FirstCircle

In March, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler canceled a student drag show organized by several campus student clubs including members of the Secular Student Alliance.

In an email to all students, faculty, and staff, President Wendler cited his personal religious beliefs and evoked God and Creator multiple times in his justification for canceling the student event. He also falsely likened drag to blackface, claiming that the art form is misogynistic, divisive, and void of human dignity.

President Wendler’s personal religious beliefs and biblical references have no place in justifying the cancellation of the event. West Texas A&M University is a public institution and the wall of the separation of state and church remains standing.

Last week, Andrew Seidel, a constitutional lawyer and vice president of strategic communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, visited West Texas A&M University to give an address to support the students suing President Wendler, demonstrate that drag is not threatening, and detail the dangers of Christian Nationalism.

Andrew explained that drag shouldn’t be a concern for anyone: “Drag is art. Drag is human. Drag is beautiful.” However for religious conservatives, anything that calls into question the gender binary or the conservative Christian idea of what men ought to look like is perceived as a threat – solely because of their religious beliefs.

“Kids and adults alike are constantly flushing the darndest of objects down their toilet bowls,” the blog says. “Although the figures may appear cute and harmless, appearances are deceiving.”

Each of the about 18 items in collection caused “mischief,” according to the plant and are an “unsettling reminder of all that can go wrong with a misplaced plastic smile, or a toothy grin.”

After The New York Times called Donald Trump 'vague' on abortion rights, the Biden campaign posted a Trump ad and a video of Trump's own statements that say otherwise.

In 2016, then-candidate Trump claimed to be pro-life and opined there should be "some form of punishment" for getting an abortion, suggesting that a ban should go forward even if it means that people have to "go to illegal places" to get them.

"I am pro-life. The answer is, you go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places, but you have to ban it. ... The answer is... that there has to be some form of punishment."

The Biden campaign also posted an ad produced by Trump's campaign in which a narrator praises Trump for placing conservative judges on the Supreme Court and overturning Roe before the viewer hears Trump himself utter the following words: "I'm Donald J. Trump and I approve this message."

Excerpts:

It was revealed that the Canadian government had spent nearly $670,000 on consultants to advise them on how to save money on consultants. A town in Saskatchewan debated whether it should change its slogan from “Land of Rape and Honey.”

A factory robot crushed a man to death after mistaking him for a box of vegetables. It was reported that in India, a surgeon left the operating theater before completing his work because he was angry that he had not been served tea. “It’s been a hell of a year,” said a man who is suing doctors he accused of failing to find his appendix and removing part of his colon instead.

Much more in TFA.

A school district in the conservative town of Sherman, Texas, made national headlines last week when it put a stop to a high school production of the musical “Oklahoma!” after a transgender student was cast in a lead role.

The district’s administrators decided, and communicated to parents, that the school would cast only students “born as females in female roles and students born as males in male roles.” Not only did several transgender and nonbinary students lose their parts, but so, too, did cisgender girls cast in male roles. Publicly, the district said the problem was the profane and sexual content of the 1943 musical.

At one point, the theater teacher, who objected to the decision, was escorted out of the school by the principal. The set, a sturdy mock-up of a settler’s house that took students two months to build, was demolished.

But then something even more unusual happened in Sherman, a rural college town that has been rapidly drawn into the expanding orbit of Dallas to its south. The school district reversed course. In a late-night vote on Monday, the school board voted unanimously to restore the original casting.

After the vote, the school board announced a special meeting for Friday to open an investigation and to consider taking action against the district superintendent, Tyson Bennett, who oversaw the district’s handling of “Oklahoma!,” including “possible administrative leave.”

An Idaho anti-government cult hero is about to see the inside of a jail cell again.

The plaintiffs since alleged that Bundy, Rodriguez and their followers have continued to attack and harass witnesses who testified in the July trial. The plaintiffs asked that Bundy be held in contempt for violating a court order to stop harassing those involved in the case, according to court documents.

Fourth District Judge Nancy Baskin had set Monday as the day of both an arraignment on additional contempt charges and the first day of trial for previous contempt charges.

Bundy failed to appear, and Baskin said she would issue a warrant for his arrest with bail set at $250,000, St. Luke’s attorney Erik Stidham told the Idaho Statesman.

“Today, he had an opportunity to present evidence, testify under oath, cross-examine witnesses, and defend himself against those charges,” Stidham said in an emailed statement to the Statesman. “Instead, Mr. Bundy ran from that opportunity, just as he has fled from every such opportunity before in the litigation.”

Pope Francis has removed a Texas bishop from his position after an investigation ordered by the Vatican.

The Pope removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, after an apostolic visitation conducted by two bishops, according to a statement from Cardinal Daniel Nicholas DiNardo, Metropolitan Archbishop of Galveston-Houston.

Strickland’s removal follows an investigation ordered by the Vatican into “all aspects of the governance and leadership of the Diocese of Tyler,” says DiNardo’s statement.

Strickland has been an outspoken critic of Pope Francis, challenging his leadership over social media and even daring Francis to fire him during an interview in 2020, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Strickland also used social media to post anti-vaccine messages during the COVID-19 pandemic and called President Joe Biden an “evil president” over his support of abortion rights, the outlet reports.

CNN previously reported that Strickland was so agitated over Biden’s victory in 2020 that when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement with congratulations on his win, he tweeted, “A dark cloud has descended on this nation when the USCCB and Planned Parenthood speak in unison in support of a Biden-Harris administration that supports the slaughter of innocents by abortion for all 9 months of pregnancy.”

“The recommendation was made to the Holy Father that the continuation in office of Bishop Strickland was not feasible,” reads the statement. “After months of careful consideration by the Dicastery for Bishops and the Holy Father, the decision was reached that the resignation of Bishop Strickland should be requested. Having been presented with that request on November 9, 2023, Bishop Strickland declined to resign from office.”

“Thereafter, on November 11, 2023, the Holy Father removed Bishop Strickland from the Office of Bishop of Tyler,” he added.

Brown’s win will mean an end to divided city government. She will be joined by a supermajority of allies on the City Council, after liberal candidates for office swept all but one seat up for grabs on Tuesday. Woodward has frequently clashed with the City Council during her time in office, saying that the office had created a “shadow government” that attempted to usurp her authority.

Her "authority". Poor Christofascist mayor ... she can just kiss that "authority" goodbye, forever.

Spokane County election workers were evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious substance and a note was discovered in an envelope.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said the ballot counting was immediately halted and will not resume today. Elections offices in a few counties around the state have also been evacuated after discovering a suspicious substance, Dalton noted, though she did not immediately have further information.

An employee discovered the substance around 10:15 a.m, Dalton said. The person informed her manager who halted ballot counting and evacuated the office. Spokane police and fire personnel arrived on scene and seized the envelope.

After initial evaluation, emergency personnel cleared elections workers to return to the office, Dalton said. However, most staff have already been sent home, and the elections office will remain closed to the public today. No additional ballots will be tallied today, and the next release of vote tallies won’t happen until 5 p.m. Thursday.

Dalton said it was the first time in her time with the Spokane County Elections Office that the vote count had been interrupted by an evacuation. She expressed disappointment with the situation but said that their work would continue tomorrow.

“Our role here is to make sure democracy happens,” Dalton said.

A harrowing story of employment conditions in and around Vermont granite quarries in the early 1900s.

A few years after the introduction of pneumatic tools, stonecutters noticed that intense fatigue, recurrent colds, and chest pains had become part of their daily lives. Far worse, scores of previously healthy men were dying years before their time. People started calling the affliction the men suffered “stonecutters’ tuberculosis.” They had no proof, but workers suspected that the dust was the culprit.

But some things never change, first you've got the companies trying to shift the blame for worker deaths to the filthy, unhygienic workers themselves, and also proposing (without admitting guilt!) to make a small, ineffectual but rock-bottom-cheap change that if you squint just right might almost look like they're doing something. Oh and the State is in complete agreement with the companies, natch'.

By 1903, unions saw dust as a serious enough threat that ventilating the sheds became one of their contract demands. Granite companies countered by offering brooms to sweep up the dust and water to wet the stones. Management and state health officials said the workplace wasn’t the problem: The health crisis was a hygiene issue caused by unsanitary conditions at home or in the community.

Even after it's clear to everyone that on-the-job injuries are killing workers, the owners refuse to spend a penny to remedy the situation, preferring that workers just keep dying.

In 1909, complaints about one kind of pneumatic device escalated into a large-scale labor dispute. Workers at the Cross Brothers Company in Northfield called on owners to restrict use of a heavy surfacing tool called a “bumper” only to warm-weather months, when shed doors and windows could be opened to clear the dust it produced. But the owners refused.

... the owners backed down and agreed to limit use of the bumper while ventilation equipment was designed and installed in the sheds. However, the owners eventually decided not to install ventilation and sought instead to require that workers use a lighter-weight version of the bumper.

When the companies were finally forced to do something, they stuck the workers with the cost of the fix. That'll teach 'em.

Things started to change in 1937 when a new labor contract called for shed owners to install dust-removal systems by September of that year. While other workers in the sheds received pay raises in the new contract, the most vulnerable workers, the stonecutters, received none.

Owners justified that lack of a raise by arguing that stonecutters were the ones benefiting most from the dust-control systems; the installation cost would be partially offset by freezing their wages.

And finally the media (the publisher of the linked article), summarizes the behavior of the companies in question as motivated by (necessarily virtuous) competitive considerations, and not by the pure greed of the owners.

It took time to connect the dust with disease, and even once there was a known link, granite companies resisted spending money that they feared would make them less competitive with other stone manufacturers

"less competitive" and not "less profitable for the owners".

Much more in the linked article, a good read if you're interested in labor history. Or in 20th-century Big Granite.

Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down a Spokane City Council meeting Monday over an October resolution in support of Israel and council rules they argue infringe on their First Amendment rights to petition their government.

Even after council members cleared the chambers, with around a half-dozen uniformed officers standing between them and the public, dozens of protesters led by local activist Justice Forral continued to walk up to the dais to speak one-by-one as if the meeting had continued unabated, interspersed with chants of “free, free Palestine” and “City Council, listen to us.”

...

Going forward, if the rule is not changed in light of the protest, Forral expected continued disruptions.

“I guess the City Council is no longer going to have meetings,” he said.

Jeff Sharlet has spent two decades covering the intersection of extreme Christian nationalism and the far-right. In his new book, Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, he gives snapshots of a country rapidly devolving into a Christian fascism state. He captures the rage, the despair, the dislocation, the alienation, the aesthetic of violence, and the magical thinking that are the foundations of all fascist movements—forces that are now coalescing around the Trump-led Republican Party. The bizarre conspiracy theories and buffoonish quality of many who lead and embrace this movement, such as Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, make the use American fascists easy to ridicule and dismiss. But Sharlet implores us to take them seriously as an existential threat to what is left of our anemic democracy. Jeff Sharlet joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss his new book and the rising tide of Christofascism threatening our democracy.

Video: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=JtrkSeTOv7g