Florida Advances Bill Forcing Public Schools To Set Aside Time For Student Recruiting By “Patriotic Organizations”

This is known as the foot in the door bill / law.  Once this gets passed, then the next year a bill / law is introduced to add more right wing groups.  Notice parents are not to be notified and from what I read students can not opt out, which totally wipes out parents rights.  Think on it, any parent can keep an entire school from reading a book with LGBTQIA characters, but no parent can keep their child from right wing indoctrination in public schools.   Just mull over what groups the new approved list might include?  The local mega / hate church?  The RNC?  All military branches, which I think most schools allow but students need permission from parents, that permission no longer required.   However written into the law is not available to other groups, such as left leaning or science groups.  No Satanic Temple for science stuff, no equality groups, no pro abortion groups, no other religion but the “good” one Christianity, right?  By law, only right wing indoctrination 1950s society groups may have this right to brainwash kids without the parents being told.  Let the public reeducation camps begin with public schools.   They will wipe all that progressive modern acceptance and tolerance shit out for good, right?   Hugs.  Scottie


 

Florida Politics reports:

The House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee is advancing a bill that would give some groups certain rights in K-12 schools.

Rep. Wyman Duggan’s bill (HB 1317) would allow representatives of so-called “patriotic organizations” time to meet with students and distribute recruitment materials, with schools providing designated time for these groups to pitch their attendees.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

Read the full article. Duggan is a freshman.

“Patriotic groups” is right wing speak for “terrorist militias”. He wants to use the school to let terrorist groups recruit kids.

That might be what he wants, but this bill won’t get him there.

Foot in the door …

Attending children get complimentary brownshirts.

I think that’s compulsory brownshirts.

Isn’t this how Hitler recruited the youth groups?

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G R O O M I N G

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Where are the Cubans who scream about the dangers of Castro and forced government stuff at on this?
Oh wait, they’re fine if it’s people they like doing it.
Biggest bunch of hypocrites around.

Heney I live in the hood with them.. Its fuck biden flags and bumper stickers all over the place . The show their hatred for freedom and the constitution everytime they scream for trump

Nations – and the citizens that come from them – who have never tasted a history of being a democratic republic really don’t understand how it’s done. I think we’ve got plenty of migration around the world now to recognize that.

Sadly, we’re witnessing how easy it is for even a nation like ours – WITH said history – to easily lose it once history is no longer considered an important topic in classrooms. No wonder MAGAts hate an educated population.

Castro’s revolution was against the semi-fascist regime of Fulgencio Bautista (who eventually took refuge in exile with Franco!). The original people who fled Castro were allied with / members of / happy under a semi-fascist regime.

It is entirely on brand for them to support Trump.

Yep. Let’s see – Catholic Priest Altar Boy Appreciation Society – check!
Hitler youth – check, check!
Baptist Attractive Young Male Interns International Pimpery – check, check, checkity-check!

They’ll find a way to lock out the Girl Scouts.

The Girl Scouts are on the conservative S-list. They don’t kick out lesbians and trans girls. They teach girls skills that help them become successful as independent women holding good jobs. They may teach health that includes accurate information about their genitalia and those of men.

 

Wait – I thought they hated the Scouts now since the girls promote lesbianism and feminism, and the boys allowed the icky gays in.

I will not be surprised to see the FL legislature and governor coming up with a State of Florida designation of “patriotic and national organizations” to include many favored groups.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

 

I like when they include clearly unconstitutional poisoned pills into their legislation.

They anticipate taking it up to the high court (state and federal Supreme Courts) and castrating the First Amendment.

Children can’t read or do arithmetic, don’t understand civics, but let’s take time out of the day and do this and sing the National Anthem. What fucking morons.

Grooming is alive and well in Florida.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

I don’t think that’s allowed.

It’s allowed if SQOTUS says it’s allowed

Hey kids! Don’t be stupid, be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!!!

GLSEN and Gay-Straight Alliances are “patriotic organizations,” right?

BZZZZT!!!! Wrong. GLSEN would be one of the organizations specifically excluded.

“………… other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.” “

Yeah, that’s the new Patriotic American way !

The GOP has hijacked the word Patriot and made it a foul word.

Conservatism has become a cancer on our society.

The way Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) won the right to meet in schools is through the federal Equal Access Act (EAA) of 1984. Any school that permits non-curriculum related student groups must provide equal access to all student groups, and that includes equal access for GSAs. I’m no lawyer, but I wonder if this law can be used in this way.

I’m thinking that if they allow access to the John Belch Society, for example, a strong case could be made for, say, the local LGBT+ Outreach Center.

 

Ron DeSantis Crew Stomps Out Sociology Core Class in Florida Public Universities

https://themessenger.com/politics/ron-desantis-crew-stomps-out-sociology-core-class-in-florida-public-universities

Wow, the rush to the past is not slowing down even as Florida reaches the edge of the cliff.   Anything that threatens right wing fundamentalist Christian world view must be banned, removed, buried along with the regressive indoctrination taught.  What is the republican idea of real history?  That slaves benefited by being slaves?  Rapes and beatings were free for them, I guess?  How did we get here, to this point? 

The US was not always a backwards country.  We started out with a radical idea, a representative democracy.  Let the people have a say in how things are run.  Other countries took this idea and made it great for the public.  The future US kind of tried to pull it together, had a major set back with entrenched racism, which we are still dealing with today.  Then a period of growth for some, oppression for others.  Then the Enlightenment of the New Deal where again the people, the public welfare mattered.   Yes we struggled as each generation challenged the generation before them to expand and grow, open up society so more people could share in it equally.   Then we had a pivotal moment.  A black man was voted in to the highest office in our country, the Presidency.  The right / those that couldn’t accept equality lost their collective minds.  And overnight racism became vogue again, became acceptable to be publicly voiced by some people.  Leaders of political groups on the right, and religious leaders also on the right rallied their followers to push the idea that racism is not wrong as was held true for 40+ years and these people pushed back on the gains in equality of the blacks.   

Well that worked so well for them that racism was extended back to mean anyone not white.  Yes all brown people were deficient and inferior along with basically born bad, especially brown people at the southern border who wanted only to come to the US to work and share the “American dream”.    Well that got a mob boss thug wannabe elected president who gave his followers permission to throw all decency away and revert back to the lowest common denominator they could be.  Racism was joined by bigotry against anyone different, openly being crude, rude, and thuggish became OK for them.  As long as it was towards others, not them.  They demanded they and only them be given back the celebrated highest position in society / the country with everyone else being made lessor with many fewer rights.  They want a return to a distant past before enlightenment, and with the added boost of recreating a fictitious history that never was, which is that the US was founded as a Christian country.  With a racist bigoted moron leading the way, the right surged into office propelled by the idea of taking back the country to something worse for most people but great for a minority.  The minority that was to be given a higher station loved it, and with the majority not paying much attention, managed to get into positions of authority over schools.

 Now they used that authority to attack all areas with the full force of racism, bigotry, and forced religious indoctrination.  Christianity only though, no other religion was acceptable.  They removed books or media that had any member of society they disliked, they did the same for any ideas expressed they disagreed with.  Freedom became only for them, white cis straight Christians, all others had no freedom.  Parent’s rights were twisted to mean only the rights of white cis straight Christian racist bigots, and those rights included forcing every child to be indoctrinated with the right wing racist bigoted Christian teachings regardless of the child’s parents wishes.  A complete authoritarian take over was what they tried.

It was noticed because like all bigots they were not quiet about the damage they were doing once they got the authority to do it.   They aggressively rammed their backwards oppression on everyone.   History has shown when they tried this same shit in the past, it was quickly stopped so they tried to create laws cementing their ideas in place.  But the public which was still a progressive majority woke up, and started fighting back.  They took back a lot of the school boards, they took back as many positions as came up for vote.   The only ones they couldn’t fix were the ones not yet up for vote, like Governor and state officials.  Which brings us to now, today in Florida where educational classes on subjects long thought important for the growth of students is being removed to further the forced indoctrination of right wing political racism, bigotry, and Christianity along with a made up fictional history.   Hugs.  Scottie

Two quotes from the article.

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.


 

Students should be focused on learning the ‘truth,’ rather than be ‘radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms,’ said education commissioner

Published 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET|Updated 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET

Mary Papenfuss

Ron DeSantis: On a mission to reshape education.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called “anti-woke” crusade has now removed sociology as a core class from all 12 of the state’s public universities.

The Board of Governors voted to make the change on Wednesday. A core sociology course was also removed earlier this month from all 28 Florida public colleges, meaning that Florida students will no longer be able to chose sociology to fulfill their core class requirements.

What the board refers to as a “factual history course” is replacing Principles of Sociology in the universities in what is widely seen as the start of a general rout of sociology classes.

When discussing sociology late last year, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. said that “students should be focused on learning the truth about our country instead of being radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms.” He also said the subject had been “hijacked by left-wing activists.”

The Board of Education has promised the history curriculum will include an examination of the “horrors” of slavery, even though the same board pressed lower schools to teach that slaves — who lost their freedom, were beaten, raped and forced to labor for their masters — benefited from slavery because they learned work “skills”

Educators warned that students will flee Florida’s universities to obtain legitimate educations required for careers and by employers elsewhere.

Florida has one of the country’s largest public university systems, with more than 430,000 students.

The latest change is part of a sweeping reorganization of education in Florida from top to bottom. Under DeSantis’ sweeping book censorship, at least one district has banned dictionaries from their schools’ libraries because they contain the word “sex.”

The American Sociological Association called the decision to dump the core sociology class “outrageous,” and one informed by a “gross misunderstanding” of sociology as somehow “radical.”

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

 

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.

 

If I was an employer outside Florida, I’d be side eyeing the diplomas from there.

But it’s not “cancel culture” by the party of “small government”…

Factual history of Florida will show blacks were hung from telephone poles for being found by white folk that hated them.

And much much worse – yet we can’t talk about those things, it’s “woke”…

But….. but…. those white people just found them hanging like that. /s

FOOLS…my sociology course in school required us to float theories in class, while using statistical databases to prove them. It was like two courses in one, and highly illuminating for dispelling old assumptions.

Dispelling old assumptions — exactly what DeSadist and co. DON’T want.

I don’t know why universities or any school for that matter needs any kind of curriculum other than bible studies anyway.

Think how expensive it will be to change all the road signs from Miles to cubits

They will start listing them furlongs per fortnight.

I refuse to believe in a book that SUPPOSEDLY has all the answers to life that was written by a bunch of people who didn’t know where the sun went at nigh…

I like the chapter in the “factual history” textbook where Jesus and George Washington free all the babies in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, lock up Hillary Clinton and then travel to Kentucky to comfort the citizens of Bowling Green in the wake of Al Sharpton’s horrific massacre.

That was before they flew into the airport and took over the landing strip.

I heard that the Colonials sank a British airport with a submarine.

The helicopter was in the shop so they needed an airstrip. There were some wooden teeth smashed into the air intake valve and the repair parts were still on order at the time of the attack. Everyone knows this is the reason helicopters didn’t get used again until after WW2.

 

Florida Bans The Dictionary

To avoid running afoul of state laws, a Florida school district has removed dictionaries that reference words like “sex.”

Missouri just debated 8 anti-trans bills in a single day

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/01/missouri-just-debated-8-anti-trans-bills-in-a-single-day/

This is the most important issue the republicans think they have to deal with.  Trans and gay people / kids.  Not kids being hungry, not schools shootings, not educations test scores or financing.  Nope what bathroom a person can use and what medical treatment is available. 

The republicans think they have a winning issue with their base because these are hate bills, socially regressive bills.   But these are a driven minority fueled either by hate or driven by religious beliefs, possibly both.   The majority rejects that hate, that bigotry, that demand to control how others live.  These anti-trans bills mirror the anti-gay bills of the 1970s, and that mirrored the anti-race integration.  It is all about resisting changes in society and inclusion of those who are different.  It is about not progressing, instead wanting things to never change.  But look at history, every generation advances society in some way, with causing more friction with the older generations, that forget they changed society of their elders also.  Think of the bathroom bills and then think how white people did not want to share bathrooms or any place with black people.   The bathroom bills trying to keep trans kids from public bathrooms and out of locker rooms is the same bullshit that I faced as a gay man, these same people wanted to keep me from using bathrooms, using locker rooms claiming gay men would sexually attack straight men.  Sounds just like trans women would attack cis women.   The bills about keep trans people out of sports are very like the racial segregated sports teams in the 1950, claiming first black people were inferior then also saying that black men would take over the sports winning over the whites.  Does it all sound so familiar.  It is the same hate, same bigotry, just repackaged to use against a new group for these people to hate. 

Also these people just refuse to accept well known documented medical science / studies that show people are not made gay or trans, but born that way.   You cannot force a straight person to be gay, and you can not force a gay person to be straight.  Also while these bills forbid any mention of a non-cisgender or non-straight orientation, that requires the forced reinforcement of cis heterosexuality.  Hugs.  Scottie


An opponent of one of several anti-trans bills testifies before the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee.
An opponent of one of several anti-trans bills testifies before the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee.Photo: Screenshot

Lawmakers in both the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate debated a total of eight anti-transgender bills in a single day this week.

The measures, affecting trans people’s ability to access healthcare, bathrooms, and other facilities, and legal recognition of their gender identity, represent just a fraction of the 49 anti-trans bills Missouri Republicans have already introduced this month. Trans journalist Erin Reed described the latest wave of proposed laws as “a firehose of legislation that touches every aspect of trans people’s lives.”

On Wednesday, Missouri’s Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee heard testimony on S.B. 728, one of two bills, which would establish a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” in the state. Among other provisions affecting school curriculum, S.B. 728 “prohibits public school officials from encouraging a student under the age of eighteen years old to adopt a gender identity or sexual orientation.” It also requires school officials to “inform a student’s parent within twenty-four hours if the student expresses confusion about their documented identity or requests to use personal pronouns that differ from their documented identity” and to “obtain written parental consent before allowing a student to use a name other than the name provided by the parent when registering the student for school and before encouraging a student to wear certain items of clothing.”

Effectively, the bill requires schools to out suspected trans and nonbinary students to their parents.

The committee was also scheduled to hear S.B. 770, another “Parents’ Bill of Rights” measure that included a ban on transgender girls participating in school-sponsored girls’ athletic teams. The hearing on S.B. 770 was canceled, however.

Meanwhile, in a nine-hour hearing, the state’s House Emerging Issues Committee took up seven separate anti-trans measures.

Two bills sponsored by Missouri state Rep. Brad Hudson (R) target access to gender-affirming healthcare. H.B. 1519 would allow healthcare professionals—including, as Reed noted, pharmacists, desk workers, and nurses—to refuse to treat trans people receiving gender-affirming care. During public testimony, opponents of the bill noted that it would not only legalize discrimination but could also result in cisgender, nonbinary, and intersex people being denied medication by providers who mistakenly assume they are trying to access gender-affirming treatment.

Hudson’s H.B. 1520, meanwhile, aims to strengthen and extend Missouri’s “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.” Signed by Gov. Mike Parson (R) last June, the law banned all gender-affirming care for minors but included an exception for trans young people who are already receiving such care, as well as a sunset provision, causing the law to expire in August 2027. H.B. 1520 would remove those provisions, forcing trans minors who are currently receiving gender-affirming care to detransition and extending the law beyond the 2027 expiration date.

State Rep. Ashley Aune (D) noted that the sunset provision was included in the SAFE Act so that lawmakers could assess the law’s “unintended consequences.” Hudson responded that there is already “enough evidence out there” and that he knows “these drugs are not good for kids.”

In fact, every major American medical association has acknowledged that gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, is evidence-based, safe, and effective for the treatment of gender dysphoria.

The committee also heard testimony on four bills aimed at banning transgender Missourians from using bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. Proponents of such laws almost universally focus, without evidence, on the supposed threat transgender women pose to cis women in public restrooms. But during Wednesday’s hearing, opponents noted that, far from alleviating any discomfort, the bills would force masculine-presenting trans men to use women’s restrooms and also endanger trans women forced to use men’s facilities while doing nothing to prevent actual predators from accessing women’s bathrooms.

Additionally, one of the bathroom bills introduced by state Rep. Adam Schnelting (R), H.B. 2308, would legally define the terms “male” and “female” according to a person’s reproductive biology.

Similarly, H.B. 2309, also introduced by Schnelting, aims to legally redefine “gender” as synonymous with biological sex. According to Reed, the bill would end any legal recognition of transgender people in the state and would likely affect the gender markers on their birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and other forms of ID.

Schnelting testified that his bills would affect “bathrooms, dorms, shelters, everything” and might even “nullify sex-specific scholarships” given to trans individuals.

Democrats on the committee blasted their Republican colleagues’ seemingly single-minded focus on limiting the rights of transgender Missourians. State Rep. David Tyson Smith (D), who noted that Republicans make up 40 percent of his constituents, argued that people want lawmakers to address “inflation, grocery store prices.”

“People are wondering why we are spending time on this,” Smith said.

State Rep. Doug Mann (D) sounded an even more urgent alarm. “When it became no longer acceptable to be anti-gay in public, people moved to being anti-trans,” he said. “When you start to attack an already vulnerable group of people, you do not stop with that already vulnerable group of people.”

“I’m going to be honest, I do not trust that this is the end,” Mann said of the anti-trans bills. “Everything I have seen as a student of history, as a student from politics, as a student of government, tells me that it is going to go farther. Things are going to get worse, not better.”

NAZI Town USA …

Sen. Josh Hawley Goes Full Christian Nationalist

By my dogs that love gravy, we must stop this Christian attack on the secular state of our country.  This people are desperately misinformed yet have worked their way into power and money.   They want a minority Christian rule over the majority using moral police and a Christian Taliban.  This is a full out take over of the US by a driven religious group who are starting from the wrong premise and building a movement out of it.  We have already seen how they want to base our laws on medical care on their religion, even if they don’t know what their religion says about the subject.   I am talking about banning abortion, but also marriage, adoption, gender affirming care for trans people, and yes even what materials can be read by your students and what can be taught them.   Hugs.  Scottie  


January 13, 2024

Sen. Josh Hawley writes for First Things:

America as a Christian nation—that’s a heretical notion by today’s lights. We are a secular country, the experts have insisted—demanded—for decades. But that was never true. The Founders read Roman historians, yes. Some were influenced by Enlightenment philosophies.

But the Bible has been the main source of our national ideals. From the age of the New England Puritans to the Great Awakening that prepared the ground for revolution, Scripture has molded our common life from the first. Consider:

Our ideal of the individual has Christian roots. So too does our constitutionalism. Our great traditions of progressive reform were animated by an ardent Christian spirit—as was conservative resistance to their excesses. Even in our most bitter conflicts, Christian culture has been America’s common ground.

Read the full essay.

It goes on for several thousand words.

 

From the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams

“the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
 

I’m really starting to HATE christians. I’ve known very few who actually walk the walk, and you sure don’t need a religion to do the right thing. In fact religious people will do the WRONG thing because of their religion.

I avoid them completely. Conversation starters like ‘tell me about your relationship with Jesus’, or any phrase that includes ‘sharing the good news’ have me running for the hills. There are good christians out there, they just don’t announce it to everyone because they are too busy being good christians. Wish there were more of them.

 

Of all the bullshit lines I’ve got hit with, my fave was “What’s YOUR form of worship?” asked in a tone making it very obvious her assumption was that of course no one is without a form of worship.

it’s interesting — even Joe Scarbourough, brought up S. Baptist has been saying for awhile now how that church, and other evangelical ones coopted the abortion issue in the Carter presidency … and turned those churches into the political (.. i’ll call them “clubs” ) that they are —devoid of any real Christian meaning.

Yes, it was the 1973 Supreme Court decision on tax exemption of religious organizations (Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v Nyquist) that got all of this rolling. It has always been about money and power.

That’s b/c the republican establishment knew that their platform of tax cuts for millionaires/billionaires along with corporations was a losing strategy. They knew that by renewing the horrid “southern strategy” that nixon made use of while allowing evangelicals a voice in dictating social wedge issues (abortion, gay rights), republicans would remain popular amongst low-info as well as suburban voters.

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And make the churches pay for it!

It’s for its own protection, after all.

Minor quibble: That wall was built over 200 years ago.

Ya, and they’ve been trying to tear it down ever since!

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I’m just going to post this. Someone might have done this before me but just in case…..

Like their elections, if they don’t get the desired result they get so over. Because only 4 of the founding fathers clearly pointed out that there should be a separation of church and state ,They have taken it upon themselves to say “ not a majority “ so we will force our agenda

[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

James Madison

James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin’s Letter, Yates’s Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of ’98-’99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.204

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia: From 1730, to 1740; and from 1768, to 1772”, p.140

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion. John Adams

Article 1 of the Treat of Tripoli.

If you want to see what a “Christian America” that Josh Hawley talks about looks like, look no further than Mississippi, where Evangelical Christianity is thoroughly infused in it’s government. It been that way for a long time. As I mentioned below, it’s also dead last or near dead last in every economic and social measurement, including high poverty, poor education, terrible health care outcomes, infant mortality, low wages… you name it. Josh Hawley and his fellow Christianists want to replicate Mississippi all over America.

 

Missouri, which Hawley represents, isn’t much better.

Yes. It is unclear to me how the state districts are gerrymandered, but I am sure that they must be. MO never seems to have any competitive state-wide offices, though. This is a big change from past decades.

Those people from red counties are happy enough to come to the blue big city hospitals for their medical care.

Tate Reeves doesn’t want to accept federal funding to feed free lunch-eligible children a lunch during summer break. Super Christian – let them go hungry. That’s Mississippi.

my response to his X: “Dear Josh — read the US Constitution, read Geo Washington’s Letter to the Touro Synagogue, and read the Treaty of Tripoli (circa 1802)

you are Wrong, you are a coward, and you are the worst sort of traitor to the United States of America …’

A truly Christian economy is void of money and not made it the sole motivation of one’s existence. Greed is a sin. A good job is helping the poor and welcoming those in need to one’s home to house and feed without the intention of enslaving them for the free labor.
What kind of fucking Christian is he?

A true Christian economy would not charge interest, for starters.

And there would be jubilee every few years to forgive debt.
How many Rethugs are loath to forgive their children’s education debt?
How many of them work hard to give bankers the upper hand in all negotiations.

“Christian” is a meaningless label. People hide behind it for causes both noble and vile.

 

No more ‘sexually explicit’ books in Carroll County schools, new policy says

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/moms-for-liberty-carroll-county-book-policy-YZ4LKA76GFEW7BVBIIN4QY7RGU/

One minority group using keywords to promote a crisis that doesn’t exist to remove books with characters and plots they don’t like.  One minority group pushing for the right to control the children of the majority who disagree with them.   One of the board members claimed it was up to the parents to decide what was sexual explicit not educators, yet he also claimed that he wouldn’t tolerate tax money to be spent on what he called sexually explicit books, which we all know he means books with LGBTQIA characters or plots.   So he is taking the rights from the parents he just claimed had the rights to make that judgement.    Hugs.  Scottie

Opposing parents pushed back against Moms for Liberty’s campaign, saying that removing books is censorship and that one group of parents shouldn’t decide what’s best for everyone. There was even an attempt to challenge the Bible to test the system.

None of the 61 books that were challenged was available to elementary students. They only lived on middle and high school shelves. That was until the superintendent removed them all, except for the Bible, until they went through the review process. 


(SimonSkafar/Getty Images)

Whether it’s a textbook or a library book, it won’t be allowed in Carroll County Public Schools if deemed sexually explicit by school officials. That’s thanks to a new policy passed unanimously by its school board Wednesday.

The vote came after a monthslong campaign by the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty, whose members challenged dozens of school library books they say are inappropriate for students.

The board decided in the fall that staff should tighten the policy on textbook and library book selection and tasked them with creating a definition of “sexually explicit.”

“Instructional materials, including supplemental materials, shall not contain sexually explicit content,” the new policy states. “Sexually explicit content is defined as unambiguously describing, depicting, showing, or writing about sex or sex acts in a detailed or graphic manner.”

The policy doesn’t apply to materials used in the health curriculum.

Opposing parents pushed back against Moms for Liberty’s campaign, saying that removing books is censorship and that one group of parents shouldn’t decide what’s best for everyone. There was even an attempt to challenge the Bible to test the system.

None of the 61 books that were challenged was available to elementary students. They only lived on middle and high school shelves. That was until the superintendent removed them all, except for the Bible, until they went through the review process. She said it’s because reviewing such a high volume of books would take too long. And school officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.

Kathryn Berling, a parent and school librarian at Taneytown Elementary School, told board members that they nor the school system asked for librarians’ input on the books. While she spoke, a handful of attendees stood with her in solidarity.

Berling noted that librarians were not asked for input when the superintendent took away the books, nor on a new policy put in place at the beginning of the year that requires librarians to complete a time-consuming checklist policing a book’s content before selecting for the library.

The board also, she noted, did not ask librarians about defining “sexually explicit.”

“It’s a shame you cannot trust the professionalism of our CCPS media specialists,” Berling said.

Shortly before Wednesday’s vote, a few board members questioned how staff defined “sexually explicit” in the policy proposal. Sahithya Sudhakar, the student member, said she doesn’t think the definition suffices because graphic content can look different to different people. It’s a risk to content like literature that students read in class, she added.

“I’m worried we’re losing important content in our schools because a single line is taken out of context,” said Sudhakar, who does not have voting rights.

Fellow members Tara Battaglia and Patricia Dorsey, who ended up voting for the policy, echoed her concerns on the definition and asked if there was more they can do to make it less subjective.

But members Steve Whisler and Donna Sivigny saw no issue. Whisler said as an elected official he won’t tolerate any tax dollars spent on “sexually explicit” books.

“It is the job of parents, not educators … to determine what’s sexually explicit,” he said.

 

Kristen Griffith is an education reporter covering Baltimore County. 

 

 

[Board member] Whisler said… “It is the job of parents, not educators… to determine what’s sexually explicit.”

Then why the fuck did he argue and vote for a policy that makes it the educators and school librarians responsibility to police the board‘s definition? Whisler’s just an anti-sex control freak.

 

People who ban books aren’t for liberty.

Their words are always lies to hide the truth.

Neither was Hitler and his “socialist” party. For some reason conservatives love their opposite meaning names.

Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Love, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty.

It’s how Republicans work.

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What’s the foreskin to shekel exchange rate?

well, after they are harvested there is no more inflation!

I was reading books from the adult section of our libraries when I was in 7th grade. I came across depictions of sex acts. Somehow I survived. Thank God. /s

By third grade I was reading at the 12th grade level. Mostly science fiction but many biographies and other non-fiction. I was exposed to many words and terms and descriptions of things that I didn’t completely understand, but the help of the dictionary and my extremely well-read father, I quickly learned. My parents never treated me like a little kid when it came to my choices of reading materials, and I wasn’t in any way traumatized by anything I read in books.

By age 12, I was allowed to go off on my bike, alone or with friends, and frequently would be gone 8 to 10 hours on the weekends. Sometimes we’d be riding clear across town [Columbus, OH] or far out past the suburbs, going almost to Delaware, Grove City, Reynoldsburg and others. I was also allowed to go play down by the river behind the shopping center, where, in retrospect, one might even encounter somewhat shifty characters. I never got kidnapped, raped, assaulted or killed, or exposed to drugs or cigarettes. Most of those things happened at my school. I turned out ok, well-rounded, able to discern right from wrong, to make responsible decisions and other positive attributes.

hell, I was reading from the adult section of the library when I was in grade school. if I could read it, my parents let me and my dad would answer any questions I had about things. they were just happy I was reading. I remember seeing book about cattle breeds around the world and there was a photo showing the weinies of African tribal members, I loved that book!!! LOL

To be thorough, the need to remove the Bible.

Christian privilege at it again.
“[S]chool officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.” But it’s not a constitutional issue to ban speech unless it’s religious (Evangelical Christian).
These assholes believe they’re both divinely and constitutionality sanctioned to dominate the rest of us.

Tried that here in Utah, it worked but not for long. Christian privilege.

The buy-bull….Talk about a book full of filth, violence and lies! No one should be exposed to it until old enough to realize is a work of fiction created by sun baked brains and changed over the centuries by crazies, drunks, and the power hungry.

“School officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.”

School officials were wrong. Applying a general law or policy without distinction and without bias against a religion is clearly constitutional. Also, the Bible is neither a textbook nor supplemental instructional material, so it’s presence is superfluous, already.

Idiots. Exempting the Bible in a public school library privileges Christianity over other beliefs, which IS a violation of the Establishment Clause.

Have to wonder if the Talmud and other religious texts are also in the library since the buy-bull is….if not, why not? Hmmmm?

Funny how the Bible is excluded despite all the talks of sex in there.

I guess it’s not within their definition of “sexually explicit” because it’s language is too ambiguous and lacking in detail when it describes sex acts with prostitutes, sisters, half-sisters, sisters-in-law, daughters, fathers, kings, concubines, refugees, war captives, under-age girls, slaves, maids, surrogates, men, donkeys, dogs, and goats.

They begat their brains out in those days.

No TV and lots of wine….oh, what shall we do for fun this evening? ROFL

It’s never the good guys who ban books

If you fear a child reading a book, but not dying of a terminal pregnancies after a rape, you are not for children. Full stop

Yeah, because hiding books is going to work so well with tomorrows generation. You know technology and shit.

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As a voracious young reader, I had pretty much checked out everything in the kids section of our public library by age 10 and moved into the adult stacks.The librarians panicked the first time I brought a stack of Agatha Christie and John Creasey mysteries to the check out desk and refused to let me have them without parental permission. Infuriated, I ran to get my mom. She rolled her eyes and just said, “Let him read them”.

Until puberty hit, I skimmed over the sexy bits, then had an “a-ha” moment when I finally connected the naughty descriptions in the books with my own naughty bits. I think the only significant affect it had on me was using a lot of British sex slang until the 7th grade librarian asked me if I knew what “twat” actually meant.

P.S. The librarian became a lifelong friend. RIP Mrs. Pavitt.

 

 

RNC Posts Fake Quote To Make Biden Appear Senile

January 12, 2024

The far-right Washington Free Beacon writes:

President Joe Biden told Pennsylvanians on Friday that he works for the government in the Senate, a comment likely to fuel concerns about the gaffe-prone president’s mental fitness. “My name’s Joe Biden. I work for the government in the Senate,” said the 81-year-old president as he met employees at a coffee shop in the Keystone State. Biden, the oldest president in American history, represented Delaware in Congress’s upper chamber from 1973 until 2009, when he left to serve as President Barack Obama’s vice president.

Read the full article. As you can see below, the quote is an utter fabrication by the Republican National Committee, which has since deleted their stupid lie but not before it was picked up by multiple cultist sites like the one above.

 

Remember this quote from the “Trump Meme Team.”

“It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to go viral.”

Honestly, is this stupid lie going to change anyone’s mind? The deplorables, who suck this shit down, already aren’t going to vote for Biden and Biden supporters know it’s almost certainly lie. Or just another Joe-gaffe, no big deal.

So, how nice for them that this “went viral.”

It’s not jut the one lie; it’s the accumulation of them that form a totally fake narrative that will convince their stupid dupes that it’s true.

What do you expect from the party of total scum?

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I thought it was Genital.Obsessed.Perverts.

 

I thought it was Greedy Old Pricks. Or Guns Over People.

No shame. And that’s a damn shame. They disgrace our Nation every day. I wish them troubled sleep.

Certainly not integrity or truth, or anything remotely approaching it.

This is only the start, with AI the trolls at GQP headquarters in Moscow are working overtime to try to match with fiction the complete insanity that actually flows from the mouth of the mango malignancy.

Russia’s living on borrowed time. When Putin dies or gets thrown out of power, watch for China to grab Eastern Siberia. They’re already building a railroad to the Bering Strait

I’m sure there is answer for this from them!!

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It was going around right wing media earlier that Biden claimed to have started the civil rights movement. Of course he said nothing of the sort.

What he really said was that he started visiting a black church during the civil rights movement.

They like to lie about everything.

there isn’t a lie they won’t tell

Everything — morals, dignity, truth, respect, lawfulness, tradition, convention, patriotism, humanity, everything — is secondary to winning with these assholes.

And yet they’re still treated as acting in good faith by most media outlets, even ones that are occasionally critical of them. This has to change if America is ever to emerge from this nightmare.

No more when they go low we go high.

Politically shank them with a sharpened spoon if necessary

 

Their own history is the well-sharpened machete. Yet the Dems refuse to wield it.

Biden is senile but our very sane, cogent candidate cannot pronounce “Yosemite” or “hamburgers” and wants to nuke hurricanes—three of a million glaring oopsies Fuck à l’Orange has made.

They’ve been getting away with calling all of us child molesters without a bit of pushback for nearly 50 years. They don’t need truth.

Couldn’t the DNC just run ads featuring unaltered, widely-witnessed & published videotapes of Tchump slopping his usual word-salad blather out of that shithole he calls a “mouth”? Maybe add a CC-translation, to emphasize what unhinged nonsense oozes forth from Tchump’s syphilitic-rotting brain?

The RNC lies because the RNC hasn’t been brought to heel…

When will their Chair be charged for conspiracy to disenfranchise voters in the State of Michigan?

Lacking this, they will continue to throw shit into the blender.

 

Anti-Trans Bills Are Getting Worse Than Ever

Florida GOP Bill Would “Legally De-Trans” Individuals

Aside from the normal hate and bigotry towards the LGBTQIA that religious republicans normally show, this guy adds a new wrinkle.  And it goes back to the point I made that some people can not accept change.   While not really old at 59 he shows he can not adjust to modern times.  He says, “From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.”  He seems to reject any advancements since time immemorial.  You do know that at one time humans thought thunder and lightning were caused by gods, we also thought the world was flat, we were sure that sickness and disease were caused by spirits and demons, religious leaders at one point were so certain that the earth was the center of everything with the sun orbiting the earth that they burned anyone to death who said otherwise … so much more we always knew, took as concrete never changing fact, and we were totally wrong about.  Just as he is about gender, sex, trans issues, and anything his religious teaching say about the LGBTQIA people.  He rejects modern science and medical best practices but instead demands that proven harmful conversion therapy be mandated by law.   “”It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex”. Hugs.  Scottie


January 12, 2024

Jacksonville’s ABC affiliate reports:

A Northeast Florida lawmaker wants to legally define the words “man” and “woman” based on biological sex at birth. Jacksonville Rep. Dean Black filed the proposed What Is A Woman Act this week, which would also impose new requirements related to transgender individuals on state agencies and insurance companies.

House Bill 1233 requires state agencies to revoke any identification cards, like driver’s licenses, that don’t match up with a person’s sex on their birth certificate.

“From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.”

NBC News reports:

Black’s bill would also require any health insurance policy in the state that covers transition-related “prescriptions or procedures’’ to also cover “treatment to detransition” from such procedures.

It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex.

The bill would also require any school district or state agency “that collects vital statistics for the purpose of complying with anti-discrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic, or other data” to identify the birth sex of people in the data set, potentially restricting data collection on trans people.

Dean Black last appeared here for a bill that would allow DeSantis to remove any elected official who votes to remove Confederate monuments.

In October 2023, Black called for banning elected officials from participating in Pride events after Jacksonville’s newly-elected mayor led her city’s parade.

 

This freakish GQP obsession with other people’s crotches is fuckin creepy.

G.enital
O.bsessed
P.erverts

My favorite is all the dudes who scream about trans women using women’s bathrooms. Uh………dudes? We don’t see each others’ genitals in the bathroom anyway. Because we use stalls. With locks. I have no way of knowing if the woman in the stall next to me is trans. Why would I care?

They want Laith to use the women’s washroom?

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No. They don’t want him to exist at all

 

Notice how their obsession is overwhelmingly with trans women. Trans men, not so much. This is evident in his proposed legislation being titled the “What is a Woman” act.

Once again, misogyny is the root of all hatred of sexual minorities.

But having a “guy” piss near you puts you at risk of pregnancy!

/s

They also seem to think that it’s a big party in there, when all we’re doing is peeing, pooping, and menstruating. Most of us don’t even talk to anyone in there.

 

Take out all urinals. Put in stalls. Make every bathroom unisex. That way, men will have to wait in line just like women do now.
(I went to a football game where they had port-a-potties while they were building the bathrooms. Port-a-potties, of course, are unisex. But there was one that was for women only, and of course I waited in that line for it. The other ones were disgusting.

Which makes me wonder why they would want transmen using a woman’s rest room, a lot of them are more stereotypically masculine than many cis men.

They seemingly have better facial hair than I do, that’s for sure. So jealous of trans men.

They’re only telling everyone that they look at other people’s dicks in the men’s washroom. What’s wrong with them doing that? Oh, right…

They don’t realize that they’re saying men can’t control themselves around women and are constantly suppressing the urge to rape someone. Hell, Mike Huckabee said something like this a few years ago.

THIS!!!

WTF does it matter to me what’s inside a stranger’s pants unless I want to get into them?

Well they have no plans to fix any of the real problems in the country. So they invent ones to enrage their base.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someday that red states require a mandatory genital’s check to make certain that you are male or female per their standards on gender and ID. Sigh.

They HAVE tried that with CHILDRENS’ sports.

 

The Ohio legislature just did that with children’s sports.

Uh, this bill would do exactly that.

This freakish GQP obsession with ruining other people’s lives is fuckin’ criminal.

Speaker Johnson knows when his teen son is ovulating. 🤡

And dontcha love when people utterly ignorant of history start a sentence with, “From time immemorial, we have known . . . .”

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“Filed the What Is A Woman bill…”

Oh FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCKHEAD.
Signed, a cis woman tired of being used as your cudgel against trans people.

Next on his agenda, a “Do Women have Souls?” bill.

We already have the “Women are Expendable” laws in many Red States that goes into effect every time conception occurs. So that’s a possibility.

Not only is he an asshole, but he’s simply fucking wrong. Factually incorrect, whether he knows or accepts it. Humans can be born with XX, XY, XO, XXY, (Klinefelter’s Syndrome) or XYY chromosomes. Take your “there are only two genders” bullshit and fuck off for all eternity.

also, XXX, androgen-insensitivity, and physical development anomalies.

It’s almost like these politicians aren’t even doctors…. Who knew… 🤔🤷

But they all pretend to be preachers and there is a lot of crossover between religion and the practice of medicine.

Not that these idiots care about science, but SciShow did a great episode on this topic a few years ago.