A Florida school district is facing a federal lawsuit after it decided to remove copies of dictionaries, encyclopedia and other books because the works included descriptions of “sexual conduct”.
US-POLITICS-CONGRESSUS House of Representatives member-elect Maxwell Frost (C), Democrat of Florida, arrives for a group photo with member-elect Harriet Hageman (L), Republican of Wyoming, outside of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on November 15, 2022. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Book bans use ‘parental rights’ as cover to attack civil liberties, Democrat warns
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The Escambia county school district, located in Pensacola, Florida, removed several dictionaries and encyclopedias from school libraries after school officials determined that the books violated Florida law HB 1069.

The law, signed by the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, last year, restricts access to materials containing “sexual conduct” in Florida classrooms.

A Christian pastor’s recent trip to a McDonald’s in North Carolina ended in his arrest on allegations that he attacked his wife’s co-worker while threatening to put his head in a deep fryer.

According to authorities, Dwayne Waden’s arrest on 28 December occurred after he went into a McDonald’s restaurant in High Point, North Carolina, where his wife was training to be a manager. The visit was prompted by a call to Waden from his wife, who complained that her fellow employees were “disrespecting her”.

Waden, described as both a pastor of Elevated Life International Ministries and a semi-truck driver, went behind the counter after arriving and punched a worker several times. He then placed his hands around the targeted employee’s neck, led the worker to the deep fryer and threatened to submerge his head until the victim’s colleagues pulled Waden off, police alleged.

Interior watchdog’s report on Jan. 6 describes how an aggressive crowd chased and hounded a Park Police officer who arrested someone at 9am near the Washington Monument.

That hostility led them to back off a similarly menacing crowd at the Lincoln Memorial. doioig.gov/sites/default/fil…

Dec 19, 2023 · 3:04 AM UTC
Sandy
@sandiechill
13h
Replying to @kyledcheney
Theyy were outmatched, out manned, and intimidated. At the behest of Trump. These were not friendly tourists.
Ashleigh London
@ashleighlondon
12h
Replying to @kyledcheney
“This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the ellipse. POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol,” Kremer wrote to Lindell on Jan. 4

“Republicans struggle as they keep getting forced to talk about abortion”

— Politico headline, Dec. 15

Huh! It turns out “Well, with luck, you probably won’t die being forced to give birth to a nonviable fetus over the objections of your doctor!” — even if you say it in a warm, human-sounding way ― is not actually what people want to hear when deciding how to cast their votes. Fascinating!

People keep hearing stories like that of Kate Cox, whose medically recommended abortion to end a nonviable pregnancy and preserve her fertility was shut down by the Texas Supreme Court, and saying, “Wait, is that actually your policy? Jesus!” and it turns out that “Yup!” or “Pretty much!” is not a winning answer. Also not great: “Please hold while the Supreme Court figures out if it wants to impose even more restrictions on what medical care you are allowed to receive!”

I wonder why this is so difficult to talk about! Maybe what Republicans need is a better slogan. “Sometimes, too many rights are actually a burden” and “Do you ever get tired of making decisions for yourself?” and “Relax: We’ve got it! But let us know if you think you’re bleeding to death” turn out not to be winners, as far as slogans go. Same for, “You Don’t Get a Say, and We Don’t Care if You Die,” even if you say it with a lot of warm eye contact. Also bad: “You Don’t Get a Say, We Will Laugh at What Your Doctor Says, and We Want You to Do Everything But Die.”
...
Hmm, what about this isn’t a winner?

And it was foretold that there would come unto Congress a man who would be sore beset on every side, and they would call his name George Santos, and also they would call him the Mary Magdalene of Congress, and one or two other aliases, or possibly even more than that. And lo did he go unto Congress from New York, and then after he did go, it was revealed unto them that he was not who he said he was, not even to a small degree, and this was the first miracle wrought by George Santos. And everyone marveled and said, “Who is this man?” And then they said, “No, for real, who is this man? We do not know who this man is.” For the George Santos they did send unto Congress had played volleyball at Baruch, and had worked for Goldman Sachs, and George Santos had done neither of those things.

And lo they did speak against him in the halls of Congress and in the newspapers and on the shows and even [in the streets of his district. And they did say unto one another, “Who is this man George Santos, who is come to represent us? For we thought we knew him, but he is not even Jew-ish, as he did claim.” And then George Santos wrought the second of many miracles, for his mother, who had died in the events of 9/11, lo, she was alive until 2016, and indeed she was not even in the United States on the occasion of 9/11. And all who heard it marveled and said, she who was dead was alive again, and she who was in one place was translated a great distance. And they began to say, “Who is this man whose mother was dead yet is alive, and whose money came from one place and then it came from another and then it came from yet a third and then we are still not sure from whom it cometh.” And lo they did look unto his list of donors, and none of them could be found, and their names were not the names of persons who existed. And this was another miracle that George Santos wrought!

And they did bring unto George Santos a dog belonging unto a veteran, asking him to heal the dog, and George Santos said he would, and he did transform that dog’s illness into a great deal of money for himself, which was indeed a miracle, but not the miracle they wanted. And George Santos did say unto them, “Do not worry about it, but give unto me money, and see what other wonders I shall accomplish.”

George Santos then did go unto Congress and they did say “Lo, the bar is here, but he has slid beneath even that bar, for in addition to engaging in election denial, he has also done other frauds that we have not done, at least not so ineptly and publicly.”

And, after he did enter the nation’s capital, he did obtain much Botox and to OnlyFans did he subscribe. And the Lord said “This is good and right, for George Santos ought to have access to OnlyFans and Botox, as is my will, for thereby shall the economy thrive, and furthermore who hast given of their money unto George Santos expecting that anything else will happen?”

“And anyhow,” said the Lord, “what didst thou expect, come on now?” And George Santos did receive donations and miraculously did translate them into gambling and also into Hermes.

And many miracles did George Santos bring to pass. First he did transform himself so that no man might say they knew him. And, at one time, he did appear in drag and, at another time, his campaign staffer did pretend to be a Kevin McCarthy staffer, and other such miracles did many see. Once he did briefly grasp a baby and none knew whence the baby did come nor whither it went. And many such things did George Santos wreak.

And lo the Lord said unto George Santos, “Behold my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Ye shall receive great abundance, and by ye shall be carried briefly a baby whose identity is uncertain and no one shall know what is going on with that child, and ye shall shout a great deal, and consternation shall ensue.” And furthermore he did yell and say that they acted as though they were sitting in ivory towers in white hats while they voted drunk and had orgies and that he was Mary Magdalene, and everyone did say, “All right then, George, okay.”

And it came to pass in those days, another resolution to expel George Santos from Congress. Which George Santos had known was coming, because as he did say, “I’ve done the math.” Which he said was fine, because he wanted to leave anyway, because everyone in Congress was too corrupt and he was done with them. But it was okay, because the Lord did say, “He shall not be appreciated in his own time, nor in Washington." And then he was translated on high and all did worship him, for he was God’s favorite. And all this was according to George Santos.

Prophet Song imagines an Ireland under fascist control, breaking through the it-couldn’t-happen-here complacency of western societies

‘Soul-shattering’ Prophet Song by Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker prize

Lynch imagines an Ireland that has fallen under fascist control. Eilish Stack is a Dublin scientist and mother of four, busy with work, family and her elderly father, averting her eyes from the increasingly worrying news reports. Then grim reality comes knocking at her door: the newly created secret police arrive to interrogate her husband, Larry, about his work as a trade unionist. Along with many others, he is disappeared into the maw of the state. Their teenage children want to take to the streets – to wear the colours of protest, to march, to fight back – but all Eilish wants is to keep them hidden and safe. As civil war breaks out, and the streets of Dublin are filled with roadblocks and snipers, she remains frozen in a state of denial. Her sister, who lives in Canada, begs her over the phone to try to escape. “History is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave.”

If Prophet Song is a dystopia, then, like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s one whose events are already happening around the world. Families like Eilish’s are suffering in Ukraine, Syria, Palestine and elsewhere, refugees fleeing political violence, women’s rights violated across the globe, and the far right on the rise in Europe. The recent rioting in Dublin, and the shock and disbelief that greeted it, give the novel an uncomfortable extra timeliness.

There’s an incantatory power to Lynch’s prose that’s reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, but harnessed to a vision that is shockingly everyday, even as it summons the end times. This is a novel written to jolt the reader awake to truths we mostly cannot bear to admit: “All your life you’ve been asleep, all of us sleeping and now the great waking begins.”

After being a loyal reader for the better part of 60 years, I have officially run out of respect for The New York Times.

I have come to the grudging realization that this newspaper is actively playing a part in undermining our Democracy by convening a political horse race, and backing a burnt-orange, reprehensible, racist traitor, and his dirty trainers, who mean our country harm.

I believe they are doing this because they have lost their way and their morals, and have carefully dug out a tributary that flows from the obscene river of cash that is currently poisoning our politics, and runs directly into the bottomless pockets of the broken decision-makers whose fat asses are comfortably stuffed in the chairs of their front offices.

Unrest and instability might be bad for our Democracy, but they are damn good for business at The New York Times.

I take no pride in writing what I believe is this necessary piece.

I have been a steady reader of the “Gray Lady” for most of my life. Growing up in New Jersey, I actually aspired to work at the place as a starry-eyed kid, who pedaled his bike around delivering newspapers after school each day.

That never happened, and mostly by design. It turns out I got far more of a thrill working for smaller, underdog newspapers that stood up for their readers, called power to account, and strived to make a real difference in their communities.

Still, I never lost my respect for The Times — until now.

Every day — hell, every HOUR — Republicans are doing something to undermine our Democratic Republic here in America, whether it be squashing voting rights, refusing to certify elections, threatening DOJ officials, flat lying about the results of these elections, supporting dictators around the world, banning books detailing our nation’s choppy history, all of the above, and more.

It never ends. There is no bigger overarching story in America right now than Republicans’ surge toward fascism.

WHY isn’t this being given the editorial weight it deserves?

I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again right here: If the Republicans are successful in taking down our Democracy and installing an authoritarian regime in Washington, one of the very first things to go will be our freedom of the press, and THEN where will The Times be?

Jane Mayer has earned a reputation as one of the country’s top investigative reporters. As chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, Mayer has been relentless in exposing the hidden forces shaping American politics. Her bestselling book, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” documents the vast influence of the Koch brothers and was named one of the 10 best books of 2016 by the New York Times.

In the past year, Mayer has exposed the right-wing funders behind former President Donald Trump’s Big Lie of a stolen election. She reported how Ginni Thomas secretly supported the Jan. 6 insurrection as her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, considered cases that involved her. And this month she exposed the shadowy conservative organization that smeared Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in a failed attempt to derail her Supreme Court confirmation.

Mayer often provokes the ire of those she exposes. The Koch Brothers hired investigators to smear her, and the subject of her most recent exposé tweeted her personal contact information in an attempt to intimidate her.

I think it’s a pretty dark time. It feels like a dangerous hiatus right now. The Trump years felt quite dangerous and being called an enemy of the people was awful. The things that were happening were frightening. The attempted coup at the end of his time is still shocking to me. Some of the things that I’ve covered in other parts of the world, I do see echoes of here. It’s made me realize that we’re not protected from human nature and the kind of awful history that’s taken place elsewhere. It hasn’t always been perfect in America, either. But the susceptibility to authoritarian strongman government — and just the hate and the idea that factionalism that you see in places like the Middle East, when I was in Beirut where it’s almost barbaric what people do to each other — I hate to see any of it stirring here. It’s certainly very different from Vermont. This idea of spying on your neighbors couldn’t be more different from the idea of just live and let live, which is one of the many lovely, wonderful things about Vermont.

David Goodman

You mentioned at the beginning how you got into journalism partly inspired by the work of Woodward and Bernstein holding an earlier generation of corrupt politicians accountable. Do you think that journalism and the work that you do still has the power to be that watchdog of democracy?

Jane Mayer

I think it has much less power now than before the internet. There are still fantastic reporters and there was amazing reporting done during the Trump years. And there’s amazing reporting being done at the local level in a lot of places, including by VTDigger. But the thing is that the internet is filled with junk. So we’re competing now with outlets that just are not quality, and I think it’s hard for readers to separate out which is real and which is not real. That’s been a real problem.

David Goodman

You have exposed so much darkness. Where do you see the light?

Jane Mayer

I’m actually quite optimistic always. Because I have seen change and I’ve seen change for good. I think a lot of people have common sense. If they can get the information, people of different political persuasions can meet on common ground. Some of the things I’ve covered I felt like I really did see progress. I did a lot of coverage during the Bush years of the torture program that that was secretly being employed by the Bush administration on detainees in the war on terror. I watched as reporters and public spirited people in government and lawyers pushed back hard and they fixed a lot of it. It’s disappointing to me that Guantanamo is still open. But it’s really been amazing to see things like waterboarding exposed and ended. So I have seen change take place, and there’s been a lot of forces for good as well as these dark things. Shining the light on them is the way to go.

Unprecedented Monthly Highs Since May

Professor Qingxiang Li’s team analyzed the CMST 2.0 dataset and discovered that 2023 has already experienced the third hottest first half-year since records began, narrowly trailing behind the warmest year in 2016 and the second warmest in 2020. The global mean sea surface temperatures (SSTs) surged to an all-time high in April, while global mean land surface air temperatures followed suit by reaching their second-highest monthly level in June. This combination resulted in May being crowned the hottest month ever recorded for global mean surface temperatures.