Category: Abuse

This Is Very Seriously A Big Deal: Pro-Trump dark money network tied to Elon Musk behind fake pro-Harris campaign scheme

An initiative called Progress 2028 that purports to be Kamala Harris’ liberal counter to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is actually run by a dark money network supporting former President Donald Trump.

Building America’s Future, the dark money group at the helm of the network, has steered money to a constellation of groups and initiatives boosting Trump’s agenda and spreading messaging aimed at chipping away voters from Harris. The dark money group reportedly received over $100 million in funding from billionaire Elon Musk, along with other donors, the New York Times recently reported. 

The newest effort to benefit from their largesse is Progress 2028. Building America’s Future registered to use Progress 2028 as a fictitious name on Sept. 23 and the website was created three days later, OpenSecrets’ analysis of corporate filings and DNS records found. 

The Progress 2028 site appears to be created by IMGE LLC, a firm run by Republican political operatives that the New York Times described as the “hidden hand” behind Building America’s Future, and a page on the Progress 2028 site includes the firm’s sizzle reel. 

IMGE LLC has also done work for Elon Musk’s America PAC and several other Republican political committees, including a super PAC funded by America’s Future Fund named Future Coalition PAC, as first pointed out by Brendan Fischer, Deputy Executive Director of Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project.

The Progress 2028 manifesto draws clear parallels to Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for restructuring the executive branch under the next Republican administration. The Project 2025 blueprint was developed by the Heritage Foundation and written by many conservatives who worked in or with Trump’s administration. Project 2025 has drawn intense criticism, and the former president has said it does not reflect his own priorities should he return to the White House.

Some of the policies listed in Progress 2028 highlight disproven and misleading claims about Harris’ positions. Policies listed include “Empowering Undocumented Immigrants, Building Our Future” and “Expanding Medicaid to Undocumented Immigrants.”

“Undocumented immigrants are the backbone of our country, and by removing barriers, we unlock incredible potential,” the document states. “Kamala Harris believes that every person, no matter their immigration status, deserves access to basic healthcare.”

Harris expressed support for allowing immigrants residing in the U.S. to obtain health insurance with her 2019 Medicare for All plan but did not indicate whether there would be a cost. Her 2024 running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, recently said that Harris does not currently support programs for undocumented immigrants to qualify for free government health care, free tuition at state universities or driver’s licenses.

The document claims Harris will “support policies that protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care and ensure that schools provide comprehensive LGBTQIA education.” 

“She’s committed to banning fracking, phasing out internal combustion engines, and rolling out the most progressive Green New Deal yet,” another section of the Progress 2028 plan reads. Harris has explicitly stated that she won’t ban fracking natural gas but her campaign has sent mixed signals about her own position on regulation of gas-powered cars.

Some individuals have received text messages directing them to the Progress 2028 page. 

“Kamala Harris will support a nationwide gun buy-back program that will take dangerous weapons off our streets,” one text message reads, noting, “A mandatory buy-back is the only way to keep our streets safe.” Harris expressed support for a mandatory buyback of military assault weapons in 2019 but has expressed a more lenient stance in 2024, highlighting her own gun ownership. 

(snip-graphics on the page)

Digital advertisement featuring Kamala Harris paid for by Progress 2028 (Screenshot from Meta Ad Library)

Progress 2028 has also started pouring money into digital advertising. Since Oct. 11, several digital ads on Facebook and Instagram have included the disclaimer “paid for by Progress 2028” — totaling over $36,000 in ad buys over just five days.

While the ads appear to include pro-Harris messaging, they lean into contentious issues listed on the Progress 2028 site that have created friction among different divisions of the party. 

“Let’s remove barriers for undocumented immigrants who are undocumented!” one ad states, adding, “Access to affordable housing, driver licenses, and fair wages creates a stronger America for everyone.”

Another ad reads, “A national, mandatory buy-back program means fewer guns & fewer tragedies. Kamala Harris gets it!”

Operating under a shroud of aliases, Building America’s Future has funneled tens of millions of dollars in dark money from anonymous sources into campaigns boosting Trump ahead of the 2024 election. The dark money network also has a history of fueling initiatives impersonating and parodying Democrats. 

Building America’s Future is the top funder of Citizens for Sanity, a dark money group that bankrolled inflammatory ads mocking Democrats and progressive policies in battleground states ahead of 2022 midterms, tax returns show. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Elon Musk secretly steered tens of millions of dollars through Building America’s Future to help fund the effort. 

Citizens for Sanity spent over $90 million on messaging pitting minority communities against each other and chipping away at traditionally Democratic voting blocs. 

Similar to Progress 2028, the ads hit on contentious issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and criminal justice reform. The ads have been accused of trying to suppress voting among minority communities.

(snip-embed video on the page)

Citizens for Sanity does not disclose its donors but other groups were legally required to report money they gave to it. That includes $43 million from Building AmerIca’s Future as well as $28.7 million from Freedom’s Future Fund, a sister group of Building America’s Future, and $13.4 million from American Commitment.

The many faces of Building America’s Future

Building America’s Future has also fueled other pro-Trump groups and was the sole funder of the Future Coalition PAC, new Federal Election Commission records filed Oct. 15 show.

The super PAC that has run ads targeting Harris in Michigan by highlighting her positions that are pro-Israel and the Jewish faith of her spouse, Doug Emhoff. The ads are reported to be pro-Harris but have been criticized as featuring antisemitic dog whistles. The PAC has been accused of attempting to use the conflict in the Middle East as a wedge issue to depress turnout for Harris in Michigan, a state with a significant Muslim and Arab American population.

Future Coalition PAC reported receiving $3 million from Building America’s Future through the end of September.

Another $16 million was steered through Building America’s Future to Duty to America PAC, according to new FEC disclosures filed Oct. 15. The super PAC has targeted young male voters and Black voters trying to persuade them to vote for Trump. 

Building America’s Future was also the top funder of Stand For Us PAC, OpenSecrets’ analysis of FEC reports filed Oct. 15 found. The super PAC received at least $3.8 million from the dark money group and has spent over $15 million on ads attacking Republican primary candidates in Ohio with divisive messaging tying a prescription drug program to immigration and transgender rights. 

In addition to funding a cluster of political groups, Building America’s Future operates under several fictitious names such as Americans for Consumer Protection. 

In August, Americans for Consumer Protection launched an ad campaign criticizing the White House’s proposal to ban menthol cigarettes. CNBC reported that the effort was intended to chip away at Harris’ key base of Black voter support in swing states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Building America’s Future reportedly raised and spent more than $100 million over the last four years, the New York Times reported. 

Building America’s Future is not legally required to report its finances, vendor payments or outgoing grants for 2023 until after Election Day and, even then, will not be required to disclose its donors.

OpenSecrets’ requests for comment to Building America’s Future and Progress 2028 were not returned prior to publication.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info@opensecrets.org

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2024/10/pro-trump-dark-money-network-tied-to-elon-musk-behind-fake-pro-harris-campaign-scheme

Oklahoma families, teachers and faith leaders file lawsuit to block Superintendent Ryan Walters’ Bible-education mandate

October 17, 2024

Oklahoma families, teachers and faith leaders file lawsuit to block Superintendent Ryan Walters’ Bible-education mandate

Snippet:

OKLAHOMA CITY – More than 30 Oklahomans – including parents and children, public school teachers and faith leaders – today filed a lawsuit urging the Oklahoma Supreme Court to block state Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ mandate that all public schools incorporate the Bible into their curricula. The lawsuit, Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters, also asks the court to stop the state from spending millions of taxpayer dollars on Bibles to support the mandate.

The 32 plaintiffs include 14 public school parents, four public school teachers and three faith leaders who object to Walters’ extremist agenda that imposes his personal religious beliefs on other people’s children – in violation of Oklahomans’ religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The plaintiffs come from a variety of faith traditions, including Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian (U.S.A.) and United Church of Christ, and some identify as atheist, agnostic or nonreligious. Some are of Indigenous heritage, and some have family situations – such as LGBTQ+ members or children with special educational needs – that cause particular concerns around teaching the Bible in public schools, especially around bullying.

The plaintiffs are represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice.

Plaintiff the Rev. Lori Walke, senior minister of Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City: “I am a faith leader who cares deeply about our country’s promise of religious freedom and ensuring that everyone is able to choose their own spiritual path. The state mandating that one particular religious text be taught in our schools violates the religious freedom of parents and children, teachers, and taxpayers. The government has no business weighing in on such theological decisions. I’m proud to join this lawsuit because I believe Superintendent Walters’ plan to use taxpayer money to buy Bibles and force public schools to teach from them is illegal and unconstitutional.”

Plaintiff the Rev. Mitch Randall of Cleveland County, a Baptist pastor and CEO of Good Faith Media: “As a Christian, I’m appalled by the use of the Bible – a sacred text – for Superintendent Walters’ political grandstanding. As a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, I’m alarmed by the parallels between this Bible mandate and the religious proselytization and forced assimilation my relatives faced in government boarding schools. As a taxpayer, I object to the state spending public funds on religious texts. The separation of church and state is a bedrock principle protecting religious liberty for every citizen; I urge the court to uphold this principle and strike down this mandate.

Plaintiff Erika Wright of Cleveland County, the founder and leader of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition and a parent of two children who attend public schools: “As parents, my husband and I have sole responsibility to decide how and when our children learn about the Bible and religious teachings. We are devout Christians, but different Christian denominations have differenttheological beliefs and practices. It is not the role of any politician or public school official to intervene in these personal matters. Oklahoma’s education system is already struggling, ranking nearly last in national standings. Mandating a Bible curriculum will not address our educational shortcomings. Superintendent Walters should focus on providing our children and teachers with the resources they need; our families can handle religious education at home.”

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United: “The separation of church and state guarantees that families and students – not politicians – get to decide if, when and how to engage with religion. Superintendent Ryan Walters is abusing the power of his office to advance a Christian Nationalist agenda and impose his personal religious beliefs on other people’s children. Not on our watch. We’re proud to defend the religious freedom of all Oklahomans, from Christians to the nonreligious.”

Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief: “This Bible mandate is a blatant power grab that violates state law and tramples the separation of church and state. Public-school students, families, and teachers – and the taxpayers who support them – deserve better.”

Tamya Cox-Touré, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oklahoma: “By filing this lawsuit, Oklahomans have come together in a common fight to reject the State Board of Education’s use of religion as a cover for repression. All families and students should feel welcome in our public schools and we must protect the individual right of students and families to choose their own faith or no faith at all. The separation of church and state is a bedrock of our nation’s founding principles.”

Annie Laurie Gaylor, Co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation: “Superintendent Ryan Walters cannot be allowed to employ the machinery of the state to indoctrinate Oklahoma’s students in his religion. Thankfully, Oklahoma law protects families and taxpayers from his unconstitutional scheme to force public schools to adopt his preferred holy book.”

Colleen McCarty, Executive Director of Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice: “The constant use of Oklahoma as a testing ground for religious extremism is growing tiresome. Oklahoma families deserve a public school system devoted to the education of their children, and instead we get flash-bulb political stunts and attempted erosion of the Constitution. The buck stops here. We will defend the principles our nation is built on, starting with the separation of church and state.” (snip-MORE)

Why I have not been on the blog, and what is going on.

Hi everyone.  Thank you to Ali and Randy for keeping things running here.  I went from my own personal melt down to now helping someone avoid theirs.  I will explain.  

So many may have noticed I am only posting view email news now mostly, I am not keeping up with comments, however I have saved them all in open tabs to get to later after this passes, and I am rarely interacting.

I really wanted to do this as a video as I feel I could do it so much better.  But I can’t ever find the time and now don’t have the energy to do it.  So here is what is going on.   

I have a friend who is a fellow survivor.  He was kidnapped at 7 yrs old and then tortured and trained to be a sex toy.  Very harsh graphics if you ever read it.  It led to lifetime victimization that he details on MS and with me in our talks.  But the short version is he got out of it when he turned 40 but it has nearly destroyed his life.   So now you understand the backstory.  We have been working on and helping each with our abuses.  He is one of the few people that understands some of the things going on with me and my issues.  He has insights that have helped me and I help him.  He tells me I am one of the few who also understand what he is dealing with emotionally.  

My friend Kamyk was getting very sick.  He has diverticulosis, infected pockets in his intestines.  But his are in his in colon area, the upper sigmoid colon.  He started having fevers of 104 and me and others begged him to go to medical care.  He did.  They hospitalized him because one or more pockets burst and were killing him.  But the suddenness of it and the situation left him without any of his coping methods such as his computer but only his phone which he used to contact me.   He has since gotten some things to help him, but his situation medically is iffy and his emotional situation is protected only by me and one other person that really can only contact him a few hours during the deep morning hours.  

So the first days of communication were me trying hard to keep him from freaking out and his needing me to be with him almost all the time he was awake.  He left our communications on even when the doctors were talking with him, which he gave them permission to tell me.  I have not violated those talks as my own training tells me what I can repeat and what I can not.  I do not repeat the doctor’s words but my friend’s fears and worries along with his understandings of medical things.  

That set up a pattern that was made from his desperation and fear along with my wanting to be there for my friend just like Randy was there for me when I had my break down in 2014.   He did the same thing spending as much time as possible that I needed but in his case he was working nights in a 12 hour shift in a hard job.  But he did it to keep me from cutting myself and my wanting to die.  I am now so much better I am paying his grand wonderful sacrifice forward.  Every waking moment I had was spent with him in his waking moment and he slowly adjusted so has become calm. I have only my health, abilities, and emotional stability to work around.  Again Randy had it much worse and he did it.  So then should I try.  

He today was going in for a dirty surgery.  I am not posting the details but to only say that this is not preferred and going to be hard on my friend.  I stayed with him via text even during my doctor’s office.   My provider is so wonderful she took time to explain his situation internally and reassure me.  But he went into the pre-op about 1 pm my time.  It is now 8 pm my time with no word from him.  Ron has tried to get me to go to bed, but I am so worried I can’t do so.  Ron has reminded me of my training that I know a hard surgery could take a long surgery recovery time and now he will need / want / be kept under so he is not awake to text.   But even though I know all that, I worked that, I did that, I still worry about my friend.   Not really for the surgery.  It will be what it will be.   But his emotional state when he wakes up.  He is so fragile.  I have had all my life to deal with mine, I had my melt down mental break in 2014 so have had time to deal with that also.   Kamyk just remembered parts of his abuse a year ago and his horrible kidnapping at 7 and the total mind, emotional, and physical fuck of a 7-year-old boy is something that is only months old and he is trying to deal with.  He has turned to me as so much of what he endured was like what I endured.  Sweet soul he is he thinks my own abuse was worse because of the constant violence I experience for 17 years, and I think his is worse because of the constant sexual use of his body over the years while mine was again only 17 years plus three people raping me as an 18, 19, and 20 year old, one person a female that made it worse for me somehow did it 4 times before I found a way to stop it.  I guess we are two very damaged people desperately trying to help each other in our passage in life.  

One last thing for this post.  I should have gone to bed at 5 or 6 when I was tired.  Ron is asking me to try to go to bed now.  But I don’t feel sleepy even though I woke at midnight and only had a 2 hour nap because he came and laid down with meat 3 pm today.  But remember I got shot up with steroids today.  It is going to wreak havoc with my emotions, with my sleep, and my eating needs for a few weeks again.  Thank each one of you that comes to Scotties Playtime and for each of you that read this post.  It is important to me.    Hugs.  

Red State Fear

Telling the men in our lives the reality of our lives

Read on Substack Jess Piper Oct 10, 2024

(Note from Ali: Jess wrote the anti-misogyny rant I was thinking of.)

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

~Maya Angelou

I go solo camping often. I head up to the North Shore in Minnesota or down to Northwest Arkansas and hang out a few days by myself or with my daughter. My husband is a big ole, corn-fed country boy who will not sleep on the ground, so we leave him at home.

I love to sleep outside, but the very thing I hate about camping is sleeping outside — exposed. As a woman, this is something I think about a lot. When I wake up for some unknown reason and wonder if I heard something in my sleep. Or, I wake up to actually hearing something or someone. I get scared. I get nervous. I wonder why in the hell I do the things I do and take the chances I take.

And then I go back to sleep and wake up on Lake Superior or Devil’s Den and hike to waterfalls and forget it all until it is time to go back to sleep outside. Love and hate.

Lake Superior, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

I once asked my husband if he’s ever afraid when he is alone. He laughed out loud.

“Of what? Why would I be scared?”

I tend to be an overthinker, but I can’t tell you how many times I have wondered about his statement of fact. He is not scared. Of men or animals or most of the danger I intuitively see around me. He has nothing to be scared of — he is physically imposing and there is not one law on the books that will harm him.

He has never worried about walking at dark. Or encountering someone on a trail. Or sleeping outside. Or most of the things that take up a lot of my mental space.

He has lived his life completely unencumbered by his environment, even as a resident of a red state. A homegrown Missouri man.

Sure, the Missouri GOP trifecta, a supermajority, has defunded the schools and let our roads crumble and closed hospitals and generally made a nuisance of themselves, but that is exactly what they were to him. An inconvenience. Annoying. Turds in the punchbowl, but nothing to get too riled up about.

He was just living his life.

He didn’t see it. Not because he is not empathetic. Not even because he doesn’t pay attention to politics. It’s because he has lived his life with a privilege he didn’t know existed until I pointed it out. Because, until he saw the world through his daughters’ eyes, through my eyes, these things just never occurred to him. He didn’t deny privilege, he just didn’t see it. He isn’t uncaring or a dolt — he just had absolutely no experience being marginalized. I had to tell him.

Once he saw it, though, he couldn’t look away. He was disgusted. He understood.

This is where I should mention something that I have spoken of in front of safe men. When I tell them that I have been sexually assaulted as well as almost every woman I know, they are astounded. When I tell them of sexual harassment, they are amazed. And then, one day it clicked for me. These are good and safe men and the predators know it. They don’t hurt women while they are around. They don’t talk about it or joke about it, because these men wouldn’t put up with it. The good guys have often really not been a witness to the behavior we have endured because they are just that…good guys.

I am not making excuses for the menfolk.

The men in my life will attest to the fact that I constantly push them to see what we see. I am hard on them. I ask that they look beyond themselves and be an ally to others. To be a witness and bear witness.

We don’t need protectors, but we do need witnesses.

As a woman, as a mom of girls and granddaughters, I have no degree of safety in Missouri and I know all of my girls fall into the same category. They are not safe from sexual assault or rape. They are not safe after a sexual assault or rape. They will likely be dismissed, or worse, blamed. They would be forced to bear the child of their rapist. They would likely be forced to co-parent with their rapist.

Missouri has a total abortion ban with no exemptions for rape or incest. Not that it would matter…I am sure there is some process to that exemption as well and I really hate the notion that a woman or girl can’t have bodily autonomy unless she has first been violated.

Writing that sentence made me sick at my stomach.

Missouri women have been denied care because of the abortion ban. A Kansas OBGYN, Dr. Ahmed, shared a story last week about her Missouri patient who suffered a miscarriage:

“She came in for a follow-up still bleeding,” said Dr. Ahmed. “Turns out there was some tissue that was still there. Retained tissue in that setting can become infected, can cause a lot of bleeding, so I discussed with her the options.”

The patient decided on medication and Dr. Ahmed says she prescribed it. But the following morning, she received a fax from Walgreens on Stateline after prescribing Misoprostol or Cytotec for the miscarriage stating, “Under Missouri law medication abortion is now illegal. Please advise patient to fill across Kansas border”.

Missouri has also had a 25% decrease in OBGYN residency applicants willing to come to our state because of the ban. That decreases care for all women, not just pregnant women.

We aren’t safe in Missouri.

The good news is that Missourians will get to vote on Amendment 3 in a few weeks. This amendment will restore abortion rights in Missouri. We will be the first state to overturn a complete ban.

The bad news is that our bodily autonomy is even put to a vote. That geography dictates our rights. That random folks will get to decide if we are first or second-class citizens. That we have been treated as less than. That our rights have been up for debate.

This is red state shit. We are used to it. It is constant and it is something we live in fear of every day. It is the thing I point to when I am speaking to the men around me. I never let them daydream their way back into complacence. I don’t let them fade into the peace of not knowing…of not being engaged. I don’t let them forget the fear of the women around them. I keep them awake.

Woke. (Emphasis mine- Ali)

I don’t want to be scared of living in Missouri anymore. I don’t want anyone to be scared in their home state. This is why we have to speak on it. Say it.

The reality is that we cannot gain our rights back without involving men. I have such good men in my life. Would they have voted yes on Amendment 3 without me telling them? I’d say yes. Would they be as rabid in telling other men around them to vote yes if I had not worked on them for so long? Maybe not.

It’s not that we are dealing with self-centered jerks. It’s that they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

Now they do.

~Jess

Update on OK Sup’t Ryan Walters (because I promised)

Superintendent Ryan Walters’ legal fees surpass $100,000 amid multiple lawsuits

by Tanya Modersitzki Thu, October 10th 2024 at 12:51 PM

Updated Thu, October 10th 2024 at 4:13 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA — As Superintendent Ryan Walters sees the inside of a courtroom more with recent court dates piling up, he’s also racked up more than $100,000 in attorney fees in a five-month time span.

On Oklahoma State Court Network’s website, since last year, he’s named in eight lawsuits, not including the one involved with the State Grand Jury on alleged misspent pandemic money, and others related to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

State Representative Mark McBride said he’s concerned how much Walters’ legal fees are costing taxpayers.

“I’m pretty confident there’s another investigation going on by the feds in the Department of Education. I think he’s 12 or 14 lawsuits,” McBride said.
Walters most recent lawsuit came from the Bixby Public Schools Superintendent for alleged defamatory remarks.

From March of this year until July, records we received from Oklahoma Management and Enterprise Services show Walters averaging roughly $20,000 a month in lawyer fees.
In March, OSDE paid an attorney invoice for more than $28,000.

In May, multiple invoices came out to cost more than $19,000.

In June, OSDE paid nearly another $28,000 for attorneys.

In that timespan, Walters’ attorneys cost the state more than $104,000.
McBride said this is all at the cost of constituents.

“These things I think he’s going to lose at the end of the day and taxpayers foot the bill,” he said.

These totals don’t reflect charges for August, September, and October. NewsChannel 8 is working to get those numbers.
Walters’ office did not respond for a comment.

https://ktul.com/news/local/superintendent-ryan-walters-legal-fees-surpass-100000-amid-multiple-lawsuits-and-that-number-is-growing-it-more-days-in-court-ahead-state-representative-mark-mcbride-taxpayers-oklahoma-state-department-education-lawyer-fees

PA School District Spends $8,700 Putting Surveillance Windows in Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

The windows were approved following legal counsel from Independence Law Center, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which has been designated as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. BY SAMANTHA RIEDEL

(I don’t like this. Aside from the important and actual reasons, how’re the kids gonna smoke in the bathroom? Or buy tampons? Or trade clothes? Now, I realize kids likely don’t do two of those things at school anymore, anyway. But people need their privacy in restrooms. This from the people who are so worried about their own privacy in bathrooms? -A)

A Pennsylvania school district is under fire for installing windows looking into middle-school bathrooms, seemingly at the recommendation of a conservative anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

Gender-neutral bathrooms at Emory H. Markle Middle School in Hanover now have large windows on their outer walls, which allow those outside to see the bathrooms’ sink area, but not inside the stalls, as seen in photos shared with local news outlets. The windows have reportedly not been installed in gendered multi-user bathrooms or in changing rooms — and according to South Western School District (SWSD) board president Matthew Gelazela, that means privacy isn’t an issue.

Our students should not consider the space outside of our stalls as private within the multiuser restrooms,” Gelazela said in a statement to PennLive this week, highlighting a district policy that specifically requires “private changing areas” be provided to students. “Areas between our stalls and sinks in multiuser restrooms are not private changing areas under that policy.” Gelazela further claimed that the district is in the process of adding higher stall walls to gender-neutral bathrooms to increase privacy.

According to district board records, SWSD board members approved the bathroom windows — the installation of which has already cost the district $8,700 — after receiving a recommendation earlier this year from the Independence Law Center (ILC), which the district contracted as an outside legal counsel in March.

Around the same time, the board adopted an ILC-recommended policy that restricted teachers from using anything but a student’s pronouns based on “biological sex” and legal name, or a nickname commonly associated with their legal name, at school. They also adopted a plan to allow parents to restrict their children from specific categories of books, another ILC recommendation.

At an August 14 meeting, one board member noted that demolition for the bathroom windows had begun before the board officially approved their installation or knew the costs associated; the board then voted to go forward with the windows by a vote of 6-3.

ILC is a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI), itself tied to the far-right Family Research Council, both of which have been designated as anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. ILC’s website claims it acts to “secure the blessings of liberty,” which it apparently seeks to accomplish by filing amicus briefs in numerous anti-LGBTQ+ legal cases like 303 Creative v Elenis and Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado.

ILC chief counsel Randall Wenger appeared to distance his organization from the SWSD policy this week, however, telling NBC affiliate WGAL that it was “not our recommendation to create a line of sight into a restroom that lacks adequate privacy” and that ILC believes “privacy in multi-user facilities starts at the door of the room, not the door of stalls,” but that if stalls were made more “like the bathrooms on airplanes,” bathrooms may “open to a public area” where staff can monitor students for drug use or loitering. It was not clear whether SWSD’s policy extended beyond what ILC originally recommended, or if the district had simply not implemented stalls with greater wall-to-ceiling coverage before installing the windows.

Them reached out to ILC for further comment, and received the following statement from Wenger, further denying ILC’s responsibility for the policy: “Independence Law Center always recommends privacy, including increasing privacy within existing facilities. We never suggest putting a window into restrooms with stalls. Facilities with full privacy, like bathrooms on airplanes can open to a public area just as we are all used to on airplanes and coffee shops.” Them also reached out to Gelazela for comment, but did not receive a reply before publication.

According to mission statements and case examples on its website, ILC primarily acts to curtail LGBTQ+ rights and advance Christian ideals and policy goals under the auspices of protecting “liberty,” including what it terms “marriage and the family” and the “protect[ion of] human life” — i.e., opposing abortion, a major goal of the PFI. The organization also has ties to past fundamentalist Christian groups. Prior to his work with the ILC, Wegner was employed by the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, an “intelligent design” advocacy group that published and distributed the creationist textbook Of Pandas and People. The distribution of Pandas in a Pennsylvania public school district led to a 2005 district court decision that determined the school board had violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Parents of students at Markle Middle School told local outlets they were shocked to learn that the district had installed windows in bathrooms, pushing back against Gelazela’s claim that students’ privacy rights were not affected. “It just raised a ton of concerns for me: privacy concerns, safety concerns, concerns for the kids who need those facilities. I feel like this is a deterrent to keep them from using them,” parent Jennifer Holahan told WGAL. “I can understand needing to have supervision [….] But I also think windows aren’t a solution. I think if it was a real issue, it wouldn’t just be [in the] gender-inclusive restrooms.”

Eric Stiles, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Rainbow Rose Center in York, PA, told PennLive he believes the windows may likely be used to harass and intimidate LGBTQ+ youth in school.

“They’ve done book banning and not using pronouns and outing students to their parents, and now this latest attempt is these bathroom windows that really call into concern the safety of students,” Stiles said. “There will be other students that use the windows, which means they can track each other [….] What does it mean for victims of violence that haven’t been able to come forward? Now you have a big window there. Are they going to have to plan their day on how and when to use the bathroom?”

https://www.them.us/story/pennsylvania-school-district-spends-8700-surveillance-windows-gender-neutral-bathrooms

Men Assault CA Restaurant’s Staff Over Pride Flag

Men Assault CA Restaurant’s Staff Over Pride Flag

This is what tRump and maga are, gang thugs enforcing their ideas of right and wrong with violence regardless of other people’s rights.  This is what the party of tRump is, violence to any who they disagree with.   This is brownshirt stuff from Nazi Germany in the 1930s.  This is domestic terrorism, the use of violence and harming others to achieve a political goal / gain.   This stuff was going away as unacceptable in the US, and now it is back thanks to tRump and his people.  Hugs.  Scottie

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September 30, 2024 Crime, LGBT News

 

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Blaze Pizza’s 96 California pizzerias are known for build-your-own pies rapidly fired in 800-degree ovens, along with Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James’ corporate investments. Last week, its Roseville location made headlines for an uglier reason.

A delivery driver walked into the Highland Reserve Marketplace restaurant about 10:15 p.m. Sept. 19, saw a Pride flag hung by employees inside and tore it down to the ground, according to the Roseville Police Department.

When a manager and employees confronted the man, he reportedly uttered a homophobic slur and left. He then returned with two other men, at least one of them wearing mixed martial arts gloves, and kicked off a brawl with two employees that multiple passersby caught on video.

Read the full article. Police are calling it a hate crime and the attackers remain at large. One of the employees was hospitalized due to his injuries.

Say what? WTF?

DOJ Sues AL For Purging Citizens From Voter Rolls

He feels entitled to take anything he wants without paying for it.   He also believes it is better to just due and ignore anyone else’s rights.  He is the great cult leader.  Hugs.  Scottie

Another Band Threatens To Sue Trump Over Song Use
Oklahoma To Spend $6 Million To Buy Classroom Bibles

Walters has ordered daily bible lessons for Oklahoma’s public school students in all grades. Several dozen school districts are currently defying that edict.

Earlier this month, local outlets exposed Walters for spending state money to fund a national tour of far-right events to “promote himself on the national stage.”

Walters is widely expected to run for governor. Current governor and fellow Christian nationalist Kevin Stitt is term-limited.

Last month around two dozen GOP state lawmakers signed a letter calling for an impeachment probe into Walters for refusing to disclose his spending.

Walters has hired a raft of far-right figures, including Chaya Rachik and Dennis Prager, to help him “turn students to Jesus.” Raichik is reportedly helping overhaul public school libraries.

Please remember the people who first led Israel in the beginning were also terrorist.  Many in the Israeli government in the early decades of Israel’s existence were also labeled terrorist.  One person’s terrorist is another person’s avowed wonderful member of government.   It has been leaked that members of Israel’s government wants to annex another sovereign country’s land and make it Israel’s property.  Just like they have in the West bank, and Gaza.  In fact some have talked about trying to take part of Egypt.  This is because religious fanatics are running the country now and they claim their god gave them the entire area so they simply have the right to take it.  And no one can stop them as long as Biden stays in the mind set of the 1950 / 60s/ 70s, because Biden won’t let anyone else strike Israel back to show them their god did not give them permission to take others lands.  Bibi has given the middle finger to every US president and he is desperate to get tRump to win by dragging the US into a war in the Middle East.  That is his plan to help tRump and hurt Harris.  And they bombed an entire area of occupied apartments in Beirut, which is another war crime they committed. Hugs.  Scottie

Israel Kills Hezbollah Leader With Airstrike On Beirut

Experts: Trump’s “Swiss Watches” Are Chinese Crap

A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, said, “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price. Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland. And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”

Argentine Poverty Rate Soars Under Far-Right Leader

Milei has cut support for welfare programs, soup kitchens, and other efforts to aid the needy.

Milei’s biggest cheerleader is Elon Musk, who has vowed to bring similar policies as the leader of Trump’s supposed “Department Of Government Efficiency.”

Of note, the planned department’s acronym just happens to be the same as a cryptocurrency often promoted by Musk.

Earlier this year Musk posted the below porn-adjacent image in celebration of Milei.

Iran Used Fake Ginni Thomas Email To Hack Trump
Hawley Falsely Claims Credit For $100 Million Military Housing Project That He Voted Against Multiple Times

Not only did Hawley vote against the project, the report below notes that in 2019 Trump defunded all such military projects to divert the money to his border wall.

The party who has people arrested, charged, and found guilty of voter fraud is the Republican Party.  Every accusation from them is a confession of their own actions. They are setting it up to challenge the voters will and overturn the vote in that state.  Hugs.  Scottie

Michigan GOP Chair: Dems Will “Steal Some Votes”
Former Rittenhouse Spox: I Have “Shocking” Details

Hancock said that he learned during the trial that Rittenhouse had allegedly used racial slurs in messages sent to his friends and appeared to be looking for an opportunity to use a weapon. “There was a history of things he was doing prior to Kenosha, specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a gunfight,” Hancock claimed.

Nazi-Founded Party Poised To Take Power In Austria

The party maybe have evolved into the kind of anti-migrant, anti-Islam populist force that has taken hold across much of Europe, but it began as a political refuge for former Nazis. Not only has the FPÖ not disavowed that past, it embraces it — at least in private — with the leading party figures regularly getting to trouble for paying quiet tribute to their Nazi forebears.

Texas AG Sues Feds Over LGBTQ Foster Care Rules

 As I often remind the haters, almost all of the children in the foster care and adoption system are there due to abuse and abandonment by the heterosexual parents.

Despite federal protections, LGBTQ+ people are being mistreated at work

Sep 23, 2024 Orion Rummler Originally published by The 19th

In 2020, the Supreme Court found that gay and transgender workers are protected from workplace discrimination in the landmark case Bostock v. Clayton County. Despite those federal protections, LGBTQ+ people across the country — especially transgender and nonbinary people — continue to face rampant discrimination at work and don’t feel safe being out, according to research from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. 

In a 2023 study of 1,902 LGBTQ+ adults in the workforce, released in August, 17 percent said they had experienced discrimination or harassment on the job in the past year. Trans and nonbinary employees were more than twice as likely as cisgender queer employees to face discrimination and harassment: Twenty-two percent of trans and nonbinary people experienced discrimination in the past year, and 26 percent experienced harassment. 

“You would hope things have gotten better,” said Brad Sears, founding executive director of the Williams Institute and coauthor of the report. 

Sears believes the high rate of recent discrimination is an indication that change has been slow after Bostock, even after the Biden administration implemented additional nondiscrimination policies. Shortly after Biden was inaugurated in 2021, he issued an executive order based on Bostock that mandated the protection of gay and transgender Americans in the workplace, as well as in schools and doctor’s offices. And as of this spring, extra protections were put in place to guard against employers who consistently misgender employees or deny them access to sex-segregated spaces.

Still, the study found that many LGBTQ+ Americans are not out in the workplace to avoid facing discrimination and harassment. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ employees said that they are not open about their identity to their current supervisor, and one-fifth are not out to any of their coworkers. Staying in the closet actually did protect them: LGBTQ+ employees who were out to at least a few coworkers, or just their supervisor, were three times as likely to report discrimination as employees who were not out. 

“A lot of people, even if they are out, they’re kind of downplaying their identities in the workplace,” Sears said. “Maybe they use a different voice or different mannerisms at work, or they don’t dress exactly how they would otherwise dress when they’re not at work, or they use a bathroom that they would prefer not to be using at work.” 

To avoid discrimination, transgender and nonbinary people are significantly more likely to hide their identities than cisgender queer people. In a new breakout analysis of the Williams Institute’s survey, the experiences of nonbinary people are found to be especially fraught. 

Nonbinary people in the study described being ostracized and subjected to violence, harassment or threatsat work due to their physical appearance either not being “feminine” enough or “masculine” enough. Their gender expression made them a target and was used as a justification for their treatment by their bosses, coworkers and customers. Frequently, nonbinary people said they were passed over for raises and promotions, called slurs, and forced to work alone. 

The nonbinary people surveyed were largely young, urban, and racially and ethnically diverse. To the survey authors, such data is a call for employers to take action — especially If they want to retain young employees. 

About 87 percent of nonbinary adults in the workforce are under 35 years old, compared with 71 percent of transgender adults and 51 percent of cisgender queer adults, according to the study. That research aligns with other findings from KFF that Americans under 35 are more likely to identify as nonbinary than older Americans, and research from the Pew Research Center that found adults under 30 are more likely than older adults to be out as trans or nonbinary. 

About 3 in 5 nonbinary people have experienced discrimination or harassment at work at some point in their lives, like being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, sexually or physically harassed. 

About 1 in 5 nonbinary people reported physical harassment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, with some survey respondents reporting being “assaulted,” “attacked” and “strangled.” 

For some, unfair treatment looked like having their hours reduced, being isolated from other employees or customers, or being excluded from company events or socializing. 

“Oftentimes, I was passed up for a promotion because I wasn’t ‘manly’ enough, and they doubted my ability to lead a team,” a Latinx nonbinary person from California said in the survey. A Latinx nonbinary participant from Colorado shared: “A co-worker strangled me at a counter and said he was trying to ‘give a girl a massage.’” In Connecticut, a Black nonbinary person said they heard their manager talking “disparagingly” about them to the rest of their bosses because of their gender expression. 

One in 4 nonbinary employees said they are currently experiencing adverse treatment at their job because of their LGBTQ+ identity. For many nonbinary people, the worst experiences of discrimination and harassment that they face at work are linked to their multiple marginalized identities. In particular, they were targeted for their disability or being bisexual in addition to being nonbinary. 

This research shows that company-level policies, as well as state and federal nondiscrimination regulations, need to be specific so that they protect nonbinary employees, Sears said. 

The Williams Institute plans to release more breakout analyses from its survey, including reports on the experiences of transgender, Black, Latinx and Asian-American employees. Breaking down the unique experiences of each demographic is key to understanding and addressing the issues that they’re facing at work, Sears said — for example, nonbinary people face rigid and gendered expectations at work, while bisexual women face high rates of sexual harassment. 

“LGBTQ+ people are not monolithic. They’re different, they have intersecting identities … and those are leading to differences that are important in the workplace,” he said.

New Court Filings Place Matt Gaetz at a Party at the Center of the Sex Trafficking Scandal

This is the first public filing that cites sworn testimony alleging that Gaetz attended one of the long-rumored parties with a teenage girl.

https://www.notus.org/florida/new-court-filings-matt-gaetz-dorworth-sex-party

Jose Pagliery September 20, 2024 01:35 AM | Updated: September 20, 2024 10:28 AM

Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies.

The minor, who was a junior in high school at the time, arrived in her mother’s car for a July 15, 2017, party at the Florida home of Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist and friend of Gaetz’s, according to a court filing written by defense attorneys who interviewed witnesses as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit Dorworth brought in 2023.

The lobbyist claimed he had been unfairly dragged into the alleged sex trafficking scandal that has dogged Gaetz and his allies for years. Dorworth ultimately dropped the case, but lawyers filed these documents in an attempt to recoup attorneys fees for a lawsuit they say should never have been brought.

One eyewitness cited in the court filings, a young woman referred to as K.M., provided a sworn affidavit that claimed the teenage girl was naked, partygoers were there to “engage in sexual activities,” and “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy … and marijuana” were present. The teenage girl was identified in the filings only as A.B.

“The discovery taken in this case to date reflects that on Saturday, July 15, 2017 … Dorworth, hosted a party at his residence … with the following guests present: (1) A.B.; (2) K.M.; (3) B.G.; (4) Matt Gaetz,” lawyers wrote in the filing, also listing several others. The defense lawyers filed testimonies from those three women — who the attorneys say placed Gaetz at Dorworth’s house that night — under seal pending a judge’s approval to make the records public.

Additionally, Gaetz’s own ex-girlfriend — who was present at the party — provided testimony that lawyers say rebuts Dorworth’s claims that he was not there.NOTUS independently verified that Gaetz and one of the women who testified were previously involved in a relationship; she is only identified in the court filing by her initials, B.G.

The congressman’s ex-girlfriend’s eleventh hour testimony on Sept. 3 came just two days before Dorworth dropped his lawsuit, defense attorneys said in the filing. The defense lawyers also relied on Dorworth’s geolocated cell phone records, which showed that he communicated constantly with the congressman that day.The defense’s court filings show a hired digital forensic examiner identified Gaetz’s number, which has a Florida panhandle 850 area code and texted back and forth 30 times that day and then called Dorworth twice in the hours before the evening revelry. “B.G., another attendee at that party, confirmed A.B.’s testimony under penalty of perjury,” defense lawyers wrote.

This marks the first time that sworn testimony has been referenced in public court filings alleging that the congressman attended one of the long-rumored parties tied to an alleged underage sex scandal.Previous reports have revealed details of ex-politician and Gaetz friend Joel Greenberg’s confession letter that was never made public, which described how Gaetz would allegedly pay him to arrange several sexual encounters with young women — including a 17-year-old girl. Greenberg is serving an 11-year prison sentence for a list of charges, including fraud and sex trafficking with a child.

There have also been reports of Venmo payment transactions that were also never released showing the congressman paying Greenberg on at least one occasion.

In 2021, Gaetz appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show and asserted, “The person doesn’t exist. I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old. That is totally false.” Gaetz has denied allegations that he has ever had sex with a minor or participated in sex trafficking.

The Department of Justice investigated Gaetz and ultimately declined to file criminal charges.

Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Records also show that A.B., who was born in 1999, attended three weekly deposition sessions in July and testified in front of lawyers in Boulder, Colorado.

The new details were released in a cache of court filings that were ironically made public as a direct result of the congressman’s friend, Dorworth, trying to make this disappear.

When the DOJ dropped the investigation, Dorworth sued several people including Greenberg, and the woman who claimed she was sex-trafficked by Gaetz when she was only 17.

Dorworth responded by text message Friday morning, repeating his claim that he “never met” the teenager, “not once in my life.”

“She is also lying about Matt Gaetz,” he added.

Dorworth said his account is supported by a polygraph test he took years ago during which he was asked about the alleged encounters, and he noted that he is “still suing Joel, his parents and his company in state court.” He also took issue with the way defense lawyers referenced material that he stressed was “confidential.”

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The story has been updated with Dorworth’s respone. (sic)

Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.