I want to thank Ali for the link to this story. I will try to post the comment she left pointing me to it. I do not mind a link here or there in the comments if it leads me to new good article on issues. Ali has offered me many links in the comments and all of them so far have been worth reading, and yes many I end up posting like this one. Thank you Ali. Hugs Scottie Below is Ali’s comment.
All is well. So many things tend to work out for the very best.
Here’s a new link. I’ve been reading Oliver Willis for years, and I really like his work. You’ve probably seen his work around. I now subscribe (for free) to his work on Substack, and here is the one he posted today. Bonus on each post is a photo of his doggy Kal-El, who looks like our Chrissy back when she was that age (she crossed the bridge in 2020 at age 21.) Anyway, back to the link: https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/how-boring-lgbtq-people-made-america . Enjoy when you get to it!
When I was a kid and well up until into my teens in the 1990s, the right wing in America sold us a dystopian vision of what would occur if gay and lesbian people were granted equal rights, most notably, the right to marry.
According to conservative pundits and politicians, if we allowed same-sex marriage to occur, every street in America would immediately, overnight, turn into the most extreme version of a San Francisco leather parade. Innocent families would be forced, Clockwork Orange style, to watch as bulging crotches were shoved into their faces, sparkling zippers twirling before them, women dressed in men’s clothes, men wearing dresses, the kinkiest sexual acts occurring in public at the drop of a hat.
On Fox News, the propaganda arm of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, equal marriage rights would surely end up in people marrying ducks, cows, goats, etc. Certainly.
But in the decades since then, after figures like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both now thankfully six feet under) blamed LGBTQ people for events like 9/11, none of that happened. For sure, there are sometimes leather parades, but they’re mostly happening in the same places where there have always been leather parades and nobody there is bothered by them.
Instead, after the epochal event of same sex marriage becoming legal, nothing happened. Nothing at all. No forced Pride parades breaking out in rural Alabama. No kids in Montana getting instructed on the fine art of same-sex kissing. No families in Orange County, California, compelled to learn the words to “YMCA” in gender reeducation camps. Nothing at all.
Why? Because the vast majority of LGBTQ people are just as boring as straight people. They have jobs, go to school and work, take care of their kids, have marital bliss and squabbles and all the rest of it. They aren’t activists militantly marching in the streets for issues or disco, but simply want to make it through another day in peace. Boring as hell, like all of us are.
And this is a triumph. Because for all of American history, the people in power – almost always wealthy, straight, white, men – have attained power and retained power by demonizing everyone else who doesn’t look like them. Black men were after their daughters, Muslim people are terrorists, women are emotional hysterics, and on and on and on. These people profit off of the dehumanization of others and by working overtime to scare people about the horror that could happen if we treated everybody with equality and respect.
Yet every time that the country gets over itself and fulfills the words of the Founders in ways that they could not comprehend in their limited view of the world and who truly deserved “liberty,” we collectively discover that the nightmare was always total nonsense.
This is a lesson to keep in mind as we watch in horror as the right whips up fears about immigrants, transgender people, and refugees from the Middle East in our current electoral cycle. Integrating LGBTQ families into the mainstream of American life made the country stronger, not weaker. Our collective understanding increased, the rich tapestry that is the United States benefitted from increased diversity. The only ones who lost out were close-minded bigots who can’t accept that the world doesn’t look like the deranged fantasies in their brains (and never existed in reality).
Boring is good. We’re all boring. Reject the lurid fantasy world of the haters and instead embrace the mundane reality of a diverse world. And throw a leather parade, if you feel like it. This is America, where you’re free to do so if you like.
If you like this newsletter, please consider becoming a paying subscriber by clicking here to join. I won’t be putting any of my regular columns behind a paywall and they will always be free. Thanks to everyone who has subscribed so far!
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at an elementary school in Florida, where teachers’ salaries are now the lowest in the nation.
Six states have now passed universal school choice programs, but Florida has been singularly effective at accomplishing what Republicans have had near the top of their agenda for decades: destroying public education.
As The Hill reports, public schools in Florida are shutting down in multiple districts due to a rapid loss of students. Meanwhile, private school enrollment is up by more than 50,000 students, and charter schools have picked up 68,000. Homeschooling has increased by 58.6%, which would likely be even higher if parents weren’t competing for a limited number of available homeschool vouchers. Despite those vouchers expanding by 40,000 a year, they still can’t keep up with demand.
No other state has seen anything even close to this vast shift away from public education.
So why are Florida Republicans so successful in reducing public school enrollment? Because they did their homework. They spent decades draining public school funding, making them poorly staffed, poorly run, and an overall miserable place to get an education. Then they created a voucher system that offers parents unmatched goodies for joining in the enterprise of keeping children ignorant while making right-wing “education” providers rich.
The reason that Republicans want to destroy public education has never been much of a mystery. As Barbara Miner at Rethinking Schools puts it:
Education is a multibillion-dollar market, and the private sector is eager to get its hands on those dollars.
Conservatives are devoted to the free market and believe that private is inherently superior to public.
Shrinking public education furthers the Republican Party goal of drastically reducing the public sector.
Privatization undermines teacher unions, a key base of support for the Democratic Party.
Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party.
Few states have matched Florida when it comes to undermining public schools to make the alternatives look better.
In 2007, Florida’s investment in public education was about average. The state had one of the worst high school graduation rates in the nation and poor student performance in science, but those numbers were improving. But they didn’t keep improving.
The state did institute a funding program that rewards businesses with tax breaks for educational investments—so long as those investments go tovoucher programs. As a result, the program simultaneously feeds private schools by directly putting money in their pockets and starves public schools through loss of tax funding.
The combination of low teacher pay, poor student investment, harsh state oversight, and a restrictive curriculum that cripples students’ ability to learn has all but destroyed Florida’s public schools. It’s not hard to understand why parents and students would want something better. They deserve something better.
This is exactly how Florida created unprecedented demand for alternatives.
As a bonus for parents who choose to homeschool their children, the state is willing to coverDisney passes and giant televisions. No questions asked. So it’s absolutely no surprise that Florida’s available homeschool vouchers were all snatched up for this school year and areexpected to double next year.
But Florida isn’t the only state that has caught onto the make-it-terrible-and-they-will-leave system of driving kids to private schools. Tennessee now comes in just ahead of Florida on spending per student, and ranks No. 44 on teacher pay. Tennessee’s Republican legislature is considering the unprecedented step of turning down federal funding for education in hope of evading federal requirements on education. Not even Florida went that far.
Fortunately for Tennessee children, the legislature broke into factions and failed to pass Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher plan this year. But it will surely try again next year.
And Tennessee can always look to Florida as its model.
Rule by gang thugs violence and threats. Make everyone feel unsafe to even question the right or the cult Dear Leader. These people are a small number of our public, but they are vocal, and they are willing to use violence, hurt others, break the laws to get their way. They are the brownshirts of 1930s Germany, and the Proud Boys admit they are trump’s army. The rest of us must not let this be the new normal. They are teenage bullies just like their boss. This is terrorism. Hugs. Scottie
The addresses and phone numbers of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s family members were posted to a doxing website after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in connection with a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Phone numbers and addresses for Cohen’s wife and children were posted early Monday morning on a site that has been used to target other figures involved in Trump’s various legal issues, according to the group Advance Democracy, a non-profit research group.
Trump supporters attempted to dox jurors last week. During the trial, the mother of a former police officer who was nearly killed on Jan. 6, 2021, by rioters who believed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election was swatted after her son called Trump “an authoritarian” with “a violence fetish.”
NEW: The addresses and phone numbers of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's family members were posted to a doxing website after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies… https://t.co/oAWjeAqSjU
There is no republican party anymore. It is gone and needs to be placed in the history books of the past. It is the cult of tRump party, or tRump party for short. Or maybe Cult party. But the tRump party is out to destroy anyone or anything that doesn’t clearly glorify and help the dear leader of the cult who is tRump. Republicans have told the family members with trans kids they don’t believe the laws they are voting for … but if they don’t they will be primaried and lose their seat, so lose the easy money. The former republicans are all fearful of the new party, the cult of tRump. The choose the easy money of being in office rather than their dignity or honor or even doing the correct thing for the country and the people. Hugs. Scottie
Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair and daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, dodged answering whether the RNC will support Maryland Republican Larry Hogan’s run for Senate after Hogan called for Americans to respect the verdict.
“I don’t support what he just said there. I think it’s ridiculous,” Lara Trump said when asked by CNN’s Kasie Hunt if the RNC will support Hogan on “State of the Union” Sunday morning.
“I think anybody who’s not speaking up in the face of really something that should never again have seen the light of day, a trial that would never have been brought against any other person aside from Donald Trump, doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone,” Lara Trump added.
Read the full article. Maryland’s Senate seat could turn out to be the deciding factor in whether Democrats maintain control of the chamber.
Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation…
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) May 30, 2024
Kasie: Does the RNC support Hogan for Senate?
Lara Trump: I don't support what he just said there. He doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point. And quite frankly, anybody in America pic.twitter.com/npj9qRuokM
.@GovChrisSununu hits "bad statement" by RNC co-chair Lara Trump on former Gov. Larry Hogan: "We want him to win the Senate race… he was a great governor of Maryland, and I have no doubt he's going to be a great senator of Maryland." pic.twitter.com/j5xp6LLnIC
Larry Hogan tried to paint himself as a moderate Republican and found out it doesn't work when the majority of the Republican party is composed of Trump acolytes who don't respect the Rule of Law and want to install Trump as a dictator. #mdsenpic.twitter.com/sNlShDeJx3
Finally and about time reporters are starting to push back against tRump and his sycophants lies. Maybe Fox losing a almost a billion dollars for endorsing lies might have wakened them up. Stephanopoulos was angry the guy kept saying it even after he corrected him several times. Hugs. Scottie
Trump lawyer Will Scharf: “This case in New York? It was called the zombie case. It sat and sat and sat. It could have been brought at any point after 2020. And then suddenly, when President Trump announced his campaign for president, it was dusted off, rushed in front of a grand jury and then rushed into court.
“You want to talk about the politicization of the legal system? I mean, this is exhibit A. I vehemently disagree that the district attorney in New York was not politically motivated here. And I vehemently disagree that President Biden and his political allies aren’t up to their necks in this prosecution.”
ABC host George Stephanopoulos: “There’s no evidence of that! Sir, I’m not gonna let you continue to say that! There’s just zero evidence of that! This has nothing to do with President Biden.”
RELATED: Scharf is running for Missouri attorney general and a couple of weeks ago Jimmy Kimmel had a field day with Scharf’s very creepy smile, calling him “the first human attorney to be generated by AI.” The clip below is cued up.
George Stephanopoulos pushes back on Trump lawyer Will Scharf after Scharf alleges some form of collusion between Bragg and Biden: "There's no evidence of that. Sir, I'm not gonna let you continue to say that. There's just zero evidence. The DA in Manhattan is elected." pic.twitter.com/q1F8Bclf8r
Why don’t they want to talk about the fact that Bill Barr made Cy Vance, through the U.S. Attorney in Southern District of NY, to squash this case, meaning it had to wait for a new, Biden-appointed attorney general to reignite it? And why aren’t people bringing this up every single time???
Why even have these trumpanzies on? They just repeat all the bullshit that their master has said at every presser. And Missouri is getting more and more fascist with brainwashed idiots like this guy.
One of the things that’s so ridiculous about blaming Biden is this: Why the DA? Why didn’t Biden just command the DOJ to prosecute Trump for this?
Why have the DA prosecute a lowest-level-felony false-business-record case, when DOJ could have prosecuted Trump for the same coordinated-expenditure federal election crime Michael Cohen went to jail for? Or the plain-as-day tax crime of issuing a phony Form 1099 to Cohen disguising reimbursement as ordinary compensation?
May 30, 2024 – A day that will go down in infamy. For the first time in the history of the USA, an ex-president was convicted of a crime – 34 felonies to be exact. Another first is that he is the only felon to ever be a presumptive nominee for a major party. Parody of Heartbreak Hotel. Lyrics by David Cohen – Performance and video by Don Caron. Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
Judge Aileen Cannon has been criticized for her handling of the criminal case in Florida federal court against former President Donald Trump, who appointed her to the bench.
Trump is charged in the case with crimes related to retaining classified government documents after he left the White House, and with obstructing the recovery of those records.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was found guilty Thursday in New York state court of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Aileen M. Cannon, United States District Judge, Southern District of Florida
The complaints against Judge Aileen Cannon have come to light amid renewed criticism by some legal observers and Trump opponents that she is slow-walking the criminal case against the former president to ensure it does not go to trial before the presidential election.
“Many of the complaints” against Cannon filed with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “request that the Chief Circuit Judge remove her from the classified-documents case and reassign the case to a different judge,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in a May 22 order posted on the appeal court’s website.
And “many of the complaints against Judge Cannon also question the correctness of her rulings or her delays in issuing rulings in the case,” Pryor wrote.
Those complaints filed since May 16 “appear to be part of an orchestrated campaign,” according to Pryor, whose appellate court reviews cases arising from federal district courts in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
Public critics of Cannon have noted her delays in ruling on multiple pending motions, granting hearings to Trump’s lawyers on legal issues that might otherwise be easily addressed through court filings, and criticizing filings by special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors.
Trump, who appointed Cannon to the bench, is charged in the case with crimes related to withholding classified government records at his Mar-a-Lago club residence in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House, and trying to hide them from officials who sought their recovery.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has pleaded not guilty in that case, on Thursday was convicted by a state court jury in New York of 34 felony counts related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Pryor, in his May 22 order about the complaints, wrote that he “has considered and dismissed four of those orchestrated complaints as merits-related and as based on allegations lacking sufficient evidence to raise an inference that misconduct has occurred.”
He also wrote that neither he nor the appeals court’s Judicial Council has the authority to remove Cannon from the case under the Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings.
“Although many of the complaints allege an improper motive in delaying the case, the allegations are speculative and unsupported by any evidence,” Pryor wrote.
“The Complaints also do not establish that Judge Cannon was required to recuse herself from the case because she was appointed by then-President Trump.”
The chief judge also wrote that before May 16, “multiple Complaints of Judicial Misconduct or Disability” were filed against Cannon, who sits in Fort Pierce, Florida, federal court, “raising allegations in connection” with Trump’s criminal case.
“Some of those complaints have been acted upon, and others will be acted upon in due course,” Pryor wrote, without revealing the nature of those actions.
Pryor said that he recommended that the Judicial Council order the appeals court’s clerk not to accept complaints against Cannon received after May 16 “to the extent they are similar to previously filed complaints.” The council followed that recommendation, according to the order.
Pryor also wrote, that while the judicial-complaint process “is not the appropriate way to seek review of Judge Cannon’s orders, her orders are nevertheless subject to appellate review in normal course.”
CNBC has requested comment from Cannon through the office of the chief judge of the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida.
Glenn Kirschner, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor, on his podcast Justice Matters earlier this week did an episode on Cannon titled “Judge Aileen Cannon Grinds Trump’s Classified Documents/Obstruction/Espionage Case to a Halt.”
The episode’s description on Apple Podcasts says, “Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon should not be presiding over Trump’s federal prosecution in Florida.”
“She has brought the case to a screeching halt by declining to resolve motions in a timely manner and by refusing to even set a trial date. Judge Cannon is NOT an honest broker of the law, and the federal law requires a judge to be removed when his/her ‘impartially might reasonably be questioned.’ ”
The episode links to a YouTube video featuring Kirschner explaining how to file a complaint against Cannon by mailing one to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“A lot of people took advantage of that step-by-step video, and they submitted those judicial complaint forms,” Kirschner said on the podcast.
CNBC has requested comment from Kirschner on Pryor’s order.
Pryor was on a three-judge panel of the appeals court that issued a scathing ruling in December 2022 overturning Cannon’s appointment of an outside watchdog to determine whether documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by FBI agents could be used in the ongoing criminal probe of Trump.
“This appeal requires us to consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation,” the panel wrote. “The answer is no.”
“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant,” the panel written statement continued. “Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
“The district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction in this case.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at an elementary school in Florida, where teachers’ salaries are now the lowest in the nation.
Scottie's Playtime 
All is well. So many things tend to work out for the very best.
Here’s a new link. I’ve been reading Oliver Willis for years, and I really like his work. You’ve probably seen his work around. I now subscribe (for free) to his work on Substack, and here is the one he posted today. Bonus on each post is a photo of his doggy Kal-El, who looks like our Chrissy back when she was that age (she crossed the bridge in 2020 at age 21.) Anyway, back to the link: https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/how-boring-lgbtq-people-made-america . Enjoy when you get to it!