Connect with us

News

Clean Up Alabama Wants State to Dump ‘Marxist’ American Library Association

Published

on

The latest group to try to block books on queer topics from children, Clean Up Alabama, is trying to reform the state’s library system. One of its goals is for Alabama to “End our association, participation, and use of the far left marxist organization that is the American Library Association,” according to its website.

The group started earlier this year as Clean Up Prattville, according to LGBTQ Nation, focusing specifically on the Autauga-Prattville Public Library. Clean Up Alabama says on its website that “many Alabama libraries have been stocking their shelves with books intended to confuse the children of our communities about sexuality and expose them to material that is inappropriate for them.”

Clean Up Alabama says its mission is to remove “pornographic, obscene, and indecent books” from children’s sections of the libraries. One of its major goals is a withdrawal from the ALA—claiming on its site that the “ALA believes that children should be able to view pornography in the name of freedom of expression.”

READ MORE: Texas County to Consider Shutting Down Library After Judge Orders Books With LGBTQ and Racial Content Returned to Shelves

While the ALA does fight for readers to be able to access whatever books they want, the books Clean Up Alabama wants banned are not “pornographic.” The Clean Up Prattville site includes a list of books the organization objects to, along with excerpts from the books. For example, Looking for Alaska by John Green is on the list. One of the offending excerpts follows:

…I’m in the middle of a sentence about analogies or something and like a hawk he reaches down and he honks my boob. HONK. A much-too-firm, two- to three-second HONK. And the first thing I thought was Okay, how do I extricate this claw from my boob before it leaves permanent marks?…”

Nick and Charlie by Heartstopper author Alice Oseman—about a young gay couple—is also on the list. The included excerpt has a scene where the titular characters have sex, but this is the most explicit it gets:

I can’t think about anything else when he’s running his hands so gently through my hair, across my back, over my hips. I ask if we should take our clothes of and he’s saying yes before I’ve even finished ay sentence, and then he’s pulling my T-shirt off and laughing when I can’t undo his shirt buttons, he’s undoing my belt, I’m reaching into his bedside drawer for a condom, we’re kissing again, we’re rolling over obviously you can see where this is going.

Though there’s a petition on Clean Up Alabama’s site calling for the ALA withdrawal, the Alabama Political Reporter reports the group wants to change the state’s anti-obscenity law to remove an exemption for libraries. If the group gets its way, librarians could face a year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000 for providing books deemed “harmful” to minors.

Clean Up Alabama has allies among some state Republicans. Representatives Susan Dubose, Rick Rehm and Bill Lamb have supported the group’s efforts to withdraw from the ALA, according to the Political Reporter. Representatives Ernie Yarbrough, Mack Butler and House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen also have supported the group. Governor Kay Ivey sent the Alabama Public Library Service a letter echoing Clean Up America’s complaints, though the letter does not directly refer to the group, according to the Political Reporter.

On September 5, Clean Up Prattville proposed to the city council that the group take control of the public library via a service contract. The proposal was rejected in a 4-3 vote, according to AL.com. The local library director, Andrew Foster, told AL.com that the group’s campaign started over one book, The Pronoun Book, a book directed at children up to 3 years old explaining what pronouns are.

“There was an incident where a family checked out a book called the ‘Pronoun Book’, took it home before realizing it was an inclusive pronoun book, that it wasn’t just binary, he and she, but instead had some other representations in the book,” he told the outlet.

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘Probably Illegal Rumors’: Trump Calls for Investigations — to Protect His Interests

Published

on

Although his inauguration is still months away, Donald Trump, just days after winning back the White House, has already started calling for investigations aimed at safeguarding his personal financial interests.

Trump is the majority shareholder in DJT, the Trump Media & Technology Group that holds his Truth Social social media company. His stake is reportedly valued around $4 billion.

“Donald Trump has made clear that upon his return to office, he intends to sic the authorities under his control on his political enemies and critics. He’s getting started with Truth Social speculators,” Rolling Stone reports.

READ MORE: ‘Inexperienced, Loyalist Clowns’: National Security Expert Slams Possible Trump CIA Picks

“The president-elect’s revenge fantasy agenda is getting an early start with a probe into those speculating about Truth Social,” Rolling Stone noted. “Inauguration Day is still months away, but the newly minted president-elect is wasting no time adding to his list of targets – starting with people speculating that he may sell Truth Social.

DJT stock “soared Friday after President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed he has no plans to sell off his stake in the Truth Social operator, and called on authorities to investigate whoever suggested otherwise,” CNBC reports. “Trump’s announcement, posted on Truth Social, was his first personally written statement since his stunning victory against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election.”

If Trump were to sell shares from his DJT holdings, that “would likely further depress the price of Trump Media’s shares,” NPR reported in September.

In his call for an investigation, Trump on Friday wrote: “There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth. THOSE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SELLING! I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities. Truth is an important part of our historic win, and I deeply believe in it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The federal government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, Friday warned: “As a publicly traded company, Truth Social offers even more ways for foreign governments, special interests and wealthy donors to personally enrich Trump as they endeavor to curry favor with him and his administration.”

READ MORE: ‘Someone’s Got to Run the Deportation Camps’: Prison Stocks Soar as Trump Agenda Unfolds

 

Continue Reading

News

‘Inexperienced, Loyalist Clowns’: National Security Expert Slams Possible Trump CIA Picks

Published

on

A top national security specialist with expertise on Russia and nuclear weapons is warning about two individuals reportedly being considered for the role of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President-elect Donald Trump.

Richard Grenell, the former Trump acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and U.S. Ambassador to Germany, has been “suggested for a role such as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he may be urged by Trump to unearth the so-called ‘deep state,'” CNN reported Thursday.

Also in the running for Director of CIA is Kash Patel, CNN reports, “a former Trump national security official who is helping organize the next administration’s transition.”

“Patel himself has told associates that he wants to be CIA director, people briefed on the matter say. It would be a triumph after Trump contemplated in his final months in office putting Patel in key jobs at FBI or CIA. That idea was blocked by opposition from then CIA Director Gina Haspel and [Attorney General Bill] Barr.”

READ MORE: ‘Someone’s Got to Run the Deportation Camps’: Prison Stocks Soar as Trump Agenda Unfolds

“Patel and Trump,” CNN adds, “are both vowing to oust officials who played any role in investigations of Trump and his supporters. Trump has vowed to fire Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 after firing James Comey, and whose 10-year term has more than two years remaining.”

In 2022, Grenell was accused by Olivia Troye, a national security expert with decades of experience, of having “tried to get Mike Pence to attend a white supremacist gathering during one of his overseas trips.” Troye served in the Trump White House as Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Pence. Her remark was in response to a comment by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who had said Grenell “used to hang out with Nazis when he was supposed to be representing us in Germany.”

NCRM has not confirmed the allegations.

“Grenell has been acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump’s support and, at times, working against the current administration’s policies,” along with “attacking President Biden,” The Washington Post reported  in March. It also reported Trump had been calling Grenell, “my envoy.”

The paper detailed Grenell had “arrived in Guatemala in January, days before the new president was to be sworn in — and threw his support behind a right-wing campaign to undermine the election.”

“Grenell met with a hard-line group that sued to block the inauguration,” and, “defended Guatemalan officials who had seized ballot boxes in an effort to overturn a vote declared ‘free and fair’ by the United States and international observers, and he attacked the U.S. State Department’s sanctions against hundreds of anti-democratic actors.”

READ MORE: ‘Under Attack’: Newsom Preps to Protect California From Trump

“They are trying to intimidate conservatives in Guatemala,” Grenell said. “This is all wrapped into this kind of phony concern about democracy.”

The Post also reported that “Grenell’s globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump’s personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies.”

In 2020, when Grenell was serving as Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence, ProPublica reported, “Richard Grenell’s past clients could raise concerns about his access to state secrets, according to his own office’s rules.”

Grenell had “worked as a paid publicist for a foundation funded by Hungary’s increasingly authoritarian government — his second former client to prompt scrutiny because Grenell did not disclose the work.”

“In 2016, the Magyar Foundation of North America paid Grenell’s consulting firm, Capitol Media Partners, $103,750 for ‘public relations’ services, according to the foundation’s tax filing. The foundation was funded and supervised by Hungary’s government, according to records obtained by the Hungarian nonprofit news organization Atlatszo. The foundation’s director, Jo Anne Barnhart, had been a registered lobbyist for Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” ProPublica revealed.

“Grenell, however, did not register, even though public relations work on behalf of a foreign government falls squarely under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to lawyers specializing in the matter. FARA is the same law that Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, were convicted of violating.”

Tom Nichols, the retired Naval War College professor who has a PhD in government from Georgetown University and is now a writer at The Atlantic, on Thursday weighed in on news Grenell and Patel are potential picks to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

“During a crisis – say, a nuclear crisis – the DCIA [Director of the Central Intelligence Agency] is supposed to be one of the key people with a firm grip on data and solid judgment to advise the President on what to do next. Appointing inexperienced, loyalist clowns is not a big deal at some agencies. Not this one.”

Asked, what “Defcon level are we at now?” Nichols replied, “Well, I referred to this time as a national emergency, just as the last Trump administration was.”

Dr. Norman Ornstein, Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, responded to Nichols: “Not just inexperienced and clowns, people who cannot be trusted with secrets, especially our most significant ones.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

 

Continue Reading

News

‘Someone’s Got to Run the Deportation Camps’: Prison Stocks Soar as Trump Agenda Unfolds

Published

on

Several private prison stocks have been skyrocketing since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Trump has vowed mass deportations, and his campaign spokesperson on Wednesday said “millions” would be deported on day one.

“One HUGE winner from Trump’s win: Private prison companies GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc.,” observed Bloomberg News reporter Steven Dennis on Wednesday. “Their stocks, which could benefit from Trump’s plans for rounding up millions of immigrants, rocketed higher today 41% and 29% respectively.”

Thomson Reuters Foundation journalist Avi Asher-Schapiro also on Wednesday, posted the stock’s performance over the past five days, which shows it jumped over 26%. He writes: “Private prison giant Geo Group —which already has over a billion dollars in ICE contracts to manage immigration detention facilities—sees its stock soar on Trump’s win.”

Pointing to an earnings call transcript from August, he notes the company “also administers the ‘Intensive Supervision Appearance Program’ which is GPS monitoring of migrants.”

READ MORE: ‘Under Attack’: Newsom Preps to Protect California From Trump

“Now, it’s 175,000 people. If the GOP-backed House Bill becomes law, that could expand to 7 million.”

Ohio Capitol Journal Editor-in-Chief David DeWitt noted, “To deport 20 million people [a number Trump has claimed], they need to build massive camps – deportation, detention…camps where people are concentrated… to handle such massive numbers. Brokers are speculating a nice windfall for a private prison giant on the backs of millions of families being put in camps”

At Thompson Reuters’ Context, Asher-Schapiro co-wrote an article last week explaining how Geo has donated over a half-million dollars to support Trump’s re-election efforts.

“GEO Group’s political action committee moved early this year to donate a maximum $5,000 to the Trump campaign, in addition to a $500,000 donation from a GEO subsidiary to a pro-Trump group, according to an analysis from CREW’s [Robert] Maguire and Lauren White.”

CREW is the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

“The company also not only donated to his 2017 inauguration, but moved its annual corporate event to one of his properties, White said.”

“They have not only been fuelling Trump’s political aspirations, but they have been putting money directly in Trump’s pocket by using his businesses in a pretty conspicuous way,” White also said.

The Atlantic’s David Frum is a Never-Trump Republican who announced Wednesday he “De-registered as a Republican today.”

Responding to the chart of Geo Group’s stock skyrocketing, he remarked sardonically: “Someone’s got to run the deportation camps.”

On Wednesday, NBC News explored how Trump may execute his deportation plan, and highlight one of his recent quotes about immigrants: “We’re like a garbage can for the world.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Dire Implications’: Trump’s Possible Vaccine Ban Could Spark US, Global Health Crisis

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.