They just walked by without looking or seeming to care

Hello all great people. It is 2 PM and I am finally getting to sit at the computer and share my thoughts and answer comments. Let me start by saying to ended up having to go to bed really early yesterday afternoon and stayed there until 7 this morning. So little got done yesterday.

This morning after coffee and doing some online bill paying, we decided to go to a local store and get me new sneakers. I have not had new ones in 3 or four 4 years and the sole on one of them was separating from the rest of the shoe like they were of two different political parties. So we went, I found a pair of shoes I like, was stunned at the price of nearly $100 dollars and Ron found a new shirt he liked that was sunscreen rated. Then on the way home we stopped at one of the local grocery stores so Ron could go in and get a few things. As I sat in the car, I noticed a man in a wheelchair pushing his cart up to his car. I had not noticed him before so have no idea of how long it took him or how hard the struggle but I can image it was a very hard thing trying to move your chair while pushing a full sized shopping cart. I watched him sit in his chair and reach over the top of the cart as far as he could, remove an item or small bag and turn sideways to put it in his trunk.

I watched 5 people going in each direction just walk by this man. I was stunned. These people seemed in no hurry, the ones going in had no reason not to stop or help, but they ignored him. As I started to get out of my car I noticed a car pull in next to him and a young man get out, so I thought surely a young guy will help but instead he took a nearby cart which he gave to an older man who got out of the passenger seat. They started to walk by the man in the wheelchair. I figure sure the young guy would offer to help but he never even glanced at the disabled man. I was furious.

So I got out of my car, grabbed my cane and walked over to ask the man if he would like some help. He beamed at me. He told me no one offers to help. They just walk by. He had only one leg. After we were done he thanked me and not thinking I walked back to my car. I sat down rather happy with myself and angry at other people, as I watched the man roll over to the driver’s door, open it, roll back to passenger door and open it. I thought maybe he forgot something. Then using the car door and the roof of the car he stood up, and with one hand he pushed the chair up against his leg and folded it. Then I realized what I forgot. He still had to get into the car. Shit. I watched him pick up the folded chair and push it in the back seat, then close the door and hop on one leg to the front door and ease down in the car. I never thought to ask him if he needed more help. I just took his thanks and left thinking job done. I should know better as a disabled person myself.

I am lucky I have both Ron and James to help me and we all take care of each other. I often offer to help people in stores riding the scooters get stuff, but I never asked how do they get the scooter before they enter the store? Only one local store has baggers that offer to take everyone’s cart or accompany people using scooters to their cars, all for free. I admit I watch abled bodied people take advantage with mixed feelings; I only take them up on it when I really am struggling. They refuse any tip, it is part of the service the store offers, they take the cart out and load the groceries in your car for you, rain or shine. It is Publix and I love the store. Unfortunately, they tend to have higher prices. Ron uses Publix, Winne Dixie, and Walmart. Sometimes if he gets a sale catalog, he goes to places like Save a Lot or Aldis. Ron watches the prices at each store and gets the best buys he can and so he doesn’t use Publix as much as I do as he complains about their prices. Still you cannot argue that cheerful people offering to help you with your groceries when you struggle to walk, it is a great service.

We really need to find a way to get people to see each other and have empathy again. I don’t know how to do it. But I watched able people of all ages walk right by the man in a wheelchair and not even look at him. It made me angry then, now it breaks my heart. Hugs

4 in 10 Republicans think mass shootings are ‘unfortunately something we have to accept as part of a free society’: CBS/YouGov poll

https://www.insider.com/poll-4-in-10-gop-accept-mass-shootings-free-society-2022-6

A toy yellow school bus is placed in front of a cross to honor Rojelio Torres, one of the children killed during the mass shooting in Robb Elementary School, while an American flag is seen in the foreground, Sunday, May 29, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Wong Maye-E/AP

Some 44% of Republicans say mass shootings are “something we have to accept as part of a free society,” a poll found.

The poll found that a majority of Democrats and Independents said shootings are preventable “if we really tried.”

The survey comes after a string of mass shootings have again prompted Congress to assess gun control.

More than 4 in 10 Republicans think mass shootings are inevitable in a “free society,” according to a new poll by CBS News and YouGov.

The survey results came on the heels of a string of mass shootings across the country that have prompted Congress to once again consider legislation on gun control.

One of the questions in the poll asked respondents if they feel that mass shootings are “unfortunately something we have to accept as part of a free society” or “something we can prevent and stop if we really tried.”

In response, 44% of Republicans said mass shootings are inevitable “as part of a free society.” Meanwhile, 85% of Democrats and 73% of Independents said mass shootings are preventable “if we really tried.”

The survey had a sample size of 2,021 US adults that were interviewed between June 1 and June 3, per CBS News, which noted the margin of error is ±2.6 points.

Following the shooting in Uvalde, President Joe Biden insisted that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a “rational Republican” who could agree to gun control measures, despite the party’s longtime refusal to seriously entertain policy changes on firearms.

McConnell signaled his willingness for Republican senators to work with Democrats on a bipartisan push for gun safety legislation, but he did not endorse any specific proposals. The Minority Leader said he had “encouraged” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, to talk to key Democrats “who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem.”

Days later, a conservative radio host tweeted that Cornyn was “open to making gun laws more restrictive.” Cornyn responded to the tweet, saying it was “not gonna happen.”

Not gonna happen https://t.co/dZTmfvBEbz
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) June 2, 2022

In the CBS/YouGov poll, respondents from political parties across the board seemed to agree that it is unlikely Congress will “pass any laws in the next few months that will make significant changes to gun policy.”

A total of 66% of Democrats, 72% of Independents, and 71% of Republicans indicated that they think it is “not very likely” or “not at all likely” that Congress passes significant, new gun policies in the coming months.

Anti-LGBTQ lawyer explains how abortion restrictions paved the way for banning trans health care

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/anti-lgbtq-lawyer-explains-abortion-restrictions-paved-way-banning-trans-health-care/

An abortion case made it so that even laws that “conflicted with best medical practice” can be passed, he explained gleefully.

By Alex Bollinger Thursday, May 19, 2022

Matt Sharp of ADFPhoto: Screenshot

A rightwing lawyer explained how the fights for reproductive rights and for transgender people’s access to gender-affirming medical care are connected when it comes to the law.

Ohio’s House Families, Aging, and Human Services Committee Meeting held a hearing today about H.B. 454, which would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth and requires teachers to out trans kids to their parents. All of the witnesses at the hearing supported the bill, and most were from religiously affiliated organizations.

Related: Christian legal hate group says conversion therapy bans are unconstitutional

Citing an abortion rights case, Matt Sharp of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) testified to explain that courts actually might uphold the law even though it’s telling doctors to practice medicine in a sub-optimal way.

“Opponents challenged the law on several grounds, including that the law’s requirements conflicted with best medical practice,” Sharp said. “But the Sixth Circuit upheld the law and the authority of the legislature to pass it.”

“The court found that states can enact laws that limit medical procedures even when opponents claim that the laws were, quote, ‘directly contrary to medical profession custom’ and that certain medical groups did not consider them to be necessary.”

Sharp was referring to the 2019 appeals court decision in EMW Women’s Surgical Center v. Beshear, where a reproductive health care provider challenged Kentucky’s 2017 Ultrasound Informed Consent Act. The bill required people who wanted an abortion to have an ultrasound over 24 hours before the procedure and required doctors to allow the pregnant person to hear the fetal heartbeat and explain the images the ultrasound produced. They argued that it violated doctors’ freedom of speech.

A Trump-appointed judge, John K. Bush, wrote the majority opinion and said that the bill was fine because it “provides relevant information” that “gives a patient greater knowledge of the unborn life inside her.”

Effectively, Sharp argued that a court already said that doctors’ opinions on what’s best for patients can be overridden by legislatures and that courts will allow the same to be done to transgender people.

In case you didn't believe us when we said it originally, here is the guy from Alliance Defending Freedom explicitly linking HB 454 which detransitions all trans teens, with fetal ultrasound and anti abortion bills.

This is all part of the same fight. pic.twitter.com/oHYQnQBPWS
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) May 19, 2022

Czech president Miloš Zeman vows to block same-sex marriages if approved by parliament

Czech president Miloš Zeman vows to block same-sex marriages if approved by parliament

Please notice in this short article the references to protecting the children from the propaganda of LGBTQ+. This guy praises these laws that are more don’t say gay, outlawing any mention of the LGBTQ+ and the authoritarian strongman leaders that implement them. They want to outlaw the LGBTQ+ out of existence, and where do you think the US rabid right Republicans get these ideas. More and more as these laws pop up all across the world to either stop or roll back acceptance of the LGBTQ+ people / rights I remember how Brian Brown, Scott Lively, and other US religious figures went to developing nations and pushed for strict punishments for any same sex conduct, anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and helped elect politicians with religious views. Some big money person / groups are pushing this hate world wide. The haters are using the same laws and same talking points. Hugs

Miloš Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, vows to veto legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to hold civil weddings in the country. (Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty)

Czech president Miloš Zeman has said he plans to veto proposed legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to get married in the country.

The measure, which was drafted by lawmakers across the Czech political spectrum, was submitted to the parliament’s lower house on Tuesday (7 June), the Associated Pressreported.

Lawmakers have yet to set a date to debate the proposed same-sex marriage legislation. Yet the country’s president has said he is strongly opposed to the measure and will strike it down should it even land on his desk.

“I’d like to announce that if I really receive such a law to sign I will veto it,” Zeman said.

Miloš Zeman has served as the president of the Czech Republic since 2013. The president is considered a largely ceremonial role as the elected leader has limited executive powers, but he does have a considerable role in political affairs.

Zeman said that the Czech Republic passed a law in 2006 allowing same-sex couples to enter into registered partnerships, but he believed “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”.

Czech president Miloš Zeman said he believes “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”. (Getty/Mikhail Svetlov)

The registered partnership gives queer couples in the Czech Republic some rights similar to those of heterosexual married couples, but it stops short of placing same-sex couples on fully equal footing with their heterosexual counterparts.

Same-sex marriage remains illegal in the country because marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman under the Czech Republic’s civil code.

Parliament started debating similar same-sex marriage legislation back in 2018, but the legislation stalled as lawmakers didn’t take a vote before last year’s general election. The measure had to then be re-submitted for debate.

Lawmakers in the Czech parliament’s lower house can override Zeman’s veto if they can reach a majority vote.

Miloš Zeman has often espoused anti-LGBTQ+ views in the past. Last June, Zeman said he finds trans people “disgusting” while discussing Hungary’s so-called LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ law, which bans any depiction or discussion of queer people in schools, the media and advertising.

Zema said he thought people who undergo gender-affirming treatments are “basically committing a crime of self-harm”.

“Every surgery is a risk, and these transgender people to me are disgusting,” he added.

Zeman also defended Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán, who has been roundly condemned for rolling back LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

The Czech president said Orbán is “not against homosexuals” but is just “against the manipulation” of parents and children in “sex education”.

“I see no reason to disagree with him because I am completely annoyed by the suffragettes, the Me Too movement and Prague Pride,” Zeman said.

About 5 percent of young adults identify as transgender or nonbinary, U.S. survey finds

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/5-percent-young-adults-identify-transgender-nonbinary-us-survey-finds-rcna32315

Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older adults to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth, a new Pew Research Center report found.

The 45th annual Seattle Pride Parade on June 30, 2019. Genna Martin / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images file

June 7, 2022, 12:10 PM EDT

By Zachary Schermele

Approximately 5 percent of young adults in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, and an increasing number say they know someone who is trans, according to data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older Americans to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth. The findings estimate that the total number of adults who identify as transgender or nonbinary (meaning they identify as neither exclusively male nor female) in the U.S. is 1.6 percent.

The new data, which was weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. adult population, comes from an online survey panel from mid-May of 10,188 randomly sampled people. The findings are part of a broader survey that will be released some point this summer about the general public’s “attitudes about gender identity and issues related to people who are transgender or nonbinary,” the report states.

Since 2017, the number of adults who say they know a trans person has been on a slight but steady increase, rising from 37 percent that year to 42 percent in 2021, and 44 percent this year. Although that number decreases as adults get older, a third of those 65 and older in the survey still said they know a transgender person.

More people know transgender people as friends than as co-workers or family members, according to the findings. A little over a quarter of adults said they have a friend who is trans, with roughly 1 in 10 having a trans co-worker or family member.

The survey also found 1 in 5 U.S. adults said they personally know a nonbinary person. A similar Pew survey from last year found an increase — from 18 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2021 — in the number of Americans who said they knew someone who preferred using gender-neutral pronouns.

The survey’s estimate of the percentage of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. is notable because that figure has been historically difficult to gauge, as the Census Bureau has dragged its feet on updating its questions to be more inclusive. In 2016, research sponsored by the Department of Labor uncovered obstacles to the feasibility of adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the current population survey, though the Census Bureau took the historic step last year of adding those questions to its household pulse survey, which measures the impact of the pandemic on families.

A 2021 estimate from UCLA Law’s Williams Institute estimated the number of nonbinary adults in the U.S. to be 1.2 million, and a 2016 report from the institute placed the number of transgender adults in the U.S. at 1.4 million.

Results from an Ipsos global survey released last year, which drew on data from 19,000 people in 27 countries, found 4 percent of young adult respondents identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid or “in another way.”

The new Pew results found that while it is more likely for a Democrat than a Republican to know a trans person (48 percent vs. 42 percent), the split has narrowed since last year.

In addition, the Pew researchers conducted six focus groups in March with 27 trans and nonbinary people of different ages and racial identities to discuss a range of topics, from access to gender-affirming care to social policy. Those discussions, which were not intended to be statistically representative of the entire population in the U.S., showed that historic challenges — including employment discrimination, bias and violence — appear to persist.

Some participants said deciding whether to reveal their gender identities to other people can be a “constant calculation.” Many participants talked about hesitation in discussing their trans or nonbinary identities in work settings, for some because of a perceived lack of professionalism.

They also discussed financial barriers to medical treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery, with some leaning on “underground networks” for help. Some also described feeling a lack of connection with the larger LGBTQ community, while others felt more accepted.

The findings come amid a record surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation, particularly targeting the rights of trans people at the state level, with the Human Rights Campaign estimating that more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in state legislatures so far this year.

Many of the participants said they did not become more certain of their gender identities until “well into adulthood.” A middle-aged trans man described not knowing “what trans was” until getting to college — “that was when I had a word for myself for the first time,” the participant said.

Many participants cited young people as a reason for optimism.

“They understand almost intrinsically so much more about these things than I feel like my generation did,” a nonbinary participant in their mid-30s said. “They give me so much hope for the future.”

Uzbekistan police torture, extort and threaten LGBTQ+ people with rape, disturbing report finds

Uzbekistan police torture, extort and threaten LGBTQ+ people with rape, disturbing report finds

What the republican right wants to happen here in the US. I have five of these stories in my news feed this morning. I doubt I will post all of them, but it shows that attacks on the LGBTQ+ is on the rise worldwide. This is not normal that this hate would continue unless it is fueled by something / someone. Here in this story it is politicians that refuse and block change. Why? Who is paying them to anti-LGBTQ+ instead of moving forward toward acceptance? Religions? Big money fascism? The worst of these stories come from the former Soviet countries and Russia. Russia is exporting anti-tolerance hard. No wonder the right wing in the US loves Putin, they all hate the same groups. Hugs

Uzbekistan LGBT+ continue to face violent human rights violations. (Photo by Monirul Bhuiyan / AFP) (Photo by MONIRUL BHUIYAN/AFP via Getty Images)

A new report has found that the LGBTQ+ community in Uzbekistan is under renewed threat as many face persecution, imprisonment, abuse, and brutal human rights violations.

Thirty-six LGBTQ+ people were convicted under the Article 120 of the Uzbek Criminal Code, which criminalises homosexuality in the majority Muslim country, in 2021, found a new report by the International Partnership for Human Rights, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), and the Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM).

Twenty-five of them were imprisoned.

Police play a key part in the persecution of queer folk, demanding money in exchange for not outing people to relatives, and torturing and humiliating them.

One young man recounted his experience in a detention centre in the report, and said: “They suspended me from the ceiling using handcuffs, beat me severely, and tried to rape me with a truncheon.

“I have never been beaten and intimidated like that in my entire life. I wanted to die to free myself from this torture.”

The police told him to pay $2,000 (£1,623) or face imprisonment under Article 120. The man paid the police officers and was released.

Elsewhere in the report, one gay man reflected on Uzbekistan attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. He said: “It’s as if we lived on a different planet, where it is normal to hate, imprison, discriminate, and kill people simply for who they are.”

Uzbekistan redrafting of the criminal code will make life harder for LGBT+ people. ( Credit: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)

Stories like this continue to crop up in the former Soviet country, the only one which still hasn’t removed its Soviet-era anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

The report even found that police use information from HIV centres to find people in order to exploit and extort money from them.

Currently under Article 120, same-sex sexual conduct can be a punishable offence up to three years. Uzbekistan is currently drafting a new criminal code but the law would merely transpose Article 120 into a new Article 154, with the wording unchanged, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Between 2017 and 2021 it was reported by HRW that police carried out bogus, debunked anal examinations to find and prosecute men for same-sex relations, but these were in fact found to be forms of torture and abuse.

Politicians have stood in between any kind of legislation changes.

In 2021 Alisher Kadyrov, leader of Uzbekistan’s National Revival party, even suggested identifying LGBTQ+ people in the country and taking away their citizenship so that other countries could offer them refuge.

“When I put forward this proposal on social networks, up to 100 LGBT people got in touch with me and agreed with what I had said,” Kadyrov said, according to EurasiaNet.

Trump Rally Warm-Up Act: Obama Is Secretly President And Is Controlled By Jews And Chinese Communists

Trump Rally Warm-Up Act: Obama Is Secretly President And Is Controlled By Jews And Chinese Communists

Wayne Root writes for World Net Daily:

Communist traitors have infiltrated every level of government, society and industry. I believe Obama is now the leader carrying out their plan. He is the “shadow president of the United States” – i.e., operating from the shadows while dummy dementia puppet Biden serves as decrepit front man. And who is giving Obama the orders? The enemies of America – billionaire, meglomaniac, psychopaths George Soros, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates and the Chinese Communist Party.

This is TREASON. Biden and his handlers are radical communist traitors. They are domestic terrorists and suicide bombers. It’s time to take the gloves off. These people want us banned, censored, silenced, bankrupt, stripped of all property, stripped of all guns, imprisoned for our political beliefs or dead. You can’t compromise with people who want you silenced or dead.

Root last appeared on JMG in February when he called for “mother truckers” to blockade Washington DC, the Super Bowl, and every state capital.

Root was banned by Twitter last year for spreading lies about COVID and the vaccines.

He appeared on JMG in March 2020 when the New York Attorney General sent him a cease-and-desist letter for promoting a fake coronavirus cure.

Root has served as the warmup act at multiple Trump rallies. At one of those rallies his encouraged the audience to fantasize about Hillary Clinton dying in a car crash “Thelma & Louise-style.”

Root has declared that Trump is “far too handsome” to ever need to grope women. In August 2016 he called for banning people on public assistance and women on birth control from voting.

He’s also promoted all the usual far-right bullshit about Seth Rich, the Charlottesville Nazi rally, and mass shootings.

He first appeared on JMG in 2012 as one of the leading proponents of racist birther claims about Barack Obama, seguing later into claims that Obama is secretly gay and never attended Columbia University. (In the above-linked piece he slips up and says he attended Columbia with Obama.)

In 2008, he was the Libertarian Party’s candidate for vice president, earning 523,000 votes on the ticket headed by former GOP Rep. Bob Barr.

Treason! The U.S. is run by domestic terrorists and traitors https://t.co/kvCX8AwEp6
— WND News (@worldnetdaily) June 10, 2022

Conservatives Are OBSESSED With The LGBTQ

Ted Cruz makes foul jokes about beloved Disney characters at the expense of the LGBTQ, while other conservatives call for violence.

REVOLUTIONARY New Cancer Treatment Drug, The Price Will Make You Cringe

An experimental cancer drug treating rectal cancer patients may have just revolutionized the field forever as all 18 patients in the trial group saw their cancer vanish after six months. Researchers have apparently never seen a cancer drug trial of this scale succeed with perfect results, an incredibly promising sign for future trials and research. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola discuss on The Young Turks.

Read more HERE: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/110354…

“A tiny group of people with rectal cancer just experienced something of a scientific miracle: their cancer simply vanished after an experimental treatment.

In a very small trial done by doctors at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, patients took a drug called dostarlimab for six months.

The trial resulted in every single one of their tumors disappearing.

The trial group included just 18 people, and there’s still more to be learned about how the treatment worked.

But some scientists say these kinds of results have never been seen in the history of cancer research.

Dr. Hanna Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center joined NPR’s All Things Considered to outline how this drug works and what it could mean for the future of cancer research.

Although she was not involved with the study, Dr. Sanoff has written about the results.”