Again Ten Bears has done it. He posts a longish list of links many of which interest me, and I wander down them. All are interesting to different people, to me only some. But sadly today before I realized I also wanted to share some of them, I closed the tabs. But I did mange to reopen a few. I really recommend everyone check out his blog, you might not like everything he posts but so many have so much information that you can get lost in them. For me who always feel rushed for time … Bad Ten Bears, but thank you. You do give me a lot of information to consider. Below I will put the few links I read / clicked on a felt were really worth reading but remember they were not the only ones I read, they were only the ones I could quickly recall. Hugs. Scottie
The woman behind the libs of TikTok is a rather unintelligent fundamentalist religious person who revels in her new fame and the attention she receives. But as the people fight back against her and her demands to remove all the LGBTQ+ from society and schools along with the bad press coming from people acting on her hate screeds she has lost her shine, fame, and attention she craves. So on to the next target that again has nothing to do with children and all to do with consenting adults. Trying to control the sex lives of others is nothing new for these people. Anything they don’t like or do, then no one should be allowed to do it. What a mockery of the land of the free. Hugs. Scottie
TW: mention of b_mb threats, violence in schools, bullying (incl. incidents that lead to loss of life), homophobia, transphobia and doxxing
Thank you Tengrain for another wonderful post that puts the cards on the table and shows who holds the chips. But this one paragraph is to me everything the republican maga fundamentalist Christian right wants to do. Hugs. Scottie
If you happen to be a kid in Floriduh, there’s so many ways this jamoke is taking away your ability to learn about the world around you, from banning books, to expressly banning LGBTQ information, to now banning social media. It’s almost like Bootsie is afraid of what you might learn on your own.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
Leader Jeffries: That was an embarrassment from Republicans last night. Marjorie Taylor Greene shows up in campaign paraphernalia. And then these people want to lecture Joe Biden because he delivered a strong and forceful speech? MAGA wants to lecture us on decorum? Get lost pic.twitter.com/Bm2WB3CJBp
Off topic Donnie Dementia Watch: During last night’s SOTU, Donnie was posting up a storm on his shitty social media ripoff site and demanded to know why Nancy Pelosi wasn’t sitting behind President Biden, apparently having forgotten she’s no longer Speaker nor Dem Minority Leader.
Breaking my usual no-Xitter rule to post proof:
WHAT HAPPENED TO NANCY?
Donald Trump Truth Social 10:33 PM EST 3/07/24
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) March 8, 2024
So a homeless person who has no money and perhaps even mental illness is going to get a permit? Yeah right. Now, if they don’t get a permit then what? Fine them? They have no money. Jail them? For what? Being poor in a Plutocracy.
What the fuck is wrong with these assholes?
Narrator: There will be no permits available or issued.
The recently increased the state line item for private jails.
Florida has privatized prisons. They make money on every person they incarcerate. And like any business, they are incentivized to find ways to bring in more customers.
Trump’s classless, arrogant, disrespectful bullying of Americans with disabilities presents an opportunity to highlight how @JoeBiden overcame his lifelong stuttering issue.
So, that dramatic sex trafficking story that Republican Senator Katie Britt told in her creepy kitchen table speech actually took place 20 years ago — during the Republican Bush administration. And it took place in Mexico. Katie Britt is not only a bad actor. She’s a liar. https://t.co/XJ29MrDp2U
"None of this happened during… Biden’s administration, nor does it appear to have anything to do with his policies… But that didn’t stop the first-term senator from strongly implying that the president could have somehow prevented it from happening" https://t.co/JDlY4iLgwb
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 7, 2024
A trove of documents obtained by TPM reveal the inner workings of the Society for American Civic Renewal, a men-only, Christian-only group of influential right-wingers that aims to recruit members for an "aligned future regime." https://t.co/a3UtPYfWYr
I am so tired right now having not slept last night, but I wanted to post this as I felt it was important. This is a direct diversion of every search to the Republican agenda presenting in the best most convincing light. Pushing project 2025. So much for a neutral only the facts’ news AI media. Seriously a bot designed to push pro-fundamentalist republican anti-choice regressive view points? Is it deliberate? We people that love our democracy and progressive country better get engaged and vote, or we lose it all. The wealthy owner class wants us to return to the guided age, when only businesses had a say, government had no power, and workers were slaves to be worked to death for profit. Hugs. Scottie
Microsoft’s A.I. bot copilot has been produced some strange results lately that make it seem like it may have been trained by alt right bros.
Wow how do these rejects get elected? Sex is the fault of the woman? That is not how it works. Tell him it takes more than a woman to make a baby. Guys are taught to want sex all their lives, and from puberty they’re told not to masturbate but to find a girl. But girls are property of daddy and they are told not to have sex to preserve their value. WTF. If boys / men get to enjoy sex, why can’t girls / women? Hugs. Scottie
A bid to make birth control a right in Arizona that was a top policy priority for Gov. Katie Hobbs has stagnated in the Republican-controlled legislature and is likely dead.
Sen. Sonny Borrelli, the No. 2 Republican in the state Senate, responded to a question about whether he would oppose future efforts to restrict access to emergency contraceptives by saying that women wouldn’t need contraceptives if they weren’t so promiscuous.
“Like I said, Bayer Company invented aspirin. Put it between your knees,” he said, implying that, if women hold aspirin between their legs, they won’t be able to have sex and risk pregnancy.
Borrelli’s comments echo those made by late Wisconsin pastor and former GOP mega donor Foster Freiss. In 2012, while Freiss was the head of a super PAC that backed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Freiss contended that women putting aspirin between their knees was a cheaper alternative to contraception.
In 2001, Borrelli plead guilty to a domestic violence charge. His then-wife’s child told police he witnessed Borrelli rapidly punch his mother three times in the mouth before shoving her to the ground.
Borrelli said he only plead guilty to keep custody of his children, and he later blamed his wife for the incident, claiming she was having a “stress-induced meltdown.”
Borelli, an election denier, first appeared here in 2021 when he and several other Arizona lawmakers spoke at a QAnon convention organized by a man who had just approvingly posted a link to a neo-Nazi film. We heard from him again last year when he tried to force Arizona to discard all voting machines.
AZ State Senator Sonny Borelli, singled out by Trump at rallies for pushing the audit, presents his ‘challenge coin’ today at the Vegas QAnon conference to Vincent Fusca, who some in the Q community believe is JFK Jr.. Resemblance is uncanny. pic.twitter.com/0lEIVfxIOn
AZ Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borelli issues letter to every county election office notifying them no electronic voting machine can be used in ‘24 election
Katie Hobbs vetoed law, but Constitution gives plenary authority to state legislature so they’re overriding her pic.twitter.com/FPwtEDaU5T
None of these yahoos make even the slightest effort to encourage men to take more responsibility for their own sexual behavior even though men are usually the ones who are more sexually eager due to the influence of testosterone (and even then, using that as an excuse really only goes so far!). They don’t even bother encouraging men to use condoms more often even though condoms actually have many advantages over most female forms of birth control. Condoms are relatively reliable when used correctly, aren’t difficult to find, aren’t difficult to use, don’t become less effective if you gain or lose weight, don’t cost much, don’t have any potentially dangerous side effects, don’t have any restrictions for age and/or existing health conditions, don’t require administration or authorization from a licensed medical professional, and don’t require much advance planning like most female forms of birth control do — and they have an double advantage in the sense that they help prevent the transmission of STDs.
It’s amazing the number of people who refuse to believe that sometimes things go wrong. That’s why abortion is healthcare, not every fetus is viable. Some of the ones that are born, don’t survive either.
It’s about whether men should dictate to women whom they don’t even know how to manage their personal life. It’s about whether women can get pregnant without the assistance of “promiscuous” men.
It’s about whether men should dictate to women whom they don’t even know how to manage their personal life. It’s about whether women can get pregnant without the assistance of “promiscuous” men.
The Christian religion is apparently based on the premise that women are by definition sluts, since Eve in Genesis disobeyed God and accepted advice from a serpent.
I am still waiting for the day that a pharmacist refuses to fill any prescriptions for Viagra or Cialis unless the man is wearing a wedding ring, or produces a marriage license, or signs a sworn affidavit saying they will use the drug only to have sex with their wives. I want to see the heads of a few right-wing males explode.
“But honey, I’m feeling romantic. This is your 30th headache this month. Why don’t you use that aspirin between your legs to make your headache disappear.”
*wife thinks a divorce attorney would do a better job at making her headache disappear.*
15 years ago, this Neanderthal would have been sent back under his rock, but Trump/MAGA has emboldened their misogyny, allowed them to use their “religious freedom” to spew this garbage in the public square, and encourage even more wackos to spew their hateful, medieval views
How is forcing women to continue with an unwanted pregnancy not an economic concern?
I can’t wait for these old white, white haired men and women who agree with them to die out but I know there is a crop of them right behind on the conveyor belt.
Contraceptives a.k.a. birth control are not just prescribed for birth control.
Here again we have elected officials who know nothing about the medical field making laws regarding women’s bodies that they know nothing about. Here again we have one of these old dinosaurs yapping about women not needing birth control if they weren’t promiscuous.
Funny how they get away with ignoring the fact that it takes two people to be promiscuous when making a baby… and funny how nobody points out that, if women must be forced to endure a pregnancy, men should at least be financially responsible for that same pregnancy.
This is why republicans are so desperate to end any talk or, protection of, or acceptance of LGBTQ+ in schools. The more people see it, the more people have friends and family that are LGBTQ+, the more open it is in society on social media, the more normal and tolerant people are. The more young people will come out and live as the person they are. Republicans are desperate to stop this. Hugs. Scottie
LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. The current figure is up from 5.6% four years ago and 3.5% in 2012. Bisexual adults make up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ+ population — 4.4% of U.S. adults and 57.3% of LGBTQ+ adults say they are bisexual.
Slightly less than 1% of U.S. adults are transgender. Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+. More than one in five Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+, as do nearly one in 10 millennials (aged 27 to 42). The percentage drops to less than 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers and 1% of the Silent Generation.
LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. The current figure is up from 5.6% four… pic.twitter.com/iweJ76PS1w
I came out in March, 1983, six months after the CDC coined the name Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome and about a month after HIV was first identified as the likely cause. I was 15. By the time I could legally enter a bar, I had been to more funerals that most people will ever see in six lifetimes. And all while Republicans laughed and openly pondered how they could speed up the deaths.
There is a reason why so many of us survivors have CPTSD.
Don’t ever stop. There is so much more that needs to be done within the black community. As usual the disparities between communities of color and whites persist in spite of all of our efforts. Every young man you educate is part of your legacy.
Kinsey found that, among the men he surveyed, 37% had had sex with another man to orgasm.
That figure has been vigorously disputed by researchers who couldn’t accept his figures – and their own surveys managed to reduce the number a lot by excluding same-sex sex between young men, claiming that those orgasms weren’t really same-sex sex because mumble mumble mumble, and some altered their results by doing their surveys insecurely, where the men surveyed couldn’t trust that they’d be anonymous.
Now, with changes in attitudes, men are being more honest and researchers are doing less data manipulation to obscure men’s actual sexual activity – and the numbers in modern surveys are steadily increasing. I think we’ll find that Kinsey was much closer to the actual numbers than any of his critics would ever admit.
I know that, as an out gay man in the corporate world for several decades, the coworkers who hit on me over the years weren’t the other gay men I worked with, it was married men with kids who called themselves straight – but who tried to persuade me to have sex with them although that was obviously not straight-man sex. Sometimes I said yes, sometimes I didn’t – when I did, I enjoyed their intensity and enthusiasm. Those “straight” men were so, so hungry for the body of another man. It’s always seemed to me that there’s a lot more man on man sex going on than most people will admit.
So everything is basically reset back to where it was before this law. The only difference is teachers and schools will have to deal with fundamentalist Christian maga parents and wing nuts who don’t even live in those schools claiming that teachers are teaching gender or sexual orientation for allowing a rainbow sticker, that the schools are violating the law because the library returned the books with and about LGBTQIA characters / plots in them, and it will tie all schools up in lawsuits the state won’t help them with. DeathSantis is really just admitting he was wrong without saying it. Kaplan said that she was sure that the law would be ruled unconstitutional if they continue with the appeal, but that it would take at least two years of kids being bullied and the books out of the library. Of course DeathSantis is claiming a total win when it completely rolls back his law. Gay teachers can let the kids know they are gay, those married can talk about their spouses and post pictures. Anti-gay bullying programs are allowed again. Plus maybe the best thing, the gay straight alliance clubs are allowed again. The real thing you see is DeathSantis only pushed this as long as he was running for office, and once he was no longer needing to suck up to the fundamentalist Christians he backed down, and did not fight for it. I think he knew all along it was an illegal bill. Hugs. Scottie
*** Personal note. Was not feeling well all weekend and this morning I woke up at 4 am needing to throw up. But all I could bring up was air. Then after half a cup of coffee, I started to throw up last night’s meal. All morning I keep feeling dizzy and nauseous every 20 minutes or so. I have spent a lot of yesterday and so far today, in bed. Hugs. Scottie1`
Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, provided it’s not part of instruction, under a settlement reached Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The settlement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms following passage two years ago of the law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attends the drivers meeting prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 19, 2024.Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images file
Other statesused the Florida law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the states with versions of the law.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral — meaning what applies to LGBTQ people also applies to heterosexual people — and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used in the classroom.
“What this settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”
In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office described the deal as a “major win” with the law remaining intact.
“Today’s mutually agreed settlement ensures that the law will remain in effect and it is expected that the case will be dismissed by the Court imminently,” the statement said.
The law, formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.
Republican lawmakers had argued that parents should broach these subjects with children and that the law protected children from being taught about inappropriate material.
But opponents of the law said it created a chilling effect in classrooms. Some teachers said they were unsure if they could mention or display a photo of their same-sex partner in the classroom. In some cases, books dealing with LGBTQ topics were removed from classrooms and lines mentioning sexual orientation were excised from school musicals. The Miami-Dade County School Board in 2022 decided not to adopt a resolution recognizing LGBTQ History Month, even though it had done so a year earlier.
The law also triggered the ongoing legal battles between DeSantis and Disney over control of the governing district for Walt Disney World in central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in what the company described as retaliation for its opposition to the legislation. DeSantis touted the fight with Disney during his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, which he ended earlier this year.
The civil rights attorneys sued Florida education officials on behalf of teachers, students and parents, claiming the law was unconstitutional, but the case was dismissed last year by a federal judge in Tallahassee who said they lacked standing to sue. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kaplan said they believed the appellate court would have reversed the lower court’s decision, but continuing the lawsuit would have delayed any resolution for several more years.
“The last thing we wanted for the kids in Florida was more delay,” Kaplan said.
Of note, the lead attorney in the lawsuit is Roberta Kaplan, who is best known to most as E. Jean Carroll’s attorney. Kaplan was also Edith Windsor’s attorney in the landmark Supreme Court ruling on DOMA.
A settlement over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law will allow students and teachers to speak about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, if it's not part of a lesson. https://t.co/FTg3TWJCyo
#Florida settles lawsuit over @GovRonDeSantis' controversial parental rights law & will clarify vague wording. Plaintiffs calling it the Don’t Say Gay law say the deal will stop school districts from “overreacting.” https://t.co/E4SQGjlUYQ via @JeffSolochek
Scottie's Playtime 