Negotiations between the Florida Senate and House of Representatives, both controlled by Republicans, broke down, with the two sides unable to agree on a bill that would require inspections of aging condo buildings and mandate that condo boards conduct studies to determine how much they need to set aside for repairs. The talks were undone by a disagreement over how much flexibility to give condo owners in the funding of those reserves.
Read the full article. Florida Republicans managed to find the time to create new laws attacking LGBTQs, voting rights, women, and educators, but “ran out of time” to stop fatal building collapses.
The stalemate means that, barring a last-minute revival of talks, Florida condo law will remain unchanged despite broad calls for reform, and there will be no statewide requirement for safety inspections of older condo buildings. https://t.co/fV86UIII45
Don’t fall for this new Republican talking point “Florida session isn’t long enough & that’s why we didn’t pass property insurance reform! Or Surfside reforms! Or any meaningful policy!” Republicans set agenda. They chose culture wars over us b/c they want to distract, not serve.
The Idaho House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation to make it a crime punishable by life in prison for a parent to seek out gender-affirming health care for their transgender child.
The bill is among 29 pieces of Republican-backed legislation nationwide proposed so far this year to curtail health care for transgender youth, and it coincides with dozens of additional bills seeking to limit what can be discussed about gender identity and sexual orientation in schools and restrict transgender athletes in school sports.
But LGBTQ advocates and legal experts say the Idaho proposal differs by criminalizing cases of transgender children traveling to other states to obtain certain medical procedures.
“We are seeing the severity of those policies start to really ramp up,” said Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on preventing suicide in the LGBTQ population.
A directive by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month ordered child welfare authorities to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” of any reported instances of minors undergoing “elective procedures for gender transitioning” as potential child abuse. Multiple investigations are now underway into Texas families with transgender children, with the threat of decades in prison for anyone convicted of child abuse.
In Idaho, HB 675 would amend the state’s statute prohibiting genital mutilation to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming health care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgeries. But the bill goes further than other GOP efforts targeting transgender health care: A parent or guardian would also be guilty of a felony if they travel with their child to another state for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming health care. Those found guilty could face up to life imprisonment. Idaho Rep. Bruce Skaug, the Republican sponsor of the bill, said Tuesday on the floor of the Legislature that his proposal is necessary because minors are too young to make life-altering decisions about their bodies. He also cited the Texas government’s recent move to consider gender-affirming medical treatments a form of child abuse as evidence that Idaho should act as well.
“If we do not allow minors to get tattoos, smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol or sign legal contracts,” he said, “why would we allow them to make decisions to cut away organs based on their feelings during puberty time?”
Skaug did not respond to requests for comment.
The bill cleared the Idaho House by a vote of 55-13 on Tuesday. It now heads to the Idaho Senate, where Republicans hold a 28-to-7 majority over Democrats.
Four experts who reviewed the legislation told NBC News that the Idaho proposal could be vulnerable to legal challenges. It is not unlike laws from a prior generation, including the criminalization of interracial couples traveling to another state to get married, the experts said, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. People already take trips to other states to do things that are legal that they can’t do where they live — from consuming cannabis, gambling or buying fireworks to obtaining an abortion — and there’s little states can do to stop that because of constitutional limits on restricting interstate travel.
The bill presents “complicated questions whether Idaho could, in that fashion, use their lawmaking authority to try to prevent people in Idaho from taking advantage of the differing law of another state,” said David B. Cruz, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
Andrew Koppelman, a Northwestern University law professor, said a fatal flaw of the legislation is another section that stipulates only males can receive testosterone from a doctor. That would violate federal prohibitions on gender-based discrimination, he said.
“The constitutionality of this bill is in doubt, even aside from the provision that says that you can’t travel out of state,” Koppelman said.
Last year, Arkansas became the first state to enact a law prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal court blocked the law from taking effect, in response to an ACLU-backed lawsuit, but 19 other states introduced similar legislation.
Anti-LGBTQ legislation has been increasing at the state level in recent years, with 17 bills signed into law in 2021, more than the previous three years combined, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
In a recent survey by The Trevor Project, 85 percent of trans and nonbinary youth said debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people negatively impacted their mental health.
“This national political assault is not really about trans youth,” Ames, of the Trevor Project, said. “It’s very clear that this has become a useful political wedge issue in a hotly contested political climate. The fact that we are playing politics with young people’s lives like this is an indication to me that we are dealing with the worst kind of politics we know in this country, which is the kind that assumes an acceptable risk of casualties.”
I have already posted that Republican strategist feel the trans issue and LGBTQ+ books in schools is the winning ticket for the midterms. They know it riles up the base, it is an easy sell to their base, it is a message the can hammer on and distort. Notice the language used in the bills, “why would we allow them to make decisions to cut away organs based on their feelings during puberty time”. Notice the cut away organs … Kids having irreversible sex changes oh my gods save the children. Except it is not happening. No more than there was a child rape ring in the basement of a pizza shop run by Hillary Clinton. It is made up to scare people. Kids get social transitioning such as the support wearing the other genders specific clothing, using the items that gender uses, allowed name and pronoun change, and with the assistance of trained medical professionals who examine the child to determine the appropriateness of treatment kids can get puberty blockers. And that is not a harmful permanent procedure and is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The majority of the medical community says that not only are puberty blockers not harmful and fully reversable they save lives and give trans kids lifelong relief from developing the traits of the gender they do Identify as so do not want to live as. This is an especially important issue that has lifelong consequences of how a person presents all their life. Imagine if you had to live your life looking like the gender you are not? Imagine you are a woman who had to go through male puberty and are built like a linebacker now? Imagine you are a man who had to go through female puberty and look like a pretty show girl. have some compassion people. But let me be clear again, no child gets a sex change operation, gets any operation for gender change done on them. They have to be 18 and in some places even 21 to have that control over the bodies. So this is a political issue like CRT made up to show the people the woke lib Democrats want to destroy gods creations and hurt white people and their kids.
The Idaho House of Representatives has passed legislation to make it a crime punishable by life in prison for a parent to seek out gender-affirming health care for their transgender child. https://t.co/6qLKSUDGQS
Advocates are sounding the alarm about two anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Idaho that come with hefty punishments—including a potential life sentence. @cohaug reports: https://t.co/kAyMzb9flF
The Florida Senate approved legislation on Thursday that limits how workplaces and schools teach about race and identity. The measure prohibits trainings that cause someone to feel guilty or ashamed about the past collective actions of their race or sex, and its passage clears the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign one of his top legislative priorities into law.
After two days of emotional debate on a proposal that remains clouded by considerable confusion, the Senate passed the framework for the so-called “Stop Woke Act” 24 to 15, in a party-line vote.
DeSantis initially proposed the bill in December, arguing he wanted Florida to become a bulwark against corporate trainings and school lessons that make people uncomfortable about the actions of their ancestors.
It's really called the "Stop Woke Act." Shoulda went for something more catchy, like the "Ambien Act" or the "White Fragility Act" https://t.co/8jIizoJirX
Just now – Florida Senators pass the bill called “Individual Freedom” – what the Gov calls “Stop WOKE act”: 24-15 – party lines. It essentially blocks schools & businesses from teaching race/ethnic history & diversity in a way that makes someone feel shamed, guilty@WPLGLocal10
BREAKING: The Florida Senate just passed the so-called "Stop WOKE Act” bill, which censors conversations about racism, LGBTQ+ issues and discrimination.
This comes days after Florida passed its “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill. https://t.co/Q8ZxxdnAIz
The Élysée Palace released images of French President Macron after his call with Putin today, regarding the invasion of Ukraine. 🇫🇷🇷🇺🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/I1uOgNMuma
The Don’t Say Gay bill has passed the FL legislature and now goes to the governor’s desk. Let us be clear: should its vague language be interpreted in any way that causes harm to a single child, teacher, or family, we will lead legal action against the State of Florida to challenge this bigoted legislation.
We will not sit by and allow the governor’s office to call us pedophiles. We will not allow this bill to harm LGBTQ Floridians.
We will not permit any school to enforce this in a way that endangers the safety of children. We stand ready to fight for Floridians in court and hold lawmakers who supported this bill accountable at the ballot box.
Via press release from GLAAD:
This bill brands Florida land of the ‘less free’ by legalizing censorship and harming LGBTQ students and families. Banning discussion of LGBTQ people in school is an effort to silence and shame, to divide and disrespect, when all students should feel safe and learn about themselves and each other.
To every LGBTQ child and every LGBTQ parent in Florida, you do belong and we know that history is on our side. Governor DeSantis is playing political football with LGBTQ Floridians.
Other GOP leaders around the country who claim to be LGBTQ allies should be speaking against this ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, urging Gov. DeSantis to veto it, and fighting the tidal wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation around the country. Gov. DeSantis’ disdain and cruelty towards LGBTQ Floridians is noted and appalling.
Leaders in Florida have decided that bills based on hate & discrimination take priority over our students' pandemic recovery. My team & I stand with our LGBTQ+ students in Florida & across the country & urge Florida leaders to protect & support all students.
— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) March 8, 2022
Let us be clear: should the vague language of this bill be interpreted in any way that causes harm to a single child, teacher, or family, we will lead legal action against the State of Florida to challenge this bigoted legislation. https://t.co/pvGSJ4iMMP
Parents across the country are looking to national, state, and district leaders to support our nation’s students, help them recover from the pandemic, and provide them the academic and mental health supports they need.
Instead, leaders in Florida are prioritizing hateful bills that hurt some of the students most in need.
The Department of Education has made clear that all schools receiving federal funding must follow federal civil rights law, including Title IX’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
We stand with our LGBTQ+ students in Florida and across the country, and urge Florida leaders to make sure all their students are protected and supported.
I am still fighting to get my systems back to full capacity. I have good news and bad news on that front. I will tell you when I get everything done. On this bill, it is clearly an attack on LGBTQ+ books and materials by the right but mostly the religious groups. I was listening to a podcast today that described several top Republicans crowing about how targeting trans KIDS and framing any books or material about the LGBTQ+ as obscene sex, pornography and harmful to kids was the winning strategy that was going to get them a sweep in the midterm elections. They admitted it was garbage but attacking KIDS got the base riled up to turn out and it anything protecting kids makes the side against it the enemy of the people. I have stored about five different attacks on the LGBTQ+ to post, from the DeathSantis spox saying if you oppose the don’t say gay bill you are a pedophile who wants to groom kids, to more attacks on trans kids. I love this bill is numbered 666. I will post this and go back to updating my computers, dumped and reinstalled for the 6th time.
The Idaho Legislature’s House State Affairs Committee advanced a bill Thursday that opponents say could criminalize librarians for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, sponsored House Bill 666.
“For a long time, many years, I have been concerned about the obscene and pornographic material that finds its way into our schools and libraries,” DeMordaunt told the House State Affairs Committee. “While likely this is inadvertent, the increasingly frequent exposure of our children to obscene and pornographic material in places that I as a parent assume are safe and free from these kinds of harmful materials is downright alarming.”
If passed into law, House Bill 666 removes an exemption in existing state law protecting schools, colleges, universities, museums and libraries and their employees from prosecution for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Testimony during the public hearing on the bill Thursday was mixed.
Several parents and concerned residents named and even brought with them several books that feature LGBTQ+ characters or storylines, arguing those books are obscene. One parent was upset that her daughter encountered a library book that depicted a romance between a prince and a knight who slay a dragon together and are supported by their community.
Books mentioned included “An ABC of Equality,” “Lawn Boy,” “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
“How did we go from ‘Pollyanna’ to drag queen for the kids? My daughter’s innocence was violated,” parent Kara Claridge told legislators. “But what happens when kids start acting on these graphic behaviors put forth in these books?”
“The sad reality is children are being taught to be confused about their gender and even groomed into lifestyles they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise,” Claridge added, saying the children’s library is no longer a safe place to take her children.
Librarians who testified said the bill is dangerous and the language in the bill about materials that are harmful to children is too vague.
“We walk down the slippery slope of censorship of constitutionally protected speech when we have a bill like this,” librarian Erin Kennedy told legislators.
Other librarians said the bill wouldn’t even address parents’ concerns about material in books available in the library.
“Everything that we have been hearing on this bill, I would just like to point out that this bill is not to get the books out of the library, this bill is to criminalize library workers. We are not talking censorship and removing these books; we are talking about criminalizing library workers if minors get these books,” librarian Huda Shaltry told legislators.
Shaltry also said the books parents mentioned during the hearing are available at the library but are not located in the children’s section of the library.
DeMordaunt denied the bill would criminalize librarians.
But substitute Rep. Holli Woodings, a Boise Democrat and City Council member who is subbing for Rep. Chris Mathias, said it was clear the bill criminalizes librarians because the bill cites Title 18, which is the criminal code for the state of Idaho.
“If my daughter brings home ‘Twilight,’ which has explicit material in it, can I then go and press charges against my librarian for allowing her to check out ‘Twilight’ and potentially put them in jail for a year or give them a $1,000 fine?” Woodings said. “This is a slippery slope. It does not correct the problem that it is seeking to correct. We had many people come and testify today on books that had various social topics. Not pornography, not explicit material.”
Shortly before the vote, two legislators condemned libraries after looking through packets that contained examples from the books parents mentioned during the meeting.
“I am absolutely appalled, I feel dirty,” said Rep. James Holtzclaw, R-Meridian, garnering loud applause from several in the crowd at the hearing. “I cannot believe that our children can look at this stuff. And I can’t believe we fund the libraries to allow this to happen.”
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said “trash is being placed in front of our children.”
The House State Affairs Committee voted along party lines to send House Bill 666 to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with a recommendation they pass it. To become law, the bill still needs to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without Little’s signature.
Idaho clears a legislation with the potential to fine librarians $1,000 and send them to jail for a year for checking out material to a minor that could harm them https://t.co/apbdqUUvkW (via AP)
Not a single fucking person is sitting at home thinking, “I’m totally not trans, but I’d probably give it a whirl if I could easily and cheaply change my birth certificate to reflect a gender with which I do not identify.”
Stop being fucking stupid, you absolute ballbags.
— Fancy Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) March 4, 2022
“People who are already trans and have always existed will be much more likely to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate if the process ceases to be so costly, time-consuming and dehumanising.”
— Fancy Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) March 4, 2022
BREAKING: Florida legislators voted to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, a move that would severely restrict access to the procedure in a state that for decades has been a refuge for women from across the South, with @aglorioshttps://t.co/RUKhWYA45c
At a moment when democracy is under attack from authoritarian regimes around the world, we must address the growing authoritarian factions in our country.
Paul Manafort, who was an advisor to the Pro-Russia/Pro-Putin former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was Trump’s campaign Chairman. He worked for free. Manafort picked Pence for VP.
Manafort never stopped working and talking with Russia throughout the 2016 election.
Trump bragged about love letters from North Korea. He was Putin’s puppet. Truly vile.
Republicans are soft. Soft-headed. Soft on our enemies. Soft of racism. Soft on sexism.
Having no principles or morals is disqualifying.
Yep, that would be totally believable. Because China has such a large fleet of F-22s. And planes’ affiliations are definitely only identifiable by flags.
I think we’re beyond any viable off-ramps for Putin at this point, but this is certainly one way to make the war less popular in Russia. https://t.co/QvFmwDDU9k
The judge has "has effectively taken a 10,000 ton, $1.8 billion guided-missile destroyer out of commission. As the Navy builds up its naval presence in Europe to guard against further Russian aggression, it is down a ship" https://t.co/acaW41MzvR
As you can see, the right has created another no-win situation for President Biden. If President Biden doesn’t cut the flow of Russian oil, then the right can accuse him of being weak. Even though he has been sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing other sanctions. If President Biden cuts off the flow of Russian oil, then Republicans can blame him for the higher oil prices because there is less oil available. Even though there is very little President Biden can do about the price of oil. It will take two years for Keystone XL pipeline to be completed if President Biden restarted the program. That doesn’t solve the problem right now. That oil would also be sold on the open market, so we possibly wouldn’t get it. The oil is being transported by other ways as well currently. We could make land available for oil drilling, but it would also take time to put the wells in place. Assuming the oil companies want to do it. They might like the way things are because it is more profitable that way.
This situation could have been prevented if Republicans and more Democrats voted for the Green New Deal in order to reduce our dependence on oil.
Plus as I understand it the oil companies are sitting on land leases they already have but have not done anything with. The US is the largest producer of oil, and yet it is sold on the open market you mention instead of being restricted to home use. Also there is the question of refineries. Oil comes in grades, and not all refineries refine the same grades of oils. So there is a mix of sending oils from country to country to where the ability to take that grade of oil and make it into the final product for sale. It really is a complicated mess. The US president has little control over it, if any.
And then the right can blame President Biden for the price of oil being too high. We could put our military in Ukraine and hope Putin doesn’t retaliate with nukes. Even if Putin doesn’t the right will be upset when a soldier gets a paper cut.
Despite the attempts to smear Biden, the Democrats have proposed and are trying to enact boycotts and restrictions on Russian oil. Strangely the Republicans have not supported this effort even as the right wing media is demanding it. It is a double edged sword, if Biden does sanction the Russian oil even though the US part of it has already shrunk to very low levels if the price of oil increases the right can blame Biden. If Biden doesn’t act to sanction the Russian oil then the right can accuse Biden of not supporting Ukraine. The right wing loves this as it lets then do what they do best, talk out both sides of their mouth because for them it is not the policy that counts but how to attack Democrats. They are kids wanting to hurt the other. They don’t care about policy or what is best for people. They want the emotional childish game. So let us see how many of the Republicans in congress support sanctions on Russian oil.
This is done by a right wing media cartoonist to try to force the US into a war because of the fact most people care about the hurt of other people. But it is not that simple. Yes Ukrainians are dying. How many more will die if madman Putin who is repeatedly demonstrated he doesn’t care about human life feels backed into a corner and does launch nuclear weapons? How many more will die then. How long will the destruction last then? There are ways to handle this war that are not flashy and does not beat the breast of the wannabe macho men, but it keeps the death toll down.
The right has deliberately poisoned the well on CRT. ‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain,” Rufo wrote. He takes critical-race theory as a concept, strips it of all meaning, and repurposes it as a catchall for white grievances. “The goal,” he tweeted, “is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” As you can see this is a manufactured crisis for political gain by the right and a person very arguably a white supremacist. CRT has become a code for the racist history of the US and some white people don’t want it taught accurately and if taught it must be watered down to seem a beneficial action by white people toward blacks. Not sure why so many white people identify with the slavers rather than the abolitionists. CRT is only a legal theory taught in law schools or advanced degree programs. It is not taught in high schools, and it is not taught in grade schools. That idea is another right wing media misinformation campaign. And Rufo admits it.
The “Biden weak” trope wore out, so let’s try “Harris incompetent.” Biden’s day off, attack Harris. Ho, hum. Perhaps the alleged cartoonist should be worried about the Trump Principle: the ability to spectacularly fail upwards while destroying everything around you. It’s well practiced by most Republicans. She has undertaken several difficult tasks and done — not perfectly: This is politics — but pretty well. However, like the big lie(s) about Hillary promulgated by the reich wingers, I suspect their big lies about Harris will prevail in the end, if only by 55% to 45%.
I am pretty proud there is a round up today. I love the roundup and I wake up early. Today I got up at 4:30 AM and at 5 AM I started the roundup. I got half way through the first 400 pages when I lost the entire thing. The reason I lost the entire thing was my router. We have been having issues, well really Ron was on his electronics for about a month. I sort of dismissed it because I couldn’t replicate it when he told me. But now the entire router cut out. I got one side of the router back up and running. After hours. Took me a lot of resetting and initializing and trying to adjust thing. Some parts of the router are still off line. Once I got the computers / internet up I investigated new routers. I was doing this as Ron kept telling me all the issues he has had with his electronic over the last few months that I apparently had not paid the needed husband in charge of the electronics should have done.
I have found something I did not know. Routers are now only good for 3 to 5 years. There is an entirely new standard since 2019. Our router was about 10 years old. Back then I needed a really strong router so I got one nearly $500.00 dollars.
I did some quick research and found one far better than our current one for only $165.00 and I ordered it. It will be here tomorrow some time. So the problems of the day solved right? Nope. I had to go lay down, and Ron has not been feeling well all day and after lunch my body gave out so we both went to bed until about 2 PM. I started working again and the toilet in the center of the house backed up. Shit. Well no luckily it was not, it was pee.
Last summer the electric company replaced the pole behind out home. They had a really grand machine on tracks that could dig the hole and hold / carry the pole and do all the work. It was small enough to go between the homes. But the sewer pipes run between the homes and apparently this thing crushed them. So every now and again we have to dump boiling pots of hot water down the toilets to clear any slow drainage. Yes the park knows and it is on their to do list. We have a nice green flag out there to say so. It doesn’t help the toilets to drain.
Anyway after 8 big pots of water the toilets are working great again and I could get back to the roundup. I won’t mention that I did have to go get Ron, who was napping because he did not feel well, after the first four pots because my back gave out, I couldn’t hardly walk much less carry boiling water. Ron was not happy I did not wake him before trying to carry boiling water. Oh well I am a bad boy rebel. And on to the cartoons / memes
Ron and I both have teeth issues. I had such pain in my mouth when I was younger and seen dentists that I went over 30 years without getting any dental care. In that time I developed a lot of problems. Like my bones in my body my teeth were dying and decaying. When I went to a dentist about five years ago they had a heck of a fight to save most of my teeth and I have a life long problem now with periodontal disease and even after the surgeon took the bad teeth and cleaned out the infections I still fight infections around my teeth. We spent about 10 grand having my teeth fixed and crowns put over the breaking teeth. Right now we are trying to budget nearly $500 dollars because I have an infection around one tooth that they have to go in and clean out and pack with antibiotic. I had that same area done only a year and half ago. The US has to have dental care for seniors and the disabled. It is seriously important. I am missing a tooth in the front because I ran out of insurance before I could have the needed dental surgery to implant it. It will cost 5 grand. This is something other countries consider rights for the people in their country, but the US is too worried about someone losing profit to worry that someone can not eat.
US employers added 678,000 jobs in February—well beyond predictions. While this is good news, wages didn’t grow at all.
Average hourly earnings went up just one cent, but the Fed is still set to raise interest rates later this month to head off a nonexistent “wage-price spiral."
Wow!!! I can’t believe you were getting 40 cents an hour. Where I was at we got 65 cents a day. And most Unions will bring ex cons into their apprenticeship programs.
Communities build prisons based on predicted birth rate of felons because they know the cycle of incarceration. This is truly evil.
Tucker’s demand for LSAT scores is manifestly racist in that it’s (a) selectively asked of a black candidate but not asked of others and (b) trades on a well-worn racist trope of nonwhite candidates being elevated using less stringent requirements. This is what Kenny’s defending.
Turns out that Russia is not as militarily powerful as they have portrayed themselves. Their nukes are the only thing giving the rest of the world pause from acting in force against Russia. It is clear now that Russia can not stand up to NATO. The Russian military sent to Ukraine is full of badly trained conscripts who are ill supplied. There is no fuel for the vehicles, no food for the troops, no command authority it seems. The Ukrainians were letting the Russian kids call home to their mothers because they said their families had no idea where they were. The myth of the great Russian military machine has been shattered.
This is a horrifying assessment of the #RussianInvasion of Ukraine.
Authoritarians try to negate a population, force disruption/displacement. Civilians are the obvious target. Children will suffer.
The idea of flattening empty cities is chilling.
Putin is a small, small insecure man.
Mikhail Watford was from Ukraine. He feared he was on Putin hitlist.
Putin: invasion is going as planned
I probably wouldn’t have planned to run out of gas, lose thousands of soldiers, fail to neutralize air defenses, have my forces refuse to go into Kyiv, get a Chechen commander and one of my top generals killed, or attack a nuclear power plant.
Republicans caved without a fight. They were willfully complicit with our biggest enemy.
We know why the right wing supports Putin. He is a white supremacist who hates the LGBTQ+ like they do. That is the most important thing to them. What bothers them is that the Ukrainians are white also. If the Russians were killing brown people the Republicans would be pushing to join them or give Putin arms just like they are the Saudis in Yemen.
BREAKING: Florida legislators voted to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, a move that would severely restrict access to the procedure in a state that for decades has been a refuge for women from across the South, with @aglorioshttps://t.co/RUKhWYA45c
Not a single fucking person is sitting at home thinking, “I’m totally not trans, but I’d probably give it a whirl if I could easily and cheaply change my birth certificate to reflect a gender with which I do not identify.”
Stop being fucking stupid, you absolute ballbags.
— Fancy Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) March 4, 2022
“People who are already trans and have always existed will be much more likely to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate if the process ceases to be so costly, time-consuming and dehumanising.”
The right wing wants to support Putin but the know it is very unpopular in the country. Even Carlson has backtracked from his I love Putin stance. I think we all know Putin is not dancing over the invasion, it is going very badly for him.
Incorrect. This is ignoring the situation. The ones in the US who claim they need their guns to fight their own government don’t understand the Ukrainians have the support of their government. They have the support of their police. They are facing a force that is coming from out side and is limited in their number. Our police forces have the budges and weapons of the Ukrainian military. Our military has weapons and training far in advance of the Russians. It is now clear that the Russians are not even near peers or the US and they are a paper tiger with nukes. If our groups of militia think they will stand up to the US government and fight the US military and police they would be slaughtered quickly. Sorry but you are adding apples to oranges. The Russia soldiers are conscripted kids who are hungry and scared and their vehicles have no fuel. That is not the way it will be against the US military.
The right wing is desperate to not give Biden credit for anything. They are so tribal. The facts are that on Biden’s watch the country increased in jobs more than ever before. Yet Hannity tried to compare tRump’s best before Covid with just one month during Covid for Biden. One other right winger claimed Biden was wrong because the recording of job numbers was not started until 1939. WTF. So desperate. Why not just admit Biden gets credit for more job creation while saying they don’t think he did enough?
After tRump’s limited vocabulary, frequently repeated words, and half finished sentence then starting a tangent with a new subject entirely the right has no leg to stand on criticizing anyone about how they talk. Even with a teleprompter tRump read like a second grader and spoke in a monotone. I would say this is a case where people that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
When you think of the turn around from the last administrations handling of the Covid pandemic Biden has done great work for the country. 6.2 million jobs have come back, wages up, growth happening, record profits for the corporations and the wealthy. All in less than a year while fighting the misleading right wing media arm of the Republican party.
This is a catch 22 situation. If Biden does add more sanctions on Russian oil, the prices of gas in the world may rise, it may violate the contracts already signed, the right wing media arm of the Republicans would go crazy attacking Biden. However if he doesn’t sanction the Russian oil companies then he gets attacked by everyone. The fact is the US increased the importation of Russian oil under tRump and it has already decreased greatly under Biden. The situation has to do with the type of oil and where it can be refined. Oil and what is done with it is now global, it is not limited to one country. That said the Democrats have proposed a bill in congress to sanction all the Russian oil exports. Lets see if the Republicans join the Democrats on this or just claim the Democrats are against capitalism and want to hurt oil companies.
When the government tries to regulate private companies, the R’s scream—except when the R’s think they have a neat way to criticize the government. Private US companies are buying the Russian oil. Several major private companies have announced they are withdrawing from their arrangements with Russian companies (BP, Shell, Exxon), but that doesn’t fit in or get mentioned by the RW shills promoting this meme, so it gets buried in their propaganda releases.
Everybody knows checks to Russian oil companies for their exports to the USA are drawn directly from the US Treasury and signed personally by Joe Biden.
Tucker said that, or maybe it was somebody else on FOX. Or I heard it on Newsmax. Or it was on Breitbart. Or World Net Daily. Or Steve Bannon or Alex Jones, one or the other, said it on their podcast.
No, wait! It was on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Hold it a minute, I’m not absolutely positive about that.
But I heard it, or read it, somewhere reliable. Not on lame stream media, that’s for sure!
Maybe it was Lauren Boebert who said it. Or Marjorie Taylor Green, good ol’ MGM. Both of them tell it like it is. Almost as good as our President who got the election stolen from him by socialist communist libtards tells it like it is. I speak of one Donald J. Trump, of course. He says Putin is smart, remember.
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Everybody knows checks to Russian oil companies for their exports to the USA are drawn directly from the US Treasury and signed personally by Joe Biden.
Tucker said that, or maybe it was somebody else on FOX. Or I heard it on Newsmax. Or it was on Breitbart. Or World Net Daily. Or Steve Bannon or Alex Jones, one or the other, said it on their podcast.
No, wait! It was on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Hold it a minute, I’m not absolutely positive about that.
But I heard it, or read it, somewhere reliable. Not on lame stream media, that’s for sure!
Maybe it was Lauren Boebert who said it. Or Marjorie Taylor Green, good ol’ MGM. Both of them tell it like it is. Almost as good as our President who got the election stolen from him by socialist communist libtards tells it like it is. I speak of one Donald J. Trump, of course. He says Putin is smart, remember.