Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2025

On The Road To...

...Authoritarianism. one of the things a dictator needs is a good computer database so big brother can track everyone!
In a quest to bolster a long-running claim from President Trump concerning undocumented immigrants illegally voting, the Justice Department is seeking detailed voter roll data from over 30 states.
The New York Times
By Devlin Barrett and Nick Corasaniti
September 9, 2025


The Justice Department is compiling the largest set of national voter roll data it has ever collected, buttressing an effort by President Trump and his supporters to try to prove long-running, unsubstantiated claims that droves of undocumented immigrants have voted illegally, according to people familiar with the matter.

The effort to essentially establish a national voting database, involving more than 30 states, has elicited serious concerns among voting rights experts because it is led by allies of the president, who as recently as this January refused to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. fairly won the 2020 election. It has also raised worries that those same officials could use the data to revive lies of a stolen election, or try to discredit future election results.

The initiative has proceeded along two tracks, one at the Justice Department’s civil rights division and another at its criminal division, seeking data about individual voters across the country, including names and addresses, in a move that experts say may violate the law. It is a significant break from decades of practice by Republican and Democratic administrations, which believed that doing so was federal overreach and ripe for abuse.
I wrote about this Wednesday but today I am looking at the harm this can cause.
Nearly every state has resisted turning over voter files with private, personally identifiable information on voters like driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers. Last week, a local judge blocked South Carolina from releasing private voter information to the Justice Department.
This is sometime that the KGB, or the old East German Stasi did!

The Republican states are doing high-fives, the Democratic states are all going no-way this smacks too much as Big Brother!
Justin R. Erickson, the general counsel for Minnesota’s secretary of state, raised fears that the data would be used to further the administration’s own priorities. In a letter last month to the Justice Department, he wrote, “Equally concerning is the possibility that the D.O.J. will use the data inappropriately and the fact that the D.O.J. does not appear to have complied with the necessary legal requirements to obtain or use data on several million people.”
This is all to this is all the perpetuate the Republican "Big Lie" about election fraud... meanwhile they create this massive database on the citizens...
The Trump administration is pressing state officials to provide sensitive information about voters.
Brennan Institute
By Kaylie Martinez-Ochoa, Eileen O'Connor, & Patrick Berry
August 28, 2025


Since May, the Justice Department has sent letters or emails to at least 26 states requesting details about voters, election officials, and election administration processes, with 22 states receiving specific requests for statewide voter registration lists. These inquiries from the DOJ’s Civil Rights and Criminal Divisions range from requests to access voter registration lists to questions about states’ list-maintenance procedures, which are steps states take to ensure that voters who become ineligible, such as those who move to another state, are removed from the rolls.  

While these kinds of mass requests to states are uncommon, they are not unprecedented. For example, during the first Trump administration, the Civil Rights Division sent letters to all 44 states covered by the National Voter Registration Act asking for information about compliance with a section of that law. 

This time, however, the Civil Rights Division is asking for troves of confidential voter information by demanding full copies of states’ computerized voter registration lists, including drivers’ license numbers and partial social security numbers. As we detail in a separate analysis, the collection of this sensitive information by the federal government leads to serious privacy and security concerns and may violate state and federal laws.
All hail Trump: President for Life!

First, the federal government does not play any role in maintaining voter rolls. States and local governments run our elections, and as part of this responsibility, state and local election officials maintain voter files, which includes adding newly registered voters and removing voters who become ineligible (for example, because they move). The DOJ’s demands for the voter files are one element of the attempted federal takeover of federal elections. If its requests succeed, the department could amass a federal database of personal information about every registered voter in the country. The Trump administration may use such a database to further promote false claims about election fraud, target political opponents, or attempt to force states to remove voters from the rolls based on incomplete information. This vast collection of personal information could also easily be disclosed or misused by unauthorized individuals and become a prime target for hackers.        

Second, the DOJ’s demands are not justified as an attempt to enforce federal voting laws. Instead, President Trump’s March 2025 executive order on elections — which is currently facing a number of legal challenges — directs the federal government to collect voter files from all the states. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which the DOJ’s August letters cite as the basis for its demand for the voter files, the department is permitted to request records “relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election.” However, the law requires that the DOJ provide a “basis and purpose” for the request. Many of its letters to states do not appear to satisfy this requirement.
There are no laws, no Congressional funding, no budget has been approved, nor any legal authority...
Further, many states have laws that would prohibit them from disclosing some of this sensitive voter information, which a few states have noted when responding to federal officials. The DOJ would need to obtain a federal court order to force states to violate their own privacy laws, and it has failed to do so.

The executive branch has no authority to run our elections, nor any authority to compile a massive database of voters’ personal information. The DOJ’s efforts threaten individuals’ privacy and constitute yet another way in which the federal government is seeking to interfere with states’ constitutionally mandated power to conduct elections
We are well on road to a fascist, authoritarianism government under Herr Trump.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Mini-Post: They Have A Choice.

They are between a rock and a hard place, between the wrath of Trump & Company and the voters!


Summary
  • Republican senator says retaliation is 'real'
  • Murkowski is among few Republicans willing to break with Trump
  • Audience responds multiple times with applause
  • White House says success is Trump's only retribution
Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski disclosed this week that the threat of political retaliation from President Donald Trump is real enough to make her anxious about speaking out about his tariffs, executive orders and cuts to federal agencies.

"We are all afraid," Murkowski told a summit of nonprofit and tribal leaders in her native Alaska.

"It's quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before," the 67-year-old lawmaker added. "And I'll tell you, I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that's not right."

[...]

Other congressional Republicans have faced heated criticism and even shouting matches during in-person meetings with constituents angered by their support of Trump. Some have responded to protesters with police arrests.
On November 9th 2027 every single House member is up for vote! It will then be our turn to show the wrath to those spineless Congress members who refused to stand up to Trump!

Friday, November 01, 2024

The Quandary

This week we are going to the polls and many voters are in a quandary when it comes time to vote…
  • “I’m not voting for a women!” = Trump wins.
  • “I’m not voting for a president who supports Israeli!” = Trump wins.
  • “I’m not voting for a president, there is no differences between the parties!” = Trump wins.
Whatever your excuse is for not voting you are allowing four more years of Trump!

Vote! Vote as if a life depends upon it because the life of a trans person does.
For me, I’m voted for the woman with Integrity, Honor, & Character.
 
 
 

Like many of us I am worried about November 5th if Trump loses it and sends in his "Shock Troops" like he did back in 2020.
October 31, 2024
 
 
Before Election Day has even arrived, the “Stop the Steal” movement has reemerged in force, with some of the same activists who tried to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss outlining a step-by-step guide to undermine the results if he falls short again.

For months, those activists – who have been priming Trump supporters to believe the only way the former president can lose in 2024 is through fraud – have laid out proposals to thwart a potential Kamala Harris victory. Their plans include challenging results in court, pressuring lawmakers to block election certification, and encouraging protests – culminating on January 6, 2025, the day Congress will once again certify the results.

“I have a plan and strategy,” Ivan Raiklin, a former Green Beret and political operative who has close ties to associates of Trump, told a group of Pennsylvania activists earlier this month. “And then January 6th is going to be pretty fun.”
This rhetoric is what is getting people nervous! Some worry that Jan 6 2020 was a dress rehearsal for Jan 2025.
Trump’s allies – and the former president himself – are increasingly pushing debunked claims of voter fraud, spreading their rhetoric through podcasts with massive audiences, megachurch sermons and political rallies in key states. Some Trump backers, including pastors associated with Christian nationalist ideas, have described the election as a fight between good and evil, describing Harris as the antichrist or suggesting that God has anointed Trump as the victor.

[...]

Unfounded claims about malign forces conspiring to cheat Trump out of an otherwise inevitable election win have been increasing in recent weeks from influential members of the MAGA movement.

“Yes, the steal is happening again,” Emerald Robinson, a right-wing broadcaster with nearly 800,000 followers on X, declared in a blog post earlier this month, criticizing the fact that votes may take days to count in some states. “It doesn’t take days to get election results. It takes days to cheat.”
This seems to me to be "Incitement to riot" and he is stirring up a lynch mob.
AP News
By  GARY FIELDS, ALI SWENSON and LINLEY SANDERS
October 28, 2024
 
 
American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the election results and its broader implications for democracy, according to a new poll.

The findings of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, speak to persistent concerns about the fragility of the world’s oldest democracy, nearly four years after former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results inspired a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about 1 in 3 voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.
This is something that happens in a dictatorship... not in a Democratic Republic!
 
I'm going to say it again... vote Blue to save our nation from a tyrant!

Thursday, October 31, 2024

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.

Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Did You Ever Hear Of A Thing Called The First Amendment?

Well evidently the governor of Florida hasn’t.
Florida governor accused of trying to punish local TV stations airing ads that support Amendment 4
Independent
By Rhian Lubin
October 7, 2024


Ron DeSantis’s administration has appeared to threaten a local TV station with legal action for airing an abortion rights campaign ad.

The ad in question is the same one that aired in Florida during the vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. It features a woman named Caroline who needed to have an abortion and cancer treatments after a brain tumor diagnosis in 2022.

Such a difficult situation would have been complicated by Florida’s six-week abortion ban today.
Meanwhile the state is pushing its own “misinformation” and a judge has ruled that it okay according to Miami Herald,
Saying courts “must trust the people to decide what information is important to them,” a Leon County circuit judge Monday refused to issue a temporary injunction to block the state Agency for Health Administration from disseminating what critics call “misinformation” about a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights. Judge Jonathan Sjostrom rejected arguments by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee sponsoring the proposed amendment, and wrote that the case is “not justiciable by courts because political power is reserved to the people in an election by means of each ballot.”

[…]

Floridians Protecting Freedom filed a lawsuit Sept. 12 and sought a temporary injunction after the Agency for Health Care Administration began using a website and ads to disseminate information about the proposed amendment. The proposal will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 4 and would enshrine abortion rights in the Constitution.
In another lawsuit against the state, this time about using public funding against the abortion ballot amendment.
Newsweek
By Maya Mehrara
September 18, 2024


Florida's ACLU announced it is preparing to sue the state Agency for Health Care Administration, accusing it of misusing public funds to influence voters on abortion, according to ABC Action News.

The Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)'s legal team discussed the upcoming lawsuit in a virtual press conference on September 11. The suit relates to a TV advertisement that redirects viewers to a website with further information on abortion access.

The website reportedly featured arguments against Amendment Four, a ballot initiative that would limit government interference with abortion law, positing that it "threatens women's safety."

Florida ACLU Attorney Michelle Morton said, "This website is filled with demonstrably false statements. So we're challenging the misuse of taxpayer dollars to lie to voters about this amendment," according to ABC Action News.

"This is not what government is supposed to be," said Morton. "That's not what government is supposed to do. This is not normal."
But hey, this is Florida! The Republicans do what every they please.

Vote on the Democrat, vote yes on the ballot question about mail-in ballots.



Update: 10/9 @ 6:00PM
The Florida Health Department threatened legal action against local stations if they run an ad promoting a pro-abortion ballot measure.
MSNBC
Oct. 9, 2024
By Ja'han Jones


The head of the Federal Communications Commission is condemning Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration for its latest attack on the First Amendment after the state Health Department sent letters threatening local TV stations with legal action if they continue to air an ad supporting Amendment 4, a statewide referendum on abortion rights.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel on Tuesday responded to those reports with an official statement: 

The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.

The DeSantis administration claims the ad, which features a woman with terminal brain cancer discussing Florida’s controversial six-week abortion ban, lies about what the law does. In a letter to a local NBC station, for example, the general counsel for the Health Department claims the ad violates statutes around causing a “sanitary nuisance.” Watch the ad here:

Lawyers for the organization behind the ad responded with a rebuttal letter to local news stations that offers a detailed breakdown in its defense, in which they argue the DeSantis administration’s pressure campaign “is a flagrant abuse of power and must be rejected.”

Now it appears they have the FCC on their side.
Somehow, I don't believe the state.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Your Papers Please.

What are you going to do if your ID doesn’t match gender? How are you going to vote? And that is what the Republicans want, they want you to be too scared to vote!
Restrictive voter identification laws in some states could make it more difficult for transgender Americans to cast ballots in November’s general election, according to a report released Tuesday by the Williams Institute.

Upward of 210,000 voting-eligible transgender adults are likely to face barriers to voting this fall because they lack identity documents that match their gender and live in states with strict voter ID laws that conduct their elections primarily in person, according to the report, including an estimated 91,300 who could face disenfranchisement in states with rigid photo ID requirements.

Thirty-six states require or request that voters show some form of identification at the polls, such as a valid driver’s license, state-issued identification card or military ID. In nine states — Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and Georgia — voter ID laws require voters to present photo identification to cast their votes.

[…]

According to Tuesday’s Williams Institute report, voters in 27 states will face new restrictions for the 2024 general election that were not present for the 2020 general election.

Nearly 173,000 transgender adults live in states with the strictest voter identification laws, according to the report, accounting for roughly a fifth of transgender Americans eligible to vote in the 2024 elections. An estimated 276,500 trans adults lack identity documents that correctly reflect their chosen name or gender identity, though not all of them live in states with voter ID laws.
They are placing all types of barriers in our way to vote. They know most trans voters vote Democratic and they are throwing all type of junk in our way. KERA News reports that down in Texas,
Last month, Texas became the largest state to block transgender people from updating the sex listed on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates.

The policy change, which was not announced in public, took many people by surprise. State officials released some basic information about the decision. But many questions remain unanswered.

The Texas Newsroom filed records requests and interviewed state officials, LGBTQ advocates and legal experts to better understand the potential effects of the new policy.

The change should not hamper the ability of transgender Texans to vote, according to local and state election officials. But it’s still unclear whether they will encounter new problems opening a bank account, updating their health insurance or dealing with other everyday tasks that require an ID. The legality of the policy has also been thrown into question. As of now, however, the change remains in effect unless and until a lawsuit is filed.

Meanwhile, many transgender Texans are caught in legal limbo. In interviews, they said it feels as though the state is creating a list to keep track of them — but to what end?That says a lot! Afraid of their own government keeping a list on them (Where else did LGBTQ+ people need to register?*) and when they vote we are afraid we will be denied the right to vote.
Newsweek writes,
Only one of the 35 states that will require ID to vote in November's presidential election has specific guidance for poll workers on how to apply the rules for transgender Americans, raising concerns they could be disenfranchised because of changes to their names or appearance.

A Newsweek analysis of poll worker manuals and other instructions from states shows that only Rhode Island has specific guidance relating to trans voters. The other states contained no mention of transgender voters in guidance documents seen.

[...]

"States should provide guidance for poll workers, especially in states with photo ID requirements, to make sure it is clear that a person's gender differences or presentation does not affect their right to vote."
I have only had a very minor problem voting, the guy at the door checking IDs looked at my driver’s license, looked at me and looked like he just bit into a lemon. But my gender and name were changed, I can just imagine how it will be to vote… but don’t let the Republicans bully you, VOTE!
 
And vote Blue to save a trans person’s life.

*Camera Atlas Obscura writes,
Katharina T., a resident of Berlin in the early 20th century, had a deep voice and masculine appearance, and preferred to wear men’s clothing at home and in public. In 1908, they—there’s no record of which pronoun Katharina preferred—went to visit the sexual reformer and “sexologist” Magnus Hirschfeld, to apply for official documentation that would allow them to wear men’s clothing in public: a “transvestite pass.”

Perhaps dozens of these passes were granted by German police between 1909 and 1933, the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor. The term “transvestitism” at that time encompassed people of all gender identities, from those who occasionally wore men’s or women’s clothes on weekends, to those who today might well identify instead as transgender, a term that was not in common usage at the time. Cross-dressing individuals were vulnerable to arbitrary decisions of the police, usually according to how well they “passed.” While it wasn’t illegal to cross-dress, per se, the practice often led to charges of being a “public nuisance,” which could mean six weeks’ imprisonment or a fine of 150 marks—and police were “often keen to exercise their extensive regulatory powers,” writes historian Kate Caplan in “The Administration of Gender Identity in Nazi Germany,” a 2011 paper in History Workshop Journal.
Later we were sent to the concentration camps and the gas chambers!

When we were trying to pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law, a Republican legislator proposed requiring us to register with the DMV that we are trans! You can read about the  “The Scarlet Letter” here.


If all goes as planned, I should be up in Vermont leaf peeping today!

Thursday, June 27, 2024

So How’re You Going To Vote?

(I don't expect you to answer.) Wishful thinking… the Republicans are going to be trounced (Hopefully it is not foolish expectation.) in November I think it is all because of abortion.
Two years ago, millions of young women like me listened to the worry in our mothers’ voices as they explained that we no longer had one of the fundamental rights that their generation fought so tirelessly to gain. We called our doctors asking to be prescribed birth control as soon as possible, in case Republicans planned to come after that next. And we wept tears for not only ourselves, but for all the women growing up alongside and after us.

It’s been two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the young women of America are tired. We’re exhausted.

Because since then, reproductive freedom has been on the line in every election. Every year is a grating battle to win back the same rights that our parents already had. Every year, women answer the call, driven by frustration and anger that we have to pick up the phone to win back an essential human right in the first place.

Despite overwhelming support for abortion, 21 states have passed abortion bans or restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that emboldened them to do so. Voters—especially young voters like myself—have been forced to turn our anguish into action, mobilizing every single election to protect abortion in our states. But instead of listening to the very constituents they are meant to serve, Republican extremists are undeterred by the majority opposition to their anti-abortion agenda. They continue to chip away at abortion rights across the country with the ultimate goal of eliminating access.
I think President Biden need to push that in the next four years two more Supreme Court justices will be appointed along with hundreds and hundreds of lower court judges appointed.
It’s easy to get lost in despair. I never imagined I would have to fight every day to get rights back. Growing up, I had bigger dreams of advancing reproductive rights to places they had never gone before. But now, it feels like we are back at square one.

It would be easy for us to let seasoned professionals handle the fight, to sit back and let our parents tell us that it will get better. It would be easy to listen to naysayers who tell us it’s not our time to take action. And it would be easy to just give up. But that is not how we’re going to make change. We’ll make a change by turning out in mass this November to send a clear message: The vast majority of people in every state across the country—red states and blue states—want to protect abortion access.
Vote BLUE!

Our Bodies, Our Choice!

The fight isn’t over, and it won’t be easy, but with generations of women coming together to protect abortion rights, our reproductive freedom and our futures, we will be unstoppable.
And we of the trans community cannot  'rest on our laurels' we have to be out there helping! Our necks are on the line also.
Opinion briefly posted online shows Supreme Court poised to restore emergency abortion access in Idaho
The decision posted online shows that the justices voted 6-3 to dismiss the dispute from their docket.
Politico
By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Josh Gerstein
June 26, 2024


Access to emergency abortions in Idaho might soon be restored if a Supreme Court decision briefly posted on its website Wednesday is finalized in the days ahead.

The decision posted online shows that a majority of the justices voted to dismiss the dispute from their docket, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the appearance of the opinion.

A court spokesperson confirmed that a “document” related to the Idaho abortion case had been “inadvertently” released, but stressed the decision isn’t yet official. The document has since been removed.

If it becomes official, the decision would restore a lower court injunction that sided with the Biden administration and barred the state from enforcing its broad abortion ban with respect to patients who seek emergency care from hospitals.
The White House released this…
This week, the Republican Study Committee, which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and nearly 80% of their members, released a budget that—among its many other anti-choice restrictions—endorses a national abortion ban with zero exceptions for rape or incest.

The Republican Study Committee budget:
  •     Supports eliminating reproductive freedom for all women in every state and puts IVF treatment squarely on the chopping block through House Republicans’ support for the Life at Conception Act.
  •     Endorses banning mifepristone – an FDA-approved, safe and effective medication that has been on the market for more than 20 years.
  •     Supports rolling back policies that help ensure our Nation’s veterans have access to abortion care when their health or lives are at risk or in cases of rape or incest.
  •     Guts funding for contraception—which is supported by the vast majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle—for low-income and uninsured women. This would further erode access to essential health care, from cancer screening to primary care, at a time when state abortion bans have already forced health clinics that provide contraception and other critical health services to close.
Our bodies, our choice!

AP News reported,
Donald Trump still says he’s proud that the Supreme Court justices he nominated overturned Roe v. Wade. Yet he again on Monday avoided tough questions about abortion, including whether he would support a national abortion ban should he return to the White House.
Now why do you think he is avoiding saying anything about abortion… do you think he is caught between a rock and a hard place? He needs to appease his evangelical base while keeping the majority of the voters guessing.

Our bodies, our choice!
 
Do you remember when the Supreme Court overturned and the Republicans all were praising “State Rights” for abortions, well Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced legislation last fall that is calling for a national abortion ban after 15 weeks.

Our bodies, our choice!

If you are planning on voting for a third party candidate like Green Party’s Adam Hollick or Anita Belle, you’re voting for Trump. Every vote for the third party candidate or the other independent candidate like Kennedy is like voting for Trump. Do you really want Trump to win?

Ballotpedia writes that Trump said this about us…
Trump's campaign website said, "I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures, and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. It’ll go very quickly. I will declare that any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare—and will be terminated from the program immediately."
Our bodies, our choices!
Meanwhile on the other side of the aisle…
Meet the Coalition of Governors Determined to Protect Abortion Rights for All Americans
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of 23 governors determined to protect abortion rights and reproductive health.
Ms Magazine
By Belle Taylor-McGhee
June 20, 2024


Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in June 2022, the clock began ticking for women in states harboring abortion bans and trigger laws that, upon Roe’s reversal, would be allowed to take effect. One by one, antiabortion states instituted a patchwork of polices that could make the procedure all but inaccessible depending on your state and your zip code.

It was because of her zip code that one patient, who wished to remain anonymous, drove four hours from Sparks, Nevada (a suburb of Reno), to San Francisco in early April to have an abortion.
She could afford it. But want about those who cannot afford to take time off or to travel out of state? They have three choices… a backroom abortion, trying to do an abortion themselves, or to have the children.
Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in June 2022, the clock began ticking for women in states harboring abortion bans and trigger laws that, upon Roe’s reversal, would be allowed to take effect. One by one, antiabortion states instituted a patchwork of polices that could make the procedure all but inaccessible depending on your state and your zip code.

It was because of her zip code that one patient, who wished to remain anonymous, drove four hours from Sparks, Nevada (a suburb of Reno), to San Francisco in early April to have an abortion.
Our bodies, our choice!
2019 Women's March on Hartford just before I gave my speech.
Tonight's Debate:

I noticed something about character.
Reuters
By Nathan Layne and Trevor Hunnicutt
June 22, 2024


 President Joe Biden is hunkered down with aides at Camp David for several days to get ready to debate rival Donald Trump, who is eschewing traditional preparation and instead holding informal policy discussions between campaign stops.

The face-off in Atlanta, at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday (0100 GMT on Friday), will be the earliest presidential debate in modern U.S. history and a critical event for both candidates.

Biden, 81, and former president Trump, 78, are neck-and-neck in national opinion polls, with a considerable slice of the electorate still undecided five months before the Nov. 5 vote.

The debate will provide the starkest contrast yet of the two men, the oldest candidates ever to seek the U.S. presidency, as voters question their age and mental sharpness.

"It's an incredible test of their cognitive competence," said Patrick Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas who has written a book on presidential debates. "This is our chance to see how much they've declined or if they've declined."
And I think Trump will fail! He will be “Rambling Donny” I think his answers will be nothing but attacks Biden… one big long lies about Biden.
Biden's team will focus on refining the argument that Trump pursues extremist policies on abortion and other issues, is a danger to democracy, and is beholden to the rich donors writing him checks, a campaign official told Reuters.
And Trump will reinforce that with his ranting and lies. He is already making all types wild excuses about why he lost the debate.



It should be interesting tonight, I am going to the retirement party for the head of the Connecticut National Association of Social Workers, I have worked with him many times on different projects and committees.

What makes it interesting is the location of the retirement party, it is at the TPC where the PGA Travelers Championship is played and just finished up on last Sunday. I will probably stay until my back tells me it is time to leave.

Tuesday, April 02, 2024

Is This Presidential Material?

I don’t know about you, but I think this borderlines on criminal.
The social media post reflects the increasingly violent and personal attacks that Donald J. Trump has employed during the presidential campaign.
The New York Times
By Chris Cameron
March 30, 2024


Former President Donald J. Trump posted a video on Friday to his social media website that features an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied together.

Mr. Trump posted the video to Truth Social early Friday afternoon with a line that said it was filmed on Long Island on Thursday, when Mr. Trump attended the wake of a slain New York City police officer in Massapequa Park, N.Y. The video shows two moving trucks decorated with flags and decals supporting Mr. Trump. The tailgate of the second vehicle features the image of Mr. Biden.

Macabre imagery targeting Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies frequently circulates online among right-wing provocateurs and pro-Trump groups, and in some cases has been featured at conservative conferences. Photos of trucks featuring similar images of Mr. Biden tied up have been shared across social media, and online vendors sell vehicle stickers with the image.
I don’t know about you but I find all this take about vengeance scary. Back in December he said this as reported by AP News
As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.

But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.

[...]

But the consequences of Trump’s rhetoric have been made all too clear, after he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and a mob of his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.

The former president, who has long expressed regard for authoritarian leaders and the power they wield, is now vowing vengeance and retribution as he outlines a second-term agenda marked by an unprecedented expansion of executive power, unparalleled interference in the justice system, and a massive purge of civil servants.
Are you scared yet? I am with what would be to the nation. And what he would do to the LGBTQ+ community, and by what he would do to me.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

What’s Different?

We went through this before, back then it was called the Lavender Scare but now it is different and scarier… they got guns and the internet.
After Libs of TikTok post, multiple bomb threats have been made at Waukesha middle school
School district, Waukesha police say threats are not credible
WPR
BY CORRINNE HESS
MARCH 18, 2024


Over the last two weeks, parents of Butler Middle School students in Waukesha have received multiple notices from district administrators about bomb threats at the school.

School district officials and the Waukesha Police Department have determined the threats are not credible.

But a grassroots advocacy group in the city believes they are connected to political battles over LGBTQ issues in the district and a social media post on the controversial Libs of TikTok targeting an openly gay staff member at the school.

“Beyond board policies, the hyper-politicization of the Waukesha School board and deep connection between multiple school board members and the Republican Party of Waukesha County has continued to fuel the fire of anti-LGBTQ+ activity in our community,” said a post by Unwavering Waukesha, a group of Waukesha parents and residents.
“Are you now or have you ever been gay?” The hearings in Washington by Senator Joseph McCarthy outed many gays and lesbians during them.
These People Are Frightened to Death”
Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare
National Archives
Summer 2016, Vol. 48, No. 2


By Judith AdkinsThe Red Scare, the congressional witch-hunt against Communists during the early years of the Cold War, is a well-known chapter of American history. A second scare of the same era has been much slower to make its way into public consciousness, even though it lasted far longer and directly impacted many more lives.

Beginning in the late 1940s and continuing through the 1960s, thousands of gay employees were fired or forced to resign from the federal workforce because of their sexuality. Dubbed the Lavender Scare, this wave of repression was also bound up with anti-Communism and fueled by the power of congressional investigation.

The purge followed an era in which gay people were increasingly finding each other and forming communities in urban America. During World War II, many men and women left behind the restrictions of rural or small-town life for the first time. After the war, young people poured into cities, where density and anonymity made pursuit of same-sex relationships more possible than ever.

[…]

This publicity did not, however, make homosexuality more acceptable, in part because virtually no gay people were open about their sexuality. Also, the country was in the midst of a more general sex-crime panic, stirred up by a few highly publicized cases. In this context, greater public awareness of homosexuality coincided with growing unease and, in many parts of the country, an increase in official repression. Certainly this was true in Washington, DC.
The hearings created fear and outrage against but that was it, they didn’t get death threats, they didn’t have the animosity spread around the internet, and they didn’t have brown shirted gun toting protesters.

Now a days these people are the equivalent to a lynch mob, they are out for blood, they want us dead. WPR article goes on to say,
The Libs of TikTok post on X, formally known as Twitter, had more than 3,000 retweets and more than 800 responses. Most comments were anti-LGBTQ including posts calling the educator a “groomer,” “predator” and “pedophile.”
The Republican politicians whip them up into a frenzy where they fear for their lives in the echo chamber of the far right-wing media… and they take it out on us.
Unwavering Waukesha, the grassroots group, said the policies and rhetoric have contributed to the bomb threats, affected learning for more than 700 students at Butler and left parents worried about the safety of their children.

“Unwavering Waukesha has seen social media posts from current Butler students that amount to homophobic behavior towards the Butler staff person in question,” the group said.
Nationally according to,
FBI crime statistics show anti-LGBTQ hate crimes on the rise
The Hill
By Brooke Migdon
October 16, 2023


Anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose sharply in 2022, jumping more than 19 percent over 2021, according to the FBI’s annual crime report released Monday.

More than 11,600 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI in 2022, the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking them in 1991. A majority of hate crimes recorded last year targeted Black people, according to the report.
This is all the result of one narcissistic candidate who want to split the country and create an authoritarian government with him sitting on the throne!
 
We can win in November! But we need to get out the vote, the polls show that the people are behind us!
Here’s How Americans Really Feel About LGBTQ Issues
Forbes
By Alison Durkee
June 5, 2023


[…]

Anti-Discrimination Protections: Americans broadly support laws forbidding LGBTQ discrimination in situations like jobs, public accommodations and housing, with PRRI’s 2022 polling finding that 80% of Americans support such laws (up from 71% in 2015), including 66% of Republicans and at least 50% support among all major religious demographics.

Businesses Refusing Services: As the Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether a Web designer can refuse to provide websites for same-sex marriages, PRRI found that 65% of Americans oppose allowing businesses to refuse services to LGBTQ customers for religious reasons—though a 57% majority of Republicans support it—and 56% said in a December 2022 Quinnipiac poll that businesses shouldn’t refuse services to same-sex couples.
We have the people behind us! They have shown there support for us in elections, do you remember the ballot question in Massachusetts about our protections? Where the "Yes" vote, which aimed to uphold the law, received around 70% of the vote compared to 30% for the "No" vote.

They are behind us we just have to get them to the voting box in November.



Here in Connecticut the governor is proposing an advertising campaign against bigotry and bias. I don't know how effective it be, but it is a try. A try to end the violence and bigotry against us.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Free Speech vs. Bias Speech

As a new generation rises, tension between free speech and inclusivity on college campuses simmers
3 Presidents on the Hot Seat
In a four-hour hearing, the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT steadily defended themselves, their institutions and free expression. Lawmakers remained skeptical.
Inside Higher Ed
By Katherine Knott
December 5, 2023


House Republicans lambasted the leaders of three elite universities for more than four hours Tuesday in a contentious hearing that was focused on campus antisemitism but frequently veered into broader conservative critiques of higher education.

“I do not refer to colleges and universities as ‘higher education,’ because it’s my opinion that higher-order skills are not being taught or learned, and I think today’s hearing indicates that,” said North Carolina representative Virginia Foxx, the top Republican on the House Education and Workforce Committee, which hosted the hearing.

“I have always defended higher education, but today I am embarrassed,” said Louisiana representative Julia Letlow, also a Republican.

Harvard president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth testified Tuesday and defended their actions over the past two months as tensions flared on their campuses following the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The hearing was the committee’s second in the last month focusing on campus antisemitism, and likely not the last. House Republicans have used the recent protests and campus tensions to perpetuate their attacks on higher education.

The presidents stood by their policies and commitments to free expression, their efforts to support Jewish students and their institutions’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which Republicans on the committee have blamed for the rise in antisemitism. Gay, Kornbluth and Magill all condemned antisemitism and said they need to do more to make students and faculty aware of its “insidiousness.”
Okay first of all there is nothing that the presidents of the colleges and universities can do, there is something that the Republicans keep on forgetting or ignoring  something called the Constitution and First Amendment.

What is bias speech and is it against the law?

According to the American Library Association had the best discussion on bias speech.
Hate Speech
There is no legal definition of "hate speech" under U.S. law, just as there is no legal definition for evil ideas, rudeness, unpatriotic speech, or any other kind of speech that people might condemn. Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin. 1

In the United States, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. Courts extend this protection on the grounds that the First Amendment requires the government to strictly protect robust debate on matters of public concern even when such debate devolves into distasteful, offensive, or hateful speech that causes others to feel grief, anger, or fear. (The Supreme Court's decision in Snyder v. Phelps provides an example of this legal reasoning.) Under current First Amendment jurisprudence, hate speech can only be criminalized when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group.
Notice that all the pro and anti protests did not include "any incitement of imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group" contrary to the Republican rhetoric nothing can be done to stop the protests they are protected be the First Amendment.



Creating distrust in the Constitution that is what happening with all these anti-abortion laws and anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Most people do not understand exactly what limits the First Amendment places on bias crimes.
AP News
BY COLLIN BINKLEY
January 13, 2024


Generations of Americans have held firm to a version of free speech that makes room for even the vilest of views. It’s girded by a belief that the good ideas rise above the bad, that no one should be punished for voicing an idea — except in rare cases where the idea could lead directly to illegal action.

Today, that idea faces competition more forceful and vehement than it has seen for a century.

On college campuses, a newer version of free speech is emerging as young generations redraw the line where expression crosses into harm. There’s a wave of students who have no tolerance for speech that marginalizes. They draw lines around language that leads to damage, either psychological or physical. Their judgments weigh the Constitution but also incorporate histories of privilege and oppression.

“We believe in a diverse set of thoughts,” says Kaleb Autman, a Black student at the University of Wisconsin whose group is demanding a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech. “But when your thought is predicated on the subjugation of me or my people, or to a generalized people, then we have problems.”
That is the problem when speech denies our existence. I have a quote by James Baldwin on my blog…
We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.
But the First Amendment guarantees them to say it and that hurts, but we cannot or should not stop them from saying.
A new understanding of free speech has been evolving on college campuses for years, marked by the introduction of safe spaces, trigger warnings and a rise in disruptive protests that silence speakers with offensive views. But the Israel-Hamas war and its rhetoric appear to be widening the fault lines and pushing students to demand that university leaders take a side between clashing versions of free speech.
That doesn’t mean we cannot protest and let our view be known. We can’t sit by and do nothing but it is a tightrope we walk.
Campus officials are being pulled in every direction from donors, alumni, students and politicians. But the latest battle has seen a reversal of sorts in the allegiances over free speech.

Republicans, who have long characterized colleges as liberal hotbeds that stifle free speech, are now calling on those institutions to curb speech seen as antisemitic. Colleges previously accused of ceding ground on free speech are suddenly emerging as its strongest defenders.
There is no easy answers, we look at the rhetoric coming out of the right and the rhetoric coming out of our side and it makes it impossible to draw a line.

Also our judicial systems has been politicized which makes even hard to draw a line on bias speech when it depends upon which judge is assigned to the case.

Is bias speech as James Baldwin said when you deny my existence? For me the line is when threats of violence are made that I think is when the line is crossed. For me I see it as informative as to where people stand on the issues. When I hear what is coming out of the right, it scares the c**p out of me and I would never vote for them.

One of the problems I have with the local election of the Board of Education is that it is non-partisan and I don't know where they stand. I know they have two children Dick & Jane and a dog name Spot but what I don't know is where they stand on the issues which makes it very to know who to vote for.

When someone protests the issues then I know where they stand.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

The Big Lie!

[Editorial]

There is a program on PBS that is very timely, “Dismantling Democracy
In the first of this three-part series, we dive into the history of democracy, its birth and the United States' unique take on this form of government. The episode takes a look at some uniquely American challenges that limit American democracy such as hyperpartisanship, negative partisanship, institutional constraints (gerrymandering, the Electoral College, voter registration) and more.
Here in Connecticut we are redoing an election because of voter fraud… a woman in Bridgeport was caught on camera stuffing a ballot box and a court order election to be done over.
A Connecticut judge has set Jan. 23 as the date for a new Democratic primary election in the Bridgeport mayor’s race after having tossed out the September election results because of alleged ballot box stuffing.

Judge William Clark issued the order late Friday afternoon after Mayor Joe Ganim and challenger John Gomes agreed on the Jan. 23 date. Clark also ruled a new general election, if needed, would be held Feb. 27.
I want to point out first that approximate number of voters who voted in the primary election last year was 431,000 people. And one, that one case of voter fraud. That is 1/431000 or 0.00023%

PBS NewsHour, December 17, 2021:
More than a year after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump and his allies still insist without evidence that widespread voter fraud led to a stolen election. A new reporting project from the Associated Press shows that is false, finding fewer than 475 potential instances out of more than 25 million votes cast. Judy Woodruff speaks to reporter Christina Cassidy.
And they are still pushing the lie.

The Proceedings of Natural Academy Science reports that,
Abstract
After the 2020 US presidential election Donald Trump refused to concede, alleging widespread and unparalleled voter fraud. Trump’s supporters deployed several statistical arguments in an attempt to cast doubt on the result. Reviewing the most prominent of these statistical claims, we conclude that none of them is even remotely convincing. The common logic behind these claims is that, if the election were fairly conducted, some feature of the observed 2020 election result would be unlikely or impossible. In each case, we find that the purportedly anomalous fact is either not a fact or not anomalous.
The left leaning The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law wrote,
Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth
Sensationalist claims have circulated this election season about the extent of voter fraud, with some politicians going so far as to tell voters to fear that this November’s election will be “rigged.” Because electoral integrity is one of the elements necessary to making America the greatest democracy in the world, claims like this garner media attention, and frighten and concern voters. But putting rhetoric aside to look at the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to “rig” an election.
While the far right Heritage Foundation wrote,
Voter Fraud
Preserving the great experiment that is the American republic is dependent upon free and fair elections. When  selecting a city councilor or the president of the United States, every American must be able to trust the process and the result, or the democratic system itself breaks down.

Election integrity is essential and the security of the ballot box cannot be left to a simple honor system.. It is incumbent upon state governments to safeguard the electoral process, and ensure that every voter’s right to cast a ballot is protected.

The history of voting in the United States

Contrary to the claims of many liberals, the problem of voter fraud is as old as the country itself. As the U.S. Supreme Court noted when it upheld Indiana’s voter identification law, “flagrant examples” of voter fraud “have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists.”

Attempts to commandeer election results have been documented dating back to the 19th century, when New York City’s infamous Tammany Hall was synonymous with political corruption and election fraud. In one New York election 1844, 55,000 votes were recorded even though there were only 41,000 eligible voters. Decades later, these efforts have continued  and determined fraudsters have become only more creative in their efforts to fix the outcome of elections.
And here is what the Heritage Foundation found (Drum roll please!)…
1,490 Proven instances of voter fraud
1,274 Criminal convictions
48 Civil penalties
120 Diversion program
26 Judicial finding
22 Official finding
Out of how many hundred millions of votes!

The Heritage Foundation lists the number of voter fraud cases here in Connecticut:
1 voter fraud in the 2023 election.
1 voter fraud in the 2022 election.
2 voter fraud in the 2018 election.
1 voter fraud in the 2015 election.
1 voter fraud in the 2013 election.
But the Republicans still say that the election was stolen.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
This is usually credited to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
 
Also from the Jewish Virtual Library project...
The OSS psychological profile of Hitler described his use of the big lie:
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Does that sound like anyone who is running for the presidency in 2024?

[/Editorial]

Thursday, January 04, 2024

They Don’t Trust The Voters.

Have you noticed that the Republicans don’t trust the voters to vote the right way… the Republican Way.
  • They gerrymandered the voting districts to make sure they win.
  • They mandate voter ID that low income and minorities have a hard time getting.
  • They are making it harder for absentee ballots to be used.
  • They have shortened early voting.
  • They have made it harder to vote in person, Georgia made it a crime to give water and food to voters waiting in line for hours.
  • They have made it harder for people with felony convictions to vote.
  • They have cut the number of voting districts to make it harder for low income voters to get to the polling places.
Now they are making it harder to pass ballot questions. They have increases the number of signatures to get a question on the ballot.  They are trying to increase the percentage a yes votes to pass a ballot question.
Florida, stop blocking voters from deciding on abortion | Opinion
BY THE MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL BOARD
JANUARY 02, 2024


The group working to ensure abortion access in Florida has nearly reached the number of signatures it needs under state law to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. As of last week, Floridians Protecting Freedom had almost 864,000 of the required 891,523 validated signatures. This is important news. The voters of Florida must have the chance to speak on this issue, rather than allowing the Florida Legislature, which passed an extreme, six-week abortion ban in May, to force its decision on the rest of us.
They are going over every minute detail of the question trying to prevents from getting on the ballot and checking the signatures with their voting card.
The ballot measure is not a done deal yet. The state is trying to block voters from having their say. Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a court challenge regarding the wording of the summary that would appear on the ballot. Getting the signatures is a crucial step. The abortion-rights group has until Feb. 1 to submit all the signatures and meet other requirements, including that the signatures come from at last half of Florida’s congressional districts. The group has said it’s on track to submit 1.4 million signatures for validation by the state. That should be more than enough — almost half a million more than required — even allowing for some signatures to be tossed out as invalid.
And they are going to court to try to block the voters.
Moody’s brief, filed with the state Supreme Court, argues, essentially, that Floridians will be confused by the wording of the ballot summary. The amendment would prohibit any state law that delays or bans abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the health of the patient. It would protect abortion access in Florida until viability, estimated at around 24 weeks.
The Republicans know that every ballot questions in every state so far defeated the Republicans attempt to make abortion illegal.

Those pesky voter just can’t get it right.

Friday, December 29, 2023

So Tell Me.

[Editorial]

On the way home from a friends house in Massachusetts up near the New Hampshire boarder a campaign ads for Nikki Haley caught my attention.
Nikki Haley launching first TV ad of presidential campaign
The spot, airing Friday, is part of a massive $10 million ad buy in New Hampshire and Iowa.
Politico
By Meridith McGraw
November 30, 2023

Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign is launching its first ad of the GOP primary on Friday, highlighting “chaos in our streets” and calling for a president with “moral clarity.”
What caught my ear was…
“A president must have moral clarity and know the difference between good and evil,” Haley says in the ad. “Today, China, Russia, and Iran are advancing. There’s chaos in our streets and college campuses. Our security is threatened at home and abroad.”

[…]

“It’s time for a new generation of conservative leadership,” Haley says in the ad. “We have to leave behind the chaos and drama of the past and strengthen our country, our pride, and our purpose.”
She goes on to say what she feels is wrong with the country.

The reason why I am writing this is that almost all the ads for both sides just talk the negatives things “wrong” with this country and the other party. But… but… nothing is said on how they are going to correct these problems.

So tell me Gov. Haley how are you going to fix all the things that you mentioned?
  • How are you going to fix inflation?
  • How are you going to lower the high price of gas?
  • How are you going to lower the high food prices?
  • How are you going to end the Ukraine war?
  • How are you going to end the Hamas – Israeli war?
  • How are you going to end the immigration on our southern boarder?
  • How are you going to deal with China, Russia, and Iran?
And tell me how are you going to deal with what you didn’t mention? Topics like…
  • Abortion?
  • LGBTQ+ people?
  • The crumbling bridges?
  • Lead in our water supply?
  • Our antiquated electric grid?
  • Lack of affordable housing?
  • What about people who suffers from food insecurity?
She is not the only candidate who avoids telling us how they going to fix things, both parties are good at avoiding that. They are good at slinging mud at each other but short on fixes.

Since they don’t want to talk about what they are planning it is up to us, the voter, to look into their history. How did the vote on abortion? How did they vote on LGBTQ+ issues? How did they to fix the aging highways and bridges? How did they vote on issues important to you?

Voting is not an armchair sport, to be a responsible voter you have to look beyond the rhetoric and look into what they did while in office.

[/Editorial]

Thursday, December 14, 2023

So You Want To Vote Red?

The Republicans are gearing up for the anti-LGBTQ+ and especially against us in their pogrom for the 2024 elections.

On the national level,
The LGBTQ+ group is denouncing the misinformation spread by most of the candidates and one moderator.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
December 9, 2023


Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate was bad politics and bad journalism, says GLAAD.

“The debate did not include any substantive questions that address the safety and freedom of LGBTQ Americans and instead devolved into a competition between candidates — and between candidates and one moderator — as to who could prove the most transphobic,” says a GLAAD analysis.

The debate, held at the University of Alabama and televised by NewsNation, featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. It was moderated by Megyn Kelly and Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation and Eliana Johnson, editor in chief of The Washington Free Beacon.

[…]

The transphobia began with the candidates’ opening remarks, GLAAD notes, with DeSantis asserting that he stopped the “gender mutilation of minors” with a bill he signed banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. His language is “an inflammatory and false characterization of health care backed by every major medical association,” GLAAD points out. Doctors do not generally recommend genital surgery for minors, and DeSantis also claimed that the effects of puberty blockers are irreversible, which is not true, and called gender-affirming care “child abuse.”
Just like in Russia we are target of their trans rhetoric, they go after the minority of minorities. The Republicans see us as the weak link in the LGBTQ+ community.

In Congress,
The new bill takes aim at recent changes to HHS policy on adoption, ensuring LGBTQ+ foster children are placed in supportive homes.
The Advocate
By Donald Padgett
December 10 2023 



U.S. Sen. Jim Banks introduced a bill on Thursday that would force adoption and foster placement services that receive federal funding to place LGBTQ+ children in homes with non-affirming guardians.

The Iowa Republican’s bill takes direct aim at recent proposed reforms to federal guidelines that require LGBTQ+ children to be placed in foster homes with a supportive environment for the child’s sexual and gender identity.

Banks’s H.R. 6658, tentatively entitled the Sensible Adoption for Every (SAFE) Home Act, targets the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its proposed reforms to the Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements for Titles IV-E and IV-B.

“The proposed rule would protect LGBTQI+ youth by placing them in environments free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status,” HHS said in a statement announcing the proposed reforms in September. “And the proposed rule would require that caregivers for LGBTQI+ children are properly and fully trained to provide for the needs of the child related to the child’s self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”

Banks’s bill takes direct aim at the reforms in H.R. 6658, which would “prohibit entities receiving Federal assistance that are involved in adoption or foster care placements from delaying or denying placements under certain conditions.”
The limit of the Republican animus toward us knows no bounds. They will stop at nothing if it gets them votes.

Then down in Florida…
The focus on transgender rights seems to come from DeSantis's drop in the polls.
CNN WIRE via The Advocate
By Steve Contorno
December 10, 2023


A week before announcing his campaign for president in May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a slate of bills that altered the lives of transgender people in his state.

Now, with just over five weeks before Republicans begin to weigh in on the presidential nominating fight, DeSantis has wielded those new laws to draw sharp contrasts with his GOP rivals and to appeal to social conservatives who could be key to sparking a strong finish for him in the Iowa caucuses.

The intense effort to push these issues to the forefront was laid bare minutes into Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate when DeSantis, in response to a question about his slipping poll numbers, accused former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley of opposing one of those laws: blocking transgender children from certain medical procedures that he likened to mutilation. Haley denied the charge.
Throw us under the bus for votes. They don’t care what happens to us, it is all about the almighty vote.

We can stop this… Vote Blue!