Mediaboss Marketing

Ben Frazier argues that he has a right to peacefully assemble in a public building and ask Gov. DeSantis questions. The governor's office says he was trespassing.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. A Jacksonville community activist, who was escorted out in handcuffs ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' scheduled news conference, tells First Coast News wanted to "hold the governor accountable."

In an interview following the incident, Northside Coalition Founder Ben Frazier said that the governor should be willing to have an open conversation with members of the community.

"I think it's absolutely appalling," said Frazier. 'The governor should be willing to sit down and talk with people who have differing points of view. He should not attempt to stifle people from expressing themselves..."

Prior to the start of the press conference, an aide to the governor asked anyone who is not the media to leave the area. Frazier argued that he had a right to peacefully assemble in a public building and ask DeSantis questions.

After some back and forth with staffers, Frazier was placed in handcuffs.

Frazier says he was held in the back of a JSO cruiser outside the Florida Department of Health in Duval County for 45 minutes and given a citation for trespassing after a warning. He has to appear before a judge within 10 days.

According to First Amendment Attorney Jennifer Mansfield, though the Department of Health is a public building, it is not a traditional public forum, where free speech is protected.

"Just because a piece of properties owned by the government does not necessarily make it a traditional public forum," Mansfield said. "So things like parks and streets are traditional public forum because they are the type of locations that historically have been used in which to express your views to the government. Whereas an office building where the government conducts work at, you know, it is acknowledged that people wouldn't be able to do their work if they constantly had people there, like chanting and protesting and holding up signs and stuff.

The governor's office sent First Coast News the following statement in response to Frazier's detainment and citation:

"The purpose of an official press conference is for credentialed media to cover information from the governors office and state leaders that is important for the public to hear. Press conferences are not 'private events,' because members of the press can RSVP and attend, and they broadcast the press conference to the public.

The protester detained by Jacksonville police for trespassing this morning is not a member of the press. Mr. Frazier is an activist who has disrupted official proceedings several times before, including a State Board of Education meeting and a City Council meeting that was forced to adjourn early due to his disruptive behavior.

Every citizen has the right to protest in public places but not to trespass in a secured facility in order to disrupt a press briefing and prevent information from being conveyed to the public.

The White House is also a government building, so it is public property. If Mr. Frazier had attempted to enter a White House press briefing to 'protest peaceably' in front of President Biden, Mr. Frazier would likewise have been removed and detained. The only difference would be the liberal medias reaction, or lack thereof."

Excerpt from:
'It's absolutely appalling:' Jacksonville activist speaks out after being handcuffed ahead of Gov. DeSantis news conference - FirstCoastNews.com...

Any librarian can tell you book banning never goes completely out of vogue. Even in quiet years they field occasional gripes about ribald DVDs or the more comprehensive guides on sex education in the young readers section.

This past year, however, was far from quiet. Book banning, in both public schools and public libraries, is having a moment. Uproar over Nobel laureate Toni Morrisons masterpiece Beloved was arguably a deciding issue in the 2021 Virginia governors race. Texas conservatives are in hot pursuit of pornography and other obscene content in school libraries, with plans to criminally prosecute whoever put it there.

Here in Arkansas, members of groups like Moms for Liberty in Northwest Arkansas, Safe Library Books for Kids in Jonesboro and Back to Basics in Conway are emailing, organizing and showing up to library and school board meetings to make their case for excising books about gender, sexuality, puberty and racism from any shelves children or teens could happen upon.

Consider the position of the Arkansas-based book banning group Safe Library Books for Kids with empathy, and youll find some genuine anguish at the root of their campaign. Afraid that children who read about sex, gender nonconformity and drugs will have sex, gender bend and use drugs, these parents and grandparents are trying to lock it all down.

If they are reading the inappropriate books being supplied by librarians in schools and public libraries, how can we expect them to then be good. They wont be, and that creates a shift toward evil for society, one of the groups four moderators lamented on their Facebook page, which has attracted more than a thousand followers since it started up in September of 2021. The page chirps and burbles throughout the day with gotcha-style alerts about books to look out for and notices about upcoming library board meetings. (Group moderator Deanne Copeland politely declined to be interviewed for this story, and other group leaders didnt respond to messages.)

One of the complaints that poured into the Craighead County library system about a Pride Month display in the childrens section.

Their arguments dont land for parents who would rather their kids learn about sex and drugs from books than from some guy behind a gas station. And when accusations of pedophilia enter the chat, as they inevitably do, its easy to roll your eyes and tune out.

And arguments from groups like Conways secretive Back to Basics that keeping books on racism in school libraries is the gateway to revolution and the downfall of the American way seem pretty far-fetched.

But this new wave of book banners in Arkansas and across the country is both loud and legion, with deep-pocketed backers, organizational know-how and the discipline to cause real headaches for defenders of First Amendment freedoms. In December 2021, the National Coalition Against Censorship put out a statement against the barrage of attempts to pull books from classrooms and school libraries. The list of co-signers, which includes authors, publishers, the American Civil Liberties Union and many others, is longer than the statement itself.

The law clearly prohibits the kind of activities we are seeing today: censoring school libraries, removing books and entire reading lists based on disagreement with viewpoint and without any review of their educational or literary merit. Some would-be censors have gone even farther, threatening teachers, school librarians, authors and school board members with criminal charges and even violence for allowing students access to books, they said.

Those censors are turning up the heat in community libraries, as well. The American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom reports demands to scrub content from library shelves in 2021 eclipsed any other year in decades.

Anyone in Craighead County with a library card wont be at all surprised at the soaring uptick. A 2021 Pride Month display in the Jonesboro Librarys childrens section, with its seemingly anodyne books about two penguin dads and a bear who felt more like a bunny, set off a months-long battle over what content the library should offer, and where they should keep it. Tempers flared, lines were drawn, opposing Facebook groups sprung up. A political tug-of-war erupted over an open seat on the Craighead County library board, a vacancy that in normal times wouldnt draw much notice. The nascent Citizens Defending the Craighead County Library mobilized to defeat a proposal to give the library board the chore of micromanaging what books and displays the library offers. So far no books have been pulled out of circulation, although some got shuffled to new spots. And library Director David Eckert, wrung out from standing firm against the onslaught, announced in November he was skipping town to take a job in Waterloo, Iowa.

What happened in Craighead County is simply a new chapter to an old book. Works that drove defenders of morality to red-faced fits in the past warrant nary a rise anymore, a reflection of changing times. Holden Caulfields suicidal tendencies and juvenile raunch kept The Catcher in the Rye on banned book lists through the 80s and 90s, but cause few headaches for librarians today. Kate Chopins The Awakening met immediate scorn upon release in 1899, and the attacks didnt let up for decades. But now? Adultery is a yawner after the Trump era, and anyway, who cares if a fallen woman flings herself into the sea?

Book banners have always drawn down on content that reflected societys anxiety flashpoints at the time. Judy Blume sat in the hot seat in the 80s, when her books about the lived experiences and sexual curiosity of pubescent girls made parents squirm. J.K. Rowling came along in the 90s to rile parents who feared their ensorceled children would turn their backs on the church. Today, though, Blumes and Rowlings largely white, heterosexual, economically secure book characters who never scrape with police get a free pass, even as theyre getting their periods or practicing witchcraft.

Patty Hector, now the director of Saline County Libraries, weathered a few waves of censorship over her three decades in the library business in California and Arkansas. She notes a couple of key differences today. The furor over books about gender and homosexuality is a new development, largely because those books didnt exist a decade ago. The same goes for books by and about the hardships and systemic racism people of color experience in the 21st century.

There were very, very few (if any) books on LGBTQ or race issues for most of my career, she said.

The boogeymen have changed, and so has the strategy, Hector said.

People who challenged books werent organized until Focus on the Family came along. That has changed greatly. Now, Hector said, she and other librarians are seeing a lot of form emails and cut-and-paste talking points from groups mobilizing to bury schools and libraries under mounds of complaints.

I respect anyone who has an issue with a book theyve read, and I will read it and talk to them about it. But if an organization tells you that this list of books is bad youre going to have to read it yourself and tell me what it is thats wrong with it before I can consider your challenge. It should be personal, not the opinion of some politician in another state, she said.

Theres no question people from outside of Arkansas are influencing the censorship debate in The Natural State. In Conway, people who came out in October for a meeting of the Back to Basics group reportedly watched a video by a Heritage Foundation fellow and conservative darling whom The New Yorker accused of inventing the controversy over critical race theory. In it, foreboding music plays as Chris Rufo argues that schools are fomenting both racial tension and Marxist revolution by indoctrinating children.

Critical race theory has become a buzzword among conservatives like Chris Rufo, who want to gloss over the countrys racist foundations.

Tiffany Justice, a former Florida school board member and founder of the new group Moms for Liberty, echoed Rufos call for schools to focus on the basics and leave the rest up to parents. Arkansas had only one chapter of Moms for Liberty at the beginning of December, but Justice said three more were coming on line before the end of 2021, with the goal of advocating for parental rights. In Arkansas, school boards set policy on what students have access to. Justice said members of Moms for Liberty will play the long game, building relationships with their board members, rather than just showing up for occasional meetings.

A member of the new group Moms for Liberty speaks at a school board meeting in Fayetteville.

The group will push schools to home in on reading, writing and math, and ditch what Justice calls social-emotional learning, which she explained as both education as therapy and a vehicle for manipulating childrens identities. Public institutions are pushing parents aside and giving minors access to content on pedophilia, bestiality and incest without parents knowledge, she said.

Im shocked at the things being found in youth books, she said, instances of rape and incest and really pedophilia.

Its at this point where we veer over the line into QAnon conspiracy territory, or perhaps its where we drill down to the meat of the matter, depending on your point of view. This is not normal literature. Somethings going on here, Justice said. Theres a concerted effort to sexualize our children at a very young age, and parents are very concerned about that.

Turn off this spigot of information and young people are more likely to be chaste, she argues. If we dont want 12-year-olds having sex all the time, we should stop talking to 12-year-olds about sex all the time.

Claims that books in schools and libraries are the gateway to pedophilia or communist revolution dont fly with the likes of John McGraw, director of the Faulkner County Library System. A soldier in a quiet army of First Amendment defenders, McGraw said libraries serve the community by offering content for everyone. He cites Mark Twains quote: Censorship is telling a man he cant have a steak just because a baby cant chew it. And McGraw promises that if you look hard enough through the shelves, theres something for everybody to get pissed about.

The goal isnt to irritate, but to make sure the needs and interests of every person in the community are represented and addressed, he explained. Were not buying books just because it would be amusing to us for our enemies to be gnashing their teeth.

If the debate is really just about kids reading books their parents dont like, the solution is simple, he said. Parents can monitor what their children check out. If you dont like it, dont read it. Nobodys putting a gun to your head and making you read Fifty Shades of Grey.

If youre placing bets on who will win this fight over what belongs on library shelves, Id go with the librarians. Theyre well-informed, experienced in fending off the book banners, and fierce when it comes to protecting access to information.

Its bad enough that we have to self-censor because we cant buy everything published, but to only buy what appeals to a small segment of the community? And all other opinions are not represented? Have a library filled with stuff thats safe and offends no one? Saline County Library Director Hector said, incredulous. The recent dust-up over LGBTQ and racism content might be a little different from censorship attempts shes weathered in the past, but libraries hardly ever remove books from shelves, and she doesnt expect that to change. Its censorship, far more than any books and curriculum about systemic racism, that threatens the health of the nation. Fighting about it, though, is good, all-American fun.

Its not too grandiose to say that libraries are the last great bastion of democracy, is it? Hector mused. And that a democracy without dissent is not a democracy.

Long gone are the days when parents targeted Judy Blume books over chaste anecdotes about menstruation and breast development. And the ebbing of a satanic panic that gripped the country at the turn of the century means even sorcery and witchcraft get a pass. Materials by and about LGBTQ, Black and brown people are whats clogging up those banned books lists these days, although sex education, that old chestnut, continues to set Southern mamas hands to wringing.

Here are some of the titles Arkansass would-be book banners are fretting about.

Its Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

Among the best sex education books out there for families pushing beyond heteronormativity, Its Perfectly Normal is public enemy No. 1 for the group Safe Libraries for Kids. The cartoon drawings of naked people and the frank information about oral and anal sex, masturbation and homosexuality have some people shook.

Wait, What? A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies, and Growing Up by Heather Corinna, Isabella Rotman, Luke Howard

This illustrated book works hard to reassure anxious young minds that masturbation is fine and normal, and that everyones genitals look pretty weird.

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out

Real stories about young people coming to terms with their identity and sexuality. Sometimes fairly young kids have sexual experiences, and a few anecdotes are included herein.

George by Alex Gino

A fictional childrens book about a transgender girl struggling to establish her identity with family and friends, this book has ruffled feathers since its 2015 release.

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Black people suffer systemic racism in the form of police brutality. Banners object to the anti-police sentiment.

How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Schoolchildren will not read this or any other books about systemic racism in the United States if the Conway-based group Back to Basics or Arkansass four chapters of Moms for Liberty have anything to say about it. They classify such works as indoctrination.

Jacobs New Dress

This childrens book about a boy who likes to wear dresses drew complaints this year from Arkansas parents uncomfortable with gender nonconformity.

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

Gay penguins in New York City (of course) attack the institution of family by hatching an egg and raising their daughter together. This was one of the books included in the Jonesboro Public Librarys 2021 Pride Month display.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

The memoir of a nonbinary, asexual writer with nonconforming pronouns.

Whats Happening to Me? by Alex Frith and Susan Meredith

Run-of-the-mill book on puberty, or a pornographic masturbation fest? Clearly the latter, one Arkansas grandfather said. The attack on our children is relentless and we MUST STAND AGAINST THE EVIL FORCES THAT TRY TO DESTROY OUR YOUTH!!

Read more here:
Book banning is back: Arkansans try to nix content on sex, gender and race - Arkansas Times

Economic Effects Mexican Immigration

Effects of Illegal Immigration on the Population Immigration, over the centuries since the United States first achieved independence, has had an inestimable influence on the character of the average the United States citizen. What has been estimated, meanwhile, are the absolute numbers of both legal and illegal immigrants to the United States.

Illegal immigration alone has brought as many as 20 million residents to the country and at least 10 million total inhabitants. When legal immigrants are also factored in, immigrants to the U.S. comprise approximately one eighth of the total population, over half of which are presumed to lack legal status to live and work in the United States.

Appeals for immigration reform, based on these numbers, are fairly constant from members of the the United States anti-immigration lobby, and in light of the exceptionally high rates of Latin the United States and Mexican illegal immigration (Mexicans make up over half of the current illegal immigrant population) in the United States, the pleas for government intervention get still more numerous and intense.

As evidenced by these statistics, the United States has already seen a sizable numerical impact from illegal immigration on its population. It is the demographic changes of the population, meanwhile, that may loom the largest. At current rates of increase, Hispanics/Latinos will overtake European whites as the ethnic majority. Of course, one would expect there to exist a significant amount of mixing between these two races as well as other minority populations.

Even so, the seeds for intergroup conflict could be sowed by these immigration shifts. While advocates for diversity and, naturally, disenfranchised Latin voters would welcome a rise in the prominence of their brethren and of their culture, those currently in power may call for more draconian immigration policies that may spawn further division between ethnic groups.

Effects of Illegal Immigrants on the WorkforcePrejudice Towards Illegal Immigrants

Prejudice against illegal and legal immigrants alike on the basis of race is also of significant concern to civil liberties champions. While some employers may award positions to illegal aliens for economic reasons (i.e. they can exploit their fear of deportation for low wages), some, too, may be motivated by racial bias. Moreover, illegal immigrants will often be met with negative stereotypes, sometimes attributed to anyone on Latin descent, despite them being hard workers and possibly not even Mexicans, let alone illegal immigrants.

Social Effects of Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration and the system that allows it have caused large effects on the United States, both economically and socially. These effects can be considered positive or negative, depending on the view point of the individual. Statistically, areas where illegal immigrants tend to congregate such as New York or southern California are experiencing an economic drain on social services that are funded by tax-payer dollars. These services include low-cost health insurance or Medicaid, low income housing, and food stamps.

On the other hand, contrary the the majority opinion, statistics may suggest that illegal immigrants actually contribute more to social security and medicare than they actually receive. Still, the social understanding of illegal immigration does not tend to reflect this idea.

Nationwide perceptions have been effected largely by the attacks that took place on September 11th. Social anxieties towards immigrants have increased as a result, and this has correlated in a resurgence of the national security argument levied against increased rights or opportunities for illegal immigrants.

comments

Go here to see the original:
Effects of Illegal Immigration - LAWS.com

Immigrants are needed but set some rules

Our nation is a nation of immigrants. The rate of population increase has been going down greatly in recent years, at the same time that we retired people are increasing in numbers at a great pace.

To put it bluntly: We need these new immigrants. We, the citizens of the good ol USA, need for a solid work force to be sustained over the years.

We need an immigration process based on several things. Careful screening of known law-breakers. Properly identifying every man, woman and child who crosses the border with an individualized and traceable number, which goes with them wherever they go. A massive program to usher each of them through the process of becoming a contributing-and-receiving part of our society. Make learning and using English an early goal and requirement in their public activities. Assign a citizen case manager to each one, to guide them to becoming a participating part of society. Case Managers could be employed professionals, as well as volunteers, who will undergo case manager training, all over the country. Any person of foreign descent who refuses to cooperate should be immediately incarcerated and deported.

Orris Bullock, Haines City

More: Voice of the people: Polk's road system needs repair

More: Voice of the people: $1 means something to the 54 million retired seniors

More: Voice of the people: County needs to fix garbage pick up

E.S. Browning's column on immigration and the labor shortage claims that illegal immigration is not new to the 21st century [Guest opinion: "Current labor force quandary nothing new for this country," Dec. 23]. Then, as some journalists with an agenda do, jumps to historical legal immigration to try to tie the two together.

Count me among the folks not fooled by this sleight of hand. What we did to legal immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries was wrong. So is giving illegal immigrants today a free pass. I support legal immigration. I do not support illegal immigration. Nor do I support robbery, murder, theft, assault, and so on, even if the motive for breaking the law is heartfelt.

Alan Matthews, Lakeland

More: Voice of the people: Is there really a right to an abortion?

More: Voice of the people: Edgewood Drive traffic clogged

More: Voice of the people: America is struggling with an economic crisis

The dictatorial governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has again displayed his agenda for anarchy in approving an election police force with tax-funded dollars to oversee the election process in our state to be sure the outcome is within his grasp to determine the winner that his party believes should have won even when they lose.

Florida had no issues with voter fraud except for a few in the Villages that support DeSantis' opinion that Donald Trump won in 2020 and voted more than once to try and make that happen. His constant threats to election officials, school boards and private businesses show his tyrannical ideas he wants to implement on the people of Florida.

Wake up, Republicans, you need to realize that DeSantis along with the Trump Republican Party is out to destroy our democracy and our republic.

Dick Gebo, Lakeland

The Ledger encourages its readers to share their opinions through letters to the editor. Submit your letter byclickinghere, or send it tovoice@theledger.com. Include your name, street address, a phone number and an email address. Only your name and city of residence will be printed. Letters are limited to 200 words or less and are subject to editing.

Continue reading here:
Voice of the people: Immigrants are needed, but set some rules - The Ledger

One year ago, a mob of mostly white men stormed the Capitol to try to keep their race-baiting idol in power. The attack was not the last gasp of white supremacy or Trumpism, as many might have wanted to believe.

It was a national coming out party for the political rights insurrectionist movement, whose roots were set decades ago and completely visible in Californias electoral politics and public battles in the 1990s.

These rioters were neither outliers nor rejects within the Republican Party. A University of Chicago report released this week found that the more than 700 insurrectionists criminally charged in the attack were not members of some extreme political fringe. Theyre from the mainstream; only 7% were unemployed. Half were business owners or white-collar workers, including doctors, lawyers, accountants. The great majority nearly 90% were not part of extremist groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.

Opinion Columnist

Jean Guerrero

Jean Guerrero is the author, most recently, of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda.

More importantly, the insurrection is a political movement, not ordinary criminal activity, though crimes can be involved, the Chicago researchers found. And the key driver of the movement is the white supremacist Great Replacement theory, which comes straight out of California politics from the 1990s.

What is new perhaps is how pervasive this ideology has become along with a broad embrace of violence. The Chicago report found that 21 million Americans believe President Biden is an illegitimate president and that use of force to restore Trump to office is justified. Let that sink in: 21 million people more than the combined population of the five most populous U.S. cities think Trump should forcibly regain power.

The report warns that this movement, with its approval of the use of violence, may well continue (or grow) with the coming election season and as Trump launches his own social media platform.

What force could make a vast swath of Americans want to hurt others and end our hallmark peaceful transitions of power? The answer is predictable: About 75% of pro-insurrection adults, according to the study, have the delusion that Democrats are importing Third World immigrants to replace them.

This racist and largely antisemitic conspiracy theory is not relegated to the dark cellars of 8chan and Telegram. Its openly promoted by leading conservatives, such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson. And its a theory that has violence at its core, inspiring white terrorist massacres.

Thats not a new play for Republican leaders. They opened the Pandoras box of replacement paranoia in California in the 1990s with scaremongering about a decline in the states white population and an imagined Mexican reconquista. Trumps senior advisor Stephen Miller, for one, grew up in California during that time.

That nativist craze took many forms, including border vigilantism and unfounded voter fraud claims precursors to Trumps Big Lie. During the 1988 elections, uniformed guards were hired by local Republicans to patrol mostly Latino neighborhoods, where some held up signs saying Non-citizens cant vote. In 1990, ousted San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock peddled voter fraud hysteria on his talk show.

Harold Ezell, co-author of the notorious Proposition 187 which sought to deny social services for undocumented people launched a voter fraud task force and hotline within days of the 1994 election. The thing that made me start wondering about this, Ezell said then, was when I was looking at the opposition to 187. I was watching the vociferous anger against 187 and the hot pursuit . . . to register (people) to vote against 187. Brown people voting had to mean something was amiss.

Trumps Big Lie and its capacity to elicit violence is inseparable from those biases. Ahead of the 2016 election, Trump falsely claimed there was a big problem of illegal immigrants voting, another way of stoking replacement psychosis.

And it worked. The people charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol came largely from places experiencing relative declines in white populations (a phenomenon attributable to racially motivated white flight amid demographic change, not a sinister replacement). Immigration paranoia was top of mind for many of them, including Ashli Babbitt, a San Diego resident who was shot and killed by police as she broke into the Speakers Lobby in the House.

Babbitt, a QAnon adherent, made social media posts and videos echoing right-wing propaganda about immigration. In one video, she was upset because she lived near the border: This immigration thing, I guess Im taking it so personally is because I am here and you see the effects, you see the crime, you see the drugs you see the rapes, you see all of the gangs.

In reality, San Diego is one of the safest big cities in the country.

California has in recent decades seen an increase in Latino political participation. About a million new Latino voter registrations in the 1990s were facilitated by changes in immigration law. Who was the proponent of this sweeping effort to replace whites with an influx of Third World immigrants? Ronald Reagan, with his 1986 immigration reform plan.

The Republican Party, being captive to replacement theory derangement, seems to have given up on courting Latino voters. This has led to the only place it could go: efforts to reverse electoral defeats with denial and violence that pose the true apocalyptic threat to American democracy.

@jeanguerre

More:
Guerrero: How the insurrection's ideology came straight out of 1990s California politics - Los Angeles Times