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ben sasse
In 'Disgraceful' Assault on Free Speech, DeSantis Bans Pro-Palestinian Student Group
"How is this not a blatant First Amendment violation?" asked one incredulous law professor.
Oct 25, 2023
In what critics are calling the latest attack on academic freedom by the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the head of the state's public universities on Tuesday ordered the systemwide "deactivation" of a student group over its solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are suffering what many experts have described as a "genocidal" Israeli war.
State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues sent a letter to the presidents of the state's 12 public universities accusing Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of condoning "terrorism" after the group's national body declared support for Palestinian "resistance" to Israel's war on Gaza and stated that "Palestinian students in exile are part of this movement, not in solidarity" with it.
The group also stated that the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and soldiers was "not unprovoked" and that Israeli "apartheid, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate bombing, arbitrary detention, destruction of infrastructure, [and] 75 years of settler-colonialism are provocations."
Rodrigues noted that it is a felony under Florida law to "knowingly provide material support... to a designated foreign terrorist organization," an apparent reference to Hamas—which the U.S., Israel, and other nations consider a terror group. However, many Palestinians and people throughout the Muslim world—including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—view Hamas as a national liberation group.
While there is no mention of Hamas in National SJP's declaration, it does hail Operation al-Aqsa Flood—the name of the Hamas-led attack on Israel—as "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance" to Israeli oppression.
"Based on the National SJP's support of terrorism, in consultation with Gov. DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” Rodrigues wrote in his letter.
The chancellor said the State University System and DeSantis administration would continue working "to ensure we are all using all tools at our disposal to crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups."
According to the Tampa Bay Times, there are at least five active SJP chapters at the state's public universities: University of Florida (UF), Florida State University, University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, and Florida International University.
The UF SJP chapter blasted Rodrigues' "disgraceful" order to deactivate the group.
"Gov. DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power," the group said in a statement. "To bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organization, but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech."
The legal aid group Palestine Legal called the pending SJP deactivations "a blatant attack on students' First Amendment rights" that "will be challenged in court."
DeSantis' recent attacks on higher education include packing college boards of trustees with right-wing allies inimical to the interests of minority and marginalized students; banning state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and critical race theory education; forcing tenured professors to undergo spot reviews; prohibiting courses that teach "identity politics" or that "systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege" are inherent in U.S. society; and signing the so-called "Stop WOKE Act" in an effort to combat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
At the K-12 level, DeSantis has signed a so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" law to prohibit educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity; rejected an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for allegedly violating the Stop WOKE Act; backed a state history curriculum that teaches slavery was "beneficial" to Black people; and required that every book in public school classrooms be vetted by a state-trained "media specialist."
DeSantis—a longshot 2024 GOP presidential contender—stridently
touts Florida as "the freest state in these United States" and a place "where woke goes to die."
Florida's crackdown on SJP comes as Israeli forces ramp up airstrikes and artillery bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip ahead of an expected major ground invasion. According to the Palestine Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks have killed at least 6,400 people—including more than 2,500 children—and wounded upward of 17,000 others while destroying over 177,000 homes and displacing around 1.4 million Gazans.
The ministry also said that 104 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 2,000 others wounded in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settler-colonists in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
One of Israel's leading Holocaust scholars has
called the relentless and indiscriminate Israeli assault on Gaza a "textbook case of genocide."
Earlier this month, UF president Ben Sasse—a former Republican U.S. senator representing Nebraska— lambasted students protesting Israeli crimes in Palestine as "abject idiots."
UF SJP retorted that "a campus where our students are insulted for standing against a genocide is a campus that facilitates an environment of racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian sentiment."
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'Just Give People the Money': Progressives Rip Third Way-Approved Complicated Tax Credit Relief Proposal
"Calling this peanuts is an insult to peanuts, an immediate tangible thing people could eat."
May 21, 2020
AA new proposal from four senators--two Democrats and two Republicans--to offer a tax credit for workers displaced by the coronavirus outbreak is under fire from progressive critics who warn the convoluted plan is both insufficient to the scale of the crisis and an affront to more simple and far-reaching alternatives.
"Give people money," tweeted journalist Anand Giridharadas. "Money is like a refundable tax credit except useful."
The proposal from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) offers a $4,000 refundable tax credit for job retraining to those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic's effect on the U.S. economy.
"The workers could use it to offset costs of training such as apprenticeships, certificates, and two- and four-year programs, including online learning, through the end of 2021," reportedCNBC.
Centrist think tank Third Way's co-founder and senior vice president for policy Jim Kessler celebrated the plan.
"We like it!" Kessler tweeted.
Progressives found that praise predictable--but not indicative of the proposal's benefit to working Americans.
JetPAC executive director Mohammed Missouri said on Twitter that the debt-focused payment schemes around higher education and training made the tax credit's prerequisites bad policy in and of themselves.
"In order to get $4,000 in a tax refund, people have to incur thousands more in debt," said Missouri. "That's moronic public policy."
\u201cTo call this weak tea would be an insult to weak tea.\u201d— Walker Bragman (@Walker Bragman) 1590015396
"Just give people the money," tweetedNew York magazine writer Sarah Jones.
At The Discourse, writer Paul Blest echoed that call, writing that "giving people a $4,000 tax credit for 'skills training' right now is solving the wrong problem."
As Blest wrote:
This is a crisis. Tax credits do nothing on a macroeconomic level and provide no immediate assistance to people in the short term. Instead of fucking around with these grand plans to remake the workforce by goading people into learning how to code or be HVAC mechanics or whatever, just focus on giving people money. Cut them monthly checks, cancel their rent and mortgages, cancel their student loans, give unemployment insurance to the people who need it and help states update their unemployment systems so those people can actually access it. All of these things would go exponentially further in helping to pull as many people as possible out of the despair brought on by the economic crisis.
There is a plan to do just that, as its architect Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) pointed out Wednesday evening.
\u201c82% of the country supports monthly relief checks.\n\nEighty. Two. Percent.\n\nWe need to stop making excuses and get money into people's pockets every month. \n\nI have a bill to do just that! https://t.co/qyprikjfQi\u201d— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Rep. Ilhan Omar) 1590009627
"The problem is clear and so is the solution," wrote Blest. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."
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Corporate Media 'Culpable,' Say Women's Rights Advocates, for Bolstering Trump's Abortion Lies
"Donald Trump believes that YOU will believe that doctors are monsters, women are completely craven, and Democrats have black souls, because that's the only way his attacks make sense. Don't prove him right by buying this BS."
Feb 25, 2019
Women's rights advocates were relieved late Monday when Senate Democrats blocked an extreme anti-choice bill from advancing to a floor debate--but were soon outraged by President Donald Trump's lies about abortion care, as well as the corporate media for enabling his blatantly false characterization of the bill to stand.
After Senate Republicans failed to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to push through the so-called "Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act," introduced by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Trump attacked Democrats for their rejection of a bill that would punish doctors for providing medical care to pregnant women and allow civil action against women themselves for making an often-painful, life-or-death decision about their health and family.
"The Ben Sasse bill was designed to be a part of Trump's playbook...to use fake boogeymen (remember the caravan?) to play to people's basest instincts and scare them into hating anyone other than Trump." --Ilyse Hogue, NARAL Pro-Choice America"Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don't mind executing babies AFTER birth."
Sasse's proposal would require doctors to provide medical care to an infant after a late-term abortion, exercising "the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child" as he or she would for a healthy newborn baby.
The Republicans' narrative on late-term abortions has suggested that doctors, with the aim of "executing babies," routinely perform the procedure in the third trimester of pregnancy on women who are pregnant with healthy, viable babies and have simply decided several months into their pregnancies that they no longer wish to have a child.
In fact, only 1.3 percent of abortions happen after 21 weeks of pregnancy, and according to the National Abortion Federation, they are "generally limited to cases of severe fetal abnormalities or situations when the life or health of the pregnant woman is seriously threatened."
As NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue explained on Twitter, Trump's statement--and Sasse's claim that the bill is anti-"infanticide"--wildly misrepresent that facts about the legislation.
\u201cHeads up: There is literally nothing about this tweet that reflects any version of reality.\u201d— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon (@Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon) 1551149993
\u201cIf ANYONE is killing infants, they are murderers and they are charged with murder. That is what everyone agrees should happen and that is, in fact, what happens.\u201d— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon (@Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon) 1551149993
\u201cThe @BenSasse bill was designed to be a part of Trump's playbook (as an aside: remember when Sasse said he was different from Trump? not so much) to use fake boogeymen (remember the caravan?) to play to people's basest instincts and scare them into hating anyone other than Trump.\u201d— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon (@Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon) 1551149993
The bill was introduced weeks after Democratic state lawmaker Kathy Tran of Virginia was denounced by Republicans including the president for proposing an amendment to her state's current law allowing third-trimester abortions--permitting the procedure if carrying a pregnancy to term would damage a woman's health in any way.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called Sasse's proposal "clearly anti-doctor, anti-woman and anti-family," with other Democrats joining her in condemning the bill.
\u201cInfanticide is already illegal. Congress shouldn\u2019t be legislating issues that don\u2019t actually exist just to score partisan political points. I voted no. \nhttps://t.co/8QIR2Ap3bc\u201d— Mark Warner (@Mark Warner) 1551141617
\u201cConservative politicians should not be telling doctors how they should care for their patients. Instead, women - in consultation with their families and doctors - are best positioned to determine their best course of care. https://t.co/ri2xLqJrE0\u201d— Senator Mazie Hirono (@Senator Mazie Hirono) 1551132515
\u201cPoliticians shouldn't be making these decisions - women and their doctors should. This bill was a political stunt based on scare tactics and misinformation and I'm glad it failed in the Senate. https://t.co/vLFb0mHLNU\u201d— Chris Murphy (@Chris Murphy) 1551187709
On social media, Hogue also blamed the corporate media for permitting Trump's lies to frame the national discussion on the procedure, with the Washington Post headlining their story on the bill, "Senate Blocks Bill on Medical Care for Children Born Alive After Attempted Abortion." The headline by U.S. News & World Report also fell for the GOP's gimmick:"Dems Block Senate GOP Bill on Infants Surviving Abortions."
"The media is culpable with headlines like this one from the Washington Post," Hogue wrote, "which would require about 20 minutes of googling to understand how misinformed that frame is."
\u201cThe media is culpable with headlines like this one from the @washingtonpost "Senate blocks bill on medical care for children born alive after attempted abortion" which would require about 20 minutes of googling to understand how misinformed that frame is.\u201d— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon (@Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon) 1551149993
\u201c.@realDonaldTrump believes that YOU will believe that doctors are monsters, women are completely craven, and Democrats have black souls, because that's the only way his attacks make sense. Don't prove him right by buying this BS.\u201d— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon (@Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh on mastodon) 1551149993
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