#national capital bill of 2021

[radfemfox5]

Hi there - I'm trans and Jewish and I'd like to share my perspective on the "trans genocide" thing. I don't think we're experiencing active genocide in the US; that's definitely an extreme and offensive statement to make regarding what's happening. However, I do think that the increasing legislation attacking trans rights and autonomy as well as an increasingly polarized public view of trans people points to the potential for a worse situation that moves closer to genocide.

Now, personally, I live in a state where no laws limiting trans rights have passed. I was able to legally begin my medical transition when I was 15, I've never experienced transphobic violence, and the majority of people around me are supportive of my transition. My experience is similar to most other trans people in my area, with varying degrees of familial support.

But nation wide, we have seen an increase of trans people being murdered, and a massive increase in anti-trans legislation. This legislation aims to strip trans people of their autonomy and privacy. It seeks to put trans children in danger, remove information about what it is to be trans or queer from children's access, and enforce archaic ideas about what it means to be a man or woman.

Most of this is happening because right wing politicians can capitalize on moral outrage and fear to win votes. They're scapegoating trans people instead of trying to improve the lives of their constituents. This is kind of politician's thing, so it's not surprising in any way. However, when those policies successfully do win these politicians support, they'll have to make them more extreme. They'll want to make it illegal to exist as a trans person in public.

Now I'm not saying that that's genocide. I think we're an awfully long way off from trans people being mass arrested for being trans, and then murdered by the state. But we are in a rising climate of fear, and I don't think the trans people calling this the seventh stage of genocide are doing so out of bad faith. I think they're doing that because they are terrified of having their right to take life-saving medication, or have protection in the workplace, or be able to use a bathroom, or have children, or wear what they want to wear taken away. And they're terrified of those things because the bills on the table in states across the country put those rights in jeopardy. And if calling this a genocide makes people pay attention? I'm not super mad about it.

Hi, thank you for sharing your perspective on this. I appreciate it.

Your fear is primarily based on sensationalist headlines and interpretations of the law that are unfounded. I can assure you, you are not even in the early stages of a genocide.

But nation wide, we have seen an increase of trans people being murdered

In 2021, the Human Rights Campaign recorded 50 deaths of trans, nonbinary and GNC people.

In 2022, the HRC recorded 38 deaths (source). So. If we take these numbers at face value, that's a decrease of nearly 25% in one year, in a growing section of the population.

Taking these numbers and the size of the transgender population in the US (1.6 million), in 2021, trans people had a death rate of 3.1/100k, and in 2022, this dropped to 2.4. Again, the numbers provided by the HRC include nonbinary and GNC people, and accidental deaths.

Some of these aren't even murders or intentional homicides. They just say they were killed. I wouldn't consider these numbers reliable whatsoever, but they're the only estimate we have for now. There are so few trans deaths that they can fit on a single Wikipedia page, along with a little blurb about their life and who they were. It would be impossible to do something similar with victims of femicide, since there are too many to count. This page lists victims of femicide, only in Canada, only in 2022, and it is nearly as long as the Wikipedia page I listed above.

This is a perfect segue to my next point, which is to compare trans genocide to femicide, which is actually real. Women are killed so often that the UN has to categorize female murder victims as either killings (unnatural deaths), intentional homicides or gender-related killings (hate crimes, therefore considered in femicide statistics).

The intentional homicide rate for female victims in the US is 2.9/100k (data from 2021), and it is steadily increasing after having been on the decline since the mid-90s.

That only includes the pink and red circles shown in the UN's chart, not accidental deaths or unknown deaths like the HRC includes in their counts. Some countries have as many as 10.6/100k women die a year.

TL;DR: The murder rate for trans people in the US is not increasing, it is decreasing. This isn't indicative of a trans genocide in the slightest.

But nation wide, we have seen [...] a massive increase in anti-trans legislation.

As I was saying earlier, this idea stems from sensationalist headlines. It's concerning to me how widespread the misinformation about anti trans legislation really is, when house bills are publicly available online. You can literally do a quick Google search and find that most of these bills are nothing burgers.

Unfortunately, it's easier for you to just go on a website like translegislation.com and have them tell you what these bills say. I'll do some of the work for you and go through how these sites lie to you.

Alabama imposing criminal penalties on providers of trans healthcare? Sounds scary. Let's see what the source they linked, the HRC, has to say.

Ah. So it's specifically regarding transgender youth. As in, minors. This is after going through an insanely long title detailing how bad the bill is. The trans legislation tracker essentially lies by omission, implying that all trans healthcare is being criminalized.

Going to the bill in question, AL SB184, we can see that it actually acknowledges the existence of dysphoria in children.

However, they also acknowledge that this feeling may be fleeting, and that making permanent changes to a child's body solely on account of the child's personal sense of identity is unwise.

I won't go through every single bill here, as this post is already very long, but you get the idea. Feel free to send another ask if you would like me to look at specific bills.

Back to your ask: the way you speak of these bills shows that you've never read them for yourself or know how legislation works, since you're acting like it's the beginning of Armageddon.

This legislation aims to strip trans people of their autonomy and privacy. It seeks to put trans children in danger, remove information about what it is to be trans or queer from children's access, and enforce archaic ideas about what it means to be a man or woman.

I'm assuming by autonomy and privacy, you mean the choice to undergo medical transition and the bathroom/locker room/women's sports issue respectively.

Bills limiting "gender-affirming" care are focused on children, since puberty blockers like Lupron are now known to have very negative and permanent effects. The bills don't ban adults from choosing to take HRT. It's extremely profitable for doctors to continue to prescribe HRT and for surgeons to continue to recommend expensive plastic surgeries. Legislation won't go that route unless there's a massive shift in public perception.

The "Save Women's Sports Act" literally just limits participation in women's school sports to females only. That's it. The trans legislation tracker even acknowledges this.

Most of these bills are copy pasted from eachother, which is why they're all dubbed as "Save Women's Sports." Here's a snippet from HB61 in Ohio:

If someone's sex is brought into question, a simple blood test is all that's needed. Contrary to what the media may have led you to believe, there are no forcible genital inspections. No trans person is being forced to undress for this. Only 6 trans "girls" are affected by this in Ohio, out of 400k total athletes in girl's sports. So I'm not sure why this feels like a precursor to genocide to you.

remove information about what it is to be trans or queer from children's access,

Personally, I don't think children should be aware that medical transition is even a remote possibility unless they are in extreme psychological distress related to their sex. Even then, therapy is usually the best solution. I don't think the "Gender Unicorn," a surprisingly complex graphic created in part by an alleged violent rapist and groomer, should be used in classrooms to teach children about gender ideology. Gender ideology should be taught to college students who are better equipped to form their own opinion, not children who barely know how to read.

There are better, more useful things to push in our education curriculum, like compulsory comprehensive sex ed. That way, young men don't learn about sex through violent pornography, and young girls don't accidentally get pregnant without knowing what it means. This would also be a good time to teach them about sexual orientation. Leaving it up to the parents or focusing on abstinence evidently doesn't work.

enforce archaic ideas about what it means to be a man or woman.

The lack of self-awareness here is pretty astounding. The trans movement actively enforces these archaic ideas of gender by telling tomboys that they might actually be a boy. This implies that femininity is what makes womanhood, which is objectively untrue.

By telling masculine women that they are men and feminine men that they are women, you're literally enforcing the gender roles you say you're destroying.

They'll want to make it illegal to exist as a trans person in public.

You can speculate about this all you want, but you can't see laws limiting child transition and keeping sports sex-segregated as writing on the wall. We're not even close to that.

Now I'm not saying that that's genocide. I think we're an awfully long way off from trans people being mass arrested for being trans, and then murdered by the state.

I'm glad to hear you are moderately sane.

But we are in a rising climate of fear,

Your phrasing reminds me of US politics in the wake of 9/11. When people act out of fear, decisions are made in haste, and wars are started over made-up WMDs. Being fearful clouds your judgement.

Look around you. You're safe and accepted. The trans flag is flown almost everywhere in June. A trans woman won the NCAA National Champion title just last year. For International Women's Day, multiple companies featured trans women. Time Magazine featured many trans women as Women of the Year. Language is now inclusive, so women don't actually exist anymore. We're just uterus havers. This is all to cater to trans people.

Yeah. It's getting to be a bit much, isn't it? Don't you expect the least bit of pushback, especially from women? We aren't living in fear of some invisible boogeyman. We are angry at how rapidly our hard work has been undone.

We're pissed that after decades of feminist progress, we've regressed to being considered non-men once again.

and I don't think the trans people calling this the seventh stage of genocide are doing so out of bad faith. I think they're doing that because they are terrified of having their right to take life-saving medication, or have protection in the workplace, or be able to use a bathroom, or have children, or wear what they want to wear taken away.

Puberty blockers and HRT do not save lives. They actually haven't been proven to have a substantial enough effect on mental health to consider them an adequate treatment for gender dysphoria.

2. Trans people have the same basic human rights as any other human being.

3. Many places are adding gender-neutral bathrooms in order to accommodate the growing trans population. No one is checking your genitals at the door of a bathroom, no one cares that much. I care about girls being assaulted at school by boys in skirts and the school boards covering it up in the name of trans acceptance (x).

4. Trans people remove their own ability to have children by going on puberty blockers, HRT and even eventually physically castrating themselves. If you mean the ability to adopt or foster children, I don't know. Gay and lesbian couples still have a hard time adopting to this day, so progress can be made in that department.

To conclude this hodgepodge of various facts, screenshots and links, I'll leave you with this:

I fundamentally disagree with you that crying "genocide" is in any way helpful for your community. It's not. Most of Western society might have forgotten what genocide looks like or doesn't even know what the word means anymore, but you should know better as a Jew.

The attention trans people get from saying that they're going through a genocide is overwhelmingly negative from people on both ends of the political spectrum at this point. People are annoyed at trans people for making shit up, which ruins your movement's credibility.

When you have to lie to get someone's attention, you've already lost.

#trans genocide #anti trans bills #radfemfox #ask #anon #debunked #rad fem #radblr #radfem #radfem safe #radfems #radical feminism #terf #terfblr #terfs #terf safe #terfsafe #gender critical #radical feminists do interact #radical feminst #radical feminist community #radical feminist safe #radical feminists do touch #radical feminists please interact #radical feminists please touch #femicide #feminism #feminist #sex not gender #female not feminine

[waitmyturtles]

(Source)

The Lower House (House of Representatives) will be hearing Thailand’s marriage equality bill at 9:30 am Bangkok time (10:30 pm Eastern for those of us in the States). The bill, if passed, would still have to be approved in Thailand’s Senate.

(Source and source)

Below the fold is Bloomberg.com's report on the happenings (source):

Bill to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage in Thailand Heads to Parliament

Bill is supported by most major parties, needs king approval

Thailand would be first in region to codify marriage equality

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat, March 26, 2024 at 2:00 PM PDT

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage could face a vote in Thailand’s parliament as early as Wednesday. If it passes, the country will be the first in Southeast Asia to establish marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

The House of Representatives will take up the legislation, technically an amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code, for second and third readings when it meets at 9 a.m. Lawmakers may vote later in the day.

The bill would legalize marriage for same-sex partners aged 18 and above, along with rights to inheritance, tax allowances and child adoption, among others. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s administration has made it a signature issue, and advocates say it would also burnish Thailand’s reputation as an LGBTQ-friendly tourist destination.

Taiwan and Nepal are the only places in Asia that currently recognize same-sex marriage, and recent efforts elsewhere in the region have had mixed results. Hong Kong has yet to comply with a 2023 court order to establish laws recognizing same-sex partnerships, and India’s Supreme Court refused to legalize same-sex marriage, saying it’s an issue for parliament to consider.

The Thai bill would change the composition of a marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two individuals,” and change the official legal status from “husband and wife” to “married couple.”

Thai laws have protected LGBTQ people from most kinds of discrimination since 2015, but attempts to formalize marriage rights have stalled. In 2021, the Constitutional Court upheld the law recognizing marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Last year, a bill to recognize same-sex civil partnerships failed to clear parliament ahead of elections.

Rights advocates have higher hopes for the bill pending now, noting that it has broad support from most of the major parties. If it passes, it will need to be approved by the Senate and endorsed by the King. Then it would be published in the Royal Gazette and take effect 120 days later.

Srettha’s government has also promised to work on a bill to recognize gender identity, and the health ministry has also proposed legalizing commercial surrogacy to allow LGBTQ couples to adopt children. Thailand is seeking to host the WorldPride events in Bangkok in 2028.

Legalizing same-sex marriage could have positive effects on tourism, which contributes about 12% to the nation’s $500 billion economy. In 2019, before the pandemic froze international tourism, LGBTQ travel and tourism to Thailand generated about $6.5 billion, or 1.2% of gross domestic product, according to industry consultant LGBT Capital.

Formal recognition could boost the reputation of a place already considered one of Asia’s best for LGBTQ visitors, said Wittaya Luangsasipong, managing director of Siam Pride, an LGBTQ-friendly travel agency in Bangkok.

“It will become a selling point for Thailand and raise our strength in the global stage,” Wittaya said. “It will create a relaxed and safe atmosphere for tourism and help attract more and more LGBTQ visitors. We could also see more weddings by LGBTQ couples, which could generate income across industries and local communities.”

#marriage equality #marriage equality in thailand #thailand #thailand politics #pita limjaroenrat #srettha thavisin #this article is a very good look-see into how thailand has continued to leverage LGBTQ+ rights for soft power and now even hard power #lgbtq+ #mileapo and freenbecky just visited with the prime minister last week #same sex marriage #same sex marriage equality

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Jan. 6, 2024

"Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

Legislation introduced Tuesday by a pair of Democratic lawmakers would close a loophole that lets billionaires donate assets to dark money organizations without paying any taxes.

The U.S. tax code allows write-offs when appreciated assets such as shares of stock are donated to a charity, but the tax break doesn't apply when the assets are given to political groups.

However, donations to 501(c)(4) organizations—which are allowed to engage in some political activity as long as it's not their primary purpose—are exempt from capital gains taxes, a loophole that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) are looking to shutter with their End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act.

Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has focused extensively on the corrupting effects of dark money, said the need for the bill was made clear by what ProPublica and The Lever described as "the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history."

The investigative outlets reported in 2022 that billionaire manufacturing magnate Barre Seid donated his 100% ownership stake in Tripp Lite, a maker of electrical equipment, to Marble Freedom Trust, a group controlled by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo.

The donation, completed in 2021, was worth $1.6 billion. According to ProPublica and The Lever, the structure of the gift allowed Seid to avoid up to $400 million in taxes.

"It's a clear sign of a broken tax code when a single donor can transfer assets worth $1.6 billion to a dark money political group without paying a penny in taxes," Whitehouse said in a statement Tuesday. "Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies."

"We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

If passed, the End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act would ensure that donations of appreciated assets to 501(c)(4) organizations are subjected to the same rules as gifts to political action committees (PACs) and parties.

"Thanks to the far-right Supreme Court, billionaires already have outsized influence to decide our nation's politics; through a loophole in the tax code, they can even secure massive public subsidies for lobbying and campaigning when they secretly donate their wealth to certain nonprofits instead of traditional political organizations," said Chu. "We can decrease the impact the wealthy have on our politics by applying capital gains taxes to donations of appreciated property to nonprofits that engage in lobbying and political activity—the same way they are already treated when made to traditional political organizations like PACs."

The new bill comes amid an election season that is already flooded with outside spending.

The watchdog OpenSecrets reported last month that super PACs and other groups "have already poured nearly $318 million into spending on presidential and congressional races as of January 14—more than six times as much as had been spent at this point in 2020."

Thanks to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums on federal elections—often without being fully transparent about their donors.

Morris Pearl, chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Tuesday that "there is no justifiable reason why wealthy people like me should be allowed to dominate our political system by donating an entire $1.6 billion company to a dark money political group."

"But perhaps more egregious is the $400 million tax break that comes from doing so," said Pearl. "It's a perfect example of how this provision in the tax code is used by the ultrawealthy to manipulate the levers of government while simultaneously dodging their obligation to pay taxes. We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

#dark money #super pac #citizens united #corruption #taxation #judy chu #sheldon whitehouse

[reasonsforhope]

"In Washington D.C., a sophisticated sewage treatment plant is turning the capital’s waste into a form of capital: living capital that is fertilizing the gardens of farms of the Mid-Atlantic region and saving vast quantities of resources.

Described by the workers’ there as a “resource recovery plant,” D.C. Water run a biogas plant and high-quality fertilizer production in the course of their dirty duty to ensure the city’s waste finds a safe endpoint.

The nation’s capital is exceptional at producing waste from the toilet bowls of the 2.2 million people who live, work, and commute through the city and its suburbs.

Reporting by Lina Zeldovich reveals that rather than trucking it all to a landfill, D.C. Water extract an awful lot of value from the capital crap, by looking at it as a resource to send through the world’s largest advanced wastewater treatment plant, which uses a “thermal hydrolysis process” in which it is sterilized, broken down, and shipped off for processing into “Bloom,” a nitrogen-rich, slow-release fertilizer product. 

The other “Black Gold”

At their facility in southwest Washington, huge aeration tanks percolate the poo of everyone from tourists to the President. After it’s all fed into enormous pressure cookers where, under the gravity of six earth atmospheres and 300°F, the vast black sludge is rendered harmless.

Next this “Black Gold,” as Zeldovich described it, is pumped into massive bacterial-rich tanks where microbes breakdown large molecules like fats, proteins, and carbs into smaller components, shrinking the overall tonnage of sewage to 450 tons per day down from 1,100 at the start of the process.

This mass-micro-munching also produces methane, which when fed into an onsite turbine, generates a whopping 10 megawatts of green energy which can power 8,000 nearby homes. [Note: Natural gas (which is mostly methane) is definitely greener than coal and oil, but it still causes a significant amount of emissions and greenhouse gases.] The 450 tons of remaining waste from the D.C. feces are sent into another room where conveyor belts ring out excess fluid before feeding it through large rollers which squash it into small congregate chunks.

D.C. Water sends this to another company called Homestead Gardens for drying, aging, and packaging before it’s sold as Bloom.

“I grow everything with it, squashes, tomatoes, eggplants,” Bill Brower, one of the plant’s engineers, tells Zeldovich. “Everything grows great and tastes great,” he adds.

“And I’m not the only one who thinks so. We’ve heard from a lot of people that they’ve got the best response they’ve ever seen from the plants. Particularly with leafy greens because that nitrogen boost does well with leafy plants. And the plants seem to have fewer diseases and fewer pests around—probably because Bloom helps build healthy soils.”

While farms around the country are facing nutrient depletion in soils from over-farming, turning to synthetic fertilizers to make up the difference, introducing more such thermal hydrolysis plants could truly revolutionize the way humans look at their feces—as a way of restoring the country’s soils rather than polluting them. As Mike Rowe would say, it only takes a person who’s willing to get their hands dirty."

-via Good News Network, November 23, 2021

Note: You can buy this fertilizer yourself here!

#older news but still relevant #you can go buy this fertilizer yourself! #sewage #sanitation #fertilizer #sustainability #circular economy #sustainable agricuture #nitrogen #waste #waste management #waste disposal #good news #hope #hope posting #washington dc #dc #united states #district of columbia #urban farming #solarpunk #urban gardening #environmentalism #farming #rooftop garden #gardening #edible gardening #toilet #soil #soil quality

[txttletale]

wanted 2 ask u cuz i think u know more than me:

most of the acab / police aboltion stuff i see is based on the US system, backed up with US stats and events, and suggesting changes to the US policing system.

but a lot of the proposed changes i see are similar (i think?) to what we currently have in the UK, and the power imbalance and training issues and violence are much worse in the US (but not absent here obvs). while the institution is still racist. but I'm wary of the usual 'it doesn't happen here' response that ppl usually employ to dismiss movements like BLM in the UK.

how much of acab rhetoric applies here, and how should we adapt the plans for reform for the UK policing system?

i mean the USA is definitely an outlier in terms of police and prison violence but this is broadly a quantitative rather than qualitative difference. i assure you that the police in the UK are just as horrifically racist and violent--they're just not as armed and don't have the same amount of political capital as the far more militarized USAmerican police.

the Metropolitan Police's own report (lol) found them to be 'institutionally racist'. police in the UK have fucking absurd powers, such as being permitted to commit any crime while undercover without judicial review, as long as it's in the interests of 'national security' or 'preventing disorder' or 'protecting the economic well-being of the United Kingdom' (!). they are relentlessly and disproportionately violent towards BAME people. they have a systemic culture of violence and brutality. Bristol police tased their own race relations advisor, twice. when a woman, sarah everard, was raped and murdered by a police officer, police suppressed and brutalized protesters at her vigil.

here are stop and search statistics for the UK police in 2021:

the UK policing system is just as racist and just as much of an oppressive apparatus as the USAmerican one. don't trust anyone from the UK who tries to tell you otherwise. all cops are bastards because the institution of policing under capitalism exists first and foremost to protect capitalist property relations.

obviously the demands of BLM protesters in the USA cannot be adapted 1-for-1 to the UK, and as a revolutionary communist i think there are very hard limits to what can be meaningfully accomplished under liberal democracy. but i think a good place to start if you want achievable short-term reform to happen is relentless protest and action against the recent bills that have expanded police powers more than ever, against the Blair-era counterterrorism legislation, for the abolition of the Met Police, and for justice for victims of police brutality.

Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check, but because it arose, at the same time, in the midst of the conflict of these classes, it is, as a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which, through the medium of the state, becomes also the politically dominant class, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class […] This public power exists in every state; it consists not merely of armed men but also of material adjuncts, prisons, and institutions of coercion of all kinds

— Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State

#ask #police brutality cw #this is not an area of expertise for me but i wanted to try and at least put rest to some of the #misconceptions that people hacve about the UK police

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The public paid for "Moderna's" vaccine, and now we're going to pay again (and again and again)

Moderna is quadrupling the cost of covid vaccines, from $26/dose to $110–130. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel calls the price hike “consistent with the value” of the mRNA vaccines. Moderna’s manufacturing costs are $2.85/dose, for a 4,460% markup on every dose:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/moderna-may-match-pfizers-400-price-hike-on-covid-vaccines-report-says/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/24/nationalize-moderna/#herd-immunity

Now, obviously the manufacturing costs are only part of the cost of making a vaccine: there’s also all the high-risk capital that goes into doing the basic research. Whenever a pharma company like Moderna hikes its prices, we’re reminded that the rewards are commensurate with these risks.

But the story of the Moderna vaccine isn’t one of a company taking huge gambles with shareholder dollars. It’s the story of the US government giving billions and billions of dollars to a private firm, which will now charge the US government — and the American people — a 4,460% markup on the resulting medicine.

Writing for The American Prospect, Lily Meyersohn reminds us of the Moderna vaccine’s origin story: the NIH spent $1.4B developing the underlying technology and then the US government bought $8b worth of vaccines at $16/dose, giving Moderna a guaranteed 460% margin on each jab:

https://prospect.org/health/2023-01-23-moderna-covid-vaccine-price-hike-bernie-sanders/

Moderna clearly does not feel that the billions it received in public funds came with any obligation to serve the public interest. The company falsified its patent applications, omitting the NIH scientists who co-developed the vaccine, claiming sole ownership:

https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/01/06/nih-moderna-mrna-covid-vaccine-patent/

As Meyersohn writes, this omission allows Moderna to block the NIH from licensing the vaccine to foreign manufacturers — including vaccine manufacturers in the global south, home to many powerhouse producers of vaccines:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/24/waivers-for-me-not-for-thee/#vaccine-apartheid

Moderna claims to have capitulated to the NIH on the patent question, but it’s a lie — even as they were publicly announcing they would drop their bid to exclude NIH scientists from their patent application, they quietly filed for a continuance that would let them renew their exclusive claim later, when the heat has died down:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/us/moderna-patent-nih.html

This maneuver, combined with Astrazeneca reneging on its promise to open its vaccine — a move engineered by Bill Gates — has deprived billions of the world’s poorest people of access to vaccines. Many of these people were previously blocked from accessing AIDS drugs when the Gates Foundation teamed up to block WTO vaccine waivers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#gates-foundation

These immunucompromised, unvaccinated people are at increased risk of contracting covid, and when they do, they are sick for longer, creating more opportunities for viral mutation and new, more virulent variants.

That was where we stood before Moderna announced its 400% vaccine price-hike. Now, millions of Americans will also be blocked from accessing vaccines, opening the door for rampant, repeated infections, more mutations, and more variants. As Alex Lawson of Social Security Works told Meyersohn, at that price, the US will not be able to achieve herd immunity.

What will Moderna do with the billions it reaps through price-gouging? It won’t be research. To date, the company has spent >20% of its covid windfall profits on stock buybacks and dividends, manipulating its stock price, with more to come:

https://www.levernews.com/how-big-pharma-actually-spends-its-massive-profits/

It’s not an outlier. Big Pharma is a machine for commercializing publicly funded research and then laundering the profits with financial engineering. The largest pharma companies each spend more on stock buybacks than research:

https://www.levernews.com/how-big-pharma-actually-spends-its-massive-profits/

Moderna didn’t have a single successful product for its first decade of operation: it is only a going concern because it got billions in free public research and billions more in public commitments to buy its products at a huge markup.

It wasn’t always this way. Until the 1990s, pharma companies that commercialized public research were bound to license terms that required “reasonable pricing.” NIH inventions were subject to non-exclusive licensing terms, ensuring a competitive market.

The NIH could act to stem Moderna’s profiteering. Moderna’s vaccine (like virtually all mRNA vaccines) uses NIH patent 10,960,070 — though Moderna doesn’t license the ‘070 patent. The NIH could use the threat of a patent infringement suit to force Moderna to put pandemic resilience and access to vaccines over financial engineering and executive bonuses.

When it comes to patent enforcement to protect the public interest, the USG has a long history of channeling King Log, letting companies price-gouge with products built on public research.

https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-021-03535-x/d41586-021-03535-x.pdf

The states are stepping in where the feds have failed to act, spinning up their own pharma production capacity to create a “public option” for medicine — think of California’s move to produce insulin and other meds:

https://prospect.org/health/its-time-for-public-pharma/

Or Massachusetts’s MassBiologics, the “only non-profit, FDA-licensed manufacturer of vaccines” in the USA, which sells its generic tetanus and diptheria vaccines nationwide:

https://www.umassmed.edu/massbiologics/

The US has a long way to go when it comes to using public production to offer competitive discipline to private pharma. Sweden nationalized its pharma in 1970. Cuba got there in 1960, and is a pharma powerhouse:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/somos-cuba/#omishambles

Meyersohn closes her excellent article with a warning and a promise: though public covid vaccines are a long way away, new vaccines for RSV and even cancer are in the pipeline, and without “substantial intervention,” Moderna will be a “harbinger…of crises of inequitable access to come.”

[Image ID: Moderna headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. On the left side of the entry, a Jacobin with a guillotine gets ready to decapitate an aristocrat. On the right side of the frame, a cigar-chomping, top-hat wearing ogrish figure makes ready to yank a gilded dollar-sign lever while holding an MRNA molecule disdainfully aloft]

#pluralistic #moderna #pharma #big pharma #vaccines #mrna #guillotine watch #public-private pertnerships #sucker at the table #uncle sucker

[free-and-to-none-accountable]

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Anonymous FW

The Industrial Workers of the World is one of the few unions that has always understood the importance of organizing Black workers to prevent capitalist abuse of all workers, vowing in its earliest days to never charter a segregated Branch or Local. The IWW has long fought to organize Black labor against being used as expendable and underpaid scabs, as well as for the abolition of all impediments to Black liberation.

Black liberation is the struggle for freedom and equality for Black people; a continuous fight against the attitudes and institutions that dehumanize Black people in order to propagate and maintain white supremacy. The Black Liberation Movement is most often associated with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, but has actually existed for hundreds of years. Its history spans from the slave revolts on the shores of West Africa from where we were stolen to the protests still taking place today. A key focus of this current phase of the movement is the need to liberate Black people from the dual oppression of police and of capitalism, just as the IWW seeks to liberate the entire working class from those very same clutches.

Whenever I am asked about the history of unions and the labor movement and how they intersect with Black history, I’m always sure to talk about the Industrial Workers of the World. From Lucy Parsons, a Black woman and founding member of the Union, to Maritime Worker Ben Fletcher’s efforts to establish one of the most diverse institutions of its time, Black Wobblies shaped the IWW and its commitment to the struggle for Black liberation from the very beginning. Additionally, I emphasize this Union’s dedication to organizing workers of color over 100 years ago when Samuel Gompers’ American Federation of Labor would, at best, organize segregated unions if they engaged with Black labor at all.

One event I typically recount occurred in May 1912 in Alexandria, Louisiana, as William D. “Big Bill” Haywood stood before the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. The Brotherhood was a national union of lumberjacks and millworkers with members in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, which had a large population of both Black and white workers. The organization had been ignored by other unions and chose to affiliate with the IWW instead. Haywood was puzzled as he looked out at the entirely white audience of timber workers, and he inquired why there were no Black workers at the meeting. In 1912, racially desegregated meetings were illegal everywhere in the state of Louisiana, and Haywood was informed that the rest of the workers were meeting elsewhere.

“You work in the same mills together. Sometimes a Black man and a white man may chop down the same tree together […] This can’t be done intelligently by passing resolutions here and then sending them out to another room for the Black men to act upon. Why not be sensible about this and call the Negroes into this convention?” Haywood continued: “If it is against the law, this is one time when the law should be broken.” Following this, the Black timbermen joined the suddenly desegregated meeting and, in the election of delegates, both Black and white members were elected to represent the Brotherhood of Timber Workers at their 1912 convention.

The IWW’s present-day commitment to Black liberation is perhaps best evidenced by the recent work of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). This rank-and-file union of the IWW seeks to abolish prison slavery and improve conditions within prisons, jails, and detention centers through direct action. Prison slavery is one of the most perverse systems of worker exploitation and white supremacy in this nation today. Many incarcerated workers find themselves working on plantations and roadcrews, and engaging in all manner of work tasks necessary for the prison to operate. These workers also manufacture products and provide services for private corporations, thereby generating their captor’s wealth while receiving mere pennies per hour for their labor if they are even compensated at all.

Furthermore, these incarcerated comrades are subjected to unsafe and inhumane living conditions. The prison-industrial complex is a system that affects all working class people but disproportionately targets and exploits Black people. In order to fight this system, IWOC has participated in organizing several actions including the 2016 and 2018 U.S. prison strikes. These demonstrations, such as work stoppages and hunger strikes organized in solidarity with incarcerated workers at many prisons across the United States in an attempt to win specific demands and recognitions that included improvements to prison conditions, paying incarcerated workers prevailing wage for their labor, and bring an immediate end to racially biased judicial overreach, such as overcharging, over-sentencing, and baseless denials of parole for Black and Brown people. 

The IWW has several chartered IWOC branches and continues to provide support through initiatives such as the case reader program where IWW members assist in getting cases overturned and prisoners released. Building committees among the currently and formerly incarcerated workers in the struggle brings awareness to the public about conditions these workers face and provides resources for them to advocate for themselves through direct action within the system that enslaves them. The IWW’s fight for prison abolition is just one example of our One Big Union’s continued commitment to the liberation of Black people in North America and around the world. 

The Industrial Workers of the World has always been and continues to be the most important union when it comes to the struggle for Black liberation in the workplace. I encourage every Wobbly to learn and understand what is meant by –and necessary for– true Black liberation, for without this understanding, it will be impossible to liberate all working people from the repression and subjugation of race and class. And to all Black workers who are not yet Wobblies, I call on you to join the One Big Union. It is the only union that has been consistently fighting alongside Black labor for the liberation of our people since the beginning of the 20th century.

.

Fellow Worker Alki, an at-large member affiliated with IU660, describes himself as a Black Anarchist Wobbly, as well as an essayist, historian, and media creator focused on organized labor and other radical movements from an historical perspective.

#iw #useful #organizing

[djuvlipen]

11/13/2023. Another Romani teen shot dead by Greek police

By Bernard Rorke

Around midnight on Saturday, 11 November, Greek police shot a 17-year-old Romani boy after a car chase in the town of Thebes, north of Attica. According to media reports, the car, with four passengers, two boys and two girls aged 15-17, failed to stop when ordered. In the ensuing pursuit, the car was surrounded by police in a dead-end alley in the Liontari village. 

Witnesses said a gun shot was heard, fatally wounding the 17-year-old. The police claim that one of the underage passengers tried to snatch the policeman’s gun which ‘went off’ killing the boy. The victim’s brother claimed that it was the policeman who fired the gun. 

In a statement, the Minister for Citizen’s protection Giannis Oikonomou expressed condolences to the family of the young victim and stressed that “the circumstances under which the sad incident took place are under investigation by the competent authorities.” An autopsy will take place to determine the exact cause of death. 

Police shoot dead three Romani teens in three years 

This is the third such incident in three years, and based on past experience, the police account should be viewed with deep suspicion. On 14 December 2022, more than 1,500 mourners gathered in a Roma neighbourhood in Thessaloniki for the funeral of Romani teenager Kostas Frangoulis, who died of his wounds after being shot in the head by a police officer during a chase over an unpaid EUR20 gas station bill. 

In the immediate wake of the shooting, about one hundred Romani men erected barricades and set fire to rubbish bins outside the hospital, and 1500 protestors clashed with police in the streets of Thessaloniki. Not many there credited the official claim that the victim’s actions had “placed the lives of the police officers in immediate danger.” The fatal shooting sparked three nights of rioting and protests in Greece.  

One year earlier, on 23 October 2021, seven Greek motorcycle police officers in pursuit of a stolen car opened fire on the three unarmed Romani occupants of the vehicle, killing 18-year-old Nikos Sabanis, and seriously wounding a 16-year-old. Between 30 and 40 shots are clearly audible in a video recording of the incident, and a radio conversation between the police operational centre and the attending officers shows that the officers were aware that the occupants of the vehicle were three Roma.

The police press release after the incident mentioned injuries to the seven police officers, that the deceased was 20 years-old and had a criminal record, and that the minor who was shot only had light injuries. These were all later proven to be false; no police officers were injured, the victim was 18 and had no criminal record, and the 16-year-old boy was seriously wounded.

‘The European tradition for protecting minorities’

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests across European capitals in June 2020, the Greek EU Commissioner Margaritis Schinas, responsible for ‘promoting our European way of life’ claimed that Europe does not have issues “that blatantly pertain to police brutality or issues of race transcending into our systems”, and that because of the “European tradition for protecting minorities, we have less issues than they have in the States". 

Following the police shooting of Nikos Sabanis, in an open letter to the Greek Prime Minister on the 27 October 2021, the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) and the ERRC urged the authorities to investigate the possibility of racial motivation behind the disproportionate use of force; expressed concern at the national news coverage which triggered a wave of anti-Roma sentiment, with the prosecutor referring to Roma as a ‘social menace’; and called for a swift response from the competent authorities to declare that hate speech is unacceptable, and that there is no impunity for law enforcement concerning crimes against Roma or other ethnic minorities. 

This latest killing of yet another Romani teenager serves as a tragic reminder that when it comes to policing Roma and other racialized minorities, contrary to Commissioner Schinas’s assertion, Greece and the European Union does indeed ‘have issues.’ 

#police brutality #greece #roma #coming back from my break to post this before leaving again

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Catholics, landowners spar in Brazil over territorial rights for indigenous groups

As indigenous activists demonstrate in Brazil against legal proposals that would change the way lands are granted to them by the government, church organizations and several members of the hierarchy have expressed support for their struggle.

The “temporal landmark thesis” advocated by some Brazilian conservatives holds that only territories effectively occupied by indigenous groups when the current constitution was approved, in 1988, should be conceded by the Brazilian state. Such a thesis has appeared in legal suits and legislative bills in recent years.

Beginning in 2021, Brazil’s Supreme Court began to analyze that thesis in a lawsuit involving a land dispute with an indigenous nation in the Southern part of Brazil, but the process was suspended when one of the justices asked to individually examine the case file.

The court resumed its analysis June 7.

At the same time, Brazil’s lower house of the legislature approved a bill May 30 that validated the temporal landmark thesis. The move was seen by many analysts as a way of pressuring the Supreme Court, and amplifying the legal uncertainties concerning the process. The bill is now under analysis in the senate.

Indigenous activists and human rights organizations, including ecclesial movements, have been promoting protests in the national capital of Brasilia and other regions since the end of May, in order to push the Supreme Court and the Congress to repudiate the temporal landmark thesis.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #environmental justice #indigenous rights #religion #brazilian politics #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[gatheringbones]

[“The site of the fair in South Chicago was nicknamed the “White City” for the massive and glistening white fake-marble buildings constructed specifically for the fair, not meant to be permanent, but rather templates for how a future city should appear, grandiose and imposing, as well as symbolizing the triumph of capitalism. On the carnivalesque midway of the White City was the Ferris wheel, which was invented for the occasion. Not far away, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner delivered his thesis, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” to the American Historical Association, which had convened its annual meeting at the exposition. Nearby, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West performed.

Without mentioning the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, Turner chose the year 1890 as the demarcation of the end of the frontier, warning that the seemingly endless moving frontier of white settlement that had formed US wealth, character, and culture had closed, and the future was not clear without the frontier escape valve for the teeming landless masses. Buffalo Bill had the answer: fantasy, reenactment, premiering the soon-to-be-born western movies.

Self-identified Christian socialist and ordained Baptist minister Francis Bellamy wrote a pledge of allegiance to the US flag in 1892, which was a presidential election year in addition to being the quadricentenary of Columbus. Both presidential candidates, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, urged the use of the new pledge as a way of honoring Columbus. Bellamy’s stated goal for the pledge was to advance patriotism by flying the flag in every school in the country along with mandatory reciting of the pledge. Bellamy led the way in organizing teachers to use a packaged Columbus Day educational kit he assembled. In an amazing feat, on October 21, 1892, Bellamy and his volunteers were able to involve twelve million schoolchildren around the country, including a hundred thousand Chicago schoolchildren, to simultaneously salute the flag and recite the pledge of allegiance.”]

roxanne dunbar-ortiz, from not a nation of immigrants: settler colonialism, white supremacy, and a history of erasure and exclusion, 2021

#roxanne dunbar ortiz #lesbian literature #history stuff #cw genocide #fantasy reenactment with the pledge of allegiance isnt that a marvel movie

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 1, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 2, 2024

One of the biggest stories of 2023 is that the U.S. economy grew faster than any other economy in the Group of 7 nations, made up of democratic countries with the world’s largest advanced economies. By a lot. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reported that the U.S. gross domestic product—the way countries estimate their productivity—grew by 2.5%, significantly higher than the GDP of the next country on the list: Japan, at 1.9%.

IMF economists predict U.S. growth next year of 2.1%, again, higher than all the other G7 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projects growth of 4.2% in the first quarter of 2024.

Every time I write about the booming economy, people accurately point out that these numbers don’t necessarily reflect the experiences of everyone. But they have enormous political implications. 

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Democrats embraced the idea that using the government to support ordinary Americans—those on the “demand” side of the economy—would nurture strong economic growth. Republicans have insisted since the 1980s that the way to expand the economy is the opposite: to invest in the “supply side,” investors who use their capital to build businesses. 

In the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration, while the Democrats had control of the House and Senate, they passed a range of laws to boost American manufacturing, rebuild infrastructure, protect consumers, and so on. They did so almost entirely with Democratic votes, as Republicans insisted that such investments would destroy growth, in part through inflation. 

Now that the laws are beginning to take effect, their results have proved that demand-side economic policies like those in place between 1933 and 1981, when President Ronald Reagan ushered in supply-side economics, work. Even inflation, which ran high, appears to have been driven by supply chain issues, as the administration said, and by “greedflation,” in which corporations raised prices far beyond cost increases, padding payouts for their shareholders.

The demonstration that the Democrats’ policies work has put Republicans in an awkward spot. Projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are so popular that Republicans are claiming credit for new projects or, as Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) did on Sunday, claiming they don’t remember how they voted on the infrastructure measure and other popular bills like the CHIPS and Science Act (she voted no). When the infrastructure measure passed in 2021, just 13 House Republicans supported it. 

Today, Medicare sent its initial offers to the drug companies that manufacture the first ten drugs for which the government will negotiate prices under the Inflation Reduction Act, another hugely popular measure that passed without Republican votes. The Republicans have called for repealing this act, but their stance against what they have insisted is “socialized medicine” is showing signs of softening. In Politico yesterday, Megan Messerly noted that in three Republican-dominated states—Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi—House speakers are saying they are now open to the idea of expanding healthcare through Medicaid expansion.

In another sign that some Republicans recognize that the Democrats’ economic policies are popular, the House last night passed bipartisan tax legislation that expanded the Child Tax Credit, which had expired last year after Senate Republicans refused to extend it. Democrats still provided most of the yea votes—188 to 169—and Republicans most of the nays—47 to 23—but, together with a tax cut for businesses in the bill, the measure was a rare bipartisan victory. If it passes the Senate, it is expected to lift at least half a million children out of poverty and help about 5 million more. 

But Republicans have a personnel problem as well as a policy problem. Since the 1980s, party leaders have maintained that the federal government needs to be slashed, and their determination to just say no has elevated lawmakers whose skill set features obstruction rather than the negotiation required to pass bills. Their goal is to stay in power to stop legislation from passing.

Yesterday, for example, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who sits on the Senate Finance Committee and used to chair it, told a reporter not to have too much faith that the child tax credit measure would pass the Senate, where Republicans can kill it with the filibuster. “Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good…means he could be reelected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley said.

At the same time, the rise of right-wing media, which rewards extremism, has upended the relationship between lawmakers and voters. In CNN yesterday, Oliver Darcy explained that “the incentive structure in conservative politics has gone awry. The irresponsible and dishonest stars of the right-wing media kingdom are motivated by vastly different goals than those who are actually trying to advance conservative causes, get Republicans elected, and then ultimately govern in office.” 

Right-wing influencers want views and shares, which translate to more money and power, Darcy wrote. So they spread “increasingly outlandish, attention-grabbing junk,” and more established outlets tag along out of fear they will lose their audience. But those influencers and media hosts don’t have to govern, and the anger they generate in the base makes it hard for anyone else to, either. 

This dynamic has shown up dramatically in the House Republicans’ refusal to consider a proposed border measure on which a bipartisan group of senators had worked for four months because Trump and his extremist base turned against the idea—one that Republicans initially demanded. 

Since they took control of the House in 2023, House Republicans have been able to conduct almost no business as the extremists are essentially refusing to govern unless all their demands are met. Rather than lawmaking, they are passing extremist bills to signal to their base, holding hearings to push their talking points, and trying to find excuses to impeach the president and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Yesterday the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which is firmly on the right, warned House Republicans that “Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing” other than “political symbolism,” and urged them to work to get a border bill passed. “Grandstanding is easier than governing, and Republicans have to decide whether to accomplish anything other than impeaching Democrats,” it said. 

Today in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called the Republicans’ behavior “nihilism and performative politics.”

On CNN this morning, Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) identified the increasing isolation of the MAGA Republicans from a democratic government. “Here we are both on immigration and now on this tax bill where President Biden and a bipartisan group of Congress are trying to actually solve problems for the American people,” Goldman said, “and Chuck Grassley, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson—they are trying to kill solutions just for political gain." 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#economic news #economic policy #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #history #WAPO #Wall Street Journal #supply side economics #the demand side #greedflation #extremist Republicans

[thewales]

The Earthshot Innovation Summit will be HUGE.

I’m sad that Prince William is probably going to miss it for obvious reasons but wow, this is big!

The summit will take place on the morning of September 21, 2022 at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. It will be hosted by Michael R. Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions; it will bring together heads of state, government and civil society leaders, philanthropists, business executives, and grassroots climate activists from around the world.

Bloomberg, Global Advisor to the Winners of The Earthshot Prize, will welcome a number of speakers and special guests including:

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Member of The Earthshot Prize Council

Alexandra Cousteau, Senior Advisor to Oceana

Alyssa Gaines, 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris

Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Brad Smith, President, Microsoft;

The Honorable Caroline Kennedy, U.S. Ambassador to Australia

Cate Blanchett, Actor and Member of The Earthshot Prize Council

Christiana Figueres, Chair of The Earthshot Prize and Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Ambassador Cindy McCain, US Ambassador, United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture

Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund

Gayle Smith, CEO, One Campaign

Hannah Jones, CEO, The Earthshot Prize

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Member of The Earthshot Prize Council

Joy Harjo, 23rd United States Poet Laureate

Matt Damon, Actor and Activist, Co-Founder, Water.org

Urban Word NYC Youth Poets Rev. Lennox Yearwood, CEO and President, Hip Hop Caucus

Mindy Lubber, CEO and President, Ceres

Tokunboh Ishmael, Founding Trustee, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital

Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Alphabet and Google and,

Oscar the Grouch.

And The inaugural Finalists and Winners of The Earthshot Prize.

The event will be held from 8:00am-12:30pm ET at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.

The Summit’s mainstage program will feature keynote remarks, panel discussions, fireside chats, and presentations celebrating The Earthshot Prize’s 2021 Finalists and spotlighting the Prize’s five key pillars of climate solutions: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build A Waste-Free World, and Fix Our Climate.

#Prince William #Prince of wales #the earthshot prize #Earthshot summit

[drdougdouglass]

According to crime statistics, the following is a list of the most dangerous cities in the US in 2023 by violent crime. The state violent crime data is based on violent crimes in 2022 (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault).

The population of each city has been collected from the United States Government Census Bureau.

30 U.S. Cities With Highest Violent Crime Rates

30. Billings, Montana

Population: 119,960

Number of Violent crimes: 1,076

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 897

The city Billings of Montana, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, with the possibility of being a victim of a crime such as rape, armed robbery, manslaughter, aggravated assault, or even murder.

29. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Population: 1,567,258

Violent crimes in 2022:15,668

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 999

Philadelphia is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. While in the past we have seen an increase in gun violence in cities and towns across the United States, Philadelphia is one of the few major American cities where it has been the worst in decades.

28. Nashville, Tennessee

Population:679,342

Violent crimes in 2022: 6,855

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,009

Nashville is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Tennessee.

Larceny is by far the most common type of property crime in Nashville, followed by burglary and motor vehicle theft.

27. Beaumont, Texas

Population:112,089

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,148

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,024

The community risk factors in the city of Beaumont include the amount of poverty in the area, unemployment rates, and the average education level of the city’s population which has led to the alarming rise in gun violence in Beaumont along with general crime.

26. Denver, Colorado

Population:713,252

Violent crimes in 2022: 7,511

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,053

Denver is a consolidated city and the capital of Colorado. The crime rate in Denver has increased in recent years, with both property crime and violent crime above the national average in America.

25. Indianapolis, Indiana

Population:880,261

Violent crimes in 2022: 9,109

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,054

Areas with a higher population density, such as downtown, have considerably higher crime rates. The single most important issue that the city as a whole faces is gun violence and crime.

24. Lubbock, Texas

Population:  263,960

Violent crimes in 2022: 2,795

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,058

Lubbock, Texas is termed as the third most dangerous city in the U.S. for 2021, according to a nationwide study conducted by SafeWise, ranking high in violent crime and property crime.

23. Houston, Texas

Population:  2,302,878

Violent crimes in 2022: 25,697

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,115

Houston is also a major center for the trafficking of cocaine, cannabis, heroin, MDMA and methamphetamine due to its size and proximity to major countries that export illegal drugs.

22. South Fulton, Georgia

Population:  111,158

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,147

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,131

South Fulton, Georgia is one of the newest cities in the Atlanta metro area.

Given the economic and social upheaval caused by the pandemic over the past few years, there has been a rise in crime rates, especially gun violence.

21. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Population:  251,350

Violent crimes in 2022: 2,849

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,133

Homicide rates nearly doubled from 2015 to 2019 but dropped by 18.2% from 2019 to 2020, the FBI data showed. In 2000, there were 50 reported homicides, and, in 2021, there were 119.

20. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Population:  563,305

Violent crimes in 2022: 6,595

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,170

Amongst the largest cities, Milwaukee ranked high for murder, aggravated assault, and robbery. Property crimes and motor vehicle theft are at an all-time high in the city as well, causing concern to the citizens of Milwaukee.

19. Aurora, Colorado

Population:  393,537

Violent crimes in 2022: 4,642

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,184

Aurora’s murders, aggravated assaults, and robberies are at all-time highs according to Aurora Police Department reports and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

18. Chattanooga, Tennessee

Population:  184,086

Violent crimes in 2022: 2,184

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,186

Chattanooga, TN is a city that has higher than average crime rates when compared to the US as a whole.

17. Dayton, Ohio

Population:  135,944

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,620

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,191

There has been a massive increase in violence and gun use as an overreaction to disputes that could be resolved without assault weapons.

16. Minneapolis, Minnesota

Population:  425,096

Violent crimes in 2022: 5,130

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,206

Minneapolis was sort of the center of the defunding of the police movement after the death of Floyd at the hands of then-Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

Protests and then violent riots rocked the city in the name of Black Lives Matter.  Since the Floyd riots, violent crime has skyrocketed in Minneapolis.

15. Stockton, California

Population:  321,819

Violent crimes in 2022: 3,921

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,218

The cheap housing and lack of opportunity have led to a community with many low-income households along with mental, emotional, and addiction issues, leading to a rise in crime.

14. Baltimore, Maryland

Population:  569,931

Violent crimes in 2022: 7,041

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,235

Baltimore, Maryland has long had a reputation as being one of the most violent cities in the United States.  This year gun crimes have resulted in dozens of shooting homicides, assaults, and robberies with deadly weapons.

13. Peoria, Illinois

Population:  110,021

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,367

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,242

Becky Rossman, CEO of Peoria Community Against Violence, said 43% of households in Peoria are single moms. She said the absence of male role models and a lack of resources often lead young people to a life of crime.

12. Lansing, Michigan

Population:  112,537

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,422

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,263

The rise in violence is not unique to Lansing in Michigan. Since the pandemic hit the US in early 2020, researchers have documented sharp jumps in domestic violence, violent crime, homicides, and gun violence more generally.

11. Albuquerque, New Mexico

Population:  561,008

Violent crimes in 2022: 7,442

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,326

As of 2021, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) recorded 35 homicides across the city. This wave of crime is particularly concerning and requires attention.

10. Springfield, Missouri

Population:  170,067

Violent crimes in 2022: 2,292

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,347

There are a variety of factors that contribute to violent crime in Springfield, including poverty and drug use. But the number one driver of violent crime in the city is domestic violence.

9. Cleveland, Ohio

Population:  361,607

Violent crimes in 2022: 5,293

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,463

Cleveland is one of the most important cities in the Midwest. Unfortunately, Cleveland has one of the highest crime rates in the United States, including property and violent crime.

8. St. Louis, Missouri

Population:  286,578

Violent crimes in 2022: 4,205

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,467

The City of St. Louis is known for manufacturing industries, the Gateway Arch, and baseball. Over the last few years, rapes, robberies, and burglaries have risen significantly, which has led to an unfortunate rise in crime wave, troublesome and worrying for the citizens of Missouri.

7. Rockford, Illinois

Population:  146,713

Violent crimes in 2022: 2,155

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,468

Rockford is among the most violent cities in America. Violent crime rates have increased nationwide following the pandemic.

6. Kansas City, Missouri

Population:  509,297

Violent crimes in 2022: 7,485

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,469

FBI hate crime data shows that Missouri reported its highest-ever number of hate crimes in 2021.  Some of the root causes of crime seen are economic deprivation, racial-ethnic segregation, and lack of economic and religious diversity.

5. Tacoma, Washington

Population:  221,776

Violent crimes in 2022: 3,488

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,572

Tacoma is one of the largest cities in Washington state. It has a population of 221,776 – making it rank the third largest in the state and only surpassed by the economic hub Seattle and the riverside city Spokane. The crime rate in Tacoma, Washington is higher than the US average. Tacoma has seen a major spike in crime. Arson, robbery, stolen property, and sex offense cases are threatening the population on a daily basis.

4. Pueblo, Colorado

Population: 111,456

Violent crimes in 2022: 1,813

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,626

Pueblo is one of Colorado’s most crime-ridden and dangerous cities, with violent and property crimes being some of the most prevalent and ongoing. In Pueblo, violent crimes most often committed are manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault.

3. Little Rock, Arkansas

Population: 202,864

Violent crimes in 2022: 3,694

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 1,820

Little Rock, Arkansas, has a high rate of violent crime and violent crime. Violent crimes, including homicides, have been on the rise in Little Rock, with some parts of the city experiencing murder rates more than 100% higher for the first three months of 2022 compared to the same time period in 2021.

2. Detroit, Michigan

Population: 620,376

Violent crimes in 2022: 12,724

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 2,051

Detroit is the largest city in the Midwestern state of Michigan, but the rise in violence in the city is not unique to its state. Since the pandemic hit the US in early 2020, researchers have documented sharp jumps in domestic violence, violent crime, homicides, and gun violence more generally.

1. Memphis, Tennessee

Population: 621,056

Violent crimes in 2022: 13,091

Violent Crime Rate per 100,000: 2,107

Memphis is the second largest city in its state after the capital, Nashville. It has a population of 621,056. It often gets criticism for high levels of crime, and perhaps it’s unsurprising that it ranks first on our list in terms of violent crimes as well. Using census data, the think tank found Memphis had one of the largest jumps in functional unemployment since the pandemic began, which has contributed to the rise in crime significantly, as well as increased tension, poor mental health, and easy access to firearms.

[mariacallous]

Teacher compensation reform has reemerged as an urgent policy topic over the past month, with bills introduced in both chambers of Congress to incentivize states to pay teachers a $60,000 minimum annual salary. This is in addition to calls for action from nearly a dozen state governors to meaningfully increase teacher pay during recent state of the state addresses. Not since the wave of teacher strikes during the spring of 2018 has there been such widespread, focused attention on teacher pay. 

Over the years, I have thought and written much about teacher compensation. They are underpaid in comparison to similarly educated professionals—by an estimated 24% in 2021 (adjusted for inflation)—and this will only grow without decisive action. I agree they should be paid more for the important work they do in the nation’s classrooms.  

Yet, at the same time, I hesitate to endorse the push for a blanket minimum salary. Here, I offer my perspective on what our objectives with teacher compensation reform should be, downsides of the proposed salary minimum, and offer some critical elements of compensation reform that would provide more bang for the buck. 

Defining success 

Current calls for teacher compensation reform are motivated by concerns about teacher shortages, which have been nearing a crisis point during the pandemic. Further, supply lines through university-based training programs have been weakening for more than a decade; now down by more than a third since 2008. Areas of weakness include racially diverse college graduates. Salary minimum proposals appear primarily aimed at increasing earnings enough to shore up the teacher pipeline and motivate current teachers to stay in the classroom. 

I argue, however, that simply attracting more people and reducing attrition is not enough. If we’re going to spend financial and political capital on teacher compensation reform, we must offer more than a one-size-fits-all solution to a complex problem. 

We know teachers are important for many reasons, impacting student learning and many other related outcomes. Great teachers improve students’ lives not just while in their classrooms, but years and even more than a decade later. Yet, students have highly unequal access to great teachers, and this issue is wholly different from the availability of somebody to cover a classroom. Uneven access occurs both within and across schools, and it’s socioeconomically disadvantaged students who suffer.  

Teacher compensation reform will be a success in my book when we can ensure consistent access to quality teaching for all students, not just slow the revolving door.  

Skepticism for the $60,000 minimum salary 

First, the problem isn’t just about money. Though teacher salaries are low (and more money always helps), salary’s importance in teacher attrition is quite small. To wit—recent analyses from two different states have shown those leaving public schools tend to take lower salaries than what they earned as teachers. Rather, teachers often identify working conditions, leadership, and culture as primary reasons for dissatisfaction and departure. Thus, efforts that pair teacher support with compensation reform are going to have a higher chance of success than salary increases alone. 

Second, we don’t have a global shortage of teacher talent, but a local one. Teacher shortages follow predictable patterns of being most acute in high-need school settings (serving students from low-income backgrounds and located in rural or urban areas) and in specialized fields (mostly STEM subjects and special education). Shortages and underqualified teacher counts also tend to be higher in low-spending states. In other words, many schools have little difficulty finding the talent they need to serve their students well; thus, we need not overspend in places where staffing problems do not exist. Instead, conserve those resources to use where they’re really needed. A global minimum salary provides little reason to expect that any of these local issues would be adequately addressed. 

Additionally, federal efforts to supplement teacher compensation are unprecedented in practice. As I’ve written previously, proposals to supplement salaries from the federal level will face some politically delicate hurdles, including that higher teacher pay will further pressure many already at-risk state pension systems and a policy that disproportionately rewards the lowest-paying states could become a flashpoint. Leveraging the tax code, as the Center for American Progress has previously recommended, through the expansion of targeted tax credits for teachers appears to me as the most politically viable federal strategy. However, it is not now under serious consideration from what I can see. For these reasons, I expect federal efforts to reform teacher pay will likely fizzle, though I hope state-led efforts can make a difference, and I encourage more focus there.   

Compensation reforms that can achieve success 

Here are four research-based recommendations to both pay teachers more and promote a robust supply of quality teachers to all students, regardless of the setting they find themselves in.

Pay teachers more for teaching in high-need schools and subjects. Given the profile of hard-to-staff vacancies, the most obvious place to target funds for pay raises should be in these same school settings and subject specializations. Several prior studies have evaluated the efficacy of bonuses (or loan forgiveness) targeted to high-need areas and have found positive impacts on retention. This is where we need to be ambitious, though, as pay differentials need to be large to overcome teachers’ tendencies to otherwise flee high-need settings. Also, paying teachers in high-need settings more will disproportionately benefit and likely attract teachers of color, who tend to be clustered in such settings.

Pay teachers more for high-quality teaching, especially when they take on extra responsibilities. With the objective to promote universal access to quality teaching, we should reward quality directly. Pay-for-performance programs were not popular among teachers during the early 2010s when many districts and states were experimenting with them; however, the evidence to date says these policies were largely successful when thoughtfully implemented for multiple years. Policies that prioritized quality encouraged strong teachers to stay in the classroom, and they helped identify weaker teachers for support. Contrary to popular belief, teacher turnover was often lower in settings with such policies. They may have even been critical in minimizing COVID-19 learning losses. Even more, some districts have experimented with putting high-quality teachers into special roles—including large bonuses in high-need schools, or as instructional coaches, or even just giving them larger class sizes. Paying quality teachers to take on these extra responsibilities can increase their pay, increase disadvantaged students’ access to quality teaching, and provide support to colleagues. Win – win – win.

Pay all teachers at the master’s degree rate, without making them get one. Currently, most teachers feel compelled to pursue graduate education as the only viable avenue to increase their pay (typically amounting to about 10% of pay) beyond accumulating experience. Yet, these efforts are generally in vain from students’ perspectives, as studies show teachers’ educational attainment provides essentially no benefit for students. Graduate education is also a major driver of debt loads among teachers. Graduate studies will still be desirable for those who aspire to go into leadership roles, though far fewer teachers will find it necessary once the pay bump is automatic. This is a blanket salary increase I can get behind: we should save teachers’ time and money and simply pay all of them at the master’s degree rate.

Do more to supplement the pay of preschool teachers, not just K-12 teachers. Preschool teachers are egregiously underpaid, given the value they add to students and their parents—a hard lesson emerging from the pandemic. Preschool teacher is one of the most common occupations among low-wage workers in the U.S. with an associate degree or higher. Plus, if there’s a clear policy window for federal lawmakers to support teacher salaries, it’s to support pre-kindergarten teachers’ salaries. Head Start programs are already supported through federal funds, and expanding the reach of these programs will benefit more students as they enter school and over the long run. 

The current policy focus on teacher compensation presents a rare opportunity to do something big in education that—if done right—could meaningfully benefit both teachers and the students they serve. Let’s not squander this opportunity with a wet blanket. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Democrats' self-immolating fetish for means-testing

Biden campaigned on universal student debt reduction, but now wants to add a means-test; a layer of bureaucratic formalities to identify the “deserving poor.” The neoliberal fetish for red-tape is on the march, and the consequences will be the 2022 mid-terms, and maybe the future of the nation.

Means-testing is the kind of technocratic make-work beloved of the McKinsey set, thus it was no surprise that Buttigieg campaigned against universal free college because it would be “free even for the kids of millionaires.”

https://twitter.com/AlexThomp/status/1200227721923760130

This talking point has been oft-repeated in the debate over debt erasure, even though it’s empirically untrue. If college was free in America, only 1.4% of the benefit would accrue to rich children:

https://medium.com/@rortybomb/only-1-4-of-free-college-spending-would-go-to-children-of-millionaires-and-billionaires-39c0d2c2fa1b

As David Sirota writes for The Lever, the scare talk about the wealthy getting something for nothing is the primary means by which corporate Dems talk down universal programs (think of Mayor Pete’s “Medicare for all who want it”). Means-testing is how the right will dismantle Social Security, Medicare and the GI Bill.

https://www.levernews.com/the-means-test-con/

College debt relief is hugely popular, especially among the voter base that Dems will have to turn out to avoid catastrophic losses in the 2022 mid-terms — it’s a policy that “would provide more benefits to those with fewer economic resources and could play a critical role in addressing the racial wealth gap and building the Black middle class.”

https://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/RI_StudentDebtCancellation_IssueBrief_202106.pdf

How would that work? Well, by and large, rich people don’t pay for college by taking out student loans. As Andrew Perez says, “If forgiving student debt was a massive giveaway to the rich, politicians would have done it already.”

https://twitter.com/andrewperezdc/status/1519341319210127362

The great irony here is that the Dems’ great champions of means-testing (for COVID relief, child tax credits and more) are from the “we’re capitalists, okay?” wing of the party: Pelosi, Manchin, et al.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR65ZhO6LGA

Ironic because, as David Graeber (RIP) pointed out in “The Utopia of Rules,” American capitalism sold itself as superior to communism on the grounds that communism created a lot of pointless red-tape that burdened the citizenry with bureaucratic busy-work:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

And here we are, with the self-described champions of capitalism trumpeting the magical power of red-tape to make policy “fair.” As Sirota points out, we don’t hear about means-testing for corporate tax-cuts and subsidies, or for bank bailouts — just for universal programs that primarily benefit poor people (who, in America, are disproportionately Black and brown people).

The arguments against college debt cancellation are arguments against universalism. “What about the people who paid their student debts, why should they have had to suffer, while these people don’t?” is the argument of a sociopath. Compare it to “What about the people who watched their loved ones die of cancer, why should they have suffered, while people today enjoy a cure for cancer?”

Sirota: “Means-testing is a way to take simple universal programs and make them complicated and inaccessible.” To the extent that wealthy people want to benefit from means-tested programs, they can hire lawyers and accountants and other enablers to fit them into the eligibility criteria.

Remember when rich Chicagoland parents figured out that they could save on their kids’ college tuition by pretending to disown them, then getting them tuition breaks designed for orphans?

https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-financial-aid-fafsa-parents-guardianship-children-students

It’s expensive to pretend to disown your kids — you need the help of a fancy law-firm and you need to be able to secretly funnel money to whatever parents your kids move in with while you’re going through the sham. Rich people can pay to make red-tape go away; poor people lack the money to pull off the scam. Adding more complexity to means-testing just adds another cost: time. The time to gather documents, complete forms, get signatures and notary stamps. Time is another thing poor people lack, and rich people can buy.

The story behind means testing is just Reagan’s “welfare queens” dressed up in McKinsey Powerpoint templates. Manchin — the self-proclaimed “means-tester in chief” — says that continuing the child tax credit wouldn’t just lift more children out of poverty than any other measure in US history, it would also pay for their parents’ drug habits:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-build-back-better-child-tax-credit-drugs_n_61bf8f6be4b061afe394006d

Means-testing, then, is just another regressive tax: a way to disproportionately burden poor people with time- and cash-intensive obligations. It’s a way to turn users of universal programs into “burdens on society” instead of participants in it. It’s a way to discourage the Democratic base and ensure low turnouts in elections, especially midterms, where the turnouts are low to begin with.

As Sirota points out, the GOP has already figured out that universal programs are bad politics. That’s why Trump rolled out universal small business covid relief, universal covid survival checks, and universal covid testing and treatment.

The idea that means-testing will keep the GOP from attacking the Dems in the 2022 election is delusional. As Senate Democrats’ Budget Committee staff director Warren Gunnels says, “Republicans will attack forgiving $10,000 in student debt as voraciously as if Biden canceled all student debt while demoralizing tens of millions who will still be drowning in it. Think big or go home. Cancel all of it.”

https://twitter.com/GunnelsWarren/status/1519860996579414022

The Biden admin has the legal authority to simply cancel all federal student debt. Doing so would turn out millions of mid-term Democratic voters. Sure, it would rile up private equity looters and GOP lawmakers and pundits — but they’re already going to blitz the airwaves and Facebook with attack ads against the Dems, no matter what.

Losing the 2022 midterms will have consequences. For one thing, it’ll make it impossible to pass a long-overdue law enshrining abortion rights, which is a big deal. If the Supremes really are going to roll back Roe and impose forced birth on half of America, they’ll do so by returning the nation to the 19th century:

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2022/05/roe-v-wade-v-sanity.html

As Charlie Stross writes, the precedent that Roe depends on also legalized interracial marriage, the possession of pornography, same-sex marriage, and the right to teach your kids languages other than English (!). Elections have consequences, and handing the GOP the keys to the country in order to make sure that 1.4% of college tuition relief doesn’t go to billionaires is an idiotic trade. If the Republicans win the next election, they’ll loot so much that the pennies they’d collect from student debt cancellation won’t even rise to a rounding-error.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2019_UCLA_Royce_Hall_2.jpg Beyond My Ken (modified)

CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[Image ID: A portly business-man in a tux pulling a dollar-sign-shaped lever on a box. The man's head has been replaced with a grinning skull wearing a mortar-board. The box is emblazoned with a Democratic Party bucking donkey symbol. Behind the man is a blurred image of UCLA's Royce Hall, a stately brick campus building with two towers flanking an arched doorway and a rolling green lawn.]

#pluralistic

[learnfromhistoryorrepeatit]

February 7, 2023, 4:30AM

Ohio public schools under attack as lack of accountability allows Nazi homeschooling scandal | Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal

“Public education is in the crosshairs of book-banning, speech-censoring bullies, and private school zealots draining public school dollars. Missing in the DeSantis shuffle and campaigns to privatize education is any correlating interest in how the vast majority of publicly educated students in this country learn, develop, grow, and achieve.

Some 90% of Ohio kids attend public schools. Their districts are routinely starved for funds, teachers, equipment, and sound facilities. But the educational welfare of those students is not what motivates Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman’s education agenda. What drives the Lima Republican is political control.

He wants it over education policy without interference from Ohio voters or the Ohio Board of Education members they elected. That’s why he’s pushing to transfer most of the duties of the board to an unaccountable, unelected political appointee in the governor’s office with Senate Bill 1. Huffman’s disdain for public accountability and oversight in education was evident when he downplayed the explosive news of Nazi homeschooling in Ohio.

His concern was less about Ohio children being reportedly indoctrinated with racist, antisemitic, and homophobic curriculum and more about political fallout. “I hope, frankly, that people will not try to take some political advantage or policy advantage,” said the Senate leader who hopes to take political advantage over education policy.

Nothing to see here, he implied when asked about the Ohio-based homeschooling network purportedly disseminating neo-Nazi propaganda and hate-filled lesson plans to a flourishing online community of like-minded Nazi parents. According to bombshell media reports, a northwest Ohio couple had secretly been running an organization known as “Dissident Homeschool” to share “Nazi-approved” curriculum via a Telegram channel since October, 2021.

The stunning revelation raised obvious questions about the need for stricter home-school regulations in the state — which Huffman dismissed outright.

“Basically trying to decide that a couple of sociopaths somewhere in Ohio who are doing strange things, that that somehow should affect policy and the rest of the state” was somehow preposterous to Huffman. The senate president has more pressing priorities — like squeezing public education to subsidize parochial schools — than getting to the bottom of a homegrown Hitler brigade allegedly corrupting homeschooled students in Wyandot County.

Where is the Republican outrage over the reputed indoctrination of young minds in Ohio to the finer points of Nazism and white nationalism or is MAGA indignation only reserved for “woke” lessons on phantom menaces (CRT) not being taught to children? The home-educated students in the Upper Sandusky Exempted Village Schools District were apparently learning to denigrate African Americans, celebrate Adolf Hitler, and the Sieg Heil salute.

The husband-and-wife pair who allegedly grew their pro-Nazi homeschool community on the popular messaging app to more than 2,500 members evidently spent years developing fascist coursework and toxic syllabuses to properly rear a child who “becomes a wonderful Nazi.” The rot reportedly peddled from Upper Sandusky as “primarily resources for curriculum recommendations for elementary aged children” operated under the radar until the media exposed it.

If not for reporting by Vice News, Huffington Post, and initial investigation by a hate group monitor, the apparent use and distribution of pro-Nazi homeschool materials might still be going on in Ohio. That’s a problem. Over 51,000 students are home-educated in a largely hands-off state okay with absurdly weak homeschooling regulations compared to public schools.

Parents who homeschool are only required to submit an annual Home Education Notification Form to the superintendent of their home district. That form will either excuse their child from school attendance or not. Homeschoolers must confirm compliance with state home-schooling requirements which include a minimum of 900 hours of instruction in core academic disciplines “unless the topic or practice conflicts with the religious beliefs of the parent.”

Yearly homeschooling requirements also cover “a brief outline of the intended curriculum” and “a list of teaching materials” for students. The submitted notification to home educate with background information and academic assessment reports must be reviewed by the superintendent “within 14 calendar days.” Excusal from school attendance is not guaranteed.

“If a superintendent finds the parent’s notification to instruct a child at home has not been submitted, is incomplete or does not comply with the laws” the child’s absence from school would be investigated and truancy laws enforced. So what went wrong in Wyandot County?

Did the parents who reportedly operated a Nazi homeschool bent on indoctrinating grade schoolers to dehumanize Blacks and Jews pass muster with the superintendent of the Upper Sandusky district as mandated by law? Did Eric Landversicht ever receive, review, and sign off on a completed notification form from the identified neo-Nazis homeschoolers?

The superintendent wouldn’t say. In a statement he called the allegations about the social media channel created by fascist homeschoolers in his district “egregious” but claimed state and federal privacy laws prohibited him from discussing the case and even affirming receipt of notification or whether he responded to it. “I cannot address whether a particular family submitted a Homeschooling Notification Form, the contents of such Form, or whether I excused a particular student from compulsory education mandate,” he emailed me.

So much for the public’s right to know what’s going on in their school districts and what young Ohioans are being taught — besides which books they can’t read or what history they can’t learn or what resources they can’t have because of depleted funds.”

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/02/07/ohio-public-schools-under-attack-while-lack-of-accountability-allows-nazi-homeschooling-scandal/