The Effectiveness of Violence
Some of the storybooks read in Montgomery County Public Schools have gay and transgender characters in them. That isn't very shocking, I know, but some want to make a big deal out of it. The complaint is that MCPS isn't letting students "opt out" of readings on the basis of religous objections.
There was a moderate-sized, peaceful protest a couple of weeks ago, mainly organized by a group of Muslims. County Council member Kristin Mink told the group who organized the event that she knew them as good people but they had put themselves "on the same side of an issue as white supremacists and outright bigots." Certain people have tried to pretend she was calling them bigots but it was the opposite of that.
This next Tuesday, the 27th, we will be hearing from the certified, professional bigots. Florida-based extremists Moms for Liberty are planning a protest at MCPS headquarters that will probably be pretty big. The group has been promoting disruptive events all over the country and now they're coming to Rockville.
And by the way, our local Muslims might think it's smart to form an alliance with the Moms for Liberty (hear one of their leaders being coy about it in this podcast interview; start at 22:00), they will soon find out that Moms for Liberty have no fondness for immigrants, especially Muslims. It's not called "Christian nationalism" for nothing.
The Moms for Liberty flyer for the 2PM Carver Building protest says: "Montgomery County Public Schools has removed opt-out for instruction related to family life and human sexuality and we want it restored immediately. Bring your family to support us as we testify in front to the BOE."
This is a clever sleight-of-hand, using that phrase "related to." There is a family life and human sexuality curriculum in MCPS, a series of health classes including sex ed, and it has an opt-out feature which is almost never invoked. Opt-out for other classes is generally called "truancy." There is no opt-out policy for storybooks. Families and sexuality are part of almost all fiction and do not make a storybook part of the "family life and human sexuality" curriculum. Think for instance of Tom Sawyer's attempted seduction of Becky. (And don't forget where Huck Finn presents himself as a girl.)
Moms for Liberty, now formally recognized as a hate group by SPLC, started out opposing mask mandates, but these things seem to all go together; they moved on to Critical Race Theory, and now they are crusading against LGBT+ topics in schools. They have been disrupting school board meetings, harassing officials at their homes and workplaces, making false accusations of child abuse. Moms for Liberty presents itself as a grassroots coalition of concerned parents, but leaders are well-connected rightwing partisans, manufacturing outrage to stir up local communities all over the country.
The chairman of the Florida Republican Party has said he expects Moms for Liberty to become foot soldiers for Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ reelection campaign, according to the Washington Post. Publicity about a recent Moms for Liberty newsletter quoting Hitler in its masthead has caused them to do some quick backpedaling, at least as far as their public image goes.
From VICE (an article well worth reading, by the way):
A VICE News investigation has uncovered links between numerous Moms for Liberty chapters and extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, sovereign citizen groups, QAnon conspiracists, Christian nationalists, and in one case, with the founder of the AK-47-worshiping Rod of Iron Ministries church in Pennsylvania. Around the country, Moms for Liberty has formed links with extremist groups and militias, which are joining forces with the “parental rights” group at protests and school board meetings, and in turn pushing the already far-right organization toward even more extreme ideology.
The benign-sounding group puts the innocuous faces of snow-white upper-middle-class moms -- picture a room full of Sarah Palins -- on a coalition of rightwing terrorists, as violence has more and more become the far right's signature in imposing their narrow worldview on the country. Moms for Liberty member and featured speaker Kaylee Campbell Layton recently tweeted about Joe Biden: "I'm calling for the public execution of this old man and you can't change my mind." When I was a kid it was against the law to talk like that.
Local Montgomery County supporters of LGBT+ rights have decided not to hold a counterprotest this Tuesday, out of fear of violence. Some advocates may make public comments at the board meeting, but there might not be anybody on the sidewalk raising their voices in support of our gay and trans neighbors while the bigots wave their signs and talk to reporters.
The problem with violence is that it works. It will keep people away who disagree but don't want to be shot or beaten. Violence does not persuade people, it only stops them from expressing their opinions. But the TV-watching, Facebook-scrolling, newspaper-reading public will only learn that a lot of people oppose LGBT+ stories, and there will be no way to know that the great majority of people in our county support diversity in educational materials and oppose an option to leave the classroom when gay and trans topics come up. When you see us on the news, Montgomery County, Maryland, is going to look just like some place in Florida.
Because of the effectiveness of violence, the news cameras will record a crowd of protesters who will establish the narrative and call themselves "concerned parents," with no visible opposition. They will call the storybooks "pornography" and insist that stories with LGBT+ characters threaten their children. They will claim to have some made-up right to determine what their children learn in public schools. They will say that their religion requires them to be intolerant of LGBT+ people -- they "hate the sin, not the sinner," uh huh; they will be saying their religious freedom is violated by mention of LGBT+ characters in storybooks. They will claim there is an official opt-out policy where there is not. No reporter will challenge these things, and there will be no voice of reason to challenge the falsehoods. They will put some nicely dressed moms in pearls and barrettes out in front to cheerfully and likeably recite their talking-points to the cameras. As events are canceled and honest public servants all over the country resign quietly from their positions out of fear of violence, fascist protests like the one to be held at Carver Tuesday provide a one-sided display of a point of view that is held by a tiny minority of Americans.
There is a lawsuit over the storybook opt-out matter, and I hope MCPS has their legal ducks in a row. We know from experience that school district bureaucrats tend to shrink from intimidation and that they fear controversy; on Tuesday they will be hearing from only one side of the matter, and it may seem to administrators that appeasing the mob will solve their problem. They can choose to change their policy if they can be fooled into believing that's what the public wants, but they should fight a good fight in court first.
posted by JimK at 8:44 AM
197 Comments:
"Picture his ass in a bright orange jumpsuit"
If you're a Beatles fan, you'll love Randy Rainbow's latest musical masterpiece at the link above... or below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDXVw0aatQ
Enjoy!
For the first time on record, two named storms — fueled by record warm waters — have formed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean east of the Caribbean Sea during June. Normally, storms don’t spin up in this area until the peak of Atlantic hurricane season in August or September. But current sea surface temperatures are more characteristic of levels two months from now. Scientists blame these warm waters on human-caused climate change, among other factors.
Tensions inside the House Freedom Caucus have reached the point that some members are floating the idea of purging colleagues from the group. While the members suggesting a purge did not specify the people they want to remove, they are signaling that one target of any ejection push is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Some in the Freedom Caucus have focused on Greene, who’s become a close ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to illustrate their fears that certain group members are too aligned with GOP leaders and too outwardly critical of the group when it splits on certain issues.
Oh I see, MTG is too sane, too moderate for the rest of 'em. She doesn't shoot her mouth off enough. The bomb she planted didn't explode. She just doesn't meet their standard.
A stretch of a major US highway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has reopened after a deadly blaze caused it to collapse and snarl traffic along a key commercial route.
The incident on Interstate 95 occurred on June 11 when a tractor-trailer carrying gasoline overturned on an offramp. The driver was killed, and the resulting fire caused an elevated portion of the highway to collapse.
Us Little Mouses are impressed. Our cousin, Abner, works on the highways. Well, I mean he chews holes in the walls, same thing. Strong teeth, that guy. He counted on his paws and said, "Well boy howdy, that's only twelve days for a major construction project. What kind of country has an infrastructure budget and management skills for a projectct like that?"
Federal judge rules Florida is barred from enforcing the state's new anti-drag law (SB 1438), granting a preliminary injunction in the case brought by Hamburger Mary's.
Us Little Mouses have never been to this place called "Florida," but what, did all the good people just get up and leave? It's just one thing after another down there. Oh and sure, now these nazi "moms" are coming up here to hassle people in our county. I'd have to say, when Florida sends its people, they're not sending their best -- we see it again and again. Us mouses have heard through the cheesevine that cousin Mickey is very unhappy down there. And he's usually the cheerfullest Little Mouse of all.
Strikes at some US Starbucks stores started Friday, after the coffee giant and the union representing baristas publicly clashed over claims that the company was not allowing Pride month decor in cafes. The union, Starbucks Workers United, said more than 150 stores representing nearly 3,500 workers have pledged to join the strikes, which will take place over the next week. More than two dozen additional stores are voting on strike authorizations and the count could rise to nearly 200 stores by the end of the week, the union said.
Starbucks management says they support the LGBT+ community but Workers United has alleged instances in at least 22 states when workers have not been able to decorate, pointing to social media accounts where workers have documented their claims. The union said it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Starbucks over what it alleges is a change in policy.
In Oklahoma, workers were told restrictions on decorating were out of a concern for safety after recent attacks at Target stores, the union said. And that is some crazy logic. Give the assholes what they want, so they don't hurt you. Let's see how far that gets.
"Strikes at some US Starbucks stores started Friday, after the coffee giant and the union representing baristas publicly clashed over claims that the company was not allowing Pride month decor in cafes."
Wow, and homosexuals groups wonder where the backlash is coming from...
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably witnessed the backlash to Pride. There have been mass boycotts of Bud Light after the beer company partnered with trans woman and a TikTok influencer. Target was next to come under fire for its Pride display targeting children.
This set the stage for the most divisive Pride month in some time. But it’s not just conservatives who are pushing back; according to a recent Gallup poll, even Democrats have seen a drop in the acceptance of same-sex relations.
Which begs the question: what happened to Pride?
In search of an answer, I spoke to prominent LGBT thinkers and writers. Their answers surprised me.
“The core reason for the backlash is pretty simple: children,” Andrew Sullivan explains. “The attempt to indoctrinate children in gender ideology and to trans them on the verge of puberty has changed the debate." Start indoctrinating and transing children and you resurrect public fears about homosexuals.
Glenn Greenwald largely agrees: “What destroyed the culture war consensus was their cynical and self-interested decision to transform the LGBT cause into one that no longer focused on the autonomy of adult Americans to live freely — which most people support — but instead to demand the right to influence and indoctrinate other people’s children.”
“They are calling them ‘trans kids’ and medicalizing them at an early age. Lying about puberty blockers. Lying about young girls getting irreversible surgery and so on,” says trans man Buck Angel.
In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriages, and with bipartisan support it seemed there was a consensus on this one culture war issue, as well as broad support for the legal rights of trans adults to be free from discrimination. The war was largely won. But rather than shutting up shop or refocusing their efforts on parts of the world where gay and lesbian people faced serious discrimination, activists and NGOs moved onto the transgender issue.
“There are countries in the world where you can be executed for being gay,” says James Kirchick, author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. “That’s what the Human Rights Campaign should be saving its ire for.”
An average person will likely refer to this shift as “woke” and wonder how “the trans stuff” is suddenly everywhere, all at once. Parents are baffled when three out of four of their twelve-year-old daughter’s friend group “identify” as boys or, even more confusingly, nonbinary. People started putting pronouns in their social media bios, on their work résumés and in their email signatures. Biological men are competing in women’s sports and being placed in women’s prisons. In medical magazines and birthing classes, women are suddenly referred to by dehumanizing terms such as “birthing persons” and “uterus havers.”
“It’s like a new enforced public holiday thing and people smell a rat,” says Douglas Murray. “The wiser people realize that something weird is being smuggled in. This isn’t just like, ‘don’t beat up your gay neighbor.’ It’s like ‘there is no such thing as gender.’ ‘There is no such thing as sex.’”
We’ve arrived here thanks to a confluence of forces. Perpetual victimhood pushed by activist groups that need a reason to exist and continue collecting money. The corporatization of Pride. The hijacking of the movement by gender ideology.
Most people have probably already forgotten that several months ago, the Biden admin stopped a nationwide rail strike (over sick days) that might have screwed the economy. This made unions and union supporters very unhappy, and few believed the President when he said he’d get them their sick days. But with the help of Bernie Sanders, he has done it. They got the RR workers what they needed AND avoided a crippling strike. This is a big win for everyone that will probably go unnoticed.
At just 18 years old, Kayla Lovdahl has already transitioned to a boy, regretted that decision and detransitioned back to being a girl. Now, she’s taking the doctors and hospitals that allegedly rushed her through gender treatment to court.
Her story is shocking, yet not uncommon.
According to her lawsuit filed in California State Court last week, Kayla first decided she was a boy at age 11 after learning about the transgender community online.
By 12, she alleges, she was prescribed puberty blockers and testosterone by doctors who failed to provide sufficient psychological screening and who told her parents: “It’s better to have a live son than a dead daughter.”
At 13, Kayla had her healthy breasts removed in a double mastectomy to masculinize her chest. And, by 17, she’d realized it was all a mistake — and that the professionals around her had failed to protect her.
“The hardest part was being sold something that I believed was going to help me and make me feel better, only to do it and come out on the other side not feeling any better,” Kayla said in a YouTube interview. “I could always have waited, but I can’t undo it.”
The California native is suing Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and four individual doctors, seeking unspecified damages for causing “deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regret.”
“They essentially handed Kayla the prescription pad and allowed her naive, emotional, childish rollercoaster of feelings to dictate the so-called ‘treatment’ that she would receive,” the lawsuit alleges.
Kayla’s attorney Mark E. Trammell of the Center for American Liberty told The Post that the hospital and doctors “breached the standard of care that they should be held to as medical professionals” by allowing her to transition so quickly.
In a statement, a representative for Kaiser Permanente told The Post: “When adolescent patients, with parental consent, seek gender-affirming care, the patient’s care team carefully evaluates their treatment options and then a multidisciplinary team of physicians and other experienced professionals are available to provide the patient and their family with information, counseling, and other support.
“Care decisions always rest with the patient and their parents or guardians and, in every case, we respect the right of patients and their families to make informed decisions about their personal health.”
That's interesting because TTF always claims that individuals, at all ages, go through rigorous psychological evaluation before medical professionals will allow gender reassignment surgery.
Here, they flippantly say it's all up to whatever the "patient" wants
Tragically, Kalya is joining a growing group of young people speaking out about their gender transition regret.
More and more detransitioners and medical professionals alike have been ringing the alarm bells about hasty gender care.
But many of the detransitioners who are brave enough to share their cautionary tales have been shut out by the very same transgender activist community that once embraced them.
Perhaps there are well-meaning advocates who are genuinely invested in helping struggling children find their true selves. But it’s obvious that any rush to label children as “trans” and speed them through medical transition can have devastating consequences.
Even someone who supports the rights of trans adults to medically transition should take pause at the thought of a 13-year-old — barely a teenager — being allowed to remove healthy parts of their body based, often, only on a sudden and recent conviction that they were born in the wrong body.
But, because it’s become a culture war issue, we’re presented with a false choice between “grooming kids” or “advocating trans genocide.”
One can oppose the medical transition of minors while also embracing a live-and-let-live mentality when it comes to adults. There’s a common sense, compassionate compromise.
Even countries that were once the most progressive on treating trans youth are coming to this conclusion. France, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom have all pumped the brakes on gender affirming care for minors.
Now it’s time for America to do the same.
Unfortunately, the next frontier in this battle requires teens who should have never been in this position in the first place to duke it out in court.
Trammell is also representing detransitioner Chloe Cole in a similar ongoing legal battle . He believes the lawsuits will “cause doctors and hospitals who are performing these types of surgeries to really give informed consent.”
Hopefully their warnings will prevent more children from going under the knife.
Changing your hair, your name or your pronouns is one thing — but making irreversible medical decisions as a minor that could leave you infertile is entirely another.
We don’t even trust kids to commit to a tattoo until they’re 18. Allowing 13-year-olds like Kayla to undergo irreversible and invasive elective procedures like double mastectomies is unconscionable.
The Biden administration is backing down from trying to force Catholic health care providers to enter the gender transition business.
The Justice Department this week let the deadline pass to file an appeal before the Supreme Court in Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra, marking the second time the administration has declined to defend the Affordable Care Act’s “transgender mandate.”
The practical effect of the decision: Catholic medical professionals and organizations in the church’s extensive U.S. health care network will not be required to perform gender transition surgeries or provide medical insurance coverage for their employees to undergo such procedures.
Becket Law, which represented a coalition of Catholic hospitals, nuns and a Catholic university, cheered the department’s decision to drop the legal battle after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary block on the mandate in December.
“After multiple defeats in court, the federal government has thrown in the towel on its controversial, medically unsupported transgender mandate,” said Luke Goodrich, Becket vice president and senior counsel. “Doctors take a solemn oath to ‘do no harm,’ and they can’t keep that oath if the federal government is forcing them to perform harmful, irreversible procedures against their conscience and medical expertise.”
The Sisters of Mercy coalition sued in 2016 after “the federal government reinterpreted the Affordable Care Act to require doctors and hospitals across the country to perform controversial gender-transition procedures, including on children, even when doing so would violate doctors’ consciences,” Becket said.
This was the second legal win in less than a year for Catholic health care providers who objected to the mandate.
In August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s permanent injunction on behalf of the Franciscan Alliance, a Catholic health care network with nearly 19,000 providers. The Biden administration declined to bring an appeal before the Supreme Court.
“These religious doctors and hospitals provide vital care to patients in need, including millions of dollars in free and low-cost care to the elderly, poor, and underserved,” said Mr. Goodrich. “This is a win for patients, conscience and common sense.”
The Justice Department did not comment publicly on the decision, but the department filed “statements of interest” against laws in Arkansas and Kentucky that barred medical providers from giving gender transition drugs or offering such surgeries to minors. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court has been sympathetic to religious freedom arguments in similar cases.
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood hailed the Biden administration’s decision not to appeal the transgender mandate as a “significant victory in safeguarding the rights of medical professionals to operate in a manner consistent with their deepest held beliefs.”
“This is an important development we should take note of because it not only represents a win for conscience rights but also furthers efforts to shield vulnerable individuals who should never become pawns in the sexual revolution,” he said in a statement.
Molson Coors, the Chicago-based company that owns the Miller and Coors brands of beers, has vowed to sponsor LGBT events “for decades to come.” The disclosure comes amid an organic, nationwide boycott of Bud Light from conservatives over the brand’s former partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Molson Coors brands such as Miller and Coors have benefited from the drop in sales of Bud Light and other AB InBev products. The company is sponsoring the 2023 LGBT “pride” events in Denver this coming weekend.
A Little Mouse observation: without beer the rightwingers are going to lose the base. As Trump shouted, "I love the poorly educated!" It's a dumb thing for them to boycott. But -- here's the thing -- everybody knows Budweiser products are terrible -- not only Bud Light, but Bud itself, and Wifebeater. They make the stuff out of rice, fer cryin' out loud, it tastes like insecticide. But Coors, now there's a good clean beer. Miller, Molson, mmm, the best. The rightwingers are not going to boycott Coors products.
Exodus International in the United States ceased activities in June 2013. Yet the Exodus Global Alliance still thinks it can change people's sexual orientation from gay. to ex-gay for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_International
"For two decades, McKrae Game was a top-tier figure among ex-gay Christians and a leading advocate for conversion therapy, a counseling practice with the goal of helping LGBTQ people suppress their homosexuality and become “straight.” But Game, 51, now disavows the movement and acknowledges he has been gay all along.
He told the Post and Courier that conversion therapy proved to be detrimental, a “lie” and “false advertising.”
Game’s announcement comes as the ex-gay Christianity movement is struggling to survive. The most prominent ex-gay organizations have shrunk or shuttered; leaders have defected; and many churches now fear that being associated with such widely discredited techniques will cast them as unwelcoming or bigoted. Additionally, the Internet is rife with stories of LGBTQ people who have reported suffering psychological harm as a result of participating in these programs and ministries.
Some prominent Christians are quietly trying to resurrect ex-gay Christianity, and the new incarnation is hipper and perhaps more evolved [WOKE CONVERSION THERAPY??]. Yet beneath the cosmetic tweaks sits the same message that has damaged many lives over many decades: If you’re a Christian with same-sex attractions, change is both possible and necessary."
Joe Walsh -- no not that one, the other one -- this morning, three pretty good points:
1) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year will go down in history as one of the biggest fuckups & biggest miscalculations ever made by a major figure on the world’s stage.
2) Joe Biden’s response to Putin’s invasion, Biden’s strong defense of Ukraine, and Biden’s leadership in assembling a unified worldwide coalition to stand WITH Ukraine and stand AGAINST Russia will go down in history as one of the greatest defenses of freedom & sovereignty ever put together on the world’s stage.
3) The world is so fortunate Trump lost in 2020.
Sometimes you humans don't seem to appreciate what you've got. Right now you've got a good guy running things in the US. Russia's going to hell but they're not dragging us down with them. Can you imagine if a Republican was in charge right now? Not even Trump, maybe one of the moderates like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In my book The Hidden History of American Oligarchy, I chronicle how the invention of the Cotton Gin — which could do the work of 50 enslaved people — led to a widespread and massive consolidation of wealth and power in the deep South. The plantation families, made fabulously wealthy by the Gin, then took over both the economics and the politics of the South, turning it into what today we’d call an oligarchic fascist state.
They also took over the Democratic Party in the process (it was founded by Thomas Jefferson and had always had its base largely in the South) and turned it from a national player in American politics into a corrupt regional power-broker focused almost entirely on immunizing the morbidly rich while keeping down Black people, working class whites, and women.
Following the Civil War, Democrats largely ceased to be a national party for two generations. The 1868 party platform still clung to the South’s embrace of racism and the oppression of Black people, stating bluntly:
“In demanding these measures and reforms we arraign [accuse] the Radical [Republican] party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression that and tyranny which have marked its career. … Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in times of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy.”
The Democrats — then openly the party most devoted to white supremacy — essentially said, “Screw the rest of the country; we’ve got our piece of it in the South and parts of New York and that’s all we care about.”
Grover Cleveland was the only Democrat elected president between 1860 and 1912, and he was the exception that proved the rule: he won the election of 1886 by being an above-partisan-politics anti-corruption candidate in a nation dominated by two increasingly corrupt parties. For example, he vetoed more bills than every president before him combined.
Today it’s the Republican Party that’s openly committed to white supremacy — but no Grover Cleveland-style anti-corruption, national-vision-for-the-country Republican candidate for the presidency is anywhere in sight today.
Instead, Republicans fall all over themselves in a mad rush to deliver more tax cuts to their billionaire owners, more pollution from the industries that fund their campaigns, more voting restrictions in parts of the states they control with large Black populations, and more guns to their citizens.
Yesterday, The Washington Postnoted, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) introduced legislation that would reinstate massive corporate tax loopholes, kill the new tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy, and end a tax on toxic waste sites used to fund their cleanup.
The Texas legislature this month handed control of elections in dark-blue Houston (3 million voters) to Republican partisans, who can then ensure long lines and challenges to people who insist on casting a ballot.
At the same time, Republican politicians from Florida to Arizona to Iowa are openly embracing the rhetoric of political violence. In Idaho, the party recently hosted a “Trigger Time With Kyle” event where donors could pay to shoot assault weapons with Kyle Rittenhouse.
This is why the GOP is shrinking. And, in the process, retreating into Red state enclaves that reject the proclaimed values of America.
Embracing abortion restrictions, book bans, promoting guns, and hating on queer people aren’t, it turns out, good politics for a party that wants to hold power nationally.
Neither is promoting fascism a useful political strategy: yesterday Republican-aligned protesters with pro-DeSantis signs and giant swastika flags showed up outside Disney World in Orland; odds are voters were not amused.
In this regard, it’s a good thing for America that today’s GOP is collapsing nationwide.
The bad news, however, is that the GOP is consolidating its power in Red states by asserting control over elections, purging tens of millions of voters off the rolls, destroying public schools, and arresting Black voters and parading them before cameras in shackles.
At the moment, their main advantage nationally is that the Party still has the support of the CEOs of the nation’s largest social media companies, oil companies, Vladimir Putin and MBS, bigoted white evangelicals, and most billionaires.
But will that be enough to avoid becoming a regional faction resembling the Confederacy? Increasingly, it looks like the answer is “no.” For six years the Republican Party has been telling America who it is, and broad swaths of the electorate are now believing them.
Today’s GOP must make a choice.
Will it continue down the fascist road that Trump, DeSantis, and Abbott have paved, devolving farther and farther into a corrupt, hateful, violent whites-only regional presence?
An amplification of the reemergence of the old Confederacy, this time as the GOP?
Or is it capable of change?
Now, we discover, it turns out I’m not the only one who’s noted this bizarre new dynamic. The rightwing billionaire Koch network Tuesday morning released an ad against Donald Trump claiming that he’s “Joe Biden’s secret weapon.”
Apparently, they don’t just want regional power: they want to control the entire country. After all, it takes nationwide federal power to get looser pollution controls and more tax cuts.
But will the GOP repudiate fascism, misogyny, and racism and offer contrasting ideas to voters that aren’t just amped-up voter suppression, more guns, and the destruction of public education — with or without Donald Trump?
I’m not holding my breath.
Trump never did anything for regular Americans.
Regular American taxes were never lowered under him.
Never fixed your roads or your bridges.
Didn’t get you better healthcare coverage.
Trump didn't lower the price of your prescriptions. Never decreased the deficit.
Never ended the opioid crisis or spent money to stop it.
He couldn't make “covid disappear”.
Trump never “put America First”.
President Joe Biden did.
Kent Christmas, a Trump–loving MAGA pastor and conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly declared that God will soon start killing “wicked” elected officials, got himself worked up during his sermon by falsely asserting that the state of Vermont recently passed legislation declaring that “it is legal, up to 21 days after full-term birth, that you can kill a baby.”
“You want to know why the Muslim faith has had its advancements?” he continued. “It’s because the Muslims were willing to die for their beliefs. They were willing to strap bombs to their chest. They believed in the afterlife.”
“God, give us some men and women that will get a hold of some passion in their spirit and say, ‘I will lay down my life for the Gospel!'” Christmas thundered. “This thing was born in blood."
One of the Little Mouses had a great idea. How about if Kent Christmas and a couple of his friends come over here to our church and pluck that yummy-looking piece of cheese out of that ... thing ... behind the refrigerator. Don't pay any attention to that big spring and the metal that's held in place by a sensitive little trigger. You can free that cheese for mousekind and go to the afterlife, all in one. Thanks in advance. (Since we won't be able to thank you afterwards.)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
NE China is living the harshest heat wave in its history by far.
Beijing and Tianjin had 3 consecutive days >40C, before they never had 2 consecutive 40C. (40C=104F)
Mongolia highlands again above 38C. (38C=100.4F)
Records fall by dozens every day and it will get worse.
Weeks of record heat is ahead.
If Sunday's official forecast high of 120F at Rio Grande Village, TX, comes to pass, it will tie the all-time high temperature for the entire state of Texas, first recorded on August 12, 1936, at the height of the Dust Bowl.
Quebec burned area last 20 years : 1.121 million hectares
Quebec burned area last 25 days: 1.128 million hectares
We could post these every day. Heat records are being broken around the world, month after month. It's time to take it seriously.
Liberty University's Ryan Helfenbein at the Faith and Freedom coalition gala said: "What we're discovering as parents and conservatives is education really is evangelism. So, if you don't control education, you cannot control the future. And Stalin knew that, Mao knew that, Hitler knew that. We have to get that back for conservative values."
Later in the day, Herr Professor Helfenbein said, "Wait a minute, are we the baddies here?"
"We could post these every day. Heat records are being broken around the world, month after month."
yes, and you always could
yet, despite the increase in temperatures, life expectancy is up dramatically
indeed, there seems to be a correlation
"It's time to take it seriously."
sorry, gutter rat
but Greta Thunberg said, on June 21, 2018: if society doesn't abolish fossil fuel within five years, there is no hope for the human race
as of last Thursday, there is no point in doing anythng
it's already too late
"Liberty University's Ryan Helfenbein at the Faith and Freedom coalition gala said: "What we're discovering as parents and conservatives is education really is evangelism. So, if you don't control education, you cannot control the future. And Stalin knew that, Mao knew that, Hitler knew that. We have to get that back for conservative values."
consider this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paideia
Former President Donald Trump addressed a convention in Georgia on Saturday: "And something else I find hard to believe that I have to even say. It's so ridiculous. It's so horrible and so ridiculous. I will keep men out of women's sports. And I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. Prohibited. And on day one I will reinstate the Trump ban on transgenders in the military. Because a warrior should be focused on crushing American enemies, on being strong, on having the image of being strong. They have to be powerful. They have to be strong, especially when you see what's happening in the world today, not catering to radical gender ideology."
When NBC’s Chuck Todd starts laying out how bad the numbers are for Joe Biden, you know it’s not looking good for the president.
Todd laid out how bad the “wrong track” numbers looked for Biden and the Democrats.
“Just 20 percent of voters believe this country is headed in the right direction. Seventy-four percent say the nation is on the wrong track,” Todd said. He explained how it’s been about 70 for a sustained period “for about a year now.” “The last two periods in the history of this poll when it had this kind of sustained negativity about the direction of the country was before the 92 election and before the 2008 election. Both of those changed the party controlling the White House,” he added.
20 percent is just pitiful. The 2022 elections weren’t a referendum on Biden, but 2024 will be, and it’s not looking good for him with numbers like this.
When it comes to Joe Biden, his approval numbers are still low in the poll, at 43 percent, with 53 percent disapproving. Todd notes this is still about where it’s been since his numbers dropped with Biden’s debacle of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, which confirms that he’s never really been able to recover from that in the eyes of Americans. But the number of people who have concerns about Biden’s health—even among Democrats—is staggering.
“A full 68 percent of voters — including 43 percent of Democrats, which is twice what it was in 2020 — say they are concerned that Biden does not have the necessary mental and physical health to be president,” Todd detailed. That’s the number who say it’s a “major or moderate concern.” That’s up from 51 percent in 2020. So constantly seeing what bad shape Biden is in day after day — showing the incoherence and all the issues — is getting through to people, and they believe it’s a big issue.
The polls also showed that former President Donald Trump was increasing his lead on the rest of the GOP field.
Last week, former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) went on MSNBC to issue a furious warning to everyone looking into Hunter Biden and the influence peddling scandal: “Everybody needs to back off!”
Newly released evidence from the investigation indicates that McCaskill was not the only powerful figure issuing that warning. Two whistleblowers reportedly detailed highly disturbing actions from top officials to slow walk and undermine the investigation.
Many of us have already noted the absence of certain charges in the plea deal given to Hunter Biden. In addition to the lack of any charge as an unregistered foreign agent, there is no evidence that the Justice Department seriously investigated the influence-peddling efforts of the Biden family despite allegations of millions generated from foreign sources.
Now these whistleblowers are reportedly telling Congress that they were actively frustrated in their efforts to investigate as Merrick Garland was insisting that there was no interference or limitations.
This included preventing an effort to search a guest house of President Joe Biden. IRS official Gary Shapley allegedly recalled that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf agreed that there was “more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”
Wolf allegedly said that they could never get approval for the search despite the sufficiency of the evidence.
Even more disturbing is the allegation that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss sought to bring charges against the 53-year-old in both the District of Columbia and Southern California last year and was denied both times.
That directly contradicts statements made to Congress by Attorney General Garland.
Democrats and pundits have repeatedly cited the fact that Weiss was a Trump appointee and thus the light plea bargain shows that there was no case to be made. However, these sources are suggesting that Weiss tried and was rebuffed in his effort to prosecute in two different jurisdictions.
There is also an allegation that Wolf gave Hunter’s legal team a “heads-up” that investigators were moving to search his Northern Virginia storage unit and that Wolf again objected to the effort to secure a search warrant.
The only way to establish the truth of any of this would be to call Weiss, Wolf, and others to Congress.
While such efforts are routinely refused by the Justice Department, these allegations (if true) would raise both potentially criminal and impeachable questions. That is an ample basis for Congress to use its oversight authority.
Garland, by his own measures, has failed as Attorney General in restoring trust in his department. However, this is far more serious than allegations of negligence. It would constitute a knowing effort to delay and obstruct efforts to investigate the Biden family — and to mislead Congress.
The evidence also creates new problems for President Biden, who has repeatedly claimed as a presidential candidate and as president that he had no knowledge of any foreign dealings of his son.
Those statements were long ago proven patently false.
The laptop includes pictures and appointments of Hunter’s foreign business associates with Joe Biden. There is also a recording of Joe Biden discussing a Times report on Dec. 12, 2018, detailing Hunter’s dealings with Ye Jianming, the head of CEFC China Energy Company. He assures his son that “I think you’re clear” after lawyers worked on the New York Times before the story ran.
There is also a recording of his uncle James assuring Hunter that he and his father were going to arrange for “safe harbor” for him as his world began to collapse.
Now, there is a new contradiction. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) read from an alleged July 30, 2017 Whatsapp message from Hunter Biden to one of his Chinese associates, Henry Zhao, the director of Harvest Fund Management and Communist Party official. Zhao was funneling money to Hunter’s firm BHR Partners.
Hunter is quoted as writing:
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
Again, the authenticity of this message has to be established. However, there remains a striking lack of curiosity among the Democratic members who have opposed every effort to investigate these allegations.
Even the recent disclosure of a trusted FBI source alleging a possible bribery scheme with a corrupt Ukrainian official has not reduced this opposition.
The lack of curiosity of Democrats in Congress is only matched by the media. A year after the New York Post broke the laptop story, I wrote a column marveling at the success of the Bidens in pulling off one of the neatest tricks in political history. I analogized it to how Houdini used to make his 10,000-pound elephant Jennie disappear on a stage in front of a live audience.
The key to the trick is that Houdini knew the audience wanted her to disappear. Jennie never left the stage but Houdini got the audience to invest in the trick by calling volunteers to the stage.
In the same way, the media wanted the Hunter Biden scandal to disappear — they still do. They are invested in the trick.
So, the Democrats and the media will continue to insist that there is a lack of evidence while opposing efforts to establish the evidence behind these allegations. After all, if there is an elephant behind this scandal, it is an indictment of their concerted efforts for over three years.
Of course, it still remains a challenge to hide an elephant if even one audience member goes looking. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants to pull back the curtain and see the elephant.
"Hunter is quoted as writing:"
BLAH BLAH BLAH
"Again, the authenticity of this message has to be established."
"BLAH BLAH BLAH"
yeah, you right
Hunter and Joe are squeaky clean
LOL!
but if the nasty GOP does wind up impeaching Joe, no worries
Gavin Newsome's warming up
LOLROFLHAHAHAHAAAAAAHOHOHEEHEEHEEHEELOL!
A former federal judge once lauded by the right for his conservative legal opinions delivered a scathing rebuke of the Republican Party for its continued fealty to Donald Trump.
J. Michael Luttig wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the GOP’s “spineless support” has enabled the former president, despite his role in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and his Espionage Act indictment in the classified documents scandal.
“Indeed, their fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024,” Luttig wrote.
He called Trump’s arguments that he has the right to hold onto any documents he wants “preposterous,” and called out the party for being ready to hand him the presidential nomination again.
“Building the Republican campaign around the newly indicted front-runner is a colossal political miscalculation, as comedic as it is tragic for the country,” Luttig wrote, adding that the campaign is essentially one running against the U.S. Constitution.
“If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges — not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 — fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself,” Luttig declared. “Nor ought it be saved.”
Trump’s campaign is doomed to fail, given the large number of Americans who would never vote for him “if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law,” he argued.
Luttig, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, “operated behind the scenes at the top of the conservative legal world,” Politico wrote last year.
He advised then-Vice President Mike Pence not to cave to Trump’s pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 election ― advice Pence ultimately heeded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/opinion/trump-republican-party.html
You know, the Dems have so many choices if Joe winds up in jail. They have plan B up the wazoo!
1. Gavin Newsome
His state has the highest taxes in America but still is running a deficit of 100 billion. Businesses are deserting because of soaring crime rates and most residents want to leave but can't escape. He needs a change of scenery, so Dems could probably talk him into running.
2. Kamala Harris
She's like border policy magic. Enough said.
3. RFK Jr
Thinks his father was killed by aliens and the COVID vaccine can lead to spontaneous combustion. we could use an open-minded guy like him, who can think outside the White House box.
4. Andrew Cuomo
He and his brother Fredo formed one of best comedy duos ever broadcast on CNN. So what if they sexually harassed a few ladies. No one's perfect. Only drawback: he can't have Anthony Weiner as his running mate because they're from the same state.
Up the wazoo, baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But by all means, have fun enjoying your fantasies!
Meanwhile, in the Real World:
Nobody seems to have noticed this, but over the course of the spring, the country’s four leading freight rail carriers agreed to grant the vast majority of their workers paid sick days.
Everybody remembers what happened last December. The workers threatened to strike over such days, among other issues. President Biden, generally very friendly toward labor, made it illegal for the workers to strike. He was criticized by unions and workers and fellow Democrats and liberal media outlets, this one included.
None of that criticism was wrong at the time. But it wasn’t the end of the story. The Biden administration, chiefly through Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and then–Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, kept imploring the rail companies to come around. Of course the unions took the lead, but the administration’s support was crucial. Last week, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers issued a statement that included these two sentences from Railroad Department director Al Russo: “We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement. Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.”
Joe Biden when elected was the most pro-labor president since Harry Truman. He was that last December. And he is that today. He and his appointees have proven it again.
It’s understandable that the administration and the unions wanted these negotiations to take place out of the limelight. But still, somehow, “without making a big show of it” pretty much describes the Biden administration and the entire Democratic Party.
Biden has been a terrific president. The big legislation. The way he played Kevin McCarthy on the debt deal. The global leadership against Putin. The plain human decency restored to the White House after four years of self-obsessed thuggery. Oh—the 13 million jobs created since he took office, which is more jobs in 28 months than created under any other president, in all of our history, in a full four-year term.
Oh and SCOTUS destroyed Roe last year.
For these reasons and more, Joe Biden will win in 2024
Between churches and beauty pageants and youth gun clubs, nobody does grooming and indoctrination like red state America.
"Among us friends, let's be honest," Donald Trump's chief of staff John Kelly said. "About a third of the things the president wants us to do are flat-out stupid. Another third would be impossible to implement and wouldn't even solve the problem. And a third of them would be flat-out illegal."
That's just about everything, isn't it? Did you ever once hear him suggest that America should leave pieces of cheese on the floor, like under the sink or behind the trash can? No, it was always dumb stuff, ridiculous stuff, or criminal stuff. He never suggested just being nice to some harmless and lovable Little Mouses.
"Joe Biden will win in 2024. But by all means, have fun enjoying your fantasies!"
oh sure
it's all just a mass hallucination
how could the media have been so deluded?
just listen to this nonsense from MSM poobah, Chuck Todd
“Just 20 percent of voters believe this country is headed in the right direction. Seventy-four percent say the nation is on the wrong track, it’s been that for about a year now. The last two periods in the history of this poll when it had this kind of sustained negativity about the direction of the country was before the 92 election and before the 2008 election. Both of those changed the party controlling the White House,”
"Nobody seems to have noticed this, but over the course of the spring, the country’s four leading freight rail carriers agreed to grant the vast majority of their workers paid sick days."
well, now that he has the freight rail workers' vote sewed up, he can just relax and cruise to victory
"Biden has been a terrific president."
for drag queens...
"The big legislation."
you mean those bills that brought back inflation after 40 years?
"The way he played Kevin McCarthy on the debt deal."
very sneaky how he forced McCarthy to go along with spending caps
"The global leadership against Putin."
keep in mind that Ukraine would be able to seize the curent moment of instability in Russia except that Biden keeps slow rolling requests for advanced military aid
"The plain human decency restored to the White House after four years of self-obsessed thuggery."
I'm sure women in Afghanistan thinks he's a quite decent fellow to give the Taliban control of their country
"Oh—the 13 million jobs created since he took office, which is more jobs in 28 months than created under any other president, in all of our history, in a full four-year term."
did you hear?
we had a pandemic, which Trump ended in record time, and people went back to work
"Oh and SCOTUS destroyed Roe last year."
Roe was unconstitutional
it was it lasted as long as it did
"For these reasons and more, Joe Biden will win in 2024"
scandal, senility, soaring prices...
all that, and more, in the coming drama: Presidential Election 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit by a group of congressional Democrats who had sought details about a government lease for a Washington hotel covering the time when it was owned by President Donald Trump.
Seventeen Democratic members of the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee sued the GSA, seeking information about a 2013 lease of the Old Post Office building just a few blocks from the White House to Trump's company to convert it into a hotel. The hotel became a gathering spot for Trump supporters, lobbyists and foreign dignitaries.
Former President Donald Trump is the only president to be impeached twice. Both Senate trials were farces that ended in acquittal. NOw, two leading Republicans, last week introduced a pair of resolutions to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments, making it as though they never happened — and it’s an effort that seems well within the powers of the House GOP to do.
They can also easily impeach Joe Biden.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recently “teased” the nation — and the media — with details of a bribery scheme involving Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and a foreign national. This occurred after an IRS whistleblower testified he was removed from the Hunter Biden criminal probe following interference by the Justice Department.
Now the Department of Justice has indicted the front-runner of the 2024 Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump, for alleged mishandling of sensitive documents. However, similar conduct regarding both the confidential documents in current President Joe Biden’s garage and Hillary Clinton’s private email server has been ignored or excused.
The response to Grassley — not only from the media but also from the White House and the FBI itself — demonstrates that a full impeachment of President Joe Biden is the only way to bring accountability to the Biden administration.
We can’t rely on law enforcement, at least not the politically compromised FBI. We also can’t rely on the media themselves to seriously question — much less seriously investigate — Biden and his cronies. What’s more, the next election is 17 months away; voters are not in a position to take action, especially when the same federal law enforcement in question has been shown to meddle in our national elections as they did in 2020 by suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Dems always act like the GOP is a party of the upper class. But, truth is, the richest people in America are liberals. Buffet, Gates, Bezos, et al
ProPublica, the nonprofit news website attacking Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, is funded by left-wing megadonors who pump money into court packing advocacy groups.
Picking up speed since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year, the website has repeatedly alleged ethics violations against Thomas and Alito.
And Alito and Thomas have accepted questionably valuable gifts from wealthy right wing donors that soil the court's appearance of impartiality.
"valuable gifts"
like an spare seat on a private plane?
Supreme Court justices make enough that they can swing the cost of a flight to Alaska
the idea would change a vote based on such a paltry "gift" is preposterous
he obviously went to hang out with friends
SC justices aree allowed to have friends
"from wealthy right wing donors"
they have lifetime appointments
they have no donors
"that soil the court's appearance of impartiality"
the few remaining liberal SC justices are regularly wined and dined by liberal groups
Alito and Thomas have been consistent in their judicial philosophy over the years
the accusations began when the evil and flawed Roe v Wade decision was overturned
the guy that let Alito use an otherwise empty seat on his plane to Alaska is a donor to gay marriage advocacy groups
doesn't seem like Alito was swayed
the guy that let Alito use an otherwise empty seat on his plane to Alaska is a donor to gay marriage advocacy groups
doesn't seem like Alito was swayed
how's that for appearance?
Recent church attendance levels are about 10 percentage points lower than what Gallup measured in 2012 and most prior years. Attendance rates since 2020 have not come up since the pandemic and are lower among nearly every major subgroup. The main exceptions are groups that had low levels of church attendance before the pandemic, including adults with no religious affiliation and political liberals.
Church attendance is down four points among Protestants (from 44% to 40%) and seven points among Catholics (from 37% to 30%), the two largest faith groups in the U.S.
Grandma Mouse pointed this story out to us this morning while she was having her breakfast of Coors Oatmeal. She held up the paper and said, "Sure, you know why they ain't going to church, don't ya? It's because the churches have gone fuckin' insane. They're against everything, scared of everything, mad at everybody, living in a dream world. Who'd want to be part of that?" I could not think of a better explanation.
Seven groups of historians have now denounced an upcoming reception at the Museum of American Revolution for “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty. They’ve written their members, the museum, and one group has canceled an event they had planned at the Old City institution.
Moms for Liberty, or M4L, has made national headlines since its founding in 2021 for its efforts to lift pandemic precautions, ban books, and limit conversations about race, sexuality, and gender identity in classrooms. Earlier this month, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group an “antigovernment extremist organization.” Tomorrow they will be in Rockville Maryland to protest storybooks with diverse characters.
"Recent church attendance levels are about 10 percentage points lower than what Gallup measured in 2012 and most prior years. Attendance rates since 2020 have not come up since the pandemic and are lower among nearly every major subgroup."
Most churches started livestreaming during the pandemic and were slower to open up and resume live services, than society in general, hoping to protect older congregants. Even after opening up, most continue to have a streaming option, giving marginally committed members a chance to stay home more often. Polls show belief in God to be holding steady.
""Sure, you know why they ain't going to church, don't ya? It's because the churches have gone fuckin' insane. They're against everything, scared of everything, mad at everybody, living in a dream world. Who'd want to be part of that?" I could not think of a better explanation."
IN other words, you think not as many people are attending church because churches continue to hold to the scriptural view of homosexuality. But that doesn't describe most mainstream protestant groups, which go out of their way to put up rainbow flags and signs supporting the gay agenda. More conservative churches, holding to the orthodox view, don't spend as much time on the topic, although they will occasionally have some discussion about how to reach out to gays. It's a little ignorant to generalize.
But if you think you're a rodent with multiple personalities, calling you ignorant is king of redundant.
"Moms for Liberty, or M4L, has made national headlines"
Really? Could you provide a link to even one such headline?
"since its founding in 2021 for its efforts to lift pandemic precautions,"
Accordingly to most studies, the completely unnecessary "pandemic precautions" in schools set public school students back about a year and a half - and likely will never recover. Look to a future where those who were educated in private religious schools or homeschooled are preferred by employers because those groups recorded no losses.
"ban books,"
you mean using discretion on age-appropriate material
"and limit conversations about race, "
you mean present the factually inaccurate 1619 project as fact
"sexuality and gender identity in classrooms."
you mean presenting gender ideology, without empirical support as fact
maybe schools should teach the facts
"Earlier this month, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group an “antigovernment extremist organization.”"
that's not bad
SPLC classifies most conservative organizations as hate groups
"Tomorrow they will be in Rockville Maryland to protest storybooks with diverse characters."
imagine that
a protest
how horrid!
"and limit conversations about race"
one thing liberals in America want to avoid, at all cost, is unlimited conversations about race
The bestselling young adult book "Dear Martin," previously required reading in Haywood County N.C., opens with a scene where a half-Latino half-White police officer obviously hearkening to George Zimmerman accosts a young Black boy named Justyce. The police officer is portrayed as a menace and Justyce is portrayed as an innocent victim of his rage and racism.
The bestselling young adult book throws nearly every single racial incident, act of violence, and biased insubordination at the poor boy. The entire book is about one thing and one thing only: race; specifically, how America is still a racist country to Black kids.
Yet this book was named the William C. Morris Book Award winner for best Young Adult literature. At one School Board meeting in Haywood County, a father gets up and explains that this book isn’t suitable for children, citing the numerous expletives and artless details of the protagonist’s girlfriend. That didn’t stop the local paper and parents from questioning whether the father was really a racist.
The father should push back on the viability of the themes of racial abuse, even if he risks being canceled for it. Think about the intensity of a book like "Dear Martin" and how it would affect young, impressionable minority children.
In effect, the book trains Black kids to fear White people. A police officer shoots Justyce’s Black friend. A White smart aleck verbally bullies Justyce. Justyce’s own mother warns against dating White women.
It may be true that books like "Dear Martin" simply reflect in literary form the received wisdom of Black families in the United States. If so, then that received wisdom needs to change in light of the reality that Black Americans no longer face similar levels of racism as they did in the ’50s and ’60s.
Black Americans are shot by the police at lower rates than Whites when you account for their rates of altercation. 60% of Black Americans believe they are in a better financial condition than their parents.
Black Americans are more college-educated than they’ve ever been. Our "Black History" courses and our readings that reflect "Black History," however, still primarily endorse the concept that America is racist to Black people.
When Black Americans are put through a gauntlet of teachings that emphasize such a depressive worldview, they become more depressed and cynical about their own condition.
A Birkbeck College, London poll of Black Americans found that when Black Americans read a passage by leading Critical Race Theory author Ta-Nehisi Coates that says, "In America, it’s natural to destroy he Black body," the percentage of Black people who say they are in control of their lives falls from 83% down to 68%.
That is not to say that there are not sobering issues with many primarily Black regions of America. The average PISA scores, an international testing metric, among White Americans is 521, good for third-highest in the world among countries.
But the average PISA scores for Black Americans is 436, comparable to developing countries like Egypt and Mexico. Even schools in similarly high-income counties that are primarily populated by Black Americans tend to do less well than schools with more mixed races.
Prince George County, MD, a majority-Black county, has a $91,124 median household income, which is about same for the state, but only 25% of its students test at grade level in reading – and 10% test at grade level in math.
The reactionary response to these statistics would be to say that Black American educational success is hopeless. But some of our country’s all-Black charter schools, such as Sisulu-Walker in Harlem, have closed reading gaps between Black and White kids by 2/3rds or more.
Some of several keys at these schools is to emphasize phonics education at an early age (a policy popular with many advocates of closing the racial achievement gap) and to cultivate strong discipline policies that give real consequences for unruly behavior.
Former president Barack Obama’s Title VI guidance written in 2010 made it much harder for school principals to do that by requiring "racial equity" in disciplinary measures – meaning that Black kids had to be disciplined at the same rates as Whites despite greater than average violent altercations.
Black Americans are more college-educated than they’ve ever been. Our "Black History" courses and our readings that reflect "Black History," however, still primarily endorse the concept that America is racist to Black people.
As a result, violent incidents in Virginia schools have risen 45% between 2011 and 2016 – with complaints about Black kids accounting for 62% of them.
The integration of critical race theory, the idea that America is a systemically racist country, into our schools is making things worse.
The University of North Carolina’s Department of Allied Health Sciences blasted lectures as "systematically shortchang[ing] underrepresented minority students," ironically casting rude stereotypes on Black students as being unable to handle the lecture format. In the name of anti-racism, they create climates ever more indulgent of mediocrity for Black students.
Under a CRT lens, advocates have even blasted the way we teach mathematics as racist against Black kids. But they can’t explain why Asian kids, another minority, would do so well at math in a supposedly racist country.
CRT of course invalidates hard work and study, as a Khan Academy study shows that Black kids who do 20 hours of Khan Academy practice tests are able to improve their corresponding SAT scores even more than White kids. The problem is getting these kids to do 20 hours of Khan Academy practice tests – which few non-Asian minorities do.
Overall, in the name of solving "racism," schools in America have become lax at teaching what really works and are instead teaching everything that doesn’t. Furthermore, they are hitting Black kids with devastating narratives of White hatred towards them, setting them up for spiteful futures with low opportunity.
Let’s have some real straight talk here. The problem facing Black people in America today is not because of America’s "unconscious bias" towards Black kids. It is due to the systematic failures of our CRT-informed education system to push Black kids to grow and succeed.
Just when Joe Biden thought the Hunter business was behind him, new evidence is pulling him back in. This time it won’t be as easy suppress as in 2020.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has forced into public the existence of a Federal Bureau of Investigation FD-1023 form detailing an informant’s claim that a Burisma executive paid $5 million each in bribes to then-Vice President Biden and his son. After the bureau begrudgingly let a few members of Congress look at the document, Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed the FBI had redacted the part about the executive saying he had 17 audio recordings of conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden.
The latest development came Thursday, courtesy of the House Ways and Means Committee. Republicans on the committee released testimony from two Internal Revenue Service “whistleblowers” accusing the Justice Department of interfering in their investigation with the aim of protecting Hunter Biden. The testimony included a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp text allegedly showing Hunter Biden threatening a Chinese business partner who hadn’t fulfilled some unnamed “commitment.” “I am sitting here with my father,” the note says. All this news comes on the heels of a plea agreement with the Justice Department that deals only with Hunter’s taxes and a gun charge.
Team Biden has responded by going back to the script that worked so well in 2020, talking about how the president loves his son and attributing anything embarrassing to Hunter’s crack-cocaine addiction. “It’s a bunch of malarkey,” the president said earlier this month to a question about bribery. On Monday he tersely answered “no” when asked if the new evidence proves he hadn’t been truthful about his knowledge of Hunter’s business deals.
Democrats say these are unsubstantiated accusations from Republicans. That’s rich, given that what Mr. Comer wants to know is whether the FBI and Justice made an honest effort to substantiate the information about the Bidens. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been careful not to address specifics. On Friday he painted criticisms of his department as a threat to democracy.
At the White House, meanwhile, it was déjà vu all over again. John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, refused to answer whether the WhatsApp message undermined the president’s repeated claims of ignorance about Hunter’s foreign business dealings. Mr. Kirby declared, “I am not going to address this issue from this podium”—and walked off.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre picked up the ball, making clear that if reporters asked “anything related to—to Hunter, I’m just not going to respond to it from here.”
Whatever this is, it isn’t a winning strategy for 2024. Especially with Republican subpoenas still coming. On Sunday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised the possibility of impeaching Mr. Garland over this.
Remember, the whistleblowers are all testifying under pain of a perjury charge if they lie, and their allegations are relatively easy to prove or disprove. IRS career investigator Gary Shapley Jr. testified about a 2022 meeting of prosecutors and FBI and IRS agents he found shocking. He says U.S. Attorney David Weiss—who was overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation—told them three things.
First, that Mr. Weiss wasn’t the “deciding official” when it came to bringing charges. Second, that Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wouldn’t allow him to bring charges against Hunter there. And third, that he had asked for special-counsel status and his request was denied.
This testimony contradicts Mr. Garland’s claim that Mr. Weiss had full authority to charge what and where he wanted. It also contradicts Mr. Weiss’s own claim in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that he was the “ultimate authority.” But all of it can easily be cleared up by having those allegedly at the meeting, including Mr. Weiss, testify under oath.
Other allegations also deserve answers under oath. Did Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf really call Hunter Biden’s defense counsel about a Northern Virginia storage unit, ruining investigators’ plans for a search? And why did she allegedly tell agents interviewing Hunter business associate Rob Walker not to ask about “dad” or “the big guy”?
Ultimately, Hunter Biden will himself be called to testify before the House. Maybe he’ll refuse to say anything. That may be best for him. But for his president father, running for re-election, having his son come across like Vito Genovese taking the Fifth dozens of times before questions about shell companies and payments to himself and his dad isn’t a great look.
When Hunter Biden agreed to his plea deal last week, his lawyer said he did so with the understanding the investigation was resolved. Perhaps that part is. But for Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, it’s only just begun.
The IMF: "Rising corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation over the past two years as companies increased prices by more than spiking costs of imported energy. Now that workers are pushing for pay rises to recoup lost purchasing power, companies may have to accept a smaller profit share if inflation is to remain on track to reach the European Central Bank’s 2-percent target in 2025, as projected in our most recent World Economic Outlook... Corporate profits now account for nearly half of all euro area inflation."
I've seen through the cracks, when the humans open their refrigerator it's jammed full of all kinds of delicious cheeses. It's more than they can ever eat but they won't share. It wouldn't hurt anybody if a few crumbs of cheese fall on the floor now and then for the Little Mouses.
"the guy that let Alito use an otherwise empty seat on his plane to Alaska is a donor to gay marriage advocacy groups
doesn't seem like Alito was swayed
how's that for appearance?"
Alito took more than an empty seat on a plane.
-Singer flew Alito to the resort on a private plane, while the costs of the stay at the resort were covered by another major Republican donor — Robin Arkley — the then-owner of the fishing resort.
-Singer's hedge fund went on to have business before the Supreme Court at least 10 times in the following years.
-Alito didn't include the fishing trip or private jet trip in his financial disclosures and didn't recuse himself from any of the cases involving Singer
I cannot believe that good Christians are supporting the introduction of Sharia law right here in Maryland. The Muslims are starting with a little thing. They don't want real Americans reading about gay people and such because it's against their religion, but this won't be the end of it. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. What's next, burqas for American women? Chopping people's hands off for blasphemy in Rockville Town Center? I personally don't buy the whole "queer" thing, but I am shocked to see decent Christians getting in line behind a group of Arabs who are trying to take over the world. Open your eyes, people!
Former President Donald Trump's purported audio tape on which he bragged about improperly possessing high-level defense information to Bedminster patrons in 2021 was revealed by CNN on Monday evening — revealing damning new details that special counsel Jack Smith had not made public previously.
Speaking to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Trump's former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper outlined how serious a breach of national security Trump's behavior was — and beyond that, how dishonestly he was framing the documents he shared, like his claims that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley was the driving force behind a plan to invade Iran.
"Secretary Esper ... given this breaking news and the stunning audio, I wonder what it's like for you to hear your former boss, former commander-in-chief, talking about what we are told are sensitive military documents in this matter?" asked Collins.
"It's stunning to hear it," said Esper, who has himself for years been revealing ugly secrets of what he saw in the Trump administration. "It sounds familiar in some ways. I talk a lot about these instances in my memoir, where I categorize how every few months or so we would come back to this issue about Iran and what to do. I can say Mark Milley worked for me for nearly 18 months, which was most of Trump's tenure that we were together. He never advocated for attacking Iran. If anything, Trevor, Milley, and I were the reluctant warriors urging caution, urging restraint. So, that kind of is what strikes me first. But secondly, it's the nonchalant nature of sharing those documents, is illegal and dangerous. That concerns me as well, that such things were kept loosely around Mar-a-Lago."
"He told Fox, there was no document but referenced newspaper stories, magazine clippings," said Collins. "But it sure doesn't sound like he's talking about just a magazine article there. Is it clear to you? Does it sound to you that he is holding a classified document?"
"Well, it sounds like he's holding something and showing something," said Esper. "I don't know what it was. I think earlier it was reported some time ago that it was a four-page document, which would not have been what DOD typically prepared. What we usually prepare was a one-pager that included targeting options and escalatory measures, things like that. I outlined this in my memoir for everybody. Something like that would be a document that would generate that wow effect, if you were, by people who are unfamiliar with these types of things or classified material."
Attorney John Eastman, the author of the infamous so-called "coup memo" that pushed for then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject certified election results, is currently fighting to retain his law license in the state of California.
The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery reports that "it's not looking good" for Eastman's chances of avoiding disbarment right now, as the former Trump lawyer's past statements have come back to haunt him.
In particular, notes Pagliery, the testimony of former Mike Pence attorney Greg Jacob appears to have seriously hurt Eastman's chances of winning his disbarment case because it provided damning insight into his state of mind as he pushed for Pence to take the unprecedented step of halting the certification of a presidential election.
"Jacob... testified that Eastman knew his stop-the-vote plan was utterly ludicrous — plainly evident by the way the conservative legal scholar came to the obvious conclusion himself that it would never pass the Supreme Court, even the present one packed with Trump appointees," writes Pagliery.
Although losing his law license might be a dire blow to Eastman professionally, Pagliery says that even more ominous problems for the Trump lawyer are looming just around the corner.
"Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are widely expected to bring charges against Trump and a handful of co-conspirators who tried to erase Biden’s lead there by intimidating the state’s top elections official and replacing electors slated to vote for Biden with Trump loyalists who signed a document purporting to represent the state’s real electors," he concludes. "While Eastman losing his law license in California would be the sternest punishment he’s faced yet, it would hardly compare to a criminal indictment in Fulton County."
Supreme Court Rejects Radical Independent State Legislature Theory
The court rejected the argument that only state legislatures have a say on redistricting and election laws.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the radical argument brought forward in the controversial case of Moore v. Harper that state legislatures have the sole power to draw congressional district maps and set election law.
The independent state legislature theory that Republicans in the North Carolina legislature wanted the court to adopt claims that the U.S. Constitution vests power to set the “time, place, and manner” of federal elections to state legislatures alone. This would give state courts no ability to rule on gerrymandered maps or other election laws that may run afoul of their respective state constitution. State legislatures, themselves often gerrymandered to give one party majority control, would then have free rein to draw congressional maps and set election laws without judicial checks and balances.
The court rejected this theory in a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts by affirming the role that state courts have to play in judging district maps drawn by state legislatures.
The heart of the case centered on the Elections Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution. That clause states that “the Legislature” of each state has the power to set the “time, place, and manner” of federal elections within its own boundaries. Proponents of the independent state legislature theory argued that “the Legislature” should be properly defined to mean the state legislature alone.
The court rejected this argument and affirmed that “the Legislature” included the whole body of state government, including the courts and the governor.
Somebody dropped a piece of paper outside our crack in the wall, and we saw the list of people who will be testifying at the Board of Education meeting today.
BOE Agenda 6-27-23
We peeked at some of the comments that were included. Most of the people are sensible and supportive of diversity and inclusion. Looks like it's a few Muslims who are complaining about their kids finding out there are gay people. They're bringing in a big CAIR director, and a couple of people don't know what "opt-out" means or what a public education is in America. In my life, I have had about 312 children, and about 275 or them were straight, as far as I know. It's the most common thing but, at least in Little Mouses, everybody's different. We don't try to make everybody all act the same, what's the fun in that?
Nearly half of the respondents have a negative view of Vice President Harris, according to a new NBC News survey.
The poll, published on Monday, found that 49 percent of respondents have a negative opinion of Harris, while 32 percent of those surveyed have a positive opinion of the vice president.
Harris received a net negative rating of -17, which is the lowest net negative rating for a vice president in the history of the poll.
The poll comes as White House officials have been working with Harris to repair her image ahead of the 2024 election, according to Axios.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients meets with Harris on a weekly basis to discuss ways to overcome her lack of any relevant skills.
Current chief of staff to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Shelia Nix is set to join President Biden’s reelection campaign team as the chief of staff to Harris. The vice president is expected to be a key player in the 2024 campaign trail.
LOL!
Biden announced in April that he plans to run for reelection in 2024 amid weeks of speculation. Biden has faced questions about his age and whether he is up for a full campaign season and a second term as president.
The NBC News poll was conducted from June 16 to June 20 with a total of 1000 respondents participating in the survey.
"Alito took more than an empty seat on a plane.
-Singer flew Alito to the resort on a private plane,"
again, the seat was going to go empty
had he flown commercially, the taxpayers would have had to cover the cost of security
"while the costs of the stay at the resort were covered by another major Republican donor — Robin Arkley — the then-owner of the fishing resort."
well, Alito wasn't running for anything so the fact that the guy donates to Republicans is irrelevant
"resort" is misleading - you see the place online - it's small rustic lodge
further, it wasn't full that week and Arkley owned the place
so, like the plane, there was no extra cost expended on Alito's behalf
"-Singer's hedge fund went on to have business before the Supreme Court at least 10 times in the following years."
The court papers didn't mention him and there is no evidence Alito knew about the connection. further, his recusal wouldn't have changed the outcome.
actually, if Singer were to try to influence Alito, he more likely would have tried to sway him on gay marriage - Singer was a major contributor to gay marriage advocacy at the time and he had a personal stake since his son was a homosexual
as everyone knows, Alito dissented on Obergefell
"-Alito didn't include the fishing trip or private jet trip in his financial disclosures and didn't recuse himself from any of the cases involving Singer"
the rules at the time didn't require him to disclose the trip
"The court rejected the argument that only state legislatures have a say on redistricting and election laws."
good news for conservatives in Maryland, the most gerrymandered state in America
"I cannot believe that good Christians are supporting the introduction of Sharia law right here in Maryland. The Muslims are starting with a little thing. They don't want real Americans reading about gay people and such because it's against their religion, but this won't be the end of it. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. What's next, burqas for American women? Chopping people's hands off for blasphemy in Rockville Town Center? I personally don't buy the whole "queer" thing, but I am shocked to see decent Christians getting in line behind a group of Arabs who are trying to take over the world. Open your eyes, people!"
your rhetorical games aren't working anymore
through most of our history, books framing homosexuality would have not been considered appropriate for small children
this is the reason for the current backlash against the gay agenda
ypu should have left people's children alone
The most recent stop of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s psychedelic presidential campaign was the Gold’s Gym of Venice Beach. On June 24, Kennedy, who’s made surprising headway in his quest to secure the 2024 Democratic nomination, loaded up an incline bench and cranked out a few sets for the crowd. In a video that immediately went viral, RFK Jr., dressed in blue jeans and no shirt—under a bright and distorting Los Angeles sun—clears what looks to be about 120 pounds of plates, across eight reps. The clip is the first moment Americans have come up close and personal with RFK Jr.’s beguiling physique: yoked, oily, and uncanny in a distinctly pro-wrestling way. At 69, he has a head that appears to be photoshopped onto a much younger, more vascular body.
Kennedy was clearly feeling himself in the afterglow, and continued to showcase the rest of his workout on official campaign social channels. “Getting in shape for my debates with President Biden,” he tweeted, attached to a video of him rutting through a series of pushups. Kennedy, on the cusp of his eighth decade of life, asserts himself well. He’s probably the most jacked candidate in history to sniff a White House bid, which says more about the inherent beta-ness of the average D.C. creature than it does about the hopeful himself. But Kennedy’s ropy old-guy musculature is a perfect accoutrement to Antivax Thought. If you avoid the foibles of Big Pharma, then perhaps you too can spend your golden years with a workable body.
Naturally, people loved it. Several even posted on Twitter that they were considering “switching” to RFK Jr. on account of his grizzled, leathery abdominals being “badass.”
"TRUMP HAS MAMMOTH ASS,AND VISIBLE PANTY LINE 😉"
[AND TINY ahem "HANDS" TOO]
When all you do is ride around on golf carts instead of bicycles, your ass grows and turns into flab as Cher's photo of Trump's well publicized fat ass clearly shows.
Click the link and see for yourselves.
An anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy center" failed to diagnose a Massachusetts woman's ectopic pregnancy during a routine ultrasound, causing her to unexpectedly have a life-threatening rupture and require emergency surgery that cost her a fallopian tube, claims a lawsuit reported by Jezebel on Tuesday.
"The woman, known as Jane Doe, filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday in Worcester Superior Court alleging that Clearway Clinic in Worcester didn’t follow standard medical care. The suit also claims that Clearway engages in deceptive practices to lure in people seeking the full range of pregnancy options, when its actual purpose is just to dissuade them from getting abortions," reported Susan Rinkunas.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a zygote implants in one of the fallopian tubes rather than the uterus. It is an extremely dangerous condition; ectopic pregnancies are not viable, and if left untreated cause catastrophic injury or death. Many anti-abortion activists have spread disinformation about this condition, claiming most ectopic pregnancies will simply end in miscarriage, or even that doctors can reimplant them rather than aborting them.
"A Clearway nurse did an ultrasound and said the pregnancy was both viable and in her uterus; the suit says it’s against state medical regulations for registered nurses to read ultrasounds because they’re not licensed diagnosticians. A physician didn’t see Doe, though her discharge paperwork said a medical doctor provided her care," said the report.
"A month later, Doe felt shooting pain on her side and was so weak and lightheaded that her husband called 911, per the release. Emergency room doctors diagnosed her with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and internal hemorrhage. In order to stop the hemorrhaging, doctors did emergency surgery in which they had to remove of one of her fallopian tubes."
Had Clearway correctly diagnosed the condition, noted the report, "legitimate medical providers would have ended Doe’s life-threatening pregnancy with medication — typically the cancer drug methotrexate."
Crisis pregnancy centers, also called pregnancy resource centers, are organizations that disguise themselves as women's health clinics to trap women seeking abortions and persuade and coerce them into continuing pregnancies, often by lying about how abortion or pregnancy works. They generally offer free ultrasounds — but rarely from trained medical professionals — and sometimes infant resources like diapers and clothing. Many of them are run directly by religious ministries, and because they are generally not regulated as medical facilities, there is little oversight of their practices, even though many receive state funding.
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis explained on Tuesday that he didn't want to criticize former President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol because Republicans were "going to lose" the presidency if it became a hot talking point.
During a campaign event in Hollis, New Hampshire, a 15-year-old student asked DeSantis if Trump had violated the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.
"So here's what I know," DeSantis replied. "If this election is about Biden's failures and our vision for the future, we are going to win. If it's about re-litigating things that happened two, three years ago, we're going to lose."
DeSantis pointed out that Florida was peaceful after he won his second term as governor.
"We had a transition of power from my first administration to my second because I won re-election in a historic fashion," he said. "So I wasn't anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn't enjoy seeing what would happen."
"But we've got to go forward on this stuff," he added. "We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past."
BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh reported on Tuesday that he's seeing a conspiracy theory called "Frazzledrip" become even more prominent on Elon Musk's Twitter.
As Sardarizadeh describes it on his own Twitter account, "Frazzledrip" is "a ludicrous QAnon conspiracy theory that even some QAnon followers regard as too extreme and outlandish" and that is starting to "go viral on this platform."
According to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks QAnon and other anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, Frazzledrip "is a rumored dark web snuff film showing Hillary Clinton and longtime aide Huma Abedin sexually assaulting and murdering a young girl, drinking her blood and taking turns wearing the skin from her face as a mask."
The conspiracy theorists believe that this video was found on Anthony Weiner's laptop by the FBI but suppressed by the deep state.
Although no such video of Clinton performing Hannibal Lecter-style antics actually exists, Sardarizadeh notes that conspiracy theorists have been using a horrific real-life murder and blaming it on the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nominee.
The social media post highlighted by Sardarizadeh, for instance, tried to pin the death of a British teenager named Scarlett Keeling on Clinton, despite the fact that Keeling was murdered in India in 2008 by a man who was sent to prison for ten years for his crimes.
hmmmm...
the only place I hear this stuff is here
I'm sure QAnon followers appreciate your help publicizing their theories
all five oF them!
ROCKVILLE, Md. (7News) — Advocates for Muslim parents are rallying Tuesday outside a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Board of Education meeting to demand that it restore parents' right to excuse their children from instruction that contradicts their religious beliefs.
The rally was organized by Family Rights for Religious Freedom (FRRF), a coalition of parents of Montgomery County students. Over 500 parents and community members were expected to attend the rally on Rockville Pike, which was scheduled to reach the front of the MCPS building by 2:15 p.m., according to a release...
At a June 6 MCPS Board of Education meeting, parents and students testified about the school system's policy on curriculum materials.
Opponents said the policy prevents students and families from opting out of certain LGBTQ+ instructional materials and does not require teachers to send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are planned to be read...
Read the full MCPS statement on the opt-out policy below:
"MCPS expects all classrooms to be inclusive and safe spaces for students, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ or have family members in the LGBTQ+ community.
A broad representation of personal characteristics within curricular or instructional materials promotes this desired outcome.
Therefore, as with all curriculum resources, there is an expectation that teachers utilize these inclusive lessons and texts with all students.
As is standard practice, when planning for instruction teachers/schools are encouraged to utilize a variety of resources to continue to promote an inclusive environment as outlined in the MCPS Core Values and Board Policy.
Students and families may not choose to opt out of engaging with any instructional materials, other than “Family Life and Human Sexuality Unit of Instruction'' which is specifically permitted by Maryland law.
As such, teachers will not send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are read in the future."
The current record heatwave across the U.S. South was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists from Climate Central, a nonprofit science communication organization, have found. The Climate Shift Index, which estimates how much climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme heat, is currently at Level 5 over southern portions of Texas. Level 5 indicates that human-caused climate change made the current excessive heat at least 5 times more likely.
Luckily we have pretty good ventilation in our wall in the church, the cool air comes in through a nice crack. And the rain helps, too. But we heard from some deer mouses over in New Mexico, distant relatives, who said they have to dig extra deep and stay way underground while it's so hot out there.
“Disinformation and misinformation is the bona fide enemy of public health,” Dr. Anthony Fauci stated in a recent interview. But he also said, “We should embrace differences in opinion.”
What if misinformation is coming from the public health officials themselves? And lately, government has not seemed to embrace differences in opinion, preferring instead to smother contrary opinions. The resulting erosion of trust in the officials in charge – less than half of Americans trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on COVID – could be more damaging than any “misinformation” found on social media.
Far too often in recent years, when science gets in the way of the government’s agenda, science is disregarded, ignored, or undermined. The CDC, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have appeared to make policy decisions and public representations inconsistent with science — including their own science.
Science is undermined when scientists and the institutions that apply science do not follow the findings of unbiased studies. And science is undermined when those institutions do not make a good faith effort to collect data and let the data dictate a conclusion. When “science” gets tunnel vision for a result, it ceases to be science.
The Biden administration came into office promising to restore science as the driver of policy. Led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the administration adopted strict scientific integrity standards at federal agencies. So far, though, the results don’t comport with the rhetoric.
After documenting a number of alleged violations of these standards, Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a scientific integrity complaint with OSTP. The complaint was based on our tracking of numerous instances of the government either ignoring scientific findings, manipulating data, or misrepresenting data to make the science conform to policy objectives.
Each example is eye-opening. In one case, the CDC claimed that vaccinations offer higher protection from Covid-19 than a previous infection. This talking point, however, was based on data cherry-picked from a single state within a fifty-state study. So, the CDC’s talking points were possibly taken from an outlier, not the entire dataset. Worse, the cited study did not even make a comparison between those with immunity solely from vaccination and those with immunity from prior infection, as the CDC’s public statements claimed. Yet high-ranking officials at the CDC and other components of the Department of Health and Human Services touted these misrepresentations unequivocally.
It’s not just misrepresentations to the public. Actual policy decisions undermined science. In August 2022, the CDC endorsed COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged six months to four years, saying that a “lower risk of symptomatic Covid-19 was observed with vaccination compared to placebo.” But it also noted that severe adverse events were “more common in vaccine recipients.” To make matters worse, the claim that vaccinated children were at lower risk of showing symptoms was based upon bad science. “You can inject [children] with it or squirt it in their face, and you’ll get the same benefit,” one high-level CDC official declared. So, the CDC made this recommendation without proof of its efficacy, while acknowledging that the children were at heightened risk of severe adverse events.
The prioritization of policy agendas over science is not isolated to the pandemic. Protect the Public's Trust’s research indicates that the FDA appears to have breached its obligation to uphold scientific integrity in its decision-making about vaping. We believe that the FDA knowingly disseminated scientifically unfounded statements about vaping products that were contrary to the FDA’s own research. Also ignoring its own research, and without proper scientific justification, the FDA overruled its own scientists’ recommendations to authorize menthol vapes.
The Biden administration often decries “misinformation” about anything contradicting its own narratives, but it appears to be one of the worst purveyors of misinformation. Citizens can’t trust a government that misrepresents the results of studies, or prevents the collection of, or even intentionally hides, data. The American public should expect that its science-based institutions and most prominent spokesmen follow the science and use the scientific method in reaching policy decisions. Unless these institutions and their leadership change course, public trust will continue to plummet.
As the indictments pile up, it's more necessary than ever to remind ourselves that the current crop of conservative lawmakers and other elected Republican flotsam is playing for far more than that, and that they're playing for it all, and that it doesn't matter if El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago finally runs into that bucket of KFC with his name on it. The project will go on because, by now, the Republican Party is a merciless, mindless machine whose primary functions are destruction and revenge. For example, take the latest attempt to use the power of Congress to protect the party's right to peddle dangerous political bunco. From the Washington Post:
The push caps years of pressure from conservative activists who have harangued such academics online and in person and filed open-records requests to obtain the correspondence of those working at public universities. The researchers who have been targeted study the online spread of disinformation, including falsehoods that have been accelerated by former president and candidate Donald Trump and other Republican politicians. Jordan has argued that content removals urged by some in the government have suppressed legitimate theories on vaccine risks and the covid-19 origins as well as news stories wrongly suspected of being part of foreign disinformation campaigns.
Last month, the founder of the conspiracy-theory-prone outlet the Gateway Pundit and others sued Starbird and Stanford academics Alex Stamos and Renée DiResta, alleging that they are part of a “government-private censorship consortium” that tramples on free speech.
Yes, a committee of the United States House of Representatives is working in tandem with The Stupidest Man On The Internet (copyright Wonkette). That is where the Republican Party is today. It's not only working the sewers, it's setting up housekeeping there.
Starbird’s meeting Tuesday follows a letter from Jordan in March to the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, which she co-founded to focus on online disinformation. The letter demanded years of her communications, saying the center may have supported a “censorship regime” backed by the federal government.
“Whether directly or indirectly, a government-approved or-facilitated censorship regime is a grave threat to the First Amendment and American civil liberties,” Jordan wrote.
"Indirectly," of course, is breaking a lot of rock in that sentence, and doing so loudly enough to drown out anyone who points out that there's are actual government-approved censorship regimes in operation in middle-school libraries all over the country. But even that isn't the real point. Long ago, the GOP gave up on convincing the general public that it had any real ideas worth real consideration. You know, like real political parties are supposed to do.
In one letter obtained by The Post, Jordan alleges strong ties between the Virality Project and federal government agencies, most notable being the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The letter seeks years worth of communications between employees at those organizations and representatives of the executive branch and social media companies. “The entanglement of Executive Branch agencies, third-party organizations, and technology companies to moderate speech-related content online raises questions about the extent to which these actions affected the civil liberties of American citizens,” Jordan wrote.
Wait, the people studying the spread of medical disinformation consulted the people who knew the most about how pandemics work? The horror. I anxiously await Jordan's committee meeting examining the government's plot to bury the miraculous properties of horse paste. And naturally, there is the thuggish side.
Starbird has long been a target of online harassment, but the campaigns have grown brutal. After Starbird provided a statement to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol describing how extremists behind the attack collaborated via social media platforms, internet foes besieged her government employer with demands for her private emails and told her that they knew where she lived.
Even when her colleagues and peers publicly backed her, the abuse took its toll. Starbird walked away from her Twitter account, which had roughly 50,000 followers, and cut back on media appearances, a venue in which she could explain her findings to a broader audience. As the field of disinformation research has grown more politically contentious, researchers say that records requests, subpoenas and lawsuits have become tools of harassment. The fear of being targeted is profound enough that several researchers spoke on the condition that they not be named, and one prominent professor asked to be removed from the story entirely, citing concerns about his family’s safety.
As long as the Republicans support spurious investigations backed by threats and stalking, they are a danger to the national security of the nation. And, judging by their reaction over the weekend to the former president*'s indictment, they are not going to abandon this approach to politics any time soon. By all means, throw the book at the former president*. Throw all the books at him, in New York, and Miami, and Atlanta, and Washington. But don't believe that any of this will end when they turn the key in the cell door. Once you stop caring if the republic survives, everything else is a breeze.
Charles P. Pierce
House Republicans have sent letters to at least three universities and a think tank requesting a broad range of documents related to what it says are the institutions' contributions to the Biden administration’s “censorship regime.”
The letters are the latest effort by a House subcommittee set up in January to investigate how the federal government, working with social media companies, has allegedly been “weaponized” to silence conservative and right-wing voices. So far, the committee’s investigations have amplified a variety of dubious, outright false and highly misleading Republican grievances with law enforcement, many of them espoused by former President Donald Trump. Committee members have cited supposed abuses that include the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, its investigations of Jan. 6 rioters and the Biden administration’s purported use of executive powers to shut down conservative viewpoints on social media.
Now, universities and their researchers are coming under the spotlight of the committee, which the Republicans have labeled the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The letters, signed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is chair of both the House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee, were sent in early March.
They cover an investigation into how “certain third parties, including organizations like yours, may have played a role in this censorship regime by advising on so-called ‘misinformation,’” according to a copy of one of the letters obtained by ProPublica.
The committee requested documents and information dating back to January 2015 between any “employee, contractor, or agent of your organization” and the federal government or social media organizations pertaining to the moderation of social media content. ProPublica confirmed the requests went to Stanford University, the University of Washington, Clemson University and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The letters have prompted a wave of alarm among those in the field that the congressional inquiry itself, no matter what it finds, will lead universities to pull back on this research just as the 2024 election gets underway. “Recent efforts definitely have a chilling effect on the community of experts across academia, civil society and government built up to understand broader online harms like harassment, foreign influence and — yes — disinformation,” Graham Brookie, who leads studies in this area at the Atlantic Council, told ProPublica.
“The ‘weaponization’ committee is being weaponized against us,” another researcher told ProPublica. Like half a dozen others interviewed for this story, this person asked not to be identified because of the ongoing congressional probe.
Democrats have called the committee a modern-day House Un-American Activities Committee, akin to the congressional committee that pursued alleged communists during the McCarthy era.
Since Rep. Jordan took over the gavel of the judiciary committee in January, he has issued more than 80 subpoenas and requests for documents. Recipients have included the CEOs of social media companies, intelligence officials who signed on to a statement about Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 campaign and members of the National School Boards Association who asked the Justice Department to investigate threats of violence against school board officials. Jordan himself refused a subpoena to testify before the Democratic-led House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, prompting that committee to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.
Jordan’s missives were sent a day after a committee hearing on the “Twitter files,” leaked internal communications from the company that purported to show how right-wing accounts were sidelined and silenced. In written testimony, a panelist accused a broad swath of organizations and individuals of being members of the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” including, he implied, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, Department of Defense and universities. The witness wrote disinformation researchers, working with the government, are “creating blacklists of disfavored people and then pressuring, cajoling, and demanding that social media platforms censor, deamplify, and even ban the people on these blacklists.”
A New York University study concluded in 2021 that social media had not silenced those on the right. “The claim of anti-conservative animus” by social media companies, the study said, “is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it."
A spokesperson for Rep. Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.
Since the 2016 elections, Stanford, UW, Clemson and others have engaged in research, sometimes in partnership with social media platforms, government officials and each other, into ways that disinformation can pose threats to democracy and how such efforts can be meaningfully countered. The role of lies and disinformation leading to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol gave increased prominence to their work.
As ProPublica has previously reported, sustained accusations by congressional Republicans and right-wing influencers that the Biden administration is stifling dissent have caused the administration to back away from its efforts countering disinformation, including canceling research contracts and sending messages inside the administration that disinformation work is too hot to handle.
Those moves followed a bungled rollout of a clumsily named “Disinformation Governance Board” to coordinate efforts to counter what the administration had called “dangerous conspiracy theories that can provide a gateway to terrorist violence.” Following criticism, the administration disbanded the board and accepted the resignation of its executive director, Nina Jankowicz.
Jordan has subpoenaed Jankowicz, too. She is scheduled to testify April 10 and said she will happily testify under oath.
“This sort of inquiry isn’t something that belongs in the United States Congress,” said Jankowicz. “But given that this method of bullying has caused other institutions to fold to Republican pressure in the past, I fear we may see the blunt force of congressional committees continue to be used in ways that are in direct opposition to the safety, security and free expression of the American people.”
The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public issued a statement that said “We’re incredibly proud of our work,” adding that “some of the projects CIP researchers have contributed to have become the subject of false claims and criticism that mischaracterizes our work, a tactic that peer researchers in this space are also experiencing.” The statement did not specifically address the House requests.
A university spokesperson, Victor Balta, said in an email, “The UW stands behind this important research aiming to resist strategic misinformation and strengthen our discourse. We have received a request for documents and information, and a response is in progress.”
As part of their apparent mission to be the dumbest congressional majority in history, last week House Republicans introduced bills to "expunge" Donald Trump's two impeachments. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., brought forward two resolutions claiming that, as if by magic, they can make it "as if such articles had never been passed." Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is fully on board with these efforts even though, as Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post wrote, "expunging a presidential impeachment is not a thing."
"Gaslighting" is an overused term, but this is an iconic example of it: Telling people that what they witnessed with their eyes never happened, their authentic memories are delusions and that the delusions of the gaslighter are reality. It's one of Trump's favorite tricks, as evidenced by his first action as president: denying the photographic evidence showing the paltry turnout at his inauguration.
This bit of silliness is getting covered in the mainstream media, but only with a few perfunctory "Republicans are weird" stories before the punditry moves on to more "serious" issues. The assumption is that this is yet another example of the House GOP's devotion to soothing Trump's endlessly hurt feelings, a job so immense it requires the round-the-clock efforts of 222 Republican members of Congress.
But while their Trump ass-kissing duties are a major impetus for this move, it's far from the only one. This effort to rewrite recent history must be understood in the light of the larger Republican effort to rewrite all American history, with an eye toward denying the demonstrable damage that white nationalism and other right-wing ideologies have wrought. There's a direct line between banning books because they tell the truth about slavery and Jim Crow to this current effort to supplant the truth about Trump's crimes with GOP fantasies.
One common thread tying all of these strands together is the authoritarian insistence that their feelings should determine what is true, even if all empirical evidence cuts against what they wish to believe. This "right-wing feelings over facts" mentality is written directly into the recently passed state laws that have ushered in the new era of book banning. In Florida, the law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis forbids schools to have any text that might cause "discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress." Similar language is used in many of the hundreds of book banning bills being introduced by Republicans in dozens of state legislatures.
These laws were written to protect the delicate minds of right-wingers, and are almost exclusively being interpreted as a tool to erase the realities of racism, homophobia, and misogyny from being taught in classes or portrayed in books. A recent Popular Infomation report on banned social studies textbooks in Florida shows how this works. One book publisher was told they were violating the new law for acknowledging the basic truth that being enslaved is a terrible experience.
Another textbook was rejected for acknowledging that Roe v. Wade ever happened, even though the language was oblique.
"Expunging" Trump's impeachments is just an expansion of this increasingly authoritarian view held by Republicans that reality must bend to their feelings. Indeed, the most famous example of this is Trump's Big Lie itself.
Recent CNN polling shows that 63% of Republican or Republican-leaning voters refuse to admit that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. Interestingly, only 33% of GOP voters insist there's "solid evidence" of the Big Lie. (There's not, as it's a lie, a big one.) That disparity demonstrates that on some level, even many hardline authoritarians know that they're rejecting facts in favor of their fantasies. They want to believe Trump won, and so will insist on it no matter what.
As Abigail Thorn of Philosophy Tube explained in a recent video, "The most important thing to realize about conspiracy theories is they try to express something emotionally rather than say anything about how the world is." This, she added, is "why believers are seemingly immune to evidence." Flat Earthers, she points out, often respond with defensive prayers to shut out evidence that the earth is round.
In the authoritarian mind, feelings should supplant facts. The winner of the election should be who they wish it was, not who actually won. They wish to believe that slavery was not a big deal, and so they banish any book that tells the truth. Now they wish to believe that Trump was never impeached, and so they are insisting on some kind of law that will declare their delusions to be truth.
Of course, in doing so, Republicans are unwittingly exposing their guilty consciences. If, as they claim, the impeachment charges were simply nonsense concocted for political reasons, they would have the confidence of mind to simply let the past be past. (See how Democrats aren't particularly fussed by talking about Bill Clinton's pointless impeachment, for example.) Dredging all this up, especially in the face of many more Trump crimes being currently litigated in the courts, is a classic example of protesting too much. After all, Trump was acquitted by Senate Republicans. The fact that this isn't good enough for Republicans shows they are still bothered by the overwhelming evidence of Trump's guilt.
Their over-the-top defensiveness is evident in all the various ways that Republicans exhaust themselves these days trying to deny obvious facts. It takes a lot of energy to erase the realities of slavery or Jim Crow from textbooks. Most people don't even see the point. But the language in the bills about "guilt" and "distress" speaks volumes about the motivations of Republican book banners. They feel bad when reminded of these historical atrocities because they fear, for good reason, that they would have been on the wrong side of that debate if they were alive then. They want to banish the truth about Trump's extensive crimes for the same reason. It's hard to keep supporting Trump while pretending to be a good person. So instead they lie and deny and insist their feelings should eclipse the facts that show their leader to be the unrepentant monster he is.
This year’s “all ages” Seattle Pride Parade included something you don’t often see in public: adult men on bicycles wearing helmets but no pants.
A dozen naked men, some wearing body paint, rode slowly along the parade route Sunday before stopping and waving to the cheering crowd, which included children.
Some of the bikes had signs attached that said, “Challenge Body Shame/Build Self Esteem” and “Pride for Every Body.”
Elsewhere, a few naked adult men cooled off in a public water fountain as young children played nearby, as shown on video.
Naked men were playing in the fountain where children are present. Their genitalia were fully-exposed as they cooled themselves off and washed each other down with water.”
LGBTQ Pride Month parades are known for pushing the limits on bawdiness and sexual content, but the appearance of fully nude adult men at a crowded public event crossed a line for some commenters.
“A group of naked men participated in the Seattle Gay Pride parade – exposing themselves to small children along the parade route,” said one radio host.
The men flaunted their genitals in front of kids.These are the same people who tell us they are ‘not’ coming for your children.
Seattle Pride, the event’s organizer, said on its website that the “Parade is all about inclusiveness – so all ages gather along the route to watch the festivities.”
Those applauding Sunday’s 49th annual parade included Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.
“It was great to feel the love, energy, and sunshine at today’s #Pride parade with @CityofSeattle employees!” Mr. Harrell tweeted. “Our diversity makes us stronger, which is why we must send a clear message to our LGBTQIA+ community today and every day: we SEE you, we support you, and you belong here.”
Podcast host Dennis Michael Lynch tweeted: “If you’re going to paint yourself, walk around naked, and play in a public fountain, I question your level of sanity. But when you do it in front of kids, without pause, I think you should be placed on a watch list.”
In Washington state, however, appearing nude in public isn’t against the law, as long as you don’t engage in lewd or obscene behavior, according to the Seattle Police Department.
Under the state’s indecent exposure law, it’s a misdemeanor to “make any open and obscene exposure of his or her person or the person of another knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm.”
“Historically, it has been difficult in Seattle to prosecute cases of public nudity,” the department wrote in a 2008 post.
The parade has included for the last few years Boy Scouts in uniform holding rainbow flags.
There was at least one sight that went too far for the Seattle parade organizers — cop uniforms.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild said last week that its uniformed members were banned from marching in the event.
“The officers value inclusiveness and demand respect not only for proudly being LGBTQ but for serving our community as police officers,” said Guild President Mike Solan in a June 16 statement. “Anyone that believes in their banishment has no place in Seattle and does not believe in the inclusive LGBTQ message.”
He added that the department has lost 600 members and that the “bigoted decisions banning uniformed officers from Pride events do not aid in stopping this mass exodus of cops.”
Seattle Pride also banned uniformed officers from participating in last year’s parade, saying the request “was based on past interactions with police,” as reported by KOMO-TV.
A new report out Tuesday morning from a Senate committee rips the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for ignoring “a massive amount of intelligence information” in the weeks leading up to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
In one egregious example, the report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee charged that the bureau overlooked a December 2020 tip that members of the Proud Boys were gearing up to be in Washington on the day Congress voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory and that their “plan is to literally kill people,” in the report’s language. Numerous social media posts warned of violence erupting, including some that used language like “burn the place to the ground” (with respect to the Capitol) and, from a member of the Oath Keepers group: “There is only one way in. It is not signs. It’s not rallies. It’s fucking bullets!”
In addition to that, the social media company Parler, a platform favored by MAGA-land, directly sent the FBI a number of posts that it found alarming. According to the report, one read: “This is not a rally and it’s no longer a protest. This is a final stand where we are drawing the red line at Capitol Hill.… Don’t be surprised if we take the #capital [sic] building.”
And yet, with all those warnings and more, on the very morning of January 6, as Donald Trump was preparing to give his “fight like hell” speech, the FBI announced that there were “no credible threats at this time,” as the AP reported Tuesday morning.
“Our intelligence agencies completely dropped the ball,” said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan and committee chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “Despite a multitude of tips and other intelligence warnings of violence on Jan. 6, the report showed that these agencies repeatedly—repeatedly—downplayed the threat level and failed to share the intelligence they had with law enforcement partners.”
"A new report out Tuesday morning from a Senate committee rips the FBI"
seems like no one. on either side of the aisle, is happy with the FBI recently
is it time for Congress to rethink whether the agency is necessary?
Well Barr and Trump are out of office.
Now the FBI and Homeland Security won't have those 2 crooks in charge.
MEANWHILE, THINGS GROW FUNKY IN FL.
"Florida Sen. Rick Scott is making another play for attention, and we're going to give it to him mainly out of pity. The man's attempts to stay relevant, to find a constituency any wider than Florida's resident population of invasive pythons, are just so painful to watch that it's—oh, who are we kidding. It's deeply funny.
Scott's current stand-up routine is a warning to "socialists and communists" to stay away from Florida, and it's just so, so try-hard of him.
ll Scott's done here is create a video version of the fake "travel advisory" he put out almost exactly a month ago, one that warns "Florida is openly hostile toward Socialists, Communists, and those that enable them." That was an attempted retort aimed at far more serious warnings put out by the NAACP and by LGBTQ+ groups warning that Florida Republicans' demonization campaigns were turning the state into a more genuinely dangerous place to visit, what with Proud Boys threatening school boards and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mounting an overtly fascist presidential campaign premised on retribution against and elimination of Americans suspected of such "wokeness.""
A shocking new report revealed that while Justice Alito was voting to gut environmental protections, his wife was cutting real estate deals with the fossil fuel industry.
Despite this substantial conflict of interest, Alito has not recused himself in cases involving the fossil fuel industry. He ruled last year to gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate fossil fuel emissions, and has repeatedly ruled in favor of the unfettered development of oil and gas pipelines.
The Supreme Court has no binding code of ethics, so there is nothing forcing Alito to recuse himself in these cases, or requiring him to report his wife’s real estate deal. This outrageous corruption cannot continue.Congress must hold the Supreme Court accountable.
Last year, Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito, Justice Alito’s wife, leased an inherited 160-acre plot in Oklahoma to a fossil fuel company, Citizen Energy III. The lease stipulates that the Alitos will receive a sizable share of all profits made from the land’s oil and gas sales.
Justice Alito has routinely ruled with SCOTUS’s conservative Justices in favor of the fossil fuel industry. This May, he wrote the majority opinion in Sackett v. EPA, which substantially scaled back the Clean Water Act. Last year, in Clean Air Act in West Virginia v. EPA, Alito ruled to gut the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021’s Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc., Alito ruled to block antitrust laws from being applied to natural gas companies. Oneok, the largest supplier of natural gas in Oklahoma, runs a natural gas pipeline through the Alitos’ land.
Alito even outright denies the reality of climate change. In an address to the Claremont Institute, a far right think-tank, he stated, “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is not harmful to ordinary things, to human beings, or to animals, or to plants.”
Alito’s connections to the fossil field industry were revealed just days after ProPublica’s bombshell report on the luxury trips the Justice accepted from billionaire and Republican megadonor Paul Singer. Alito did not disclose those trips, and has failed to recuse himself when Singer had business in front of the court. It’s clear that the Supreme Court cannot be trusted to police itself. Congress needs to step in and impose a binding code of conduct on this out-of-control Court.
More than 3.1 million American workers, nearly 40% of the total workforce employed in the energy industry, spent more than half their time in jobs that aligned with the United States’ climate goals last year ― with gigs in solar, wind and electric vehicles making up about half the new hires.
While coal-fired power plants shed close to 6,800 workers between 2021 and 2022, the U.S. energy industry added just under 300,000 new jobs last year, with about 114,000 earning paychecks manufacturing, selling or installing technologies designed to reduce the U.S. output of planet-heating gasses, according to Department of Energy’s latest job census, published Wednesday.
Fossil fuels added 107,029 mining and drilling jobs as the U.S. sought to supply more of its allies and its own people with enough natural gas, oil and coal to meet post-pandemic demand and provide an alternative supply to countries trying to cut off imports from Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
But the real boom happened outside the traditional energy sectors.
More than 28,000 Americans went to work on battery-powered vehicles. Another 12,256 took jobs in solar. At least 5,416 ended up in wind, with employment in the portion of the industry building offshore turbines surging by more than 20%.
Hydroelectric power stations brought on 1,758 new people, nuclear plants added 1,358 workers and the geothermal workforce increased 5% with 413 new gigs.
In the electricity sector alone, clean-energy technologies accounted for 84% of net new jobs.
“This isn’t any old job report, it is the most complete snapshot of who works in the energy field and where they’re working,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on a Tuesday night call with reporters. “Now it’s very clear that our plan for the energy sector and the jobs we’re creating is working.”
If anything, the numbers may be underestimating the total green workforce. The study found that clean-energy jobs would be at least 9% higher if states used the federal government’s definition of “green” jobs to parse out data on which gigs in sectors like efficiency and transmission qualified.
The report came six days after the Biden administration granted the Ford Motor Company a record $9.2 billion loan for electric vehicle production, and six months after the South Korean photovoltaic giant Q Cells announced a $2.5 billion factory in Georgia, the biggest investment in solar manufacturing in U.S. history.
The spending is the result of President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure-spending laws, which are only just now starting to pump federal dollars into everything from car chargers to upgrading the windows in houses, lithium mines to advanced nuclear reactors.
“We’re seeing a manufacturing renaissance,” Ali Zaidi, the White House’s national climate adviser, said on the call. “Bidenomics is at the heart of that.”
About 10 Pride and Ukraine flags burned, also Pride and BLM yard signs in a Silver Spring neighborhood. Police are investigating.
Wow we are trying to figure out who would be opposed to 1.Ukraine, 2.BLM, and also 3.Pride. Somebody is sure mad about stuff. Cousin Lefty Mouse is blaming the Republicans but they, uh, hmm, yeah, maybe it was them. Cousin Lefty is right most of the time. He's a smart Little Mouse.
A local Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national conservative parents organization, apologized on Thursday for quoting Adolf Hitler in a newsletter.
The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty quoted Hitler's remarks at a 1935 rally on the front page of its new newsletter on Wednesday. The quote, placed directly below the masthead, read: "He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”
After the Indianapolis Star first reported this story on Wednesday, the local chapter of
Moms for Liberty added additional "context" to the original newsletter, saying the quote from this "horrific leader should put parents on alert."
"If the government has control over our children today, they control our country’s future," the note read.
A day later, Paige Miller, the chapter's leader, apologized for quoting the Nazi leader in a statement posted to the Moms for Liberty Facebook group.
“We condemn Adolf Hitler’s actions and his dark place in human history,” Miller wrote. “We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology.”
A bipartisan chorus of local politicians condemned the group's quoting of Hitler, who led the systematic genocide of at least 6 million Jewish people, along with other groups.
Matt McNally, a Democrat running for Indiana's 39th Congressional District, said the group's move makes clear that Moms for Liberty has "no business" in politics.
"No group that quotes Nazis should be anywhere near our children or have any influence in our community," McNally tweeted. "It is time for our community leaders to stop acquiescing to them and make clear that their hateful rhetoric will not be tolerated."
Mario Massillamany, the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, also condemned the inclusion of the quote in an interview with the Indianapolis Star and described the Holocaust as a "terrible page" in history.
"I don’t think that we as a society can say enough about the atrocities that the poor Jewish people had to go through," Massillamany said.
After forming a little more than two years ago, Moms for Liberty has grown to include 285 chapters in 44 states, according to the organization, and it has targeted core cultural issues to fuel its rise — including opposing mask mandates in schools, banning library books that mention sexual orientation and gender identity, and curtailing classroom lessons on racial inequity and discrimination.
"...In the days since the gravestone of a girl named Nannie was set on fire in a historical Black cemetery in Georgetown, people have shown up to pay their respects and to try to restore what someone destroyed after a Juneteenth gathering.
Before the fire, the 7-year-old’s grave marker had been a literal bright spot in the adjoining Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries, grounds that served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. For years, people had left colorful vintage toys and birthday cards near Nannie’s grave marker, and somehow those gifts survived exposure to animals, the weather and time. They did not, though, survive the arson. Many items were melted and blackened.
On June 20, when the destruction was discovered, a charred ballerina remained one of the few recognizable toys.
In the days since, the scene surrounding Nannie’s gravestone has changed dramatically. People young and not so young, people Black and White and other races and ethnicities, people who had to drive to the cemetery and people who live close enough to walk to it, have shown up to make sure of that.
If you happen to visit Nannie’s gravestone now, you will find it surrounded by toys that people have brought in recent days. You’ll see a doll and a wooden bead maze. You’ll see unicorns and trucks and a plastic fish. You’ll see a shiny barrette that someone placed there Tuesday.
Patrick Tisdale witnessed that moment. He has also witnessed in recent days people picking up litter, yanking at weeds and clearing the spaces between grave markers. One couple, he said, spent most of Sunday tending to the area.
He described that show of support from strangers as sending a message: “We’re here for you.”
“They’re showing a mix of love and activism,” he said. “I think if anyone shows up, they will say: ‘This is not a sad, unloved cemetery. This is an alive and vibrant place.’”
Vandals strike historically Black church in Annapolis
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — They gained entry through a basement window at the Fowler United Methodist Church in Annapolis, and vandals spent what must have been hours literally tearing it apart.
“I saw some damage in our vestibule, but when he opened the sanctuary door and saw all of that paper and everything torn up, I just fell on the floor,” said the church’s trustee chair, Troy Belt, “I have never seen such devastation.”
The focal point of the sanctuary, a large cross, ripped from its mount.
“We found it on a pew,” said Belt, “They had taken it off the wall. The United Methodist flame was broken off.”
Every page ripped from a nearly century-old bible and hymnals, strewn about the floor like fallen confetti.
A hate crime in the minds of the victims targeting their faith.
“To see the devastation of them tearing up materials that were related to Jesus Christ, that’s something altogether new,” said Belt, “and it talks about it in the End Times and all that kind of stuff and so it’s like a testimony to the Truth of the Bible that all of these things will occur before Jesus comes back again.”
Now, neighbors, total strangers and other churches in the area are rallying behind the church’s modest congregation of about a hundred members.
“This is a Black Methodist Church and our church across the bridge used to be all white,” said Don Ogburn of Calvary Methodist Church, “It’s no longer that way, but we’re all brothers and sisters, not because of Methodism, but because we believe in God.”
For all of the damage, if the vandals’ hope was to break the congregation’s spirit, church leaders say it failed.
The church’s forefathers began meeting on this site after gaining their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War, and a vile night of vandalism will not darken the days, which lie ahead.
Maybe we should, as a society, not give gays supervisory roles over minors of the same gender.
Kevin Spacey's legal troubles continue. On Wednesday morning, the American Beauty and House of Cards actor, 63, appeared in London court for the start of a trial on sexual assault charges.
Spacey — who is facing 12 charges related to incidents involving four men, which allegedly occurred between 2001 and 2013 — arrived at Southwark Crown Court wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and pink tie as a pool of photographers snapped his photo.
Inside, Spacey confirmed to Judge Mark Wall his legal name, "Kevin Spacey Fowler." During proceedings, Wall said the start date for the trial, which is expected to last four weeks, had been pushed back until Friday.
Jurors — nine men and five women — were told that the case has "attracted a lot of media coverage" and urged them to "rely on what you see and hear in this courtroom."
A court sketch artist captured Spacey's mood in the court room, as he sat in a large transparent box in the middle of the room. Just after noon, Spacey departed court with a smile for the onlookers outside.
Spacey pleaded not guilty to the charges made by four men, who are now in their 30s and 40s, over a 12-year period. The 12 charges include sexual assault, indecent assault and one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
Spacey served as artistic director of London’s historic Old Vic theater from 2004 to 2015. His tenure later resulted in 20 testimonies of alleged “inappropriate behavior” by the actor, who starred in many of the theater's productions. The star maintains a residence in the city.
Spacey's long-running Hollywood career came to a halt in 2017 when Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused him of sexual misconduct. Rapp he was just 14 years old when he was targeted by Spacey, then 26. The allegations were the first of many against Spacey, who has denied the allegations
WEST PENN TOWNSHIP, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A former pastor at a Snyder County Church has been charged with sexually assaulting three young girls in Schuylkill County.
According to the West Penn Township Police Department, 46-year-old former pastor Marvin Leroy Mosley, of Milroy, PA, sexually assaulted three girls over a 15-year span. Court records indicate Mosley was a pastor at God’s Missionary Church in Penns Creek, Snyder County in 2004, when the alleged abuse began.
As stated in court documents, on April 27 of this year, the victim told police she and two other females had been sexually assaulted by Mosley.
Police say the first victim was assaulted by Mosley from the time she was seven, until she was 15.
Court documents state the incident began with gestures such as Mosley pulling hair and tickling, and then led to him exposing and touching their private areas.
The affidavit says Mosley would often take the girls on four-wheeler rides in the woods where he would hug them and press his body against theirs.
Police say during an interview with Mosley, he admitted he did sexually assault the three victims for 15 years, switching from one girl to the other.
In the criminal complaint, Mosley told police when he was around the girls he felt a chemistry that he enjoyed and he was “too free with his hands”.
Mosley says he was starving for sex and he would get aroused when they would walk in the room and while playing with them, police say.
Mosley has been charged with indecent assault on a person less than 13 years of age, indecent assault on a person less than 16 years of age, and corruption of minors.
Officials state bail was set and posted at $100,000.00 and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 30.
"When will people learn they should never leave their children alone with pastors?"
very few churches allow pastors, church employees, or other volunteers be alone with children and the insurance companies that insure churches generally require that all classrooms have doors with windows
the same goes for any organization that conducts activities for children
few public schools have not had incidents where some child is abused by an educator
we live in a wicked world that is obsessed with sex
there is some restraint from traditional sexual norms but, unfortunately, homosexuals have forsaken so they remain a particular risk
On “Fox & Friends,” Speaker McCarthy yesterday launched a broadside against Attorney General Garland, and made it perfectly clear that the House was prepared to impeach the AG.
Here’s what he said: “Yesterday, I laid out really clearly, by July 6th, because of the allegations from the IRS, because of the whistleblowers, and the DOJ…. Garland, what he is saying and what David Weiss is saying privately, are two different things. And if it comes true, what the IRS whistleblower is saying, we’re going to start impeachment inquiries on the attorney general.”
Without question, the case against Mr. Garland is growing almost on a daily basis. Seasoned IRS investigators-turned-whistleblowers were quite clear that the Department of Justice interfered in their tax investigation of Hunter Biden, and it was equally clear that Mr. Garland’s DOJ was protecting the first son.
Now, in front of a half dozen people, U.S. Attorney David Weiss told a meeting that he, Mr. Weiss, wasn’t the “deciding official” in charging Biden Junior. Mr. Weiss also fingered Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who wouldn’t allow him to bring charges against Hunter Biden. Hat tip to Bill McGurn’s Wall Street Journal column on that one.
Finally, Mr. Weiss asked for special counsel status and was denied by the justice department. Under oath, Mr. Garland responded to Senator Grassley a while back, and said this about Mr. Weiss: “The U.S. Attorney in Delaware has been advised that he has full authority to bring cases in other jurisdictions. He is not to be denied anything that he needs. I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation, and I have carried through on my pledge.”
So, that looks a lot like lying under oath. And, of course, Mr. Garland has epitomized the double-standard of justice prevailing during the Biden years, the complete politicization of our system. As has his cohort, the FBI director, Christopher Wray.
I mean, think of this: Hunter Biden was investigated for five years, covering two administrations, and came out with a sweetheart deal that was a punitive nothing-burger.
During the Biden administration, Donald Trump was investigated for seven months by the Garland justice department — and it came up with potentially 400 years in jail time for Mr. Biden’s principal presidential opponent.
The Biden-Garland strategy, of course, was to fear Mr. Trump the most and therefore put him in jail as quick as possible to avoid running against him. So, that’s bad. That’s very bad.
But, in effect, legally, Mr. Garland’s lying under oath, though punishable, doesn’t seem near as bad as Mr. Biden taking a bribe from a foreign national. Nor as bad as Mr. Biden allegedly heading up a RICO-type racketeering effort by his entire family.
Pay-for-play bribery is a high treason and misdemeanor offense. I know it’s an allegation — at present — and I know the evidentiary proof is not yet complete, but investigations by the House committees on Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means are moving at warp speed toward Biden pay-for-play scandal proof.
If true, it would be the biggest political scandal in American history. So, my point is a simple one: Why go for the smaller fish at justice, and let the big fish in the White House get off the hook?
Mr. Biden will throw Mr. Garland under the bus when the time comes. But Mr. Biden has committed crimes that can only be brought to justice through impeachment, and no place else.
An unusually contentious Pride Month is drawing to a close.
Not only has it been overshadowed by boycotts of brands that had trumpeted their support for transgender rights in particular, but opinion polls have suggested falling support for the LGBTQ+ community in general after years of growing acceptance.
On June 6, the Human Rights Campaign declared a first-of-its kind national state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community while leading advocacy group GLAAD has dubbed 2023 "a year of unprecedented challenge," and there's plenty of evidence to back that assertion.
"The threats are becoming tangible, terrifying, and can no longer be ignored," NYC Pride said on its website, noting that an escalation of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is "disproportionately targeting our trans siblings."
The criticism of Pride Month has been led by the political right at a time that LGBTQ+ matters have taken a central place in the U.S. culture wars between conservatives and progressives.
"People are going, 'Enough, enough.' Stop shoving this down everybody's throat," No. 1 podcaster Joe Rogan told his millions of listeners when discussing Pride in mid-June.
A few days later, self-described gay "classical liberal" Dave Rubin, another top podcaster, began his show with: "It is still Pride Month. Pronouns, genitals being chopped off, all of the stuff that comes with Pride is still happening, although it is being pushed back against more and more."
Pride Month had become an increasing opportunity for brands to signal their social awareness, whether through genuine commitment, to show solidarity with staff and customers or for the benefit of big investment firms demanding respect for environmental, social, and governance criteria.
But this year companies and sports teams found themselves under fire for taking pro-LGBTQ+ positions, most prominently Bud Light and Target, with both seen as wavering in the face of boycotts.
"It's a challenging atmosphere with sponsors, as you saw with Target caving in to a small group of extremists," Cathy Renna, the communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told Newsweek. "We're seeing fear on the part of businesses not only for Pride but for year-round support. That's a real shift. The backlash is impactful."
It was trans rights that prompted opponents to mobilize against Bud Light and Target, the latter having featured a display of Pride items, some of which appeared aimed at children. It also included "tuck-friendly" swimwear for male genitalia and "binding" items for female breasts, as well as some clothing with satanic imagery, one with the slogan, "Satan Respects Pronouns."
While the criticism has been spearheaded by conservatives, there is much more questioning of trans rights among Americans than of longer standing LGBTQ+ rights such as gay marriage—but there are even signs of a shift on that.
A DailyMail survey found that 59 percent of Americans, including a majority in every age group, believe that the promotion of trans and gender ideology has "gone too far," even as the same poll found that Americans are largely split down the middle on whether businesses such as Target should celebrate Pride Month.
And a Gallup Values and Belief poll released in June found that the number of Americans who believe same-sex relationships are morally appropriate dropped to 64 percent from 71 percent a year earlier.
Vocal opposition to trans rights has appeared over questions such as allowing transgender women to compete in female sporting events and use female restrooms and locker facilities. Also targeted have been gender-affirming hormones, puberty blockers and surgery for minors.
GLAAD says there are nearly 500 "anti-LGBTQ+ bills" that have been introduced in state legislatures and at least 75 of them have already passed this year. Many of those bills deal with transgender rights. The group notes that a poll from Data For Progress taken in May indicates that 47 percent of LGBTQ+ adults feel "less safe" in the past few years, compared with 31 percent who feel safer.
Laura Becker, a woman who transitioned to a man as a teenager then back to a woman in her 20s and is featured in No Way Back, a documentary described as anti-transgender by its opponents, told Newsweek that blowback against Pride Month was inevitable.
"A lot of the Pride celebrations are adult-themed but marketed to children," Becker said. "It's gone from being proud to be gay to marketing drugs and surgery to kids."
In addition to the cultural pushback that has seen some businesses reining in their support, Renna said Pride events have taken a financial hit due to inflation, a more stringent regulatory environment and surging costs of insurance and security due to "the very threat of attack that requires us to need protection," as NYC Pride puts it at its website.
While Pride organizers say backlash has resulted in record turnouts for their events, InterPride, which tracks such things, says 22 percent of organizers report declines in corporate sponsorships in the U.S., NBC News reported.
In addition to Pride Month, there are other events to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community—or for their detractors to boycott them.
July 14 marks the beginning of Nonbinary Awareness Week. Two days later is International Drag Day. In August there is Gay Uncle's Day, also known as "Guncles." The following month there are seven days of Bisexual+ Awareness Week, then 31 days of LGBTQ History Month in October, which includes International Pronouns Day on the third Wednesday.
In all, there's roughly 125 days, including overlaps, each year dedicated to celebrating gay, lesbian, transexual and non-binary Americans, according to the LGBTQ Calendar created by GLAAD.
Pride Month traces its roots back to 1969 with rioting over a June police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. A year later, the first Pride marches began in multiple cities to mark "Christopher Street Liberation Day," named for the address where the original Stonewall Inn was located.
In June, 1999, President Bill Clinton declared June would be "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month" and in 2011 President Barack Obama widened it to include the transgender community.
"Americans are tired of divisive activism from companies, media outlets, government agencies and everything else in between," said Jeremy Tedesco, senior VP of the conservative campaign group Alliance Defending Freedom.
Chadwick Moore, who authored the book So You've Been Sent to Diversity Training, told Newsweek that the backlash to Pride, including from some in the gay community, had been prompted by a focus on gender and queer theory.
Pride Month has become "anti-family, anti-God, anti-science, anti-woman, and pro-corporatist," Moore said.
"People are on to it, especially my fellow gays, even though they are all too afraid to speak up," he said. "These repulsive activist types are not only sucking all the fun out of Pride Month but reversing decades of progress by foisting their bizarre agenda on children and in corporate America."
Below are some of the challenges to Pride Month this year:
— On June 2 at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Massachusetts, children were encouraged to wear rainbow clothing for a Pride celebration, but a group of eighth-graders wore red, white and blue and chanted, "My pronouns are USA." The episode made national news and a group called Burlington Equity Coalition demanded "consequences." Michael Espejo, a Select Board Member in Burlington, told reporters that a "bad light has been cast over our town" by the students who chanted pro-USA slogans.
— On June 6 at a school board meeting in Glendale, California, ahead of a vote to officially proclaim June as Pride Month, hundreds of protesters showed up and a brawl ensued, with three people arrested. Some were there to support the measure while others opposed it. The vote passed unanimously.
On the same day, also in California, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to limit which flags could be flown on county property to only government and POW/MIA flags, in essence banning the Pride flag, and others followed suit. A week later, for example, Hamtramck, Michigan, banned Pride flags from flying on public property and the Chino Valley Unified school board in California banned the flag in district classrooms.
— Also on June 6, America First Legal, representing a conservative group called the National Center for Public Policy Research, which owns shares of Target, fired off a letter to the chain's board of directors demanding to inspect its books and records.
The lengthy letter included dozens of photos of Pride and trans clothing items for children. One example of alleged reputational harm included in the letter is the description of a rap song that reached No. 1 on iTunes sales in the U.S. "The song features a rapper showing sexualized merchandise aimed at children in an actual Target store and then encouraging customers not to shop at Target," the letter states.
— At the June 12 Pride event at the White House, transgender model and influencer Rose Montoya, who has chronicled her surgical procedures on social media, bared her augmented breasts in front of guests and cameras shortly after meeting President Joe Biden.
Already backlash had been brewing due to the Pride flag being hoisted between two American flags. But video of Montoya sent the backlash into hyperdrive, including from some transgender people, who accused her of alienating allies, fueling detractors and setting the movement back by years.
Montoya initially defended her actions in an online video, but later deleted it. The White House called Montoya's behavior "unacceptable," "inappropriate" and "disrespectful." Montoya later apologized, saying her indiscretion had "been weaponized by vile people of the opposition."
— On July 13 media reports said that Allen Waters, a Democrat running for Congress, was refusing to attend his party's candidate forum hosted by the Rhode Island Democratic Women's Caucus because it was to be moderated by Donnie Anderson, a transgender reverend who chairs the caucus.
"I do not recognize Reverend Donnie Anderson, a biological male, as a woman in the Democratic party," Allen wrote to the Women's Caucus, according to WLNE-TV in Rhode Island. "As a dedicated father of two beloved, Black teenage daughters, I do not want biological males to compete with them as women in traditional biological female spaces."
That night during an ABC 6 News interview, Anderson accused Waters of "mimicking the lines of these radical right-wing philosophies" and urged him to reverse his decision and apologize to the transgender community. He did not.
— Johns Hopkins University faced backlash for an update to its online glossary of LGBTQ+ terms to define the word "lesbian" as a "non-man attracted to non-men." Among critics were tennis star Martina Navratilova, a lesbian, and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. After about five days, Johns Hopkins on June 14 announced that "the language in question has been removed pending review."
— The brouhaha over Bud Light engaging trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney to help sell its beer predated this year's Pride Month, though a subsequent boycott came to a head on June 15 when sales data indicated that, after more than two decades as America's top-selling beer, Bud Light had fallen to second behind Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager, according to Nielsen and Bump Williams Consulting.
— On June 15 the backlash against Pride touched Canada, where students at Longfields-Davidson Heights High School in Ottawa used Instagram to organize a protest against rules allowing trans students to use restrooms based on their gender identity.
The organizers called for a peaceful walkout in order to "display the message that teaching about Pride in schools isn't what students want," and to demand the installation of gender-neutral bathrooms for the transgendered.
The group said it stands with "Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs and students in pushing against agendas being forced onto us." Demonstrators on both sides of the issue protested in front of the school that day.
— The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team ran into a buzz saw of controversy for a Pride celebration that featured an award ceremony for The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group known for its "Hunky Jesus" and "Foxy Mary" contests and features men dressed as nuns with names like Sister Porn Again pole dancing on a cross.
Dodgers ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw told the LA Times that the faux nuns were "making fun of other people's religions," and Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams told a Catholic TV network that the Dodgers were violating their own code of conduct by doing so. On June 16, the faux nuns received their award at a mostly empty Dodger Stadium an hour before game time while in and around the parking lot roughly 2,000 demonstrators protested.
— At New York's annual Drag March on Saturday that ended at the Stonewall Inn, some participants chanted, "We're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children." After video was widely circulated online, many characterized the chant as a joke on detractors, some of whom pounced on the opportunity to react. "This movement grooms minors to have mastectomies and castration and fuels a multi billion dollar medical abuse industry," tweeted Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican.
"When people march down the streets yelling out they're going to come for my children, I'm inclined to believe them," tweeted Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, also a Republican. "Now, don't get mad when we refer to you and anyone who doesn't denounce this garbage as 'groomers'."
Britain’s schools, aided and abetted by doctors and social workers, have fallen under the influence of gender ideology. This is putting youngsters at risk from the very adults charged with their care.
For Callum and Susan (not their real names), this ideological bias hit home after their autistic 16-year-old daughter told them that she was really a boy.
In response to this news, the parents organised a meeting with their daughter’s school. ‘Initially when we met the head teacher, we agreed a plan that there would be no social transitioning at school’, Callum told this weekend’s The Sunday Times. ‘[The head teacher] said it is right that we do not change her name or her pronouns for her time at school’, he said.
But despite that meeting, the situation soon escalated. Shortly before the girl’s 16th birthday, the school referred her parents to social services, and a social worker turned up at the family home. In stark contrast to the cautious approach taken by Callum and Susan, the social worker affirmed the daughter’s new gender identity. The social worker told them that their daughter was in fact a boy and that she should be referred to by a male name and pronouns.
In response to the school’s decision to call in social services, Callum and Susan hired lawyers to help them access the school’s records. Shockingly, these records revealed that a doctor had prescribed testosterone to their daughter behind their backs. They also learned that she’d been given advice on gender identity by a local youth project which works closely with the local council and has provided classes for children in schools across the region.
The girl’s parents have since raised the secretive treatment of their daughter as a safeguarding concern. Her father told The Times: ‘We feel that our daughter’s mental and physical health is being put at risk and we have been shut out from any discussion, even though we have parental responsibility for her.’
Part of adolescence is learning to keep things from your parents. It’s when one becomes independent and develops an identity away from the family home. For those of my generation, this largely meant finding a musical tribe, sneaking into nightclubs and snogging unsuitable people. But for today’s teens, it seems this rebellion has turned aggressively inward. Rather than dressing as goths or emos, kids struggling with teenage angst are hiding behind a pre-packaged range of gender and sexual identities, each with a bespoke flag and pronouns.
Worse still, teachers, doctors and social workers are going along with it. They are taking their lead from trans lobby groups and from the children they have bedazzled, and are simply affirming these youngsters’ gender identities. Indeed, the council told Callum and Susan that its policy was ‘to follow the child’ and to accept the girl’s obvious delusion that she ‘was a boy’. In a bizarre reversal of roles, teachers are allowing themselves to be led by students, social workers are being led by vulnerable clients and doctors are being led by their young patients. And all the while, children are presumed to be able to consent to potentially life-altering medical treatments.
Callum and Susan clearly do not believe that at age 16, their autistic daughter is able to self-diagnose gender dysphoria or, as they put it, ‘commit herself to potentially compromised fertility and sexual function’.
They rightly feel that the professionals whose job it is to safeguard children may not have acted in her interests. Instead of looking out for her, Callum tells The Times, they have been ‘enabling, encouraging and facilitating life-changing medicalisation with irreversible consequences’.
The willingness of the authorities to go along with the girl’s belief that she is a boy shouldn’t be a surprise. Thanks to training from charities, including trans-rights advocates Stonewall, mad ideas about gender identity have marched through the corridors of every British institution. As a result, Callum notes, ‘It is not just us, it is hundreds of families across the country this is happening to’.
So far, little is being done to tackle what is surely a growing problem. The Department for Education (DfE) has long promised to issue schools with guidance about how to respond to students who believe they are trans. But so far, nothing has been published. Education secretary Gillian Keegan has made the right-sounding noises, recently writing in the Telegraph: ‘We must inject some common sense back into the classroom and society more generally. The classroom is a place where fact should be taught as fact and opinion as opinion.’ But despite the urgency of the situation and the pleading of parents, no action has followed her words.
One wonders if the DfE realises how dangerous the situation is. The result of medical transition is potential sterilisation. It is a serious step, not a decision to be blithely delegated to teens by well-meaning, if hard-of-thinking, social workers, teachers or counsellors.
Parents and tiny, unfunded support groups have been left trying to shield their children from the influence of giant trans lobby groups. They should not have to. The government must remind schools, medical professionals and local councils that they are supposed to protect the children in their care. Parents, like Callum and Susan, need the government to step up now.
Over the weekend, a short video circulated widely on social media of people at a New York City march during Pride festivities saying, “We’re coming for your children.”
In the 21-second clip, dozens of people march in the streets and are clearly heard chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children.”
The video confirmed the allegations that the LGBTQ community is “grooming” children.
The “coming for your children” chant has been used for years at Pride events.
Conservative politicians and pundits have increasingly referred to advocates for LGBTQ rights as “groomers,” associating people who oppose laws that restrict drag performances or classroom discussions of gender identity with pedophiles.
At his first Pride parade, a ‘recovering bigot’ told people: ‘I am sorry!’
Justin Nash had an apology to make. He wasn’t sure if anyone at the Denver Pride Parade would welcome it, but he woke up Sunday morning convinced that he had to try. He changed his lunch plans and set out for the parade so he could share it, written in marker on a poster board, with as many people as he could.
Nash, 53, sat in his wheelchair on Colfax Avenue along the parade route, looking a little out of place in chinos and a Texas Rangers ball cap. But he gave a sheepish smile and held up his sign for the brightly colored streams of passersby to see.
“Recovering bigot,” it read. “I am sorry!”
It added that Nash was offering free hugs. The marchers who streamed through downtown Denver that morning took him up on that offer, again and again, as onlookers cheered.
“You are forgiven, and we love you and thank you,” one person said. Another draped him in a necklace of rainbow-colored flowers.
Photos and videos of the “recovering bigot” went viral as Nash’s striking message of support — and humility — resonated on social media. Nash didn’t do it as a stunt, he told The Washington Post. He didn’t even plan on attending the parade that day.
Nash had instead driven to Denver with his wife from their home in Amarillo, Tex., to visit family on Saturday. But when he learned that the city’s Pride parade was taking place the next day, he saw an opportunity to continue a long, personal journey. For about two decades, he had been on a quest to unlearn beliefs about the LGBTQ+ community that he said he internalized from his family and past religious beliefs growing up in the Texas panhandle — beliefs he now deeply regrets...
Nash said that a rereading of the Bible in the early 2000s prompted him to reconsider his beliefs. The words spoken by Jesus Christ, highlighted in red in his book, “just told me to love,” Nash said. Soon after, a lesbian friend asked Nash, “Do you think I’m living in sin?” Nash suddenly wasn’t sure.
“For me to sit in that parade with that sign was 20 years in the making,” Nash said...
“I hope what I did can give permission to some people like me to move in that direction,” Nash said.
Nash only responded to one comment he saw online: one that said he would have to show more work to win forgiveness. Nash agreed. As he took the long, eight-hour drive home to Amarillo on Tuesday, he reflected on everything he had learned at the parade — and where else he could bring his sign. Nash plans to find and attend more events supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Texas, wearing a pin with a new term he learned on Sunday.
“‘Ally,’” Nash said. “That’s beautiful. That’s perfect.”
Full List of Texas Pastors Charged With Abusing Children This Year (2022)
This year, at least 10 Texas pastors, former pastors and youth ministers were arrested, charged or convicted for various allegations of sexual abuse of children.
In November, 56-year-old David Lloyd Walther, a pastor for the Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, was arrested for the distribution, receipt, transportation and possession of child pornography, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. Walther, who told the FBI that he had a pornography addiction, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
In the same month, a 31-year-old former student minister at the Champion Forest Baptist Church in Harris County was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to online sexual abuse of a child. Timothy Jason Jeltema pleaded guilty on November 17 to four charges of online sexual abuse of a minor—including one charge of indecency with a child—one charge of sexual performance by a child and two counts of online solicitation of a minor which were initially brought against him in 2018, according to the Baptist Press.
In July, 48-year-old Chad Michael Rider, of Anna, was convicted in the Eastern District of Texas for assisting former Denison pastor David Pettigrew produce child pornography. According to documents and testimony at the trial, Rider helped Pettigrew convince minors into taking sexually explicit photographs. He was found guilty of three counts of the sexual exploitation of children.
In the same month, pastor William C. Robinson, who at the time was working for Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in Corpus Christi, was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Also in July, Brian Pounds, a 45-year-old minister at First Assembly of God in Vernon, North Texas, was charged with sexual assault of a child and delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, according to Vernon police. Pounds denied having had sexual contact with the child, but the girl testified to the many times the minister had performed sex acts with her and given her meth.
Baytown pastor Lawrence Hopkins was arrested in late June with the charge of soliciting a minor online, according to Montgomery District Attorney's Office. The arrest of the 55-year-old associate pastor at Rollingbrook Fellowship in Baytown was part of a multi-agency operation to capture individuals who have been "actively seeking to sexually exploit children via the internet in Montgomery County," authorities said.
Following the pastor's arrest, Rollingbrook Church sent a statement acknowledging the case and declaring that Hopkins' employment at the church had been "immediately terminated." The church thanked the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department for "their efforts to protect our children and pursue those who would seek to harm them" and announced they were "cooperating fully with the authorities."
In April, the Nashville-based Southern Baptist news service Baptist Press reported that youth pastor Conner Jesse Penny, 32, had been arrested on three counts of sexual abuse related to a minor. According to the police report, Penny, who was employed at the Inspiration Church, formerly known as Mimosa Lane Baptist Church, in Mesquite at the time of the arrest, "had sexual contact with a female under the age of 17 years of age on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2018."
In March, pastor's son and Conroe church worship leader Jonathan Ryan Ensey, 37, was found guilty of victimizing a congregant by committing indecency with a child and online solicitation of a minor. He is serving eight years in prison, as both sentences were served concurrently.
In January, Aaron Duane Shipman, the 44-year-old lead pastor at Bible Baptist Church in Odessa, was charged with assaulting a teenage girl for years, beginning when she was 16. The woman, who's currently 18, reported the case to the Odessa Police Department. The church, upon hearing about the arrest, issued a statement declaring that Shipman's contract had been terminated.
In the same month, 61-year-old Houston-area pastor Conrad Estrada Valdez was charged of sexual assault of a child between the ages of 14 and 17, as reported by ABC. The case was brought forward in 2019 by a then-30-year-old woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Valdez when she was 15.
The cases reported so far are limited to the charges brought forward this year, and to the state of Texas. By expanding the search further back in time or beyond Texas' borders, the list would grow much longer than the one compiled in this article.
In October, the North Texas megachurch Denton Bible Church released a 2019 investigation revealing that a former youth pastor sexually abused 14 girls at two different churches. The pastor, Rob Shiflet, was sentenced in 2021 to 33 months in federal prison for sexually assaulting two girls on church youth trips, and is now registered as a sex offender.
On December 1, a former youth pastor at a Southern Baptist church in Missouri was charged with six child abuse-related charges.
In May, a document released by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) revealed the case of more than 700 Baptist leaders—including pastors, teachers, ministers and volunteers—accused or found guilty of sexual abuse of children.
The 205-page document, which looks at cases dating back to a period between 2000 and 2009, details the arrests and—sometimes—sentencing of Baptist leaders found guilty of sexual assaults, soliciting children, child pornography and more.
According to SBC, the list is the result of an internal investigation by Guidepost Solutions aimed at uncovering the cover-ups of cases of sexual assaults which were allegedly kept quiet by the church's higher-ups.
"This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention," a statement by SBC read. "Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us."
But the lack of a rigid structure within the SBC, which doesn't have an established hierarchy, might make bringing the necessary change to the church difficult.
"This year, at least 10 Texas pastors, former pastors and youth ministers were arrested, charged or convicted for various allegations of sexual abuse of children."
Don't know who you are arguing with.
Everyone that pastors are subject to the same temptations as everyone else, and need the same accountability.
Homosexuals with authority over minors is a whole other issue, however, as homosexuals are now brazenly acknowledging "we're coming for your children"
Pro-family groups have warned about his for years - tolerating homosexuality, as society has largely, done has lead to ever greater imposition by anti-family forces.
btw, The gig is up for TTF-style racism in the college admission process.
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina that relied in part on racial considerations, saying they violate the Constitution.
The votes split along ideological grounds, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts writing for the conservative members in the majority, and the liberals dissenting.
“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote. “Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
The justices deciding whether affirmative action recognizes and nourishes a multicultural nation, or impermissibly divides Americans by race, represent the most diverse Supreme Court in history. It is composed of four White men, two White women, one Black man, one Black woman and a Latina.
well, look at this
the latest two polls out show Trump kicking Biden's ass in November 2024
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/general-election-trump-vs-biden-7383.html
you guys need to start thinking plan B
how about the Bern with RFK as running mate?
LOL!!!!!!!
"the court all but ensured that the student population at the campuses of elite institutions will become whiter and more Asian and less Black and Latino"
that's false
the schools can still take economic factors into account
but, if you're middle class, being a minority won't get you a preference to make colleges look like they are providing opportunity
like spreading school choice programs, this will benefit lower income minorities
history will record that Dems of our time made a fatal mistake when they sided with teacher unions rather than the welfare of students
Hunter Biden's threatening messages invoking “my father” resulted in a swift agreement being signed between President Joe Biden’s son and a Chinese Communist Party-linked company and millions of dollars flowing to Biden family accounts.
The bombshell new WhatsApp messages were between Hunter Biden and key intermediaries with the since-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC whose chairman, Ye Jianming, is tied to the Chinese military. The messages were revealed by an IRS whistleblower.
Hunter Biden sent messages to Chinese businessman Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, in which he leveraged his father’s name and threatened CEFC executives unless a lucrative deal was worked out with Ye, whose biography said he had been “deputy secretary-general” of the China Association for International Friendly Contact, which the U.S.-China Commission assessed was a “front organization” for the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department.
The newly released messages provide key context to previously discovered foreign bank transactions involving Hunter Biden. Within days after the president's son named dropped his father in a text threat, Hunter Biden and his associated businesses soon received an estimated $5 million in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, with Chinese payments quickly beginning to roll in, according to banking findings from a 2020 Senate report.
“I am sitting with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden told Zhao in one of the July 30 messages. “I am very concerned that [Ye] has either changed his mind and broken our deal without telling me or that he is unaware of the promises and assurances that have been made have not been kept.”
homosexuals are now brazenly acknowledging "we're coming for your children"
Tell me you know nothing about sarcasm without actually SAYING you know nothing about sarcasm. They chant that because they know it's your biggest fear and they like to jerk your chain, and watch you freak out.
"Pro-family groups have warned about his for years - tolerating homosexuality, as society has largely, done has lead to ever greater imposition by anti-family forces."
Yes, "Pro-family groups" have been slandering innocent LGBT people before Anita Bryant started her tirade in the '70s."
The "imposition" you whine about is no big deal for the vast majority of people. Gay folks can get married now. That doesn't affect your marriage one iota. It's only the loudest homophobes that scream "stop shoving that down our throats!" when they get asked to do their jobs - like bake a cake or take pictures - for a gay couple. They need to grow up and get over it. Most people have to do things for their jobs they don't like to do. That's why you get paid for it. You do your job and then move on to a different project in a few days.
"Everyone that pastors are subject to the same temptations as everyone else, and need the same accountability."
Certainly. And given how much you slander gay people for their alleged grooming of children and abuse, you should slander pastors at least as much for their ACTUAL grooming and abuse.
Otherwise you're just stoking up fear and animosity for your own personal enjoyment.
...And you risk pissing off LGBT people and their allies to the point where they start blanket accusing religious folks of grooming and abuse with the same furor and consistency the so-called "religious right" heaps upon them.
"Tell me you know nothing about sarcasm without actually SAYING you know nothing about sarcasm. They chant that because they know it's your biggest fear and they like to jerk your chain, and watch you freak out."
well, considering this is the main catalyst for the backlash against the gay agenda, maybe you should stop laughing, funny boy
truth is, normal Americans don't consider the welfare of children to be a joke and homosexuals seem to
speaking of freaking out, about that "national state of emergency" declared by a gay agenda group because public opinion is running against the gay agenda?
LOL!
"The "imposition" you whine about is no big deal for the vast majority of people."
Really?
Then, why is Bud Light now selling cheaper than water?
On a recent steamy Sunday afternoon, customers strolled through the aisles of Glenn Miller’s Beer & Soda Warehouse, where overhead fans circulated the hot air.
People heading to picnics, graduation parties and other get-togethers in Lemoyne, a Pennsylvania community just across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, breezed into the store, passing myriad displays of beers, with cases of top brands stacked high.
Next to 30-packs of Miller Lite, on sale for $24.99, sat a stack of Bud Light. A large banner above it noted that, after a rebate, a 30-pack cost a mere $8.99.
Andy Wagner, the manager and an 18-year veteran of the store, said the Miller Lite was selling well. And the Bud Light? Not so much.
“At this point, it’s cheaper than some of the cases of water we’re selling in the back,” Mr. Wagner said, noting that sales of Bud Light at the store since mid-April were down 45 percent from a year ago. “It’s just not moving like it used to.”
Nearly three months after the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video on her Instagram account to promote a Bud Light contest, setting off online outrage from the right and a boycott, the beer brand is still struggling to win back loyal, longtime customers.
For more than two decades, Bud Light was the best-selling beer in the United States. Its sales exceeded $5 billion last year. But since the boycott, Bud Light has been dethroned by Modelo Especial. In the four weeks that ended in mid-June, the volume of Bud Light sold nationally plunged an average of 29 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the research firm NIQ.
Anheuser-Busch’s stock has also dropped more than 15 percent since early April.
"truth is, normal Americans don't consider the welfare of children to be a joke and
homosexuals seem to"
No. The truth is LGBT people don't think the welfare of children is a joke either. What is funny is the ridiculous, over-top-reactions of the self-righteous homophobe crowed, so predictably clutching their pearls and screaming "what about the children" anytime gay people come up it has been turned into running satire on "The Simpsons."
"Then, why is Bud Light now selling cheaper than water?"
A marketing mistake.
Bud Light is well known to appeal to the large, bearded bubbas of the backwoods. Not young, Gen Z "influencers,"- especially trans ones.
Expanding the base is always a good idea, but it has to be done with consideration of not pissing off that base at the same time.
Like many young Gen Z "influencers," Dylan can come across as ridiculous, attention-seeking , and even cringe-y. But that isn't actually uncommon in that crowd. Making money on social media these days means attracting as much attention as you can - good or bad - to maximize your "clicks" and "views." A few years ago people were doing it by chomping a big spoon of cinnamon and coughing their lungs out, or eating unbelievably hot peppers and then having excruciatingly painful reactions. They got lots of clicks and 3 minutes of internet fame, and a lot of people thought it was pretty stupid.
That's not what happened with Dylan's post though. Right-wingers lost their shit.
52 year old "Kid Rock" got so inflamed he took a semi-automatic assault rifle and angrily blew up a couple of cases of Bud Light. Other idiots filmed themselves going into stores, pulling Bud Light off the shelves, and slamming it into the ground to destroy it.
Right-wing media has deftly kept the focus on Dylan, as if she were the problem. She may have said things you didn't like, but she didn't lose her shit and start destroying property in protest, sometimes with guns.
To LGBT people, the message of this violence was clear - "keep this up, and you're next." But this is how the religious right has kept LGBT people in check for centuries. The clergy will usually disavow violence, but work their parishioners into a frenzy with condemning everything about LGBT people, and slandering them with unfounded allegations.
And then they will claim they are not responsible when predictably, a few of the angriest among them goes off and assaults or even kills someone.
Maybe the ironically named "Kid Rock" is upset that he isn't getting the media exposure and advertising contracts he did back when he was relevant to the young music scene. Maybe he was jealous because Dylan was getting more free media - and beer - than he was. But his response - enjoyed, "liked," and lauded by conservatives around the country, shows this guy has some serious anger issues that need to be addressed by a professional.
People like Dylan aren't going to hurt people - angry dudes like Kid Rock are.
Worst air quality in the world right here in DC and Detroit today.
Meanwhile, Texas' power grid is withstanding the heatwave.
Good thing they have plenty of sunshine.
Solar Power Is Bailing Texas Out This Summer
"No. The truth is LGBT people don't think the welfare of children is a joke either. What is funny is the ridiculous, over-top-reactions of the self-righteous homophobe crowed,"
well, you said that when they said "we're coming for your children," it was a joke
truth is, encouraging children to consider whether they are another gender than they are is not in their best interests
nor is it in their best interest to encourage them to mutilate themselves or chemically castrate themselves or do other permanent damage to themselves and their bodies
nor, if they are women athletes, to have biological males compete with them
most LBGTQetal complain incessantly how miserable they are
so why are they focusing on getting children to share in their misery?
"A marketing mistake."
understatement of the year
people of so sick of Madison Ave's attempt to push the normalization of homosexuality
a new social contract has arrived:
homosexuals have liberty to engage in whatever practices they want
straights have the right to their opinion about it
Drive along the 240-mile stretch of the Atlantic coast from Charleston, South Carolina, through the grassy marsh land of southern Georgia and down into northern Florida, and you’ll see one of the most profound economic shifts in the US today.
Welcome to the New New South.
America is flocking to places with little or no state taxes, places that had sane pandemic policies, and places that have resisted the gay agenda. Remember when corporate America was going to boycott Georgia because of its new voter rules. That was about as effective as when TTF boycotted Chik-Fil-A. Down South, you can't give away Bud Light, you won't find kids' bathing suits at Target designed to make them look like another gender, you don't need to worry that your kids' school will change their pronoun without letting you know, you won't see Drag Queens doing storytime at the library, you won't see some biological male sweeping the records on a girls' sports team, their won't see a club promoting chemical castration for teens,....
Electric-vehicle factories and battery plants are overtaking pine forests in this region of antebellum architecture and shrimp and grits. More broadly, the entire South from here, north to Kentucky and west to Texas is where businesses are moving to, jobs are being created and homes are being bought. The uplift isn’t happening equally everywhere, or equally for everyone. But the implications for the entire country are enormous.
The numbers tell the story. For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South — Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee — are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting.
A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data.
The Southeast, not Bidenomics, accounted for more than two-thirds of all job growth across the US since early 2020, almost doubling its pre-pandemic share. And it was home to 10 of the 15 fastest-growing American large cities
President Joe Biden said it would be a mistake to expand the membership of the U.S. Supreme Court after it struck down racism in admission considerations on Thursday.
The president's comments came hours after the Supreme Court struck down racist student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, in a sharp setback to affirmative action policies.
Biden told MSNBC in New York that the court "I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we are going to politicize it maybe forever, in a way that is not healthy."
The affirmative action ruling is the latest in a string of setbacks on issues that were once considered settled, such as abortion, delivered by the constitutionally originalist court.
Liberal Democratic lawmakers have proposed expanding the number of Supreme Court justices, hoping to end its commitment to the Constitution, but the plan has not been embraced by the White House and other Democrats.
The president also proposed that applicants first have to qualify under a college's academic standards, but then admissions officials would take into account "adversity" criteria, such as financial means, living situations and whether or not the applicant faced racial discrimination, putting him on the same page as the Supreme Court!
The White House has been meeting with civil rights organizations, universities, and legal organizations to come up with some hijinks if the court struck down affirmative action, Jean-Pierre said.
well, today marks the end of what has previously been called Gay Pride Month but is increasingly referred to as Gay Slide Month
what started as a big celebration of perversion has seen the gay agenda slink down to approval levels similar to those of Slidin' Biden himself
everywhere we see the results of what happens when homosexual expression is unrestrained
in Seattle, a group of men marched down the street fully naked, exposing their genitals to the view of young kids brought to the parade by hipster parents
young adults who "transitioned" to another gender are suing doctors who didn't warn them of the permanent damage to their bodies
in New York, a Pride Parade chanted "we're here, we're queer, and we're coming for your children"
at the White House, a gay pride flag was flown at the same level as the US flag and a transvestite went topless in front of the President
Starbucks refused to put up pride decorations
companies that a month ago were endorsing gay celebrations are treating homosexuality like kryptonite
over 500 state and local laws are being considered to protect children from transgender ideology
the Human Rights Campaign, a front group for homosexual advocacy, has declared a panicked "state of emergency"
A DailyMail survey found that 59 percent of Americans, including a majority in every age group, believe that the promotion of trans and gender ideology has "gone too far"
but don't worry
this is not the end
there are more opportunities ahead for gays to make fools of themselves and repulse America
In addition to Pride Month, there are other events to "celebrate" the LGBTQ+ community:
July 14 marks the beginning of Nonbinary Awareness Week.
Two days later is International Drag Day.
In August there is Gay Uncle's Day, also known as "Guncles."
The following month there are seven days of Bisexual+ Awareness Week.
Then 31 days of LGBTQ History Month in October, which includes International Pronouns Day on the third Wednesday.
In all, there's roughly 125 days each year dedicated to celebrating gay, lesbian, transexual and non-binary Americans, according to the LGBTQ Calendar created by GLAAD
the slide will continue....
"The man I loved wasn't there anymore — and instead this monster that had the most horrible thoughts about people was in its place."
When the woman I'll call Ann married her husband in 2002, he was "someone who couldn't care less about anything political at all." Over the years, he drifted into being a Republican, but it wasn't until 2017, after the election of Donald Trump, when she says "his radicalization and intro to conspiracy theory happened." Within the last few months, Ann told me, her husband began telling their children "how the people behind Monster Energy drink are obviously Satanists because they hid symbols on their can."
Ann hung in there for years, sticking with her husband through the far-right conspiracy theories and the flat-out weird ones. "He tried to convince me that the NFL was run exactly like the WWE in that it was entirely scripted," she told me. Eventually, with the help of a therapist, she came to the conclusion that "there is literally nothing I can say to bring him back."
That realization "has made things easier to handle," Ann says. Before that, "all I could think about was how badly I wanted to die," she continued. "I was scaring myself with how badly I just wanted out." With her therapist's aid, she says she is now planning an exit strategy from her marriage.
Ann's journey is one that untold numbers of people have endured in recent years: watching a loved one become radicalized through online disinformation. Once such people have disappeared down the proverbial "rabbit hole," it can sometimes be impossible to get them back. Preventing people from falling into the disinformation abyss in the first place is obviously crucial — and the good news is that prevention is possible. Experts already know a lot about both why and how people get radicalized, but the difficult part is interrupting the process by which vulnerable people are exposed to ever more vicious propaganda that lures them into the darkest caverns of social media.
One of the most promising avenues for prevention has emerged from a surprising place: Parents and schools who have made it a mission to battle social media addiction. They're using the same tools that proved so effective at curtailing a different and even deadlier public health menace: cigarette smoking. Only this time around, instead of suing Philip Morris and other big tobacco companies, they're going after Meta, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat.
Another QAnon Casualties poster who goes by Tristan Penifel (also not his real name) told me that Ann's story is highly typical of visitors to the forum. People show up initially, he said, wondering how they can debunk the wild stories and outrageous claims they're hearing from a formerly normal loved one. Tristan says he and the other forum regulars gently try to steer the newbies away from that path. The old hands know that it's nearly impossible to argue people out of false beliefs they've picked up online, once those have become ingrained in their identity.
Tristan told me his father fell deep into the realm of right-wing conspiracy theory years ago, and became obsessed with the claim that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya. "I spent hours one evening debunking every single thing that he could find about the birth certificate being fake," Tristan explained in a Zoom interview. "By the end of all of that, he was like, OK, maybe the birth certificate is real."
But Tristan's victory was short-lived. His father immediately pivoted to another conspiracy theory that claimed Obama "was handpicked by the banks to protect them after the 2008 financial crisis." Tristan's father had once been involved in Occupy Wall Street, but the allure of online conspiracy theories had pulled him far to the right.
Tristan went on to write about his experiences at Medium, arguing that "all of this is ultimately on the conspiracy theorist. They are the one who has some kind of emotional sickness driving them into these beliefs, and they are the one who can cure themselves. If they refuse to engage, no one else can save them."
None of this comes as a surprise to experts who research far-right groups and conspiracy theorists. What the members of QAnon Casualties see happening to their loved ones is much bigger and more systematic than a small subset of the population adopting some kooky notions. Instead, they have become radicalized, and recent history tells us that while most people who believe outlandish conspiracy theories will not commit violent acts, the danger is very real.
Even when they don't commit violence, "people who get involved in these movements destroy their lives," David Neiwert, author of "The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy," told me in a recent interview. "It draws people into the abyss. It ruins their family relationships, ruins their relationships in the community."
Even as defendants from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack face prison sentences, there's a common thread to many of their stories: They're totally not sorry. Jacob Chansley, the infamous "QAnon shaman," got some relatively sympathetic media coverage after his arrest, when his defense attorney portrayed him as a regretful dupe. Now that he's out of jail, however, Chansley has made clear that he's still a member of the QAnon faithful.
I
In a defeat for lunatic fringe homosexual activists, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.
The court ruled 6-3 for designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights.
Smith and her supporters had said that a ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs.
The decision is a win for religious rights and one in a series of cases in recent years in which the justices have sided with religious plaintiffs. Last year, for example, the court ruled for a football coach who prayed on the field at his public high school after games.
The court has expanded the rights of LGBTQ people, most notably giving same-sex couples the right to marry in 2015 and announcing five years later that a landmark civil rights law also protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from employment discrimination.
Even as it has expanded gay rights, however, the court has been careful to say those with differing religious views needed to be respected. The belief that marriage can only be between one man and one woman is an idea that “long has been held — and continues to be held — in good faith by reasonable and sincere people here and throughout the world,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court’s gay marriage decision.
The court returned to that idea five years ago when it was confronted with the case of a Christian baker who objected to designing a cake for a same-sex wedding. The court issued a ruling in favor of the baker, Jack Phillips, saying there had been impermissible hostility toward his religious views in the consideration of his case. Phillips’ lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, also brought the most recent case to the court.
Smith, who owns a Colorado design business called 303 Creative, does not currently create wedding websites. She has said that she wants to but that her Christian faith would prevent her from creating websites celebrating same-sex marriages. And that’s where she runs into conflict with state law.
Colorado has a law forbidding businesses open to the public from discriminating against customers. Colorado said that under its so-called public accommodations law, if Smith offers wedding websites to the public, she must provide them to all customers, regardless of sexual orientation. Businesses that violate the law can be fined, among other things. Smith argued that applying the law to her violates her First Amendment rights. The state disagreed.
Now, America agrees with Smith.
There is one person who could potentially galvanize the Republican electorate, though he is not now in the race, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Youngkin’s upset win over Former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in 2021 – after Biden won the state by 10 percentage points one year before – made him the first Republican to win a statewide election in Virginia in over a decade. He got elected by avoiding Trumpian style politics – without directly denouncing Trump or his voters – and running a center-right campaign centered on quality-of-life issues like the economy, public safety, education and personal freedoms, which is precisely what Republicans need to do at the national level to remain viable.
Youngkin’s national polling numbers are particularly remarkable. A survey conducted earlier this year – which looked at hypothetical general election matchups between Biden and a series of potential Republican challengers – found Youngkin ahead of Biden by 16 points, 55 percent to 39 percent. Comparatively, DeSantis led Biden by only 5 points (48 percent to 43 percent), while Trump trailed Biden, 46 percent to 47 percent.
Further, despite Virginia’s light blue tilt, Youngkin is relatively popular in his home state. According to University of Roanoke polling, 51 percent of Virginia voters approve of Youngkin’s job performance, which is 9 points higher than Biden’s approval rating in the state. Further, while a plurality of Virginia voters (46 percent) view Youngkin favorably, majorities have an unfavorable view of both Biden (52 percent) and Trump (63 percent). The Virginia governor is also more popular than both Biden and Trump with independent voters.
The real test of Youngkin’s national viability will be in Virginia’s elections this year, which will be closely watched as a harbinger of the trends that could play out in swing states in 2024. In this week’s primaries, Youngkin endorsed 10 candidates for the state House and Senate, all of whom won their respective races, giving the state GOP a unified front ahead of the November general election.
A man with materials to make explosives and an active Jan. 6-related warrant was arrested by law enforcement in former President Barack Obama's Washington, D.C., neighborhood Thursday, multiple sources briefed on the matter tell CBS News.
Several sources identified the suspect as 37-year-old Taylor Taranto, of Seattle, Washington. Secret Service spotted him within blocks of the Obamas' home, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. Taranto fled, and Secret Service chased him. He was running toward the Obamas' home, but was apprehended before reaching it.
Taranto's van was parked close to where he was arrested. There were multiple weapons and the materials to make some kind of explosive device akin to a Molotov cocktail, but it had not been assembled, according law enforcement officials familiar with the details. He had said he had explosives, but first responders only found the materials to make them.
U.S. officials were concerned because Taranto had made threats during recent livestreams on social media against a public figure. He also had an open warrant on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. He wasn't in Obama's neighborhood by mistake, a U.S. official noted.
According to a senior law enforcement official, Taranto had been in Washington, D.C., area for a couple of months. He had been seen camping out in his van near the D.C. jail where many of the Jan. 6 defendants are being held, and some of his livestreams were apparently posted while he was in the D.C. area.
Taranto has been charged with being a fugitive from justice, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The incident did not result in any injuries. It's unclear if the Obamas were home at the time.
According to NBC News, "Taranto's van has been parked near the D.C. jail in recent weeks and he has appeared at protests in support of other Jan. 6 defendants . . . Noting that he lived in the van, a federal prosecutor said Taranto had 'nowhere to go.'"
In a statement from a federal prosecutor, Taranto, a known Trump supporter, "has been in Washington to take House Speaker Kevin McCarthy up on his offer of letting Jan. 6 defendants review security footage of the Capitol riot relevant to their cases.
"We got these losers surrounded!" he wrote on Telegram prior to being arrested. "See you in hell, Podesta's and Obama's!"
Per NBC's reporting, "Taranto showed up at Obama's residence on Thursday after former President Donald Trump posted screenshots on his Truth Social platform that featured a purported address for Obama's home in Washington. Taranto's account reposted Trump's post."
He is currently up against four misdemeanor counts in connection with Jan. 6 and is being held in custody until a detention hearing can be had next week.
TRUMP ENCOURAGES VIOLENCE AGAINST HIS PERCEIVED ENEMIES
"President Donald Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from acts of violence in communities across America, dismissing critics who point to his rhetoric as a potential source of inspiration or comfort for anyone acting on even long-held beliefs of bigotry and hate.
"I think my rhetoric brings people together," he said last year, four days after a 21-year-old allegedly posted an anti-immigrant screed online and then allegedly opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 and injuring dozens of others.
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
After a Latino gas station attendant in Gainesville, Florida, was suddenly punched in the head by a white man, the victim could be heard on surveillance camera recounting the attacker’s own words: “He said, ‘This is for Trump.'" Charges were filed but the victim stopped pursuing them.
When police questioned a Washington state man about his threats to kill a local Syrian-born man, the suspect told police he wanted the victim to "get out of my country," adding, "That’s why I like Trump."
Reviewing police reports and court records, ABC News found that in at least 12 cases perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting innocent victims. In another 18 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant's violent or threatening behavior.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona knocked Republican lawmakers for accepting “millions of dollars” for their businesses through COVID-era loans after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program on Friday.
Cardona, who criticized the Supreme Court for ruling “against students and families across the country,” argued that the conservative court substituted itself for Congress before he then went after the GOP.
“It’s outrageous to me that Republicans in Congress and state offices fought so hard against a program that would have helped millions of their own constituents,” Cardona said.
“They had no problem handing trillion-dollar tax cuts to big corporations and the super wealthy, and many had no problems accepting millions of dollars in forgiven pandemic loans.”
Cardona called out Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who took out Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the COVID-19 pandemic and saw the federal government forgive more than $1.4 million of the debt.
“He represents 489,000 eligible borrowers that were turned down today,” Cardona said.
He also took aim at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who saw the federal government forgive more than $180,000 of her PPP loans and who represents 91,800 student borrowers who would have been eligible for debt forgiveness under Biden’s plan, and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who had more than $4.4 million in loans forgiven and who represents 90,000 eligible student borrowers.
Cardona said that he would join Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in continuing to fight for college loan relief for student borrowers.
“You should be able to earn a college education without student debt blocking you from opportunity,” he said.
Last year, Donald Trump argued that he had issued a "standing order to automatically declassify any documents he took from the White House. As it turns out, federal agencies that would know about such a thing have no record of any such order, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.
In August, after Trump made the widely doubted claim, Bloomberg said it filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department’s national security division and with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, requesting a copy of Trump’s alleged order.
Government attorneys confirmed in a letter to Bloomberg on Thursday that the agencies possessed “no records responsive to your request.”
The disclosure was prompted after a judge in a similar case in Massachusetts ordered the agencies to confirm whether records referencing the standing order exist, according to Bloomberg.
On Aug. 8, FBI agents with a warrant searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, retrieving boxes of secret documents the government said Trump improperly took and refused to return.
Trump immediately produced a variety of excuses. His team released a statement days later, arguing that Trump “had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them.”
However, even officials from his own administration cast doubt on that assertion, saying they had no recollection of any such order and describing the idea as absurd.
Trump’s own former national security adviser John Bolton said Trump’s claim was “complete fiction.”
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors indicted Trump on 37 felony counts in the case, accusing him of risking national security, mishandling classified information and obstructing government efforts to retrieve it.
A bombshell audio recording obtained by CNN this week also undermines Trump’s “standing order” defense. In the July 2021 clip, recorded at a meeting with book researchers at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump is heard discussing “highly confidential” documents in his possession that he admits he did not declassify as president.
“See, as president I could have declassified it,” Trump says in the clip, after describing a document he said he obtained from the Defense Department. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Trump has since trotted out a new excuse: He wasn’t showing off any secret documents. It was golf course plans, he said, and his talk was just “bravado.”
A Missouri man who recently supported a push to ban books in public school libraries that describe “sexual acts” now faces a felony charge of second-degree child molestation and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree domestic assault.
Ryan Utterback, 29, in a separate case faces a misdemeanor charge of furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish pornographic material to a minor, ABC-affiliate KMBC-TV reported.
Utterback in the first case is accused of fondling a child less than 12 years old in December 2020, according to KMBC, citing court documents. He is also said to have stuck his finger through a hole in a teenager’s pants to rub their bare leg in September 2020.
In the second case, Utterback reportedly showed pornographic videos to a child beginning when the child was roughly 4 years old.
Utterback appeared at the Clay County courthouse in Missouri for a hearing on Thursday, and will return for a second hearing in March, according to KMBC.
The allegations against Utterback come after he and several other parents at a North Kansas City School District board meeting in the fall spoke in favor of removing library books they complained were inappropriate and sexually explicit.
“I understand their struggles and it’s not lost on me. But again those conversations are to be had at home. Only I have their intimate understanding as to what is and isn’t appreciated for my children,” Utterback told KMBC at the time.
The school district in October pulled two books from school libraries, but quickly returned them following public outcry and a warning from the ACLU.
"A man with materials to make explosives and an active Jan. 6-related warrant was arrested by law enforcement in former President Barack Obama's Washington, D.C., neighborhood Thursday"
and by "materials to make explosives, " we are talking about a can of gas, some rags, and empty bottles
common items to find in many vehicles
I don't know the whole story but the man didn't face any charges so there is apparently no proof he was threatening Obama
"Education Secretary Miguel Cardona knocked Republican lawmakers for accepting “millions of dollars” for their businesses through COVID-era loans after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program on Friday."
let me explain this to you, Miguel
the Supreme Court didn't rule against student loan forgiveness
they simply said Biden is not a dictator who can unilaterally take such action
PPP was passed by congress
"A Missouri man who recently supported a push to ban books in public school libraries that describe “sexual acts” now faces a misdemeanor charge of furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish pornographic material to a minor, ABC-affiliate KMBC-TV reported."
since TTF calls keeping sexually explicit material from children "banning"
are they going to fight for this guy's acquittal?
"The school district in October pulled two books from school libraries, but quickly returned them following public outcry"
there was a public outcry
hard to believe
after a disastrous PRIDE month and a string of setbacks to the gay agenda from the Supreme Court, I know you're desperate for a win
but it's hopeless
the long arc of history bends toward justice
ORLANDO, Fla. — Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate.
The National Society of Black Engineers’ 50th conference would have brought up to 15,000 visitors to the Orange County Convention Center in 2024 and generated millions of dollars in economic impact, the group’s CEO Janeen Uzzell said Friday.
Instead, it’ll be held in a different city that will be announced next week, she said.
The Con of Thrones, which typically draws 3,000 to 4,000 fans of the “Game of Thrones” books and television shows, also announced this week it was pulling the plug on a gathering planned for this Aug. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.
Organizers cited “increasingly anti-humanitarian legislation” in the state.
“It’s becoming an inhospitable place to be part of any marginalized group,” said Melissa Anelli, CEO of Mischief Management, the company putting on the event. “They have laws that say you can’t even talk about being gay in school. That is absurd.”
Three other groups have taken their business elsewhere in recent months.
AnitaB.org, an organization of female and nonbinary tech workers, announced it would no longer hold events in Orlando after this year’s conference, which will be at the convention center in September.
The American Education Research Association, which typically draws up to 15,000 people to its conference, decided to hold its 2025 annual meeting in Denver instead of Orlando, said Tony Pals, a spokesman.
The group has a policy of not holding events in states that have enacted “anti-trans laws,” he said in an email.
Another group, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, also cited political concerns when it canceled its 2027 surgical conference and expo, according to the Orange County Convention Center. Organizers declined to comment on their decision-making process for events.
Organizers with the National Society of Black Engineers said they were troubled by DeSantis’ efforts to target diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools and how that would affect student members of the group, Uzzell said.
“This is a celebration,” she said. “This is a moment in time for NSBE. We didn’t want any of the political and social issues to mask our success.”
The event had been planned for Feb. 28-March 3 at the convention center.
Other groups canceling their events have cited laws that banned most abortions after six weeks, allowed Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit, cracked down on illegal immigration and targeted transgender and LGBTQ+ issues.
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for DeSantis, did not respond to a request for comment about the cancellations.
"Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate."
Well, certain if leftist groups decide not to come to Florida, their conventions will likely not be well-attended. Few people will jazzed about a convention in Denver.
LOL!
A major economic shift if moving to the South and going overboard with promoting gays is part of the problem for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and West Coast states.
Welcome to the New New South.
America is flocking to places with little or no state taxes, places that had sane pandemic policies, and places that have resisted the gay agenda. Remember when corporate America was going to boycott Georgia because of its new voter rules. That was about as effective as when TTF boycotted Chik-Fil-A. Down South, you can't give away Bud Light, you won't find kids' bathing suits at Target designed to make them look like another gender, you don't need to worry that your kids' school will change their pronoun without letting you know, you won't see Drag Queens doing storytime at the library, you won't see some biological male sweeping the records on a girls' sports team, their won't see a club promoting chemical castration for teens,....
Electric-vehicle factories and battery plants are overtaking pine forests in this region of antebellum architecture and shrimp and grits. More broadly, the entire South from here, north to Kentucky and west to Texas is where businesses are moving to, jobs are being created and homes are being bought. The uplift isn’t happening equally everywhere, or equally for everyone. But the implications for the entire country are enormous.
The numbers tell the story. For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South — Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee — are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting.
A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data.
The Southeast, not Bidenomics, accounted for more than two-thirds of all job growth across the US since early 2020, almost doubling its pre-pandemic share. And it was home to 10 of the 15 fastest-growing American large cities
"A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data."
hate to jump to conclusions but...
as Bud Light learned, the Northeast will soon realize:
embracing the gay agenda is really not good for business
gee, they'll really miss that Game of Thrones convention though
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
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"Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate."
that oughta scare the hell outta 'em!
you can just hear conversations around dinner tables in Pensacola tonight:
"This is getting serious, Madge. Maybe if we let drag queens go elementary schools and teach graders to question their gender, Game of Thrones will change their mind and bring the dragons down here!"
LOL!
First, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson releases a blistering defense of racial discrimination in her dissent from the Supreme Court’s affirmative-action decision Thursday.
Then, on Friday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor puts out a largely incoherent defense of state-compelled speech in commercial life.
The illiberal wing of the Supreme Court is having a tough week.
As soon as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Christian web designer named Lorie Smith, who had refused to create a gay wedding site, CNN blasted out this headline: “Supreme Court limits LGBTQ protections.”
CBS News followed by claiming the court ruled in “favor of a Colorado web designer who said her religious beliefs prevent her from taking on same-sex couples as clients.”
On and on it went, across the political media.
These are all lies.
And they are the same lies that rest at the heart of Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.
“Today is a sad day in American constitutional law and in the lives of LGBT people,” the justice lamented.
The Supreme Court, she went on, declared “that a particular kind of business, though open to the public, has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”
This is incorrect.
Lorie Smith never turned away a customer because of their sexual preference or skin color or religious belief or anything else: She refused to create a message celebrating an event that conflicted with her sincerely held religious convictions.
She was practicing her First Amendment rights.
It’s an easy contention to prove.
After all, religion is a protected characteristic under civil rights law, and an individual could just as easily claim that they’re being “discriminated” against because of their beliefs in that scenario.
Most gay men don’t see the Supreme Court’s ruling as infringing on their rights
If a straight person had tried to commission a same-sex wedding site, Smith would have turned them away, as well.
If a gay customer commissioned a website for their restaurant or hardware store or a haberdashery, Smith would have created it.
On the other hand, if the straight couple had asked her to create a pornographic website or a website declaring Zoroastrianism the one true faith, Smith would also have rejected those projects, because they too run afoul her evangelical Christian beliefs.
No one in this country, not an orthodox rabbi or a raging atheist, should be compelled to say things they don’t believe.
And if the right to express your thoughts — or, perhaps just as importantly, to refrain from expressing the thoughts of others — conflicts with existing public-accommodation laws, then public-accommodation laws should be overturned or fixed.
Think about it this way: A devout orthodox Christian — or Jew or Muslim — walks into a gay-owned bakery and demands the proprietor create a cake with the message, “Homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God.”
Should that baker be forced to make it?
Christians, after all, are also a protected group under anti-discrimination laws.
If the gay bakery refused, would it be discrimination or an issue of free expression?
What right does a stranger have to appropriate your skills and voice to express their opinions?
The answer is “none.”
To get around this problem, Sotomayor not only dispenses with the fundamental idea of neutrality under the law but invents new positive rights from the ether.
She claims in her dissent that the real problem here is the discrimination against “unfavored groups.”
First off, the gay couples, not Smith, are the favored group in this case.
The state of Colorado threatened Smith’s livelihood and tried to compel her to create a site.
The federal government backed the state of Colorado in these efforts.
The sitting president of the United States flies pride flags right next to American ones on the South Lawn of the White House while virtually every major corporation pays its respects on pride month.
If any group is disfavored in American life right now, it’s the orthodox Christian.
But, in the end, no one should be forced to speak whether they are favored or not.
Anti-discrimination laws were implemented to mitigate discrimination, not to put one group’s feelings above another group’s constitutional rights.
And, yet, this is exactly what Sotomayor and other American leftists demand happen.
As it gears up for the 2024 re-election campaign, the White House is undertaking a political salvage operation over the economy. President Biden is now embracing what we have long called Bidenomics as a badge of honor, and he’s telling tales about how splendid everything is and why he deserves credit for it.
The White House is going on this PR campaign because it can read the polls. Mr. Biden’s approval rating on the economy is 38.3% in the latest Real Clear Politics average. People don’t think the economy is all that great. So in Chicago on Wednesday Mr. Biden touted all the new construction going on from the spending that Democrats passed in the last Congress. And there’s no denying that when you spend literally hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize certain industries, you can get new plants.
But then why are voters so unhappy? The answer can be found in one chart from the Department of Labor. It tracks average real hourly earnings for all workers in the private economy across the Biden Presidency, and it tells an ugly story about the impact of the worst inflation in 40 years and the standard of living. This is the inflation that Mr. Biden did so much to ignite with all of his spending.
In 1982-84 dollars, which takes account of inflation, average hourly earnings were $11.39 when Mr. Biden took office but started to decline immediately and didn’t stop falling until inflation peaked in June 2022. They have bounced up a little but were still back only to $11.03 in May. That’s a 3.16% decline in real earnings for the average worker across the 29 months of the Biden Presidency.
These are official Labor Department statistics. Mr. Biden can’t deny them, so he had someone fudge the point by writing in his Chicago remarks that, “Look, pay for low-wage workers has grown at the fastest pace in over two decades.” We’d like to see how his economists cherry-picked the data to justify that one.
All of which reminds us of the old Marx Brothers joke: Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? Regarding Bidenomics, Americans should believe their own eyes.
Former President Donald Trump was greeted by protestors chanting “LOCK HIM UP!” and “FUCK YOU TRAITOR!” as he made his way to a speech in Philadelphia Friday. He was there to deliver a speech for the group “Moms For Liberty,” which has been designated an “extremist organization ” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They also hate our county school's storybooks.
I realized I didn't know where Grandma Mouse was. I could just see her hopping into the back of a truck or something and going to Philadelphia to yell stuff at Trump. I went looking for her and found her leaning on a dust-bunny behind the refrigerator, finishing off a big jug of Mad Dog. I helped get her back into the wall and she slept well. The point being, it wasn't Grandma Mouse yelling these things, it must have been somebody else. I am guessing it was some humans.
Maybe if they wise up, they can get a trip to someplace nice, like Mar-A-Lago...
"President Donald Trump was greeted by protestors chanting “LOCK HIM UP!” and “FUCK YOU TRAITOR!” as he made his way to a speech in Philadelphia Friday."
They have been a bunch of lunatic fringe homosexual advocates. Such people are enraged with Trump because he appointed justices to the Supreme Court who will protect the Constitution.
Were young children present when they were screaming the f-word in public? It's probably a good idea to keep young children away from these fellas!
Indeed, hope the Supreme Court will consider gay adoption next year. About time to end that farce.
"He was there to deliver a speech for the group “Moms For Liberty,” which has been designated an “extremist organization ” by the Southern Poverty Law Center."
Frankly, SPLC is the epitome of an extremist organization.
"They also hate our county school's storybooks."
You mean the stories that try to indoctrinate y9oung children with the idea that homosexuality and transgenderism are normal? Most people find those books inappropriate for young children.
"found her leaning on a dust-bunny behind the refrigerator, finishing off a big jug of Mad Dog"
well, there aren't a lot of half bottles on the bar carts in TTF homes lately
it's tough coping with the public backlash against the gay agenda and a Supreme Court that has blown their fringe worldview to smithereens.
They just have to come to terms with how wrong they have been...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
A DailyMail survey found that 59 percent of Americans, including a majority in every age group, believe that the promotion of trans and gender ideology has "gone too far,"
From the Supreme Court to America: Happy Individual Independence Day!
OK, the court didn’t actually say that, but its key rulings did.
The final cases rang out with a consistent clarity that the Constitution favors individual liberty over group rights and government power.
The distinction is what helped make America different from the start, yet to witness the hysterical outcry against the rulings form Dems, few of them understand the founding principles.
Politics can be a fickle, cruel and opportunistic business. Especially if some of the movers and shakers behind the scenes perceive a shift in power.
To be sure, Trump has his hands full with his current indictments and pending legal issues. But for those in or near the Biden White House seeking to candidly assess the legal threats to the president or his son, Trump’s woes do not matter in the least.
Suddenly, if you are an adviser to President Biden — or the Democratic National Committee — trying to honestly analyze the growing negative stories and alleged evidence swirling around the president and his son, it may seem as if the walls are closing in a bit more.
Negative stories and alleged evidence such as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) bringing to light the existence of an FBI FD-1023 form detailing an informant’s claim that a Burisma executive paid $5 million each in bribes to then–Vice President Biden and his son. Alleged evidence such as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealing that the FBI had redacted the part about the executive saying he had 17 audio recordings of conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden.
Alleged evidence such as the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee releasing testimony from two IRS “whistleblowers” accusing the Justice Department of interfering in their investigation with the aim of protecting Hunter Biden. Testimony including a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp text allegedly showing Hunter Biden threatening a Chinese business partner who hadn’t fulfilled some unnamed “commitment.” “I am sitting here with my father,” the note says.
“Who cares?” partisan Democrats will shout. “It’s just nonsense the Republicans are putting out there as a distraction. Trump is the one who is in legal jeopardy. Not our guy.”
Trump is in legal jeopardy. But more than one politician from one political party can be in legal jeopardy at the same time. And “who cares?” I have no doubt that very powerful Democrats behind the scenes care. They will now be doing their own assessments of the situation.
At some point, certain powerful Democrats now circling the wagons around the Biden White House may decide the president and his son are in an untenable position, that their defense may no longer be in the best interests of the Democratic Party or the special interests that fund the party.
Regulatory dogfight: Who should regulate genetically altered animals?
The Senate doesn’t need to start from scratch on AI legislation
If that point is reached, the foundation under the president and Hunter Biden will start to weaken dramatically. Cracks will appear and more negative stories — or evidence — may seep out.
Much of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party are salivating at the thought of Trump going to prison. But what if it is a Biden instead? The next few months will tell the tale.
Lost in Joe Rogan’s challenge to Baylor College of Medicine professor Dr. Peter Hotez to debate the COVID-19 vaccine debacle with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a striking truth about America today: We’re desperate for discourse. The left no longer even tries to defend its positions; it now relies on shutting down debate, silencing those who disagree with it, and using the bully pulpit in all its heavy-handed forms.
The left’s calls to censor Joe Rogan (and Democratic presidential candidate RFK Jr. for that matter) are deeply anti-science, even if made in the name of “scientific consensus.” We’ll side with Galileo on the issue of scientific consensus: “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”
Yet the left’s demand to silence dissent is being misleadingly dressed up in a white lab coat.
Writing in USA Today, Stanford medical school professor Dr. Thomas Lew starts out well enough, writing “…the whole premise that scientific data needs to win over the masses to be true is flawed. Science is science, and objective data that can be reliably reproduced is true whether people believe it or not.”
That much is true. But he didn’t stop there.
“I am honestly surprised that we are still skeptical of the merits of vaccines, especially the COVID-19 vaccines,” Lew wrote. “To a large extent, no one should believe any ‘expert’ blindly, but when there are several high-quality studies, a preponderance of empirical evidence and a consensus among most of the scientific communities, then that should tip the scales toward belief over a random person on the internet with contradictory statements.”
The U.S. government is unmatched in making contradictory statements on COVID, and that’s why many on the left are desperately trying to salvage some of the legitimacy the politicized public health authorities threw away during the pandemic, with their demands that were often contradictory but never in doubt.
And in doing so, the left must rely on shutting down dissent – and discussion. As the Washington Post’s Paul Waldman put it, “Truth is put to the worse every day, and the kind of debates we’ve gotten used to only make it easier for falsehood to survive.”
He claimed, “When an expert ‘debates’ a crank, nothing is accomplished except elevating the crank to a status he doesn’t deserve. Few if any will be persuaded of the truth, and the result will be a less informed public.”
The public respectfully disagrees. What we’re seeing instead is a real and demonstrable hunger for substantive debate and in-depth discussion.
“I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Goodfellas’ or any movie or TV show I’ve been in,” Imperioli wrote Saturday morning. “Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!”
Weighing in on some responses contending with his post, Imperioli reaffirmed his statement, writing that “Hate and ignorance is not a legitimate point of view” and “America is becoming dumber by the minute.”
"“I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Goodfellas’ or any movie or TV show I’ve been in,” Imperioli wrote Saturday morning. “Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!”
Weighing in on some responses contending with his post, Imperioli reaffirmed his statement, writing that “Hate and ignorance is not a legitimate point of view” and “America is becoming dumber by the minute.”"
I have no idea who Imperioli is, and I've never seen any of the shows he mentions but he's sounds like an ass and since his analogy is false, he's actually an ignorant ass.
The web designer who brought the suit that the Supreme Court ruled on this week did not discriminate against anyone. She simply refused to participate in spreading a message she disagreed with. If a homosexual couple had a restaurant, she'd be happy to design a website for it. But she wouldn't design a website to facilitate their marriage.
A accurate analogy would be if Imperioli were forced to act in movies or shows whose message he disagreed with.
Somebody should explain that to him. Kind of sad when someone says others are getting dumber by the minute and then proves what an imbecile he is,
PICKENS, S.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday marked a return to the large-scale rallies of his previous presidential campaigns, speaking to thousands gathered in the streets of a small South Carolina city on a blazing day ahead of the July 4 holiday.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than right here on Main St., with thousands of hardworking South Carolina patriots who believe in God, family and country,” Trump said to a roaring crowd standing on asphalt as temperatures climbed into the 90s.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people had gathered in the streets of downtown Pickens, a small city in South Carolina’s conservative Upstate of around 3,400 residents. Law enforcement officials told some media outlets that around 15,000 people had gathered by 11 a.m., two hours before Trump’s remarks.
The area is a popular one for GOP hopefuls as they aim to attract support for South Carolina’s first-in-the-South presidential primary. In recent months, other candidates including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have all held events in the Upstate, as well as the two South Carolinians in the race: former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott.
But none drew a crowd like Trump, whose appearance effectively shuttered Pickens’ quintessential southern downtown.
Homeland Security said Friday it will build 20 more miles of border wall, carrying out some of former President Donald Trump’s marquee campaign promise.
The department suggested it had no choice but to begin construction thanks to the terms of the 2019 spending bill, which allocated money specifically for wall-building at the border.
Some $190 million remains unspent and President Biden risked running afoul of the law if he didn’t take steps to spend it on the wall by September.
“Until and unless Congress cancels these funds, the law requires DHS to use the funds consistent with their appropriated purpose,” Customs and Border Protection said in an unsigned statement announcing the new construction.
The move marks a significant retreat for Mr. Biden, who during the 2020 campaign had vowed there would “not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”
Parent activists at the Moms for Liberty annual summit roared at the leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center for putting them on the “hate map” and calling them an “extremist group.”
Their message to SPLC: These moms are protecting all the kids and all the parents’ voices.
One of the moms, Allison Shipp, said the Southern Poverty Law Center had revealed itself to be ridiculous.
“When you break it down, to have something so simple as moms, dads or parents concerned about what’s going on in their schools labeled as extreme — that seems pretty silly to me,” said Ms. Shipp, 41, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The reality is, we want all parents, even ones that we might not agree with, to have that voice, even at the school board meeting, because it affects their kids as well.”
Lydia Dominguez, a Christian author and advocate for domestic violence victims, took the SPLC’s extremist accusation personally.
“I don’t see myself as an extremist or radical. I see myself as a passionate mom who’s standing up for my child and their education. I don’t believe they should be integrating sexual content into every avenue of subjects in the classroom,” said Ms. Dominguez, 33, who traveled from Las Vegas for the summit.
“Anyone who has a disagreeing opinion is suddenly called an [extremist]. That’s absolutely absurd. We might think their opinions are wrong, but we have not labeled them,” she said. “We’re not here to hurt anyone. We’re here for moms. We’re here for our children. We’re here to just protect our children’s education.”
The SPLC put Moms for Liberty’s 45 state chapters on the hate map that currently identifies a total of 1,225 “hate and antigovernment groups” across the U.S.
Moms for Liberty earned the designation, according to SPLC, because they allegedly harass LGBTQ people, promote anti-gay misinformation and fight against diversity and inclusion in school materials.
The groups on the hate map are almost all conservative or religious organizations. The map also lists organizations described as skinheads, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The map does not include the violent leftwing group Antifa.
At the summit, Mariya Calkins said Moms for Liberty is the opposite of a hate group.
“We are the most loving group of parents, grandparents and concerned citizens who just want to have quality education for children and that all students will have access to quality education. That’s our main focus,” said Mrs. Calkins, 37, of Santa Rosa, Florida.
“Certainly, we disagree with whatever that [SPLC] organization says. It’s unfortunate that organizations have basically attacked a grassroots group of parents that just want to advocate for their children to have quality education.”
Moms for Liberty was greeted at the summit by street protests by leftwing advocacy groups, including the Philadelphia Young Communist League.
The protests included LGBTQ activists in costumes and face paint dancing outside the hotel in downtown Philadelphia. They heckled attendees walking into the hotel and called them “fascists.”
Demonstrators outside of the summit echoed the SPLC’s characterizations of the Moms for Liberty agenda.
“The definition of liberty has never meant imposing your will, your beliefs on other people. Book bans, censorship, attacking people because they’re living as they freely choose in a supposedly free country, it’s very anti-American. I don’t think any of that is a stretch,” said protester Brion Shreffler, 44, a Philadelphia-based freelance journalist and food critic.
Moms for Liberty activist Becky McCarron, a mother and grandmother from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, said the hate wasn’t coming from inside the summit.
“I sure hear a lot of nasty stuff from the other side. I don’t think anybody here wants to make trouble. We’re just keeping our distance and letting the police do their job,” she said. “It is their right to protest … but I’m not going to sink to that level and start calling names and whatnot.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer heads into the Fourth of July holiday knowing his days calling the shots in the chamber could be numbered.
The Democrats’ 51-49 seat majority is in jeopardy. Mr. Schumer’s party is defending not only 23 seats compared to 11 for Republicans, but also defending seats in the most competitive races.
“The 2024 Senate map is still an uphill climb for Democrats, who are almost exclusively on defense and have very little margin for error given their narrow majority,” said Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst with Inside Elections, a nonpartisan election tracker.
With the current backlash, look for Democratss to begin separating themselves from the gay agenda because they have very little margin for error. It has already begun with Biden's announcement last month that schools can exclude biological males from girls' sports competition.
Worries from U.S. voters that President Biden is too old to serve another four-year term as president are increasingly looking like the biggest challenge the president faces in winning reelection next year.
Biden, at the age of 80, is already the oldest person to serve as president, and he would be 86 at the end of his second term.
The longevity would beat any other president who served by a large margin. Former President Reagan finished his second term at 77, while former President Trump — who is the favorite to win the GOP presidential nomination — ended his first term at 74.
Biden has some work to do to convince voters he has the mental and physical capacity to run for reelection.
A whopping 68 percent of voters in a recent NBC News poll said they worry about Biden’s health with 55 percent reflecting “major” concerns.
It’s pretty well known among attentive political observers that Donald Trump’s shocking 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton was driven by his solid win among the many voters who disliked both major candidates. Exit polls showed 18 percent of voters fell into this category, and Trump won them by 17 percent. It’s far less well known that despite losing in 2020, Trump won “I hate ‘em both” voters once again, by about the same margin as in 2016. The big difference was that their share of the electorate dropped from 17 percent to three percent. Both Trump and Joe Biden had lower unfavorable ratings than either candidate did in 2016; but in general, Biden was significantly more popular than Clinton had been. Still, Trump’s showing among the haters, defying what most polls had been predicting, was one of the reasons he did better than expected.
Now 2024 election polls suggest the pool of voters disgruntled with both candidates in a Biden-Trump rematch could be back at 2016 levels, if not higher, as CNN’s Harry Enten reported:
When you zoom in on those who [in a June CNN survey] were unfavorably inclined toward Biden and Trump (i.e., putting aside those who were unsure or were neutral), 22% of adults and 21% of registered voters had an unfavorable view of both men. …
If the numbers we’re seeing now in CNN polling continue through the election, more Americans will dislike both major party nominees for president than ever before.
Republican pollster David Winston notes in Roll Call that unlike the situation in 2020, Biden’s popularity and Trump’s are nearly identical in current polling:
Today, Biden and Trump’s favorable-unfavorable, according to the June 18 RealClearPolitics average, are remarkably similar, with Biden at 40 percent-55 percent favorable-unfavorable and Trump at 39 percent-55 percent favorable-unfavorable. Neither has improved their standing with independents.
If the rematch that voters don’t want is the end result, we may see some similarities with 2016, given both Biden and Trump’s unfavorables, especially with independents.
And if Trump wins this larger number of disgruntled but ballot-casting voters once again, he would have a path back to the White House despite his persistent unpopularity.
All in all, the high percentage of unhappy voters should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks Donald Trump has disqualified himself from any serious chance of reentering the White House. He’s won one lesser-of-two-evils election and came very close to winning another. Democrats need to do everything in their power to make Joe Biden more successful and popular, which may be impossible.
Hey, guess what kids..
Most Democrats think there's a crisis at the Supreme Court even though Americans didn't have any disagreements with the Supreme Court's three big rulings last week.
House progressives are calling for changes to the Supreme Court following a slate of decisions affecting affirmative action, student debt cancellation and LGBTQ protections.
“The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and, frankly, dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Ocasio-Cortez has called for changes to the high court, including expanding the number of justices on the bench. In ending federal abortions rights last year, and landing a blow to LGBTQ protections in a decision out Friday, the court is signaling “a dangerous creep toward authoritarianism,” she said.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), another prominent House progressive, also slammed the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on Sunday.
“They continue to overturn the will of the majority of the people and to make history for all the wrong reasons, legislating from the bench and being political from the bench,” Pressley said during an interview on MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show.” “It is nothing but intersectional oppression,” she added.
Both members of Congress said that every option should be on the table when it comes reining in the court’s power and reforming its ethics.
“We should be considering subpoenas and investigations. We must pass much more binding and stringent ethics guidelines,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I think everything should be on the table,” Pressley said when asked whether she supports adding more seats to the nine-justice bench. “Here’s a Supreme Court that has been emboldened in rolling back the hands of time, undermining and rolling back what should be fundamental civil human rights. So everything should be on the table: reform and expansion.”
Meanwhile, the truth is, the mainstream media has pushed the idea that the Supreme Court is highly partisan but only five cases in the recently concluded term were a clean split with the six originalists voting together. Further, the most conservative justices, Alito and Thomas, dissented more often than the most liberal, Sotomayer and Jackson.
TTF is as quiet and mindless as a little mouse...
Well, most of us are busy with cheese and preparations for the 4th of July, but since you miss us so much, here's some of that polling news you love so much!
https://www.270towin.com/
Democrats:
Electoral Votes: 241
Needed to Win: 29
Winning Combinations: 11
Republicans:
Electoral Votes: 219
Needed to Win: 51
Winning Combinations: 8
Have a wonderful 4th!
"Well, most of us are busy with cheese and preparations for the 4th of July"
yeah, that must be it
LOL!
"Have a wonderful 4th!"
muchas gracias!
here's a tip for a fun game at your Fourth picnic
light a cherry bomb and pass it like a hot potato...
Society sometimes overcorrects when righting its wrongs. Attempts to stand up for those who have suffered discrimination in one form or another can, in some cases, backfire and undermine the fundamental rights of others. That’s when courts must step in and draw the line.
The U.S. Supreme Court did just that last week, twice, in landmark rulings.
It struck down race-based admissions policies in higher education across the country. And — in a Colorado-centered precedent in which the appellant and the justice who penned the majority opinion are Coloradans — the court sensibly ruled anti-discrimination laws cannot force a business to express views that conflict with its values.
Both decisions reflect an understanding by the nation’s highest court that the law had gone too far in addressing inequities — by creating inequities.
As we noted here last week, the decision curbing affirmative action, in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, was overdue. Letting students cut in line in the admissions process because of their race — even if intended to redress past discrimination — is unfair.
First and foremost, it’s unfair to those very students. Affirmative action wrongly presumes such students don’t have what it takes to succeed. That stands to undermine the sense of initiative every student should have. It then doubles down by saddling those students with the stigma of having received “preferential treatment.”
The court’s decision in Colorado’s 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis set needed boundaries around government’s ability to control individual creative expression in the name of advancing tolerance.
The case was fraught with the long-standing tension of the gay-rights debate, yet it really was about something more elementary — whether the law can force people to express themselves in ways that clash with their core beliefs. The court ruled the law cannot do so.
The case featured a self-employed Colorado web designer, who wanted to expand her services into designing websites for weddings.
Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, however, would compel Lorie Smith to design sites for same-sex weddings, too. Smith objected, based on her religious beliefs — beliefs widely held by many Christians, Muslims, Jews and others.
Colorado’s U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s 6-3 majority that Smith could not be forced by the law to create, essentially, a work of art that goes against her values. Gorsuch wrote it was clear Smith’s web designs are a form of expression and thus are protected by the First Amendment.
Let’s be clear about what the court’s ruling doesn’t do. It doesn’t imperil historic anti-discrimination laws regarding public accommodations, i.e., laws barring discrimination against apartment tenants, loan applicants, restaurant patrons and so forth. More to the point, it doesn’t let any business refuse service because of a customer’s sexual orientation.
The case — much like Colorado’s high-profile Masterpiece Cakeshop case, decided on a legal tangent by the court in 2018 — never was about the sexual orientation of customers despite attempts by some on the other side of the issue to suggest otherwise.
Indeed, Smith wouldn’t have any reason to know or care about the sexual orientation of her clients. She simply didn’t want to be forced to create a website endorsing what she opposed.
“As the court highlighted, her decisions to create speech always turn on what message is requested, never on who requests it,” said Kristen Waggoner, president and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, the public-interest legal advocacy organization that had represented Smith in her court battle.
In both cases, the court restored reason to policies that overreached in attempting to tackle discrimination. All of us can welcome that.
What liars these suddenly Sharia-loving Repugnicans are.
To my Muslim brothers and sisters, I say NEVER FORGET
MuslimAdvocates.org:
A Record of Bigotry and Hate:
Donald Trump’s Long History of Anti-Muslim Animus
In January 2017, just days after his inauguration as President of the United States, Donald Trump issued the first iteration of his signature Muslim Ban policy, preventing the nationals of several overwhelmingly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Over the next several months, and in the face of multiple legal challenges, President Trump has proceeded to issue two subsequent versions, the most recent of which went into full effect in December 2017.
As the Muslim Ban has repeatedly wound its way through the courts, President Trump's lawyers and supporters have argued that the Ban is not driven by anti- Muslim animus. Donald Trump's own words, however, belie those assertions. As highlighted in this fact sheet, and as Muslim Advocates' new issue brief lays out in detail, Donald Trump has a lengthy and undeniable history of hostility and animosity towards Muslims. And now that he is president, those sentiments are being translated into policy. You can read Muslim Advocates' full issue brief here.
April 2011 - Trump says there is "absolutely" a Muslim problem, and that the Koran "teaches some very negative vibe."
October/Novwmber 2015 - Trump repeatedly calls for suspicionless surveillance of American Muslims and mosques, indicates his support for a Muslim registry, and says there is "absolutely no choice" but to shut down U.S. mosques.
October/November 2015 - Trump falsely claims to have watched Muslims in NJ celebrate after the 9/11 attacks. Despite being quickly and widely debunked, Trump continues to repeat the falsehood.
March 2016 - Trump states that he believes "Islam hates us," that Muslims harbor "unbelievable hatred," and that it is "very hard" to separate "radical Islam" from the religion as a whole.
August 2017 - Trump valorizes a U.S. General on the basis of a long- debunked myth claiming he once subdued a Muslim insurgency in the Philippines by extrajudicially executing Muslim prisoners using bullets dipped in pigs’ blood.
November 2017 - Trump retweets three anti-Muslim propaganda videos originally posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of an extreme far-right British nationalist group. The videos purport to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence and destroying Christian symbols.
April 2018 -- After the Supreme Court hears oral argument in the Muslim Ban case, Trump again refuses to back away from his campaign pledge, saying there is “nothing to apologize for.”
June 2018 - For years, Trump has demanded that U.S. leaders make use of the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” a problematic phrase that reinforces a false synonymy between “Islam” and “terrorism.” Since becoming President, Trump has used the phrase in public on at least 26 different occasions, often while advancing his trademark anti-Muslim policies....
"Let’s be clear about what the court’s ruling doesn’t do. It doesn’t imperil historic anti-discrimination laws regarding public accommodations, i.e., laws barring discrimination against apartment tenants, loan applicants, restaurant patrons and so forth. More to the point, it doesn’t let any business refuse service because of a customer’s sexual orientation."
Let's be REALLY clear.
This is just the beginning.
Right-wing nut jobs won't stop fighting LGBT anti-discrimination laws and gay marriage any more than they stopped fighting to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
They will keep trying to stack judiciaries all over the country until they can destroy gay marriage as well.
There will be plenty of Christians caught up in the excitement of discriminating against the gays (and worse) and other minorities will be caught in the collateral damage if they keep getting their way.
What the right-wing militias have done so far will look tame in comparison to what they will do if violent right-wing rhetoric continues, and they keep getting uglier for every judicial and legislative win.
Us Little Mouses have been very busy, but this morning we got a chance to watch TV and we saw this on NBC news: "A video shared by Gov. DeSantis′ presidential campaign that slams rival former President Trump for his past support of gay and transgender people 'ventured into homophobic territory,' a prominent group that represents LGBT conservatives says."
You could've heard a pin drop in our wall when we heard that. Junior Mouse hopped over to me and whispered, "Hey, are there really LGBT conservatives?" I shrugged and said, "I guess there must be. They quoted 'em on the news." "But why?" Junior asked. I just shrugged again.
At a major gathering of Southern Baptists, several hundred pastors and other churchgoers welcomed a roster of speakers ruminating on a “teetering” nation, “sexual insanity,” “all this trans stuff” and the specter that the country’s largest Protestant denomination was on a “road to insignificance.”
“We are living in dark and perilous times in America,” read the billing, “as our culture descends into a spiritual abyss ...” And then there was the temerity of some Southern Baptist churches to allow women to serve as pastors, which had been the focus of feuding within the denomination. White evangelicals are a relatively small part of the nation’s overall population, about 14 percent. But they play an outsize role in the Republican Party, to which they have been fused since the days of Ronald Reagan.
Woops, Grandma Mouse just came over. She's not walking too good -- it's lucky she's got four legs. She was reading over my shoulder with one eye closed, and said, "Tell me sweetie, why does anybody give a fuck about those nutjobs?" I said, "I'm not sure, Grandma, I think maybe they are just colorful characters for a writer to write about." She said, "Yeah, well, they ain't gonna be around much longer. They'll be like the ice man, or the milk man, or the pool boy," and she gazed thoughtfully into the distance, lost in her hazy memories. I said, "There are still pool boys, Grandma," but she didn't hear me. She stumbled a little and stepped on her tail and said, "Ouch! Oh hey look, it's time for my afternoon medicine."
"What liars these suddenly Sharia-loving Republicans are"
ironic to call someone a liar and then lie about them
no Republican has ever endorsed Sharia, although the few Muslims in Congress are all Dems
"Don't pee on someone and then tell them it's just warm rain"
sounds like a sign from one of those infamous gay "pride" parades that have set back the gay agenda so much
"Let's be REALLY clear.
This is just the beginning."
as long as we're being clear, let's be REALLY REALLY clear
you're saying that because you see that the ruling doesn't represent discrimination
slippery slope arguments are the last refuge of the ignorant
"conservatives won't stop fighting LGBT anti-discrimination laws and gay marriage any more than they stopped fighting to overturn Roe vs. Wade."
Roe vs. Wade was matter of greater passion because it involved the murder of children
you haven't seen any massive marches and annual rallies over gay "marriage" and discrimination
it's not considered that big a deal by most people
that being said, I think if a case arose about it, gay "marriage" is clearly not a constitutional right and this originalist court would overturn Obergefell
if it's any consolation, such a ruling would likely be 5-4, with Roberts joining the liberal gals on the court
as for discrimination, I don't understand why only religious people should have the right to not to associate with homosexuals
why shouldn't a business owner be able to hire those he think would best support the mission of his organization?
why should a landlord be forced to provide a place for homosexuals to engage in their unhealthy and anti-family practices?
"They will keep trying to stack judiciaries all over the country until they can destroy gay marriage as well."
gay "marriage" is not the goal, but, yes, conservatives will continue to stack judiciaries with judges who support the Constitution
hopefully, there will eventually be no Kagans, Sotomeyers, and Jacksons on any court in the land
"There will be plenty of Christians caught up in the excitement of discriminating against the gays"
did you driven around the local area during the recently ended gay "pride" month?
it seems like more churches had rainbow flags out than not
your generalization is inaccurate
and, as for conservative churches, even there, there isn't much excitement over the issue
"other minorities will be caught in the collateral damage if they keep getting their way"
I hate to have to disabuse you of your ignorance but polls show most minority groups are less supportive of the gay agenda than whites
to conflate perverted behavior with racial identity is actually pretty sick
"What the right-wing militias have done so far will look tame in comparison to what they will do if violent right-wing rhetoric continues, and they keep getting uglier for every judicial and legislative win."
what's ugly is those who think they should be able to force others to work to support things they don't believe in
liberty won last week, right in time for Independence Day
"President Trump for his past support of gay and transgender people 'ventured into homophobic territory"
until Biden, Trump was the gay-friendliest President, like ever
"You could've heard a pin drop in our wall when we heard that. Junior Mouse hopped over to me and whispered, "Hey, are there really LGBT conservatives?" I shrugged and said, "I guess there must be. They quoted 'em on the news." "But why?" Junior asked. I just shrugged again."
this is quite common in insane asylums among those suffering from split personalities - the different personalities actually converse with one another
"White evangelicals are a relatively small part of the nation’s overall population, about 14 percent"
of the six originalist Supreme Court justices, only one could be loosely categorized as a white evangelical
and 59% of Americans think the gay agenda has gone too far
white evangelicals are not your problem
indeed, homosexuals are their own worst enemy
gay "pride" parades where the participants expose themselves with young children present and chant "we're coming for your children" and pushing drag queen storybook time in the local library...
the revulsion is pretty widespread - it's not limited to white evangelicals
Following a spate of indictments against Donald Trump, the mainstream media is now fretting that Democrats’ transparently partisan prosecutions of the former president may further alienate Latino voters, many of whom fled countries where political persecution is the norm.
Immediately after pleading not guilty last month to charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents, President Trump made a surprise stop at Café Versailles, an iconic Cuban restaurant in Miami that has long been a popular gathering spot for the exile community. There, he was greeted with an outpouring of support from a largely Cuban crowd.
The scene prompted MSNBC host Chuck Todd to declare, “We’ve not seen something like this in the United States before,” sparking a several-minute rant about “conservative MAGA Hispanics.”
CNN host Jake Tapper was similarly apoplectic, demanding that the network’s control room stop showing footage of Trump surrounded by cheering Cuban-Americans. “I don’t need to see any more of that. He’s trying to turn this into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That’s enough of that,” Tapper grumbled.
Todd’s and Tapper’s reactions captured the horror of the left as they began to realize that their attempts to turn Trump into a criminal were actually turning him into a martyr to many in the Latino community – a voting bloc that has moved rightward in recent cycles.
While the left had hoped that Latinos would liken Trump to corrupt politicians in the countries they or their families immigrated from, it instead appears that many view Trump as the hero of this saga, and the Biden administration and Democrat prosecutors as the corrupt figures.
The days that followed Trump’s Café Versailles visit saw similar handwringing from the mainstream media. An NBC News article lamented the success of Trump’s “long game” with Latino voters – in other words, the fact that his policies while in office won him many supporters in heavily Hispanic areas like Miami-Dade County and South Texas. A New York Times piece, meanwhile, accused Trump of “raising the specter of Latin American corruption.”
The clear insinuation behind both the NBC piece and the Times piece is that Trump is somehow duping vast swaths of Hispanic Americans into believing an ostensibly false story about the political nature of the charges against him. Rather than considering that Latinos may be looking at the situation themselves and making their own judgements, the view on the left seems to be that any support for Trump is because many Latinos are too naïve to see through the deception.
This patronizing view of Latino voters is one that has become all too familiar on the left in recent years – and is one that is likely costing Democrats at the ballot box.
Last August, for instance, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus launched a series of videos aimed at shoring up the Latino vote ahead of the midterms called “Our Lucha” or “Our Struggle.” But many Latinos slammed the content as demeaning and offensive, including for labeling any conservative Hispanics as “crazy.” One video asks whether viewers “have a superstition-loving Abuela or a crazy tio who’s always saying crazy things about stuff he heard en la radio.”
Unsurprisingly given the tone-deaf nature of this and other outreach efforts, Democrats continued to struggle with Latino voters last year. In Florida, heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County – typically a Democrat stronghold – went for Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio by double digits.
American voters have a long memory. Things they will hold Dems responsible for in November 2024:
1. With the economy recovering at a fast pace in early 2021, they enacted trillions of dollars of stimulus in order to try and one-up Trump, and the result was the first significant inflation in forty years, vastly outstripping any wage gains and setting back the average family by thousands a year
2. They resisted reducing COVID restrictions for so long, because maintaining national emergency status gave Biden more power, that America's youth have had their education set back by about two years and will suffer lost earnings over the rest of their lives
3. After Americans invested hundreds of billions, they gave Afghanistan back to the Taliban
There are many other issues but these are the three that never be forgotten...
Fantasy
"yes, conservatives will continue to stack judiciaries with judges who support the Constitution"
Reality
"The Democratic majority in the Senate is confirming historic numbers of civil rights attorneys and public defenders to federal court seats, teeing up potential future contenders for the high court.
In the span of 24 hours, the Supreme Court last week rolled back decades of civil rights progress.
On Thursday, the court’s conservative supermajority ended affirmative action. On Friday, it said anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination was constitutional. And again on Friday, it denied student loan forgiveness to 26 million Americans who signed up for financial help.
It’s a grim moment for anyone who cares about ensuring that there are federal protections for people routinely facing discrimination or economic disadvantages. But there is something else happening in the background that gives reason for hope: Senate Democrats have been rapidly filling federal judgeships with people with backgrounds in civil rights, abortion rights, voting rights and defending people too poor to afford their own lawyers. And some of these new judges are potential contenders for future Supreme Court seats.
All six of the court’s GOP-appointed justices are members of the ultraconservative legal organization the Federalist Society, or that all were essentially handpicked by the same powerful Federalist Society leader, Leonard Leo, to become Supreme Court justices.
In the last three weeks, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) lined up and confirmed six of Biden’s most trailblazing judicial nominees to date, some of whom are certainly contenders for future Supreme Court seats. All are civil rights attorneys. All have been priorities for progressive judicial advocacy groups. All are relatively young, meaning they likely have decades ahead of them in their lifetime appointments. And all bring badly needed diversity to the federal bench.
Dale Ho, 46, a prominent voting rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union
Julie Rikelman, 51, considered one of the best abortion rights attorneys in the country. Rikelman served as the litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights since 2011
Nusrat Choudhury, a longtime civil rights attorney, 47, is now the first Muslim American woman on the federal bench.
Hernán Vera, a former staff attorney at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Casey Pitts, a labor law attorney who is now the only openly LGBTQ+ judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Natasha Merle, the former deputy director of litigation for NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund"
"The Democratic majority in the Senate is confirming historic numbers of civil rights attorneys and public defenders to federal court seats, teeing up potential future contenders for the high court"
that's what they said about Merrick "please don't impeach me" Garland
LOL!
sound like potential future contenders for Loser of the Year
"In the span of 24 hours, the Supreme Court last week rolled back decades of civil rights progress."
not really
it overturned racism in Harvard's admissions process, defended the right of free speech for content creators, and ruled that Biden is not an emperor who can give away half a trillion without Congressional action
you sound like you have a screw loose
maybe you should see a psych
"On Thursday, the court’s conservative supermajority ended affirmative action."
"Affirmative action" is a euphemism for racism. Polls show most Americans agree with that decision.
"On Friday, it said anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination was constitutional."
Somehow, lunatic fringe homosexual advocates have come to think it is discrimination for anyone to say homosexuality is immoral. A new social contract was enacted last week, to put a cherry on top of this year's gay pride cake: henceforth, society will have a live-and-let-live policy with homosexuals but we have no obligation to endorse them or protect them from social disapproval.
"And again on Friday, it denied student loan forgiveness to 26 million Americans who signed up for financial help."
Congress makes laws. Biden tried to use the COVID emergency to usurp power. He didn't get away with it. Student loan borrowers are free to lobby Congress for assistance.
"It’s a grim moment for anyone who cares about ensuring that there are federal protections for people routinely facing discrimination or economic disadvantages."
It is only grim for lunatic fringe homosexual advocates who have been trying to impose their worldview on American society. For them, yes, it is very grim. The Grim Reaper is putting the final nail in the gay agenda coffin.
"And some of these new judges are potential contenders for future Supreme Court seats."
perhaps the distance future
the majority right now is pretty young
and the future for Dems in the White House doesn't look good at all
by the time, a Dem gets to nominate a Supreme Court justice, history will have already gelled and confirmed abortion was never a constitutional right, that people shouldn't be forced to say things they don't believe in, and that Presidents are not emperors
already, that's what most Americans think
now, if the media and academia can get with the program
this year, we have extra special reason to celebrate!
freedom has won!
Confidence in U.S. Supreme Court Sinks to Historic Low
June 23, 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision before the end of its 2021-2022 term, Americans' confidence in the court has dropped sharply over the past year and reached a new low in Gallup's nearly 50-year trend. Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36% a year ago and five percentage points lower than the previous low recorded in 2014.
These results are based on a June 1-20 [2022] Gallup poll that included Gallup's annual update on confidence in U.S. institutions. The survey was completed before the end of the court's term and before it issued its major rulings for that term. Many institutions have suffered a decline in confidence this year, but the 11-point drop in confidence in the Supreme Court is roughly double what it is for most institutions that experienced a decline. Gallup will release the remainder of the confidence in institutions results in early July.
The Supreme Court is likely to issue a ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case before its summer recess. The decision will determine the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A leaked draft majority opinion in the case suggests that the high court will not only allow the Mississippi law to stand, but also overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court ruling that prohibits restrictions on abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. Americans oppose overturning Roe by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
And then there's this:
Republicans Declare War on Young Voters:
The GOP answer to anger about its abortion, climate, and gun control crusades is to double down.
https://prospect.org/politics/2023-04-27-republicans-war-young-voters/
And then there's this:
U.S. party identification 2022, by generation
Published by Statista Research Department, Apr 6, 2023
Support for the two political parties in the United States has waned over the generations with the share of independents increasing dramatically between the silent generation and millennial generation. Support for the Republican Party in particular has waned with younger generations. The GOP enjoyed 39 percent of support from the silent generation, but only 17 percent of generation Z in 2022.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/319068/party-identification-in-the-united-states-by-generation/
NYC crime by humans in 2023 is down by:
Murder 7.7%
Shooting Incidents 25.7%
Hate Crimes, 32%
Rape 10.4%
Robbery 4.5%
Burglary 10.1%
Grand Larceny 1.2%
Transit 5.3%
Petit Larceny 1.9%
All while bail reform continued to free people, keep families together, & save taxpayers millions.
It's interesting, but us Little Mouses don't really relate to that. We run into one another accidentally sometimes, but it took human beings to invent crime. I'm glad we're safe here inside our church wall.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought federal charges against former President Trump, is an “overzealous” prosecutor who relies on ethically dubious tactics including media leaks and enticing witnesses to win a conviction, say those who have been caught in his snare.
Mr. Smith headed the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration from 2010 to 2015, when he led a team of 30 prosecutors pursuing public corruption cases against major political figures.
During that time, Mr. Smith and his team — some of whom are working on the Trump case — followed a familiar playbook. It’s a script that earned him a reputation as a hard-driving, intense prosecutor, but also a string of mistrials, overturned convictions and sharp rebukes from federal judges, including Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
A review of Mr. Smith’s most prominent cases found that his team followed the same playbook in the Trump case as in other political prosecutions. That playbook has resulted in a spotty record of success in high-stakes cases targeting both Republicans and Democrats:
• Mr. Smith’s conviction against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican accused of accepting payments and gifts in violation of federal public corruption laws, was overturned by the Supreme Court.
• The case against former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate accused of illegally using campaigning cash to conceal his mistress and love child, ended with a hung jury and mistrial.
• The prosecution of Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat accused of taking bribes, collapsed in a mistrial.
Monday was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The average global temperature reached 17.01C (62.62F), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) as heatwaves sizzled around the world.
Even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered anomalously high temperatures.
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”
"Monday was the hottest day ever recorded globally"
you know what happened, right?
first the environmental nuts succeeded in shutting down nuclear power plants - a clean energy source
then, we let third world countries deforest the world and pump coal into the air from coal-burning factories
we should have invaded China and stopped the madness while we could
but, as that brilliant scholar, Greta Thunberg, has noted,
it is too late
as of June 21, the damage is irreversible and all hope is lost
might as well relax and enjoy it
schedule a tropical vacay in Greenland next year
"NYC crime by humans in 2023 is down"
you know what happened, right?
NYC last voted in a law-and-order mayor who promised to shut down crime
looks like it's working
the rest of the country should do likewise and throw the woke bums out!
The district attorney of Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, didn't hold back during a Tuesday press conference after another mass shooting in America.
"It’s time for everybody in our legislature—including the ones who walk around with an AR15 lapel pin—to face the voters... if they're not going to do something, then voters have to vote them out," he told the press. "That lapel pin means I am against you. I am against your safety. And I can tell you a lot of us have had enough of it."
Us Little Mouses were scared enough by the Fourth of July firecrackers in the neighborhood, never mind if real bullets were flying. We just like to be happy and make more Little Mouses. It does not make any sense to us, as living things, to see how human beings hate each other and kill each other. We are just really really really glad to be Mouses and not have to deal with that.
"It’s time for everybody in our legislature—including the ones who walk around with an AR15 lapel pin—to face the voters"
Larry, they faced the voters when they got elected and will do so again when the next election comes up. That's not now. Few voters, though, will make their decision based on gun restrictions.
What they more likely will consider is the outbreak of lawlessness resulting from the propagandistic rhetoric of the CRT and "defund the police" crowd. That will not benefit Dem politicians,
It's against the law to shoot people. If someone breaks that law, what makes you think they won't break laws restricting guns?
A federal judge issued a broad preliminary injunction limiting the federal government from communicating with social-media companies about online content, ruling that Biden administration officials’ policing of social-media posts likely violated the First Amendment.
In a 155-page ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana barred White House officials and multiple federal agencies from contacting social-media companies with the purpose of suppressing political views and other speech normally protected from government censorship.
The judge’s injunction came in a lawsuit led by the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana who alleged that the Biden administration fostered a sprawling “federal censorship enterprise” in its effort to stamp out what it viewed as rampant disinformation circulating on social media.
The government, the lawsuit claimed, pressured social-media platforms to scrub away disfavored views about Covid-19 health policies, the origins of the pandemic, the Hunter Biden laptop story, election security and other divisive topics.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on this latest ruling that they Boden administration had violated the Constitution..
Doughty isn't the only one who rules hate speech is free speech.
MAGA doesn't really care about Trump as a "fighter" or as "tough." Trump appeals to the increasingly nihilistic bent of the GOP voting base for one reason only: They view him as a punishment to inflict on the rest of the country. MAGA may stand for "make America great again," but in reality, it's a movement focused solely on inflicting pain. At this point, most of them realize they're never going to get the rest of the country to agree with their racism, their hostility to reproductive rights, and their unhinged loathing of LGBTQ people. They definitely know they aren't going to win any political debates on the merits, as facts and evidence have disproved their views on everything from social spending to climate change. All they can do is lash out angrily at everyone else for being so very right when they are so very wrong.
Remember, MAGA is a movement so nihilistic that encouraged its adherents to reject vaccination. Deliberately risking their lives just to prolong the pandemic is next-level hatefulness toward their fellow Americans. That's what the MAGA movement is about.
Trump gets this, which is why he frequently calls himself "your retribution" during his speeches. That's why his indictments and other reminders of his criminality only increase GOP support. The worse he gets, the more they love him. He's the post-pandemic disease they are using to destroy a country they've come to hate. That's why MAGA voters are unmoved when reminded Trump will struggle in a general election. It's really not about winning elections for them, either. It's about making the process of having an election as miserable as possible.
It just happens that GOP voters also do not give a damn about the American people. Most Americans, after all, aren't MAGA. Most Americans support abortion rights, racial diversity, LGBTQ equality, and oppose book banning. Most Americans are repulsed by fascism and want to preserve democracy. Trump's followers see other Americans as an enemy to be vanquished. Trump is a cancer on our body politic. That is exactly what Trump voters love about their leader.
The church’s close alliance with the GOP might be costing it members. Notre Dame political science professor David Campbell, who was raised Mormon, has said that there’s an allergic reaction among many Americans when religion and politics mix. We see it among Catholics. We see it among evangelicals. And we’re seeing it among Mormons.
Our church is pretty quiet, now that you mention it. That's why we like it. We live in the walls and on Sundays a few people come in, but it's not crowded. They are mostly older people and they don't really mind if there are mouses in the walls.
An executive order signed by President Biden makes it easier for agencies to impose regulatory changes without review or public scrutiny.
President Biden signed the order on April 6. It significantly altered how the government reviews major regulatory changes, allowing some new regulations to escape cost-benefit analysis and making it more difficult to track them.
It’s time we had a courageous conversation about the left’s incoherent stance on big government and race.
This muddled mindset was on full display last week as two progressive Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, attacked the majority’s decision rejecting affirmative action in higher education by crediting such race-based policies for progress while also claiming that nothing much has changed in our supposedly racist country.
“Today,” Sotomayor declares in the second paragraph of her dissent, “this court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.” Despite that grand advancement, she asserts just one sentence later that the majority was cementing “a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”
Momentous progress in an endemically segregated nation?
Both Sotomayor and Jackson try to show how race continues to matter by drawing on the pessimistic historical determinism of critical race theory to argue that African Americans are still shackled by the original sin of slavery.
“Three hundred and fifty years ago,” Jackson writes, “the Negro was dragged to this country in chains to be sold into slavery. Uprooted from his homeland and thrust into bondage for forced labor, the slave was deprived of all legal rights.” She continues, “After emancipation, white Americans imposed a series of racist customs and laws, including Jim Crow and redlining, to limit black advancement.”
Jackson asserts that this past shapes the present and future condition of African Americans through the disparities regarding wealth, health, and education that exist between the races. She writes:
Today, as was true 50 years ago, Black home ownership trails White home ownership by approximately 25 percentage points. … Black Americans in their late twenties are about half as likely as their White counterparts to have college degrees. … As for postsecondary professional arenas, despite being about 13% of the population, Black people make up only about 5% of lawyers. Such disparity also appears in the business realm: Of the roughly 1,800 chief executive officers to have appeared on the well-known Fortune 500 list, fewer than 25 have been Black (as of 2022, only six are Black). … Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as White men and have lower 5-year cancer survival rates. Uterine cancer has spiked in recent years among all women ‒ but has spiked highest for Black women, who die of uterine cancer at nearly twice the rate of “any other racial or ethnic group.” Black mothers are up to four times more likely than White mothers to die as a result of childbirth. And COVID killed Black Americans at higher rates than White Americans.
Those numbers are clearly dispiriting. They obviously demand attention. But Jackson’s analysis, which simply asserts a facile causality between past injustice and current disparities, does nothing to explain and address the behaviors that drive them. Her dissent makes no mention of the breakdown of the black family, the rise of obesity and other co-morbidities among African Americans, and the failure of inner-city schools since the civil rights movement. Nor does she address the fact that many of these same problems also plague white people – the vast majority of whom are not CEOs, and most of whom have little wealth.
Mysteriously, she also ignores the reams of economic data showing that the true crisis is among black men. The Brookings Institution, for example, reports:
Black women and white women raised by low-income parents (those in the bottom 20% of the income distribution) have similar rates of upward intergenerational mobility, measured in terms of their individual income as adults. … The data shows that Black men raised by low-income parents face twice the risk of remaining stuck in intergenerational poverty (38%) as Black women (20%) in terms of their individual income.
Jackson ignores such inconvenient facts to ascribe all disparities to racism. Rather than identify the mechanisms and barriers at work today that are at the root of the problem, she invokes a gauzy view of history to issue a moral indictment. This is more guilt trip than serious argument.
More importantly, neither she nor Sotomayor detail how affirmative action and other race-based policies they support have improved the lives of African Americans. Isn’t that the key question? It is hard to believe that they have provided no benefit. But are they worth the cost of racializing and tribalizing our politics, culture, and law?
Returning to Sotomayor’s claim, one wonders: How “momentous” could our progress be if, six decades after the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 that dismantled Jim Crow, America is still “endemically segregated”? If the government policies enforced since then, backed by trillions of dollars in spending, haven’t achieved the desired result, why do we believe they ever will?
Liberals they will not, which explains the rising calls for trillions of dollars of reparations for African Americans – affirmative action on steroids. Instead of addressing the complex root causes of the troubling disparities, they are pushing another big government give-away. More is always their answer. What guarantee do we have that an even larger check will keep black boys and men in school and out of prison? What we can be sure of is that a massive windfall to one small group of Americans will only stoke the fires of racial division.
Progressives continue to double down on failed policies because of ideology. Their key conceit is that they should run the show because of their self-proclaimed expertise: There is no problem they can’t solve through their top-down interventions. “We know what works” is their mantra. As it infantilizes the populace – especially the racial minorities they claim to represent, who are afforded little personal agency to change their lives – this hubristic mindset can never admit defeat because that would strike at the heart of progressive authority.
If their programs fail, it is only because they were not fully implemented or funded – and because of emotional opposition from the ignorant masses and the conniving of monied interests. Reality is not the facts on the ground, but the vision they embrace. Conveniently, that vision depends on giving them ever greater power: Since the people are incapable of improving their own lot, they must be granted ever more authority.
One definition of insanity is expecting a different result from the same action. Both Jackson and Sotomayor argue that we must keep the policies and approaches they say have failed. This illogic is the logic of progressivism.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell was stunned by the breaking news that a “formal lab test” has confirmed that the suspected cocaine found in a part of the White House frequented by Hunter Biden was, in fact, cocaine.
The Secret Service discovered a suspicious powder Sunday night, initial testing of which indicated the substance was cocaine. Allies of President Joe Biden were dismayed by the news as it suggests his son was to blame was still struggling with addiction.
On Tuesday’s edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, Mitchell reported the breaking news that a full lab panel confirmed the preliminary test that identified the substance as cocaine, noting to NBC News White House correspondent Mike Memoli “This is so wild!”:
ANDREA MITCHELL: A formal lab has confirmed the suspicion that that white powdery substance found in the West Wing on Sunday was, in fact, positive for cocaine. The discovery led to a brief evacuation of the White House Sunday night. Joining us now is NBC White House correspondent Mike Memoli. So, Mike, where do things stand now? This is so unusual. You and I have covered the White House for years. I can’t even fathom anything like this having been found before in the West Wing. And I go back to the 70s at the White House! So this is pretty, pretty wild!
MIKE MEMOLI: It’s absolutely extraordinary, Andrea! And this new conclusive test confirms what had been the preliminary field test conducted by D.C. fire personnel who were called in on Sunday night after the discovery of this suspicious substance by a uniformed officer in the Secret Service that was conducting a routine patrol of the White House. And so to recap on the developments from, that we’ve been reporting on yesterday, this was found, we understand, in a highly-trafficked common area of the West Wing. It’s an area...more sensitive areas of the West Wing, which, of course, includes the president’ss, the vice president’s office, some of the most senior officials offices, as well as the press team and a number of deputies.
And so this is an extraordinary discovery here. What we also understand is that the Secret Service is conducting now, leading this investigation into how this substance came into the West Wing in the first place. This is something that will include the review of security footage as well as visitor logs.
The big question, Andrea, is for how long had this item, which was described as a small dime-sized bag, been in this location
This happened on Sunday night. This was a weekend in which the president, the first lady and his son, Hunter, and his family were at Camp David, not in the White House.\
Fantasy -- Immediately
Reality -- After he kicks Rump'sRump again in 2024.
"Reality -- After he kicks Rump'sRump again in 2024."
Here's historically fact-based reality:
in 1968, Eugene McCarthy ran against incumbent LBJ
McCarthy didn't get the nomination but neither did LBJ
in 1976, Ronald Reagan ran against incumbent Jerry Ford
Reagan didn't get the nomination, but Ford lost the general election
in 1980, Ted Kennedy ran against incumbent Jimmy Carter
Kennedy didn't get the nomination, but Carter lost the general election
in 1992, Pat Buchanan ran against incumbent George Bush
Buchanan didn't get the nomination, but Bush lost the general election
of voter support, he incumbent doesn't serve a second term
RFK Jr has the support of 20% of Democrats in his challenge to the aging emperor, Slidin' Joe Biden
Us Little Mouses were watching the news and saw this statement today from the former President and leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump. As everybody knows, some cocaine was found in the White House. We don't know what it is, whose it is, where it came from, how much of it there is, whether it was planted or brought in by an employee, what kind of container it was in, whether it was sitting out or in a drawer or dumped on the floor, maybe it came in the mail. We don't know anything.
Here's what the former President said today:
"Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden. But watch, the Fake News Media will soon start saying that the amount found was "very small," & it wasn't really COCAINE, but rather common ground up Aspirin, & the story will vanish. Has Deranged Jack Smith, the crazy, Trump hating Special Prosecutor, been seen in the area of the COCAINE? He looks like a crackhead to me!"
Grandpa got mad at the TV. "That damn Biden, I told you he was on something! Him and that Chinese spy whoremonger son of his, I bet those bribes went for buying dope. They're all a bunch a dopeheads, I tell ya. Any idiot can see that."
I looked at Mama Mouse and we didn't argue with him. But that was not actually the same conclusion we had come to.
"As everybody knows, some cocaine was found in the White House. We don't know what it is, whose it is, where it came from, how much of it there is, whether it was planted or brought in by an employee, what kind of container it was in, whether it was sitting out or in a drawer or dumped on the floor, maybe it came in the mail. We don't know anything."
well, we do all know this:
the only proven and confessed drug addict known to frequent the West Wing is Hunter Biden
but don't worry, little mindless moron mouse - the DOJ will cover the whole thing up
it's that kind of an administration!
More violence from an LGBTQster who supports BLM:
The Philadelphia gunman who left five dead has been unmasked as a cross-dressing Black Lives Matter supporter.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, shot dead four men and a 15-year-old boy in the Kingsessing neighborhood on the eve of the Fourth of July.
He is in custody and facing multiple murder charges after rampaging through the streets with an AR-15, a handgun and wearing a ballistic vest.
"We don't know what it is,"
lab reports say it's cocaine
"whose it is,"
probably Hunter Biden
"where it came from,"
Hunter probably brought it in
"how much of it there is,"
it was a dime bag
"whether it was planted or brought in by an employee,"
no reason to believe it was
"what kind of container it was in,"
a baggie
"whether it was sitting out or in a drawer or dumped on the floor,"
it was on a table
"maybe it came in the mail."
it didn't
"We don't know anything."
what's new?
Feel free to disregard all of the Democrats’ hypocritical warnings about the current threats to democracy. The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court operate in about as pure a democracy as one will find, yet for years Democrats have been berating and attacking the court, undermining its very constitutional foundations and several of the justices personally.
If you like democracy, you should love this Supreme Court. All nine justices, appointed by elected presidents and confirmed by elected senators, are equal. This includes the chief justice, whose office only allows for certain limited leadership decisions.
All the justices have one vote regardless of their age, tenure, or expertise in a particular matter before the body.
As in any good democracy, the justices are free to do their best to sway the vote of their colleagues in an effort to create a majority. Sometimes they succeed. Also as in any good democracy, one or more of the justices may concur with one side but for different reasons — just as, for example, some voters in the 2020 presidential election voted for Joe Biden, while others voted against Donald Trump. The result was the same. Biden received the vote, regardless of the voters’ reason for voting for him.
Another important point critical to a well-functioning democracy is that, in the high court, freedom of speech thrives. Each justice has the freedom to express his or her views, either by writing the court’s majority or minority opinion, or a concurring opinion. And justices in their comments can be very critical of the opposing side.
Finally, disregard all of the progressive wailing and gnashing of teeth at the current ideological makeup of the court. It is actually a fairly good representation of the country as a whole.
Consider the SCOTUS ideological chart, which was prepared by Axios using an analysis by political scientists Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn. Of the court’s three liberals, the Martin/Quinn analysis considers Justice Sonia Sotomayor to be far-left, with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson a bit less so. Of the six other justices, the analysis puts Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on the right, but not as far to the right as Sotomayor is far-left. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett are generally conservative. Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts are pegged as moderate to right-leaning.
Now look at the ideological makeup of the country, which Gallup has tracked for years. According to Gallup’s June survey, “When asked to describe their political views overall, without reference to social or economic issues, 40 percent say they have conservative views, 31 percent moderate and 26 percent liberal.”
Thus, a court with three lefties, four conservatives and two who are moderate-to-conservative is a pretty good match for the country as a whole. And yet the left, from President Joe Biden on down, can’t seem to get enough of court bashing. Biden even recently asserted that “this is not a normal court.”
Progressives hope the court’s most recent decisions will persuade the president to support the left’s court-packing scheme to put at least four more liberal justices on the bench, or to impose age limits, which the left wasn’t so eager to do when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was still on the court.
The left’s constant anti-court barrage is intended to undermine public support for the judicial branch so that it will be easier to pack the court or do something else that would drastically alter its current makeup. President Biden has been reluctant to go that far, but he appears to be weakening.
Many Republicans thought, and some still think, that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election. All the evidence suggests that those suspicions are unfounded. But Democratic efforts to undermine, delegitimize and restructure the Supreme Court, just because they don’t like its recent decisions, only fuel more such suspicions.
After all, if Democrats are willing to undermine the Supreme Court just because they don’t like the justices’ decisions, is it really that unreasonable to think they might undermine elections if they don’t like the voters’ decisions?
Physician, heal thyself.
Outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky departed with a warning that we should beware of politicized science and misinformation.
She should know.
In recent months, we’ve seen a lot of public-health folks quietly rowing back their once-apocalyptic COVID advice and asking for forgiveness for the mistakes they made.
Well, to make mistakes is human, and to forgive them is divine.
But it’s easier to forgive human mistakes that aren’t pronounced using the Voice of God.
And deliberate misrepresentations don’t count as mistakes. Those count as lies, because that’s what they are.
In the early days of COVID, Anthony Fauci told the public that masks didn’t work.
It turned out that wasn’t based on the science of masks and COVID (there wasn’t any) but rather on a desire to preserve mask supplies for health workers.
A laudable goal, perhaps, but still a lie. And when the lie was uncovered, it cost credibility.
The “masks don’t work” line was then followed almost immediately by an equally draconian pro-masking rule.
And this wasn’t based on science either (there still wasn’t any), but anyone who disagreed was accused of “spreading misinformation” and treated as an accomplice to the deaths of old people everywhere.
The ‘Wrongthink’ case against Biden could help end federal policing of public speech
(Plus, as this was happening, then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was actually killing grandmas by putting still-infectious COVID patients in New York nursing homes. He was made a hero of CNN, of course.)
Public-health officials then championed strict lockdowns, because letting people leave their homes was a deadly threat to public health.
It was so deadly that bicyclists, beach-walkers and even ocean paddleboarders were ticketed for posing a public danger.
Birthday parties were canceled, churches shut down, small businesses closed and neighborhood parks padlocked, all in the name of health and safety.
(Big Box stores stayed open, though, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom still hosted lavish, unmasked dinners at otherwise-closed French restaurants, but hey, rules are for the little people).
Then came the Black Lives Matter protests, and suddenly those same public health people who’d been closing parks told us it was OK for tens of thousands of people to march together in the streets, because, you see, “racism is a public-health problem.”
No, it isn’t.
And even if it were, nobody was relaxing the rules for marches about STDs or measles, which are public-health problems.
The truth was, when it came to a collision between public-health and liberal politics, liberal politics won.
That’s where the priorities were, despite calls to “follow the science.”
Lefty Glenn Greenwald afterward observed, “This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic’s history: For four months, the message was clear and unrelenting: Everyone must stay home.
“Those who leave — even to go to a deserted beach — are reckless sociopaths.
“It flipped overnight to endorse a mass-protest movement liberals liked.”
Follow the science, indeed.
Meanwhile, despite repeated denials from Fauci, it turned out that the United States did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Experts within the public-health community had suspected a lab release from the beginning, but the public was quickly told that any suspicions aimed at China were somehow racist, and such statements were censored on social media and ridiculed in the press.
That wasn’t about science but about politics, and about avoiding accountability.
Now emails obtained by congressional investigators shed more light on efforts to cover up such connections, and on the use of private email accounts by public-health people so as to dodge Freedom of Information Act requests.
Such behavior would violate federal law, but hey, laws are for the little people.
Then there was the successful effort by public-health “scientists” to pressure Pfizer into not releasing its COVID vaccine until after the 2020 election, so that President Donald Trump wouldn’t be able to take credit with voters.
It’s not a problem limited to COVID, but that’s enough for one column.
What we’ve seen repeatedly is the use of “science” as an excuse for bullying people into going along with leftist policies, when there’s not any actual science involved.
A statement isn’t “science” just because people who call themselves scientists make it.
If it’s not supported by data and replicable research, it’s just opinion. And, sometimes, just bullying.
Walensky is right that we need to beware of politicized science and misinformation.
It’s just too bad that so much of it has come from our own government and the people it funds.
The 1-2-3 haymakers leveled by the Supreme Court last week against the liberal establishment continue to measure high on the political Richter scale.
Affirmative action? Dead.
Student loan forgiveness? Dead.
First Amendment rights for store owners? Alive and well.
Of course, the reactions by many in the media and by Democratic lawmakers have been unhinged. On cue, we're hearing talk again of expanding the Supreme Court, which would be immediately weaponized by whichever party is in power.
"People don’t have to live under constant fear of the Supreme Court. We can’t sit on our hands while these justices carry out the bidding of right wing organizations," wrote Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) in a tweet Friday. "Expand the Court.”
"Everything should be on the table: reform and expansion," Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) told MSNBC.
The questions asked by those on cable news have only thrown kerosene on this fire. Former Obama "green czar" and current CNN host Van Jones called the Supreme Court "my enemy" while waxing poetic: “The younger generation’s values are being rubbed in the dog poo by the Supreme Court over and over again.”
Print media went all-in on attacking the decisions, led by the Washington Post, which has never endorsed a Republican nominee for president in its history.
"The Supreme Court can save itself from the crisis the justices created," a headline by the Posts’s editorial board decreed in a piece that called for term limits for Supreme Court members, a position it didn't seem compelled to discuss when the court was more liberal than conservative.
So, are Democrats and its allies in the media representing what America's thinking on these recent SCOTUS decisions?
Not even close.
Take this recent ABC News/Ipsos poll as an example of the disconnect when it comes to affirmative action. More than half of American voters, 52%, approve of the high court's decision on restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions, while just 32% disapprove.
On the ruling surrounding student loan forgiveness, a plurality in the same poll gives a thumbs up to the decision to strike down President Biden's plan, with 45% approving, 40% disapproving, and 15% unsure. And on the decision to allow an evangelical Christian web designer to refuse to create a same-sex wedding site as a First Amendment right, voters are evenly split at 40% approving, 40% disapproving.
If you watched or read the news coverage over the past ten days, you might conclude that 90% of the country was against the Supreme Court on all of these issues. Clearly, that's not the case.
Meanwhile, we're now seeing multiple members of Congress calling, oddly, for the very body they represent to be deemed irrelevant, all while somehow accusing the Supreme Court of being authoritarian and anti-democracy. They are advocating that Congress be usurped in favor of the president acting unilaterally like a king if he wanted to, say, declare that hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans be forgiven.
Congress? Who needs it?
The Founding Fathers said that the House controls the purse strings of American taxpayer money. Yet these lawmakers want themselves taken out of the equation, along with the Senate, thereby advocating that the president should simply declare the law as he deems fit. If this scenario sounds like democracy dying in dictatorship, it's because it's exactly that. This kind of support for absolute power by one-third of the government — the executive branch — is literally the definition of authoritarianism.
No matter: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told CNN over the past weekend that she wants to subpoena Chief Justice John Roberts while bizarrely accusing the court of usurping Congress.
"These are the types of rulings that signal a dangerous creep towards authoritarianism and centralization of power in the court,” she warned.
Here you have the most popular Democrat in Congress (at least on social media) openly supporting the executive branch having absolute power. And she accuses the Supreme Court — which rightly argued in a majority opinion that the president has a constitutional obligation to go to Congress first if he wants to give away hundreds of billions of dollars — of creeping towards authoritarianism.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is supposed to be one of the more moderate members on the Democratic side, made a similar argument to ABC's Jonathan Karl on Sunday. The Supreme Court, he said, “shouldn’t be overturning the will of Congress just because they think Congress gave too much power to the president."
Congress had zero say in Biden's loan program — so what "will" is the congressman talking about?
"Republican hypocrisy on student loan forgiveness is astounding,” tweeted the recently censured Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) "The same politicians that were happy to take millions in PPP loans think young people should be left mired in debt.”
Schiff is ignoring one inconvenient fact: The 2020 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans were passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, and therefore were implemented the legal way: legislatively. Biden's student loan gambit avoided Congress entirely.
Biden, in a separate tweet, made the same farcical argument as Schiff, making it clear top Democrats hoped the media would echo their sentiments.
Enter CBS News in what was somehow billed a straight news story and not an opinion piece titled, "PPP loans cost nearly double what Biden's student debt forgiveness would have. Here's how the programs compare.” The whole pesky nugget around the need for Congress to pass legislation into law wasn't broached.
Other outlets followed suit.
The Supreme Court had arguably the most impactful week in its history after ruling against affirmative action, student loan forgiveness without the consent of Congress, and for First Amendment protections.
The hyperbolic reaction from the media was sadly predictable.
As for many congressional Democrats, one would think that diminishing their own role in the way laws are made would never be considered.
Well, think again.
Bud Light is showing no signs of rebounding from its slump as sales plunged even further in June, recent industry data shows.
Sales of the popular beer dropped 28% for the week ending June 24 when compared to the same period last year, according to beer tracker Bump Williams Consulting. Sales of Yuengling Lager, Coors Light and Miller Lite all rose by 22%, 19% and 16% respectively during that same week.
Disney’s stock was downgraded this week by investment advisory company KeyBanc Capital Markets over fears of stalled growth at its Disney+ streaming services and lower attendance at its theme parks, according to reports.
Republicans have attained a near-lock on governance in Ohio. But as they rush to stop a popular drive to protect abortion access in the state, they’re moving to limit voters’ best remaining option to challenge their unfettered power.
Ohio Republicans passed a measure in May that creates an Aug. 8 election to end Ohioans’ right to directly amend their state constitution with a simple majority vote.
Voters will decide on that day whether to adopt a proposal that would increase the threshold to change Ohio’s constitution from 50 to 60 percent, and that would make it harder for residents to get constitutional amendments on the ballot in the first place. If it passes, the measure would dramatically curtail a tool of direct democracy that has existed in the state for more than a century.
“It’s an attempt to fool voters into giving away their power,” said Mia Lewis of Common Cause Ohio, a pro-democracy group that opposes the amendment.
Ohio Republicans’ latest effort follows a recent pattern. In numerous states where they have near-total dominance and the only option to challenge them is through statewide referendums or constitutional amendments, Republicans have moved to attack direct democracy itself.
Arkansas Republicans recently passed a law that makes it harder to qualify ballot measures for a popular vote, as did Utah in 2021. Arizona Republicans attempted to do the same last fall, to mixed results. Republican legislators in Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma have made similar attempts this year, to varying degrees of success. In the maneuver most reminiscent of Ohio’s, South Dakota Republicans rushed through a summer referendum last year in an attempt to make it harder for a Medicaid expansion plan to pass later that year. Voters rejected their last-minute gambit, then passed Medicaid expansion over their objections last fall.
Now, Republicans are trying the same playbook in Ohio.
The precipitating reason for this amendment is a push to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right. After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that ended the federally-guaranteed right to an abortion, Ohio Republicans passed legislation to ban most abortion in the state, though that law is currently pending legal review. Abortion rights groups responded with a campaign to amend the constitution, attempting to follow in the footsteps of similar initiatives that passed in California, Michigan, and Vermont last fall, and in March they got the greenlight to start collecting signatures for a November referendum.
Anti-abortion groups lobbied GOP lawmakers to support a constitutional amendment to make it harder for any future amendments to pass, and rush to get it in place before voters can weigh in on abortion.
“Their true motivation, aside from their insatiable desire for power, is to stop women from having the reproductive freedom that we so deserve,” Representative Jessica Miranda, Ohio House Democrats’ Minority Whip, told Bolts.
In holding this vote, Ohio Republicans are doing an about-face from a position they held just a few months ago. In December, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a law to eliminate August elections because of the difficulty and additional expense for holding them, as well as the historically low voter turnout during a time of year when many people are on vacation.
LaRose said at the time that August elections “aren’t good for the taxpayer, elections officials, voters or the civic health of our state,” and lamented their historically low turnout.
But after the GOP failed to move the proposal through the legislature in time to put it on the ballot for the spring primary, LaRose and other Republicans changed their tune.
An October poll by Baldwin Wallace University found that 59 percent of Ohioans supported a constitutional amendment to make abortion access a fundamental right — enough support to pass with a simple majority, but just shy of a 60-percent threshold — with just 27 percent opposing it.
But it doesn’t seem like the GOP’s attempted end-around is any more popular with voters than their attempts to curtail abortion access.
An early May poll conducted by the group leading the efforts against the amendment to change constitutional referendums found that Ohio voters would oppose the measure by a margin of 52 to 21 percent. Strategists in both parties say that other private polling indicates the measure is currently opposed by majorities of Ohioans.
“The overwhelming response to this from people has been outrage,” Democratic Ohio state House Minority Leader Allison Russo told Bolts. “They see this as a power grab from a gerrymandered, unaccountable legislature that wants to take away power from people and put it more firmly into politicians’ hands.”
The proposed amendment has drawn a broad swath of opposition. Traditional Democratic allies like Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO and numerous left-leaning labor groups have been joined by the Fraternal Order of Police and the Libertarian Party. The bipartisan Ohio Association of Elections Officials came out in official opposition to it because of the added work and unnecessary cost to taxpayers, which is expected to run as high as $20 million.
Even some Republicans don’t seem that keen on the August vote. The bill only passed the Ohio legislature after months of foot-dragging from reluctant GOP leaders and heavy pressure from anti-abortion rights groups, in spite of a GOP supermajority in both chambers. Republican Governor Mike DeWine only came out in support after it had already been passed by the legislature after months of debate. And the Ohio Business Roundtable, a conservative-leaning coalition of business groups that usually works closely with Republicans, has decided to stay on the sidelines.
But the new law’s sponsors and their allies in the religious right and business community are now rallying to the cause.
The Ohio Republican Party recently launched an effort aimed at turning out GOP base voters, and a coalition of pro-GOP business organizations headed by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce recently launched an operation to provide air support. Those groups largely back the amendment because they want to make it easier to defeat a 2024 constitutional amendment to raise the state’s minimum wage.
Given the GOP’s insistence that this is about keeping outside special interests from changing the state constitution, it’s ironic that the biggest individual donor so far to back the amendment is an Illinois billionaire. Dick Uihlein, a GOP megadonor and shipping supplies magnate who has a particular fondness for election deniers and social conservative causes, is the biggest donor behind Save Our Constitution, a super PAC that spent more than $1 million on ads badgering reluctant Republican state lawmakers into passing legislation to create the August vote.
The proposal doesn’t just increase the threshold needed for voters to pass constitutional amendments—it also makes it much harder for groups to get amendments in front of the voters. Currently, organizations and movements need to secure signatures from five percent of registered voters in 44 of the state’s 88 counties to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The new rule, if approved, would force groups to get enough signatures in every single county—and eliminate the 10-day cure period that currently exists for groups to fix any errors in signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Rhonda Santis says she is going to “RIP UP all of Biden’s economic policies” when she is elected president.
-lowest unemployment since 1969
-more NEW businesses than any pres
-wages stable
-inflation down to 1.2%annualized
-deficit down
-highest per capita wage in the world
-strongest pandemic recovery of G7
Such a failure lol. We clearly need a Republican in the White House to turn this disaster around. Us Little Mouses have been happy thee days. After services in our old church, the people stand around having cookies and punch and there are a lot of crumbs for us Little Mouses afterwards. And sometimes even something nice and sweet to lap up, if we can get to it before the ants. Republicans would still complain, just because, but ordinary mouses are doing well.
According to overseas sportsbook BetOnline.ag, Hunter Biden is currently the odds-on favorite with +170 odds.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden sit at the bottom of the pack with +15000 and +10000 odds, respectively.
Another gambling site, Sportsbetting.ag, mirrors the suspects and odds listed on BetOnline.ag, with Hunter Biden also considered the overwhelming favorite.
On Sunday, a member of the Secret Service found the cocaine in the West Wing of the White House. The discovery prompted an evacuation of the building and an emergency response.
Despite the speculations, there has been no official confirmation of who brought the cocaine into the White House.
Fox News Digital reached out to two of Hunter Biden's attorneys for a statement regarding his potential involvement but has not yet received a response. It is worth noting that Hunter has a well-documented history of substance abuse.
Authorities are currently investigating the matter to determine the source of the cocaine.
":Republicans have attained a near-lock on governance in Ohio. But as they rush to stop a popular drive to protect abortion access in the state, they’re moving to limit voters’ best remaining option to challenge their unfettered power.
Ohio Republicans passed a measure in May that creates an Aug. 8 election to end Ohioans’ right to directly amend their state constitution with a simple majority vote."
is that a problem?
you can't amend the US Constitution by a simple majority vote
Constitutions should be widely endorsed and agreed on, not changing every time a slight majority gets a wild hair up their arse
btw, it looks like the little mindless moron mouse thinks Biden is doing a bang-up job on the economy because the country has bounced by from their poor pandemic management
Americans won't be fooled
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is promoting a video his campaign shared online that attacks rival Donald Trump for his past support of gay and transgender people.
DeSantis, in an interview Wednesday on the podcast of commentator Tomi Lahren, said the intent was “identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants.”
“I think that’s totally fair game because he’s now campaigning, saying the opposite, that he doesn’t think that you should have men competing in women’s things like athletics,” DeSantis said.
His presidential campaign shared the video on Twitter last week, on the last day of June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month, saying, “To wrap up ‘Pride Month,’ let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it.”
The video was posted amid a growing grassroots campaign against LGBTQ excesses and lewd celebrations. It highlighted some of Trump's past statements supporting the gay agenda, including saying he'd be OK with transgender women competing one day in the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time of those remarks.
The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives, called the video "divisive and desperate" and said it “ventured into homophobic territory.”
Republican Richard Grenell, who served as Trump's national intelligence director and was the first openly gay Cabinet member in any administration, said the video was “undeniably homophobic.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat who is openly gay, criticized the video during an interview on CNN on Sunday.
“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders, and just get to a bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off?” Buttigieg said.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, responded to the governor's comments using a version of a derisive nickname Trump has been using for DeSantis, saying simply: “A desperate DeSanctus campaign, with a flailing candidate, in its last throes of relevancy.”
The video comes as American citizens have formed an increasingly vocal campaign against LGBTQ+ priveleges — from the backlash to corporations that have shown support for LGBTQ+ people to attempts to ban rainbow Pride flag displays, restrict drag shows, ban body mutilation for minors and restrict transgender athletes from competitive sports.
DeSantis in particular highlighting anti-gay-agenda legislation he’s signed and criticizing President Joe Biden for displaying the Pride flag at the White House.
Trump has pledged that, if elected to the White House again, he would sign executive orders that cut U.S. tax funding for schools pushing “transgender insanity” and health care providers offering gender-affirming care for minors.
Trump and DeSantis both frequently attack the participation of transgender women in women’s sports.
Most health care professionals know they can't fully assess patients' health without looking at social determinants, the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. Income, housing, quality of schools, access to fresh produce and other factors play an important role in wellness. But there's one we don't fully acknowledge: the role of faith.
Faith, spirituality and a sense of purpose all have a beneficial effect on one's emotional, physical and mental health.
This connection is well-established by researchers. Belief in a divine plan for one's life can foster optimism and hope − attitudes that can boost mental and physical health, according to an analysis of more than 40 studies. Spiritual practices, such as prayer, can reduce stress and anxiety.
Spirituality and faith can even affect our physical health. According to a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, religiosity, spirituality and frequency of prayer have been tied to lower cortisol levels.
In a study of more than 1,700 older adults, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that those who practice religion had better immune function than those who didn't. The findings persisted even when researchers adjusted for other factors that could impact immune system function, such as depression or chronic illness. The researchers suggest that the shared promotion of positive thoughts or experience of worship and adoration may help explain the physical health benefits.
Here's how physicians at the Mayo Clinic sum up research on the topic: "Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide."
We also know that some health benefits can be more pronounced in organized religion than in belief itself. For example, if you're a member of a house of worship, you've likely noticed that few people attend services alone. Just as important as the internal attitudes religion can foster are the social connections it can bring.
An epidemic of loneliness and a lack of community have contributed to a rapid rise in "deaths of despair" from suicide and substance abuse. Belonging to a faith organization can foster the sense of community that's missing in so many people's lives.
People who attend services regularly tend to have more close friendships, which can in turn lead to better health outcomes. One study found that cancer patients who belonged to a church choir reported better vitality and mental health despite no changes in their physical condition. Simply having social support and coming together to sing was enough to improve their sense of well-being.
Harvard researchers have also found that men and women who attend services weekly reduce their risk of dying a death of despair by 33% and 68%, respectively.
This social aspect can apply some positive peer pressure as well. Many healthy behaviors are what psychologists call "socially contagious."
A recent study found that Black Americans who were more involved with their house of worship had better cardiovascular health partly because their community helped them make lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking or eating healthier. It's easier to reach your health goals when someone else encourages you and holds you accountable.
Despite the proven health benefits, religiosity is on the decline in America. The fastest-growing religious segment of the U.S. population is now "nones" − those who profess no religion.
It's important to note that a decline of religion and spirituality seems to be associated with potentially negative health effects.
You don't have to join your nearest house of worship to enjoy good health. Your faith or sense of purpose, if any, is on you. But health is as much a matter of the soul as of the body. If you have a sense of faith, cultivate it. If you don't, seek out places or situations that bring you a sense of connection and hope through meaningful relationships.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 in June, below the consensus estimate.
The jobless level rose to 6.9%.
Government hiring led the job gains.
Biden has been one of the most active presidents in recent memory, making changes that are abrupt departures not only from Republicans but Democrats as well, including his old boss Barack Obama.
Taking office in the middle of a deadly pandemic and after an insurrection with a razor-thin margin in both chambers of Congress, Joe Biden's legislative achievements include the American Rescue Plan, which staved off an economic collapse and created a massive rollout of life-saving vaccines. Despite much handwringing and gnashing of teeth that it would drive the economy into the ditch, it has done the opposite, creating 12 million jobs, the most of any single presidential term in history. Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act created major legacy-defining progress on domestic manufacturing, infrastructure, climate change mitigation, deficit reduction, corporate taxes and out-of-pocket health costs. After another paroxysm of gun violence, Biden even managed to usher through the first bipartisan gun safety bill in 30 years.
Did he get everything on his agenda done? Of course not. There have been many disappointments along the way. But his accomplishments are, as Biden would say, "big f-ing deals" and that they were accomplished in a Congress so closely divided is nothing short of miraculous.
On foreign policy, the administration has done an admirable job restoring relationships with America's allies and bringing together a coalition to back Ukraine as it defends itself against the Russian invasion. His withdrawal from Afghanistan was messy but at least he did it, which is something his predecessors all claimed they wanted to do and didn't. (I'm not sure there was any other way but awful for such an awful war to end anyway.) He doesn't seem to consider dictators and despots as his special friends which is a nice change.
Biden is starting to campaign now and is touting "Bidenomics" which is succinctly described as an overturning of trickle-down economics to focus federal money in ways that benefit the middle class. (Trump and his followers call this communism.) On Thursday, he was in South Carolina touting a new manufacturing facility that will make solar energy products. Unlike a certain predecessor who constantly threatened to punish Americans who failed to support him, Biden's making the point that he's the president for everyone, not just those who vote for him, and his signature legislation is making a difference in a lot of red states (not that they will ever give him or Democrats credit.) He is, however, good-naturedly taunting all the Republicans who are racing to take credit for these projects after voting against the funding by saying, "I'll be there for the ground-breaking."
Meanwhile, the prices of groceries and gasoline have come back down to earth and most economists have lowered their expectation of a recession as the U.S. has seen better growth and lower inflation than any peer nation in the world over the past 12 months.
If this is what happens when you have an elder as a leader maybe we ought to think about amending the Constitution and raising the eligibility age for president.
There were reports a couple of weeks ago that Hollywood producer and big Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg was advising the Biden campaign to lean into the age thing pointing out that people aren't as ageist as we may think. After all, the biggest box office draw this past weekend was 80-year-old Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indiana Jones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both 79, are about to go on tour again and can be expected to sell out. Paul McCartney at 81 is producing AI Beatles records.
Some people just have a strong life force no matter what their age and if they're lucky they have wisdom, confidence and judgment too. Joe Biden seems to be among that group and his bucket list is to leave a legacy of major improvements in the way government works. For an old guy, he sure is getting a whole lot done and he wants to do more. The country will be much better off if we let him.
Wisconsin governor Tony Evers (D) used his veto on a legislative provision that increased education spending by $325 per student for the 2024-25 school year. He removed the “20” and the hyphen. Ta-da! The spending increases now run through 2425.
See, that's what I'm talking about. If I had a shot at the government's budget I'd just change a "billion dollars per year" somewhere to "a billion pieces of cheese for a thousand years."
"I'm sure QAnon followers appreciate your help publicizing their theories
all five oF them!"
Do you think that's all there are -- 5 QAnon followers?
"...But the movie has nevertheless been promoted on QAnon message boards, and some accuse it of playing into the movement, which is based on the false belief that a highly organized network of global elites are kidnapping children, having sex with them and harvesting their blood.
That’s partially because Ballard and the actor who plays him, Caviezel, have both expressed support for some of the QAnon’s movement’s wildest claims.
Ballard once entertained a viral theory that claimed the online furniture retailer Wayfair was selling children, sometimes packing them into overpriced storage cabinets. “Law enforcement’s going to flush that out and we’ll get our answers sooner than later,” he said in a July 2020 Twitter video. “But I want to tell you this: children are sold that way.” There is no evidence to support the theory, which has inspired threats against employees and impeded actual child trafficking investigations.
A month after that video, Ballard described conspiracy theorists’ support for his organization as a mixed blessing in an interview with the New York Times. “Some of these theories have allowed people to open their eyes,” he said. “So now it’s our job to flood the space with real information so the facts can be shared.”
Caviezel — who says Ballard recruited him onto the film after seeing him star in“ The Count of Monte Cristo” (2002) and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) — has espoused even more extreme theories.
The actor appeared at a QAnon convention in Las Vegas in October 2021, giving a speech that quoted Mel Gibson’s final speech in “Braveheart” and included one of QAnon’s main slogans, “The storm is upon us,” which refers to the movement’s fight against the imagined pedophile cabal.
He has focused on one QAnon belief in particular while promoting “Sound of Freedom”: the idea that child traffickers drain children’s blood to harvest a life-giving substance called adrenochrome...."
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