He reads the part of the bill that says that the reason for the bill is that LGBTQ+ is offensive to Christians and so must be outlawed. When did that become the standard for making law?
I am seeing this sort of cartoon all over the web.
This was drawn by a right wing cartoonist with no acknowledgement that the right denying masks and getting vaccinated would cut down on the chance of another surge in the Covid virus variants.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
It’s NOT because of gas prices. It’s because they don’t want to pay taxes to support anyone but themselves. Trade lower gas prices for lower education, restrictive healthcare, lax safety regulations, more government in your private parts, etc.
Reading the comments on this cartoon was enlightening. Every tenth comment explained that the report did not say that. Every tenth comment explained what the report said, and how it differed from the right wing narrative. Then after the comment that explained things there was a rash of right wing misinformation posted as the real true story and then the insults. That is what the right wing is today.
Kristen Waggoner doesn’t get usually get nervous. As one of Alliance Defending Freedom’s top attorneys, she’s argued before the Supreme Court, tackled high-profile cases, and spoken in front of her share of hostile crowds. But something about her visit to Yale University Law School last week felt different. “I can count on about one hand when I get really anxious before something.”
This was one of those moments. Walking into a room filled with a raging student mob didn’t just mean she was in danger — it meant the culture of free speech in higher education was on the verge of complete collapse. But obviously, the students at Yale were never taught about the free exchange of ideas, because the minute Waggoner was introduced, the crowd rose in unison — yelling and holding vile signs about ADF.
When the moderator, a Yale professor, tried to control the situation — reminding students about the campus’s rule to let speakers be heard — the crowd turned on her. As a nation — and the education revolution we’re witnessing is part of this — we have to get back to promoting the free exchange of ideas.
The quote in the headline of this post comes from Perkins’ interview below with Waggoner. The clip is cued up to that moment.
These are statesmen? This is what passes as reasonable people for the US congress? This is what the Republican party has devolved into. Thugs. Hyper aggressive and quick to anger. Threaten violence to get what you want. The people that voted for tRump love this as they run on emotion. They don’t think things out, they yell and scream.
Ohio Republican Senate candidates Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons nearly came to blows during a candidate forum Friday evening. Mandel, a former state treasurer and an early front-runner in the race, has targeted Gibbons in recent weeks in the contentious and competitive Republican primary.
At a GOP candidate forum organized by FreedomWorks, Mandel claimed that Gibbons made “billions of dollars” shipping Ohio businesses to China. Gibbons disputed the claim, saying Mandel “never worked in the private sector.”
Mandel then jumped up and stood inches from Gibbons, yelling that he served two tours in Iraq. “Don’t tell me I haven’t worked,” Mandel said.
“You’re dealing with the wrong guy,” said Mandel, the race’s evangelical-backed candidate, after a heated exchange about Gibbons’ business interests in China, seemingly mumbling under his breath: “You watch what happens. Pussy.”
Making the incident all the more disturbing, the two men are the current front-runners in the primary to replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is retiring. It underscores just how intense Ohio’s primary has gotten and the extreme plays the candidates are willing to make to get Donald Trump’s attention.
The moderator intervened just as Vance urged them: “Guys, sit down. C’mon. God damn. This is ridiculous.”
Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel get in each other’s faces at tonight’s GOP #OHSen forum hosted by FreedomWorks.
In a debate in middle school, calling your opponent a "pussy" would be out of bounds. But that's just fine for the U.S. Senate? Neither of these guys should be elected.
Ohio GOP Senate debate turns nasty as Gibbons and Mandel go nose-to-nose https://t.co/opIDSY6M1B
As best I can tell this is the first time a major candidate for federal office has called another “a pussy” in public since Donald Trump used that label for Ted Cruz on the eve of the 2016 New Hampshire primary https://t.co/xMrOcLUImT
A federal judge has ruled that former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples when she denied them marriage licenses during the summer of 2015.
In an order published Friday afternoon, United States District Judge David L. Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in a civil lawsuit that the two couples, David Ermold and David Moore, and James Yates and Will Smith, filed against Davis.
That settles – without a trial – the question of whether Davis violated their constitutional rights, but no decision has been made yet on whether Davis will be on the hook for the likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees accrued over the six-and-a-half years of litigation.
Bunning denied Davis’s request for summary judgment on the question of damages, meaning that decision will still go to trial and ultimately be left up to a jury. The plaintiffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs and attorneys’ fees.
“The plaintiffs could not be more happy,” Michael Gartland, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told WKYT’s Garrett Wymer. “As the court notes in the decision, this case has been pending since 2015. They couldn’t be more happy that they’re finally going to get their day in court and they’re confident justice will be served.”
In a news release, Liberty Counsel, the organization who represented Davis, noted that the case could go back to the Supreme Court over religious freedom concerns.
“Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief,” Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in the release. “This case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the Supreme Court.” (Read Liberty Counsel’s full response here.)
A status conference is scheduled to be held by telephone on April 1. A trial date will likely be set then.
Davis’s actions during the summer of 2015 turned Morehead into an epicenter of the battle over gay rights following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.
Davis said she acted “under God’s authority” when she, as the order summarizes, “famously refused to comply with Obergefell, which required her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”
David Ermold and David Moore were denied marriage licenses three times, and James Yates and Will Smith were denied licenses four times, before the two couples were granted marriage licenses by a deputy clerk while Davis spent five days in jail for contempt of court.
The two couples sued Davis, saying her actions caused “mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation and reputation damages.”
The case has gone through several setbacks, appeals and delays over the course of the past six-and-a-half years.
Davis was previously found to have sovereign immunity in her professional capacity as county clerk, but did not have protection from civil liability in her personal capacity. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal on that issue.
Davis had previously asked state lawmakers for an accommodation for her religious beliefs so that she would not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but she did not receive one. The state later removed the clerk’s signature from marriage licenses.
A federal judge has ruled that former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples when she denied them marriage licenses during the summer of 2015.
In an order published Friday afternoon, United States District Judge David L. Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in a civil lawsuit that the two couples, David Ermold and David Moore, and James Yates and Will Smith, filed against Davis.
That settles – without a trial – the question of whether Davis violated their constitutional rights, but no decision has been made yet on whether Davis will be on the hook for the likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees accrued over the six-and-a-half years of litigation.
Davis’s lawyer Mat Staver responds:
When Davis petitioned the Supreme Court for review in 2020, the High Court denied review in which the only issue raised was sovereign immunity. However, Justices Thomas and Alito appeared to invite future challenges to the 2015 Obergefell marriage case.
Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Alito, wrote that “[t]his petition implicates important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell, but it does not cleanly present them.”
In granting summary judgment for the plaintiffs, Judge Bunning ruled that Davis violated “clearly established” law when she ceased issuing all marriage licenses.
The case will now proceed to trial on the issue of damages, if any. Davis argues that a finding of liability would violate the First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion. This case now clearly presents the free exercise defense and thus could return to the Supreme Court.
Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief. This case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the Supreme Court.
The former Rowan County Clerk spent time in jail for contempt of court for refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. https://t.co/kxVYlC4DaW
After S-E-V-E-N years, Judge Bunning finally ruled that Kim Davis intentionally violated our constitutional rights. Now, the question is will they hold her financially responsible for the insensitive and irrational legal mess that SHE created. https://t.co/IRIlqPnBAV
NEW: A federal judge has ruled in favor of two same-sex couples who claimed former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis violated their constitutional rights. https://t.co/wb5vExZQuY
And it is spreading. Once Republicans get away with curtailing people’s rights they try to do it everywhere. Like anti-abortion bills they spread everywhere the Republicans are in charge. The anti-voter legislation also. Now it is the don’t say gay bills. Notice that each one goes a step further than the last, as they do with the anti-abortion bills and the anti-voter bills. This one includes the 12th grade because 18 year olds are too young to know gays exist. Shades of Russia. These bills just make it harder for young people to get the information they need and see role models that are like themselves. This is mass produced attempt to roll back the clock on the progress of the LGBTQ+ rights. Hey we can get married, we are just not allowed to tell people we are married, especially if kids are around. Will same sex couples be able to put pictures of their families up along with the straight couples. See the thing these bills forget to mention is kids from birth on are surrounded and immersed in heterosexuality. Straight couples everywhere, pictures, on TV, in magazines. It is like racism, kids see it all around them and just learn that is the way things are. Why not the same with same sex families? Why separate them out to hide? It has nothing to do with protecting kids and everything to do with trying to prevent kids from understanding it is normal. These religious groups lost the culture wars so far, but they won the elections so the can make the LGBTQ+ disappear as much as possible. This won’t stop kids from being LGBTQ+ as that happens in the womb. It won’t stop kids from feeling what they feel. LGBTQ+ is not a fad, it is not rebelling against the parents. And it seems bigotry and hate won’t ever stop. I have been fighting this same shit from religious driven people all my life from my teens on. Notice the lawmaker kept saying her Pastor pushed her to do this. Her religious leader is putting his hates and church doctrine into secular laws.
Week after ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill gains passage in Florida, similar law proposed in Louisiana
By: Jeremy Krail
Just over a week after Florida legislators passed a controversial bill regulating the discussion of sexual orientation in classrooms, a Louisiana lawmaker has submitted a similar proposal.
The bill, submitted by Representative Dodie Horton, would “prohibit discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in K-8 classes and keep instructors from discussing their own sexual orientation or gender identity with students in grades K-12.
“I wasn’t aware of the need [for this legislation] until I looked at some things on Twitter and Facebook,” Horton told WBRZ Thursday. “It just solidified for us to protect our Louisiana children, as well.”
The proposal echoes recent legislation passed in Florida—coined the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its opponents—that stirred up controversy nationwide and was harshly criticized by pro-LGBTQ groups.
Horton, a Bossier Parish Republican, said the Florida law spurred her bill.
“I started to pray about how we could protect our children here from inappropriate conversations until they are able to dissect it and old enough to understand it,” Horton explained. “I talked to my pastor and he challenged me and said, ‘we definitely need to do this.'”
Governor John Bel Edwards’ office released the following statement in response to the bill, reiterating comments made by the governor during Monday’s State of the State address.
“Some of the bills being brought up this session do nothing to make lives better. Nothing to continue moving us forward. They only serve to divide us. And frankly, some are reminiscent of a dark past that we should learn from, not relive.”
About a week after lawmakers passed Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill, a Louisiana legislator has proposed a similar law regulating the discussion of sexual orientation in classrooms. https://t.co/qsRnoSURuO
URGENT: HB 837, a #DontSayGay bill authored by Rep. Dodie Horton, is meant to stigmatize #LGBTQ people, isolate LGBTQ kids, and make teachers fearful of providing safe, #inclusive classrooms. Call her office and ask her to withdraw House Bill 837. 318-949-2463 pic.twitter.com/4AysUej0Gq
Tucker said it was not ‘un-American’ to support Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. He was wrong. Tucker’s opinion is non-stop coordinated pro-Putin propaganda.
Trump bullshit laid bare.
Republicans are soft on crime because they would lose the entire Party if they had ethics.
Entire Republican Party is garbage politics legislated by garbage politicians to appease the garbage intellect of their base.
So many horrible conservatives to keep track of.
Authoritarians ban books. Create a false world where only THEY have the truth. See: GOP
Control speech. Attack truth. Punish women.
Russia or GOP?
Teaching people about the history of cruel actions only offends you if you identify with the cruelty.
Ex: People were racist. They were cruel.
Cruel person: Hey, I’m racist. Don’t hurt my feelings.
The right is desperate to ignore all the work Biden has done to box in Putin at the same time the right sings Putin’s praises.
Again the right wing cartoons are desperate to find anything to stick in blaming Biden. Gas prices have been addressed, we even have audio of one of the CEOs saying there is no way they would increase production and reduce their profits.
My gods, their country is being destroy while their people slaughtered and the right wing can only think of the money going to help them. Why, because the right things only of the wealthy wanting every cent of the nation’s wealth and they cry to see it going to help people.
Sick. While crime in the US may seem up right now it is not anywhere near what it was 10 years ago. But to compare any crime in the US to a war torn country that has been invaded and their people are being slaughtered is gross.
Yes Biden made a gaff. He goofed. He admitted it, he laughed about it. He is human. He has been known for making verbal mistakes. He did not get angry when he did it, he did not deny it. I find the difference between him and trump greatly refreshing. tRump would have attacked the press who reported it and claimed he never said what everyone heard him say.
Despite the rights many lies, such as Rudy saying he had the laptop but the authorities wouldn’t look at it, the authorities really had the laptop, the emails that refuted what the right wing was claiming were already in the hands of the DOJ / FBI. They clear both Hunter and Joe Biden. The emails to Hunter’s business partners also stressed many times that Joe Biden wouldn’t be bound by anything that Hunter was doing, that no one doing business with them should do so thinking they would influence Joe Biden’s behavior. It was so above board it is like watching a 1940’s TV show.
Republicans are all about control. The only way to get more power for their white cis-hetero male is to take away the rights of others and attack diversity.
Reactionary Republicans are the worst people.
‘Let others live’ said no conservative, judgmental control freak ever.
Authoritarians spread homophobia. See: GOP
Media bias.
The GOP/Russia authoritarian code:
We are criminals. We are corrupt. We are doing nothing wrong. The other side is worse.
There is a difference between giveaways, like tax cuts for corporations and billionaires and investing in country to modernize it and make it competitive on a global scale.
Here we go again. The following is from “New Hopes for a Changing World,”Bertrand Russell, 1951:
“Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster…In the situation that existed in the Great Depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again. But everybody thought that to do so would risk almost certain loss. Within the framework of classical economics there was no solution. Roosevelt saved the situation by bold and heretical action.
“He spent billions of public money, and created a huge public debt, but by doing so he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked; and though Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as ‘the madman in the White House.’”…
Our Government is supposed to help everybody, not just to give largesse to rich people in the comedic hope it will effectively filter down the wealth strata of all citizens. Roosevelt did the upper class a true favor, and some still refuse to believe it. Unfortunately, it took a world war to eventually unite us — for a while.
This is the very definition of child trafficking. This is what they did with the children ripped from the arms of their parents at the southern border of the US. They farmed those children out across the country and gave them to Christian adoption agencies to sell to parents of the Christian faith. There is something creepy and sick going on as these are the same people sure the Democrats are running child sex rings in the basements of pizza shops that have no basements.
1 of 2 | Former state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to seek reelection after a report charged him with engaging in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in Poland with a group of more than 60 children that he says were rescued from a Ukrainian orphanage. (Dom Dziennikarza)
Former Washington state Rep. Matt Shea, the far-right Republican who was found by a House-commissioned investigation to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in Poland with more than 60 Ukrainian children, trying to facilitate their adoption in America.
Shea has said his group helped rescue 62 children and their two adult caregivers from an orphanage in Mariupol, the city in southeastern Ukraine that has been bombarded by Russian forces.
But international agencies say, with the chaos and confusion of war, now is not an appropriate time for international adoptions from Ukraine. And Shea’s presence, and the lack of information surrounding the American group he’s with, has raised concerns among some residents of Kazimierz Dolny, the small Polish town where the children are staying at a hotel-guesthouse.
“I asked him many times, ‘What are you going to do with these children?’ and he told me that it’s not my business,’” Weronika Ziarnicka, an aide to the mayor of Kazimierz Dolny, said of Shea. “I got the feeling in my gut that something’s wrong with this guy; he didn’t want to tell me his last name.”
Shea, who rarely speaks to mainstream media, did not respond to requests for comment.
Speaking on a Polish television show, “Idź Pod Prąd,” Shea said he was working with a Texas group called Loving Families and Homes for Orphans (he also called the group Loving Homes and Families for Orphans).
“It is a hosting organization that hosts Ukrainian orphans in America with Ukrainian families with the intent that ultimately that ends in adoption,” Shea said on the show. “It’s been doing this hosting program for several years.”
Loving Families and Homes for Orphans appears to have a website, but it is nonfunctional.
The group, based in Fort Worth, registered with the Texas secretary of state in 2018. No such group is registered as an adoption agency with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. The group is also not registered with the Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity, the group that oversees American agencies involved in international adoption.
A nonprofit group called Loving Families and Homes for Orphans was registered in Florida just one month ago. It lists its purpose as: “To provide loving and caring homes and families for the orphans from other countries for a short time period.”
The group was registered by Irina N. Sipko of Palm Coast, Florida. Sipko did not return requests for comment.
Artur Pomianowski, the mayor of Kazimierz Dolny, said in a post on Facebook that he’d visited the children and they are safe and being well cared-for. He also said the “case is being investigated and clarified by the relevant authorities” and that the kids would not leave Kazimierz Dolny without consent of the authorities.
“I do not know what Matt Shea and his friends are doing here around children,” Pomianowski said in an email. “Mr. Shea and his friends have given us some contradictory information and, for that reason, it is difficult for us to trust them.”
In a statement posted to Facebook by Dom Dziennikarza, the journalists’ guesthouse where the children are staying, Loving Families and Homes for Orphans says it is a Christian organization based in Texas and that Sipko is the director.
“We are in direct contact with the governments of Ukraine and the United States, supported by the highest levels of politicians, international and local church leaders as well as dozens of companies from Ukraine, the USA and Poland,” the statement says.
The U.S. State Department did not directly respond when asked if they’d been in contact with Loving Families, but a spokesperson warned: “Only accredited Adoption Service Providers are authorized to facilitate intercountry adoptions of children to the United States.”
It can be extremely difficult in wartime to determine whether children who appear to be orphans truly are eligible for adoption, the State Department said.
“It is not uncommon in dangerous situations for parents to send their children out of the area, for safety reasons, or for families to become separated during an emergency,” the State Department spokesperson said. “Even when a child’s parents have died, children are often cared for by other relatives. Also, many children living in orphanages in Ukraine are not orphans.”
The National Council for Adoption said this is not the time for U.S. citizens to be considering adoption from Ukraine, as many families fleeing the war become separated.
“It is paramount that the identities of these children and their families be clearly established, and their social, legal, and familial status is fully verified by governmental authorities,” the council said. “For most of these children, we cannot do that at this time.”
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees and UNICEF put out a joint statement calling for temporary and foster care for children but saying “Adoption should not occur during or immediately after emergencies.”
Reactionary Republicans are the worst people.
Scottie's Playtime 
There is a difference between giveaways, like tax cuts for corporations and billionaires and investing in country to modernize it and make it competitive on a global scale.
Here we go again. The following is from “New Hopes for a Changing World,”Bertrand Russell, 1951:
“Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster…In the situation that existed in the Great Depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again. But everybody thought that to do so would risk almost certain loss. Within the framework of classical economics there was no solution. Roosevelt saved the situation by bold and heretical action.
“He spent billions of public money, and created a huge public debt, but by doing so he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked; and though Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as ‘the madman in the White House.’”…
Our Government is supposed to help everybody, not just to give largesse to rich people in the comedic hope it will effectively filter down the wealth strata of all citizens. Roosevelt did the upper class a true favor, and some still refuse to believe it. Unfortunately, it took a world war to eventually unite us — for a while.