Please tell me why an authoritarian highly ambitious arrogant Christian nationalist racist bigot who has already threatened BLM protestors and has been documented as abusing helpless prisoners want with his own military force with the power to arrest people? Considering the hate that the Governor and his supporters have for the LGBTQ+ will they use this new military police force against that community? What about drag queens? Hugs
The Florida State Guard’s (FSG) budget will grow to 10 times its current level, nearly quadruple in personnel, and become a permanent part of state government under legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed.
The measure (HB 1285), promulgated by Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo, creates a Division of the State Guard within the Department of Military Affairs as a separate budget entity headed by a Governor-appointed director, who will be confirmed by the Senate.
ACLU Florida said this expansion moves Florida closer to a police state. The new law expands the scope of its mission from being ready for activation in emergencies to also “protect and defend the people of Florida from threats to public safety.” Its members also have arresting powers.
The sweeping nature of this bill is astounding: it would divert nearly $100 million in taxpayer funding to build, arm, clothe, equip, and train a volunteer armed guard of 1,500 people to assume the duties of the National Guard.
These volunteers would have access to weapons, ammunition, planes, helicopters, boats, and surveillance technology, and would, unique among states with a State Guard, create a special unit within the State Guard with authority to make arrests.
What makes this even more troubling is that the newly-envisioned State Guard will only be accountable to the Governor and can be activated not just in a state of emergency, but any time the Governor deems necessary to broadly protect ‘from threats to public safety.’
This broad language fails to provide guardrails to ensure this special unit could not be deployed to crack down on activities that this Legislature is in the process of criminalizing.
Under the bill, the Governor will appoint the director of the state guard who serves at the pleasure of the Governor – meaning there will be no checks and balances on when and how this force is used.
Additionally, the Governor can order his State Guard to take action in other states. This is a terrifying bill that puts Floridians’ privacy, security, and safety in grave danger.
“Florida is the most military and veteran friendly state in the nation and through this legislation, we are further supporting our military, veterans and their families with the resources they need while they are serving and after they have fulfilled their duty,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
HB 1285 establishes the Florida State Guard as a permanent component in Florida’s state militia and creates the Division of the State Guard within the Department of Military Affairs. The Florida State Guard has been appropriated $108 million in the General Appropriations Act.
HB 1285 increases the Florida State Guard from 400 to 1,500 volunteers, creates a specialist unit to act as law enforcement when necessary, and makes the force permanent, all of which enhance its capacity to defend and protect Floridians. pic.twitter.com/j3Y3FMllNX
So the 1500 members of this security Force are all volunteers? Can you imagine the type of person that will sign up for this? You’re going to have your Proud Boy types, KKK, and just your general bigoted rednecks who love guns and authoritarianism. What could go wrong?
Not really. Cubans loved fascist dictator Batista; they only hated Castro because he confiscated their property and money, not because he was also an evil fascist dictator. They love fascism and want it in the US.
Ooh, the “Gator Guard”! Next you’ll have them dig a moat around the state, and install a drawbridge.
Y’see Ron, people with the support of the populace don’t need to go into battle against them. This little historical note apparently slipped your notice.
This is terrorism, causing fear and harm for a political gain. This is 1930s German brownshirts attacking Jewish people and establishments along with anyone who did not support Hitlers goals / bigotry. These people attacking trans people / drag queens and business supporters of the LGBTQ+ are the US fundamentalist Christian maga conservative Nazi gang thugs Taliban pushing their bigotry on to the entire public that doesn’t agree with them. I keep asking who will be targeted next? The Texas Chaplin bill that pushes unqualified religious leaders in public school as councilors to the children specifies Christian leaders, and they wouldn’t allow amendments to let other religions be included. So tell me who the group to be targeted when they force3 the LGBTQ+ into hiding and out of public view? Hugs
To mark Pride Month 2023, Target teamed up with LGBTQ+ artists to create capsule collections.(Target/PinkNews)
US retailer Target has pulled some of its LGBTQ+ Pride collection and displays from stores across the country after members of staff faced threats of violence.
The company confirmed on Tuesday (22 May) that it will be making changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise ahead of Pride month, which starts next week.
One of the changes includes moving the Pride collection to the back of some of its shops in southern states, following a backlash from shoppers.
The New York Post quoted a Target source as saying there were “emergency” meetings on Friday (19 May) to address right-wing customers’ outrage over the collections.
The 15-minute meeting included advice about keeping sales staff safe and what Pride-related items and signage to remove.
“We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year it is just exponentially more than any other year,” the source said.
The company is “terrified of a Bud Light situation”, the insider added.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement.
“Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the centre of the most significant confrontational behaviour.”
Daily Beast journalist Matt Young shared an extract of the Target statement on Twitter.
BREAKING: Full statement from Target announcing changes to Pride merchandise from stores ahead of June Pride month. Says threats to workers forced the change. pic.twitter.com/fuYtY1rhqn
Target has not yet confirmed which specific items or brands will be removed, but it is thought that its “tuck-friendly” swimsuits will no longer be on display.
The swimsuit prompted right-wing Americans to call for a boycott of the store, which sells thousands of products for heterosexual, cisgender people. Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert was among those fuelling the outrage on social media.
Target chief executive Brian Cornell recently defended the retailer’s commitment to inclusion and LGBTQ+ representation while speaking to Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast.
“It’s helping us drive sales, it’s building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for our business today,” he said.
He told the Associated Press that the swimsuits, which provide wearers with extra crotch coverage, are only available in adult sizes.
Despite Target’s insistence that its change in policy is to protect staff, it has faced criticism online, with people accusing the retailer of “caving in” to right-wing threats.
Some have said that its stance puts LGBTQ+ people in more danger.
Companies like @Target that abandon their values after fascist mobs attack actually put queer folk in MORE DANGER by signaling how easily we will be abandoned.
We are ultimately alone in this. We have to stand tall and fight harder than some of us have ever fought. https://t.co/7tV2ZWGpN0
— Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. (@WillieETCarver) May 24, 2023
One person tweeted: “These people were making death and bomb threats against children’s hospitals, schools and LGBTQ venues.
“Every single time, it got the results they wanted. Why would they stop with Target? Anti-LGBTQ terrorism is continuing to work as intended.”
These people were making death threats and bomb threats against children's hospitals, schools, and LGBTQ venues. Every single time, it got the results they wanted. Why would they stop with Target? Anti LGBTQ terrorism is continuing to work as intended. https://t.co/7Yustn70z5
Oh hey, did you know that you can wreck a @Target display and doing that enough will get them to pull the products you're vandalizing about? pic.twitter.com/LYL4gAnU0B
AyJayDee221 hours ago edited These aren’t conservatives – they’re theocratic fascist arsonists trying to burn the country down so they can rebuild it as a white Christian supremacist authoritarian regime.
Raising the debt ceiling is not a “concession” by Republicans — it's their constitutional duty.
Republicans are extorting the American people by threatening to crater the economy to extract unreasonable demands they'd never be able to get in the ordinary appropriations process. pic.twitter.com/XTi03tmPvA
It explicitly encourages local law officers such as the sheriff and county prosecutor to not enforce state and federal laws they deem unconstitutional.
Who wakes up and decides to call businesses that operate 2000 miles away and threaten them with violence? Well a very devout christian might do something like that. Tim McVeigh was a VERY DEVOUT christian.
It is also a second charge for obstruction. Then there is the report he was showing the documents to people not authorized to see them. Remember Jack Teixeira, the kid who was arrested a few weeks ago for posting documents online? Unauthorized retention and dissemination of classified material is what Jackie-boy is facing and if these media reports are accurate then Trump is going to be facing them soon as well.
“We need to go after Target in a very serious way.” This from the guy who has complained umpteen million times about how horrible cancel culture is. It turns out, like everything else, that was a lie. He just can’t stand when he (or the white christian nationalists) don’t have power in any aspect of life.
It is always, ALWAYS about power. Never about the children, never about god/jeebus/Christianity… it is ALWAYS about more power for them… and no rights for anyone else they deem as “other.” That is the only endgame for these people.
Imagine what the MEDIA would have to say if the LEFT were calling for ANY kind of violence! THIS, because it comes from the RIGHT, gets a PASS from the corporate sellout FRAUDS! (Electoral-Vote recently said Republicans inclined to speak out are afraid to speak out against Trump because they KNOW it will place their LIVES at risk, theirs and their children’s, that THAT is the purpose of the violent rhetoric, the stochastic terrorism, coming from Trump and his followers, to silence any criticism from Republicans who are alarmed by the FASCISM that has taken control of their party! WHERE are the MEDIA, the “Guardians of Democracy,” to call out and DENOUNCE this fascist rhetoric, these fascist tactics which are an ASSAULT on the democracy it is their journalistic DUTY to DEFEND from just such attacks?! They do NOTHING to call it out–they have instead infamously NORMALIZED it, something they NEVER would have done if ANY Democrat had EVER called for his opponents to be “taught a lesson”! Imagine if OBAMA had EVER adopted such an attitude! The media would have exploded in a RAGE and demanded his resignation! But such rhetoric from the right gets a PASS–they are in no way held accountable!)
WHERE is the DOJ? Where is GARLAND, that goddamned WEAKLING? What a pathetic FARCE!
Oh, the thing is, the Wingers have no problem using violence and threats of violence to get their ways. Since they do not have a majority on the social issues, that is one way they know to get what they want.
“I will not allow my kid to be corrupted by this trans agenda.” First, the only agenda I know of is that trans people want the right to live as a man or woman depending on their perceived gender identification. That has nothing to do with your children or you. And if you don’t want your children in Target, keep them home. Some people may want the merchandise they are selling, and it is none of your business whether Target sells it or not. You right wingers are just busybodies with too fucking much interest in stuff that is none of your damned business. (He reminds me of Gladys Kravitz.)
House Democrats offered amendments to bar proselytizing or attempts to convert students from one religion to another; to require chaplains to receive consent from the parents of school children; and to make schools provide chaplains from any faith or denomination requested by students. All of those amendments failed. Rep. Cole Hefner, who authored the House version of the bill, said in debates that local school boards will be allowed to set requirements for chaplains.
As I reported on Monday, the bill is the work of a Texas evangelist who falsely testified to the Texas House that the chaplains will not be “working to convert people to religion.” In fact, his organization has been open about their desire to proselytize to public school students.
Unlicensed religious chaplains could work mental health roles in Texas public schools under a bill the Legislature passed.
Critics fear the bill is an attempt at evangelizing kids and will worsen mental health through disproven counseling approaches. https://t.co/Bbup8Pv6Vt
When the Texas House was debating SB763, the bill that allows districts to replace counselors with chaplains, @DiegoBernalTX flat out asked Cole Hefner if a district could replace ALL counselors with chaplains. The answer was YES.#txlege#txedpic.twitter.com/NixV3KV18D
— Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social (@cjtackett) May 10, 2023
That jumped out at me too. So their long-standing argument that parents should have a voice in their children’s education has been bullshit all along? Got it.
If stores and other LGBTQ+ allies hide their support the hateful fundamentalist Christian white supremacist maga brownshirt gang thugs win. That encourages them to do more acts of this domestic terrorism. And they are proud of their tactics. And they won’t stop, they can not be appeased. Hugs
Just in via press release:
Recent pushback against businesses such as Anheuser-Busch and Target, blatantly organized by extremist groups, serves as a wake up call for all businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community.
We’ve seen this extremist playbook of attacks before. Their goal is clear: to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation, silence our allies and make our community invisible.
These attacks fuel hate against LGBTQ+ people, just as we’ve seen this year with more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that restrict basic freedoms and aim to erase LGBTQ+ people.
Extremist attacks and harassment of businesses for standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and values of diversity, equity and inclusion have challenged Target, and businesses more broadly, to lead – to demonstrate they mean what they say when investing in and standing with LGBTQ+ people, creatives, and organizations.
Businesses must continue to lead and respond with unwavering support for LGBTQ+ employees, shareholders, customers, allies – and the broader community. When values of diversity, equity and inclusion are tested, business must defend them unequivocally.
Doubling down on your values is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business. Research shows that if a brand publicly supports and demonstrates a commitment to expanding and protecting LGBTQ+ rights, Americans are 2x more likely to buy or use the brand.
Americans ages 18-34 are 5.5x more likely to want to work at a company if it publicly supports and demonstrates a commitment to expanding and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.
It isn’t just LGBTQ+ consumers and communities: 70% of non-LGBTQ+ people believe companies should publicly support and include the LGBTQ+ community through practices like hiring, advertising and sponsorships (Accelerating Acceptance, 2023).
At this moment, it’s critical that Target champions equity and inclusion as it has for over a decade. Target consistently tops the list for brands that show genuine, authentic support of the LGBTQ+ community through outreach and policies.
Target received recognition for outstanding commitment to DEI from the Executive Leadership Council in 2022. It’s time to prove the recognition was earned.
When it comes to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, there is no such thing as neutrality.
We’re calling on Target to release a public statement in the next 24 hours reaffirming their commitment to the LGBTQ+ community, put Pride merchandise back on the sales floor and online in full, ensure safety of team members who are on the front lines.
Target, and all businesses, can leverage the support of LGBTQ+ organizations to navigate this hate, so that together, we can let extremists know unequivocally that, just as with every other failed anti-LGBTQ+ campaign of the past, fear will not win.
The above is cosigned by GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the National Black Justice Coalition, and other groups mentioned below.
Recent attacks on businesses supporting LGBTQ+ equality are a wake-up call for them to be ready to respond with strength. Extremist groups will not bully businesses, and Target must serve as an example by standing up, not stepping back, on equality. https://t.co/Ci3zhqnlpy
If you're a corporate marketing officer concerned over what's happening with Target, let me make something abundantly clear: you will never appease anti-LGBTQ extremists. They don't want *some* concessions. They want all of them. But there's a colder truth at play here.
This is how it started in Hitler’s Germany. Nazi propaganda campaigns claimed that Jews were “predators” who were “coming for your children.” Then came the attacks and violence. Flash forward to America in 2023. Christofascists claim that trans people, drag queens and pretty much anyone who isn’t a far-right fascist is a “groomer” who’s “coming for your children.” They won’t stop until there’s blood in the streets.
Beyond that, it only makes things much worse. As soon as any waffling happens, the fascists smell blood in the water. It only amps them up. To them it’s a sign of weakness and a signal to pounce en masse. More people need to understand the psychology of fascism, it’s well documented and there are many resources online. Knowledge is power.
This is the goal of the fundamentalist right wing maga Christians racists bigots. It is not about protecting kids. It is about returning to a 1950s social public morality and enforced gender roles. It is about rolling back all social advances gained since the civil rights era. It is entirely about wiping minority rights away and pushing the LGBTQ+ back into the closet while making them afraid to come out openly into society. It is about returning to a time of white straight Christian superiority and automatic assumed authority, with subservient women to do their bidding. So now that this very vocal aggressive arrogant violent minority that feels laws and polite society norms don’t apply to them feels as they have the right to make the entire population follow their religiously driven views from a book written 2,500 years ago. Hugs
“Matt [Walsh] made this point, he articulated it directly, but this has been the point that has been building for months now, which is we need to make that symbol toxic, the pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic.
“We need to have companies think twice about it. Everyone was talking about the Dylan Mulvaney incident as being harmful to the Bud Light brand. That’s true.
“But more importantly, it was harmful to the Dylan Mulvaney brand. Now, other companies are going to think twice before sponsoring Dylan Mulvaney because they don’t want to lose $6 billion in market cap in two days. That’s what we got to do.
“And then once we make these things culturally toxic or as we’re making these symbols culturally toxic, we’ve got to bring in the cavalry, we’ve got to come back in with more political force to ban some of this stuff and to say no.” – Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.
Knowles appeared here last week when he declared that millennials should not have the right to vote.
Last month Knowles appeared here when he declared that the bible instructs us to burn books. Knowles, who has called for televising executions, previously declared that banning drag shows and burning books is “very American.”
Earlier this year Knowles declared from the CPAC stage that “transgenderism must be eradicated.”
Knowles performed in a gay sex scene for a college film.
I just found an old short film that Michael Knowles acted in.
The current headliner of conservative homophobia and transphobia played a gay twink. So much for restoring "traditional masculinity" 💀 pic.twitter.com/sC8fcoQ3HC
That’s exactly where this is going. Does anyone think that a company that caves to homophobic and transphobic terrorists won’t do the same when it’s antisemites calling in bomb threats?
Can’t stop thinking about the highway construction blinky sign in Florida with KILL ALL GAYS flashing away. I’m looking forward to my death because I’m so fucking tired of having to live with people like that on this earth.
It’s amazing how people fail to realize how quickly a tolerant society can become an oppressive one when you have a disciplined and determined far-right movement that will stop at nothing to win.
Pride parades need to change. They need to be more political and less celebratory. We are in the middle of a right wing assault on our very existence. We need to make pride more like the silence=death activity in the ’80s and ’90s.
It’s not enough that they’re trying to ban drag and trans healthcare – now they’re going after corporations that support LGBT people to try and bully them into turning their backs on us. Today, it’s Bud Light hiring a trans spokesperson and Target selling Pride gear. Tomorrow, it’s any company that says or does anything to support us or offers benefits for same-sex spouses of employees.
Something tells me that sooner rather than later, all those people who complain about Pride becoming too corporate are going to miss the days before corporations stopped having floats at Pride for fear of terrorism and boycotts.
…and how many of those who complain about corporations, etc .. actually work for corporations?
A lot of the corporate donations / flags / pride months came *because* the corportate suite realized how many lgbtq’s etc they employed when those employees became vocal — started lgbt work groups, awareness campaigns, etc … it comes from within, and from without, too ..
Note: Foreign-born describes adults born outside the U.S., where neither parent is a U.S. citizen, and includes legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents and undocumented immigrants; Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals
The share of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force reached a record high last year, per new data from the Labor Department.
Why it matters: With more Americans aging out of the workforce than entering into it — and at a time of labor shortages —immigrants are playing an increasingly crucial role in the labor market.
State of play: The share of foreign-born people in the workforce has been steadily rising for decades, but dipped during the pandemic — making last year’s uptick look a bit more striking than it is, said Abraham Mosisa, a senior economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Still, this is a trend that isn’t going anywhere. The U.S. labor force participation rate of native born men has been consistently decreasing, he pointed out. And the rate for women has stagnated.
The number of foreign-born workers in the U.S. increased to 29.8 million in 2022, from 27.9 million the previous year — a jump of about 6%.
The number of native-born workers went from 133.2 million to 134.5 million — up barely 1%.
One key factor is that a bigger share of the immigrant population is of working age (18-64), at 77%, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI). That compares with about 59% of the native-born population.
Meanwhile: The relative size of the immigrant population has stayed flat over the past two decades — comprising 13.6% of the total U.S. population in 2021, according to the most recently available data from MPI — just below where it was before the pandemic.
Zoom in:Foreign-born workers tend to take different jobs than the native-born (see the chart below), and they typically earn less money.
In 2022, median weekly earnings for foreign-born full-time workers was $945, or 87% of their native-born counterparts.
Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Rahul Mukherjee/Axios
Worth noting:Immigration opponents might see the record number of foreign-born workers and argue that foreign born workers are somehow stealing jobs from Americans — but that’s not what’s happening.
Although was a big increase in net immigration in 2022 — essentially catching up from the COVID slump — there were plenty of jobs to go around.
At times last year there were actually two jobs available for every job-seeker. And this year, the unemployment rate has continued to hover around a record low.
Zoom out: As wealthier nations contend with shrinking workforces, many are crafting new immigration policies to find more workers — and combat inflation, as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
Policies that encourage immigration “will determine the extent and persistence of labor supply challenges,” as a note from Moody’s Investors Service pointed out a few weeks ago.
Immigration law in the U.S., meanwhile, remains a contentious and fairly intractable political issue.
What they’re saying: “If you want a growing workforce, without immigration, that isn’t going to happen,” said Phillip Connor, a senior demographer at FWD.US, an immigration advocacy group.
Scottie's Playtime 