Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins:
Kristen Waggoner doesn’t get usually get nervous. As one of Alliance Defending Freedom’s top attorneys, she’s argued before the Supreme Court, tackled high-profile cases, and spoken in front of her share of hostile crowds. But something about her visit to Yale University Law School last week felt different. “I can count on about one hand when I get really anxious before something.”
This was one of those moments. Walking into a room filled with a raging student mob didn’t just mean she was in danger — it meant the culture of free speech in higher education was on the verge of complete collapse. But obviously, the students at Yale were never taught about the free exchange of ideas, because the minute Waggoner was introduced, the crowd rose in unison — yelling and holding vile signs about ADF.
When the moderator, a Yale professor, tried to control the situation — reminding students about the campus’s rule to let speakers be heard — the crowd turned on her. As a nation — and the education revolution we’re witnessing is part of this — we have to get back to promoting the free exchange of ideas.
The quote in the headline of this post comes from Perkins’ interview below with Waggoner. The clip is cued up to that moment.
Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender
Federal judge rules Kim Davis violated couples’ constitutional rights; will go to trial over damages
A federal judge has ruled that former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples when she denied them marriage licenses during the summer of 2015.
In an order published Friday afternoon, United States District Judge David L. Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in a civil lawsuit that the two couples, David Ermold and David Moore, and James Yates and Will Smith, filed against Davis.
That settles – without a trial – the question of whether Davis violated their constitutional rights, but no decision has been made yet on whether Davis will be on the hook for the likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees accrued over the six-and-a-half years of litigation.
Bunning denied Davis’s request for summary judgment on the question of damages, meaning that decision will still go to trial and ultimately be left up to a jury. The plaintiffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs and attorneys’ fees.
“The plaintiffs could not be more happy,” Michael Gartland, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told WKYT’s Garrett Wymer. “As the court notes in the decision, this case has been pending since 2015. They couldn’t be more happy that they’re finally going to get their day in court and they’re confident justice will be served.”
In a news release, Liberty Counsel, the organization who represented Davis, noted that the case could go back to the Supreme Court over religious freedom concerns.
“Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief,” Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in the release. “This case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the Supreme Court.” (Read Liberty Counsel’s full response here.)
A status conference is scheduled to be held by telephone on April 1. A trial date will likely be set then.
Davis’s actions during the summer of 2015 turned Morehead into an epicenter of the battle over gay rights following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.
Davis said she acted “under God’s authority” when she, as the order summarizes, “famously refused to comply with Obergefell, which required her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”
David Ermold and David Moore were denied marriage licenses three times, and James Yates and Will Smith were denied licenses four times, before the two couples were granted marriage licenses by a deputy clerk while Davis spent five days in jail for contempt of court.
The two couples sued Davis, saying her actions caused “mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation and reputation damages.”
The case has gone through several setbacks, appeals and delays over the course of the past six-and-a-half years.
Davis was previously found to have sovereign immunity in her professional capacity as county clerk, but did not have protection from civil liability in her personal capacity. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal on that issue.
Davis had previously asked state lawmakers for an accommodation for her religious beliefs so that she would not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but she did not receive one. The state later removed the clerk’s signature from marriage licenses.
Davis lost her bid for re-election in 2018.
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Federal Judge Rules Former Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Violated Constitutional Rights Of Same-Sex Couples
Federal Judge Rules Former Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Violated Constitutional Rights Of Same-Sex Couples
Lexington’s CBS News affiliate reports:
A federal judge has ruled that former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples when she denied them marriage licenses during the summer of 2015.
In an order published Friday afternoon, United States District Judge David L. Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in a civil lawsuit that the two couples, David Ermold and David Moore, and James Yates and Will Smith, filed against Davis.
That settles – without a trial – the question of whether Davis violated their constitutional rights, but no decision has been made yet on whether Davis will be on the hook for the likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees accrued over the six-and-a-half years of litigation.
Davis’s lawyer Mat Staver responds:
When Davis petitioned the Supreme Court for review in 2020, the High Court denied review in which the only issue raised was sovereign immunity. However, Justices Thomas and Alito appeared to invite future challenges to the 2015 Obergefell marriage case.
Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Alito, wrote that “[t]his petition implicates important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell, but it does not cleanly present them.”
In granting summary judgment for the plaintiffs, Judge Bunning ruled that Davis violated “clearly established” law when she ceased issuing all marriage licenses.
The case will now proceed to trial on the issue of damages, if any. Davis argues that a finding of liability would violate the First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion. This case now clearly presents the free exercise defense and thus could return to the Supreme Court.
Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief. This case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the Supreme Court.
Week after ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill gains passage in Florida, similar law proposed in Louisiana
And it is spreading. Once Republicans get away with curtailing people’s rights they try to do it everywhere. Like anti-abortion bills they spread everywhere the Republicans are in charge. The anti-voter legislation also. Now it is the don’t say gay bills. Notice that each one goes a step further than the last, as they do with the anti-abortion bills and the anti-voter bills. This one includes the 12th grade because 18 year olds are too young to know gays exist. Shades of Russia. These bills just make it harder for young people to get the information they need and see role models that are like themselves. This is mass produced attempt to roll back the clock on the progress of the LGBTQ+ rights. Hey we can get married, we are just not allowed to tell people we are married, especially if kids are around. Will same sex couples be able to put pictures of their families up along with the straight couples. See the thing these bills forget to mention is kids from birth on are surrounded and immersed in heterosexuality. Straight couples everywhere, pictures, on TV, in magazines. It is like racism, kids see it all around them and just learn that is the way things are. Why not the same with same sex families? Why separate them out to hide? It has nothing to do with protecting kids and everything to do with trying to prevent kids from understanding it is normal. These religious groups lost the culture wars so far, but they won the elections so the can make the LGBTQ+ disappear as much as possible. This won’t stop kids from being LGBTQ+ as that happens in the womb. It won’t stop kids from feeling what they feel. LGBTQ+ is not a fad, it is not rebelling against the parents. And it seems bigotry and hate won’t ever stop. I have been fighting this same shit from religious driven people all my life from my teens on. Notice the lawmaker kept saying her Pastor pushed her to do this. Her religious leader is putting his hates and church doctrine into secular laws.
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Week after ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill gains passage in Florida, similar law proposed in Louisiana
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Why is the US the only developed nation with out a real family leave system? Are we not as pro-life as the right wing claims?
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Scottie’s world today
Sorry got a real late start. Enjoy!
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Conservative politics uses the lens of anger.
It’s an international commodity, folks.
Comrade Carlson.
Tucker said it was not ‘un-American’ to support Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. He was wrong. Tucker’s opinion is non-stop coordinated pro-Putin propaganda.
Trump bullshit laid bare.
Republicans are soft on crime because they would lose the entire Party if they had ethics.
Entire Republican Party is garbage politics legislated by garbage politicians to appease the garbage intellect of their base.
So many horrible conservatives to keep track of.
Authoritarians ban books. Create a false world where only THEY have the truth. See: GOP
Control speech. Attack truth. Punish women.
Russia or GOP?
Teaching people about the history of cruel actions only offends you if you identify with the cruelty.
Ex: People were racist. They were cruel.
Cruel person: Hey, I’m racist. Don’t hurt my feelings.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
The right is desperate to ignore all the work Biden has done to box in Putin at the same time the right sings Putin’s praises.
Again the right wing cartoons are desperate to find anything to stick in blaming Biden. Gas prices have been addressed, we even have audio of one of the CEOs saying there is no way they would increase production and reduce their profits.
My gods, their country is being destroy while their people slaughtered and the right wing can only think of the money going to help them. Why, because the right things only of the wealthy wanting every cent of the nation’s wealth and they cry to see it going to help people.
Sick. While crime in the US may seem up right now it is not anywhere near what it was 10 years ago. But to compare any crime in the US to a war torn country that has been invaded and their people are being slaughtered is gross.
Yes Biden made a gaff. He goofed. He admitted it, he laughed about it. He is human. He has been known for making verbal mistakes. He did not get angry when he did it, he did not deny it. I find the difference between him and trump greatly refreshing. tRump would have attacked the press who reported it and claimed he never said what everyone heard him say.
Despite the rights many lies, such as Rudy saying he had the laptop but the authorities wouldn’t look at it, the authorities really had the laptop, the emails that refuted what the right wing was claiming were already in the hands of the DOJ / FBI. They clear both Hunter and Joe Biden. The emails to Hunter’s business partners also stressed many times that Joe Biden wouldn’t be bound by anything that Hunter was doing, that no one doing business with them should do so thinking they would influence Joe Biden’s behavior. It was so above board it is like watching a 1940’s TV show.
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And now some for fun
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Republicans are preventing the government from working for the people. Vote them out and have a government of the people working for the people
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Scottie’s world today
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None of these other countries have for-profit corporate insurance. It’s that obvious.
Health care does not need a middle man.
All libertarians eliminated. All FOX World done.
https://truth-has-a-liberal-bias.tumblr.com/post/678996186992164864
Progressive politics will save the country.
American oil companies answer to shareholders and owners, not to the government.
Prices are a reflection of their greed, not supply and demand, nor the cost of crude oil per barrel.
Handful of *subsidized* monopolistic oil companies. It’s not a free market.
Refuse to be your child’s first bully 🌈
Republicans are all about control. The only way to get more power for their white cis-hetero male is to take away the rights of others and attack diversity.
Reactionary Republicans are the worst people.
‘Let others live’ said no conservative, judgmental control freak ever.
Authoritarians spread homophobia. See: GOP
Media bias.
The GOP/Russia authoritarian code:
We are criminals. We are corrupt. We are doing nothing wrong. The other side is worse.
Republicans are willing participants. Corruption is a pillar of authoritarianism.
Russia funds the GOP. GOP attacks democracy, non-whites, LGBTQ community, teachers, students, schools, and public health policy.
From Trump to entire GOP congress: they all take Russian money and parrot Russian active measures.
Marge is an international disgrace.
Republicans don’t even mind. They ❤ Putin.
Russia has their receipts.
Collusion. Conspiracy to commit treason. Propaganda syndication. Pro-Putin.
The dots are connected.
Putin wants to be Stalin. GOP ambitiously enable and amplify the madness.
Anyone who is soft on Putin is a disgrace.
When your selfishness clouds your entire world view. Middle Age Riot
The long-tail of covid is unknown. So ironic for Conservatives, who need absolutes to function, so embraced covid.
Covid is not over
The Republican male view of how pregnancy works.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
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And now some for fun
Marjorie Taylor Greene says Ukraine should give up
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/17/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-ukraine-should-give-up_partner/
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a news conference in Washington on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. The House voted 230 to 199 on Thursday evening to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from committee assignments over her remarks about QAnon and other conspiracy theories. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Wednesday slammed President Joe Biden for sending more military aid to Ukraine, and said that things would be better off if Ukrainians just gave up their efforts to resist the Russian invasion.
In a Facebook address to her supporters, Greene laid out the case against helping the Ukrainians with more weapons.
“If we truly care about suffering and death on our television screens, we cannot fund more of it by sending money and weaponry to fight a war they cannot possibly win!” she said. “The only effect of more arms and more money from America will be to prolong the war!”
Greene went on to say that America was giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people “false hope about a war they can’t win.”
In fact, many military experts think that Russia’s invasion has broadly stalled, and Ukraine reports that it has killed four different Russian generals after less than a month of fighting, which suggests that the possibility for victory by the Ukrainians is far from hopeless.
Greene concluded by saying that she wanted to stop the Ukrainain arms shipments because “as Christians” she didn’t want to produce “any more human suffering.”
Watch the video below.
Notice that she never mentioned that Russia should pull back or stop but that all her Christian love of life was directed at the Ukrainians stopping defending themself. I wonder which one is her reason, the white supremacy of Russia, the religious takeover of public life, or the hateful attempt to erase the LGBTQ+. Is she a paid sponsor of Putin’s or just a useful idiot like her beloved cult leader tRump?
Tony Perkins: LGBTs Are Controlled By “Demonic Spirits” And Are The “Zenith Of Rebellion Against God” [VIDEO]
“This whole thing with LGBT is the zenith of man’s rebellion against God. The Creator who created us in his own image, we’re saying, ‘No, we will decide—not biology, not science—we will decide what our gender is.’
“That is the only explanation for how people are surrendering to this agenda, how adamant the advocates of this agenda are, and why we as believers in Jesus Christ who love people and do not want to see our children condemned to confusion for the rest of their lives must speak the truth of God’s word.
“Jesus made very clear there are two genders, not 52. We can never accommodate darkness. I’m going to be very clear about this tonight: Those that are opposing us on these issues are not our enemies.
“We know that our enemies are spiritual. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Our enemies are not flesh and blood; they’re the spirits, the demonic spirits that control so much.” – Tony Perkins, speaking at a Washington church.
Republicans TRAMPLE On Women’s Rights AGAIN
Madison Cawthorn had a rough week
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: The US inflation is driven in large part to profit taking and price gouging.
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Scottie’s world today
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Great time to invest in alternative measures like mass transit, high speed rail, and electric vehicles.
You’re being gouged.
Crude oil is below $100/barrel. There are more taxes on gas now than in 2008.
Republicans are willing participants. Corruption is a pillar of authoritarianism.
Russia funds the GOP. GOP attacks democracy, non-whites, LGBTQ community, teachers, students, schools, and public health policy.
From Trump to entire GOP congress: they all take Russian money and parrot Russian active measures.
Russiafication of Red States.
When conservatives hyperventilate about Sharia Law, they are talking about themselves.
Tyrannical government is a conservative’s best friend.
Tucker Carlson takes his useful idiot job seriously.
While mask requirements are now removed where I live we are still wearing ours for a while to see if there is a new spike. It seems there is a Delta / omicron combination gaining traction.
Remember Colin Kaepernick? He is still banned from the NFL for kneeling to being attention to the abuse suffered by black people at the hands of police. Rodgers is a hero for fighting against public health measures that save lives and promoting harmful fake medical treatments.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
Clearly this is just butt kissing the oil companies butts by the right wing media. Nothing has been done to reduce the US supply by Biden. No new leases would increase supply as that takes years to set up. No pipeline would increase supply as it is already moving via other means and that oil was not for the US anyway. The US is exporting more oil than ever. More than ever! So you want to increase the US supply and lower prices, then nationalize the oil industry and take the huge profits out of it. nationalize it and keep it from leaving the country and we will have the cheapest gas. But that means doing for the people and not the big businesses who are sucking in incredible profits.
The right wing likes to claim that everything wrong with the country is Biden’s failed policies. However they never mention what these failed policy are. Biden has led the response to the war started by Putin pulling countries around the world together. Biden has over seen the greatest economic recovery since they started keeping track. Unemployment has dropped to 3.8%. What are the failed policies that are keeping the country back?
If the Republicans would stop blocking every attempt to pass legislation, then everything wouldn’t have to wait to be shoved into one very large bill. If the Republicans would govern instead of obstruction then the country would have decent bill passed and signed into law.
I would remind the right wing media that the US is the one that broke the deal under tRump to get more concessions from Iran including a change of their government to one we liked. A complete no starter. Biden sadly kept the tRump’s goals rather than try to get back to the original agreement that was containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It is about too late for any agreement. Iran will not change it’s government for any reason that is pushed from the outside. Change of government must come from inside the country by the people. At this point Iran is much closer to their goal of a nuclear weapon than they were under the original deal that tRump broke. So why when we broke the deal do we get to demand even more punishment and restrictions on them? Fact is they have seen that the US will break deals it makes and the US will attack only those countries without nuclear weapons. So they and all countries will do what ever they can to get them, so the US and NATO wont attack them.
Some people seem to react to the move away from fossil fuels like it will be an all or nothing move. That’s far from the truth. When automobiles started popping up, everyone didn’t just stop using horses. It took some time before there were enough gas stations, dealerships, repair shops and roads to support them.
Just a couple of points:
1. It will be a good amount of time before electric cars predominate. As of 2021, EVs were between 8-9 percent of vehicles sold:
https://electrek.co/2022/02/02/global-market-share-of-electric-cars-more-than-doubled-2021/
2. The USA leads in EV technology but this is by no means guaranteed in the years to come. Look at the chart above. For the first time in 2021, the majority of electric car sales were in China. Right now, the USA is home to Tesla, the largest car manufacturer by market capitalization and the pioneer EV manufacturer. But China would love to steal that away, just as they grabbed the solar cell market when we were squabbling about Solyndra. We should not let that happen.
3. I don’t mind so much that we still generate electricity with fossil fuels. We managed a conversion from coal to natural gas fairly handily, and we can do the same with renewable sources.
4. It’s true that there is reduced solar capacity at night, but there is also decreased usage. Additionally, the US is a large country that has only a few hours of complete darkness from coast to coast. Also, the wind blows at night as well as by day. Further, there are old technologies such as pumped storage that may be utilized to store electricity for later use. Here is an example of a facility in upstate New York:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim%E2%80%93Gilboa_Hydroelectric_Power_Station
We need to get started on this! And if we don’t start the change, we won’t be able to finish. So let’s quit making excuses, especially for political reasons, and get started.
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And now some for fun
Scottie's Playtime 
There is a difference between giveaways, like tax cuts for corporations and billionaires and investing in country to modernize it and make it competitive on a global scale.
Here we go again. The following is from “New Hopes for a Changing World,”Bertrand Russell, 1951:
“Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster…In the situation that existed in the Great Depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again. But everybody thought that to do so would risk almost certain loss. Within the framework of classical economics there was no solution. Roosevelt saved the situation by bold and heretical action.
“He spent billions of public money, and created a huge public debt, but by doing so he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked; and though Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as ‘the madman in the White House.’”…
Our Government is supposed to help everybody, not just to give largesse to rich people in the comedic hope it will effectively filter down the wealth strata of all citizens. Roosevelt did the upper class a true favor, and some still refuse to believe it. Unfortunately, it took a world war to eventually unite us — for a while.