They Got What They Elected.

When you elect a MAGA you get a MAGA, well Enfield CT got what they elected and now they are hopping mad.

'A Very Sad Day For Enfield' As School Chief Outlines Budget Cuts
School officials gave the Board of Education a list of proposed reductions, including the termination of more than 100 teachers and staff.
Patch
By Tim Jensen,
May 30, 2024

Faced with the task of trimming more than $9.5 million from its budget needs, emotional members of the Enfield Board of Education were presented a huge menu of likely reductions, involving the termination of more than 100 teachers and staff members, as well as numerous programs throughout the district.

A special meeting of the board Wednesday ostensibly had the purpose of formally accepting the appropriation of $77,429,554 for fiscal year 2024-25. That amount, approved last week by the town council, represents an increase of 1.98 percent over the current fiscal year, but fell far short of the requested amount of $82,511,081, which would have been an 8.68 percent increase.

A grim-faced interim Superintendent of Schools Andy Longey began the outline of reductions by stating, "Before I start, I want to say there is absolutely nothing educational about this presentation. It is a very sad day for Enfield and public education in general. I want to remind everyone, for every position and program cut, there is a real person behind it. These professionals have dedicated their careers here, and we are shattering their livelihood, their family life and I'm sure their mental well-being. This is simply not a good day."

Now this I the town that the new Republican mayor nixed the Drag Story Hour at the public library, it was also the town which back in 2010 wanted to hold the high school graduation in a church.

At JFK, eight grade-level teachers will be let go, resulting in the elimination of the team teaching model in place for decades. Other middle school cuts include a reading teacher, a school counselor, a special education teacher and a pair of world language teachers, which will put an end to the sixth-grade world language program.

Sports, a library media specialist, a late bus and some student activity stipends will be eliminated at the middle school. Longey said stipend programs such as Best Buddies, drama, yearbook, National Junior Honor Society and variety show will be retained.

Lets chop up to public school system so only those who cannot afford a private will be stuck going to public schools.

In another Patch article…

Veach Tabbed To Seek New 30th House Term
The Berlin Republican serves parts of Berlin and Southington.
By Michael Lemanski,
May 30, 2024


The incumbent Republican state representative serving parts of Berlin and Southington has been officially nominated to seek a third term.

State Rep. Donna Veach, R-Berlin, serves the 30th House District in the General Assembly.

"I am honored to have been chosen to serve the residents of Berlin and Southington as their voice in Hartford," Veach said.

"My goal continues to be addressing Connecticut's overall affordability, supporting our law enforcement community and their efforts to keep our residents safe, and reducing burdensome regulations on our small businesses."

Veach serves on the legislature’s Environment, Judiciary, and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees.

She is just another MAGA and voted against ever LGBTQ+ bill that came across her desk.

A Loss From The Gipper's Party

Out in California the party of the Gipper lost one… thankfully!

They want to a ballot question on the ballot banning our healthcare.

Proposal to limit transgender youth rights fails to qualify for California’s November ballot
LA Times
By Mackenzie Mays
May 28, 2024

A measure that would have required schools to notify parents about their child’s gender identity and limited transgender youth medical care has failed to get enough signatures in support to qualify for the November ballot, proponents said Tuesday.

The proposal sought to notify parents if their child changes their name or pronouns at school or requests to use facilities or play sports that don’t match their gender on official records. It also would have banned California doctors from prescribing hormones or otherwise providing gender-affirming care to minors.

For the measure to qualify for the ballot, proponents had to submit the signatures of more than half a million registered voters by Tuesday, the deadline set by the California secretary of state.

Do you remember the anti-gay ballot initiative in California in 1978, Proposition 6 that lead to Harvey Milks Hope Speech?

The ACLU of Northern California wrote,

Every year on May 22, California celebrates Harvey Milk Day to mark the indelible impact Milk left on the world. Milk is lauded for being the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California - an achievement in itself.

Less widely known is the fact that in the last year of his life, Milk tirelessly fought a virulently homophobic statewide initiative that looked very likely to pass and would have put California in the vanguard of a growing anti-gay movement.

Anita Bryant back in the late 70s was part of the “Save the Children” campaign and they were on a roll of passing anti-gay legislation around the country banning gay and lesbian on many of their rights and limiting where they could be employed.

California stopped the momentum and the Save the Children campaign died out but many of the states constitutions that were changed are still enforced but block by the Supreme Court.

So this ballot attempt has it roots back in the 70s with the Lavender Scare. The LA Times goes on to write,

Supporters of the measure sought to bring Republican-backed debates over “parental rights” that have been playing out on school boards in conservative pockets of California to the statewide level. California Democrats in turn have fought to thwart gender notification policies considered by several school boards, measures they said are harmful to transgender students who may feel safe at school but not at home.

[…]

Last week, Democratic state lawmakers in Sacramento introduced a bill that seeks to ban such school policies and shield teachers from retaliation for supporting transgender students as lawsuits over the issue are pending across the state.

But you want to guess who they tried to get to help them get the ballot initiative on the ballot?

They are hoping for the financial support of billionaire Elon Musk, who has criticized healthcare for transgender youth.

Another reason not to buy a Tesla!

 

 

Cuckoo Award

Today’s award goes out to all who believe that the moon landing was fake… and there are  a lot of them!
 

They point to the flag waving when the Lunar Lander took off… Um folks rocket engines have exhaust even in a vacuum (As a matter of fact rocket motors are more effective in a vacuum!)
 

Then there is this…

Astronauts Didn't Wear Helmets on the Moon?
The image has been used by skeptics to claim the moon landings were fake.
Snopes
By Izz Scott LaMagdeleine
May 28, 2024

Claim:
A photograph showing a group of astronauts without their helmets on indicates that the moon landings were staged.

Rating:
False

For years, claims have spread across social media that a photo supposedly showing three astronauts not wearing helmets on the moon meant the moon landings were staged.

A TikTok post from May 2024 showed the photo in question. The caption read, "A rare photo of the 3 astronauts on the moon breathing fresh air without their helmets."

[…]

The caption for the image on Getty Images read:

Apollo 16 astronauts (L-R) Charles M Duke, John W Young, and Thomas K Mattingly II take a break during a training exercise in preparation for the Lunar Landing mission, US, 6th February 1972. Duke is the Lunar Module pilot, Mattingly the Command Module pilot, and Young the Commander on the Flight scheduled to lift off April 16th.

These people who believe that the landing on the moon was faked are off the deep end. They come up with these off-the-wall clues… See the flag is waving! See they are not wearing their helmets! You don’t see the stars!

Have you ever watch a science fiction movie from the time? Even the Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey that spent millions of special effects you can tell it is a fake and that was state-of-the-art back in 1968.

The one I always liked were space ships with the exhaust rising, you wound have thought that someone would have thought to hold the space ship up instead of flat so the flame would be burning in the right direction,

So this Cuckoo Award goes out to all those believers!

Breaking News: Guilty On All Count!

Wow! A former president found guilty on all counts... Amazing! He is now a convicted felon and cannot vote in his home state of Florida, they do not allow convicted felon vote.

So now what?

What will Trump do? You know that there will be an endless appeals but what do you think he will do?

online polls

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Update: 7:00PM

What do I think will happen is he will get probation. With his big mouth he will turnoff many of the voters with his conduct on the campaign trial, I believe that he will be bad mouthing President Biden, and everyone else. People will see what a vindictive little man he is. You watch the more he mouths off the lower the poll numbers.

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Update: 6:00AM May 31

The party of Law & Order seems to be only in favor if it goes in their favor and they control the courts. Politico reports,

Congressional Republicans wasted no time in blasting former President Donald Trump’s Thursday conviction on 34 felony counts in New York, projecting confidence that the verdict would further motivate the GOP base ahead of November’s election.

GOP lawmakers blasted the trial as a thinly veiled effort to meddle in Trump’s bid to return to the White House, predicting that he would prevail on appeal — and against President Joe Biden later this fall. Underscoring the clear link between their fury over the verdict and their Election Day hopes, some Republicans — like House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) — immediately posted a Trump fundraising link alongside their statements of support.

“Today is a shameful day in American history. Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”

I would like to point out that two juries ruled against him. A Grand Jury found that there was enough evidence to lead to a conviction and now this jury where not one of the jurors thought he was not guilty of the crimes. That his lawyers could not convince at least one juror of his innocence.

 Another staunch Trump ally, top Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Lindsey Graham (S.C.), said in a statement that “I expect this case to be reversed on appeal” and added a forecast that Democrats would pay a price for a trial that Trump supporters see as designed to hurt him.

“This verdict says more about the system than the allegations,” Graham added. “It will be seen as politically motivated and unfair, and it will backfire tremendously on the political left.”

Isn't it funny how they praise a verdict in their favor but tear apart the judicial system when it goes against them.

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Spectrum News reported that the Democrat response was,

Democrats who celebrated the verdict largely echoed the same sentiment — that no one is immune from following the law.

"America is a nation built upon the rule of law," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat. "The jury has spoken and carefully rendered a decision. Responsible leadership requires the verdict to be respected."

"Today, twelve ordinary American citizens found a former president guilty of dozens of felonies," said California Rep. Adam Schiff, a U.S. Senate candidate who became a household name during Trump's presidency as a foil against the Republican president. "Despite his efforts to distract, delay, and deny – justice arrived for Donald Trump all the same. And the rule of law prevailed."

"Everyone is entitled to due process, and Donald Trump had his," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen wrote on X. "This guilty verdict and the many ongoing criminal cases against Trump make it clear to the world: in the United States, no one is above the law."

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas said she knows many are celebrating the verdict, “but my heart f****** breaks for our country!" 

"How did we get here?!” she said. “When did we stop requiring some darned decency of the most powerful person on Earth?! The grand jurors, the prosecutors, the judge, the witnesses & this jury deserve so much more than they will receive. This was a brave undertaking in an unnecessarily violent & politically charged America. FYI, today was a win for the rule of law!"

California Rep. Maxine Waters did not hide her excitement.

"Hallelujah!!! My predictions came true!" she said. "I predicted three years ago at a speech with the Human Rights Champaign that Stormy Daniels would be the one to get Trump. My faith in the criminal justice system has been strengthened!"

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It turns out that there is a loop hole in Florida's felon voting law, if the state where you are convicted allow felons to vote you can vote in Florida. The Guardian writes,

Despite his 34 felony convictions, Donald Trump will likely still be able to cast a vote for himself in November because of Florida and New York’s voting rights restoration laws.

Florida, where Trump has his primary residence, allows people convicted of felonies to vote depending on the law in the state where they are convicted.

New York is one of 23 states where people convicted of a felony can vote, even if they are on parole or probation, as long as they are not incarcerated.

Protestors holding signs that say "guilty" and "Trump is guilty". Jury Finds Former President Donald Trump Guilty On All 34 Counts In Hush Money Trial

“A felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted,” Florida’s department of state website reads.

My advice to Trump, contact a good lawyer before you vote or you may find yourself in court again.

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Update 1:00PM

You all do know that Trump has a big mouth.

And that I'll tell right now is sealing his tomb. He is a convicted felon and he keep showing that he does agree with that, he is not contrite, he is not showing remorse and how do you think the judge will view that.

Trump calls trial a ‘scam,’ vows to appeal historic verdict

The Washington Post

Former president Donald Trump, speaking at a rambling news conference Friday in New York, vowed to appeal his conviction on all counts in his hush money trial, calling it “a scam.” On Thursday, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult-film actress. During Friday’s remarks, Trump renewed his attacks on the judge and prosecutor and aired other grievances about the process, making multiple false and misleading claims. He took no questions from reporters.

Now tell me how do you think the judge will view this. Trump is digging his owe hole, every word he speaks he is digging it deeper.

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Update: June 1 @ 5:00AM

I tell you, Trump is putting his foot in his mouth.

Trump adviser blasts College Republicans statement on New York verdict
The Hill
by Julia Mueller
June 1, 2024


Former President Trump’s adviser Chris LaCivita knocked College Republicans for issuing a statement arguing the outcome of Trump’s New York trial, in which he was convicted on 34 felony counts, should be respected.

“Today’s convictions are the result of a politically motivated prosecution, but a verdict was handed down by jurors whose decisions were made in accordance with our criminal justice system. As such, the outcome of this trial should be respected. Just like the decision of voters on November 5th,” College Republicans said in a post on the social platform X.

[…]

After former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who is running for the Senate, said the verdict should be respected “regardless” of the outcome, LaCivita argued Hogan had just ended his campaign.

Can you imagine, he, the former president, the convicted felon, has to go for a meeting with his probation officer. I can just hear Trump now gripping about his “PO”

We All Share A Common Bond… Our Body Our Choice.

We share a lot with those who are fighting to kick the Republicans out in telling us what we can do with our bodies. Abortions are highly personal, government should not tell you what you can do with our bodies!

These U.S. Supreme Court cases could affect abortion access nationwide
And a future case centered on the Comstock Act is building, too
NC Newsline

BY: CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS
MAY 28, 2024

How much access should a person have to abortion pills? And should doctors in states with abortion bans be able to perform the procedure during medical emergencies?

Two cases that the United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on this summer could answer these questions and have a ripple effect on abortion access nationwide.

One case challenges ease of access to abortion medication while another challenges whether a federal law concerning emergency care supersedes a state’s abortion ban. It’s the first time the nation’s highest court has reviewed abortion-related cases since overturning federal protections two summers ago.

Mary Ziegler, a legal historian who has written about abortion law, noted that the emergency room case in particular can be a “game changer” pending its ruling.

“Whatever the Supreme Court decides will have an effect on how a lot of states’ abortion bans are interpreted,” she said.

[…]

The nearly 40-year-old federal law requires hospitals with emergency rooms that receive Medicare funding to provide “stabilizing treatment” to anyone experiencing emergency medical conditions. Most hospitals in the nation receive Medicare funding, and therefore would be subject to EMTALA.

Why does these affect us? First, suppose you are in a car accident and they rush you to an emergency room but once you are there they refuse to treat you. Right now they must stabilize you but this case can allow them to send you away without stabilizing you. And the case can affect how we get our hormones.

First approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, mifepristone is the first part of medicine-induced abortions or miscarriage-related care. Mifepristone blocks a hormone that’s needed to continue a pregnancy and another drug, misoprostol, is administered after to help bodies expel tissue. The drugs typically are used for abortions under 10 weeks of gestation, but are also used to manage miscarriages to help prevent deadly infections.

[…]

The 19th Century act prohibits the mailing of “obscene” or “lewd” materials such as pornography, as well as contraception and “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.”

Over the years Congress chipped away at the act, but the abortion components have remained.

Now, they’ve emerged in modern-day arguments against the procedure.

Proponents of implementing the act interpret it as a way to stop the mailing of abortion medications and materials needed to perform an abortion or establish a clinic. Local governments have considered ordinances that employ the act.

Now suppose states start to say that hormones for us and puberty blockers for trans youth are “obscene or lewd” and they try to prevent them from being them from being sent in the mail?

Should Democrats retain the White House and make gains in Congress, they could enact various protections. But the Supreme Court still has a conservative majority that could continue its pattern of taking up legal challenges to abortion access.

But if they have control of Congress they could expand the court to 11 members.

 

Our body, our choice

Tunnel Vision!

Tunnel vision is when you focus on one aspect and ignore or don’t see everything else.

Case in point…

School choice programs have been wildly successful under DeSantis. Now public schools might close.
The Republican governor’s school choice programs may serve as a model for other GOP-leaning states across the country.
Politico
By ANDREW ATTERBURY
May 26, 2024

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice. They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling.

Now as those programs balloon, some of Florida’s largest school districts are facing staggering enrollment declines — and grappling with the possibility of campus closures — as dollars follow the increasing number of parents opting out of traditional public schools.

The emphasis on these programs has been central to DeSantis’ goals of remaking the Florida education system, and they are poised for another year of growth. DeSantis’ school policies are already influencing other GOP-leaning states, many of which have pursued similar voucher programs. But Florida has served as a conservative laboratory for a suite of other policies, ranging from attacking public- and private-sector diversity programs to fighting the Biden administration on immigration.

“We need some big changes throughout the country,” DeSantis said Thursday evening at the Florida Homeschool Convention in Kissimmee. “Florida has shown a blueprint, and we really can be an engine for that as other states work to adopt a lot of the policies that we’ve done.”

Education officials in some of the state’s largest counties are looking to scale back costs by repurposing or outright closing campuses — including in Broward, Duval and Miami-Dade counties. Even as some communities rally to try to save their local public schools, traditional public schools are left with empty seats and budget crunches.

WOW! Great news! Or is it? Or is it another form of segregation?

The district has lost more than 20,000 students over the last five years, a decline that comes as charter schools in particular experienced sizable growth in the area. Enrollment in charters, which are public schools operating under performance contracts freeing them of many state regulations, increased by nearly 27,000 students since 2010, according to Broward school officials.

Fantastic! Or is it?

NBC Miami Ch6 reports…

“Of the 122,895 new students, 84,505 (69%) were already in private school, 16,096 (13%) came from public schools, and 22,294 are entering kindergartners,” the report released Wednesday said. “Does 16,096 represent an ‘exodus’ from the public schools as critics forecast HB 1 (the bill that included the expansion) would cause?”

As the bill was debated during this year’s legislative session, Democrats and other critics argued that such an expansion of the voucher programs would lead to large numbers of students exiting traditional public schools.

And that is exactly what happened, more students leaving public schools! It is doing exactly what it was designed to do. But what is that?

"As we continue to analyze the data provided by Step-Up For Students, what initially stands out is that roughly 7 in 10 new scholarship awards are going to students already enrolled in private school, at what FPI (Florida Policy Institute) estimates is a $676 million cost to the state,” the Florida Policy Institute, which strenuously opposed the voucher expansion, said in a statement Thursday.

The non-profit added that the voucher “money is going to subsidize tuition that families were already paying, an average of $8,000, that they can now use for other purposes.”

So what that is saying is that 70% of the students enrolled in private schools before the change, in other words those who could afford to send their children to private schools.

The report said that 27 percent of the voucher students enrolled this year in private schools are from households with incomes above $120,000 — which is 400 percent of the federal poverty level for families of four — or from families who “did not submit income information.” About 29 percent are from families whose incomes are between 185 percent and 400 percent of poverty level, which would include household incomes of up to $120,000 for families of four. Another 44 percent are from families below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $55,000 in income for a family of four.

Meanwhile, the state’s voucher program that serves students with special needs, called the Family Empowerment Scholarships for Students with Unique Abilities, also has grown. Step Up for Students reported that 79,035 students have been awarded the scholarships, compared to about 70,000 last year.

What this means is those who couldn’t afford privates school only a slim more families can now afford to send their children, so it shifted some who couldn’t afford private schools but the vast majority of lower class still cannot afford private schools.

The data published by Step Up for Students did not include information about the race and ethnicity of voucher recipients. The organization said such data “would be forthcoming, but not until enrollments in private schools stabilized sometime after the first week of September, which would make for a larger and more representative database.”

However, we have only seen bits and pieces of the report that the governor wants you to see. Politico goes on to quote the governor,

“Florida has shown a blueprint, and we really can be an engine for that as other states work to adopt a lot of the policies that we’ve done.”

 Gov. Ron DeSantis

We have DeSantis releasing cherry picked data before the whole report comes out. What we are seeing is the new modernized Jim Crow Laws and segregation.

And those private schools. Don’t forget that they can refuse trans students, gay and lesbians students, students who are not doing well academically, and special needs students… or they get to pick the cream of the crop. While all the public schools get all the misfits, which in many classes bring down their graduation rate which in return will cut funding for private schools.

Like I said the voucher program is doing exactly what it was designed to do cripple public education.

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While out in Oklahoma the Republicans are attacking the public school system in another way.

Nine teaching certificates suspended by state board
Non Doc
By Joe Tomlinson and Bennett Brinkman
May 23, 2024


After more than an hour of executive session, Oklahoma State Board of Education members voted today to suspend the educator certificates of nine teachers accused of various illegal activities. Board members also voted to accept fact-finding reports on other educators facing disciplinary decisions, and they advanced proceedings for a half-dozen additional educators whose certificates could be revoked.

And their crimes?

One of those still awaiting a hearing is former Norman High School teacher Summer Boismier, who is suing Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters for defamation related to his statements about a QR code she posted in her classroom in August 2022 providing access to books via the Brooklyn Public Library. Walters, meanwhile, has been attempting to revoke Boismier’s Oklahoma teaching certificate even though she has moved to New York and now works for the library.

In other words she made a work-around for the banned LGBTQ+ books that were banned, the other teachers who lost their licenses were for justifiable means. The Oklahoman reported,

Walters took the action because Boismier pushed back against House Bill 1775, a controversial state law that targeted the teaching of critical race theory. In 2022 Boismier covered the bookshelves in her classroom with red butcher paper. She added a sign that read "books the state doesn't want you to read." She also posted a QR code to the Brooklyn Public Library, which gave students online access to a wide variety of books, including many questioned by school authorities.

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Do you remember in the First Amendment where is says,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…

Well the states must think that it is okay for them to make laws to “abridging the freedom of speech” and “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

Here’s Where Library Workers are Prohibited From Their Own Professional Organization: Book Censorship News
Book Riot
By Kelly Jensen
May 24, 2024

What begins at the local level moves to the regional level, then onto the state level when it comes to book bans. School book bans shift to public library book bans (despite claims made otherwise by those book banners), and then those bans find their way into the city or county level. In too many cases over the last four years, those city or county-level issues bubble to the state level, leading to legislation that does precisely the opposite of what the local-level regression seeks — local control is ceded to the state or country. This perspective is crucial for context as to why, in 2024, several states proposed legislation that would ban affiliation with the largest professional organization for library workers, the American Library Association (ALA).

[…]

Library workers are seeing their ability to be affiliated with their professional organization challenged. This is fueled by misinformation peddled by the far right, who see the ALA as some kind of machine that encourages librarians to fill their shelves with “pornography,” “obscenity,” and “inappropriate material,” as well as one that trains library workers how to undermine parents through diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. As outrageous as that sentence sounds — do we see the same kinds of arguments lodged at, say, police professional organizations, despite the fact they, too, seek to educate law enforcement officers about diversity, equity, inclusion, social-emotional learning, and so forth? — it underscores what these book bans are actually about. It’s not the books. It’s about eliminating anything outside the far-right Christian agenda from American democracy.

The Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment's right to peaceably assemble as protecting the rights of workers to join and participate in labor unions and professional organizations to collectively address workplace issues and conditions.

But hey, the Republicans don’t have to obey the Constitution they are above the law.

 

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Updated: 3:30 PM

Florida’s top education official says public school closures a tradeoff for school choice
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.’s comments come after POLITICO’s reporting about the popularity of the state’s school choice programs — and the financial squeeze that subsequently placed on traditional public schools.
Politico
By ANDREW ATTERBURY
May 29, 2024

Florida’s top education official downplayed the sizable enrollment declines plaguing some of the largest school districts in the state on Wednesday, labeling potential campus closures as a motivation for traditional public schools to “innovate and provide programming that is attractive to parents.”

[…]

School choice is booming in Florida, with thousands more families flocking to charter schools, home schooling and using a state-funded scholarship for private schooling. This is by design of the state’s Republican leaders, like Gov. Ron DeSantis, who have expanded these policies in recent years — namely by opening scholarships to all students regardless of family income in 2023.

But all is not rosy…

Broward County, for example, has more than 49,000 classroom seats sitting empty this year, leading school officials to consider closing eight schools in the next two years. Closing one campus could save the district between $1.8 million to $4.3 million, according to a new presentation on Wednesday from the district.

Education leaders fear the long-term implications of school closures, like students being bused further away to a new campus and communities losing schools that have served them for generations.

“Here we saw today, the commissioner of education basically celebrating that public schools are being closed. That’s not OK,” Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association teachers union, told reporters after Wednesday’s board meeting.

And who going to get the short stick?

I asked Perplxity AI

“Do school voucher programs causing segregation in school with white students migrating toward private schools and lower income students stuck in public schools?”

Answer
Yes, school voucher programs have historically contributed to increased racial segregation in schools, with white students using vouchers to attend private schools while lower-income students, particularly Black and Hispanic students, remain in underfunded public schools.

Evidence from the Search Results
The search results provide substantial evidence that school voucher programs, promoted under the guise of "school choice," have been used as tools to perpetuate racial segregation and undermine efforts to desegregate public schools, particularly in the South following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling:

• After the Brown decision, many Southern states enacted laws and policies to resist desegregation, including authorizing the transfer of public funds to private segregated schools through voucher programs
• For example, Prince Edward County in Virginia closed all public schools and provided vouchers for white students to attend private segregated schools
• Between 1958-1980, private school enrollment in the South increased by over 500,000 students as hundreds of new private "segregation academies" were opened with white students using public voucher funds to attend
• By 1980, an estimated 65-75% of white private school students in the former Confederacy were in schools that were 90% or more white
• Today, while data is limited, the available evidence shows that students using vouchers to attend private schools are overwhelmingly white, even in states with voucher programs. Private schools serve only 9% of low-income students compared to over 50% in public schools
• The origins of modern voucher programs can be directly traced back to efforts by segregationists to resist school integration in the 1950s-1960s
• Vouchers were explicitly promoted as a way for white families to avoid desegregated public schools

So in summary, the historical evidence clearly shows that voucher programs have contributed to increased racial segregation by enabling the flight of white students from desegregating public schools to private institutions, leaving public schools with higher concentrations of minority and low-income students. This undermines the goals of equal educational opportunity.

And don't forget private schools do not have to take LGBTQ+ students nor students from different religions, nor special needs students, nor under achievers.

References:

1. The Racist History Of “School Choice”
2. Segregation Academies Show Us the Ugly Side of Vouchers
3. The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers
4. School Segregation through Vouchers – What Policymakers Can Learn from a History of State Efforts to Use Vouchers to Avoid Integration
5. A ‘Choice’ Grounded in Exclusion and Inequality

Apology Not Accepted.

A Freudian slip?

Habit?

When say something racist, or homophobic, or sexist accidentally is an indication that the language is common to them and use it all the time.

Pope apologizes after being quoted using vulgar term about gay men in talk about ban on gay priests
AP News
BY  NICOLE WINFIELD
May 28, 2024

 Pope Francis apologized Tuesday after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.

The ruckus that ensued underscored how the church’s official teaching about homosexuality often bumps up against the unacknowledged reality that there are plenty of gay men in the priesthood, and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

A “slip of the tongue” tells an awful lot about the subconscious.

“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term that was reported by others,” Bruni said.

With the statement, Bruni carefully avoided an outright confirmation that the pope had indeed used the term, in keeping with the Vatican’s tradition of not revealing what the pope says behind closed doors. But Bruni also didn’t deny that Francis had said it.

So lets dig in to see what is behind the subconscious utterance. Simply Psychology writes,

Well, according to psychologist Sigmund Freud, this could be revealing a secret wish or thought of yours, and it is called a Freudian slip.

So, what is a Freudian slip?

    A Freudian slip, or sometimes known as a parapraxis, is a verbal or memory mistake (a “slip of the tongue”) that is considered to be linked to the unconscious mind.

These slips apparently reveal private thoughts and feelings that individuals hold. Representative examples include a person calling their partner by an ex’s name, saying an incorrect word, or even misunderstanding a spoken or written word.

WebMD puts it this way,

The medical term for Freudian slip is parapraxis. The American Psychological Association defines a Freudian slip as “an unconscious error or oversight in writing, speech, or action that is held to be caused by unacceptable impulses breaking through the ego’s defenses and exposing the individual’s true wishes or feelings”.

Both articles talk about the unconscious mind breaking through and exposing the individual’s true wishes or feelings meaning that is how they really feel.

So apology not accepted, it reveal an unconscious biases or attitudes in the Pope. It is good they he is trying to overcome that bigotry but he has a long ways to good to prove that he does not have any animosity against us. It take to accept his apology? An admission that he is biased and that he is working to overcome that bias.

 

 

Trump

So Trump's trial is going to the jury this week.

 

What do you think will be the verdict?

online polls

If found guilty what do you think the sentence should be?

online polls

I think he should get 6 months in jail and at least 5 years on probation. I think at his age six months in jail will really warp his mind and the probation will force him to see a probation officer once a month or so. 

 

Can you imagine how his narcissist mind would handle being just a number? He was a Fortunate Son whose father got him out of the Vietnam war with "Bone Spurs" and I don't think he will handle prison life at all, and six months he will be climbing the walls going stir crazy.

And remember whoever is president can not pardon hum because it a state case.

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, Lord?
But when the taxman come to the door
Lord, the house lookin' like a rummage sale, yeah

 Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Fox News think he is going to get off...

Legal guru says prosecution fell 'way short' in Trump case, reasonable doubt is 'everywhere'
'There is reasonable doubt all over this case,' defense attorney Randy Zelin said
By Brian Flood

May 28, 2024

Defense attorney Randy Zelin said Tuesday on CNN that prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that former President Trump is guilty of falsifying business records in the ongoing New York v. Trump trial.

"They fell way short," Zelin told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

"Let’s start with reasonable doubt. What is reasonable doubt? And it’s not simply a doubt based upon reason. Any time a human being needs to make an important decision in life, if you have enough information, for example, doctor says you need open-heart surgery, ‘Doc, go ahead and schedule. I don’t have a reasonable doubt,"’ Zelin added.

---

What happens if Trump is convicted in hush-money trial?
BBC News

Holly Honderich

May 28, 2024 

After nearly five weeks, both the prosecution and the defence have rested in Donald Trump’s history making hush-money case.

Closing arguments will begin on Tuesday, and then the jury will start deliberations. After that, it is anyone’s guess when they will return and what they’ll decide.

But if he is found guilty on even one count - just one of a few possible outcomes - Mr Trump would become the first former US president with a criminal conviction, and the first major party candidate to run for the White House as a felon.

Here are some key issues to consider if a guilty verdict is delivered.

[...]

Could Trump go to prison?

It is possible, though highly unlikely, that Mr Trump would serve time behind bars in the event of a guilty verdict.

The 34 charges he faces are all class E felonies in New York, the lowest tier in the state. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of four years.

There are several reasons why Justice Merchan could choose a lesser punishment, including Mr Trump’s age, his lack of previous convictions, and the fact that the charges involve a non-violent crime.

It is also possible that the judge would weigh the unprecedented nature of the case, perhaps choosing to avoid putting a former president and current candidate behind bars.

---

 

It is getting under his skin worrying that his hair will clash with his orange jumpsuit.

Trump ‘super nervous’ about hush money verdict, Scaramucci says
AP News
by Miranda Nazzaro
May 28, 2024

Ex-Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Tuesday said former President Trump’s recent attacks against the judge in his New York hush money trial suggest he is “super nervous” about the verdict.

“He is super nervous about this,” Scaramucci said Tuesday in an interview on CNN. “Those bombs that he launched last night at the judge and all the suggestions that he was making, all the spurious suggestions are out of Trump’s playbook. So he knows the facts of the case, he knows exactly what happened, and he’s super worried about it, and that was a tell from him, so he’s show[ed] his cards last night.”

Scaramucci’s comments came as closing arguments for Trump’s hush money trial kicked off Tuesday in Manhattan. Upon conclusion, the case will be handed to a 12-person jury to decide whether to convict Trump on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records.

Queue the theme song from Dragnet!
In a moment the results of that trial...

Have You Noticed?

I have noticed, that it is the right-wing conservatives that are creating the violence? The Republicans have stirred up some much animosity against us that violence is being directed at us and abortion clinics and it is not just here in the United States but around the world!

Drag queen story event for kids at NJ college sparks online chaos
NJ 101.5
By Erin Vogt
April 29, 2024

The latest drag queen story hour canceled over polarized views was at a New Jersey community college.

Brookdale Community College had the optional event on its offered schedule for the recent “Bring Your Child to Work Day.”

News of the event was first published by Central Jersey Newswire, which also shared immediate outrage by Monmouth County Republican leaders — including state Senator Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblymembers Gerry Scharfenberger and Vicky Flynn.

Brookdale then canceled the optional event, citing respect for staff members’ "comfort levels."

“As an inclusive community, we understand and respect that parents have the right to decide when and how they want their children to explore diverse ideas. While the Drag Queen read-along was intended to promote inclusivity and acceptance, we recognize and acknowledge the diverse viewpoints within our workforce and have opted to respect the comfort levels of all involved,” according to a statement by Brookdale Community College.

Threats against the LGBTQ+ community are becoming more common at one time it was just protesters out side the event but now the protests have turned to threats of violence.

And the anger has been exported…

The US Is Exporting Anti-LGBTQ Hate Online
Conspiracy theories and misinformation with their roots in the American right are driving global anti-LGBTQ sentiment—and offline violence.
Wired
By Lydia Morrish
June 26, 2023

About once a fortnight, David Ermes gets an email from a journalist or fact checker along the lines of “Boys have to dress up as girls in queer week at school, is it true?” [Um… it was true for me in 1964 for freshman initiation we had to dress up as Space Girls”]

“Of course I can say it’s not true—it isn’t even lawful, since we don’t have school uniforms,” says Ermes, who is head of communications at the ministry of education in Schlewig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state. Over the past year or so he has had to deal with a steady flow of misinformation spread on social media that misrepresents conversations about LGBTQ rights and attempts to “paint a picture of sexualized schools in Germany.” He has dispelled rumors circulating in Hungary of German children being forced into “crossdressing classes” and debunked a viral video in Serbia and Bosnia showing a woman claiming the education ministry demanded boys wear dresses to school or parents be fined. “Even though we want to have educated debate in the public field, it’s getting harder and harder,” he says. “While you would have time to discuss with high-quality information [and] reason, your time is occupied by defending notions of bullshit.”

I would say piratically all of these people who are so violent  against drag has never in their entire life seen a drag show.

LGBTQ+ clubs targeted in San Diego pellet gun attacks
SDPD are investigating the multiple incidences from Saturday morning & also cannot yet confirm whether this was motivated by anti-LGBTQ hate
By LA Blade Digital Staff
May 20, 2024


A spokesperson for the San Diego Police Department said that multiple establishments in the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods that serve LGBTQ+ patrons were targeted by an unknown suspect or suspects in a dark-colored sedan early Saturday morning.

According to the San Diego Police Dept., they received reports of a pellet gun being fired out of a vehicle just after 1 a.m. Saturday morning. As of Sunday evening, the locations police could confirm were shot by the assailant were Rich’s, The Rail, #1 on Fifth Avenue and PECS in the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods.

SDPD confirmed that one of these incidents struck three people outside Rich’s Nightclub and hospitalized one.

[…]

He said it wasn’t the first time Rich has been the target of a crime like this. And he’s confident it won’t be the last.

A man named Abel was also hit with at least five pellets at Rich’s. He said he’s glad everyone is safe.

“It was still scary,” he said. “It was traumatic.”

At The Rail in Hillcrest, Donny Hurry, a security guard told CBS 8 he saw someone shooting out of the car’s back window. The suspect started shooting at him, and he ducked into the building before he realized it wasn’t a real gun.

On the other side of the pond violence against drag queens are also increasing!

Police want to speak to these men after alleged homophobic attack on Drag Queen Story Hour UK founder

Police are appealing for information following an alleged hate crime against the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK.
Pink News
By Amelia Hansford
May 23, 2024

Sebastian Samuel, who performs under the name Aida H Dee, was allegedly attacked in Cardiff on Sunday (19 May), just hours after proposing to his partner.

South Wales Police later confirmed that an assault against a 29-year-old man, near a McDonald’s in the city centre at around 3am, is being treated as a hate crime.

Samuel told PinkNews that, after being subjected to a string of homophobic slurs, he and his fiancé were attacked and he was knocked unconscious.

“This is the night of my anniversary,” he said. “It’s the night I proposed to my boyfriend and I am [sitting] here crying. This is not fair.”

Police have seen CCTV images and are looking to speak to two men in connection with the incident.

In other parts of the world it is even worst!

One-third of the world still criminalises consensual same-sex acts.

More than 30 per cent of the world’s countries still criminalise LGBTQ+ people for engaging in consensual same-sex acts, a new report has revealed.

Pink News

By Sophie Perry

May 28, 2024

ILGA World’s new flagship publication Laws on Us has documented legal developments in all 193 UN member states, several non-UN member entities and a number of sub-national jurisdictions, between January 2023 and April 2024.

“Our communities celebrated important victories during the past two years,” Lucas Ramón Mendos, research manager at ILGA World and Laws on Us’ lead co-author, said ahead of the report’s publication. “And yet, resistance and detraction have materialised almost everywhere.”

Published just ahead of Pride Month, which begins on Saturday (1 June), the report showed that 32 per cent of the world continues to criminalise consensual same-sex acts – including 60 UN member states by law and two more de facto.

The report did, however, note several positive steps taken in various countries.

---

But we are not the only ones the target of violence by right-wing conservatives… they are also going after abortion clinics.

The rise of ‘abortion abolitionists’ targeting women, doctors and Donald Trump
Operation Save America promotes legislation that would pave the way for women to be prosecuted and locked up for having abortions.
NBC News
By Chloe Atkins
May 26, 2024


The group of anti-abortion crusaders showed up outside Hughes STEM High School just before 3 p.m. As students streamed out of the building, the men and women walked after them carrying large cards emblazoned with a picture of a fetus.

“Pre-born children are blessings to be received, not burdens to be destroyed,” read the other side of the literature.

One man took the lead in tracking down the predominantly Black students and handing out the cards. At one point, he spent three minutes talking to a small group of girls.

[…]

“Planned Parenthood is feeding propaganda to these kids,” the head activist, Jason Storms, told her. “We are trying to counter that message.”

So when you teach children about the birds and the bee… its propaganda? When you teach that in nature sometimes it is Adam and Adam, and Eve and Eve who love each other is propaganda?

“You are intentionally killing a human being,” he said in an interview. “That’s the definition of murder.”

That is their opinion other people have their own religious beliefs.

I had an encounter with anti-abortion activist when I visited Planned Parenthood in New Haven on a Saturday morning for a meeting. I had to laugh at them, a 70 year-old trans woman and they are yelling at me “Think of the baby!” “Murderer!”

We Don’t Chose Our Parents

Those of you who use Blogger, have you noticed anything strange with the "Stats?" Normally I get around 4 or 5 hundred hits a day, yesterday number of visits was 17385! But so far in today it is 19775 hits! That is way over a months worth of visits in 12 hours.

What's going on? Has anyone else using Blogger seen a jump in visits?

---

Sometimes we wonder how the heck they can be the children of those parents. Can you imagine being a child of these parents?

Ex-KKK leader’s child comes out as transgender in new memoir

R. Derek Black, the child of Stormfront founder Don Black and a close family friend of David Duke, documents their journey from white nationalism to antiracism.

NBC News

By Matt Lavietes

May 25, 2024

As a child, Black came out to the world as a white nationalist on the syndicated daytime talk program “The Jenny Jones Show” in 1999. Then, while trying to hide their white nationalist credentials as a college student roughly a decade later, Black was outed in a student-run online forum. In 2013, Black came out yet again: In an article published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black condemned white supremacy and their famous family’s ideology and came out as an antiracist.

Now, in the memoir “The Klansman’s Son,” the 35-year-old child of former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black and a close family friend of the notorious former KKK grand wizard David Duke is coming out as transgender.

Wow, can you imagine what it was like being trans and living in the house of White Nationalist?

“You can sort of bury these things, and for a lot of my teenage years, it was often feeling like it wanted to burst through,” Black, who uses they/them and she/her pronouns, told NBC News. “But it was also something that I just didn’t talk about with almost anybody.”

Black learned not to talk about their gender identity, or anything private for that matter, from a young age.

They write in their memoir, released earlier this month, that their father — who founded what is thought to be the internet’s first neo-Nazi website, Stormfront — taught them that the notion of privacy was “absurd.”

That must have been so hard growing up… all you hear are negative messages against you, how you’re damn and going to hell, how you are nothing more than a piece of s**t. That realing must have hurt deeply.

As a college student, they continued to host their morning neo-Nazi radio show, “The Derek Black Show,” in secrecy from their peers. Simultaneously, Black formed close friendships with the same groups of people they regularly targeted on the radio: Jewish people and people of color.

“It just became intolerable,” they said. “I couldn’t manage this sort of split that was going on, and I couldn’t even imagine coming back to campus and having to keep doing it, wondering when the shoe is going to drop, when people were going to find out about me.”

Do you remember Anita Bryant and her Save Our Children Campaign?

Another Pie in the Face for Anita Bryant: Her Granddaughter Is Gay

Sarah Green, who is engaged to marry another woman, spoke about her famously homophobic grandmother on a recent podcast.

The Advocate

By Trudy Ring

July 27, 2021

 

It's most likely Anita Bryant's worst nightmare: Her granddaughter is gay and marrying a woman.

Granddaughter Sarah Green talked about her relationship with the notorious antigay crusader on a recent episode of Slate's podcast One Year, hosted by Josh Levin and focusing on 1977, a year when the nation seemed on the verge of great change.

Bryant, a beauty queen and pop singer, was a spokeswoman for Florida orange growers in the 1970s when she gained new fame with her opposition to gay rights. Miami-Dade County's government adopted an ordinance in 1977 banning employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, making it one of the first municipalities to do so. Bryant, who had testified against the ordinance, was outraged at its passage and led a campaign dubbed "Save Our Children" to persuade voters to repeal it.

Along the way, Bryant became a darling of her fellow conservative Christians and an enemy of gay people and their allies; at one point, an activist threw a pie in her face. Miami-Dade citizens did repeal the ordinance, with over 70 percent voting to do so. The city-county government restored the ordinance in 1998 and added gender identity to it in 2014.

I kind of feel sorry for their parents, all that animosity can back to them like a pie in the face.

We* Serve (Part 2).

On this Memorial Day it is important to remember that there are trans servicemembers who are trans.

Change to policy allows transgender Soldiers to serve openly
Army News Service
By Devon Suits
June 24, 2021

Transgender personnel and individuals with gender dysphoria who can meet the Army's standards for military service can now serve openly in their self-identified gender, according to a new policy approved this month by the Army secretary.

Army directive 2021-22 changes the service’s retention, separation, in-service transition, and medical care standards for transgender personnel and refines entry criteria for individuals with gender dysphoria, following Department of Defense guidance, said Maj. Gen. Douglas F. Stitt, military personnel management director.

"People are the strength of our Army," Stitt said Tuesday. "Our ability to assess and retain qualified personnel provides a more diverse and stronger Army, enhancing readiness.”

A Soldier's gender identity will no longer be a basis for involuntary separation or military discharge, denied reenlistment or continuation of service, or subjected to adverse action or mistreatment, the policy states.

Even though we now can serve in the military remember with a stroke of a pen that right can be taken away. Helath.mil writes in the article, The Impact of Stigma on Transgender Service Members and Readiness

While stigma and barriers to care can impact every member of our society, their effects may be more pronounced amongst historically marginalized groups such as transgender and gender diverse (TGD) service members. The DOD does not maintain data on gender identity, but the 2015 DOD Health Related Behaviors Survey  found that roughly six in every thousand active duty respondents identified as transgender. The most recent HRBS (conducted in 2018) did not report information on gender identity.

A recently published study carried out by researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences considered how stigma and barriers to care may impact TGD service members. They surveyed 177 TGD service members in the active component who were recruited through social media advertisements, flyers posted on military installations, and referrals from other participants. Researchers found that nearly two-thirds of survey respondents experienced at least one stigmatizing interaction in health care settings or encountered a barrier to accessing gender-affirming care. Roughly 60% of respondents reported having trouble accessing transition-related health services. Around 28% of those surveyed reported having a health care professional characterize their gender identity as a mental health issue. Just over 22% of TGD respondents said that they had been referred by their provider to mental health services even when they did not have concerns with their mood. Finally, 13% of respondents said that health care providers had made cruel remarks, ridiculed them, or called them names.2 While referrals to mental health may be perceived as (or may be) stigmatizing, it is important to note that current policy (DHA-PI 6025.21) requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria (a condition typically diagnosed by mental health professionals) before service members are eligible for gender-affirming care. Additionally, methodological issues such as instrumentation and sampling strategy may limit the generalizability of the study findings.

However there are those who don’t want us serving…

Rubio, Banks Introduce Bill to Regulate Transgender Service in U.S. Military

Feb 16, 2023 | Press Releases

Under President Joe Biden, people who identify as transgender or have gender dysphoria can serve openly in the U.S. military. Senator Rubio’s legislation would prohibit any individual with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria from serving in the military, with limited exceptions. The legislation builds on Trump era restrictions that were repealed by the Biden Administration, but adds more stringent requirements and revamps the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) to ensure all service members’ gender markers match their biological sex.
 
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Ensuring Military Readiness Act to regulate transgender service.

    “The military has strict standards for who can and cannot qualify to serve. For example, under President Biden, you can’t serve with a peanut allergy. Biden has turned our military into a woke social experiment. It is a stupid way to go about protecting our nation. We need to spend more time thinking about how to counter threats like China, Russia, and North Korea and less time thinking about pronouns.” – Senator Rubio

All those that want to serve should be able to serve as long as they meet the physical requirements.

*When I say "We" I mean the trans community

We Serve (Part 1)

We’re* Here, And We’re Queer also applies to the military.

Still Serving: ‘Surviving the Silence’ and LGBTQ Representation in the Military
Barbara Brass and Patsy Thompson’s ongoing story is one of love, commitment, and the power of individuals to make change.
Ms Magazine
By CINDY L. ABEL
May 24, 2024

In a film about the lives and service of a military officer and her spouse, Surviving the Silence, Barbara Brass reflected: “We just thought it would be a story of us holding hands, going quietly into the sunset. But it’s not.”

After the Obama administration had ushered in inclusive legislation for LGBTQ military members, the following one threatened to reverse everything. Although retired, Brass and her wife Col. Patsy Thompson were far from finished serving their country. As a now-married and openly lesbian couple, they were admittedly older, but most definitely bolder.

Let’s back up.

The girl who would one day become the Army National Guard chief nurse and play a part in repealing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell military policy was born into a family that took seriously its duty as Americans. During World War II, they paid the price when Thompson’s brother died flying a Navy plane. She decided that, to do her part, she would join the military as soon as she could, and signed up upon graduating nursing school. Her service would span a career in Europe, Central America and the United States.

Her hardest assignment came right before retirement: presiding over a military hearing to discharge her colleague Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer for being a lesbian. Faced with enforcing a policy that she opposed, against a war hero she respected, with a critical need to protect her own secret, she was torn between duty and conscience. Risking her own career, she conducted the trial in way that led to Cammermeyer’s reinstatement via federal court and contributed to the eventual change in military policy.

We are queer and we serve.

I've been out as transgender in the US military for a decade, and I don't have any regrets

• A transgender soldier shared her coming out journey and her experiences over more than a decade in the military.
• Finding support in the queer community and organizations like SPARTA was key to her resilience in tough times.
• She found support, transitioned, and fought to change military policies.

Business Insider
As told to Ella Sherman
May 25, 2024

I didn't think of being trans as an identity or as a social group or as a movement, it was more just experiencing dysphoria and wishing I could be free of it.

Going back as early as six or seven, I remember thinking that I would be a lot better off if I had been a girl like my sisters were.

I know this almost makes me a walking stereotype, and obviously, this isn't the case for everybody, but I felt like I always knew something was wrong, that it wouldn't be wrong if I was more like my sisters.

At the same time, I was trying to do the best I could with what I had in a deeply religious, deeply traditional household.

On this day let us remember all those who gave their lives for our country and they did it in silence, silence of their true-selves, and who we love.

*When I say "We" I mean the trans community

On This Day That We Honor Those Who Gave Their Lives For The Country.

My father on the right when he was stationed at Ft Wright

I was trying to make it non-political but it is very hard with some much at stake this election year.

Do you remember when Trump was president…

• When he said at Arlington National Cemetery in 2017, saying to a father whose son is buried there, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"
• When in November 2018, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France to honor WWI dead due to rain and other world leaders attended WWI memorial events that day despite the weather.
• When also in France that same year, he referred to fallen American soldiers as "losers" and "suckers,"
• When he called military officials "some of the dumbest people" he's ever met and mocked Gen. Mark Milley.
• When he sought to slash disability benefits for veterans and cut budgets for the VA, leading to staffing shortages that impacted veteran care.
• When he want to pull out of NATO.
• When he referred to Putin as a "great guy" and a "terrific person" on multiple occasions.
• When back during the Vietnam War his father got him out of the draft by getting a letter saying that Junior has “Bone Spurs.”

Meanwhile, President Biden had a son in the military who served in Delaware Army National Guard and did a tour duty in the Iraq War.

I wrote today about politics instead of writing about all the service members who made the ultimate sacrifices because I got so feed up listening to Trump berating President Biden on the military! The gall of this man who avoid the draft with a medical exemption. The impudence of this man who called the fallen soldiers who gave their lives on D-Day "losers" and "suckers”  calling out Biden on not being pro military.

Drink Plenty Of Water...

...Except if you work in Florida; they just outlawed heat breaks.

Study details heat risks for workers even as Florida outlaws local heat protections
WMNF
By Jim Saunders
May 13, 2024

After Florida lawmakers this year barred local heat protections for workers, a new study cites “strong and robust evidence that excessive heat increases the frequency of injuries” to workers — with risks, particularly in the South.

The Workers Compensation Research Institute last week released the study, which uses workers’ compensation insurance claims data and temperature data from 2016 to 2021. The study included data from 24 states in the South, Midwest and Northeast.

In part, it found that the probability of work-related accidents increases by 5 percent to 6 percent when maximum daily temperatures top 90 degrees, compared to days when temperatures are 65 degrees to 70 degrees. It also cited a “clear increase” in numbers of days with temperatures over 90 degrees and 100 degrees over a four-decade period.

“It is apparent that excessive heat has become more frequent, and if these trends continue, the result will be more heat exposure for the workforce,” the study said.

The study was released less than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill (HB 433) that includes preventing local governments from requiring heat-exposure protections for workers. The bill, which also will prevent local governments from placing wage requirements on contractors, drew heavy debate during this year’s legislative session and was backed by business groups.

Okay, picture this… you are a roofing contractor, it is 95F out in the blazing sun and you cut out all water breaks because Florida laws says you can. One of your employees passes out from the heat and falls off the roof and dies. OSHA is hopping up and down mad at you for not giving them water and heat breaks… you say the state law doesn’t require you to give breaks but they say federal law does and fines you a million dollars.

The most shameful law Florida passed this year (Opinion)
Sun Sentinel
By Scott Maxwell
May 21, 2024

I’ve often thought that if I were to write a book about modern politics, it would be titled “The Death of Shame.” The reason: We’ve entered an era where many politicians are no longer ashamed of behavior that would humiliate most decent souls.

Still, every once in a while, politicians do something so bad, even they try to hide from their own acts.

This past legislative session, that something was a new law that makes it illegal for Florida counties to guarantee basic workplace safety for outdoor workers who toil in extreme heat — like providing shade and water.

This is the kind of stuff most people would provide for dogs.

We’re talking about water breaks in 100-degree heat. And momentary shade for roofers and farmhands.

A few counties had started talking about mandating such things — around the same time a Parkland farm worker was found dead in a ditch from heat exhaustion.

But Florida businesses — led by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is funded by companies like Publix, U.S. Sugar, Disney and Florida Power & Light — didn’t want to be bothered with new regulations. Even those meant to keep workers safe or even alive.

So their lobbyists pushed a bill that would make such safety rules illegal. Aside from water and shade, the law also bans local rules requiring employers to offer “appropriate first-aid measures or emergency responses related to heat exposure.”

The Republicans bend over backward for businesses; anything they want, they get! 

 So GOP lawmakers dutifully adopted the chamber’s talking points with a goal of distracting the public from what the bill actually said — that local governments can’t guarantee “water consumption,” “cooling measures” or even “appropriate first-aid measures.” Backers instead said they simply wanted to avoid a “patchwork” of different regulations in different cities and counties.

They just conveniently forget federal labor laws. Here is what OSHA has to say…

Employer Responsibilities (OSHA Standard: General Duty Clause)

Under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are required to provide their employees with a place of employment that "is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees." The courts have interpreted OSHA's general duty clause to mean that an employer has a legal obligation to provide a workplace free of conditions or activities that either the employer or industry recognizes as hazardous and that cause, or are likely to cause, death or serious physical harm to employees when there is a feasible method to abate the hazard. This includes heat-related hazards that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.

NIOSH's Recommended Heat Standard

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published criteria for a recommended standard for occupational heat stress. The NIOSH document includes recommendations for employers about how to prevent heat-related illnesses.

Criteria for a Recommended Standard – Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 2016-106, (February 2016).

No matter what the Florida law says, they still have to follow OSHA standards.

NPR wrote,

"This purposeful act of cognitive dissonance is proof that the governor and state Legislature are not acting in the best interests of Floridians, but rather to protect profits for the fossil fuel industry," said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, executive director of the nonprofit Cleo Institute, which advocates for climate change education and engagement.

The Republican party is not a party for the people but rather a party for the uber rich, it is the party for the 1%ers.

Fear!

That is what the Republicans are doing, creating fear in the medical profession to have any trans patients for any treatment not just for Gender Dysphoria but for any medical problems. They see us like we have Leprosy.

Therapists, social workers face scrutiny in Missouri AG investigation of transgender care
Health care professionals and parents of transgender youth are raising concerns about use of private medical records in the statewide probe
Missouri Independent.
By: Annelise Hanshaw
May 24, 2024

A state investigation of the Washington University Transgender Center in St. Louis expanded to include therapists and social workers across the state who work with minors seeking gender-affirming care.

Documents made public as part of various lawsuits show that Attorney General Andrew Bailey has obtained a collection of unredacted and loosely redacted records of transgender children, including a list of patients that received care at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

He is also seeking untethered access to the university’s digital medical records system.
The attorney general’s use of private medical records, and the targeting of therapists and counselors, has interrupted the health care of LGBTQ Missourians and has families worrying about their children’s privacy.

Katy Erker-Lynch, executive director for Missouri LGBTQ advocacy organization PROMO, told The Independent she fears that the pressure will drive health care providers out of the state, especially impacting rural Missourians.

“The attorney general has created a hostile environment for medical providers where they are afraid to stay and practice medicine,” she said.

Can you imagine that you are trans and have a really bad stomach ache, you go to a walk-in clinic and they refuse to treat you because you are trans and the doctors are afraid of getting arrested. While trans people are afraid of going to the healthcare providers because the state may subpoena your medical records.

Kelly Storck, a licensed clinical social worker with a focus on LGBTQ-positive therapy, was interviewed last year and expressed grave concerns about unredacted medical records of minors being in the hands of a state official who has repeatedly opposed gender-affirming care.

When the division contacted Storck for an interview, she hired a lawyer before meeting with the investigator.

During the meeting, she says the investigator had a small stack of unredacted letters Storck had sent the Transgender Center to recommend clients for gender-affirming care.

Big brother is watching you!
 

NC Newsline wrote,

“Laws banning gender-affirming care will have dire consequences for transgender youth,” said Riley, who is a plaintiff in the suit. “We do not need politicians in the exam rooms with us, overriding the decisions of families and their doctors or putting our professional licenses at risk for doing our jobs.

“Instead, providers in North Carolina should be able to provide the highest quality, evidence-based care to their transgender patients, just like we do for our other patients,” Smith said.

Newsline spoke to doctors who work with transgender patients across the state this month about how they’re reacting to the law and what it will mean for their practices and patients. Several declined to comment on the record, citing threats of violence to their practices or their homes from people opposed to their work. Others spoke on the condition they, their hospitals or practices not be directly identified due to both threats of violence and fear of political retaliation from the legislature.

“There’s a lot of confusion and fear right now,” said Katherine Croft, a nurse working in trans health care and board member of the LGBT Center of Raleigh. “It results in a lot of patients not knowing the right thing and maybe getting multiple different answers as to whether they can continue this medically necessary care. And there’s a lot of apprehension for those who were identified as trans earlier, were on track to get care but maybe hadn’t by the [August 1] date.”

The Republicans legislators knew that the laws would create fear in treating trans in both us and the medical professionals and that is exactly what they wanted it to do… create fear.

The Texas Tribune wrote that it is having the same chilling effect in Texas,

 "The reason why I'm leaving Texas is that it's unbearable for me,” Lopez said. “It's so devastating that I just can't bear living in a state where I feel oppressed and where I'm just seeing my patients suffer."

Lopez formerly provided gender-affirming care to trans youth as the director of the GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS) program, which was jointly run by the Children’s Medical Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. By the end of July, she’ll no longer practice at the Dallas hospital and plans to move out of Texas.

The far-right are given each other hi-fives over doctors who treat trans patients but what they ignore is that only a tiny part of their medical practices is for trans patients, the rest are diabetics, people with thyroid disease, and other endocrine diseases. Or they are OB/GYN who are fleeing the state because of anti-trans laws and anti-abortion laws. Many free clinics are closing and as a result breast cancer rates are going up in low income areas because the cancer is not being caught early enough.

The Missouri Independent goes on to write…

People who have received care at the Transgender Center have asked to be notified if their health records are accessed, but many assume some of their information is already in the attorney general’s hands.

[…]

The records investigators had of Storck’s patients included names, something Reed said she redacted before providing to the attorney general.

Big brother is watching you!

All these laws are based fake medical research by right-wing have been pushing out and being gobbled up by the right-wing legislators.

Scientific American write in “Anti-Trans Laws Will Have a Chilling Effect on Medicine”

In 2021 I lost a family member to the mental trauma of transgender discrimination, so I speak from a place of watching someone I love suffer from lack of support. These recent and proposed laws, none of which are grounded in evidence-based medicine, will affect the mental and physical health of adults and children and the families who support them.

[…]

Instead of enacting laws that deny the basic health rights of the trans community—and signal to trans individuals that they are not safe, accepted or supported—policy makers, clinicians and advocates need to work together to create laws that counteract and prevent the health disparities that are exacerbated by the enduring discrimination against this community.

The Republican legislators know that they are misrepresentating the data, that they lack of expertise, and violation of research standards in some reports/documents that have made claims challenging the evidence base for transgender healthcare. They know it but it backs up their dogma so they cite it to the detriment of us and for their far right-wing evangelical base.