September 10, 1897 Nineteen unarmed striking coal miners were killed and 36 more wounded in Lattimer (near Hazleton), Pennsylvania, for refusing to disperse, by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sheriff. The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later created their own union. The background and details
September 10, 1963 Twenty black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Alabama. The Governor George C. Wallace had ordered Alabama state troopers to stop the federal court-ordered integration of Alabama’s elementary and high schools. President John Kennedy responded by calling out the Alabama National Guard to protect the students and to see the order enforced. President Kennedy spoke that day at American University’s commencement, saying, “Peace need not be impractical, war not inevitable . . . There is not peace in many of our cities because there is not freedom.”
September 10, 1996 Sheryl Crow’s second album was banned from Wal-Mart stores because the song she co-wrote with Tad Wadhams, “Love Is A Good Thing” opens with “Watch out sister, watch out brother, Watch our children while they kill each other With a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores….” Read more about this eventand an update
I asked Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer who tried the case, how she felt after learning that the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the $83.3 million verdict a jury awarded E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case against Donald Trump. This is what Kaplan told me: “Both the amazing and brave E. Jean Carroll and I could hardly be happier about today’s decision from the Second Circuit. It has been a long road to get here, and we are not at the end of the road yet, but as the opinion makes clear: ‘The starting point is the now-indisputable fact that a jury found in Carroll II that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996, and … that, based on the jury’s findings, Carroll did not lie and that Trump uttered falsehoods in his statements accusing her of lying and acting with improper motivations.’”
The Second Circuit affirmed the verdict against Trump on the same day that Trump’s birthday missive to Jeffrey Epstein became public. Trump says he didn’t send it, but the signature is extremely similar to verified Trump signatures on notes he wrote to both George Conway and Hillary Clinton. The birthday message is in the distinctive Sharpie marker scrawl Trump is known for. But Trump is insisting it isn’t his, a strange hill to die on since his friendship with Epstein is well documented. A jury believed E. Jean when she said Trump sexually assaulted her. The jury of public opinion may well believe Trump sent this incriminating note to Epstein.
Trump will undoubtedly try to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. It will be up to the Court to decide whether to hear the case or let the Second Circuit’s opinion stand.
The 70-page opinion starts like this: “A jury found that then-President Trump acted with common law malice when he made defamatory statements about Carroll in June 2019 and awarded compensatory and punitive damages. Trump appeals, arguing that he is entitled to presidential immunity or, in the alternative, a new trial. Trump also contends that the jury’s damages award is excessive and must be remitted.” The court then writes one word, “AFFIRMED,” which means that the jury’s verdict stands. You can read the full opinion here.
Last December, the Second Circuit affirmed the verdict in the case referred to as “Carroll II”—the second defamation case Carroll filed against Trump, which confusingly went to trial first (because Trump bogged down “Carroll I” in appeals). The jury in Carroll II returned a $5 million verdict against Trump.
In this case, Carroll I, Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, argued to the jury that if a $5 million verdict was insufficient to stop Trump’s defamation of Carroll, then they needed to return a larger verdict that they believed would stop his misconduct. That’s what they did. The verdict was for $83.3 million.
Trump asked the Court of Appeals to reverse for two reasons:
He argued that the Supreme Court’s decision about presidential immunity in criminal cases in Trump v. United States means the Second Circuit erred when it refused to afford him immunity in this civil case, even though it involves an assault that occurred decades before he became the president. Beyond that, while he defamed Carroll while he was in office the first time, his comments were about an entirely personal matter that had nothing to do with the office he held. The court declined to reverse on this ground. They held Trump had waived the immunity argument by not making it at the proper time before the lower court.
Trump also challenged the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of Carroll and other procedural rulings. The trial court held that a jury had already found that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in the first trial and that finding was binding in the second case. That decision reflects the well-known principle of collateral estoppel, and the Court ruled there was no reason to disturb it because the identical issue was decided in the prior action and Trump had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue during those proceedings.
Trump has frequently been able to twist courts and delays to his advantage. He did that here for a time. But that clock seems to have run out on him. The Supreme Court would have to up end its existing jurisprudence on basic procedural issues to rule for Trump here.
A jury believed E. Jean Carroll. That’s the bottom line. In our system, we leave decisions about disputed facts and what happened to juries. The jury here deliberated and found against Donald Trump. That decision should remain in place. In an era where so much damage is being done to women’s legal standing, it’s essential that we be believed when we have the courage to speak out about sexual assault. Carroll did that. She told friends about the attack at the time in occurred but had been too intimidated by threats she would lose her job and her livelihood if she spoke up to move forward then.
If we can do nothing else for women in an era where abortion rights, more properly understood as the right to receive lifesaving medical care, and other rights have been taken away, we can do this: we can believe them when they summon the courage to come forward and reveal a rape or a sexual assault. Maybe if our nation had done that sooner, we wouldn’t have had a Trump presidency at all.
September 9, 1862 Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey declared that “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state.” The previous month the Dakota, or Santee, Sioux, long burdened by treaty violations and late or unfair payments from Indian agents, killed four settlers and decided to attack settlers throughout the Minnesota River valley. The number killed was estimated between 300 and 800, until 9/11 the largest civilian death toll in the U.S. The number of Indian deaths was not recorded.
September 9, 1944 Religious conscientious objector Corbett Bishop was arrested after walking out of a Civilian Public Service Camp. During subsequent trials and imprisonments, he refused any type of cooperation with the government until he was released 193 days later. “I’m not going to cooperate in any way, shape or form. I was carried in here. If you hold me, you’ll have to carry me out. War is wrong. I don’t want any part of it.” – Corbett Bishop, 1906-1961
September 9, 1963 Students at Chu Van An boys’ high school in Saigon tore down the government flag and raised a Buddhist flag to protest the corrupt Diem regime in South Vietnam; 1,000 were arrested.
September 9, 1971 The Attica (New York) State Penitentiary revolt began. The interracial revolt was led by blacks but featured cooperation between prisoners of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. It was finally brutally suppressed by the state five days later, upon orders from Governor Nelson Rockefeller who refused to become directly involved. 29 prisoners and 10 guards were shot and killed by attacking state troopers in the bloodiest prison confrontation in U.S. history. The prisoners had been demanding improvements in their living and working conditions at the increasingly overcrowded facility. Read about Heather Anne Thompson’s recent book “Blood in the Water: . . .”
September 9, 1980 Eight activists from the Atlantic Life Community were arrested after hammering the nose cones of two missiles at the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Read about Plowshares 8 The Plowshares 8 (in alphabetical order): Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Dean Hammer, Carl Kabat, Elmer Maas, Anne Montgomery, Molly Rush, and John Schuchardt. This action would become the first of an international movement of dozens of “Plowshares” anti-nuclear direct actions. A chronology of Plowshares actions
September 9, 1997 Sinn Fein (pronounced shin fayn), the Irish Republican Army’s allied political party, formally renounced violence by accepting the principles put forward by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell (D-Maine) who was mediating the talks between the Irish Republicans and the British Unionists on Northern Ireland’s future. Senator George Mitchell The Mitchell Principles: • To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues; • To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations; • To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission; • To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations; • To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and, • To urge that “punishment” killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation’s capital.
Philipos Melaku-Bello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.
Philipos Melaku-Bello gestures the peace sign at the White House Peace Vigil in Lafayatte Park across the street from the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
“The difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,” Melaku-Bello said. “As you can see, I don’t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”
The White House confirmed the removal, telling AP in a statement that the vigil was a “hazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas.” (snip)
The vigil was started in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts. It is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in U.S. history. When Thomas died in 2009, other protesters like Melaku-Bello manned the tiny tent and the banner, which read “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb,” around the clock to avoid it being dismantled by authorities. (snip-MORE)
Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland unpack Bernie Sanders’s high-energy “Fight Oligarchy” rally featuring Zohran Mamdani. They discuss the disconnect between this grassroots enthusiasm and the lack of support from mainstream Democratic leaders. The MR crew argues that this demonstrates a core ideological conflict within the Democratic Party itself.
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Republican Josh Breecheen spews Islamophobic rhetoric at a recent town hall, connecting to a broader pattern of fear-mongering and political attacks against Muslims in America. Emma Vigeland and Francesca Fiorentini draw a direct line from the “Sharia law” conspiracies of the Bush and Obama eras to the current dehumanization of Muslim Americans and the use of technology from the war on terror against citizens at home.
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The latest jobs report paints a grim picture, with job losses under Donald Trump’s administration mounting and key industries sliding into decline. While Trump’s team struggles to blame Biden while also promising explosive growth in the future, economists and analysts are sounding the alarm that a US recession, or worse, is near.
Billionaire hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio, is in the news for warning about the dangers of extreme wealth inequality. Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland highlight how Dalio’s comments, which are a major news story because of his status, echo what many others have been saying for years.
The U.S. government has acknowledged Donald Trump’s military strike on a boat in international waters, resulting in the deaths of 11 individuals. This action, targeting Venezuelans en route to Trinidad, has raised significant questions about Trump’s legal authority behind such a strike, particularly given the lack of clear evidence of the individuals’ involvement in drug trafficking or any threat to U.S. interests. Despite the gravity of the situation, the incident has reportedly garnered minimal attention in mainstream news, with some segments of the media appearing to endorse the action.
Trump was asked about a bizarre video showing someone throwing bags out of a second-floor White House window by Peter Doocy of Fox News. Trump insisted that the video was “AI-generated” because, according to him, the windows of the White House are “heavily armored and bulletproof,” sealed shut, and each one weighs 600 pounds. Trump also added that if anything “really bad” were to happen, he could simply “blame AI.”
Hey if these people can outright lie about the LGBTQ+ community, willing to let LGBTQ+ kids die or be pushed via violence into the closet hiding who they really were, what is faking your expertise. I already posted about a sexologist who had no experience with trans kids testifying to red state legislatures enabling his bigotry to further the harm to trans kids by giving an excuse for theirs. These people are on a mission that is far from pure but one driven by hate and bigotry to make all kids pretend to be straight and cis in the hope that they can force all adults to pretend to be straight and cis also. If they can’t force the adults to pretend to be straight or cis at least they can stop the trans adults from looking like the gender they identify with in hopes of stopping those that are passing as the gender they identify as. This they hope will mark those people in ways that make their life harder. Again their lies are OK for them because either they think their god approves or their hate is that great so nothing but the mission matters. Hugs
Pippin testifying in favor of book bans at a school board meeting in 2023 (screenshot / YouTube).
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Jennifer Pippin has repeatedly claimed to be an operating room nurse. USA TODAY, the New York Times, TC Palm and other publications have cited her as such. In 2020, Pippin argued that wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was unnecessary, citing her professional expertise.
“As a registered nurse, I’ve learned a bit. I’ve learned a whole lot more though that they won’t tell you in nursing school,” she wrote in a 2020 Facebook post. “Not wearing a mask is NOT A RISK. Not to me and not to anyone else.”
Pippin, now the chair of one of Moms for Liberty’s (M4L) first chapters in Indian River County, Florida, has also mentioned having “medical licenses” while speaking about the group’s accomplishments at a school board meeting. And in an email chain with Florida’s Department of Education, she wrote that she couldn’t make it to a meeting because she was “operating on a doctors wife.”
(Screenshot received from The Florida Fruit Loop, highlight added).
However, allegations have surfaced that these statements might not be true, and the community is growing frustrated. On Facebook, one user decried “the utter misinformation that has spewed out of [Pippin’s] mouth any time she’s shared her thoughts about public health issues.” Another sarcastically wrote that they were “shocked … to find out Jenny is a liar!!”
“We reported this years ago, but because [M4L] were so powerful politically here in Florida with Ron DeSantis, we had no voice, nobody cared,” Cindy Gibbs, a local parent and former school board candidate, told Uncloseted Media.
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Is She Really a Nurse?
Despite Pippin’s claims of being a nurse, there is a stack of evidence suggesting otherwise. One individual shared screenshots of emails they received from a Florida Department of Health (DOH) official in 2024 after they filed a complaint against Pippin when they noticed her license wasn’t turning up in database searches. In one email, the DOH official states that Pippin had been under investigation since April 1, 2024, for potentially misrepresenting herself as a nurse and that no license had been found.
Uncloseted Media also filed a public records request with the DOH for the license. In an email, they said they were “unable to find anyone licensed by the department matching the information … provided.” The department did not respond to a request for further comment.
In addition, Uncloseted Media was unable to find any license associated with Pippin in the Florida Department of Health’s medical license database or the NURSYS database, which records multi-state licensees. We also checked the certification database for the Competency and Credentialing Institute, which certifies certain specialized nurses including operating room specialists, and found nothing.
While records do exist for Jennifer Hughes Pippin, a nutritionist and dietician at Florida State College in Jacksonville, her listed address and social media profiles do not match the Pippin from Indian River County.
The Florida Nurses Association also did not find any record of Pippin’s membership.
Multiple sources and news articles say Pippin was formerly employed by the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. Despite this, Uncloseted Media was unable to confirm she held a position there. The hospital declined to comment on the status of current or former employees as a matter of policy.
The only employment information we found listed for Pippin later than 2021 was in a Sebastian City Council meeting agenda from 2023, where she says she is “self employed” working for Organize Me!, a gig-based home cleaning service.
Why It Matters
Falsely presenting as a nurse is a phenomenon that has been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pippin’s case, though, is of particular interest because she is often cited as an influential figure in Florida politics. In her role with M4L, Pippin has filed hundreds of requests to ban books—many of which include LGBTQ or racial justice themes—from school libraries. Some of the books she’s requested to ban include a graphic novel adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir about growing up Black and queer.
In 2022, Pippin was also appointed by the Florida Department of Education to a workgroup of parents tasked with developing a training for state educators to comply with the classroom censorship laws signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who has spoken at a M4L summit. One of these laws is the notorious “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity.
And earlier this summer, she filed a complaint against a Vero Beach wine bar for hosting an all-
ages drag event, which she alleges contained performances with sexual themes. The bar’s owner, who is also a city official, denies the allegations.
This is not M4L’s first brush with controversy. The group’s co-founder, Bridget Ziegler, allegedly assisted her husband in sexually assaulting another woman. An Indiana chapter came under fire for quoting Adolf Hitler in a 2023 newsletter. And the group has hosted speakers who’ve spread medical misinformation on multiple occasions, claiming that doctors are “sterilizing and mutilating [trans] children” and that gender-affirming health care is “snake oil.”
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Pippin’s Response
When presented with these allegations, Pippin did not provide any evidence of a nursing license. In an email, she told Uncloseted Media that she was “surprised to see these allegations being raised again — especially considering they were addressed over a year ago.” She pointed to a prior case involving stalking and said the answers about whether she is a licensed nurse can be found via that case. However, the case and its associated documents are not available online.
Pippin testifying before the Indian River County School Board (screenshot/YouTube).
Pippin has previously stated that the reason her license is not publicly accessible is because she was ordered to “hide [it] from the public for five years” after filing a fraud suit in 2020 against someone who she says had used her license to file for unemployment. In emails with Uncloseted Media, she reaffirmed this story.
While Uncloseted Media was unable to verify the existence of this fraud case, experts say that such a decision from the court would be “unusual.”
“We have fought to make nurses licenses private and have been unable to do so even in at-risk areas,” says Willa Fuller, executive director of the Florida Nurses Association.
Multiple people in Indian River County say that Pippin’s questionable nursing status has been an open secret for years, but the issue didn’t start attracting wider attention until it was covered by The Florida Fruit Loop, a local Facebook page that promises to provide “a daily dose of MAGA butthurt.” Last weekend, Pippin left a note in the page’s comments titled “CEASE AND DESIST LETTER,” where she called multiple statements made by the page defamatory. However, the notice does not mention or dispute any allegations made about her nursing license.
The intro to Pippin’s comment (screenshot received from The Florida Fruit Loop).
The Implications
Falsely presenting as a nurse is a crime in Florida under certain circumstances, with one woman being arrested in the state for this just last month. However, in emails reviewed by Uncloseted Media, a DOH official cautioned that the laws only apply in specific cases.
“For those statutes where an unlicensed person is allegedly holding themselves out as a licensed healthcare provider to apply, the Subject would need to hold themselves out / lead the public to believe they are a current and active licensee,” the official wrote.
While the full results of Pippin’s investigation have not yet been released, the individual who corresponded with the DOH says the department later informed them that their complaint “lacked … a criminal finding.”
The DOH official did note, though, that the video of Pippin’s testimony before the school district could be considered a violation. Pippin has also publicly used the formal title “registered nurse” on multiple occasions, including in a rant against masking posted to the Republican Club of Indian River’s Facebook page in 2020; in a Department of Education report; and in Vero News.
“She has been out here presenting herself as an authority on things in the world of health care and education,” says Cindy Gibbs. “And the groups of people that she associates herself with … just keep generating and regenerating the same stuff: ‘oh, Jennifer knows things because she’s a registered nurse.’”
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