Friday, January 24, 2025
Steer Clear o’ Trouble: Gasparilla Parade Day Road Closures
The Gasparilla Pirate Fest returns this Saturday, January 25, 2025, and thousands of pirates and parade-goers will converge on Bayshore Boulevard and Downtown Tampa. To ensure you enjoy the festivities, please plan ahead for significant road closures and heavy traffic throughout the day.
See a list of the road closures HERE
Trump wants to label drug cartels terrorist organizations, which means a lot in practice
President Trump, in one of his first actions back in office, signed an executive order that moves the U.S. government toward designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
The decision is part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to crack down on the flow of drugs and people across the southern border. The full implications of designating the cartels as terrorist organizations will depend, in large part, on how the administration follows through.
The possible implications to this order may outweigh the benefits of it.
This happened only because we have accepted the Nazism Donald Trump has introduced to our country
ICE raid in New Jersey city: Newark mayor speaks out
Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka said Friday he was appalled by news of an ICE raid at a work site in his city. CBS News correspondent Adam Yamaguchi has more.
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Jon Stewart & AOC Take On Trump’s Comeback and Rebuilding the Democratic Party: Updated 2:15am 1/24/2025
1/24/2025 2:15am: Commentary by Glen Eich: I am unsure of how many of our readers will understand the significance of what is revealed in this interview of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC very clearly defines what is so wrong with the system we now have in this country and what can practically be done to make it right for the people subjected to it. She rightfully tells us that there IS HOPE. If you can't see the importance of the exchange here, there is little point in your spending any of your time watching this video. If you do see the significance, this interview will have you on the edge of your seat. And I will gladly call you my friend and comrade.
Trump moves to end refugee resettlement and parole for Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans
Trump signed a flurry of executive actions on immigration in his first hours in office on Monday, suspending refugee resettlement, reinstating a policy requiring migrants at the U.S. southern border to remain in Mexico while they await their court appearances and terminating a parole program that provided another legal pathway to entry for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. MORE
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Monday, January 20, 2025
Florida Panther: A Fight for Survival On The Brink Of Extinction
The Florida panther, a symbol of the state’s wild beauty, is in a perilous fight for survival. This iconic creature, once a common sight throughout the southeastern United States, is now facing the very real threat of extinction.
The panther’s population has dwindled to a small fraction of its historical size, and its range is now confined to a limited area in South Florida. The main culprits behind this decline are habitat loss, vehicle collisions, and disease.
Trump moves to make 'two genders' and anti-DEI policy official
Donald Trump has moved to change the US government's policies on gender and diversity, following through on promises he made on the campaign trail.
"As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female," Trump said during his inaugural address.
FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events
In his first address after being sworn in on Monday, President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading statements that he made during his campaign. They included claims about immigration, the economy, electric vehicles and the Panama Canal. In remarks later at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, he issued a number of other false claims, including one that distorts pardons made by President Joe Biden as he left office. Here’s a look at the facts.
- Biden did not pardon 33 murderers
- Trump resurfaces false claim about the 2020 election
- Nancy Pelosi did not reject National Guard troops on Jan. 6
- Trump repeats unfounded claim about immigrants
- Inflation did not reach record highs under Biden
- Promise of an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs
- Calls for revocation of EV mandate that doesn’t exist
- China does not operate the Panama Canal
Biden commutes sentence for Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, convicted in killing of FBI agents
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier will return home nearly half a century after he was imprisoned for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence Monday following decades of community-led advocacy calling his imprisonment an example of the U.S. government’s mistreatment of Native Americans.....MORE
Sunday, January 19, 2025
What AOC says about TikTok & Trump
“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
First of all, Donald Trump is not president right now.
He's a private citizen. He does not have access to presidential powers. He does not have the ability to do any of that.
Please understand that TikTok's decision to name Trump in the notification is a choice. They are signaling that they have agreed to privately collaborate with Donald Trump and the Trump administration.
For all of those concerns that people were saying that TikTok is gonna be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese, understand they're using it as a propaganda tool for the right.
Now, I want you all to put all the pieces together because what this effectively means is that every mass social media platform in the United States has been taken over by the right wing, with the exception of Blue Sky (but Blue Sky is still very small, relatively).
So when I say put the pieces together:
Elon Musk took over Twitter, and there's open reporting that they have artificially manipulated the algorithms to boost right-wing content on X and to amplify harassment.
Then you have Meta. You have Mark Zuckerberg saying that they're basically also bending the knee to Trump with their changes to fact checking, regardless of how effective that was in the first place.
Now TikTok is now saying, “Hey, we are agreeing we will use our push notification system for all 170 million American users to promote Donald Trump.”
Just understand that government announcements like this with companies, they never name politicians — they will usually name law or policy. TikTok is making an explicit agreement to do this.
And if I were a betting person: they probably are making a deal with Donald Trump to not just use these push notifications — they probably would consider algorithmic changes. Which is ironic because at the time when people voted for the TikTok ban, because there was a lot of pro-Palestinian content, that argument was being used as being somehow “anti-American,” which, you know — I guess supporting human rights is somehow bad.
So what does this mean for us?
We are on the eve of an authoritarian administration. This is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like. Republicans model themselves after Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. You can look to Hungary to get a taste of how they will try to control media and companies in the United States. This is a kind of entrée to that.
As far as what we do:
This is a time of experimentation. A lot of people can and will still use platforms, but I also look towards places where you have more ownership and develop your audiences there — like Blue Sky.
More soon,
Alexandria
(bold text as in AOC's original message)
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