ICYMI: Idaho Republican Rep. Jack Nelsen compares women to farm animals and says experience working with cattle has given him "ideas on repro and women's health thing" in his first-ever committee meeting. pic.twitter.com/Y4DSusQBAc
— Idaho Democratic Party (@IdahoDems) January 12, 2023
Category: MAGA / Republican
NE Bill Would Criminalize Taking Kids To Drag Shows
News Channel Nebraska reports:
A bill proposed in the unicameral would place limitations on who can watch drag shows in Nebraska. The bill would ban anyone under 19 from watching a drag show, and it would prohibit anyone under 21 from watching drag shows where alcohol is present.
LB371 was introduced by Republican State Sen. Dave Murman and is already stirring debate in the Legislature. Democratic State Sen. Megan Hunt has filed a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, a decision that is still pending.
Anyone who knowingly brings someone underage to a show would be subject to a misdemeanor. The entities themselves would be subject to a $10,000 fine per violation. The bill would also make it illegal to use state funds to host a drag show.
Read the full article.
Looking for the silver lining, this means parents can’t take kids to church anymore, right?
liondon#traitor-ex-president7 hours ago
Guns kill thousands pf kids yearly and pedophile clergy prey on thousands more… so eff these mofo’s.
Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
I bet they’re not banning child beauty pageants, though.
Uncle Mark Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
charemor Uncle Mark3 hours ago
I wonder what these kids think about this as they grow older and mature.
Zorba Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
I’ve always thought that these child beauty pageants were pedophiles’ dreams.
{Sigh}
Wife Of Iowa Republican 2020 US House Candidate Charged With Over 50 Felony Counts Of Voter Fraud
The Des Moines Register reports:
Federal prosecutors say a Woodbury County woman committed widespread voter fraud to support her husband in two 2020 electoral races. The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges Thursday against Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, of Sioux City.
According to a DOJ press release, Phuong Taylor faces more than 50 felony charges, including 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting.
Phuong Taylor is married to Jeremy Taylor, a former Iowa House member and current Woodbury County supervisor. Taylor ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination to replace Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.
Read the full article. Taylor finished third in the 2020 GOP primary with 7.8% of the vote.
Moms for Liberty say they’d like to see Parental Rights in Education law expanded
And so the haters / republicans / right wing pushes it further. Really it is turning the clock back. It is regressive. It is denying every advance in society and in medical science since the 1950s. Ask your self why that age / time stamp is so attractive to republican males? Because everyone but them were oppressed and they had unfettered control. Hug
Advocates want the bill to forbid discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity to 8th grade.The Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty, the conservative nonprofit that advocates for parental rights in schools, would like state lawmakers to expand the state law that restricts classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation for children from kindergarten through the third grade.
The Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics, ignited a firestorm of criticism among Democrats and LGBTQ advocates and received national attention after it was introduced and later signed into law last year.
“We are advocating to increase that as far as ages and grades to have it be K-8,” said Angela Dubach, the Pinellas County chapter chair of the organization, speaking to the members of the Pinellas County legislative delegation as they met as a group on Wednesday morning at the Clearwater branch campus of St. Petersburg College.
A group of students, parents, and teachers filed a lawsuit last year to block the measure from being implemented, alleging it is unconstitutional in part because it “chills speech and expression that have any connection, however remote, to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Brandon Wolf, press secretary for Equality Florida, slammed the idea.
“At every step of the way, right-wing extremists have gaslit the community about its insatiable desire for censorship and erasure of LGBTQ people,” he told the Phoenix in an email.
“They insisted that the Don’t Say LGBTQ law would be narrow in scope and limited to K-3, despite knowing that the law’s impacts would be far broader and more sweeping. Already, we’ve seen books with LGBTQ characters banned, ‘Safe Space’ stickers peeled from classroom windows, the contributions of LGBTQ people in history censored, and LGBTQ History Month itself rejected in districts across Florida,” he continued.
“The desire of right-wing groups like Moms for Liberty to wield more government censorship over more students is shameful and at odds with the bogus rationalization for this harmful policy they were peddling throughout 2022. LGBTQ people are a part of society’s fabric. We are your neighbors, family members, and friends. And our state should be a place committed to protecting all students and respecting all families.”
Four asks
The expansion of that law was one of four proposals that Dubach called on lawmakers to consider going into the 2023 legislative session. Dubach said that she’d also like legislators to “take a look” at expanding the timeline on legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 that bans private employers and government entities from implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and school districts from requiring face masks. The measure is slated to expire on June 1.
Another measure that the Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty supports relates to school board races.
“Myself and our organization supports partisan school board elections,” Dubach said. “That’s something that we are asking you to take a look at. I was originally told that we’d have to change the Florida Constitution so we wouldn’t be able to do that, so if you could advise me on that that’d be wonderful.”
Measures have been filed in both the House and Senate this year calling for a constitutional amendment to require members of a district school board to be chosen in partisan elections. If approved, it would go into effect in 2026.
Florida voters voted overwhelmingly in 1998 to make school board races nonpartisan, and efforts to put such an amendment on the ballot have failed in recent legislative sessions. But that was before Gov. DeSantis weighed in on the topic last summer and endorsed 30 candidates in school board races, the majority of whom won either in their Primary or General Election contests last year.
The last item Dubach mentioned was “some type of legislation” around the amount of mental health funding that public schools in Florida receive.
“Right now, Pinellas County schools have $140 million allocated for mental health, and I talk to teacher after teacher after teacher and they say, ‘We are not mental health counselors. We want to educate these children and get them ready for the next grade,’” Dubach told the group of legislators. “They don’t want anything to do with mental health. That is up to the parents, their doctors, and all of that stuff is at home.”
The Phoenix reached out to the Pinellas County School District to confirm those financial figures but did not immediately receive a response. State lawmakers have five more weeks of committee meetings scheduled between now and the official beginning of the legislative session on March 7.
Republicans Lift Ban On Smoking In Capitol Offices
Republicans cannot seem to care how their smoking hurts others around them who don’t smoke. Sad that in 2023 with all the information around about how bad tobacco both smoked or chewed is for both those that do it and those around them. But again republicans have a real issue trying to care about anyone other than themselves. Hugs
Mediaite reports:
“Smoke ’em if you got ’em.” That’s not just the name of a 2004 Cypress Hill EP but also apparently the new rule in the GOP-controlled House. Republican members are lighting up their cigars in Congressional offices — and driving members of the press corps “insane in the brain” with the smell.
An executive order signed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 banned smoking in many federal buildings, but only those under the control of the Executive Branch. The laws in Washington, D.C. similarly ban smoking in indoor spaces, but again, that does not apply to congressional offices.
Read the full article.
Welcome back to the 1950s, courtesy of the Republican Party.
The pettiness has just begun.
(Okay, I know Boss Tweed wasn’t a congressman.)
Yuck, cigarette and cigar smoke stinks. Inside buildings it spreads through the HVAC system and permeates everything, everyone’s clothing. It becomes in escapable. People who smoke reek of it; you can smell the stench when they walk into a room.
Republicans have been making life worse for everyone since 1968.
This is just one of many many samples of stupidity that the GQP will do with their new power.
small dick energy
What ever became if the national law banning smoking inside public buildings?
Joann Prinzivalli Tomcatan hour ago
It literally does not apply to Congress – perhaps we need a constitutional amendment requiring members of Congress to be held to the same legal standards as other Americans – and perhaps their salaries should be tied to median incomes in their districts, and they should not have any better medical coverage or retirement benefits than ordinary Americans.
Next up: It will be legal, and even encouraged, to grope your female secretaries.
worstcultever Randy5033 hours ago
pshaw, groping is so yesterday – impregnation and forced childbirth is the new hot thing
why don’t we totally go back to the 1950s – old white guys smoking cigars in the back offices making deals. how progressive. i’m surprised if they do not allow drinking on the House floor – it’ll be just like bowling!
Uncle Mark Brooklyn Joe3 hours ago
The GOP oft reminisce about the “good old days” of the 50s…a white man’s world, where the US dominated the world economy, while much of the world was still recovering from WWII.
They do conveniently forget the 90% tax rate on the wealthy & corporations…which helped the middle class to grow & prosper.
Why be surprised? They don’t care for anyone’s good health — not even their own.
Absolute idiocy!!!
I keep reminding myself that these people are getting elected, and am trying to wrap my head around how to stop that at the source.
This is what the GOP calls adulting.
Can the Democrats retaliate by “hotboxing” one of their offices with weed? Since it is apparently legal for recreational use.
See how much the Republicans throw a fit about that smell.
Everything with these totally-secure, super-heterosexual, manly-man pukes is about needing to wave their dicks in other people’s faces all day
If such phallic “power” displays (cheroots, guns) can harm others’s health too, so much the better
How does this fix the border? Inflation? They are acting like little kids.
It seems republicans are intent on exerting their right to be rude assholes no matter the cost to themselves or others. Please keep it up until you have turned public opinion solidly against your party.
Because why should they just destroy their health when they can destroy others’ as well?
It’s all fun and games until one of their toupees catches on file.
Sadly there are staff that don’t smoke or for health reason avoids smokers. Now they will be forced to work in a toxic environment.
And think of any pregnant staffers. Not good.
The only thing the GOP think of pregnant staffers is “you’d better have that baby or you’ll be going to jail for murder. And don’t expect any handouts or time off”
Jenna Hope ❤(●’◡’●) 20235 hours ago edited
When the new Resucklicans said they need to tear down the establishment, that’s the establishment they’re talking about: considering other’s welfare. They want to be obnoxious assholes again! Make me King of Assholes again! Trump is our Assholiness!
Dreaming Vertebrate5 hours ago
I would refuse to work in a smoke-filled office.
Hopefully many of the junior staff will quit (or sue) rather than elect to get cancer form secondhand smoke.
.
Assholery is the entire point now.
Jenna Hope ❤(●’◡’●) 20234 hours ago edited
OT. Lawyer said we need to prosecute Donald Trump immediately. Sitting next to his Passport? Sounds like he’s going to turn them into big $$$fortune by selling us to Putin when he needs to escape justice to Putin his protector.
Gross. I’d be pissed if I was a staffer who had to go home every day with my clothes reeking of smoke. Dry cleaning ain’t free. That’s minuscule to the effects that kind of enclosed environment can have on people with asthma and other respiratory ailments.
Plus, that nasty, greasy residue will be settling all over inside the Capitol. I guess lathering the place with that residue isn’t too unexpected from the party that smeared their own feces around the building.
*shakes head* If Biden was really as awful as the Republicans say he is, they sure have some bizarre priorities now that they control the House.
I don’t care what people do with their own lives, and it gives me some comfort knowing these assholes are opening themselves up to an old age of sickness and likely a miserable death (both my parents died of smoking-related illnesses, not pretty) but I feel sorry for the reporters and staffers who are subjected to their secondhand smoke
A bunch of Joe My God news posts I wanted to share. Hugs
Yet still not a drag queen or trans person. There were other ones posted in the days I got these from but I felt one was enough. You can see the tally that Joe has been keeping. Hugs
The handmaids tale gets closer and closer as the republican run states fight to return the society to a much more regressive time when women were under more control of men. Hugs
The republicans know there is voter fraud because they are the ones doing it. I wonder if this guy will get five years in prison like the poor black woman who was told she could vote and did so but she did not qualify. Texas threw the maximum punishment at her. Hugs
Notice that he never thinks of women pilots. To him all piolets must be male and the ones in dresses or skirts are cross dressing men to his mind. What a bigoted piece of shit. Hugs
Drag queens are the newest boogieman of the right, easy targets to rile up their base that hopes for either the return to the 1950s or the 1850s depending how they feel about women and black people. Hugs
Notice it is only indoctrination and wrong when it is about acceptance / tolerance of diversity and minorities. Push hard right wing ideology is just reality for these republicans. Pushing an outdated 1950s style of society to them is normal but in truth that is the indoctrination they accuse the left of. They are trying hard to regress society and the acceptance of others who are different from them. They cannot live and let live. They must force everyone to fit the mold they demand they live in. The want a society where straight Christian males are assumed to be in charge, women are subservient to white straight men, blacks know their place and stay in it, and the gay and trans people are not seen or acknowledged in society staying firmly hidden in their closets. Hugs
As the article points out once born it is a child, living child and to kill it is already murder. By definition abortion is not being born. The bill is just grandstanding. Plus they don’t seem to learn, restricting abortion is not popular so they are doubling down and this time claiming that abortion is the killing of already born babies. Hugs
We must not admit that discrimination is real and happening even now. Afterall they don’t seem concerned about the discomfort the minority children of color and the LGBTQ+ kids experience every day, but we must never make the white kids uncomfortable. Actually it is not the kids’ comfort they care about, but the white republican parents. Hugs
If you read the comments you will see that several admissions directors commented that the persons scores were not that great and they look at social media along with other factors. They clearly seen something all of the schools disliked. Considering his complaint is non-whites are getting into the school while white males such as himself are waiting for a spot seems that he is a racist misogynist who they don’t want in their student body.
Because letting kids know that even in nature with animals there are gay couples will rot their teeth curve their spines and cause them to suddenly become gay or trans. What stupidity. Gay couples exist and are legal. Land of the free remember. They don’t want to hide straight couples from kids. They don’t think kids seeing straight couples is sexualizing the children or teaching them sex. It is simply bigotry, and they are not really hiding it. They want to erase the gays and trans from society and they are using the kids as the excuse. Hugs
The right wing doesn’t even want to be on their own platform because there is no one for them to fight with, these site ban liberals which takes the fun away from the trolls. Hugs
This was an attack on minority people of color and totally racist. It was a set of laws designed to let the state stop any protest for equality or the killing of unarmed black people by the police. They also passed a law saying that if protestors such as the George Floyd killing protestors got into the street they could legally be run over and arrested even when they had a permit. Yet when the Cubans who normally vote republicans protested in the street the government did not allow them to be run over nor did they arrest them. Strange it seems the law only applies to the left or democrats. Hugs
Notice he doesn’t admit Nixon broke the laws and did things that were illegal. Nope it is the fault of the people who caught him, and they are the bad guys. Hugs
Olentangy Schools official cuts off reading of Dr. Seuss book during NPR podcast
What police states Florida and other republican states have become. Remember these are the same people who were super angry that the Dr. Seuss people decided not to publish racist books that were not selling well anymore. These are the same people angry that the Potato head toy with no gender got rid of the Mr / Mrs in the name of the toy. This is what a dictatorship looks like, the start of state sanctioned ideology forced on kids, this is the real indoctrination. I want to point out the kids were already aware of discrimination and racism. What better place to address it and try to encourage an acceptance of equality and diversity? Third grade is 8 years old and by that age the black kids are well aware of race and racism, why shouldn’t the white kids have it explained to them so they understand it is a bad thing? Hugs
The assistant director of communications for Olentangy Local School District abruptly stopped the reading of the Dr. Seuss book “The Sneetches” to a third-grade classroom during an NPR podcast after students asked about race.
Shale Meadows Elementary School third grade teacher Mandy Robek was reading “The Sneetches” to her class as part of NPR’s latest episode of “Planet Money” about the economic lessons in children’s books. During the podcast, which aired Friday, Amanda Beeman, the assistant director of communications for the school district, stopped the reading part way through the book.
NPR reporter Erika Beras spent the day in Robek’s class with Beeman for the podcast. As part of the district stipulations, politics were off limits. Six books were selected ahead of time by Beras and the district — including “The Sneetches.”
“I don’t know if I feel comfortable with the book being one of the ones featured,” Beeman is heard saying on the podcast during the middle of “The Sneetches” reading. “I just feel like this isn’t teaching anything about economics, and this is a little bit more about differences with race and everything like that.”
“The Sneetches,” published in 1961, is a book about two kinds of Sneetches: those with stars on their bellies and those without stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches are judged negatively by their appearance, so capitalist Sylvester McMonkey McBean makes money selling them stars for their bellies. Meanwhile, the Star-Bellied Sneetches don’t like associating with the Plain-Belly Sneetches, so they start paying to have a machine take their stars off.
The Seuss family has said the book was intended to teach children not to judge or discriminate against others because of their appearance and to treat people equitably.
“It’s almost like what happened back then, how people were treated … Like, disrespected … Like, white people disrespected Black people…,” a third grade student is heard saying on the podcast.
Robek keeps on reading, but it’s shortly after this student’s comment is made on the podcast that Beeman interrupts the reading.
“I just don’t think that this is going to be the discussion that we wanted around economics,” Beeman said on the podcast. “So I’m sorry. We’re going to cut this one off.”
Beras tried to tell Beeman that “The Sneetches” is about preferences, open markets and economic loss, but Beeman replied, “I just don’t think it might be appropriate for the third-grade class and for them to have a discussion around it.”
On the “Planet Money” episode, Beras reached back out to Beeman to ask about what happened. Beeman replied, “When the book began addressing racism, segregation and discriminating behaviors, this was not the conversation we had prepared Mrs. Robek, the students or parents would take place. There may be some very important economics lessons in ‘The Sneetches,’ but I did not feel that those lessons were the themes students were going to grasp at that point in the day or in the book.”
Olentangy Schools responds to The Dispatch
Beeman explained to The Dispatch on Monday that the school district agreed to be part of the “Planet Money” story “to feature the great work that Mrs. Robek does.”
“We do not ban any books,” Beeman said.
“As (‘The Sneetches’) was being read, I made a personal judgment call we shouldn’t do the reading because of some of the other themes and undertones that were unfolding that were not shared that we would be discussing with parents,” Beeman said.
The book touches on racism, segregation, and discriminatory behavior, Beeman said.
“We are really not about suppressing any viewpoints or dialogues,” Beeman said. “There were great economic lessons and the conversation wasn’t going toward (economics).”
Looking back, Beeman said she does wish she had handled the situation differently by talking to Robek separately to figure out a way to continue the Seuss book and have the discussion geared more toward economics.
Beras did not immediately respond to The Dispatch’s questions Monday afternoon.
Some of the other books that Robek’s class read when Beras visited included “Pancakes, Pancakes!” by Eric Carle; “Put Me In The Zoo” by Robert Lopshire; and a poem from “Where The Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein.
Banned Dr. Seuss books, but not ‘The Sneetches’
In 2021, Seuss Enterprises said it would stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books because of racist and insensitive imagery, but “The Sneetches” was not one of those books.
The six books are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
Republicans CRASH AND BURN with first bill of House majority
The republican boogieman to excite their base
And on to other interesting stuff
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Both parties are not the same.
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Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas ‘desperately needs more money’ to address the border after spending millions on busing migrants to other parts o
During Biden’s trip to the border, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott renewed calls for the federal government to send aid to address illegal immigratio
BUSINESS INSIDER|KELSEY VLAMIS
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said Sunday during President Joe Biden’s visit to the border that the state “desperately needs more money” to address the issue.
After meeting with Biden, Abbott took questions from reporters, with one asking if he planned to ask the federal government to send Texas additional funds to help address the historic surge in illegal immigration.
“One hundred percent. Texas desperately needs more money,” Abbott said. “I know the Republicans in the US House have committed to providing Texas the money that we need. We just finished over the past two years spending 4 billion of Texas taxpayer dollars for Texas to fill the gap caused by the Biden administration.”
Abbott has previously called on the federal government to reimburse the state for its border efforts and to send additional resources including the National Guard. From October 2020 to October 2021, the US Border Patrol encountered 1.7 million migrants attempting to cross the US-Mexico border illegally, the highest number in more than 70 years.
In April, Abbott began chartering buses to drop off migrants in other parts of the country, like Washington, DC, and Chicago, without giving those cities any notice — a program that Texas has spent millions of dollars on.
Texas had spent $12 million on the efforts as of August, the Texas Tribune reported at the time. By November, the amount spent busing migrants out of state had risen to $20 million, according to the local outlet WFAA.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
justinspoliticalcorner
DeSantis appoints anti-civil rights activist Chris Rufo to New College of Florida Board of Trustees
WWW.MEDIAMATTERS.ORG
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed right-wing activist Christopher Rufo, who rose to national prominence demonizing racial justice advocates and attacking LGBTQ communities, to the board of trustees of the New College of Florida. The appointment is all the more noteworthy given that Rufo lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.
Rufo is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and has spent years attempting to inject bigotry and incorrect information into mainstream discourses about gay and trans people, drag queens, and the academic discipline known as critical race theory. Rufo is also a frequent guest on Fox News, including on Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show.
“My ambition is to help the new board majority transform New College into a classical liberal arts institution,” Rufo tweeted in response to the news. “We are recapturing higher education.”
Rufo has long wanted to exert conservative control over educational policy, calling teachers “political predators” under a pretext of curriculum transparency. Now, with a new formal appointment, he’s positioned to threaten the safety and well-being of Black and LGBTQ students at New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school with a reportedly significant gay and trans population.
“A lot of the students there are trans and even more are queer,” Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist X González recently wrote in The Cut. González added that “In the queer space of New College, changing your pronouns, name, or presentation is a nonevent.”
Rufo has repeatedly voiced his opposition to respecting trans and nonbinary people’s pronouns, further evidence that his presence could very well endanger the school’s supportive environment. If that’s DeSantis’ goal, it would be fully in line with the governor’s other anti-LGBTQ policies, and his broader strategy of harming vulnerable populations to create a spectacle to further his own political ambitions.
Rufo has repeatedly voiced his opposition to respecting trans and nonbinary people’s pronouns, further evidence that his presence could very well endanger the school’s supportive environment.“
Rufo largely owes his standing in conservative media to his successful attacks on critical race theory, or CRT. As nationwide protests erupted in the summer of 2020 following the police murder of George Floyd in a Minneapolis suburb, Rufo began writing about Black Lives Matter with the goal of discrediting the movement. That September, he appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to press then-President Donald Trump to prohibit any federal training programs geared toward racial sensitivity awareness, and he took credit when Trump followed his advice. Days later, Carlson launched his own attacks against CRT, praising Rufo in the process. Fox News completely embraced the anti-CRT panic, and by the end of 2021, had hosted Rufo at least 52 times and mentioned CRT nearly 4,000 times that year.
Rufo has admitted that he doesn’t know anything about what CRT actually is and isn’t interested in learning about it. His openly stated goal is to brand the term as “toxic,” thereby rendering attempts to redress racial oppression through education as difficult as possible. Already, professors in Florida are avoiding including CRT ideas in their curricula for fear of violating a law DeSantis signed in April 2022 that essentially prohibits teaching students about structural racism.
Early last year, Rufo redirected his focus onto LGBTQ communities, joining in the chorus of right-wing activists who adopted the slur “groomer” to refer to gay and trans people. In March, he claimed that Disney was sexualizing children, part of his campaign to support DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. Those attacks were further amplified by the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok, which led to harassment of teachers and parents who supported gay and trans students. These bigoted attacks exploded on Facebook and other online platforms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (D) appoints far-right anti-LGBTQ+ zealot and faux moral panic peddler Christopher Rufo to the New College Of Florida’s Board of Trustees as part of the college’s hard-right shift.
Rufo initially was infamous for bringing the faux moral panic of “CRT” in K-12 schools and workplaces into the discussion.
The huge reason gay people are being called “groomers” and being harassed at drag brunch by zealots? This guy.
Source: mediamatters.org
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Scottie's Playtime 