Florida Now Going After Social Studies Textbooks

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

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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.

https://www.miamiherald.com…

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Hey Teach … what does “Colored” only mean?

Can I use my Crayolas and markers?

How long before the first highschooler cant get into college because they learned nothing?

That wont happen. As it is the red states will pass laws to make it mandatory that all colleges accept their new standards and then sue to get in front of SCOTUS and thats all it takes. Red states know how to take over the country and impose their will without firing a shot.

I wonder if any democratic governors beside Newsom in CA will have the nerve to play hardball with the feds on enforcement of red states rules for blue state citizens?

Schools are already eliminating the SAT as a requirement.

There are legislatures pushing state colleges and any college that takes state monies to follow the Hillsdale “classical” education model.

Count on the NYT to call censorship and book destruction by a fascist state ‘hot politics’.

I thought that was a bit unfair until I clicked through and saw an article which was the current affairs version of the altered ‘Studies Weekly’ textbook.
I can’t remember who said it first but if someone says it’s raining and someone else says it’s not, your job as a journalist isn’t to say ‘A says it’s raining, B says it’s dry,’ but to look out of the window to see which one is correct.

Honestly if we the people are content to let it happen its going to get much worse. I just ask myself and our leaders and all of us… why the fuck are we not in the streets marching every weekend, every chance, protesting and standing up to fascist.

So Cuban Floridians you fled a regime in your country supported by Russia and now you vote and support a Russian leaning authoritarian as your governor. Where will you exile next and aid in its demise?

Yes but the whites preach racism against blacks and Mexicans. Let me tell you from living in a Cuban neighborhood and knowing and interacting with many of them.. they give the white rednecks a run for the money on hating those two peoples specifically.

 

Michigan prosecutor mulls charging Lapeer library over LGBTQ book

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-prosecutor-mulls-charging-lapeer-library-over-lgbtq-book

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 in an office
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:

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.

 

 

Jon Stewart takes on Republican lawmaker who wants to ban drag shows in viral interview

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/03/jon-stewart-takes-on-republican-lawmaker-who-wants-to-ban-drag-shows-in-viral-interview/

 

Jon Stewart takes on Republican lawmaker who wants to ban drag shows in viral interview
Jon StewartPhoto: Screenshot/AppleTV+

On the most recent episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, the show’s namesake and host grilled an Ohio Republican, using his support of drag show bans to expose the hypocrisy behind his opposition to gun control legislation. A clip from the interview, which premiered on Friday, has since gone viral.

Oklahoma state Sen. Nathan Dahm (R) opposes restrictions on firearms, like laws requiring background checks and red-flag laws, because he says they infringe on a person’s Second Amendment rights. He also supports banning drag shows anywhere they might be viewed by minors.

During his interview with Dahm, Stewart clashed with the lawmaker over the idea that increased access to guns makes Americans safer, arguing that Dahm’s efforts to loosen gun restrictions have made it harder for authorities to identify individuals who may pose threats.

“The person is the threat, not the firearm,” Dahm explained.

“But you don’t want anything that could help law enforcement or society determine whether or not a person is a good guy with a gun or a bad guy with a gun,” Stewart countered. “I don’t understand why you won’t just admit that you are making it harder for police to manage the streets by allowing all of these guns to go out without permits, without checks, without background stuff.”

Dahm argued that the restrictions he opposes infringe upon “the individual’s right to keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment.  

Stewart then pivoted to other examples of ways in which constitutional rights are limited under the law, including requiring voter registration. He then questioned Dahm about his support for an Oklahoma bill that would make it illegal to host drag performances on public property or where they could be viewed by minors. Similar bills are being considered in states across the country. Last week, Tennessee became the first state in which such legislation was signed into law.

Stewart asked Dahm whether Oklahoma’s anti-drag law would infringe on the First Amendment rights of performers. Dahm argued that under the proposed law, drag performers could continue to exercise their right to free speech, “just not in front of a child.”

“The government does have a responsibility in certain instances to protect children,” Dahm admitted.

“What’s the leading cause of death amongst children in this country?” Stewart asked. “And I’m going to give you a hint, it’s not drag show readings to children.”

“It’s firearms,” Stewart continued. “More than cancer, more than car accidents. And what you’re telling me is you don’t mind infringing free speech to protect children from this amorphous thing that you think of. But when it comes to children that have died you don’t give a flying f**k to stop that because that shall not be infringed. That is hypocrisy at its highest order.”

 

The clip has since received over 36,000 views on Twitter and more than 1.2 million views on YouTube.

Florida Schools Remove Book About Holocaust Survivor

West Palm Beach’s NBC affiliate reports:

A new list shows dozens and dozens of books have been removed from library shelves in the Martin County School District. This comes as the state puts in new requirements for school librarians to review reading material, and districts must have a process allowing community members to challenge books.

Books by well known authors like James Patterson, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult are now off the shelves in Martin County schools.

“99% of the books we have filed challenges on are highly sexually explicit books,” said Julie Marshall, who leads Moms For Liberty in Martin County and filed many of the objections. Jennifer Pippin, a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.

The Washington Post reports:

The removal list includes Picoult’s novel “The Storyteller” about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who meets an elderly former SS officer. It contains some violent scenes told in flashbacks from World War II and an assisted suicide.

“Banning ‘The Storyteller’ is shocking, as it is about the Holocaust and has never been banned before,” Picoult told us in an email.

“Martin County is the first to ban twenty of my books at once,” Picoult said, slamming such bans as “a shocking breach of freedom of speech and freedom of information.” Picoult said she’s puzzled by the ban, because she does not “write adult romance,” as objections filed against her books claimed.

“I like Florida; everything is in the eighties: the temperature, the ages, and the IQs.” —George Carlin

This is the point I always make. You ask these people to show you the “pornographic” books and whoopsy-poopsy it’s a bunch of books about the Holocaust, slavery, Jim Crow America, on and on and on….

I would be really happy if one of them were to ever hold up a copy of a “pornographic” book at one of their rant rallies, because it means I would get to alert the cops to a crazy person displaying / distributing pornography to the public.

But…but…but…Any book that shows white, Christian people doing hateful things is obviously pornographic. Right? Right? /s

 

Why are only right wing wackos challenging books? A gutsy liberal could challenge the bible. Of course they’d need 24/7 security, bulletproof windows and and armored vehicle to travel in because Florida is filled with dangerous raging cultists.

When exactly will the Florida Führer finally face push back, because he’s storm trooping along with nary a pebble blocking his way.

I think that right now, people are in shock. It’s like having a firehose turned on them.

Let’s hope you’re right! Right now he seems to be steamrolling right along in creating not a bastion of “liberty” for moms and kids and dads and other adults, but a SLAVE STATE.

a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.

So none of them have a goddamn clue what is even in the books they find so offensive, and if pressed on why they want to ban any particular book they would be unable to really explain it.

And like most of these morality groups, they probably don’t even have children in the public schools.

At what point do majority of the Americans and the rest of the world realize we are repeating history again? Until millions of people shove into the oven? Or until it get so uncontrollable that nations need to set off multiple nuclear bombs in the US to make blowing up Hiroshima looks like popping a balloon?

The press actually reporting on this to the general public would sure help.

No surprise. At all. Mustn’t show books that depict white people as bad guys

DeSantis Seeks $98 Million To Fund New FL Military

I read the linked article and I suggest you do also.   What this makes clear is that DeSantis wants is his own storm troopers, his own terror troops answerable only to him.   The national guard is under the auspices of the US government and follows the polices of the Department of defense.  The National Guard is part of the U.S. military but is unusual because it is controlled by both state and federal leaders.   Most of the time, state National Guards are commanded by governors. However, presidents have the authority to call them into service to respond to hurricanes, bolster border security, and assist in overseas military operations.

The National Guard is a joint activity of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) composed of reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force: the Army National Guard[3] and the Air National Guard, respectively

Who will be the Commander in Chief of the Florida State Guard?  Yes the ruler DerSantis himself.  Total control total power.   The white supremacist gang thugs  Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the other far right gangs were the unofficial enforcement arm of the republican party.  Now they will be wearing uniforms.   Think of it!

The scary part is what DerSantis claimed about his new personal army.  “The Florida State Guard will be comprised of Floridians, and it will be assigned to assist and help only Floridians,” DeSantis said in a news conference last June. “It will not be subject to be mobilized by the federal government, and the federal government cannot impose policies or penalties on the Florida State Guard.”    

In other words, just the right kind of people will be allowed to join.  Will that mean just white people?  Will it mean only Christians?   Clearly no gays, lesbians, or trans people will be allowed.    Also you know those annoying rules that the Federal government has for fairness, use of force, medical readiness, and the things the force can be used for all are gone, now ruled by people who claim vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they help prevent, that claims adamantly that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen somehow but have no evidence of it, that claim that drag queens readding to kids is sexual abuse, that not enforcing stereotypical gender roles from the 1950s is sexualizing kids, and that teachers are groomers while ignoring the many religious leaders charged with sexual crimes against kids.  And so much more.  

The ruler of Florida will now have his own goon squad fake white supremacists Christian nationalist to intimidate the governors enemies and it enforce his decrees in the state.   And he wants to be kind of the entire country not just Florida.     Will these troops be assigned to minority area voter places under some fake guise of “keeping the peace”?   Will they show up at school board meetings in progressive areas to express the displeasure of the governor?  Will they have the authority to make the arrests demanded by the king of Florida that is not quite legal for the police to do?   Just how far into fascism do we have to before people see the danger.   trump just started the ball rolling in to the 1930s Germany, DerSantis wants to finish recreating that time here.   Seriously this needs to be fought with all we have.    Hugs

Click Orlando reports:

As lawmakers in Tallahassee consider Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget proposal this session, they will be also be deciding whether to approve a steep funding increase establishing Florida’s own branch of the military. The state guard was dismantled at the end of World War II.

“The Florida State Guard will be comprised of Floridians, and it will be assigned to assist and help only Floridians,” DeSantis said in a news conference last June. “It will not be subject to be mobilized by the federal government, and the federal government cannot impose policies or penalties on the Florida State Guard.”

In its first year, the legislature approved $10 million to restart the Florida State Guard. DeSantis now wants to increase that to $98 million this year.

Read the full article.

This won’t start, continue, or end well

 

This way, even if he doesn’t make it as president, he still gets to be commander in chief of his own little fiefdom.

He’s already got the uniform.

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“The Florida State Guard will be comprised of Floridians, and it will be assigned to assist and help only Floridians,”***

***Unless those Floridians are gay, trans, in a same-sex marriage, vote Democratic, are Black, ex-convicts, undocumented, straight, but want their kids taught accurate history or enjoy drag shows.

Based on the “soldiers” standing behind him, I think we can guess the racial make up of this little “army” of his.

Good question. Why does DeSantis need a private army?

What fascist fantasy could he have that needs to be enforced?

Well, first of all there’s us. First the drag queens, then the rest of the gays, then anyone Republicans don’t like…except for the Jews. They still need them to bring on the rapture.

Floridians need to vote ‘correctly’ at polling places. And there’s no D in the word ‘correctly,’ only 2 R’s

Ron’s own little Gestapo. What could possibly go wrong?

Tallahassee Mussolini wants his own praetorian guards.

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Nothing says “authoritarian” like your own personal army.

Does that mean the federal govt. doesn’t need to supply any aid next time FL is hit with a massive hurricane?

So if he gets his own army, that helps only Florida, then there will be no need for any assistance from the National Guard in case of a hurricane or any other emergency. He’ll spend all his money on his hate, but he’ll have his hand out in an instant if anything goes wrong.

The building of his own SS troops before the Fascism take over the country. Who needs to go to Argentina to hunt for the good old Nazis when Florida is just right there.

These forces will be specially trained to round up LGBT+ citizens, camps are coming.

At this point, we need Governor Newsom, Governor Hochul, and Governor Pritzker to form a pact to each do everything Florida does. DeSantis targets Disney? Newsom, Hochul, and Pritzker go after Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A. DeSantis tells the College Board they have to bow to his “anti-woke” bullshit or be kicked out of Florida? Newsom and Hochul tell the College Board that if they do, they’re banned from California, New York, and Illinois. DeSantis wants a private army in Florida? Looks like California, New York, and Illinois need private armies, too. Make sure the Republicans in the federal government know that if they allow this shit, they’re signing off on blue states doing it too. DeSantis is engaging in the social equivalent of unilateral nuclear proliferation. It’s time for Democratic elected officials to get M.A.D.

the federal government cannot impose policies or penalties on the Florida State Guard

 

What BS, there will be all kinds of employment regs you have to follow. And it is just another state police force (militia) that has to follow the Constitution.

This is the first concrete step to his ultimate plan for Florida to secede. His plan goes far beyond running for president.
162 years ago — “On January 10, 1861, Florida delegates who were meeting in the state capital, Tallahassee, voted to secede from the U.S. Florida became one of the six original Southern states to form the Confederate States of America.”

Getting ready for that big National Divorce are we, Texas?

As the complete Article states, the Florida National Guard is “insufficient”, because it’s under Federal control. This is once again posturing by a short heavy wannabe Presidential hopeful. Who thank dog is term limited as Governor , after we send him packing should he gain the nomination for President

It is Pooptin’s idea, the first step to divide the States literally.

Has that traitor sanctioned the Russian yachts owners in Florida yet? Last time we checked he hasn’t.

And I suppose the Florida citizens are OK with spending the $$$ for Ronnie’s mercenary army?

And now he’s forming his own army, probably to fend off the next war of northern aggression. I’m reminded of this scene in The Great Dictator:
https://www.google.com/sear…

 

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Can’t he just use the already available National Guard like everyone else?

No, because there is already a set of rules on how the National Guard can be deployed and how they have to conduct themselves.

  •  

    Tut, tut. Those are subject to mobilisation from the Federal Government, and can be sent to other states by the Feds. This would be Sandtits’ personal army.

    Lots of yahoo’s gonna sign up to be on the “special” army.

    No need for a draft, and they’ll bring their own guns.

 

 

 

 

GOP Florida Bill Forces Colleges To Host Hate Activists.

Anything they can do to force a regressive return to a time before progressive civil rights and a progressive society that valued people for who they were including women, minorities, ethnic groups, and the LGBTQ+.   Look all those groups  / people have been around and part of us since the dawn of man, but the ability of those people to live openly in equality as they are, to live normal lives in society is something new in the last 80 years.   That is something the wealthy barons, the religious fundamentalists, and those unable to accept the changes in society are desperate to deny and reverse.  

I am sorry, I wish I could do more to promote this story.   I simply am not up to it.   Don’t just stop at the article I post, go to the story.  Things are changing fast and badly in Florida.  This is vitally important to what is happening in Florida due to the republicans under the direction of DerSantis.   It is a story of not allowing the majority to prevent the minority from forcing an ideology, a ridged ideological regressive conservative rule on a public that doesn’t want it.  This a group of ideologs that got a little authority and gerrymandered / voter suppressed it into a majority party win, and each time they gained more power they did everything they could even as their party shrank to increase their lock on power.  This is about big corporation money to force a government into office that will allow them to disregard human life while increasing profit.  Profit is king and greed is good.  But having ideas that support the importance of people or the government using its power to assist or support the public interferes with profit.  That cannot be allowed.   So in Florida they managed to get a few republican state legislature wind even using illegal means that still let the illegally elected person stay in office, then trump managed to get a failing far behind candidate for governor elected and the minority part who did not have a majority of the state’s votes changed everything to give themselves great advantages meaning large wins.   The situation in Florida is the public is 50/50 or even leaning blue but the republicans have made it almost impossible for a democrat to win in a lot of places and even if a democrat looks to win in at least three documented elections republicans violated laws to make sure the democrats cannot win.   Republicans want a one party rule which equals a dictatorship, just look at the governments around the world they support.   So to stop any free thought or kids getting the idea that there is any other way than republican ideology they make it illegal to teach it, to mention it, to disagree with the grand republican party and its minority rule will not be tolerated in the schools, in higher education facilities and now not even in the press or media.   Is this what the US wants?  Don’t you see examples of this in history?     Sorry I must go lay down.   Hugs

Comments are disabled as most posts going forward will be.   Due to health reasons.  Hugs.   Scottie

GOP Florida Bill Forces Colleges To Host Hate Activists

Bill more closely regulating on-campus speakers advances

Some items Randy sent me I want to share with everyone. Hugs

This is the republican view of governance, using the powers of the government to enforce their minority views on the public who disagrees with the party and to enrich themselves off the public treasury / legal bribery called lobbying.    Hugs

This last one is to counteract all the crazy cruel crap and republican shit above.  Enjoy with amazement at the skill of both of these two performers.   Hugs

Some news articles I wanted to post over the last few days.

I tried to group these articles in some sort of order.  But you can see the goals of the right just from the titles.   The eradication of transpeople at any age from society. The removal of any gay rights with the goal of eradicating gay people from society.  The enforcement of stereotypical gender roles and the returning to the days when women were dependent on men, and few had authority or independence on their own.  They want tyranny and dictatorship of one party rule with no restraint on their activities even to the point of attempting the overthrow of the US constitution / government and the celebration of those that committed the illegal acts in the coup attempt.    Republicans want to rule not govern, they want to have the people afraid to disagree with them or dare to speak against their rule.  Just like the countries of China, North Korea, and their beloved Russia.   Please notice the attempt is to return the US to the regressive oppressive times before the New Deal that empowered the public.   They want 1910 to 1920.  We had better join together to stop them or we won’t be able to.   DerSantis is shopping the campaign slogan “Make America Florida”.   Is that not enough of a threat to the country?   Has the trump years not shown how quickly the right can move if given power to destroy all norms and rights to enforce their minority rule.   McConnell even said that while republicans will lose elections the democrats couldn’t stop a republican stacked court system from enforcing republican goals for decades.  He was correct.  Mitch McConnell said, “My goal is to do everything we can for as long as we can to transform the federal judiciary, because everything else we do is transitory.”   Hugs

Read the comments on this to see how things used to be for families and kids before labor laws and government assistance were created. Kids younger than five working a full day in the farm fields. Is this the grand vision of the future the country needs or wants? Think of every movie of the future that has a great working society and they are progressive but the ones with dystopian unfair or dangerous future and it is regressive oppressive hellish places were greed is king with businesses in charge killing any regulation that prevents profit. Hugs

DeSantis DeStruction! | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update

Republicans take aim at risque jokes and romance novels with anti-sex bills

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/republican-anti-sex-legislation-state-level

Again these bills are a way Christians can force their moral views on everyone, a way they get to rule on how every person gets to live their lives.   It gives these rabid fundamentalists Christian republican groups the right to tell everyone else what they can do, regulating what everyone can watch / read in order to conform to a strict religious view of morality written 2,500 years ago.  It ignores all medical, scientific, and social advances done in the years since their holy books were written and mistranslated.   Society has advanced as human understandings have, yet these oppressive regressive people want to ignore all that.  Would they also like to go back to the medical understandings in the 1600s, 1700s, or even what was known medically in 1900.  That was 28 years before penicillin was discovered.  21 years before insulin was discovered.   Tell me if their holy book written knew everything about morals why did it support slavery?   Do we return to that also to please Christian fascists?  This is an attempt to enshrine a religious morality over everyone regardless of if you belong to that or any religion.   Again it is not about these people being able to live and act as they wish, it is about forcing everyone else to live by their church rules / doctrines.  Hugs

My X says I can't do that : r/MemeTemplatesOfficial

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Bills are part of religious right’s post-Roe strategy, with most prevalent ones relating to age verification of sex-related websites

 

A wave of proposed legislation pushed by Republicans across the US at the state level is aimed at outlawing aspects of sexuality that could have a huge impact on Americans’ private lives and businesses.

Opponents to the laws before legislatures in various states say the planned new legislation could spawn prosecution of breast-pump companies in Texas for nipples on advertising, or a bookstore might be banned from selling romance novels in West Virginia, or South Carolina could imprison standup comics if a risqué joke is heard by a young person.

 
 

The bills are part of a post-Roe nationwide strategy by the religious wing of the Republican party, now that federal abortion rights have fallen. They range from banning all businesses that sell sex-related goods to anti-drag queen bills. Tyler Dees, an Arkansas state senator who wrote an anti-porn bill said: “I would love to outlaw it all,” referring to porn.

The most prevalent bills relate to age verification of sex-related websites. Seventeen states drafted porn age-verification bills, many inspired by Louisiana’s law that went into effect in January. Louisiana’s law requires websites featuring 33.33% or more pornographic content to check government-issued ID to verify users are 18 and older. Websites that don’t comply face civil penalties. Parents can sue the site if kids access it.

In Texas, a new bill requiring age verification on websites with pornographic content defines images of the female breast “below the top of the areola” as porn, potentially hitting at business advertisements. In West Virginia, a bill outlawing all sexually oriented businesses is on the docket, with a definition that includes art studios with nude models and wrestling arenas. In South Carolina a bill would criminalize using “profane language” related to “sexual or excretory organs or activities” in front of minors during performances. The punishment? Up to a decade in prison.

Some bills define porn so broadly that anatomy textbooks or sex education websites would meet them.

“I don’t think such laws for the internet are constitutional,” said Eugene Volokh, a professor of Law at UCLA.

Laurie Schlegel, a Republican state senator who drafted the Louisiana law, is a sex-addiction therapist educated at Baptist seminary, who opposed transgender students from being on sports teams that align with their gender. Schlegel’s anti-LGBTQ+ views fit with the broader goal of the laws, according to Carolyn Bronstein, a professor of media studies at DePaul University.

“These laws are really not about controlling minors’ access to violent pornography … In the conservative world view, pornography is information about LGBTQ identity, abortion, gay marriage,” said Bronstein.

Eight states have justified their actions by saying that porn is “creating a public health crisis”. Louisiana’s bill claims that pornography “may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages … impact brain development … shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”

Historian Whitney Strub, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, doesn’t think these ideas are well-founded. “Framing pornography as a public health crisis is not driven by serious engagement with the social scientific literature,” he said. “They’ve even got fake peer-reviewed journals that give the imprimatur of scholarship … It’s been a very smart rebranding of evangelical Christian conservatism.”

Why are all these bills being proposed now? Strub thinks it’s partly because of the overturning of Roe v Wade. “Abortion gave a certain coherence to conservative politics in the United States. And it certainly still does … but they’re in the position of Ahab if he slayed the white whale … I mean, there’s no more Moby-Dick.”

There is hypocrisy on display also.

In many of the states where the anti-porn bills are being put forth, minors can legally have sex and get married. “In Louisiana, you can have sex when you’re 17 with a person in their 30s, but you can’t watch porn,” said Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, the age of consent is 16. With parental permission, Mississippi allows 15-year-olds to marry, Louisiana 16-year-olds, Arkansas 17-year-olds, and West Virginia kids of any age.

Dees, who wrote Arkansas’s age verification bill, a copycat of Louisiana’s, said porn causes depression and anxiety, divorce and “permissive sexual attitudes” and infidelity. “When I think about the children … I want to protect their innocence,” Dees said.

Strub said this is an old trope: “The political figure of the innocent and imperiled child just has a never-ending purchase on American politics … [it] essentially shuts down debate because it immediately creates a binary in which anybody who disagrees with you is [a] perverted groomer.”

Dees is also the co-author of anti-drag queen legislation in Arkansas, that classifies drag performances as the same category as pornography. “It’s not really a meaningful distinction to [conservatives]. They’re both sexual degeneracy in its different guises,” Strub said.

Dees claimed that his porn verification law “doesn’t have anything to do with any political messaging. It has to do with exposure to material that is harmful, period … There’s a clear enemy in the smut-peddling garbage that’s online.”

But measures already exist to prevent children accessing porn. “There’s a really easy way to keep kids from accessing adult content. And that’s a device-level filter” on mobile phones that block adult websites that are registered as Restricted to Adults, said Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition, which advocates for the rights of sex workers.

These laws, according to Stabile, aren’t going to stop kids from looking at porn. “Even if they were to block all sites, you’re still going to have adult content on Twitter and Reddit … kids will get VPNs,” he said.

Stabile thinks we’ll see up to two dozen age-verification bills introduced by the end of the year.

Dees hopes he is right and has eyes beyond the state level eventually. “My prayer is that enough states continue to push for this measure, and that we send a loud enough message where federal law can be put into place,” he said.