These religious groups are terrified that same sex marriage will be codified into law as they see their goal of getting it overturned at the supreme court. We have had legal same sex marriage / marriage equality in the US since 2015 which is by my math today been 7 years without any of the horrors they promised happening. But more than that same sex marriage has been legal in other countries for over 20 years now. I think the real reason they are desperate to stop the legal same sex marriage / marriage equality is it gives a lie to their view of their holy book and the power of their god. If it was truly such an abomination and so hated by the supreme most powerful being in the universe and yet he doesn’t do anything to stop it or prevent it, it makes their god look very weak. I really do not understand why this issue matters so much to them and why they try so hard to stop it. I don’t care about straight couples and their marriages because it doesn’t affect me at all. Why would my marriage, which is in reality a civil legal contract between adults be of any interest to these straight guys? Maybe other people can figure it out. But as Ali said to me on another post, think of how many people could be housed or fed with that money. Hugs
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is spending more than $1 million to run advertisements during the Thanksgiving weekend NFL and college football games to warn Americans that the new Respect for Marriage Act will “expose religious schools and nonprofits to lawsuits,” Fox News Digital reported. It is the biggest campaign the Heritage Foundation has ever launched.
The Respect for Marriage Act’s final vote in the Senate is scheduled for Monday, which, if passed, will codify the right to same-sex marriage. “America’s religious liberty is under attack with this impending vote in the Senate,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said. “This legislation does not add one additional benefit to same-sex couples in the United States; it’s an attack that sets the stage to take rights away from people of faith.”
See the ad below.
What religious schools and organizations could face in the very near future if the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act passes:
❌ Exposed to lawsuits ❌ Targeted by the IRS ❌ Doors closed and services cut
This radical legislation, while posed as anti-discriminatory, is anything but. pic.twitter.com/XI4okDOG1r
I’ll bet that these same people think that black athletes and allies should just shut the fuck up about civil rights because sports shouldn’t be used for political reasons.
It is just so exhausting to ride this fucking rollercoaster. We have marriage equality, then we don’t. Then we do in some states, then we don’t. Then because of ONE swing vote on SCOTUS we got it. Now Congress votes on it, we think we have it for good, now possibly we don’t again. What the FUCK is wrong with this fucking country?
Horrors They are trying to take away our right to Hate and Lie. This is America !! We we will not tolerate it. its an infringement on out God given rights
Radical anti-gay pressure group “Heritage Foundation” wears a 3-piece suit rather than a brown shirt, but it’s still a bunch of thugs doing all they can to smear, revile and cancel gay Americans.
A U.S. company is being investigated by the Department of Labor for employing children in slaughterhouses. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live Read more HERE: https://www.commondreams.org/news/202… “A federal judge on Thursday granted a nationwide injunction against an industrial cleaning company, ordering the company to end its use of “oppressive child labor” after an investigation found it was employing dozens of children as young as 13—some of whom were injured while working in meatpacking facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) requested the injunction in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska after completing an investigation of Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. (PSSI) that began in late August. The federal government had received a tip alleging that PSSI was illegally employing children and that they were working in hazardous conditions.”
The war on women! This is the republican white male religious thugs on their glorious war path for their lord! What else is the legal system / law enforcement for except to enforce males’ supremacy over women and to use the power of the state to enforce control over a womans sex organs. Hugs
An Alabama woman who was jailed for allegedly using drugs during pregnancy has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office saying she wasn’t pregnant, AL.com reports.
According to her lawsuit, an investigation was launched against Stacey Freeman by the Department of Human Resources for substance use when one of her children told a social worker her mom was pregnant. Freeman offered to take a pregnancy test and Etowah County Department of Human Resources employees ordered one for her, but she never ended up taking the test and Etowah County Sheriff Investigator Brandi Fuller issued a warrant for her arrest.
She was arrested and charged with chemical endangerment of a child. She was released a little over a day after her arrest and the charges were dropped.
“It’s just shameful you can go off somebody’s word that somebody’s pregnant,” her attorney Martin Weinberg said. “It’s easy to verify through a pregnancy test.”
Fuller has been involved in “an obscene number of arrests for pregnant and postpartum women,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Sheriff’s department and its employees have been reckless in investigating in making arrests of women for chemical endangerment and then encouraging their prosecution,” the lawsuit said.
While her charges have been dropped, they haven’t been expunged, making the case still available as a public record. The warrant incorrectly states that Freeman tested positive for marijuana, amphetamines and alcohol while pregnant.
Right after I shared one of the things Randy sent me, I got a frantic call from a friend in the park. He needed help sending pictures to FEMA from the computer. This is the only complaint I have with FEMA over the response to Ian, everything is over the computer and we live in an area of a lot of older people and people not computer savvy. So I have let it be know I will help those having issues I will help. I invited them over and took care of the issue. But then we visited for a while. The point is that there are a lot of people who cannot do all the things they need to take care of online. I understand their frustration because I cannot do business over the phone. I can hardly book appointments and other simple things. I am just getting to the point at 59 years old I can talk to friends on the phone. I have explained the reason before. When I was a kid the phone was off limits to me. While the hell spawn could have phones in their rooms and would race to answer the wall phone, I was forbidden to touch it. One time when it rang, I simply lifted the receiver and handed it to someone else, I got reminded physically and verbally that I did not touch the phone. Painfully reminded, the bruises stayed with me for a while to remind me, I did not touch the home phones. Anyway enjoy the posts. Hugs
Another US election, another "Land doesn't vote, people do" style map showing the election results. pic.twitter.com/XmMTSUKJof
Barack Obama Shows What Fox News Destroyed In American Politics
The conservative network started the trend and it’s been turbocharged by social media, the former president told “The Daily Show” host Trevo
HUFFPOST
Barack Obama reflected Thursday on what he could do when running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois in the early 2000s that he most likely couldn’t do now — because of Fox News and social media.
In an interview with “The Daily Show,” the former president recalled campaigning in rural, mainly conservative areas and still connecting with voters on a personal level, even though they were skeptical of his progressive ideas.
“There wasn’t the filter that has been created by Fox News or the media infrastructure, the right-wing conspiracy theory folks, and so they came at me with an open mind,” he told host Trevor Noah.
“I could listen to them and they could listen to me and at the end of the day, they might say, ‘Well he’s a little liberal for our taste, but we have something in common,’ ― like the love they have for their children,” Obama continued. “There was some sense of connection.”
“I think the filter now has become so thick,” he said. “It started with Fox News and some of the other traditional media, and now with social media that’s gotten turbocharged. If you go into those same communities now, they have so many preconceptions about what somebody like me believes, cares about, etc., that it’s very hard to penetrate.”
FOX killed our familial and neighborly dialog because conservatives do not want to defend their ‘values’.
Jesse Benton was pardoned by Russian asset Donald J Trump.
Russian spies look after each other.
Rand Paul works for Putin. His voting record is always pro-Russia. He hand-delivered a letter to Putin. No surprise his family has been groomed, as well, to serve our enemies in Russia.
Naming your kid after soulless Russian Ayn Rand was no mistake for Ron Paul.
Did we just catch him with a state funds kick back? We know he is dirty and willing to do what ever he has to win the big prize, but is the crimes going to be this easy to catch? Next is to try to hold him accountable, as he has set up a kingdom here in Florida that he can order to block and defend him. Hugs
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has so far paid more than $1.5 million to a politically connected contractor for a program to fly migrants from Texas to northeastern states — but the private jets chartered by the contractor cost only a fraction of that sum.
Newly released public records show the contractor, Destin, Florida-based Vertol Systems Company, was quoted a price of roughly $153,000 for two charter plane trips from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. That leaves about $1.4 million in Florida taxpayer funds unaccounted for.
Vertol has connections at the top of the DeSantis administration. The high-ranking DeSantis official who supervised the migrant flight program, public-safety czar Larry Keefe, handled Vertol’s legal work for years. He also served as President Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
Somebody had pay to get the FOX camera crew there to record the migrants’ arrival. Also, I think there was a videographer on board not to mention the mysterious coyote (recruiter) who seems to have disappeared.
Since sales tax is 80% of Floridumb’s revenue stream, it does rely on a huge tourist trade to make up for a lack of state income tax. So it’s not just the idiotic voters.
No big deal, he’ll just write an executive order to criminalize woke journalists who ask questions about how Florida government spends money. Florida voters will love his display of dominance.
They want a Christian country forcing everyone to follow her churches dictates and morality. She is not even interested in thinking for herself, nor what the opinions or how others want to live their lives. She wants the authority over them, she feels entitled to do it. I get so sick of these people. She wants to live by her church rules great, she may go for it. But I don’t belong to her church and should be forced to live by her demands. Nor should the schools, libraries, and kids have to regress to have society fit in with her religion. Plus the usual equating positive LGBTQ+ messages with sexual grooming of kids. Do these people even understand what grooming is? Hugs
The town voted against a property tax to fund the library after conservatives claimed it was “grooming” children.
A town in western Michigan voted again to defund its local library after claims that it was “grooming” children by making LGBTQ books available.
Last Tuesday, 56% of Jamestown Township voters voted against a small property tax used to provide 80% of the funding to keep the local Patmos Library open.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” said Amanda Ensing, one of the people who campaigned against the library. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
The library has been targeted by local conservatives all year for having LGBTQ books in its collection, including books like Spinning and Kiss Number 8. Both books have teen girl characters who discuss their feelings for other girls. Library officials said that the library has about 90 books with LGBTQ themes in its 67,000-book collection.
The library agreed to keep the most controversial book – asexual and nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer – behind the main desk so that people would have to ask a librarian to read it, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the conservatives.
“Pray that we can make changes and make the Patmos Library a safe and neutral place for our children,” said a flyer from one of the local organizations, Jamestown Conservative, this summer.
Two library directors resigned as a result of the hateful messages they received from conservative residents.
The Patmos Library’s funding was on the ballot in the August primary elections, and voters rejected the tax used to pay for the library in that election.
“50% Millage INCREASE to GROOM our kids? Vote NO on Library!” one sign that was directly across the street from the library said, using the regional term “millage” to refer to the property tax.
The story made national headlines. The attention raised over $100,000 for the library in donations, which could cover part of its $245,000 yearly budget. But the library hoped to still get local citizens to pay for their library and put the tax question back on the ballot to ensure the library’s funding over the next decade.
“However, we know very clearly that what this library needs to remain open over the long term is to pass the 10-year levy renewal in November,” the library board wrote in a statement thanking donors for the outpouring of funding. “We cannot run the Patmos Public Library for the next decade without stable taxpayer support.”
“If the levy passes, we will remain a public library and use the donations to add to our capacities. If the levy fails, we will put these donations to work in the best way we can for as long as we can.”
Ensing, who called the issue “Biblical,” said that she didn’t even want the library to close. She just wanted the votes to be a “wake-up call” for the library’s directors.
“A wake-up call to what?” library board director Larry Walton asked. “To take LGBTQ books off the shelf and then they will give us money? What do you call that? Ransom? We stand behind the fact that our community is made up of a very diverse group of individuals, and we as a library cater to the diversity of our community.”
He added that the library provides many services to the community, including free wireless access to people who can’t afford internet access otherwise. Even the community room that was used for voting will have to be closed if the library is closed.
The tax in question is about $24 on houses with a market value of over $250,000.
See how things improve when you get rid of old traditional culture ways of thinking about gender. Let it go. There is no women’s clothing or men’s clothing, there is only clothing. Let go of gender roles, it is a woman’s job or a men’s job, no it is simply a job. When you stop putting everything in a box that only some are allowed to do, when you allow access to that thing by all, it makes everything better for everyone. Hugs
While other airlines struggle to fill staff vacancies, Virgin has no issues recruiting the best potential employees.
The company has reported that the number of applications filed with the airline has doubled since implementing the new more inclusive policy. While other airlines struggle to fill staff vacancies, Virgin has no issues recruiting the best potential employees.
“We saw a 100% uplift in applicants following the campaign, ‘See the world differently’,” Shai Weiss, Virgin’s chief executive officer, said.
Gendered outfits have been tossed on the dustbin and so have other sexist requirements. Female cabin crew is no longer required to wear makeup, tattoos can be visible, and staff are now allowed to wear gender pronoun badges.
Pronoun badges will also be available to customers, who can ask for one at any check-in desk. Customers with gender-neutral markers on their passports will also now be able to select gender-neutral markers for their ticket bookings.
“In lieu of passports with gender-neutral gender markers being available for all, Virgin Atlantic is implementing a longer-term plan to amend communication preferences to ensure customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns across all touchpoints,” the company said in October when they updated the policy.
“At Virgin Atlantic, we believe that everyone can take on the world, no matter who they are,” said Virgin Chief Commercial Officer Juha Jarvinen. “That’s why it’s so important that we enable our people to embrace their individuality and be their true selves at work. It is for that reason that we want to allow our people to wear the uniform that best suits them and how they identify and ensure our customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns.”
Cabin Crew member Jaime Forsstroem celebrated the changes. “The updated gender identity policy is so important to me. As a nonbinary person, it allows me to be myself at work and have the choice in what uniform I wear.”
As you read this story I want you to keep in mind several points. He lied about why he was running for the board and what he wanted to focus on. He tried to sound normal by saying he wanted to focus on generic sounds good school policy stuff. His priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns. As soon as he got elected the rabid Christian pushing his god and his hate for other came rushing out. I thought good Christians did not lie.
Also notice that he wants to beat kids (spank, paddle, strap, you know corporal punishment. Seems he got it as a kid and liked it) even without their parents’ permission. He or anyone else ever used corporate punishment on my kids (hit my kids) they better start gathering up guns fast, because I am coming to see them, and I will be angry!
He thinks disabled kids get away with too much and have it too good. He really means mentally / emotionally disabled kids get away with too much and have it too easy, so keep them home or even though he doesn’t say it we are back to the hit them hard and often, tie them to the desk shit. I suspect he hates the accommodations for kids with physical disabilities who need accommodations like ramps and other changes.
He also thinks gay kids get away with too much and because there is not a policy of blocking out time that the straight kids get to beat up the gay kids, he wants Christian stickers with saved zone on them for places where the Christian kids can gather and force religion on everyone else. He seems to think that is what a rainbow safe place sticker does, provide classrooms where the gay can be forced on all the kids, and maybe that trans stuff being pushed also. Time to get the Christian symbols up in the schools because the gays have special rights not to be assaulted, can’t have that. God first with mandatory prayer. (Maybe he doesn’t think kids will be praying just before they get hit with a heavy paddle for being kids not robots) He intends to go through all the history books because he claims they have revisionist history in them like that this was not a Christian nation and slavery was a bad thing. Going to make sure the kids are taught the truth, god himself set up the US as a Christian nation for Christians only, slavery was not that bad and good for those people, and that kids are taught good republican civics so they can go out and vote republican like god and the founding fathers intended. See he is going to fix that woke liberal indoctrination. Notice he wants / demands respect for authority. Sounds like he is saying you will do as your told and like it, think only republican thoughts, do only straight heterosexual stuff.
The last point I want to make is this asshole wants to block any public health measures including / especially vaccines. He was in the Air Force and that vaccine shit is against freedom. Seems his mind is going on him because in the military you have to take a lot of vaccines and you don’t get a choice, because it is so you can be deployed to places that have really bad shit to make you sick. So he wants to allow every anti-vaccine person to be allowed to send their sick kids to school to make everyone else sick, and that is called freedom in his mind.
Get the point on what is happening here in Florida. Three of these people that believe as he does got elected, this guy pushed out a person who was a teacher for 30 years. They were all backed by the same big money Christian group / network for the express purpose to drive the country regressively back to the 1950s and worse. Total hard right wing Christian propaganda in the schools with zero tolerance for LGBTQ+ or disabled students. We need a lot of people to get upset with what is happening here as the intent is to spread it from Florida and Texas, pushing it all over the country. DeathSantis is going to try to use this type of stuff to become president which means every other republican with ambition is going to go ever more hard core on these issues. Oh and the Qanon darling Gen. Flynn who was working behind the scenes for Russia as trumps National security advisor addressed the candidate’s supporters. Dogs that love gravy, our kids in schools are in a world of hurt and so are we. Hugs
Newly elected Collier County school board member Jerry Rutherford wants to bring corporal punishment back to district classrooms, he said the morning after Tuesday’s election.
He added that disabled students’ behavior in particular is “out of control.”
Additionally, he said he’d like to see fewer “rights” for LGBTQ students — or the same extended to religious students who want to practice religion in school.
Jory Westberry, who lost her school board seat to Rutherford, said his views on corporal punishment, LGBTQ students and religion in schools would “put something so pervasively wrong in schools.”
Florida allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it.
“First of all,” she said, “if (Florida) allows corporal punishment, Collier County does not.”
“Second, students with handicaps are entitled to a free public education without retribution because of their behavior. That’s why we have behavior specialists who work with students, parents and teachers to enable them to have a more effective, productive experience in school,” Westberry said.
Westberry was one of several who spoke out against Rutherford’s priorities.
Rutherford won the District 1 seat away from longtime teacher, administrator and school board member Westberry in the 2022 election with a strong 65.4% of the vote to Westberry’s 34.6%.
After speaking on myriad issues at school board meetings countless times for more than 35 years, Rutherford told the Naples Daily News in July he decided he didn’t want to be on the outside looking in anymore, so he joined the school board race.
This was his first time running for any elected position, he said.
Rutherford was endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, which endorsed all three challengers to the school board. All of them won their races.
As a devout Christian, he’s fought to distribute Bibles in schools and to institute prayer at school board meetings. He has also protested Naples’s LGBTQ Pride festival, specifically speaking out against drag shows.
A veteran of the Air Force, Rutherford has worked in sales and construction and owned a painting business in the Naples area for more than 20 years. He also served as a substitute teacher in the district for three years.
Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative education nonprofit headquartered on Marco Island, congratulated Rutherford, as well as the two other challengers Wednesday via email.
“This win of all three seats is a tremendous victory for the 48,000 kids in Collier schools, their parents, and grandparents, as it now gives a clear conservative majority over a previous left-leaning school board,” Florida Citizens Alliance marketing manager Moise Stael Dantes wrote. “The delivery of quality academics while maintaining the principle of liberty can now become real.”
The ‘board of education’
Rutherford’s stated positions changed dramatically before and after his election.
In July, he told the Naples Daily News his priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns.
But Wednesday morning, reached by phone, Rutherford said he has a five-point agenda he’d like to implement, including “mental and physical discipline,” or physical punishment of children in Collier’s public schools.
“I only went to the principal’s office one time when I was in school and that was when they used the ‘board of education,’ if you get what I’m saying,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford added that disabled students are not in control and get away with too much. He read an article by a California teacher that said he left teaching because his disabled students were swearing and otherwise misbehaving, and he couldn’t hold them accountable.
According to a 2021 analysis by the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policies, Florida is one of at least 18 states that allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, Florida does not require parental permission, only written parental notification after the fact.
Currently, Collier County prohibits corporal punishment. According to school board policy 5630, “the use of corporal punishment, defined in Florida statute as the use of physical force or physical contact for disciplinary purposes, is prohibited.”
Furthermore, Florida Statute 1003.573 states that disabled students can only be physically restrained if there is an imminent risk of serious injury or death to the student or others and only once all positive behavioral strategies have been exhausted.
Jackie Stephens, CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center in Collier County, said she is “alarmed” to hear a school board member wants to bring back corporal punishment to the classroom.
“It can be detrimental to the children,” Stephens said. “There’s no studies that really indicate that spanking is beneficial. It can actually lead to worse behavior and aggression.”
Stephens said many countries have outlawed the spanking of children, even by their own parents. In the United States, many organizations have registered as a “No Hit Zone,” which means they do not condone hitting of any kind.
“There’s a lot of places that are becoming no hit zones, like the Children’s Advocacy Center and hospitals. I think at school would be a good place not to hit children.”
Rutherford’s agenda also focuses on “respect,” he said. “There needs to be respect for ourselves, for others, and for authority.”
In that vein, he said he believed people are being indoctrinated into supporting LGBTQ rights, and “when it comes to indoctrination, I will not put up with that,” he said.
Rutherford added that some legislators had passed bills he believes extends the rights of LGBTQ people beyond normal rights.
“I’m all for equal rights, but I’m not for special rights,” he said.
For example, he said, an LGBTQ student group in Collier County gave teachers a sticker to put on their doors with a rainbow that says “safe zone.” One teacher, he said, refused to put it up.
He did not elaborate further on what rights LGBTQ people have that others do not.
According to The Safe Zone Project, which gives trainings that allow people to learn about LGBTQ identities as well as examine prejudices and biases, the words “safe zone” typically communicate that the person is an ally of the LGBTQ community, has gone through a Safe Zone training, or is trying to communicate support.
“I don’t have a problem with that, but it should extend to sectarians,” Rutherford said.
“If you’re going to have a secular symbol, you have to give a religious one,” he said. “What if we gave teachers a sticker with a cross that said ‘saved zone?’ We have religious rights, and we have personal rights.”
GLSEN, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting LGBTQ students through policy writing and advocacy, said elected leaders and elected school leaders have a responsibility to protect all young people, including LGBTQ youth.
“Queer students in Florida, especially those of color and those who are trans and nonbinary, are being cruelly targeted by extremists,” said GLSEN executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers. “They are facing a hostile climate amid curriculum censorship laws and have been repeatedly subject to political attacks. Florida’s students deserve so much better from the adult politicians who are supposed to support them. This kind of anti-LGBTQ+ fear mongering and misinformation from any school leader is unacceptable.”
“We are absolutely saddened by his agenda,” said Naples Pride president Cori Craciun. “LGBT kids’ rights have been taken away by the Parental Rights Bill, and the Florida Medical Board, which banned (gender-affirming) care for transgender minors. … The ‘safe zones’ are there to protect these children. They are often the only place these children know there is a supportive adult they can reach out to.”
Religion in public schools
Federal law on Bibles in public schools is derived from 1963 Supreme Court case Abingdon v. Schempp, which draws a distinction between devotional reading and the objective study of religion.
In short, while religious texts like the Bible are allowed in public schools for the purpose of studying, what is not allowed is devotion or reading from the Bible as religious practice.
Rutherford added he wants to see “textbooks that are free from bias, censorship and rewritten history,” as well as “morals and ethics in school.”
He said he planned to review all new textbooks and would flag anything he saw as dubious or biased. He did not specify what he considered to qualify as biased or rewritten history.
Rutherford was also eager to see a civics class reinstated in the curriculum, where students would study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights per Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent policy.
But Rutherford said he felt the government has gone too far in other ways, such as by forcing students and teachers to wear a mask in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and by requiring military personnel to get vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 1 million people across the U.S.
As a former airman, he expressed frustration by that.
“They’re saying no (to the vaccine), and they’re getting thrown out for that,” he said.
He noted that while Collier Public Schools required masking early in the pandemic, Mason Classical Academy, a local charter school, did not, which he believes better exemplified respect for students’ rights. Collier should follow Mason’s example, he said.
Education reporter Nikki Ross contributed to this article. Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or kcimini@gannett.com.
