Those supporting the rabid right republicans culture wars, their gang thug enforcers. Also some good news. I was off the news for 2 days and have 40 open tabs to review.

This post has taken me three days to do.   I had all these open tabs that I finially got cleared.  I have to even looked at todays news yet.   But I think after I post this I will go to bed.   Hugs

Bilderbeck4 hours ago

Trans people deserve better journalism How the anti-trans movement took over legacy media.

“As far as trans health care is concerned, however, the medical consensus is well-established: Nearly a dozen major medical associations, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics support and recommend gender-affirmative care.

“Yet the specific arguments about this care that make it into many mainstream media outlets result in stories that undermine the experts, stemming not from legitimate concerns but from a larger orchestrated push by the far right to mainstream transphobia.

“Journalists are failing at more than just reporting on the science. Mainstream publications like the Times increasingly follow the lead of anti-trans agitators, treating what should be understood as a fundamental human rights battle more like a semantic “debate,” fixating on terminology and labels and medical minutiae, instead of humanizing trans and nonbinary people and their experiences. In fact, this has become such a contentious pattern at the Times that this February, contributors and members of the Times’s staff posted an open letter protesting the paper’s escalating bias toward anti-trans talking points and pointing out many of these tactics.

https://www.vox.com/culture…

Ann Kah4 hours ago

Men have been performing in drag since at least Shakespeare’s time, and probably long before that. But the fact that someone criticizes this as being “sexual” tells us more about the person who claims that than it does about the person performing.


Manhattan DA Deluged With Racist Death Threats

Trump Judge Blocks Tennessee Ban On Drag Shows

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Infamous Troll Found Guilty Of Election Interference, Posted Memes Telling Black Voters To “Vote By Text”

As proven at trial, between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid.

For example, on November 1, 2016, in or around the same time that Mackey was sending tweets suggesting the importance of limiting “black turnout,” the defendant tweeted an image depicting an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. The ad stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”

The fine print at the bottom of the deceptive image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”

 

FL House Approves Expanded K-8 “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

The wide-ranging bill (HB 1069) also seeks to restrict the way teachers and students can use preferred pronouns in schools and bolsters a process for people to object to instructional materials and school-library books.

 

It also expands school board jurisdiction to classroom libraries. The bill would allow a parent who disagrees with a district’s ruling on a book challenge to appeal the state education commissioner to appoint a special magistrate to hear the dispute.

“This bill has given a ticket for racist, homophobic people — that this chamber does not support – to pull books that matter to our children,” said state Rep. Robin Bartleman (D-Weston).

And in about a month, they’ll expand it yet again to all grades and start looking for ways they can force their anti-LGBTQ pogrom on colleges and universities.

Their ultimate goal is to get rid of everything gay.
That includes but is not limited to Marriage Equality.

 

Great. Gay people are illegal. But guns for all

Florida. The Shithole State

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DeSantis Gets Bill Legalizing No-Permit Concealed Carry

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When are we actually going to become a decent country? Think about all the nice things that other industrialized nations have and have had for decades: reasonable gun control, universal health care, paid maternity leave and the like, not to mention democracy that isn’t slipping into outright theocratic fascism.

When do we get to have those things? How fucking shitty and unlivable does America have to become before it finally hits rock bottom and starts to become a better country?

I’m just so fucking sick and tired of watching everything deteriorate and nothing ever fucking gets better, and anytime something does get better everyone knows deep down it’s only a matter of time before the Republicans demolish it. Meanwhile the world passed us by a long time ago when it comes to just basic human development.

I’m becoming increasingly convinced this country is headed toward fascism, civil war or both, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. The Democrats are too weak to stop it, and the media will just bothsides it.

I’m sorry to be pessimistic, but shit like this just completely drains whatever hope I have left.

Fox News Memo: “Label All Biden Policies As Socialism”

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“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years….Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” – President Truman, 1952

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Idaho GOP Votes To Criminalize “Abortion Trafficking”

This is the first time that a state has put a law on the books that restricts its residents from interstate travel for abortion access. Idaho already has a near-total abortion ban in place. Neighboring Washington and Oregon allow minors to get an abortion without their parent’s consent.

Idaho’s HB 242 would imprison for up to five years any adult who accompanies a minor across out-of-state without a parent’s consent — an action that the bill calls “abortion trafficking.”

I heard last night on MSNBC that Obstetricians are leaving Idaho. Soon there will not be doctors to deliver babies in the state. It seems that doctors were not without alternatives in front of a maniacal state government.

 

Correct. Its happening in multiple states. First, blue states have a surge in demand so can offer higher pay. Second, treatment of legit miscarriages could cause an a doctor to be subject to police investigation or worse. The maternal death rate in red states (already higher than blue states) is going to skyrocket.

 

My daughter is an OBGYN in Georgia. She calls me and tells me terrifying and gory stories of things that happen on occasion, sometimes to young and perfectly healthy women, in the delivery room. Sometimes even the most skilled doctors have to hit the panic button and summon in a specialist because things can go terribly wrong in a fraction of a moment, even under the best of circumstances.
Imagine now what will happen when the doctors have fled from the red states and there are not enough to go around to save the lives of these mothers and forced mothers to be? I get a chill when I think about it.
What a terrifying time it is to be a girl/woman.

 

Frightening as hell. I image we will see an intra-country medical tourism where wealthy women will travel to blue states to spend there last few pregnant months near a hospital capable of delivering competent care.

 

…and poor women and girls will die in horrifying circumstances that could have been prevented but for the red state policies being put in place.

Republicans want to knock girls up and then hold them prisoner as breeding ovens in their shithole states.

It’s starts with “protecting the kids” to “we know what’s best for our women.” I’ve heard arguments that “the unborn are our state’s citizens, and we have the right to safeguard them.” How women and any men who love them aren’t outraged & unleashing hell upon their would-be captors stuns me to no end.

“Papers please. Please pee on this stick for us before you leave the state.”

Florida Bill Would Change School Board Residency Rules

Read the full article. Perhaps obviously, the bill is meant to allow Moms For Liberty fascists from anywhere in the state to run for school boards where they’d have a shot at winning. Last year Steele, a freshman rep, reported a net worth of over $440 million.

Florida Fascists want to import Christofascists to take over local school boards they don’t even have kids in the district or live near.

 

I expect that the bill will pass so that rabid GQP candidates from the reddest counties will try to pack the school boards in blue counties.

Seems the GQP are blood thirsty for children.
“One statistic in particular stood out: one in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday. No parent should ever have to bury their child, but in the US one set of parents from every kindergarten class most likely will.”

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Missouri House Votes To Defund Public Libraries

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Boebert: Let’s Not “Nitpick What The Bible Says” About My Teenage Son Knocking Up His Underage Girlfriend

“And I mean, there’s things all throughout the week that I know is right to do. And sometimes, I don’t do them. And so we can nitpick what the Bible says is right and wrong, but I think just having that heart posture of wanting to serve God and do the right thing is so important.

Says the woman who attacks the gays and trans because her god hates that, but her underage son having sex outside of marriage and getting a girl pregnant is OK and hands off for some reason.   WTF!    Hugs

You see, whenever I apply the rules to people I don’t like…the bible is absolute…but with my family…we get to pick and choose the rules…so eff you .

Exactly. Some portions of the Bible must be taken verbatim, and some require interpretation and context… but only Republicans can decide which and when, and that decision can vary dependent upon the situation as they see it at that particular time.

Very convenient for them.

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Situational Ethics, a philosophical system originally developed by Congregationalist pastor Charles Sheldon and Episcopalian priest Joseph Fletcher. In the hands of the GOP, it morphs from “How would Jesus love?” to “How can I excuse this?”

another white trashy christian family like Sarah Palin’s who wears their religion on their sleeve to justify attacks on our LGBTQ people.

“I failed my math test, but what’s important is that I have the heart of a person who passed the test.”

No, bitch. Jimmy Carter is a Christian. You are a hypocrite.

TX Bill Seeks Power To Overturn Blue County Elections

SB1993 author Sen. Mayes Middleton [photo] last appeared here for his bill to prosecute and disbar members of a law firm for “reimbursing travel costs of employees who leave Texas to murder their unborn children.”

Fascism. Pure and simple.

 

They know very soon they will not be able to win. Ever.

Aye, and now Republicans want to rig things so elections no longer matter. Ever.

Gerrymandering isn’t enough anymore?

Nope, not for Rethugs. First they turn a majority of voters into a minority of representation. Then they take away that minority representation altogether, creating one-party-only rule.

Just like the Nazis did.

The demise of the US is accelerating. I can see this being illegal, but not really since so many lifetime judges are now IQ45 worshipers. Even if this were go to the SCOTUS it’s still up in the air. If it goes there and SCOTUS says TX has the right to decide an election and not the People then we will absolutely know for a fact that we are not a republic.

Jim Crow tactics, down and dirty.

It’s long been the dream of “conservatives” to disfranchise Black voters. The polysyllabic racist, William F. Buckley, Jr., proposed legislation doing just that back in the 1950s, in areas where Black voters could influence the outcome of elections…because the “advanced race” just had to prevail.

He conceded that in order for the legislation to have the appearance of being Constitutional, some white voters might also be disfranchised. I don’t think he would shed too many tears over that if they were in heavily unionized areas.

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Grand Jury Probes Trump’s Payoff To Second Woman

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And how creepy is it that Trump told Stormy how much she looks like Ivanka before sinking his 3 inch putz at the golf resort?

Both women have alleged in interviews that the president compared them to Ivanka Trump.

Both below, courtesy of Anderson Cooper interviews with women.

Stormy Daniels : Yeah. He was like, “Wow, you — you are special. You remind me of my daughter.” You know — he was like, “You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.”

McDougal: You know, he, he’s very proud of Ivanka, as he should be. I mean, she’s a brilliant woman. She’s beautiful. She’s — you know, that’s his daughter, and he should be proud of her. He said I was beautiful like her and, you know, you’re a smart girl. And there wasn’t a lot of comparing, but there was some, yes. I heard a lot about her. Yes.

Teen Carjackers Foiled By Manual Transmission [Video]

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Texas Judge Strikes Down Insurance Coverage For PrEP

 

The suit was brought by extremist anti-LGBTQ activist Steven Hotze [photo], who was recently ejected from a Texas Senate hearing after repeatedly calling transgender people “pedophiles.”

Hotze appeared on JMG in September 2022 when he explained how COVID vaccines are designed to connect people to the internet “so you can be mind-controlled by artificial intelligence.”

In April 2022, Hotze was charged with two felonies related to a bizarre 2020 “voter fraud search” incident.

Hotze appeared on JMG that year when he left a voice mail for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, telling him to “shoot to kill” Black Lives Matter activists.

You may recall that Steven Hotze has compared gays to “communist termites” eating away at America’s moral fabric. He is also fond of declaring that it’s now a hate crime to denounce homosexuality.

It was Hotze who bankrolled the successful campaign to repeal Houston’s “wicked, evil, Satanic” LGBT rights ordinance, during which he compared gays to rapists and murderers.

According to Hotze, same-sex marriage will result in children “practicing sodomy” in kindergarten.

In 2017, he appeared here when he “prophesied” that God will deliver “just retribution” to lawmakers who vote for LGBT rights.

When he’s not calling on God to kill politicians or for the governor to kill Black Lives Matter activists, Hotze sells “miracle” supplements because high cholesterol doesn’t really cause heart disease.

Hotze regularly quotes QAnon slogans.

O’Connor has widely been described as conservative. O’Connor has become a “go-to” favorite for conservative lawyers, as he tends to reliably rule against Democratic policies. Attorneys General in Texas appear to strategically file cases in O’Connor’s jurisdiction so that he will hear them.

More judge shopping by the Republicans. But you won’t hear Democrats even talk about this.

 

Let’s talk about schools, legislation, and security….

*** Edited to include the following ***

Nan pointed out in a comment that she felt the longer video had more information that should be shared.    I have not listened to the longer video and right now I can’t due to the pain in my back and a large backlog of videos I want to watch, but I trust Nan and the other viewers that come here.   If she says it is worth watching, then it really is.   Hugs

SURVEY: 80% Support Broad LGBTQ Protections

Finally some good news.   This is why when the republicans in the red states say they are doing the will of the people, what they really mean is the will of their own minority, not the will of the majority of people.    Republicans have always been about a rabid ideologically driven minority ruling over the majority.   The majority of the people are pretty accepting with a live and let live attitude.   It is only those that demand the right to oppress others and to force others to live according to their church doctrines that support the republican anti-gay anti-trans legislation.    Hugs

The Freedom From Religion Foundation reports:

A new national survey has reassuring findings that Americans of almost all religions and no religion are growing ever more supportive of LGBTQ rights.

For instance, eight in 10 Americans (80 percent) in the Public Religion Research Institute survey support laws against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Even 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants, tied with Hispanic Protestants, favor such nondiscrimination laws. Jehovah’s Witnesses were at the bottom of the barrel, yet half support nondiscrimination protections.

Interestingly, in states showing the lowest level of support for nondiscrimination (Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota), two-thirds of state citizens themselves are against such discrimination, showing that state legislatures are not keeping up with demographics.

Read the full article.

The original survey is here.

Breakdown by religion is here.

 

 

Yeah, but it’s the 20% that are doing the work to take rights away.

The GOP lost its biggest vote driver: Abortion.

So, we are the new boogeyman.

But I can find no data showing that this is attracting new voters. Indeed, it’s repelling young voters, and the die-hard GOP base, the Silent Generation (late 70s), is dying off at a clip.

And this, this, is why the GOP is now openly trying to steal elections.

You’re dead-on. With its base eroding, and scapegoats proving less effective, the GOP is becoming more desperate. Blatant disregard for laws and protocols is the order of the day.

in a normal democracy, one that actually represents the people, we LBGTs rights would have been secured a long time ago.
The good news, though, is that despite all the efforts of our enemies and the news media, we are winning the hearts and minds of Americans.

I live in Kansas.

In a town of 450 people.

I’m openly gay.

The town has always embraced me, and my sexuality has never been an issue.

Another openly gay man sits on the town council, and he’s an EMT. He’s also a cowboy.

One of the largest ranchers in the area is a lesbian.

And so on.

None of this would have been possible when I was born in 1957.

SO true, the same with where I grew up! Coming out of closets in the last 50 years to our family, friends and neighbors has made all the difference. They see us as regular normal people now, the old stereotypes are gone for the most part but politicians are still pushing them with their “groomer/pedophile”. It’s not going to work, it will backfire!

I hope you are right. The drag queen stuff is not on this poll, though. I have a feeling that a lot of people will say yes to rights for generic gays and lesbians, but not some other specific subgroups.

So, in summation:

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That about correct?

I keep saying this:

While the evil voices have been very LOUD of late, LGBTQ acceptance is higher than it’s ever been.

And yet, I worry that there’s always a time lag with any cultural shifts. Give it a few years for the GQP’s current anti-gay campaign to take effect and let’s see what the numbers are then. I like to be optimistic, but I often harbor serious doubts about this country whenever this topic comes up.

Give the current gay-positive generation of young people a chance to have children, only then to decide that they’d rather not have their kids be gay and then shift their political allegiances accordingly. I’m old enough to have seen this happen before, as have you.

 

“I P*SS MYSELF TO TRIGGER TRANS WOMEN” (CRINGIEST TERF FAILS) | NOAHFINNCE

HELLthcare | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update

A must watch even if you don’t like his comedy.  He breaks down the US health care and shows which nations we fall in with on it.  Not something we would want to brag about.    Hugs

Let’s talk about David, The Simpsons, and Tallahassee….

100-year-old woman slams Florida book bans and brings the house down at school board meeting

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/24/2159893/-100-year-old-woman-slams-Florida-book-bans-and-brings-the-house-down-at-school-board-meeting

 

GraceLinn_BookBAn.jpg

Florida’s book bans continue unabated. On Tuesday night, the Martin County School Board met and held an hours-long hearing about the proposed banning of books that some feel are inappropriate. 

During the meeting, where some people voiced support for banning books while many others voiced anger and dissent at such censorship, 100-year-old Grace Linn, a Martin County resident, spoke into the microphone from her wheelchair. Saying she was “a hundred years young,” Linn spoke about her husband who was killed in action during World War II while “defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms. One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books.”

Linn brought and displayed a quilt that she made in protest of a potential book ban. Stitched into Linn’s quilt are books that have either been targeted or banned. She explained that the books on her quilt represented “a few of so many more books that are banned or targeted and need to be proudly displayed and protected and read.”

The end of her remarks brought the audience to cheers, and rightly so. Linn’s speech is all that needs to be said about banning books.

“Banned books and burning books are both the same,” Linn said. “Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear, not freedom. Fear, not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am the mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this. Thank you.”

 

Why it matters 2

This is the second in which I hope will be many future posts by Randy.   Please give him some love and support as he starts to feel more comfortable doing posts.   Hugs from Scottie.  

In the very proclamation of dissent and foundation of a new creation, AmericaPicture 1 demanded that laws be emplaced for the fair governance of the people.  In fact, it was the failure of the British Monarchy to govern with fair laws, to allow representation and fair justice, to abide by a set of laws even, that brought about these ringing words of courage and relative insanity when considering the scope of the argument: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.”

How bold a statement is that!  And yet it is the very foundational argument upon Picture 2which this country called America was founded, and ironic in that the very people of the argument and their following generations have striven mightily to disprove.  From the institutions of slavery to Indian Affairs, Rockefellers to Swaggerts, people have sought ways to remove this idea that each of us is created equal and beholden to the laws of the country.

The Rule of Law has been bandied about in one phrase or another since the musings of Plato, if not before.  It was Henry de Bracton, a medieval jurist, who is credited with the famous phrase “no man is above the law”.  It is quite literally the defining characteristic of a civil society, one which is not governed by the arbitrary ruthlessness of a corrupt power simply doing as it pleases, and the initial downfall of any society as those who would subject others to the law fly in the face of the very same.

America, for all its unwillingness to abide by its own creation, has managed to somewhat self-correct over time, if such things can be considered as correctable.   There will always be injustices in the world, but “men of good conscious…” do sooner or later find ways to bring us back from the edge even as generations are squandered and sullied in the process and allow us to muddle down this road.  In truth, it is the mark of a healthy governance and populace to ensure the shortest of time between abuse and correction.

As we look upon the actions of Donald Trump, he is in some ways a scape goat. Picture 3 Given far more power than he was built to manage and surrounded by sycophants, coat-tail riders and sociopathic anarchists all seeking to rape and pillage their way to the top, he is asked now to answer for grievances he never should have been given the opportunity to incur.  I find myself feeling somehow sorry for this spoiledPicture 4

tantrum throwing delinquent, but even more sorry for a country that must force an acknowledgement that, truly, no man should be above the law.  What I fear the most is the generations that will be squandered and sacrificed should we fail.  Make no mistake, those who willingly placed a man so ill-prepared and incapable of the job into the highest position of trust and power in the land are perfectly willing to pick over the carcass as this asshole attempts to burn it all to the ground.

Why it Matters

This is a guest post from Randy.   As most people here already know Randy is someone I admire greatly.  Randy is my online brother and a member of our family.   Randy is smart, funny, caring, kind, willing to reach out a hand to those in need while also willing to stand up to protect others.   Randy is the kind of guy who if he knew a co-worker had no other way to get to a much needed job during a snow storm he would get up out of his warm bed and go take them to work.   And not ask any for doing it.   I have asked Randy if he would be a guest author as he has time.  He has delighted me with the first two posts of what I hope will be many more.    Thank you my brother, Hugs.

Why it Matters

In this era of Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, even All Lives Matter, the defining characteristic is that the authors, the progenitors of the movement, are trying to indicate to the public that there are folks who do not see the lives of some persons either being in jeopardy, being disenfranchised, being set upon as a second class, being abused.  The irreparable loses for some came too early, like the Native Americans, and for others they somehow bought in to the larger idea, others still labor under a “lesser than” status that evidences in odd circumstances when people need someone to blame.

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It is easy to use extremes to make points in writing, so I’ll use one now.  In the late 1930’s an individual rose to power who realized that it was far far easier to capture the public’s anger and fear through hate and destructive rhetoric.  Hate is bred from fear, and Germany recovering from WW1 was reeling through poverty, inflation, low productivity, and a miasma from losing a war.  This individual captured that fear with not only an ideal he espoused upon the country but a scapegoat: otherwise said is “this is the ideal, but these are the people for whom to blame for our lot.”  It should be noted that an erstwhile general failure in his other pursuits, this individual honed a craft of speaking what people begged to hear in a manner that was convincing enough to overpower the very voice of decency within them.

Picture 2 What did that individual do?  He convinced people that it was ok to place a mark of second class on another human being.  He convinced people that they should be “segregated” for the good of the countrymen.  In time, it went from a fringe movement to the government’s position, and men, women, children were rounded up and “quarantined” for the safety of the citizenry.  Some bought into this with a passion, others were put into a position of placing their own lives in peril to not go through with this new government program as their neighbors were taken, were abused, disenfranchised and even killed. Only a sociopath would look upon the truth of this matter with anything but horror, but it’s amazing what people can justify to themselves when their own comfort is on the line, when their own well-being is on the line.  That individual, after committing war Picture 3 upon his own land, went on to view people in other countries as “lesser than”, as not worthy of existence as neighbors, and went to war with them.  The irony learned by the very public this individual used and then abandoned in his bid for power is that they were now only worse off after his blame-game and were forced to face what had been done in their name.

So, why is that relevant today?  Anytime, Anytime, Every time we accept a person to be cast as a second-class citizen for no other reason than their very being, we lose.  We lost when we decided that Native American Cultures were lesser than.  We lost when we decided that African lives, African American lives were lesser than.  We lost when we decided that whoever was in power at the moment, however that power was expressed- be it by government, wealth, violence- was the correct arbitrator of a person’s worth as a citizen.

This blog clearly speaks up for those who have felt the abuse of those in power due to their being gay, being trans, being somehow different.  Some have looked upon this championing as an acceptable forum for conversation and determination Picture 4of another’s rights and status when said persons  have harmed no one and sought only to be genuine to themselves.  The false definition of reality seems a favorite of those who seek to justify abuse, and let it be understood that abuse of power is what it is!  I see no debate as warranted or even allowed when we seek to determine how another person defines himself.  That is their business, and though we may find it uncomfortable for ourselves we have no right to dictate to another who he or she or they express themselves.

I would like to harken back to the very extreme example used earlier in this writing:  Declaring a person to be lower class and unworthy of their own personhood, their liberty, is not American, but damn if it isn’t what Americans seem to demand.  Excusing and justifying abuses and horrors in the name of being free is antithetical to the very existence of the Constitution, and yet we do it.  Over and over again, we accept abuses on others.  You want examples? Picture 5 Ok, we accept a death knell of school children for the right to sell guns to near anyone.  We accept the demand that drag shows be stopped because it violates our own religious beliefs.  We are demanding that people exhibit who they are defined to be at birth despite who they genuinely feel themselves to be.  We demand that children starve in our public schools so that the wealthiest don’t have to pay a fair tax rate.  We demand that children go to school, then declare their well-educated instructors abusing them for allowing them to have an education.  We demand that the sick seek to gamble their very lives as they balance eating and health care.  And, we demand that the mother give birth to her child no matter how old she is, Picture 6 how she became pregnant, the viability of the fetus, the physical and psychological toll it will put on the mother, the financial devastation it will inflict upon her life, even the ability to feed, clothe, educate, and love the child do we still demand she bring it into the world, then we turn our back upon her.

We as a country seem to demand the right to make these decisions for others, to define them, to restrict them, to force them to conform to what we see as comfortable and proper for them, and yet in the near past, especially, have I seen excuse upon excuse for criminal and the worst examples of abuses inflicted upon others.  Picture 7These so-called Christians – and I place that lowercase as they seem to refuse to follow the example of the one written as Jesus Christ – refuse to use a common reality, hold themselves accountable, hold others in their politics driven values accountable, and as I mentioned, refuse to do as Christ demands, yet stomp their feet if someone were to live in defiance of those somehow “deeply held religious beliefs”.  And, again, harkening back to the earlier extreme example:  1930’s Germany was a very religious country and look at what they allowed for their politics-driven morals and values.

Russia disinformation looks to US far right to weaken Ukraine support

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/16/russia-disinformation-us-far-right-republicans-ukraine

Now House Speaker McCarthy admitted that there were members of the republican party that were on the pay roll of Russia.   Now there seems to be a lot more of them.   How is it patriotic to be on the payroll of an enemy foreign government who has attempted for years to subvert our democracy to support their dictatorship?  Hugs

The Kremlin is deploying new tactics by drawing on favorite themes and conspiracy theories of rightwing Republicans

President of Russia Twitter account on a screenA report found Russia-linked accounts on Twitter have shifted toward stressing energy and economic impacts of the war. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock


As Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine has faced major setbacks since it began a year ago, the Kremlin has deployed new disinformation themes and tactics to weaken US support for Kyiv with help from conservative media stars and some Republicans in Congress, according to new studies and experts.

Moscow’s disinformation messages have included widely debunked conspiracy theories about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, and pet themes on the American right that portray the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as an ally in backing traditional values, religion and family in the fight against “woke” ideas.

 

Further, new studies from thinktanks that track disinformation have noted that alternative social media platforms such as Parler, Rumble, Gab and Odysee have increasingly been used to spread Russian falsehoods since Facebook and Twitter have imposed more curbs on Moscow’s propaganda.

Other pro-Russian messages focused on the economic costs of the war for the US have been echoed by Republicans in the powerful far-right House Freedom Caucus such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Scott Perry and Paul Gosar, who to varying degrees have questioned giving Ukraine more military aid and demanded tougher oversight.

Since Russia launched its invasion last February, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Trump ally – turned influential far-right podcaster – Steve Bannon have promoted some of the most baseless claims that help bolster the Kremlin’s aggression.

For instance, Bannon’s War Room podcast in February 2022 featured an interview with Erik Prince, the wealthy US founder of Blackwater, where they both enthused that Putin’s policies were “anti-woke” and praised Putin’s homophobia and transphobia.

Last month too on the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, Carlson revved up his attacks on US support for Ukraine claiming falsely that Biden’s goal had become “overthrowing Putin and putting American tanks in Red Square because, sure, we could manage Russia once we overthrow the dictator”.

Analysts who track Russia’s disinformation see synergies between the Kremlin and parts of the US right that have helped spread some of the biggest falsehoods since the start of the invasion.

“Russia doesn’t pull even its most outlandish narratives out of thin air – it builds on existing resentments and political fissures,” Jessica Brandt, a policy director at the Brookings Institution who tracks disinformation and foreign interference, told the Guardian.

She added: “So you often have a sort of harmony – both Kremlin messengers and key media figures, each for their own reasons, have an interest in dinging the administration for its handling of the Ukraine crisis, in amplifying distrust of authoritative media, in playing on skepticism about the origins of Covid and frustration with government mitigation measures.”

“That was the case with the biolabs conspiracy theory, for example, which posits that the Pentagon has been supporting the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. The Charlie Kirk Show and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, among others, devoted multiple segments to the claim. It’s not so much that we’re witnessing any sort of coordination, but rather an alignment of interests.”

Brandt also noted that Russia had an “interest in promoting authentic American voices expressing views that align with the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals. And that’s why you often see them retweet Americans that make these arguments.”

Likewise, two reports issued separately last month by the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the Atlantic Council, reveal how Russian state media have shifted some messaging themes and adopted new tactics with an eye to undercutting US backing for Ukraine.

The Alliance report documented a shift in messaging in the US and Europe from directly defending Russia’s invasion to stressing the energy and economic impacts that it was having, themes that seem to be resonating with some Republican politicians.

In the first six months of the war, Alliance data revealed that Russia-linked accounts on Twitter mentioned “Nazi” in more than 5,800tweets.

But in the following six months from August 2022 through January 2023, “the number of ‘Nazi’ tweets dropped to 3,373 – a 42% decline”. Likewise, mentions of Nato by Russian-linked accounts on Twitter dropped by roughly 30% in the second six-month period.

By contrast, in the most recent six-month period the report said that “tweets mentioning both ‘energy’ and ‘Ukraine’ increased by 267%, while tweets mentioning ‘cost of living’ increased 66%” compared to the first six months of the war.

In another twist, Bret Schafer, who leads the Alliance’s information manipulation team, told the Guardian: “In response to restrictions and crackdowns by major tech platforms, accounts and channels affiliated with Russian state media outlet RT, which has been banned entirely on YouTube, have fanned out across alternative social media and video sharing platforms like Rumble and Odysee that have less restrictive content moderation policies and that allow RT to operate without labels or restrictions.

“Those platforms also tend to cater to audiences who are not necessarily pro-Russian, but are certainly more apt, based on the other videos found on those platforms, to oppose continued support for Ukraine.”

Despite Moscow’s disinformation offensive and the $100bn plus in military and financial assistance that has flowed to Ukraine in one year, the ex-Republican House member Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said that “most GOP members still support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression”.

But Dent stressed that “the hardest edge of the Bannon-Carlson wing of the Maga movement in Congress is more sympathetic to Russian arguments and has an isolationist view of American foreign policy. There are some members who are less willing to push back against autocrats. There are others too who find common cause with Russia’s professed socially conservative orientation.”

Those voices are especially loud in the Freedom Caucus which is wielding growing influence with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who has said he will not support a “blank check” for Ukraine and this week declined the invitation of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to visit Kyiv.

Freedom Caucus member Greene from Georgia at the recent CPAC conference said flatly: “We’ve done enough.”

Democrats are especially worried about the embrace of pro-Kremlin disinformation by the American right.

The Democratic senator Chris Murphy blasted US conservatives for echoing Kremlin propaganda and traced its roots back to ex-president Donald Trump, who at the start of Russia’s invasion lauded Putin as “savvy” and a “genius”. Murphy said Trump’s “admiration for Putin” has “turned into a collective rightwing obsession”.

 
How big a threat does the hard right pose to US support for Ukraine?
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Murphy noted that among the obsessed on the right are Donald Trump Jr, whom he follows on social media, and who is “relentlessly making fun of Zelenskiy online”.

Meanwhile, Putin’s own words and propaganda have lately shifted as he has tried to influence opinion in the US and the west, and blunt Russian dissent.

“Millions of people in the west understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe,” Putin railed last month in a wildly hyperbolic speech that homed in on “the destruction of families”, and related themes.

Russia experts warn that Putin’s rhetoric and Kremlin messaging on these themes is far removed from the reality in Russia.

“One of the glaring mistakes of far-right propagandists is to view Vladimir Putin as some kind of defender of Christendom, of family values and as a protector of the white race,” said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They repeat the Kremlin talking points and get excited about the Russian ‘gay propaganda’ law. Nothing could be further from reality.

“Today Russia is the leader in Europe of high divorce rates, HIV infections, and low church attendance and practice.”

Senator Murphy expects Putin to count “on the [American] right wing to advance Russian propaganda and exploit our internal divisions.”