Riley Gaines rose to fame not from her own athletic ability which was lacking but by claiming she was cheated out of a win by tieing for fifth place with a trans woman. Both of them got beaten for the first through fourth spots by other women. She owes her fame and living to being a virulent anti-trans activist, spreading hate and misinformation everywhere she can. She is held up as the wronged party because she tied with a trans woman for fifth place. The anti-trans activists use her to claim that trans women have an unfair advantage and harm women’s sports. But the facts show the opposite. Hugs. Scottie
Longtime fencer Liz Kocab said her continued participation in competitions is her “way of saying thanks to USA Fencing.”
Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines took a swipe at a 71-year-old trans athlete who just became an eight-time world fencing champion.
Liz Kocab recently won the women’s 70+ division in the Veteran Fencing World Championships and now claims victories in the 50s, 60s, and 70+ age categories. In a post-victory interview with USA Fencing, Kocab said her continued participation in competitions is her “way of saying thanks to USA Fencing.” With tears in her eyes, she said winning “never gets old” and is “always special.”
She is trying to make October 10 “Real Women’s Day” because transphobia is her whole personality now.
But Gaines decided to rain on the parade by insulting and misgendering Kocab on X, writing that “winning a title as a male in the women’s category doesn’t make you a champion. It makes you an entitled cheat.”
Gaines’s followers joined in the heckling in the responses, calling Gaines a hero and referring to Kocab as an “old conman,” a “weirdo cheat,” and a “coward,” among other insults.
Liz Kocab (male) wins his 8th Fencing World Championship title…in the women's category
Winning a title as a male in the women's category doesn't make you a champion. It makes you an entitled cheat. pic.twitter.com/9dRNRydtUE
USA Fencing adopted a trans-inclusive policy in 2022, allowing athletes to compete as their gender, with varied participation requirements depending on the age level.
At the time, USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews declared unwavering support for trans fencers: “It is critical that we protect the rights of nonbinary and transgender athletes in fencing. Even as we plan to conduct more scientific research into the physiological effects of gender transition as they pertain specifically to the sport of fencing, we remain unanimously and steadfastly supportive of transgender athletes having their place in fencing. To be clear, even as this issue evolves, our support of transgender athletes will not waver.”
Gaines, on the other hand, has been crusading against the rights of trans athletes since she tied for fifth place with trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the women’s 200m freestyle final at the National Collegiate Athletics Association swimming and diving championships. She has claimed she was robbed of some sort of victory by having to share fifth place with a trans woman.
Most recently, Gaines celebrated her own created holiday, “Real Women’s Day,” which she established on October 10th since the Roman numerals for 10/10 are XX, symbolizing for Gaines that “real” women have XX chromosomes.
Speaking at Penn State that day, Gaines yelled to trans rights protestors: “What are you so scared of? The truth? Science? Common sense? Logic? Reasoning? I’d love to hear your argument here because what I’m here to talk about is men are men, women are women, and you cannot change your sex. It’s that simple.”
Joseph Viso Jr. is a Republican candidate for New Jersey’s State Assembly, and some shocking details about his past came to light recently. He’s running on “family values” and protecting children from LGBTQ people he claims are “coming for our children,” but he poses a danger to children as well. We’ll break down this bizarre story in this video.
The New Republic convened a meeting to discuss Trump, book banning and the culture wars. Randi Weingarten described the attack on schools as a coordinated strategy to destroy public schools and promote vouchers. Edith Olmsted of The New Republic interviewed her. None of this is new to readers of this blog, but the American public needs to hear this message. Again and again.
Book Bans Are a Conservative Plot to Destroy Public Schools, Says Randi Weingarten, The teachers union head denounced the “extremist strategy,” which also includes voucher campaigns and manufactured outrage over critical race theory.
DANIEL BOCZARSKI/GETTY IMAGES FOR MOVEON
Teachers union head Randi Weingarten says that the campaign by conservatives to ban books isn’t about the books at all, but part of a broader strategy to destroy public schools—one that was supercharged by the pandemic.
“You take the agita and the anxiety that people had at Covid, that fear, and you combine it with a right wing who has wanted to kill public schools for years and take that money for vouchers, and you have the scenario we have,” Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Wednesday at The New Republic’s Stop Trump Summit.
Vouchers, which use public education dollars to fund private and religious school attendance, are just one pillar of the conservative campaign to “undermine, destroy, and defund” public schools, she said. The other two are book banning and manufactured outrage over critical race theory.
Weingarten pointed to conservative activist Chris Rufo and a comment he made at Hillsdale College, a Christian nationalist school, in which he admitted that focusing on these issues was all part of a master plan to promote universal vouchers: “To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.”
In an interview with TNR after the event, Weingarten explained the “extremist strategy” Rufo and other conservatives have used to defund public schools. “The hook was trust. If you really create as much distrust as possible in public schooling, then parents will look at privatization as an option,” she said.
That’s where critical race theory comes in.
“[Rufo] tried to make a term that nobody knows so toxic, so that you can weaponize it and make fear,” she said. “Conversations about hard subjects became weaponized as indoctrination. Which is patently ridiculous, and dangerous.”
Race, as well as gender, is the subject conservatives have focused on in their campaigns to ban books in public schools and libraries.
“What [Republican Governor Ron] DeSantis is doing in the so-called ‘war on woke,’ is exactly part of their playbook—to make people afraid of books, and afraid of what we do in school,” Weingarten said. According to Pen America, Florida passed 15 “educational intimidation” bills in the last two and a half years.
The “parents’ rights” movement is made up of a loud minority, Weingarten said, and actively undermines what most parents want. “What we see in Florida is that 60 percent of the book banning has been done by 11 people,” she said.
The AFT has partnered with The New Republic in fighting back against such bans. TNR’s Banned Books Tour has been delivering thousands of banned books across the country this month, most recently in Florida.
Rashida Tlaib, like Barbara Lee in 2001, is one of the few voices in Congress calling for peace. As a result, she’s been smeared, like Barbara Lee in 2001, as a terrorist sympathizer. In this video we’ll look at parallels between the post-9/11 days and now and explain why support for war in Gaza is so common.
For those who want the full interview, here it is. The situation is heartbreaking. But it is important for people to know the facts, to know the history of this conflict. There is a wealthy nation state supported by the wealthiest nation on earth, wiping out a poor population with no military and stealing the land not set aside for them. How can this be justified in any way? He asks what is the going rate for Palestinian life? He is correct to ask. Hugs. Scottie
WARNING: This video contains strong language
Piers Morgan Uncensored is joined by Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef and later on by co-founder of the Daily Wire, Jeremy Boreing, for a heated and emotive debate on the historical treatment of Palestine during their conflict with Israel and whether Israel’s decision to bomb Gaza in an attempt to get rid of Hamas is justified and proportionate after the attacks on October 7th.
Bassem condemns the terrorist organisation Hamas and tries to explain that people have been desensitised to accept that civilians dying is an inevitability of war.
Piers then suggests he doesn’t know what the “proportionate response” to a terrorist attack of Hamas’s scale would be. Bassem responds by referencing a graph that shows the total amount of deaths in the conflict prior to the attacks and questions the Palestinian killings in the West Bank, which has never been occupied by Hamas fighters.
Bassem then mocks Ben Shapiro for his public stance on Israel defending themselves, questioning how an occupier can be defending themselves. Shapiro’s friend and colleague Jeremy is then invited by Piers to debate Bassem’s criticisms.
Please use the link above and see a wonderful cartoon that so clearly illustrates the stupidity of the human condition and the situation in so many places. Hugs. Scottie
“So my question to Ben Shapiro is, how many more sons of bitches do we need to kill so Ben Shapiro is happy?” Youssef rhetorically asked at one point.
Justin Baragona
Senior Media Reporter
Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef accused British tabloid host Piers Morgan of comparing Israel to the terror group ISIS during a combative Tuesday interview that featured Youssef repeatedly deploying his trademarked dark satire to address the horrific violence in Gaza.
During a lengthy appearance on Talk TV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored, Youssef—who has been called Egypt’s Jon Stewart—referenced his Palestinian wife and Gazan in-laws when asked to give his opinion on the brutal Hamas terror attacks.
“Oh, it was terrible, of course,” Youssef replied. “I mean, we get all our news secondhand because my wife’s family lives in Gaza. They have cousins and uncles there and their house also was bombed. We haven’t been able to communicate with them in the past three days. Communication has been lost so we don’t know how they are doing, but we are used to that!”
From there, Youssef dove deeper into the satirical well to describe the atrocious conditions Palestinians are facing in Gaza, as well as the threat of non-stop violence they are subjected to from the Israeli military.
“Those Palestinians, they’re very dramatic. ‘Ah, Israel is killing us,’ but they never die,” he declared. “I mean, they always come back. They’re very difficult to kill, very difficult people to kill. I know, because I’m married to one. I tried many times. I try to get to her every time, but she uses our kids as human shields.”
When Morgan said he understood Youssef was employing “dark humor” on the topic, the former Egyptian television host shot back: “No, it’s not dark humor. I really try to get her every time but she uses our kids as human shields!”
From there, Morgan said he wanted to be “serious” about the issue, prompting the comic to mock conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who had appeared earlier on Morgan’s show. At one point, Shapiro said the “only solution to the Israel-Gaza war is that Israel should annex Gaza and kill as many people so that what is happening does not happen again.”
Sarcastically saying he agrees with Shapiro, who he snarked was “one of the smartest people who ever walked the earth,” Youssef said, “We should kill as many sons of bitches as possible” to ensure the violence stops.
“So my question to Ben Shapiro is, how many more sons of bitches do we need to kill so Ben Shapiro is happy?” Youssef rhetorically asked.
Morgan, meanwhile, insisted that Youssef was misrepresenting Shapiro’s position before airing a clip of The Daily Wire founder saying he believes in a “disproportionate response” to terrorism.
“What is a proportionate response because it has been different from one tier to another? So, if you look at this graph, for example, this is the death of Israelis and Palestinians, and it’s changing from one year to year. It’s fluctuating like crypto,” Youssef shot back, holding up a paper comparing lives lost in Palestine and Israel. “So my question is today, what is the going rate today for human lives?”
Asked what he believes is an “appropriate way” for Israel to respond following the bloody terror attacks, Youssef continued to use black comedy to make his point.
“I would do exactly like Israel did: Kill as many people as possible since the world is letting me do it,” he said. “I mean, I can do it because I can.”
Youssef also ridiculed Shapiro and other conservatives for praising the Israeli Defense Forces for “warning” Palestinian civilians before bombing Gaza.
“They said Israel is the only military force in the world that warns civilians before bombing them,” he snarked. “How fucking cute! That is so nice of them because with this logic, if Russian troops started warning Ukrainians before bombing their houses, we’re cool with Putin, right?!”
The contentious discussion continued for 20 more minutes, with Youssef blaming propaganda that dehumanizes Palestinians for the recent murder of a 6-year-old child. At one point, Youssef even compared Israel to the evil supervillain from the TV show The Boys.
“I have never seen a victim putting their oppressor under siege and bombing them 24/7,” Youssef said. “Israel wants you to believe that they are the victim. Dealing with Israel is so difficult. It’s like being in a relationship with a narcissistic psychopath. He fucks you up and then makes you think it’s your fault. You look at Israel as Superman, but they’re really Homelander!”
After Morgan said it is “very difficult” to see how Israel defeats Hamas “without massive collateral damage,” Youssef turned the British host’s words back on him, suggesting Morgan was actually portraying Israel as a terrorist regime.
“So if I can understand this correctly, basically Israel is doing this to pressure the Palestinian community in Gaza to turn against Hamas, is that right?” Youssef wondered.
“I’m sure that’s part of it, yes,” Morgan replied.
“That’s part of it,” Youssef continued. “So this is exactly what terrorist organizations do because terrorist organizations will have no chance of beating a whole nation in battle so they terrorize and they kill the civilians in order to spread fear and terror so they can turn against their government to change their policy or to resign. You have just compared Israel with ISIS!”
“No, I haven’t. I don’t I don’t see any comparison between Israel and ISIS,” Morgan objected.
“It’s going to be the headlines tomorrow, ‘Piers Morgan: Israel Is ISIS,’” Youssef quipped.
During the interview, Bassem Yousef points out that even before these Hamas attacks for years the Israeli military has been killing Palestinians including a massive number of children in the West Bank, a place that Hamas doesn’t control or operate in. It is disgusting what the world has let Israel get away with using Palestinian humans for target practice for seeming sport. Hugs
Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef speaks out against Israel’s war in Gaza, calling out Ron DeSantis and Ben Shapiro as prominent pro-Israel opinionators during an appearance with Piers Morgan:
BASSEM YOUSSEF: I want to understand what is the logic of Israel carpet bombing Gaza. I mean, if there is a logic, if it is a good, if this will make Israle safe, I want to hear the logic. So if they continue bombing, what are they hoping to achieve?
…
So if I can understand this correctly, Israel is doing this to pressure the Palestinian community in Gaza to turn against Hamas. If that right?
That’s part of it. This is exactly what terrorist organizations do, because terrorist organizations will have no chance of beating a whole nation in battle, so they terrorize and kill the civilians in order to spread fear and terror so they can turn against their government to change their policy or resign. You have just compared Israel with Isis.
…
I would say I really applaud Israel for doing one thing that no military force in the world does. Because I heard Ben Shapiro, and I heard Ron DeSantis, and they said Israel is the only military force in the world that warns civilians before bombing them. I mean, how fucking cute! That is so nice of them.
Because with this logic, if Russian troops started warning Ukrainians before bombing their houses, we’re cool with Putin, right? Habibi, you have warned them, go invade. It’s fine, you’ve done your job.
…
The Israeli Defense Minister said those are human animals. And the thing is Ben Shapiro should know better, because long before the Holocaust, before Jews were thrown in the gas chambers, the Nazi propaganda called them rats. As a human being, I would never accept another human being being thrown into a gas chamber. But a rat? Kill ten, kill 1,000, 3,500, they’re a son of a bitch. They are human animals who live in open sewage and decapitate babies. And because of that propaganda, that guy in Illinois… killed stabbing the six-year-old Palestinian kid… and they used to be friends… It took you 80 years to change one word, from “Jewish” to “Muslim.” And then you transferred your guilt to us.
This is the problem, Israel always victimizes itself. And I have never seen a victim putting their oppressors under siege and bombing them 24/7. Israel wants you to believe they are the victims.
Dealing with Israel is so difficult. It’s like being in a relationship with a narcissistic psychopath, he fucks you up and then he makes you think it’s your fault. You look at Israel as Superman, but they’re really Homelander. They are shooting fish in a barrel and they’re annoyed by the splashes.
How greatly the republicans in that state must hate brown people. If given half a chance, they would gleefully restart slavery. I don’t see how this is even legal. Think of where this money could be spent to help the people. Hugs
Texas is adding to its border wall to deter migrants from entering the state by constructing a barrier between itself and New Mexico.
“Texas installs fencing along NEW Mexico border. Our barriers around El Paso forced the migrants crossing illegally to enter into New Mexico. They then entered into El Paso from there. To end that, we are building a barrier on the New Mexico border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Construction of a wall along the Texas-Mexico border has been in the works for months since Abbott committed to the project in 2021. He has continually posted videos and images of the border wall on X, but last week’s announcement revealing the construction of a wall between Texas and the neighboring state of New Mexico marks the latest step in his Operation Lone Star.
KFOX14 reported earlier this month that members of the Texas National Guard reinforced the wall between New Mexico and Texas with concertina wire — a type of barbed wire that already lines the Texas-Mexico border. Abbott said Texas had plans to build a barrier between the two states during an appearance at the Manhattan Institute last month.
“Earlier this month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the placement of razor wire fencing along the Texas-New Mexico border north of the Rio Grande near Sunland Park, NM. This is the latest Operation Lone Star stunt funded by the working Texas family’s tax-dollar that will result in environmental damage, community division and injuries of vulnerable migrants,” the statement read.
“It’s clear that Governor Abbott has no plans on actually addressing our broken immigration system head on — but instead adding more fuel to Operation Lone Star’s dumpster fire,” the statement added.
I swear it was in the comments section of this blog that someone nearly had immigration called on him/her because s/he told a fellow American that s/he came from New Mexico and didn’t go through customs. It was a whole “facepalming” nightmare.
I remember a story decades ago about a man who had a huge hassle from the IRS because he wasn’t paying the right taxes. He lived in NM and they insisted he report his “out of the country” income.
I read that there is a surprising percentage of Texans that think New Mexico is part of Mexico. And an even higher percentage of non-Texans that think that. I’m not surprised on either count.
“As the Senate passed its voucher bill, Senate Bill 1, by a vote of 18-13 last night, Governor Greg Abbott gave a progress report on work with state House members to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a right-wing think tank whose board members include billionaires Tim Dunn, Doug Deason, Stacy Hock, state Senator Mayes Middleton, and James Leninger—all who have been bankrolling the push to privatize public education in Texas.
That would explain a lot. Let the wealthy pay for their kids’ education, and leave the workforce deprived and dumb. They’re easier for the wealthy to control, that way.
We get many Texans moving to New Mexico where our laws and politics are more liberal/progressive. We call them refugees. Perhaps the new wall is to PREVENT TEXANS from leaving.
Riley GainesPhoto: Screenshot
Scottie's Playtime 