You can not give into to these fundamentalist people. They see any attempt to compromise with them as a chance to take even more rights away. They are driven to return the country to a distant past where women had little to no rights. A time when women were not even allowed a credit card in their own name, they had to have their husband or father’s permission or co-sign major purchases. Doctors would talk to the husband about the wife’s medical problems instead of the woman. They crave a return to when it was legal for a man to rape his wife, forcer her to please him sexually against her will. The really see women as only house keepers, child birthing, child raising, and sex objects to please men. Women are not people to them, women do not equal men in their world. Sad. But also these states no have the idea that because the president is a democrat their state doesn’t have to follow the laws and rules the administation makes. Nope they have decided that red states are superior and above the federal government. Never mind the constitution claims otherwise, these are republicans who claim to love the constitution yet violate it at will. Hugs. Scottie
Someone possessing the pills without a valid prescription or outside of professional practice could be prosecuted and sentenced to prison.
Mifepristone is one of the two drugs prescribed for medication abortions. Louisiana lawmakers are moving to put it, along with misoprostol, in the same category of drugs as opioids and depressants. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty images
Louisiana couldbecome the first state in the country to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol — the drugs used to induce an abortion — as controlled dangerous substances, threatening incarceration and fines if an individual possesses the pills without a valid prescription or outside of professional practice.
Legislators in Baton Rouge added the provision as a last-minute amendment to a Senate bill that would criminalize an abortion if someone gives a pregnant woman the pills without her consent, a scenario of “coerced criminal abortion” that nearly occurred with one senator’s sister.
A pregnant woman obtaining the two drugs “for her own consumption” would not be at risk of prosecution. But, with the exception of a health-care practitioner, a person helping her get the pills would be.
The amendment would list mifepristone and misoprostol under the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law, which regulates depressants, opioids and other drugs that can be highly addictive. It elicited a strong reaction from more than 240 Louisiana doctors, who called it “not scientifically based.”
“Adding a safe, medically indicated drug for miscarriage management … creates the false perception that these are dangerous drugs that require additional regulation,” they wrote in a letter sent last week to the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Thomas Pressly. They noted misoprostol’s other critical uses, including to prevent gastrointestinal ulcers and to aid in labor and delivery.
“Given its historically poor maternal health outcomes, Louisiana should prioritize safe and evidence-based care for pregnant women,” they urged.
The amendment, written with guidance from Louisiana Right to Life, was added after the Senate unanimously passed S.B. 276 in mid-April. The measure is awaiting a final vote in the House before the session ends June 3, with little opposition expected.
“As Senator Pressly has stated, the medical community regularly uses controlled substances in a myriad of medical situations, including emergencies,” said Sarah Zagorski, communications director for the antiabortion organization. “The use of these drugs for legitimate health-care needs will still be available, just like all other controlled substances are still available for legitimate uses.”
The pending language appears to open yet another front in the country’s bitter battle over if and how women can obtain an abortion. Attempts to curtail medication abortions — which now constitute more than half of all abortions in the United States — are part of legislative agendas not just in deep-red Louisiana but in many Republican-controlled statehouses. And in March, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought against the Food and Drug Administration by a group of antiabortion doctors seeking to limit access to mifepristone.
Pressly did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but in a statement released by his office, he explained that he was seeking to “control the rampant illegal distribution of abortion-inducing drugs” in Louisiana. He said abortion medication “is frequently abused and is a risk to the health of citizens.” By including the drugs on the controlled-substances list, he added, “we will assist law enforcement in protecting vulnerable women and unborn babies.”
His connection to the issue is in part personal. During public testimony in April before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his sister recounted how her then-husband surreptitiously gave her an abortion drug in 2022 when he brought her breakfast for St. Patrick’s Day. They were separated, but Catherine Pressly Herringsaid she had learned she was pregnant with their third child and he had agreed to marriage counseling.
After she noticed him serving her “cloudy water,” she said she started having “intense cramping.” Doctors were able to stop the process so that the pregnancy could continue. He was sentenced to180 days in jail. Under Pressly’s bill, a perpetrator would face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $75,000 fine.
“Through our knowledge of other stories, and from the testimony of local centers in Louisiana caring for women in these situations, the abuse of abortion pills is not isolated to Herring’s situation,” Zagorski said Saturday. “It is very simple for a man to pose as a woman to order these pills online without a prescription, even for a minor, and then to pressure a woman to take the pills.”
While doctors say Herring’s experience is deeply troubling, they remain concerned that her brother’s proposed solution would make mifepristone and misoprostol even harder for Louisianans to get for reasons having nothing to do with abortion. Misoprostol is prescribed for treatment after a miscarriage, for example, and to help stop postpartum hemorrhage, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the state.
“To OB/GYNs, this is very worrisome,” said Neelima Sukhavasi, an OB/GYN in Baton Rouge and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “There’s no one that would endorse what happened to his sister. But this is a safe medication that has many important lifesaving uses. It’s not addictive.”
Misoprostol isalso taken to soften the cervix during labor, biopsies for cancer and placement of IUDs. Sukhavasi said she is concerned that Pressly wrote the amendment without consulting physicians or enforcement agencies.
Nimra Chowdhry, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, echoed those concerns but in harsher terms. She accused abortion opponents in Louisiana of misrepresenting the safety and efficacy of the two drugs — a manipulation “in pursuit of blocking people from care.”
This ultimately “turns back the clock on modern medicine,” she said.
Abby Ledoux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, is worried about the “far-reaching” consequences because of the drugs’ other uses.
There are “real questions,” she said, “about what it would mean in practice to open the controlled-substances list like this, including what aspects of state law legislators think manufacturers would follow, even locally.”
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux is a National staff writer who covers national news, with a focus on gender issues and social movements for the America desk. She is an award-winning former foreign correspondent who covered Africa and India for nearly a decade.Twitter
No wonder tRump and this guy got along with each other. He is a scumbag. People with nothing he gives less then nothing to them, then claims it makes him feel good. WTF. This guy is a Project 2025 leader and they are all about taking the US back to 1840. Hugs. Scottie
“So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car so when a homeless person asks for money, then I give him like a fake $5 bill, so I feel good about myself, they feel good. And then, when they go to use it, they get arrested so I’m actually like helping clean up the community. You know, getting them off the street.” – Former Trump aide and Project 2025 leader Johnny McEntee, in a TikTok video posted by the The Right Stuff, the MAGA dating app he founded in 2022. McEntee appeared here last week when he vowed that porn will banned during a second Trump term.
Johnny McEntee, senior advisor to Project 2025, claims he distributes fake money to homeless people so that when they use it, they will be arrested.
This is sick. This is evil. This is cruel. Getting people “comfortable” with all of that is the goal. I don’t want to live in a world where this is ok. Do you? https://t.co/J4yze5Cta0
Johnny McEntee, who is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for what a source says are serious financial crimes, had been granted a permanent security clearance before he was abruptly fired Monday. https://t.co/WcOhEgGgMd
“Engineering much of the post-election purge is Johnny McEntee, a former college quarterback who was hustled out of the White House two years ago after a security clearance check turned up a prolific habit for online gambling.” https://t.co/Wq9mEmztoD
If true, he’s guilty of passing counterfeit money and he just admitted it in a recording. I can’t imagine that he won’t be investigated by the Treasury Department or whatever body handles counterfeiting.
So either he’s lying to own the libs or he’s about to get to the “find out” stage of fucking around.
I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, so please forgive me.. film money is distinctly different than counterfiet money. It’s designed to avoid being considered counterfeit (it needs to be a percentage bigger or smaller so it *can’t* be legally considered counterfiet money and the artwork is slightly different). Countefeit money is designed to pass as the real thing; Hollywood money isn’t. That’s going to be his counter argument if he gets hauled up for this, I’d stake a good penny on.
Having said that, ths is unfathomably cruel. A store clerk or a police officer probably wouldn’t know the difference, so the poor person is going to suffer. If justice is real, whether he argues he’s handing out monopoly money, the intent is to cause harm, and he should have the book thrown at him.
*edit*
I just saw Doggy Daddy’s comment below, so thankfully it makes the first half of this moot.
These guys really don’t understand why the rest of us find their actions horrific. It’s not that they refuse to be empathetic with other humans – they can’t, it’s not possible for them.
It’s not a decision – they’re unable to understand what we mean by the words “cruel” or “heartless”. They hear the words – but they don’t mean the same thing to them. To them, “cruel” means “something the bleeding hearts don’t like”, not “this is a horrible thing to inflict on another person”.
Which is why we need to set up a gated and locked community for them, perhaps on a big chunk of federal land in the West, where only people who have no empathy live, and they can work it all out together. Send them food, let them get incoming internet, and leave them to it
It makes me wonder how many right- wing morons clicked like on his video?They probably thought that was a real knee-slapper. To me this ranks right up there with Governor Kristie Noem bragging about shooting her puppy.
Lock him up! “Can you go to jail for giving someone fake money? Even a first-time counterfeiting charge can result in a misdemeanor or felony and some jail time. Prosecutors can charge individuals with forgery if they possess or use counterfeit items with the intent to defraud another person. It can be as simple as using fake money or as complex as counterfeiting an official seal.”
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. Hugs. Scottie
This is a short-written article that shows how tRump’s sexual assault of Stormy was not consensual. She was abused and abused, just as most of tRump’s victims are. This was not just hush money for election in that it was husmaony to show how this was a payment to advoid showing that this was a rape. This was to prevent a much worse sexual abuse criminal charge. She was a sexual abuse victim. Hugs. Scottie.
On a scale of zero to ten, with zero being definitely consensual, and ten being definitely not consensual, this is like a six or a seven. Call me old-fashioned, but I consider kind of rapey to be disqualifying all by itself for a presidential candidate, although I realize of course that it’s practically certain Trump has gotten to ten many many times (a jury has already found as much in one case, and there are no doubt countless more), and also realize this is just one of literally dozens of reasons why Trump is utterly unfit to be president.
Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas was appointed under very suspicious circumstances and now that mistaken appointment has come home to roost. He is likely the most corrupt and compromised Supreme Court judge in US history. He needs step down. Lyrics by David Cohen – A Parody about Judge Clarence Thomas based on the song Tom Dooley, as made famous by The Kingston Trio. Performance by Don Caron. Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
According to MAGA the indictments are fake, the judges are paid off, the grand juries are comprised of anti-Trump Democrats or actors, the justice department is being weaponized, it’s a witch hunt blah blah blah. What else can we call them but puppets? Parody of I’m Your Puppet by Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham. Parody Lyrics by Greg Trafidlo, performance and video by Don Caron Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
It’s been in the news a lot lately – the blatant corruption of certain justices on the Supreme Court and the obvious fact that no one seems to have the power to force them to comply with the rules of ethics. So why not sing about it instead? Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
A Parody of I Thank You. The original song was written by David Porter and Isaac Hayes and originally recorded by Sam & Dave and later by ZZ Top. Parody written and performed by Don Caron | Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
Parody of Stand by Your Man with vocals by Deborah Bowman – Written by John Emory of The Freedom Toast – Video by Parody Project Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender
Prosecutors have alleged in court that the Trump Organization offered former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg more than $1 million to keep his mouth shut.
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters
In a turn that is oh-so-meta, a brand new hush money deal is now at the center of attention in Donald Trump’s ongoing hush money trial: $750,000 that prosecutors say the business mogul is dangling above Allen Weisselberg’s head to keep him testifying against his former boss.
For the first time on Friday, prosecutors disclosed the strict terms of a severance agreement that the Trump Organization used to promise more than $1 million to its outgoing chief financial officer—as long as he kept his mouth shut.
The 76-year-old disgraced accountant is currently serving a five-month jail sentence on Rikers Island for perjury, having lied to try sparing Trump from legal trouble in a separate case that ultimately fined the tycoon nearly $500 million for bank fraud.
But Weisselberg has conspicuously remained the missing witness at Trump’s first criminal trial. Prosecutors allege he was the finance guy who helped manage the hush money deal that kept the porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about her sexual affair with Trump in the final weeks of the 2016 election. Documents in court show that Weisselberg structured the $420,000 repayment to Michael Cohen (then Trump’s personal attorney) after the so-called “fixer” had fronted the $130,000 initial payment to the porn star.
In court on Friday, prosecutors revealed that the Trump Organization has promised to pay Weisselberg three installments of $250,000 due later this year in June, September, and December—if he doesn’t “cooperate” with law enforcement.
One part of the contract, read out loud in court, says Weisselberg promises “not to verbally or in writing disparage, criticize, denigrate” the company or any of its executives. Another section says “he will not communicate with” and “otherwise will not cooperate with” any entity seeking “adverse claims” against the company.
And while the law generally punishes people for “aiding or abetting” a criminal, Weisselberg’s contract by contrast punishes him if he decides to “aid, abet, or cause” any action against the Trump real estate empire.
This whole other kind of hush money deal came up because prosecutors are planning to wrap up their presentation of the case next week without calling Weisselberg to the stand, which might seem confusing to jurors. That’s why they asked the judge to let jurors see the severance agreement.
“What we’re trying to do is explain his absence. This agreement offers a real explanation as to why he’s not going to be here at this trial,” said prosecutor Christopher Conroy.
This legal debate ensued after the 18 jurors considering the case were sent home for the weekend. The discussion made clear that prosecutors will likely call Cohen as a final witness, then wrap up their presentation against the former president. It would then be Trump’s turn to tell his side of the story, if he even has plans to do so.
For a few minutes, lawyers on both sides sparred over whether to allow jurors to see the severance agreement. The judge initially seemed open to the idea. That is, until he discovered that prosecutors haven’t even tried.
“Has anyone attempted having him come in in some way… serving him with a subpoena or trying to compel his testimony?” Justice Juan Merchan asked.
“Judge, the people have not,” a prosecutor responded.
The reality is a tad bit complicated. The fact is, neither side wants jurors to hear from Weisselberg—because no one knows what a pissed off old man suffering in jail for the second time around after once again taking the fall for his boss might say.
He’s a loaded gun, and he could point in either direction.
Donald Trump and his son Donald, Jr., with Allen Weisselberg (C).
Timothy A. Clary
Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, readily admitted that his team saw it as a “strategically bad decision to put a witness on the stand who has an agreement like that.”
Meanwhile Trump’s defense team fought against the notion of having Weisselberg testify. But then he also complained that it would be unfair to let jurors see the agreement.
Emil Bove, a defense lawyer, tried to have the judge consider this cushy retirement package in total isolation. In reality, that deal followed years of Trump’s top accountant refusing to flip on his boss.
Weisselberg has been grilled by federal prosecutors who initially looked into the deal six years ago, pressured to testify about his cooking of the books at the company’s tax fraud trial in 2022 (before this same judge), later spent three months at Rikers for dodging taxes, played a reluctant witness at Trump’s bank fraud trial last year, and is now serving time for lying during that trial.
“That he entered into a settlement agreement after the fact… is not relevant to what’s going on at this trial,” Bove tried to convince the judge. “Mr. Weisselberg is in prison right now and not available to anyone.”
But the judge saw right through the uncomfortable dance being performed on both sides.
“It would be helpful to make my decision if I see that there were some efforts taken,” he said, accusing all the lawyers of “jumping the gun.”
The judge pointed to a narrow provision in Weisselberg’s retirement deal that allows him to testify if he’s dragged into court by a subpoena, calling it “a factor for me in making that decision.”
At that point, Steinglass pivoted, warning the judge that having prosecutors approach Weisselberg at all could cost the Trump associate dearly but still ultimately prove futile on the witness stand if he decides to plead his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Merchan suggested an alternative, one that would subject Weisselberg to a bus ride from the dreaded island jail in the East River to the criminal courthouse in downtown Manhattan. Once there, he could be ordered to testify in a courtroom without the jury present—and once lawyers know what he’ll say, decide whether to put him in front of jurors.
Merchan said the entire exercise would be important. After all, there’s a key difference between that and what he’s hearing now from lawyers who have a common interest in not hearing from a complicated key player in this saga.
“Then it”s on the record, and I’ve seen it,” Merchan said.
In the final moments of the fourth week of Trump’s ongoing trial, Bove made one last try to keep Weisselberg from showing up next week, complaining that the accountant was never on the government’s witness list.
“We were entitled to notice of that long before the trial started,” Bove argued.
At that, the judge turned down his gray bearded chin, shaking his head while his eyes pierced into Bove from behind his thick-rimmed black glasses.
“You didn’t think it was a possibility the people might call Allen Weisselberg to testify?”
My dogs that love gravy! These laws are being driven by religion, more truthfully people that hid their true religious intent to get elected to then try to force their religious views on everyone else. To force everyone to live by their churches doctrines and their religious driven idea of what is moral or not. Do you understand this is a bunch of hyper religious people wagging their fingers at the people they dislike and telling them god sees what they are doing? This is our time of the temperance movement or the prohibition of alcohol that went so badly wrong. It is a small group of people who have extreme views of morality based on their own religious views who insist on forcing everyone else to live according to their views. It is the morality police and the vice patrols of the Islamic theocracies that the same people doing this in the US claim to hate. It is scary to me the regressive world they want to force the country into. Hugs. Scottie
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s version of the age verification bills being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists continues making its progress through the state legislature toward likely approval.
On Tuesday, the state’s Senate Finance Committee advanced SB 1792 — titled by its chief sponsor, Republican Senator Becky Duncan Massey, as the “Protect Tennessee Minors Act” — out of committee.
SB 1792 “would make porn websites criminally liable if they don’t verify the ages of users of their sites through photo matching,” local CBS affiliate WREG reported.
Massey compared the proposed new requirement to “age verification when folks go on an alcohol-related site,” and said her bill is necessary because, she believes, pornography “can cause damage” and “mental health issues.”
FSC Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile, however, told XBIZ that Massey’s bill effectively criminalizes the distribution of adult content online, which he cited as a frequently stated goal of many conservatives.
Stabile also called SB 1792 “an escalation of what we’ve seen in other states” and deemed it “a grave threat” to First Amendment protections.
“First it was private lawsuits, then fines from attorneys general — Tennessee evidently wants to become the first state to begin arresting pornographers,” Stabile said, adding that the Tennessee bill’s chilling effect on legal speech will be substantial.
“The legislature’s own fiscal review committee says that it assumes ‘a majority of entities’ will simply stop publishing content in the state, but that, if not, ‘the increase in such convictions could be significant,’” he explained.
Stabile also pointed out that for many legislators, age verification is “just an excuse to increase liabilities for people that create, and platforms that host, material dealing in sex or sexuality. It’s no surprise that Tennessee has also recently expanded the definition of ‘material harmful to minors’ to include drag and other non-explicit LGBTQ+ content offline, and the bill itself criminalizes as little as the description of a nipple.”
Aylo: Recent Slew of AV Laws Are ‘Ineffective, Dangerous’
SB 1792 would also require websites to keep “anonymized age-verification data” for extended periods of time.
Massey told WREG, “They keep the data but not personally identifying data. They have to keep the data to prove that they did verify for seven years, but it can’t have their name, address. It can’t have any personal identifying markers.”
Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and Virginia have passed similar age verification bills, all introduced by Republicans, while 19 other states have introduced similar legislation. Florida recently passed its version of the law, written by a legislator who is also a pastor, as part of a more comprehensive social media bill.
Aylo issued a statement about the Tennessee bill and the other laws, stating, “The way many jurisdictions worldwide have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.”
Main Image: Anti-Porn crusader Tennessee Sen. Becky Duncan Massey (R)
Marchers carry a rainbow flag to the Alabama Capital during the 2019 Pride March and RallyPhoto: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser/ via IMAGN
Alabama’s legislature is advancing two censorious anti-LGBTQ bills: H.B. 130 would ban LGBTQ+ flags in classrooms and expand the state’s “Don’t say gay” law to include grades 6-8; H.B. 385 would jail librarians for giving “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent. Both bills were approved in the Alabama House of Representatives this week and now head to the state’s Republican-led upper legislative chamber.
Alabama’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law says that K-5 classrooms “shall not engage in classroom discussion or provide classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” H.B. 130 would also remove the section “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” banning LGBTQ+ discussions completely.
The sweeping education bill also includes a trans bathroom ban.
The H.B. 130 expansion, which passed the state House on Tuesday, would expand the law to include grades 6-8 and also prohibit “flags symbolizing sexual orientations or gender identities” in all grade school levels.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Mack Butler (R), said the bill is necessary to “purify the schools” of “some indoctrination going on,” ABC News reported.
“[LGBTQ+ discussions and flags are] a component of Marxism where we’re – you know – destroying the family and teaching some of these things. Let it happen somewhere else other than our schools.” Butler said.
The ACLU of Alabama has spoken against the law, saying that it would silence “inclusive” and “essential” discussions among students and teachers in classrooms while violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.
On Thursday, the Alabama House also passed H.B. 385, a bill would expand the state’s definition of “sexual conduct” to include conduct that “knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd and lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”
The law would place libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment” in order to criminalize librarians who provide “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent.
The bill would force school and public librarians to remove any books that other people find “obscene” or “harmful” to minors — though the law doesn’t specify who would determine what’s “obscene” or “harmful.” After filing a written objection to the library director or principal, librarians would then have seven days to remove the book from shelves.
Librarians who fail to do so could initially face a misdemeanor criminal charge and a fine of up to $10,000 and a county jail or hard labor sentence of up to one year. If a librarian is convicted of a second or subsequent violation, they could face a class C felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison, The Alabama Reflector reported.
State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D) said the law is so broadly written that it could allow a single complaint to result in a warrant being issued for someone who wears an objectionable Halloween costume or sundress.
“I do still have some serious problems with this because I feel like this is a violation of First Amendment, I feel like is easily going to be abused, and we will be dealing with unintended consequences of it,” Rafferty said.
“This bill is government overreach, robs parents of their rights, and would have a chilling effect on free speech by potentially incarcerating librarians because particular books are available, including even the Bible,” wrote Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association.
Both bills are among several copycat laws across the country that seek to block minors from accessing LGBTQ+ content under the belief that such content “sexualizes” and “indoctrinates” children. Sponsors of these bills never note that numerous types of classroom and library materials have depicted heterosexual romance and issues without much parental or political objection.
