Welcome to The Now

 Well, looks like it was shut down in late June .  Due Dissidence has more:

 Also, the 250th Birthday for America doesn't look like it's attracting "the best of the best:"

 

  You read right :  A Florida A&M University College of Law student said she was told to strip the word “Black” from promotional materials for a Black History Month event — a move she called censorship at a Historically Black College and University. Aaliyah Steward, a final-year law student who helps run the Black Law Students Association, told ClickOrlando that during the office approval process, campus staff flagged language including “Black,” “affirmative action,” and “women,” forcing organizers to abbreviate or rework copy. “We couldn’t use the word ‘Black’ in Black History Month. We would have to abbreviate it,” Steward said, calling the direction “insane” given FAMU’s HBCU status.  FAMU is pushing back on earlier reports that promotional materials for a College of Law Black History Month event were censored — saying the controversy stems from a staff-level mistake that has been corrected. In a statement sent to BET, FAMU President Marva B. Johnson, J.D., affirme...

 

 A hastily built prison for immigrants near Indigenous American territory experiencing flooding? Who would have imagined?

 Let's hope so .

 The thing is, race and racism is a part of American history and by not talking about it the country will remain tribal. Roy Wood Jr., of the Daily Show highlights this:

 So... this happened : And while there's some acknowledgment of the obvious seemingly contradictory message of police giving recognition to the demographic they are known to shoot/beat/kill with little regard, the artist behind this is pushing nuanced understanding: Unlike the typical Miami police car, which is white and blue in color, this special edition is coated black with red, yellow and green stripes — colors commonly used to represent pan-African solidarity. The vehicle is also embellished with four raised fists, an outline of the African continent and the words "Miami Police Supports Black History Month." Lavish N Looney (Lump), the Miami-based artist who created the special design for the patrol car, said that unity and paying homage to Africa were major themes in the artwork. He said he went through several designs before a version was finalized, adding that earlier drafts included images of Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama . Lump said h...

 Now that the war-happy mainstream media has turned on Joe Biden for a troop drawdown that didn't really happen , expect pundits, politicians and people of all stripes who were previously authorities in all things scientific (from the effectiveness of masks to the efficacy of vaccines to the behavior of viruses) to become experts on all things Afghanistan (from troop levels and strategies to diplomacy and  international relations).  If this storyline drags on more than a week, than expect the culture-war nonsense that has propelled Governors Greg Abbott (Texas) and Ron DeSantis (Florida) into the spotlight to be replaced with graphics of the Middle East. Expect the "voting reform" that going on in Texas to be replaced with "testimony" from those experiencing the horrors of the Taliban running amok. Anti-vaxxers will be replaced by war hawks. Not that the culture wars will go away, or even be ignored for long. For better or for worse, cable news channels can...

 It's hard for political media. Sometimes it seems that they want to be like sports media so bad: focusing on "wins and losses," accessing "strengths and weaknesses," going all-in on character profiles. Despite evidence that politics is better boring than sensationalized, the media continues to hype up people and events that don't justify hyping. One byproduct of that is framing politicians as inevitable candidates or even office-holders (ask Hillary Clinton how that worked for her).  Take Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for example. There are a number of stories about how his policies have created an unnecessary crisis in the state , even though he was hailed as a winner a few months ago .  Politically-speaking, COVID-19 and it's variants are a problem. Politicians and the political media are accustomed to having an issue stick around for about a year (maybe a little more) than going away. Keep in mind that we still have a climate crisis, election int...

 Looks like that anti-Big Tech bill in Florida has some caveats :  TALLAHASSEE –  Gov. Ron DeSantis distanced himself this week from a carve-out for entertainment giant Disney in his crackdown on social-media companies that block users from their platforms. Lawmakers stuck a provision into the bill aim ed at keeping the Disney+ streaming service from getting “caught up” in the measure (SB 7072), which is aimed at tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter. “I think there were concerns about things that I didn't quite think that bill was even going to impact,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday. “At the end of the day, that's just how this process works sometimes,” DeSantis continued. “But no, that's not what we want to see. We want to see it apply to the people that are offending right now. And we want to be able to give people the ability to defend their rights if they get censored.” Just before the Legislature approved the bill, mostly along party lines, an amendment was ad...

"Diversity" is just an old, wooden ship. At least in Florida .

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy marries girl. Girl has an affair with old roommate. Boy catches girl and roommate in bed and shoots roommate. Boy gets acquitted because of Stand Your Ground .

Florida appears to have a problem relating to black people . Missouri appears to have a problem relating to gay people . Pennsylvania appears to have a problem relating to women .

Well, don't expect them to do that again any time soon .

The missing lottery winner with the cool name ? The police have found his body .

Such fire; such passion ! MISSOULA, MT -- Bill Clinton today made an expanded and direct argument for seating Florida and Michigan delegates, suggesting his wife is being punished and arguing that Obama's campaign opposed a re-vote. “I never thought it would be the Democratic Party that didn’t want to count votes in Florida,” he said at a rally at the University of Montana. “I thought that was a Republican strategy -- or strategery as the case may be. And I just ask you all this, do you really believe Florida would be getting this kind of treatment if the vote had turned out the other way?” For more than six minutes, Clinton went through the timeline of how both states lost their delegates, and who was to blame. While he has made the case before, he placed new emphasis on it today, as it becomes clearer that seating the delegates from both states is one of the few remaining options to help Hillary Clinton defeat Obama. But I'm curious: where was this fire and passion in 2000? I...

I'm not a big fan of nuclear power, and these kind of stories add to my dislike of them. Not to say that it wouldn't have happened in another type of plant, but it goes without saying that few people are afraid of a solar plant explosion. MIAMI (AP) -- Florida's largest utility shut down a nuclear reactor south of Miami Tuesday, causing sporadic power outages affecting more than 3 million people across the southern end of the state. Authorities did not specify the cause of the shutdown but say there were no safety concerns. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the two Florida Power & Light nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point plant 30 miles south of Miami automatically shut down.