And another day of the GOP embracing American Orbánism, the cultural authoritarian era, OK not wanting to be left behind on abortion, GA not wanting history taught, TX teachers asked to sign ‘non-disparagement’ agreements, Lake Mead plummets, and student loan forgiveness comes to a close:
“The left went from wanting voting rights, a living wage, healthcare, & climate justice in 2008 to wanting those exact things in 2022. The right went from being centrist on those things in 2008 to the Big Lie, banning CRT, and openly promoting white nationalism & Nazism in 2022.” — Qasim Rashid, Esq.
“A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.” -- Desmond Tutu
Deaths
US: 1,020,159 (+385)
World: 6,256,249 (+2822)
Cases
US: 82,954,768 (+66,521)
World: 512,181,416 (+642,402)
Ron DeSantis is Viktor Orbán’s true American disciple. The Florida governor isn’t doing “competent Trumpism.” He’s inventing American Orbánism…‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’…This is not a one-off example. DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán’s governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right’s enemies. Most recently, there was DeSantis’s crackdown on Disney’s special tax exemption; using regulatory powers to punish opposing political speech is one of Orbán’s signature moves. On issues ranging from higher education to social media to gerrymandering, DeSantis has followed a trail blazed by Orbán, turning policy into a tool for targeting outgroups while entrenching his party’s hold on power…DeSantis’s agenda in Florida is evidence that the Republican shift in this direction is continuing, maybe even accelerating. He has shown little interest in moderation or consensus-building instead centering his governing philosophy on using policy to own the libs. While Trump may have been an ideological catalyst for the GOP’s authoritarian lurch, DeSantis is showing how it could actually be implemented in practice. The consequences for democracy in Florida, and America in general, could be dire…For both men, the focus on academia is unsurprising: Universities are places where cultural liberal views flourish, and a forceful conservative agenda should take the fight to them. Conservatives believe state power can and should be wielded to prevent professors from “indoctrinating” students into a left-wing worldview (which doesn’t actually happen)…In such an existential struggle, the old norms of tolerance and limited government need to be adjusted, tailored to a world where the left controls the commanding heights of culture. Since the left can’t be beaten in that realm, government must be seized and wielded in service of a right-wing cultural agenda…That starker view of politics, and the foregrounding of the culture wars it entails, threatens to further undermine the status and security of marginalized groups. It also serves as a vehicle for maintaining and expanding Orbán’s and DeSantis’s own power and influence — at democracy’s expense…Today, the Hungarian political system is best described as a form of “competitive authoritarianism”: a system where leaders do not ban elections or nakedly stuff ballot boxes, but instead hold contests under profoundly unfair background conditions — pervasive state control of the media, for example. By combining repressive tools with a culture-war message that genuinely resonates in Hungary’s conservative countryside, the government can maintain a near-absolute hammerlock on power without needing to resort to the most obvious forms of electoral cheating. This model has been proven effective. Orbán has been in power since 2010 and has won three separate reelection bids — in 2014, 2018, and April 2022 — on an increasingly uneven playing field...In this political context, any diffusion of Hungarian-style culture-war authoritarianism to the state governments is extremely disturbing — potentially accelerating a decade-plus process of democratic decline in Republican-governed states. If DeSantis is in fact creating a blueprint for American Orbánism that Republicans across the country choose to follow, the implications for American democracy could well be disastrous. -- The GOP has fully embraced fascism, and many people are blindly following—just like what happened in Germany.
Welcome to the cultural authoritarianism era. Across the country, local and state politics are beset by transgressions of liberal values. To be clear, I don’t mean progressive values. I mean what might be called capital-L Liberalism, those beliefs in the freedom of the individual and the commitment to tolerance, rights and conscience that are commensurate with a free society. Taken together, the trend in these red states represents a high-water mark of illiberalism in 21st century America. To call this phenomenon merely a new manifestation of the long-ranging culture wars, as so many are, is a mistake. It is no less than cultural authoritarianism, a strategy that has been modeled by the self-proclaimed “illiberal democracy” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and adopted by populist political leaders in Central Europe, South America and Asia, as well. A number of America’s right-wing figures have become open cheerleaders of Orbán’s government and even frequent travelers to Budapest. The term “illiberal democracy” is apt because, as is true in Hungary, the majority of voters in many of these red states have put such illiberals in power. Orbán has proven his case that a hostile approach to ideas and speech he deems unfriendly, as well as to positions on hot-button social issues that don’t conform with conservative Christian values, can be democratically successful — and that, when the nation gives you such a mandate, the rights and dignities of those on the losing end can easily falter...Democracy is a process. And while it’s one that produces winners and losers, liberal democracy is one in which the losers aren’t abused and in which they can be assured that their right to remain and participate in society won’t be abrogated. Today, in state capitals across the country, a spate of illiberalism threatens that security.
Trump allies breach U.S. voting systems in search of 2020 fraud ‘evidence’. Chasing proof of vote-rigging conspiracy theories, Republican officials and activists in eight U.S. locales have plotted to gain illegal access to balloting systems, undermining the security of elections they claim to protect.
Oklahoma House sends Texas-style abortion ban to governor. The Oklahoma House gave final approval on Thursday to a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The bill approved by the GOP-led House on a 68-12 vote without discussion or debate now heads to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is expected to sign it within days. The assault on abortion rights is one of several culture-war issues conservatives in GOP-led states have embraced, like restricting LGBTQ rights, that drive the party’s base in an election year. -- Freedoms are being stripped from all Americans...right before our eyes. Your body. Their choice. A vote for a Republican is a vote to give up freedom. The totalitarian GOP is on a path to crush us all.
Georgia becomes latest U.S. state to ban 'divisive' concepts in teaching about race. The measures are part of movement among conservatives targeting the teaching of critical race theory, an academic theory that looks at structural racism in U.S. institutions that is not generally taught at the elementary or high school level. -- Teaching history is not ‘indoctrination.’ Religion is, though. And hate toward those different than you. Republicans indoctrinate their youth. And they’re aiming to indoctrinate all youth across the country.
More than half of states have banned books as anti-LGBTQ and anti-race education laws spread. School districts in 26 states have banned or opened investigations into more than 1,100 books, according to an April report from PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization that compiled data on such bans from July 2021 to March.
Teachers in Southlake, Texas, asked to sign ‘non-disparagement’ agreements. Officials added a clause to teacher contracts banning them from criticizing the school district. Legal experts say it's a violation of the First Amendment. Seven months after teachers at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, went public with their concerns about an administrator’s advice to balance books on the Holocaust with titles that show “opposing” perspectives, district employees this week discovered that a new clause had been added to their annual employment contracts, listed under the heading: “Non-Disparagement.” “You agree to not disparage, criticize, or defame the District, and its employees or officials, to the media,” it read...“Only a district that is knowingly doing something wrong would choose to silence its entire staff,” one of them wrote in a text message to a reporter on Thursday. -- Texas. Off the rails.
Kansas lawmakers uphold governor’s veto of trans sports ban. One of them, a transgender athlete ban, would have barred transgender women and girls from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. The other would have established a Parental Bill of Rights allowing parents to challenge classroom materials inconsistent with their personal beliefs. The state House of Representatives on Thursday voted to sustain Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 160 – officially titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” – that would have required public schools from the elementary to the university level to designate sports teams by “biological sex,” or a student’s sex assigned at birth. “Compassion wins today.” -- Finally, some good news for a change.
Lake Mead plummets to unprecedented low, exposing original 1971 water intake valve. The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead – the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people – has fallen to an unprecedented low.
Biden taking ‘hard look’ at student loan forgiveness. President Joe Biden said Thursday that he’s “taking a hard look” at canceling additional federal student loan debt and will reach a decision within a month.
Wisconsin investigating 4 cases of unusual hepatitis in children, including one death. Wisconsin is the fourth state to announce that it is investigating cases of liver inflammation, or hepatitis, that doesn't seem to be caused by any of the usual suspects like hepatitis A, B, C or D. Alabama has reported nine cases in its cluster, including two children who needed liver transplants. Illinois has reported three cases, including one that required a liver transplant, and North Carolina says it has two cases that meet that definition.
FDA issues plan to ban menthol in cigarettes, cigars. The U.S. government on Thursday released its long-awaited plan to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, citing the toll on Black smokers and young people. “The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, in a statement.
Suicides put spotlight on how hard it can be for student-athletes to ask for help. Since the beginning of March, three high-profile college student-athletes have died by suicide across the United States. On their fields of play, the three young women projected indestructibility: Katie Meyer as a star goalkeeper on Stanford’s soccer team; Sarah Shulze as a top runner for the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Lauren Bernett as a standout softball player for James Madison University...Feeling like there is too much on their plates, experts say, is not uncommon for student-athletes, who put an enormous amount of pressure on themselves to perform at the highest level, both in their sports and in their academics. It’s a trait that may have motivated them in their sport, they added, but it can lead to unrealistic expectations.
‘Grace and Frankie’ Star June Diane Raphael Wrote Her Character a Spinoff Because “There’s Still a Stigma Around Women Who Don’t Have Children”.
Eli Lilly reports weight losses topping 20 percent with new anti-obesity drug. Eli Lilly said people in the test group who used the drug lost up to roughly 50 pounds, or 22.5 percent of their weight in its first phase 3 global registration trial. The drug is intended for people with obesity or who are overweight with at least one comorbidity, but who do not have diabetes, according to the statement.
The fossils of giant, extinct marine reptiles have been found in an unlikely place: within the high altitudes of the Swiss Alps. The fossils belong to three ichthyosaurs, and they may have been some of the largest animals that ever lived on Earth, according to a new study. The ancient creatures could reach 80 tons and 65 feet (20 meters) in length, rivaling modern sperm whales.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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