In this brilliant new rant for MeidasTouch, Texas Paul breaks down how GOP governors and leaders would make the the worst business leaders and CEOs. Texas Paul uses governors like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis as examples and asks us to imagine a CEO who instead of solving the business issues facing the company, blamed the corporate problems on the LGBTQ community or immigrants instead of solving the problems before them and how quickly they would get fired. Texas Paul concludes by discussing the importance of competent leadership so that government can function for the people. It’s time to get rid of these incompetent Republican leaders.
The gun was legally bought! Law abiding people shouldn’t have their 2nd amendment rights hindered is the talking point of the right. It is a dodge. All gun owners are law abiding until they break the law. Right. The issue is the guns. This country has too many guns that are far too easy to get. Full stop. The new ruling from SCOTUS ensures more guns carried in public by more people. Of course the Justices don’t care, they are well protected by several police forces, people can not even protest near their homes, they have personal security details, and they never have to go out among the unwashed masses. The rest of us do not have that protections, we have to be out in the community wondering who is carrying a gun and having a really pissy day. Who came out armed after a fight at home or with the neighbors? The fact is the gun situation is going to kill the US economy. We have a service economy built on people shopping and eating out. Already people started buying online. A lot of people won’t go out of eat, to movies, to events if the are afraid of the gun violence. So that stuff stops. People will gather at home in small groups, they will leave the public spaces to the young and the gangs. This is going to radically change the way people in the US live. Plus schools may end up going fully remote. As a parent do you want to send your kid to a building that is regularly attack and kids die? What about going to the office to work? Who there is carrying a gun? People will want to work from home. See the effect of that one weapon on the entire society that the protected elite don’t care about? Hugs
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said while she didn’t know where the gun used in Monday’s mass shooting in her city came from, she told NBC, “I do know that it was legally obtained.”
Rotering said she had known the shooting suspect, Robert E. Crimo III, as a child. “I know him as somebody who was a Cub Scout when I was the Cub Scout leader,” the mayor told NBC. “He was just a little boy.”
Rotering said the focus in the discussion about the shooting should be about “the fact that there are weapons of war on our streets, that people can legally obtain these and then take out dozens of people.”
Any gathering of any crowd is now a risk of a shooting. We had one in Philly last night at The Welcome America concert on the Parkway. No one was killed.
The mayor said he was going to be happy to not be mayor when his term is up having to deal with the shooting rates in Philly. One big problem is the state won’t let Philly write a gun control law for the city.
Bambino🇺🇦🌻•3 hours ago•edited The fact that it was legally obtained, what does that says about assault rifles that belong in the war zone are okay to be use in a civilize society?
It’s as clear and obvious as it can possibly be that GQP politicians *WANT* massacre victims within our borders to sustain war injuries. They’re not happy unless everyone is thoroughly engaged with their continuous, endless war. Without this war they can’t win the hearts and minds of their target demographic: evangelicals who worship a genocidal deity.
And why do they want it? Because they are paranoid that a Democrat president will take away their guns. So they need to guns to protect their right to own guns.
Yes, that’s what we’ve been saying for years, no one should possess a weapon of war, legally or otherwise. That’s what we’ve been screaming into the deaf GOP ears and they just make it easier for people to get their hands on one.
I came here to say similar. I liken it to the nightly body count during Vietnam where even we lost Walter Cronkite to help turn the public against the senseless war. Emmitt Tills’ mother insisting his body be shown to make the public aware of the brutality.
At this point I’m beyond caring what either a democrat or republican says about gun control, It’s too fucking late to try closing the barn door now. There’s literally millions of assault style weapons or actual weapons made for theatre’s of war out there to try to put a lid on it now. The population as a whole would need to be on board with confiscating and destroying those already obtained WoW and that just isn’t going to happen, no matter how horrific the body count goes, there are a significant number of 2A zealots out there that will fight tooth and nail to keep their precious symbols of “freedumb”. This problem is our new reality, trying to educate or legislate away having and keeping these guns is a fallacy in today’s America. There is a lot to be said about serious mental health care and spotting the behaviors of those that have been responsible for the thousands of mass shootings in the past. But until we has a nation respond to it, that won’t change either.
Grenades and rocket launchers, also known as bazookas, are considered “destructive devices” by the National Firearms Act. They are also classified as firearms and are therefore legal with proper registration.
I’ve told this before, but I have a nephew in Missouri who honestly believes that the 2nd amendment allows all Americans to be free to own any type of weapon, up yo and including atomic bombs. He scares me. He also has a bug out place hidden somewhere in the Ozarks that only he, his wife, parents and younger brother know the location. Sadly, in this part of the world that isn’t uncommon. I’ve often wondered if he belongs to some of the nationalist groups the Ozarks is full of.
Twelve members of a religious group in Toowoomba have been arrested after the death of an eight-year-old girl, who Queensland police say was allegedly denied life-saving medication in the belief she would be healed by God.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs had type 1 diabetes and died in her family’s Rangeville home, west of Brisbane, on 7 January. Police allege her parents, who have previously been charged with murder, began withholding insulin six days earlier.
Police allege paramedics were not called to the scene until 5.30pm the next day, with the Courier Mail reporting members of the church group believed she would be resurrected.
Her dad, Jason, 50 and mum, Kerrie, 46 allegedly chanted prayers and hymns with up to 20 members of their breakaway Christian church who surrounded their child rather than get her life-saving medication.
Some of the members of the group, who call themselves ‘The Saints’ as they believe they are at the height of Christianity, even played the guitar as the little girl lay dying and no one called an ambulance.
The parents have now been charged with murder, torture and failing to provide the necessities of life for the youngster – alongside 12 other members of the group who were taken into custody for murder charges on Monday (July 4).
Queensland police arrest 12 members of religious group over death of eight-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs https://t.co/cs2d41KLWp
Fundamentalism is the ultimate expression of narcissistic hubris. They pray and they claim God speaks to them. Think about that for a second. They prey. And then they believe the voice inside their own head is the literal voice of the creator of the universe. They believe their own thoughts are God.
Let’s just be honest here, there are people who are fundamentally broken, or lost, or in such pain that they’ll gladly reach out to anything that gives them some solace or structure. Then there’s just the large swath of folks who want to feel like they’re in on something special (see QAnon)… thus Kabbalah, numerology, a sparkling variety of cults and quasi-cults, and groups like these.
And that doesn’t even get to the people whose whole social structure is based on their church membership, and the churches are designed intentionally for that purpose. Why else have a church with a theater, day care, gym, and so on if not to make it near impossible for people to leave because they’d have to give up just about everything?
A legitimate question is where do their religious rights ends, and the state’s interest in protecting the child begin. I thought, and all of you thought that we knew where that boundary is. I’m not sure that we do any more.
I was taught in the fourth grade (back in the ’50s) that my right to swing my fist ends just before it hits another person. In other words, as I read the constitution, I cannot use MY rights to suppress or deny another person THEIR rights. The Handmaid’s SCOTUS just blew up the wall of separation between church and state.
Under the new regime a woman’s uterus and any byproducts thereof (i.e. children) are considered the property of the nearest male relative and are exempt from state oversight, since men can do whatever they want with their own property.
This is the result of the Republicans unwarranted attacks on gay people / the LGBTQ+. This is what they want, gay people especially kids too scared and afraid to come out of get found out as gay. They want it to be terrifying. It doesn’t make more kids straight, but it does make gay kids / people stay in the closet. To hide and not be visible. And the Republicans and religious leaders know this, they understand what they are doing. DeathSantis understands he is making LGBTQ+ kids targets, the writer of the don’t say gay bill admitted that was what he wanted when he wrote it, and erasing LGBTQ+ people from the public view. Out of sight out of mind. Hugs
Police said the teens had been talking on social media since February when they agreed to meet in person for the first time.
A 19-year-old Florida man has been arrested after police say he shot and killed his online boyfriend because the victim might reveal he is gay.
Jakari Webb was taken into custody Tuesday night by the Daytona Beach Police and charged with fatally shooting Telan Mann, also 19, who was gunned down just before 2 a.m. on June 23.
Police said the teens had been talking on social media since February when they agreed to meet in person for the first time at the spot where Webb allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Mann multiple times.
Officers were patrolling in the vicinity when the shooting took place and heard the gunshots. They arrived to find Mann “in a pool of blood with multiple bullet wounds on his body,” according to a statement from police. Mann died at the scene.
A neighbor in the vicinity said she heard at least seven gunshots.
Jakari Webb Daytona Beach Police
Police arrested Webb Tuesday while executing a search warrant at a home on Garden Street, where they also found a handgun. Webb was charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond at Volusia County jail.
“Our homicide unit has been working this case non-stop since Telan was fatally shot,” DBPD Police Chief Jakari Young said in the statement. “I commend them for a job well done and for providing Telan’s family some closure. It doesn’t replace his life, but I hope it does give his loved ones some measure of peace moving forward.”
On Wednesday, police revealed they have evidence showing Webb and Mann, who was out, were involved in the online relationship for about four months, and that Webb was fearful Mann would expose their relationship and out Webb as gay on social media.
“There was some concern that Telan either had or was going to post something on social media kind of outing the suspect,” Young said.
Mann’s grandmother, Deborah Mann, posted pictures of Webb to social media, asking for the public’s help finding her grandson’s killer.
According to Chief Young, investigators scoured Mann’s text and social media messages and viewed over 120 hours of security cam videos to track Webb’s movements.
In addition to first-degree murder, Webb has been charged with a probation violation and resisting arrest after he tried to flee from SWAT and K-9 officers. Young said officials are exploring additional hate-crime charges in the case.
Friends and neighbors of the victim said Mann was a joyful person.
“He always wanted everybody to be on good terms,” said one friend who requested anonymity. “He always was the positive one around the group. He never wanted any bad energy at all.”
“It just breaks your heart to see things happen because that’s two lives gone. Not just one, so I don’t understand,” said Eula Hicks, a neighbor.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Chief Young called the crime senseless. “It’s extremely tragic and it’s just completely unnecessary.”
In Lansing, MI early Tuesday morning, a man was caught on surveillance video setting a Pride flag display on fire.
Security cameras recorded the man approaching the “Welcome to Lansing’s Eastside Neighborhoods” sign near the corner of East Michigan Avenue and South Mifflin Avenue. The sign is flanked to one side by a large American flag and on the other by a Pride flag. Smaller flags decorate the sign itself.
The perpetrator douses the Pride flag with a liquid substance then reaches into his pocket for a lighter and ignites it. He jumps back from the fireball and leaves the scene.
It’s the sixth incident of vandalism at the same site. Five Pride flags have been stolen and replaced at the location over the course of Pride month.
“I am beside myself,” said Ryan Kost, a candidate for the 1st Ward seat on the Lansing City Council in the Aug. 2 primary election. “The level of hate demonstrated by setting it on fire is incomprehensible.”
Openly gay At-Large Councilmember Peter Spadafore agreed. “I find it appalling and disgusting that someone would resort to using this sort of tactic to intimidate. I hope we are doing everything we can to find this perpetrator of hate.”
“Lansing doesn’t tolerate hate, and I hope this person is identified quickly,” said Lansing Mayor Andy Schor. “I am angry that someone would do this. This is not who we are as a community.”
Kost has filed a criminal report with the Lansing Police over the incidents. Mayor Schor got backup from the chief of police.
“The Lansing Police Department strives for every citizen to feel safe in the city of Lansing,” said Chief Ellery Sosebee. “Our goal is to assure the City of Lansing is a safe place to live work and visit for everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community. The Lansing Police Department will not tolerate any act of hate and intimidation and will seek the appropriate prosecution for any of these crimes.”
The charred Pride flag at the site has been replaced — for the sixth time.
GLAAD released an alarming report on Wednesday about LGBTQ Americans who feel they still face discrimination in their daily lives. Seven out of 10 LGBTQ Americans state they face discrimination when interacting with their local community. That is up 11 percent from GLAAD’s report last year.
During a year when anti-transgender sports and bathroom bills are sweeping the nation, along with bills such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it’s hard to argue with these statistics. Right now, LGBTQ people are facing some of the worst discrimination in recent history. And unfortunately, this representation is spilling over into how the public view LGBTQ people.
Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s President & CEO, issued a statement on Wednesday regarding the findings. She found the statistics “distressing, but not surprising.”
“Legislation targeting LGBTQ people and youth, including censorship in classrooms, book bans, bans on evidence-based healthcare and access to school sports, has ballooned since 2020 to nearly 250 bills introduced in statehouses across the nation,” Ellis said.
Ellis mentioned anti-LGBTQ legislation, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that prohibits students and teachers to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in school. These bills decrease LGBTQ representation and opponents argue that they give a blanket statement to people across the nation that LGBTQ people are second-class citizens due to misinformation and lack of support.
“Misinformation and false rhetoric from anti-LGBTQ lawmakers have real-life consequences,” Ellis said Wednesday, “and gives a permission slip to discriminate against LGBTQ people and target them.”
When looking at the subgroups of LGBTQ people, there are some parts of the community that face more discrimination than others.
More than half of transgender and nonbinary people face harsher discrimination and feel less safe in their neighborhoods and communities versus 36 percent of other LGBTQ people.
LGBTQ people of color also face higher rates of discrimination compared to white LGBTQ people. These individuals felt that they were discriminated against not only because of their race but also because of their sexuality or gender identity.
“Every LGBTQ person and ally must use this information to speak up and hold elected officials, news media, and social media platforms accountable to actions and rhetoric that make everyone less safe,” Ellis said.
Nearly 80 percent of LGBTQ people feel that they need better legal protections and federal legislation to combat the discrimination they face on a daily basis.
And a lot of that is contributed to feeling better represented in media and the public eye, including public officials who represent them. 75 percent of LGBTQ respondents feel that representation is “essential to equality and acceptance.” LGBTQ respondents also feel “proud and supported” when they feel represented by public officials or in a positive way in the media.
A group of Proud Boys stormed a public library in Indiana to shut down a children’s reading event called “Rainbow Storytime.” Richard Ojeda breaks it down on Rebel HQ.
Hello Everyone. I have not been able to face comments and using my reasoning part of my brain today after I read that story of the abused kids. But let me backtrack a few days.
My back has been really bad since Friday and I didn’t do anything to hurt it more, it is just gotten to a point where my medication is not covering the damage that keeps growing in my spine and the increasing muscle spasms. The steroid injections are / have worn off. I have been trying to walk (and Ron goes with me and then when I stop at home he keeps walking) in the morning around phase 1 of our development.
So far on days I can I have worked myself up to this route. We leave our home at 39 and walk to Jackson, then down to Geronimo to No Name, turn up Sam Houston, then down Jim Bowie back to No Name, going up to Church Drive, head back to Andrew Jackson to our home. Here is the entire park, which after making sure I am in the house Ron goes further into get his exercise. The map is not quite accurate as the church is directly behind our home.
I have better more detailed maps but this was the first one in my saved files that came up. So as I said Ron goes on after he makes sure I am in the house. So on Friday my back total went in to super bitch mode from normal bitch mode, and I was in extreme pain. My back has been really bad since I tried to carry those bags of soda three months ago. And so as the pain built higher and higher I needed more medication and my thinking got harder and harder. So I missed the comments.
Then I was wakened on Saturday morning by my Apple watch going off on my wrist crazy with a big red screen which had a heart on it saying my heart rate was dangerous at a sustained 133 and had been up and down all night. Ron said I had been upset in my sleep and rather active as I get when I am having a flashback nightmare.
So Saturday I felt like crap, Ron wouldn’t let me walk but we worked at getting my heart rate down which we did. But I was not feeling up to handling much. Sunday I was feeling better and during / after the Sunday News Shows I was answering comments and doing posts. Then came today where the vortex found me.
The Vortex. Some of the long time readers know what the vortex is for me and how scary it can be. The vortex is the thing that takes me to the void, the place my memories suck me into and take me that I struggle to leave, mostly losing for long period of time, sometimes weeks or more. It takes over my mind and body, I can not function, I cannot deal with life, I can not shut off my mind or the memories that are on a constant loop complete with all the feelings of pain / anger / despair & hopelessness / and deep frustrations. All the emotions and feelings that I felt when the bad stuff was happening to me as I relive it all over and over and over … The vortex in my mind is a huge tornado that catches me and tries to suck me in, I can feel / hear it coming and I am terrified of the place it will take me if it can …
Sorry had to take a break.
So with therapy and help I have learned to form in my mind handles to grab onto when the vortex starts to draw me in. Those handles can save me depending on how bad the shock / memories are in my mind. One of those handles was Randy. Back in 2014 when I started self harming again Randy my wonderful online brother who while working 12 hour shifts would watch my posts carefully for any signs of distress and either call me or take calls and talk to me for hours trying to fight off the vortex / memories. He lost a lot of sleep back in those years, but he kept me from a lot of new scars and possible suicide. I admire and love him far more than I can ever say.
That was when Ron set up the candle making stuff in my bedroom and I would stay in the bedroom for weeks make candles day and night. I never knew until later that Ron would box them up and store them because the doctor had told him to keep me focused on making the candles. Our bedroom has a bathroom and Ron would bring me stuff to eat and I just stayed in there making candles and sleeping. It was a dark time in my life, I was desperate to avoid / stop the memories.
So I have learned to develop handles to grab onto, to hold my mind / emotions from being sucked into the vortex. That is what I used today. Ron seen my distress after I read that article and he knew I was upset and struggling. So we went for our morning walk even though he was worried about my heart rate. James set my phone to contact his phone if my heart rate gets too crazy. After our walk I forced myself to stay busy which helps, I helped Ron with our 4th of July lunch which was typical hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries. I even managed to eat well which is hard for me to do when the vortex takes me too far into the void. Then all day I immersed myself in videos and laundry. Ron asked me to lay down for a while with him as I was getting a bit manic and over wrought. I tried but it was a no go and making things worse for me so I got up.
Between loads of laundry I watched videos and read news sites while posting like there was a reward for the most posts. I had to do that to keep my mind focused on anything but the vortex and the kids I read about this morning. I watched, read, posted with all my mind, and when I went to deal with the laundry I kept my computer headphones on or my phone earbuds in. Ron understood. But by about 4 PM after even two early sets of medications my back gave out entirely. I could hardly walk yet still felt driven to move or I would jump out of my skin. So Ron seeing I was still agitated and getting worse tried to distract me, tried to keep my mind on computer stuff, even recommended I take one of the mood stabilizer meds I hate so much. I don’t react well on them, I have had several doctors try to put me on them. Now Valium is called Diazepam and it is one the doctors have tried to put me on and I refuse to let any doctor prescribe them to me. I disassociate while on them.
The problem is they make me slow down to where I can not function. Now as an adult everything moves too fast when I am on them. It is like I am in a deep fog, moving so slow like I am wading through chest high water, and everyone is talking too fast for me to understand or deal with. I hate it, I am like in super slow motion while the world seems on speed.
In my childhood I was put on heavy doses of Valium to keep me compliant with my abuse because the adoptive parents insisted and the doctors complied, no one looked into the medical history of abuse I had, the broken bones or other things. I would be given the first dose in the morning, go to school and after an hour or two I would either fall asleep at my desk or tell the teacher I needed to lay down. There was a cot setup behind the library shelves where I would go and sleep, at lunch time I would be wakened if still sleeping and taken to lunch then be given my pills by a teacher after eating, and after a hour or two I would go back to lay down behind the shelves. I spent most of my 2rd to 6th grade school years that way. I missed so much schooling. It was accepted but I still don’t know why. Only one person tried to get me to tell them what was going on at home and help me. He even befriend my adoptive parents to do as much for me as he could. But in those days a school employee did not have the authority they do now. On days the police picked me up to take me the ordered medical people I wouldn’t be given my pills so I would be awake and active, even hyperactive so they wouldn’t suspect abuse or blame the bruises on normal hyperactive child behavior. But my mind was still confused and even with what I could hazily remember I knew not to tell. Oh shit, Crap.
Sorry see I told you about the vortex, it sucks you in and keeps your mind and memories lock in the past, in the bad times. I only realized where I was in my mind and what I was writing when I got up to get another soda. Damn, it is insidious. I don’t want to think of those days, I don’t want to go back there, I did not want to write about it. Yet I did because that is where my mind is. Shit, I have to reread this to see where I was in my writing on what I wanted to say. The meds are starting to take effect and things are starting to move faster than I can deal / function with them.
So I have kept myself busy and as focused as possible, and another day has gone by without me answering the comments. Sorry I like the comments, but when I am as upset as I have been I just can not focus enough to reply to them, if I try to do them my mind wanders too much. But now with my mind slowing down I am going to try to get to some of the older ones.
Sorry to bring everyone down on a holiday weekend. I hope everyone has had a great 4th of July and remembers all the great things in their life. I wanted to tell everyone something else but I can not remember what it is. Hugs and loves. Scottie
Sorry but I just realized at least 2 hours have gone by since I wrote this and proofread it. I have been sitting here at my desk staring at my other monitor and it just went off. I have no idea what it was showing let me look. Oh it is something I want to post. I have to watch it again, I don’t remember much of it. Hugs
Telan MannPhoto: Daytona Beach Police
Photo: Shutterstock
