March 6, 2023

Monday, March 6, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Bloody Sunday in Selma.

He leads with his values.

In Selma, Biden says right to vote remains under assault.

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — President Joe Biden used the searing memories of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” to recommit to a cornerstone of democracy, lionizing a seminal moment from the civil rights movement at a time when he has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law.e

“Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote ... to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it anything’s possible,” Biden told a crowd of several thousand people seated on one side of the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader.

“This fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states and dozens and dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the ‘Big Lie’ and the election deniers now elected to office,” he said.

As a candidate in 2020, Biden promised to pursue sweeping legislation to bolster protection of voting rights. Two years ago, his 2021 legislation, named after civil right leader John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman, included provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting and bring transparency to a campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to bankroll political causes anonymously.
(AP).

Touch 👇 to watch the President commemorating the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama yesterday.

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The Roundup keeps making clear who the 2023 GOP is and what they stand for. This is just more fuel on that fire. 🔥🔥

Texas GOP votes to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales over support on gun, same-sex legislation.

The Republican Party of Texas voted on Saturday to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) over his stance on several pieces of legislation, including his support on a bipartisan gun law passed last year and federal same-sex marriage protection legislation. 

In a 57-5 vote within the Texas GOP’s State Republican Executive Committee, the state party censured the Texas House Republican. Only one member abstained. 

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How Ron DeSantis is following in Viktor Orbán’s footsteps.

In June of last year, Hungary’s far-right government passed a law cracking down on LGBTQ rights, including a provision prohibiting instruction on LGBTQ topics in sex education classes.

About nine months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” up through third grade. According to some knowledgeable observers on the right, these two bills were closely connected.

About the Don’t Say Gay law, it was in fact modeled in part on what Hungary did last summer,” Rod Dreher, a senior editor at the American Conservative magazine, said during a panel interview in Budapest. “I was told this by a conservative reporter who ... said he talked to the press secretary of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’”

(When I asked DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw about a possible connection, she initially denied knowing of Hungarian inspiration for Florida’s law. After I showed her the quote from Dreher, she did not respond further. Dreher did not reply to two requests for comment.)

It’s easy to see the connections between the bills — in both provisions and justifications. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described his country’s anti-LGBTQ law as an effort to prevent gay people from preying on children; Pushaw described Florida’s law as an “anti-grooming bill” on Twitter, adding that “if you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer” — meaning a person preparing children to become targets of sexual abuse, a slur targeting LGBTQ people and their supporters that’s becoming increasingly common on the right.

This is not a one-off example. DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán’s governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right’s enemies.

Most recently, there was DeSantis’s crackdown on Disney’s special tax exemption; using regulatory powers to punish opposing political speech is one of Orbán’s signature moves. On issues ranging from higher education to social media to gerrymandering, DeSantis has followed a trail blazed by Orbán, turning policy into a tool for targeting outgroups while entrenching his party’s hold on power.

Orbán has recently emerged as an aspirational model for many on the Trump-friendly right. During his presidency, many observers on both sides of the aisle compared Trump to the Hungarian autocrat — and not without some justification. But after a 2018 visit to Hungary, I concluded that Trump was not competent or disciplined enough to implement Orbán-style authoritarianism in America on his own. The real worry, I argued, was a GOP that took on features of Orbán’s Fidesz party.

DeSantis’s agenda in Florida is evidence that the Republican shift in this direction is continuing, maybe even accelerating. He has shown little interest in moderation or consensus-building instead centering his governing philosophy on using policy to own the libs. While Trump may have been an ideological catalyst for the GOP’s authoritarian lurch, DeSantis is showing how it could actually be implemented in practice. The consequences for democracy in Florida, and America in general, could be dire.

There is no doubt that Hungary, an authoritarian state in all but name, is becoming more and more important in the American right-wing imagination. (Vox).

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New York Times Editorial Board: Florida Is Trying to Take Away the American Right to Speak Freely.

A homeowner gets angry at a county commission over a zoning dispute and writes a Facebook post accusing a local buildings official of being in the pocket of developers.

A right-wing broadcaster criticizing border policies accuses the secretary of homeland security of being a traitor.

A parent upset about the removal of a gay-themed book from library shelves goes to a school board meeting and calls the board chair a bigot and a homophobe.

All three are examples of Americans engaging in clamorous but perfectly legal speech about public figures that is broadly protected by the Constitution. The Supreme Court, in a case that dates back nearly 60 years, ruled that even if that speech might be damaging or include errors, it should generally be protected against claims of libel and slander. All three would lose that protection — and be subject to ruinous defamation lawsuits — under a bill that is moving through the Florida House and is based on longstanding goals of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The bill represents a dangerous threat to free expression in the United States, not only for the news media, but for all Americans, whatever their political beliefs. There’s still time for Florida lawmakers to reject this crude pandering and ensure that their constituents retain the right to free speech.

“This isn’t just a press issue,” said Bobby Block, executive director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation. “This is a death-to-public-discourse bill. Everyone, even conservatives, would have to second-guess themselves whenever they open their mouths to speak or sit in front of a keyboard.”

The bill is an explicit effort to eviscerate a 1964 Supreme Court decision, The New York Times Company v. Sullivan. This bulwark of First Amendment law requires public figures to prove a news organization engaged in what the court called “actual malice” to win a defamation case. By preventing lawsuits based on unintentional mistakes, the decision freed news organizations to pursue vigorous reporting about public officials without fear of paying damages. The decision has even been applied by lower courts to bloggers and other speakers who make allegations about public figures.

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Last, below 👇 is a January 23rd poll. Banana Republicans should keep these numbers in mind, or expect to get slaughtered on these issues - as they did on abortion in the Midterms.

Most voters don’t want GOP to punish ‘woke’ companies: poll.

House Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), have promised to investigate some of the largest U.S. companies over their so-called woke politics, referring to support of the Black Lives Matter movement; environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, investing and abortion access, among other hot-button issues.

Voters largely don’t want Congress to punish companies for speaking out on certain social and political issues, according to a Morning Consult poll commissioned by the tech industry-backed Chamber of Progress and released on Monday. 

The survey found that a majority of voters wouldn’t want lawmakers to punish companies for speaking out against discrimination, openly supporting abortion rights or withholding campaign donations from Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.

While the Republican effort to punish companies that speak up on social issues might be popular with the far right, it’s completely out of touch with what most voters want to see from Congress,” Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich told The Hill. “This poll should be a wake-up call for Republicans — no one wants to see them silence the private sector.” 

Seventy-one percent of voters oppose Congress punishing companies that “speak out against discrimination,” including two-thirds of GOP respondents, according to the poll. 

Republicans were enraged when several major companies, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, spoke out against the Georgia GOP’s voting law that critics said discriminated against Black voters.

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) punished Disney after the company spoke out against his “don’t say gay” bill.

“Companies like Disney, Coke and Delta should be focusing on their customers, not engaging in political fights,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has also threatened retribution against “woke” companies, tweeted last year.

The survey found that 72 percent of voters don’t want Congress to punish companies that “speak out in support of reproductive rights.” While only a relatively small number of companies spoke out against the Supreme Court’s decision last year that ended federal abortion protections, most large corporations pledged to help their employees access abortion services.

Nearly 6 in 10 respondents oppose punishing corporations for withholding donations to the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying President Biden’s 2020 win. 

Dozens of companies froze their PAC donations to those lawmakers, including McCarthy, following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, but most unpaused their giving over the last year following GOP outrage. 

Morning Consult surveyed 2,006 midterm voters from Nov. 17-18. The poll’s margin of error is 2 percentage points. (The Hill).

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Nations of the world work to save our oceans.

Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks.

Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world's oceans following 10 years of negotiations.

The High Seas Treaty aims to place 30% of the seas into protected areas by 2030, to safeguard and recuperate marine nature.

The agreement was reached on Saturday evening, after 38 hours of talks, at UN headquarters in New York.

The negotiations had been held up for years over disagreements on funding and fishing rights.

Countries will need to meet again to formally adopt the agreement and then have plenty of work to do before the treaty can be implemented.

Liz Karan, director of Pews Trust ocean governance team, told the BBC: "It will take some time to take effect. Countries have to ratify it [legally adopt it] for it to enter force. Then there are a lot of institutional bodies like the Science and Technical Committee that have to get set up." (BBC).

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A.I. will prove to have many benefits. Here is certainly one.

A.I. to Detect Breast Cancer That Doctors Miss.

Dr. Éva Ambrózay, a radiologist at Bács-Kiskun County Hospital, has been using A.I. software to help look for signs of cancer that doctors may have missed.

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Inside a dark room at Bács-Kiskun County Hospital outside Budapest, Dr. Éva Ambrózay, a radiologist with more than two decades of experience, peered at a computer monitor showing a patient’s mammogram.

Two radiologists had previously said the X-ray did not show any signs that the patient had breast cancer. But Dr. Ambrózay was looking closely at several areas of the scan circled in red, which artificial intelligence software had flagged as potentially cancerous.

“This is something,” she said. She soon ordered the woman to be called back for a biopsy, which is taking place within the next week.

Advancements in A.I. are beginning to deliver breakthroughs in breast cancer screening by detecting the signs that doctors miss. So far, the technology is showing an impressive ability to spot cancer at least as well as human radiologists, according to early results and radiologists, in what is one of the most tangible signs to date of how A.I. can improve public health.

Last year, after a test on more than 275,000 breast cancer cases, Kheiron reported that its A.I. software matched the performance of human radiologists when acting as the second reader of mammography scans. It also cut down on radiologists’ workloads by at least 30 percent because it reduced the number of X-rays they needed to read. In other results from a Hungarian clinic last year, the technology increased the cancer detection rate by 13 percent because more malignancies were identified.

“It’s a huge breakthrough,” said Dr. András Vadászy, the director of MaMMa Klinika, who was introduced to Kheiron through Dr. Karpati, Mr. Kecskemethy’s mother. “If this process will save one or two lives, it will be worth it.”

Kheiron said the technology worked best alongside doctors, not in lieu of them. Scotland’s National Health Service will use it as an additional reader of mammography scans at six sites, and it will be in about 30 breast cancer screening sites operated by England’s National Health Service by the end of the year. Oulu University Hospital in Finland plans to use the technology as well, and a bus will travel around Oman this year to perform breast cancer screenings using A.I. (New York Times).

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Good people don’t leave anyone behind.

Do you remember Judith Heumann from the film “Crip Camp”? Or from the Clinton and Obama Admins? What a fierce and remarkable woman!!! What a fighter for fairness!!!

Judith Heumann, ‘Mother of the Disability Rights Movement,’ Has Died.

Disability rights leader, activist and author Judith “Judy” Heumann died on Saturday at age 75, her team confirmed on Saturday.

Known as the “mother of the disability rights movement,” Heumann became an internationally recognized leader for her instrumental work pushing for historic legislation, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act.

Born in Philadelphia and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Heumann became physically disabled and a wheelchair user after developing polio at an early age in 1949. At 5 years old, she was denied the right to attend school because she was considered a “fire hazard.” However, her parents fought for her right to an education, and she eventually attended a special school and high school. Ultimately, she went on to study at Long Island University, where she organized protests and rallies advocating for students with disabilities to have better access to campus buildings and facilities. She later received a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1970, Heumann was denied her New York teaching license by the Board of Education despite passing the oral and written exams. She sued the board for discrimination and settled without a trial. As a result, Heumann became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City.

Heumann was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living — the first grassroots center — in 1975, where she served on the board for five years. She also helped launch the Independent Living Movement, which espoused that disabled people should have access to resources and services to allow them to live in their communities.

In 1977, Heumann fought for meaningful regulations to the Rehabilitation Act of 1978. Finally, after a 28-day sit-in in the U.S. Health, Education, and Welfare federal building, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was signed, marking the first U.S. federal legislation granting civil rights protection for people with disabilities.

In 1983, Heumann co-founded the World Disability Institute, which was one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and led by disabled people to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them. Heumann has also served as a board member for disability organizations, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and more.

Between 1993 and 2001, Heumann worked in the Clinton administration as the assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. From 2002 to 2006, she served as the World Bank’s first adviser on disability and development. In 2010, former President Barack Obama appointed Heumann to serve as the first special advisor on the international disability rights for the State Department.

Heumann’s story was featured in the 2020 award-winning and Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” which captured the groundbreaking start of the disability rights movement and its early leaders.(Huff Post)

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Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Judith Heumann | The White House.

Judy Heumann was a trailblazer – a rolling warrior – for disability rights in America. After her school principal said she couldn’t enter Kindergarten because she was using a wheelchair, Judy dedicated the rest of her life to fighting for the inherent dignity of people with disabilities.
 
Her courage and fierce advocacy resulted in the Rehabilitation Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act – landmark achievements that increased access to education, the workplace, housing, and more for people with disabilities. Judy also served in leadership positions in two presidential administrations, and she started multiple disability advocacy organizations that continue to benefit people here and around the world.
 
I knew Judy for a long time. When I was Vice President, we hosted a meeting together at the White House to discuss our continued efforts to break down barriers for those who face discrimination and neglect. Her legacy is an inspiration to all Americans, including many talented public servants with disabilities in my Administration.
 
Jill and I send our deepest condolences to Judy’s husband, Jorge Pineda, and their entire family.

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