#Democracy is on life support, #DEI brought more equality, but now many programs are gone bc of Republican white nationalists in govt.
Leaders from all of TX’s 7 univ. systems said they've closed multicultural offices, fired or reassigned DEI staff & stopped requiring diversity statements, or letters in which job candidates in academia share their previous efforts to promote diverse learning spaces & help students of all backgrounds succeed.
According to #Trump, #racism is a big problem in America. But not racism against black Americans and other PoC. No, the true victims of racism are white conservatives. If only they could get together and build a society that privileges them over everyone else. One can dream. 🙄
I wrote about American Nazis and what they believe, and the white Christian movement that calls itself "conservative," and the differentiators between the two. Or perhaps I should say, the lack of them.
"I'm reminded today that the #Nazis were defending statues erected in public spaces to honor leaders of the #Confederacy, who were a traitorous gang of #insurrectionists who back in the Sixties (the eighteen sixties) waged a war against their own country, and murdered hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens in order to preserve and expand their practice of enriching themselves by enslaving Black people."
6 Badass Librarians Who Changed History
They will not be shushed.
by April White April 5, 2024
"Librarians have never been a quiet bunch: Information, after all, is power. To mark National Library Week—typically celebrated the second full week of April—Atlas Obscura, fittingly, went into the archives to find our favorite stories of librarians who have fostered cultural movements, protected national secrets, and fought criminals..."
A record number of titles face calls for censorship, by Millie Giles, David Crowther
"...Although the number of affected titles has grown dramatically, as groups increasingly target multiple books at once, overall censorship demands dropped slightly, down 2% to 1,247. Literature concerning race and gender was particularly contested, with autobiographical graphic novel Gender Queer named the most challenged library book of the year.
Public libraries are now the primary battleground for proposed bans: the number of titles targeted for censorship at libraries rose by 92%, compared with 11% at schools. Moreover, librarians now face harsh penalties, including potential fines and imprisonment in several states, for distributing books that are deemed inappropriate..."
Of course by "inappropriate" they mean accurate history about people of color, other faiths, and lgbtq folks. Christianity can't compete.
From The Workers Circle
Jewish Culture for a Just World:
Minority Rule: A Conversation with Ari Berman, author of Give Us the Ballot
A Virtual Event, ALS Provided
Tuesday, April 30, 7:00 – 8:00 PM ET
The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, represented an extreme form of the central danger facing American democracy today: a blatant disregard for the will of the majority...Through voter suppression, election subversion, gerrymandering, dark money, the takeover of the courts, and the whitewashing of history, reactionary white conservatives have strategically entrenched power in the face of massive demographic and political shifts.
All attendees will be automatically entered into a raffle to receive a free copy of Ari’s book. You must be present to claim your book.
Trump said at a "messaging event" in #GrandRapids, #Michigan, "It's a very bad thing happening. It's going to end on the day that I take office, which will be Jan 20."
He lied about the #PublicSafety dangers from #migrants, repeating a favorite term of his "Biden migrant crime."
"The #suburban#housewives actually like Donald #Trump, you know why, because I'm the one who's gonna keep them safe ... If you don't want illegal aliens crawling through your windows & ransacking your drawers, then you must vote for .. the fact that we have to throw crooked Joe Biden out of office.”
#HouseRepublicans urged Schumer to "schedule a trial on the matter expeditiously."
#Schumer & his staff have promised to start the process of swearing senators in as jurors the day after the articles are received in the chamber. Washington Senator Patty Murray, the #Senate President Pro Tempore, will preside over the #Mayorkas#impeachment trial.
The #SupremeCourt on Tues cleared the way for Texas to immediately begin enforcing one of the nation’s harshest immigration laws, which opponents say would disrupt more than a century of #federal control over #international borders.
The divided decision was preliminary & urged a lower court to quickly decide whether to allow the #law to remain in effect while appeals continue. That approach drew dissent from the 3 liberal justices, 2 of whom said the majority was inviting “further #chaos & #crisis in #immigration enforcement.”
“The Court gives a green light to a #law that will upend the longstanding #federal - #state balance of #power & sow #chaos,” wrote Justice SoniaSotomayor, joined by Justice ##KetanjiBrownJackson. They noted that a lower court judge had concluded “that it is likely #unconstitutional.”
#Biden WH blasts #SCOTUS ruling letting Texas #SB4 immigration crackdown law take effect. 'We fundmentally disagree' with the high court's order per the WH PressSec.
"Instead of going after minority voters, the RNC apparently plans to remake itself even more in Trump’s image. As one of the sources put it to The Daily Beast, the tagline might as well be 'Make the RNC White Again.'"
Every now and then I used to do a commentary on a book I was readying over on the dead bird site. I did one on my old instance, which I brought over. I think I'd like to do another one today. I just finished reading How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley. It's the new paperback edition with a new preface, and you can find it here:
If mentioning Hitler annoys you, he does it a lot. But there are other points, too, that I underlined in the book.
Yes, I am one of those heathens that underlines, annotates, stars and exclamation points and even - gasp - dogears page corners of my books. I'm a visual learner. It's how I remember things and can find them later - by recognizing at a glance the pattern of markings on the page I'm looking for.
As always, not everything I underlined is profound or amazing, just things I wanted to think about or remember.