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Is Trump Trying to Destroy the Federal Role in Public Health?

By dianeravitch
November 23, 2024 //
7

Trump announced the appointment of Dr. David Weldon, a former Congressman from Florida, as director of the Centers for Disease Control. He has unorthodox views, to say the least. But we can always count on the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to maintain the integrity of our premier public health agency.

Oh, wait, Trump’s nominee for Secretary is the noted conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Is Trump trying to gut our public health agencies? How many career physicians who are noted authorities in their field will quit rather than work for know-nothings?

The New York Times reported about Dr. Weldon:

President-elect Donald J. Trump chose Dr. David Weldon, a former congressman, on Friday to serve as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Weldon, 71, is a native of Long Island and earned a medical degree in New York before moving to Florida to practice. Starting in 1995, he served seven terms in Congress, representing the 15th District of Florida, before forgoing re-election and returning to his medical practice.

As a member of Congress, Dr. Weldon pushed the false notion that thimerosal, a preservative compound in some vaccines, had caused an explosion of autism — a hypothesis that experts say has no evidence. He also introduced a “vaccine safety bill” that aimed to relocate most vaccine safety research from the C.D.C. — which he said had an “inherent conflict of interest” — to a separate agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Trump’s choice signals yet again his commitment to reforming the role of federal health agencies in radical ways. Though Dr. Weldon is an internist, his skepticism of vaccine safety and concern about C.D.C. overreach echo those of other nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“In addition to being a Medical Doctor for 40 years, and an Army Veteran, Dave has been a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement released Friday night, saying that Dr. Weldon would “restore the CDC to its true purpose.”

“Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities, who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation. Given the current Chronic Health Crisis in our Country, the CDC must step up and correct past errors to focus on the Prevention of Disease.”

As a member of congress, Dr. Weldon also authored the so-called Weldon Amendment, which barred the Department of Health and Human Services from funding federal or state programs that “discriminated” against health insurance plans that did not cover abortions.

He unsuccessfully sought a Senate seat in 2012 and a Florida House seat in 2024.Dr. Weldon also served as president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, a trade group for Christian organizations that offered an alternative to traditional health insurance.

The groups have come under scrutiny for potentially misleading people into thinking the groups had some legal obligation to pay their medical claims. Dr. Weldon has said that the members of his association were clear that they were not offering insurance, which is subject to strict regulations.

For the first time, the incoming C.D.C. director will need Senate confirmation. If Dr. Weldon is successful, he will sit at the helm of an agency with a budget of more than $15 billion, which has historically been used to track and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

But Mr. Trump’s choice to lead its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, is Mr. Kennedy, who has been outspoken about his plans to deprioritize communicable disease research in favor of preventive medicine.

If Mr. Kennedy, too, is confirmed by the Senate, the mission and focus of the C.D.C.’s work may change.

Reed Abelson contributed reporting.

Categories Accountability, Disruption, Elections, Extremism, Florida, Health, Trump

The Key Fact About Pam Bondi, Trump’s Nominee for U.S. Attorney General

By dianeravitch
November 21, 2024 //
10

So Matt Gaetz is out, and Trump was ready with his replacement: Pam Bondi, former State Attorney General of Florida.

She will protect Trump. That is his first requirement for that key position. She will be loyal to him. If there is a clash between Trump and the Constitution, she will protect Trump. She will take an oath to the Constitution but she was chosen to ensure that he is never investigated.

Wikipedia says:

In 2020, Bondi was one of longtime ally President Donald Trump‘s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. By 2024, she led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. On November 21, 2024, president-elect Trump announced she would be nominated for United States Attorney General.

The AP reports:

She gained national attention with appearances on Fox News as a defender of Trump and had a notable speaking spot at 2016 Republican National Convention as Trump became the party’s surprising nominee. During the remarks, some in the crowd began chanting “Lock her up” about Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 

Bondi responded by saying, “‘Lock her up,’ I love that.”

Categories Democracy, Ethics, Florida, Justice, Trump

Florida: Voting on the Amendments on the Ballot

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2024 //
4

Scott Maxwell, a regular columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, has some suggestions about how to vote in the referenda in Florida. From reading him for the past few years, I trust his judgment.

I don’t live in Florida, but the amendment I will watch closely is #4. That’s the amendment to roll back Florida’s harsh six-week ban on abortion. Very few, if any, women know that they are pregnant at the six-week mark. A six-week ban is, in reality, a total ban. Under this ban, women will die; young girls will be forced to become mothers. People like Ron DeSantis are not pro-life.

VOTE YES TO REPEAL THE SIX-WEEK BAN.

VOTE YES TO REPEAL THE BAN.

This is how Scott Maxwell is voting on state referenda:

Florida’s Constitutional amendments can be confusing, often by design.

So I’m going to try to break down the six amendments on this year’s ballot as simply as possible. I’ll give you the arguments for and against each one, tell you some of the supporters and opponents and share how I’m voting. Do whatever you want. It’s your constitution.

Amendment 1: Make school board races partisan

This would take school board races, which are now nonpartisan affairs, and turn them into partisan contests with closed primaries. The idea was backed by Republican state legislators — and one Democrat, Sen. Linda Stewart of Orlando — who believe partisanship should play a bigger and more transparent role in school issues. Opponents, including the League of Women Voters, say injecting more partisanship into school board races is a rotten idea and note that the closed primary system will prevent many of you from casting votes.

Vote yes: If you want more partisanship and party involvement in local school races, as well as closed primaries.

Vote no: If you think candidates should appeal to voters based on their platforms and credentials rather than their party affiliation.

How I’m voting: No. I think this is the worst amendment on this year’s ballot. The last thing our schools need is more politics and partisanship.

Amendment 2: Put hunting and fishing in the Constitution

This would add language to the Florida Constitution that says hunting and fishing is a constitutionally protected right. Hunting and fishing is already legal in Florida. Existing statutes even declare them as “preserved” activities. And no state has banned hunting and fishing. But advocates say they just want to be super-duper sure. Opponents say this is like asking voters to pass a constitutional amendment protecting the right to golf or play tennis. The Florida Bar Journal also published a lengthy piece that said this proposal could have unintended consequences, such as prohibiting local beach communities from closing stretches of beach to protect turtle eggs, for instance, if someone claimed that turtle protection got in the way of their “constitutional right to fish.”

Vote yes: If you want to enshrine hunting and fishing protections in the Florida Constitution.

Vote no: If you don’t.

How I’m voting: No. This one seems unnecessary and potentially fraught with unintended legal consequences.

Amendment 3: Legalize recreational marijuana

This would basically treat marijuana like cigarettes and booze, making the substance legal but subject to strict government regulation. Advocates note that marijuana is a natural substance, already widely used and argue that legalization would make it safer. Some law enforcement chiefs say it would also stop wasting their time. Opponents, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, dispute the drug’s safety, say this amendment would primarily benefit a few large companies and generally argue that communities that allow marijuana are unpleasant.

Vote yes: If you want to legalize marijuana.

Vote no: If you don’t.

How I’m voting: I’ve been torn on this one. I don’t think marijuana is as harmless as some advocates claim and know companies like Trulieve hope to make billions off legalization. But I also believe adults should have the ability to make their own decisions and can’t make a good case for why alcohol and carcinogenic cigarettes should be legal and why this naturally grown plant shouldn’t be. So I ultimately decided yes, agreeing with the Sentinel editorial board’s summary: “We’re not going to pretend that legalizing recreational marijuana would be a 100% beneficial experience for Florida. But it does make sense — far more sense than the current situation, where some people use medical pot with no fear of prosecution while others still face arrest, jail steep fines or a lifelong criminal record for possessing it.”

Amendment 4: Prohibit Tallahassee-imposed restrictions on abortion

This is the abortion amendment. And it’s pretty simple. It would prohibit state lawmakers from imposing any laws that place restrictions on abortion “before viability” beyond what federal law says while preserving requirements for parental notification. Citizens placed this initiative on the ballot to combat Florida’s new restrictions, which are some of the strictest in the nation, banning abortion after 15 weeks without exceptions for rape or incest and effectively banning most abortions after six weeks. Supporters, including some doctors, say Florida’s law puts women’s lives in danger, is heartlessly cruel to victims of sexual crimes and that abortion decisions should be made by women and their doctors, not politicians. Opponents, including the governor and GOP lawmakers, generally oppose abortion and say they should have the right to decide what medical procedures pregnant women can undergo.

Vote yes: If you think Florida’s existing ban on abortions without many exceptions is too extreme.

Vote no: If you are opposed to abortion under most any circumstances and trust state politicians to make the rules.

How I’m voting: Yes. I believe thoughtful people can have different opinions on abortion. But Florida’s current laws are extreme and dangerous.

Amendment 5: Adjust homestead exemptions for inflation

State lawmakers want to offer homeowners a tiny tax break — maybe $10 a year — but force local governments to pay for it. This one’s a bit complicated. It would take half of the $50,000 homestead exemption homeowners get and tie it to inflation. So if inflation rose by 2.5% one year, your homestead exemption would be worth $50,625 the next, representing an increase of 2.5% on $25,000. Clear as mud, right? Opponents say this is political trickery, since state lawmakers aren’t offering to cut state taxes. They want to force local governments to take the hit. And the Florida League of Cities argues that tiny savings for homeowners would have a huge collective impact on local governments. The Tampa Bay Times editorial board supports this plan. The Orlando Sentinel and Sun Sentinel oppose, noting this tax break would elude many Floridians, namely renters.

Vote yes: If you want to slightly increase the tax exemption homeowners get every year and decrease what local governments collect for services like fire and police.

Vote no: If you think the exemption is fine the way it is.

How I’m voting: No. I don’t really care much about this one either way. Sure, I’d like a few extra bucks. But this seems like political theater; a way for state lawmakers to say they provided a tiny tax break without cutting any of their own spending. If state lawmakers want to cut taxes, they should cut the taxes they collect.

Amendment 6: Repeal taxpayer financed campaigns

This would end the law that allows candidates for statewide office to use public money to finance their campaigns. Forty years ago, Floridians voted to create this program, hoping it would help grassroots candidates compete with politicians who suck up gobs of special-interest money. But now, thanks to political committees that can take unlimited donations, the candidates who take the most special interest money also collect the most tax dollars. Ron DeSantis set the record in 2022, collecting the most money ever from deep-pocketed donors and the most from taxpayers (more than $7 million). Supporters of this repeal include Florida legislators. Opponents include the League of Women Voters and the Sentinel editorial board.

Vote yes: If you don’t believe taxpayers should finance political campaigns.

Vote no: If you like the idea of tax dollars paying for campaigns and believe lesser-funded candidates deserve help, even if their better-funded opponents get more of it.

How I’m voting: Yes. Unlike my newspaper’s editorial board, I believe this subsidies-for-politicians program was a noble idea that has been warped beyond sense or salvation. It could’ve been fixed by requiring subsidy recipients to limit all their other contributions. But lawmakers have consistently refused such reforms.

Want more info?

Check out the League of Women Voters’ great voter-info site at Vote411.org

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

Categories Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Elections, Florida

Florida: “A Man Is Nothing Without His Conscience”

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2024 //
4

The DeSantis regime threatened to prosecute television stations that aired ads supporting Amendment 4, the one that repeals the state ban on abortion. The order was blocked by the courts. When the lawyer for the state Department of Health was directed to sign a second letter reiterating the threat, he resigned.

The Miami Herald reported:

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ top deputies directed a Florida Health Department lawyer to threaten Florida television stations with criminal prosecution for running political advertisements that support enshrining abortion rights in the state’s Constitution, according to new court records.

Florida Department of Health General Counsel John Wilson said he was given pre-written letters from one of DeSantis’ lawyers on Oct. 3 and told to send them under his own name, he wrote in a sworn affidavit Monday.

Although he had never participated in any discussions about the letters, Wilson sent them anyway, he wrote, setting off a firestorm that led to a federal judge last week granting a temporary restraining order against the state.

Wilson abruptly quit on Oct. 10, writing in his resignation letter that “A man is nothing without his conscience.” The letter, first reported by the Herald/Times, did not explicitly say he was resigning over the controversy.

But in his affidavit, Wilson said the decision was made to avoid sending out more letters. “I resigned from my position as general counsel in lieu of complying with directives from [DeSantis General Counsel Ryan] Newman and [Deputy General Counsel Jed] Doty to send out further correspondence to media outlets,” he wrote.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article294143314.html#storylink=cpy

Categories DeSantis, Elections, Extremism, Florida, Gender, Health

Melting Glaciers Produce Long-Lost Corpses: Climate Change Is Real

By dianeravitch
October 19, 2024 //
7

Some Republican leaders, including Trump, believe that climate change is a hoax. The Trump administration banned the use of the term by government agencies. Florida recently declared it would not adopt science textbooks that explain climate change. It’s not real.

Really? Read this story, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Jack Dolan, staff writer, reports:

In late June, as a group of mountaineers descended a treacherous glacier high in the Peruvian Andes, they spotted a dark, out-of-place lump resting on the blinding white snow.

When they approached, they realized it wasn’t a rock, as they had initially assumed. 

It was a corpse. 

When they got a little closer, they could tell from the out-of-date clothes and the condition of the skin that the dead man had been there for a very long time. A miraculously well-preserved California driver’s license in the man’s pocket identified him as Bill Stampfl, a mountaineer from Chino who had been buried by an avalanche in 2002.

Avalanches begin as loose, flowing rivers of ice and snow that sweep their victims off their feet and wash them down the mountain. When the frozen debris stops, it quickly solidifies into something like a concrete tomb.
But in recent years, as the planet has warmed and ice has melted at an alarming rate, receding glaciers on the upper reaches of many of the world’s most celebrated and deadly peaks have begun surrendering the bodies of long-lost mountaineers.
It’s a blessing and a relief for grieving families who crave closure, but it creates a grim chore for public officials whose job it is to respectfully remove the remains.

Last year, on the heels of a heat wave that triggered the fastest loss of glacial ice in Swiss history, the boot of a German climber who disappeared in 1986 began poking out of a well-traveled glacier near the mountain town of Zermatt, not far from the Matterhorn.
In the Himalayas, where hundreds of adventurers have perished on the slopes of Mt. Everest since the 1920s, Nepali officials have been forced to launch risky, arduous expeditions to retrieve the recently revealed — and rapidly thawing — corpses.
“Because of global warming, the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Assn., told the BBC in 2019.
And now, a similarly gruesome scenario has played out on the slopes of 22,000-foot Huascaran, Peru’s highest mountain.

The warming planet is “definitely the reason we found Bill,” said Ryan Cooper, a personal trainer from Las Vegas who was among the group of climbers who discovered Stampfl’s body a few weeks ago.
When Stampfl and two climbing partners disappeared in 2002, rescuers went looking for them. They found one body, that of Steve Erskine, but Matthew Richardson and Stampfl could not be located.
“If Bill had been on top of the ice they would have found him, but he was buried back then,” Cooper said in an interview.

A lot has changed in 22 years.
Hauscaran is the highest point, and crown jewel, of the Cordillera Blanca, a region of breathtaking natural beauty that’s home to a dozen peaks higher than 20,000 feet and hundreds of alpine glaciers.
These ancient, frozen reservoirs supply irrigation and hydroelectric power to much of Peru. But, as with glaciers everywhere on the planet as temperatures have risen, those in the Cordillera Blanca have lost significant mass, as much as 27% in the last five decades, according to official estimates.

Cooper said he didn’t understand the extent and speed of the changes underway until days before his guided climb was supposed to begin. He and his brother, Wes Warne, were hanging out in the Peruvian mountain town of Huaraz, listening in as other climbers and guides compared notes.
They heard the glaciers were melting so fast that previously manageable crevasses — cracks caused by natural movement of the ice — had turned into deep, yawning chasms up to 60 feet wide that could swallow an entire team of climbers.
And they heard that many guides had begun steering their clients to more stable summits, because conditions on Huascaran had become so dicey.
Nevertheless, Cooper’s team decided to give their planned route a try.

The five days they spent on the glaciers were tense, Cooper said, an up-close look at the chaos warmer-than-expected temperatures can cause.
“You’re just hearing avalanches, you’re hearing rock fall, you’re hearing ice fall all around you,” Cooper said. “I’ve never been on a mountain that was so active.”
Eventually, the guides decided not to push for the summit, Cooper said. Instead, they led the group down an older, less traveled route that had been the standard track “back in the day,” he said, before shifting terrain prompted climbers to start taking a different approach.
That’s where they came upon Stampfl’s body, at about 17,000 feet, resting alone, undisturbed and almost completely exposed.
In other cases, when just part of a body is sticking out of the ice, excavation can be a grueling ordeal. Rescuers use shovels, axes, boiling water — anything to help coax and pry remains free.
As soon as they discovered Stampfl was American, Cooper said, he and his brother set aside their frustrations about not making the summit. They now had a much higher goal — getting Bill home.
Once they had climbed down far enough to have cellphone reception, a flurry of text messages began, and Cooper’s wife joined the search for Stampfl’s family.
Before long, Cooper found himself on the phone with Joseph Stampfl, Bill’s son.

Please open the link to finish the story.

Categories DeSantis, Environment, Florida, Hoax, Lies

Right Before Hurricane, These Republicans Voted AGAINST FEMA Funding

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2024 //
12

The hypocrisy of Republicans is astounding. Right before Hurricane Helena devastated parts of Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, Congress voted on nearly $20 billion in funding for FEMA.

Every Democratic member of Congress voted for fully funding FEMA. Large numbers of Republicans voted NAY, including some from the states hit hardest by Helene.

Newsweek reported:

As Hurricane Helene careened toward Florida’s Panhandle, numerous Republicans voted against extending funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Last week, Congress approved $20 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund as part of a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December 20. But the measure left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding.

The Senate approved the measure by a 78-18 vote on September 25 after it passed the House in a 341-82 vote. Republicans supplied the no votes in both chambers.

Some of the Republicans who voted against the bill represent states that have been hard hit by Helene, including Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.

These are the Republicans who voted NO to FEMA funding. Note how many come from states that were hit hard by the hurricane:

House of Representatives:

Representative James Baird of Indiana

Representative Troy Balderson of Ohio

Representative Jim Banks of Indiana

Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado

Representative Mike Bost of Illinois

Representative Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma

Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee

Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri

Representative Kat Cammack of Florida

Representative Michael Cloud of Texas

Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia

Representative Mike Collins of Georgia

Representative Eli Crane of Arizona

Representative John Curtis of Utah

Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio

Representative Byron Donalds of Florida

Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina

Representative Ron Estes of Kansas

Representative Mike Ezell of Mississippi

Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa

Representative Brad Finstad of Minnesota

Representative Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota

Representative Russell Fry of South Carolina

Representative Russ Fulcher of Idaho

Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida

Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas

Representative Bob Good of Virginia

Representative Lance Gooden of Texas

Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia

Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia

Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi

Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming

Representative Andy Harris of Maryland

Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana

Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio

Representative John Joyce of Pennsylvania

Representative Trent Kelly of Mississippi

Representative Darin LaHood of Illinois

Representative Laurel Lee of Florida

Representative Debbie Lesko of Arizona

Representative Greg Lopez of Colorado

Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida

Representative Morgan Lutrell of Texas

Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina

Representative Tracey Mann of Kansas

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky

Representative Tom McClintock of California

Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia

Representative Mary Miller of Illinois

Representative Max Miller of Ohio

Representative Cory Mills of Florida

Representative Alex Mooney of West Virginia

Representative Barry Moore of Alabama

Representative Nathaniel Moran of Texas

Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina

Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee

Representative Gary Palmer of Alabama

Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania

Representative Bill Posey of Florida

Representative John Rose of Tennessee

Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana

Representative Chip Roy of Texas

Representative David Schweikert of Arizona

Representative Keith Self of Texas

Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana

Representative Claudia Tenney of New York

Representative William Timmons of South Carolina

Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey

Representative Beth Van Duyne of Texas

Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin

Representative Mike Waltz of Florida

Representative Randy Weber of Texas

Representative Daniel Webster of Florida

Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas

Representative Roger Williams of Texas

Representative Rudy Yakym of Indiana

Senate

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee

Senator Mike Braun of Indiana

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama

Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina

Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho

Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska

Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin

Senator Mike Lee of Utah

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas

Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky

Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska

Senator James Risch of Idaho

Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina

Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama

Categories Environment, Extremism, Florida, Funding, Georgia, North Carolina, Republicans, Tennessee, Wall of Shame

David Wallace-Wells: The Tragedy of Hurricane Helene

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2024 //
32

David Wallace-Wells, a regular contributor to the New York Times, is confounded by the lack of preparation for Hurricane Helene. The weather reports warned that it would be a deadly storm, yet many people thought they could ride it out, and they paid with their lives. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and the public is not adequately prepared. Have they been lulled by the politicians who claim that climate change is a hoax? Climate change denial claims lives.

Wallace-Wells writes:

Last week, warning about the imminent arrival of Hurricane Helene, the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Fla., used the word “unsurvivable.”

And yet the storm seemed to take much of the country by surprise. You might have thought, not that long ago, that the arrival of extreme weather could wake us up, belatedly, from climate complacency. But the dull drumbeat of disaster seems almost to be putting us to sleep instead. Even the imminent arrival of a cataclysm like Helene, a Category 4 storm that spanned more than 400 miles across the Gulf Coast and threatened communities as far north as Appalachia, was not enough to generate all that much attention ahead of time, when more might have been done to limit the devastation. The storm has so far produced at least 100 deaths and perhaps $160 billion in damages (according to early estimates).

In Florida’s Big Bend region, Helene was the third hurricane to make landfall in barely a year, flattening beach towns and barrier islands and sending water into the attics of homes as far away as Tampa Bay. In several states to the north, locals from dozens of communities hundreds of miles from one another were calling the storm “our Katrina,” some of them watching whole homes or shiny caskets carried downstream, others clinging to tree branches for hours on end waiting for the floodwaters to recede or help to arrive. In Tennessee, there was no emergency declared before hospital patients were evacuated from a rooftop by helicopter, and as of Saturday, across western North Carolina, hundreds of vulnerable power substations were still down, along with the infrastructure and power lines meant to actually deliver electricity and the vast majority of the world’s supply of high purity quartz, a necessary input for the production of semiconductors. Dozens of coal ash ponds holding billions of tons of toxic coal ash have likely been flooded, as well. Cars and trucks “were tossed around like toys.”

Forty trillion gallons of rain fell in total, the equivalent of one-third of the total volume of Lake Erie, enough to cover the entire state of Massachusetts in 23 feet of water. The intense rainfall was made, over the last week, perhaps 50 percent more intense over parts of Georgia and the Carolinas by global warming. (Other rapid assessments suggested it was perhaps only 20 percent more intense.) Entire towns appear to have been turned into flotsam or pulverized into splinters, and few of those living in the hardest-hit areas even carried flood insurance. In Asheville, N.C., which sits hundreds of miles from the coastline and thousands of feet above sea level and is now the drowned ground zero of the storm, the National Flood Insurance Program coverage rate was under 1 percent. Across the country, as many as six million more homes are at severe risk of flooding than are even included on the federal government’s flood risk maps, Michael Thomas pointed out in the aftermath of the storm. Across Asheville’s Buncombe County, 17 times as many homes had been judged at risk in a 100-year flood event as carried insurance against that risk; Helene was called a “thousand-year” flood for certain parts of the Southeast, though those terms grow less meaningful almost by the day. Another ostensible thousand-year storm had hit the coastal Carolinas just one week before. “Sometimes ‘worst case’ scenarios really do come to pass,” the climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote over the weekend on Sunday, “and I think we often lack the collective imagination to fully envision what that looks like.”

Former President Trump was the first politician to arrive, and he indulged his impulse to politicize the disaster. He asserted, falsely, that President Biden refused to take calls from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, though Kemp said that he had talked to Biden, who sent the help he asked for. Trump also claimed that Biden wasn’t sending help to states with Republican leaders (every state but North Carolina), but that wasn’t true either.

Trump never learned that natural disasters are times when people help people, regardless of party.

Categories Environment, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee

Judd Legum: DeSantis Bans Accurate Sex Education

By dianeravitch
September 28, 2024 //
20

Judd Legum of Popular Information tells the sad story of what happened to sex education in Florida. Responding to Ron DeSantis, the legislature passed a bill declaring what must be taught and what cannot be taught, in accord with the ideology of rightwing Republicans, not science. The law requires districts to have their sex Ed curriculum approved by the state. Large numbers of students are getting no sex education at all. That may be what DeSanths wants.

Legum writes:

In May 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed Florida House Bill 1069, a law that requires sex education classes in the state to conform to right-wing ideology. Specifically, the law requires all sex education classes to teach students that sex is binary, “either male or female,” even though that is inaccurate. It also mandates that students are instructed that sex is defined exclusively by “internal and external genitalia present at birth,” and these sex roles are “binary, stable, and unchangeable.” This requirement erases the existence of trans and nonbinary people. Schools also must “teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school-age students” and “the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.”

To enforce these new rules and other aspects of the DeSantis administration’s political agenda, HB 1069 also requires “all materials used to teach reproductive health” to be approved in advance by the Florida Department of Education (FDE) or use textbooks pre-approved by the state. Previously, sex education curricula were approved by district school boards. Florida parents can opt-out of sex education lessons on behalf of their children. 

The FDE instructed school districts to submit their materials for sex education by September 30, 2023. The school districts met the deadline, but the FDE never responded. Florida counties were placed in a no-win situation as not teaching sex education, a mandatory course, at all is a violation of state law. 

Several Florida school districts — including Hillsborough, Orange and Polk Counties, three of Florida’s largest — decided not to teach sex education at all during the 2023-24 school year, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Other counties, including Broward and Seminole Counties, taught sex education classes without getting the legally required approval. 

Legum reviewed a copy of the training materials for reviewers of district plans. Among other things, it requires these “experts” to watch for the following criteria:

The “experts” are directed to evaluate all materials on 11 separate criteria, some inscrutable. For example, all materials must be evaluated on the criteria of “Male and Female Reproductive Roles,” “Principles of Individual Freedom,” “Critical Race Theory,” and “Social Justice.” 

Please open the link to learn more about how the Florida Department of Education trains reviewers of district plans.

Categories Curriculum, DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Gender, Science

Billy Townsend: Why Do People Vote for an Aging Wannabe Dictator?

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2024 //
55

Billy Townsend writes a blog where he exposes public corruption in Florida. In this post, he tries to understand why his friends and neighbors will vote for Trump.

He begins:

Choosing — yet again — to inflict a deteriorating, revenge-obsessed, 78-year-old Capitol lynch mob inciting felon sex abuser and his horde of MAGA freaks on your friends, loved ones, neighbors, fellow citizens, and communities means inflicting — yet again — a deteriorating, revenge-obsessed, 78-year-old Capitol lynch mob inciting felon sex abuser and his horde of MAGA freaks on your friends, loved ones, neighbors, fellow citizens, and communities. 

I am surrounded in Lakeland, Florida these days by folks who have made this choice multiple times already, who pretend they’re in downcast denial about the self-evident facts of making that choice yet again, especially post January 6th. They’re pretending to believe that choosing to make a MAGA dictatorship and give it the nuclear codes and Department of Justice does not meanmaking a MAGA dictatorship and giving it the nuclear codes and Department of Justice….

What I most value about elections is that they force clear, unambiguous choices. The MAGA Freak dictatorship choice before us is the clearest and most obviously one-sided choice in the history of American self-government. Everyone knows this. The fact that the vote will be close on something so obvious says more about Americans than it does about the choice we face. MAGA doesn’t even have a fake economic or border argument to make. 

I mean, at the most elemental level, I would be proud to call Kamala Harris friend, aunt, wife, mother, boss, co-worker Kiwanis Club president, mayor, minister. I would be disgusted and embarrassed to call the deteriorating 78-year-old MAGA dictator friend, uncle, husband, father, boss, Kiwanis Club president, mayor, minister. 

Categories Corruption, Cruelty, Democracy, Disruption, Elections, Florida, Trump

Florida: State Health Officials Try to Derail Abortion Amendment

By dianeravitch
September 21, 2024 //
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At Governor DeSantis’ insistence, Florida enacted one of the toughest abortion bans in the nation. Abortion is banned in the state at six weeks of pregnancy. Very few, if any, women know they are pregnant at six weeks. Advocates for reproductive rights immediately began mobilizing to fight the abortion ban. They drafted a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would protect a woman’s right to an abortion. Despite DeSantis’ opposition, they gathered signatures, fought legal battles, and got the measure on the November ballot, where it is called Amendment 4.

DeSantis continues to fight passage of the referendum.

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the latest state plot to deceive voters:

Florida health officials reiterated Thursday that state law allows abortions at any point in pregnancy to save the life of the mother, responding to concerns that Florida’s new six-week abortion ban is tying doctors’ hands and putting women in danger.

The state’s “provider alert” said abortions can be performed “to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” Failing to provide that “life-saving treatment” could constitute medical malpractice, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health warned in a notice to providers distributed by email and social media.The notice was released a day after several doctors supporting Amendment 4 — which would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution — said in news conference that the exceptions in Florida’s abortion ban aren’t real exceptions.

“These so-called exceptions are a mirage,” said Dr. Jerry Goodman, a Sarasota-based OB-GYN, who spoke at the pro-Amendment 4 event on Wednesday. “Patients face overwhelming legal and procedural and logistical hurdles making accessing care nearly impossible, particularly at three ‘o clock in the morning when these emergencies often arise.”Florida’s abortion ban, which went into effect May 1, has exceptions up to 15 weeks for pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, or human trafficking, or if a “fatal fetal abnormality” is detected, the notice added. The memo included a line in bold that “a miscarriage is not an abortion.”

Abortions are permissible for women who experience premature rupture of membranes, as well as ectopic or molar pregnancies, all of which are serious complications, according to the memo.

But several doctors supporting Amendment 4 said at the news conference that the state’s abortion exceptions could be hard to meet. For instance, the law requires women who are raped to provide legal documentation, such as a police report, a barrier that the doctors said can delay care or block access.

The state’s ban has sparked fear and led to confusion over what constitutes a serious health risk under Florida’s “narrow medical exceptions,” according to a report from Physicians for Human Rights released on Tuesday.

“Several clinicians described cases of being required by their hospitals to wait until patients become ‘sick enough’ to qualify for care,” the report found.

A physician who performs an illegal abortion could face a third-degree felony charge punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

State officials said they issued the notice in response to “misinformation” about Florida’s abortion laws.

Their guidance comes as voters prepare to take up Amendment 4, which would overturn the state’s six-week ban and protect abortion access up until viability, typically defined as about 24 weeks of pregnancy. If approved by at least 60% of voters in November, it also would guarantee abortion access “when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”

Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a Miami-based provider, also urged voters to support Amendment 4. She said she has seen patients with nonviable pregnancies who have been turned away from care.

“I saw a patient a few weeks ago who came to me with four ultrasounds from four different clinics showing a nonviable pregnancy and she was still carrying this pregnancy when she came to me,” Daniels said.

Opponents argue Amendment 4 is vague and misleads voters by failing to define key terms like “viability” and “healthcare provider.” A group called Physicians Against Amendment 4 denounced the measure at an event earlier this month in Orlando, calling it “overreaching,” “too permissive” and “irresponsible.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis and state officials have been under fire from critics who accuse them of unlawfully using taxpayer resources to try to sway the results of Amendment 4. The agency launched a webpage earlier this month, proclaiming that existing Florida law “protects women” while the initiative enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution “threatens women’s safety.”

It also released a “public service announcement” video that includes information about Florida’s abortion laws and an assurance that “Florida cares about women and families.”

Two lawsuits have been filed challenging the agency’s webpage, and Florida Democrats have pushed for a criminal investigation.

Florida law stipulates that “no employee in the career service” shall “use the authority of his or her position to secure support for, or oppose, any candidate, party, or issue in a partisan election or affect the results thereof.”

State officials, though, say the website is informational and complies with that law.

About the same time, a Florida judge ordered an ob-gyn doctor in Orlando to pay a $10,000 fine for performing 193 abortions after the law passed and was caught up in litigation. The doctor and the clinic where she worked tried to get information from the state about when he law went into effect. Getting no response, the doctor continued to provide abortions. The judge acknowledged that the doctor and the clinic unknowingly violated the law but decided that they broke the law and needed to be punished. The clinic was fined $193,000, a fine of $1,000 for each abortion.

Categories DeSantis, Disruption, Elections, Extremism, Florida, Gender, Health, Resistance
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