Saturday, March 16, 2024

Musk Fires Interviewer He Hired Because He Didn't Like the First Interview

Don Lemon is back in the headlines, revealing that he was fired by Elon Musk after his interview with the  bimbo billionaire didn't go as Musk had planned. Lemon said he pressed Musk on his alleged ketamine use, a recent meeting with former President Donald Trump, and better moderation on X.

The ex-CNN anchor suggested Musk does not care about moderation on X due to the content it allows to stay up.  "Apparently(free speech), that doesn’t matter to Elon Musk maybe it's just talking points,” Lemon said during an interview on CNN.  Musk refused to answer some of Lemon’s hard-hitting questions and snapped back at him for doing so.   "I don’t have to answer questions from reporters,” Musk snapped.   "I’m criticized constantly I could care less," he added.

Lemon explained why he asked Musk about ketamine and said it was because of his high responsibility across several important companies.  "His alleged drug use has been extensively written about by credible news organizations like the Wall Street Journal," Lemon told CNN.  "Elon Musk is responsible for Star Link, Tesla, a number of different companies and I think it is important for people to understand his mindset. 

"Whether he is using drugs illegally or not. He is one of the most consequential people on the planet." In June 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk uses ketamine.  Ketamine is a drug that could be prescribed for depression treatment or is used recreationally which is illegal.  Musk also smoked marijuana on camera during the Joe Rogan podcast which resulted in NASA conducting a safety review on Space X.

Lemon also asked Musk about a recent encounter he had with Trump. Musk said he was having breakfast at a friend's house and Trump just showed up. "I was at a breakfast at a friend's place and Donald Trump was invited. That's it," Musk said.  "Let's just say he did most of the talking."  Lemon asked Musk if he would help Trump pay any of his legal bills and he responded, "I’m not going to pay his legal bills in any way shape, or form."

 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Settlement Reached on Florida's "Don't Say Gay" Law

Ron DeSantis boasted that ”Florida is where woke goes to die” in his victory speech after overwhelmingly winning reelection in the 2022 midterms. That was the peak of DeSantis’ political career before his now-aborted presidential campaign.

Now a settlement has been reached in a two-year-old lawsuit brought by a coalition of parents, students, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups that challenged one of the cornerstones of DeSantis’ “anti-woke agenda”—the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” statute.

In March 2022, DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibited classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade, even though such instruction was not offered. Just days later, a federal complaint was filed that called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional.”  A year later, DeSantis signed a new measure that restricted such lessons through high school.

The Associated Press reported that since 2022, at least six other Republican-controlled states—Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and North Carolina—have used Florida’s law as a model to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation.  

A Washington Post analysis of FBI data found that school hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have sharply risen in recent years, climbing fastest in states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights in schools.

“What [the Florida] settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press in an interview. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”  If Kaplan’s name sounds familiar it’s because she led the legal team representing writer E. Jean Carroll in her sexual battery and defamation lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, securing nearly $90 million in jury verdicts.

 Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral—meaning what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people—and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used for instruction in the classroom. The law also doesn’t apply to books with incidental references to LGBTQ+ characters or same-sex couples, “as they are not instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity any more than a math problem asking students to add bushels of apples is instruction on apple farming,” according to the settlement.

The settlement is welcome because there is a link between school hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people and states with laws restricting their rights in schools. 

It seems that some of the enthusiasm for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation might be waning now that DeSantis is out of the presidential race. The Florida Legislature adjourned last Friday, March 8, leaving 21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills effectively killed, according to writer Erin Reed. These included laws that would have expanded “Don’t Say Gay” policies to the workplace; ban Pride flags in schools and government buildings; permit student organizations to exclude transgender people; exempt transgender youth from child abuse provisions; and allow calling someone racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic to be treated as defamation.

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Were We Really Better Off Four Years Ago under Trump?

Of late, Republicans have taken to thinking it would be politically advantageous to publicly ask voters, "Are you better off today than you were fours years ago?"   Well . . . do you remember where we were four years ago-- Friday, March 13, 2020?  Were we better off then?

It was on that day that a lot of businesses closed up shop, and millions of others were told to stay home from work because of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.  Schools were closed; there were no church services, national parks closed; entertainment venues shut their doors  Trump held an embarrassing 72-minute press conference in the White House rose garden that made it obvious that he didn't know what he was doing.

"We don't want people to take a test if, if we feel that they shouldn't be doing it." Trump blathered.   He said that there would be 1.4 million COVID tests available the next week, and 5 million available within a month, adding, "I doubt we'll need anywhere near that."  Of course, we all now know that Trump did not meet those testing targets (in fact, HHS botched the first COVID testing protocol, resulting in the loss of precious time needed to identify and contain early breakouts of the virus).  And of course, people all over the country soon became desperate to get any testing they could.   Trump refused to take any responsibility for the widespread testing delays-- a true leader!

There were massive lines to get into grocery stores and shelves were soon laid bare, with shortages of almost everything-- cold and flu medications, canned goods, bottled water, dried pasta, and cleaning and paper products.  In that pathetic press conference four years ago today, Trump's incompetent HHS Secretary (Alex Azar) cruelly joked about the lack of toiler paper.  On that day, over 2,000 were reported to be critically ill from COVID and 41 had already died from the virus.  Hospitals were already seeing shortages of masks, medical gloves and protective clothing. 

When asked why he disbanded the White House pandemic office months earlier (which resulted in the U.S. losing valuable time responding to the crisis), Trump responded, "Well, I just think that's a nasty question.  Some of the doctors say it will wash through;  it will flow through.  An interesting terms, and very accurate, I think you're going to find in a number of weeks, it's going to be an accurate term."

By the end of Trump's term, COVID-19 had resulted in some of the deadliest days in U.S. history, exceeding the death toll on September 11, 2001.  By the time Trump left office, over 380,000 Americans had died of COVID-- too bad we can't ask any of those people if they think things were better off under Trump.  


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Savage Takedown of Trump's Memory Lapses at House Hearing

Today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing examining special counsel Robert Hur’s anticlimactic report on Joe Biden was disastrous for the GOP Congress members hoping to tarnish the sitting president’s image and reputation. Time and again, the Democratic committee members successfully contrasted the attempted attacks on Biden with Donald Trump’s dubious mental acuity, evasive testimony, and general incompetence.

One of the most powerful arrows in the Democrats’ quiver was the video supercut. They introduced not one, not two, but three supercuts showing the relentless incompetence, bizarre behavior, and untrustworthiness of the twice-impeached former president. 

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Liberty University Slapped With Record Fines for Mishandling Rape Claims

The federal Department of Education has announced a historic $14 million fine against Liberty University for failing to properly handle reports of sexual assault and other campus safety issues.

Universities are required by law to support victims of violence. The Education Department found that the Christian evangelical Liberty University had fundamentally failed to do so. Sexual assault victims were “punished for violating the student code of conduct,” the report concluded, “while their assailants were left unpunished.”   The government found that Liberty’s actions had created a “culture of silence.”

The findings, which the department announced Tuesday, echo a ProPublica investigation that detailed how officials had discouraged and dismissed women who tried to come forward with accounts of sexual assault. Women who went to school officials to report being raped recalled being threatened with punishment for breaking the university’s strict moral code, known as “The Liberty Way.”

The fines against Liberty are more than double the amount of the next-largest fines in Department of Education history—against Michigan State University for its failures to protect hundreds of women and girls from sexual abuser Larry Nassar.  Liberty will also face two years of federal oversight.  In response to the government’s report, Liberty University said in a statement that it faced “unfair treatment.” But the school also admitted to mistakes and committed to spending $2 million to improve campus safety.