Brett Wilkins, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Common Dreams
Stephan:
As I listened to the reports come in about how Trump overwhelmingly won every primary held, I read a long list of stories about how the MAGAt christofascists are waging their culture wars. In Florida, as this article describes, “the Republican-controlled lower chamber of the state Legislature… seeks to deny the legal existence of transgender individuals by requiring individuals to identify as their sex assigned at birth.” As I read this I asked myself, is this a single MAGAt controlled state action or is this a national trend? I am sorry to tell you this is a very nasty national trend. The ACLU, as of 1 March 2024, reports they are tracking 471 anti-LGBTQ bills. The obsession and hate over other people’s sexuality is one of the defining aspects of this evil Republican cult. And yet, as today’s preliminaries demonstrate, a large percentage of Americans subscribe to this hate. The United States is defining itself as a society of hate.
States where Republicans are proposing anti-LGBTQ legislation. health care or other policies to hurt GBTQ men and women. Credit: American Civil Liberties Union
The ACLU of Florida on Friday led condemnation of a bill passed by the Republican-controlled lower chamber of the state Legislature that “seeks to deny the legal existence of transgender individuals by requiring individuals to identify as their sex assigned at birth instead of their gender on their driver’s licenses and ID cards.”
Dubbed the Trans Erasure Bill by opponents, H.B. 1639 passed by a vote of 75-33. The ACLU notes that the legislation “also requires health plans to cover the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy and creates additional obstacles for health plans to cover gender-affirming care.”
“H.B. 1639 is harmful, vague, and does nothing to improve the lives of Floridians,” ACLU of Florida policy strategist NR Hines said in a statement. “It is eerily silent on the consequences for transgender individuals who identify their gender on their driver’s license or other government-issued identification instead of their sex assigned at […]
Todd Wilson, Reporter - WPTV (West Palm Beach, Florida)
Stephan:
Here is yet another MAGAt culture war move in Florida. I track Florida because along with Texas it tends to lead the former Confederate states in trying to turn the United States into a White supremacy christofascist obsessively heterosexual nation. One part of their culture war strategy is to create ignorance, and here is the latest example of what Florida is doing at the University level.
Joe Saunders with Equality Florida explains how the decisions affects students at Florida colleges and universities. Credit: WPTV
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA. — The Florida Board of Governors approved new rules that remove sociology from general education core course options and prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) spending at the state’s public universities and colleges.
The ruling happened Wednesday.
“All in favor, say ‘I.’ Opposed, two no’s. Motion carries,” Chair Brian Lamb said.
The vote will prohibit funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
“We are here to take action as a board,” Lamb said.
The action the board took in essence prohibits a university from providing state or federal funding to promote, support or maintain any DEI programs.
Joe Saunders with Equality Florida said this decision threatens and eliminates student unions for Black, Jewish, to LGBTQ students.
“To ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from receiving state funding,” he said, “what it really means is the only resources left to support any of these programs is a small sliver that’s available through student fees.”
This story describes why I have always been against nuclear-generated civilian electricity. It is the unexpected accidents and the waste. Nuclear waste lasts thousands of years and any number of causes can produce disastrous accidents. Remember Chernobyl, Fukushima, and as this report describes, now possibly Greenland and the Marshall Islands. Nuclear energy was created for naval usage, not civilian installations. Few today seem to understand this.
U.S. military officers watch nuclear waste being dumped on Runit Island in the Marshall Islands. Credit: Department of Defense
Ariana Tibon was in college at the University of Hawaiʻi in 2017 when she saw the photo online: a black-and-white picture of a man holding a baby. The caption said: “Nelson Anjain getting his baby monitored on March 2, 1954, by an AEC RadSafe team member on Rongelap two days after ʻBravo.’”
Tibon had never seen the man before. But she recognized the name as her great-grandfather’s. At the time, he was living on Rongelap in the Marshall Islands when the U.S. conducted Castle Bravo, the largest of 67 nuclear weapon tests there during the Cold War. The tests displaced and sickened Indigenous people, poisoned fish, upended traditional food practices, and caused cancers and other negative health repercussions that continue to reverberate today.
A federal report by the Government Accountability Office published last month examines what’s left of that nuclear contamination, not only in the Pacific but also in Greenland and Spain. The […]
I am glad President Biden is finally doing something for the people of Gaza, but I think this is pretty pathetic. I think Biden is making a significant mistake, both nationally and internationally, harming both himself and the country as a whole. In my view what needs to be done is Biden should tell fascist Benjamin Netanyahu, you either stop killing the people of Gaza, or you don’t get another dime of aid from us nor a single bullet.
Aid airdrops over Gaza City. Credit: Kosay Al Nemer/ Reuters
The use of airdrops is a spectacular but inefficient way of delivering aid, and Friday’s announcement suggests that Biden had given up on being able to persuade Israel in the near future to coordinate a large-scale ground-based relief effort under the threat of mass starvation across Gaza.
Critics suggested it represented no more than a gesture, which obscured Biden’s reluctance to use US leverage to force Israel to be more cooperative in the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“The loss of life is heartbreaking,” Biden said, making the announcement at the White House at a meeting with Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. “People are so desperate that innocent people got caught in a terrible war unable to feed their families and you saw the response when they tried to get aid in.
This election has become very simple for me, and I think it should be for you. If you value democracy. and want something postive to be done about climate change, you vote Democrat. Period. You want America to become an authoritarian state that is destroyed by climate change you vote for Trump and other Republicans. It is as simple as that. About a third of Whites are going to choose Trump. Their rage, resentment, racism, and sense of being the victim will lead them to make the Trump choice. The outcome will be determined by whether more of us vote for Democrats and the Electoral College reflects that. Which side are you on?
Climate change demonstration. Credit: Adobe
In the wake of the hottest year on record, with fossil fuel production increasing and sea levels rising, the stakes for the climate couldn’t be higher in this year’s elections.
In the presidential contest, the contrast is distinct. President Joe Biden’s massive climate initiatives and tougher environmental regulations are sure to drive turnout on both sides of the political aisle. And likely Republican nominee Donald Trump’s promises to pull the country out of the Paris climate accord again, aggressively “drill baby drill” and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act are making headlines.
In previous election cycles, climate change was typically low on the list of voters’ concerns and largely ignored by the candidates. But it was a powerful predictor of voters’ behavior — helping boost Democrats in recent elections, according to a new study. Climate change likely cost Republicans the 2020 election, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder Center for Environmental Futures, helping pull Democrats, independents, moderate Republicans and younger voters to the polls.
