Category: Religion / Religious / Theocracy
Transgender Soldiers Explain Why Trump’s Military Ban Is Bogus | The Daily Show
Following Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, Jordan Klepper met with a panel of esteemed service members to discuss the president’s rejection of their qualifications, which stand in stark contrast to Trump’s own bone spur excuses
Unity
Clay Jones Def Deserves His Pizza
(Cubbies fan here. I’m not Catholic, so it matters not to me which team the Pope prefers.)
Chicago Pope by Clay Jones
The Pope is a Sox fan Read on Substack
I apologize for the lateness of today’s blog, but I had three deadlines today. I’ll explain further in a future blog.
We have the first American pope, and to add to that, he’s from Chicago. How cool is that? I think Chicago all by itself spites Trump, but a pope who’s criticized the administration for its policies on immigration is a nice plus. Also, Pope Leo XIV is against the death penalty, racism (Trump is a racist), and understands that Climate Change is a real thing and not a “hoax” created by China.
One of the first things I was curious about with our Chicago pope was if he is a Cubs fan. The Chicago Cubs posted on their famous marquee above Addison Street at Wrigley Field that Pope Leo is a Cubs fan. They got it wrong. So did some cartoonists.
Henry Payne is already an idiot. That’s not new news. Randy Bish rushed to judgment.
But it didn’t matter to him because he just made a simple swap when he found out he was wrong.
Sorry, Randy, but this is generic cartooning. Plus, nobody should listen to you about Chicago. You’re from Pittsburgh.
What else is from Pittsburgh is this shit.
What is it? It’s ketchup. There’s nothing special about this ketchup. It’s just regular shitty Heinz ketchup, but the company was trying to trick Chicagoans to fuck up their hot dogs with it. It didn’t work, and Eater.com let them know it.
I’m sure the Pope would agree that it’s sacrilege to put ketchup on a hot dog, but since he’s the Pope, he would probably forgive you, but I won’t. How dare you put ketchup on a hot dog? What are you? Five?
I used to have a theory that people who love ketchup had mothers who couldn’t cook. I developed this theory because my ex-wife LOVED ketchup, and her mother could not cook. I hope she doesn’t read this because she’s very nice and my son’s grandmother. My father-in-law, may he rest in peace, made the best fried pork chops I’ve ever had.
I think there are only four acceptable reasons for using ketchup, and they are, for crinkle-cut fries, very bad fries, meatloaf, and if you’re five. I kid, I kid. I know some of you love your ketchup, and none of us is perfect. For example, Donald Trump LOVES ketchup. Let that sink in.
What I learned about Chicago pizza is that most Chicagoans eat more tavern-style than deep dish. Chicagoans like deep dish, but it’s more for special occasions and when they have visitors. Deep dish is more for tourists. I don’t really get deep dish, and I don’t even think it should be considered a pizza.
Do you remember Pizza Rat’s first trip to Chicago last year? He tried the deep dish.
Not a fan.
Today’s cartoon put me in the mood for tavern-style tonight, and Pizza Hut has it as a special. When I picked it up, the manager apologized because they had accidentally cut it into triangles instead of squares. A lot of Chicagoans would not stand for that, but I’m tolerant. I thought of Pope Leo, and I forgave them…this time.
Shout-out and dedication: I dedicate this cartoon to Greg Zaborniak, who introduced me to Old Style beer and tavern-style Chicago pizza last year during the Democratic convention. Thank you again, Greg.
Creative note: I didn’t know what I was going to draw today, and I also had a deadline for the Advance. And then, one of my clients contacted me wanting a cartoon on a local issue, and they wanted it today. So, I was facing three deadlines with zero ideas. But they came to me, one by one, and I knocked ‘em all down.
I deserved that pizza.
There’s a version of this cartoon without Pizza Rat. I didn’t include him because not everyone who will see this cartoon will be a regular reader of mine, and they might think the rat is an aspersion on Catholicism. So I sent it to my clients without Peezy. But then, a reader changed my mind because he thought it was a bigger sin to include a pizza without Pizza Rat. I figured I was going to hear more howls about missing Peezy than I’d hear from angry Catholics. The version at GoComics may not feature Peezy because sometimes a new file won’t override the existing file. I did resend the Peezy version to my clients, but they’ll use the one they want, and maybe not even care.
Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see it!)
Central Park Pride Concert Cancelled Over “Security Concerns” About Singer Accused Of Being Anti-Israel
Pride events are very expensive to put on. Most of the cost is security and insurance. The more threats from haters, normally fundamentalist religious people, the more security needed and the more costly insurance is. It is another weapon the haters of the LGBTQ+ community have learned to use to shut down events for people they hate. So much for freedoms these people keep demanding for themselves but want to deny to others. Hugs
May 7, 2025
New York City’s NBC affiliate reports:
Kehlani ‘s planned concert in Central Park next month has been canceled after New York City’s mayor raised security concerns about the R&B star’s performance during Pride month, organizers announced Monday.
The “After Hours” singer had been set to headline a June 26 concert billed as “Pride with Kehlani” at the Manhattan park as part of SummerStage, an annual slate of free concerts at parks across the city.
But organizers, in their announcement, cited concerns from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration about the “controversy surrounding Cornell University’s decision to cancel Kehlani’s concert at the University, as well as security demands in Central Park and throughout the City for other Pride events during that same period.”
The Cornell Sun reports:
Following the April 10 announcement of Kehlani as the original Slope Day headliner, some students and parents criticized the artist’s anti-Israel rhetoric and social media presence. Cornellians for Israel also launched a petition against the selection of Kehlani as the Slope Day headliner that accumulated over 5,000 signatures.
Cornell revoked Kehlani’s invitation to headline Slope Day over what President Michael Kotlikoff labeled “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”
But the cancellation sparked criticism from student groups about freedom of speech and institutional neutrality. The Community Slope Day Instagram account urged students to “boycott Slope Day,” writing that Kehlani’s “opposition to the genocide in Palestine isn’t hateful” and that the decision was made “without representative input of the student body.”
It doesn’t appear that Kehlani has any affiliation with NYC Pride itself. The cult is celebrating the cancellation. The recent single below has 32 million views on YouTube.
They’re doing it again, they are so messed up and hurtful. They are destroying everything they touch Part 2
Support for the LGBTQ+ in the tRump hate era.
US Complicity In Israel’s Gaza Starvation Is Policy, Not Accident
Trigger warnings for starving and abused kids / people. Sadly this is what the US government is supporting and keeping other world leaders from stopping. This was because Biden was an old person who remembered being part of Israels founding and thought they were so important that it excused everything they did. tRump doesn’t care about the human cost, he wants the value of the land or as much of the share he can get. This is sickening. Personal note. I was so lacking nutrition in my childhood that my childhood doctors were concerned enough to tell my adopting mother if I did not get more food I would never see five feet in height. I ended up in a child ICU rushed to the hospital by my grandfather and I had clinical death. Hugs
For What It’s Worth:
Dueling Substacks about the new Pope, one from Charlotte Clymer, one from The Alt Media (language alert); both inoffensively readable by those who frequent here. Well, the language thing maybe. Snippets, not full pieces.
An American for Pope and a Great Choice by Charlotte Clymer
I’m quite happy. Read on Substack
Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost has just been elected the 267th Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church, taking the name Leo XIV.
He was only made a cardinal in 2023 and was serving as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, or overseeing the selection of new bishops. Prior to that was a long pastoral career in Peru. He speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, and can read Latin and German.
Goodness gracious, y’all, I could not have been more wrong in my prediction for the new pope. I never thought the cardinal electors would select an American. To say I’m stunned would be an understatement.
However, for the record, I did humor his chances in my prediction:
For example, there’s a (very unlikely) scenario in which someone like Cardinal Robert Prevost is elected: a compromise candidate who’s broadly considered safe and palatable between both ends of the ideological spectrum. But there are other cardinals that fit this and Prevost could be in 20+ years.
Okay, so, here are my initial thoughts:
This is a great choice, and I’m quite happy.
Folks need to understand that any choice for the new pope was going to be nominally anti-LGBTQ in a number of ways. What’s important is compassion and openness toward LGBTQ folks, and I’m optimistic that Pope Leo XIV will continue that direction pursued by Pope Francis. (snip-MORE)
The Resistance Pope by Adam Parkhomenko
Thank God the new pope hates JD Vance too Read on Substack
Does everyone hate JD Vance?
Well does the pope shit in the woods?
We might have that second question wrong. But thanks to twitter, we know the answer to the first one. And while we doubt the new pope really hates Vance, it’s nice to know he at least disagrees with the ass-kissing couch-fuck.
Before he became Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, Robert Prevost was on twitter. And it was there that he wrote “JD Vance is wrong,” posting a story that was a rebuke of Vance’s hateful beliefs. It was on twitter that he suggested he wants to battle climate change and believes that Black lives matter and subtweeted about Trump laughing at Kilmar Garcia. Thanks to twitter, we know the new pope is nothing like the new president. https://embed.bsky.app/embed/did:plc:5xeqzwhqcwnczcb62wv3da7o/app.bsky.feed.post/3loohb33sps2i?id=5706215191635626
The new pope is an American. And there’s nothing more American than thinking JD Vance is a douchebag. (snip-MORE, and you can see the bluesky bit on the page)
Transgender people’s lives at risk of being made ‘unliveable’, says Nicola Sturgeon
Former Scottish first minister expresses concern about interim advice from EHRC
The final years of Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership were dominated by debate around the passing of her gender recognition legislation. Photograph: Stuart Wallace/Rex/Shutterstock
The lives of transgender people in the UK are at risk of being made “unliveable”, Nicola Sturgeon has said in her first public comments about the supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman, which was prompted by legislation she oversaw in the Scottish parliament.
The UK supreme court ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex. This was the conclusion of a long-running court action by the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland, who objected to a law passed at Holyrood aimed at improving women’s representation on public boards being extended to transgender women.
Sturgeon said the supreme court’s ruling – “by very definition … the law of the land” – could not be questioned but expressed profound concerns about interim advice published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission amounting to a blanket ban on trans people using toilets and other services of the gender they identify as.
“The question for me, and I think for a lot of people, is how that is now translated into practice; can that be done in a way that, of course, protects women, but also allows trans people to live their lives with dignity and in a safe and accepted way.
“I would be very concerned if that interim guidance became the final guidance and I hope that is not the case because I think that potentially makes the lives of trans people almost unliveable.
“It certainly doesn’t make a single woman any safer to do that because the threat to women comes from predatory and abusive men.”
The former first minister and SNP leader added that it was not inevitable that the judgment would make the lives of transgender people “impossibly difficult”, but there was a danger that certain interpretations could put transgender rights at risk.
“If that is the case, then yes, it would be my view that the law as it stands needs to be looked at,” she told reporters at the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
The Scottish media and prominent gender critical campaigners have been calling on Sturgeon to respond since the ruling, which prompted jubilation among gender critical activists and sent shock waves through the trans community.
Sturgeon has been a staunch advocate of transgender rights, and the final years of her premiership were dominated by the increasingly toxic and polarised debate around the passing of her flagship gender recognition reforms in late 2022.
The bill, which was passed with cross-party support at Holyrood, made it easier and less intrusive for individuals to legally change their gender, extending the new system of self-identification to 16- and 17-year-olds for the first time. But it was immediately blocked by the Rishi Sunak’s UK government as cutting across the UK-wide Equality Act.
After this unprecedented veto, Sturgeon accused some opponents of the bill of using women’s rights as a “cloak of acceptability to cover up what is transphobia”, telling the NewsAgents podcast that some critics of the legislation were also “deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well”.
On Tuesday Sturgeon rejected the suggestion made by many of her critics that she owed them an apology after the ruling.
“I fundamentally, and respectfully, disagree,” she said. “I recognise the different views on this, I’ve always recognised the different views on this, but I think its important that respect runs in both directions.”
But co-director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith, said Sturgeon’s claim that life would be made “unliveable” was “frankly wrong and quite disturbing”. Smith told BBC Scotland News that single-sex spaces were needed to provide women with “privacy, dignity, safety at time when they’re vulnerable”.
Scottie's Playtime 