Parents across the country are looking to national, state, and district leaders to support our nation’s students, help them recover from the pandemic, and provide them the academic and mental health supports they need.
Instead, leaders in Florida are prioritizing hateful bills that hurt some of the students most in need.
The Department of Education has made clear that all schools receiving federal funding must follow federal civil rights law, including Title IX’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
We stand with our LGBTQ+ students in Florida and across the country, and urge Florida leaders to make sure all their students are protected and supported.
“This one is personal to me. Because of my former boss. I have a 14-year-old son who is gay. Recently came out as gay. I have his permission to talk about this. He didn’t want to tell his friends where I worked.
“He was ashamed of where I worked, rightfully so, but also the fact that there’s this ‘don’t say gay’ – even slogan – out there, it’s making children feel different.
“It’s creating a problem where I don’t think there is one.” – Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, today on The View. Watch the clip.
Michigan state and local Republican leaders are condemning comments made by a GOP state House candidate who recently suggested rape victims “lie back and enjoy it,” after he spent months parroting pandemic conspiracy theories and sharing anti-Semitic rhetoric.
However, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser and others affiliated with the party are not calling on Robert “RJ” Regan to withdraw from a special state House election, a race where he’s a heavy favorite.
“Having three daughters, and I tell my daughters, ‘well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it so.’ That’s not how we roll, that’s not how I won this election. We go right at it,” Regan said, according to a video of the panel posted on Rumble.
Regan, the GOP-backed nominee for a Michigan state House seat, used the right-wing video site Rumble to endorse the killings of President Joe Biden, Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, among others.
Regan has also frequently shared right-wing media-fueled conspiracy theories on social media, including advising people to “study” and “apply” QAnon to their lives like they do with the Bible, and falsely claiming that Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman “staged” his famous face down with insurrectionists inside the Capitol.
Regan is a 2020 election conspiracy theorist and has claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “fake war just like the fake pandemic.”
Robert Regan, who just won the GOP primary for Michigan's 74th House district, said to those claiming decertification of 2020 is impossible:⁰⁰"It's like … telling my daughters, 'well, if rape is inevitable you should just lay back and enjoy it.'” pic.twitter.com/7oPx6RPqrb
Notie they not only want to block abortion in their own state, but want to prevent the people in their state from using a legal medical service in another state. Think of it. This is the party of Personal responsibility and small government. I guess they want to shrink government small enough to fit in your underwear.
The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the GOP-led states poised to enact tighter restrictions if the Supreme Court weakens its landmark precedent upholding abortion rights.
Missouri state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R) is shown in December in St. Louis. (Neeta Satam for The Washington Post) (Neeta Satam /For The Washington Post)
The pattern emerges whenever a Republican-led state imposes new restrictions on abortion: People seeking the procedure cross state lines to find treatment in places with less-restrictive laws.
Now, a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws in 2019, believes she has found a solution.
An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy.
Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Abortion rights advocates say the measure is unconstitutional because it would effectively allow states to enact laws beyond their jurisdictions, but the Republican-led Missouri legislature has been supportive of creative approaches to antiabortion legislation in the past. The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the conservative states poised to tighten restrictions if the Supreme Court moves this summer to overturn its landmark precedent protecting abortion rights.
An abortion doctor from Kansas City, Mo., travels across state lines every month to provide care at clinics in the Midwest. (Whitney Leaming, Alice Li/The Washington Post)
** you may need to go to the link above to see the video, it wont post on here**
“If your neighboring state doesn’t have pro-life protections, it minimizes the ability to protect the unborn in your state,” said Coleman, who said she’s been trying to figure out how to crack down on out-of-state abortions since Planned Parenthood opened an abortion clinic on the Illinois-Missouri border in 2019.
A Supreme Court decision that undercuts Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion across the United States,probably would create a national landscape that encourages patients to cross state lines for abortions, with Democrat-led states moving to protect abortion rights as Republican-led states further limit them.
The trend has been apparent in Texas, where the majority of people seeking abortions since the state’s six-week abortion ban took effect in September have been able to obtain the procedure at clinics in neighboring states, or by ordering abortion pills in the mail, according to a report from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. Demand for abortions has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and other nearby states. Planned Parenthood clinics in states that border Texas reported that patient traffic increased by nearly 800 percent, and independent providers reported comparable increases.
Since Planned Parenthood opened its clinic on the Missouri-Illinois border in October 2019, 10,644 Missouri residents have received abortion care at the clinic, according to Planned Parenthood. By early 2021, the last remaining clinic in Missouri was typically providing between 10 and 20 abortions per month, according to preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Health.
Coleman said she hopes her amendment will thwart efforts by Missourians to cross state lines for abortions. The measure would target anyone even tangentially involved in an abortion performed on a Missouri resident, including the hotline staffers who make the appointments, the marketing representatives who advertise out-of-state clinics, and the Illinois and Kansas-based doctors who handle the procedure. Her amendment also would make it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess or distribute abortion pills in Missouri.
Olivia Cappello, the press officer for state media campaigns at Planned Parenthood, called the idea “wild” and “bonkers.” She called the proposal “the most extraordinary provision we have ever seen.”
If enacted, the measure almost certainly would face a swift legal challenge.
Elizabeth Myers, an attorney for Texas abortion rights groups in a court challenge to the six-week abortion ban, said states cannot regulate activities beyond their borders. She drew a parallel to marijuana laws, which also vary from state to state: While Texas lawmakers can outlaw marijuana, and punish anyone who uses the drug within Texas borders, she said, they have no jurisdiction over a Texas resident who uses marijuana in a state where its use is legal.
“A state’s power is over its own citizens and its own geographical boundaries,” Myers said. “These are limits imposed by the federal constitution and federal law.”
Coleman’s proposal still may succeed in deterring out-of-state abortions, said Myers. Like the Texas law, the proposal itself could have a chilling effect, where doctors in surrounding states stop performing abortions before courts have an opportunity to intervene, worried that they may face a flurry of lawsuits if they violate the law.
Coleman rejects arguments that her law is unconstitutional.
“That’s what they said about the Texas law, and every bill passed to protect the unborn for the last 49 years,” she said.
Supporters of abortion rights stand on both sides of a street near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis on May 30, 2019, as they denounce the Trump administration’s tightening of rules for federal funding of reproductive services. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
Coleman prayed outside the clinic on the Illinois-Missouri border on the day it opened, she said. Since then, she said, she’s been talking to “anyone who would listen” about legal strategies for decreasing the number of Missouri women who seek abortions in other states.
While Coleman says she has been happy to see the sharp decline in abortions in Missouri, she says she can’t fully celebrate the success when so many women are obtaining the same procedure a few miles away.
“It’s just tragic,” she said of the number of Missouri residents who get abortions in Illinois. “It feels very sad and heavy.”
Abortion clinics in states that support abortion rights are preparing for a surge of new patients if Roe is overturned. They are opening new locations and advocating for legislation that would allow them to accommodate more people. Lawmakers in several states have proposed bills this session that would allow nurse practitioners and nurse midwives to perform abortions, in addition to physicians, while others are planning to create statewide databases that will allow out-of-state patients to more easily plan their abortion care.
“We’ve got already half of states that have passed some kind of law to restrict or eliminate abortion access,” said California state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D), who has introduced legislation to help make California a “sanctuary state” for people seeking abortion access. “We definitely are and intend to be a national beacon for reproductive freedom and reproductive justice.”
NEW
A new Missouri bill would prohibit women leaving the state to get an abortion.
If this style of legislation is somehow found legal, it would have a huge impact in a post-Roe v Wade world. https://t.co/kpPiOzVj3J
Lou Engle is helping to send out calls to the body of Christ for prayer and fasting for the LGBTQ community. The call has become known as the Behold the Lamb Fast. This fast, which began Monday, March 7, prompts believers to pray for members of the LGBTQ community. People who participate in this fast will also take communion daily.
The focus of this movement is that the LGBTQ community will behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and its goal is that the LGBTQ might understand God’s great love for them and Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for them.
Lou has partnered with Jeffrey McCall and Freedom March in past years. Freedom March is a ministry that unites former LGBTQ to share their testimonies in major U.S. cities. The former LGBTQ individuals then march in the downtown of those cities, publicly professing Jesus is Lord.
That would be same Jeffrey McCall who recently confessed on Facebook that he just can’t stop hooking up with multiple men.
As for Lou Engle, he last appeared on JMG in March 2020 when he launched a fast for God to “stretch out his rod of authority” and “rebuke” the coronavirus.
Before that, Engle appeared here when he rallied with Kanye West ahead of leading a Boston “ex-gay march” with, ahem, Jeffrey McCall.
In August 2018, Engle launched a three-day fast to stop witches from blocking Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing before the Senate.
Engle first appeared on JMG in 2012 when he declared that abortions cause tornadoes and that his prayers caused the passage of California’s Proposition 8.
I am still fighting to get my systems back to full capacity. I have good news and bad news on that front. I will tell you when I get everything done. On this bill, it is clearly an attack on LGBTQ+ books and materials by the right but mostly the religious groups. I was listening to a podcast today that described several top Republicans crowing about how targeting trans KIDS and framing any books or material about the LGBTQ+ as obscene sex, pornography and harmful to kids was the winning strategy that was going to get them a sweep in the midterm elections. They admitted it was garbage but attacking KIDS got the base riled up to turn out and it anything protecting kids makes the side against it the enemy of the people. I have stored about five different attacks on the LGBTQ+ to post, from the DeathSantis spox saying if you oppose the don’t say gay bill you are a pedophile who wants to groom kids, to more attacks on trans kids. I love this bill is numbered 666. I will post this and go back to updating my computers, dumped and reinstalled for the 6th time.
The Idaho Legislature’s House State Affairs Committee advanced a bill Thursday that opponents say could criminalize librarians for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, sponsored House Bill 666.
“For a long time, many years, I have been concerned about the obscene and pornographic material that finds its way into our schools and libraries,” DeMordaunt told the House State Affairs Committee. “While likely this is inadvertent, the increasingly frequent exposure of our children to obscene and pornographic material in places that I as a parent assume are safe and free from these kinds of harmful materials is downright alarming.”
If passed into law, House Bill 666 removes an exemption in existing state law protecting schools, colleges, universities, museums and libraries and their employees from prosecution for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Testimony during the public hearing on the bill Thursday was mixed.
Several parents and concerned residents named and even brought with them several books that feature LGBTQ+ characters or storylines, arguing those books are obscene. One parent was upset that her daughter encountered a library book that depicted a romance between a prince and a knight who slay a dragon together and are supported by their community.
Books mentioned included “An ABC of Equality,” “Lawn Boy,” “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
“How did we go from ‘Pollyanna’ to drag queen for the kids? My daughter’s innocence was violated,” parent Kara Claridge told legislators. “But what happens when kids start acting on these graphic behaviors put forth in these books?”
“The sad reality is children are being taught to be confused about their gender and even groomed into lifestyles they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise,” Claridge added, saying the children’s library is no longer a safe place to take her children.
Librarians who testified said the bill is dangerous and the language in the bill about materials that are harmful to children is too vague.
“We walk down the slippery slope of censorship of constitutionally protected speech when we have a bill like this,” librarian Erin Kennedy told legislators.
Other librarians said the bill wouldn’t even address parents’ concerns about material in books available in the library.
“Everything that we have been hearing on this bill, I would just like to point out that this bill is not to get the books out of the library, this bill is to criminalize library workers. We are not talking censorship and removing these books; we are talking about criminalizing library workers if minors get these books,” librarian Huda Shaltry told legislators.
Shaltry also said the books parents mentioned during the hearing are available at the library but are not located in the children’s section of the library.
DeMordaunt denied the bill would criminalize librarians.
But substitute Rep. Holli Woodings, a Boise Democrat and City Council member who is subbing for Rep. Chris Mathias, said it was clear the bill criminalizes librarians because the bill cites Title 18, which is the criminal code for the state of Idaho.
“If my daughter brings home ‘Twilight,’ which has explicit material in it, can I then go and press charges against my librarian for allowing her to check out ‘Twilight’ and potentially put them in jail for a year or give them a $1,000 fine?” Woodings said. “This is a slippery slope. It does not correct the problem that it is seeking to correct. We had many people come and testify today on books that had various social topics. Not pornography, not explicit material.”
Shortly before the vote, two legislators condemned libraries after looking through packets that contained examples from the books parents mentioned during the meeting.
“I am absolutely appalled, I feel dirty,” said Rep. James Holtzclaw, R-Meridian, garnering loud applause from several in the crowd at the hearing. “I cannot believe that our children can look at this stuff. And I can’t believe we fund the libraries to allow this to happen.”
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said “trash is being placed in front of our children.”
The House State Affairs Committee voted along party lines to send House Bill 666 to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with a recommendation they pass it. To become law, the bill still needs to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without Little’s signature.
Idaho clears a legislation with the potential to fine librarians $1,000 and send them to jail for a year for checking out material to a minor that could harm them https://t.co/apbdqUUvkW (via AP)
This is the reality many may want to ignore or deny. There are very vocal motivated religious groups pushing for the right to discriminate and deny daily rights of personhood to the LGBTQ+ people all over the country. They often win in the smaller contests where they can act and cause fear in local politicians. They will not stop at just one victory, they are on a mission from their god to declare us, the LGBTQ+ an abomination. I have 15 of these stories in my cue I want to address over the last three days but until I get the router / computer issues fixed I can only do a few things as far as posting goes. Why is it Christain to hurt others? Why is it Christain to deny the other person rights? Christain’s see rights as a zero sum game if others have some, they lose some. It is not that way. There are enough rights to go around if you want to give others’ rights. But if you want only your group to have rights and the others under your control, then you are like the Christians.
An ordinance in Nebraska’s capital city that extends discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity could be put on the ballot this November or rescinded after referendum petitions garnered four times the needed signatures.
The “Let Us Vote” referendum initiative needed 4,137 signatures, equivalent to 4% of voters in Lincoln. But petitions were signed by more than 18,500 voters in just 15 days, forcing the Lincoln City Council to put the Fairness Ordinance on the ballot or rescind the law, according to the Nebraska Family Alliance.
Read the full article. Photo: Nebraska Family Alliance executive director Karen Bowling.
The Let Us Vote referendum has successfully obtained more than four times the needed signatures to require the #LNK City Council to rescind or put the so-called “Fairness Ordinance” on the ballot after being signed by 18,501 Lincoln voters in just 15 days!https://t.co/BlO6EXkeWK
Not a single fucking person is sitting at home thinking, “I’m totally not trans, but I’d probably give it a whirl if I could easily and cheaply change my birth certificate to reflect a gender with which I do not identify.”
Stop being fucking stupid, you absolute ballbags.
— Fancy Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) March 4, 2022
“People who are already trans and have always existed will be much more likely to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate if the process ceases to be so costly, time-consuming and dehumanising.”
— Fancy Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) March 4, 2022
BREAKING: Florida legislators voted to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, a move that would severely restrict access to the procedure in a state that for decades has been a refuge for women from across the South, with @aglorioshttps://t.co/RUKhWYA45c
At a moment when democracy is under attack from authoritarian regimes around the world, we must address the growing authoritarian factions in our country.
Paul Manafort, who was an advisor to the Pro-Russia/Pro-Putin former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was Trump’s campaign Chairman. He worked for free. Manafort picked Pence for VP.
Manafort never stopped working and talking with Russia throughout the 2016 election.
Trump bragged about love letters from North Korea. He was Putin’s puppet. Truly vile.
Republicans are soft. Soft-headed. Soft on our enemies. Soft of racism. Soft on sexism.
Having no principles or morals is disqualifying.
Yep, that would be totally believable. Because China has such a large fleet of F-22s. And planes’ affiliations are definitely only identifiable by flags.
I think we’re beyond any viable off-ramps for Putin at this point, but this is certainly one way to make the war less popular in Russia. https://t.co/QvFmwDDU9k
The judge has "has effectively taken a 10,000 ton, $1.8 billion guided-missile destroyer out of commission. As the Navy builds up its naval presence in Europe to guard against further Russian aggression, it is down a ship" https://t.co/acaW41MzvR
As you can see, the right has created another no-win situation for President Biden. If President Biden doesn’t cut the flow of Russian oil, then the right can accuse him of being weak. Even though he has been sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing other sanctions. If President Biden cuts off the flow of Russian oil, then Republicans can blame him for the higher oil prices because there is less oil available. Even though there is very little President Biden can do about the price of oil. It will take two years for Keystone XL pipeline to be completed if President Biden restarted the program. That doesn’t solve the problem right now. That oil would also be sold on the open market, so we possibly wouldn’t get it. The oil is being transported by other ways as well currently. We could make land available for oil drilling, but it would also take time to put the wells in place. Assuming the oil companies want to do it. They might like the way things are because it is more profitable that way.
This situation could have been prevented if Republicans and more Democrats voted for the Green New Deal in order to reduce our dependence on oil.
Plus as I understand it the oil companies are sitting on land leases they already have but have not done anything with. The US is the largest producer of oil, and yet it is sold on the open market you mention instead of being restricted to home use. Also there is the question of refineries. Oil comes in grades, and not all refineries refine the same grades of oils. So there is a mix of sending oils from country to country to where the ability to take that grade of oil and make it into the final product for sale. It really is a complicated mess. The US president has little control over it, if any.
And then the right can blame President Biden for the price of oil being too high. We could put our military in Ukraine and hope Putin doesn’t retaliate with nukes. Even if Putin doesn’t the right will be upset when a soldier gets a paper cut.
Despite the attempts to smear Biden, the Democrats have proposed and are trying to enact boycotts and restrictions on Russian oil. Strangely the Republicans have not supported this effort even as the right wing media is demanding it. It is a double edged sword, if Biden does sanction the Russian oil even though the US part of it has already shrunk to very low levels if the price of oil increases the right can blame Biden. If Biden doesn’t act to sanction the Russian oil then the right can accuse Biden of not supporting Ukraine. The right wing loves this as it lets then do what they do best, talk out both sides of their mouth because for them it is not the policy that counts but how to attack Democrats. They are kids wanting to hurt the other. They don’t care about policy or what is best for people. They want the emotional childish game. So let us see how many of the Republicans in congress support sanctions on Russian oil.
This is done by a right wing media cartoonist to try to force the US into a war because of the fact most people care about the hurt of other people. But it is not that simple. Yes Ukrainians are dying. How many more will die if madman Putin who is repeatedly demonstrated he doesn’t care about human life feels backed into a corner and does launch nuclear weapons? How many more will die then. How long will the destruction last then? There are ways to handle this war that are not flashy and does not beat the breast of the wannabe macho men, but it keeps the death toll down.
The right has deliberately poisoned the well on CRT. ‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain,” Rufo wrote. He takes critical-race theory as a concept, strips it of all meaning, and repurposes it as a catchall for white grievances. “The goal,” he tweeted, “is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” As you can see this is a manufactured crisis for political gain by the right and a person very arguably a white supremacist. CRT has become a code for the racist history of the US and some white people don’t want it taught accurately and if taught it must be watered down to seem a beneficial action by white people toward blacks. Not sure why so many white people identify with the slavers rather than the abolitionists. CRT is only a legal theory taught in law schools or advanced degree programs. It is not taught in high schools, and it is not taught in grade schools. That idea is another right wing media misinformation campaign. And Rufo admits it.
The “Biden weak” trope wore out, so let’s try “Harris incompetent.” Biden’s day off, attack Harris. Ho, hum. Perhaps the alleged cartoonist should be worried about the Trump Principle: the ability to spectacularly fail upwards while destroying everything around you. It’s well practiced by most Republicans. She has undertaken several difficult tasks and done — not perfectly: This is politics — but pretty well. However, like the big lie(s) about Hillary promulgated by the reich wingers, I suspect their big lies about Harris will prevail in the end, if only by 55% to 45%.
church ministry has found a new way to indoctrinate public school students, and the Pennridge School District in Pennsylvania is giving them the platform to pull it off.
There’s also a flyer for “RE:VIVALS Outreach Center” which offers free tutoring for students in the district. The flyer even notes that the volunteers who work with them “are educators, administrators, counselors, and aides. All have received full clearance from the State of Pennsylvania to work with children and youth.”
It’s not until you read the fine print at the very bottom that you notice the catch: This is a bait-and-switch attempt to “bring hope and healing to the community through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
That’s not just some euphemism. This isn’t a church that expresses its faith by helping members of the community. This is a blatant attempt to indoctrinate public school students. And we know that because one mother reached out to them in the hopes they could help her daughter catch up in her AP Biology class after she missed several lessons on evolution… and the response was jaw-dropping:
Laura Foster, a district parent, reached out to the program, Re:vivals Resource Center, to inquire about assistance for her daughter, Camille, with her AP Biology exam.
In an email response to Foster, Donna Tindall of Re:vivals, wrote that a tutor could help Camille understand evolution through a “biblical worldview… meaning that we believe that God created the world in six literal days.”
“Although we accept this through faith, there is evidence pointing in that direction,” said Tindall. “I think our tutor would welcome the opportunity to help [Camille] understand what is being presented and perhaps to examine the presuppositions as well as the supporting facts for both conclusions.”
None of that would help Camille. What it would do it confuse her by injecting mythology into a science class, leaving her worse off as she prepares for an advanced placement exam that could earn her college credit. Spreading misinformation and embracing lies may be acceptable for members of the First Baptist Church of Perkasie, which sponsors the program, but it shouldn’t be an option for people who take education seriously. It’s despicable that the school allows this program to be publicized on its website without any sort of disclaimer that this ministry is mostly interested in winning converts and undoing what students learn in the classroom.
When Emily Rizzo of public radio station WHYY inquired about this with Pennridge Superintendent David Bolton, he initially said any group is allowed to request their flyers listed on the district’s website… before offering his personal stamp of approval for this particular for of misinformation:
In an email to Foster, Superintendent Bolton said he had “spoken directly with Re:Vivals about the tutoring program before it began and [had] personally visited multiple times and [had] received feedback from multiple families who have used the service.”
I’m sure it all seems very nice and the volunteers mean well. That doesn’t erase the fact that this is just an attempt to indoctrinate kids through the public school system or that the “tutoring” involves material that contradicts what kids learn in the classroom.
Parents shouldn’t have to investigate the organization themselves in order to understand the real mission. The school should make that clear up front instead of suggesting they vetted and approved all the groups posting flyers on the website.
Perhaps it’ll take Satanists or atheists demanding their own groups’ flyers get listed on the district’s website before these people take the matter seriously.
WHYY also notes that this particular district has been at the center of a number of recent “culture war” battles that pushed for conservative Christian policies:
The district is effectively functioning as an arm of the local churches. And students are the ones who are ultimately punished for that partnership.
HEMANT MEHTA
Hemant Mehta is the founder of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, podcast co-host, and author of multiple books about atheism. He can be reached at @HemantMehta. More by Hemant Mehta
I have committed heresy in Washington. I’ve been in the Senate for only three years, and I have released an 11-point plan with 128 ideas on what Republicans should do after we win the coming elections and take control of the Senate and House. In the real world beyond the Beltway, Republicans and independents demand bold action and a plan to save our nation.
They see no point in taking control of Congress if we are simply going to return to business as usual. So, I went out and made a statement that got me in trouble. I said that all Americans need to have some skin in the game. Even if it is just a few bucks, everyone needs to know what it is like to pay some taxes. It hit a nerve.
Part of the deception is achieved by disconnecting so many Americans from taxation. It’s a genius political move. And it is bankrupting us. There will be many more attacks on me and this plan from careerists in Washington, who personally profit while ruining this country. Bring it on.
Incredibly, Rick Scott has doubled down in his bid to get the nation to pay attention to his plan to eliminate Social Security & Medicare and raise taxes on half the countryhttps://t.co/wIjqn6asqT
Scott writes WSJ op-ed defending his agenda, including making all pay income tax. He says “free-loaders who abuse the welfare system” should pay something.
Republicans “don’t deserve to govern” unless they want to fix America.https://t.co/HqiphBIemB
Sen. Rick Scott released a television ad promoting an 11-point Republican agenda for the midterms. The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he’s pushed the plan on the Rescue America website. “Our borders are being invaded, inflation is raging and our shelves are empty,” Scott says in narration.
“Crime is rampant. Police are being killed, and God-fearing people are being silenced.” The plan stokes culture wars on abortion and anti-LGBTQ stances, quoting the Bible and making a case for a heartbeat bill.
The ad can be watched online now and will begin airing on television airways nationwide on Friday. Paid for by Scott’s own PAC, Scott for Florida, he said the ad is backed by a seven-figure national TV and digital buy.
Rick Scott, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, put out an agenda for Republicans to run on that includes requiring "all Americans" — including low-income families and the elderly — to pay income taxes.
That means raising taxes on 100+ million Americans.
New on the 11-point plan: Rick Scott's campaign tells me this would also apply to the 2030 census, meaning that there would be no data at all on the racial makeup of the US.https://t.co/vo6NRRVEty
NEW: Rick Scott just went on Fox to defend the new GOP 2022 platform that calls for raising taxes on the middle class and seniors — he claimed that “of course” he didn’t call to raise taxes. His plan specifically calls for raising income taxes on “over half of Americans.”
Let’s remember: Rick Scott refused to expand Medicaid, denying health care to about 800,000 Floridians. Now, he’s promising higher taxes for middle-class and working-class families.
In a private meeting at Mar-a-Lago a few days ago, Donald Trump made a personal pitch to Senate Republican campaign chief Rick Scott. “You should run for Senate majority leader,” he told the NRSC chair. It wasn’t the first time, either: Trump has repeatedly told Scott he’d be great at the job and should challenge Mitch McConnell.
The Florida governor-turned-senator is navigating some treacherous terrain — and we’re not talking about the Senate landscape.
He’s trying to balance working with the GOP’s two most powerful figures in McConnell and Trump, who also happen to despise each other. Scott, 69, made waves — and infuriated some McConnell allies — when he bucked the GOP leader’s decision not to lay out a policy agenda for 2022 and instead released his own.
Sen. Rick Scott continues to project optimism about the electoral climate for Republicans, forecasting an “unbelievable” shift in school boards in 2022. During an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show, the Senator said there would be an “unbelievable number of school board changes this next year.”
Scott expects cultural backlash to prevail. “Because parents are fed up with these school boards telling them that your kid’s oppressed or your kid’s an oppressor. That is so crazy,” Scott added.
Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, closed out 2021 trumpeting much of the same message he has all year, an expectation that critical race theory can be used to mobilize November voters.
