aubiefifty

yahoo.com Florida Anti-Drag Law Blocked by Judge for Violating First Amendment Bill Donahue 4–5 minutes A federal judge in Florida on Friday (June 23) blocked the state from enforcing its recently enacted restrictions on drag performances, ruling that the law likely violates the First Amendment. Siding with the Hamburger Mary’s restaurant chain, which warned the law would have “a chilling effect” across the state, Judge Gregory A. Presnell ruled that the new statute appeared to be an unconstitutional restraint on free speech. More from Billboard Lana Del Rey Settles Copyright Lawsuit Over 'Summertime Sadness' Music Video Kesha & Dr. Luke Settle Defamation Lawsuit Over Her 2014 Rape Accusation Boosie BadAzz to Be Released on Bond After Arrest on Federal Gun Charge Florida argued that the new law, signed by Gov. Ron Desantis last month, was needed to protect children from “lewd” material, but Judge Presnell ruled that the state had likely not written the restrictions narrowly or specifically enough to pass muster under the First Amendment. “The Act’s focus on ‘prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts’ raises a host of other concerns not simply answered — what are the implications for cancer survivors with prosthetic genitals or breasts?” the judge wrote “It is this vague language — dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement which could sweep up substantial protected speech — which … renders plaintiff’s claim likely to succeed,” the judge wrote. The ruling imposed a temporary restraining order barring the law from being enforced while the case is litigated toward a final decision. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment. Friday’s decision came less than a month after Tennessee’s similar new law restricting drag performances was blocked by a federal judge on the same grounds. Critics say the new statutes, two of many proposed in states across the country, are a thinly-veiled attack on the LGBTQ community. Signed into law by DeSantis on May 17, the proponents of Florida’s new statute law say it bans minors from “sexually explicit adult performances in all venues.” But critics say the law’s wording takes aim at drag shows, including a provision targeting shows featuring “lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.” In its lawsuit challenging the law, Hamburger Mary’s said new statute was designed to be vague, forcing venues across the state to impose self-censorship on drag performances out of fear of running afoul of the law’s provisions. In Friday’s decision, Judge Presnell said the restaurant chain would likely prevail on those arguments. Under First Amendment case-law, government restrictions on “obscene” material are fair game, but they are subject to “strict scrutiny” – meaning they are only constitutional if lawmakers “narrowly tailor” them avoid harming free speech. In his decision, the judge said it appeared that Florida’s legislature had failed to do so. “The many ambiguities concerning the scope of [the law]’s coverage render it problematic for purposes of the First Amendment,” the judge wrote, quoting from earlier free obscenity cases. “[The statute] proscribes conduct universally and threatens to permit a standardless sweep which would allow policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predilections.” Following the ruling, Florida could continue to litigate the case before Judge Presnell, or it could seek to file a fast-track appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

they were chanting that as a screw you dude chant. they are not coming for your children. you cannot be that stupid............

ok just to be clear here and i am not crawfishing. tank was a great running back. he had a horrible line and i feel like he was held back. i think we are so improved on the line i do think we do better. maybe i did not state it better? i will never forget when morale was low last year he bought every single teammate some kinda beats or air buds and i thought it was a wonderful gesture.

from me you get what you reflect. i will post what interests me and not what YOU think is ok dude. you can disagree with me all you want and twice on sunday but i get to choose what i post not you. and some were interested in it. i hope you have a great day............

thanx for stopping by.

i will rarely post anything not Auburn but these guys were awesome.they play for it all this coming saturday..... al.com USFL playoffs: Stallions roll back to championship game Updated: Jun. 25, 2023, 9:59 p.m.|Published: Jun. 25, 2023, 9:42 p.m. 4–5 minutes Birmingham Stallions quarterback Alex McGough carries the football during a USFL playoff game against the New Orleans Breakers on Sunday, June 25, 2023, at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.(Photo by Stew Milne/USFL/Getty Images for USFL) By Mark Inabinett | minabinett@al.com The Birmingham Stallions had the best record in the USFL during the regular season at 8-2. They backed that up by playing like the best team in the league on Sunday night in a 47-22 victory over the New Orleans Breakers. But to be the USFL’s best team for the 2023 season officially, the Stallions need to win one more time on Saturday. Birmingham’s one-sided win over New Orleans gave the Stallions the South Division’s spot in the USFL Championship Game. Birmingham will seek its second straight league title when the Stallions square off against the Pittsburgh Maulers at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. NBC will televise the game. Birmingham defeated the Philadelphia Stars 33-30 in last season’s USFL Championship Game. After posting a 4-6 regular-season record, Pittsburgh reached this year’s title contest by beating the Michigan Panthers 31-27 in overtime on Saturday night. Six players from Alabama high schools and colleges got on the field during the Breakers-Stallions game at Protective Stadium in Birmingham: · Breakers wide receiver Dee Anderson (Alabama A&M) had three receptions for 64 yards, including a 32-yarder. · Breakers defensive tackle Connor Christian (Jacksonville State) was designated as a game-day inactive. · Breakers quarterback Aqeel Glass (Alabama A&M) was designated as a game-day inactive. · Kirk Kelley (Troy) started at left guard for the Breakers. · Breakers linebacker Zakoby McClain (Auburn) was designated as a game-day inactive. · Stallions wide receiver Myron Mitchell (Jasper, UAB) is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. · Stallions wide receiver Peyton Ramzy (Bessemer Academy, Tuskegee) was designated as a game-day inactive. · Breakers guard Steven Rowzee (Troy) did not record any stats. · Breakers linebacker Shaheed Salmon (Samford) made two tackles. · Stallions running back Bo Scarbrough (Northridge, Alabama) is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. · Breakers tight end Jared Scott (Jacksonville State) was designated as a game-day inactive. · Wide receiver Eli Stove (Auburn) caught a 14-yard pass and returned two kickoffs for 15 yards. · Stallions wide receiver Austin Watkins (UAB) did not record any stats. · Stallions wide receiver Marlon Williams (McGill-Toolen) is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. Sunday night’s playoff game matched the teams that had the best regular-season records and the two clubs based in Birmingham. After going 7-3 in the regular season, the Breakers played their seventh game at Protective Stadium this year, the same number as the Stallions. Three of those games were New Orleans-Birmingham matchups. On Sunday night, the Stallions scored on their first seven possessions, building a 40-7 lead before Birmingham running back Ricky Person Jr. lost a fumble with 26 seconds left in the third quarter. Birmingham rolled up 553 yards as quarterback Alex McGough completed 21-of-31 passes for 310 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for 84 yards and one touchdown on eight carries. Wide receiver Davion Davis had five receptions for 75 yards and two touchdowns, and tight end Jace Sternberger and wide receiver Josh Johnson also caught touchdown passes. The Stallions ran for 245 yards on 30 carries, with Person gaining 84 yards on 10 rushing attempts and C.J. Marable going for 72 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries. Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

flywareagle.com Analyst predicts a bleak finish for Auburn football in 2023 Mary Kate Hughes 2–3 minutes Auburn football Auburn Tigers running back Damari Alston (22) warms up during the A-Day spring football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, April 8, 2023. For many, there is a high level of optimism around the Auburn football program heading into the 2023 season. After two years of struggle under Bryan Harsin, changes began immediately once Hugh Freeze was hired on and took charge of the program. The Tigers have had a lot of momentum lately when it comes to recruiting, from the recent success in the transfer portal to the number of highly-ranked prospects pouring into the Plains for official visits. With another quarterback added to the mix in former Michigan State QB Payton Thorne and a team full of guys that are ready to “flip the script,” most fans are ready for a new era of Auburn football, the Freeze Era. However, thinking realistically, fans must remember that this truly is a rebuilding year for the Tigers: rebuilding the coaching staff, rebuilding the team, rebuilding the schemes, and rebuilding the culture. There are a lot of adjustments and a lot of new faces on the Plains heading into the 2023 season, and it’s likely that the level of success everyone wants will take more than just one offseason to reach. 247 Sports Analyst Brad Crawford certainly thinks so, and he predicted a not-so-exciting finish for the Tigers in the SEC this fall. He believes the Tigers will finish second to last in the SEC West, ahead of only Mississippi State, with a 7-5 record and five conference losses: Considering the Vegas number is 6.5, Auburn fans will be excited if the Tigers hit seven wins this fall. On the contrary, a .500 finish is obviously not what Hugh Freeze has in mind for his first season on the Plains. This roster has vastly improved through the portal, but simply isn’t strong enough yet to fight for a spot near the top of the division standings. It will come, though. Crawford expects the Tigers to lose to Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, Arkansas, and Alabama in 2023, but the ambitions of Auburn football and Hugh Freeze mean that Crawford’s view is a pessimistic one. Published on 06/25/2023 at 21:00 PM Last updated at 06/25/2023 at 13:44 PM

auburnwire.usatoday.com Auburn offensive line target Kahlil House sets commitment date JD McCarthy ~2 minutes Kahlil House is ready to wrap up his recruitment. The three-star offensive lineman will announce his commitment on Friday, June 30, he told On3’s Jeffrey Lee. He plans to reveal his decision “around noon.” Buy Tigers Tickets House is from Warner Robins, Georgia, and will be deciding between Auburn, Ole Miss, Stanford, Cincinnati and UCF. He has officially visited each school but Stanford, where he is scheduled to take one on June 24. He is the No. 777 overall player and No. 56 interior offensive lineman in the On3 Industry Ranking. He is also the No. 91 player from Georgia. Auburn offered the 6-foot-4, 311-pounder a scholarship on June 8 and quickly became a major factor in his recruitment. He returned for an official visit on June 16 and the Tigers quickly became the favorite to land him. Christian Clemente of 247Sports put in a crystal ball on June 10 for him to commit to Auburn and the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine gives the Tigers a 73.8% chance of landing him. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow JD on Twitter

auburnwire.usatoday.com Pro Football Focus releases preseason ELO rankings. Where is Auburn? Taylor Jones ~2 minutes As the summer continues, more and more publications are beginning to reveal their preseason rankings. Pro Football Focus is the latest to do so ($), using its unique formulas to compile rankings. Pro Football Focus uses a metric called “ELO”, which meshes grades for each team’s offensive, defensive, and special teams output. Auburn’s grades place them at No. 40 to begin the season. Buy Tigers Tickets To prove just how deep and talented the SEC is, Auburn has 12 teams within the conference ahead of them despite their No. 40 ranking. Auburn only ranks ahead of Vanderbilt in the ELO rankings, who comes in at No. 84. The Tigers have a lot of questions to answer ahead of the 2023 season, as most units on both sides of the football enter the program as transfers. Looking at Auburn’s top returning players, seven of the top ten highest-graded offensive players are transfers while four of the top ten highest-graded defensive players are transfers. RELATED: Lindy’s Sports predicts Auburn football’s depth chart for the 2023 season When it comes to top units that will feature the most “homegrown” players this season for Auburn, look at running back and defensive back. Running backs Jarquez Hunter and Damari Alston return to the gridiron this season, while the defensive backfield welcomes back Nehemiah Pritchett, Jaylin Simpson, Keionte Scott, and D.J. James. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

si.com Auburn makes top five for four-star defensive lineman LJ McCray Andrew Stefaniak 3–4 minutes Auburn is in the hunt for talented defensive lineman LJ McCray. LJ McCray is a six-foot-six, 260-pound defensive lineman from Daytona Beach, Florida. McCray is the 88th-best player in the 2024 class, according to 247Sports. He recently cut his list of schools down to five, including Auburn, Florida State, Florida, Georgia, and Miami. McCray took an official visit to Auburn on June 12th, so it's clear that he has a genuine interest in playing his college ball on the Plains. 247Sport Director Of Scouting Andrew Ivins has this to say about McCray's game, "A big, functional athlete with verified size that can work his way into the backfield. Got snaps on both sides of the ball as a junior for a Daytona Beach Mainland program that made it to Florida’s 3S title game. Initially billed himself as a tight end, but is viewed by many as a defensive lineman long term, and for good reason as he can wedge his way through gaps and blow up protection. Has worked mostly on the edge, but figures to kick inside at the next level given frame (6-foot-5, 255 pounds with a 79-inch wingspan) and growth potential. Not the most explosive point-of-attack player, but can overwhelm blockers with his initial get-off and sheer size on Friday nights. Shifts his weight well and constantly flashes the ability to move laterally. Could improve pad level, and will eventually need to find some more power in the lower half, but should be viewed as a potential multi-year contributor up front for a Power Five program. Could be molded into a variety of different things including probably a space-eating 4i in a 3-4 front." McCray has the frame to do damage on the defensive line, and it is scary to think what he will look like a few years into a college lifting program. Auburn is going to push hard to try and land this kid, as he would be a massive boost to the 2024 recruiting class. Hopefully, Coach Freeze and Jeremy Garrett can get it done and land this talented defensive lineman.

auburnwire.usatoday.com Auburn Tigers Snapshot Profile: No. 11 Elijah McAllister JD McCarthy 4–5 minutes Going into the 2023 football season, Auburn Wire will be looking at each scholarship player listed on the Tigers’ roster. Over the preseason, each profile will cover where the player is from, how recruiting websites rated them coming out of high school, and what role they will play for Hugh Freeze in his first season on the Plains. Buy Tigers Tickets Up next is transfer Jack linebacker Elijah McAllister. The veteran is one of three transfers at the Jack spot Auburn added as they completely remade the position over the offseason. Preseason Player Profile Hometown: Asbury Park, New Jersey Height: 6-6 Weight: 271 Previous School: Vanderbilt Class in 2023: Senior 247Sports Composite Ranking Three-Star / No. 19 in NJ / No. 31 SDE Career Stats Year G Tackles TFLs Sacks PDs FFs 2019 (Vanderbilt) 12 26 4.5 2.5 1 1 2020 (Vanderbilt) 1 0 0 0 0 0 2021 (Vanderbilt) 12 23 1 0 2 0 2022 (Vanderbilt) 12 16 1 0 1 1 PFF Grades Year Defense Tackling Run Defense Pass Rush Coverage 2019 65.6 73.4 64.1 60.3 74.4 2020 – – – – – 2021 60.7 61.4 58.6 55.3 68.9 2022 66.9 58.1 67.1 59.0 66.6 Depth Chart Overview McAllister’s addition was always about what the fifth-year senior could bring to the locker room as a leader and not his on-field production. He was a two-time captain at Vanderbilt and has the ability to be a leader for the whole team. Auburn brought in five newcomers at the Jack position this offseason and while several are ahead of McAllister on the depth chart, look for him to have a key role in establishing the culture in Freeze’s first year on the Plains. Elijah McAllister’s Photo Gallery AUBURN, AL - 2023.03.15 - Spring Practice AUBURN, AL - March 15, 2023 - Auburn Jack Linebacker Elijah McAllister (#11) during spring practice… AUBURN, AL - March 15, 2023 - Auburn Jack Linebacker Elijah McAllister (#11) during spring practice at the Woltosz Football Performance Center in Auburn, AL. Photo by Austin Perryman AUBURN, AL - 2023.03.01 - Spring Practice AUBURN, AL - March 01, 2023 - Auburn Offensive Lineman Izavion Miller (#72) and Jack Linebacker… AUBURN, AL - March 01, 2023 - Auburn Offensive Lineman Izavion Miller (#72) and Jack Linebacker Elijah McAllister (#11) during spring practice at the Woltosz Football Performance Center in Auburn, AL. Photo by Declan Greene Elijah McAllister, Keon Zipperer Vanderbilt linebacker Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates after intercepting a pass intended for Florida tight end Keon… Vanderbilt linebacker Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates after intercepting a pass intended for Florida tight end Keon Zipperer (9) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, in Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) Elijah McAllister Vanderbilt's Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates after recovering a fumble in the second half of an NCAA… Vanderbilt's Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates after recovering a fumble in the second half of an NCAA college football game against Elon, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) Syndication: The Tennessean Vanderbilt wide receiver Amir Abdur-Rahman (2), linebacker Elijah McAllister (1) and defensive lineman Daevion Davis (9)… Vanderbilt wide receiver Amir Abdur-Rahman (2), linebacker Elijah McAllister (1) and defensive lineman Daevion Davis (9) make their way to the stadium before the game against ETSU at Vanderbilt Stadium Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021 in Nashville, Tenn. Nas Vandy Etsu 003 Syndication: The Tennessean Vanderbilt defensive lineman Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates a tackle against Elon during the first quarter at… Vanderbilt defensive lineman Elijah McAllister (1) celebrates a tackle against Elon during the first quarter at FirstBank Stadium Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. © George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

i just want the hate to stop they stabbed a girl or someone in a dress and killed her dead. this was during all the trans flap. you do what ya want with your children i am saying a lot of folks are running off at the mouth with hate and getting people murder or their heads stomped in. he seems to think parents are trannying their kids up because it is fashionable or something. but iam never argues in good faith. ever. he never admit when he is wrong. ever.

yep. you are in fact. i have never said a bad word to you. add the word limp with that since you keep on. you do not get to tell me what to post and most people that are honest will tell you the same thing. this is why they have an ignore button. you called me out buttercup so suck it up and quit wasting your time and mine. it was rude............

it is a message board dude. quit telling people what to post. you are being a richard .

yawns. the migrants did it by choice. florida gave them no choice.none

i have a rep on the pol boards so i have to throw out a disclaimer...............

just for the record i mean no disrespect to anyone.

i am glad you hung around. we often let our emotions help us make bad decisions. by this i mean NOTHING is gtreater than auburn and the teams. coaches come and go but auburn will be there. i wish they would all come back. this is mostly a christian board and i just do not understand not giving someone another chance. but i would welcome anyone back with not a word said. but auburn is more than sports to me and always will be.

some christians see too much evil where there just is none. hell yoga is a huge no no or was. wtf?

Why the right is so terrified of "woke": There are truths it just can't face Kirk Swearingen 11–14 minutes Ron DeSantis; CPACPaul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Long ago and far away in a country where we all seemed to believe in roughly the same reality, many people in a political party that traditionally talked up law and order and guffawed that liberals needed to put on their "big-boy pants" to face the harsh facts of the world lost their minds. How did this happen? Well, they were reminded that there was such a thing as white privilege. They had forgotten about it, possibly on purpose. They were told that, yes, white privilege is a thing, and it's pretty obvious. They fumed and feigned outrage at this accurate report on the state of the real world until they convinced themselves that it was a huge lie and an outrage. Coached by their favorite enablers in the media, they worked themselves up into an emotional lather until they could act their parts somewhat convincingly, even with all the unrealistic lines. Think of the Stanislavsky Method in acting, except this was the Limbaugh Method of acting out. Of course it wasn't just about white privilege; that's just the most obvious aspect of the advantages that individuals or groups enjoy (or do not enjoy) in our society, without having to show any particular merit. When the renewed discussion of privilege was extended to male privilege, white men — incongruously led by an obese man-boy in orange makeup sporting a spun-sugar combover — embarked on their White Men's Campaign of Endless Grievances. Related Were the founding fathers "woke"? Compared to the modern-day GOP, definitely So many things in our society can be understood by thinking back to high school. Think of nearly any Hollywood film about suburban teenagers, in which the good-looking spoiled brats of the country-club set get their comeuppance in the third act after reveling in all sorts of bad behavior. These days, roughly a third of the country seems to be rooting for the obvious villains in a new version of that story, now unfolding in our troubled being democracy. It could be called "White Men Whining III: The Retribution," but honestly we've already been gifted the best possible title: "Florida: Where Woke Goes to Die." Joking aside, the privileges afforded by stereotypical or conventional "good looks" — which generally implicate categories of race and class — are undeniable. Like all other forms of privilege, it provides people with entrée, a form of soft power that can corrupt one's thinking pretty quickly. Handsome boys and beautiful girls often age into vapid adults as a result of this privilege; they never had to put any effort into being accepted. (Read W.B. Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter." He knew all about this.) White men may not be able to jump — according to stereotype, of course — but they are well positioned to fail their way up corporate and political ladders, often all the way to the top for the ones who are tall and blandly handsome and sport Ivy League degrees. The fight against "woke" (a term with a longer history than most of us may realize) is strikingly similar to the fight the right previously waged against "politically correctness": It's an existential battle against allowing people to be awakened — by reading novels and history, by attending plays, by watching and listening to actual news — through open discussion of privilege or systemic racism or, to use a different but related term, the underlying and nearly invisible structures of caste in America. It is a fight to stop people from talking about those social structures, or about the combination of religious zealotry and political ideology at work to foreclose women's bodily autonomy. It's a fight to prevent young people from expressing their sexual and gender preferences, to make it more difficult for certain groups of citizens to vote, and to keep books that might make the most hypocritical and closed-minded evangelical Christian pastors uncomfortable off the shelves of public schools and libraries. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. As with the freakout over the very suggestion that the category known as "white" comes with unacknowledged privilege, the cultural battle against "woke" strikes many combatants as an existential struggle. By the rules of the age-old game of race and caste and class privilege, they cannot allow themselves to entertain the thought that the advocates of "woke" might have a point. James Baldwin illustrates this predicament in his "Letter From a Region in My Mind," writing that "even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And they would not believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true." Writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry addresses this from the other side in "The Hidden Wound." his memoir of the time he spent in childhood on his grandfather's farm in northern Kentucky during the Jim Crow era. His title refers to his awareness that America had a hidden wound, the recent history of slavery, and that white Americans had a corresponding "mirror wound": This wound is in me, as complex and deep in my flesh as blood and nerves. I have borne it all my life, with varying degrees of consciousness, but always carefully, always with the most delicate consideration for the pain I would feel if I were somehow forced to acknowledge it. Berry no doubt recognizes the fight against "woke." It is a desperate attempt not to acknowledge the hidden wound. The founders of our nation worried about the rise of a new American elite, not what Thomas Jefferson felt was a natural aristocracy based on virtue and genius but what he called a "tinsel-aristocracy" of wealth and beauty and fortunate birth. John Adams most feared the rise of an oligarchy, an elite of property-owning families who would seize control of politics. They had good reason, from their reading of history, to fear such outcomes. In his book "American Dialogue: The Founders and Us," Joseph J. Ellis writes of the late-life letters between Jefferson and Adams and what would turn out to be their final exchange, about the issue of actual or potential human equality. Adams wrote that the rise of an aristocratic elite was inevitable: The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed thro' all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of the aristoi should prevail, were questions which kept the states of Greece and Rome in eternal convulsions…. To me it appears that there have been party differences from the first establishment of governments, to the present day…. Everyone takes his side in favor of the many or the few. Bolstering his argument, Adams pointed to the five "pillars of aristocracy" that philosophers had known from antiquity: beauty, wealth, birth, genius and virtue. Any combination of the first three elements, he wrote, would overwhelm even the last two. We now live in the exactly the country Jefferson and Adams feared — a nominal democracy in which proportional representation has been gamed to death, where politicians are purchased (or at least legally bribed) through "donations" from corporations and billionaires, and where we increasingly find ourselves ruled by an unnatural and unworthy aristocracy, many of whom not only lack any discernible virtue but gleefully represent negative virtues. Donald Trump used his wealth and birthright (he was a millionaire by age 8) to play-act as a successful businessman and skirt the law time and time again. He desperately wanted us to believe he was the master of "The Art of the Deal" when his only true art has been in grifting his fans and followers and in obstructing justice with endless lawsuits and whiny claims of persecution. Thanks to his wholly undeserved privilege, he has failed time and again as a businessman and, mercifully, failed to overturn the 2020 election. Elon Musk had the right combination of interlocked wealth and birth, and his only "genius" lies in taking credit for the engineering work of others. We now know much more than we ever wanted to about his utter lack of virtue. The political aristocracy is eager to point at its ideological enemies, calling them the "woke" elite. Most of us know who the real elites are, even if they affect a drawl and try to bro-up with working-class voters. If Ron DeSantis is elected next year, he would become our second youngest president, after John F. Kennedy. While JFK, largely at his wife's request, ushered in a brief, shining period when art and culture were showcased at the White House, DeSantis and his wife, Casey (who appears to model herself on Jackie Kennedy), would gleefully defund all art that does not conform to "patriotic" propaganda purposes. These days the actual political aristocracy — or at least their well-paid minions in Congress — are always eager to point at their ideological enemies, calling them the "woke" cultural elite. But most of us can see who the truly powerful elites are: upper-caste white men from Ivy League schools, even (or especially) if they affect a drawl, raise a fist in solidarity with insurrection, comically ride a Harley or otherwise try to bro-up with the working-class voters they hold in obvious contempt. As Pulitzer-winning author Isabel Wilkerson wrote in her 2020 bestseller "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent," people like Trump and DeSantis and, well, like me, benefit from "the universal response to hierarchy — in the case of an upper-caste person, an inescapable certitude in bearing, demeanor, behavior, a visible expectation of centrality." Those kinds of hierarchies, especially in Black-and-white America, have always existed among and within all groups, including immigrants. Speaking of "a visible expectation of centrality," remember this? In the centuries since the notion of "whiteness" was created, poor and working-class white men and women learned the importance of rejecting the truth about white privilege. Wilkerson quotes Yale scholar Liston Pope in 1942, writing: "The mill worker with nobody else to 'look down on,' regards himself as eminently superior to the Negro." Or as Lyndon Johnson famously remarked to Bill Moyers, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Donald Trump has treated that sentence as scripture. Trump is an example of white male privilege taken to its most shameless extreme. He has such an exaggerated sense of his right to do and say absolutely anything, absorbed over a lifetime of unquestioned privilege, that he'd be happy to see his cult followers burn the country to the ground rather than take any responsibility for his own actions. Did you notice my reluctance to say that I am also part of the upper-caste group? I wrote that "well" before "like me" — and there it is, an example of Berry's mirror wound and Wilkerson's rules of the road for high-caste Americans, even in a person who considers himself a progressive. No one wants to admit privilege, especially if we feel it may have been squandered. But the fight to confront and admit such truths, whether or not that's what "woke" means, is a fight not just to live up to the best possibilities of America, but to become more fully human. Read more

wow there are slim pickings today folks. i will check in out the day for more updates. thanx for stopping by!