula?
Heh heh, glad you asked.
Every heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA with? Remember Trump bragging about that? Remember?
The same baby formula producer that had contaminated product and led to this shortage used billions of dollars to buy back stock instead of investing in their product safety. Putting profits before the safety of our children is unacceptable.
If Rupert Murdoch cared about truth, decency, democracy, or anything beyond lining his own already-bulging pockets he would put an end to this nonsense, but he won’t because he doesn’t.
I think the reality is they hate the idea of immigrant children getting baby formula. So should we let them starve? I’d bet most of those “compassionate” Christians would say yes. “Formula is only fer ‘Muricans!”
“And under President Donald Trump, the U.S. entered into a new North American trade agreement that actively discourages formula imports from our largest trading partner, Canada.” https://t.co/suWTf8u5v5
I wish that there were laws that protected citizens from such lies. Free speech is one thing, but this shit, while not sparking a full blown panic, is just keeping things simmering. One of my absolute dearest friends (talking to you Angela) hardly speaks with me, I’m guessing because of Facebook posts about the orange one. It’s sad, but as i get older I’ve just decided to stop chasing after friendships. I held Angela when her husband, and then her Mother passed away. She’s never once reached out to me, and 2021 was a helluva year for me. She and her boyfriend watch fox “news” and parrot what they see. You can’t change people, and it’s not worth trying. As you get older, your circle gets smaller. Fox News makes it all the worse.
American industry, unfortunately, CAN'T just spin up to replace the lack of supply from Abbott Nutrition. Because the US Dairy Industry has worked very hard over several decades to ensure the supply of infant formula is strictly managed to maintain a steady profit margin. https://t.co/Y9ygH2PDyg
Even taking them at their premise. Gotta love all these “pro-life” folks upset that.. we’re feeding people we’re keeping in custody? Especially infants that obviously had no choice in the matter?
Huh. Very “pro-life” indeed, since the clear implication is that we.. shouldn’t be feeding those infants we’re keeping in custody.. hmm. I mean, could take this as a reason to not keep them in custody? But that’s silly, I’m sure. Better to suggest that we just shouldn’t feed them.. while they’re in custody.. which.. uhhh.. not so pro life if you ask anyone who knows anything about how digestion works?
Scottie's Playtime 