Moms For Liberty Harasses Florida High School Into Reprinting Yearbook Without Pages On LGBTQ Students

Personal note **  I hope to be back up to the half speed I have been managing lately in a few days.   I had a really bad end of the week, health wise.   Ron said Thursday evening my right side back muscles were swollen up higher than his fist compared to the left.   I saw the cardiologist, he changed my medication and said I needed an echocardiogram along with a medical heart stress test.   He is worried about the shortness of breath and breathing problems, along with something he thinks is going on with my heart.   But the change in medications will allow me to get my allergy treatments, and the blood tests came back showing really serious allergies.   I will share those another time.   Hugs

Please note the open bigotry and privilege.   Also note these are a very small group of bigoted religious parents.   Let the kids be kids doesn’t apply to the gay or other LGBTQ+ kids.    These people find anything offensive that is not just as they are, feel, or want things.   They want all their kids to celebrate their school years, but not the gay, trans, or the other LGBTQ+ kids to have that privilege.   Notice these kids are teenagers, the woman is complaining that seeing LGBTQ+ other students and information was sexualizing a 14-year-old.   Trust me, by 14 a kid knows their gender, their sexuality, and even how to masturbate.    This strange idea that kids don’t have feelings, desire, or even that touching themselves feels good until the magic moment they turn 18 when suddenly all those things happen and become real.   That is incredibly stupid, that schools even through the senior year can not mention anything dealing with gender or sexual orientation unless it is straight heterosexual 1950s gender stereotypical norms.   Hello every teen has a smart phone, and access to smart TV’s, game consoles that browse the internet, along with computers.   Get freaken real people.   This really is about not letting the LGBTQ+ people be normalized, that is why these groups want to remove the media with gay or trans characters or have LGBTQ+ information.    Yet they do want the anti-gay stuff pushed hard.   These bans make it so there can be no programs stopping bullying, no safe places for kids that are not cis or straight to feel welcome.   It is driving the LGBTQ+ people in the US to the same place the Jewish people were in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.   Hugs

 

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry. The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as genderfluid and pansexual. A few parents and students found those pages “inappropriate,” and now the district is offering refunds or reprinted yearbooks with the pages in question removed.

Jessica Tillmann, chapter chair of the Seminole County Moms for Liberty, said she is concerned about the definitions in the yearbook because she thinks they are teaching children about sex outside the state-approved standards that parents can choose to opt their children out of. “They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook,” she said. “This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”

Click Orlando reports:

Sharmon Craft [screenshot above] was among the parents who believe the page is inappropriate. “This gender ideology crap has parents in an uproar because it’s disgusting and wrong for an adult to sexualize a minor,” Craft said on Facebook.

“The district superintendent is ordering the school to give full refunds or have the books reprinted without the glossary of perverse sexual attractions and pronouns.” District officials said they have received four complaints from parents so far.

Danielle Pomeranz, the high school’s former yearbook advisor, argued against the decision. “We think that it’s important that our book remains inclusive and represents all of the students at Lyman High School,” Pomeranz said.

 

STFU. If you’re such a snowflake, tear the two pages out yourself. I’m sick of a couple of people dictating to the rest of the schools.

100% correct!! Why do they kowtow to idiots??

manufactured drama to needlessly excite others as they push their astro-turf nonsense.

And yet schools and other places kowtow to these idiots with their reactionary agenda. It makes me sick!

14 year olds know that gay people exist.

14 year olds often already know if they are gay or straight or even fluid, I sure did.

I always knew I wasn’t like the other boys. 14 was when I figured out what that difference was.

I knew long before I was 14

I wasn’t out in public until I was 24, but I was out to myself at 14.

 

14 was my age the first time I was able to look my reflection in the eyes and say, “I am a homosexual” out loud. It was strange to hear myself say it, but it felt so true and freeing.

Same age here, but for me it was as I was cumming while thinking of the guys in the locker room at school

I almost find it funny that these Moms for Liberty morons think that their children are innocent and pure and know nothing about sex. Do they not know the kids have access to the internet and have cell phones? Those women live in a Christian bubble.

Don’t tell them. ‘Christian’ parents have a tendency to install crappy blocking software on their kids’ phones that ostensibly block porn, but actually block anything a crazy religious parent might object to, like age-appropriate information that teens absolutely should have access to.

14 year olds with phones know a lot of things.

Hence the enthusiasm for purging all mention of them everywhere. As homophobe lawyer Matt Staver said recently, if Christian kids get to know gays, they’ll get the outrageous idea they’re not monsters in human form.

Indeed:

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And not to mention no-one is sexualising anyone in this yearbook, just defining some terms.

We have to fight back against their characterisation of anything that even mentions LGBT people’s existence as being “sexual”. ‘Heather has two mommies’ is not sexual, and not inappropriate in the slightest for elementary students.

Also yet more infantilisation of teens: “OMG, kids as young as 14 will read this!” 14 years olds know about sex, and we should give them correct information, not religious scare stories.

Rule 1: White kids are innocent babes until at least age 30.
Rule 2: Black and Latino kids are fully adult hyper-sexual beings by age 10.

…and they don’t blink an eye at the outfits of the cheerleaders or the pictures of prom, both strongly “sexualizing.”

 

 

Vaush Debates Transphobe that Compares Trans People to Nazis

In a calm and rational manner, Vaush explains the truth of trans people to a guy questioning if trans is even a thing.    Vaush explains where the guy’s misinformation is wrong and guides him to seeing the where his assumptions are wrong about gender VR sex.   If your hang up on trans people is the issue / question of sex / gender, Vaush explains that wonderfully.   He really does it in a way easy for even Dildeb could understand.    Hugs

Too often the context of Leviticus is omitted

Uncle Mark  weshlovrcma day ago

Too often the context of Leviticus is omitted…either due to intent or ignorance. Leviticus was written during a time when Israel was besieged on all sides by larger, more populace nations; when there was a fear of the Jewish people & culture being subsumed by the other groups & their neighbors. That’s why it insists upon harsh punishments for anything outside of Jewish traditions & laws, and punishments for anything that does not increase the population. (It’s almost like the “culture war” going on in the US, when white, hetero, “Christian” people are finding themselves becoming a minority.)

Librarians sue Arkansas state over law banning them from giving ‘obscene’ books to children

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/31/librarians-sue-arkansas-state-over-law-banning-them-from-giving-obscene-books-to-children

 

Move comes as rightwing groups increase pressure to remove books, most written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour

Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library SystemNate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System said the law would be ‘totally impractical to enforce.’ Photograph: Katie Adkins/AP

 

 

 

The American Library Association and the Authors Guild are among a group of organisations bringing a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas over a law which makes it a crime for librarians to give children books with “obscene” content.

The lawsuit involves 17 plaintiffs, including the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association.

 

The groups are aiming to challenge Senate bill 81, which exposes librarians who provide “obscene materials” to children to criminal liability. The law, part of Act 372 of 2023, is due go to come into force on 1 August.

It says that anyone will be allowed to “challenge the appropriateness” of a book, but it does not define exactly what is meant by “obscene” or “appropriateness”. Under the law, a group of people chosen by head librarians would review material that had been challenged, and vote in a public meeting about whether it should be kept on public display or moved to an area of the library inaccessible to those under 18.

CALS executive director Nate Coulter said this part of the law would be “totally impractical to enforce”, reported the Arkansas Advocate.

The board of CALS voted this month to file the lawsuit challenging parts of Act 372 of 2023. John Adams, a lawyer from Fuqua Campbell, the law firm representing CALS, said that librarians needed clarity on the law to ensure they could do their jobs without risking arrest.

American Library Association president Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada told Publishers Weekly that the lawsuit was “to vindicate Arkansas residents’ freedom to read”.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming days. It is the second high-profile lawsuit this year concerning the restriction of books available in libraries. Earlier in the month, PEN America, Penguin Random House, and a group of authors and parents, filed a lawsuit against a Florida school district for implementing book bans. The suit argues the removal and restriction of access to books discussing race, racism and LGBTQ+ identities violates the first amendment.

It comes after increased activity by rightwing groups to remove books from libraries and schools in the US. In 2022, calls to ban books hit the highest level ever recorded in the US, according to the American Library Association (ALA), which tracks requests for removal.

Last year, there were requests to ban 2,571 titles; up 38% from 1,858 titles in 2021. Most of the books for which removal requests were made, said the ALA, were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour.

DEMOCRATS vs REPUBLICANS! Let’s Compare & Contrast | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update

Seriously informative on the bullshit of the republicans.   Hugs

Cedar Key Progress Posts 6 “We Say Gay” Billboards in Florida for Pride Month!

https://www.cedarkeyprogress.com/updates/we-say-gay-billboards-in-florida-for-pride-month

We’re proud to put up 6 “In Florida … We Say Gay!” billboards across Florida to celebrate Pride Month with a message of support and solidarity, funded by over 1,000 Cedar Key Progress donors.

The stakes have never been higher than they are right now for the trans and queer community

Florida Republicans are trying to make it so that our state is unsafe for anyone who isn’t a Christian, straight, white man, and we won’t stand for being known for all of this bigotry and hate. We say gay because the Florida we know welcomes everyone, whether you’re trans or cis, gay or straight, Black, brown or white.

Cedar Key Progress Poll: Floridians Oppose Book Bans, Support DEI

A recent Cedar Key Progress poll of 400 Floridians, conducted May 18-22, 2023 by Civiqs, found that Floridians oppose LGBTQ+ book bans and Ron DeSantis’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Do you support or oppose laws removing books mentioning gay and transgender people and history from public school libraries?
Support 42%

Oppose 48%
Neither support nor oppose 7%
Unsure 3%

Do you support or oppose laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from colleges and universities?
Support 39%

Oppose 50%
Neither support nor oppose 7%
Unsure 4%

Full poll results here.

Billboard Locations

See our billboards throughout June 2023 in 6 locations across Florida!

Titusville, Brevard County
East side, Northbound U.S. 1, north of Golden Knights Blvd

Tallahassee, Leon County
West side, Lake Bradford Road north of Hutchinson St

Yulee, Nassau County
US 17 south of Harts Road

Pensacola, Escambia County
South side of I-10 west of Alt US 90

Summerfield, Marion County
US 27 south of SE 132nd St

Winter Haven, Polk County
Cypress Gardens Blvd south of Old Helena Rd

Help support our billboard programs!

Cue Florida to quickly pass a law against saying “Gay” on any billboard that might be seen by any K-12 minor in Florida.

Nobody said Gay when I was a kid, there were no Drag Queen Story Hours, no Pride events, no representation of any kind, and I still turned out Gay. These clowns have no idea what they’re doing, they’ll end up hurting kids in the long run. For awhile, I thought we’d made some progress in this country, now I realize the hate, fear and ignorance was just festering, waiting until it was lauded by the Republican Party. The billboards are nice, but they aren’t likely to change anyone’s mind.

My hope is that all this poison can be treated like an infection in the body like an abscess. Now that it has come to the surface, it can be lanced and dealt with. But I am at a loss as to what will be the cure.

Just read yesterday that a whole lot of LGBTQ folks are trying to move away from Florida now. Including parents of gay and trans kids who are terrified the state will seize their children from them.

Valid fear.
My friend and his husband left just last month.
As my friend put it, the medical scare his husband had is in the past but if one arises again, they didn’t want to risk being in FL and being denied care.

A friend is leaving next week to teach in the Virgin Islands to get her pan-identified son the hell out. Her husband and other son will follow them.

I wonder what will happen, when school comes back into session, and High School Students, consistently ask questions about being Gay in their classes??? What will the schools do to them???

 

Tennessee Speaker appoints conspiracy theorist to develop state social studies standards

https://popular.info/p/tennessee-speaker-appoints-conspiracy

The craziest Qanon fundamentalist Christian conservative ideologists have figured out that public schools teaching facts keep them from taking over.   So they are going after the schools.   That we have known for a few years.  They have this idea that they can indoctrinate kids into myths, misinformation, and hateful ideas and the kids will continue that way all their lives, letting the crazies run the country as a dictatorship unquestioned.   Here is an example.  This person is going to be forcing the batshittery she spouts on public school kids whose parents do not have the time or energy to school their kids against her lies.   She wouldn’t even let her children go to public school, she homeschooled them.  Yet she will now have a say in what other parents kids learn.   The US better wake up, public schools have been under attack in the US for generations with defunding and Christians trying to force their religion back into schools as factual learning material.   Now the most fundamentalist crazies are taking over to finish destroying what is left of public schools.   But notice this stuff is not taught in the wealthy elite private schools.   Hugs 

 

MAY 25, 2023
 
 
Laura Cardoza-Moore (Screenshot/Vimeo)

Last week, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) announced that he had appointed Laurie Cardoza-Moore to serve on the Tennessee Standards Recommendation Committee to oversee “Social Studies materials being reviewed for use in classrooms statewide.” Cardoza-Moore, known for holding extremist views and promoting conspiracy theories, has called “U.S. history textbooks” currently used in classrooms the “greatest national security threat to the United States.”

With her new appointment, Cardoza-Moore will have the power to “submit final recommendations for [Social Studies] standards to the State Board.” In a statement about her new position, Cardoza-Moore said, “[t]he materials we will be reviewing can only accomplish the mission of educating good American citizens if our Tennessee textbooks are devoid of left-aligned historic revisionism and the toxic material found in the antisemitic Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Social-Emotional Learning and Ethnic Studies.”

Cardoza-Moore homeschooled her five children and has criticized the existing public school curriculum for exposing children to “anti-Semitic, anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian content in our public schools.” In a radio interview on the Tennessee Star Report, Cardoza-Moore said, “[i]t’s ruining our children’s lives. Our children are depressed and unless we as parents… stand up and speak up and take back control of our children’s education, we are going to lose this country.”

In 2021, Cardoza-Moore was also appointed by Sexton to the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, which is in charge of “recommend[ing] an official list of textbooks and instructional materials for approval of the State Board of Education.” 

Sexton appointed Cardoza-Moore to important positions shaping state educational standards despite her repeated embrace of conspiracy theories. Over the years, Cardoza-Moore has promoted claims that 9/11 was an “inside job,” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and that January 6 insurrectionists were actually “Antifa.” In 2011, Cardoza-Moore claimed that former President Barack Obama was causing “horrific tornadoes” because he made a speech that discussed the plight of Palestinians. Asked if she still held these views, Cardoza-Moore did not respond. 

Cardoza-Moore has few academic credentials, which she has attempted to bolster by padding her resume. She refers to herself as “Laurie Cardoza-Moore, ThD.” But her “doctorate” is “an honorary doctorate degree in theology from the Latin University of Theology,” an unaccredited diploma mill. According to Chalkbeat Tennessee, the only degree Cardoza-Moore holds is “an associate degree from the KD Conservatory College of Film and Dramatic Arts in Dallas.” It’s unclear how this qualifies her to set standards for millions of Tennessee students. Sexton did not respond to a request for comment.

Cardoza-Moore and 9/11 conspiracy theories

 

Cardoza-Moore is the founder and president of the nonprofit Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), a Christian Zionist organization that claims to fight the “global war against antisemitism.” The group, which was once classified a hate group, has been a profitable endeavor for Cardoza-Moore. In 2019, she paid herself $145,000, paid her husband’s business $85,000, claimed $50,000 in occupancy expenses for her home, and spent $23,000 on meals and entertainment, among other things. The organization is also rated as a “two-star charity” on Charity Navigator, indicating that the organization “needs improvement.”

In March 2021, during a Tennessee State Senate hearing for Cardoza-Moore’s appointment to the Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, Democratic Chair Raumesh Akbari asked Cardoza-Moore about PJTN’s statements questioning basic facts about the September 11 terrorist attacks. 

According to Akbari, when reviewing a textbook passage, PJTN “suggest[ed] removing” a sentence stating that “members of al-Qaeda carried out” the September 11 attacks. PJTN cited a “plethora of evidence” for the suggested removal, stating, “This is a highly contested (per [A]rchitects and [E]ngineers for 9/11 Truth, and demolition experts) argument.” Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth was a group that falsely claimed that 9/11 was an “inside job” because they believed the impact of the planes into the World Trade Center towers could not have resulted in their collapse. According to Akbari, “the quote was pulled ‘directly from a review that [Cardoza-Moore] made.” 

In response, Cardoza-Moore attempted to distance herself from the controversy. “I need to see the quote in the context that you’re pulling it [from],” Cardoza-Moore said. “Is that a Powerpoint presentation that I put together? Because I would never say that al-Qaeda didn’t participate.” 

Cardoza-Moore and January 6 conspiracy theories

 

Cardoza-Moore also pushed false claims about the 2020 election and conspiracy theories about the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021. On December 9, 2020, Cardoza-Moore tweeted, “Calling on all citizens of the USA. Please contact your State Attorney General and let them know that as a citizen of your state, you want them to join the State of TX in the lawsuit filed against GA, WI, MI and PA for the fraudulent way their elections were held.”

On December 17, 2020, Cardoza-Moore responded to a tweet from former President Donald Trump claiming that there were “[t]remendous problems being found with voting machines.” Cardoza-Moore tweeted, “[w]hy aren’t these people being arrested? If the lawless get away with this, our Republic is lost! You’re a Churchill President Trump, PLEASE EXECUTE JUSTICE!” There is no evidence that any widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election.

According to the Memphis Flyer, Cardoza-Moore also encouraged people to travel to D.C. on January 6, 2021, posting, “I’ll see you in DC on 1/6.” In a now-deleted post from December 28, 2020, Cardoza-Moore said, “Will you join me in DC to defend our Constitutional Republic? This is it! If we can’t defend our Constitutional Republic, we WILL LOSE IT! Make arrangements now!” 

Cardoza-Moore continued to push conspiracy theories after the insurrection occurred at the Capitol on January 6, claiming that it was actually “Antifa” and not Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol. “Antifa stormed the Capitol! It wasn’t led by Trump Patriots,” Cardoza-Moore tweeted on January 7, 2021.

Cardoza-Moore defends plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan

 

In spring 2020, Cardoza-Moore celebrated on social media as armed protesters stormed Michigan’s capitol to demonstrate against the state’s COVID-19 response. “ARE WE WATCHING THE BEGINNING OF A REVOLUTION IN AMERICA!” Cardoza-Moore wrote.

Later that year, when news broke that right-wing extremists were planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D), Cardoza-Moore also expressed support for the kidnapping plot. 

“Am I missing something here? Didn’t the Founders address removing a tyrant from office in the Constitution?” Cardoza-Moore wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post. “Michiganders, it’s time to step up and defend your Constitutional rights!”

Cardoza-Moore and anti-Muslim bigotry

 

Cardoza-Moore is also notorious for spewing anti-Muslim rhetoric. She first came to public attention in 2010 when she led opposition to the construction of a Tennessee mosque and argued that the mosque was a “terrorist training camp.” That year, she also falsely claimed that 30% of Muslims are terrorists while speaking at a rally against the Islamic Center in New York City. She would go on to repeat this baseless claim on The Daily Show.

Aside from this, Cardoza-Moore has also spread rumors that Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2021, during her confirmation hearing, Cardoza-Moore stood by her anti-mosque comments and falsely alleged that there were “absolutely” terrorists in the group. Despite this, she told Chalkbeat in 2022 that she’s not anti-Muslim. 

Cardoza-Moore and racial discrimination

 

Endorsed by the right-wing parents group Moms for Liberty, Cardoza-Moore has also frequently accused schools of indoctrinating students—despite the fact that all five of her children were homeschooled. 

Cardoza-Moore is also a staunch opponent of Critical Race Theory, calling it “anti-semitic.” She believes lawmakers should eliminate “socialist propaganda” from education and is against virtually any curriculum that makes mention of race or inequity. 

During her hearing in 2021, she “declined to answer questions about her beliefs around teaching students about the nation’s history of colonialism and slavery.” At the time, she said this was because she was only reviewing math textbooks, “therefore her thoughts on history and social studies were not relevant,” the Tennessean reports. With Cardoza-Moore’s new appointment, however, she will be tasked with reviewing social studies standards.

Cardoza-Moore also doesn’t believe that systemic racism exists. In an email sent this month, she criticizes the incoming Tennessee education commissioner and writes, “To suggest that Americans are racist in 2023 because of our history is outrageous!”

“We, the majority of our society, have overcome that ideology. We elected a Black president; we have a Black Supreme Court Justice; we have Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Jewish leaders and on and on and on… Are there pockets of hate, racism, and antisemitism? Absolutely! Is it systemic? Absolutely not!”

According to Cardoza-Moore, acknowledging the country’s “systemic racism and social and financial inequity” is the “nightmare facing Tennessee.”

 

The demise of the Union at the hands of delusional evangelical Christians is marching on unimpeded.

 

I imagine he’ll borrow this from Virginia.

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I was taught something similar back in the 80s. Lots of blacks liked working for their masters because they were treated well

Struck me as odd because who didn’t want to be free? I didn’t say anything though. I was just a kid…

Oh yeah. The liked working for them so much that they risked their lives to run away!

The Jesuits used to say ‘give me a child of seven and I will give you the man.’
They don’t any more, probably because a priest using the words ‘give me a child of seven’ will prompt any responsible parent to call child protection before the rest of the sentence is out of his mouth.

WHERE are the good people standing up to this bull shit. All this crazy isn’t happening in a vacuum. We are at a tipping point and it is getting tooooo risky for comfort.
These nut jobs are evil. This fuck head is right out of central casting as an officer in the SS.
My morning cup of madness is running over.

I ask that question every day. Our country is going on a fast train to Crazy Town and no one seems to be trying to stop it.

OMG! I can see another “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee’s future.

Wouldn’t that be awesome? Unfortunately, a repeat of the Scopes trial can’t take place today. Evangelicals run the show.

The evolutionists actually lost the Scopes trial, but as the say, they won the battle, but lost the war. Now they are re-starting the war.

Everyday I get more and more ashamed of being an American. We put absolutely lunatics into office and think nothing of it. We have an entire party that is dedicated to turning the United States into a fascist theocracy. I honestly never thought I would see the day this would happen.

“U.S. history textbooks” currently used in classrooms the “greatest national security threat to the United States my bigoted politics.”

War is Peace
Lies are Truth
Ignorance is Intellect

The withering of America’s Intelligence continues at a brisk pace.

i heard yesterday that 11 parents .. 11 … are responsible for 1,000 book titles being pulled from school libraries ..

Never underestimate the damage even just one highly motivated individual can do. In fact, there’s a portion of the evangelical movement that dwells in a space believing in the power of positive thinking, and making a difference by being an influence on others.

That maybe doesn’t sound so bad, until you witness the reality of where it leads when paired with a religious agenda. It ends up manifesting with the sort of people who believe they must be an active force for spreading Christianity in the workplace. I once quit a job where the new personnel director was exactly such a person, and insisted on leading people in prayer before meetings.

I’m not talking about some small business. It was at the headquarters for a large business covering the midwestern United States, with sister companies covering other regions of the USA, and all of them just one piece of a much, much bigger international business.

Turns out the republican policies around education, both revisionist history and book banning are wildly unpopular.

Americans need to get it through their thick skulls that if they want Democratic policies, they need to vote for Democratic candidates.

Republican Christonazis putting hate-preaching mental incompetents in charge of everyone’s children.

They don’t want their own history taught. They never have. We’ve seen this beofre:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…

 

Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before FBI came for documents

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/25/trump-classified-documents-mar-a-lago/

For those that can not open the link to the story.  Hugs

New details, including alleged ‘dress rehearsal’ for moving sensitive papers, show a focus on Donald Trump’s instructions and intent

Former president Donald Trump announces his 2024 presidential bid at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)
 
9 min

Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before an early June visit by FBI agents and a prosecutor to the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.

 
 

Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.

Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said.

 
 

Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than have been previously reported. It also broadens the timeline of possible obstruction episodes that investigators are examining — a period stretching from events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to the period after the FBI search there on Aug. 8.

Classified 101: How sensitive information should be handled
4:03
 
 
Presidents and vice presidents routinely deal with classified documents, but strict guidelines from a variety of statutes have clear guidelines on the subject. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

That timeline may prove crucial as prosecutors seek to determine Trump’s intent in keeping hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House, a key factor in deciding whether to file charges, possibly for obstruction, mishandling national security secrets or both. The Washington Post has previously reported that the boxes were moved out of the storage area after Trump’s office received a subpoena. But the precise timing of that activity is a significant element in the investigation, the people familiar with the matter said.

Grand jury activity in the case has slowed in recent weeks, and Trump’s attorneys have taken steps — including outlining his potential defense to members of Congress and seeking a meeting with the attorney general — that suggest they believe a charging decision is getting closer. The grand jury working on the investigation apparently has not met since May 5, after months of frenetic activity at the federal courthouse in Washington. That is the panel’s longest hiatus since December, shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to lead the probe and coinciding with the year-end holidays.

 
 
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Donald Trump is facing historic legal scrutiny for a former president, under investigation by the Justice Department, district attorneys in Manhattan and Fulton County, Ga., and a state attorney general. He denies wrongdoing. Here is a list of the key investigations and where they stand.
Justice Department criminal probe of Jan. 6
The Justice Department is investigating the Jan. 6 riot and whether Trump or his aides may have conspired to obstruct the formal certification in Congress of the election result or committed fraud to block the peaceful transfer of power. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to oversee both this and the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
Mar-a-Lago documents investigation
FBI agents found more than 100 classified documents during a search of Trump’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 8 as part of a criminal probe into possible mishandling of classified information. A grand jury is hearing witness testimony as prosecutors weigh their next steps.
Georgia election results investigation
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) is investigating whether Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia. A Georgia judge on Feb. 15 released parts of a report produced by a special-purpose grand jury, and authorities who are privy to the report will decide whether to ask a new grand jury to vote on criminal charges.
Manhattan district attorney’s investigation
District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) convened a grand jury to evaluate business-related matters involving Trump, including his alleged role in hush-money payments to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. On March 30, the grand jury voted to indict Trump, making him the first ex-president to be charged with a crime. Here’s what happens next.
Lawsuit over Trump business practices in New York
Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit Sept. 21 against Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization, accusing them of flagrantly manipulating the valuations of their properties to get better terms on loans and insurance policies, and to get tax breaks. The litigation is pending.

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End of carousel

Smith also is investigating Trump’s efforts to block the results of the 2020 election. And the former president — who is again a candidate for the White House — has been indicted in New York on charges of falsifying business records and is under investigation for election-related matters in Fulton County, Ga.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in each case. “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump that is concocted to meddle in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House,” Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, wrote in a statement. “Just like all the other fake hoaxes thrown at President Trump, this corrupt effort will also fail.”

Cheung accused prosecutors of showing “no regard for common decency or key rules that govern the legal system,” and he claimed that investigators have “harassed anyone and everyone who works [for], has worked [for], or supports Donald Trump.”

 
 

“In the course of negotiations over the return of documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know,’” he continued. “That DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted a raid on Mar-a-Lago proves that the Biden regime has weaponized the DOJ and FBI.”

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. Justice Department officials have previously said they conducted the search only after months of efforts to retrieve all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were unsuccessful.

Of particular importance to investigators in the classified-documents case, according to people familiar with the probe, is evidence showing that boxes of documents were moved into a storage area on June 2, just before senior Justice Department lawyer Jay Bratt arrived at Mar-a-Lago with agents. The June 3 visit by law enforcement officials was to collect material in response to the May 2022 grand jury subpoena demanding the return of all documents with classified markings.

 
 

John Irving, a lawyer representing one of the two employees who moved the boxes, said the worker did not know what was in them and was only trying to help Trump valet Walt Nauta, who was using a dolly or hand truck to move a number of boxes.

“He was seen on Mar-a-Lago security video helping Walt Nauta move boxes into a storage area on June 2, 2022. My client saw Mr. Nauta moving the boxes and volunteered to help him,” Irving said. The next day, he added, the employee helped Nauta pack an SUV “when former president Trump left for Bedminster for the summer.”

The lawyer said his client, a longtime Mar-a-Lago employee whom he declined to identify, has cooperated with the government and did not have “any reason to think that helping to move boxes was at all significant.” Other people familiar with the investigation confirmed the employee’s role and said he has been questioned multiple times by authorities.

 
 

Irving represents several witnesses in the investigation, and his law firm is being paid by Trump’s Save America PAC, disclosure reports show. A lawyer for Nauta, Stanley Brand, declined to comment.

Investigators have sought to gather any evidence indicating Trump or people close to him deliberately withheld any classified papers from the government.

On the evening of June 2, the same day the two employees moved the boxes, a lawyer for Trump contacted the Justice Department and said officials there were welcome to visit Mar-a-Lago and pick up classified documents related to the subpoena. Bratt and the FBI agents arrived the following day.

Trump’s lawyers gave the officials a sealed envelope containing 38 classified documents and a signed attestation that a “diligent search” had been conducted for the documents sought by the subpoena and that all relevant documents had been turned over.

 
 

As part of that visit, Bratt and the agents were invited to visit the storage room where Trump aides said boxes of documents from his time as president were kept. Court papers filed by the Justice Department said the visitors were told by Trump’s lawyers that they could not open any of the boxes in the storage room or look at their contents.

When FBI agents secured a court order to search Mar-a-Lago two months later, they found more than 100 additional classified documents, some in Trump’s office and some in the storage area.

In a court filing in August explaining the search, prosecutors wrote that they had developed evidence that “obstructive conduct” took place in connection with the response to the subpoena, including that documents “were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room.”

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. (Department of Justice/AP)

Prosecutors also have gathered evidence that even before Trump’s office received the subpoena in May, he had what some officials have dubbed a “dress rehearsal” for moving government documents that he did not want to relinquish, people familiar with the investigation said.

 
 

The term “dress rehearsal” was used in a sealed judicial opinion issued earlier this year in one of several legal battles over the government’s access to particular witnesses and evidence, some of the people said. It was used to describe an episode when Trump allegedly reviewed the contents of some, but not all, of the boxes containing classified material, these people said. The New York Times first reported that Trump’s team conducted what was “apparently a dress rehearsal” before the subpoena arrived.

At the time, Trump and his legal team were engaged in a back-and-forth with the National Archives and Records Administration over whether he had taken from the White House records and property that were supposed to stay with the government. That dispute over presidential records is what ultimately led to the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — some of them highly sensitive, including information about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities; Iran’s missile system; and intelligence gathering aimed at China.

The former president, the people familiar with the situation said, told aides he wanted to make sure he could keep papers that he considered his property.

Trump and the Mar-a-Lago documents: A timeline

That dress rehearsal episode is one of several instances in which investigators see possible ulterior motives in the actions of Trump and those around him. Lawyers for Trump and some of those witnesses, however, have argued in recent months that prosecutors are viewing the sequence of events in too suspicious a light. They say Smith’s team has unfairly dismissed claims that people were not trying to hide anything from the government but simply were carrying out what they considered to be routine and innocent tasks of serving their boss.

 
 

Prosecutors separately have been told by more than one witness that Trump at times kept classified documents out in the open in his Florida office, where others could see them, people familiar with the matter said, and sometimes showed them to people, including aides and visitors.

Depending on the strength of that evidence, such accounts could severely undercut claims by Trump or his lawyers that he did not know he possessed classified material.

The people familiar with the situation said Smith’s team has concluded the bulk of its investigative work in the documents case and believes it has uncovered a handful of distinct episodes of obstructionist conduct.

One of those suspected instances of obstruction, the people said, occurred after the FBI search on Aug. 8. They did not provide further details, but the Guardian has previously reported that in December, Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules, including some that were marked classified, at Mar-a-Lago. In that instance, a junior aide apparently moved the box from a government-leased office in nearby West Palm Beach.

Florida School Bans Poem Read At Biden’s Inauguration

When these racist people show you who they are, believe them.  Florida is becoming a fundamentalist Christian white supremacist nationalist maga paradise.    Think of this:  DeathSantis says he is running for president to make the entire country like Florida.  He wants to take the Nazi Christian racist hateful anti-LGBTQ+ anti-civil right strict 1950s society gender roles.   Notice it was all books about racism and overcoming racism this single parent complained about, and it was one parent complaining that got the material banned so no student could access it.  Notice the woman is the wife of a Proud Boy maga gang thug.   Hugs

The Miami Herald reports:

A K-8 school in Miami-Dade County last month issued restrictions for elementary-aged students on three books and one poem after a parent objected to five titles, claiming they included topics that were inappropriate for students and should be removed “from the total environment.”

In March, Daily Salinas, a parent of two students at at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes, challenged The ABCs of Black HistoryCuban KidsCountries in the News Cuba, the poem The Hills We Climb, which was recited by poet Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, and Love to Langston for what she said included references of critical race theory, “indirect hate messages,” gender ideology and indoctrination, according to records obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and shared with the Miami Herald.

In an interview with the Herald on Monday, Salinas said she “is not for eliminating or censoring any books.” Instead, she wants materials to be appropriate and for students “to know the truth” about Cuba, she said in Spanish.

Read the full article.

Love To Langston is Tony Medina’s book of poems in tribute to civil rights activist and poet Langston Hughes.

 

One bigoted parent wants poem written by young Black girl banned from school, and gets their way. Florida is truly The Shithole State.

 

Yup. Fascism. A coworker who was going to Florida to visit family had no idea of the NAACP travel advisory until I mentioned it

Not everyone is as politically literate as this forum is

At this point, there should be a group of parents pushing to remove every book with heterosexual-presenting characters. Then sue under the fascist laws that forbid ‘sexual identity’ being presented to students.

That’s a clever idea, but it will be ignored and dismissed. Cleverness is not getting us out of this. We have to show up and outvote them in every election from now on.

I’m so over these insufferable people. I’d like to wake up one day and realize that the whole sorry Trump era was just a bad dream, like Bobby Ewing emerging from the shower, very much alive, in “Dallas.” Alas, that is not to be. We’re stuck with these assholes forever.

Let’s just gut the libraries and make them into red hat manufacturing rooms. The kids can learn to work at minimum wage at an early age.

Thanks, DeSantis, for proving that the NAACP got this right. Banning a poet? Seriously? I can’t think of anyone who has done this since Franco.

Who cares? It was written by a young Black woman, so it must be bad. /s

…after a parent objected to five titles, claiming they included topics that were inappropriate for students and should be removed “from the total environment.

 

The only way to fix this one-parent veto of library offerings is for sensible people to begin filing similar complaints and force the issue into the courts with claims of unequal enforcement of these silly new laws. Surely ALL mentions of gender, sexuality, and violence should be restricted equitably or not restricted at all.

I know many people are busy with work and life….but we’re watching real time the rolling out of fascism.

Happened in Germany. People are just living their lives until one day there’s a knock at the door…

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One parent objected. Just one.

Why not impose a minimum number of parents protesting, and specifying which part of the book is “offensive”?

 

National lobbyists drove anti-trans legislation in Florida, other states

‘Do No Harm’ has covered a lot of ground.

Do No Harm, a nonprofit that launched last year to oppose diversity initiatives in medicine, has evolved into a significant leader in statehouses seeking to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths, producing model legislation that an Associated Press analysis found has been used in at least three states, including Florida.

The nonprofit, not widely known outside conservative medical and political circles, describes itself on its website as a collection of doctors and others uniting to “protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology.”

Founder Dr. Stanley Goldfarb is a kidney specialist and a professor emeritus and former associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. Goldfarb retired in 2021 and incorporated Do No Harm in January 2022.

Do No Harm initially focused on race in medical education and hiring. “The same radical movement behind ‘Critical Race Theory’ in the classroom and ‘Defund the Police’ is coming after healthcare, but hardly anyone knows it,” it warns on its website.

Goldfarb declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press but said in an email that “Do No Harm works to protect children from extreme gender ideology through original research, coalition-building, testimonials from parents and patients who’ve lived through deeply troubling experiences, and advocacy for the rigorous, apolitical study of gender dysphoria.”

 

The organization’s executive director, Kristina Rasmussen, previously was chief of staff to former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, and served as president of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, according to her LinkedIn profile. Perhaps coincidentally, Rauner donated $250,000 to DeSantis’ former political committee.

An AP analysis of statehouse bills to restrict gender-affirming care for youths found passages identical or nearly identical to Do No Harm’s model legislation in Montana, Arkansas and Iowa.

The organization had lobbyists registered in 2022 in at least three states — Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee — and in Florida in 2023. People associated with the group have appeared as witnesses in statehouses, including Chloe Cole, 18, listed on its website as a “patient advocate” who has spoken to lawmakers about her gender-transition reversal.

In states including Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Ohio, Cole described her transition beginning at age 13, surgery to remove her breasts at 15, and stopping her transition a year later saying it was a mistake. Republican supporters of bills restricting or banning gender-affirming care often cite Cole’s story.

Cole told the Kansas news outlet The Reflector this year that Do No Harm was reimbursing her travel expenses as she testified before state lawmakers. She and her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment from the AP.

 

Do No Harm originally organized as a charitable organization whose tax-exempt status would be endangered by substantial lobbying.

On March 9 this year, after the group had already made significant inroads in legislatures with its model bill, lobbyists and hearing witnesses, it incorporated Do No Harm Action as a separate nonprofit with a tax status that allows for more lobbying, according to records obtained from the Virginia Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs.

Goldfarb did not respond directly to questions about Do No Harm’s lobbying, nor did another representative for the organization.

In the application for nonprofit status obtained from the Virginia agency, Do No Harm projected revenues of $910,000 in 2022, more than $1.1 million in 2023 and over $1.5 million in 2024.

The organization is so new that federal tax forms that typically reveal nonprofits’ spending details have been either not received or not processed.

It won a $250,000 award last year called the Gregor Peterson Prize. Its previous recipients include the Center for American Liberty, led by Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and who is representing Cole in her lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente over gender-transition treatments she now says she regrets. The prize was announced in December at a summit held by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a prominent provider of conservative model legislation.

Read the full article.

For those unaware, national groups like Do No Harm are behind the majority of anti-LGBTQ measures introduced by state lawmakers.

These groups provide templates for the bills, which state lawmakers then use either verbatim or slightly tweaked to fit state rules.

Do No Harm, like many of these groups, pays for witnesses to travel and testify before state legislatures.

On Do No Harm’s website, the group rages about “critical race theory” and the “anti-racism” movement.

 

 

When it became obvious that the targetted religious war on just the LGBTQ+ community was starting to lose public support, they simply changed to hating the non-defined “WOKE” giving them a faceless generic enemy to rake in tax free money and run political campaigns, and giving them an even larger base of fellow Americans to focus their hate upon, and rally their “Christian Warriors” around.

The focus on LGBTQ+ issues never ended. They’ve just shifted from attacking marriage equality to attacking trans people and banning books.

The community is still a lucrative scapegoat for them — and an effective way to turn out GOP voters.

 

The Republicon future everywhere

Freedom Caucus — they hate freedom
Moms For Liberty — they hate liberty
Alliance Defending Freedom — they’re anti-freedom
Do No Harm — they’re doing great harm

I’m seeing a pattern.

Clear that they all read 1984 before they had it banned for everyone else.

Republican Party – they hate our republic.

ALL of Iowa’s recent book banning, gay shaming, bathroom bills are simply out of state copy/paste laws. Oh and libs of tik tok and Q anon bitches got to write a couple bills too. Non are home grown

It’s the innocuous named groups that you really gotta, watch out for. Flying under the radar, as it were, yiu know?

Also, do no harm? Are you telling that to the dead kids? You know, the ones who committed suicide due to your “do no harm”.

Or is that, mission accomplished?

Fuck off.

THERE IS NO WOKE MEDICAL AGENDA. THERE IS ONLY MEDICINE THAT KEEPS CHILDREN FROM KILLING THEMSELVES. YES I AM YELLING.

ALEC pioneered this legislation-by-Mad-Libs model and has been doing it for decades in the states.

My burning question has always been, and remains: why has no entity ever been created on our side to fight this fire with our own fire?