Friday, September 22, 2023

That Hissing Sound That You Hear…

Are conservatives doing a slow boil.
Missouri Transgender Girl Wins Homecoming Queen and the Right Loses It
Tristan Young’s crowning as homecoming queen at a Missouri high school sparks an outpouring of support and ignites a fierce battle in the war of words online.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggins
September 20, 2023


The recent crowning of Missouri teen Tristan Young as homecoming queen at Oak Park High School in Kansas City has stirred a fiery debate online.

Young, a transgender student, was voted homecoming queen by her fellow students at her school, reportedly winning over four other cisgender candidates. This marks the second occasion a transgender student has been elected homecoming queen at this school — the first being in 2015, according to multiple reports.
And of course you know the right-wing is having a hissy-fit over it!
Chaya Raichik, who operates the Libs of TikTok account on X, formerly known as Twitter, has targeted transgender people repeatedly with the account, which commands an audience of over 2.5 million followers. Raichik vehemently criticized Young’s victory, resorting to scornful and transphobic language.

Raichik took it further in a deeply dehumanizing post featuring a photo of Young alongside the other homecoming queen contestants. She used this photo to mock and target the teenage girl, writing, “One of these people is a male with an adam’s apple who won homecoming queen in @NKCSchools and 4 others are young girls who had their dreams crushed by a man. Can you guess which one is a male?”
Why is she so violently against her?

The students voted her, they have no problems with her being Homecoming Queen, why does she? She has nothing to do with the school she is just an outside agitator stirring up trouble.
These assertions have raised considerable eyebrows, given that Raichik, 28, insists on presenting herself as a protector of children and is going after a teenager.
What’s it to them? They don’t even know her but they are tearing her apart. They are creating animosity toward a person who just want to live their life… leave us alone!
Standing in defense of Young, an individual underscored their personal experience with Young during their school years, vehemently rejecting the idea that any narrative indoctrinated Young. “Oak Park High School was my Alma Mater. Tristan Young was my friend. I can tell you from experience that Tristan Young wasn’t indoctrinated by a narrative. She was the nicest person I’ve ever had the pleasure of performing with. You have no idea what the f*ck you’re talking about,” they wrote, responding to a bigoted comment about the transgender teen.
The children know.

What all these right-wingers know is that children growing up alongside a trans person, a lesbian, or a gay person will see though all these lies about us… and they will be voting! And that is what these conservatives fear that they will reject their hatemongering.



Work Until You Drop.

[Politics]

Are you ready to work until your 69?

I think you know what party proposed that. The Republicans always hate Social Security since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law and tried to scuttle it.
A group of Republican lawmakers aims to balance the federal budget and slash government spending by targeting programs like Social Security — and some seniors could see a major reduction in lifetime benefits if the plan makes it into law.

The proposal was unveiled June 14 by U.S. House conservatives, Bloomberg reported. One of its main features is to raise the full retirement age (FRA) at which seniors are entitled to the full benefits they are due.

The 176-member House Republican Study Committee (RSC) approved a fiscal blueprint that would gradually increase the FRA to 69 years old for seniors who turn 62 in 2033. The current full retirement age is 66 or 67, depending on your birth year. For all Americans born in 1960 or later, the FRA is 67.

As Bloomberg noted, workers expecting an earlier retirement benefit will see lifetime payouts reduced if the full retirement age is raised. Those payouts could be drastically reduced for seniors who claim benefits at age 62, when you are first eligible.
The Republicans ruling class are mostly white collar workers who are desk jockeys, while those who pave the roads on a 100 degree summer day, those who roof houses, those who deliver goods, those who do manual labor are lucky to make it to 65 now will even be less likely to make it to retirement age.
Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have been working to come up with a fix for Social Security before the program’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund runs out of money. That could happen within the next decade or so. When it does, Social Security will be solely reliant on payroll taxes for funding — and those taxes only cover about 77% of current benefits.
Work until you drop!

That is what the Republicans are counting on, that you will not live long enough to collect.

Do you know what percentage in Social Security tax the CEO of GM paid?
 
On an income of 29 million dollars paid SS tax on only 9,932! Or 0.0342% while we all pay 6.2%. Why because only the first $160,200 are taxed.
 
One of the reasons that the UAW is on strike is to bring back the old fashion company pensions, they know that IRAs and 401(k)s just don’t hack it.
While most Democrats want to boost Social Security through higher payroll taxes or reductions to benefits for wealthy Americans, the GOP has largely focused on paring down or privatizing the program.
You see the problem that the Republicans have with SS is that it is government run! They want their billionaire friends to reap in all that money! It is just like what the Republicans did with pensions, Reagan passed the Individual Retirement Accounts because the businesses were complaining that pension plans were costing them too much, while Reagan’s banking friends wanted their cuts to all that money. While IRAs and 401(k)s are good for most middle income people those in the lower income brackets that are just getting by they are horrible! They have just about all they can do to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads let alone saving for retirement.
 
I also want to point out that the Republicans under Trump's administration cut the top tax brackets for their billionaire friends driving us in trillions of dollars in debt which they are trying to pay off by cutting SS and the social programs.

The New York Times reported that the candidates stand on SS.
Donald J. Trump
Former President
He says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.

Former President Donald J. Trump has said he would not make any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits. However, he has also opposed raising taxes to bring in more funding for them, which means his plans would not keep the programs solvent for the long term. A spokesman for his campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

***

Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida
He says he’s open to Social Security cuts for younger Americans.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has ruled out reducing Social Security benefits for current retirees and people near retirement age, but he has expressed openness to reductions for younger Americans.

***


Nikki Haley
Former Governor of South Carolina
She says she’s open to cuts for younger Americans.

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, has suggested that she would raise the Social Security retirement age for people currently in their 20s in accordance with increases in life expectancy, though she has not given a number. (The retirement age is currently 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.)

***

Vivek Ramaswamy
Entrepreneur
He says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.

Vivek Ramaswamy has said he would not touch Social Security or Medicare benefits. “In a shrinking economy, we should not cut entitlements,” he said in July. In an interview with Gray DC a few months earlier, he said that he would not have created the programs, but that people now had “a reasonable expectation” of receiving certain benefits and that “you can’t just pull that rug out from under them.”
Um… Mr. Ramaswamy, SS is not an entitlement! I paid all my life in to it, it is an insurance policy! Not a federal giveaway like the Republicans keep saying it is.

The Roll Call website wrote,
House Republicans released a long-delayed budget blueprint Tuesday that promises to bring the federal budget into balance over a decade through steep cuts to discretionary spending, new restrictions on the social safety net and relatively rosy assumptions of consistently strong economic growth.


What do I think about saving SS?

Remove the $160,200 cap and make the billionaires pay the full 6.2% on their full income! And also have a needs assessment on the payments, some one who is making $29 million dollars doesn’t need SS.

[/Politics]

A Way Out!

[Editorial]

There is a simple way out, no fuss, no muss.

The Republican House is in turmoil running around in circles like a chicken with its head cut off. One deal after another have fallen through, it is almost like the the Republicans want the government to shutdown. The Liberty Caucus have come out with wishy-washy proposals that they keep changing.
With House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest funding plan in ruins and lawmakers leaving town for the weekend, there’s no endgame in sight as hard-right Republicans push dangerously closer to a disruptive federal shutdown.

[…]

The Republican McCarthy has repeatedly tried to appease his hard-right flank by agreeing to the steep spending cuts they are demanding to keep government open. But cheered on by Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for president in 2024, the conservatives have all but seized control in dramatic fashion.

In a crushing defeat Thursday, a handful of Republican hardliners blocked a typically popular defense bill from advancing — the second time this week it was set back, an unheard-of loss for a House speaker.
Okay I said that there was an easy way to break this deadlock, the Liberty Caucus has around 10 members. That is all, McCarthy needs ten votes to pass the stop-gap budget. 10… one zero.

In the HuffPost they wrote,
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) had a word for House Republicans on Thursday: “failures.” (Watch the video below.)

The lawmaker appeared on CNN Thursday and expressed deep frustration with the GOP-controlled House’s inability to stop a looming government shutdown. Hindered by holdouts, Republicans failed to advance a defense funding bill earlier, and the lawmakers were sent home by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) without movement toward preventing the possible furlough of many federal employees.
Two members are working across party lines.
Two House Republicans say they might work with Democrats to fund government
Freshmen Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler of New York opened the door to end-running Speaker Kevin McCarthy and partnering with Democrats if the GOP stalemate persists.
NBC News
By Sahil Kapur and Rebecca Kaplan
September 22, 2023


As the Republican stalemate over government funding continues, two freshman GOP House members opened the door Thursday to end-running their party’s leadership and working with Democrats to fund the government.

Reps. Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler, two New York Republicans who represent Hudson Valley-area districts that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, said they’re willing to consider a “discharge petition” to force votes on a short-term funding bill — if their party fails to get its act together.

“It is absolutely an option,” Molinaro said outside the Capitol steps. “Working to ensure the government remains functional and that Congress is making the legitimate choices as it relates to funding ... is an important principle.”

[…]

It’s far from clear what the underlying bill would be — and whether enough Republicans would be willing to break with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and team up with Democrats to force legislation to a vote.

Earlier, Lawler said that as long as Democrats control the Senate and the White House, “any final bill is going to be bipartisan. And if somebody doesn’t realize that, they’re truly clueless.”
But it doesn’t sit well with other Republicans…
Some right-wing Republicans are warning colleagues not to go there.

“I don’t think it’s healthy, obviously, for Republicans to say they’ll go work literally with Democrats,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “To try to prevent Republicans from pursuing Republican policies — yeah, I think that would be an unhealthy thing.”
But there are also Democrats who are willing to let the Republicans sink in their own mess.
Jayapal said that if Republicans want Democratic help, they should agree to a simple stopgap bill at current funding levels alongside supplemental requests.

“We’re not inclined to save them,” she said.
If McCarthy really wanted to pass the budget measure all he has to do is sit down with the Democrats and come up with a compromise. He could work out a compromise to pass the stopgap spending bill.

It would a political suicide! The Party would castrate him but the government wouldn’t go into shutdown.
 
But no. For the Republicans it is party before the country.

McCarthy has put power before country, he craves for the Speakership, he craves for the power and he knows that if he seeks bipartisan support he would lose the Speakership.

But the golden cult leader has spoken from on high!

Engraved in stone,
THOU SHALL NOT TALK TO THE DEMOCRATS!
THOU SHALL NOT WORKOUT A BIPARTISAN DEAL WITH THEM!
THOU SHALL PUT PARTY ABOVE ALL OTHERS!


When the government shuts down on October First, remember this when you vote in 2024, the Republicans don’t care about “The People” they only care about the power!

[/Editorial]

***
Updated @ 10:00AM with the NBC article and the HuffPost article.


Thursday, September 21, 2023

DoubleSpeak

doublespeak
noun
dou·​ble·​speak ˈdə-bəl-ˌspēk
: language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth
also : gobbledygook
 
The Republicans are pros at doublespeak, one of the leaders of doublespeak is… DeSantis! Anyone surprised?
Gov. Ron DeSantis was sworn in for a second term Tuesday with a muscle-flexing speech in which he celebrated Florida as a “citadel of freedom” while focusing on a wide array of familiar targets broadly captured by his condemnation of “woke ideology.”

In his 16-minute speech, before a 3,000-person crowd, DeSantis defended Florida families, law enforcement and parental rights, while blistering other states, partisan interest groups and a federal government he cast as seeking either to impose “trendy ideologies” or abandoning basic responsibilities.

“We reject this woke ideology,” DeSantis said. “We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy. We will not allow reality, facts and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob.”

[…]

“We will enact more family-friendly policies that make it easier to raise children and we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence,” he said, hinting at another round of legislation similar to last year’s parental rights measure that was ridiculed by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay.”
Translation for Republican DoubleSpeak…
“Citadel of freedom” = banning books, banning saying “Gay”, banning Black history, and banning trans healthcare.
“Reject this woke ideology” = we want to discriminate against Blacks, gays. Non-Christians, and other people that don’t look like us.
“Family-friendly policies” = forcing LGBTQ+ students back in the closet, allowing right-wing parents to dictate what other can learn.

In an essay...
It Can Happen Here
In recent legislation in her home state of Florida, Edwidge Danticat hears echoes of the oppressive regimes in Haiti that her family fled.
Harper Bazaar
By Edwidge Danticat
September 11, 2023


Earlier this year, my 2010 essay collection, Create Dangerously, was adapted for the stage and performed in Miami, where I live. Like the book, the play honors artists, particularly writers who have risked their lives to write their books—as well as the readers who have risked their lives to read them.

It’s a legacy I know well, having grown up first in Haiti, then in the United States among Haitian expatriates. My friend Régine Chassagne, a singer from the indie rock group Arcade Fire, and I recently talked about how during the brutal Duvalier dictatorship in 1963 Haiti, her grand-father, the Haitian poet Roland Chassagne, was arrested at a Port-au-Prince publishing house for sharing “contraband literature.” He was taken to François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s notorious prison dungeon, Fort Dimanche, and was never heard from again.

[…]

… The law [“Stop W.O.K.E. Act” ] singles out Black-history instruction, noting that it should “examine what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purpose of encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting democratic values and institutions. …

… The “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” has had some preposterous outcomes. In this climate, even spaces supposedly friendly to conservative agendas have been caught in the culture wars. The principal of a charter school that emphasizes “classical education” resigned in March after sixth graders at her school were shown a picture of Michelangelo’s statue of David, which one parent labeled“pornographic.” In May, the state’s Department of Education placed a fifth-grade teacher under investigation after she showed her class the animated film Strange World, which features a gay character. One parent, who attended protests organized by far-right extremists the Proud Boys and the “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty last year, filed a complaint demanding that the book version of Amanda Gorman’s 2021 inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” be removed from “the total environment” and that it was “not for schools.” …
These are long winded paragraphs!
Many public-school teachers I have talked to consider their current reality dystopian. Afraid of breaking draconian laws, librarians and media specialists have had to empty their shelves or cover up their books.

“I think they only want us to teach Republican white men,”one history teacher told me. “Sometimes I’m unsure what place or century we’re in.”
If this is the future you want where oppression = freedom and  censorship = liberty in DoubleSpeak, vote Republican.

If you want to stop all this Republican doublespeak vote Democrat.

Head Hunters.

They don’t like when you call employment agencies headhunters but they do have the pulse on employment around the country.

It is not so much as rats leaving a sinking boat but rather the bad smell is driving them away.
Many Workers Leaving States That Pass Anti-LGBTQ Laws
SHRM
By Susan Ladika
September 18, 2023


Robin Witt spent the majority of her life in Florida, most recently working as a contract engineer at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. But after the state legislature passed a spate of laws impacting the LGBTQ+ community, including restrictions on the ability to receive gender-affirming care, Witt quit her job and moved to Chicago.

"I left my entire network behind for my and my partner's safety," said Witt, who is transgender.

She is far from alone. Out Leadership, a New York City-based company that works with businesses to improve organizational diversity, found that nearly 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ workers across the U.S. have moved to a more inclusive city because of recently passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Thirty-six percent would consider moving, and nearly one-third said they would take a pay cut to live in a more inclusive place.

[…]

John "Jack" Lord is a labor and employment lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP in Miami and the leader of the firm's affinity group for LGBTQ+ workers. He knows physicians, nurses and teachers who have left Florida because of laws that strip rights from the LGBTQ+ community.

Jake Kleinmahon, a physician specializing in treating pediatric heart conditions, left Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans and moved to New York after Louisiana lawmakers passed laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights.
When I read comments on the Yahoo site many of the comments are “Good riddance” but the thing is and what these bigots don’t consider is that the people leaving are not fast food employees, they are not just store clerks but doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, and other professionals.
"DE&I at its heart is about having enough diversity of thought and connection that it actually makes it a wonderful place to work and an even more profitable place to work," Lord said.
What businesses in these states are going to end up with are white, far-right conservatives, who all think one way. What is often overlooked with diversity is that it brings in people who think differently, they don’t just have one way of thinking, what is thinking outside of the box for one culture is the normal for another culture.
 
Barron's wrote last year that,
When companies hire Dennis Donovan to help them decide where to put a new facility, he opens with a few basic questions: Do they prefer any particular region? Are there any states with tax policies that make them a no-go?

Now, Donovan says, he’s adding another item to the list: Would the company consider a state that bans abortions?“You ask it right up front,” Donovan says.
 
[...]

States that preserve abortion access are already trying to pull business away from states with bans. “Our pitch to companies is, come to New Jersey, you won’t have to apologize to a big chunk of your employees for the policies of the state,” says Tim Sullivan, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, a state agency responsible for attracting businesses and investment to the state.
[...]
 
Donovan, a principal at the Bridgewater, N.J.-based corporate site-selection firm Wadley Donovan Gutshaw Consulting, says he expects recognizable consumer brands and technology companies, in particular, to avoid states with abortion bans, over fears of consumer and employee backlash.

“It will cost jobs, there’s no question about it,” he says. “Companies that could have established operations in those states, won’t.”
I like to point out IBM when two hippies came in one day with this new little computer that fits on a desk… IBM threw out the door, everyone knew mainframes are the way to go! They tossed out a trans woman who later was awarded…
IEEE 2009 Computer Pioneer Award
“For contributions to superscalar architecture, including multiple-issue dynamic instruction scheduling, and for the innovation and widespread teaching of simplified VLSI design methods.”
When one of these bigots in Florida or other Republican states needs a pediatrician for their child’s ear infection and they have to wait a couple of weeks to see the doctor, they’ll blame it on the doctor not the fact that many of the pediatrician left the state.
 
NPR wrote...
June 15, 2023
 
Medical students in states with abortion bans are having trouble getting all the training they need. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, is co-sponsoring new legislation to address the issue.
 
[...]
 
Given the legal landscape, Stroebel's not sure how or where she'll practice in the future. For now, she just wants to finish her medical education with the state school that she's enrolled in.
Women's Health reported,
The college decision process has always been complex and emotional. High school seniors ask themselves, ‘Can I afford tuition? Will I fit in and be happy? How far from home is it? What does my college say about me?’ And now, for the first time in two generations, young women are making these decisions in a world where access to reproductive health care is not guaranteed.
When these teaching hospitals have a shortage of interns it will be because the future doctors and nurses are not going to states that ban abortion or trans health because the students want a complete education not one minus learning about abortions or trans health. They don’t want to go to a state where the government is looking over your shoulder on how you treat your patients.

These Republican states will not see a sudden drop in new businesses moving to their states because first the companies have to realize that they are hurting for new recruits and then they have to realize why they are hurting, and then the CEOs have to realize that there is more to the bottom line than money, skilled people.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

How Petty They Are!

This time they are going after a mural painted on a wall in a high school that a student painted on inclusion and the flap is anything but inclusive.

A mural at Grant Middle School in Michigan has sparked controversy since last year.
Courtesy Chandler

So do you see anything here that should get the mural banned? Anything obscene? Anything that you would fine objectionable? Anything that would get it banned?

See the children in the trans tee shirt and the rainbow tights?
Student’s LGBTQ mural must be removed from Michigan school, board says
The high schooler, who painted the mural after winning a student art contest, said she hoped the mural would “make people feel welcome.
NBC News
By Jo Yurcaba
September 18, 2023


An LGBTQ-inclusive student mural created inside a Michigan middle school must be painted over by the end of October. The decision, made last week by the local school board, comes nearly a year after the mural ignited backlash from some parents who said it promoted LGBTQ imagery and witchcraft.

A high schooler in Grant, Michigan, painted the mural inside of a student health center at Grant Middle School after she won a student art contest. Some parents objected to the mural during a Grant Public Schools Board of Education meeting in October because the mural features a student wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the transgender Pride flag, two students wearing the colors of the bisexual Pride flag and another wearing rainbow Pride colors.

But the buttinskies didn’t just find stuff about us but also… witchcraft!!!! Oh you’ll love this!
Some critics argued that the artwork promotes witchcraft because it includes a video game character that looks like a demon and a Hamsa Hand, also known as the Hand of Fatima, a palm-shaped design seen as a symbol of protection in many cultures.
Okay this mural was about inclusion, about getting along with everyone but they object to that, they want to discriminate, they want to exclude people who are different from them, they want the right to discriminate!
The school board voted in June to cut ties with Family Health Care, which operates the Child and Adolescent Health Center inside Grant Middle School, in addition to two other school-based health centers in the area, according to WOOD-TV, an NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The centers provide free medical, dental and behavioral health care to children, according to the Family Health Care website.

[…]

“While it is disappointing that the mural must be removed by the end of October, it’s a compromise we reluctantly were willing to accept to ensure the children of the Grant community continue to have access to medical and behavioral health care,” Family Health Care said in a statement last week. At the school board meeting last October, Evelyn Gonzales, the Grant High School student who painted the mural, said through tears that she created it “to make people feel welcome.”
What are we becoming? Where inclusion is evil and discriminate is good.

I also want to point out that this was a massive backlash with hundreds upset over it but only “some parents.”



Speaking of bigotry... this from our former anti-Semitic president...

The Hill wrote,
Former President Trump late Sunday shared an image on Truth Social telling “liberal Jews” to “make better choices” amid celebrations of the Jewish New Year.

Trump shared a photo on Sunday evening without any caption of his own. The photo included the message: “Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives! Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!”

The image included a list of measures Trump took while in the White House in support of Israel, including his decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights territory.

Do They Care About Us?

Let us hope that they don't. That they are more interested other issues but us.
 
The Hill wrote,
 A majority of Americans said they believe politicians should not have a say in whether transgender people are able to access gender-affirming health care, even as a record number of states press legislation to severely restrict care for transgender youths and adults, according to a poll published Monday by The 19th News.

[...]

Most Republicans agree: When asked if they believe elected leaders should focus on restricting access to gender-affirming care, protecting transgender people or dropping the issue entirely, a plurality of Republicans surveyed — 58 percent — said they do not want politicians to wade into transgender issues.
But the Republican party doesn't care about the voters, they have their own agenda that they want to push for the votes and carter to their conservative base.
Most Americans also believe that lawmakers don’t know enough about transgender issues to make policies.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggins
September 18, 2023


Most Americans are not concerned with legislation around transgender issues and harbor doubts about whether lawmakers are informed enough on matters related to trans lives to create fair policies about access to gender-affirming care, according to a survey released Monday.

In their second annual “The State of Our Nation” poll, The 19thandSurveyMonkey examined the state of women in America, with a particular focus on women of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Respondents were asked about attitudes toward the economy, abortion, health care, guns and the workplace, as well as attitudes toward gender-affirming care and trans rights.

Transgender issues don't feature prominently in most Americans’ political priorities, according to the online survey of more than 20,000 adults conducted in late August. Just 17 percent believed politicians should focus on restricting gender-affirming care, while 33 percent thought they should protect transgender individuals.

All politics are local!

All politics are local!

All politics are local!

People care about what affects their pocketbook, or the street they live on, or the place where they work!

Out California Rep. Robert Garcia, who has the distinction of being the only Democrat who sits on three committees with Georgia firebrand and MAGA Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, was blunt about why Republicans continue to use a losing issue to push hate.

“It’s because the Republican caucus here in Congress is a bunch of bullies. They are willing and happy to attack folks who are the most marginalized, who are such a small part of the population, and who don’t always have the ability or the resources to fight back,” Garcia said in an interview with The Advocate. “They view the trans community and trans families as an opportunity to reignite and continue their cultural wars.”

I think there is another reason… their white nationalistic evangelical Christian base wants it and the Republicans are playing to them, let’s hope the it does the opposite to everyone else. That it turns them off.
“Now that they’ve realized that all their attacks on women’s health and abortion have backfired on them, they’re now turning to the trans community and the broader LGBTQ+ community because it’s both issues as their favorite kind of bullying tactic, and it’s shameful,” Garcia explained.

He added, “It’s also important to remember that they’re also trying to separate trans people from the broader LGBTQ+ community. We’re all in this fight together, and so we’re not going to allow it to happen.”
I think when the Republicans went after drag queens it united us and also people said wait a minute! They overturned Roe v. Wade maybe marriage is next?
More than 57 percent of survey respondents expressed their support for the rights of transgender adults to access gender-affirming care. However, a significantly smaller percentage (39 percent) indicated their support for gender-affirming care for minors, revealing a complex public opinion landscape on this critical issue.

Okay this is where we come in by every means possible we have to educate the public to the Republican lies about health care for us. They have brainwashed to public into believing that minors have surgeries and irreversible treatment to minors. They brainwashed the public into believing the puberty blockers are new and experimental, that they make changes to children that are permanent.


 
Hopefully the voters will continue to balk at this stuff…
Des Moines Register
By Katie Akin
September 18, 2023


A competitive swimmer who opposes the participation of transgender women in women's sports will be the special guest speaker at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' annual fundraiser next month.

Riley Gaines, a former member of the University of Kentucky swim team, raced Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Swim Championships. Gaines and Thomas tied for fifth place.

This isn’t even about trans swimmers winning events… we lost but they still blame us.

Since then, Gaines has become an outspoken opponent of including transgender women on women's sports teams. The issue has become a flashpoint for conservatives in recent years, including Iowa lawmakers.
Is this an issue that the general public can wrap their heads around? Or do they want something done at that intersection with all the accidents? Do they care about a fifth place winner complained about tying with a trans person?