Jon Stewart looks at the GOP response to Trump’s conviction and demands that the media do more than just speculate on future realities. Plus, Ronny Chieng digs into Biden’s executive order at the border along with his D-Day visit to France, and Trump’s background checks on prospective VPs, including Jim Crow fan, Byron Donalds. #DailyShow#Biden#Trump#Election
These same republicans constantly complain and bitch about public schools teaching things other than standard education. They complain about woke subjects and learning true history for example. Back to the basics is their goal they claim. But letting kids miss classes for religious church lessons is great they claim. Kids don’t need schooling they need bible and more bible. Who needs reading especial about people who are different from the majority when they can learn bible by sitting in church having someone tell them what they think god said or meant. And it must be their god not one of those false ones that the bad people worship. Public school is for the multiple of people who believe different things, in different gods or no god. They have churches for that. Keep god in your church and out of public schools. Hugs. Scottie
Governor Stitt signed legislation Wednesday on a framework for public school students to get credits by attending religious instruction during school hours. “What HB 1425 does is that it gives the schools a framework,” said Representative Clay Staires (R-Skiatook), who authored the bill.
Starting in November of this year students from all grade levels would understand their opportunity when leaving their classroom during school and heading to a religious instructional class that has to be off-site. Another rule is that it cannot be led by the school or anyone employed with the school.
Students would be allowed to leave for three class periods a week and 125 class periods a year to attend it. The Satanic Temple announced that if Governor Stitt signed HB 1425 they would offer up their instructional programs.
Below, Christian nationalist state education Superintendent Ryan Walters says satanism is not a religion and therefore leaving school to attend classes offered by atheist trolling outfit the Satanic Temple will not be permitted.
As for Gov. Kevin Stitt, he last appeared here in March 2024 when he declared that God personally had him elected to stop abortion in Oklahoma.
Stitt, who appeared here in November 2023 when he publicly praised illegal cockfighting, is a self-avowed Christian nationalist.
Last year he declared November to be “family month as ordained by God.” In June 2023, he authorized the nation’s first state-funded religious charter school.
In 2022, he claimed “every square inch of Oklahoma in the name of Jesus.” Upon his inauguration, Stitt’s wife declared that his administration’s main priority would be “bringing people to Jesus.”
OK Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters says he supports a bill that allows students to leave school during the day to go to church and receive school credit for it, but not if they go to a church that worships Satan. pic.twitter.com/CKs6YBVplo
Superintendent Ryan Walters says satanism is not a religion and therefore leaving school to attend classes offered by atheist trolling outfit the Satanic Temple will not be permitted.
The IRS Officially Recognizes the Satanic Temple as a Church.
Being granted tax-exempt status essentially means that the Satanic Temple has the same legal protections that other religions do, including “access to public spaces as other religious organizations; affirming its standing in court when battling religious discrimination; and enabling The Satanic Temple to apply for faith-based government grants,” according to a press release sent to Rolling Stone.
Religion does not belong in politics even thought they are like a cancer. If schools can delete Black and Gay studies calling it indoctrination yet encourage religious studies . That is the personification of Hypocrisy
For a few seconds, I was thinking at least these sessions won’t take place in school, and then I saw that the state is determining exactly which religions for which this will be allowed.
They can’t schedule religious classes before or after school or on weekends? They have to have them during math or history or English class? What bullshit!
Welcome to Russia under Putin, Hungary under Victor Orban, North Korea under Kim Jong Un, or China under Xi Jinping. Now the nation of Georgia. What do these countries have in common? They are dictatorships with the people have no rights or limited rights. They have to live as the state demands, live as the govern tell them they must, like it or not.
Do we really want that here? But that is what the minority of Fundamentalist Christians and right wing maga republicans want. Complete control over the lives of the people. The want a white controlled cis straight society who are forced to live by their version of Christianity. They want to do this to the US also. Plus notice the hater bigots leaders in the US had been over there stirring up anti-LGTQ+ hate and vilification. Hugs. Scottie
The latest effort to restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia comes shortly after a “foreign agent” law was adopted in May despite weeks of unrest and pro-EU rallies. The Georgian parliament, where the ruling Georgian Dream party has a decisive majority, will start discussing the planned LGBTQ+ bill in the coming weeks. The final reading is expected to be held in the fall.
If adopted, the bill, as well as amendments to 18 existing laws, would make any kind of LGBTQ+-related gatherings illegal. The proposal would also outlaw same-sex marriages, gender transition and the adoption of children by same-sex couples; it would also ban LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in schools and prohibit the broadcast of intimate scenes involving same-sex relationships.
Same-sex couples would be stripped of their rights under terms of a new draft law put forward by Georgia’s ruling party. The move marks yet another major break between the European Union and the candidate country in the South Caucasus.
On Tuesday, Shalva Papuashvili [screenshot] — the speaker of Georgia’s parliament and one of the leaders of the governing Georgian Dream faction — brought forward a package of legislation targeting so-called “LGBT propaganda.”
Broadcasters, advertisers and movie theaters will also be ordered to redact any content that features same-sex relationships, regardless of the intended age of the audience, before broadcast.
So much for their EU candidacy.
I first reported the then-proposed bill in March 2024, at which time its backers acknowledged that it could even criminalize the possession of rainbow flags.
As I reported at the time, last year Tbilisi Pride was shut down after police failed to stop hundreds of violent extremists from storming the event.
A similar incident in 2021 resulted in a fatality and a formal call for prosecutions from the US State Department.
That same week in 2021, it was revealed that US hate group leader Brian Brown had endorsed an extremist affiliated with that year’s anti-LGBTQ mob.
As noted by Right Wing Watchat the time, Brown also accompanied said extremist when he organized “illegal gangs” to protest Tbilisi Pride in 2019. Video of Brown at that protest is still on Facebook.
Georgia, population 4 million, is around 90% Christian with most belonging to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Georgian Dream Party holds half of the seats in parliament, with the rest scattered among 14 other parties.
Of note, in 2022 I reported that Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili met with US leaders in Washington DC to plea for support should Russia’s attack on Ukraine expand into Georgia.
Zourabichvili leaves office later this year, after which future Georgian presidents will be “selected indirectly” by parliamentary electors.
Georgia's ruling party has proposed a package of legislation to restrict LGBTQ+ rights — yet another initiative that is seen as a Kremlin-style repressive policy. https://t.co/vUn14cEFTM
Georgia introduces Russian-style crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights — Same-sex marriages to be banned, only heteros could adopt children. Changing gender to be outlawed, references to LGBTQ+ people to be erased from public spaces and broadcasters, ads, movies https://t.co/F4eh4ELdXL
— Alfons López Tena 🦇 (@alfonslopeztena) June 4, 2024
The package of anti-LGBTI laws proposed in #Georgia are an affront to the human rights of everyone in the country, a clear rejection of accession to the EU by Georgia’s Russian influenced government, and should be wholly rejected by lawmakers. https://t.co/pbir6vJzlKpic.twitter.com/TvViPDDear
Today, I had the official privilege of welcoming Her Excellency Salome Zourabichvili, President of Georgia, to the U.S. Capitol.
Congress proudly stands with the people of Georgia, and we remain unwavering in support of their sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/UFfDJWVGCG
I love that they say Vermont doesn’t care about vulnerable children when these people want to abuse vulnerable LGBTQ+ children by forcing a religion on them that calls them an abomination. They want the right to force these kids into conversion therapy or to not let them transition. This is seriously scary shit. Hugs. Scottie
They claim it’s religious discrimination to not let them foster children they say they will refuse to accept.
Two Christian families in Vermont, alongside the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, are suing the state after it stripped their foster care licenses over their homophobic and transphobic beliefs.
“Vermont says they’re unfit to parent any child because of their traditional religious beliefs about human sexuality,” said ADF legal counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse in a press release. “Vermont seems to care little about the needs of vulnerable children, much less the constitutional rights of its citizens. That’s why we’re suing them in federal court.”
Roger Gannam said that trans-inclusive anti-discrimination policy would lead to sexual assaults against women.
The Wuoti and Gantt families filed the lawsuit along with the ADF on Tuesday, initiating a formal complaint against the state.
Vermont changed its policies regarding foster families in recent years to better support LGBTQ+ youth. It requires that foster parents are supportive of young people’s identities – such as properly gendering trans youth or allowing kids to embrace their sexual orientation.
It strictly prohibits “discrimination and bias based on a child or youth’s real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
The lawsuit argues that both families are required by their religion to misgender any foster children, stating that “a person’s sex is binary and fixed by God at conception.” It goes further in arguing that, in the case of the Gantt family, they believe that trans people must detransition and that people should not gender trans people correctly.
The lawsuit also claims that Kaitlyn Wuoti had gender dysphoria as a child, leading her to be filled with “compassion” for children. Both Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti believe that they cannot even associate with a Pride parade or those in it because “they convey a message about human sexuality that goes against their faith.”
Radke emphasized in a statement that while DCF does not comment on pending lawsuits, the lawsuit was nevertheless filed at the beginning of Pride Month, a time normally dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ people.
“It is a human right for all to be valued and supported, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Radke said. “The Family Services Division is here to serve all and upholds that expectation for both its staff, as well as the foster parents who agree to take on the care of the youth in our custody.”
This lawsuit comes at a time when LGBTQ+ youth are especially vulnerable, facing attacks on their healthcare across the world. This atmosphere contributes to stigma against these youths. Moreover, LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to be homeless and in the foster system.
“It’s the role of families to provide that kind of affirmation and validation,” said Amanda Rohdenburg with Outright Vermont. She says it’s impossible to tell who is LGBTQ+ just by looking at them, so LGBTQ+ youth might be placed with anti-LGBTQ+ foster parents. “They are at high risk of experiencing rejection or internalizing homophobia or transphobia that impacts their sense of sense over their lifetime.”
The named defendants in the suit are Department for Children and Families (DCF) Commissioner Christopher Winters, Deputy Commissioner of the DCF’s Family Services Division Aryka Radke, and DCF’s Director of Residential Licensing & Special Investigations Stacey Edmunds.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, Windham Division and has Gretchen M. Wade of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, P.L.L.C as additional legal counsel.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is known for its ties to the book The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, which was written by former ADF CEO Alan Sears and ADF member Craig Osten. They group also supports banning LGBTQ+ individuals from the military and the Boy Scouts of America.
The ADF has filed lawsuits across the country, such as in the case of 303 Creative vs. Elenis, where they defend an individual trying to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals based on religion.
Reality means nothing to him and his cult. He says three different contradictory things before breakfast and his cult buys into each one. When it is said about him though … no way … and they scream violence and hate on everyone. They are a cult. The republican party is no more. It is the cult of tRump party, and his people control all the party apparatus. They are in charge of the most important thing in that former party, the money and the base. So the rest bow down, do what is demanded / needed kiss what he tells them too, and they get to stay in their office. Why is that so important. Don’t the public realize, a seat in federal, and even some what to a smaller degree, a seat in federal congress is the the golden ticket to wealth and fame. Republicans don’t give a shit about governing, most of them hate it and don’t know how to do it. To them it is the way to riches and power. That is their turn on, their goal in life. As it is their god they follow, the Dear Leader tRump. Hugs. Scottie
I just posted a video by Jon Stewart talking about this subject. The next comment I read was by Susan, her link below, who reminded me of a post she made on this same subject. I am going to repost it because I think it will help all of us dealing with the tRump supporters, the Covid deniers, the people who simply can not accept or see reality. Hugs. Scottie
A theory regarding the continued disconnect between Trump objectors and Trump supporters: the divide occurs between those who believe words have meaning and those who do not.
We can trace the beginning of this divide to the moment Trump first announced his candidacy when he famously said of immigrants, “They’re rapists, they’re murderers, and some, I assume, are good people.” Those of us who believe words have meaning interpreted that to mean “They’re rapists, they’re murderers, and some, I assume, and good people.”
Those who would go on to support Trump heard those words differently. They heard some version of “immigrants are bad.” The distinction is important because it highlights the problem with covering this candidate. When somebody deploys weapons with the carelessness and frequency of Donald Trump, it makes it impossible to analyze his every bizarre utterance. How does one separate the bull from the shit?
The Tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel
But the Trump supporter listens to the diarrhetic stream-of-conscious ramblings of their champion and hears soaring rhetoric. The lies, the exaggerations, the threats, the cruelty. They don’t hear any of it. They hear notions: strength, greatness, power. For them, every time he walks out onto a stage double-dick-sucking to the strains of YMCA, it’s Lincoln at Gettysburg. Only better, because Lincoln only spoke for a few minutes, whereas Trump rambles on for ninety minutes at a go.
I really think we’re hearing two different speeches. His supporters are taking in one set of cogent, well-prepared remarks and we’re hearing, well, we’re hearing what he’s actually saying, in all of its crackpot lunacy.
If words have meaning, and Trump’s speaks his words truthfully, then Trump is the greatest president in American history, done more for American Black people than Abraham Lincoln, is a genius – and a stable one at that, his inauguration was the most highly watched inauguration in history, he won California in 2016, as well as the national popular vote, and he won the entire election in 2020. But that’s only if words have meaning.
If words don’t have meaning, we could interpret those same remarks any way we want. We can take him literally or seriously, or literally but not seriously, or seriously but not literally, or we can just assign any random meaning to his words the way the government assigns meaningless code words when naming secret operations so that anybody who hears those words would have no idea what they’re supposed to mean. If words have no meaning, why should anybody get upset when you call their nation a “shithole country” or you call one of The Apprentice contestants “a n—”? Why should anybody disbelieve anything you say when you haven’t said anything to begin with?
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Michael Cohen was probably both correct and incorrect when he discussed the way Trump talks “in code,” but that people close to him understand what he’s saying. No doubt Trump talks in mob-influenced patois: “Our friend David is taking care of it,” because that sort of vaguery relieves Trump of responsibility from a misinterpretation of his intentions. When somebody screws up, it’s never Trump’s fault. How could it be? If they had only listened to what he said, they would have done the job right the first time. Of course, they had listened to what he said but didn’t understand what he meant because it’s unlikely Trump knew what he meant.
Because – and this is the key point – Donald Trump is dumb.
We know this because people who both know the man and believe that words have meaning have said he’s dumb. One of his professors at Wharton, William Kelly, called Trump “the dumbest goddamned student I ever had.” His first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, called Trump a “fucking moron.” General John Hyten said about Trump, “the president is an idiot.” His first Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, said Trump is “like a fifth of sixth grader.” I’m sure he didn’t mean it as an insult to fifth or sixth graders.
Dumb people don’t read. They don’t speak with precision. They don’t understand nuance. They have no sense of humor. They often an exaggerated sense of self. They possess unearned confidence. Does this sound like anybody you know?
Which isn’t to say Trump isn’t also a genius. He is. That’s what makes him a unique American figure. Trump understands the dark side of human nature better than most. He understands fear and greed, and mines his own fear and greed to inspire others to feel as bleakly about humanity as he feels about himself. The words don’t matter because the sentiment is so powerful.
Rhetoric fails in his firehose of emotion. It’s the great gift of the autocrat, to inject words with the same shit they put under the skin of supermarket rotisserie chickens to make them so delicious. We know it’s bad for us, but we choose to ignore it because it tastes so good. Trump knows he’s injecting poison into the bloodstream of the American body politic but doesn’t care. Worse, he celebrates it because bile is his mother’s milk.
I apologize for all the Trump stuff lately. As the election nears, it’ll probably continue. But maybe you like it, in which case, toss a little sub my way? As my hero once asked, “What the hell do you have to lose?”
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The Trump voter is unreachable because the words one would use to convince the Trump voter are words that voter has already rejected. Words like “election,” “flag,” “nation,” “citizen,” “immigrant.” These, and probably hundreds of other words, no longer mean the same thing to me as they do the Trump voter because Trump himself has twisted them into levers of governmental oppression. Even the word “guilty,” repeated 34 times this week, now means something other than what it means.
I worry we’ve lost America, not because of any single candidate, but because the language itself has been cleaved in two. The language itself has become so politicized that we can no longer even understand each other. We’ve made a Babel of America, and I don’t know how we learn to understand each other again.
Jon Stewart breaks down the response to Trump’s guilty verdict from Joe Biden and the media, as well as the GOP’s vow for revenge and hypocritical complaint about Democrats pursuing “political prosecutions.” Plus, Jon pleads with the media to act a little more like the court system and examine evidence and reach conclusions, instead of wildly speculating on future realities. #DailyShow#JonStewart#Trump
The good people are fighting back now. DeathSantis and his fundamentalist minority have pushed decent people too far. But look for a response from the right wing shock troops, the Proud Boys, the militias, the other right wing gang thugs. Hugs. Scottie
Several Tampa Bay area cities have raised the LGBTQ Pride flags over city buildings this weekend. But that would have been illegal if a bill that died in this year’s Florida Legislature had instead become law.
On Saturday morning the city of Gulfport in south Pinellas County raised the Pride flag over its public library. It came after a short ceremony of speeches honoring the city’s commitment to equality and before a day-long block party celebration of Pride.
The nearby City of St. Petersburg raised its LGBTQ Pride flag over City Hall on Friday. Meanwhile, the City of Clearwater will host Pride events but will not fly the Pride flag at a city building.
Also raising the Pride flag over their city halls this weekend were Tampa, Wilton Manors, Miami, and Orlando. If you know of any others, let us know in the comments.
The Republican bill to ban Pride flags at government buildings passed earlier this year in the Florida House, but died when the state Senate ran out of time to vote on the issue before the session ended for the year.
Of note, an amendment to the Senate version of the bill would have allowed the Confederate flag, something its sponsor later claimed was as “error.”
— Whitney Fox for Congress (FL-13) (@whitfox) June 2, 2024
The vibrant streets of Gulfport were illuminated in the colors of the rainbow on Saturday as neighbors, business owners and city leaders welcomed people from across Tampa Bay at their fourth annual Gulfport Pride Festival. https://t.co/GkSqEJhIN4
Happy Pride Month, Wilton Manors! No matter how you show up, we'll always celebrate that you've found your home here in the Island City. pic.twitter.com/51NouvUEj8
— WiltonManorsOfficial (@WiltonManorsCty) June 1, 2024
The colors of love and progress are flying high in Orlando as we raise the Progress Pride Flag at Orlando City Hall in celebration of our LGBTQ+ community and their ongoing fight for equality. https://t.co/XJTIK6GB10
Funny how the party that’s always going on about the First Amendment and free speech is always trying to ban speech they don’t like, in this case flying a flag.
This is vivid example of what I said yesterday about opposing a gay tourism boycott of Florida. Aside from the fact that countless of our people make their money that way, the major cities in Florida, most of which are run by Democrats, are overwhelmingly on our side.
AND you (and all of us) can be refused medical care. What if I get food poisoning, have car accident? And gay-bashed. I won’t want someone’s ‘sincere’ religious beliefs to interfere with my ‘sincere’ desire to stay alive and healthy.
I was just in a Tires Plus shop to replace a tire. I had to use the bathroom, so I asked where it was. The guy at the desk pointed to it, and said it was the door to the left. It was marked Ladies!!! The men’s bathroom was out of order, and the guy told me that it was “Uni-sex”!!!
I replied, that I am glad for the Democracy and Equaiity!!!
I was in the Eureka/Arcata/McKinleyvillle area of northern California last weekend and every restaurant bathroom I went into was M/F/Who Cares? As they should be.
Photo: Shutterstock
