We need more of these laws protecting the representation of minorities and the ideas the fundamentalist right hate, such as female autonomy. The only way to get more states to do this is to elect more progressives, become more vocal over what we want, and to support those who advocate for the full support of equality and inclusion of everyone in society, sometimes called DEI. Hugs
Gov. Phil Murphy, at the Princeton Public Library, signs legislation Monday aimed at barring public libraries and schools from banning books.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a law Monday prohibiting public schools and libraries from banning books and protecting librarians who obey state law.
Murphy’s signing of the Freedom to Read Act comes amid an ongoing push by conservative lawmakers and activists across the country to challenge books they consider inappropriate for minors, particularly those about LGBTQ issues and race. Lawmakers in at least 13 states this year have introduced legislation to disrupt library services or limit their materials, according to an NBC News tally.
“Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others,” Murphy said in a statement. “I’m proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely.”
Murphy during an interview in New York on Nov. 22.
In September, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting free speech, reported that the number of books being removed from school shelves during the 2023-24 school year had tripled from the previous year, to more than 10,000.
The PEN America report, along with one from the American Library Association released that same month, outlined how frequently challenged books are often about or written by people of color or those who identify as LGBTQ.
In 2023, the American Library Association’s list of the 10 most challenged books nationwide included Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” a novel about a young Black girl who grew up after the Great Depression; Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic memoir about the author’s exploration of gender identity from adolescence to young adulthood; and George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a coming-of-age memoir about a queer Black man.
New Jersey -is the third state to sign a law prohibiting the banning of books at public schools and libraries, following Illinois and Minnesota.
The new law is set to take effect in a year from the governor’s signing. However, the state education commissioner and the New Jersey state librarian are permitted to start implementing it immediately “as may be necessary,” the law states.
“Through this legislation, we are protecting the integrity of our libraries that are curated by dedicated professionals and making those resources available to help every student to grow as a critical thinker,” New Jersey acting Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer said in a statement.
Today the Freedom to Read Act from @AndrewZwicker will be signed into law by @GovMurphy – protecting a reader’s freedom to access information and safeguarding librarians from harassment.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal is accusing Pete Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, of witness intimidation because Parlatore suggested that Hegseth may sue the woman who accused him of sexual assault and received a settlement if he doesn’t get confirmed.
Trump NIH pick "considering a plan to link likelihood of receiving research grants to some measure of academic freedom…Bhattacharya wants to counter what he sees as a culture of conformity that ostracized him over his views on masking and school closures" http://www.wsj.com/health/healt…
The list compiled by the American Accountability Foundation includes 20 general officers or senior admirals and a disproportionate number of female officers. Those on the list in many cases seem to be targeted for public comments they made either in interviews or at events on diversity, and in some cases for retweeting posts that promote diversity.
The above-named group is a dark money organization that does not reveal its donors. Their leader is a former staffer for nutbag Sen. Ron Johnson.
These people what a Russian style military of only white cis straight males which Ted Cruz gave such praise to over our US military. The thing is the Russian military was stopped and driven out of a country by the rag tag Ukrainian military with gifted supplies dripping in. A diverse military of the entire population is the strongest one, which has been demonstrated over and over again. Talk about a group wanting purity in a place, this is what these bigot racist haters want. Hugs
Among Hegseth’s alleged “mistakes” are sexual assault, countless incidents of adultery (including with a coworker), at last one bastard child, drunkenly attempting to climb onto a strip club stage, on the job drinking, being fall down drunk at corporate events, shouting “kill all Muslims,” having white supremacist tattoos, belonging to a far-right misogynist Christian nationalist church, and running two nonprofits for veterans into the ground with what former colleagues call questionable spending on partying and travel. It’s what Jesus would want.
1. Bondi asked for a $25,000 campaign donation from Trump, and got it. 2. Then she dropped her state’s investigation into Trump University. 3. Now she’s Trump’s nominee for Attorney General.
Watch the clip and you’ll see an excited Lummis wave a copy of her bill, calling it a “present for President Trump.” Hayes calls the bill an “enormous heist” and an “explicit bailout” of bitcoin holders should the price plummet
This paragraph says it all. They want the LGBTQ+ removed from society. They are willing to be violent and obnoxious, hurting people, property, and staff. They attack other customers demanding to know if they support the LGBTQ+ and they then badger the customer.
Target pulled some LGBTQ-themed merchandise linked to Pride Month last year, citing increased confrontations between shoppers and employees and incidents of products being thrown on the floor.
The goal is being driven by this guy. He feels the idea of anyone not a white straight cis male shouldn’t be in any position of authority or corporate rank. His view is that women and the LGBTQ+ shouldn’t be in the work force or seen and the non-white males should be in menial jobs with little or no authority. Just be base workers. He and his ilk see great dangers to the white “race” people if they can not maintain a super majority of a male dominated white straight cis society. Notice in the quote below, his calling DEI and ESG programs a risk implying some nefarious harm. Hugs
America First Legal, the conservative group that filed the lawsuit last year, in a statement on Wednesday called the court ruling a “warning to publicly traded corporations’ boards and management.” The group said the risk of DEI programs and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives “cannot be whitewashed with boilerplate language or ignored.”
(Reuters) -Target has failed to persuade a judge in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit that accused the retailer of deceiving shareholders after its sales of LGBTQ-themed merchandise for Pride Month sparked a backlash and a customer boycott.
U.S. District Judge John Badalamenti in Fort Myers ruled that the plaintiffs had presented enough information for now to pursue claims that Target misled investors about its efforts to guard against social and political risks.
The lawsuit from investor Brian Craig claims that Target’s board focused only on activist groups’ calls for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures and overlooked potential negative responses to the Pride campaign in May 2023.
Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
America First Legal, the conservative group that filed the lawsuit last year, in a statement on Wednesday called the court ruling a “warning to publicly traded corporations’ boards and management.” The group said the risk of DEI programs and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives “cannot be whitewashed with boilerplate language or ignored.”
Target had urged Badalamenti to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that there was no evidence backing the allegations, that it had warned investors about a potential DEI backlash, and that the complaint was based merely on Craig’s disagreement with the company’s business decisions.
America First filed the lawsuit in Florida federal court in August 2023. The nonprofit group is headed by Stephen Miller, a close adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
America First and other conservative groups have accused some major U.S. companies of undertaking diversity and inclusion efforts at the expense of shareholders.
Target pulled some LGBTQ-themed merchandise linked to Pride Month last year, citing increased confrontations between shoppers and employees and incidents of products being thrown on the floor.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario, Mark Porter and Diane Craft)
What he really means in the story below is that many people surging into the work force will depress wages and make workers even more desperate to get and keep a job no matter how bad or low wage it is. Hugs
Megan Kelly who made her fame by writing a book about the sexual harassment / abuse at Fox Is trying to give a boost to a man who paid a woman he sexually abused and harassed. Everything Hegseth is accused or from adultery, sexual assault, and his excesses alcohol problem are all court-martial offenses. He would be in charge of people that if they did what he did they would face demotion, jail time, loss of money, and more. How he can be in that position if republicans really respect and care about the military they wouldn’t even let this guy near the job. Hugs
In the below story notice two things. He is picking Fox entertainment rage TV people to be in his cabinet because he is a media made billionaire personality and he loves the showmanship. That is what made him a great con man and politician is his love of the camera and the attention, he glories in it.
Read the full article. In 2017, Crowley registered as a foreign agent for a pro-Putin Ukrainian billionaire after withdrawing from consideration from a national security post when her book and PhD thesis were hit with accusations of plagiarism. She first appeared here when she spread claims that Barack Obama is secretly Muslim. Crowley is a Project 2025 contributor.
In this post notice the attack on immigrants along with the outright lies about no deaths. Anything for the maga base and the authoritarian fascist government is grand. Why? For me the question is why does the internet troll Marge want to see the tRump proclaimed goals? White supremacy! She is from a deep Georgia community that has long felt that the white people were superior to others. So white people attacked the capital and attempted to destroy democracy so what, they were white. Not those filthy non-white people who keep coming here trying to make our white supremacy culture less supreme. Hugs
The story below shows how desperate the right is to please donors by cutting the domestic spending part of the government. That is the part of the government that helps the people but puts nothing in the pockets of the wealthy. They fail to understand that the main function of the government is to promote the common good and the welfare of the people. From the preamble itself. … (P)romote the general Welfare … That means the government is to help the people. The reason the treasury is so shy of money is that the republicans when in power keep giving more of the general revenue generated in the US to the most wealthy instead of helping the general welfare with such as infrastructure, what the people need, and common defense. Basically so people understand every time the republicans reduce the corporate tax rate, the taxes charged against realtors, the taxes charged against wealthy people, the tax rate of wealthy estates, they are robbing from the US people and public all that money to run the country and help the public. Just like other countries of advanced incomes do. Which is why the republicans demand they stop doing it as it makes the US look bad for being a profit is king country. Hugs
The story below shows how fundamentalist Christians and right wing bigots attack the LGBTQ+ for being different and not following their faith … but at the same time they don’t live up to their own faiths doctrines. Hugs.
Read the full article. Yager first appeared here in 2020 for his successful bill that forces public schools to allow kids to miss class for up to one hour each day in order to attend church. Along with raft of anti-trans legislation, most recently Yager voted for a bill allowing county clerks to refuse to officiate same-sex marriages.
“The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they do not know any of the people or the language and have no connection to the culture.”
The Diapered Rapist a fucking idiot, who can’t handle a task a 6 year old can manage.
Read the full article. Boyd is now claiming that he was referring to a “bundle of sticks,” telling reporters “look it up in the dictionary.” Video of the exchange is below. Boyd, not incidentally, was named to Trump’s “South Carolina Leadership Team.”
Where are the pro left progressive big money trying to promote progressive ideals? This is why the right so often win, their big money backs them no matter what. Hugs
This is the woman on a crusade against the first trans person in the House of Representative also used to support the trans people. Her entire thing is being the center of attention. That is her entire goal. Hugs.
Read the full article. Roberts, who had threatened violence if Trump did not win, appeared here earlier this week when he called for seizing the endowments of public and private universities if they don’t hew to Trump’s anti-diversity edicts and end the “woke mind virus.”
Just how insecure are these republican people demanding everyone but themselves be Rambo and Chuck Norris in some super action movie. It is a stupid throw back to the religious stereotype of men and women they want to force the country into. The idea that men are always he-man moneymakers and women are all attractive women waiting at home to serve their man after cleaning their home and making their meals all day. Give it up already. The goat herders in the deserts of the Middle East may have felt that way over 2500 years ago but we know better now. Hugs
A man from racist South Africa who feels non-white people don’t have enough authority and black people have too many rights is pushing hard to repopulate the world with his and other wealthy white men’s sperm. Say what? Yes Musk is on record saying that he needs to father as many children as possible to ensure the white race continues. Similar to what Jeffery Epstein felt as he raped multiple young girls. Look these facts up and stop admiring these trust fund wealthy kids of exploiters. Hugs
FILE – Members of the Memphis Police Department work a crime scene in Memphis, Tenn., Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
By ADRIAN SAINZ, JONATHAN MATTISE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Updated 9:27 PM EST, December 4, 2024
The Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people, according to the findings of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation launched after the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023.
A report released Wednesday marked the conclusion of the investigation that began six months after Nichols was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton as five officers tried to arrest him after he fled a traffic stop.
The report says that “Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve.”
“The people of Memphis deserve a police department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in an emailed statement.
The city said in a letter released earlier Wednesday that it would not agree to negotiate federal oversight of its police department until it could review and challenge results of the investigation.
City officials had no immediate comment on the report but said they plan to hold a news conference Thursday after Justice Department officials hold their own news conference in Memphis on Thursday morning to address the findings.
Police video showed officers pepper spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran away from a traffic stop. Five officers chased down Nichols and kicked, punched and hit him with a police baton just steps from his home as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.
Nichols died on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were fired, charged in state court with murder, and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges.
Nichols was Black, as are the former officers. His death led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S., and directed intense scrutiny towards the police department in Memphis, a majority Black city. The Memphis Police Department is more than 50 percent Black, and police chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis is also Black.
The report specifically mentions the Nichols case, and it addresses the police department’s practice of using traffic stops to address violent crime. The police department has encouraged officers in specialized units, task forces, and on patrol to prioritize street enforcement, and officers and community members have described this approach as “saturation,” or flooding neighborhoods with traffic stops, the report said.
“This strategy involves frequent contact with the public and gives wide discretion to officers, which requires close supervision and clear rules to direct officers’ activity,” the report said. “But MPD does not ensure that officers conduct themselves in a lawful manner.”
The report said prosecutors and judges told federal investigators that officers do not understand the constitutional limits on their authority. Officers stop and detain people without adequate justification, and they conduct invasive searches of people and cars, the report said.
“Black people in Memphis disproportionately experience these violations,” the report said. “MPD has never assessed its practices for evidence of discrimination. We found that officers treat Black people more harshly than white people who engage in similar conduct.”
The investigation found that Memphis officers resort to force likely to cause pain or injury “almost immediately in response to low-level, nonviolent offenses, even when people are not aggressive.”
The report says officers pepper sprayed, kicked and fired a Taser at an unarmed man with a mental illness who tried to take a $2 soda from a gas station. By the end of an encounter outside the gas station, at least nine police cars and 12 officers had responded to the incident, for which the man served two days in jail for theft and disorderly conduct.
In a letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division released earlier Wednesday, Memphis City Attorney Tannera George Gibson said the city had received a request from the DOJ to enter into an agreement that would require it to “negotiate a consent decree aimed at institutional police and emergency services.”
A consent decree is an agreement requiring reforms that are overseen by an independent monitor and are approved by a federal judge. The federal oversight can continue for years, and violations could result in fines paid by the city.
It remains to be seen what will happen to attempts to reach such agreements between cities and the Justice Department once President-elect Donald Trump returns to office and installs new department leadership. The Justice Department under the first Trump administration curtailed the use of consent decrees, and the Republican president-elect is expected to again radically reshape the department’s priorities around civil rights.
“Until the City has had the opportunity to review, analyze, and challenge the specific allegations that support your forthcoming findings report, the City cannot — and will not — agree to work toward or enter into a consent decree that will likely be in place for years to come and will cost the residents of Memphis hundreds of millions of dollars,” the letter said.
The officers in the Nichols case were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit, which was disbanded after Nichols’ death. The team targeted drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders, with the goal of amassing arrest numbers, while sometimes using force against unarmed people.
Memphis police never adopted policies and procedures to direct the unit, despite alarms that it was minimally supervised, according to the Justice Department report. Some prosecutors told department investigators that there were some “outrageous” inconsistences between body camera footage and arrest reports, and if the cases went to trial, they would be “laughed out of court.” The report found that the unit’s misconduct led to dozens of criminal cases being dismissed.
In court proceedings dealing with Nichols’ death, Martin and Mills pleaded guilty to the federal charges under deals with prosecutors. The other three officers were convicted in early October of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges of using excessive force and being indifferent to Nichols’ serious injuries.
Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but he was convicted of two lesser charges of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury. The five men face sentencing by a federal judge in the coming months.
Martin and Mills also are expected to change their not guilty pleas in state court, according to lawyers involved in the case. Bean, Haley and Smith have also pleaded not guilty to state charges of second-degree murder. A trial in the state case has been set for April 28.
Justice Department investigators have targeted other cities with similar probes in recent years, including Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd, and Louisville, Kentucky, following an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
In its letter, the city of Memphis said the DOJ’s investigation “only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years in almost every other instance, implying a rush to judgment.”
___
Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee, and Durkin Richer reported from Washington.
This is a completely different video than the one I posted before. I am sorry that I posted that one. I hated the glitches in it. So I trashed it. I did it before I looked to see if It had comments. If you left comments please put them on this one. This one is longer and more in depth, but done with a higher resolution and done at 3 am this morning so I sound better and more coherent. There are no glitches of either video or audio that I could see / hear. I hope you will enjoy it. Today I am going to dump both computers starting at 12:30 pm. I have the laptop running if I need it. Hugs. Scottie
I read a bunch of headlines I have in open tabs and I talk about the stories they pertain to briefly. Nothing in depth, just generalized information in the public sphere of information. If there is a topic you wish me to cover in more detail please mention it in the comments. Hugs
We got our vaccines and tRump’s plan for mass for profit prison detention camps for migrants.
There are some distortions because I moved a lot due to pain in my hips and back. But it looks OK but if you want just listen to the audio. I put a lot of effort into the video. Hugs
Please remember what Stephen Miller wants to do. He is a white supremacy Nazi with Jewish heritage. His own family immigrated here. But I am sure they will be safe from the purge as was Melania and her parents. Remember he was behind the separation of children from their parents who cross the border. The parents were deported while the children were given to Christian adoption agencies to sell. Many have never been found. He was behind the lawsuits that wanted any and all DEI programs stopped in the collages and private business claim it displaced white men for every job given to a woman or brown / black person. Remember he wants to end both birthright citizenship and deport people born to undocumented people even though they are US citizen. Remember that during tRump’s first term many non-white people were deported even though they were citizens and had a hard fight getting back into the US. It is back to carry your papers if you are not white and even then it is going to be hard for many. Hugs.
Stephen Miller speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President-elect Donald Trump is naming longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
Confirming the appointment, Vice President-elect JD Vance posted a message of congratulations on Monday to Miller on X and said, “This is another fantastic pick by the president.” The announcement was first reported by CNN.
Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.
Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s hard-line speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.
Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.
He was also a frequent presence during Trump’s campaign this year, traveling aboard his plane and often speaking ahead of Trump during the pre-shows at his rallies.
Miller drew large cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden during the race’s final stretch, telling the crowd that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he cast as “decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation — their jobs stolen looted and from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries. The lives of their loves ones ripped away from then by illegal aliens, criminal gangs and thugs who don’t belong in this country.”
“We stand here today at a crossroads,” he went on, casting the election as “a choice between betrayal and renewal, between self-destruction and salvation, between the failure of America or the triumph of America.”
Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
This short clip is great. The point she makes is the same one I made about the Democratic Party sliding right to get dissatisfied republican voters. Her point, we should have paid more attention to the people who left the Democratic Party than those who were never tRumpers or left the republican party due to tRump. Again it is the party of the working person not the party of republican lite. Hugs
While I find it easier to follow Sam’s reasoning on some issues, while he is out on funeral leave after his mother died, I am glad it is Emma explaining this. Listen to what tRump was saying about women. He wanted to see Harris in a ring getting beaten by Mike Tyson. He said he would protect women if they liked it or not. So she says two themes, I say three. She says fear stoking by bashing immigrants and misogyny. I say it was them plus racism. The first thing he said about her was she changed to being black for advantage, then started calling a black woman retarded. But if you remember the things he said about women in the 2016 election about Clinton and the grab them by the pussy tape. Sad that so many of our fellow people have these feelings in 2024. Hugs.
in this video both Matts are upset with the culture of democrats in office refusing to do what is needed instead patting each other on the back as infallible. Trump attacked both democrats and republicans who did not follow the ideas he pushed. Ideas that he felt people wanted, and it became true the more he said it. Even when they failed to actually help the lower incomes and did increase greatly the incomes of the upper incomes / very wealthy. They mention that again in 2023 the mean average income was lower than in 2019. Lower incomes are still losing and have been since the 1980s. While harder to listen too it is all about the conditions on the ground vs words used by democrat candidates. Brandon talks about the influencers on podcasts / social media. Matt Bender continues that conservation. Hugs
This video is about Joe Biden and him staying in until the last minute. How there was no primary and no time for Harris to introduce herself to the public. How Biden did not promote her publicly until he dropped out. How Biden kept her sidelines because her age made him look older by comparison. How the democrats need to do more to run to their extremer base like the republicans do. Hugs
In video Emma points out that the covid recovery plan of massive help for the lower incomes made the Biden administration very popular, but when that changed in 2022 for a more austerity program pushed by bipartisan republicans and Manchin / Sinema … or should I say by the republicans and Biden’s need for the feeling of bipartisanship. Once people realized again they wouldn’t be getting the help promised them by the democrats they again felt the democrats left them behind. The lower incomes feel betrayed by the democratic party and they feel used. Paid attention to only every four years and promised table scraps so the democratic candidate can keep the corporate dollars flowing. Hugs
I talk about why I think Harris lost the election. What people heard and understood. Mistakes made from hiring people who keep running old playbooks to who was listened to on the ground. This is one of many videos I hope to make on this subject.
He feels the idea of anyone not a white straight cis male shouldn’t be in any position of authority or corporate rank. His view is that women and the LGBTQ+ shouldn’t be in the work force or seen and the non-white males should be in menial jobs with little or no authority. Just be base workers. He and his ilk see great dangers to the white “race” people if they can not maintain a super majority of a male dominated white straight cis society. Notice in the quote below, his calling DEI and ESG programs a risk implying some nefarious harm. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 