Mehdi CHALLENGES Graham Platner on His Tattoo and More

In this interview Graham Platner responds to his detractors accusations against him.  He discusses the tattoo and the Jewish times report that says he had talked about it while working at a bar during the time frame he was not working there.  So there is not any credible evidence that he knew what the tattoo was.  As he said why would he have danced with it in full display to his extended Jewish family?   He makes sense.  He understands that people may not like him because he is not polished as a politician.  He also says he stumbles verbally and struggles to correct and improve himself.    It was a hard hitting interview and Platner came off as very reasonable.  Hugs

Now, in this must-watch interview, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Platner not just about his vision for a progressive “political revolution” in Washington DC but also about some of his controversies, including his social media and his tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol.

Pete Hegseth’s Far-Right Pastor: “Immodestly Dressed Women Are Sluts Who Just Give It Away To Every Slob”

Pete Hegseth’s Far-Right Pastor: “Immodestly Dressed Women Are Sluts Who Just Give It Away To Every Slob”

 

The Times of London reports:

A week before the US went to war with Iran, Pete Hegseth, the war secretary, invited the head of his church to lead prayers at the Pentagon. From his pulpit in Idaho, Doug Wilson, a 72-year-old ultraconservative pastor, preaches that homosexuality is a sin, women who dress immodestly are “sluts”, and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is the “silliest thing in the world”.

Despite Hegseth’s evangelising, Wilson says the Trump administration is far from morally pure. He says the president is “not someone I would call a godly Christian man”, and disagrees with Trump’s appointment of a gay man, Scott Bessent, as his Treasury secretary because homosexuality is not just a sin, it is “a bad one”.

Of all his gripes, however, Wilson is most indignant about the 1960s sexual revolution, a moral catastrophe that he condemns frequently in his blog posts, sermons and books. He thinks women should dress modestly. But what is modest dress? “Not what they’re doing now,” he says. “I could pick on yoga pants.” He continues: “Men know what they think of hookers, which is not very much. When you’re just giving it away to every slob on the bus who wants to look, you’re degrading the currency.”

Does that mean Wilson and his followers sympathise with the dress codes enforced by Shia clerics in Iran? “No, because wrapping them up in a bedsheet is another way of degrading them. It is possible to be modest and attractive — attractive without attracting. Bundling them up the way really conservative Muslims do is a different kind of degradation. Like you’re not a person. But for a woman to dress like a slut is a different kind of degradation. Both kinds of degradation play off of each other.”

Read the full article. It’s quite the deep dive.

Wilson appeared here last month when he called for criminalizing homosexuality and outlawing all LGBTQ events.

In March, Wilson declared that under his Christian nationalist theocracy, all non-Protestant public events – such a Catholic parades that venerate the Virgin Mary – would be banned.

Also in March, a separate pastor at Hegseth’s church prayed for God to kill Senate candidate James Talarico.

Pete Hegseth’s pastor: ‘Women who dress immodestly are sluts’

The Times and Sunday Times (@thetimes.com) 2026-05-05T11:45:51.187Z

 

 

John Fugelsang: Reclaiming Jesus’ Teachings

I love this video.  John Fugelsang is a wonderful person to elaborate on the bible and he does so as a follower of Jesus, not Paul or the Old Testament.  His mother was a nun and his father was a monk and the way he describes his father wearing his robes is as the Christian jedi of Flatbush.  He explains how those using the bible to attack or bash others including the LGBTQ+ are not following Jesus that they are following Paul.  He explains clearly how Jesus brought a new covenant for the people doing away with the old one in Leviticus.  He explained how those using the bible to bash others and not feed  & clothe the stranger/ immigrant are totally against what Jesus preached.   He also mentioned how those trying to force the Old Testament of the bible in schools never want the words of Jesus hung in classrooms in public schools, they never want the sermon on the mount posted on the walls.   Those kind of people only want authoritarian laws or do and dont do pushed on kids.   Enjoy the video, I listen to him on The Daily Beans (news with swearing) friday newscast and his Sirius talk show.  Hugs

Trump’s History Of Violent Political Rhetoric Backfires Spectacularly

Notice at the end The Majority Report crew plays a clip of all of tRump’s hateful rhetoric after the White House spokesperson blasts Democrats for hate speech inciting violence, which was the democrats telling the truth about tRump.  Hugs

On a personal note I have allergy shots this morning.  Hugs

May Day Is Tomorrow!

May 1 3:30 – 5:30 PM ET Community Hosted

May Day! Workers over Billionaires: A Nationwide Day of Action

The next National Day of Action is right around the corner, May Day, Friday, May 1st.

The national call is for no business as usual. This will look different in different places. In some locations, it will mean no work, no school, and no shopping. (snip)

May Day Actions

This May Day, we’re flexing our economic power as workers, students, and everyday people to send a clear message to the Trump regime: we will not do business as usual while they trample our rights, terrorize our communities, and drag us into a senseless war in Iran. 

So on May 1st we are taking action by: 

  1. Hosting or joining a local May Day event
  2. Participating in No Work, No School*, No Shopping

The first step: pledge to build power and take collective action with us on May Day

Note: A core principle behind all May Day events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events. No weapons are permitted under any circumstances. (snip)

Mayday Protest – National Day of Action

It’s time for the conditions and standard of living that the working class deserves. We’re beginning a year of action on May 1st with a series of protests, strikes, and other direct action opportunities.

MAY 1 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTIONS:

THRIVING WAGES
The working class people have been taken advantage of for far too long! Join us as we mobilize to create worldwide plans of action for THRIVING WAGES. We are demanding at least $20/hr as well as better union laws, the ease of information for organizing co-ops, and better working conditions. But wait, there’s more! We are also demanding mandatory PTO, paternal leave, and good benefits.

Why do we want these demands?
Inflation over the last year has risen over 7% and continues to climb.
Rents and housing costs have skyrocketed.
The costs of consumer goods as greatly increased.
Yet corporations and billionaires have doubled their wealth in 2 years as the working class has struggled during a pandemic that has killed over 850,000 Americans and counting. (snip-MORE)

May 1, 1886

May Day was called Emancipation Day in 1886 when 340,000 went on strike (though it was Saturday it was a regular day of work) in Chicago for the 8-hour workday.

May 1, 1890
May Day labor demonstrations spread to thirteen other countries; 30,000 marched in Chicago as the newly prominent American Federation of Labor threw its weight behind the 8-hour day campaign.

May 1, 1933

Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker newspaper was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Dorothy Day said, “God meant things to be much easier than we have made them,” and Peter Maurin wanted to build a society “where it is easier for people to be good.”

Peter Maurin


May 1, 1948

Senator Glen Hearst Taylor (D-Idaho) was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked for “Negroes” rather than using the “whites only” door, and convicted of disorderly conduct.
Taylor was the Progressive Party candidate for Vice President, running mate of Henry Wallace. He was in Birmingham to address the Southern Negro Youth Congress.
May 1, 1965
Second Factory for Peace opened in Onllwyn, Dulais Valley, in south Wales, employing disabled miners. Tom McAlpine, active in the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, and a supporter of cooperatives and industrial democracy, established Rowen Engineering in both Wales and Glasgow, Scotland.
May 1, 1967
Soviet youths openly defied police and danced the twist in Moscow’s Red Square during May Day celebrations. In the early ‘60s the Twist had been banned in Buffalo, New York, and Tampa, Florida. The religious right claimed the Twist was actually a pagan fertility dance.


Are you old enough to remember Chubby Checker?



May 1, 1971

Five days of anti-war May Day protests began in Washington, D.C., resulting in over 14,000 arrests—the largest mass civil disobedience in U.S. history.


May 1, 1986



One million South Africans demonstrated their opposition to apartheid in a strike organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

Trump’s ICE Detention Scam | Katie Blankenship | TMR

This  guest is an immigration attorney with expertise in ICE tactics and in ICE detention.  She dispels the misunderstanding and the myths created by the tRump administartion.  These detentions are civil detentions not criminal and entering the country with out inspection is a class B misdemeanor.  Another thing she mentions is the ever-increasing costs for detention which is currently $200 a day per detainee and there are over 70 thousand detainees.  She gives a lot of other useful to know information including the brutality in the detention centers.  For example they are taking detainees out in the Everglades and forcing them to stand with hands shackled in the hot sun being eaten by misketoes and bugs.   They are putting people in “hot boxes” and leaving them there in the hot Florida sun with no water or medical treatment when they are let out.  She describes many more examples.  Hugs


Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney from Sanctuary of the South, a grassroots legal services organization that provides critical, affordable legal defense to immigrant families affected by detention, deportation, and abuse, joins Sam to discuss abuses at the Alligator Alcatraz ICE detention center in Florida. To find resources or ways to help those targeted by ICE in your area you can visit Freedom for immigrants, American Immigration Council or visit the ACLU to find your local affiliate.

David Cross FED UP With Bill Maher’s BS

This is an important clip that exposes the fallacies that Maher and the right push about trans people and the democrats supporting the LGBTQ+ and progressive causes such as equality of religions and government working for the people.  Maher tried to push the idea that kids become trans only due to being pushed into it by adults, but when corrected with facts and examples he has no retort except to make more debunked claims.  The idea that simply buying a child the clothing they want is somehow making them transition.    Every study indicates that cultural issues that republicans try to use against democrats make no difference to how people vote.  Only die hard haters who were already going to vote republican care about the woke cultural issues supported by progressives.  Yet many Democratic candidates run from even tepid support for protecting minorities due to the made up idea of courting the center that doesn’t exist in any large size now.  People leaning right are not going to vote democrat who is republican lite when they can have the real full republican but any votes that are gathered by turning on the LGBTQ+ / Trans / minority communities are countered by the loss in left / progessive votes. Maher talks about how girls who were tomboys in the past would be “forced” today to become trans.  Emma talks about how she was a tomgirl who wanted to wear boys clothing and was allowed to do so but no one tried to suggest she needed to change her gender.  He mistakes allowing a kid to express themselves is some how forcing them to be trans.  I love how completely supportive of trans people / trans children and up on the facts / reality the people on the show are. Hugs


 

Dance, Dance; Also Laugh


More Fun + A Little Eye Candy

Cover Snark: Detective Stabler, Is That You?

by Amanda · Apr 27, 2026 at 2:00 am 

Welcome back to Cover Snark!

Elyse: The artist was sick the day they learned to draw the lower body.

Sneezy: Never skip leg day.

Amanda: Her dress reminds me of those Barbie dress cakes.

Sarah: That is just So Much Dress.

Also, are his trousers open in the front?! My word!


From Syntha: I don’t even know where to start with this one.

Sarah: He looks like someone. Who does he look like. It’s going to bug me until I figure it out.

Elyse: It’s orange Detective Stabler.

Sarah: YES I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT.

ElyseDoink Doink!


Sarah: Syntha also sent this and I have to say, I respect the attempt:

Syntha: The giraffe neck just looks so silly rising out of the jacket.

Amanda: Honestly, this one is perfect.

No notes.

Elyse: His center of gravity is just so fucked up.

Can you imagine the orthopedic issues that guy has?

Sarah: I really can’t fault any of it.


Sarah: This was a suggestion while I was looking at the Neckromancer (I see what was done there) and in icon size it looks like he is drooling.

Amanda: You can just tell this man has an overinflated ego.

Sarah: He is his own Chosen Champion, huh? Yeah, I see it.

(snip-Far MORE snark in the comments, on the page)

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 5-Minute Takedown of Right Wing Hosts’ IDIOCY

Tyson makes great points how the privacy issues dealing with trans people and also the sports issues.  He suggests ways to handle each of these situations.  He explains it is better to solve the issues instead of forcing everyone to live as was done in the past.  Hugs