Seriously I have long said this was the goal of the anti-same sex marriage people. They admitted it years ago. Make the idea of it harder and harder to get, and more and more meaningless in that it creates two types of marriage. The one the Christian right prefers as a full benefit marriage, the other highly restricted as a type of civil union, but not a full marriage. What I have never understood is why this is so important to them, the Christian haters. Is it because it gives recognition to those they call an abomination? Is it just so they can look down on and feel better than some other people? What drives this desperate urge of them to keep what is basically a civil right only to themselves? If someone can explain it to me, I would be grateful. I never understood such hate and effort to have special privileges that the Christian republican right wants for themselves. Hugs. Scottie
This trash thinks he is both a Christian and worth to be a legislator. There is no Christian state! The US by the constitution can not have a state / national religion, and children who are not following their strict church doctrines are not filth. A 16 year old was beaten in a bathroom for being different! In the US. And this clown is proud of it. Is that what we want the US to be, to look like? I saw this and I was stunned at the absolute inhumanity of what he is saying. Hugs. Scottie
“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state — we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose.
“We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.” GOP Oklahoma state Sen. Tom Woods, when asked about the death of nonbinary teen student Nex Benedict.
Listen to the applause below.
After a non-binary teen’s death, GOP lawmakers were asked why they obsessed over the lives of LGBTQ people.
State Sen. Tom Woods gave the worst possible answer: he wanted to “keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state.”https://t.co/HrIOkhRVXA
There’s a lot to be disgusted by here, but do not overlook the fact that Christian nationalist language is being used to justify the death of a non-binary student — with absolute authority & confidence. ———
That “filth” was A CHILD !! To use one of their own parlances, “That was one of God’s children” of whose demise this cruel, evil, self-righteous & souless creature glories in.
White Nationalists absolutely believe that. I remember having a step dad who was a licensed Pastor who was one of them. Blacks and Jews were also singled out as Satan’s spawn and therefore hating and even killing them was seen as righteous.
Dehumanizing people makes it easy to be cruel to them.
So my take away here is in your/Oklahoma’s definition of”filth “ is non binary children . The sooner they commit suicide or die off the better Oklahoma will be. It’s so damming Christian of you . You heartless cold bigoted snot . How the fuck can you even look at yourself in a mirror. No I guess you type cast no image
Well, they already passed a law here in Oklahoma to take away the option for non binary people to change their birth certificate and they proposed a bill this legislative session to do the same for the rest of us.
The tRump party is not so slowly being taken over by Nazis. Why? Because hatred. The party has long been the home of racist, and few do racism as openly and fervently as Nazis. Is this the look the people of the US want associated with the US? Hugs. Scottie.
The presence of these extremists has been a persistent issue at CPAC, and in previous years conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes.
The Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23.Mandel Ngan / AFP – Getty Images
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Nazis appeared to find a friendly reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year.
Throughout the conference, racist extremists, some of whom had secured official CPAC badges, openly mingled with conference attendees and espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The presence of these individuals has been a persistent issue at CPAC. In previous years, conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes.
But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance at the conference where Donald Trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017.
At the Young Republican mixer Friday evening, a group of Nazis who openly identified as national socialists mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed so-called “race science” and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
One member of the group, Greg Conte, who attended the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, said that his group showed up to talk to the media. He said that the group was prepared to be ejected if CPAC organizers were tipped off, but that never happened.
Another, Ryan Sanchez, who was previously part of the Nazi “Rise Above Movement,” took photos and videos of himself at the conference with an official badge and touted associations with Fuentes.
Other attendees in Sanchez’s company openly used the N-word.
For several years, CPAC and its supporters have attempted to temper the most extreme fringes of the conservative movement, and have welcomed the continued debate between Trump and more moderate conservatives.
This year, however, some attendees and former attendees have expressed frustration with the conference’s stronger association with Trump and his wing of the party.
In one of the most viral moments from this year’s conference, conservative personality Jack Posobiec called for the end of democracy and a more explicitly Christian-focused government. While Posobiec later said his statements were partly satire, many CPAC attendees embraced his and others’ invocations of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
CPAC organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“At the Young Republican mixer Saturday evening a group of Nazis … mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed race science and antisemitic conspiracy theories.” https://t.co/KmqaeY5zz7
Last night at a young Republican mixer I met Greg Conte and several of his friends.
They openly identify as National Socialists and within minutes of meeting them they began espousing anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/TcKxj6erVE
Conte attended the Unite the Right rally and was a key ally of Richard Spencer.
I’m recent years, CPAC has been intentional about removing neo-Nazis from the conference. But several of Conte’s group had obtained CPAC badges and were openly talking about race science.
Ryan Sanchez, neo-Nazi, with Jared Taylor, a eugenics supporter at CPAC. Note Jared's name tag says Samuel Taylor, his pen-name on a newsletter called American Renaissance. pic.twitter.com/tJmUHUKiI4
Why should we be surprised? CPAC this year literally had keynote speakers calling for the violent overthrow of our government and the end of our democratic republic.
This is where our main stream media is failing us miserably. I can understand not covering “innuendo” and “dog whistles” in depth. But out and about Nazis at a Conservative Political Action Committee conference?! Which is the political arm of our Republican Party?! This should be front and center on our televisions and in our newspapers.
You’d think Fixed News would proudly blare it since it’s obviously what their viewing audience wants to hear. But they won’t because they know it would hurt their bottom line.
Please understand I read this article, but I can not go back through and colorize it. I have nothing to say I have not screamed already. Please do notice this is being driven by Christian hate and bigotry. The groups pushing this are proud of it, that they are Christians. Are they? Read about Vinny Langworthy, a trans boy followed into bathrooms with people trying to take pictures of him under the bathroom stall doors. Tell me again who are the real sex perverts? I thought Christians leaders were for keeping families together, but here they have broken up families as one parent needs to take a trans child out of state leaving the other parent behind. Sorry people there is a lot in this article, and I have reached over load. I am trying desperately not to cry, I have been up all night not able to sleep and I seriously I just want all the hate to stop. Please, just for a few hours at least. Maybe I will watch more of the Picard series Ron got me, but then … See I had almost cleared two weeks of old tabs tonight, I rushed through others blogs I saved, I answered comments, I was going good. But the last few stories of hate and bigotry have finally broken me. Hugs. Scottie
————————————————————————————————————
Nex Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
LGBTQ+ community members in the state are vowing resilience with a message that “we’re not going anywhere” after the 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death.
As news broke this week about the death of 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict, who died after a fight in a school bathroom, crisis calls to an Oklahoma LGBTQ+ support organization more than quadrupled — with 69 percent of callers referencing Benedict.
As parents, youth and the larger community grapple with the news, Lance Preston, the executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project, said he wants queer youth to know they are well-supported in the state.
“We have an entire army that is standing beside them,” Preston said. “People are not going to ignore them.”
Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. It is unclear if the incident was hate motivated due to Benedict’s gender, but the youth had reported increasing anti-transgender bullying throughout the school year after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a bill requiring students to use a bathroom that aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Owasso Public Schools said in a statement that school officials responded appropriately to the fight and have cooperated with the Owasso Police Department’s investigation into Benedict’s death. The district said that all of the students involved walked on their own to the assistant principal’s office and were medically evaluated, per school policy, by a nurse.
“While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, out of an abundance of caution, it was recommended to one parent that their student visit a medical facility for further examination,” the district said in its statement.
Owasso Police said Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy indicates Benedict didn’t die of trauma and that officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology report, which could take months.
The district declined to provide details about the disciplinary measures taken against students involved in the fight due to federal privacy laws. Benedict’s mother told The Independent that Owasso High School officials told her that her child would be suspended for two weeks for the physical altercation. She added that Benedict explained that the fight now linked to their death involved them and a transgender classmate against three girls, all older.
Preston said he has seen a shift in the parents of trans kids.
“It’s kind of been an awakening moment for them,” he said. “Whether they were supportive before, now they’ve kind of gone into that hyper-supportive mode to make sure that they’re doing everything right.”
One mom called Preston on Tuesday crying.
“She had misused a pronoun [with her transgender child] and corrected it immediately but was worried to death that that was going to be enough to harm her child.”
We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening.
Chelsea Richardson
Chelsea Richardson, whose transgender son Vinny Langworthy survived his own bathroom harassment in high school, made the decision to stay in Oklahoma and provide safe places for kids like her son by opening a bookstore.
Richardson was at her store, getting ready for her grand opening, when the alert about Benedict hit her phone. She felt her heart hit her stomach.
“We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening,” she said.
Langworthy was out as transgender for his entire time at Harding Charter Preparatory, about two hours southwest of Owasso. He socially and medically transitioned as he got older, and other students started to read him as male. One day, another student took a photo of his feet and legs from under a bathroom stall and posted it to Snapchat, he said. The photo was captioned with an anti-trans slur.
“It was definitely just a hard situation to navigate or always feel like you’re being watched,” Langworthy said.
No longer safe to use student bathrooms, Langworthy used the teachers’ bathrooms, a change that made him late for class or prevented him from using a bathroom at all. He started coming home with urinary tract infections.
Queer kids here are not safe in schools.
Vinny Langworthy
He graduated without a solution. Now 18, he said the news of Benedict and the alleged bullying they faced infuriated him.
“Students should be protected and taken care of no matter their gender identity,” he said. “Queer kids here are not safe in schools.”
Eridian Dempsey of Stand with Trans, which supports transgender youth and their families, said that bullied LGBTQ+ are often disciplined by schools rather than supported by them.
“That happens all the time,” said Dempsey, who is an intern with Stand with Trans, part of the organization’s Youth Advisory Board and its Therapy Assistance Program coordinator. “It’s essentially scapegoating the trans child even though they didn’t necessarily do anything and they were defending themselves if they even fought back. If they didn’t, why are they being blamed in the first place?”
It’s not clear if Benedict and their transgender classmate were in the bathroom together to offer protection to each other, but Dempsey recommends that trans students and their supporters take part in an effort called I’ll Go With You in which allies accompany trans youth into restrooms and other spaces where they may be concerned about their safety.
“They have buttons that people will wear to show that they’re willing to go to the bathroom to help keep trans individuals safe,” Dempsey said.
Although these efforts help, they don’t address why trans youth are targets of bullying and abuse in the first place. Dempsey said that state and local policies contribute to the problem.
“One hundred percent there’s no doubt about it that when the state says we are not OK with trans people living as who they are, then that tells the kids in the schools, ‘If you don’t feel OK with trans people, good for you,’” Dempsey said.
Benedict’s mother learned about the bullying the teen reportedly endured in early 2023, months after the governor signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
The bullying Benedict endured reportedly started in early 2023, shortly after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
Rachel Laser, CEO and president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement that Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters have contributed to the hostile climate against LGBTQ+ youth in the state through their efforts to integrate anti-trans laws and fundamentalist Christianity into public schools.
“Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious public school, which will discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, and Walters appointed Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, unqualified internet bully, to ban books and oversee school safety,” Laser said. “The hostile, Christian Nationalist environment Walters and Stitt have nurtured in Oklahoma public schools has created a permission structure for anti-LGBTQ+ persecution, and it’s no surprise that teens noticed.”
Cait Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said that when young trans people hear that lawmakers are debating their very existence in state governments, it is extremely harmful. They pointed out that last year more than 60 percent of anti-LBGTQ+ bills introduced into states nationwide specifically targeted youth.
“When we have anti-LGBT bills talking about what schools should and shouldn’t do, it takes away the ability of school staff and families to make those decisions among themselves, among the experts and folks that are closest to the schools and students,” Smith said. “Really, this should be up to families. It should be up to students in schools to be able to foster and find the right policies to foster safe and affirming environments at school.”
Nicole Pointdexter and her son said they were not in a position to stay and fight. The two fled the state for Colorado after Stitt signed a gender-affirming care ban for youth last May.
“They broke up my family,” she said. “I have two boys that still live in Oklahoma.”
Pointdexter and her ex-husband amicably co-parent their three children. In Oklahoma, Poindexter and her ex lived a five-minute walk from each other, and the kids traveled between houses. All of the adults, including the parents’ new partners, enjoyed family meals together. But the gender-affirming care ban made it impossible for Pointdexter’s trans son to stay in Oklahoma. Her ex-husband couldn’t leave his job. Her twin boys didn’t want to give up their spots on their baseball team.
“It was incredibly difficult to make that decision,” she said.
According to research from The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth in Oklahoma say that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being sometimes or frequently. Forty-seven percent reported that they’ve been physically threatened or harmed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only 31 percent agreed that their school was an LGBTQ+-affirming space.
“Young people deserve to go to school without fearing for their safety, regardless of their identity,” said Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project. “We hope that leaders in Oklahoma and across the U.S. wake up to the reality that targeting trans and nonbinary youth has real and dire consequences.”
When trans youth and their families hear about tragedies like Benedict’s death, it escalates their anxiety by reinforcing the message that it’s not OK to be trans, Dempsey said. Parents worry that they can’t keep their trans children safe in hostile schools with a hostile political climate to match. Parents with bullied trans children need to document each incident carefully, including which school personnel they asked to intervene and the outcomes of their meetings with those officials, Dempsey recommended.
I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.
Chelsea Richardson
They also said that parents should try to openly communicate with their children on an ongoing basis because children may not bring up that they’re being bullied in a conversation unprompted.
Smith wants trans students who feel scared in the wake of Benedict’s death to know that they’re not alone.
“It is scary to see this happen to a member of your community,” they said. “We are going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing back against harmful policies. In the meantime, I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.”
Richardson wants them to know that, too. She has already received threats because she plans on opening a welcoming book store. She isn’t scared.
“I’ve never liked a bully, and I’ve never backed down from a bully,” she said. “So I’m kind of like … let’s do this. We’re not going anywhere. You’re not gonna bully us out of this state.”
I want to thank Ali for the link to a news site I had not seen. I found several important news article to read up on. Like this one.
First are we really going to do the hair length think in 2023? I remember the forced near baldness buzz cut I was forced to wear with the adoptive parents fought with the male hell spawn about their hair length, which they were allowed to wear long as the youth style was at the time. Native First People boys were forced to cut their long hair by white administrators at schools or care homes. It is crazy that something like hair length is still an issue. Short hair on boys and men is simply a way to enforce hegemony and the wish of some on the right to return to the 1950s. I really can not see how this is not discrimination? If girls can only have long hair, then it is discrimination against the boys. If it is only long dreadlocks that are singled out, then it is racial. But no matter, why does the length of hair matter to learning, to education? Does short hair mean your brain takes in knowledge better? I find the treatment the boy was put through to be inhumane and cruel. It seemed designed to break the boy and make him bow down to the authorities. But the article makes clear this is racial, this is against dreadlocks, and to enforce a near military hairstyle favored by right wing republican ideology. Hugs. Scottie
Darryl George speaks during a press conference before a hearing regarding George’s punishment for violating school dress code policy because of his hair style on February 22, 2024, in Anahuac, Texas.(KIRK SIDES/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP)
After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated throughout.
A Texas judge on Thursday said the Barbers Hill Independent School District can punish a Black student who wears his hair in long locs without violating Texas’ new CROWN Act, which is meant to prevent hairstyle discrimination in schools and workplaces.
The decision came after a months long dispute between the district and Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School who has been sent to in-school suspension since August for wearing his hair in long locs. Legislators last year passed a law called the Texas CROWN Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective styles associated with race. Protective styles include locs, braids and twists.
But the Barbers Hill school district successfully argued it can still enforce its policy that prohibits males from wearing hair that extends beyond eyebrows, earlobes or collars even if it’s gathered on top of the student’s head.
Judge Chap B. Cain III issued the ruling after a short trial in which lawyers for opposing sides argued over the legislative intent behind the CROWN Act. Lawyers for Barbers Hill said lawmakers would have included explicit language about hair length had they intended the law to cover it. Allie Booker, representing Darryl George and his mother Darresha George, said protective styles are only possible with long hair.
“You need significant length to perform the style,” Booker said. “You can’t make braids with a crew cut. You can’t lock anything that isn’t long.”
George exited the courtroom in tears, walking alongside his mother and several lawmakers who co-authored the CROWN Act.
“As I was walking down with Ms. George and Darryl, you could sense the anger, you could sense the confusion,” said Candice Matthews, the statewide chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats. “Darryl told me, with tears in his eyes: ‘All this because of my hair?’”
Greg Poole, superintendent of the Barbers Hill school district, declined an interview after the decision came down. In a statement sent through the district’s spokesperson, Poole applauded the decision.
“The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district’s dress code does not violate the CROWN Act and that the CROWN Act does not give students unlimited self-expression,” Poole said.
Poole also suggested that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on college admissions will have ramifications on Texas’ new CROWN Act.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action is a violation of the 14th Amendment, and we believe the same reasoning will eventually be applied to the CROWN Act,” Poole said.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 40 years of legal precedent and rejected race-conscious admissions in higher education at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The majority found that the universities’ admissions policies, which use race as one of several factors in college admissions, violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which mandates that people are treated equally under the law. The majority of justices found that the race-based policies do not pass “strict scrutiny,” meaning the policies are not justified by a compelling state interest.
It’s unclear how the debate about the CROWN Act is analogous to that SCOTUS ruling. Unlike the college admissions case, Barbers Hill officials have not contested the legality of the CROWN Act itself. They have simply rejected a particular interpretation of the law. The Texas Tribune reached out to Poole to clarify his comments, but he did not immediately respond.
Booker said after the Texas ruling Thursday that she intends to appeal the decision. She also said she will file an injunction in a pending federal lawsuit filed by Darresha and Darryl George against the school district as well as state leaders.
During the trial, Booker called upon two witnesses: Darresha George and Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, who co-authored the CROWN Act and chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. Attorneys asked George’s mother few questions, only asking her to identify her son and define his hairstyle.
Reynolds, however, was questioned at length as the two sides argued over the intent behind the law. Reynolds said he co-authored the bill because he was disturbed by Barbers Hill’s treatment of DeAndre Arnold, a Black student who was told he couldn’t attend his graduation ceremony at Barbers Hill High School unless he cut his locs. A judge issued a preliminary injunction in that case, blocking the school district from enforcing its policy in that particular case. Litigation is ongoing in the case.
“I felt compelled to file legislation to protect students who were similarly situated,” Reynolds said from the witness stand.
Attorneys for Barbers Hill repeatedly objected — with mixed success — to Booker’s line of questioning. They interrupted nearly every one of her questions to say they were irrelevant or that the intent behind the law was plain within the law itself.
“It would be an error to consider Rep. Reynolds’ comments as indicative of legislative intent,” Barbers Hill attorney Sara Leon said in her closing argument to the judge. “You do have evidence of legislative intent, which is the language of the statute, which does not mention length.”
Judge Cain ultimately sided with Barbers Hill, saying that the CROWN Act could have been written to say that individuals with braids, locs or twists are exempt from any hair length policy. He encouraged lawmakers to go back to the Legislature and file a new version of the CROWN Act that includes specific language about length.
The judge did not comment on the constitutionality of Barbers Hill’s policy, which Bookers had called into question during her opening and closing arguments. She said that the district’s grooming policy violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution because it is only applied to one gender. And she further argued that because the CROWN Act names a specific “protected class” of individuals with a particular hairstyle associated with race, the burden must be on the school district to prove that their grooming policy is the only way to achieve a “compelling state interest.”
“The district has not proven that the policy is tailored to serve those interests,” Booker said, citing an affidavit from Superintendent Poole that articulated the purpose of the dress code is to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, maintain a positive and safe learning environment, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority.”
In light of the ruling, George will remain assigned to in-school suspension, where he is allegedly denied instructional materials and hot food.
Before the trial, George said the experience has been isolating and damaging to his mental health.
“It feels lonely,” George said. “When you’re only stuck in one room for a whole semester it makes you feel some type of way. You see everyone else walking around talking and laughing and you can’t do that.”
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 11:46:51p EST
The patriarch of a right-wing Canadian family of 11 had had just about enough of gay people in his country. “We didn’t feel safe for our children there in the future anymore,” father Arend Feenstra told Russian media. “There’s a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don’t agree with that they teach there now, and we wanted to get away from that for our children.”
Yeah, if there’s one place that’s just not safe for kids, it’s Canada. Russia would be soooo much safer.
So Arend (and wife Anneesa) sold everything they had to move to sunny Russia and raise eight of their nine kids with “orthodox” values. They also gladly took donations on their social media platform from fellow right-wingers, all so they could live in Vladimir Putin’s wonderland. Russian officials assured them that they would work with them to get them established, and even help them get a farm. They did all of this just three weeks ago; long story short, they lived happily ever after.
Except they didn’t.
First, according to the family, the Russian bank where they moved the proceeds from selling their farm and belongings? It immediately froze their assets. The amount of money seemed suspicious, Arend states in a Feb. 9 video. I guess it would, since so many Russians outside of Putin’s circle are dirt poor. As a result, the family didn’t have money to live on—apparently those nice Russian officials offering to help them had disappeared.
Since no one in the family speaks Russian, they’ve also had a bear of a time trying to argue for their money—because Russia doesn’t require any bank, or any business, to hire English translators. In the meantime, they discovered that Russia is a pretty damn miserable place to be right now.
TikTok user Ukrainian.Networking translated a Russian Federation Reported Media story in a snarky post.
The Russian reporter noted that Anneesa spoke her mind in a since-deleted video on the family’s “Countryside Acres” YouTube channel.
“I’m very disappointed in this country at this point. I’m ready to jump on a plane and get out of here. We’ve hit the first snag where you have to engage logic in this country and it’s very, very frustrating.”
Hoooo boy. They just arrived and already she’s insulted Russia. Now, I’m not saying Russia doesn’t have freedom of the press, but it’s really just freedom to praise Putin and the country he controls. Anything that resembles criticism in Russia is NOT taken as kindly as it is in our godless Western dystopias. I’m also not suggesting that Russian officials paid the family a visit to remind them of where they are, but I will point out that Arendquickly posted an apology video to the Countryside Acres channel, saying that his wife misspoke and they’d deleted the video.
In that video, he reiterated that no, Russia is really, really great (subtext: “Please don’t push me out of a window”) and he spoke of his hope to resolve the issue with the bank. Commenters weren’t so sure, or kind. They pointed out that the bank will likely never release their funds and it is more likely that he will be recognized as a foreign agent.
At this point, I’m not sure the Countryside Acres farming gig is going to work out. Patriarch Arend should have agreed to be used as a tool for Russian state media. I mean, if you are going to be a Russian Asset, might as well go all-in.
I’m willing to bet that living in a country that grants gay people basic civil rights might not be looking so bad now. I was wondering if the family is desperately trying to split, so I looked up how difficult it is to leave Russia. According to the BBC, you can leave “as long as you have money and have not been called up to the army.”
Even if only for his kids’ sakes, let’s hope Arend’s only lost his money.
Comment Award goes to Laughing Gravy: “I’ll bet back home they used to whine about immigrants who don’t know the language, who have no money, who expect the government to hand them a house and a job, and who complain when they don’t get everything they want.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Feenstra family has six children; they have nine. That version also said that Anneesa voiced discontent with Russia in an interview with a Russian reporter. Her statements were made in a since-deleted Countryside Acres YouTube video, which was cited by the Russian reporter.
If there are any smart kids they’ll realize their parents aren’t role model but rather cautionary tales. Whatever dad would do, I need to do the opposite.
I see Trump’s young supporters — 20 year olds — and think to myself, “What total and utter child-abuse those poor things must have suffered growing up — for them to harbor so much hate and bigotry in their young hearts.”
You’re witnessing it. Christians in this nation are hostage takers. Those kids will then become just like their parents or they risk their lives trying to become who they should be.
OH yes. It wasn’t just child abuse, but an upbringing of loneliness, an unloving family, material wealth valued over real values, and so much more. The root of Trumpism is sad state of childhood in America the past several decades.
Being gay or bi runs in families. The polygenic influence on basic traits like that is strong, so maybe most of the kids are gay or bi, maybe none are, depending on what genetic gifts they get from their parents.
But – given the dad’s paranoia about gay people, it’s likely he’s fighting his own sexuality. So, yeah, maybe 10 of them are bi.
That was my first thought. And it reminds me of nitwit Mel Gibson’s homophobic rants in the ’90s; considering his huge number of siblings, you know they ain’t all str8!
That, and the fear that if our society violates ‘god’s laws’ he will get really really angry and smite everyone, even the righteous who failed to stop it.
That’s what I was going to say. Fuck the parents, they made their straw bed, let them lie on it. But the kids are innocent victims of their patents’ bigotry and stupidity.
But there is bread in the stores! Also, what are the chances that out of 9 kids a couple of them will fall somewhere under our rainbow. 2S, they call it in Canada, which is how I have felt my entire life.
And that child would be disowned more likely then not. Way too many people out there who think bigots stop being them if someone in their family comes out. Not the case.
A study some years ago, finding that children of same-sex parents were as healthy and well-adjusted as children of mixed-gender couples, also found that they were indeed more empathetic, less tied to traditional gender roles, and more likely to come out if they were LGBTQ+ themselves.
To be fair, conservatives view those last three as negatives.
But seriously, the study I remember is that children of same-sex parents actually had *better* upbringings than children of same-sex parents. Did better in school, etc.
Quick, suppress this evidence and start posting videos about how wonderful things are there for anti-wokies! This is an emigrant pipeline we need to encourage.
It is a cult, the party of tRump, the maga thugs. This guy is a white supremacist Christian nationalist who wants to turn public schools into church right wing indoctrination camps, force everyone to live by his church doctrines, and teach racist stereotypes are real facts to children. Slavery was good, blacks are violent, bringing them to the US to learn Jesus was a good thing for them, type shit. The problem is the governor who got elected is the same and proclaimed the state a Christian state dedicated to Jesus, meaning anyone of a different faith or atheist don’t matter and can just leave or go to hell. He sees nothing wrong with the idea of the governor pushing his god / church doctrine on everyone. So this is who hired the trash above, and tried to give him two high level state jobs to push Christianity. Hugs. Scottie
“Guess who’s last? President Trump. This is a great example of the radical woke college professors and what they’re trying to teach our kids. They want to tell our kids that every conservative president was terrible and every left wing president was amazing. In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office. And not based on what a leftist, woke college professor says makes a great president.” – Oklahoma education superintendent and avowed Christian nationalist Ryan Walters.
Walters recently hired Chaya Raichik of Libs Of TikTok infamy to help oversee Oklahoma’s public school libraries. He is widely expected to run for governor when Gov. Kevin Stitt is term-limited out of office.
OK Schools Chief Ryan Walters is fuming that 154 presidential historians rated Trump dead last of all presidents. He says he will make sure the children of OK know how wrong those historians are about Trump. pic.twitter.com/7nJRjpMidf
“In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office.”
Because how well the country’s doing was a sign of God’s favor of our president? Dipshit believes there are no business cycles, no outside factors, so transition time or costs.
“In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office.”
That’s funny. In his MAGAt circles, I thought that presidential greatness is based on how many pussies you grab ’cause you’re a star and they let ya.
“What the hell do a bunch of elitist libtard historians know? I only read one book…the Bible, and it tells me all I need to know. We’ll have much better historians in the future, after we finish burning down all the libraries.” 🙄
How many people died because he was too lazy to lift a finger to tackle a pandemic? Not like he even needed to do any work to that end since there is a whole bureaucracy of government to follow any directives given to them. Just say “do this” and it’ll be done, but even that is too much for him.
How many people died because he had already said “It’ll be gone by spring” and stuck his stupid-ass flag in it like a land claim? Wouldn’t want to admit he was wrong about something, thus you all have to die horribly.
How many people died because the areas first affected by the pandemic voted more for Hillary in 2016? Urban areas like New York, may as well have been independent countries given the absolute lack of aid provided by the federal government. Likewise when Puerto Rico was struck by a hurricane and they were more or less left to fend for themselves. How many died there waiting for relief that was never even sent?
This is why Trump is the worst. An ugly bastard child of malice and incompetence. Where past presidents could be defined as one or the other, he alone is both.
Conservative historians also ranked Trump in the bottom five so go ahead and teach OK kids another lie. You’re already teaching them that the Tulsa massacre had nothing to do with race.
BTW, Ryan Walters has the blood of that non binary 16 year old kid on his hands. The one that was killed a few weeks ago at the high school in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso. Apparently just for being Trans.
All that inflammatory anti Trans garbage that spews out of his mouth egged on all the hated of anyone different.
Texas is building a new military base for National Guard members deployed to the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas — where state and federal authorities have been in a tense conflict over dealing with immigration — Gov. Greg Abbott said.
At a news conference on Friday, Abbott announced the construction of what he said would a new “base camp” that could house up to 2,300 soldiers.
“As opposed to being scattered around many different places across this region, they will be operating out of one place. It will amass a large army in a very strategic area. It will increase the speed and flexibility of the Texas National Guard to be able to respond to crossings,” Abbott said.
Officials expect that by mid-April they’ll have a 300-bed capacity and will add another 300 each month until completion, Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, Abbott’s top military adviser, said at the Friday press conference. The camp will include several features like large dining halls, individual rooms for soldiers and medical care facilities.
The move may also deepen the tension between the state and federal governments as Abbott continues to implement his own strategies to deter migrants from crossing in between ports of entry at the southern border.
Members of Texas National Guard sit inside the fence at Shelby Park on February 3, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
It has been the epicenter of state and federal government showdown as Abbott continues to restrict Border Patrol’s access to the area, preventing them from apprehending migrants crossing in one of the region’s major hotspots.
The Biden administration has sued the state of Texas over a law that would give new authority to local police to crack down on those suspected of entering the country illegally.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened in the state-federal dispute and issued an order allowing federal authorities to cut down the razor wire installed by Texas in areas where it was otherwise difficult to help migrants in distress.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been critical of the Texas governor, calling Abbott’s unilateral actions on the border “unconscionable.”
Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, during a news conference at Shelby Park along the Rio Grande River i…Show more
Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“It is unconscionable for a public official, to deliberately refuse to communicate, coordinate, collaborate with other public officials in the service of our nation’s interests, and to refuse to do so with the hope of creating disorder for others,” Mayorkas said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.
At the Friday press conference, Texas Maj. Gen. Suelzer said that in the coming weeks the Texas National Guard will be expanding operations and installing new barriers north and south of Eagle Pass, an indication that the state continues to build barriers despite the Supreme Court ruling last month that Border Patrol agents are allowed to remove or destroy razor wire fencing to apprehend migrants attempting to enter the United States. Suelzer did not specify if the expansion of those efforts means they will also restrict access to federal agents in those areas.
Without providing any evidence, Abbott claimed his efforts at Shelby Park and in other parts of the border are responsible for the number of crossings in the area dropping in recent weeks and increasing in Arizona and other parts of the border. The state’s operations at Shelby Park cover roughly 1% of the entire southern border. But the governor did acknowledge that the number of migrant encounters in the region might once again climb in the coming months.
“As we all know, come springtime, there’s going to be additional caravans that are making their way through the southern and central part of Mexico deciding where they are going to be going,” Abbott said. “We want to make sure that when they come to the crossroad about, ‘Are they going to go to Texas? Are they going to go elsewhere?’ They will know the wrong place to go is the state of Texas.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) floats building a wall between Texas and Oklahoma because of the "radical woke left agenda … crisscrossing the United States." pic.twitter.com/i9vbjiZ55B
First thought from the headline: The American Nazi Party is already testing the waters with interstate travel restrictions for women and LGBT+ people, going so far as to legislate the presumption of guilt on the part of those making travel arrangements… The Federalist Society Inquisition has so far been somewhere between ignoring it and nodding their approval. So it only makes sense they’d try and enforce a ban on interstate travel with physical barriers and goon squads.
However, per the text of the article: Putting all his private army thugs in one place right next to where he wants to start a fight with the federal government… I can only say fucking go for it! The US air force will no doubt program the coordinates into their missiles in order to knock it all off the moment shots are fired.
West Virginia GOP Passes Deranged Bill That Could Put Librarians in Jail
State Republicans are taking the war on books to the next level.
JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
The Republican-controlled West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that could see librarians facing jail time.
House Bill 4654 passed the chamber Friday by a vote of 85–12, along party lines. The bill would remove criminal exemptions for schools, public libraries, and museums that distribute or display “obscene matter” to a minor, even if the minor’s parent or guardian is present. Any employees of those institutions found guilty of giving minors obscene matter can face fines of up to $25,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
The incredibly short piece of legislation gives no indication of how the new rules would affect paintings or sculptures that feature nude figures, or books that include descriptions or definitions of sexual conduct. Obscenity laws are incredibly hard to enforce, because definitions of obscenity still largely come down to individual interpretation.
As a result, there will likely be more reports of obscenity, made by people who are either more conservative or just nervous about accidentally breaking the law. And since libraries and public schools often operate on very tight budgets, they are unlikely to have the budget to fight a surge in lawsuits.
“It is going to cost our counties and our librarians when these matters go to the court system,” House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle told The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “Because this is still vague, I’m scared.”
“This is a very dangerous bill.”
House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty warned that the legislation could inspire many lawsuits over books that staff members don’t even realize are problematic. “The librarians on staff might not know if a book has obscene matter in it or may or may not have shown it to someone, but because it was in the facility and it was sitting on a shelf, it could still be prosecuted,” he said.
The bill has now been sent to the state Senate, which the GOP also controls (along with the governor’s office).
Republicans across the country have increasingly sought to ban books, claiming they are protecting minors from seeing inappropriately sexual content. But most of the books being pulled from shelves tend to discuss race, gender, and sexuality.
Seemingly innocuous texts have also gotten caught up in the fray. School districts in Florida have pulled the dictionary from library shelves for including definitions of sexual conduct and have drawn over children’s picture books.
There’s also the inclusion of museums in there, and “obscene matter” could encompass, say, the entire Italian Renaissance in paintings and statuary — never mind Mapplethorpe. Even the religious stuff has full nudal frontity, and that includes the madonna-and-child school.
JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
Scottie's Playtime 