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There’s way too much talk of banning books in the US these days. Now Virginia Republicans are suing Barnes & Noble for selling specific books that there’s Republicans don’t like.
Maybe there’s a way to get them to stop trying to ban these books. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
I try to stay up to date on most of the big, important news. But it’s impossible to stay current on all of it. Thankfully, some news trends are ones I will happily ignore.
On Thursday, Oklahoma passed one of the strictest abortion bans in the US, which will make abortion illegal after fertilization, except for few limited cases.
The push to ban after fertilization is causing some to fear that some contraceptives - such as IUDs, which prevent implantation, not fertilization - could be next. It’s not yet in this bill, but not a stretch to see that coming.
I guess Oklahoma wants to be known for more than just a 79 year old musical.
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Upon losing the Republican primary for re-election, NC Representative Madison Cawthorn released a rant, saying: “The time for gentile politics as usual has come to an end. It’s time for the rise of the new right, it’s time for Dark MAGA to truly take command.”
While it sounds like some awful call to assemble a team of super villains, it seems he’s just speaking to the worse nature of the movement.
Trouble is, the MAGA movement has already assembled a motley crew of some awfulness. So, I’m not sure that we’ll be able to tell the difference.
The Baby Formula shortage is terrible. Raising a baby is tough enough. Democrats want to blame unfettered capitalism. Republicans want to just blame Biden, without real criticisms beyond feeding babies in federal custody (which we must do, legally and morally.) Like most things it’s more complex and many sides are to blame.
The best explanations I’ve seen point to a lack of elasticity in the market due to over consolidation to just 3 mega corporations. One of which shut down its factory due to bacterial contamination. That took out supply, compounded further by the global supply chain issues and a lag in response to surging demand from rising births in 2021.
In modern, global markets we’d add supply from other countries. Unfortunately, Trump signed a US-Mexico-Canada trade deal that grossly limits baby formula imports from Canada (as a favor to those 3 mega corporations). Further, over regulation from the FDA limits imports of baby formula from Europe for silly issues like label requirements. Even going so far as seizing perfectly good, healthy European formula and destroying it.
So, both sides got us into this. It’s going to take both sides to get us out of it. And make sure it doesn’t happen again.
After criticism for his repeated promotion of Replacement Theory - a root cause cited in the Buffalo shooter’s manifesto - Tucker Carlson unsurprisingly turned criticism into oppression and doubled down on his awfulness.
Cuz that’s his view of free speech: he can say whatever he wants, but any criticism is somehow oppressing his rights to free speech. Ignoring that it’s our free speech to say how destructive he is and that he has a moral liability from spreading his conspiracy theories and hate. He’s a mouthpiece for destruction.
Into the multi-verse. Cuz this one seems to have plenty of madness.
There’s a surge in Banning Books in schools, many being banned for having LGBTQ+ content.
If reading books changed someone’s sexual identity or gender identity, don’t you think all the books (let alone movies, tv shows, etc) that LGBTQ people have read over the years would have turned them straight?
But instead, people give in to fear, hatred, and bigotry of how some people live, or whom they love, and decide to ban books. Even Judy Blume.
The Buffalo shooter left a “manifesto” claiming hoods actions were motivated by The Great Replacement, a racist conspiracy theory that claims whites in America are being deliberately replaced by people of color.
Great Replacement messaging is prominent on Tucker Carlson and other Fox News shows, and repeated by several high profile Republicans congress people.
And now it’s leasing directly to the death of innocent Americans.
We must push back against this racist rhetoric.
This one is dedicated to the scruffy guy in my neighborhood who watches his dog poop in everyone’s yard and never picks it up. Yeah, dude, you know who you are.
For so many issues, Congress is deadlocked, unable to act, even to protect our children. But when there’s a vague, potential threat to the powerful, they sure do act quickly.
Wondering whom they really serve?
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Maybe someday we’ll actually appreciate teachers for what they really give society, instead of the constant pressure, under-resourcing, criticism, and the latest accusations of “grooming.”
With yesterday’s leaked Supreme Court opinion re: Roe v Wade, who could have seen this coming, other than all the people who saw this coming??
A leaked opinion shows the Supreme Court is set to reverse 49 years of precedence and overturn Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for a woman’s right to choose and setting off a firestorm of legislation across every state.
Buckle up. It’s going to be a state-by-state fight. Elections matter.
I think Twitter will change under the ownership of Elon Musk and the cult of personality that follows him. But the changes might not be what people are thinking.
Yep, today in Alabama is Confederate Memorial Day. It’s recognized tomorrow in Florida. Mississippi and South Carolina also have official state holidays for it (maybe on different days), while it’s commemorated in Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
In Alabama, several state agencies will be closed today for the holiday. Schools will be open, though, so they could still teach why it’s celebrated and address why that might affect Black people living in the state. Except Alabama has just signed a bill against teaching any “divisive topics” in K-12 schools, yet another vaguely defined bill that will punish teachers found in violation of loose and subjective legal language. So, unlikely most teachers would try to address it.
Maybe it’s just me, but a holiday celebrating a failed, armed rebellion driven largely by the desire to keep people enslaved seems pretty divisive.
They’re getting too many handbaskets down there.
One of the more disheartening political realities is the mainstreaming of Q Anon into one of the two major political parties of the US. Yes, the lines about pedophiles go back further to antisemitic and homophonic movements. But the recent surge of legislation is rooted in the Q Anon conspiracies about child trafficking and such that led to false stories like Pizzagate.
Each time you hear a politician pumping talking points about groomers and pedophiles you can hear them mainlining the repeatedly debunked conspiracies from Q Anon.
It’s scary.
