A local venue in the Deco District of San Antonio has been forced to cancel future drag shows planned at the space after far right social media accounts spread a false narrative over Twitter. Starlighter said in a statement on Sunday, December 4, that they were made to feel unsafe after being threatened online in comments and other tweets.
The threats stem from a far right “independent journalist” named Tayler Hansen [photo], who posted video on Twitter of a Christmas drag event for all ages at Starlighter on Friday, December 2. Starlighter says in the statement that the child was never left unattended or was in any danger.
They were the child of a food vendor that was right outside the door of the venue. The child was familiar with both the Starlighter staff and queens and the vendor later posted a photo thanking the queens for treating their child like “a niece.”
Hansen attended the attack on the US Capitol and took video which he claims proves that Ashli Babbitt was innocent. It doesn’t appear that Hansen has been charged for being part of the mob of insurrectionists. He was arrested last month for disrupting a speech by John Bolton.
San Antonio's Starlighter cancels drag shows after anti-LGBTQ+ threats https://t.co/1VjVJ6j5DK
I understand that we need to protect people from terrorists. But as long as we keep backing down, they have a winning strategy to stop us from having drag events… just threaten violence, no one actually ever gets arrested, and we’re fucked.
Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at an event at Mar-a-Lago, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
COPYRIGHT 2022 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Donald Trump’s business attracted so much scrutiny during his time in office that it would be easy to conclude that all information about its foreign entanglements must be out by now. It is not. Buried in a heap of recently released financial paperwork sits a surprising revelation: Donald Trump had a foreign creditor he failed to disclose while running for president in 2016 and after assuming office in 2017.
The documents, compiled by the Trump Organization and obtained by the New York attorney general, show a previously unreported liability of $19.8 million listed as “L/P Daewoo.” The debt stems from an agreement Trump struck to share some of his licensing fees with Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate that partnered with Trump on a project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Trump eliminated the debt five-and-a-half months into his tenure as president, according to the documents. He seems to have acted with some urgency to wipe the liability off his balance sheet. From 2011 to 2016, the documents show that the balance stayed static at $19.8 million. Paperwork capturing Trump’s financial picture as of June 30, 2017, five months into his presidency, appears to show that the balance had dropped to $4.3 million, $15.5 million less than it had been a year earlier. Trump got rid of the debt altogether shortly after that. “Daewoo was bought out of its position on July 5, 2017,” the documents say, without specifying who exactly paid off the loan.
Although the debt appeared on the Trump Organization’s internal paperwork, it did not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosure reports, documents he was required to submit to federal officials while running for president and after taking office. Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, told the New York Times in 2016 that his boss disclosed all debt connected to companies in which Trump held a 100% stake on the documents. That was not true.
There is a chance that Trump’s omission may have been legal, nonetheless. Although officials have to list personal loans on their financial disclosures, the law does not require them to include loans to their companies, unless they are personally liable for the loans. The Trump Organization documents do not specify whether the former president, who owned 100% of the entities responsible for the debt, personally guaranteed the liability, leaving it unclear whether he broke the law or merely took advantage of a loophole.
There’s little doubt that if the world had known about the debt while Trump was president, it would have sparked conflicts-of-interest concerns, perhaps heightened by Daewoo’s historical ties to North Korea. (In the mid-1990s, the firm was the only South Korean company permitted to operate a business inside the country.) Most people as rich as Trump would not be heavily influenced by a $20 million loan. Regardless, the fact that the former president managed to keep the debt secret for so long underscores how weak the government’s ethics safeguards are, how difficult they are to strengthen—and how easily Trump could barrel through them again as he runs for president again in 2024.
Trump’s relationship with Daewoo dates back at least a quarter century. In 1997, the Korean firm signed a deal to partner with Trump on a black skyscraper near the United Nations named Trump World Tower. That project was successful enough that Daewoo continued to do business with Trump, using his name on six properties constructed in South Korea from 1999 to 2007.
At some point—it’s not clear exactly when or how—Daewoo also became Trump’s creditor. The debt reflected on the Trump Organization’s documents appears to have started with a principal of $25 million. Records indicate that the liability was connected to Trump ventures in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Brazil, Florida, Arizona, Canada and Chicago.
None of this was apparent on disclosure reports that Trump, whose representatives did not respond to requests for comment, filed with the Office of Government Ethics. “If someone does not disclose a loan, OGE has no way to know,” says Walter Shaub, who ran that agency when Trump took office. Don Fox, who also once headed the office, adds:“The system is kind of predicated upon people actually following a law because they want to follow the law.”
Trump repeatedly butted heads with ethics officials. In one instance, the agency reached out to the Department of Justice, after Trump failed to disclose a $130,000 liability owed to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who had paid hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels on behalf of his boss. Cohen ultimately turned against Trump and testified on Capitol Hill, bringing documents with him that shed greater light on the president’s finances—and even hinted at the possibility of a second undisclosed liability.
“The system is kind of predicated upon people actually following a law because they want to follow the law.”
After reviewing Cohen’s documents, Elijah Cummings, a Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, asked Trump’s accounting firm for additional materials. Reviewing those materials might have allowed lawmakers to identify loopholes and potentially draft legislation to close them. The accounting firm, Mazars, refused to turn over documents without a subpoena. Cummings’ committee supplied one, and Trump sued to block it.
In a worldthat operates at a faster and faster clip each year, the American legal system moves like it’s stuck in a different century. After losing in U.S. district and appeals courts, Trump filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay to stop the subpoena. The nation’s highest tribunal granted Trump’s request and then, in July 2020, a year after Cummings first subpoenaed for the documents, sent the matter back to a lower court for reconsideration.
Reviewing the case for a second time, a U.S. appeals court reached a split decision in July 2022—more than three years after the Oversight Committee issued the subpoena, over two-and-a-half years after Cummings passed away and more than one-and-a-half years after Trump left office. The court ruled that Trump’s accountants had to turn over some documents, but it is unclear what exactly the Oversight Committee has received so far—it still has not revealed anything about the Daewoo debt.
“My committee is continuing to analyze information we are receiving from Mazars,” Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat who succeeded Cummings as chair of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “We are committed to uncovering the full scope of former President Trump’s conflicts of interest so the American people can understand how these conflicts may have influenced key decisions by the Trump Administration—and whether reforms are needed to prevent these serious conflicts in the future.”
It seems unlikely that Congress is going to tighten up disclosure laws anytime soon, however. The former president’s allies won back the House of Representatives last month, and Trump announced another run at the White House shortly thereafter. Republican House members probably will not want to pass a law that could expose their party’s frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination. The Democrats have had their time in power, when they could have theoretically changed the laws. Trump, using the courts, managed to run out the clock.
Acts of intentional vandalism caused ten of thousands of people in Moore County to sleep Saturday night without power. Moore County Sheriff’s Office said the outages began just after 7 p.m. because of damaged caused at multiple substations in the county. Sheriff Ronnie Fields said the mass outage is currently believed to have been caused by a criminal act. Approximately 38,000 people lost power and were forced to deal with the overnight freezing temperatures.
Sewer lift stations were also out of order and authorities advised residents to stay off the roads. “There are multiple accidents that have occurred,” Southern Pines administration said in a statement. While typical outages in North Carolina are often resolved within an hour so, the late-night blackout for much of Moore County appeared to new territory for Duke Energy and for law enforcement. “Until we understand the scope of the damage, we can’t yet estimate when power will be restored.”
A local conservative activist who organized a protest against a drag show said on Facebook that she was visited by deputies. “I welcomed them to my home. Sorry they wasted their time,” Emily Grace Rainey wrote. Two hours earlier, Rainey had posted the message: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” And around the same time, she posted a picture of the Sunrise Theater, which was putting on the sold-out drag show, with the caption “God will not be mocked.”
The fact that the timing of this coincided with a drag show that was being targeted by anti-LGBTQ bigots is of course worth looking at, especially in light of the comments one of the bigots made on social media. But there's still so much we don't know.
I’m worried for residents of Moore County who rely on life-sustaining medical equipment and just had the power go out. This attack has immediately put lives in danger, to say nothing of the campaign of terror being waged against LGBTQ people.
"Emily Rainey is a Fort Bragg-based U.S. Army captain who is being investigated after she was seen at the pro-Trump U.S. Capitol rally ahead of a siege of the building." https://t.co/DSHiAPjeAn
Sheriffs reporting power stations in Moore County, NC were shot-up, causing thousands to lose power. Far-Right activist Emily Rainey, who took part in J6, posted on social media, "I know why," tagged a theater that was to host a drag show + said she'd been visited by police. pic.twitter.com/yudzzA8yMy
While this pig high-fived a Proud Boy and said he supported their right to protest, this wasn’t a protest, it was domestic terrorism – using violence or threats of violence to achieve a political goal.
Correct. They teach them how to disrupt communications, power, and water infrastructure in the military. A review of her records will likely reveal that she has been thru this schooling. She can’t be to smart having shot off her cock socket like this so they will have a very hard look at her over the next weeks. Edit: Had a look at some videos and pictures and if they attacked the transformer that is millions of dollars to repair or replace. It appears from the size to be at least a 25 megawatt unit. They don’t keep those laying around in the yard as backup! Allot of these stations also have video cameras stationed facing out and in so they likely have some video.
Ah the family that is racist together … Christie was a big supporter of the close the southern border policies while trying to get white people to come to the US. He is an entitled white asshole and sounds like the entire family is. Hugs
She asked passengers she perceived to be Latino if they were ‘smuggling cocaine’
A niece of former New Jersey Gov. was arrested on Thanksgiving Day at Louis Armstrong International Airport.
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
After getting forced off an airplane for asking passengers who appeared to her to be Latino whether they were drug mules, a niece of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bit, kicked and spit on Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies trying to detain her on Thanksgiving Day at Louis Armstrong International Airport, authorities said.
Shannon Epstein, 25, boarded the Spirit Airlines flight to New Jersey on Nov. 24 at about 6 a.m., and asked a family who were near her and whom she perceived to be Latino if they were “smuggling cocaine,” said Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. Airline workers requested Epstein be removed from the plane as she became increasingly irate, and the plane, which had started to taxi to the runway, returned to the gate, Rivarde said Friday.
When deputies arrived, Epstein refused to exit the jet bridge into the terminal, Rivarde said. When they tried to arrest her, she became “extremely combative,” Rivarde said.
Six deputies hurt
In the scuffle, she injured six deputies, biting one of the arm and breaking the skin, and kicking another in the groin, Rivarde said. They were treated there by paramedics.
All the while, Epstein shouted that the deputies were going to lose their jobs or end up in jail, boasting that she was related to powerful people and that her uncle is a friend of former President Donald Trump, Rivarde said. Chris Christie did not return messages left Friday at two telephone numbers associated with him.
Seven deputies were needed to handcuff Epstein to a wheelchair, so that she could be moved to the airport security office, Rivarde said. She continued to shout vulgarities and try to bite deputies, he added.
They booked Epstein with six counts of battery on a police officer, three of disturbing the peace, one of resisting arrest by force and one of remaining after forbidden, Rivarde said. She paid $10,750 bail and was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center later on Thanksgiving Day.
Epstein is scheduled to return to Jefferson Parish for court on Jan. 23, although Rivarde said most airline-related cases move to federal court.
This morning I noticed that Tildeb left a link to a story of a man claiming to be trans who clearly was trying to be offensive. Bad wig, oversized fake breasts that swelled to almost more than arm’s length hung down over his belt. The breasts had over large nipples sticking out. As soon as I seen it I knew it was someone trying to troll everyone and to mock the idea of tolerance and acceptance. Just like a white person doing black face with exaggerated facial features, way of talking, and gestures. And I was correct. Why do some people need to be assholes? Why can they just not accept that other people who are not like them exist and are just as valid as they are. Hugs
…or Maybe the Trans Shop Teacher Is the Hero We Need Right Now
There is the most titillating rumor being bandied about the interwebs right now. And while it may or may not be true, it’s certainly food for thought. It concerns “Kayla Lemieux,” the infamous trans-woman shop teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School (OTHS) in Ontario, Canada.
An anonymous poster on an online forum recently made a claim about Lemieux’s shop class back when “Kayla” was still Mr. Kerry Luc Lemieux. The post reads:
This dude is gaming the system. An anon here yesterday was in this dude’s class. This teacher was almost fired for ‘toxic masculinity’ last year, as well as not embracing woke culture. He’d drop redpills to his class, such as how silly gender neutral bathrooms are. The school board hates him.
He’s now upping the ante to exploit the very clown world the school and society itself created. His long game is most likely to get fired, and then sue for discrimination. There is no other explanation.. No better way to troll clown world than to become an over-the-top caricature of a woman.
File this allegation under “Huge if True” (lol). Imagine for a moment that the anonymous person is telling the truth. If that is the case, then this teacher is the greatest hero the sane world has fronted yet.
If Lemieux is indeed pranking the school board, then he is a genius. When images of the trans-busty high school shop teacher began spreading like wildfire online, the outrage was swift and formidable. OTHS and the Halton District School Board (HDSB) went on the defensive — and it quickly became evident that they had painted themselves into a corner with their mindless commitment to “inclusion.”
“We are aware of discussion on social media and in the media regarding Oakville Trafalgar High School. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate to our community that we are committed to establishing and maintaining a safe, caring, inclusive, equitable and welcoming learning and working environment for all students and staff,” said OTHS in an email sent to parents and obtained by feminist new site Reduxx.
HDSB similarly tied its own hands when it released its “Gender Identity & Gender Expression in Schools” policy a year ago. The policy states, in part:
The Halton District School Board (HDSB) recognizes the rights of students, staff, parents/guardians and community members to equitable treatment without discrimination based upon gender identity and gender expression.
The HDSB is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe, caring, inclusive, equitable and welcoming learning and working environment for all members of the school community including students, staff, parents/guardians and community members who identify as, or are perceived as Two-Spirit, Queer, trans*1, Non-Binary, Intersex, and those who are questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity(ies).
Is Lemieux actually an undercover conservative activist engaging in the Alinskyite tactic, “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules”? Is he exposing the utter folly of the transgender craze with his “gender identity expression”?
Some speculate that Lemieux is pulling his stunt so he can force the school board to fire him — and then whack them with a big-money lawsuit. That would be an excellent next development: please, please let transgender first-world made-up gobbledy-gook be forced to defend itself in court.
The HDSB policy states that “The student’s self-identification is the sole measure of their gender.” The Ontario Human Rights Commission, which the school board cites as the authority behind its code, defines gender identity and expression thusly:
Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex. Gender identity is fundamentally different from a person’s sexual orientation.
Gender expression is how a person publicly presents their gender. This can include behaviour and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronoun are also common ways of expressing gender.
The lunacy of insisting that “gender” is nothing more than what anyone says they are feeling at any given moment is the most ludicrous and socially destabilizing tenet the Left has come up with yet. While the fascinating rumor may be just that, a rumor with no basis in reality — if Madame Lemieux turns out not to be the awesome troll I hope he is — then here’s hoping someone else gets on it at once.
Here is another story that repeats the idea that this guy is trolling a school board that he has fought with for years, trying to get fired so he can sue. Hugs
Of course the wannabe king of Florida thinks he doesn’t have to follow the laws or the courts. Republicans just feel they are above laws or court rulings they don’t like or want to obey. Most of the time the Republicans get away with it, look at tRump. Hugs
This was at a church for dogs that love gravy. But no dissent will be tolerated from the maga thug rule. The Christian Taliban has spoken, and head priest DeathSantis says no men wearing dresses except priests. Please note that these thugs did manage to get the event canceled as the church and the promoters were scared, worried about violence to the people coming to see it, the performers, and the kids. The harm was not the show, but what these thugs would do to the people at the show. Complete lawlessness. And all these police that can smash down black peoples doors, arrest little old ladies for a $77 dollar trash bill wouldn’t provide safe access and coverage for the event. So what do these thugs shut down next? A Muslim event? A political event from the party they don’t support? So far they have shut down school board meets and got their way on changing how things are done in schools. No masks, no LGBTQI+ acceptance programs, so what next limiting girls to only certain grades? Or shutting down Buddhist temples? Hey that is the way we do government now, attack anyone who disagrees, lash out and demean others. The republican party has shown the way with trump, Christ Christy, DeathSantis, and the entire Marge Greene congressional crew. In one of the clips a Proud Boy protester demands to know what bible are they reading at (from). Also for people claiming the moral high road they love to shout the word fuck over their bullhorns on public streets. I don’t get upset over swearing but I bet the parents driving / walking by with their children were not too happy about it. Think of this Nazi shit marching down your sidewalk in front of your home and going to attack … well you name the establishment that Nazi’s love to attack and destroy Hugs
An Ohio school says an internal dispute over security prompted a last-minute cancellation of a weekend children’s storytelling event featuring performers in drag amid a planned protest by a far-right group.
The Red Oak Community School’s “Holi-Drag Storytime” event was to have been held Saturday morning at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, where the school is based. The Ohio Chapter of the Proud Boys last month announced plans to attend and protest the event.
About 50 to 70 members of the Proud Boys and other groups had gathered on the sidewalk on roads leading to the church, shouting, chanting and holding signs.
Previously, the Columbus and Central Ohio LGBTQ+ Leadership Roundtable, a group that consists of Stonewall Columbus, Kaleidoscope Youth Center, HRC Columbus, Equitas Health and LoveBoldly, requested that the community not show up to counterprotest the Proud Boys at the Holi-Drag event.
“This situation is potentially volatile and dangerous, and the safety of the children, families, performers and our community are of paramount importance,” the Leadership Roundtable said in a statement. “Our actions must be in service to their protection.”
See the final video below for today’s message from the event’s organizers. Give the tweets below a minute to fully load.
Patriot Front has just arrived outside the cancelled drag storytime event in Columbus, Ohio pic.twitter.com/0Ew4Yn6NoX
Several armed individuals show up at the protest across from the church. They did not say any specific group affiliation, Columbus Police came over to speak with them briefly and request safe firearm handling pic.twitter.com/BEZqCutn0F
A planned Holi-Drag Storytime event has been cancelled in Ohio after the Columbus Proud Boys announced plans to protest this Saturday morning. Fencing blocking off the parking lot and cancellation notices have been put up outside the venue at First Unitarian Universalist Church pic.twitter.com/0a4uXYlyQe
Interactions between a few counter-protesters and the Proud Boys outside the church. Organizers of the drag storytime had requested people not counter-protest the Proud Boys, and only a handful of people showed up outside the church to do so throughout the morning pic.twitter.com/gNkUdFW7EL
If you go to the linked article you will see that the lawyer for DeathSantis told the judge
Asked what “woke” means more generally, Newman said “it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”
Newman added that DeSantis doesn’t believe there are systemic injustices in the U.S.
Of course he doesn’t. He thinks things are great, especially for people like him which is white powerful Christian straight cis male. No problems right. The fact that he is making that very injustice for blacks, the LGBTQI+, and other minorities. This is the man who wants to be president, and yet he claims that the government must ban and attack the idea that there are systemic injustices? I guess that must be what they mean by American exceptionalism? The right want to indoctrinate the young people of today with the idea that the US is perfect as it is, has never made mistakes, and must never be changed by what other countries do. Stop looking at the benefits and better life of the public in other advanced countries, remember the US, where profit is king, is #1 and the best. Hugs
What does “woke” mean? During the three-day trial this week challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, attorneys for Warren were able to put that question to aides for DeSantis.
Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ Communications Director said “woke” was a “slang term for activism, progressive activism” and a general belief in systemic injustices in the country. Ryan Newman, DeSantis’ General Counsel, echoed the part about systemic injustices, specifically regarding the criminal justice system.
Asked what “woke” means more generally, Newman said “it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”
Read the full article. In speeches, DeSantis often refers to Florida as “the place where woke goes to die.”
In Andrew Warren suspension trial, @GovRonDeSantis officials answer: What does ‘woke’ mean?
In speeches, DeSantis often refers to Florida as “the place where woke goes to die.”
No, it’s where old bigots like my parents and my aunts and uncles and their friends go to die. A “woke” like me will never die there since I have no intention of ever setting foot there again.
Scottie's Playtime 