demmiblue
demmiblue's JournalScotland to embed LGBTI teaching across curriculum
Scotland will become the first country in the world to embed the teaching of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights in the school curriculum, in what campaigners have described as a historic moment.
State schools will be required to teach pupils about the history of LGBTI equalities and movements, as well as tackling homophobia and transphobia and exploring LGBTI identity, after ministers accepted in full the recommendations of a working group led by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign. There will be no exemptions or opt-outs to the policy, which will embed LGBTI inclusive education across the curriculum and across subjects and which the Scottish government believes is a world first.
Jordan Daly, the co-founder of TIE, said the “destructive legacy” of section 28 had come to an end. This legislation, introduced in 1988, banned local authorities in the UK from “promoting” homosexuality, until it was eventually repealed in Scotland 2001 and in the rest of the UK two years later.
Daly said: “This is a monumental victory for our campaign, and a historic moment for our country. The implementation of LGBTI inclusive education across all state schools is a world first. In a time of global uncertainty, this sends a strong and clear message to LGBTI young people that they are valued here in Scotland.”
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/09/scotland-first-country-approve-lgbti-school-lessons#img-1
Elvis, Hatch, Babe Ruth, Scalia among Trump's Medal of Freedom recipients
Source: WaPo
President Trump on Saturday named seven individuals who will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom next week — a list that includes three posthumous recipients.
The awardees are: Miriam Adelson, Orrin G. Hatch, Alan C. Page, Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, Antonin Scalia and Roger Staubach.
The award, considered to be the top civilian honor, is bestowed to individuals “who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security of national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” according to a release by the White House.
The medals will be awarded on Nov. 16.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/10/elvis-hatch-babe-ruth-scalia-among-trumps-medal-freedom-recipients/
When you get a Pantheon style church with a 6 second acoustic delay all to yourself... ⛪️🔊🎵
https://twitter.com/missmalindakat/status/1055117777932050432Exclusive: Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker was counseling the White House on investigating Clinton
Source: Vox
Matthew Whitaker, whom President Donald Trump named as his acting attorney general on Wednesday, privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate the president’s political adversaries, Vox has learned.
Whitaker was an outspoken critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe before he became the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions in September 2017. But new information suggests that Whitaker — while working for Sessions — advocated on behalf of, and attempted to facilitate, Trump’s desire to exploit the Justice Department and FBI to investigate the president’s enemies.
In May 2018, President Donald Trump demanded that the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into whether the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled” his presidential campaign and whether Obama administration officials were involved in this purported effort. Trump, his Republican allies in Congress, and conservative news organizations — most notably Fox News — were making such claims and amplifying those of others, even though they offered scant evidence, if any, that these allegations were true.
Sessions, Rosenstein, and other senior department officials believed that if they agreed to Trump’s wishes, doing so would constitute an improper politicization of the department that would set a dangerous precedent for Trump — or any future president — to exploit the powerful apparatus of the DOJ and FBI to investigate their political adversaries. Those efforts, in turn, coincided with the president’s campaign to undermine Mueller’s investigation into whether the president’s campaign aides, White House advisers, and members of his own family colluded with Russian to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/9/18080656/matthew-whitaker-trump-hillary-clinton-sessions-attorney-general
Abandoned cars, burned forests. This is what the aftermath of sheer terror looks like in Paradise
https://twitter.com/blkahn/status/1060959189831483392The Cruelty of Jeff Sessions
Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday at the request of Donald Trump. He served a little less than two years as the head of the Department of Justice. During that time, Sessions used his immense power to make America a crueler, more brutal place. He was one of the most sadistic and unscrupulous attorneys general in American history.
At the Department of Justice, Sessions enforced the law in a manner that harmed racial minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. He rolled back Obama-era drug sentencing reforms in an effort to keep nonviolent offenders locked away for longer. He reversed a policy that limited the DOJ’s use of private prisons. He undermined consent decrees with law enforcement agencies that had a history of misconduct and killed a program that helped local agencies bring their policing in line with constitutional requirements. And he lobbied against bipartisan sentencing reform, falsely claiming that such legislation would benefit “a highly dangerous cohort of criminals.”
Sessions’ attack on immigrants was equally ruthless. He compelled immigration judges to order the deportation of more unauthorized immigrants and punished them when they did not. He barred most victims of domestic violence from seeking asylum in the United States, deporting survivors back to their persecutors. He attempted to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, subjecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to deportation but was too inept to do so lawfully. He tried to prevent states and cities from protecting immigrants within their borders. And he implemented the “zero tolerance” family separation policy, imprisoning thousands of individuals at the border for the misdemeanor of unlawful entry, then seizing their children and locking them in cages. (Hundreds of these kids are still separated from their parents.)
Meanwhile, Sessions mobilized the DOJ’s attorneys to torture immigrant minors in other ways. He fought in court to keep undocumented teenagers pregnant against their will, defending the Trump administration’s decision to block their access to abortion. His Justice Department made the astonishing claim that the federal government could decide that forced birth was in the “best interest” of children. It also revealed these minors’ pregnancies to family members who threatened to abuse them. And when the American Civil Liberties Union defeated this position in court, his DOJ launched a failed legal assault on individual ACLU lawyers for daring to defend their clients.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/jeff-sessions-donald-trump-resign-disgrace.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter
Pelosi Unveils House Diversity Office To Recruit Staff From Varying Backgrounds
Source: TPM/AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi wants to establish a House diversity office to recruit and retain employees from different backgrounds to Capitol Hill as one of the first acts of the new Congress, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Pelosi told colleagues in the letter that Democrats “take great pride” in having a House majority that she says will be more than 60 percent women, minorities and LGBTQ representatives.
“We know that the diversity in our ranks is a strength and a reflection of the American people,” she wrote.
The leader, who is shoring up support to win a race for House speaker, is tapping into an issue that has been a priority for the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats and that reflects the results of the midterm election that swept more female and minority representatives into office.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pelosi-unveils-house-diversity-office-to-recruit-staff-from-varying-background
Josh Marshall: Getting Ugly Fast
Rick Scott accuses liberals in Broward of “trying to steal this election” from him, and orders FDLE to launch an investigation of Brenda Snipes pic.twitter.com/ckWZRDGT3N
— Steve Bousquet (@stevebousquet) November 9, 2018
Scott actually said this …
“Late Tuesday night our win was projected about 57,000 votes. By Wednesday morning that lead dropped to 38,000 votes. By Wednesday evening, it was around 30,000 votes. This morning, it was around 21,000. Now, it is 15,000,.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/getting-ugly-fast
"I don't want prayers. I don't want thoughts. I WANT GUN CONTROL. No more guns!" - mother of...
https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/1060682237736144899
Oh my god...
Profile Information
Member since: Thu Feb 14, 2008, 11:58 AMNumber of posts: 36,837