DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 18, 2023
Three Headlines From This Morning’s NYTimes:
South Carolina House Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban
Texas Legislature Bans Transgender Medical Care for Children
Montana Governor Signs Total Ban of TikTok in the State.
The New Normal.
Might As Well Add This One:
A federal appeals court on Wednesday seemed prepared to limit access to a key abortion medication first approved more than two decades ago, expressing deep skepticism that the government followed the proper process when it loosened regulations to make the pill more readily available.
A panel of three judges, all of whom have previously supported other types of abortion restrictions, peppered lawyers for the government and the drug manufacturer with questions about why the Food and Drug Administration has allowed mifepristone to be prescribed by a medical professional other than a doctor and sent directly to patients by mail.
At least we have a fading octogenarian leading the charge against these malefactors. We good.
Demographics Presage Rethug Doomsday. Which is why they have to kill democracy before the inevitable occurs:
White voters without a four-year college degree, the indispensable core of the modern GOP coalition, declined in 2022 as a share of both actual and eligible voters, according to a study of Census results by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who specializes in electoral turnout.
McDonald’s finding, provided exclusively to CNN, shows that the 2022 election continued the long-term trend dating back at least to the 1970s of a sustained fall in the share of the votes cast by working-class White voters who once constituted the brawny backbone of the Democratic coalition, but have since become the absolute foundation of Republican campaign fortunes.
McDonald’s “data support what is self-evident: that Trumpism peaked in 2016, and that it leads to a dead end,” says former US Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican. “We saw this in 2018 when Republicans lost the House; we saw it in 2020 when they lost the presidency and the Senate, and we saw it in last year when Republicans were supposed to have big gains in both chambers and [did not]. All of these failures can be attributed to Trumpism. These data just confirm what is visible to the naked eye.”
Brandywine School District Board Ignores Transgender Requests. Board President John Skrobot just never bothered to respond:
“A lot of people know me as what they think would be a female. I know that will definitely cause some issues,” said Roseo, vice president of the Gay Straight Alliance, also referred to as GSA. “Like it really is one of my biggest fears about graduating.”
Like many schools, Concord announces graduates in an alternating male/female pattern at commencement, which advocates of one gown color say further alienates and ostracizes the population of students who do not fit these labels. This had led to students outing themselves or facing harassment from peers and parents.
Principal of Concord High School Mark Meyer and other school staff have expressed their support for students in the GSA, and Meyer has passed their concerns on to district administration, club members said.
After pandemic disruptions, the GSA in October 2021 took the issue to the district school board.
- In email correspondence obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal, Consiglio and the GSA discussed the matter with Kristin Pidgeon, vice president of the Brandywine School District School Board, in Oct. 2021. John Skrobot, president of the board, then responded stating he would share his thoughts on the matter over the weekend. Skrobot did not follow up and stopped replying after this day, the GSA said.
Despite (Concord) Principal Meyer’s advocacy, the decision to move forward with one gown color does not lie in his hands.
Several students and (Concord teacher/advisor) Consiglio claim that during a meeting between the GSA and school board, Skrobot dismissed the adversity LGBTQ youth face.
Consiglio alleged that Skrobot provided a “devil’s advocate” point of view by saying being transgender is a lifelong plight individuals will have to endure, and high school is merely preparation for what they will face throughout their lives, he said.
In other words, ‘Life’s not fair and neither am I’. Time for new leadership for BSD?
What do you want to talk about?
Interesting to note that despite wide spread opposition and several surprising defeats in very red states our little abortion warriors continue to try to drag us back to 1950 as they suffer the outrageous slings and arrows of the real world. So sad! This is Religion In Politics, this is the lesson Europe learned long ago, this is religion as a vehicle to power. Times they are a changin’, gawd and guns or not.
The Florida prof’s study helps explain DeSantis’s anti-college stance. Convince the white folk that college is bad and they’re more likely to grow up to be Rethuglicans.
Education, particularly critical thinking skills, is the enemy of MAGAts everywhere.
i’m ok with the tik tok ban. in fact i think all social media should be banned as it has hurt more people than organized religion has, which i consider to be humanities biggest foe
More reporting on just how ill and frail Sen. Feinstein really is.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/18/feinstein-rocky-return-congress-00097767
My favorite quote: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spoke for many of his colleagues when he said: “She’s been ill and she’s elderly. And I really shouldn’t be talking, actually, because it’s just a difficult situation. … It’s a very hard situation because, let’s face it, when I’m 89 years old I’ll be long dead. Trust me.”