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.
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. This is what the entire Israeli genocide has been about. The removing of any Palestinian people so they can have the land. If you read the article notice how the Jewish assholes say that Palestinians can come back and live there also, as complete subjective servants with no rights to do as the settlers order them to do. This has always been what this entire thing has been about. Hugs. Scottie
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
Over 100 Israelis stormed Erez Crossing at the northern tip of Gaza yesterday afternoon in the most significant attempt to re-establish Jewish settlements in the Strip since the war began. A small number managed to cross several hundred meters into Gaza before being intercepted by Israeli soldiers, while around 20 others entered the area between the two walls comprising the barrier that encages the Strip. There, they established an “outpost” in the style seen commonly in the West Bank, building for several hours without the army or police interfering.
From the first moments of the war, it was clear that right-wing Israeli politicians and settler leaders sensed an opportunity to radically shift the status quo in Israel-Palestine. For months, calls to resettle Gaza — often in the same breath as calling to expel the Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents — have been getting louder, not least at a major conference in Jerusalem in January at which senior officials laid out their plans. In parallel, right-wing activists — mostly youth — have been coming regularly to the Gaza fence to demonstrate against the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Yesterday’s action, however, marked a new peak in their activities.
At around 2 p.m., activists began gathering at a train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, close to Gaza. At that initial meeting point — for what was ostensibly a “protest” honoring Harel Sharvit, a settler who was killed while serving in Gaza — the mood was calm, even sleepy. A police car drove past, unmoved by the scene. From there, the activists drove in private cars toward the Erez Checkpoint, the only civilian crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has been defined by the Israeli army as a “closed military zone” since it was briefly taken over by Palestinians amid the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
As they approached the checkpoint, the activists got out of their cars and began marching. At this point, they were met by another convoy of vehicles full of “hilltop youth” — young, violent settlers who regularly establish new outposts across the West Bank and attack Palestinians to force them off their land. At least two of them were armed with rifles of the kind used by the military, and they brought construction materials to build an outpost.
At a certain point, some of them started running toward the checkpoint and managed to cross it unhindered, with the few soldiers present unable to stop them. In the space between the two walls enclosing the Strip about 20 of them began erecting two structures using the materials they had brought: wooden planks and poles, and iron sheets for the roofs. Meanwhile, a handful of settler youth ran further inside Gaza, again unhindered by soldiers.
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
On the soldiers’ radios, the message came through that a number of people had crossed into Gaza, and military jeeps and even two tanks were sent to look for them. About half an hour later, a military jeep brought the youth back to the Israeli side of the crossing, without arresting them. They exited the jeep to applause from the other activists, joining the bigger group as they chanted, “It’s ours.”
For several hours, those who had crossed into the space between the two walls continued building the outpost — which they named New Nisanit, after one of the settlements in Gaza that was evacuated as part of the 2005 “disengagement” — without interference. As in the West Bank, the soldiers stood nearby and provided protection, rather than trying to stop them.
‘This is our country’
Amiel Pozen and David Remer, both 18, were two of the settlers who managed to cross around 500 meters into Gaza. After being picked up and dropped back at the checkpoint by the Israeli army, the pair spoke to +972.
“There was no fear of being inside [Gaza], the Holy One is with us and the IDF is here helping us,” Remer said. “We came here [because] we wanted to go home. I live in a community of deportees from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlement bloc inside Gaza that was evacuated in 2005], and we wanted to go back. After everything that happened, there’s no doubt that we have to go back.
“The feeling is very good, like coming home,” Remer continued. “It is ours. The Holy One, blessed be He, said it is ours. If we will not be there, we know what will be there.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Pozen added: “We have come to represent the entire public, the Jewish people. We want to return to the whole Land of Israel, to all parts of our Holy Land. There are no ‘two states for two peoples’ — that’s not right. The people of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.”
Regarding the possibility of persuading the government to support resettling Gaza, Pozen said: “I would like the government to understand [what] the majority of the people already understood: We are here. It is ours. There is no political or international obstacle. We don’t need to consider anyone else. It is an internal matter. We need to go to Gaza, destroy all the terror there, and build there ourselves.”
Another of the settlers intercepted by the army after crossing further into Gaza showed his friends a photo he took on his phone of a strawberry plant in a Palestinian field, saying: “Look how beautiful the country is.”
Over the course of the evening, settler youth continued to bypass the army and run to the outpost. Many of them did so by crawling through a hole in the fence that was likely created during the events of October 7, until soldiers brought a bulldozer to close it with dirt.
Many of the youth were from the same organizations that have spent the past several weeks attempting — often successfully — to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In their eyes, there is a connection between withholding aid to Palestinians and re-establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza: both are seen as a means toward achieving a decisive “victory.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Mechi Fendel, a right-wing activist from Sderot, told 972: “We came here to declare that the day after this war is over, we must settle, we must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip. Because without that, it’s going to become a hornet’s nest. You can’t leave a vacuum. There’s no reason why we want that to happen again. I live one kilometer away from the Gaza Strip. I can’t have terrorists as neighbors — and they showed their true colors on October 7.”
Regarding the construction of the outpost near the fence, she explained: ”It’s a symbolic act, showing that we built two houses. They came in with these big pieces of wood and they actually built two structures here in the Gaza Strip. Of course it’s symbolic because they’re not going to stay here tonight. But the point is this is where we have to be. This is our country. We cannot let a full strip of land be unsettled.”
And what would happen to the Palestinians in Gaza if Jewish settlements were to be established? “If they’re willing to take Israeli jurisdiction, if they’re willing to have us come in and control their education system and help them financially, then let them stay if they’re peaceful,” Fendel said. “I so far haven’t found a Palestinian that’s peaceful. As I described, Palestinian workers [who worked inside Israel] for tens of years became terrorists in a second.
“I think that the government, when it sees that we are behind them, that the people want this, the government will be for it,” she continued. “Because the government also doesn’t want a hornet’s nest of terrorists cropping up. I think that if we have the people and the willingness and we show that we’re there, we’re brave, and we want to do it, the government will help us.”
‘First the soldiers stormed in, now the settlers’
The dynamics were reminiscent of typical scenes in the West Bank, with settlers being given freedom of action while the soldiers stood idly by — despite being inside a closed military zone and some of them even entering a combat zone. Some of the soldiers could be seen hugging the activists. One soldier told +972 that the soldiers support the activists and that the problem is “the media that wants action, to film soldiers beating Jews.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Even though soldiers have the authority to detain Israeli citizens — and have detained journalists and other civilians who approached the fence in recent months — they invariably avoid detaining settlers who break the law in the West Bank, and this was the case yesterday too. One of the activists, who told +972 that he was an off-duty soldier and wore his military weapon over civilian clothes, said he left the area early because soldiers warned him they would “kick [him] out of the army.”
The soldiers spoke calmly with the activists, including the well-known Kahanist Baruch Marzel who arrived at a later stage. “It’s like the soldiers who stormed [into Gaza] — now they [the settler youth] are storming,” Marzel said to one of the soldiers.
Later on, when they were leaving, Marzel told +972 that the action reminded him of the “first settlement in Sebastia” — a village near Nablus in the West Bank where, some 50 years ago, a group of settlers from the Gush Emunim movement attempted to establish a Jewish settlement and defied the government’s attempts to evict them until it relented. He added that the main issue for him is not settling Gaza but deporting the Palestinians to “all the countries that support them.”
A security official present at the scene expressed to +972 his displeasure that the activists had been able to cross the checkpoint with such ease. “If they managed to enter Gaza, that means [Palestinians] can also enter in the opposite direction,” he said.
Police officers who arrived at the scene acted with the same indifference as the soldiers. They seemed to be in no hurry to intervene, and initially arrested only one protester. After sunset, around 7 p.m., some of the activists began to leave, and the rest were subsequently dispersed by police. A total of nine people were arrested and taken to a police station last night.
In response to an inquiry from +972 last night, a police spokesperson stated: “Israel Police forces were called in the afternoon to near the Erez Crossing, after protesters arrived and a handful of them crossed the fence into the Gaza Strip in violation of a general’s order. In light of the real danger to the protesters’ lives, the police forces were forced to operate within the territory of the Gaza Strip, where some of the protesters confronted them and refused to leave, which left the police no choice but to arrest nine of them for the offenses of violating a general’s order and failing [to obey] a police officer.
“The protesters were brought to the police station for questioning, at the end of which it will be decided which of them will be brought before the Court of Appeal tomorrow for a discussion of his case.” Police did not respond to another request for information today about whether those arrested were charged, but it seems they were released last night.
Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.
About 972 Magazine: Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support ? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.
Flat out, I love this show. The show runs Monday to Friday, with Emma running the show on Thursdays, which is Sam’s day off. The show is about three hours long, divided into two parts. The free half is mostly news and interviews, and the fun half is with calls and IMs. Now don’t panic, if you are poor like me you can still see the entire show. There are two ways. First if you can not afford it they give free memberships if you need one. Or do what I do. The way I do it can be a pain in the butt, but it works. Wait until the show starts on YouTube. Open the live broadcast, then in the description box they include the link to the fun half. Click that and it switches to the entire show. Now as long as you don’t close the browser you have the link to the entire show for free. You don’t have to watch it all then, like any YouTube video or live stream, you can pause it and go do things, often I will start watching it and finish in the morning, leaving the computer tab open all night. Anyway, here are the clips. I especially like the ones that showed how clearly Israel was lying and got caught, and how the republicans had to admit that they did not have anything on Biden. Plus the one of right wing media correcting tRump’s claims of winning the election was fun to watch. Hugs. Scottie
Now we move to the horrible lies Israel has told. Hugs. Scottie
I recently posted about this interview. It shows that Raichik is incredibly stupid, uninformed, and loves the attention she is getting. She feels important right now, something it is clear she did not have before. She is a troll, feeling good only when tearing others down, she is not interested in educating her self or becoming a better person. She may have been a kid ignored in school or been the bully to fit in with the group of lowlifes, but she clearly is unfit to be on any library or school book banning boards. Also clear from the interview she is a white supremacist. Yes she thinks whites have a better culture than others do. She doesn’t seem to value anything but her fundamentalist world view and her white privilege. She clings to lies because she doesn’t want to believe or take the effort to learn the truth. Hugs. Scottie
Libs Of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik is livid after this weekend’s Washington Post interview revealed her to be an admitted and unrepentant liar who revels in accusations of having incited terrorism, which Raichik says makes her feel “important.”
Today she writes this about the reporter:
Just to summarize my interview with Taylor Lorenz:
– she’s not at all concerned about our open border and millions of people invading our country – she’s pro mutilation and castration of minors – she wants p*rn in schools – she wants the media to be allowed to defame me with impunity – she wants me to be responsible for all reactions, comments, and actions that happen after I post a tiktok but doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happens after her reporting on me – she’s a lizard person – she’s scared of people knowing her age – she’s still wearing a mask outdoors in 2024
Lorenz has said she is immuno-compromised. Of note, “lizard person” is a common QAnon claim about people they accuse of pedophilia. Many of them actually believe in literal so-called “reptilians.”
Just to summarize my interview with Taylor Lorenz:
– she’s not at all concerned about our open border and millions of people invading our country – she’s pro mutilation and castration of minors – she wants p*rn in schools – she wants the media to be allowed to defame me with…
I think the most charitable thing you can say about Chaya Raichik is that she’s not very bright and is just a stupid person who managed to become famous for also being a psychopath.
I ask myself who is worse, her, or her supporters. But, I think as rotten and disgusting as that piece of trash is, it’s her supporters that are worse, because they are so low they take their cues from someone like her. Without them, she’d be nothing, or in a mental-care home.
Person who sics terrorists against LGBT and other innocent folks around the country with one post is upset that she didn’t come out looking so good in the newspaper? Oh how sad for her. She’s lucky our side doesn’t do stochastic terrorism.
The truth is the US has a big problem with the human body and seeing it. It was not always this way. The modesty at all costs movement is what is harmful and should have warnings. The problem with porn is not that people see it, it is not even that minors see it. It is the way the right and even some on the left fetishize it to be some grand high point of evil. By doing that, going to such lengths to show kids we are hiding it from them we are making it seem so much more than it is. It is nude people showing their bodies and doing mostly normal acts. In most porn it is acting, and if people could see all the behind the scenes stuff it would take any joy out of it, just as watching a movie being made would ruin the fun of it. What we need to do is be honest with minors about their bodies, the bodies of the sexes / genders, and human sexuality. Treat it normally, don’t freak them out over seeing a booby or a butt. Seeing a penis will not rot the mind of any kid, freaking out over them seeing it will. Plus it helps cut down child abuse if a kid feels comfortable talking with another adult about what someone is doing to them or making them do. So many survivors never told because they were too ashamed and felt it was taboo to talk about. Look at a quote from the article below, do these people really believe this garbage? Harmful to brain development? Never proven, no medical data. I am sorry, I think they have confused fundamentalist religion with fun porn. Besides be honest, does anyone watch the entire porn movie? Really? But they do sit through the entire sermon and give the preacher money. You be the judge as to which one “is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.” I can not stand these constant attempts to push their extreme fundamentalist church doctrine idea of calling normal things obscene and pushing their hyper regressive ideology on every one else. Look if they don’t want to see people nude, don’t want to see people having sex, then don’t watch it. Just don’t go to those websites! Why force everyone to live by your rules, to live just like you do. People in lockstep marching together. What a horrible place to live. Hugs. Scottie
It also orders such websites to post controversial health warnings that pornography “weakens brain function,” “is proven to harm human brain development” and “is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.”
The lawsuit comes after the Fifth Circuit last year reversed a lower-court injunction blocking the law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks in Washington at a rally in support of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, prior to the U.S. Capitol insurrection. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week sued a major online porn distributor in an effort to enforce a new state law mandating age verification and purported health warnings on adult websites.
The lawsuit, filed in state court in Austin on Monday, accuses the adult-entertainment company Aylo of violating House Bill 1181, a new state content-warning law for websites. A Montreal-based company, Aylo runs a number of major online porn brands, including Pornhub.
Among other rules, HB 1181 requires that porn websites “use reasonable age verification methods” to “verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.” It also orders such websites to post controversial health warnings that pornography “weakens brain function,” “is proven to harm human brain development” and “is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.”
According to the lawsuit, minors who visit Aylo’s pornographic websites are either “immediately presented with sexual material” or “are asked to complete the trivial step of clicking an ‘enter’ button.” As a result, the suit says, Aylo has completely failed to comply with HB 1181.
The suit seeks an injunction forcing Aylo to use age verification and display the required health warnings. Texas also wants hefty fines, including $1.6 million in civil penalties plus $10,000 per day dating back to Sept. 19, 2023 — the day when the Fifth Circuit first greenlit the law.
In a news release announcing the suit, the Texas attorney general’s office accused Aylo of not imposing “reasonable age verification measures to protect minors from being exposed to obscene materials.”
“Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content,” AG Paxton stated in the news release. “I look forward to holding any company accountable that violates our age verification laws intended to prevent minors from being exposed to harmful, obscene material on the internet.”
Aylo declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes amid a broader push in Texas and other Republican-controlled states to restrict content that lawmakers deem obscene. During the state legislative session last year, Texas also passed restrictions on drag shows and books it calls “sexually explicit.”
Last year, a coalition of porn-industry insiders — including a free-speech group focused on pornography — won an injunction blocking the law.
Their original suit, filed in federal court in Austin, described HB 1181 as part of a “long tradition of unconstitutional — and ultimately failed — governmental attempts to regulate and censor free speech on the internet.” Rather than imposing new content restrictions, “Texas could easily spread its ideological, anti-pornography message through public service announcements and the like,” the suit argued.
U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, a Reagan appointee, ultimately found those arguments persuasive. Among other factors, he determined that rules requiring health warnings in 14-point font were overly burdensome and ambiguous, as “text size on webpages is typically measured by pixels, not points.”
In his ruling from August, Ezra also cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — a longstanding standard that protects online publishers from liability for content produced by third-parties. Without explaining its reasoning, the conservative Fifth Circuit overruled that injunction, including with a one-page administrative stay in September. Those orders paved the way for Texas to enforce the law, including with this latest suit.
Clearly the man speaks from personal experience and exhibits the signs of “impaired brain development” to this day. He doesn’t even have the brain power to keep both eyes open at the same time.
Pornhub has added North Carolina and Montana to its block list as both states implemented age-verification laws on Jan. 1. A similar ban was imposed in Arkansas in August, joining Mississippi, Virginia, and Utah.
Now hold on there, bubba louie! I live in texas…and how am I supposed to spend my golden years with no porn??? Paxton is just doing shit so the christians will vote for him.
More BS pseudoscience clap-trap from a state with no cognitive functionality. Just ban it in Texas and be done with…though I suspect a lot of those cowpokes will start livin’ up to that name if you do.
This surgeon general is totally unqualified for his position. He was picked for his political stance and willingness to lie and edit official studies to shore up DeathSatnis’s political positions. When DeathSantis tried to force the state University to make give him a position and a high salary, the school refused saying he was totally unqualified. For those that don’t know, measles is extremely dangerous, leading to lifelong illnesses and medical issues such as losing your ability to hear, along with death. Measles also kills your immune system so you lose all prior immunities and can make it so your system struggles to gain the immunity to other diseases. Below I listed some of the things that can happen. Measles are not a joke, you do not want your child exposed to the real thing, get them vaccinated. Hugs. Scottie
Long-term effects of measles
For every 10,000 children infected with measles, 2,000 will be hospitalized; 1,000 will develop ear infections with the potential for permanent hearing loss; 500 will develop pneumonia; and 10 to 30 will die, said Hotez, who is also dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Measles often leaves patients vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, one of the most common causes of death in measles patients, said Patricia Stinchfield, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Measles also causes “immune amnesia,” in which the immune system loses its ability to fight infections that a patient was previously immune to, Cherry said. The virus wipes out 11% to 73% of a person’s antibodies — both those acquired through infection and vaccination — which can leave patients at increased risk from viruses such as the flu and bacteria that cause pneumonia and skin infections. A devastating long-term complication of measles called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which is more common in countries where the virus remains endemic. The fatal condition can cause memory loss, irritability, disturbances in movement, seizures and blindness, and can develop six to eight years after a child has apparently recovered from measles. Although anti-seizure drugs can sometimes ease symptoms, they don’t cure the disease. Encephalitis. About 1 child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability. Death. Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a press conference on school safety measures Tuesday and called for the replacement of Florida’s surgeon general — as the measles outbreak in South Florida continues to expand.
She called for the termination of Dr. Joseph Ladapo and for Governor DeSantis to replace him with a public health expert, following the surgeon general’s controversial handling of the outbreak.
Ladapo told parents of unvaccinated children that it is their choice whether their students attend class — a contravention of federal guidelines calling for their mandatory exclusion. “Surgeon General Ladapo is a misinformation super-spreader,” Rep. Wasserman Schultz said during the press conference.
The measles outbreak has made its way to Central Florida. Over the weekend, the Florida Department of Health confirmed a tenth case out of Polk County.
The case is travel-related, and the patient is between 20 and 24 years old, making them the first Florida adult to be infected with the virus this year.
It comes after nine children and teens were infected with measles in Broward County. Measles is extremely contagious. Unvaccinated people have about a 90% chance of being infected if exposed.
I’m hosting a press conference alongside @FIU's Dr. Mary Jo Trepka and PTA leader Latha Krishnaiyer to share measles vaccination safety measures. I will also call for new leadership in Florida’s top health position. Join us: https://t.co/B3zQfhUBdz
if kids go deaf, or they die, or are sick for a month, it’s a small price to pay for freedom from an overreaching dictatorship of democratically elected government.
As Surgeon-General, Ladapo would be the one to sign off on any revocations. He is not going to quit this sweet gig that pays well and gives his quackery a veneer of legitimacy.
The reality is the majority of FL voters have made clear they’re okay with having this quack and the party that enables him in charge. Until that changes, he won’t be going anywhere.
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Scottie's Playtime 