April 5, 1910 Emil Seidel was elected mayor of Milwaukee and became the first socialist mayor of a major city in the United States. During his administration the first public works department was established, the first fire and police commissions were organized, and a city park system came into being. In 1912, the Socialist Party nominated Emil Seidel as their vice presidential candidate to run with Eugene Debs. Emil Seidel Read more about Emil Seidel Milwaukee’s Socialist Era
April 5, 1930 Mohandas Gandhi and his followers reached the end of their 400 km (240 mile) march to the Indian Ocean coast at Dandi. He had left his ashram with 78 satyagrahis (“soldiers” of peaceful resistance), but the procession grew over the 23 days of traveling on foot until it stretched more than 3 km (2 miles). When they arrived at the seaside, Gandhi made salt by allowing seawater to evaporate. This simple task was an act of civil disobedience because the British Raj, the governing colonial authority, had made salt-making a monopoly and a crime for others; additionally, there was a tax on salt, a necessary element of the Indian diet. Gandhi picking up salt. Gandhi had chosen this issue to demonstrate how British control affected all Indians, regardless of ethnicity, religion or caste. The nature of this “crime” allowed him to resist that power without violence. And the British were faced with potentially arresting millions who might now be willing to flout the Salt Laws. He had written to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, a month earlier: “Dear Friend, I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend to harm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India . . . .” Read Gandhi’s letter
April 5, 1972 The Harrisburg Seven case ended in mistrial after 11 weeks.The Seven were charged with plotting to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among other alleged crimes. The defense attorney, recent former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, asked by the presiding judge to call his first witness said, “Your Honor, the defendants shall always seek peace. They continue to proclaim their innocence. Elizabeth McAllister and Philip Berrigan, two of the Harrisburg Seven The defense rests.” Only Philip Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAllister were declared guilty—of smuggling letters in and out of prison. They later married, co-founding Baltimore’s Jonah House. Visit Jonah House
April 5, 1977 Demonstrations and sit-ins began at regional offices of the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare (HEW, now Department of Health & Human Services) urging HEW Secretary Joseph Califano to implement an extension of civil rights that included the disabled. Since non-discrimination protection had been part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the department had failed to agree to regulations (under Section 504) that would give the law practical effect in the lives of those it intended to protect. Discrimination on the basis of disability was to be illegal in any program which received federal funds. At all the offices the demonstrators left at the end of the working day, except two: Washington, DC and the San Francisco regional headquarters. Though negotiations were continuing between the Carter administration and the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, those in San Francisco, led by Judith Heumann, held their ground until Califano signed the Sec. 504 regulations on April 28. It had been the longest sit-in of a federal office in history. Judith Heumann, Advisor for Disability and Development. sign from the campaign Short film about the sit-in (“Recalling an invigorating act of civil disobedience”) How Section 504 became law and how its supporters prevailed
April 5, 1982 Dublin, Ireland, declared itself a nuclear-free zone by vote of its City Council.
April 5, 1985 Columbia University students occupied Hamilton Hall to demand divestment by the university of its assets invested in companies doing business with South Africa. The selling off was intended to pressure the racially separatist government to eliminate its racially separatist policy of apartheid.
April 5, 1989 Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish) became the first independent labor union given legal status in Poland. It started out as a strike committee among shipyard workers advocating democratic reforms during the summer of 1980 in Gdansk (FKA Danzig). A very high percentage of the Polish workers, a broad representation of the political and social opposition to the communist military regime, became members despite the union’s having been declared illegal in October of 1982. Solidarity’s legacy
April 5, 1992 The March for Women’s Lives, in support of women’s reproductive rights and equality, drew several hundred thousand people to Washington, D.C. There were students representing 600 college campuses. Part of the huge turnout taking part in the March for Women’s Lives
One of the largest protests ever in the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally occurred as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limited access to abortions.Many abortion-rights advocates feared that the high court, with its conservative majority, might find the Pennsylvania law constitutional, or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal. Read more about this march
April 5, 1996 54 were arrested in a Good Friday protest at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in California.
Project 2025, assuming it still needs to be explained at this point, is an infamous proposed manifesto for the ultra-conservative faction of the Republican Party and, many believe, Donald Trump’s second term.
And with many LGBTQ+ Americans waking up on 6 November to the bleak and shocking reality of a second Trump presidency, it feels like a particularly good time to unpick what the document could signify for queer peoples’ rights in the US over the next four years.
Unsurprisingly, while Project 2025 promises to “take down the ‘Deep State’ and return the government to the people”, it also threatens to shred the rights and advancements of the LGBTQ+ community in the US.
The handbook’s authors claim that one of the biggest problems facing the US today is the “toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading school libraries.”
Project 2025 goes on to say that “transgender ideology” is one form of “pornography” linked to the “sexualization of children”. In total, “gender” is mentioned 111 times, and “LGBT” or “LGBTQ” 18 times, in the handbook.
LGBTQ+ rights would all but disappear if Project 2025 came to fruition. (Getty)
Viewed as a sort of right-wing wish-list, Project 2025 pledges to strip away anti-discrimination policies, making it easier to target and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
Published by the hard-line right-wing Heritage Foundation, the document calls for the removal of terms such as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from federal rules and legislation, and the revoking of regulations prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status and sex characteristics.
Project 2025 set out plans to restrict the application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County, which extended workplace protections against sex discrimination to LGBTQ+ employees.
In addition, it plans to restrict access to healthcare for transgender people, something it refers to as a form of “child abuse”. Its authors also want to see trans healthcare no longer being covered by insurance schemes Medicare and Medicaid, and an end to anti-discrimination rules based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
In addition, there are plans to reverse policies allowing transgender people to serve in the military, a ban that was initially brought in under the Trump administration but reversed by president Joe Biden. If enacted, Project 2025 would expel transgender servicemen and women as well as those living with HIV.
Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the hard-line right-wing document. (Getty)
The State Department’s LGBTQ+ equality initiatives in Africa would also be axed. In other words, there would be no effort to stop draconian anti-queer laws being passed in countries such as Uganda.
In terms of education, the conservative blueprint is even more staunchly anti-LGBTQ+. It calls for a ban on students using names or pronouns that don’t match the sex on their birth certificate, and no school employee would be “forced” to use a pupil’s chosen pronouns.
It document outlines ideas to remove LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculums and policies from schools, claiming that “critical race theory and gender ideology” are “poisoning and indoctrinating children with leftist ideologies”. Instead, families “comprised of a married mother, father and their children” would be prioritized.
Despite many of its authors being one-time Trump administration advisors, the former president claims to know “nothing about Project 2025” or who is behind it, saying: “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
And two of his campaign advisors insisted: “President Trump’s campaign has been very clear that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign in any way.”
A spokesperson for Project 2025 has even told CNN that it “does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”
However, Democrats have continued to point to links between the 922-page document and Trump. As he’s now won the election, will Trump finally admit to having any involvement with Project 2025? Only time will tell.
There is so much I want to do. I really want to get back to videos, that will become my main passion while Ali and Randy do other content. But just as Ron started working on a camera setup to make the camera adjustable but straight on, we had a circuit breaker problem and wires burning in our wall. As always in our home it is one crisis after the other. Ron calls it management by crisis.
Ron was born in 1955. He will be 70 years old next year. I will be 62. Today he told me he feels it. Yesterday he had to take apart our very large king size storage bed because the thing is only rated for 300 pounds and the Purple mattress Ron wanted weighs that itself. Add two adults … So he added supports to it when we first got it. But it was not enough. I won’t apologize for us being active in bed at our age and Ron often says when I am having bad memories or times I thrash and struggle in bed. So the thin plank boards they sent with it were all warped and the supports had all been twisted or feel off.
Ron had to take the 300 pound mattress off the bed and lay strips of plywood he had left over from projects plus add new 2X4 leg supports below each brace that runs longways. No he refused to let me help at anything except to get him batteries from the Pink Palace for his drills. I begged him to let me help but he was not having it. He says the next time he buys plywood for a house project he is going to get a sheet for the bed and never have to worry about this again.
The bed is more flat and better than it has been for a long time. It did not really bother me as I am much lighter than Ron by 40 or 50 pounds but his side was so destroyed he couldn’t turn over in bed. Don’t tell him I told you this. We both mentioned how softer the bed had gotten but what we did not realize was that was because the entire support system for the mattress had collapsed.
Scary turn. Ron went out this morning after our walk to do the grocery shopping. I started to do the dishes. I got a call from Ron. He was very upset. He said I am coming home, I have to, I can’t do it. I was shocked he was very foggy this morning but that is normal for him. But he went to one store and simply did not go in and went to the store next door and found he did not have the strength to get out of the car. That is when he called me. I asked him if he needed me to come for him but he said no. He came home and went for a nap. Then he wanted to start projects but I only let him put up a small clip for my canes then I insisted he sit for the rest of the day and do fun stuff. Just as he tells me. Yesterday he had to stand split on the supports and lift his one leg that doesn’t respond well over the supports to fix the bed. He laughs that he got his stretching excessing in, but the truth is he way over did. My he man always taking care of Scottie hates to admit he needs care now also.
On the videos that is where I want to go with my content on the blog. Ali and Randy have the content they like to post. I could have knocked this written post out in 5 minutes and it has taken me 45 minutes to write out and correct. But every time Ron gets to fixing the camera and background issues we have a crisis. He has a list of things he wants to repair in the Pink Palace but other crisis come and he has to deal with them. Please hang on we will eventually get it all worked out, like five years from now … but we have a plan.
One last thing to bring people up to date. Kamyk’s O2 returned to a more normal range this morning. Over the night (when he called me) his O2 and blood pressure had dropped dangerously low, but like I said the ICU is the place he needed to be. They gave him IV drugs to help both and he is sating at 93 to 96 which is great. Side note if everyone took their O2 levels they would be surprised by the results. One thing you do not want is 100% as that is a bad sign that the lungs are not exchanging co2. So his readings are great. Love everyone, hope you understand why I am not on the blog more. I am either with Ron, doing housework, or with the family of my friend. I just need to find a way to add 20 more hours to each day. Oh speaking of that, my wonderful friend / brother Randy who works normally 60 hours a week or more, took a panicked phone call from me at like 10 PM. He not only was wonderful but got me to laugh and see a side of the world I had forgotten existed. He is so grand words don’t do justice. Hugs.
It’s a revelation in a new First Amendment lawsuit as the political committee supporting the Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative sued a pair of state officials Wednesday in federal court.
Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF) is currently negotiating with CBS affiliate WINK-TV to get the ads back on air, but representatives for the PC say it has lost valuable time to reach voters in that market with the election just three weeks away.
FPF is suing Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who is also the head of DOH, and John Wilson, the Department’s former General Counsel who wrote the letters, in the U.S. District Court’s Tallahassee Division.
“The State’s threatened sanctions against third-party media organizations that host the advertisement — in a heavy-handed effort to silence FPF’s speech — is a classic and deeply disturbing example of unconstitutional coercion,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants’ threat is an escalation of a broader State campaign to attack Amendment 4 using public resources and government authority to advance the State’s preferred characterization of its anti-abortion laws as the ‘truth’ and denigrate opposing viewpoints as ‘lies.’”
The lawsuit is asking the federal courts for an injunction to stop the state from threatening or intimidating more TV stations over the ads, aimed at supporting a ballot measure that would protect abortion rights in Florida’s Constitution and overturn the state’s current six-week abortion ban. FPF is also asking for compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys fees.
“CBS affiliate WINK News, a leading local news station in Southwest Florida, has stopped airing a false advertisement created by a dark money group to push Amendment 4,” the Vote No On 4 Florida opposition group said in a Wednesday afternoon statement. “The ad was removed for making a patently inaccurate and harmful claim about Florida law: That it prohibits abortion even when the pregnancy is a threat to the mother’s life.”
The ad at the heart of the controversy is about a Tampa woman who found out she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. Before Florida’s current abortion law, she was able to get an abortion to get chemotherapy that extended her life for her family.
“Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine. Amendment 4 is going to protect women like me. We have to vote ‘yes,’” the woman identified as Caroline says in the ad.
But in his cease and desist letters to Florida TV stations, Wilson argued, “The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous. Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment may and should seek medical treatment in Florida.”
Wilson wrote that TV stations playing the ad were violating sanitary nuisance laws that were punishable as a second-degree misdemeanor.
FPF’s lawsuit countered that examples of health sanitary nuisances are things like garbage and dead animals — not “political advertising that contradicts state officials’ political beliefs.”
Wilson’s Oct. 3 letters caused the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair to issue a reprimand.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
Wilson left DOH a short time later, according to the Miami Herald, which reported that the reason for his departure was unclear.
FPF also stood by the Caroline ad and called it an accurate depiction of the state’s abortion law.
“Suffice to say, FPF disagrees with the State of Florida’s narrative about its current law, which bans most abortions after six weeks’ gestation,” the lawsuit said. “FPF sponsored Amendment 4 precisely because current Florida law does not protect women and instead runs roughshod over their rights and imperils their health by substituting the government’s judgments for those of women and their healthcare providers.”
FPF plans to keep running more ads, the lawsuit added.
Scottie's Playtime 