The housing crisis in the United States has reached a tipping point. And instead of helping unhoused people and fixing a broken system, cities and governments are turning to draconian measures to criminalize homelessness and make the lived environment more hostile to homeless people through hostile architecture. This isn’t the solution.
Why do the republicans hate young people on social media? Because it exposes them to ideas that are now banned in Florida schools. It is about information control, it is about indoctrination to a conservative mindset / ideology. Think of it, even though the republicans managed to remove all reading material from schools about LGBTQIA people so LGBTQIA kids won’t see themselves represented and other students won’t see that the LGBTQIA kids are as normal as they are, young people can still see it on social media where the stars they love tell them that it is OK to be different. Plus social media clearly shows how wrong and backwards the Republican Party is, and how out of touch a minority the fundamentalist Christians are. Then you have the times that social media influences older teens to vote progressive / democrat, not regressive conservative like the state wants them to do. Social media also makes republicans and maga look as stupid as they are, mocking them, and showing young people out of touch with the modern times the fundamentalist Christian republicans are. Hugs. Scottie
Language for a new social media bill with provisions for parental consent has been filed in the Senate. The move came after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed an all-out ban on those under 16 using most social media platforms.
Sen. Erin Grall, a Fort Pierce Republican, filed an amendment with new language negotiated with the House, Senate and Governor’s Office. The legislation includes exemptions for 14- and 15-year-olds to open accounts on any platform so long as they have a parent’s permission.
“A social media platform shall prohibit a minor who is 14 or 15 years of age from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder, unless the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent for the minor to become an account holder,” the amendment states.
Read the full article. The bill vetoed yesterday by DeSantis would have banned all minors under age 16 from having a social media account.
New social media ban proposal would allow parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds
The FL legislature somehow thinks kids 16 and under are mature enough to have children when raped or molested but somehow not mature enough to use social media.
FL ledge DESPERATLY needs to find a way to keep queer kids from seeing positive messaging about themselves. They have seen the stats that 25% of Gen Z identify as something other than straight/cis. They are freaking out that Gen Alpha (yeah I had to look that one up but don’t you dare OK Boomer me) is going to follow the same curve. I for one welcome the rest of our rainbow plenty of bisexuals out there and now they are not afraid to be counted.
This is 100% the reason they want to stop young people from using the internet. I don’t remember seeing my first rainbow flag until I was 18. Up until that point, I thought there was something wrong with me. And as a result, I was politically neutral, and not fiercely anti-conservative at the time.
Keeping kids from life -saving support groups online when they are living in Hell. They want gay and trans kids to kill themselves. That’s what I take from this tripe.
They seem to think 11 year olds know nothing about the internet. Facebook has long had an age requirement, and I’ve known children as young as 11 who have had accounts. The kids figure it out quickly.
Perhaps it’s just another way to quickly create a whole new juvenile criminal class. I wonder what the consequences are, and if the parents will be held responsible for their little criminals.
I was just thinking about that. Is the 16-year-old cutoff meant to protect them from teenagers’ wrath? There won’t be any current 16-year-olds voting in 2024.
Children have long memories when it comes to blocking them from interaction with their peers whose parents have given permission to have social media accounts. Denied an account, they would be relegated to a lower social order in their school and school community.
Isn’t this a decision best left between parent and child? Does it really need legislation? Perhaps a law mandating making one’s bed before school should happen?
What is it with Republicans trying to pass the same shit over and over again recently? 15 times to elect a Speaker. Two tries to impeach Secretary Mayorkis. Do it right the first time… or don’t do it at all.
Trump and the GOP have been manipulating voters for decades. They use this through a number of fear tactics that ignite supporters’ reptilian brains and cause them to vote in irrational ways because they’ve been told Trump is their savior and the answer to the danger they’re facing.
Let’s understand what this really is about. White straight cis people (men) being in charge without having to allow non-white people in to those upper level positions. White straight cis have good easy management jobs, brown and black people do labor. The LGBTQIA simply go back to being in the closet not seen or heard, women stay home. It is white supremacy Nazi bullshit. It is an attempt to roll back the gains of those not white, not straight, not cis since the 1960s. That is what this is. It is pushed nationally by Stephen Miller, a well known white supremacist thug even though he weirdly is Jewish, who thinks that he passes as white in the eyes of the whites. He once complained in college for being required to put his own trash in the trash can rather than leave it where he was done or throw it on the ground. That was the job for the … janitors he said. We do know what he really meant. He and DeathSantis, the people of this mind set, love to punch down. They are also terrified of any changes to their privilege, and that is what they really want, white straight cis privilege over everyone else. It won’t last this last grasp to return to the past, Florida schools are already struggling to keep students and attract decent staff. Enrollment is down. People paying for an education want a real education they can use in the real world, not a fake maga paradise. See if you can count the lies, misinformation, and desperate attempt to deny the truth of what is happening in the quote below. Hugs. Scottie
“The University of Florida is – and will always be – unwavering in our commitment to universal human dignity. As we educate students by thoughtfully engaging a wide range of ideas and views, we will continue to foster a community of trust and respect for every member of the Gator Nation. The University of Florida is an elite institution because of our incredible faculty who are committed to teaching, discovering, and serving,” the memo stated.
Published: Mar. 1, 2024 at 1:52 PM EST|Updated: Mar. 1, 2024 at 6:07 PM EST
The University of Florida is firing all employees in positions related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) according to a memo sent on Friday. It follows the passage of a state law in 2023 targeting college funds spent on DEI.
UF officials say they have closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated DEI positions and administrative appointments, and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors. Officials say 13 positions were eliminated and 15 administrative appointments were ended for faculty.
The decision was made to comply with the Florida Board of Governor’s regulation 9.016 on prohibited expenditures. Approximately $5 million previously allocated to DEI initiatives will be reallocated into a faculty recruitment fund.
Eliminated employees will receive 12 weeks of standard pay and are encouraged to apply before April 19 to other positions in the university.
Ahead of the fall semester, Florida’s public universities are working to figure out what they need to do to comply with state law
UF’s Chief Diversity Officer’s website describes the office’s mission as charting the “inclusive excellence strategy for the University of Florida.” The site notes “Inclusion is one of UF’s six core values.”
The listed staff of the department are Marsha Mcgriff, senior advisor to the president, Farrah Harvey, assistant director of diversity analytics, and Wilma Rogers, executive assistant
State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, a Democrat from Gainesville, shared her opposition to the move hours after the memo’s release.
“I am stunned but not surprised at the elimination of DEI staff at the University of Florida, my Alma Mater,” stated Hinson. “The culture wars engaged in the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives will continue until Floridians have had enough and develop the will and determination to flip the majority in the Florida House.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Christopher Rufo, a conservative education activist and New College of Florida Board of Trustees member, announced the news of the firings and posted, “The conservative counter-revolution has begun.”
The UF memo ended with the following statement:
“The University of Florida is – and will always be – unwavering in our commitment to universal human dignity. As we educate students by thoughtfully engaging a wide range of ideas and views, we will continue to foster a community of trust and respect for every member of the Gator Nation. The University of Florida is an elite institution because of our incredible faculty who are committed to teaching, discovering, and serving,” the memo stated.
CORRECTION: A prior version of the article incorrectly stated that 15 administrative positions for faculty were ended. Administrative “appointments” were ended. The appointments are roles/duties that faculty members accept in addition to their regular duties as a faculty member.
If DeSantis and many other Republicans are opposed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, what they’re really saying is that they’re in favor of White Homogeneity, Inequity, and Exclusion.
If I were a black football player, Florida would be the last state I’d go to to play. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m white and in my 60s, and I wouldn’t go to Florida for anything.
That’s part of the problem. Minority students must learn that they are not wanted, and refuse to accept athletic “scholarships” to Florida schools.
Not to tout my alma-mater’s record on anything, but one item to its credit was that MSU was one of the first major universities to recruit African American football players, back in the 60s. It was an early DEI initiative that helped integrate college sports.
Southern universities were among the last bastions of white athletics. How quickly we forget our past.
MSU’s President, John Hannah, also took a global view of the mission of one of America’s first land grant universities, which included helping Africa. He was not afraid to work with black people. https://www.canr.msu.edu/ne…
Christian Nationalists standing behind a “FREEDOM FROM INDOCTRINATION” sign is the funniest thing I’ve seen from them this hour. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Here’s the kicker…if Christians were actually being discriminated against on college campuses, then these “Christians” would be for DEI programs as they would protect them.
Courts, including the SCOTUS, have long held that congress gets to set its own rules. Period. They just upheld that with the fines for not wearing masks. So the idea that a court in Texas can invalidate a law because during covid the Speaker of the House allowed voting by remote or proxy is crazy. But more than that, stop and look at what part of the bill that the Texas Attorney General is fighting, fair pay and equality for pregnant women. Yes protections for pregnant women is something Texas is against! What happened to much vaunted and talked about wanting women to get pregnant and forced to have babies, but they don’t want to protect them in the workforce. Oh now I get it, … The work force. This is about them wanting pregnant women at home dependent on their husband. By my dogs that love gravy, this is right back to Christian men ruling the home and working with women waiting at keeping the house, raising the man’s issue, having meals ready, and being ready to please the man. Talk about wanting to return to the 1950s. I know I say that about their stance on LGBTQIA to wipe us out of society, but now I realize they intend that for women also. Hugs. Scottie.
Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration over a pregnant worker protection law that he said was unconstitutional because it passed mostly by proxy vote.
he U.S. Capitol during sunrise in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 15, 2020. Credit: REUTERS/Al Drago
A federal court in Lubbock ruled Tuesday that proxy voting in Congress doesn’t count toward a quorum, weakening a law to protect pregnant workers that was passed with proxy votes.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration last year over a massive government funding package that passed largely by proxy votes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding package, passed in December 2022, included the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which protects accommodations for pregnant employees in the workplace and allows workers to sue employers for failing to do so. It prohibited employers from denying employment opportunities or forcing pregnant workers to go on leave if alternative accommodations were possible.
Paxton argued the Constitution requires a physical majority of members in the U.S. House to pass legislation. Since a majority of members of the House voted on the funding package by proxy, Paxton said it was unenforceable.
Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed members to vote by proxy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of both parties took advantage of proxy voting for a range of reasons, from meeting with lobbyists to promoting books. The funding package came to a House vote in late December when many members had already left Washington for the holiday recess.
Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas agreed with Paxton’s understanding of a quorum.
“Based on the Quorum Clause’s text, original public meaning, and historical practice, the Court concludes that the Quorum Clause bars the creation of a quorum by including non-present members participating by proxy,” Hendrix wrote in his opinion.
Paxton took issue with the PWFA in particular in his original lawsuit, asserting it put undue burden on the state government to accommodate its pregnant employees. He wrote Texas already has provisions to accommodate pregnancy and that the law unconstitutionally opened the state to lawsuits over the federal law.
Hendrix ruled the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act unenforceable against the state government and its agencies. It does not nullify the entire $1.7 trillion spending package. Doing so would jeopardize programs across the federal government, including defense spending, health care and veterans programs.
Hendrix gave the federal government a week to appeal.
It was not the first legal challenge against proxy voting. Former House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sued to end proxy voting in 2020, but a federal court in Washington ruled it did not have the authority to rule on the House’s procedures. The Supreme Court declined to take the case.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, led an amicus brief last year supporting Paxton’s lawsuit. Roy was one of the fiercest opponents of the spending package, which he said amounted to government waste without appropriate oversight.
“The Constitution was made for times such as this, when government may claim emergency powers or special privileges to respond to extraordinary circumstances,” Roy wrote in the amicus brief. “But affording the government such powers undermines our structure of government, and ultimately imperils American citizens even more than infectious disease does.”
I don’t think it is cognitive dissonance; I think it’s deliberate. They clearly want fewer women in the workforce, and will exploit any avenue they can to push them out. With this, they get the added benefit of weakening a federal law for the whole country.
It looks like this judge views this differently than the House Parliamentarian. The wiki page for this Fed judge had this note:
This contradicted the opinion of the House Parliamentarian, who had determined that rules allowed members to vote remotely and that their presence counted toward a quorum.
More attacks on women and reproductive rights. Forcing pregnancy and denying rights to pregnant people puts us back in the 1930s. Undoing all the gains of the Civil Rights era is the point to these people.
Once again, a direct assault on women. I wonder if it’s even possible for women to rise up out of their second class citizen mindset and vote these people out of office.
The hardest thing to understand is that many women AGREE with being controlled by men. How that attitude made it through the 20th century is unfathomable.
WTF? This violates the Enrolled Bill Doctrine. If Congress says a bill was properly passed procedurally & sent to the president, a court cannot look behind it.
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Scottie's Playtime 