SINCERETALK

The United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Texas violated the Constitution with a bill banning social media companies from the regulation of hate speech on their platforms. "Supreme Court halts Texas social media law that critics say would require Facebook and Twitter to require hate speech, extremism," Bloomberg News court reporter Greg Stohr reported . The majority decision was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Jr., Elana Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. "To be clear, the headline here is *not* the dissent; it’s that Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett *all* voted to block HB20," wrote University of Texas Law Prof. Steve Vladeck. "That’s a pretty powerful sign of where #SCOTUS is heading on this case—and issue—even if the dissent’s analysis is … alarming," he explained.

The dynamics motivating the Republican Party and control of the courts by far-right judges will converge to significantly reduce states' rights on guns and abortion, according to a new analysis published by The Washington Post . "In the wake of two horrific mass shootings, the pessimists among us have said that we’re likely to see the repeat of a familiar pattern: grief and outrage, calls for legislation to address the endless carnage that American gun culture has brought us, and then nothing happening," columnist Paul Waldman wrote . "It’s actually worse than that. The intense debate we’re now having is already pushing the Republican Party further to the right on guns. There’s a change underway, part of a shift that will see the American right all but abandon its alleged commitment to federalism." Federalism is generally viewed as the argument that the states are laboratories of democracy that should have wide latitude to rule at the state level. "Th

Former United States Labor Secretary Robert Reich published a new video on Tuesday in which he tackles the "real" reasons behind skyrocketing prices and what consumers can potentially do about it. "Inflation is a cover corporations are using to squeeze more money out of you," he begins. "But as I’ll explain, there are five things we can do to fight back." Reich's premise is simple. Large corporations, unhindered by effective regulations or impactful competition, are gouging customers while raking in record profits. That, Reich argues, is purely a result of unbridled greed, and evidenced further by stagnant wages. "Are they using these record profits to raise their workers’ real wages? No. They’re handing out meager wage increases to attract or keep workers with one hand, but effectively eliminating those wage increases by raising prices with the other," he explains. " Wages grew 5.6 percent over the past year — but prices rose 8.5

Wydad Casablanca (Morocco) are the champions of Africa after they beat Pitso Mosimane's Al Ahly (Egypt) in the CAF Champions League final on Monday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/a6mG2CA via sinceretalk

High food and fuel prices have prompted trade unions to make bigger wage demands, which will exert upward pressure on longer-term inflation The post Explainer: Why wage talks are inflation’s next battlefront appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Skilled South African employees are searching for better work opportunities, and that doesn't just mean more money. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/WCIDsUt via sinceretalk

We have become deadened to the daily horror stories about child abuse and child murder in a quite profound way, writes Mark Tomlinson. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/tFgG13y via sinceretalk

Zimbabwe is pushing to sell its $600m stockpile as countries in southern Africa back a call to relax a global ban. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/qIbucsA via sinceretalk

Chrispin Phiri examines how effective has the "Through the Eye of the Needle" guideline been over the last 21 years after its adoption, given the decline in the quality of comrades and the patent destruction and poor execution of the transformation project within the ANC. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/rCqhlxV via sinceretalk

Bowmans' head of logistics, transport and ports, Andrew Pike, said congestion at the Durban Port from flooding would weigh severely on the sector financially for a long time. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/LcMsqhW via sinceretalk

The invasive bug could unleash R275-billion in economic damage in next decade and urban areas stand to lose 65 million trees The post Tiny tree borer beetle could dig up billions in economic damage appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Mamelodi Sundowns duo Peter Shalulile and Andile Jali walked away big winners at the 2021/22 PSL Awards on Sunday following a stunning season with the Tshwane giants. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/MQS59sD via sinceretalk

Without a functioning Public Protector, the people have been left without the remedial actions that they could have relied upon had the Public Protector focused on serving the public, as opposed to the person, writes Bouwer van Niekerk. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/J1qQBPK via sinceretalk

Tennis star Naomi Osaka was caught inside the Barclays Centre and had to scurry into a room for cover, where she remained petrified, after a shooting took place reportedly outside the venue. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/5ph6JWT via sinceretalk

Just two weeks ago, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was being lauded for bringing employers Sibanye-Stillwater, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and the National Union of Mineworkers of SA to the negotiating table. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/oDOTBLP via sinceretalk

Exploration has brought income inequality and poverty to people in Mauritius, Mozambique and Nigeria. The post OPINION | Gwede Mantashe, like Nongqawuse, is the false prophet of oil and gas prosperity appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

The Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris kicked off over half an hour later than scheduled having been delayed due to "fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles" UEFA said on Saturday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/2aNj1rh via sinceretalk

Britain brings out the bunting next week for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, with four days of public events to mark her 70 years on the throne. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/vPGZ7K1 via sinceretalk

Female killers usually do so for three reasons – psychopathy, greed and because they’re abused – but there is gender bias even in murder The post Women who kill: ‘Categories that rely on gender norms not useful’ appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Vinicius Junior scored the only goal of the game as Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in Saturday's Champions League final in Paris to become kings of Europe for a record-extending 14th time after a night marred by problems outside the ground that led t from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/BzsoxNc via sinceretalk

The programme seeks to open meaningful dialogues around questions of identity and transformation The post #cocreateIDENTITY experience: Provoking your identity appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

A white student urinating on a black student’s property has brought into focus a strong undercurrent of racism The post Stellenbosch Mafia mindset plays out in racist incidents at Maties appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Half of the adult population have had at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine soon. The herd immunity target was a lot higher. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/XEh4vtr via sinceretalk

We need to reimagine South Africa without the ANC and if we do not, we will either live with false hope or the country’s crisis will intensify The post PODCAST | After the ANC appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

A family from Ratanda, Heidelberg has given horrifying details of how they believe a father deliberately served poison-laced energy drinks to his children, killing three of them. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/mY8QLih via sinceretalk

The Algoa Bay oil spill has been cleaned up, with no sign of it having spread to nearby beachs islands, and no harm to sea birds detected, the SA Marine Safety Authority says. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/s8HNbPd via sinceretalk

Ruan van Heerden received a 25-year sentence in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. He was found guilty of murder after he stabbed his mother 36 times in 2020. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/UhDBetG via sinceretalk

Driven by a desire to exploit the final boom of the fossil fuel industry - a campaign for gas is being waged, based not on what our electricity system needs, but what a handful of politicians and oil and gas executives want. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/kGg6r52 via sinceretalk

What appears to be an increasingly clear understanding of how police in Uvalde, Texas handled the Robb Elementary School mass shooting – by not going inside for at least one hour – is being made even more horrific by reported actions of police once they finally entered the school. One fourth-grade child spoke with local CBS affiliate KENS 5 , describing what happened inside the school at one point. The shooter “shot the next person’s door. We have a door in the middle. He opened it. He came in and he crouched a little bit and he said, he said, ‘It’s time to die,'” the boy told KENS 5. “When I heard the shooting through the door, I told my friend to hide under something so he won’t find us,” the child, whose name is not being released, told KENS 5. “I was hiding hard. And I was telling my friend to not talk because he is going to hear us.” “When the cops came, the cop said: ‘Yell if you need help!’ And one of the persons in my class said ‘help.’ The guy overheard and he came

Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi explained on Thursday why he thinks the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas will be studied as an example of what not to do. There were two wide gaps in time during the police response and multiple media outlets have reported shocking details of what law enforcement was doing during the time. "Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building," the Associated Press reported . "Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders. 'Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,' he said. 'More could have been done.'” A similar report came from The New York Times, which interviewed Derek Sotelo, 26, who rushed to the sc

Mark Sherwood, a Republican candidate for governor in Oklahoma, asserted that he is against all exceptions for abortion because he believes life begins "before" conception. "No life, even conceived in the most heinous or even less-than-ideal circumstances is a mistake," Sherwood told Real America's Voice host David Brody after revealing that his mother was likely a victim of rape. "As I sit here and talk to you, I can tell you unequivocally, even the people who are pro-choice are not mistakes. Everybody has a purpose." "So I believe life begins in God before it begins at conception," he said, noting that his "plan is to push the legislators on both chambers as per their Republican GOP stance in Oklahoma to present this bill to the houses with the people behind it." Sherwood insisted that he "will sign that bill because it's the right thing to do and we'll make it the law immediately to abolish abortion, no exceptio

The Digital Edition is an exclusive product available to our subscribers The post 27 May 2022 appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Joe Garcia, the husband of slain Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia, died suddenly on Thursday after he returned home from his late wife's memorial service. His death was announced on Twitter by John Martinez, the 21-year-old nephew of the couple who had been married for 24 years. "EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief," he wrote. "I truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy." \u201cEXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma\u2019s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief, i truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn\u2019t easy\u201d — john martinez \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83d\udd25 (@john martinez \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83d\udd25) 1653584435 Garcia, 50, suffered a "medic

Prisoners are overlooked in an already unequal health system, writes Edwin Cameron from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/gLKwIRA via sinceretalk

Parents in DeVos’s backyard tell right-wing radicals, “No thank you to divisive, partisan agendas in schools.” Culture war issues dressed as serious K-12 classroom concerns, such as trumped-up battles over critical race theory and gender identity , have become useful campaign fodder for the GOP in several key states. This article was produced by Our Schools . In Georgia , Republican lawmakers snuck last-minute language about transgender high school athletes into a more comprehensive education bill as their state’s legislative session was ending on April 5. Democratic legislators immediately cried foul, noting that they were not even informed that the language had been added, and were only given 15 minutes to figure it out for themselves. There was no time to debate whether or not the provision, which could potentially result in transgender student-athletes being banned from participating on girls’ sports teams in public schools, was worth supporting in the first place. Georgia

The Massachusetts high court on Tuesday rejected ExxonMobil's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state, meaning the biggest oil giant in the U.S. must stand trial for allegations that it lied to the public about the climate emergency and the fossil fuel industry's role in driving it. The lawsuit filed in 2019 by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey accuses Exxon of violating the state's consumer protection laws through a decadeslong effort to conceal what it knew about the negative environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels. In particular, the complaint says, Exxon deceived investors about the risks that global warming poses to its business and misled consumers by downplaying the dangerous effects of its products and overstating what the company is doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As The Guardian reported , "Exxon claimed the lawsuit was in breach of legislation against what are known as strategic lawsuits against public participati

Details are still being pieced together about what led to Tuesday's massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas as well as what transpired during the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers and injured 17 others. According to law enforcement officials, the first 911 calls reporting that an armed man dressed in body armor had crashed his truck into a ditch and was headed toward the school occurred at around 11:20 a.m. At 11:23, the Uvalde Police Department posted on Facebook that police were present at Robb Elementary School and that a lockdown had been initiated. A local news agency made a concurrent announcement. Thirty-four minutes later, at 12:17 p.m., the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District confirmed the presence of an active shooter at the school. At 1:06 p.m., UPD said that the suspect “was in police custody.” On Wednesday, Vice News correspondent Tess Owen noticed that what transpired is "strangely opaque" during those 51 minutes.

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is being criticized after falsely identifying the Uvalde, Texas shooter who massacred 19 children and two adults at an elementary school as being a “leftist,” undocumented, and LGBTQ. Last year Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) called Gosar an “avowed white nationalist.” Gosar appeared by video at an event run by a far-right activist who has been labeled a white nationalist and a white supremacist. In a tweet posted very early Wednesday morning, well after the identity of the alleged shooter was widely reported, the far-right Arizona Congressman said the 18-year-old who slaughtered 21 people was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.” Many hours earlier Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott had specifically said at a news conference the shooter (NCRM will not name him here) was a U.S. citizen. There is no indication he was “transsexual,” as Gosar falsely claimed, or “leftist.” Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski posted a screenshot of Gosar’s tweet, whi

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking a second term this November as a springboard to run for president in 2024, is backed financially by some of the wealthiest private donors in the United States. According to an analysis published by correspondent Zac Anderson in Wednesday's Herald Tribune , "dozens of billionaires and billionaire family members with a net worth of $275 billion have donated to DeSantis’ reelection effort, a level of billionaire support one expert called 'extraordinary.'" Anderson revealed that 42 individuals with net worths of 10-plus digits – or three commas – have invested at least $12.45 million of their cash in DeSantis, who has championed extreme right-wing policies in the Sunshine State and seeks to take his crusade nationwide. The figures are staggering, per Anderson's reporting: Total billionaire donors: At least 42 Total contributions from billionaires: At least $12.5 million State with most DeSantis bil

President Joe Biden arrived at the White House at 7:18 PM ET Tuesday evening after a five-day trip to Asia. About 75 minutes later he stood before television cameras in the Roosevelt Room and asked America, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” As the President made his way on Air Force One back to the United States he was confronted with the news that multiple elementary school children – first reported as two, then 14, and now 18 – along with at least one teacher, had been gunned down in yet another mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. “I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again. Another massacre at a Texas elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third, fourth graders,” President Biden, clearly emotional and choked up, announced. “As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When, in God’s name, will we do what we all know in our gut needs to

The nation is once again reeling in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school, this time in Texas, where a gunman slaughtered at least 18 students and three teachers. There have been more than 200 such massacres so far this year. Tuesday's was the deadliest. Adding insult to injury is that last year, The Lone Star State enacted a law allowing residents to carry a firearm without a permit or basic training. Consensus is rare in the modern United States. But nearly all Americans agree that there should be reasonable regulations on guns, including comprehensive background checks – a point that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr drove home in an emotional plea to the 50 Republicans in the Senate who have stood in the way of sensible gun control. "Any basketball questions don't matter. Fourteen children were killed 400 miles from here. And a teacher. In the last ten days, we have had elderly Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo. We've had Asian

U. S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) minced no words Tuesday evening, responding to remarks made by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) about the mass shooting of 14 elementary school students and one teacher in Uvalde, Texas . “Just to be clear fuck you @tedcruz you fucking baby killer,” Congressman Gallego tweeted . Cruz has been widely quoted by CNN and others as saying today , “Inevitably when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens.” Rep. Gallego, an Iraq War veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, is seen as a possible primary challenger of Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) in 2024. He also called Cruz “useless,” and said: “you care about a fetus but you will let our children get slaughtered.” Both tweets are going viral. from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/fV4M8uY via sinceretalk

Former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich posted a new video on Tuesday in which he enumerated the parallels between Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda and the messaging emanating from the GOP and its media pundits. "Why do Putin and the Republican Party sound so much alike? Simple," Reich began. "Their culture wars have similar agendas. Both are trying to distract attention from the economic looting by their respective oligarchies." Reich explained that figures like ex-President Donald Trump, Fox News stooge Tucker Carlson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), and the right-wing at large have a vested interest in keeping the American population divided because their ultimate collective goal is total economic domination. "Sowing racism, homophobia, and transphobia creates life-or-death dangers for many people in our society. For both Putin and the American right, it serves to divert attention from the economic plunder by the ultra-r

Senate Republicans were denounced on the floor on Tuesday for their refusal to address America's gun violence crisis. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who represents survivors of the fatal mass shooting in Sandy Hook, "Mr. President, 14 kids — dead — in an elementary school in Texas right now. What are we doing? What are we doing?" he asked. "Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they're going to be next. What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in position of authority, if your answer as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives we do nothing? What are we doing?" he asked. "Why are you here?" "Our heart is breaking for these families. Every ounce of love and thoughts and prayers we can send we are sending. But I'm here on this floor to b

Insurrectionist United States Congressman and candidate for Senate Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) gave an off-the-rails interview with MSNBC's Vaughn Hillyard on Tuesday in which he repeated the lies that Antifa and Black Lives Matter were the real threat on January 6th, 2021 and that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. First, Hillyard asked Brooks if he would cooperate with the bipartisan House panel investigating the Capitol attack if they requested his testimony. "If they were to do it under terms and conditions that I believe are more appropriate then certainly I am willing to consider that more so than them trying to subpoena me in the midst of a campaign," Brooks said. "They wanted me to be in Washington, DC taking up a full week last week. That wasn't gonna cut it." There is good cause for that urgency. Brooks was a keynote speaker at Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally at the White House in the hours before thousands of his cult