Boy What A Hole The Supreme Court Dug!

I knew that this day will happen, it was bound to happen and it did!

A Jewish couple was rejected as foster parents because of their religion. This is the future Project 2025 envisions
The conservative blueprint envisions ‘a biblically based’ definition of marriage and wants to protect adoption agencies that only work with Christians
The Guardian
Rebecca McCray
24 July 2024

In 2021, Liz and Gabe Rutan-Ram decided to take the next step toward growing their family and applied to foster a child. After identifying a three-year-old in Florida who they hoped to ultimately adopt, the Rutan-Rams turned back to their home state of Tennessee to start training to become foster parents.

But their plans quickly fell apart when the Christian state-funded foster care placement agency informed them by email that they “only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system”. The Rutan-Rams, who are Jewish, were out of luck.

Now, it is against the law to discriminate based on religion! But what happens when it is another religion that discriminates?

The predicament facing the Rutan-Rams could become more common under a second Trump administration. Project 2025, a 900-plus page blueprint for the next Republican administration and the policy brainchild of the conservative Heritage Foundation, contains an explicitly sympathetic view toward “faith-based adoption agencies” like the one that rejected the Rutan-Rams, who are “under threat from lawsuits” because of the agencies’ religious beliefs.

Project 2025’s Adoption Reform section calls for the passage of legislation to ensure providers “cannot be subjected to discrimination for providing adoption and foster care services based on their beliefs about marriage”. It also calls for the repeal of an Obama-era regulation that prohibits discrimination against prospective parents and subsequent amendments made by the Biden administration.

So how is the court going to rule when a case like this gets to them? Does “Religious Freedom” include the “freedom” to discriminate against other religions?

You see the quandary that the Supreme Court got themselves into?

Then there is Project 2025 goals of bring us back to the 1950s!

The plan envisions upholding “a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family”. It would remove nondiscrimination roadblocks governing faith-based grant recipients, such as the agency that denied the Rutan-Rams. The authors argue that “heterosexual, intact marriages” provide more stability for children than “all other family forms”. In addition to calling for the passage of the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, which would allow adoption and foster care agencies to make placement decisions based on their “religious beliefs or moral convictions”, it also calls on Congress to ensure “religious employers” are exempt from nondiscrimination laws and free to make business decisions based on their religious beliefs.

[…]

“Project 2025 says that religion is a permanent institution that should influence American life,” said Washington-Leapheart. “That alone communicates the kind of arrogant way Christianity is situated as an inevitability. And it’s not. I say that as a Christian person who is firmly grounded in my faith. It is not an inevitable part of my identity, it is a choice I make every day.

Welcome to the American Taliban!

I’m voting for the party that does not tell you what holy book you should follow.
I’m voting for the party that does not tell you what bathroom to use.
I’m voting for the party that does not tell you who you can and cannot marry.
I’m voting for the party that does not tell you what books you can read.
I’m voting for the party that does not tell you what you can do with your body.
I’m voting for the party that is looking forwards and not backwards.
I’m voting for VP Harris.
I’m voting for the party with Integrity, Virtue, & Respect and not for a party that is lead by a con-artist who makes insurance salesman seem like saints!

STFU

That is what the Republicans colleagues are saying to Rep. Burchett about his racist remarks.

House colleagues repudiate Rep. Tim Burchett, threaten censure over 'DEI hire' comments
Knoxville News Sentinel
By Allie Feinberg
July 24, 2024

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican, could face censure from his House colleagues after he called Vice President Kamala Harris a "DEI hire," a new report says. His GOP colleagues are joining the chorus by repudiating his comments as racist and sexist.

Politico reported Democratic Reps. Tony Cárdenas of California and Jasmine Crockett of Texas plan to introduce a censure resolution. It's essentially a condemnation of a member's behavior or speech.

On the same day this week on Capitol Hill, Burchett called presidential candidate Harris and former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a "DEI hire."

Let’s see…

• House women: 92 Democratic women and 33 Republican women in the House, Republicans.
• House minorities: 113 minority members of Congress serve as Democrats, compared to 30 serving as Republicans
• Senate women: 15 Democratic women and 9 Republican women in the Senate
• Senate minorities: Senate Republicans, Black =1 , Hispanic = 2, and American Indian = 1; Senate Democrats, there are 8 minority Democratic senators
• It's worth noting that: The vast majority (80%) of racial and ethnic minority members in the new Congress are Democrats, while 20% are Republicans.

via Perplexity AI

“Her ethnicity and her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever. This is about who can deliver for the American people and get us out of the mess that we’re in,” Johnson said at a press conference.

So why do you think that the Republicans are saying back-off on the race Vice President Harris?

Could it because the Republicans know that they are vulnerable to a label of racism? And that they are trying to get the Black vote so they don’t want to bring up race?

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Then we have the VP candidate calling childless couples "childless cat ladies...

 

You have to understand where he is coming from.

The Republican party is kowtowing to the evangelical Christians who believe a woman's place is in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant. So to them any women without children is not a productive member of society so must be pitied.

I'm voting for the childless cat lady and not the used car shyster.

The Numbers.

The annual Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunists (CHRO) report for 2023 sheds light on discrimination against us…
 

Gender Identity:

Employment: 34
Housing: 1
Public Accommodation: 6
Other: 1
Total for July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023: 42

Sexual Orientation:

Employment: 55
Housing: 7
Public Accommodation: 6
Other: 1
Total: 69

The 2024 report will be out shortly, usually around September.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…

Let’s face we are all getting old but it sure beats the alternative, pushing up daisies, but when you are LGBTQ+ our care is limited. This is an old article but it is still informative.

How to find care for LGBT seniors
PBS News
By Leah Eskenazi, Family Caregiver Alliance
June 11, 2015

I clearly remember the first time I met Herb. He had beautiful white hair framing a handsome face with an inviting smile. But he greeted me with decidedly exhausted eyes.

He introduced me to Charles, who sat in the wheelchair Herb was pushing towards the church entrance where the local dementia day respite program met. As the director of Caregiver Services for a local community hospital — sponsor of the day respite program — my staff and I learned to respect Herb’s fierce independence. He clearly was determined to manage all of the care Charles needed — meal prep, bathing, toileting, dressing, emotional support and more. But the stress was taking a toll on Herb’s health. On the advice of his doctor, Herb finally agreed to take advantage of the two afternoons a week the day program afforded him. It wasn’t until Charles’ death about four years later that we learned, at the memorial service, of Charles and Herb’s 47-year committed relationship.

Twenty-five years ago, when I first met this couple, a community health and social version of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was common. Herb and Charles grew up during the McCarthy era when any indication of homosexuality was met with pervasive stigma, destructive branding and legal and economic consequences. In select older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) age groups, and in certain geographic areas and social settings, people remain selective about who and when it feels safe enough to reveal one’s authentic LGBT self. Some individuals may even choose not to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity to their medical doctor, therapist or community service agency, leaving them unable to gain the full benefit from the services provided. Health and social service professionals at all levels can even contribute to this problem by ignoring or not having time to discuss an older adult’s emotional health concerns and altogether avoiding sexual health in their assessment.

I think the hardest thing about getting help with seniors… is the first step, where to find help. The first step in finding someone to clean, finding someone to take care of your basic home care needs, or for that matter someone to fix the small things around the house.

The LGBT community and long-term care

Today, thanks to dedicated social and political activism fermented in the 1960s and ’70s, LGBT adults reaching their 50s and beyond are seeing incremental improvement in acceptance and assistance by mainstream health practitioners and long-term care community service providers.

Before I came out I used to “Sanitize my house” before family and friends came over to remove anything trans or LGBTQ+ from around the house. Things like the Pride and Trans flags magnets from the refrigerator. As we get older do we need to “Sanitize” our living arrangements? Do we need to take down photos of loved ones from the cleaning crew?

Caregiving
The support that a caregiver receives from friends and family is often critical in relieving stress that can be part of caring for someone who has a chronic debilitating health condition. LGBT caregivers may find that they have less support than they would like from their own — or the care receiver’s — biological family members. Historically, to fill in this gap, many LGBT people have formed strong “families of choice,” a support system comprised of trusted friends, relatives and supportive community service providers.

I have an amazing group of friends, as my mobility has decreased they have helped me clean and do small projects around the house that I can no longer do.

Who will have my Power of Attorney who will have the power of life and death over me? I had my father’s Power of Attorney and one thing that they never tell you is that you are the one to say “Pull the plug.”

I cried, and I cried, and I cried. My father had aspiration pneumonia with some food getting lodge in his lungs. When the doctor and social workers told us that my father’s changes of getting better were almost non-existent I had to say the words. My brother and sister-in-law were with me and we were in agreement but it still came down to me. I had to say the words… pull the plug. It left a scar on my mind that is still there.

Health care and financial decision-making
It is important for LGBT seniors and their caregivers to complete a few key legal documents establishing the right to make care decisions and to document treatment preferences for hospital and health care providers.

Rules governing resources to plan for and pay for long-term care remain an obstacle. We know that same-sex partners do not have access, as married older adults do, to federal family leave benefits, equivalent Medicaid spend-downs, Social Security benefits, bereavement leave, or automatic inheritance of jointly owned real estate and personal property. In addition to spousal impoverishment depending on the state, there may also be differences in how assets in same-sex couples are treated in regard to Medicaid liens, asset transfers and estate recovery.

One last thing…

Dementia
LGBT community members are living longer and with this increase in life expectancy comes the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias…

A trans friend went in a coma and when she came out of the coma, she didn’t remember that she was trans and then she saw that she had Gender Confirming Surgery. She freaked out! What would happen if her memory didn’t come back?

That affected me greatly… what will happen if we get Alzheimer’s disease and we don’t remember we are trans?

I asked Perplexity AI that question and its answer in part is…

In terms of memory problems specific to transgender individuals with dementia, it has been noted that they may forget aspects of their gender transition. For example, they might forget that they have started or completed gender-affirming surgery or hormone therapy. This can lead to distress and confusion, both for the individual and their caregivers

[…]

Overall, while there is evidence of cognitive decline and dementia among transgender individuals, more research is needed to fully understand the unique challenges they face, including the potential for forgetting significant aspects of their gender transition.

Our minds are very fragile and some times they go before the rest of the body.

Being LGBTQ+ Is Now Considered “Obscene Material”

In Idaho they just passed a new law making any thing LGBTQ+ adult material! And require people to be an adult! The Constitution? What Constitution?

GOP law forces library to require ID from patrons under 30 to access “adult” books
The adult book section includes books with queer themes, something a new law defines as "sexual" content.
LGBTQ Nation
By Matt Keeley
July 23, 2024

An Idaho library sign went viral on Reddit earlier this month for stating that all patrons under the age of 30 must show a photo ID proving that they’re above 18 years old to access an adults-only section. The sign is real, and it’s part of a troubling trend affecting librarians, communities, and free speech rights nationwide.

Earlier this year, Idaho’s Republican-led government passed House Bill 710, forcing libraries to recategorize challenged books — including children’s books with LGBTQ+ themes — as being for adults only. The law is similar to censorious legislation introduced in other red states, and a similar law could be enacted nationwide if former President Donald Trump gets reelected and puts Project 2025 into effect.

Isn’t it funny that Trump and the Republicans swear up and down that they are following Project 2025 but everything they do is in the Project 2025

Just look at Trump’s platform and Project 2025…

One more nail in to the coffin...

J.D. Vance in Serious Trouble After Damning Project 2025 Book Foreword

Donald Trump’s running mate can’t claim he knew nothing about the extremist Project 2025 after this.

The New Republic

Robert McCoy

July 24, 2024

As Trump desperately tries to separate his campaign from Project 2025, users on X have noted one big problem: J.D. Vance wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by the plan’s lead author, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

On the Amazon product page, the promotional material for the book, titled Dawn’s Early Light, highlights Roberts’s role in composing Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation proposal for a conservative overhaul of the federal government.

The product page also includes a favorable review from Vance. “Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism,” the review says. “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

But hey! He swears he is knows nothing about Project 2025!

Meanwhile children are being banned!

When parents sign their child up to get a library card, they have the option to allow their kids to check out any books in the library, or to restrict them to the children’s section on the first floor, Wright said. If a child has a restricted library card, they must be accompanied by a parent to the third-floor adult library and sign an affidavit every single time they go to the adult section.

“Doing so acts as an affirmative defense if the parent were to later file an action against the library,” Wright said.

The Republicans are worried. They are afraid that the children will see the bigotry and animosity behind their policies… that they will see the lies for what they are.

The vagueness of the statute has librarians like Scheline nervous about what could be challenged. She says, hypothetically, that a patron could object to a children’s book about two mothers who go to a parent-teacher conference. In that instance, she would have to file that book alongside literature actually meant for adults, where it would never get circulated among young readers.

“We have children in our school district who have same-sex parents. And those children deserve to see themselves reflected in literature. They deserve to go to the shelf that is designed for children, and they deserve to check out a book that reflects their home life,” she said. “And I will not, will not,  move those books and begrudge those children of books that reflect themselves in literature. It does not matter what my views are on the book itself. I will not move the book.”

The Republicans are always preaching “Parent’s Rights” but their hypocrisy is amazing, they scream and yell about the rights of parents to chose their education for their children but at the same time they are yanking LGBTQ+ books off the shelves for the parents to choose what their children read.

“Those are the only problems I’ve had at the library. But yet, here the government is, ‘Let’s go ahead and reach our big giant long arm onto this little tiny library and create a penalty if they have LGBTQ books in their kids section. Let’s not just give them a slap on the hand, because they’re promoting homosexuality. Let’s go ahead and slap them with the $250 fines, plus civil penalties. Because God forbid that we’d be a modern society in 2024. We don’t want our children to be subjected to kindness, humility, virtue and gentleness.’ So that is how I feel about the bill,” Scheline said.

The First Amendment be damned!

Another book ban battle emerges in Florida, with high stakes for the First Amendment

Tallahassee Democrat

By Douglas Soule USA Network

July 24, 2024

Another legal battle has begun over Florida's book bans, with significant stakes, as the sued school district is launching a controversial defense that could shake First Amendment law nationwide.

[...]

Facing a federal lawsuit over its removal and restriction of school library books, county school district officials say such decisions are actually protected by the First Amendment, which they are accused of violating.

"(Our) actions constitute government speech for which no First Amendment protections attach," they wrote in a Friday court filing.

That argument has also been used multiple times in the courts by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and other school districts, who maintain that governments can remove any school library book regardless of reason.

It's set off alarm bells for many First Amendment advocates, some labeling it as authoritarianism. Its appearance in another case creates another chance that a judge agrees with the argument, potentially elevating it to higher courts where far-reaching precedent could be set.

In 1982 the Supreme Court…

How a 40-Year-Old Supreme Court Ruling May Quash the Book Banning Wave
Freedom Forum
By Tony Mauro

Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. issued an opinion 40 years ago asserting that under the First Amendment, “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”

You might think that such a statement would put an end to the current trend among legislators and school officials of banning books that are deemed to be unsettling or inappropriate for students.

No, of course not. The Republicans don’t care what the courts have ruled, they want to make a point, being that they are tough on gays (The right-wing conservative consider all LGBTQ+ people as “gay”) and then when the law gets overturned they blame it of the liberal activist judges.

Strangely enough, even though Supreme Court precedents usually last for a long time, Brennan’s forceful 1982 pronouncement opposing the removal of books from school libraries has mostly been ignored. The opinion that Brennan issued was in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico.

The Pico decision “may well be the most overlooked Supreme Court decision involving students’ rights in the nation’s history,” said Yale Law School professor Justin Driver in an interview. Driver is the author of “The Schoolhouse Gate,” a book about students’ First Amendment rights.

Like I said, the Republicans don’t care about the court rulings.

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And then we have the Republican VP candidate saying to blow-off the courts if the courts rule against Trump!

Judge Cannon and JD Vance Are on the Same Team
The New York Times
By JESSE WEGMAN
July 23, 2024

In the days since Judge Aileen Cannon issued her inexplicable 93-page dismissal of the classified-documents case against Donald Trump, I’ve been coming back to something JD Vance said on a podcast in 2021.

Mr. Vance, the Ohio senator and now Mr. Trump’s running mate, predicted on the podcast that the former president, who had been recently disgraced by his insurrectionary attempt to overturn the 2020 election, would nevertheless run again in 2024. Should Mr. Trump win, Mr. Vance said, he had some advice: “Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” And if the courts ruled against him? No problem, Mr. Vance said: Just blow them off.

“We are in a late republican period,” he added, alluding to weakness in the ancient Roman Republic. “If we’re going to push back against it, we have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.”

His interviewer, Jack Murphy, prominent in the right-wing pro-masculinity world, agreed and said, “Among some of my circle, the phrase ‘extra-constitutional’ has come up quite a bit.” Mr. Murphy said it was necessary “to become a little more robust in our behavior” in order to “refound the country,” and Mr. Vance responded, “That’s exactly right.”

Like I said the Republicans just ignore the laws that they don’t like and follow the ones they like.

“R” is for going backwards
“D” is for going forwards.

Vote for the future… vote D.

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But not all the news is bad...

Whitmer signs law banning gay and trans ‘panic’ defenses

The Hill

BY BROOKE MIGDON

July 24, 2024

Gay and transgender “panic” defenses are no longer viable in Michigan courtrooms under legislation signed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

Michigan is the 20th state to outlaw such defenses, which allow individuals accused of violent crimes to receive lesser sentences by arguing that the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity caused them to panic. While gay and trans “panic” defenses — referred to collectively as the LGBTQ “panic” defense — are not freestanding defenses, they are used in conjunction with other legal strategies to reduce the severity of charges or sentencing. 

Michigan’s law significantly expands legal protections for LGBTQ people against discrimination, prejudice and hate crimes by specifying that a defendant cannot use a person’s actual or perceived identity to demonstrate “reasonable provocation” or to show they acted in the heat of passion.

Connecticut passed a similar law back in 2019, PA19-27 AN ACT CONCERNING GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC DEFENSE.

School's Out For Summer, School's Out Forever, School's…

In the past I have written about how I feel that the ultimate goal of the right-wing conservatives is to bring back public education to the 1890s where all was taught in schools was Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmatic.

We see that in the “Voucher” programs have predominantly benefited affluent families at the decrement of lower income families. Time writes about the destruction of public schools.

Project 2025’s Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Already Started
By Jessica Alcantara and Laura Petty
July 22, 2024

Project 2025, the policy agenda for Former President Trump’s potential first year back in the White House published by the far right conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, has been making waves recently. Some of the many destructive proposals within the agenda include the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education—along with federal education funding and any civil rights protections—and the diversion of public money to private school voucher programs instead.

Make no mistake: The goal is to end public education. But dismantling our public schools isn’t just the plan if Trump is reelected—it is already happening.

I have been saying this for a long time… heed my warnings!

The policies that Project 2025 plans to prioritize—government payments to families sending their children to private school and creation of new charter schools that are run like businesses—have expanded in the last few years, starving public school districts that serve all students of already insufficient resources. In the 2023-24 school year, at least 70 school districts, including in San Antonio, Texas, Jackson, Mississippi, and Wichita, Kansas, announced permanent closures of public schools, impacting millions of students. These districts are resorting to the harmful, discriminatory, and ineffective so-called ‘solution’ of closing schools in Black and Latine communities, stripping those communities of their local public schools.

And lets not forget the Secretary of Education under Trump, Betsy DeVos…

A Betsy DeVos-backed group helps fuel a rapid expansion of public money for private schools
The American Federation for Children has found success amid a 20-year low in support for K-12 education and protests over lessons involving race and identity.
NBC
By Tyler Kingkade
March 30, 2023

A conservative nonprofit group founded by former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said it poured about $9 million into state elections last year, backing nearly 200 candidates. Now, some of those candidates are pushing a wave of legislation boosting DeVos’ longtime goal: subsidizing private schools with public dollars.

Using at least $2.5 million from DeVos and her husband, the American Federation for Children has played a pivotal role in getting what supporters call “school choice” policies passed into law in at least three states and introduced in several more, according to current and former GOP legislators, lobbyists for teachers unions and academics.

Oh, by the way… did you know that Ms. DeVos is a billionaire?
 

The Time article ends with…

Project 2025 is not an inevitability—it is a call to action for anyone who cares about public education in this country. Our public school system requires more resources to create better school environments for everyone. We need investment in our public schools—not closures.

We seen it in the banning of books.
We seen it in the banning of teaching Black history.
We seen it in the banning of LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom.
We seen it in the cutting of funds for public schools and diverting the moneys to vouchers.
We seen it in putting the Ten Commandments in the classroom.

Educated children are thinking children and thinking children are not conservatives.

New England’s Blue… Wrong!

People think that New England is solid blue but New Hampshire is reddish purple. In the land of "Live Free or Die" they passed laws banning us!

New Hampshire governor signs bill banning transgender girls from girls' sports
CBS News
July 20, 2024

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire has signed a bill that would ban transgender athletes in grades 5-12 from teams that align with their gender identity, adding the state to nearly half in the nation that adopted similar measures.

The bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature would require schools to designate all teams as either girls, boys or coed, with eligibility determined based on students' birth certificates "or other evidence." Supporters of the legislation said they wanted to protect girls from being injured by larger and stronger transgender athletes.

Sununu signed the bill Friday, saying in a statement it "ensures fairness and safety in women's sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions." It takes effect in 30 days.

That doesn’t sound very blue to me.

That is the Republican new talking point, “protect girls from being injured by larger and stronger transgender athletes” In Massachusetts during a girls volleyball game a trans student “Spiked” the volleyball injuring another player and the right-wing conservatives went running around saying… See that’s what happens when you allow these big burly trans girls play. We protect from being injured by larger and stronger transgender athletes.

Yeah but! What they don’t say is that there were over 250 facial injuries last year and only one, that’s “1” player was injured by a trans athlete. If they were really interested in preventing injuries that would follow the recommendations to make sports safer.

It seems to me that injuries are common in sports between all players, why don’t they work toward injuries? Instead of attacking us over common injuries and riling them up against us!

Sununu also signed a bill Friday that would ban gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors. That takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025. The care has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.

"This bill focuses on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire's children and has earned bipartisan support," Sununu wrote.

Well since there has never been “gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors” in New Hampshire nor anywhere in the nation! But that doesn’t fit their agenda, instead they count on the general public not know about trans healthcare so they create a climate where people think that the doctors are like vultures waiting to preform surgery on minors on demand.

I vote for the party that does not tell you what bathroom to use.
I vote for the party that does not tell you can and cannot marry.
I vote for the party that does not tell you what books you can read.
I vote for the party that does not tell you what holy book you should follow.
I vote for the party that does not tell you what you can do with your body.
I vote for the party that is looking forwards and not backwards.
I’m voting for VP Harris.
I’m voting for the party with Integrity, Virtue, & Respect and not for a party that is lead by a con-artist who makes insurance salesman seem like saints!

The Battle Lines Are Formed, Dueling Courts

Have you noticed that the states have two types law suits, one group of states are suing to limit our rights and another group of states are to increase our rights. You want to guest which states are which?

In California the AG is going after Oklahoma's anti-trans law, while in Texas their AG is going after a school bathrooms.

Attorney General Bonta: Oklahoma Legislation Barring Transgender Students from School Facilities Consistent with Their Gender Identity is Discriminatory and Unlawful
Press Release Attorney General Bonta
Friday, July 19, 2024

California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined 17 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the rights of transgender students in Bridge v. Oklahoma State Department of Education. The case stems from a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 615 (SB 615), which categorically prohibits transgender students from using sex-separated school facilities consistent with their gender identity. After the Western District of Oklahoma granted the State defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, the plaintiffs (three transgender students) appealed the decision to the Tenth Circuit. The coalition asserts in its amicus brief that SB 615 violates Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, and also describes the serious harms to transgender youth that result from unlawful discrimination on the basis of an individual’s gender identity.

[…]

In their amicus brief today, the coalition supported the plaintiffs' effort to block the enforcement of SB 615, arguing that the law:

•     Violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by stigmatizing transgender students and denying them access to common school facilities based on their gender identity.
•     Violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by denying transgender boys and girls access to the same common facilities that other boys and girls may use.
•     Fails to recognize how inclusive laws and policies — such as those in California — produce important benefits without compromising the privacy and safety of others.

They are not alone, other states joined California,

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

But the other side haven’t been sitting on their laurels...

Five Republican-led states sue over Biden's new Title IX transgender protections
The new rules prohibit schools from banning transgender students and teachers from using restrooms that align with their gender identities, among other policies.
NBC News
By Jo Yurcaba
April 29, 2024


Five Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over its new rules expanding Title IX — a federal civil rights law that protects students from sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools — to protect transgender students.

A handful of Republican officials in other states have publicly said they will not enforce the new rules but have stopped short of filing lawsuits.  

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued the Biden administration Monday to block the rules, which will, in part, prohibit schools from barring trans students and teachers from using the school facilities and pronouns that align with their gender identities, among other policies.

[…]

Republican attorneys general in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho filed a separate lawsuit Monday arguing that the rule exceeds the Education Department’s authority, in part because it redefines sex to include gender identity.

“This is all for a political agenda, ignoring significant safety concerns for young women students in pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across Louisiana and the entire country,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.

“This is all for a political agenda” isn’t this like the pot calling the kettle black?

One party giveth our rights.
One party taketh away our rights!

I’m voting blue all the way. No way will I vote for the old guy who makes used car salesmen look like saints.

No Tesla For Me!

Nope, no way.

I like the car but I don’t like the owner of the company who is working to punish the whole trans community. He blames us the trans community for his daughter’s transition.

 Musk says estranged child's gender-affirming care sparked fight against 'woke mind virus'
USA Today
By Anthony Robledo
July 22, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his estranged transgender daughter was "killed" by the "woke mind virus" after he was tricked into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures.

In an interview with psychologist and conservative commentator Dr. Jordan Peterson, the X owner called gender-reassignment surgery "child mutilation and sterilization." He then discussed his 20-year-old child Vivian Jenna Wilson, who he said underwent the procedures during the pandemic.

"I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys," Musk told Peterson in a Daily Wire interview during which he referred to his child by their deadname. "This was really before I had any understanding of what was going on, and we had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion and I was told (Musk's child) might commit suicide."

The SpaceX founder claimed the process is done to children "who are far below the age of consent" and said he agreed with Peterson's belief that anyone who promotes the practice should go to prison.

Nope, no way, no how! Am I going to buy one or use any of his products like “X”

I also will not personally buy his stocks. I do think his car company will start to decline as more companies start manufacturing EV or plug-in hybrids. He was the only kid (And I do mean kid.) on the block. But he is facing competition from high end car companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

He was just a spoiled brat that his dad said, here’s a couple hundred million dollars, go...

Are You Ready For The Answer?

Be ready for a shock, I hope that most of you knew the answer but if you don’t…

Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 - OCR BNazi policies towards women

Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state, meaning all aspects of Germans’ lives were controlled by the government. It was also one in which those deemed ‘enemies of the state’ were ruthlessly persecuted.

The Nazis had clear ideas of what they wanted from women. They were expected to stay at home, look after the family and produce children in order to secure the future of the
Aryan race.

Hitler believed women’s lives should revolve round the three 'Ks': Kinder (children), Küche (kitchen), and Kirche (church).

Goebbels said: "The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world."

Women were important to the Nazis, however, the Nazis believed that the role of the woman was in the home and with her family, not in the world of work.

Stop right there… does any of this sound familiar? Have you heard it recently? Did you expect that answer? The similarities are amazing! It is almost like the Republicans are using Germany of the 1930 as a guidebook.

Far-right Republicans have unlikely new target in their sights: divorce
Bans on no-fault divorces would be unpopular, but the Republicans may be too caught up in a moral panic to care
Open Democracy
By Chrissy Stroop
7 December 2023

Republican populist Ronald Reagan was the first – and, until Donald Trump, only – US president to have been divorced. He is also the reason that Americans have been able to divorce without the imposition of an undue government burden over the past 50 or so years, having been the first US politician to sign a no-fault divorce bill into state law while governor of California in 1969.

But in the New Republican party

Yet, in recent years, calls for an end to no-fault divorce have increasingly been made by some prominent Republicans. These include the current speaker of the House, Mike Johnson – the one who had his own son monitor his porn consumption via an evangelical app and who is himself in a ‘covenant marriage’, an extreme and explicitly Christian form of marriage that is very difficult to dissolve and legally available in only three states, including his native Louisiana.

The state-level platforms of the Republican Party branches in Texas and Nebraska have also called for the abolition of no-fault divorce, and the topic has seen some debate in red states’ legislatures in recent years.

And the New Republicans have already taken care of pregnant by banning abortions. ✓
Now they are they are going after divorce! Barefoot ✓
All they have to do is ban women working In the kitchen.

---

Update: 4:20PM

The other thing that had been carried on through the ages...

The persecution of trans people by the Nazis was devastating – and it still echoes down the ages

During the Weimar Republic – a period in German history following World War One, before the rise of the Nazis – the country was an epicentre for LGBTQ+ people, with movements supporting transgender and gender-non-conforming folks.

Pink News

By Maggie Baska

March 14

On 6 May, fanatical Nazi students raided the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, roughly translated as the Institute of Sexology. Tens of thousands of books, papers and research were taken from shelves and burned. 

The institute, headed by Magnus Hirschfeld, was an academic foundation devoted to sexological research and studies on the experiences of transgender people. It also offered some of the first modern gender-affirmation surgeries in the world.

Tragically, the institute’s large lists of patients’ names and addresses were seized during the raid and, it’s believed, were instrumental in the arrest thousands of people – and the subsequent deportations to concentration camps – in the months and years that followed.

[...]

The Nazis continued to target transgender and gender-non-conforming people, alongside other groups they believed threatened their ideology and rule. In the terrifying years that followed, transgender people would be sent to the camps and other centres of death, alongside Jews, the disabled, cisgender queer people, members of the Roma and Sinti communities and other groups considered degenerate or of no use. 

Have you seen the handwriting on the wall? Are you worried?

Are you going to vote Blue?

I Want To Ask You A Question,

Which party do you think express this ideology the best?

Which party has clear ideas of what they wanted from women. Women are expected to stay at home, look after the family and produce children in order to secure the future of the country?

Be daring write a comment on which party believes that, write it anonymously if you want. At 4:00 I will tell you “the rest of the story”

So Who Are Showering The Trump PAC With Money?

I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain't it sad?
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That's too bad
In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn't have to work at all, I'd fool around and have a ball
Money, Money, Money Songwriters: Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus

Try Musk.

Try venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

Try Winklevoss twins, Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital and Palantir Technologies co-founder, Joe Lonsdale the managing partner at 8VC, a US-based venture capital firm.

The bottom line on why they support Trump is the bottom line!

You know how in 2017 Trump gave massive tax cut to the rich? The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) writes,

As this debate unfolds, policymakers and the public should understand that the 2017 Trump tax law:

•     Was skewed to the rich. Households with incomes in the top 1 percent will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center (TPC). As a share of after-tax income, tax cuts at the top — for both households in the top 1 percent and the top 5 percent — are more than triple the total value of the tax cuts received for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent.
•     Was expensive and eroded the U.S. revenue base. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in 2018 that the 2017 law would cost $1.9 trillion over ten years, and recent estimates show that making the law’s temporary individual income and estate tax cuts permanent would cost another roughly $400 billion a year beginning in 2027. Together with the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts enacted under President Bush (most of which were made permanent in 2012), the law has severely eroded our country’s revenue base. Revenue as a share of GDP has fallen from about 19.5 percent in the years immediately preceding the Bush tax cuts to just 16.3 percent in the years immediately following the Trump tax cuts, with revenues expected to rise to an annual average of 16.9 percent of GDP in 2018-2026 (excluding pandemic years), according to CBO. This is simply not enough revenue given the nation’s investment needs and our commitments to Social Security and health coverage.
•     Failed to deliver promised economic benefits. Trump Administration officials claimed their centerpiece corporate tax rate cut would “very conservatively” lead to a $4,000 boost in household income. New research shows that workers who earned less than about $114,000 on average in 2016 saw “no change in earnings” from the corporate tax rate cut, while top executive salaries increased sharply. Similarly, rigorous research concluded that the tax law’s 20 percent pass-through deduction, which was skewed in favor of wealthy business owners, has largely failed to trickle down to workers in those companies who aren’t owners. Like the Bush tax cuts before it, the 2017 Trump tax cut was a trickle-down failure.

And these tax cuts are schedule to end next year! And that has the billionaires worried! They might have to pay taxes!

They are flooding the conservative PAC with money! Tons of money!

A rash of tech billionaires are pivoting to Trump — but not because they’re MAGA bros
CNN
By Allison Morrow,
July 18, 2024

The Bay Area has long been, and remains, a hippie-dippie bastion of Democrats who voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. But there’s a small, powerful sect of Silicon Valley billionaires who are carving a path for the maybe-Trumpers and the MAGA-curious in the tech world.

Elon Musk explicitly endorsed Trump over the weekend and, according to The Wall Street Journal, inked a nine-figure donation promise to a new pro-Trump political action committee called America PAC. David Sacks, the billionaire tech investor, co-hosted a fundraiser last month at his San Francisco home and spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Other contributors to America PAC include the Winklevoss twins, Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

In the last election cycle, the few Trump backers who existed in the Valley largely kept their support under the radar. Their numbers are still small, but they’re no longer hiding, and their wallets are open.

Their bottom line is their pocketbooks… but isn’t that what the Robber Barons always did, stuffed the politicians pockets with dollar bills? Do you remember what Trump promised is the oil tycoons would donate to his PACs?  Trump pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry if they donate to his PACs.

 

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
Aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world
It's a rich man's world

The CNN article goes on...

“A mythology has been marketed by partisans suggesting a non-existent surge of tech titans abandoning the Democratic party support in a rush to support the Trump/Vance campaign. The truth is that most leading tech figures do not support Trump/Vance and those prominent ones who do, were there years ago as well,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, told CNN.

And for the ones you might have heard of, most likely, it’s not a sudden fervor for the far right’s Christian extremism or a predilection for red baseball caps. Instead, they’re looking out for the bottom line.

The two biggest pain points for people in tech have been the Biden administration’s record on antitrust enforcement and its attitude toward crypto, Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a center-left tech policy group, told me.

It is their bottom line… fascism! They don’t care what it does to the nation, it their pocketbooks that they care about. How dare the Democrats try to break up their companies and tax us more!

In other words: It’s not that the billionaires love Trump, it’s that they really don’t like Lina Khan, President Joe Biden’s top antitrust crusader; or Gary Gensler, the Wall Street cop who’s made no secret of his hostility toward digital assets.

It’s mine! Screw everyone else!

You see the problem is…

“The American government is now far more hostile to new startups than it used to be,” they wrote in a recent blog post, which cited regulatory agencies using “brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries.” They also lamented the Biden administration’s proposed tax on unrealized capital gains, which they said would “absolutely kill” startups and the venture capital industry.

---

 

Have you noticed that these hedge fund milk the companies that they buy up dry? Look at the Hartford Courant that was bought up be a hedge fund, no more local reports for the town news, no more political reporters for shady deals that the politicians are doing.

Wall Street banters about the effects of a Trump-led Republican sweep
Yahoo Finance
By Grace Williams
July 19, 2024

Investors may want to start imagining a red broom sweeping a parking lot when plotting their portfolio into November's presidential election, say some experts.

In other words, prep for a fall Republican sweep.

"I think it is [a sweep]," Stifel chief Washington policy strategist Brian Gardner told Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi on his Opening Bid podcast (video above), should President Joe Biden step aside and former President Trump continue to gain goodwill following his near assassination.

A Republican sweep could be defined as Trump winning the White House again and the Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.

That would be our death knell! The Republicans would be in all their glory with Project 2025.

There is now plenty of curiosity about how markets could fare under a second Trump presidency in light of the wild few weeks in the political news cycle.

[…]

A Republican sweep could be defined as Trump winning the White House again and the Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.

"I think the chances of Republicans winning the Senate were always pretty good," continued Gardner. "And the situation coming out of the debate a couple of weeks ago with President Biden is probably going to tamp down Democratic enthusiasm and turnout, and that could hurt some Senate candidates. I think the House was always a little bit more in question. There was a legitimate scenario, a reasonable scenario where Democrats could flip the house even if Trump won. I think that's becoming less realistic."

We have to get off our butt and campaign for Harris!

Can you imagine if a Republican said that Trump is too old to run… they would be cashiered out of the party! When Liz Cheney spoke out against Trump attempted coup the Republican party wants to court marshals her! Forbes reports that,

Trump leads Biden by 3 points in RealClearPolitics’ poll tracker, a 1.5-point swing in Trump’s favor since the debate, and he leads by 3.2 points in FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, a 3-point increase from June 27 and a 1.3-point jump since in a single week.

Trump is up by four points in both of Morning Consult’s weekly registered voter surveys, which noted a two point increase materialized after the attempted assassination on Trump last weekend (Trump was also in the spotlight for the GOP convention this week, though polls have not captured voters’ sentiments after his Thursday night speech).

Trump led Biden 52%-47% among likely voters in a CBS News/YouGov survey conducted July 16-18, despite leading by just two points (50%-48%) in the first week of July.

Signs that Trump was expanding his lead appeared shortly after his debate with Biden, as a New York Times/Siena College survey and a Wall Street Journal survey conducted after the debate both found Biden trailed Trump by six points.

Trump leads Biden by three points in Pennsylvania—a state Biden essentially has to win to beat Trump—and Trump trails Biden by just three points in Virginia after losing by 10 points in 2020, according to a New York Times/Siena poll taken July 9-12.

An ABC News/Ipsos/Washington Post poll released last week found Biden and Trump are tied among registered voters, and Trump has a one-point lead if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an option, also a better-than-usual showing for Biden following the June 27 debate.

However, that poll also shows 67% think Biden should withdraw from the race, while 85% say Biden is too old to serve as president, up from 81% in April and 68% just over a year ago.

Among Biden supporters, 54% say he should drop out and 81% say he’s too old for another term, according to the ABC News/Ipsos/Washington Post poll.

All those polls are within the margin of error but the news media make it sounds like Trump is slaughtering the Democrats. The Week writes,

Many of the national polls currently show Trump in the lead over Biden (though this is not exclusively the case, as was seen in recent polling in Pennsylvania that put Biden solidly ahead of Trump in the state). But the recent back-and-forth on this data begs the question: How accurate are political polls?

As recent years have proved, polling is often, sometimes heavily, incorrect. Case in point: Polling generated by HuffPost on Election Day 2016 concluded that Hillary Clinton had a 98% chance of beating Trump. While the polls that year were dramatically wrong, most polling throughout the 2020 election cycle correctly predicted that Biden would defeat Trump. So given that polling accuracy has been on both sides of the coin, how much trust should the public place in polls?

[…]

Heavy criticism has been levied at polls in recent years, particularly in the last few rounds of presidential elections. Even in 2020, when most polls correctly predicted Biden's victory, "national surveys of the 2020 presidential contest were the least accurate in 40 years," Politico reported.

The poll takers don’t want to admit that they are no longer accurate. I know I don’t answer poll takers calls, and those that do are usually pro-candidate so that lie to the poll takers.

Did you see Trump rambling speech at the Republican convention? Trump was rambling all over the place and making up facts but he is never called out on it! Here is a Canadian paper had to say,

Donald Trump’s rambling disaster of a speech did something no one could have predicted: Give Democrats hope
The new, reformed man Trump had purportedly become didn’t show up on stage Thursday night, writes the Star’s Richard Warnica.
Toronto Star
July 19, 2024


There was only one thing Donald Trump could do Thursday night to truly shock the world. He had presided all week over the most ebullient Republican convention in 40 years. His opponents were in complete disarray. He had even survived an assassin’s bullet. He was all set up for the most triumphant moment of his political career. And then he stepped on stage and did the one thing no one, absolutely no one, expected him to do: He bored everyone in the room.

On the final night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump droned on for over an hour and a half. He spoke in a weird stage whisper. He was like an actor given only one note: put them all to sleep.

While the British media Independent said,

Reacting to the speech as it ended, a former adviser to Obama said the bizarre, boring speech was “the first good thing to happen to Democrats in weeks”.

While the U.S. media reporting on the speech said, Forbes wrote in another article,

At more than 90 minutes, Trump’s speech was the longest acceptance speech by a Republican nominee since the 1950’s, and it was packed with exaggerations and false statements, according to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, who detailed 22 lies the former president told, calling it “a remarkably dishonest acceptance speech.”

 How can you trust a candidate who lie, lies, lies all the time?

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
Aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world
It's a rich man's world

I’m still voting for the Democrats and not the rich man con-artist!

Breaking News... Now Trump is the old man!

President Biden drops out! Kamala is now the Democratic presidential candidate!

President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race
Biden, after a five-decade career, faced a reckoning over his age and his ability to defeat Trump. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his party faces a historic effort to replace him.
NBC News
By Peter Nicholas

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will end his presidential re-election campaign, bringing an abrupt and humbling conclusion to his half-century-long political career and scrambling the race for the White House just four months before Election Day.

Biden, 81, could not reverse growing sentiment within his party that he was too frail to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November. He backed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee.

It would be interesting if Biden ran as Vice President.

 

---

 

Update 5:30PM

I am worried that some people are not ready for a woman president but I think most of those vote Republican anyway. It is going to be an interesting four months!

Here’s How Kamala Harris Performs In Polls Against Trump—As Biden Drops Out And Endorses Harris
Forbes
By Sara Dorn and Molly Bohannon
July 21, 2024


Topline:
Vice President Kamala Harris is the most likely replacement for President Joe Biden, who dropped his 2024 presidential bid and endorsed Harris Sunday—and she is performing about the same as Biden in head-to-head polls with Trump.

Key Facts:

• A flurry of polls conducted in the wake of the June 27 presidential debate showed Harris performing roughly the same as Biden against Trump (who has been leading the president by a slim margin for months), and more recent polls after the attempted assassination of Trump show similar trends.
• Harris has also polled better than other Democrats commonly floated as replacement candidates to Biden, but the polls didn’t factor in how months of campaigning could change voters’ perceptions of many of the lesser-known candidates that don’t have the benefit of national name recognition like Harris does.

I think it is an amazing change of direction and I think her poll numbers will increase as people see her as a viable alternative to Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released July 2 (margin of error 3.5) found Harris would lose to Trump by one point, Biden tied Trump, while four governors who have been floated as potential Biden replacements—Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker—would all perform worse than both Biden and Harris against Trump.

The next question… What about the VP?

I have to dynamite suggestions for the VP either Michelle Obama or Biden!

With Biden out, Michelle Obama would be Donald Trump’s worst self-inflicted nightmare
The Wichita Eagle
BY DION LEFLER
JULY 21, 2024

If there’s one thing you can generally count on with Republicans, it’s political efficiency. This time, they may have been too efficient. The news that Joe Biden is dropping his campaign to be reelected president is about the worst thing that could have happened for Donald Trump. Let’s face it, this race has always been a contest between age-related forgetfulness and age-related anger and aggression. 

 

Now, instead of running against a man who appears too old to keep his thoughts together, Trump will have to face off against a younger and more vital opponent — at exactly the time the American people have said in a loud, clear voice that they’re tired of the same old men and the same old rhetoric. Trump, and his party, brought this on themselves. They turned their remarkably efficient attack machine on too early.

The way for Republicans to ensure their victory would have been to go along with the Democrat-created illusion of “Joe’s fine,” until after the Democrats held their convention and it was too late to turn back and pick someone else.

Harris is no slouch.
I can’t wait for the next debate! She will tear him apart!  Dareh Gregorian and Yamiche Alcindor report on NBC News that,

Harris, who had pointed exchanges with Biden during the debates, was named his running mate in August 2020. At times, she struggled to find her footing during the first years of her vice presidency but gained prominence as the 2024 campaign ramped up. In particular, she spearheaded outreach to Black and Asian American voters, the former being a core demographic for Biden.

From 2019 CNN reported back then…

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday night established a commanding presence on her party’s debate stage – cutting through the cacophony of her rivals and insisting time and again that the candidates turn their attention to the troubles of “real Americans.”

Harris’ surefooted and forceful debate performance, after languishing in single digits in the polls, appears likely to cement her role in the top-tier of candidates vying to take on President Donald Trump in the general election.

As usual, Trump is cocky, Reuters wrote...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Sunday he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat in November's election than Democratic President Joe Biden, who earlier in the day stepped aside as his party's candidate.

CNN said the Republican former president made the comments to the network shortly after Biden announced his decision. Trump and his campaign later also attacked Biden and Harris on social media while saying Biden was unfit to continue serving as president.

The old proverb… “May you live in interesting times.”

Remember...

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals by just walking out the door!

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals for loving the wrong person!

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were forced in the closet!

“D” Is for going forward!

I’m voting for the lady and not the slimy old guy who makes used car salesmen look like saints.

What The…

Do you remember the Supreme Court ruling about a Colorado wedding website designer has the right to refuse service to same-sex couples and it was a fake… it was a “What If” case.

Federal appeals court dismisses lawsuit over Tennessee’s anti-drag show ban
AP News
BY KIMBERLEE KRUESI
July 18, 2024

A federal appeals court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows, reversing a lower court ruling that deemed the statute unconstitutional and blocked its enforcement in part of the state.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Memphis-based LGBTQ+ theater company that filed the complaint last year lacked the legal right to sue over the law.

So it seems to me that if a fake case can proceed on a “What If” bases that this case should proceed.

Friends of George’s had alleged that the law would negatively affect them because they produce “drag-centric performances, comedy sketches, and plays” with no age restrictions.

However, the federal appeals court found that Friends of George’s was not at risk of violating the 2023 law because its performances were not “harmful to minors.”

[…]

Yet the actual word “drag” doesn’t appear in the statute. Instead, lawmakers changed the state’s definition of adult cabaret to mean “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” Furthermore, “male or female impersonators” were classified as a form of adult cabaret, akin to strippers or topless dancers.

So a fake cases made it all the way to the Supreme Court but because it didn’t happen yet, an appeals court threw out the case.

Do I see a double standard here? An anti-LGBTQ case proceeds but a pro-LGBTQ case is blocked.

Those are the judges that the Republicans appoint, they put the party ideology ahead of the Constitution.

 

*****

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals by just walking out the door!
“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals for loving the wrong person!
“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were forced in the closet!

“D” Is for going forward!

I’m voting for the old guy and not the slimy guy who makes used car salesmen look like saints.

Holy Books

[Opinion]
 

The Book of Mormon, the Tanakh, the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita, and then there is the  Bible.

These are all holy book of different religions, and what do they have in common?

They are all books written by man and interpreting what god has said. Then those interpretations are then interpretative by another men (And occasionally women.) and then they tell other what they should believe.

It kind of reminds me of the old game “Telephone” where you whisper something to the person next to you and they pass it along to the person next to them, and at the end you see how the message got twisted.

Just look at all the main sects within Protestantism, there are many denominations and some of them are,

Anglican
Baptist
Calvinism
Congregationalists
Evangelical
Holiness churches
Methodist
Lutheran
Pentecostal
Presbyterian/Reformed

 

Some of them preach fire and brimstone while others preach love, understanding, and peace. But both read from the same book!

Islam have a number of sects and their own interpretations of their holy books and also the Jewish religion have many sects some have a hard line interpretations while other sects have a modern interpretations. 

 

Wars have been fought over who is right, and who is wrong.

What I see as the bottom-line is…

Treating other with respect, honesty, and dignity, and care for the environment for the future generations.

 

---

 

I asked Perplexity AI: "I see all the major religions boil down to Treating other with respect, honesty, and dignity, and care for the environment for the future generations."

Answer
Your observation is insightful and touches on a fundamental aspect of many world religions and ethical systems. Indeed, there are common threads of morality and ethics that run through most major religions and philosophical traditions. Here's a more detailed look at your observation:

    Treating others with respect, honesty, and dignity:

•     This principle is often referred to as the "Golden Rule" and appears in various forms across many religions and ethical systems:
•     Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matthew 7:12)
•     Islam: "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself" (An-Nawawi's Forty Hadith 13)
•     Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man" (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
•     Hinduism: "This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you" (Mahabharata 5:1517)
•     Buddhism: "Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" (Udana-Varga 5.18)

    Care for the environment for future generations:
    While this concept is more explicitly stated in modern interpretations and teachings, many religions have long emphasized stewardship of the Earth:

•     Christianity: The concept of humans as stewards of God's creation
•     Islam: The principle of khalifah (stewardship) over the Earth
•     Judaism: The concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world)
•     Hinduism: The idea of living in harmony with nature
•     Buddhism: Emphasis on compassion for all sentient beings and mindful consumption

These shared values often form the basis for interfaith dialogue and cooperation. However, it's important to note that while these core ethical principles are similar, religions differ significantly in their specific beliefs, practices, and interpretations of these principles.

Moreover, how these principles are applied in practice can vary widely between and within religious traditions. Historical, cultural, and individual factors all play a role in how religious teachings are interpreted and lived out.

While these common ethical foundations are indeed a unifying factor, the diversity in religious beliefs, practices, and interpretations continues to be a significant aspect of human culture and society.

It is not the holy books that is the problem but rather the ones who are interpenetrating the books.

 

[/Opinion]

Disco Duck

Welcome to Saturday 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9

questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: Disco Duck (1976)

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

I am up at the cottage with company and I doubt that I will be able to answer your posts.

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Rick Dees begins by describing a party where he can't resist that disco beat. What's the last party you attended? Was there dancing?

Well there are several definitions for “party.” If you mean a “party” party I haven’t been to one in ages while I have been with a group of people at a cookout where we “partied” two weekends ago.

2) While this record was a massive international hit in 1976, it got off to an inauspicious start. Rick Dees said it took him less than a day to write the song, and more than three months to convince anyone to let him record it. Tell us about a time you were tempted to give up, but were glad you didn't.

Being retired for almost twenty years I have a laissez-faire attitude, if you can’t do something you can always try another day.

3) In the hit movie Saturday Night Fever, students are briefly seen learning to dance to "Disco Duck." Can you name another song from Saturday Night Fever?

Stayin' Alive and More Than A Woman

4) Dees was already a top disc jockey in Memphis when "Disco Duck" was released. With the record's success, his radio career soared and he got a better job reaching a greater audience at a radio station in Los Angeles. Are there any disc jockeys you loyally listened to every day?

No, I hardly listen to the radio any more except for when I’m driving and then I listen to an all news station, WBZ.

5) After more than 20 years, Rick lost his regular radio slot to Ryan Seacrest. But he still shares "the hottest music on the planet" through the Rick Dees Hit Music app (available at the Apple App Store or Google Play). What app have you recently downloaded to your phone?

Um… I am not a big fan of smartphone apps. The last one I downloaded was an app to identify bird calls and I cannot even remember what app I downloaded before that.

6) He used his favorite radio format to create a cookbook called Rick Dees All-Time Top 40 Greatest Desserts. If you could finish a delicious meal with the dessert of your choice, anything at all, what would you order?

Well last nights strawberry shortcake was pretty good.

7) In 1976, when "Disco Duck" was a hit, The Bionic Woman premiered on ABC. Because of her "bionic parts," Jamie Summers could run super fast, had super-sensitive hearing, and super-human strength. If you could have one of those qualities enhanced -- speed, hearing or strength -- which would you choose?

Well I’m not really interested in any of those superpowers, I rather have the superpower of not having chronic back pain.

8) Also in 1976, like this year, the world got together for The Summer Olympics. Will you be following the international competition?

No.

Short and simple answer. If they have sailing I might watch that (Google says that there is sailing at the Olympics).

 

9) Random question: You're bone tired, exhausted, and you have an early day tomorrow. As you wash your face and brush your teeth before bed, one of the two bulbs in the bathroom fixture goes out. Do you 1) change the bulb before bed or 2) promise yourself to do it in a hurry tomorrow as you're rushing around in the morning or 3) decide you can live with one bulb for a while, go to bed, and replace the burned-out bulb when you get around it?

#3 hands down! Besides there is a window in the bathroom.

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Really Bad Omen!

If Trump wins look for more laws like this that criminalize our healthcare…

House Republicans vote to overturn new Title IX sex and discrimination rules

UPI News

By Darryl Coote

July 15, 2024

House Republicans have voted to nullify a new Biden administration rule aimed at increasing protections for transgender students, marking another GOP victory in its fight to stop expansions to protections from discrimination under Title IX.

The Republican-controlled House voted 210-205 right down party lines to overturn the new rule finalized by the Department of Education in April to expand the definition of sex under Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity, along with other characteristics.

It's to go into effect Aug. 1, and would ensure transgender students have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that reflect their gender identity while preventing schools from requiring documentation to validate which gender they choose to present themselves as, among other protections.

Republicans have staunchly opposed the rule since it was announced, attacking it with lawsuits and legislation. More than a dozen of the 26 states that have sued the government over the rule have already secured injunctions blocking it from going into effect.

They argue the change to Title IX would make women's spaces, such as bathrooms and changing rooms, less safe while threatening women's sports, despite the issue of transgender students participating in athletes dealt with in a different, yet-to-be finalized rule from the Biden administration.

We seen these laws on a state level this however, will be national!

It will criminalize us, every time we go the bathroom we would be a criminal.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif, lambasted the bill from the floor, calling it "shortsighted, petty and cruel."

"While Republicans claim that this resolution is in the interest of women's rights, their proposed solution will make the situation worse for female students," he said.

"What overturning this rule does is exacerbate existing inequalities, prevent any future administration from enacting a similar rule, then place the blame solely on the LGBTQI+ community."

The vote comes as the Biden administration has sought to bolster protections for transgender Americans amid a Republican effort to restrict the rights of the LGBT community.

You watch… the cases will go before the Supreme Court and they will rule that it is “state rights” on marriage. A cross country drive could be a nightmare, married in these states… not married in those states. It will be like us now where trans people can drive from Maine to Florida and see our rights vary from one state to another. We need to plan our route on where it is safe to pee.

The Hill wrote that,

An identical resolution is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, and the White House this week said President Biden will veto the resolution if it reaches his desk. The Education Department did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday’s vote.

[...]

An identical resolution is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, and the White House this week said President Biden will veto the resolution if it reaches his desk. The Education Department did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday’s vote.

As Smoke the Bear said... When you vote,

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals by just walking out the door!

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals for loving the wrong person!

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were forced in the closet!

“D” Is for going forward!

Read It And Weep, It Is Not Good News

So who is JD Vance?

Trump’s pick of JD Vance is a clear signal: this is a fight over America’s identity
Vance, a Trump cheerleader, is a mouthpiece for white people unhappy with the country’s changing racial composition
The Guardian
By Steve Phillips
July 18, 2024

Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate is a clear and unmistakable message that Republicans are waging a holy war over the very identity of this nation. In choosing the Ohio senator, the former US president has selected and elevated a person who is one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders and whose primary qualification for national leadership is articulating the grievances of white people unhappy with the country’s changing racial composition.

Rather than even pretend to reach out to the less rabid Republicans who backed Nikki Haley in the primaries or attempt to win greater support among Latinos by choosing Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, Trump has simply doubled down on his crusade to make America white again.

Traditionally, vice-presidential selections aim to broaden the party’s appeal by signaling a commitment to a specific constituency or sector of the electorate. Barack Obama selected Joe Biden in 2008 to racially balance the ticket and reassure white voters that he’d have a veteran, moderate, white male political leader at his side. Biden, in turn, chose a younger woman of color to run with him to inspire and acknowledge the critical importance of women and people of color to the Democratic coalition.

So what is the voting record of this rabid right-wing senator? Here is a hint, it is far right!

JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, has opposed abortion and LGBTQ+ rights
The first-term senator from Ohio has also taken particular aim at prominent Democrats who do not have children, arguing that political leaders should have a stake in the country’s future through their children.
The 19^th News
By Grace Panetta
July 15, 2024

Former President Donald Trump has selected as his running mate first-term Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who has opposed abortion rights and some LGBTQ+ rights in his time in political office.

[…]

Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022. By then, he had transformed from a Trump critic in the 2016 election to a strong Trump supporter, fully embracing Trump’s brand of populist politics and positioning himself as the vanguard of an ultraconservative intellectual movement. He has stood against abortion rights and some LGBTQ+ rights measures while supporting policies he argues would increase birth rates in the United States, such as making childbirth free and financially incentivizing couples to have children. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, a lawyer he met at Yale, have three children.

He is a far right-wing supporter of a Christian Nation… he doesn’t say so in so many words but all his policies are policies that the far-right Christians support.

By any measure, Vance – who has no prior political experience and has only been a senator for 17 months – is grossly unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but that is not surprising given that Trump himself is arguably the least qualified person to ever occupy the Oval Office. Vance’s primary qualification is his ability to articulate the anguish of white working-class Americans. Through his bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy and his rhetoric as a candidate and now senator, Vance has done little else of note in his life than complain about how America is no longer a white-dominated country, a fact that has been painful and disorienting and hard to accept for a considerable number of white people.

[…]

By picking Vance, the Republicans show they are not going to try to broaden their coalition: they’re just going to go harder with their shrinking coalition and focus on getting their supporters to the polls. Democrats need to have similar clarity and focus, and devote their resources and energy to maximizing voter turnout from now until election day. If they can do that, they will win – and JD Vance’s voice, and Trump’s, will remain far from the White House.

The news source “The Editors” write that,

Vice President J.D. Vance Could Spark a Religious Revival
Critic of Wall Street, Iraq War is no country-club Republican
By Ira Stoll
July 15, 2024

In choosing Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, President Trump has picked a politician with an unusually acute sense of the interaction between religion, culture, and politics. In “Hillbilly Elegy,” the book that skyrocketed Vance to national fame, Vance writes that his grandmother “always had two gods: Jesus Christ and the United States of America. I was no different, and neither was anyone else I knew.”

In the same book, Vance writes, “Religious folks are much happier. Regular church attendees commit fewer crimes, are in better health, live longer, make more money, drop out of high school less frequently, and finish college more frequently than those who don’t attend church at all.” He goes on, “The juxtaposition is jarring: Religious institutions remain a positive force in people’s lives, but in a part of the country slammed by the decline of manufacturing, joblessness, addiction, and broken homes, church attendance has fallen off.”

This is a guy who will be a heartbeat away from the presidency of a fat, overweight, chesseburger eating 78 year old man. Sen. Vance is a walking talking poster boy for the MAGA cult!

Where J.D. Vance stands on key issues: Abortion, guns, Ukraine and more
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has embraced the GOP’s populist shift under Donald Trump in recent years. His policy positions will be in the spotlight as Trump’s running mate.
The Washington Post
By Annabelle Timsit and Leo Sands
July 16, 2024

J.D. Vance, who was selected on Monday as former president Donald Trump’s running mate, once panned Trump’s promises as a kind of “opioid of the masses.” After rising to prominence as the author of the 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” — which chronicled his difficult upbringing in a steel mill community in Ohio — Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022. Vance, 39, has moved on from the “Never Trump” camp to embrace Trump and his populist style.
So where does he stand on the issues (Here’s a hint… far, far right.)
Abortion

Vance has described abortion as “the first political issue I can ever remember caring about” and has equated abortion with murder. The Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion group, gave Vance an “A+” score based on his Senate record and said he “has voted consistently to defend the lives of the unborn and infants.” Last year, Vance opposed Issue 1, a ballot measure to enshrine reproductive rights into Ohio’s constitution, which passed in the Republican-controlled state last year with over 56 percent of votes.

Colorado Politics writes about his Christian views...

Ten hours after making his first speech as a vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) made his second, this time a pitch to evangelical conservatives.

Vance finished the biggest speech of his political career after 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday night, and began speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition breakfast at a Milwaukee hotel before 8 a.m. Thursday morning, seeking to make his case to the demographic.

"Social conservatives have a seat at this table, and always will so long as I have any influence in this party," he said. "I know that President Trump agrees.”

Sporting a purple tie, Vance spoke about his "faith journey" and how that faith can be integrated into a governing agenda.

Gun control… whatever the NRA says and wants and on immigration he mimics Trump, throw them all out!!!

The Washington Post goes on to write,

On Monday, Vance told Fox News he believes the United States should deport some of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country — “You start with the most violent people, the people who have criminal records,” he said — and dissuade migrants from coming to the United States by making it difficult for them to work.

On the economy, he bends over to give the billionaires anything they want!

As Trump’s running mate, Vance is likely to march in lockstep behind the former president’s economic agenda, which features more traditional conservative policies such as tax cuts and is heavily favored by big business groups.

Now here is the really scary part,

Vance has echoed the false claims made by Trump about widespread fraud in the 2020 election and expressed doubts about the integrity of the electoral process.

Vance, in February, suggested that he would have taken a different path than former vice president Mike Pence, who presided over the congressional certification of the election results in January 2021. Vance said if he had been vice president, he would have allowed Congress to consider fraudulent slates of pro-Trump electors.

Never mind the will of the people… it is the will of the party!

JD Vance faces criticism from advocates for his 'cruel' record on LGBTQ issues
The senator from Ohio introduced a bill to ban transition-related care for minors and another to prohibit “X” gender markers on passports.
NBC News
By Jo Yurcaba
July 16, 2024

Former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his vice presidential running mate Monday, sparking near-immediate backlash from some of the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy groups, who called attention to his support for policies and rhetoric targeting the community.

Both the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ media advocacy group, released lists of comments Vance had made and policies he had supported relevant to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

HRC and GLAAD noted that Vance introduced a bill last year called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would have banned transition-related medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and operations, for minors nationally. The bill, which was never taken up in committee, would have charged health care providers who violated it with a class C felony, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and also would have banned institutions of higher education and accrediting entities from providing instruction about gender-affirming care.

“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals by just walking out the door!
“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were criminals for loving the wrong person!
“R” Is for reverse. Taking us back to the days when we were forced in the closet!

“D” Is for going forward!

 

---

Some people have said that I moved away from trans rights to politics but in 2024 politics is about trans rights. Now as never before our human rights are on the line. Politics for us has moved beyond which bathroom to use to being about our rights to our very existence.

The Republicans have passed laws that step between us and our doctors. They have passed laws to ban us changing our birth certificate which is vital for us to get employment. The Republicans have made so just by saying these magic words they can ignore the laws, all they have to say is “It is against my religion!” and they can ignore the non-discrimination laws.

The 2024 elections are about us and our rights! This November elections will define where we go in the next four years and beyond.