I Voted!

I wrote this on my Facebook page...

Voting Report.

When I got there the line was quote “30 to 40 minutes.” I sat when ever I could, I was in a group around six or seven people and we were talking about growing up in town. About the 5 & 10 store, the Red & White… etc. etc.

But one guy kept staring at me, I figure he either had the hots for me and he wanted to ask me out or he was MAGA, probably the latter.

Anyhow, no problem and the wait was around 35 minutes.

Afterwards I went to Rogers Orchards for eggs, milk, and ice cream… but I forgot the bacon. Then I drove by the fire scene and it looks like the forest fires almost out.

*****

Here is something also to consider, outside of that one guy we got along. There was nothing special about a trans woman in the midst of them and I think that’s why the guy kept quite, because he was in the minority. 

But he did get down on the poll workers about the way early voting was being handled, the way he was talking he sounded like he was against early voting. It is my guess that he was upset about the security procedurals,

What you had to do with the absentee ballots...

They gave you a ballot, an envelope, and a sticker. You had to fill out the ballot, and then fill out the information on envelope with your signature, print your name, and date it. Then put the ballot in the envelope and seal it. When you done all that you handed the envelope along with the other sticker to another clerk, and the clerk handed it back to you and you stuck in a slotted box for your district.

All of that because of the Republican "Big Lie!"

 

The Electoral College

[Editorial]

Yes, we have to do away with the Electoral College, it is an idea whose time has passed. The Electoral College was created because the writers of the Constitution did not trust the voter to vote the right way. The slave states were concerned that the popular northern could out vote the southern states and do away with slavery, so the Electoral College was to be a buffer against that possibility. And don’t forget that the voters were only male property owners had the right to vote.

The National Archives writes,

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. However, the term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors,” but not to the “electoral college.”

It time has come but what to put in its place?

Back in the colony days, the vote had to carried by horseback to the state capitol and then carried by horseback to Washington DC. It could take months to get to Washington. But now we can know the results of the election in hours not months.

If we go to the popular vote, with the winner getting the most vote I think there is a problem with that. In a two way race there is no problem but in a 3 or more way election someone might not get over 50% of the vote, the vote might be like candidate A 37%, candidate B 32%, and candidate C with 31% of the vote. Not one candidate has over 50% of the votes.

*****

Here in Connecticut we have a novel election law that I agree with. It is called "cross-endorsement" or "cross-nomination" and allows a candidate to be on the ballot more than once. For example, Governor Lamont was on the ballot for the Democrats and the Working Families Party so a vote for him on Working Families Party party line will count for him and the vote for him on Working Families Party will also count with the total votes for them.

You say “What a minute! That’s not fair! He is on the ballot twice!” Yes, but you can only vote once. Just because the Working Families Party wanted him on their ballot it should not exclude him from being the Democrat’s choice.

I like it because it gives the voter a choice. I want Governor Lamont for governor but I want to send a signal to the Democrats that I don’t like their platform that I am more in tune with the Working Families Party’s platform but I am still able to vote for Lamont.

*****

So besides changes to the Constitution to do away with the Electoral College, I propose a runoff election of the two top candidates so whoever is elected will have over 50% of the votes and to have "cross-endorsement."

I will not vote for a third party candidate nationally unless they show that they can win on the state level or if there is "cross-endorsement." I vote for the Working Families Party because I know that my vote will not be wasted. In this national election voting for a third party is a vote for Trump.

 

*****

State like Connecticut Rhode Island... we are nothing under the Electoral College. The only time either party candidate stops here is to raise money. Connecticut's seven Electoral votes means nothing to the candidates. You only need to win these state to win...

California (54 votes)

Texas (40 votes)

Florida (30 votes)

New York (28 votes)

Illinois (19 votes)

Pennsylvania (19 votes)

Ohio (17 votes)

Georgia (16 votes)1

Michigan (15 votes)

North Carolina (16 votes)

New Jersey (14 votes)

Politicians don't care about any other states, we are just window dressing.

 

For me, I’m voted for the woman with Integrity, Honor, & Character and not for the con artist.

What Is The Purpose Of A Speeding Ticket?

Is it:

A) To make money?

B) To curb bad driving behavior?

Those of you who have followed my blog know that this is one of my pet peeves.

New Speed Cameras Hit A Single Driver With 29 School Zone Tickets In Only 10 Days

You would think by now they would have discovered a way to not speed through a school zone

Jalopnik

By Collin Woodard

October 29, 2024

[…]

It doesn’t appear that the $50 citation increases with the number of speeding tickets given, but that still works out to nearly $1,500 in speeding tickets in two weeks. Maybe they’ll stop speeding once they realize how much this is going to cost them?

Considering how many tickets Albany’s new speeding cameras gave out in that same time period, I’m not optimistic. School-zone speeders accumulated a difficult-to-believe 12,895 tickets in that 10-day time period, and that’s just since the city began handing out fines. Cameras still under the 30-day grace period added another 14,834 warnings to the list. It’s also important to note that these tickets aren’t for going a single mile per hour over the posted speed limit. Drivers were only ticketed if they exceeded 10 mph over the limit, or 30 mph in a 20 mph zone.

I like to point out that those 12,895 tickets brought in $644,000 at 50 bucks a pop!

If you picked “A” you are right, this is a big money making business for both the camera company and the town.

If you picked “B” that is what it is supposed to do but… because it could easily be two weeks or up to month or more until get the ticket you never know you that you were going too fast until you got the 29 tickets!

When there is a patrol officers there you know immediately that you were going too fast, but the other way the town racks in hundred of thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, the city doesn’t get to keep all of they money it brings in from those speeding cameras. In fact, it doesn’t even get a majority of it. For every $50 fine paid, $17 goes to the city, and $33 goes to the camera company. So while $200,000 in 10 days is nothing to sneeze at, it’s also still a lot less than the nearly $650,000 the guilty speeders will have to part with.

Speed cameras and Red Light cameras are just money making machines!

Family Values...

This is my family values.

 

What are your family values?

Vote...

---

Meanwhile... the Republicans don't mind racist comments...

Vance says 'we have to stop getting so offended' when asked about racist jokes at Trump rally

The Ohio senator said he hadn't heard the remarks from the comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” while adding that people need to lighten up.

NBC News

By Alec Hernández and Dareh Gregorian

October 28, 2024

Sen. JD Vance said Monday that while he hadn't heard the racist jokes made by a comedian at his running mate's New York City rally the previous night, he thinks Americans need to "stop getting so offended."

"I’m just — I’m so over it," Vance said after an NBC News reporter asked about the inflammatory remarks about Latinos and others by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, the first speaker at former President Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

"I’ve heard about the joke, I haven’t actually seen the joke that you mentioned, but I think that it’s telling that Kamala Harris’ closing message is essentially that all of Donald Trump’s voters are Nazis, and you should get really pissed off about a comedian telling a joke," Vance said.

[...]

“A comedian told a joke, and I don’t think that’s news worth making,” Vance told a local reporter.

“Maybe I’m old fashioned, or maybe I just grew up with a grandmother who had an especially foul mouth. But you know what I do? You know what I do when I think a joke is dumb or not funny? I don’t laugh,” Vance continued.  

I will say it again... Racism in not my family value!

Vote!

Vote Blue!

What Gets Me.

There is a man,

He sells Bibles!
He doesn’t attend mass… But that doesn’t matter!
He has had three wives… But that doesn’t matter!
He cheated on the three wives… But that doesn’t matter!
He has children from each of the wives… But that doesn’t matter!
He lies… But that doesn’t matter!
He steals… But that doesn’t matter!
He swears… But that doesn’t matter!
He is anti-gay and trans… He’s our man!

While there is a woman,

Goes to mass regularly… But that doesn’t matter!
She has been married to the same man for 10 years… But that doesn’t matter!
Her children are from the same husban… But that doesn’t matter!
She doesn’t lie… But that doesn’t matter!
She doesn’t steal… But that doesn’t matter!
She doesn’t swear… But that doesn’t matter!
She isn’t anti-gay and trans… But he is the anti-Christ, we’re not voting for him!

 

Vote Blue and end this insanity!

I’m voting for the woman with Integrity, Honor, & Character

---

It brought attention to them!

Newspaper non-endorsements at Washington Post, LA Times fit a trend, but their readers aren’t happy

AP News

By  DAVID BAUDER

October 29, 2024

The number of newspapers endorsing a candidate for president has dwindled with the industry’s financial troubles the past two decades, in part because owners reason that it makes no sense to alienate some subscribers by taking a clear stand in a politically polarizing time.

Yet in the past week, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have angered readers for precisely the opposite reason: by choosing not to select a favored candidate.

The fallout from both decisions continued Monday, with Post owner Jeff Bezos taking the unusual step of publicly defending the move in the columns of his own paper. Three members of the Post’s editorial board resigned their positions and some journalists pleaded with readers to not express their disapproval by canceling subscriptions. Many thousands have already done so.

You know that they shot themselves in the foot. No one paid any attention to news media endorsements but now everyone is focused on them.

By announcing their decisions within two weeks of Election Day, however, the newspapers left themselves vulnerable to criticism that their publishers were trying not to anger Republican Donald Trump if voters returned him to power. “It looked like they were not making a principled decision,” said John Woolley, co-director of the American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Madison Square Garden

There has been more fallout from the Madison Square Garden! I was watching PBS News Hour when this segment came on...

How Trump’s rhetoric compares to historic fascist language

The racist, sexist, and vulgar remarks at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, from the former president himself and his slate of speakers, have drawn significant criticism. For more on the rhetoric and its impact, Amna Nawaz spoke with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University.

---

Amna Nawaz:

The racist, sexist and vulgar remarks at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally from the former president himself and his slate of speakers has drawn significant criticism the day after.

For more on the rhetoric and its impact, we're joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University.

[...]

Amna Nawaz:

So we are just days from Election Day. This was probably one of the ugliest collection of remarks from selected speakers that we have seen at a Trump rally. You study this kind of rhetoric. So what stood out to you about this type of language this close to Election Day?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat:

So this place in Madison Square Garden, and it was one of many occasions that the Trump campaign has chosen to allow comparisons to be made to the Nazis. So that was Madison Square Garden, which was the site of a rally by American Nazis in 1939, talking about polluting the blood, speaking of Americans as an enemy within.

This is all straight from fascism. In fact, fascism — the core of fascism in Italy and Germany were combatants who followed their leader to bring the war home and turned their force against their own people. And when Donald Trump was talking about America as an occupied country and he was going to liberate it and also in the past talking about using the military on Americans, this comes out of fascism and also the tradition of military dictatorships like Pinochet in Chile.

So it's a purely authoritarian spectacle that we saw.

Wow! She doesn't mince words. I think we all knew that but to see it in print kind sinks in!

Ruth Ben-Ghiat:

I think Trump has been conditioning Americans since 2015 to see violence as something justified in certain cases and even patriotic.

He's been conditioning them to see other Americans as enemies, as diseased, as dirty. And what we have to remember is that authoritarians might initially target one group, and he's been talking mostly about immigrants. But he's also calling the enemy within the political opposition.

And when the Nazis built Dachau in 1933 because they were running out of space in prisons — they built this camp Dachau. And they didn't put Jews in it at first. It was for the political opposition, liberals, leftists. Then it had Jehovah's Witnesses, then LGBTQ people. All kinds of other people went in there, and then Jews were targeted as well by the regime.

So when they're talking about deporting so many people in America, this is a massive amount of people, and thus you need an infrastructure of repression. You need camps. And the whole thing is a dystopia. And this is not what America is. But Donald Trump has been conditioning Americans to think that this is the way.

BOOM!

The Republicans are calling the Democrats fearmongering for calling Trump a fascist... the technical name for what the Republicans are is "gaslighting."

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL):

This is the problem with most media today. They're too busy trying to fearmonger everything, instead of actually talking about the facts and the substance.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Ruth, members of the Republican Party now also criticize Vice President Harris for calling former President Trump a fascist, saying that that is the dangerous rhetoric. Are those kind of remarks on the same level to you?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat:

Not at all.

And this is part of an authoritarian projection mechanism. I call it the upside-down world of authoritarianism, where, ever since Mussolini, he was the first to call democrats the real tyrants and fascism was going to be freedom. Fascism was going to make Italy great again. That was a slogan, as was drain the swamp. Trump took that from Mussolini as well.

So this is pure projection to — and it's all — the endgame is to justify — to justify whatever they would like to do for retribution, locking up the political opposition by saying that they're the ones who are the tyrants, they're the ones who are repressive.

This was an eye opener!

MSNBC also had and interview Ruth Ben-Ghiat along with Anne Applebaum... just listen to the first minute and half.

To paraphrase Maya Angelou...  "When someone shows you that they are a fascist, believe them the first time." 

Vote Blue to save America from fascism!

Vote "Yes" on the Connecticut ballot question.

 

What Does This Say About The Voters?

One of the things that get me is the quality of the voters who think that it is okay to use vulgar language in front of children,

Trump’s New York homecoming sparks backlash over racist and vulgar remarks

A pro-Trump comedian’s racist diatribe drew widespread condemnation.

Politico

By Meridith McGraw and Lisa Kashinsky

October 27, 2024

Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, billed as a triumphant homecoming, turned into a political fiasco on Sunday night as a pro-Trump comedian’s racist diatribe drew furious condemnation, including from prominent Republicans.

The rally, held just more than a week before Election Day, was intended to serve as a platform for Trump to make his closing argument. But the racist slurs and vulgarity of the former president’s opening acts were so striking — and sparked such backlash — that his campaign was left on the defensive and issued a disavowal.

The event began with comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the “Kill Tony” podcast, who opened the rally with a set replete with slurs about Latinos, African Americans and other groups that Trump’s campaign is actively targeting to turn out for the former president.

I keep on thinking... "Who votes for this low life?" Who thinks that this racist language is acceptable? And why do minorities still vote for him? He delayed disaster support Puerto Rico?

Democrats moved quickly to denounce the derogatory remarks — and to split screen them with Vice President Kamala Harris, who had spent the day courting Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania and who had cut a video blasting Trump for withholding hurricane relief to the island even before his allies began their disparaging its inhabitants. Puerto Rican music superstars Ricky Martin and Bad Bunny reposted the video, which also included mention of her plan to boost economic opportunities for Puerto Rico, on Instagram to their combined tens of millions of followers.

In another Politico article they write,

And Trump’s opponents are using the rally as proof of the former president’s divisiveness, going as far as likening the rhetoric from Sunday’s rally to the sinister 1939 Nazi rally that took place in the same venue.

“My reaction is that was a combination of 1933 Germany, 1939 Madison Square Garden last night,” former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday morning. “What you saw last night is a divisive America. That’s race baiting. It’s all the things that we were doing in the ‘30s and ‘40s.”

Then they turned to gaslighting and blaming others,

Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds blamed the media for the backlash surrounding Sunday’s rally during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, saying the media is too focused on “fear-mongering” and not “the facts and the substance.”

Hmm... so it our fault? It is our fault that we found it offensive?

“I didn’t agree with what the comedian said. None of us did,” Donalds said. “When it came out, we were all like, ‘Wait what? Who? Did that get out? No, no, no.’ Nobody agreed with that. Nobody.”

Umm... you invited him to speak at the rally, you must have known his comedy routine but you invited him nonetheless. It speaks volumes to your values.

Trump appeals to the gutter low life and they eat this right up! When these racist remarks were made the crowd cheered!

“Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda

ProPublica

By Molly Redden and Andy Kroll, and Nick Surgey

October 28, 2024

A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term.

In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions.

He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 and 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it; and said the timing of Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.”

These people are wacko! They want to convert this country into a dictatorship1

In addition to running his think tank, Vought was the policy director of the Republican National Committee’s official platform committee ahead of the nominating convention. He’s also an architect of Project 2025, the controversial coalition effort mapping out how a second Trump administration can quickly eliminate obstacles to rolling out a hard-right policy agenda.

These people need to be stopped! with their lies, with their fearmongering, their vicious attacks on minorities... it is what dictators do but half of the country wants to destroy the US and making it into a White Christian Nationalist nation!

I'm voting for the candidate who supports my family values! I'm voting for Harris/Walz ticket.

I'm also voting "Yes" on the Connecticut ballot question, I don't believe the Republican "Big Lie"

The New Supreme Court Justices

freeimages.com

I asked Google's Gemini AI...

"Is there a possibility in the next four years of a justice retiring and of the next president appointing another supreme court justice?"

And its answer...

Yes, there is a possibility of a Supreme Court justice retiring in the next four years and the next president appointing their successor. Here's why:

•     Age of Justices: Some of the current justices are of advanced age. Chief Justice John Roberts is 70, and Justice Clarence Thomas is 74. While both are currently serving actively, their age makes retirement a possibility within the next four years.
•     Recent Precedent: Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement in 2022 and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's appointment underscore that vacancies and appointments can occur during a presidential term.
•     Vacancy Mechanisms: A justice can retire voluntarily, or their seat can become vacant due to death or incapacity.

Therefore, there is a real possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy and subsequent appointment by the next president within the next four years.

Your vote this election year is going to have a lasting effect on the nation! Who do you want appoint the next justice? Trump or Harris?

How Old Is He?

This is something that grade school kids do out on the player ground…

Trump refers to CNN’s Anderson Cooper by a woman’s first name
AP News
October 26, 2024

 Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with a woman’s first name in recent days as the Republican presidential nominee focuses his closing message on a hypermasculine appeal to men.

On a Friday morning post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president referred to one of the most prominent openly gay journalists in the U.S. as “Allison Cooper.”

Trump made the subtext even more explicit later Friday during a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before pausing and saying in a mocking voice: “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”

That is so wrong on so many levels, first it is misogynistic, second it is homophobic. And his hyper-masculine MAGA just gobble it up!

In referring to Cooper with a woman’s name, Trump appeared to turn to a stereotype heterosexual people have long deployed against gay men. Such rhetoric evokes the trope of gay men as effeminate and comes as Trump aims to drive up his appeal among men in the final stages of his bid to return to the White House.

Is this person presidential material? Or is he is just another right-wing bully.

The Right-Wing Bigots…

Are at it again! And once again it is about sports team with a trans player, or a possible trans player.

Nevada forfeits women's volleyball game against San Jose State
USA Today
By Nancy Armour
October 25, 2024

Nevada has forfeited its Mountain West Conference women’s volleyball match against San Jose State, two days after the game was moved over concerns Wolf Pack players wouldn’t show up.

Nevada played at Fresno State on Thursday night. Rather than going on to San Jose State for Saturday’s match, the school announced the contest is off "due to not having enough players to compete."

"Per Mountain West Conference policy, the match will be recorded as a conference loss for Nevada," the school said in its statement.

Why? Why did they forfeit a game?

Nevada volleyball captain Sia Liilii told the Reno Gazette Journal on Oct. 15 that the team would not play San Jose State following reports there is a transgender player on the Spartans team. The woman has played at San Jose State in previous seasons, and there were no issues with her participation until right-wing activists became involved in recent months.

The rabble rousers have once again stirred up the right-wing bigots. Notice two things first is they don’t really know she is transgender! Second she played in other seasons with no problems!

“The decision to move the location of the match has been made in the best interest of both programs and the well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff and spectators,” the schools said in their statement.

Study after study have found that there is no difference between boys and girls strength until puberty, and even then it take a few years for boy to develop their strength. When a child takes puberty blockers it prevents the child from developing muscles, it keeps the child locked into pre-puberty muscle development.

The sports issues was mentioned by Shannon Minter in his Keynote address on Saturday and after his talk I went up to him and told him about our Amici Curiae brief in the case about trans sports in Connecticut…

This commitment to sports participation fosters academic achievement; helps athletes manage social pressures; teaches valuable social skills such as leadership, courage, communication, collaboration, discipline, and resilience; and provides the foundation for building emotional maturity and lasting friendships. Trans-exclusive policies deprive transgender athletes of these benefits by effectively prohibiting their participation in sports.

But the case is being reheard in federal court, an Appeal’s court sent it back to the lower court to rehear.

These skills are no longer the driving force in school sports… it has become a moneymaker! It is win at all cost… winning is everything and losing is for losers!

 

---

 

I'm driving back to Connecticut to vote today and then back to the Cape on Wednesday.

---

Update: 6:30PM

There was a large protest over the racist comments!

Backlash after comedian at Trump rally calls Puerto Rico 'island of garbage'

BBC News

Phil McCausland and Christal Hayes

October 28, 2024

A comedian at a Donald Trump rally called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage", sparking fury from Republicans and Democrats and accusations of racism.

The comic, Tony Hinchcliffe, was among the speakers at the Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday. He also made a series of jokes that leant on racist stereotypes.

A Trump adviser distanced the former president from the Puerto Rico joke, which was also denounced by Trump's Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. Harris herself was the target of another Trump warm-up speaker who also sparked controversy.

The furore came as one of the world's top Latin celebrities, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, endorsed Harris for president.

In his joke, Hinchcliffe, known for his comedy podcast Kill Tony, said: "There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico."

You know this reflects the racism with Trump and in the Republican party that they didn't recognize it as racist!

You Can’t Sit This One Out!

Every single vote is needed!

There is way more at stake in this election than any other election in our country ever had before.

#1 My choice, my body… the future of who controls our bodies is at stake.
#2 My choice, my body… will government step between us and our doctors?
#3 My choice what I read… will government control what I can read?
#4 My choice what I say… will government control what I say?

The Republicans have passed hundred of laws governing banning abortion, trans rights, banning books, banning what we even can say!

The Republicans have gerrymander the election systems to make it almost impossible for other candidates to win.

The Republicans have ignored the will of the people when they refuse to comply with voter referendums and made it harder for citizen’s ballot questions to be voted upon.

The Republicans have driven a wedge to our country to divide and not unify our country, they lied, they have used xenophobe, they have use transphobia and homophobia, Islamophobia, and antisemitism as a tool to drive this country apart.  

The Republicans have passed laws bring our rights back to the pre-Stonewall era.

Don’t tell me that there is no difference between the parties… The Democrats Giveth, The Republicans Taketh Away. The Republican party is working its way toward authoritarianism and fascism. 

Next Tuesday VOTE!

 

And I'm voting for the candidate with integrity, honesty, and character.

Day 8 Transweek. The Party’s Over!

Everyone packing up heading back to their homes, for me the name of one workshop is very fitting; “Lost in the Provincetown Fog”, or as used to be called “Lost in the Pink Fog.”

Lost in the Provincetown Fog

You finally made it to Provincetown, and TransWeek was the most fabulous experience of your life. You’re pumped up, full of new self-confidence, and unable to think about anything but expressing yourself in your preferred gender role. Back at home, the world seems drab and you chafe at having to hide part of yourself from your family, friends, and co-workers. You want to burst forth, heedless of consequences, and proclaim yourself to the world, and you think you just might. Congratulations. You’re in the Provincetown Fog. The fog is the state of euphoria we experience when we take our gender expression to a new level. It’s a dangerous time to make decisions, and yet a time when we most want to. Come talk about the Provincetown Fog with your peers and get suggestions on how to find your way out of it. Highly recommended for first timers.

The thing is, it is true!

Last's night Awards Banquet...

The food was very good. I sat at a table of ten, there were a few people who I knew but now I have new friends (It turns out that one of the doctors at the conference has a cottage on the next street over in Wellfleet and another lives in Truro. But best of all I got some names for a plumber and a lawn care person.

My only minor complaint were the music was too loud (Just like at weddings people want to talk to each out and they can't hear them because of the loud music.) my favorite word last night was "What?" and the hors d'oeuvres. Our table of ten had about 20 mushroom hors d'oeuvres and only 5 bacon wrapped scallops.

But I understand because of complications with their regular banquet facilities being temporarily closed they had to scramble to find a new place for the banquet.

I remember one year at Awards Banquet that was at Michael Shays, it was before I came out and hadn't transitioned yet. It was another buffet at the restaurant as I was in line for the food I heard a table behind us saying... "It is going to be a beautiful day for flying tomorrow!"

Whoa I recognized that voice! I know him since second grade! I slowly glanced over there and ... OMG! It is the hang glider club! Not only we he there but also his wife and a half a dozen people for the hang glider club in Connecticut that I knew from my days when I hang glided! I panicked and freaked out all night. 

Later when I came out I asked them about that night... no one remembered it. And later after I had transitioned I was at a Fourth of July party with them... well it didn't go well. Nothing negative just that now I was an outsider. 

---

Day 1: TransWeek (AKA Fantasia Fair)

Day 2: Transweek Formerly Fantasia Fair

Day 3: Transweek

Day 4: Transweek

Day 5: Transweek

Day 6: Transweek

Day 7: Transweek

Day 8: Transweek. The Party’s Over!

Believe Him!

He says he will be a fascist believe him… when he say he is going after his opponents believe him. When he stays he is going to stuff government jobs with his cronies believe him.

Trump allies threaten Deloitte contracts after employee shares Vance chats

Republicans are targeting $3 billion in federal contracts after a consultant disclosed messages unconnected to his work.

The Washington Post

By Peter Jamison

October 7, 2024

Republicans backing Donald Trump are threatening Deloitte, a consulting firm that is one of the federal government’s largest business partners, with the loss of billions of dollars in contracts because an employee shared messages from 2020 in which JD Vance, now the GOP vice-presidential nominee, criticized the then-president’s record.

On Sept. 27, Donald Trump Jr. exposed the employee’s name and photograph to millions of people on social media, writing, “Maybe it’s time for the GOP to end Deloitte’s taxpayer funded gravy train?” Others — including Vance’s chief spokesman and a Republican senator — circulated Trump Jr.’s comments, and the conservative website Breitbart published a story naming the man and highlighting his job.

[…]

Ethics experts said the episode is a potentially ominous preview of how a second Trump administration might use the enormous power the federal government wields over private industry to punish political acts by individual workers. Although federal contracting laws prohibit cutting off a business because of its workers’ private political views, such threats could have a chilling effect, they said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and former deputy chief counsel in the Office of Congressional Ethics, adding that the goal was probably to pressure Deloitte into firing the worker. “You can’t imagine that if one employee out of thousands made a statement that offended an official, that then the government contracts would be in jeopardy.”

Believe him! He is a very vindictive! He goes after the jugular vein, he is nothing but petty tyrant.

The episode is the latest bout of public threats from Trump’s MAGA movement. The former president has threatened to use the Justice Department to jail his opponents, among other things, if he wins a second term. Many Trump supporters on social media have urged that Gallagher be fired.

And his loyal cult followers eat it right up cheering him on!

---

Meanwhile down in Texas the town council is following the long line of Republicans persecuting minorities, this time we’re it!

Odessa bans transgender people from using restrooms that don’t match sex assigned at birth

LGBTQ+ advocates called the ban one of the most extreme measures enacted by a local government.

Texas Tribune

By Carlos Nogueras Ramos

October 23, 2024

The City Council on Tuesday banned transgender people from using restrooms outside of the sex assigned to them at birth, following an emotionally charged exchange between residents and city leaders.

In a 5-2 vote, members of the council expanded a 1989 ordinance that prohibits individuals from entering restrooms of the opposite sex, suggesting they were doing so to protect Odessans and their own families.

Residents pleaded with the council, arguing that such proposals were divisive, stoked fear among the community, and would further stretch city services.

“It is not only unnecessary but also a complete waste of the city's time, money and resources,” Alexander Ermels, president of PFLAG’s Midland and Odessa chapter and a transgender man, said during public testimony. PFLAG is one of the oldest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in the U.S.

“It's not addressing any real problem in our community,” Ermels said. “Instead, it's creating one, making people worried about something that just is not an issue.”

Yup, that what Republicans are good at doing… creating a boogeyman! Creating fear! Fear of those that are different. Fear of the Mexican. Fear of the Blank man. Fear of the trans person.

It is also the latest action by a conservative mayor and his allies on the council to push this West Texas town even further to the right. The council has previously approved an anti-abortion ordinance that largely mirrored state law. Mayor Javier Joven, who is up for reelection in November, has said his mission has been to help the city “repent.”

Hold it a minute! Repent from what? To me that sound like you are ramming your religion down everybody’s throat.

Council member Chris Hanie insisted he introduced the ordinance to protect the safety of his daughters and grandchildren.

“There's never been fear. I don't care who you are, and what you do in the privacy of your home is your business, but I don't need to see it in public,” Hanie said.

Jonathan Saenz, the president of Texas Values, a conservative and religious think tank who attended the meeting and spoke at length on behalf of the ordinance, reassured local officials that the ordinance would hold up to legal scrutiny.

The Republicans are far along their path to a Christian Nation. So you say you don't think that is true? Well get a load of this is from the website "Texas Values"...

Breaking: Girls’ Safety & Privacy Law by Odessa Council Passes 5-2

October 22, 2024: Odessa City Council met tonight to discuss enacting a new city ordinance to protect the safety and privacy in restroom facilities for women and girls, and passed the new ordinance by a vote of 5-2.. The proposed city ordinance defines sex by biology based on a person’s birth certificate as entered “at or near the time of birth”, similar to language in Texas state law on the Save Women’s Sports issue.

Jonathan Saenz, President & Attorney for Texas Values released the following statement:

“Girls and women are safer in Odessa now because the courageous Odessa City Council updated their local laws with common sense and timely specific guidance. We hope more cities in Texas will follow Odessa’s lead and pass a similar ordinance.” 

The proposed ordinance will offer valuable protections to ensure that restroom facilities (also including locker rooms, showers and changing rooms) in public buildings are separated by “biological sex” and that males cannot enter into female restrooms and vice versa. The new law also allows private citizens to enforce the new rules as well. 

Of course the fact that this has never happened is beside the point. Just like Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" was never about the children but rather disguised hemophobia, the ordinance is really about transphobia since there has never, let me repeat that, there has never been a case in the US where a trans person molested a person in a restroom.

Some of you have already voted but if you haven’t vote Harris/Walz and the party line! Vote “Yes” on ballot question in Connecticut don’t believe the Republican “Big Lie” of voter fraud!

*****

Hey! you want me to stop posting politics? Here is how you do it... Vote Blue! Because if the old guy (Who is only 2 or 3 years older than me.) wins it will be four more years of political blog posts! So vote Blue and shut me up! 

Day 7: Transweek

Today a couple from Connecticut came up to look over the conference, her wife had never been to the Cape and my friend is trans wanted to see what the conference was like.

We ate lunch at Tin Pan Alley again and I just had a bowl of Tomato Bisque soup, I declined the Cheese sandwich that went with it. I didn’t want to fill up on lunch because tonight is the Awards Banquet with a buffet at Montano's Restaurant.

The keynote was excellent and given by Shannon Minter

Never Let Me Go: The Past, Present, and Future of Transgender Rights

From his perspective as a transgender rights litigator for the past thirty years, Shannon will talk about the enormous progress made in securing social and legal protections in the past, the setbacks and dangers we face in the present, and the great promise and perils of the future.

In case you don’t recognize the reference, “Never Let Me Go” is the name of a wonderful novel about clones by Kazuo Ishiguro. Their great struggle, like ours, is to be seen and treated as real people. Oh, and facing their inevitable mortality!

Shannon bio is…

Shannon Minter has made significant contributions to the advancement of LGBTQ rights in his role as Vice President of Legal for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. He has been pivotal in key legal battles, including the California marriage equality case and the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez Supreme Court decision. His work has earned him numerous accolades, including California Lawyer of the Year and recognition from the National Gay and Lesbian Bar Association. Minter’s dedication to legal advocacy continues to impact the LGBTQ community and the broader fight for equal rights.

Shannon is the Transgender Pioneer Award recipient for 2024. A more in-depth biography can be found on page 45 earlier in the guide.

He is hopefully optimistic on the current case before the Supreme Court, the ACLU writes,

Supreme Court Oral Arguments in Landmark Transgender Rights Case Scheduled for December 4

Case: L.W. v. Skrmetti/U.S. v. Skrmetti

October 18, 2024

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a challenge brought by transgender youth and their families to a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care, for December 4, 2024.

The case was first filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 16-year-old transgender daughter, two other plaintiff families filing anonymously, and Memphis-based medical doctor Dr. Susan Lacy. The plaintiff families and Dr. Lacy argue that the law violates the equal protection rights of transgender adolescents. The United States intervened also arguing that the Tennessee law violates the Equal Protection Clause.

In June 2024, the Supreme Court granted a cert petition filed in the case by the United States and a petition for split argument time between the U.S. Solicitor General and an attorney representing transgender youth and their families is pending before the Court. The transgender youth and their families remain parties to the case.

Shannon said that looking at the past case he is hopefully optimistic because of the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where the court found in favor of the trans woman based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual “because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Looking to the ordinary public meaning of each word and phrase comprising that provision, the Court interpreted to mean that an employer violates Title VII when it intentionally fires an individual employee based, at least in part, on sex. Discrimination on the basis of homosexuality or transgender status requires an employer to intentionally treat employees differently because of their sex—the very practice Title VII prohibits in all manifestations. Although it acknowledged that few in 1964 would have expected Title VII to apply to discrimination against homosexual and transgender persons, the Court gave no weight to legislative history because the language of the statute unambiguously prohibits the discriminatory practice.

And also the Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board where the court ruled the school acted illegally in denying him to use the boys bathroom.

Those two cases give him hope on the outcome of L.W. v. Skrmetti/U.S. v. Skrmetti but if we lose it would be disaster for us!

Tonight is the Award Banquet and I’ll write about it tommow.

---

Day 1: TransWeek (AKA Fantasia Fair)

Day 2: Transweek Formerly Fantasia Fair

Day 3: Transweek

Day 4: Transweek

Day 5: Transweek

Day 6: Transweek

Day 7: Transweek

Day 8: Transweek. The Party’s Over!

Why Are They So Eager To Kill Him!

As more and more states realize that the death penalty is error prone and not effective in stopping crime and doing away with it, Texas is rushing full speed ahead to fry him.

A Texas man’s execution was stayed. Now Ken Paxton wants to silence him.

Robert Roberson was supposed to give testimony before a committee of the Texas Legislature.

MSNBC

By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College

October 25, 2024

On Oct. 21, Robert Roberson was scheduled to do what no death row inmate has ever done. He was supposed to give testimony before a committee of the Texas Legislature that is investigating his case.

This would have been a remarkable moment in death penalty history. It would have offered hope for Roberson himself. It also would have marked a moment when the humanity of someone convicted of a capital crime was recognized by treating them as a credible witness in a public proceeding.

That explains why officials in Texas, led by Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, have stepped in to prevent Roberson from testifying. As Paxton said on Wednesday: “A few legislators have grossly interfered with the justice system by disregarding the separation of powers outlined in the State Constitution. They have created a Constitutional crisis on behalf of a man who beat his two-year-old daughter to death.”

These people want him dead for political reasons, pure and simply!

They should follow the law and honor the subpoena as the Texas Supreme Court did last week. Citizens of Texas, whatever their views about the death penalty, should demand that Roberson be allowed to tell his story to the state Legislature. Death row inmates, including Roberson, have sometimes given interviews to journalists. But it is something entirely different when one of them is asked to lend their voice to an official consideration of a pressing matter of public policy.

Texas has some of the harshest laws in the nation! Texas has a crime rate of 432 per 100,000 and Connecticut has 150 per 100,000 and even the Republican Florida has 258 crimes per 100,000!

If Roberson is executed he would be the first person in the United States put to death on the basis of a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. But since Roberson was convicted, shaken baby syndrome has fallen out of favor among many in the medical community. Doubts have been raised about it by judges and legislators in several states.

But they want to kill him no matter what, Why? Are they so eager to fry him?

According to the Innocents Project over 200 people have been “exonerated from death row” our justice system is not perfect… income, race, and politics all make the court system imperfect and subject to abuse. And Texas has some of the draconian laws in the nation and it doesn’t make it any safer.

Twenty-four states and Washington D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, but in Texas you can still get 6-months for possession of 2 ounces or less! Living up to their motto "We're tough on crime!"

Texas, hardly a paradigm of criminal justice liberalism, became the first state in the nation to adopt such a law, which “clarified that judges could consider changes in the scientific value of already-available evidence as a basis for granting post-conviction relief even after all direct appeals are exhausted. “

Nonetheless, courts have repeatedly refused to allow Roberson, who has claimed he is innocent, from taking advantage of that law through what his supporters say is “deliberate misinterpretation.”

Let’s fire up ol’ sparky and fry his ass to show the voters that we are tough on crime!

Whatever its legislative purpose, Roberson’s appearance before the committee may also bring even more public attention to his case and help keep him from being executed. Whether it does so or not, it is a reminder that death row inmates are still human beings, entitled to be treated with dignity, and given a voice in public proceedings.

And that is what why Abbott and Paxton so anxious to execute him, to shut him up! They want to show that they are tough on crime! What a reason to execute a person… for votes!

Vote Blue to end this injustice! Vote Harris/Walz! And vote “Yes” on the Connecticut ballot on mail-in votes… don’t believe the Republican lies.

Day 6: Transweek

Today was a full day for me, lunch was at one of my favor restaurant Tin Pan Ally… good food at a good price and if the weather is nice they have a patio if the weather is nice like it was yesterday, today it was a little cool to sit out side. I had five cheese Mac & Cheese.

I got to Wave Bar early so I sat outside in the sun, the breeze was a little cool but the sun made up for it. The Keynote was by, Jamison Green

Under Attack

The state of the transgender community is fractured, our legal protections are threatened, and our healthcare is under attack. What do we do now? Author/activist Jamison Green has a message of hope and commitment. Jamison is a writer, educator, policy consultant, and former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, FTM International, and Gender Education & Advocacy, Inc. Among many honors, he received the Fantasia Fair Pioneer Award in 2014.

Excellent! A lot of questions from the audience and I mentioned seniors as being my current focus.

*****

Where I live there is a large brush fire and it is in its fifth day burning over 800 as of this morning hundred acres.

---

Day 1: TransWeek (AKA Fantasia Fair)

Day 2: Transweek Formerly Fantasia Fair

Day 3: Transweek

Day 4: Transweek

Day 5: Transweek

Day 6: Transweek

Day 7: Transweek

Day 8: Transweek. The Party’s Over!

Day 5: Transweek

Well I skipped lunch at Bay Side (Formerly know as Bayside Betty’s) I decided that I didn’t want to walk up the hill to the restaurant.

Bayside Betty’s had excellent clam chowder and I understand that they passed down the recipe to the new owners but the chowder has way too much carbs in it.

But I didn't go to the Keynote.
50 Years of TransWeek: A panel conversation of event directors
Ariadne Kane, Dallas Denny, Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, and Dee LaValle

In 1975 after planning the first Fantasia Fair, the bank foreclosed on the Gifford House, where everyone would be staying, and events would be scheduled. From that auspicious beginning the event grew into an annual celebration for the last half century. In those 50 years, TransWeek, has evolved. Come hear about its origin and reminisce with four of its event directors, who combined have led 28 of the 50 events and participated in many more. Listen to some memories from TransWeek’s various eras and share yours with us.
With a panel like that you know it was good!

However… I fell asleep and missed it! It was a bye day for me.

But a couple of friends are coming up from CT for the weekend.

---

Day 1: TransWeek (AKA Fantasia Fair)

Day 2: Transweek Formerly Fantasia Fair

Day 3: Transweek

Day 4: Transweek

Day 5: Transweek

Day 6: Transweek

Day 7: Transweek

Day 8: Transweek. The Party’s Over!

Our Team!

Harris/Walz just got a shot of cash… fifty million dollars worth!

Bill Gates Makes Unprecedented $50 Million Pledge to Back Kamala Harris: ‘This Election Is Different’

The billionaire Microsoft co-founder notes that to this point, he has “a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum”

The Wrap

By Sharon Knolle

October 22, 2024

Bill Gates has donated $50 million to Kamala Harris’ campaign, a political backing that was originally intended to be private.

The Microsoft founder confirmed the donation to The New York Times on Tuesday, saying “this election is different,” although he is still not endorsing Harris publicly.

“I support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving health care, reducing poverty and fighting climate change in the U.S. and around the world,” he said in a statement. “I have a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum, but this election is different, with unprecedented significance for Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world.”

[…]

Conservative politicians Gates has previously backed include Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Denali Leadership PAC and Arizona’s Charles Horne, according to OpenSecrets. But in the last two years, he has primarily donated to Democrats, including Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker.

But the Republicans have their hand out also to there billionaire friends…

The Billionaire Backers

The richest Americans have so far given more to Trump than to Harris in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

Bloomberg

By Kristine Owram and Bill Allison

September 10, 2024

As Election Day approaches, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will be judged on their personality, policies and experience.

Money is needed to get that message out to voters. And while both campaigns have raised millions from small donors and billionaires, it’s the latter whose power and influence can have an outsized impact on any potential administration.

We compiled a list of the richest Americans who’ve supported one of the presidential candidates, either in word or in deed.

Using Federal Election Commission data as of September, we looked at members of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index who’ve donated to the Harris or Trump campaigns (our methodology is explained at the bottom of this story). We also added high-profile members of the index like Elon Musk and Bill Ackman who don’t show up in the FEC data but have endorsed one of the candidates.

Among the ultra-rich, Trump comes out on top. The former president has gotten at least $34.4 million from 14 members of the wealth list. Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has received at least $16.8 million from 21 people, including those who donated to Biden’s campaign before he stepped down. Those contributions were rolled over to her when she became the candidate.

We have the best government money can buy!

All hail the Supreme Court in their infinite wisdom! Citizens United v. FEC in 2010 opened the flood gates of PACs! The Brennan Center for Justice write,

Citizens United Explained

The 2010 Supreme Court decision further tilted political influence toward wealthy donors and corporations.

By Tim Lau

December 12, 2019

January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.

While wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups have long had an outsized influence in elections, that sway has dramatically expanded since the Citizens United decision, with negative repercussions for American democracy and the fight against political corruption.

The ruling sided with Citizens United it said that corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections.

What was the rationale for the ruling?

In the court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that limiting “independent political spending” from corporations and other groups violates the First Amendment right to free speech. The justices who voted with the majority assumed that independent spending cannot be corrupt and that the spending would be transparent, but both assumptions have proven to be incorrect.

With its decision, the Supreme Court overturned election spending restrictions that date back more than 100 years. Previously, the court had upheld certain spending restrictions, arguing that the government had a role in preventing corruption. But in Citizens United, a bare majority of the justices held that “independent political spending” did not present a substantive threat of corruption, provided it was not coordinated with a candidate’s campaign. 

And the cash poured in! As per the FEC… As of June 30, 2024, political action committees (PACs) have spent approximately $6 billion in the 2023-2024 election cycle

You saw that right… $6,000,000,000!

Now tell me who do you think the politicians will listen to? You who donated a $5, $10, or $100, or the billionaire who donated $5,000,00, $10,000,00 or $50,000,000? Do you remember back in the spring that...

Trump pressed oil executives to give $1 billion for his campaign, people in industry say

“This is a scandal” and “an indictment of the system” — but probably legal, one legal watchdog told POLITICO.

By Ben Lefebvre

May 9, 2024

Former President Donald Trump asked oil industry executives last month to donate $1 billion to aid his campaign to retake the White House, three people familiar with the conversation told POLITICO — a request that campaign finance experts said appeared troubling but is probably legal.

The request, first reported Thursday by The Washington Post, occurred during a meeting of industry executives at the former president’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.

[…]

At the very least, the $1 billion ask points to problems with laws governing money in politics, said Erin Chlopak, senior campaign finance director at the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center.

“At a high level, it perfectly captures so much of what’s wrong with our big money campaign finance system,” said Chlopak, who was a senior lawyer at the Federal Elections Commission, which monitors campaign contributions and spending.

[…]

Trump’s request is “shocking,” but it would almost certainly not break the law, said Meredith McGehee, an independent expert on government ethics and campaign finance. Unless Trump wrote on a napkin during the meeting an exact amount of money he wanted deposited in a specific campaign vehicle in exchange for a specific policy goal, there’s little chance it would violate bribery laws as currently interpreted by the Supreme Court, McGehee said.

In anything else, this would have been called a “shakedown!”

For the People Act (H.R. 1),  Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act (DISCLOSE Act), and the Democracy for All Amendment were all introduced by Democrats to curb the money pouring into campaigns and all shot down by Republicans!

Vote Blue to bring back integrity, vote Blue to stop the lying, vote Blue to stop the assaults on minorities.

Vote “Yes” on the Connecticut ballot question for mail in voting for all, don’t believe the Republican “Big lie” about election fraud!

It Is No Big Deal!

[Editorial]
I was reading comments on Yahoo and there was a big debate (it was rather transphoblic) but the anti-trans rhetoric basically found it horrible that children want to transition. That they are too young to decide.

I say so what if a child wants to be a boy or a girl?

It is only a big deal because the right-wing people say it is. I say let the child explore their gender there is no harm in doing so, the harm comes from the adults and their indignation.

When I came out to my family and told the grandnieces and grandnephews whow were between 5 and 12, their answer was… “Okay. Can we go back out and play?”

It is one party that spreads the lies and create fear of the unknown that is causing  problem.

Take this scenario, a boy wants to dress up as a “princess” for Halloween.

Case #1: Parent flips out and explains girls wear dresses boys don’t!
Case #2: Parent says okay and helps him pick out a costume.

So what did those two cases teach the child?

Case #1: That there is something bad and evil in wanting to break from the norm.
Case #2: That it is okay to experiment, that your parents love you no matter what.

As the song from South Pacific so elegantly put it…

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

 

Prejudices run in families! They are passed down from one generation to the next, from Fred to Donald. How many have succumb to inter-generational hate? How many children have been murdered by a parent who wanted to beat “the gayness” out of the boy.

We need to stop the hate, break the link between generations.

 

[/Editorial]

Like A Rabid Animal

They strike out at anything and everything that is not true Red. Everything is fair game for them, including political party organizations!

Texas AG goes after Democratic fundraising as GOP outspent in key races
The Hill
By Saul Elbein
October 21, 2024

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday called on federal regulators to make it more difficult for donors to use ActBlue, a popular progressive fundraising platform that has collected record donations for the Harris campaign.

Recent polling by the University of Texas shows Vice President Harris within 5 points of former President Trump in Texas — the closest a Democrat has been to winning the state since the days of Bill Clinton.

In a letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Paxton accused the platform of failing to keep off “straw donors,” people who use another person’s money to make a donation in their own name.

“Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations,” Paxton said in a statement.

ActBlue targets small-dollar donations and has been a major part of the Democratic fundraising apparatus, collecting an estimated $1.5 billion from about 7 million donors.

Fox News reports,

With Election Day only 15 days away, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is sounding the alarm about a popular progressive fundraising platform that he says is interfering in the presidential election.

"Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a statement on X.

"It is imperative that the FEC close off the avenues we have identified by which foreign contributions or contributions in excess of legal limits could be unlawfully funneled to political campaigns, bypassing campaign finance regulations and compromising our electoral system," he continued.

I like to point out that this is a witch-hunt. He has no evidence, he is digging to hopefully find pay dirt.

Judge reportedly strikes down Texas law that Ken Paxton frequently uses to investigate companies and nonprofits
A federal judge said Texas’ “request to examine” statute amounts to unconstitutional search and seizure, Bloomberg reported.
The Texas Tribune
By Alejandro Serrano and Kayla Guo, Vianna Davila
Oct. 11, 2024

Attorney General Ken Paxton can’t use a state statute that he repeatedly relies on to scrutinize various companies and nonprofits — including an El Paso migrant shelter network and a nonprofit focused on increasing Latinos’ civic participation — after a federal magistrate judge on Friday ruled the tool unconstitutional, according to Bloomberg Law.

Judge Mark Lane of the Western District of Texas verbally granted a permanent injunction stopping Paxton using what’s called a “request to examine” to probe myriad practices. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., a Boeing 737 jets manufacturer that received such a request from Paxton earlier this year requiring the company to produce a variety of documents.

Spirit challenged the constitutionality of Texas’ request to examine statute because it requires recipients to “immediately permit” the attorney general to inspect its records, without an opportunity for precompliance judicial review of the request — in violation of the right to freedom from unreasonable search or seizure that’s granted by the Fourth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. Lane agreed.

“This call for me is easy,” Lane said at a hearing Friday, according to Bloomberg Law.

The judge went on to say,

“The office of the Attorney General does not have arbitrary power under an administrative government regulation to demand unfettered access to search and seize property of any business in Texas,” said Kristin Etter, director of policy and legal service at Texas Immigration Law Council, an organization aimed at protecting the rights of Texas immigrants and refugees. “This is textbook 4th Amendment jurisprudence that protects us all from unreasonable searches and seizures.”

But the Attorney General doesn’t think anything is wrong with this…

The Legal Questions Surrounding Elon Musk’s Million-Dollar Prize for Swing State Voters
Time
By Solcyré Burga
October 21, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s plan to give out $1 million prize to registered voters in swing states as he stumps for former President Donald Trump has raised concerns and could be illegal, some election law experts suggest.

Every day until the Nov. 5 election, Musk, the world’s richest man, plans on giving a million-dollar prize to people who sign a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution, which guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, among other rights. In order to win the money, petitioners have to be a registered voter from one of the following battleground states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.

There is something rotten in Denmark when the Attorney General goes after the opposition party’s donors when at the same time they refuse investigate billionaire donors who are offering to pay voters!

---

Speaking of rabid animals, Trump has threaten his political opponents with prosecution!

Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies
NPR All Things Considered
By Tom Dreisbach
October 22, 2024

With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”

In one recent interview, Trump said that if “radical left lunatics” disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

 

 [...]

 

 A review of Trump’s rally speeches, press conferences, interviews and social media posts shows that the former president has repeatedly indicated that he would use federal law enforcement as part of a campaign to exact “retribution.”

Vice President Kamala Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said last year.

It is not just Vice President Kamala Harris but everyone who spoke against him!

 “ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” reads one post Trump reposted on his social media site, Truth Social, regarding the former Republican congresswoman. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”

 

[...]

 

“If the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's ‘bye-bye,’ the reporter goes to jail,” Trump said in 2022. He appeared to suggest that the reporter could also face sexual assault while in custody.

Harris said it best! BBC reported,

On Wednesday afternoon, Kamala Harris stood in front of the vice-presidential residence in Washington DC, and delivered a short but withering attack on her Republican presidential opponent.

Calling Donald Trump "increasingly unhinged and unstable", she cited critical comments made by John Kelly, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, in a New York Times interview.

The vice-president quoted Kelly describing Trump as someone who "certainly falls into the general definition of fascists" and who had spoken approvingly of Hitler several times.

She said her rival wanted "unchecked power" and later, during a CNN town hall event, was asked point-blank if she believed he was a "fascist". "Yes, I do," she replied.

Vote Blue!
Vote “Yes”!

*****

I have a question: why is the federal investigation in to Ken Paxton’s indictment on felony securities fraud charges been stalled. He was indicted in 2015, and still no trial!