Civilians trying to leave Mariupol after weeks of siege
Moscow steps up assault in Ukraine’s south, eastern Donbas
KYIV/LVIV, May 2 (Reuters) – The European Union was preparing sanctions on Russian oil sales over its invasion of Ukraine after a major shift on Monday by Germany, Russia’s biggest energy customer, that could deprive Moscow of a large revenue stream within days.
The European Commission is expected to propose a sixth package of EU sanctions this week against Russia over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil.
Kyiv says Russia’s energy exports to Europe, so far largely exempt from international sanctions, are funding the Kremlin war effort with millions of euros every day.
“This package should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from energy resources,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Germany said on Monday it was prepared to back an immediate EU embargo on Russian oil.
“We have managed to reach a situation where Germany is able to bear an oil embargo,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said. read more
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been more cautious than other Western leaders in backing Ukraine, has been under growing pressure to take a firmer line.
Scholz vowed sanctions will not be lifted until Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a peace deal with Ukraine that Kyiv can support, he said in an interview with ZDF public television. read more
Weaning Europe off Russian oil is likely to be easier than reducing dependence on Russian natural gas. Moscow has demanded European customers pay for gas in rubles, which the EU rejects. Last week, Moscow cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
EU ministers meeting on Monday warned that complying in full with Moscow’s demand for gas payments in roubles would breach existing EU sanctions.
Ambassadors from EU countries will discuss the proposed oil sanctions when they meet on Wednesday.
The first civilians to be evacuated from a giant steel plant in Mariupol arrived on Monday in the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia after an overnight bus journey across the front-line.
Ukraine says hundreds of civilians have been trapped inside the Azovstal plant along with the city’s last Ukrainian defenders. Dozens were able to leave on Sunday in an evacuation organised by the United Nations, the first to escape since Putin ordered the plant barricaded last week.
Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, 39, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, told Reuters from inside the plant that fighters could hear voices of women, children and elderly people trapped below ground, and lacked the equipment to dig them out. read more
“We were planning to tear up the bunkers, the entrance to which is blocked, but all night into Monday naval artillery and barrel artillery were firing. All day today aviation has been working, dropping bombs,” Palamar said by Zoom.
Efforts to organise the evacuation of civilians from other parts of the city, now held by the Russians, ran into delays. Ukraine says 100,000 people are still in the ruined city, enduring desperate conditions after months of Russian siege.
“Our house is completely destroyed. We had a two-story building, it’s not there anymore. It burned to the ground,” said Natalya Tsyntomirska, a Mariupol native who reached Zaporizhzhia on Monday in a funeral service van.
Zelenskiy said the evacuation effort was continuing and he expected more movement of people through humanitarian corridors on Tuesday from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka.
For its part, Kyiv hopes a massive influx of Western military aid will allow it to repel that assault and then turn the tide with a counter-attack.
Russian forces shelled the city of Kharkiv five times on Monday, injuring five people, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov. Further south, Izyum remained a battleground, with most of the houses in the city destroyed, he said.
After being forced to abandon an assault on Kyiv at the end of March, Russia launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine focused on the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, parts of which were already held by Russian-backed separatists before the invasion. Russian troops are now trying to encircle a large Ukrainian force there, attacking from three directions with massive bombardment along the front.
Ukraine’s military said on Monday Russian forces were trying to take over the frontline Luhansk province town of Rubizhne and prepare an assault on nearby Sievierodonetsk.
The heaviest clashes were taking place around Popasna, farther south. Shelling was so intense it was not possible to collect bodies, said regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
”I don’t even want to speak about what’s happening with the people living in Popasna, Rubizhne and Novotoshkivske right now. These cities simply don’t exist anymore. They have completely destroyed them.”
Russia has also been striking targets far from the front line with missiles. A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old girl was wounded in a missile strike in the southern port of Odesa when a missile hit a dormitory, Zelenskiy said. read more
A courageous move on Germany’s part. It’s going to hit them hard in the pocketbook, but kudos to them for taking the plunge anyway for all the right reasons. If we experienced the same degree of economic impact as Germany’s about to experience the deplorables would be blaming it all on Biden then lighting up their tiki torches to march in the streets in thug gangs demanding Biden’s head on a stick.
These insane republican campaign ads will make your head explode. With JD Vance, Josh Mandel and Dave White, all sounding incredibly racist while explaining how they are not racist. John Iadarola and Rayyvana break it down on The Damage Report.
“JD Vance, author and Republican Candidate for Senate in Ohio, has released a new campaign ad in which he asks “are you a racist?” and “do you hate Mexicans?” before blaming his mother’s addiction issues on immigrants. The Hillbilly Elegy author released the 30-second video on Tuesday. “The media calls us racist for wanting to build Trump’s wall. They censor us, but it doesn’t change the truth,” Mr Vance says in the video. “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country,” he adds.”
Christian media company Good Fight Ministries has released the first installment of its seven-part Marvel and DC’s War on God series.
Entitled The Anti-Christ Agenda and narrated by Pastor Joe Schimmel, the company says the 150-minute film “documents how popular comics and the movies that they have spawned are riddled with anti-Christ themes that glorify gratuitous violence, sexual perversion, blasphemy, and the occult.”
“Many leading comic book writers have admitted that they are using seduction, manipulation, the occult, and even the Bible to influence children to view the God of the Bible from a twisted slant,” Pastor Schimmel says.
Satan is after your children, and he’s cleverly using comic book movies to deceive them. Marvel & DC’s War on God will show you exactly how they’re targeted and open your eyes to the war on Christianity.
New installments in the Marvel and DC’s War on God series are expected to be released every three months and will be available on Vimeo on Demand for $3.99 to rent and $8.99 to buy. DVDs will also be made available.
The press release goes on to boast that Schimmel’s previous series exposed Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, U2, Britney Spears, and other pop stars as Satanists.
The right wing haters are going after Disney for supporting the LGBTQ community. This election isn’t about what the Republicans have to offer, it’s about hatred, bigotry and racism. And the Democrats needs to get up off their asses and vote-especially the LGBTQ community.
I want to thank Ali for sending the links to this story. The hate and misinformation pushed by the Republican anti-trans attempt to villainize and demonize trans people. I am surprised that the Republican judges other women by their looks, seems every feminist should be outraged about that. If a man did it the outrage would be non-stop. Also notice the law is simply to make a political point and to grandstand as the problem doesn’t exist in that state. Byers said .000047% of athletes in Kansas schools are transgender girls. But even more they say no minors will “No surgeon can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology that is chemically occuring [sic] in each and every fiber, bone and molecule of every human being,” Wow so no more circumcisions of little boys! Some one better tell the religions that insist on mutilating boys right after birth or on their 7th birthday. What about intersex babies and kids, they have surgery to correct genital issues all the time. This is a political bill to make a scary enemy they can attack for political gain. Fear, fear, fear. Be very afraid of the large men who pretend to be women so they can enter the bathroom and assault and rape you. But as she showed you don’t need to be trans to walk into a bathroom. If someone is going to rape or assault, they are not going to play a long term game of changing their life to living as a woman. That makes no sense. Plus notice that men are all bad, and trans women are evil deviants who only want to get into a female bathroom to assault a woman? That makes no sense and is a weird way to look at men. The last post I did on this claimed that sharing bathrooms made all the boys in to degenerates that peed in the sinks and assaulted all the girls. I guess either the boys did that all the time and no one cared, or only when a girl was present? The story made no sense, and neither does this one when you look at it. But she did get god into the story because we all know this is a theocracy drive by the dictates of her religion. Medical science be damned because god told them something at a time people did not know about germs and to wash their hands.
In email to trans college student, Rep. Cheryl Helmer says she entered men’s restroom to make point
Rep. Cheryl Helmer, R-Mulvane, offers her comments on biology, bathroom usage and transgender athletes in response to an inquiry from a college student concerned about anti-transgender legislation. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Rep. Cheryl Helmer told a transgender college student she doesn’t appreciate sharing a restroom at the Statehouse with a “huge transgender female” and falsely claims transgender people are assaulting “wee little girls” in school restrooms.
Helmer’s hate-filled remarkswere made in an April 23 email from her legislator address to Brenan Riffel, a graduate student at the University of Kansas who identifies as transfeminine and provided a copy of the exchange to Kansas Reflector. Helmer, a Republican from Mulvane, didn’t respond to questions for this story.
Riffel contacted Helmer and three other House Republicans to express disappointment in their sponsorship of House Bill 2210, which would make it a crime for a doctor to perform gender reassignment surgery or hormone replacement on minors. The legislation, introduced Feb. 3, 2021, has not received a hearing.
“No surgeon can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology that is chemically occuring [sic] in each and every fiber, bone and molecule of every human being,” Helmer wrote in her email to Riffel. “A doctor can inject meds and dilute but cannot destroy what God has done in the perfection of the HUMAN BEING.”
Helmer’s comments about sharing a restroom with a transgender colleague are an apparent reference to Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Wichita Democrat and the state’s first transgender legislator.
“Now, personally I do not appreciate the huge transgender female who is now in our restrooms in the Capitol,” Helmer wrote. “It is quite uncomforting. I have asked the men if they would like a woman in their restroom and they freaked out. Just to make my point — I went into their restroom one day. They were all standing in a circle talking but they all in unison started screaming like girls ‘Cheryl – you’re in the men’s restroom!’ It was quite apparent by their bright red faces that they were extremely embarrassed that I had entered ‘their territory’.
“But now we have a very unfair situation. We as women have humans that are much larger, stronger, more adrenaline and testosterone and therefore possibly more dangerous and we have to share our restrooms. Not only that but our wee little girls in elementary and middle and high school are having to be exposed and many have been raped, sodomized and beaten in the restrooms by these supposedly transgenders who may or may not be for real.”
There is no evidence to support Helmer’s claims of sexual assaults.
Riffel initiated contact with the legislators to let them know how harmful House Bill 2210 would be for transgender children in Kansas.
“With the rise in attacks of trans people and with the growing acceptance of violence towards the trans community, it’s important to advocate and fight back this legislation that aims to erase us and make us targets,” Riffel said in an email to Kansas Reflector.
“Unfortunately,” Riffel said, “I expected such a bigoted and close-minded response.”
Riffel said the representative’s willingness “to make a political point” by going into a men’s restroom was surprising. Riffel said they didn’t know “the trans individual” referenced in the email, “but I am sorry that you have to deal with Rep. Helmer’s antics and discrimination.”
“I am appalled that she is in office with such beliefs,” Riffel said. “My concerns about the well being of our trans kids was not addressed by Rep. Helmer and all I got back in return was blatant transphobia fueled by hateful religious rhetoric.”
Helmer’s comments “were perhaps some of the most hateful things I have ever been sent,” Riffel said.
Rep. Stephanie Byers, D-Wichita, says in an interview at her office at the Statehouse in Topeka that discriminatory legislation is “heartbreaking” for the transgender community. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Byers said Helmer’s email is emblematic of disinformation and talking points provided by politically motivated national organizations.
Helmer took it to the “next level,” Byers said, with her comments about sharing a restroom.
“How embarrassing is it that this is the same argument that was said in the 1950s and 1960s about why you couldn’t have Black people in the same restroom — because they were predators,” Byers said. “And you know, that stigma carries on. We still see it.”
Byers said her response to Helmer would be: “Learn to live her life out of love instead of out of fear, and to put people first, above politics.”
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said Helmer’s comments point to the motivation behind the attempt to ban transgender athletes from school sports.
“It’s rare that they say the quiet part out loud, but it’s clear that the backers of this bill are driven by nothing but hatred,” Witt said.
Senate Bill 160 is model legislation backed by anti-LGBTQ organizations who say it is necessary to protect Kansas girls from the hypothetical threat of losing scholarships. The law has been struck down by federal courts as unconstitutional when enacted in other states.
Helmer concluded her email to Riffel by saying it is “totally, 1000% unfair that a man can ‘feel’ like a woman and change his sex” in order to “compete against women.”
“Offended? Disdain? That doesn’t even begin to speak for the women who are being cheated out by males now dominating the women’s sports world,” Helmer wrote. “I believe the only fair proposition is if transgender males compete in their own category and must fund it themselves.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said Helmer’s “dehumanizing commentary” is evidence the ban on transgender athletes is not about empowering young girls.
“It is quite the opposite,” Sawyer said. “It is about a deep hate of others. It’s about endorsing state-sanctioned discrimination.”
Byers said .000047% of athletes in Kansas schools are transgender girls.
The legislation is about “bullying somebody who’s different,” Byers said.
“It’s heartbreaking for the community at large,” Byers said. “You get a 15-year-old kid who’s going to try to tell his classmates that he’s really a girl. And she’s all set, ready to do this. And she’s found a teacher who’s supportive, and she’s found a counselor who is supportive. And then an article runs about the state banning trans girls, or an article runs about other states like Alabama or Florida or wherever, considering or passing laws to ban affirmative health care. All that bravery begins to wane. Because the minute you say something, people are looking at you differently.”
Notice the talking point about males dominating women’s sports. She and the right keep shouting that men are taking all the titles, all the records, all the awards, and so on over and over. But it is not happening any more than Ivermectin cures covid or the vaccines have tracking chips in them. It is made up. If this was true why are not the Olympics full of trans woman winning all the medals? ESPN would be full of trans women teams sweeping everything. It is not happening because there just is not that many trans people in sports. Also it is about them bad transwomen, but never about the transmen because it is harder to make them scary to people. They are men, just as capable, but it ruins the narrative of women as the small little victims of the big bad men. Look at the truth behind the lies, because the right is pushing a large lie, they are pushing magic beans to get your cow.
Your denialism that this is even an issue is the problem I’m trying to address. I’m trying (and failing) to point out that denying the very real issues of implementing this ideology throughout institutions like education is a significant factor at driving a small subset of moderate voters into the arms of voting Republican. Because I think the Republican party is an existential threat to the US remaining a liberal democracy, I raise the issue that not enough people on Left realize that their denialism of these very real concerns are helping the Republicans win at the polls. Blanket support for any and all trans and race and gender ideology implemented by Democrats is a very real problem in this regard, as is the automatic vilification of any real liberal who criticizes this identity ideology. The Left is eating its own.
You automatically damn the person raising criticism as some kind of right wing bigot because, in your mind, there is no issue on one side and nothing but bigotry and disinformation on the other. Hence, I call this denialism similar to a creationist religious belief and any refutation by facts blasphemy.
For example, the BC School Trustees Association voted almost unanimously (97.2%) to continue the implementation of unisex bathrooms in all schools. So enlightened. Parents of girls prior to the vote told these trustees that their daughters aren’t using the bathrooms, are too uncomfortable using the facilities when a period arrives, that they are skipping school, wanting to stay home, refusing to go into a bathroom where the boys are peeing in the sinks and who enjoy ‘teasing’ girls – sometimes much younger girls – and sometimes assaulting them.
Facts don’t matter.
Along comes a champion of social justice and insists this is all made up, that anyone who raises an issue like this is a bigot, that such parents are transphobic, that such occasions are so rare that there’s really no issue at all so it’s hate and fear driving the criticism.
Sound familiar? Guess how those parents are going to vote when they have an opportunity to express their very deep anger at this treatment in the secrecy of the ballot box?
Oh right… it’s all made up. And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”?
Hello Tildeb. You are failing because it is a political driven issue that is not a real life problem in the world. The moderates that are being driven to the republicans is a talking point and something used to cause fear to prevent speaking up on trans rights. Polly said something similar a long time ago, she said it is only the trans part driving the Republican party as gays were accepted a long time ago. Turned out we see that is false also.
The people making this an issue are going to vote conservative anyway. The people making trans issues a problem are watching conservative media, they are conservative in thought, they feel more comfortable on that side of the spectrum. I am talking about those who are making it an issue. Not those who are unsure or feel that some parts may go too far. The ones pushing this such as yourself are actively pushing an anti-trans agenda. That is why you do not care about any other topic I post accept spending less money on the military to give the people more benefits. Notice the two issues you objected to on my blog? What do they have in common? Oh yes they are right wing positions and the data you used is from right wing sources. Ah enlightenment.
Your dooms day scenarios are not happening. Trans people are not sweeping all the women’s sports trophies. They are not pushing women out of sports. It is a ginned-up fear mongering attempting to hurt trans women, just as if a trans women uses the women’s bathroom they will rape your little daughter and assault your wife bullshit. Again, all out of the right-wing playbook. Never a thought that trans women might just need to relieve themselves. They have to be there to rape and assault.
I admit the left is not good at handling the messaging coming out of the right, simply because the corporate Democrats are afraid of upsetting their wealthy donors, who are the same wealthy donors to the Republicans. The days of the Ted Kennedy type liberal Democrat was almost over. But they are coming back and the people like that. tRump showed the people like fighters who will claim to stick up for their interests against the wealthy and big business. Of course tRump lied, but that is what the right does. But the liberals are making a resurgence and that terrifies the right, because they know the public supports the liberal positions. Why do you think there is such an attempt on the right to silence any mention of the positives of the LGBTQ+? It is clear, the majority of the public support the LGBTQ+ and that support has been growing. So the right has to stop anything positive while keep hammering how evil, bad, horrible, woman raping, girl destroying the LGBTQ+ really is. I wish I could post all the stories I see that are just this fear mongering to get the idea into the public, and you help do that for them.
The latest I read is the idea that in 20 years or so, there won’t be lesbians because all the girls who like girls will be trans boys. That trope has been pushed by TERFs in the UK for a while. But it is really playing into the right wings idea that peoples gender and sexuality is a choice that can be changed at a whim. It is not like that.
I understand Tildeb you are male? Could you tomorrow really say you believe you are female and go through years of abuse and social / medical treatments to transition? No, because you are male gendered in your head. That part that tells you who you are. It is the same for transgender people, the part in their head that tells them who they are tells them they are in the wrong body. To remedy that is not a threat to anyone else, but there are people who see it as a threat to their ability to force others to live by their narrow view of what must be allowed. Transgender doesn’t mean criminal psycho that the right is trying to make it
Tildeb dear, I call those using these issues against trans as bigots because it doesn’t affect them, and these issues are made up to appeal to bigots. Really. Oh my god women who look manly may be using the same bathroom, flee for your life! I don’t use female bathrooms I don’t know about you, but when I go into a bathroom I don’t inspect everyone coming in or going out to see if I think they are manly enough. I have known all levels of men in my life, and I can tell you what is shown up top never tends to match what is below. Are women doing that, have an inspection before use. I have posted of women stopped and assaulted trying to use the bathroom because some right winger did not think they were feminine enough. My gods that should drive real feminist crazy and does I can tell you the TERFs are a small but very loud group like magas. Judge a female on her looks, how dare you.
I do not automatically damn any idea or person. I have investigated the issues deeply and found they are crap made up to scare people. Be afraid, be very afraid, the gays are coming the gays are coming … oh, not scared of the gays anymore … okay … the trans are coming the trans are coming, be afraid be afraid. This too shall pass if the right wing doesn’t have its way with these anti LGBTQ+ laws.
Good gods I hope people see through you. Unisex bathrooms mean boys are peeing in the sinks. Girls with periods are afraid to go into them … because girls first are always afraid of boys and boys seeing a girl will have to rape them right? Then the girls are afraid because of their period … are girls just disrobing at the door and waving bloody clothing around while dripping blood. Shit as a boy that would have terrified me. And assaulting the girls of course the boys are. No girls are assaulting the little boys as that is not allowed in that boys are never weak but always the strong aggressors because that causes fear. Girls are little defenseless unable to protect themselves, unable to remember which boy it was and tell the teacher or authorities, but yes it really is happening. Sure believe me it is, and big foot and ET are having a baby on the school playground next week.
Hey Tildeb I seen those same parents on TV storming US school board meetings claiming that asking kids to wear face masks was making it so they couldn’t breathe and god created their faces to be seen so masks were the work of Satan. You know a cloth across a kids face on Halloween was ok but in school was an abomination of the worse kind.
Again all bullshit designed to cause fear. I bet if I tracked the article back it would be to a radical right wing outlet. Why do you not provide links to these big important news stories, is because they are always on a anti-trans site? How many parents told the school their girls would skip vs how many parents supported it. Was it two? Five? How many kids in the school? Just as an aside many countries use unisex bathrooms with no issues or trouble. I used them in Germany. No problems. Peed, popped, showered, brushed my teeth all the other stuff one did in a big unisex bathroom with no issues or problems. Good lord, google Chinese kindergarten bathrooms. No stalls, just toilets with small dividers and the boys and girls all doing it with no problem, the bigger girls help the little boys clean their bottoms. Maybe what we should do its not teach kids that thing between their legs makes the entirety of who they are and is the most important that must always be a hidden part of themselves. Kids don’t learn to fear that thing until adults teach them too.
Oh an on the girls period thing. I grew up with a couple hell spawn of that gender. They bragged about how if they wanted to get out of a class or skip school they would use that issue, that “evil menstruation thing” and get out of class or school. One sibling must have had a running period flow for all of high school to get out of PE. Every few days of the week they had PE. All month. For years. They were proud of them selves. They are also all maga right wing Republicans now.
It is driven by hate, these attacks on the trans gender. Trust me I know it is not made up, the information claimed is but the hate is real. Is racism made up? But this tells me all I will ever need to know about you Tildeb. You don’t care about the death of a child as long as the child is a child acting as you don’t support. You now sicken me.
<blockquote> And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”? </blockquote>
See I care about all children and especially the children in right wing family’s being indoctrinated who might be LGBTQ+ being told they are the worst possible thing their parents can imagine and so hated. I care about the sexually abused children being denied sexual education that might inform them they can tell on their parents who are doing it. Again due to the lack of good sexual education I went several years wondering if every time I was raped as a kid I would become pregnant like my hell spawn sisters. So you make light and jokes about saving kids, it seems what the right does. I will keep fighting for every kid I can against the bigotry of the right and the misinformation you push.
Yesterday started out with me feeling great and fired up and ended up with me in bed at 4PM. So here is the story. I have been trying to stay in bed later in the morning and going to bed later at night. All that seems to do is push everything computer / blog related more into the critical territory of not getting done. If we get up at the same time Ron wants to talk, wants to make plans, and seems to think he and the cat should have priority over the computer time. Some people, right? I on the other hand have a morning routine that involves starting coffee, starting computers if they were shut down, cleaning cat boxes, feeding cat(s), watering cat(s) (why I do that he is already big enough, but they say it is a requirement). By then the coffee is ready, I take a new hot cup of coffee to my desk to begin glancing at headlines and replying to comments. That normally gives me about two hours before Ron gets up and by then I am ready for a break anyway. Odie after eating settles on my desk. It is nice and quiet, and before the door to my office was borrowed and yet to be replaced, it was private time. That has not been happening since we had the idea of us getting up together, which is not working out anyway. So I am going back to getting up when I wake up at 5, or 5:30, or 6 am at the latest. I will let Ron sleep until 7:30, or 8, or 8:30 as he wishes.
I also have been trying to do more around the house to strengthen my muscles and get them used to moving again. No heavy stuff or low bending. But things like cooking meals which I enjoy, trying to do light housework like vacuuming using the Dyson stick vacuum we bought a few years ago because it was light. For example, I made an egg meat scramble with ham, sausage, and bacon for supper for everyone a few nights ago. I was not hungry yesterday morning, but Ron wanted to make deviled eggs, so I boiled 9 eggs and peeled them. I called the dealership and let my inner anger boil over a bit by just not letting the service advisor talk on about things trying to again divert me. I informed her that nothing promised had been given to us, no calls from management, no calls from the sales department, and no preliminary report of assessed damages. She started to say they did not have that yet because the vehicle was not finished. I said I did not ask for the finished one did I. I told her I was getting ready to go out to look at other car manufactures and wanted that information asap. No argument.
Ten minutes later I got a call back from Service Manager Bob. We put Bob on speaker phone and had a long conversation with him. He was more than decent. He had been out with Covid. He did not know we had not been contacted. He did not know our concerns were not addressed, he said the salespeople were told not to contact us as we were at the dealership and told they did not have what we wanted. He told us they had added on to the car wash building and the employee came around the corner not knowing the new addition and hit an aluminum pole. The pole hit the front sweet spot to cause a lot of hood, sensor, fender, cosmetic damage, but no real mechanical damage. Ron peppered him with questions on the front end, drive axles and stuff, and he said none of that was effected, he said the pole crumpled as it was light weight. I asked about the frame. He said their insurance people checked all that to see if they should just total the car out and it was not that badly damaged. He said the delay was getting the parts to fix it, they got the big parts and I guess painted some they had the right color, but the small parts they couldn’t seem to get. I complained about our visit to the sales department because I had been told the service department would work with sales to help us trade with full value if there was a question. He said he was the one that said that (I thought he was out with Covid and just getting back) and he said that that he was going to check into the situation and see what the problem was. Surprisingly about ten minutes later he did call back. He said that the person I talked to over there did not understand the situation, and that me and the salesman we talked to did not hit it off. Someone from the sales department was going to call us about setting us up on the waiting list for a 2023.
After all this it was into the afternoon, after 1 PM. So I started to make goulash. Here are the pictures.
I decided to go with large elbows instead of small ones or shells.
These are the seasonings I used. I also used 3 beef bouillon. I used a bit over a pound of 80 / 20 hamburger. Cook the meat in the tomato sauce as the fats add flavor and more juice. For the base I used 2 large bottles of tomato juice. As you can see below, I like a brothy soup like sauce to add over the pasta in a bowl. If you put the pasta in the sauce the pasta sucks up the liquid. That is why you want to store the pasta wet in a dry container. If your fridge is cold enough the wet will keep it from sticking together but the pasta won’t get soggy like it will if you store it in water.
So it was after 3 when we ate, I had not eaten all day so the sliding scale for insulin was very little. I did not plan to overdo so I did not take extra, which led to the problem that happened. Ron had gone back to painting the new room, and I volunteered to pick stuff up. As I worked in the kitchen I stayed away from the candy cupboard and felt proud of myself. But the jar of peanut butter was sitting right by the toaster. It kept calling to me. Then when I opened the fridge I noticed the grape jam sitting right in front on the top shelf. It was a sign from the sweetness god to have some. So I made a large P and J heavy on the Jam. Then I took a couple of the rolls we had with the goulash and made some jam rolls again heavy on the jam. I finished cleaning up. By 4 PM I was not feeling well. I was so tired, my blood sugar was way too high. I was also struggling with my back. So I told Ron I was going to bed for a couple hours. He knew I had done a lot and did not think anything of it. I did not start to feel well again until 8 PM and then I took my blood sugar and it was 208. More than 4 hours after eating. I failed to tell Ron, it skipped my mind I guess. I stayed in bed.
This morning I did mention in passing to Ron that the peanut butter had jumped right off the counter at me. He wanted to know what I ate, all of what I ate. He got really upset. He chewed my butt saying that that much sugar with so little insulin could have put me in a coma or caused other serious conditions. I will say it was the fastest I have seen him wake up in the morning in years. I doubt I will get away with that for a while, he will watch what I try to sneak, even count the Oreos.
So after I post this I am determined to answer / catch up with all the comments. No posting news until then. I have over 100 open news articles. (divided into four different tabs) Maybe post a video or two as I watch them while answering comments, that will be okay.
Scottie's Playtime 
Your denialism that this is even an issue is the problem I’m trying to address. I’m trying (and failing) to point out that denying the very real issues of implementing this ideology throughout institutions like education is a significant factor at driving a small subset of moderate voters into the arms of voting Republican. Because I think the Republican party is an existential threat to the US remaining a liberal democracy, I raise the issue that not enough people on Left realize that their denialism of these very real concerns are helping the Republicans win at the polls. Blanket support for any and all trans and race and gender ideology implemented by Democrats is a very real problem in this regard, as is the automatic vilification of any real liberal who criticizes this identity ideology. The Left is eating its own.
You automatically damn the person raising criticism as some kind of right wing bigot because, in your mind, there is no issue on one side and nothing but bigotry and disinformation on the other. Hence, I call this denialism similar to a creationist religious belief and any refutation by facts blasphemy.
For example, the BC School Trustees Association voted almost unanimously (97.2%) to continue the implementation of unisex bathrooms in all schools. So enlightened. Parents of girls prior to the vote told these trustees that their daughters aren’t using the bathrooms, are too uncomfortable using the facilities when a period arrives, that they are skipping school, wanting to stay home, refusing to go into a bathroom where the boys are peeing in the sinks and who enjoy ‘teasing’ girls – sometimes much younger girls – and sometimes assaulting them.
Facts don’t matter.
Along comes a champion of social justice and insists this is all made up, that anyone who raises an issue like this is a bigot, that such parents are transphobic, that such occasions are so rare that there’s really no issue at all so it’s hate and fear driving the criticism.
Sound familiar? Guess how those parents are going to vote when they have an opportunity to express their very deep anger at this treatment in the secrecy of the ballot box?
Oh right… it’s all made up. And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”?
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My response.
Hello Tildeb. You are failing because it is a political driven issue that is not a real life problem in the world. The moderates that are being driven to the republicans is a talking point and something used to cause fear to prevent speaking up on trans rights. Polly said something similar a long time ago, she said it is only the trans part driving the Republican party as gays were accepted a long time ago. Turned out we see that is false also.
The people making this an issue are going to vote conservative anyway. The people making trans issues a problem are watching conservative media, they are conservative in thought, they feel more comfortable on that side of the spectrum. I am talking about those who are making it an issue. Not those who are unsure or feel that some parts may go too far. The ones pushing this such as yourself are actively pushing an anti-trans agenda. That is why you do not care about any other topic I post accept spending less money on the military to give the people more benefits. Notice the two issues you objected to on my blog? What do they have in common? Oh yes they are right wing positions and the data you used is from right wing sources. Ah enlightenment.
Your dooms day scenarios are not happening. Trans people are not sweeping all the women’s sports trophies. They are not pushing women out of sports. It is a ginned-up fear mongering attempting to hurt trans women, just as if a trans women uses the women’s bathroom they will rape your little daughter and assault your wife bullshit. Again, all out of the right-wing playbook. Never a thought that trans women might just need to relieve themselves. They have to be there to rape and assault.
I admit the left is not good at handling the messaging coming out of the right, simply because the corporate Democrats are afraid of upsetting their wealthy donors, who are the same wealthy donors to the Republicans. The days of the Ted Kennedy type liberal Democrat was almost over. But they are coming back and the people like that. tRump showed the people like fighters who will claim to stick up for their interests against the wealthy and big business. Of course tRump lied, but that is what the right does. But the liberals are making a resurgence and that terrifies the right, because they know the public supports the liberal positions. Why do you think there is such an attempt on the right to silence any mention of the positives of the LGBTQ+? It is clear, the majority of the public support the LGBTQ+ and that support has been growing. So the right has to stop anything positive while keep hammering how evil, bad, horrible, woman raping, girl destroying the LGBTQ+ really is. I wish I could post all the stories I see that are just this fear mongering to get the idea into the public, and you help do that for them.
The latest I read is the idea that in 20 years or so, there won’t be lesbians because all the girls who like girls will be trans boys. That trope has been pushed by TERFs in the UK for a while. But it is really playing into the right wings idea that peoples gender and sexuality is a choice that can be changed at a whim. It is not like that.
I understand Tildeb you are male? Could you tomorrow really say you believe you are female and go through years of abuse and social / medical treatments to transition? No, because you are male gendered in your head. That part that tells you who you are. It is the same for transgender people, the part in their head that tells them who they are tells them they are in the wrong body. To remedy that is not a threat to anyone else, but there are people who see it as a threat to their ability to force others to live by their narrow view of what must be allowed. Transgender doesn’t mean criminal psycho that the right is trying to make it
Tildeb dear, I call those using these issues against trans as bigots because it doesn’t affect them, and these issues are made up to appeal to bigots. Really. Oh my god women who look manly may be using the same bathroom, flee for your life! I don’t use female bathrooms I don’t know about you, but when I go into a bathroom I don’t inspect everyone coming in or going out to see if I think they are manly enough. I have known all levels of men in my life, and I can tell you what is shown up top never tends to match what is below. Are women doing that, have an inspection before use. I have posted of women stopped and assaulted trying to use the bathroom because some right winger did not think they were feminine enough. My gods that should drive real feminist crazy and does I can tell you the TERFs are a small but very loud group like magas. Judge a female on her looks, how dare you.
I do not automatically damn any idea or person. I have investigated the issues deeply and found they are crap made up to scare people. Be afraid, be very afraid, the gays are coming the gays are coming … oh, not scared of the gays anymore … okay … the trans are coming the trans are coming, be afraid be afraid. This too shall pass if the right wing doesn’t have its way with these anti LGBTQ+ laws.
Good gods I hope people see through you. Unisex bathrooms mean boys are peeing in the sinks. Girls with periods are afraid to go into them … because girls first are always afraid of boys and boys seeing a girl will have to rape them right? Then the girls are afraid because of their period … are girls just disrobing at the door and waving bloody clothing around while dripping blood. Shit as a boy that would have terrified me. And assaulting the girls of course the boys are. No girls are assaulting the little boys as that is not allowed in that boys are never weak but always the strong aggressors because that causes fear. Girls are little defenseless unable to protect themselves, unable to remember which boy it was and tell the teacher or authorities, but yes it really is happening. Sure believe me it is, and big foot and ET are having a baby on the school playground next week.
Hey Tildeb I seen those same parents on TV storming US school board meetings claiming that asking kids to wear face masks was making it so they couldn’t breathe and god created their faces to be seen so masks were the work of Satan. You know a cloth across a kids face on Halloween was ok but in school was an abomination of the worse kind.
Again all bullshit designed to cause fear. I bet if I tracked the article back it would be to a radical right wing outlet. Why do you not provide links to these big important news stories, is because they are always on a anti-trans site? How many parents told the school their girls would skip vs how many parents supported it. Was it two? Five? How many kids in the school? Just as an aside many countries use unisex bathrooms with no issues or trouble. I used them in Germany. No problems. Peed, popped, showered, brushed my teeth all the other stuff one did in a big unisex bathroom with no issues or problems. Good lord, google Chinese kindergarten bathrooms. No stalls, just toilets with small dividers and the boys and girls all doing it with no problem, the bigger girls help the little boys clean their bottoms. Maybe what we should do its not teach kids that thing between their legs makes the entirety of who they are and is the most important that must always be a hidden part of themselves. Kids don’t learn to fear that thing until adults teach them too.
Oh an on the girls period thing. I grew up with a couple hell spawn of that gender. They bragged about how if they wanted to get out of a class or skip school they would use that issue, that “evil menstruation thing” and get out of class or school. One sibling must have had a running period flow for all of high school to get out of PE. Every few days of the week they had PE. All month. For years. They were proud of them selves. They are also all maga right wing Republicans now.
It is driven by hate, these attacks on the trans gender. Trust me I know it is not made up, the information claimed is but the hate is real. Is racism made up? But this tells me all I will ever need to know about you Tildeb. You don’t care about the death of a child as long as the child is a child acting as you don’t support. You now sicken me.
<blockquote> And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”? </blockquote>
See I care about all children and especially the children in right wing family’s being indoctrinated who might be LGBTQ+ being told they are the worst possible thing their parents can imagine and so hated. I care about the sexually abused children being denied sexual education that might inform them they can tell on their parents who are doing it. Again due to the lack of good sexual education I went several years wondering if every time I was raped as a kid I would become pregnant like my hell spawn sisters. So you make light and jokes about saving kids, it seems what the right does. I will keep fighting for every kid I can against the bigotry of the right and the misinformation you push.
Oh and bless your heart.