Independent News
Teacher Appreciation Week rolls on with freebies and deals for educators
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It’s Teacher Appreciation Day, also known as National Teachers Day, and for teachers throughout the country, it’s a time when they get both the figurative and (in some cases) literal flowers they’ve long been due. The freebies in abundance from businesses offering teachers extra savings this week don’t hurt, either.
RELATED STORY: ‘My son loves school because of her’: There are no words for how wonderful teachers are, but we try
Office Depot and OfficeMax is offering teachers 20% off regularly priced items and 20% back in rewards now through June 25. Staples is gifting teachers free gift boxes, plus 20% back in classroom rewards now through Friday.
And if more classroom supplies aren’t exactly exciting, restaurants are getting in on the fun too. Zaxby’s is offering a buy-one-get-one deal on its Boneless Wings Meal Tuesday for teachers and nurses, being that National Nurses Week starts on Friday.
“We are grateful to all teachers and nurses for the heroic and important work they do every day,” Zaxby’s Chief Marketing Officer Joel Bulger said in a news release. “In a show of appreciation to them, we want to serve up an extra order of our delicious wings as a way to show our gratitude.
“Whether you give the second meal to yourself, or share it with your favorite teacher or nurse as a way to say thank you, is entirely up to you.”
Barnes & Noble is gifting teachers free hot or iced coffee with a valid teacher’s ID, and Buffalo Wild Wings is offering educators and other school staff members a 20% discount when dining in or picking up orders, USA Today reports.
If you’ve already taken to Google in your search for deals, you also probably noticed a special Teacher Appreciation Day Doodle on Tuesday.
Google is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day with a special Doodle Tuesday.
“Today’s Doodle honors all the resilient teachers who have worked tirelessly to shape our future generations,” Google said in a post. “Teachers today wear so many different hats—they are community builders, mentors, mediators, and even tech support for virtual and in-person learners.
“Finding innovative ways to connect with, motivate, and inspire students in this ever-changing environment, educators are going above and beyond to empower every student. ”
Artist Erich Nagler, who created the artwork said in the Google post that he was inspired by educators awarded the 2022 State Teachers of the Year honor.
He said:
“Teachers have guided, challenged, and encouraged me all throughout my journey, and my art teachers especially.
It was a treat to meet with such a passionate and insightful group of teachers as part of the Doodle development process. The State Teachers of the Year shared overarching themes of their roles and specific examples from their classrooms to inform the Doodle illustration. They even took pencil to paper themselves to sketch their ideas for what the artwork could look like. One quote from our brainstorm that stuck with me was, ‘Teachers empower students with tools to share their ideas.’ So I tried to create a still-life of all these various tools of learning around the teacher’s desk and chalkboard.
I hope that teachers who see this Doodle feel recognized and appreciated, and I hope that the Doodle might encourage more people to take up teaching in their own communities.”
Do you know of any great freebies or offers for educators this week? Share them in the comments!
RELATED STORY: Support teachers and Black-owned businesses with these gift ideas
Migrants unlawfully detained by Greg Abbott sue in federal court, seek $5 million in damages
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Right-wing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s taxpayer-funded border stunt that has illegally detained asylum-seekers for weeks and months at a time with no official charges is facing its first legal challenge at the federal level. While migrants targeted under Abbott’s racist Operation Lone Star scheme have previously sued at the state level, a lawsuit filed this week “appears to be the first time attorneys are opposing it in federal court,” The Texas Tribune reports. Plaintiffs targeted by Abbott are also seeking $5 million in damages.
“Under the guise of state criminal trespass law but with the explicit, stated goal of punishing migrants based on their immigration status, Texas officials are targeting migrants,” the lawsuit states. “Hundreds of those arrested have waited in jail for weeks or months without a lawyer, or without charges, or without bond, or without a legitimate detention hold or without a court date.”
RELATED STORY: ‘Fuels the flames of racist, anti-immigrant sentiment’: Coalition urges DOJ probe into Texas scheme
Advocates have been ringing the alarm about Abbott violating state law by jailing migrants without any formal changes since at least the fall. Many of those illegally detained were subsequently released by a court, where legal advocates had challenged “widespread violations of state law and constitutional rights to due process,” The Texas Tribune reported in September. But a shameless Abbott has only continued to illegally detain people.
”Under the program, [Texas Department of Public Safety] officers collaborate with the Texas National Guard and county sheriff’s offices to arrest Black and brown migrants on state misdemeanor criminal trespass charges,” the filing said. Some migrants who have faced trespassing charges have then seen those charges dropped, after they revealed officers zip-tied their hands, forced them to climb 10-foot-fencing onto private property, and then arrested them for trespassing.
“Virtually all of those arrested on trespass charges are Black or brown, the overwhelming majority of whom are Latino, and virtually all of those arrested are migrants,” the filing continued. “State troopers’ affidavits evidence racial profiling: they describe observing groups of ‘undocumented migrants’ and note Latino ethnicity as apparently relevant to arrest.”
A participating county named in the filing, Kinney County, was also listed in a Title VI discrimination complaint to the Justice Department last year for “undertaking additional efforts to target migrants,” including “repeatedly” seeking to “partner with vigilante actors,” including Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Daily Kos’ Dave Neiwert also noted last year that Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe is “a 30-year Border Patrol veteran who keeps Donald Trump stickers on his desk.”
The lawsuit warns that without intervention, Texas plans to continue terrorizing Black and brown migrants through this racist program for several more years (or at least until a Republican is president again). State GOP officials just raided federal coronavirus funds in order to keep the operation funded, ballooning the scheme by another $500 million.
“The program is set up to continue for years, and state officials have repeatedly stated and followed through on expanding it beyond Val Verde and Kinney Counties to other counties in Texas,” the lawsuit said. We have already seen how Republicans have copied forced birth bills and anti-LGBTQ bills from state legislature to state legislature.“Absent federal intervention, it provides a blueprint for other Texas localities and other states to join in similar use of the criminal system to discriminate against Black and brown migrants and seek to effectuate a separate, punitive state immigration system.”
RELATED STORIES: This court ruling could begin to dismantle Greg Abbott’s racist border scheme, legal advocates say
Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border stunt balloons by another $500 million
Dozens of soldiers deployed under Abbott’s border scheme were sent to ranches owned by rich Texans
QAnon theorist, Trump supporter wins Republican primary in Ohio
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Each passing day is reminding us how important elections are on every level. Despite being new to politics and having several negative press pieces about him, a Trump-supporting, QAnon-affiliated Republican won the Republican primary for Ohio’s 9th district on Tuesday. Identified as J.R. Majewski, the vocal Trump supporter not only made headlines for painting a banner across his yard in support of Trump, but also for gloating about attending the Capitol riots.
Despite his lack of experience in politics, he was able to beat his opponents for the Republican nomination, including two previously elected to the state legislature, with 36% of the vote, The New York Times reported. He will now face Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Cleveland, in the general election.
According to the American Independent, Majewski has several “political liabilities.” After painting a pro-Trump mural on his lawn prior to the 2020 election Majewski bragged about attending the Capitol Riots and how he broke into the building and attacked law enforcement officials. Media Matters reported he even helped organize travel for a group of Trump supporters to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally that occurred moments from the attack.
But that’s not all, of course. He is also a supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories and is not ashamed of it. During an interview with Fox & Friends about the Trump sign he painted in his yard, he wore a QAnon-supporting shirt. According to Media Matters, he also uses QAnon phrases in his social media posts, alongside hashtags affiliated with QAnon conspiracy theories, including #WWG1WGA, #thegreatawakeningworldwide, and #qanon.
The outlet added that he is closely linked to RedPill78, a well-known QAnon influencer who has been banned from multiple major social media platforms. Together, the two reportedly hosted “MAGA Meetups” online and on-site.
Majewski did attempt to distance himself from his support for QAnon when announcing his campaign, but his claims that he has “never read any QAnon drop” were debunked by Media Matters.
According to The Times, Majewski portrays himself as “the America First candidate” and has received support from Trump himself. His campaign website says he served in the U.S. Air Force for several years and has also had a career in the nuclear industry. Among his campaign priorities, he says he is passionately against abortion rights.
Although he identifies as a Republican, he also likes to shit on them. “The Republican Party is raunch with lifetime politicians who are spineless and seek to serve themselves and the members of their exclusive ‘club.’ We must fight to eradicate those within our party that seek to destroy it. We must hold them accountable to our Conservative principles and call them out when they cease to deliver,” a message on his website reads.
The list of red flags Majewski has are endless. Not only does he refer to himself as a Trump surrogate, but he even went as far as to make a “music video” of himself rapping “let’s go, Brandon,” a phrase Republicans were using in a sly attempt to tell Biden to go fuck himself.
After the results were announced Tuesday, Democrats noted the extreme views Majewski shares and how dangerous it would be to have him elected.
Majewski is clearly not good news. Every vote in Ohio is going to count.
‘I chose to have an abortion,’ New York AG tells pro-choice protesters: ‘I make no apologies’
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New York Attorney General Letitia James gave a rousing speech at a pro-choice rally in Manhattan Tuesday. She candidly shared with the crowd her personal experience terminating a pregnancy and told protesters she made “no apologies” for her decision.
“I’m here to say we will not go backward; back into those days when we used wire hangers. Not now, not ever,” James said. She added: “The right to control our bodies is a fundamental right enshrined in the 14th Amendment. And if they go after this right, who’s next?”
Crowds gathered to denounce the recently leaked draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, indicating that the Court would reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
RELATED STORY: Newsmax host has the caucasity to accuse Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of leaking Alito opinion
In 2013, James, 63, was elected the public advocate for the City of New York—the first woman of color to hold citywide office. A Democrat, she became the 67th attorney general for the state in 2018, making her the first woman and first woman of color to hold the office.
“As a former city council member, many moons ago, I came to this issue in a very personal way. I was in this place, I was just elected, and I was faced with a decision about whether to have an abortion or not. And I chose to have an abortion and I walked proudly into Planned Parenthood,” James said.
“And I make no apologies to anyone. To no one. And all of you also know that I am a woman of faith, I go to church. But my God teaches me all about love and acceptance. And my God teaches me about privacy. And my God says that you’ve got to make the best decisions for your body and your life,” she added.
The Associated Press reports that James has advocated for funding to help underwrite abortion care for people who need it, and recently joined other attorneys general in filing briefs against states with restrictive abortion laws in place.
“I will not allow Justice Alito or any other judge on the Supreme Court to dictate to me or to you how to use your body. I will not allow Justice Alito to dictate to me my future, my destiny. It is not in the hands of the United States Supreme Court, it’s in our hands,” James said.
The 98-page draft opinion is a defiant indictment of the 1973 ruling promising federal protections for abortion. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
If all that isn’t enough, Alito pivots to the white savior role, actually attempting to argue that the removal of reproductive rights somehow aligns with a fight against racism—even citing the same misrepresented statistics used by pro-choice activists advocating for eugenics.
In another passage, Alito writes that societal norms around pregnancy when parents aren’t married “have changed drastically” since Roe v. Wade was enacted and argues there’s now a higher demand for adoption.
Adoption numbers are actually declining. Creating a Family reports that the number of children adopted via public child welfare was 57,881 in 2020.
Good news for many immigrants: Biden admin increases extension period for expiring work permits
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Potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are facing expiring work permits, or whose work permits have recently expired, can continue to use this documentation for a period of up to nearly 18 months, the Biden administration announced this week.
While many immigrants receive an automatic 180-day extension when their work permits expire, immense immigration backlogs have still put some out of work. Under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) change announced on Tuesday, the automatic extension period will now be lengthened to up to 540 days.
RELATED STORY: USCIS announces new measures to help reduce huge backlog
“As USCIS works to address pending [Employment Authorization Documents] caseloads, the agency has determined that the current 180-day automatic extension for employment authorization is currently insufficient,” USCIS Director Ur Jaddou said. “This temporary rule will provide those noncitizens otherwise eligible for the automatic extension an opportunity to maintain employment and provide critical support for their families, while avoiding further disruption for U.S. employers.”
What can Biden do? listen to immigration activist Juan Escalante on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast
The new policy should aid asylum-seekers like Biraj Nepal and their employers. He told Vox in February that he had to take an unpaid leave from his job of four years because USCIS hadn’t yet processed his renewal. “It only takes about 12 minutes for an official to review an application for a work permit, but an overstretched USCIS still hasn’t been able to keep up,” the report said. Nepal called the delays “a critical situation.”
“I’m in a financial crisis,” he said in the report. “We are being punished by the government without doing any crime.”
The Migration Policy Institute said that USCIS’ backlog “has surged from 5.7 million applications at the end of FY 2019 to about 9.5 million as of February,” worsened by both the previous administration’s anti-immigrant hatred and the pandemic. USCIS is an agency that helps facilitate legal immigration, so of course the insurrectionist Trump administration was determined to burn it to the ground. It also saw COVID-19 as a way to aid that effort.
The current administration said the lengthened extension for some “will allow USCIS an opportunity to address staffing shortages, implement additional efficiencies, and meet Director Jaddou’s recently announced goal of achieving a three-month cycle time for EAD applications (generally comparable to a median three-month processing time) by the end of FY23.”
The change goes into effect today, May 4. In a related change, the administration announced last summer that it was expanding access to work permits for some immigrants who are in the process of applying for a U-visa, which aids the undocumented victims of crime who work with law enforcement. Because of bureaucratic delays, applicants had also faced significant waits. Dream Big Nevada deputy director and U-visa recipient Dulce Valencia called the administration’s expansion of work permits “tremendous news,” citing the long process she endured.
“My U-Visa has been life changing but the process itself took many years. This news renews my faith that times are changing for the better and gives me hope that the hundreds of thousands of immigrants currently waiting will soon be able to benefit from this life changing programs,” she said a the time.
More recently, USCIS said it was also expanding which applications can be more quickly processed for an additional fee (though the higher costs may shut out lower-income immigrants).
RELATED STORIES:
Advocacy groups outline how President Biden can protect immigrant families on his own
Biden administration readies new policy intended to speed up asylum process
Matt Gaetz calls women upset about Roe reversal 'over-educated, under-loved millennials'
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Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is currently under investigation for having sex with a 17-year-old girl, has big thoughts on women who are upset about Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court.
Good time to remember that Matt Gaetz was also “the only member of Congress to vote against a law boosting the government’s human trafficking investigatory powers” in 2017.
Gaetz seems to be doing little more than using his soapbox to try out for a future media gig and using his power as a congressman to belittle women. Republicans like him seem to think their full-time job is trolling the libz, which is far easier to do than coming up with actual policy ideas around pressing issues like climate change, health care, and election integrity.
Needless to say, there were a number of stinging responses on Twitter.
Now that we know Republicans are launching a full-scale assault on abortion rights, are you more motivated to organize and donate to Democrats as we head toward the November midterms?
Ukraine update: Russia tries to counter Ukraine's counterattack … and fails
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At this morning’s press event at the U.S. Department of Defense, Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Hilbert quoted Ukrainian sources in saying that, “The worst thing the Russians did was give us eight years to prepare.” During that time, Ukrainian forces worked closely with the American military, including seeing numerous National Guard forces who spent extensive time in Ukraine training and working with the military there.
Through that association, the Ukrainian military took the U.S. focus on training (and training, and more training) “strongly to heart.” Ukrainian forces also saw something in the way U.S. forces were structured—especially something that kos has talked about several times, the value of non-commissioned officers.
Russia continued a top heavy command layout, based their strategy around an army of untrained conscripts, and reshaped their military structure around small, fragile battalion tactical groups. Ukraine implemented a program to insert and retain NCOs, doubled down on training that included training on complex strategies, and beefed up their brigade structure to improve redundancy and strength in depth.
All of that took time, which is why Ukrainian officials are glad that this invasion, if it had to come, came in 2022, not 2016, or 2018. There is no good time for a war, but the interval between Russia’s first and second advantage was time Ukraine spent preparing themselves at every level to do what they’re doing right now.
At the afternoon session, reporters expressed concern about the missiles that Russia has been firing into western Ukraine, including at cities that had previously been spared bombardment. Many of those missiles have been directed at electrical substations, at rail infrastructure, and at factories connected with Ukraine’s defense. The Pentagon agrees that the intention of these missiles is to disrupt the flow of weapons entering the country and decrease Ukraine’s ability to “replenish and reinforce” their positions. On Tuesday, two of the missiles fired were reportedly the high speed Kalibr missiles launched from a Russian ship in the Black Sea.
The missile attacks are continuing on Wednesday. The total number of missiles Russia has launched since the invasion began is now over 2,300.
However, the U.S. notes that Russia still has a poor record when it comes to precisely hitting targets, that Russia’s “ability to target with precision has been less than advertised”, and they’ve had a lack of accuracy over the last 70 days. Without giving details, the spokesperson hinted that Russia may still not be making contact with the targets it really wants to hit.
Though they would not give any numbers to tie it down, the DOD insists that Ukraine is still seeing new weapons and supplies come into the country at “an incredible pace” and that those weapons are still reaching the front on a timely basis. The Pentagon also indicated that some of the U.S. M777 howitzers sent to Ukraine are now in use.
Also in the afternoon session, the Pentagon noted that both Army and National Guard units were involved with training Ukrainian forces in Germany (along with possible use of Air Force units to train on the new Phoenix Ghost, details of which are still obscure). While discussing this, the Pentagon stated that Ukrainian forces had also been trained on the use of “unmanned surface vessels” — in other words, drone ships.
Finally, while assessing that Russia is not making the progress that they want, the Pentagon said it believes Russia is still having problems with command, unit coordination, unit cohesion, and morale. Even so, Russia still has “a lot of firepower left to them to continue this fight. This could be a prolonged battle in the Donbas.”
That remark matches some coming from of Ukrainian officials this week, who appear to be warning their nation to prepare for an extended war.
Kharkiv
For the last week, Ukrainian forces have been conducting a steady counterattack in the area north and east of Kharkiv. At the start of this offensive, Russian forces were right on the boundaries of the city, but Ukraine pushed those forces out of the suburbs, out of the nearby towns, and back through a series of villages to open a 40 km (25 mile) corridor around the battered city. The Ukrainian counterattack took them into Staryi Saltiv earlier in the week and has largely cleared forces east of the city to the Siverskyi Donets River.
Ukraine’s attempts to clear Russian forces, which apparently include a lot of Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) militia, hasn’t gone off without a hitch. On Monday, Ukrainian forces attempting to enter the town of Kozacha Lopan ran into stiff resistance, losing several vehicles in the process. However, Ukrainian forces remain just a short distance away, but at the moment the biggest area of combat seems to be over on the east end of this line — where it seems, as of Wednesday evening, Ukraine has succeeded in driving Russian forces completely from Staryi Saltiv. There are also some statements that Ukraine has taken the town of Shestakove, which would go a long way to clear the main road between Staryi Saltiv and Kharkiv, but this is currently unconfirmed.
However, also on Wednesday, Russia apparently attempted to counter-counterattack. The location isn’t clear, though it seems to be back at the northwest end of the area, once again near that town of Kozacha Lopan, where Ukrainian forces were pushed back earlier. However, Russia’s attempt to recapture territory from Ukraine in this area has reportedly failed.
How Russian tanks are dictated by Russian strategy, and vice versa
As of Wednesday, Oryx is reporting more than 3,400 pieces of Russian equipment that have been lost. Over 600 of those are lost tanks, and a huge chunk of those is some form of T-72. Just as with the structure of their army, the nature of their tanks is defined by the expectation of Russian leaderships. And then the nature of what the army can do, is defined by those tanks.
“The biggest advantage with the T-72 is also its biggest weakness. Because this vehicle was designed to be used by a conscript army. So it’s easy to operate. But that’s also its biggest weakness, because a conscript army cannot pull off sophisticated tank tactics. It’s supposed to be easy to maintain, but that’s not the case if all of your corrupt generals are stealing the funds that are meant to be used for maintaining the vehicles.”
Amazon. Google. Coca-Cola. These are some of the companies that funded the end of Roe v. Wade
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At the always-valuable Popular Information, Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby present a list of just 13 companies that have forked over $15 million to Republican committees during and after the Trump era, thus becoming prime funders of the party’s anti-abortion stances (oh, and also that whole attempting to end United States democracy thing.) The word “prime” is chosen deliberately here, because yup: Good ol’ Amazon is among them, responsible for nearly $1 million in donations.
Amazon and other companies have been eager to distance themselves from the end of Roe, since they haven’t forked over cash to make Ron DeSantis president yet and so Ron hasn’t been able to pass new nationwide laws punishing them for doing so. But the talk is empty, and the donations are big. The money trail tracked by Popular Information doesn’t count any of the companies’ individual PAC contributions—it’s just donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republican State Leadership Committee, and Republican Governors Association, the party’s tools for propping up whatever political grotesqueries the party most wants to inflict on the rest of us.
It’s doubtful that any of the companies are shelling out million-dollar donations to the Republican Governors Association and other Republican groups because they care, even in the slightest bit, about what happens to abortion laws in this country. The dynamic at play is the exact same one that causes these corporate giants to continue shelling out campaign cash to the seditionists responsible for an attempted American coup. They want tax breaks, they want loopholes, they want laws written that protect their captured markets from new competition, they want federal services and consumer protection laws neutered and reworked so that consumers have to pay a higher percentage of their incomes to them, specifically.
If it means donating to traitors or to politicians that look to undermine every civil right Americans think they have, these companies are all for doing it. They’ll put out a press release claiming to be sad about it—and keep lobbying to make sure that no matter how many rights go away or how threatened our elections might become, the new fascists still give their company special treatment.
So let’s take a look at some of the top companies to fund the death of Roe v. Wade. Let’s take a long look.
Amazon: The company responsible for Jeff Bezos now owning both The Washington Post and his own private space program is trying very hard to pretend they had nothing to do with this, despite the company being infamous for its exploitation of workers (to the point of creating real on-the-job threats to worker health) and for its very aggressive efforts to keep government from doing anything about it.
The company was lightning quick to announce, after the Supreme Court leak, that it would pay “up to $4000 in travel expenses annually” for employees that need to flee across state lines to get medical treatments that might soon become illegal in the conservative states it operates from. It will not surprise you to learn that this promise turned out to be somewhat bullshit: The policy excludes part-time warehouse workers and Amazon’s 115,000 delivery drivers that have been put most at risk here. Like other companies, Amazon relies on “contractor” status to dodge labor requirements for large chunks of its workforce, and those Amazon is leaving out get to suck it up and learn to live in the America Amazon helped create as best they can.
Do you think Amazon will be offering paid maternity leave to all the employees that will soon have abortion rights stripped from them? Will Amazon be picking up the tab for warehouse workers that have to travel through multiple states, risking being caught by “bounty” hunters, to end an ectopic pregnancy that would assuredly kill them? Of course it won’t. That’s the whole point of quashing unionization while slathering pro-coup and anti-rights politicians with campaign cash; keep costs low, and screw every American who isn’t on the corporate board. It’s why even after Amazon pledged to stop supporting pro-coup lawmakers, their lobbyists kept right on doing it.
AT&T: I once worked in a consulting capacity for the company that would soon metastasize back into AT&T, thanks to our government’s post-Reagan love for corporate monopolies, and would like to put a small word in here to assure you that no matter how much contempt you might have for this Texas-based den of all possible evils, it ain’t enough. AT&T shelled out nearly $1.5 million to the Republican committees working to enable fascism, strip voting rights, and implement theocratic edicts based on whatever Sam Alito’s personal version of God turns out to be on any given day. They’re in Texas because Texas lets them get away with more exploitation and crookery than other states. It’s not an accident.
AT&T is basically the devil’s personal telecommunications service. Its cell services will not give you cancer, but I guarantee you that it’s only because the AT&T board couldn’t figure out how to make it happen. I’m sure they tried real hard on that, though.
Verizon and T-Mobile and Comcast are also big anti-abortion spenders, because the United States telecom monopolies cannot exist without being evil. If they weren’t pro-fascism, or anti-rights, you wouldn’t have crappier internet service than the rest of the developed world for higher prices and it wouldn’t come with the Tucker Carlson White Nationalist Network preinstalled whether you want it or not.
Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola, what the hell are you doing? What taste-testing groups have you been dealing with that sipped one of your flavored sugar syrups and grunted, “It’s okay, but it’d taste better if it tasted like fascism and domestic abuse.”
Food giant Coca-Cola has been one of the biggest wallets for Republicans’ anti-abortion, anti-voting and pro-coup committees, throwing $2.6 million at them while simultaneously promoting themselves as the company of “empowerment” and “equality.” And what do they get out of this deal? What do they get out of curtailing abortion rights?
Is this a “you get to make it illegal for American women to get abortions, but in exchange we want you to stop talking about diabetes” thing? Explain this to me like I’m 12, Coca-Cola. What’s your angle here?
Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo somehow still exists despite being seemingly caught up in every financial scandal that anyone in Wall Street has cooked up since before the Great Recession. How is it possible that this company still remains upright? Why did the federal government not burn this place down and salt the ground rather than prop it up during the financial collapse so that it could go on to defraud its customers again? How the hell does this company still have a half-million dollars to throw toward pro-fascist causes to begin with?
Do not go anywhere near these crooks. If you have an account there, why? After all of the crookedness that Wells Fargo has gotten caught in, you’d be safer keeping your money buried in the backyard. Oh, but you won’t get interest, say anti-money-burying interest groups. Where have you been? When was the last decade your personal savings or checking account gave you more than five bucks in “interest,” after subtracting fees and add-ons and the new “protection” services that your bank added to your bills without your knowledge or consent? What did you spend all that interest on? A pack of gum? The biggest investment needed for burying money in the backyard is a gopher-proof box, which is an absolute necessity, and don’t skimp on that. Banking with Wells Fargo is like putting all your money in Bitcoin, if there was a special Bitcoin clause that said if prices go up some guy named Steve gets to keep all the money and you’ll get a bill for however much it costs to hand-deliver it to him.
Walmart: $1.1 million from the company that perfected a system of exploiting their workers so egregiously that they got government breaks twice. Not content with merely getting the tax breaks that all of America’s richest families and companies get, Walmart engineered their empire so that their frequently impoverished workers would be propped up by federal food stamps programs rather than anything pretending at a living wage. Another company that seems to pride itself on cruelty for cruelty’s sake, there has never been even a slight chance that they wouldn’t support a fascist takeover of America. Walmart is hoping Alito has it in him to reintroduce chattel slavery, and won’t be taking any questions on such trivialities as “supporting a coup” or “ending basic civil rights.”
Who else we got here? Ah, yes, $2.4 million from GM. They’re probably hoping the end of abortion will mean a new supply of fresh abandoned babies they can stuff behind your car’s interior panels to help dampen road noise. Citi is a cipher of a company, a giant behemoth that seems to have no greater purpose than to be the front for a James Bond villain’s private death ray construction efforts. Google long ago gave up on “don’t be evil,” but their half-million in anti-abortion, anti-voting-rights, pro-coup donations suggest that they can’t even handle “don’t overthrow democracy.”
And then there’s CVS and Walgreens, two companies responsible for distributing America’s overpriced and over-marketed drugs. Why are these two companies anti-abortion? What’s with that? What, are they looking to hike up the prices of baby formula now?
RELATED LINKS:
Alito cites racist eugenics theory to support overturn of Roe v. Wade
Texas provides a chilling glimpse into our post-Roe future
From contraception to LGBTQ rights—Alito’s draft opinion on Roe opens the floodgates
If you haven’t already, turn that anger over Roe (and all the other GOP crap) into activism
How can anyone argue about sports when trans youth are literally dying?
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Republicans have long wanted to stomp out the LGBTQ+ community, and between their failures to lead amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and upcoming midterm elections, conservatives have turned to anti-trans rhetoric as their latest rallying cry. Conservatives, in particular, have latched on to a number of anti-trans positions in an attempt to normalize hate and discrimination against an already marginalized population. We’ve covered, for example, Republican attempts to ban access to safe, gender-affirming health care, as well as to prevent trans girls and women from participating in girls’ sports. Republicans are still trying to keep trans folks out of the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, too.
Trans adults face discrimination and lack fair protections in a number of areas, including housing and employment, and sadly, trans youth also report high levels of abuse and discrimination. Trans youth are more likely than their peers to leave high school without a diploma, become homeless, and, as has been researched again and again, more likely to live with suicidal ideation. Trans and nonbinary youth of color report especially high risk rates for suicidal ideation and attempts.
With this in mind, let’s dig into some very sobering data from LGBTQ+ nonprofit The Trevor Project on trans mental health and suicide, as highlighted over at CBS News.
RELATED: Lawmakers in 19 states vow to offer legal refuge for trans youth displaced by Republican hate
In The Trevor Project’s latest National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, researchers share results from a survey of nearly 34,000 LGBTQ+ people between the ages of 13 and 24 based in the United States. This survey took place between September 20 and Dec. 31, 2021. Almost half of the respondents to this survey were people of color.
Survey respondents between 13 and 27 were much more likely to consider or attempt suicide than those who were 18 or older, which isn’t terribly surprising but, of course, deeply concerning; trans youth are uniquely vulnerable both at home and at school. Trans youth have to worry about being “outed” to their family or caregivers, for example, and potentially face abuse or become homeless.
They also have to worry about how to navigate school, where each student or peer might react differently to their gender identity (if they know about it at all), and might have to survive a rollercoaster including being deadnamed, misgendered, and forced on to the wrong sports teams. Even just one of these obstacles would be stressful for anyone, much less a build-up.
More than 90% of transgender and nonbinary youth said they’ve worried about being denied access to safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care, as has been pushed by conservatives. More than 90% also said they’ve been concerned about being denied bathroom access based on local or state laws; 83% said they’re worried about trans people being denied access to play sports.
According to researchers, more than 50% of respondents who seriously considered suicide in the past year identify as transgender or nonbinary and are under the age of 18. One-third of respondents who said they’d seriously considered suicide in the past year identified as cisgender. Just under 15% of LGBTQ+ youth said they attempted suicide last year. Put another way, that’s one in 10 cisgender youth and almost one in five trans or nonbinary youth.
Trans boys, trans girls, and nonbinary and genderqueer respondents both considered and attempted suicide at the highest rates of all respondents. In terms of sexual orientation, queer and questioning youth of color, as well as pansexual youth of color, reported high rates of both considering and attempting suicide as well. The highest percentages of suicidal ideation and attempts for LGBTQ+ youth of color came from respondents who are Black, Indigenous, and Middle Eastern or North African.
Now, with all of this in mind, it’s important to remember that LGBTQ+ youth are not inherently more likely to live with mental health struggles or to experience suicidal ideation or attempts. Mental health is (obviously) nuanced, but we can’t ignore that these young people are brought up in a world that, essentially from birth, tells them it’s “right” and “normal” to be cisgender and heterosexual.
More than 60% of LGBTQ+ youth respondents said they didn’t receive the mental health support they needed. Almost 75% of LGBTQ+ youth said they’d experienced anxiety and more than 50% said they’d experienced depression. Trans and nonbinary youth were more likely to live with anxiety, coming in at almost 80%, and were also more likely to report depression symptoms, coming in at 58%.
The main barriers to accessing mental health care, according to respondents, are anxieties about discussing mental health (48%), worries about getting permission from parents (45%), worries about not being taken seriously by the provider (43%), and not being able to afford mental health care (41%). Many LGBTQ+ respondents of color also worried about the cultural competency of the providers.
Between media portrayals of LGBTQ+ people, the hate spewed by Republicans, and, frankly, a considerable lack of education and allyship in the general population, it’s really not surprising that young people would experience fear, anxiety, and depression, especially as conservatives have turned their very existence into political fodder.
What to do? In addition to voting and organizing, simply be explicitly supportive. Survey respondents who said they felt supported by their families, for example, were more than 50% less likely to attempt suicide than participants who said they did not feel supported. More than 50%. Support is (literally) life-saving.
If you or a loved one are struggling, here are five free mental health and suicide prevention resources you can access right now. You can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, 24/7, and always for free.
Cisneros calls out Cuellar as the last anti-abortion Democrat in the House
This post was originally published on this site
Jessica Cisneros, a candidate in the May 24 runoff for a Texas House seat, is asking Democratic leadership to put their principles in action and withdraw their support for incumbent Henry Cuellar, the last forced birther in the House Democratic caucus.
“As the Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade, I am calling on Democratic Party leadership to withdraw their support of Henry Cuellar who is the last anti-choice Democrat in the House,” Cisneros said. “At every turn, my Congressman has stood in opposition to the Democratic Party agenda from being anti-union to being anti-choice. With the House majority on the line, he could very much be the deciding vote on the future of our reproductive rights and we cannot afford to take that risk.”
Support a fantastic progressive and give the last anti-choice House Dem the boot!
“On May 24th, we will defeat the last anti-choice Democrat and South Texas will finally have a representative in their corner that will fight for their health care and freedom,” she continued. “I hope Democratic Party leadership won’t stand in the way of delivering for South Texans. I am ready to work with them to deliver on the Democratic agenda.”
Majority Whip James Clyburn is scheduled to campaign with Cuellar Wednesday night. Clyburn tweeted his condemnation of the Supreme Court Tuesday, after the extremists judges’ draft decision to overturn federally protected abortion rights was leaked. “For 49 years, women have had the constitutional right to make choices about their body,” Clyburn said. “The whole notion of politicians controlling those decisions is beyond the pale. It ought to be alarming to us.” He added “We must fight to reclaim rights that have been lost and defend rights that are in danger.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the leaked decision “monstrous,” and “a sweeping and severe restriction of Americans’ rights.” She added that “by striking down Roe v. Wade, the Court would pave the way for Republicans to obliterate even more of our freedoms.” So, yes, that position is hard to square with her support for Cuellar, the only Democrat to vote against the Women’s Health Protection Act, legislation codifying federal abortion rights.
Cuellar has been a staunch opponent of abortion rights for his entire career, joining with Republicans on every messaging bill restricting abortion they’ve put forward, including the odious and misleading “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” a propaganda effort boosting Donald Trump’s lie that doctors were killing full-term babies at delivery. He was also the only Democrat to break ranks and vote with Republicans in favor of the discriminatory Hyde Amendment during this Congress.
Knowing just how disastrous his opposition to abortion rights could be for his political future with the Supreme Court’s leaked decision dominating headlines, Cuellar issued a cautious statement, trying to thread the needle between his forced birth position and his betrayal of his party. He focused on his religion. “As a lifelong Catholic, I have always been pro-life,” he said. “As a Catholic, I do not support abortion, however we cannot have an outright ban. There must be exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother.”
That’s a big contradiction of his support for the so-called “born alive” bill, and his assertion in this statement that “my faith does not allow me to support extreme positions such as late term or partial birth abortions.” He’s pretending to take a middle ground here, adopting the forced birther canard that abortions occurring late in a pregnancy are anything other than life-saving.
Cuellar is clearly far out of the mainstream of Democrats on this issue. With so much at stake right now and in the face of such a clear and immediate threat, Democrats are going to need every vote they can muster in Congress to protect abortion rights. They’re not going to get it from Cuellar. Protecting and supporting an incumbent is one thing. Betraying half the population is entirely another.