Trans Men Are Our Saviors

They are the ones who can show the idiocy of the Republican pogrom against us! Eighteen states have laws that restrict our access, and three states have laws with criminal penalties!

Trans man schools lawmakers on why “bathroom bills” are ridiculous & dangerous

The bill passed the Idaho House anyway, despite even cops agreeing that the law was unworkable.

LGBTQ Nation

Greg Owen

March 18, 2026

A trans man in Idaho dismantled the latest “bathroom bill” up for a vote in the Idaho legislature, laying out point by point why it was unworkable, unfair, and cruel.

Boise resident Nixon Matthews used his own example of trying to use a restroom if the bill were enacted into law.

“I want to walk through what this looks like for me,” he told legislators at a hearing on House Bill 752.

“Say, one of the men here walks into the men’s bathroom, and you see me walk into a stall, and you know I’m trans. And since you’re all law-abiding citizens, you’re going to call 911. You’re going to say, ‘Hello, 911? There’s a trans person in the bathroom. They’re peeing right now, I’m scared. Please come and arrest them.'”

We need you! We need trans men to go to the bathroom in the Capitol, by the governor's office, and by the Republican legislative offices!

If he doesn’t want to be arrested, Matthews said, he’d have to use a women’s room instead.

“Say I happen to walk behind a woman, and her husband sees someone who looks like me following his wife into the bathroom,” Matthews continued. “What do you think happens next? Maybe the cops get called. But more likely, that man is going to follow me into the bathroom, confront me, and even assault me.”

“So every single day,” Matthews said, “when I’m out in public, I have to decide: do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?”

To my trans men friends: obey the law!

Go to the most upscale restaurant in your nicest suit and tie! Get arrested and sue the pants off of them for false arrest!

If he doesn’t want to be arrested, Matthews said, he’d have to use a women’s room instead.

“Say I happen to walk behind a woman, and her husband sees someone who looks like me following his wife into the bathroom,” Matthews continued. “What do you think happens next? Maybe the cops get called. But more likely, that man is going to follow me into the bathroom, confront me, and even assault me.”

“So every single day,” Matthews said, “when I’m out in public, I have to decide: do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?”

The Republicans live in their little fantasy world, where they justified all these draconian laws by saying a man could dress up as a woman to rape women in the bathroom. But to show you how stupid the Republicans are: now, the men who want to rape women don't need to dress up like a woman. Thanks to the Republicans, they can now just walk into a women's bathroom and say they are trans and just obeying the law.

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Updated: 4/12 @ 11:00AM

The Axe Has Fallen Again

The Republicans have always tried to end Medicare since day one!

Over 6 million Americans on Medicare will now need to get prior authorization from AI for these 17 procedures

A six-state pilot program will target ‘wasteful care’ under Medicare

Market Watch

By Jessica Hall

Dec. 30, 2025

Traditional Medicare in six states will soon feel more like privatized Medicare Advantage, using prior authorizations to determine what care can be covered for older adults.

Starting in January, about 6.4 million Americans enrolled in traditional Medicare in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and Washington state will be part of a pilot program using artificial intelligence for prior authorizations. The program — known as the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model — will require additional approvals for 17 different medical procedures.

---

Medicare’s new AI experiment sparks alarm among doctors, lawmakers

A new model will test AI prior authorizations in 6 states; physicians fear more denials and delays for older adults.

Stateline

By: Anna Claire Vollers

December 4, 2025

A Medicare pilot program will allow private companies to use artificial intelligence to review older Americans’ requests for certain medical care — and will reward the companies when they deny it.

In January, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will launch the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model to test AI-powered prior authorizations on certain health services for Medicare patients in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. The program is scheduled to last through 2031.

The program effectively inserts one of private insurance’s most unpopular features — prior authorization — into traditional Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and those with certain disabilities. Prior authorization is the process by which patients and doctors must ask health insurers to approve medical procedures or drugs before proceeding.

So now we have to fight a machine!

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But that is not all...

Trump administration says it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota after series of fraud schemes

AP News

By  HALLIE GOLDEN

December 31, 2025

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

The McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University reported that the fraud rate for states are... Minnesota’s improper payment rate was about 2.2 % in recent reporting periods and by comparison, improper rates in other states vary widely — e.g. Alabama ~0.2 %, California ~8.1 %, Connecticut ~18.8 %, South Carolina ~20.5 %!

So the question is why Minnesota?

Walz on frozen federal child care payments: ‘This is Trump’s long game’

The Hill

by Max Rego

12/31/25

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) slammed the Trump administration for pausing child care payments to his state amid increased federal scrutiny of alleged fraud within its social services programs. 

“This is Trump’s long game,” Walz wrote Tuesday in a post on the social platform X. “We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue — but this has been his plan all along.

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” he added.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) froze child care payments to the North Star State earlier Tuesday. 

Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill wrote online that he has demanded an audit from Walz on the day care centers highlighted in a video published Friday by YouTuber Nick Shirley. O’Neill said all payments from the department’s Administration for Children and Families to states across the country will require prior justification and a receipt or photo evidence.

And it is not like Minnesota wasn't doing anything about the fraud,

He added on X that his administration has “spent years cracking down on fraud — referring cases to law enforcement, shutting down and auditing high-risk programs.”

So why is Trump's adminstration going after Minnesota?

So why do you think the Trump adminstration is going after Minnesota?

online polls

Like Father, Like Son

I don't like to talk about politicians children but when they put themselves into the spotlight... they're fair game.

 

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Trump has the Epstein Files around his neck and his son Barron has Andrew Tate. Who?

 Andrew Tate’s alliance with Trump has been in the making for a long time
Trump’s attempts to intervene in Tate’s rape and human trafficking cases in Romania might seem strange, but their worlds are intimately linked

The Guardian

By Matt Shea

Fri 21 Feb 2025

 

 

Ever since I began reporting on Andrew Tate four years ago (during which time my colleague Jamie Tahsin and I made two documentaries, wrote a book on him and interviewed his alleged rape victims), I’ve been sounding the alarm on the far-right disinformation network that connects him to Trump’s inner circle.

Earlier this month, the US special envoy Richard Grenell, a vocal supporter of Andrew Tate, pressured the Romanian government to remove judicial control restrictions on the Tate brothers, demanding that the alleged human traffickers be allowed to travel freely, according to sources who spoke to the Financial Times. The Romanian government has since confirmed this was a request but denied there was political “pressure”.

The alliance between the Trump administration and the Tate brothers has been in the making for a long time. Paul Ingrassia, one of the lawyers Andrew Tate hired to fight his human trafficking case, was recently sworn in as the White House liaison for the Department of Justice. According to him, the Tate brothers were “sacrificed on the altar of the Matrix under the banner of egregious crimes they never committed”. 

Trump and this trash were friends with Epstein! And it not just the two of them, also involved in the web including Tucker Carlson and other media stars of the right...

 Andrew Tate has been friends since 2016 with Donald Trump Jr, who called Tate’s detention “absolute insanity”. Donald Trump himself also appeared on a stream with the Andrew Tate sycophant and collaborator Adin Ross in August 2024. Around the same time, JD Vance appeared on the pro-Tate podcast the Nelk Boys.

Elon Musk responded to Tate’s plan to “run for prime minister of the UK” by saying “he’s not wrong” and JD Vance followed both Tate brothers on X in December.

But the story is more complicated then just knowing one another. For that story we turn to the Emerald Island,

The Tate escape: How a ‘manosphere’ star accused of rape and trafficking was freed
Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go

The Irish Time

By Megan Twohey & Isabella Kwai
Thu Dec 11 2025

 

 

 Days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025, Andrew Tate got some good news.

Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew Tate was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case.

Now, in a January 14th text message, Tate indicated that help was on the way.

“I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami.” [sic]

 

[...]

 

 Their arrival in the United States opened a rare rift among conservatives and raised suspicions over whether the White House had intervened. A New York Times investigation found that support from Trump administration officials played a crucial role.

 

 Interviews with dozens of people in Romania, the United States and Britain, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of court documents and private messages, offer the fullest account yet of how the Tates rose from a fringe corner of the internet to become a cause célèbre on the right.

The brothers’ release from Romania was the culmination of a yearslong effort by Andrew Tate to forge alliances with Trump’s advisers and family members.

Wait a minute how did he get here with his record — Isn't Trump cracking down on hardened criminals and scrum entering the country? Then had did Tate make it here with open arms!

Tate also nurtured relationships with Donald Trump jnr and his younger brother Barron Trump, who recognised the role that young male voters could play in their father’s return to power.

Barron, now 19, admired Andrew, and spoke to him over Zoom last year, according to Justin Waller, a mutual friend who was on the call. During the call, they discussed their shared belief that the Romanian criminal case was an effort to silence the Tates, he said.

After Trump’s re-election, some of the Tates’ supporters ascended into the new administration. One of them, diplomatic envoy Richard Grenell, twice discussed their case with Romanian officials, the New York Times found.

His web trapped Trumps children!

Investigation delves into the Tate brothers and their connection to the Trump family
PBS News Hour

By Geoff Bennett & Jonah Anderson

Dec 11, 2025

 

 

 A new report from The New York Times reveals how the Trump Administration and members of the president’s family may have been involved in a larger movement in conservative circles to support Andrew and Tristan Tate, right-wing influencers charged with rape, human trafficking and other crimes. Investigative reporter Megan Twohey, who helped break the story, joins Geoff Bennett to discuss.

 

 Geoff Bennett:

Now a new investigation into the political maneuvers that led to the release of Andrew and Tristan Tate, right-wing influencers charged with rape, human trafficking and other crimes.

The Tates, who are major players with big social media followings in the so-called manosphere, are facing criminal investigations in Romania and criminal charges in the U.K. for alleged sex crimes. The brothers had been barred from leaving Romania for years as prosecutors built their case. But, in February, the Romanian government suddenly lifted the travel ban and allowed the two to board a plane to Florida, which they announced in this video recorded on the plane.

Both men have denied the criminal allegations. A new report from The New York Times reveals how the Trump administration and some members of the president's family may have been involved in a larger movement in conservative circles to support the Tates.

For more, we're joined now by New York Times investigative reporter Megan Twohey, who helped break the story.

Thanks for being with us.

 

Megan Twohey:

So, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to a lesser extent are two of the most influential figures in the so-called manosphere world.

They — Andrew's a former kickboxer, who has built a huge, massive online audience by preaching brazen masculinity and chauvinism to a young male audience. He and his brother also ran a porn business for about 10 years, bragging about how they lured and steered women into making sexual content for paying customers online, and with them taking a lot of the profit.

And they have also sold courses to young men on how to make money and exploit women.

And remember they are friends with the Trump's! 

 Geoff Bennett:

What did your reporting find about the involvement of Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump specifically?

Megan Twohey:

Yes.

So, the — so, Andrew Tate was very sort of strategic and shrewd in cultivating these alliances with people on the American right, including in the Trump family. And so his relationship with Don Jr. stretches back to 2017, when Andrew had posted a positive tweet about his father and Don Jr. had liked it.

And, anyway, soon, they were hanging out at Trump Tower here in New York. And that stretched up through him coming under investigation and being placed on house arrest in Romania. Don Jr. was one of the people who posted online supporting in defense of the Tates and critical of the Romanian investigation.

And then we found that, by 2024, Barron Trump, the youngest son, was also a fan of Andrew and that they actually spoke by Zoom last year with a mutual friend, who told me that Barron is a big fan of the Tates and that, on this call, they had actually discussed the Romanian case and how they thought it was just an effort to silence the Tates, a politically motivated criminal investigation.

Tate is toxic!

 Megan Twohey:

Within hours of the travel bans being lifted, the brothers were on a private plane to Florida. And their arrival was, I think, a little bit bumpier than they had expected.

While on the one hand, they have garnered a lot of support from certain media and other conservative figures and even members of the Trump family here in the United States, there were also a lot of conservatives, other conservatives, more traditional conservatives who were outraged that they had come back to the United States, Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro.

The Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said that they weren't welcome in his state. And the Florida attorney general actually launched an investigation of them there.

It seems like this is a one big sex-ring that Trump and his family is involved with! 

  

 

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 Do you know that Trump's grandfather's last name was Drumpf and changed it to Trump!

Mini-Post: Dirty Laundry

I make my livin' off the evenin' news

Just give me somethin', somethin' I can use

People love it when you lose

They love dirty laundry

Dirty Laundry, Don Henley

I watch the evening news... Breaking News... Murder in __________

That is usually how the news starts off and does that distort the perception of crime when it is always blasted on the front page.

The Politics of Crime Are Perilous for Left and Right Alike

President Trump has latched on to concerns about crime, as liberals point to its decline. The politics often flip when it comes to mass shootings.

The New York Times

By Shaila Dewan

Aug. 19, 2025

It was an object lesson in the politics of crime.

After President Trump called Washington a city of “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor,” and summoned the National Guard and the F.B.I. to patrol its streets, his opponents on the left reacted with righteous indignation.

They called the move a cynical move to exploit a crime crisis that they say does not exist, in a city where violent crime is at a 30-year low.

But whatever the statistics say, polls consistently show that many people in the nation’s capital — including in communities that typically vote Democratic — are deeply concerned about public safety. That makes downplaying street crime politically perilous.

Mr. Trump’s opponents had walked into a trap. But it’s one that Republicans had also faced only a few days earlier.

[...]

Statistics are far from the only factor in how people feel. Violence and crime can provoke intensely personal, emotional reactions, helping people decide where to live and whom to vote for. And, individual incidents can always be used to score political points — arguably, any attack is one too many. The attempted carjacking of a former DOGE employee and his date apparently pushed Mr. Trump to make good on his threats to take over the capital’s police department.

Polling shows that Americans believe that crime is getting worse, even when it is getting better. But that is not simply because the public is easily swayed by social media posts and crime-saturated local news, said Adam Gelb, the president and C.E.O. of the Council on Criminal Justice, a policy think tank.

There were comments on Yahoo about the crime in DC and the person was all for Trump's invasion. One person said that crime was out of hand. I replied that it was higher in Trump's first administration and put a link to the FBI data. He called FBI data "fake news."  

Whose Side Is He On?

You have to wonder... remember Trump and one of his lying rants about the fake news of the fake news?

Connecting the dots...

Dot #1

AP fact check: Trump’s exaggerations about the Russia probe

PBS

Apr 1, 2019

President Donald Trump is taking his interpretation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation well beyond the facts.

He says he’s been fully exonerated based on a four-page summary of Mueller’s nearly 400-page report and is casting himself as a victim of illegal practices by the FBI because the agency investigated him in the first place.

But Trump is overstating his case. The FBI has legal grounds to open a probe if investigators have information they believe could lead them to a crime, even if one is not ultimately found. And the summary released by Attorney General William Barr says Mueller did not reach a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.

[...]

Trump’s claims came in a week of plentiful exaggerations and misstatements, seen most prominently in a speech to Michigan supporters in which he sought credit for all manner of things, including money to clean up the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative actually was already getting that money ; Trump had proposed slashing it.

Dot #2

Shuttering of State office leaves US largely defenseless against foreign influence warfare, officials say

‘This is how we lose big wars,’ one former researcher said of the larger effort to eliminate or dismantle organizations that monitor and counter disinformation.

Defense One

By Patrick Tucker

April 17, 2025

A small office in the State Department tasked with monitoring foreign disinformation threats was shuttered Wednesday by the Trump administration, the latest in a series of steps the White House has taken since January to dismantle entities that monitor foreign influence and information campaigns, or respond to them. As that effort continues, experts say, the United States and audiences around the world could be left virtually defenseless against increasing Chinese and Russian efforts to turn global populations against the United States. 

But that’s not how the administration sees it. “Over the last decade, Americans have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions. That ends today,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted to X Wednesday in an announcement about the closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub, known as R/Fimi. 

R/Fimi was a remnant of the Global Engagement Center, which was created in 2016 by the Obama administration to counter Russian disinformation efforts. Rubio said the GEC “actively silenced and censored the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” a claim that officials at the Global Engagement Center have denied and for which there is no evidence.

Dot #3

Russia is quietly churning out fake content posing as US news

A pro-Russian propaganda group is taking advantage of high-profile news events to spread disinformation — and they’re spoofing reputable news outlets to do it.

Politico

By Dana Nickel

08/17/2025

A pro-Russian propaganda group is taking advantage of high-profile news events to spread disinformation, and it’s spoofing reputable organizations — including news outlets, nonprofits and government agencies — to do so.

According to misinformation tracker NewsGuard, the campaign — which has been tracked by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center as Storm-1679 since at least 2022 — takes advantage of high-profile events to pump out fabricated content from various publications, including ABC News, BBC and most recently POLITICO.

This year, the group has focused on flooding the internet with fake content surrounding the German SNAP elections and the upcoming Moldovan parliamentary vote. The campaign also sought to plant false narratives around the war in Ukraine ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

McKenzie Sadeghi, AI and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, said in an interview that since early 2024, the group has been publishing “pro-Kremlin content en masse in the form of videos” mimicking these organizations.

“If even just one or a few of their fake videos go viral per year, that makes all of the other videos worth it,” she said.

Dot #4

What’s known and not yet known about the Justice Department’s scrutiny of Trump-Russia probe origins

AP News

By  ERIC TUCKER

August 5, 2025

News that Attorney General Pam Bondi is advancing a criminal investigation into the Obama-era origins of the Trump-Russia investigation means that one of the most studied, and politically polarizing, chapters of modern American history will be under the microscope yet again.

Here’s a look at what’s known and not yet known about the latest Justice Department revelation:

A saga with a long backstory

Perhaps no issue continues to aggravate President Donald Trump more than the assessment by intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 election on his behalf and the investigation by law enforcement into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to tip the outcome of the contest.

Robert Mueller, the former FBI director tapped as special counsel by Trump’s first Justice Department to investigate, found that Russia had waged a multi-prong operation in Trump’s favor and that the Republican president’s campaign welcomed the aid. But Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.

And the circle is complete!

Trump's claims of a "witch hunt" are now being turned into an official criminal investigation by his own Attorney General.

I asked Gemini AI... "How many time has this been investigated by congress?"

The topic of Russian interference in the 2016 election has been the subject of multiple, extensive investigations by Congress. Here are the key ones:

Senate Intelligence Committee: This committee conducted a bipartisan investigation that spanned more than three years. They produced a five-volume report that a bipartisan group of senators called "the most comprehensive description to date of Russia's activities and the threat they posed." The final report concluded that the Trump campaign's interactions with Russian intelligence services posed a "grave" counterintelligence threat and that the campaign welcomed the help it received from Russia.

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: This committee also conducted its own investigation. While the Democratic and Republican members reached different conclusions, with Republicans releasing a report that found no evidence of collusion, the transcripts of witness interviews released by the Democratic majority revealed significant evidence of the Trump campaign's efforts to seek and use Russian help.

Other Committees: Other committees, such as the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security panels, have also conducted their own reviews, particularly focusing on the origins of the FBI's investigation into the matter.

In summary, the issue has been investigated by multiple congressional committees, each producing their own reports and findings. The most thorough and bipartisan of these was the one from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Then I asked: "How many time has this been investigated by federal agencies other than congress?"

The matter of Russian interference in the 2016 election has been the subject of multiple, extensive investigations by various federal agencies. The most notable ones include:

The Intelligence Community: In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a declassified report, "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections." This report, a consensus view from the CIA, FBI, and NSA, concluded with "high confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign to help Donald Trump's electoral chances and harm Hillary Clinton's.

The FBI: The FBI initially launched an investigation, known as "Crossfire Hurricane," in July 2016 to look into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. This investigation was later taken over by a Special Counsel.

The Department of Justice (DOJ): The Special Counsel Investigation: In May 2017, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed as a Special Counsel to lead the investigation into Russian interference and any links between Russia and the Trump campaign. The investigation produced a comprehensive report in March 2019, known as the Mueller Report. It documented a "sweeping and systematic" Russian effort to interfere in the election and found "numerous links" between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. While it did not establish a criminal conspiracy, it also did not exonerate Trump on the issue of obstruction of justice, detailing ten instances of potential obstruction.

The Inspector General's Review: The DOJ's Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, conducted a separate investigation into the origins of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" probe. His report, released in December 2019, found significant errors and omissions in the FBI's applications for surveillance warrants but concluded that the FBI had an authorized purpose to launch the investigation. It found no evidence that the investigation was motivated by political bias.

The Durham Investigation: Attorney General William Barr later appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. The probe was ongoing for several years and ultimately produced a report that did not uncover evidence of a conspiracy by federal officials to sabotage Trump's campaign. It did, however, find significant flaws in the FBI's investigation. A criminal investigation into the matter continues.

In summary, federal agencies have investigated this matter multiple times from different angles, and their findings have been consistent in concluding that Russia interfered in the election.

What is the definition of insanity? And expecting different results... but if in this case if their new investigation finds some different then we will know who fudged their investigation to draw their conclusions.

What I would like to see after all of this is done... A FOI question: What was the bottom line of the cost of this investigation. And how does compare to the cuts to SNAP?

*****

P.S. I gave this to proofread by Gemini and it said...

The comparison you want to make is a powerful one: The government is spending tens of millions of dollars on an investigation to re-examine a conclusion that has already been reached multiple times, while at the same time, it is cutting billions from a program that provides food assistance to millions of low-income Americans.

Mini-Post: Hate In Connecticut

A follow-up to a post yesterday on an incident outside an Islamic center over the weekend...

Stamford man charged over 'derogatory statements' outside Islamic center, police say

CT Post

By Christine Dempsey,

Aug 13, 2025

Police Tuesday arrested a Stamford man they say directed derogatory remarks at people outside an Islamic center over the weekend.

[...]

His words were “a deliberate and targeted verbal assault meant to intimidate Muslim families, including children, as they peacefully left their house of worship," said Farhan Memon, CAIR-CT’s chairman. "We call on law enforcement authorities to take this incident seriously and to send the message that hate and bias-motivated harassment have no place in Connecticut," he said in a Sunday statement.

I know many people think that this should be a bias crime but he never made any threats of violence nor discrimination. Therefore, it didn't reach the level of a bias crime. Being a bigot is not a crime.

The Hartford Courant reported that...

“This was not just a case of disturbing the peace. It was a deliberate attempt to harass and intimidate an entire community because of their faith. The law is clear: when someone acts with the specific intent to target people based on religion, it’s a hate crime. We urge the authorities to review the evidence and consider amending the charges to reflect that reality.”

No it is not! The law states...

First-Degree Intimidation

A person commits the 1st degree crime of intimidation based on bigotry or bias if he or she, maliciously and with specific intent to intimidate or harass someone because of any of the attributes listed above, whether actual or perceived, caused physical injury (serious or non-serious) to that person or a third person (CGS § 53a-181j, as amended by PA 17-111 § 5). 

Second-Degree Intimidation

A person commits the 2nd degree crime of intimidation if he or she acts maliciously and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another individual or a group of people because of any of the attributes listed above, whether actual or perceived, by:

1.    making physical contact with the victim;

2.    damaging, destroying, or defacing property; or

3.    threatening to do either of these things, and the victim has reasonable cause to believe he or she will carry out the threat (CGS § 53a-181k, as amended by  PA 17-111 § 5).

Third-Degree Intimidation

A person commits the  3rd degree crime if he or she intends to intimidate or harass someone or a group of people because of any of the attributes listed above, whether actual or perceived, and he or she (1) damages, destroys, or defaces any property or (2) threatens to do so by word or act or advocates or urges another person to do so and gives the victim reasonable cause to believe the act will occur (CGS § 53a-181l).

Now, it might be Third-Degree Intimidation, however is it harassment... that is where it gets dicey.

A person is guilty of harassment in the second degree when, with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person, they:

• Use indecent or obscene language over the phone,
• Communicate with a person in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm,
• Make a telephone call or other form of communication without a legitimate purpose and in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm,
• Repeatedly contact a person at inconvenient hours,
• Or threaten to injure a person or their property.

The part where, "...other form of communication without a legitimate purpose and in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm..." That bumps right in with the First Amendment.

You might remember where on the UConn campus some student said racial epithets are they walk by a dorm and the courts ruled that the speech was protected by the 1^st Amendment. So as much as we would like it to be a bias crime it doesn't met the standard.

Mini-Post: "Say it ain't so..."

Surprise, surprise... Federal agents lied!

Justice department drops cases against LA protesters after officers caught making false claims

Revealed: records show border patrol gave inaccurate testimony about people it jailed. Prosecutors now face ‘embarrassing’ dismissals

The Guardian

Sam Levin

Mon 28 Jul 2025

US immigration officers made false and misleading statements in their reports about several Los Angeles protesters they arrested during the massive demonstrations that rocked the city in June, according to federal law enforcement files obtained by the Guardian.

The officers’ testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers’ inaccurate reports, court records show.

But now weeks latter...

The Guardian’s review of records found:

• Out of nine “assault” and “impeding” felony cases the justice department filed immediately after the start of the protests and promoted by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecutors dismissed seven of them soon after filing the charges.
• In reports that led to the detention and prosecution of at least five demonstrators, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents made false statements about the sequence of events and misrepresented incidents captured on video.
• One DHS agent accused a protester of shoving an officer, when footage appeared to show the opposite: the officer forcefully pushed the protester.
• One indictment named the wrong defendant, a stunning error that has jeopardized one of the government’s most high-profile cases.

“When I see felonies dismissed, that tells me either the federal officers have filed affidavits that are not truthful and that has been uncovered, or US attorneys reviewing the cases realize the evidence does not support the charges,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, a former California state prosecutor who is now director of Prosecutors Alliance Action, a criminal justice reform group.

The government got what they wanted... a perp walk! They got on every newspaper, on every evening news of them busting heads and enforcing the law... so what the cases got thrown out, they got the talking heads on the evening news to talk about them.

Mini-Post: Liar In Chief!

Well Trump has done it again, made up imaginary facts and figures, just like the Haitians eating cats and dogs!

 Trump Says He's 'Looking At' Federal Takeover Of Washington, DC

"We would run it so good," Trump said of the nation's capital.

HuffPost

By Lydia O'Connor

Jul 8, 2025

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s weighing a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., spouting bogus claims about rampant crime in the nation’s capital, and hinted he could pursue the same with New York City.

Trump, who first floated the idea in February, brought up the takeover in the Oval Office when a reporter asked him who he thinks Republicans should support in the upcoming New York mayoral race. Trump said he’s “not getting involved” but went on to slam Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani as a “disaster” and “communist” who would be bad for the city.

[...]

“We would run it so good,” Trump said of the district. “It would be run so properly. We’d get the best person to run it. The crime would be down to a minimal ― would be much less.”

However there is only one minor detail... it is not true.

Violent crime in Washington hit its lowest point in 30 years in 2024 and is down 35% from 2023, according to the city’s Metropolitan Police Department. That includes a 32% reduction in homicides and 39% drop in robberies. In 2025, crime rates have continued to plummet.

It is just another lie... he tells them what want to hear. That Democrats are soft on crime! But it is all a lie. I find it interesting that the states with the lowest crime rate trend to be Democratic and the states with the highest crime rates tend to be Republican.

A Poison Pill

Poison pill
noun
: a financial tactic or provision used by a company to make an unwanted takeover prohibitively expensive or less desirable

 

Or in this case an attachment… the addition of a part of a bill that they know the other party will not swallow.

White House Threatens to Veto VA, Military Construction Spending Bill over GOP Policies
Military.com
By Rebecca Kheel
June 3, 2024

The White House is threatening to veto the annual Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction funding bill over GOP-backed riders that would undo VA policies on LGBTQ+ veterans and abortion.

The bill as written by House Republicans "includes numerous, partisan policy provisions with devastating consequences including harming access to reproductive health care, threatening the health and safety of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Americans, endangering marriage equality, hindering critical climate change initiatives, and preventing the administration from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion," the White House budget office said in a statement Monday.

"If the president were presented with H.R. 8580, he would veto it," the statement added, referring to the bill by its number.

They knew that the Democrats couldn’t swallow these poison pills. They now have bragging rights to say that the president is soft on the military!

The Hill reports,

“House Republicans are again wasting time with partisan bills that would result in deep cuts to law enforcement, education, housing, health care, consumer safety, energy programs that lower utility bills and combat climate change, and essential nutrition services,” White House officials said.

[…]

The legislation creates yet another clash over culture wars in Defense and government funding bills between Democrats and Republicans, which became a major point of tension last year before many of the partisan amendments were stripped after conference.

And of course the Republicans had to work in abortion in to the bill just to make the bill sourer to the taste!

The White House is also opposed to another provision that would restrict the VA from carrying out a Biden administration rule that allows veterans to have greater access to abortion counseling and abortions in certain circumstances.

Under the rule, the VA is allowed to provide access to abortions for veterans if their life or health is endangered, or if they became pregnant because of rape or incest. But the House bill would make that more restrictive, requiring the danger of death to be present for an abortion, along with allowing an abortion for rape or incest.

“This change would prevent VA from providing needed care when the health of the woman is endangered,” the White House said.

The last dig that they got in was a ban on flying the Pride flag at the VA.

You know that the Republicans are running with the veto as the president being against the military! Press release from the Speaker of the House.

“The Biden Administration’s veto threat sends a terrible signal to our nation’s allies and adversaries alike. The President’s push toward radical and woke policies is a continuing threat to our national security. His agenda is changing the focus of our military, undermining our readiness, and rejecting the promises made to our veterans. He must reverse course so we can again prioritize America’s strength and safety.”

They are so oblivious, everyone knew that this would be coming.

---

Here is something no one has mentioned yet and it will be a bitter pill for Trump to swallow .

Trump is now a has criminal conviction. Many countries do not allow felons to enter…
 

These countries generally do not allow entry to individuals with a criminal record: Argentina,     Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Macau, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States

These countries may allow entry initially but will deny it if a criminal record is discovered: Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United Arab Emirates.

I asked Perplexity AI: “Are there any countries where Trump has a golf courses that he will not be able to play because he is a criminal conviction?”

Answer:
Yes, there are countries where Donald Trump has golf courses that he will not be able to play due to his criminal conviction. Specifically:

• United Kingdom: Trump owns golf courses in Scotland, including the Trump Turnberry and Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen. Due to his felony conviction, he would be denied entry to the United Kingdom
• Ireland: Trump owns the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. While Ireland does not actively check for criminal records at the border, entry can be denied if it is discovered that the individual has a felony conviction

These restrictions mean that Trump would be unable to visit and play at his golf courses in these countries due to his criminal record.

Is The Head Dead Yet?

I make my livin' off the evenin' news
Just give me somethin', somethin' I can use
People love it when you lose
They love dirty laundry
Dirty Laundry – Don Henley

I watch a lot of evening news and you can help wondering about their “Breaking News” stories are always about shootings first thing. Think about it, the news never carries good events at the beginning of the news… murders, robberies, earthquakes, disaters they are always on the top of the news, why? Because they sell ads.

Americans fear crime despite downward trends
With crime down, why do many Americans believe it's going up? Researchers say there are many reasons for the disconnect.
Scripps News Service
By: Clayton Sandell
May 13, 2024

Crime: It's one of those subjects that always seems to be a top priority for Americans and the candidates who want their votes.

"We've invested a record amount in public safety, violence interruption, and we've also done much work to make communities safer," said President Joe Biden earlier this month in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Crime stories often play big in the news, and a growing number of Americans — 58% — say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress, according to the Pew Research Center.

But what is actually happening in America when it comes to crime? According to a Pew analysis of FBI data, violent crimes, including robbery, assault and murder are down by 49% from 1993 to 2022.

There have been a rash of car thefts in town and guess who gets blamed for the rise in the car thefts? The Democrats.

Does it matter that there has been a big drop in crimes… Nope. Does it matter that major car manufacturers have cars that are easily hot wired… Nope. Does it matter that the majority of car thefts had their keys in them and were unlocked… Nope.

The Republican’s “Lock ‘em up and thhow away the key approach.” doesn’t work but it resonates with the voters.

With crime down, why do many Americans believe it's going up? Researchers say there are many reasons for the disconnect, from high-profile news stories, politicians who make crime a constant talking point on the campaign trail and even social media keeping track of what we read.

"Algorithms are such that if you've clicked on a few crime stories, you may see more crime stories in your feed," said Gramlich. "And so that could be some reason why people think there's more crime."

Yup! I clicked on one story about the Adirondack park and guess what my news feeds are packed with stories about the Adirondack park, the online news is an echo chamber.

The other thing about crime that it mainly happens where most people don’t go. A shootout at a private party, or a late night bar, or buying drugs, or most often with a family argument.

We got the bubble-headed bleached-blonde, comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

Then there are the guns… most of the guns used in crimes here in Connecticut come from states with the fewest guns laws. Joslyn Law Firm writes,

Consider the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on homicides involving firearms. California, a state with notoriously strict gun control laws, has a firearm homicide rate of 3.5 per 100,000 people. On the other hand, gun-friendly Mississippi’s firearm homicide rate is nearly three times that, 10.2 per 100,000 people. While many factors may impact why one state has a higher homicide rate than another, it’s hard to deny that gun violence in America needs to be addressed.

But the Republicans and the gun manufacturers have brainwashed the voters into thinking the more guns the safer you are.

You don't really need to find out what's goin' on
You don't really wanna know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry