Journalist and author George Stephanopoulos tells Stephen how the President’s command center in the basement of the White House has changed over the decades, and he previews some of the wild stories readers will find in his new book, “The Situation Room.”
I know the election is over but a lot of my viewers don’t know this guy. He is really reasonable and is socially progressive. He is not really on board with the anti-poor anti-LGBTQ+ profit over people other republicans. He is also not against immigration. Plus he is hot if you like tall built farm boy types, and he is a person who is not offended by that. Hugs. Scottie
What these states are fighting for is the right to discriminate and target kids for abuse, which in their minds somehow pushes the fundamentalist Christian superior morals. They really believe that these laws denying kids the right to live as their authentic self without being harassed and targeted makes their god happy. I got news for them, I doubt it makes their god happy but I know it makes them happy. Their god seems to hate those they hate and love the things they like. Weird how that works. These same states removed child labor protections and school food assistance programs. Makes kids more willing to sacrifice school for work if they are hungry and harassed. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. The parents were represented by the anti-LGBTQ Beckett Fund For Religious Liberty, which represented Hobby Lobby in its successful bid to deny birth control to employees. As you can see below, supporting the parents is homocon Andy Ngo.
Liberals were left stunned as Muslims & Islamists gathered on Tuesday to protest the Montgomery County (Maryland) School Board over its LGBTQ+ curriculum. The Muslims want to be able to remove their children from the classroom when that material is taught. pic.twitter.com/vgTai9erXQ
This is what happens when you have hate preachers and right wing media constantly pushing a narrative of anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda and claiming that gay and trans people want to make everyone gay and trans. Plus the US needs better mental health treatments and the US really need to screen police officers much better. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. Of note, Lupe Fiasco recently called out fellow rappers for their homophobic lyrics. As you’ll see below, Gomez brandishes assault weapons in most of her videos. Her “weak and gay” video has over two million views as of today.
I found a strong gay man for you Ms. Gomez. Seek him out for some strong advice. I dare ya.
Corporal Andrew Charles Wilfhart is the first openly gay US soldier to die in combat since the repeal (DADT) policy in 2011. Wilfhart died in Operation Enduring Freedom. Major Alan Rogers, died in 2008 while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Army intelligence officer.
These asshole red state republicans refuse to honor Black History Month and Pride Month but they can celebrate traitors who attacked the US government so they could continue to discriminate against, abuse, and keep black humans as slaves. Yet they call themselves Christians. Hugs. Scottie
Some republican red states like Florida have passed laws making Christian Preachers / Priests / Pastors legally able to be school councilors. Yes troubled kids asking for help will have to accept being preached to, told to pray more, and give their body’s to … god. Yet some of these preachers don’t accept medical science, don’t believe gay LGBTQ+ kids have rights or are born the way they are, they will try to guilt trip them into changing into cis straight kids who go to that church. Hugs. Scottie
The fundamentalist got some more control over a woman’s body with the ending of Roe, now they are going for the entire control over the woman’s rights, their bodies, and their sex organs. Hugs. Scottie
This is their way of forcing their god on the public, in a public school, regardless of the parents religion or lack of. But no other religion gets to do this, just the Christians. Hugs. Scottie
And this is why they feel the need to do this. They are losing more than the culture war and control of society. They are losing money and possible influence because less and less people believe in their deity, far more ass are in pews putting moeny in collection plates.
Another pair of republican Christian jerks who try to force their religious doctrine on everyone while running on family values and hating on the LGBTQ+. But they don’t follow the rules they demand you follow. They were having an affair. Hugs. Scottie
And this jerk wants to make wearing a mask to protest illegal … and yet the terrorist right wing gang thugs like Proud Boys, Patriot Front, Oath keepers, and other Nazi racist bigoted groups wear them all the time to prevent being fired from their jobs. I doubt this bill will pass without some kind of exemption for them. Hugs. Scottie
Screw the immuno-compromised, right? And don’t expect this law to be used against the Proud Boys or Patriot Front.
Sen. Buck Newton, not incidentally, first appeared here in 2016 when as state attorney general nominee, he spoke at a hate group rally, declaring, “Go home, tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we must fight to keep our state straight.”
approved masks
Not approved:
Definitely not approved:
I wonder if this would be illegal?
And who do you think he works for when / if he holds office. Hint it won’t be for you, the public. Hugs. Scottie
This one is new but it shows how republicans simply lie and misinform now. Reality means nothing to them. They learned from tRump that voters on their side no longer care about the truth, care about what is real. They simply make false claims and double down on it when called out. They don’t even care. They want their cake and eat it also. Hugs. Scottie
Read the full article. In an interview today with a Minnesota station, Trump denied having said he’d never go back. And then he denied that Biden won Minnesota in 2020. Watch the LOL clip.
Yes. He was appropriately roped off by police/crime scene tape.
I posted about this situation the other day. We have an ideology driven supreme court who wants to make rules based on their religious convictions rather than law. They have an extreme religious faith and demand the right to make the rest of the country that way.
An 887-page plan by Project 2025, led by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, says that if elected, Trump should make a concerted effort to execute the remaining 40 prisoners on death row.https://t.co/LPpIVcvWgc
For those that don’t think this is important, I worked with some Catholic doctors that were so religious high rollers that they condemn and refused to treat those they felt broke god’s laws or their church rules. Specifically the LGBTQ+. I have repeated told of an ICU doctor who was assigned a very sick and dying openly gay man in a same sex relationship. This was just before same sex marriage was legal country wide and before it was legal in Florida. The patient’s lover / boyfriend had complete power of attorney over all the patient’s medical, financial, and other life decisions, something all of us gay people in same sex relationships did so our partners could make our hospital decisions when we couldn’t. This doctor refused to listen or include the patient’s gay partner disregarding their relationship. He went so far as to call the patient’s estranged family members to try to get them to overrule the wishes of the partner. The patient’s partner got a lawyer and legal told the doctor he had to include the partner and treat him as the next of kin legally. The doctor walked on the floor, took the chart and signed himself off the case. Then loudly told all of us he was not the doctor of record for the patient and he wouldn’t treat him, so do not call him or his people for any reason for that patient. That left us and the hospital scrambling. The ICU intensives all worked for the same practice started by that doctor, so they had to find some doctor qualified to step in to be the patient’s doctor because the ICU requires a doctor to be qualified on respirators such as a pulmonologist. Yes they can have other doctors treat them in the ICU but in our ICU’s because of the possibility the patients would have to be intubated in case of a code the ICU and all patients had to be managed by the intensivist / pulmonologist. He was always a self righteous prick, he and his top doctors always bragging about their connections to the Catholic hierarchy locally and the time they spent at the Vatican. This holy super Christian was willing to let a man die rather than acknowledge his male partner and same sex relationship. Hugs. Scottie
Biden Administration Restores Health Protections for Gay and Transgender People
The Health and Human Services Department finalized a rule prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, reversing a Trump-era policy.https://t.co/u3zp49A4E1
This is all about being able to break the laws and not follow rules and get away with it. If they own the cops then the cops won’t investigate them. The DOJ won’t charge them so no court will convict them. Complete immunity for republican lawbreakers and those who pay the republicans for the privilege. However it also lets them do what they always accuse Biden of doing, use the legal system against political opponents. Hugs. Scottie
Former president Donald Trump attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court for falsifying documents related to hush money payments, in New York, NY, U.S., May 16, 2024. Victor J. Blue/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Some of Donald Trump’s allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department’s independence and turn the nation’s top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters.
If successful, the overhaul could represent one of the most consequential actions of a second Trump presidency given the Justice Department’s role in protecting democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law.
It would also mark a dramatic departure from the department’s mission statement, opens new tab, which identifies “independence and impartiality” as core values.
Trump, who has been indicted on dozens of criminal charges by the Justice Department, has vowed on the campaign trail to overhaul the agency if he wins the presidential election on Nov. 5 and pledged to use it to pursue his own opponents, including Democratic President Joe Biden.
The plan is essentially twofold, according to the nine people interviewed by Reuters, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
First: flood the Justice Department with stalwart conservatives unlikely to say “no” to controversial orders from the White House. Second: restructure the department so key decisions are concentrated in the hands of administration loyalists rather than career bureaucrats.
The FBI – which many Republicans see as biased against them – would have new constraints on its authority, with many of its responsibilities shifted to other law enforcement agencies, those people said.
“Trump feels that the DoJ has institutional problems,” said Steve Bannon, a prominent Trump ally who was prosecuted by the Justice Department and convicted for contempt of Congress. “It’s not just personnel: you do need to purge the DoJ, but you also need to reform it.”
Overhauling the Justice Department would allow the Trump administration to pursue conservative policy initiatives such as dismantling hiring programs meant to boost diversity in the workplace and ending federal oversight of police departments accused of racist practices.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Trump campaign pointed to a December statement from co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.
“Unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” they said.
The campaign itself has few full-time policy staffers. Trump and his team are in frequent contact with outside groups, such as those formulating recommendations on the Justice Department.
With Trump holding a lead in most swing states likely to decide November’s election, the former president’s advisers may have a shot at putting their ideas into practice.
Trump’s promises to remodel the Justice Department have been well documented, but less attention has been given to identifying the specific measures his allies and advisers are advocating.
Two prominent Trump allies told Reuters they support eliminating the FBI’s general counsel, an office that enraged Republicans during Trump’s 2017-2021 term for its role in approving an inquiry into contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russian officials.
The general counsel provides legal advice to FBI employees regarding ongoing probes and other matters. Closing it would force the bureau to receive legal guidance from people closer to Trump’s attorney general in the chain-of-command and limit the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations without close political oversight, according to several Trump supporters and legal professionals with knowledge of the department’s workings.
Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Mousa said in a statement that Trump and his allies “were putting Trump’s own revenge and retribution ahead of what is best for America.” The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘NOT STANDARD POLITICS’
Trump’s allies argue that, as head of the executive branch, the president should have broad powers to command and oversee the Justice Department as he or she sees fit.
Most Democrats and even some Republicans reject that view. They say the Justice Department requires an unusual amount of independence because it’s responsible for administering justice in a non-partisan fashion. At times, that mandate includes investigating a president’s close political allies.
“There are always enforcement disputes … That is standard politics,” said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who is now at Protect Democracy, a non-profit legal advocacy organization.
“What is not standard politics is somebody basically coming in and saying we are going to jettison the idea that the Department of Justice should have a wall of separation between it and the personal political agenda of the president.”
Many Trump allies making these proposals are affiliated with a consortium of conservative think tanks known as “Project 2025”, which has been making detailed plans for a second Trump presidency. In a statement to Reuters, Project 2025 said it could not speak for the Trump campaign.
These allies are also combing through federal regulations for novel ways to bring stalwart conservatives into the Justice Department at the start of a potential Trump term, according to two people with knowledge of those deliberations.
These detailed preparations contrast with Trump’s chaotic 2016 transition, which involved relatively little policy planning, several people involved have acknowledged.
The former president spent the opening months of his first administration butting heads with his attorney general and FBI director, both of whom angered the president by failing to halt inquiries into his 2016 campaign.
It’s an experience, according to several associates who speak to Trump, that he’s determined not to repeat.
Trump currently faces a total of 88 charges in four criminal cases – two of which have been brought by the DoJ – over efforts to subvert the 2020 election, retaining classified documents after leaving office, and alleged efforts to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
The 77-year-old denies wrongdoing in all the cases and points to the charges as proof the Justice Department is biased against him. The department denies this and says it conducts all of its probes impartially.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday deplored what he called “a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department.”
While promising to establish a non-partisan justice system, Trump has called for many of his political opponents to be arrested. Last June, he pledged in a post on Truth Social to have a “special prosecutor” probe the 81-year-old Biden.
CONTROL OVER FBI
Some allies stop short of embracing Trump’s rhetoric of revenge. But they agree Trump should have greater control over the Justice Department and FBI.
“Whenever you have power centers … that have enormous resources, coercive power and investigative tools at their disposal, and they are presumed to be independent of any control down the chain of command from the president, that is a recipe for abuse of power,” said Steve Bradbury, a former Justice official who briefly served as Trump’s acting Transportation Secretary.
In interviews with Reuters, Bradbury and Gene Hamilton, a senior Justice Department official under Trump, both endorsed the measure to eliminate the FBI’s general counsel.
They said they do not speak for Trump, but both are contributing ideas to Project 2025. Hamilton is a trusted lieutenant of Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s closest policy advisers. Miller did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Bradbury and Hamilton also endorsed changing the Justice Department’s chain of command so the FBI director reports to a pair of politically appointed assistant attorneys general.
The director currently reports to the deputy attorney general, a more senior official who in practice is too busy and has too large a portfolio to oversee and guide FBI probes, Bradbury said.
Bradbury and other legal experts said that change could be done without congressional authorization. He said these steps are necessary to ensure that the bureau’s enforcement priorities align with the White House’s policy preferences. Detractors say these measures will undermine the independence of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Some Trump allies and advisers also want to narrow dramatically the types of crimes the FBI can investigate, arguing the bureau’s focus is too sprawling for political appointees to oversee effectively.
In a publicly available policy memo, which was published last July but received little attention, Bradbury said other law enforcement agencies, like the Drug Enforcement Administration, could take the lead where their jurisdiction overlaps with the bureau.
The remnants of the bureau, Bradbury wrote, could focus exclusively on “large-scale crimes and threats to national security” that require a federal response.
PERSONNEL IS POLICY
As important as restructuring the department, Trump allies argue, is ensuring it is stacked with allies unlikely to slow-walk Trump’s demands.
Trump has publicly embraced a potential executive order known as “Schedule F” that would give him the power to replace thousands of civil servants with conservative allies.
That would allow his administration to expand the number of political appointments in the Justice Department, which sits in the low hundreds, though allies have not settled on precisely how many positions could be created.
Some Trump allies at Project 2025 also want to expand the use of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, an obscure statute that allows departments to bring in outside experts with the help of non-profits, several people with knowledge of those deliberations said.
AFSCME Local 2830, a union representing some Justice Department employees, said in a statement to Reuters it is “concerned that Trump officials will fill positions to further their partisan agenda instead of impartially carrying out federal laws and regulations and upholding the Constitution.”
With the right structure and personnel in place, Trump will be better prepared to pursue conservative policy goals, his supporters say. While his allies have floated dozens of ideas, many relate broadly to how the federal government polices civil rights.
For instance, Hamilton argued that the Justice Department should examine whether corporations are discriminating against whites by instituting programs designed to boost the number of people of color in the workplace.
The department could derive its authority, he said, from the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars hiring or compensation decisions based on “race” or “sex.”
Hamilton also called for radically curtailing court-monitored settlements known as “consent decrees” between the Justice Department and local police departments, which are used to help curb civil rights abuses against people of color, the disabled and the mentally ill.
Conservatives portray these agreements as heavy-handed federal actions that interfere with local agencies trying to fight crime. Rights advocates say such arguments ignore centuries of documented inequities.
Christy Lopez, a Georgetown professor who formerly served as a Justice Department Civil Rights Division official, said the department reduced its police accountability work during Trump’s first term.
“There’s no reason to believe that his administration won’t double down,” she said.
Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/honestads to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas. What if Food Ordering Apps Were Honest in their Ads? Roger Horton investigates
Revealed: Citizens for Sanity was one of top political spenders last election cycle and is back for 2024 with more extreme messaging
Citizens for Sanity is housed at the headquarters of the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is a key Maga political base. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images
I normally don’t care about the consensual sex adults have. I don’t care about others kinks or how they get their “freak” on. I think sex is a great thing and very enjoyable. But these assholes were going around telling others they needed to be more moal, that same sex marriage was against gods law, they argued and fought for LGBTQ+ stuff removed from libraries and schools, the claimed teachers who supported gay and trans kids were groomers sexualizing the kids and forcing them gay or trans. The made the LGBTQ+ out to be horrible monsters who were an abomination to god. They made being Christian the only way to live and constantly made news pushing their version of Christianity, pushing their god.
At the same time they were having same sex relations and multiple sex partners! This is what pisses me off about these phonies. Hugs. Scottie
Quotes from the linked article.
Det. Angela Cox said police continued to investigate, though, whether Ziegler had reason to believe she was not competent at that time to offer consent. Communications indicated that the two scheduled a threesome with the Zieglers, but that the woman asked Christian not to show up when she learned Bridget would not be there.
Of note, the Center during the hearing published a report on its media site, the Florida Trident, which included parts of a report by Cox not yet publicly released. That detailed conversations between Bridget and Christian about him hunting for women in local bars to bring home, with one text from Bridget telling her husband, “Don’t come home until your dick is wet.”
“Are there other videos or photographs on your phone that depict other sexual activity with other people other than Mrs. Ziegler?” Bentley asked Christian Ziegler.
“I believe so,” he replied, with Bridget Ziegler in the courtroom yards away.
He also said any people depicted in those videos were “willing participants” both in the sexual acts and with being filmed.
Ousted Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler acknowledged in court that he kept numerous videos of sexual partners besides his wife. Sarasota Police have copies of much of that, and some 30,000 videos downloaded from Ziegler’s iPhone last year.
Ziegler testified on the topic in a May 16 hearing in Sarasota as he and wife Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member, try to stop the further release of embarrassing information. But just fighting the publishing of video has already put Ziegler in the position of discussing the case in open court.
“Are there other videos or photographs on your phone that depict other sexual activity with other people other than Mrs. Ziegler?” Bentley asked Christian Ziegler. “I believe so,” he replied. He also said any people depicted in those videos were “willing participants” both in the sexual acts and with being filmed.
I’m generally totally onboard with people being free to do what they like in terms of intimate relationships, sexual preferences and all that. But I draw the line at hypocrisy, where you spend all your time trying to force other people to live by arbitrary, Puritanical rules from which you exempt your own behavior.
I’m generally totally onboard with people being free to do what they like in terms of intimate relationships, sexual preferences and all that. But I draw the line at hypocrisy, where you spend all your time trying to force other people to live by arbitrary, Puritanical rules from which you exempt your own behavior.
Christian pervs trying to forbid mention of LGBT people existing, think ‘They were consenting adults’ (if not given a mickey) … excuses their massive hypocrisy while demanding Christian Morality be imposed on everyone else’s lives and educations or else.
Scottie's Playtime 