Over 23,000 Palestinians dead, about 11,000 are children, most of the rest are women. There are an estimated 2 million people homeless and displaced, with no shelter or food in the winter cold and rain. Israel said it won’t stop, it says it will continue what it is doing all through 2024. Their plan is for an incredible dense small area reservation tightly controlled by Israel, which hopes to force the Palestinians to become so desperate they will either overwhelm the Egyptian border or die off and leaving until there are no Palestinians left. Israel has said they are working to force deport the all Palestinians from Gaza and the West bank. This is a land grab genocide by Israel. Different officials in the government admit it. Bibi brags about knifing the US in the back as he has demanded more money, he laughs as he claims he prevented any attempt to form a two-state solution. He is as racist against Palestinians as republicans are toward brown people. Hugs. Scottie
Now 100 days old, the latest Israel-Hamas war is by far the longest, bloodiest, and most destructive conflict between the bitter enemies.
This goes along with my last post, Christian take over of the US pushed by Churches, leaders with money, and wealthy older people who see it as a way to enforce their bigotry to remain a white cis straight 1950s society. I really want to emphasize the hard right bigotry and hate these billionaires have and the changes they are making to society. They fund the very rabid right wing media that is trying hard to change all of our society and political leanings, increasing hate for LGBTQIA and hate against blacks / brown people. They push a pro Christian white cis straight male in charge of society. Dunn & Wilks also control influential legal, policy, & advocacy organizations. One of those orgs argued in court that pharmacies shouldn’t sell birth control. The lawyer who argued that case later became a federal judge. He banned the abortion pill. And they’ve even created their own right-wing media bubble. Dunn & Wilks fund Texas Scorecard, the top far-right publication. Wilks owns the Daily Wire and bankrolls PragerU, a right-wing “education” platform they’re trying to force into our schools. Prager U is now being used in red state public schools as instruction materials. Florida pushes their message hard. There is a serious push by really wealthy old Christian bigots to turn the US into a Christian Iran, a Christian Saudi Arabia, a Christian Afghanistan. Do we the poor majority want to allow this? Hugs. Scottie
For more than three months, Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi has vigorously attacked critics of Defend Texas Liberty, and rebuffed calls to distance the state party from the powerful group over its ties to white supremacists. As he did so, Rinaldi was also working as an attorney for one of the group’s two billionaire funders, Farris Wilks, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since 2021, Wilks has given nearly $5 million to Defend Texas Liberty, which last year was the state party’s largest financial supporter. With Rinaldi’s help, the group has sought to purge the Texas GOP of more moderate voices by bankrolling far-right causes and primary candidates. Publicly, Rinaldi has also been silent about Defend Texas Liberty as the Tribune extensively reported on ties between the group and other white supremacists and Nick Fuentes acolytes.
Read the full article. There’s much more. Give the tweets below a minute to fully load because they illuminate how deep this goes. The final tweet links to a grimly fascinating deep dive into Defend Texas Liberty’s leader.
Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi backed a group with white supremacist ties — while working for its billionaire funder https://t.co/2h63antXz5
These two billionaire-pastors are spending their fortune enacting an extreme Christian nationalist worldview in the second-largest state in the country.
In his teens and his 20s, Jonathan Stickland was a prolific internet troll.
He later made a career of it — ascending to the role of a conservative Texas powerbroker, before taking heat for hosting a meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. https://t.co/vvMwzjDh22
Y’know that old saw that goes, “If you enter a room and there are 12 Nazis having dinner at the table and you sit down to join them, there are now 13 Nazis at the table”?
Rinaldi, Dunn, Wilks, Strickland and the rest of these guys are the ones who catered the meal.
Two billionaires funding right wing hate groups and Nazis. And both are pastors.
Who said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then it is for a Richmond to enter the kingdom of heaven?
Who said the greatest commandment after loving God was loving your neighbor?
Who said not to store up treasures on earth?
no one of any importance whatsoever to modern fundamentalist Christianity. One could almost wish that they succeed turning Texas into a theocracy and the right wing state. Maybe they can leave the union.
I think it reveals that they don’t even believe their religious nuttery. They just want to use superstition and money to control EVERYTHING, and they also think they’re so smart that no one will pick up on the hypocrisy
Actually, they are heretic “Christians”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi… Wilks’ parents founded their own church (cult?), which denies Christian doctrines like the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, and gives primacy to the Hebrew Scriptures. While they seem to recognize Jesus as a prophet of some sort, they don’t seem to be bound to follow his teachings.
And look! Wilks is the pastor of his own church cult. Currently the Assembly of Yahweh (7th day) is a conservative Jews for Jesus-type congregation. It teaches that “the true religion is Jewish (not a Gentile religion)” and its members celebrate the Old Testament holidays rather than those related to the New Testament. The congregation considers the Old Testament historically and scientifically accurate.
One minority group using keywords to promote a crisis that doesn’t exist to remove books with characters and plots they don’t like. One minority group pushing for the right to control the children of the majority who disagree with them. One of the board members claimed it was up to the parents to decide what was sexual explicit not educators, yet he also claimed that he wouldn’t tolerate tax money to be spent on what he called sexually explicit books, which we all know he means books with LGBTQIA characters or plots. So he is taking the rights from the parents he just claimed had the rights to make that judgement. Hugs. Scottie
Opposing parents pushed back against Moms for Liberty’s campaign, saying that removing books is censorship and that one group of parents shouldn’t decide what’s best for everyone. There was even an attempt to challenge the Bible to test the system.
None of the 61 books that were challenged was available to elementary students. They only lived on middle and high school shelves. That was until the superintendent removed them all, except for the Bible, until they went through the review process.
Whether it’s a textbook or a library book, it won’t be allowed in Carroll County Public Schools if deemed sexually explicit by school officials. That’s thanks to a new policy passed unanimously by its school board Wednesday.
The vote came after a monthslong campaign by the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty, whose members challenged dozens of school library books they say are inappropriate for students.
The board decided in the fall that staff should tighten the policy on textbook and library book selection and tasked them with creating a definition of “sexually explicit.”
“Instructional materials, including supplemental materials, shall not contain sexually explicit content,” the new policy states. “Sexually explicit content is defined as unambiguously describing, depicting, showing, or writing about sex or sex acts in a detailed or graphic manner.”
The policy doesn’t apply to materials used in the health curriculum.
Opposing parents pushed back against Moms for Liberty’s campaign, saying that removing books is censorship and that one group of parents shouldn’t decide what’s best for everyone. There was even an attempt to challenge the Bible to test the system.
None of the 61 books that were challenged was available to elementary students. They only lived on middle and high school shelves. That was until the superintendent removed them all, except for the Bible, until they went through the review process. She said it’s because reviewing such a high volume of books would take too long. And school officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.
Kathryn Berling, a parent and school librarian at Taneytown Elementary School, told board members that they nor the school system asked for librarians’ input on the books. While she spoke, a handful of attendees stood with her in solidarity.
Berling noted that librarians were not asked for input when the superintendent took away the books, nor on a new policy put in place at the beginning of the year that requires librarians to complete a time-consuming checklist policing a book’s content before selecting for the library.
The board also, she noted, did not ask librarians about defining “sexually explicit.”
“It’s a shame you cannot trust the professionalism of our CCPS media specialists,” Berling said.
Shortly before Wednesday’s vote, a few board members questioned how staff defined “sexually explicit” in the policy proposal. Sahithya Sudhakar, the student member, said she doesn’t think the definition suffices because graphic content can look different to different people. It’s a risk to content like literature that students read in class, she added.
“I’m worried we’re losing important content in our schools because a single line is taken out of context,” said Sudhakar, who does not have voting rights.
Fellow members Tara Battaglia and Patricia Dorsey, who ended up voting for the policy, echoed her concerns on the definition and asked if there was more they can do to make it less subjective.
But members Steve Whisler and Donna Sivigny saw no issue. Whisler said as an elected official he won’t tolerate any tax dollars spent on “sexually explicit” books.
“It is the job of parents, not educators … to determine what’s sexually explicit,” he said.
“We are treating adults like children, and children like adults.” -Tiffany Justice @4TiffanyJustice The material that 13yo’s have access to in schools should be very different that the content adults enjoy. We need to stop treating children like adults. pic.twitter.com/CAmLdDWqkL
— Kit Hart, American Girl (@5sweetharts_) July 13, 2023
The crisis was strategically created in order to gain control. By isolating children for years, forcing them to cover their faces, they hurt children.
By convincing children that they were born in the wrong bodies, and that the only way to fix them was with drugs and surgeries,… pic.twitter.com/tZ8vNQAUDY
And when you advocate for a better world, you become comfortable- and even embrace – controversy. Read my full commentary here. ⬇️ @Moms4Libertyhttps://t.co/5IqQhDWVfV
[Board member] Whisler said… “It is the job of parents, not educators… to determine what’s sexually explicit.”
Then why the fuck did he argue and vote for a policy that makes it the educators and school librarians responsibility to police the board‘s definition? Whisler’s just an anti-sex control freak.
I was reading books from the adult section of our libraries when I was in 7th grade. I came across depictions of sex acts. Somehow I survived. Thank God. /s
By third grade I was reading at the 12th grade level. Mostly science fiction but many biographies and other non-fiction. I was exposed to many words and terms and descriptions of things that I didn’t completely understand, but the help of the dictionary and my extremely well-read father, I quickly learned. My parents never treated me like a little kid when it came to my choices of reading materials, and I wasn’t in any way traumatized by anything I read in books.
By age 12, I was allowed to go off on my bike, alone or with friends, and frequently would be gone 8 to 10 hours on the weekends. Sometimes we’d be riding clear across town [Columbus, OH] or far out past the suburbs, going almost to Delaware, Grove City, Reynoldsburg and others. I was also allowed to go play down by the river behind the shopping center, where, in retrospect, one might even encounter somewhat shifty characters. I never got kidnapped, raped, assaulted or killed, or exposed to drugs or cigarettes. Most of those things happened at my school. I turned out ok, well-rounded, able to discern right from wrong, to make responsible decisions and other positive attributes.
hell, I was reading from the adult section of the library when I was in grade school. if I could read it, my parents let me and my dad would answer any questions I had about things. they were just happy I was reading. I remember seeing book about cattle breeds around the world and there was a photo showing the weinies of African tribal members, I loved that book!!! LOL
Christian privilege at it again. “[S]chool officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.” But it’s not a constitutional issue to ban speech unless it’s religious (Evangelical Christian). These assholes believe they’re both divinely and constitutionality sanctioned to dominate the rest of us.
The buy-bull….Talk about a book full of filth, violence and lies! No one should be exposed to it until old enough to realize is a work of fiction created by sun baked brains and changed over the centuries by crazies, drunks, and the power hungry.
“School officials said removing the Bible would be a constitutional issue.”
School officials were wrong. Applying a general law or policy without distinction and without bias against a religion is clearly constitutional. Also, the Bible is neither a textbook nor supplemental instructional material, so it’s presence is superfluous, already.
I guess it’s not within their definition of “sexually explicit” because it’s language is too ambiguous and lacking in detail when it describes sex acts with prostitutes, sisters, half-sisters, sisters-in-law, daughters, fathers, kings, concubines, refugees, war captives, under-age girls, slaves, maids, surrogates, men, donkeys, dogs, and goats.
As a voracious young reader, I had pretty much checked out everything in the kids section of our public library by age 10 and moved into the adult stacks.The librarians panicked the first time I brought a stack of Agatha Christie and John Creasey mysteries to the check out desk and refused to let me have them without parental permission. Infuriated, I ran to get my mom. She rolled her eyes and just said, “Let him read them”.
Until puberty hit, I skimmed over the sexy bits, then had an “a-ha” moment when I finally connected the naughty descriptions in the books with my own naughty bits. I think the only significant affect it had on me was using a lot of British sex slang until the 7th grade librarian asked me if I knew what “twat” actually meant.
P.S. The librarian became a lifelong friend. RIP Mrs. Pavitt.
The law he touts that would allow local police to arrest people they “think” are not here legally and a local judge gets to order their immediate removal. Guess what that means in reality? Arrest all brown people, charge them, quickly send them to Mexico at gun point … learn later they were here legally, or maybe even citizens. Ah who cares, they republican leaders get their nice white straight cis ethnostate where they are complete rulers over how people live. Hugs. Scottie.
The third-term Republican responded that the state is using “every tool that can be used, from building a border wall to building these border barriers.” He also touted the new Texas law empowering state officials to remove people from the U.S. who they suspect of being in the country illegally.
“… the new deportation law, which is set to take effect in March and threatens to upend longstanding precedent leaving immigration enforcement solely to the federal government. The law would allow any law enforcement officer in Texas to arrest migrants accused of unlawfully entering the state from Mexico and empower judges to order their removal”.
Department of Public Safety troopers stand guard over migrants in a detention area Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Eagle Pass as a surge of migrants push across the border.
William Luther
WASHINGTON — Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas is doing everything to stop border crossings short of shooting migrants because the Biden administration would “charge us with murder.”
“We are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can,” the governor said in an interview with conservative commentator Dana Loesch. “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”
The comments came during an appearance on Loesch’s show last week in which Abbott was asked what he believed was the “maximum amount of pressure” he could implement to secure the border.
The third-term Republican responded that the state is using “every tool that can be used, from building a border wall to building these border barriers.” He also touted the new Texas law empowering state officials to remove people from the U.S. who they suspect of being in the country illegally.
The clip was aired on Loesch’s program again Thursday without the line about shooting migrants. A version of the audio was also posted on social media by Heartland Signal, a progressive radio show based in Chicago.
Abbott said Friday that he was asked to point out where he was drawing the line on what the state can legally do to secure the border.
“I pointed out something that is obviously illegal,” Abbott said. “It’s that simple.”
The comments come as the Biden administration has sued the state to stop a slew of Abbott’s border security efforts, including the new deportation law, which is set to take effect in March and threatens to upend longstanding precedent leaving immigration enforcement solely to the federal government. The law would allow any law enforcement officer in Texas to arrest migrants accused of unlawfully entering the state from Mexico and empower judges to order their removal.
Abbott also has strung miles of razor wire along the border and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande, which the Biden administration is also fighting to have removed in a separate court battle.
But Abbott still has faced pressure from some conservatives to do more, and some in the GOP have called for the use of deadly force to stop suspected traffickers. Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged as much during a campaign stop in Texas last summer, saying those breaking through border barriers and displaying “hostile intent” should “end up stone-cold dead as a result of that bad decision.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety last month found no wrongdoing by agency officials after six troopers working for Abbott’s border security initiative alleged mistreatment of migrants last summer.
The complaints included an email from a DPS medic describing “inhumane” treatment of migrants he witnessed while deployed in Eagle Pass. The email said troopers had been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande and told not to give water to asylum-seekers even in extreme heat. The agency’s inspector general found that most of the incidents raised by the troopers did happen, but concluded that DPS officials did not violate law or agency policy.
Benjamin Wermund is the Washington correspondent for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. He can be reached at ben.wermund@houstonchronicle.com. He covers the Texas delegation and the many ways the state and its leaders shape national politics and policy. He’s a Texas native and a diehard Spurs fan.
People like Abbott are precisely the reason why laws exist. He has no moral compunction against murder, but luckily realizes it could land him in prison.
Aside from the normal hate and bigotry towards the LGBTQIA that religious republicans normally show, this guy adds a new wrinkle. And it goes back to the point I made that some people can not accept change. While not really old at 59 he shows he can not adjust to modern times. He says, “From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.” He seems to reject any advancements since time immemorial. You do know that at one time humans thought thunder and lightning were caused by gods, we also thought the world was flat, we were sure that sickness and disease were caused by spirits and demons, religious leaders at one point were so certain that the earth was the center of everything with the sun orbiting the earth that they burned anyone to death who said otherwise … so much more we always knew, took as concrete never changing fact, and we were totally wrong about. Just as he is about gender, sex, trans issues, and anything his religious teaching say about the LGBTQIA people. He rejects modern science and medical best practices but instead demands that proven harmful conversion therapy be mandated by law. “”It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex”. Hugs. Scottie
A Northeast Florida lawmaker wants to legally define the words “man” and “woman” based on biological sex at birth. Jacksonville Rep. Dean Black filed the proposed What Is A Woman Act this week, which would also impose new requirements related to transgender individuals on state agencies and insurance companies.
House Bill 1233 requires state agencies to revoke any identification cards, like driver’s licenses, that don’t match up with a person’s sex on their birth certificate.
“From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.”
Black’s bill would also require any health insurance policy in the state that covers transition-related “prescriptions or procedures’’ to also cover “treatment to detransition” from such procedures.
It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex.
The bill would also require any school district or state agency “that collects vital statistics for the purpose of complying with anti-discrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic, or other data” to identify the birth sex of people in the data set, potentially restricting data collection on trans people.
Dean Black last appeared here for a bill that would allow DeSantis to remove any elected official who votes to remove Confederate monuments.
In October 2023, Black called for banning elected officials from participating in Pride events after Jacksonville’s newly-elected mayor led her city’s parade.
"It is an ugly, mean-spirited bill that helps NO ONE,” @CarlosGSmith said, “it should be voted down and rejected by lawmakers for what it is." https://t.co/7XVsoLhttp
My favorite is all the dudes who scream about trans women using women’s bathrooms. Uh………dudes? We don’t see each others’ genitals in the bathroom anyway. Because we use stalls. With locks. I have no way of knowing if the woman in the stall next to me is trans. Why would I care?
Notice how their obsession is overwhelmingly with trans women. Trans men, not so much. This is evident in his proposed legislation being titled the “What is a Woman” act.
Once again, misogyny is the root of all hatred of sexual minorities.
They also seem to think that it’s a big party in there, when all we’re doing is peeing, pooping, and menstruating. Most of us don’t even talk to anyone in there.
Take out all urinals. Put in stalls. Make every bathroom unisex. That way, men will have to wait in line just like women do now. (I went to a football game where they had port-a-potties while they were building the bathrooms. Port-a-potties, of course, are unisex. But there was one that was for women only, and of course I waited in that line for it. The other ones were disgusting.
They don’t realize that they’re saying men can’t control themselves around women and are constantly suppressing the urge to rape someone. Hell, Mike Huckabee said something like this a few years ago.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someday that red states require a mandatory genital’s check to make certain that you are male or female per their standards on gender and ID. Sigh.
Not only is he an asshole, but he’s simply fucking wrong. Factually incorrect, whether he knows or accepts it. Humans can be born with XX, XY, XO, XXY, (Klinefelter’s Syndrome) or XYY chromosomes. Take your “there are only two genders” bullshit and fuck off for all eternity.
I will call note to the plans of these hate groups. The statement outlines the primary mission for Alabama’s two chapters of Moms for Liberty in 2024: to apply for library board appointments, submit reconsideration forms for books they consider inappropriate, and discuss issues with local government officials who control public libraries, such as county commissions and city councils.Also note what they call pornographic material. It is simply any media that has LGBTQIA characters, plots, or even mentions them in a positive way. It is a way to mask their flat out bigotry and hate. Please understand had restricts been on when kids can come to the library or that they must be accompanied would have stopped me from one of my safe spaces to go to after school and I wouldn’t have been able to read because I couldn’t have books at home. Also as I got older the few books I did find on abuse and having gay characters or information about being gay saved my sanity which was teetering on a very thin edge over a cliff. Hugs. Scottie
Children’s section at the North Shelby Public Library in Mt. Laurel
The conservative political group Moms For Liberty sent a letter last week that asked the state legislature and the public library service to withhold funds for libraries that allow children to check out “pornographic” materials. It also wants the Alabama Public Library Service to create software that prevents a minor from checking out books outside of their age range.
The statement outlines the primary mission for Alabama’s two chapters of Moms for Liberty in 2024: to apply for library board appointments, submit reconsideration forms for books they consider inappropriate, and discuss issues with local government officials who control public libraries, such as county commissions and city councils.
“It is time for the Alabama legislature to utilize the power of state funding and directives to APLS to push towards meaningful and long-lasting changes that protect minors and empower parents to have their voice heard,” the release said.
APLS director Dr. Nancy Pack said it’s possible for local libraries to install software to limit minors from checking out adult books, but she thinks children and teens would still find a way around the system to check out the materials they want.
“The only way that you are going to keep children from checking out materials that the parent feels are inappropriate for their child is to have parental guidance and for the parents to have a sit down talk with their children saying this is what you may check out,” Pack said.
Emily Jones, of the Madison County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said the organization doesn’t want to remove books from libraries, “rather that books be placed in a manner that allows parental oversight when sexually explicit material is included.”
That goes for all books, she said, including non-children’s Bibles.
Jones said her group isn’t targeting books with themes such as racism or LGBTQ issues but is focusing on books recommended by the American Library Association to be moved out of children’s sections. They feel the ALA is “pushing for books that sexualize and groom children.”
“Any book that sexualizes children, exposes children to sexual content to include incest and rape, should raise concerns for any adult regardless of their political beliefs or organizational associations,” Jones said.
The group said a 9-year-old recently checked out George Johnson’s book “All Boys Aren’t Blue” at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. Moms For Liberty said this book is “pornographic” because it includes references to sexual assault and incest. The book doesn’t condone incest but depicts a character being assaulted by a relative. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is listed in the library catalog as an eBook, and a print version is in the young adult section of the downtown branch.
According to Moms for Liberty, the library copy included a sticker reading, “This book was generously donated by TVA funding grant from Sen. Sam Givhan.”
Givhan told AL.com that he realized in November that the library purchased the book with funding allocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority through the state legislature. Givhan said he wasn’t involved in picking books for purchase, and asked the library to remove the sticker.
Givhan requested the library remove the acknowledgment. He said “referencing it as an LGBT book glosses over the details of the book and the age issues involved.” He added that he supports books “being properly placed in the library in age-appropriate areas along the lines supported by Moms For Liberty.”
Givhan is the only legislator mentioned in the group’s letter, and he said he’s supportive of Moms For Liberty’s goals.
The Southern Poverty Law Center named Moms For Liberty as an anti-government group in 2023 on its “Hate Map.” Jones said the designation by the SPLC is propaganda “to try and silence a movement they disagree with.”
“I love my country and the principles on which it was founded, which includes a limited role of the government,” Jones said. “I believe our country and state are best served when local citizens are making the decisions that align with the value system of their community.”
Jones said since publishing the release, she’s received emails, calls and “in-person accolades of support for our efforts.”
Library advocacy group Read Freely Alabama countered with its own statement. They emphasized that the American Library Association doesn’t control Alabama libraries and that pornography isn’t in children’s books in Alabama’s public libraries.
The group’s recommendations include suggesting libraries create material reconsideration policies “that operate from a neutral viewpoint and do not impose partisan and ideological worldviews on a community at large.” RFA also suggests every library create a policy limiting unsupervised minors.
“Read Freely Alabama urges our state leaders to consider these reasonable alternatives to the unreasonable demands of a minority who have persecuted fellow American citizens and defamed a profession in their quest for political power,” the statement read.
Pack said the American Library Association offers guidelines, not policies. The APLS board is waiting for an opinion from the attorney general regarding the role of the APLS over local libraries and will decide in a later board meeting whether or not to leave the ALA.
“We are in an advisory role and local boards dictate what materials belong in their collection,” Pack said. She added taxpayer dollars only fund some books while foundations and non-profit organizations donate books also.
The floodgates have been opened, and because the right won’t restrain their fundamentalist wing, they are pushing their hardest to enact their most extreme religious dictates. They not only believe this is a winning issue when it has been shown it is not at voting time, but they feel now is the time to push their god on to the public by law. Think of what the fundamentalist Christians believe in and worship. Now ask yourself if they will stop at just getting rid of trans and gay people? They have already shown they will get rid of the rights of pregnant people and those that can become pregnant, to control their bodies, they have shown they will make women themselves a lower class of person in the US, returning women’s rights to where they were in the 1950s. Women will be totally subservient to their fathers or their husbands. Those who are ambivalent on the rights of the LGBTQIA need to understand those are only the first targets because they are the smallest and easiest to pick off. Then they come for the rest of societies progressive equality advancements. By the way I just read that in one state they filed a bill to outlaw transitioning and instead mandate care for trans or gay kids including adults be conversion therapy to return kids to the normal natural state of straight and cis. I will post that tomorrow. Hugs. Scottie
State Rep. Beth Lear also compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, proposing a child might want to “explore being a bird” by jumping off a five-story building.
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Reporter
Maddie McGarvey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Ohio Republican behind a bill that would bantransgenderstudents from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity quoted scripture in justifying the legislation on Wednesday, deploying a verse suggesting that her opponents should be drowned in the sea.
State Rep. Beth Lear whipped out the reference to Luke 17:2 while answering questions on House Bill 183 at a morning committee hearing. Facing Lear, State Rep. Joseph Miller, the ranking member of the House Higher Education Committee, asked her how she could “jive” her bill with “the teachings that you proclaim.”
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea,” Lear replied. “So—there are also concerns that Jesus has for children. And in Genesis, he tells us that he created the male and female.”
OH State Rep. Beth Lear (R) uses scripture to justify a discriminatory bathroom bill:
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea.” pic.twitter.com/jkm6ozaBbq
Lear has previously invoked the Bible in explaining her reasons for sponsoring the proposal, which she introduced alongside State Rep. Adam Bird (R) and more than a dozen other Ohio Republicans last May. At an October hearing on the matter, according to The Buckeye Flame, Lear recited Genesis 1:27, saying, “In our country, since the Puritans and Pilgrims first arrived and until recently, we believed ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’”
Nor did Wednesday mark the first time the Ohio lawmaker has used violent imagery to justify the measure. At that same October hearing, Lear shared a disturbing anecdote about a young girl who had been gang-raped by an athletic team. An adult in the child’s life, Lear claimed without further elaboration, had then “encouraged” her to transition to male. The Republican refused to answer questions about the alleged incident from Cleveland.com at the time, citing the need to protect the victim’s privacy.
The Wednesday committee hearing served as a means for Lear and Bird to unveil a new version of the bill more closely aligned with the language of another measure targeting transgender minors. That proposal, House Bill 68, prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prevents transgender girls from competing on sports teams that align with their identity. On Wednesday, it was pushed through by the Ohio House, which voted 65-28 to override a gubernatorial veto on it.
Rep Weinstein: "Recently at CPAC, a speaker said that trans people should be eradicated from the earth. What do you think?"
Sponsor: "I do not believe anyone should be wiped out. But the science is clear, there are only 2 genders. Children cannot change what they are." pic.twitter.com/ft4Ky6BbjR
Later in the hearing, Lear compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, a debunked scarecrow argument that hardline conservatives began to utilize in school policy debates several years ago. “If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?” the Ohioan asked. “And oh, by the way, there’s a five-story building next door—why don’t you jump off and see if you can fly?”
Miller, a Democrat, pointed out the bill’s inherently discriminatory nature in the hearing. “This is eerily reminiscent of discussions in the ’50s about how white women feared Black people in the same restaurant, the same bathroom,” he said, according to journalist Erin Reed. “It’s eerily similar to the racist policies that were had in the south.”
House Bill 183 has not yet left committee, and it is unclear when it might be brought to the floor for a vote. House Bill 68, no longer vetoed, now goes to the Ohio Senate, which will vote on it on Jan. 24.
They do in fact believe that Jesus was always there, with his father God, and that it was Jesus who did the creating. As evidence, they will point to the language “let us make man in our image” — not realizing that it’s probably the “royal we” employed by the translators. Believe me, I’ve heard this crap my entire life, being raised in a fundamentalist family.
It’s not a royal we. Judiasm was quite polytheistic before it was forced to become monotheistic. And Judiasm didn’t have anything resembling a trinity. That was invented by Christians.
While there is considerable evidence of polytheism in early Caanan, there are multiple examples of ‘majestic plurals’ in Hebrew that have a plural noun form yet govern singular verbs. ‘Behemoth’ is one such.
Maybe Jesus was talking about hateful POS Bigots causing his children to stumble. We have plenty of actual proof of that. Maybe we should drown her sorry ass instead.
That dead skunk on her head is a sin too. Against anyone with eyes. Clearly she has no gay friend’s.
I find it incredibly ironic (not to mention hypocritical) that Phyllis Schlafly — who made herself famous by traveling to different places across the country during the 70s and 80s telling women they should stay home(!!) — actually ran for Congress unsuccessfully not just once but twice in 1952 and 1970. Also, guess which one of her parents was the primary breadwinner when she was growing up during the Great Depression? Not her dad — her mom.
Look at the lengths they have to go to justify their bigotry. Isis is not going to come here and demand a county in Connecticut fly their flag. There are ways to rule that extreme stuff out while not banning pride flags. But you have to want to allow the pride flag during pride month. As one of the commenters said, “I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall” Again a group of republicans don’t want the modern age, this is 2024 and they reject the social progress we have made. They are desperate to remain in the oppressive past. Hugs. Scottie
Town buildings and flag poles can only display the American flag, Connecticut state flag and military flags
Published 01/10/24 09:21 PM ET|Updated 01/10/24 09:46 PM ET
A resolution to ban pride flags in a Connecticut town has led to outrage among the community, according to local reports.
Enfield, Connecticut, is home to around 42,000 people and its newly-elected Republican majority town council made a choice that is not sitting right with many of those residents.
On Monday, the town council approved a resolution banning town buildings and flag poles from flying any flags except for the American flag, Connecticut state flag and military flags, NBC Connecticut reported.
The 6-5 vote effectively banned the Town Hall from displaying Pride flags during Pride Month in June, reversing a 2022 policy that allowed the flags to be displayed.
A passionate exchange between town councilors followed the narrow vote.
“I don’t support it. I think it’s ridiculous. We have an opinion, and I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall, which is absolutely disgusting,” Councilor At-Large Gina Cekala said, per the news station.
Rainbow flag against sky during gay pride parade.Portra/Getty Images
Those who voted in favor defended the resolution by saying it prevented “other” organizations from trying to have their flags displayed.
“ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody,” Tom Tyler, interim town attorney, said.
A local pastor and president of Enfield Pride, Greg Gray, encouraged residents and businesses to display Pride flags in the wake of the town’s decision.
“I am disturbed that the new Republican majority felt this was a decision they needed to make basically on day one of them coming into office,” Gray said.
Brandon Jewell, local advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ people and their families, spoke against the vote.
“The meaning of buildings, that you can’t be inside any town-owned property…so that’s the schools where many of the teachers have safe space stickers on their doors, they have Pride flags hanging,” he said. “I think there should have been more thought into this before it was actually put on the agenda.”
It’s been in their party platform in clear print for decades. No matter how “nice” they may speak to you, just don’t expect any change. They really want you to suffer long and painfully, and then to die so as to vindicate their deranged theology.
there are growing pockets of red here in CT. It’s very disturbing. We saw that 2 years ago in my little town and what the Rs wanted to do (book bans, etc.). This Nov, was a blue wave as a response. It’s a battle.
we live in a very red part of CT. My husband worked the polls the past 2 cycles and got more abuse from these country bumpkins (although he did mention how hot they were)
Where did the town of Enfield come up with so many brain-dead people? “Isis” is not going to want the town fathers (and mothers?) to fly their flag. These idiots just don’t like gay people. They think that’s not obvious?
It never ceases to amaze me how dumb the average Republican is. Did that clown really think that if they put up a Pride flag that ISIS is going to come into their town and say, “We want our flag flown too!” But you’re right, this is just a dumbass excuse to hide the fact that they hate acknowledging gay people exist.
I grew up a couple of towns away from there, and while driving through Enfield in the last few years, I’ve seen plenty of tRump and F**k Biden flags. Those are still OK, apparently.
Notice the chyron on Joe’s lede screen-cap; this was the very first piece of business of the new town council, banning pride flags, as well as the flags of other states and nations, from the town’s public schools.
A U.N. court began hearings this week on South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide — a bid to stop the conflict in Gaza and document what the Palestinian ally calls Israeli forces’ “genocidal conduct.” The U.S. calls the case “meritless.” Anita Powell reports; Patsy Widakuswara contributed.
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Scottie's Playtime 