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The Laboratories of Democracy: US state and local politics

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    I don’t know where to put this. We are probably in need of a new horror thread.

    https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1573088502409043970?s=46&t=HfZZbcUxRxgPHAx2xQgsmQ

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      So those founders who owned slaves were really the good guys? And it didn't need a Civil War before the South was forced to give it up. And there was nothing after 1865 that resembled slavery or protected and expanded white supremacy. OK!

      And there hadn't been a debate in Europe about slavery going on since the 1500s at the latest? And there weren't any French or Spanish codes giving slaves more rights than they had in the US? And there weren't far more free blacks in the Spanish empire than the US? And slavery wasn't abolished by the British earlier than by the Americans?

      Imagine being a black parent and having your kids taught that shit, which you can refute in half an hour just by reading Wikipedia.

      The subtext is that he wants any teachers with integrity to quit.
      Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 23-09-2022, 11:12.

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        https://twitter.com/zinovievletter/status/1573271554049310726?s=20&t=yOxdgBSozSKpPI95genVOg

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          They need:

          Bearpat2.jpg

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            That's a great read (and to some extent rings true for where I live too. The last 3 paragraphs in particular)

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              I'm going to try to get the book the piece is based on from the library.

              I am also worried about the bears.
              Last edited by ursus arctos; 23-09-2022, 13:54.

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                Yes, that was a really interesting, well-written article.

                The way it morphed from a let's-laugh-at-the-libertarians theme into an expanded analysis of the ways in which social developments and climate change were affecting the bear population was particularly good.

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                  The different political cultures of NH and VT never cease to amaze.

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                    I was about to make the same comment. Anyone who thinks they're basically the same place has probably never crossed the Connecticut River. There are bits of Vermont that are more New Hampshirey and bit of New Hampshire that are quite Massachusettsy, but the difference in culture between the two is pretty striking.

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                      Displacement of bears is a time bomb in SWFL. They've already confined endangered panthers to a small percentage of their natural range. And of course the current political path will be further deregulation of urban development. Felling of trees is a regular sight from most highways.
                      Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 23-09-2022, 15:39.

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                        https://twitter.com/Brown_e_Points/status/1573446175545782272?t=EQ7MQq0jwWKzTx5Pv7AS-g&s=19

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                          This is the brief:

                          https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...42797.52.0.pdf

                          Its argument is essentially that academic freedom does not exist, except as freedom from the judiciary:

                          Moreover, to whatever extent public universities possess an institutional right of academic freedom, that right is best understood as a right of institutional autonomy from the judiciary, not the State that chartered it, governs it, and provides its funding (p.18)
                          Which sounds to me like fascism. Nobody would teach in a university under those terms. And this from the party of "small government".
                          Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 26-09-2022, 01:05.

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                            https://twitter.com/TexasTribune/status/1574583665224712192?t=0GE3gzeledXrX8XD0HXJNA&s=19

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                              WTF? That is absolutely bonkers. Sometimes I think Florida is the most broken big state in the Union, but then Texas goes and has an AG who does this.

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                                Texas is more than broken; it's intentionally being run as a corrupt theocracy. Florida is more like the victim of a coup that goes all the way back to the 2000 steal; there were sturdier democratic institutions here than in Texas but they've been taken over by fascists.

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                                  https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1574935226652164097?s=20&t=uv9PCuqHFqatnU1D3xCzXQ

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                                    Before others click - play the game! Guess the ten states that added onto this with their AG. It will be fun - you will score pretty well.

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                                      Hmmm....No Oklahoma. They must still be in a funk over the OU loss.

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                                        Originally posted by Cal Alamein View Post
                                        Hmmm....No Oklahoma. They must still be in a funk over the OU loss.
                                        Need to remember your Governor, not your Senator guide.

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                                          Surely not DeSantis given he's a direct rival? That would be a curious double game.

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                                            Migrants are reportedly being transported from New York City to Florida for work supporting cleanup efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ian—weeks after the governor put migrants on a flight to Martha’s Vineyard. Over the weekend, scores of Venezuelan migrants were boarding vans heading to the Sunshine State from a pickup point in Queens, despite having little information about who they would be working for, the New York Post says. “They want us for hurricane cleanup, we’d get paid $15 an hour, overtime and $15 for food daily, I think,” Javier Moreno, 37, told the paper, adding that a woman named Camila “from an organization” approached him with a flier about the work. “I'm going for the work,” Moreno added. News of their journey south comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis controversially flew migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard to protest the “hypocrisy” of the Biden administration’s border policies.

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                                              Some Florida counties are storing data about student athletes' periods online via a third party:

                                              This year in Palm Beach County, nearly all athlete registration forms were moved online — meaning the athletes' reproductive data is now stored by a third party, a software company launched in September 2021 named Aktivate.
                                              https://archive.ph/z0tkY#selection-727.0-733.9

                                              There's also concern that this data could be used for anti-abortion and anti-Trans harassment, although I think Caraballo is mistaken here in thinking that the data collection is a new thing (the link says it's been happening for 20 years and the new development is the change to an online third party).
                                              Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 04-10-2022, 17:51.

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                                                Some big news from the Los Angeles City Council that has gone national--three city council members and the president of the LA County Federation of Labor were recorded in a private conversation about how the city council map should be redistricted, and council president Nury Martinez was making racist and insulting comments about local residents and the child of a fellow council member.

                                                She has stepped down as council president, but has not resigned her office yet.

                                                The lowlights:

                                                Referring to gay council member Mike Bonin as "a little bitch" and said that he showed off his black adopted son like an accessory, and called him “parece changuito,” or is “like a monkey.” She also said that Bonin's son was misbehaving during a MLK Day parade and said “They’re raising him like a little white kid...I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”

                                                Also, in discussing Oaxacans:
                                                “I see a lot of little short dark people,” Martinez said of that section of Koreatown, employing stereotypes long used against Oaxacans in Mexico and in the United States.

                                                “I was like, I don’t know where these people are from, I don’t know what village they came [from], how they got here,” Martinez said, before adding “Tan feos” — “They’re ugly.”
                                                The political aspect of this conversation was revealing, as all of the members in the conversation are more centrist Latino democrats. She was arguing that the map should be redrawn so that the progressive Nithiya Raman, who was endorsed by the DSA, shouldn't get a district with a lot of renters: "Because if you do, that solidifies her renters’ district and that is not a good thing for any of us. You have to keep her on the fence."

                                                Finally, in discussing DA George Gascon, Martinez said "fuck that guy--he's with the blacks."

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                                                  The lowlights non-paywalled:

                                                  https://knock-la.com/nury-martinez-c...-racist-audio/

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                                                    Martinez has resigned as President of the Council, but is keeping her seat

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