"Bail Out Trump's A**"

There is renewed questioning... Is Trump Putin's stooge?

Boy, did Trump blow it! Now everyone is mad at him. He has been clutching at straws as he goes down.

Down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

Bruce Springsteen "I Goin' Down"

Nobody likes it at all! Well, except Putin... he's got Trump beholden to him now.

"Getting paid by Putin": Democrats criticise Trump's waiver of sanctions under Lindsey Graham Act

ANI News

Oct. 17, 2026

Several US representatives and democrats have strongly criticised President Donald Trump decision to waive sanctions related to Russian fuel sales that were to take effect under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, a month after signing the Bill.

The law, which has now been paused, would have imposed tariffs of up to 100% on goods brought into the US from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas, which include India and China.

The move comes amid a diesel deal with Russia in the backdrop of soaring diesel prices in the United States ahead of the November midterm elections.

Several US lawmakers accused Trump of siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

California Governor Gavin Newsom‘s office accused Trump of getting paid by Putin. “OK. Someone has to be getting paid by Putin. Who? And how much?” the X post read.

This has raised a lot of questions. 

Trump invoked Section 115 of the Graham Act, which authorises the President to waive the application of any sanctions provision with respect to a foreign person, any restriction with respect to a person, and any duty under the law.

"I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver is in the national interests of the United States and a report explaining the basis for the certification, consistent with section 115(b) of the Graham Act," Trump said in the order.

Somehow, I don't see Congress seeing bailing out Trump's ass from the fire as a "National Interest."

If this had happened six months ago, Republicans would have been groveling at Trump's feet... but now, the emperor has no clothes!

And get this, even the Russian Pravda had this to say: "Betrayal of the people of Ukraine": 12 US senators write to Trump over deal with Putin.

No... Trump & company are on a sinking ship... and you know what rats do on a sinking ship?

The Canadian CBC writes,

'Betrayal' of allies

"Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin's murderous, illegal war," the senators said in their letter.

"This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of ‌our Allies; it should be rescinded."

The letter was signed by Republicans Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska ​and John Cornyn of Texas, as well as six Democrats.

[...]

The administration has not yet told lawmakers whether it would impose the sanctions or issue ⁠a waiver.

I don't know about Congress, but... I think the public knows what's happening!

Israel dangles a plum in front of Trump → Trump bites it → Gets stuck in a quagmire → Frantically looks for a way out → Iran laughs at him and cuts off the oil → Trump grasps at the life ring Putin throws at him.

No... this is not "National Interest," this is "Bail Out Trump's Ass." The people know the truth!

Down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

Low-Hanging Fruit: The Long History of Targeting Trans People

[Essay]

I’m a trans woman. I transitioned back at the turn of the century and there were never any problems. 

The state is very accepting, I changed my federal documentation with no problems… but now!

It seems to me that the current administration, dating back to Trump's first term, has attacked trans people. Why?

As far as I can tell, there haven’t been more than a handful of trans people who committed any rapes… there have been more Republican legislators arrested than trans people.

We have been around since the dawn of time; there are some who even say we are in the Bible. They forget Renée Richards, Christine Jorgensen; they forget Lili Elbe, whom the film The Danish Girl made famous.

There are records from when the 2^nd President of the United States [John Adams] was involved in a case where a trans person (Note: we do not know how M. Gray identified; I will use male pronouns) was hit by M. Pitt in 1771. The jury's verdict ultimately drew a sharp line: even though cross-dressing violated colonial law, that law didn't give someone the legal right to track the person down and crack them over the head with a cane. How do you think that case would turn out now?

But all that changed with Trump… like all authoritarians, they need a target! And all through modern history, we are “it” for dictators and would-be dictators. Currently, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is attacking all LGBTQ+ people, Putin has passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and Viktor Orbán, the former strongman in Hungary, went after us. We are the low-hanging fruit that is easy pickings, and 

Trump has followed in their footsteps.

This is not the first time Republicans have gone after the LGBTQ+ community. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 in 1953, which officially banned gay men and lesbians from federal employment, labeling them as "sexual perverts" unfit for government service.

In 1950, Senator McCarthy held hearings about us during what later became known as the Lavender Scare, but their attacks on us didn’t end there. Along came Anita Bryant and her "Save Our Children" campaign! The campaign gathered momentum with state legislatures passing anti-LGBT laws, but it fizzed when it met Harvey Milk.

But this time, their crusade of hate is backed by billionaires’ money and Trump’s hatred of us. Trump is a predator; he devours people. I believe that the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are personal with him, I believe he sees himself as a "hypermale," and LGBTQ+ people feel like an attack on his manhood!

---

How do we counter that coordinated crusade of hate against us and our communities?

The Fourteenth Amendment! The Equal Protection Clause. That is our weapon!

Republicans and far-right conservatives think one day we wake up and say: “Gee, I want to be trans! It must be so fun to be beaten up and discriminated against, that sounds like it will be so much fun!”

We have to gather all the evidence we can find to prove that we are covered under the 14th Amendment.

“A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.” — Booker T. Washington

[/Essay] 

They Have Our Backs

The bigoted right is at it again, attacking us on the playing field!

The right is pushing its anti-trans fury on the WNBA. Players and fans are loudly pushing back

As the WNBA finals kick off Saturday in San Francisco, the pro-LGBTQ+ sports fanbase push a message of inclusion in the face of anti-trans attacks

The Guardian

Lex McMenam

Sat 17 Oct 2026

At Wilka’s Sports Bar in lower Manhattan, a crowd of mostly LGBTQ+ fans was fired up during a WNBA playoff game between the New York Liberty and the Atlanta Dream. When the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones blocked the Dream’s star forward Angel Reese at the basket, then chest-bumped her – leading teammates to separate them – the bar erupted in cheers. One fan quietly joked: “Now kiss!”

“I love strong women, and I love supporting strong women,” said August, a trans organizer and Liberty fan who asked to go by their first name for privacy reasons.

The scene at Wilka’s, where a sign reading “trans people belong in sports” hangs prominently behind the bar, exemplifies much of the WNBA fanbase, which, like the league itself, is heavily queer. But many wouldn’t know that from reading recent headlines about the league. Since the summer, the WNBA has become the target of rightwing activists pushing their agenda to ban trans women and girls from sports. The league has no explicit rule barring or permitting trans women and there are no trans women in the WNBA

This wouldn't be a problem except for Trump.

“Good Work Girls”: Sophie Cunningham Praises Washington Girls for Refusing to Compete With Transgender Athlete

Essentially Sport

Siddharth Rawat

Oct 17, 2026

Thirteen high school runners locked arms and walked off the track rather than compete alongside their transgender teammate. That’s what Sophie Cunningham came out to show support for on Instagram. The Indiana Fever guard has never been shy about voicing her stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, famously stating that she wanted to protect “young girls” from “biological men.” Now, the guard has shown more direct support.

The post itself highlighted a protest by 13 members of the Camas High School girls’ cross-country team in Clark County, Washington, who refused to compete in a meet. They locked arms and walked off the track. This was because one of their teammates was a transgender woman.

The transgender teammate, who uses she/her pronouns, began the season on the boys’ junior varsity team before moving to the girls’ division. Because the student is a minor who has not given consent to be identified, she has not been named.

Most of these know noting about trans people and sports except for the garbage the right dishes out.

She also competed in the Nike Hole in the Wall meet, an invite that included some of the top cross-country runners from all over the Pacific Northwest. She placed 39th on October 10, when the event took place.

Under the rules set by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, athletes are allowed to participate in divisions that correspond to their gender identity. According to a statement from the Camas School District, the WIAA’s rules had not been violated. The Association also added that it had not received any challenge to the athlete’s eligibility, and that its gender policy did not prevent her from switching divisions within the season. Despite WIAA approval, the athlete’s participation sparked immediate backlash.

Most of these critics know nothing about trans people and sports except for the garbage the right dishes out.

Hey folks! Thirty-ninth! Not number one, not number two, not even the 25th! No, it was 39th out of 135 contestants, not even in the top quarter!

These detractors don't even take the time to learn about trans people or the rules governing trans athletes; they just parrot the conservatives!

Do you know the definition of a bigot?

bigot

noun

Simple Definition

: a narrow-minded person who obstinately adheres to their own opinions and prejudices

especially : one who strongly and unfairly dislikes or feels hatred toward others based on their group membership

Merriam-Webster

 

Think Before You Vote!

Something is going on in this country. We are becoming like 1930s Germany, where the far-right has cashed in on the anger of the people. We, the middle class, are being squeezed. Wages have been flat. The deck is being stacked against us.

We feel trapped. And they throw us under the bus, blaming radical lefties as the cause of all our problems. They threw immigrants under the bus, and they threw us under the bus. Just like in 1935 when the Nazis changed Paragraph 175 to turn it against us!

Here now in the United States, Republicans have passed hundreds, if not a thousand, anti-trans bills. Why? Are we so much of a problem that politicians spend all of the legislature's time on us?

We are the "hook" used to channel anger into the voting booth and vote "Red" which is an ironic color for a party, considering where other countries went after LGBTQ+ folks:

Nazi Germany (1933–1945)

The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1920s–1950s)

Cuba (1960s–1970s)

Francisco Franco’s Spain (1939–1975)

And now there's:

Iran

Afghanistan

Russia

North Korea 

Turkey 

What do they all have in common?

They all authoritarian regimes and they other characteristics in common also:

Centralized Power

Control of Information

Managed Institutions

Digital Surveillance

One-Party Dictatorships

What do they all have in common?

Whew, we're safe, we have a two-party system!

Yeah... how many times have you heard Trump or other Republicans say that Democrats should be locked up?

Think before you vote! Think of where you want this country to be. Think about the "others" and how this government is attacking them to make them scapegoats for all the country's ills.

 

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Somewhere Over Laredo (2025)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

  

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.
   
1) In this song, Laney Wilson namechecks Tito's Vodka. Is there a product you you are very brand loyal to? (It doesn't have to be liquor. Maybe you always reach for Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, even if another soap is on sale.)
 I buy store brands... but for dishwashing detergent I buy the brand name. I found it cleans better.

2) The lyrics start with her in a window seat on a flight out of Houston. Do you prefer the window or the aisle?
Well the last time that I flew in the first decade of this century. I like a window seat so I can watch the ground go by.
 
3) She's dreaming of rodeo nights with the guy she loves. If you could spend this evening with anyone at all, anywhere at all, where would you go and who would be with you?
Well now a days an evening out means dinner at 5 so I can be home by bedtime… 8 o’clock!
 
4) Lainey is from Baskin, LA, population 200. Do you prefer big cities or small towns?
Small towns. The town is mostly wooded which is slowly being chipped away. On a street over, an old farm they just cut the tree for the road way. From what I understand the price is going to be $800,000 to $1,000,000. Fifty house in wooded one acre lots... right next to a private golf course.
 
5) There's a Netflix documentary about Lainey called Keepin' Country Cool. What show have you recently streamed?
Okay, I don’t any long time followers will be surprised… Nova
 
6) This week's song borrows liberally from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," so much so that "Rainbow" songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg receive credit. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is the most beloved song from The Wizard of Oz. Can you name another?
William Tell Overture.
Sorry I just got finished watch the Long Ranger!

7) In 2025, when this song was popular, more patients took advantage of telehealth than ever before. Have you ever had a virtual doctor visit?
No.

8) Also in 2025, smart home technology was integrated into more new home construction. Do you use smart devices to automate your lights, thermostat, or doorbell?
I use X-10 from the 1990s! They call it a legacy system… jut like me.

9) Random question – On which day are you happier: a) the day you take off on vacation or b) the day you return home from your trip?
Yes. To both, i looking forward to going on the trip and then usually toward the end I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

---

They just keep coming, roadblocks to going back to the Cape, losing a crown, weather problems, etc. etc. etc.

The Students Know

A parent said NO! And the school caved in and said no also... however the students knew better and the play is going on... just not in the school.

Copley students, parents push back after high school cancels 'She Kills Monsters' amid controversy

Copley students and parents believe the planned high school performance of the play 'She Kills Monsters' was canceled over LGBTQ+ themes.

WKYC

By Nyorkor

September 24, 2026

Students and parents in the Copley-Fairlawn City School District are speaking out after administrators canceled a planned high school production of the play "She Kills Monsters," a decision that has sparked debate over LGBTQ+ themes, school procedures, and student expression.

Members of the Copley Thespian Society said they were excited when the fall production was announced. The coming-of-age play — set in Athens, Ohio — follows a young woman who embarks on a fantasy role-playing adventure after her sister's death and explores themes that include family, grief, bullying, friendship, and LGBTQ+ identity.

"Our principal told us, 'We don't know yet for sure, but there's a very real chance that we might not be able to do this show anymore because a parent complained about the content,'" Emily explained.

Notice: "a parent."

In another WKYC article they write that the parents are hopping mad at the cancellation!

Carrie Coon calls out high school for canceling LGBTQ+ play that students were rehearsing

“The kids are not stupid. They knew that wasn’t the reason why.”

LGBTQ Nation

John Russell (He/Him)

September 25, 2026,

The Gilded Age star Carrie Coon is criticizing her alma mater after it canceled a play featuring LGBTQ+ themes.

“I find it absurd and offensive,” Coon told The Akron Beacon Journal of Copley High School’s recent decision to cancel a student production of playwright Qui Nguyen’s 2011 dramedy She Kills Monsters. “I just find that a wild abridgment of their First Amendment rights.”

According to the outlet, the Summit County, Ohio, high school’s drama club had already cast the production and were two days into rehearsals when they were informed that the play had been canceled.

[...]

However, Kirsch also admitted that her investigation of the production was sparked by a letter from a parent expressing concern that the Copley community would be “upset” to learn that the school was hosting a play that “explicitly explores sexuality and LGBTQ identity.”

However,

According to the New York Times, following its initial run at The Flea Theater in New York City, She Kills Monsters has become one of the most popular productions among amateur and school theater programs across the US, with 652 schools and colleges staging the play between 2013 and 2021. Over 400 of those productions used Nguyen’s “Young Adventurers Edition,” a version he adapted for younger performers and audiences. (It’s unclear which version of the play Copley High’s drama club intended to use.)

But as arts administrator and writer Howard Sherman told the Beacon Journal, high schools in multiple states have canceled the play in recent years. Two Ohio schools, Hillsboro High School and Hudson High School, canceled student productions in 2021. Hillsboro City Schools Superintendent Tim Davis claimed the Young Adventurers Edition was not appropriate for a K-12 audience.

But the bigots prevail!

The students are mad... about the play being canceled but also because the adults lied! That the Board didn't have the guts to tell the truth!

Question. Why is it all right to discriminate against us? Why is okay to say that 14^th Amendment doesn't apply to us? When we were born this way!

WTF!

Did you know that the government thinking about running ads in South Africa for White South Africans to come here?

US officials considering ad campaign to urge South African Afrikaners to emigrate

Exclusive: Trump has falsely claimed Afrikaners are facing ‘white genocide’, but very few have applied to live in US

The Guardian

Joseph Gedeon

Thu 15 Oct 2026

The US government could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a media campaign in South Africa to figure out why more white Afrikaners are not applying to become refugees to the US, as Donald Trump had hoped.

State department officials, according to an August proposal seen by the Guardian, outlined a roughly $335,000 research and advertising effort after applications to the refugee program “trended lower than expected” since Afrikaners were allowed to apply directly online in November 2025. The document, written by the US mission in South Africa with a department research unit for the embassy in Pretoria, admits officials know little about why.

Do you need anything to tall you that the Trump adminstration is racist?

Every Time I Open The News…

It is like I opened some dystopian novel!

This time it is not 1984 or Brave New World or Fahrenheit 451; this time it is closer to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale. 

If you remember, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale was about a dystopian government that totalized the eradication of bodily autonomy! Government surveillance and the rewriting of science and the law became the norm."

EPA launches drinking water study looking for traces of abortion pills

The Hill

by Nathaniel Weixel

09/21/26

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a drinking water quality study that will for the first time look for traces of abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol — something anti-abortion activists, attorneys general and lawmakers have been lobbying the agency to do for years.  

The agency stopped short of making mifepristone an official water contaminant that would require regulation, but abortion opponents are hopeful the move is a precursor to restricting access to the drug, or at a minimum influencing a debate about its safety.  

“It is exciting after a very long journey that’s been almost 10 years, to have this be taken seriously enough to be on an official list,” Kristi Hamrick, head of policy at Students for Life of America (SFLA), said in an interview. “But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a lot of information that we need, for it to be useful for people to know.”  

EPA earlier this month announced it will be conducting a “cutting edge scientific study” that will test for “emerging” contaminants. The agency will pick several locations in metropolitan areas across the country and screen for more than 1,400 pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other chemicals, including mifepristone and misoprostol.

This is right out of the Handmaid's Tale!

The 19th News reported:

After pressure from anti-abortion advocates, Republican lawmakers and state officials, the Environmental Protection Agency announced this month that it will launch a study to test for trace amounts of abortion pills as a water contaminant in multiple cities. Scientists say there’s no evidence that mifepristone and misoprostol, the two-drug regimen that is highly effective in ending a pregnancy, harms the environment or people.

While there is no scientific evidence that abortion medication is contaminating Americans’ water supply, it has nonetheless become a central claim by the anti-abortion movement. Activists, Instagram influencers and Republican Party officials — including state and federal lawmakers — are doubling down on what experts describe as a disinformation campaign that mixes environmental policy and reproductive rights, and risks exploiting legitimate concerns about clean water.

Hmm… could they do that for puberty blockers?

On June 5, 14 Republican state attorneys general and 19 GOP lawmakers in Congress urged the EPA to classify and regulate mifepristone as a water contaminant. In two concurrent letters, officials argued that the abortion medication, part of a safe and effective two-drug regimen to terminate pregnancies, is “a growing threat to the country’s waterways” and violates the Safe Drinking Water Act.

One letter was signed by attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The other letter, led by Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, made similar claims and was signed by 18 other GOP lawmakers.

It is all a lie! The conservatives create a rumor and then say they have to investigate it! All based on a lie!

Reproductive Rights reported that…

Summary

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the federal agency charged with ensuring that water is available and safe, based on scientific testing methods. As attacks on the abortion pill mifepristone continue to grow, anti-abortion extremists have peddled false environmental claims about these abortion pills. They have gone so far as to meet with EPA officials about the possibility of using water regulations to institute new, targeted restrictions on abortion pills. This campaign is baseless, in part, because EPA already continuously monitors water safety as part of its regular work. This fact sheet breaks down that (very wonky!) process.

[…]

Earlier this year, the Trump administration directed career scientists at EPA to assess whether the agency could develop methods for detecting traces of mifepristone—a drug commonly used in medication abortion—in wastewater. Similarly, anti-abortion extremists and lawmakers are pushing to add mifepristone to the CCL and UCMR at the federal level, with the aim of requiring local public water systems to surveil the use of and limiting access to medication abortion.

To be clear, there is no scientific evidence that mifepristone impacts our drinking water. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency tasked with regulating mifepristone, has analyzed the potential environmental impacts of mifepristone as recently as January 2025 and concluded that “it is predicted to have no effect on the environment.”

But they lie! The water treatment plants do not test for mifepristone and misoprostol because it is not required by law for them to do so! Now, if you were a water treatment plant, would you test beyond the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act?

Reproductive Health goes on to report…

In September 2026, EPA launched a study to test a broad set of potential drinking water contaminants seemingly outside of the CCL and UCMR processes detailed above. This research includes mifepristone, misoprostol, as well as several contraceptives and hormones used in birth control, hormone replacement therapy, and gender affirming care. One important limitation is that the test being used in this research can only inform a researcher if a substance is present in drinking water generally but cannot and does not tell a researcher the amount or concentration of the item present in the water.

Yup! They are also going after us!

It is genuinely terrifying that we've reached a point where the government is testing your pee. It has gotten to the point where the Republicans are weaponizing municipal wastewater and the water supply just to chase down ideological boogeymen. How many millions are they going to spend on this witch hunt? This has crossed the line right over into totalitarianism!

Don’t piss in the shower… Big Brother is watching!

So Whose The "Real" People?

I just got a flyer from the Republican House candidate.

When I contacted my state representative in the past, I’d get a personal reply. Now, I get a “Thank you for your inquiry” or some other kind of brush-off.

I used to joke with him that I was “Troublemaker Diana.” Now, I get these brushoffs! The Republican representative... that raised a look of eyebrows... is this discrimination? 

So, about that flyer the town Democrats posted this in reply…

Question: Who are the “Real People”? Who are the fake people? Me? Blacks? Non-Christians? Who?

I want representatives who represent everyone! I don’t want a legislator who represents only the “Beautiful People.”