Right On!

Thinks are changing so fast it is hard to keep up.

I woke up this morning to...

Senate Joint Resolution No. 35

January Session, 2025 LCO No. 3787

Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION

AND ELECTIONS

Introduced by: (GAE)

RESOLUTION PROPOSING A STATE CONSTITUTIONAL

AMENDMENT CONCERNING DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF

SEX UNDER THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE.

Resolved by this Assembly:

1 Section 1. That the following be proposed as an amendment to the

2 Constitution of the State, which, when approved and adopted in the

3 manner provided by the Constitution, shall, to all intents and purposes,

4 become a part thereof:

5 Article twenty-first of the amendments to the Constitution is

6 amended to read as follows:

7 No person shall be denied the equal protection of the law nor be

8 subjected to segregation or discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment

9 of his or her civil or political rights because of religion, race, color,

10 ancestry, national origin, sex or physical or mental disability. As used in

11 this section, discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment of civil or

12 political rights because of sex includes, but is not limited to,

13 discrimination, in intent or effect, based on pregnancy, including

14 preventing, initiating, continuing or terminating a pregnancy; sexual

15 orientation; gender identity and expression; and related health care.

16 RESOLVED: That the foregoing proposed amendment to the

17 Constitution be continued to the next session of the General Assembly

18 elected at the general election to be held on November 3, 2026, and

19 published with the laws passed at the present session, or be presented

20 to the electors at the general election to be held on November 3, 2026,

21 whichever the case may be, according to article sixth of the amendments

22 to the Constitution. The designation of said proposed amendment to be

23 used on the ballots at such election shall be "Shall the Constitution of the

24 State be amended to amend the equal protection clause to provide that

25 discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination based on

26 pregnancy, including preventing, initiating, continuing or terminating

27 a pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression?"

WOW!

The Senate wants to include us in the Constitution!

Meanwhile Republicans states are writing discrimination into their constitutions, Connecticut is putting inclusion into our  Constitution... don't ever tell me that there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.

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I write many of my blog posts days in advance, I sit down and crank out four or five posts, then something comes along that needs to be said. So I have to juggle around posts or double them up likes today's post. Below the divider was the original post, I moved it down for this...

She has our backs!

Lady Gaga Declares ‘Trans People Are Not Invisible’ in Grammy Speech

Singer, who unveiled single "Abracadabra" earlier in the night, shared a powerful statement amid Trump's attack on the trans community

Rolling Stone

By Tomás Mier

February 2, 2025

Lady Gaga used the Grammy stage to stand up for trans rights. While accepting the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award for “Die With a Smile,” the pop star made a bold statement about transgender rights, drawing a standing ovation.

“It’s such an honor to sing for all of you. I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love,” Gaga said onstage with Bruno Mars. “The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love.”

Gaga — who covered The Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin” with Mars earlier in the night — has long been a voice for the LGBTQ community and has dedicated her philanthropy efforts with the Born This Way Foundation to LGBTQ youth. (The namesake song of the foundation shouts out “transgender lives.”)

We need more allies to speak up! They need to speak up because you all know Niemöller poem.

Thank you Lady Gaga!

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This is a copy and paste of a post on Facebook from Robert Reich 

Friends,

It can be overwhelming. Trump is trying to “flood the zone” so we focus on a few outrages that we find most offensive and lose sight of the big picture — the larger strategy he and Elon Musk and their cronies are pursuing.

Their major goal is not only or even mainly to impose white Christian nationalism on America, nor to downsize the federal government, nor to wreak vengeance on Trump’s enemies.

It is to concentrate ever more power in Trump’s hands, so he can concentrate ever more wealth in the oligarchy’s hands.

The overall strategy boils down to five tactics.

1. Replace federal civil servants with Trump loyalists.

It’s like the communist witch hunts of the late 1940s and early 1950s, only not with loyalty oaths to the United States but loyalty oaths to Trump.

Under one of Trump’s first executive orders, known as “Schedule F,” job protections shielding tens of thousands of senior career federal workers will be eliminated, making it easier to replace them with loyalists.

This week, Trump (via Musk) issued to all 2.3 million federal workers an offer to quit and get eight months pay or face the possibility of being furloughed without pay or fired. This, too, is aimed at getting rid of the professional civil service and installing people more loyal to Trump than to the United States.

Dozens of career officials at the National Security Council have been sent home while their loyalty is being reviewed. Dozens of other career officials, at the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been put on leave for suspicion of resisting an order by Trump.

Trump has conducted a mass purge of more than a dozen inspectors general (in direct violation of a law requiring written notice to Congress with a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” at least 30 days in advance). The only inspector general who remains is a Trump loyalist.

2. Take over independent decision-making across government.

This past Monday night, Trump froze up to $3 trillion in federal grants and loans to determine whether they “meet his priorities,” even though they had been passed by Congress. This was a direct violation of the Impoundment Act of 1974. (Later in the week, the freeze was rescinded, but it is expected to be reimposed in a form less vulnerable to legal challenges.)

He fired Democratic members of independent agencies — the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — leaving each without enough members to legally act.

This action is also unlawful. The law creating the labor board makes it independent of the White House in part by limiting a president’s ability to fire its members at will, stating: “Any member of the board may be removed by the president, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”

3. Put current officials on notice that defiance will be punished.

The media calls this Trump’s retribution for past perceived wrongs, but as a practical matter, it’s Trump’s warning to current officials that he will punish any disloyalty or defiance.

Trump has fired more than a dozen prosecutors from the Justice Department who worked for the special counsel Jack Smith on investigations into Trump.

A memo to the fired prosecutors from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, says a major factor in firing them was disloyalty to Trump: “Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully,” he wrote.

Trump’s Justice Department has also opened an investigation into the actions of career prosecutors who criminally charged the Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump has withdrawn security details from former public officials who have criticized him, although the threats on their lives continue — Anthony Fauci, John Bolton, and General Mark Milley. Trump has also rescinded additional protections for certain senior civil servants whose lives have been threatened.

4. Eliminate or intimidate sources of news and facts that have criticized Trump.

Trump has threatened to throw journalists in jail and revoke the broadcast licenses of television networks he perceives as unduly critical of him. He is also threatening universities, scientists, and government research agencies whose findings he dislikes. Trump’s Department of Education plans to control classroom curricula.

The threats are escalating. Days ago, Musk lashed out at the nonprofit Wikipedia after his page there was updated with a description of his controversial Nazi-like salute during Trump’s Inauguration Day celebrations.

5. Divide and conquer.

Trump wants Americans to get so riled up against one another that we don’t look upward and see where all the wealth and power have gone. This, too, is a tactic for consolidating power.

Yesterday, for example, Trump blamed the tragic air crash on Biden and Obama initiatives to make the federal workforce more diverse, claiming they “came out with a directive — ‘too white,’” but that “we want the people that are competent.”

***

It’s important to see Trump’s strategy as a whole. It is designed to consolidate his power. If we see it as a whole, the rest of us are better able to counter it — by demanding action from and fortifying our members of Congress, organizing for the midterm elections in 2026 to take back both chambers, conducting boycotts, and supporting and defending those who are vulnerable to Trump.

Americans don’t want a dictator. We don’t want an oligarchy. We were founded in rebellion against a king and his aristocracy.

Trump’s consolidation of power comes at a time when huge wealth has been amassed in the hands of 640 billionaires, including many who are in Trump’s White House — including the richest person in the world, who is now giving out orders as if he were Trump.

This concentration of power increases opportunities for oligarchic transactions — more power for more wealth, and more wealth for more power — that siphon off wealth and power from everyone else and undermine democracy.

This is the central reality of what has happened during the first 10 days of the Trump regime.

What do you think?

I think he is spot on