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.
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 was flitting through the songs from Les Miserables on youtube. Some of my favorite songs, and I’ve always been amazed at the dramatic presentations these actors could impart. Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne, Anne Hathaway have all put out such impactful songs as to bring ache to my heart, but never did I hear one that brought me tears until this one.
I remember when I was young I asked my grandmother how Hitler was allowed to do what he did. She was so hurt by the question. She just looked at me, ache in her eyes. “Randy, we didn’t know. We didn’t believe it could be real, we didn’t think someone could do that.” To my sorrow, I will be forced to answer similarly when someone asks me about Sandy Hook, Uvalde and oh so many more. I am going to have to look someone in the eye and tell them that somehow having the freedom to buy guns was worth more than the lives of our greatest treasures. I’ll have to tell them that I had no idea how to stop it.
When November comes, please remember the lives lost and the politicians who put guns before kids.
As you start this video, please scroll down to the pictures below.
The republicans admit it openly what they have been showing the public for years. They can’t govern and do not want to. They want fame, fortune, and power to rule over others. They are not willing to do the hard work of keeping the country running. That is why they would rather have an authoritarian strongman government with a dictator at the top. They would turn the country over to businesses and simply order the masses to live according to the rules of the fundamentalist Christian church. He is basically saying if they can’t have their own way on everything they won’t play and will keep everyone else from playing. Bratty little kids. Read what this asshat wrote. Hugs. Scottie
“The more this government does, the worse it is for the American people. We shouldn’t be joining hands with Democrats just to show we can govern, or we can get things done, no matter how harmful to the American people.
“While a government shutdown is not ideal, but it’s not the worst thing. It would be worse to exacerbate the problem, to further increase our debt and our spending, to make our fiscal situation, which is unprecedented as it is — as you know.
“To continue to fund a government that’s facilitating the border invasion, why would we give Biden and Mayorkas billions and billions of dollars to keep doing this to the American people?
“The only leverage we have when we have one house of one branch is to be willing to say no, to be willing to walk away.” – Freedom Caucus chair Bob Good, speaking to Fox News.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA): We shouldn’t be joining hands with Democrats just to show that we can govern or get things done no matter how harmful to the American people
The House also wants to disinvite the President from presenting the SOTU. All that means is he’ll do it from the Oval Office, it will still be on every single channel in the country–and none of you will be able to heckle or howl at him during an uninterrupted presentation.
“We shouldn’t be joining hands with Democrats just to show we can govern, or we can get things done, no matter how harmful to the American people…because we think it will benefit us politically.“
The Freedumb Caucus is mostly composed of Tea Party nihilists & MAGA chuds. They didn’t run to make the government work. In fact, quite the opposite. They ran to undermine the government. “See how it doesn’t work (after I’ve sabotaged it.) Clearly, it needs to be shrunken & dismantled, except in imposing nationwide Christian sharia laws.”
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.
I fail to understand republicans anymore. They have all the money in the world to waste on stunts like operation lone star which sent Texas State Police to the border to search vehicles already searched by the border patrol. They are wasting 2.5 million every week on that stunt alone. They so far have found nothing. But it looks good, looks tough on border crime right? How many millions to take over a park, run reams and reams of razor wire on land and in the water, wire that has been found illegal, yet they keep doing it. What they are not willing to do is feed kids! They are willing to let poor kids go hungry and starve. There is no money for feeding them they claim. Or is it that they don’t want to feed the poor non-white kids? Is the skin tone of the parents or kids what the issue is? Or is it that hungry kids can be forced to work cheaply, even illegally for people. I know what a hungry child will do for food, god save their souls. One church leader said if the government would stop helping poor people it would force them to join churches and turn to the lord for help. Great reasoning there. Starve them until they join the gang. It seems to be epidemic in red states, and I am really tired of it. Feed the kids damn it, or admit you are unfit to run a government. Hugs. Scottie
Millions of Texas children would have been able to use this service, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
TEXAS, USA — For some children in the U.S., school lunchtime might be the only meal they eat all day.
This year, 35 states are joining the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program – but Texas is not one of them.
According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the state would not have enough time to organize the program before summertime begins.
Now, the USDA says approximately 3.8 million children in Texas will miss out on the chance for $120 worth of food, per person, from grocery stores, farmers markets and other locations.
Approximately 21 million children across the country will receive a total of $2.5 billion benefits, in areas including Hawaii, New York, Guam, American Samoa, the Osage Nation and more.
Children 18 years old or younger are eligible to join the program free of charge, with a specific emphasis on low-income families.
Each month, families will receive $40 per child, available on a pre-paid card and the government plans to cover half of the administrative fees for participating schools.
According to the USDA, the program can help lower food insecurity among children by 33%, or one-third. Children utilizing the program are said to have higher access to whole grain, dairy, fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on healthier living.
Last summer, Austin ISD and the Central Texas Food Bank partnered to provide more than 5,000 free meals to children under 18 years old through a separate program.
Ma was an elementary school teacher assigned in the mid-60s, at the start of her career, to one of the poorest schools in Rochester, NY. She quickly learned many of her majority Black students were so poor their families could not afford both breakfast & lunch, but were embarrassed about it, so would send the kids to school with a bag lunch, but on an empty stomach. The kids ended up eating their lunches on the way to school and had nothing for the rest of the day, often falling asleep in the afternoons.
Ma had an extra toaster that was a wedding present, and brought it in, insisting every student in her class got a 1/2 piece of peanut butter toast to start the day, no matter how much breakfast they claimed to have eaten. Her kids stopped eating their lunches on their way to school. Test scores skyrocketed. Her principal called her in to ask how she’d done it. “I fed them,” was all she replied.
Far too many teachers do things like this. With their own money. On their own time. I’m not saying it wasn’t good that they did it, but it shouldn’t be necessary. We underpay workers and they are doing the best that they could. What kind of monster wants to keep hungry children from eating. CHILDREN. Sometimes I wished I believed in heaven and hell. All those teachers like your mom. (She sounds great but she’s also one of thousands who also went above and beyond.) They would be queens in an afterlife and all the selfish bastards would be tortured for all eternity.
What kind of monster wants to keep hungry children from eating.
The kind of monster who doesn’t care whether these children grow up healthy and hopes they live short, miserable lives and it’s a big bonus if they don’t reproduce.
But if you feed them, and test scores improve, who will want to fill all those minimum wage positions? They’ll have to cut back on Social Security and put all the lazy seniors to work! /s
I always had bulk amounts of granola bars and cup-of-soups available in my classroom, and my school’s food program was very active in providing breakfast, lunch and snacks to ALL students. I often brought in fresh watermelon, pineapple, and cherry tomatoes. So many kids had never eaten a fresh cherry tomato. I made a lot of converts! (Edit to add: I worked with a fundie who was so grateful to his father-in-law for unexpectedly bringing him some cold pizza on a day he’d forgotten his lunch box…he just knew God had sent him. I asked, “Did your father-in-law also bring food for all the kids who didn’t have lunch and won’t have dinner?” He just looked at me.)
Rethugs are all about the cruelty. They get their rocks off abusing the powerless. I truly wish I could believe there was a Hell for them to rot/burn in, but alas, I cannot.
Multiple other red states have refused to accept federal grants meant to feed those lazy unemployed children.
And after Republicans went to all the trouble of lowering the working age, so they could get jobs. Little ingrates. Serves them right. If they were really hungry, they’d get jobs.
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Scottie's Playtime 