In spite of some revisions, the bill’s many critics have warned that KOSA would dangerously sanitize the internet, empower censorship and isolate young LGBTQ people in the process. Security, privacy and free press advocates have also called attention to the bill’s potential threat to encryption. The bill was revised last year in response to some criticisms, but many concerns persist.
However the claim that KOSA is “reasonable,” “impactful,” “tailored,” or “thoughtful” is just grade-A bullshit. The law is a total mess, and will do real harm to kids beyond just being obviously unconstitutional. As we’ve pointed out multiple times, GOP support for the bill is because they know it will be used to censor LGBTQ content. The GOP’s leading “think tank,” the Heritage Foundation has publicly supported the bill because they believe censoring LGBTQ content “is protecting kids.” Meanwhile, bill co-sponsor, Marsha Blackburn (whom Smith thanks above for her “leadership,”) has similarly admitted that Congress should pass KOSA to “protect minor children from the transgender in our culture.”
Texas is in a close race with Florida for the title of “Most Unconstitutional Laws Enacted.” Florida’s legislators will probably end up taking this title because they seem crazier/more productive than their counterparts in Texas.
Escambia County school officials told the Pensacola News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the more than 1,600 books are not banned and are being pulled from shelves temporarily while under review.
The books “have not been banned or removed from the school district; rather, they have simply been pulled for further review to ensure compliance with the new legislation,” Escambia County Public Schools spokesperson Cody Strother told the News Journal.
In an effort to comply with the law, the school district removed eight encyclopedias and five dictionaries from library shelves, according to PEN America, which is suing the school district for removing 10 books on race and LGBTQ issues last year. The group argues those book bans violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
Menomonee Falls School District banned 33 titles. The same day the ACLU made its open records requests, Elkhorn Area School District received a request from a parent challenging 444 books, prompting the temporary removal and review of those titles.
The letter to the school districts accompanying the requests notes that removing books from school libraries threatens the First Amendment rights of students and their families. The Supreme Court held over 40 years ago that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”
Despite several jokes about Al Gore inventing the internet, it’s clear that the former Vice President has revealed that he knows little about how the internet works – or the First Amendment, for that matter.
Seven unions representing teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday attempting to end the state’s near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees.
The law, signed by former Gov. Scott Walker, has saved the Badger State from turning into Illinois or New York, where public unions essentially run the state government for their own benefit. According to the MacIver Institute, Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers $16.8 billion since it was passed in 2011, making public finances more manageable at every level of government.
Progressive mayors who publicly rail against the law know that repealing it would wreak havoc on municipal budgets. According to Wisconsin Right Now, Milwaukee’s budget says it has saved about $345.4 million in health insurance since 2012 because of Act 10’s requirement that public employees contribute to their health plans.
The lawsuit by teachers and other public unions focuses on a narrow part of the law that exempts public-safety employees. The unions say this creates a “favored” class of workers and imposes “severe burdens on employees in the disfavored group.” Act 10’s “anti-democratic regime,” the unions continue, subjects “general” employees “to a panoply of burdens and deprives them of important rights,” while exempting police officers and firefighters from “all its injurious provisions.”
WSJ quotes MacIver Institute, from the Atlas Network via State Policy Network, Bradley Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity (Kochtopus). Former WI Governor Scott Walker, another Atlas/Koch tool, does not rule out intervening.
I agree with the title “Reaffirming the State of Israel’s Right to Exist” and much of the language, but I’m voting No on the resolution because it equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful. pic.twitter.com/YWBDKDCGZB
What if someone says the current boundaries of Israel are illegitimate, that the existing government is illegitimate, or that Israel as an ethno-nationalist state is illegitimate? Would existential criticism be antisemitic?
However, the resolution made no mention of Palestinians — who have their own historical claims in the region — even as it stated that Jewish people are “native to the Land of Israel.”
In a statement, Tlaib argued that the resolution “ignores the existence of the Palestinian people” and “brings us no closer to peaceful coexistence.”
The resolution also states that “denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of antisemitism” — which Massie took issue with.
“Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful,” Massie wrote on X.
As many as 36 groups advocating free speech, the Free Speech Alliance, have turned to US Congress with a request to stop any further funding of NewsGuard.
NewsGuard is very neutral. Its Board of Directors is secret, but its Advisory Board includes one of the co-founders of Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales) as well as the former director of the CIA and the NSA (General Michael Hayden), the former Secretary General of NATO (Anders Fogh Rasmussen), the former Secretary for Homeland Security (Tom Ridge) or the former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy – i.e. Propaganda (Richard Stengel)
A neo-Nazi group protested in downtown Madison Saturday afternoon from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to the state capitol building, carrying flags with swastikas and shouting antisemitic rhetoric.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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