Tag: Hate

And in school superintendents who cannot stay out of the news,

I’d say they ought to be more careful; I am aware that Oklahomans do not like malfeasance with their tax dollars one little bit.

Records: Walters, advisors continue billing taxpayers thousands for travel to partisan events, retreats, media appearances

by: Spencer Humphrey/KFOR

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — State Superintendent Ryan Walters and his top staff continue to bill Oklahoma taxpayers for expenses related to out-of-state trips — including for talk show appearances, a multi-day retreat, PragerU events at five-star resorts, and even a hot air balloon tour — according to open records obtained by News 4.

This week, News 4 obtained out-of-state travel expense records for State Superintendent Ryan Walters, his Chief Policy Advisor Matt Langston and his spokesperson Dan Isett dating back to the day Walters took office in 2023.

News 4 did not obtain the records through the Oklahoma State Department of Education, but rather from the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES).

In January, News 4 reported when Walters faced intense scrutiny for his out-of-state travel expenses billed to taxpayers, which at that time included other trips for talk show appearances, partisan conferences, and even a movie premiere.

The new records News 4 has obtained indicate, since facing that scrutiny in January, Walters and his staff have continued to bill the state travel expenses for trips Walters makes to help grow his national political profile.

Now, multiple Republican and Democratic Oklahoma lawmakers tell News 4 they want to see Walters’ spending formally investigated.

Back on March 19, Walters appeared on Fox News. On the studio backdrop behind him was a picture of the Phoenix skyline.

The records obtained by News 4 indicate Walters went to Phoenix for a five-day retreat hosted by national conservative think tank ‘the Heritage Foundation.’

Walters’ travel itinerary for March 19 scheduled him to begin the day at 5:45 a.m. for a “sunrise hot air balloon tour.”

Other things on Walters’ five-day itinerary included attending sessions titled “Philosophy and Conservative Vision of Education” and “How do we grow the movement,” among others. (snip-graphic on the page)

Walters also attended a reception dinner hosted by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

Roberts is a main co-author of the Heritage Foundation’s controversial ‘Project 2025’ plan.

Walters recently named Roberts to an executive review committee he tasked with rewriting Oklahoma’s social studies curriculum standards.  

The records obtained by News 4 show, in total, Walters billed the State of Oklahoma $1,160 for airfare, mileage, per diem, taxi and “miscellaneous” expenses. The records indicate he did not seek to be reimbursed for lodging expenses on the trip.

https://kfor.com/news/records-walters-advisors-continue-billing-taxpayers-thousands-for-travel-to-partisan-events-retreats-media-appearances/

Some positive trans posts debunking the hate lies of the anti-trans, I post some of Ethel’s videos. If you are interested in the truth about trans people, trans rights, trans people in sports then please follow her channel.


Hi, welcome to Essence of Thought with me, Ethel Thurston, as your host.

Today’s video explores the Cold War’s impact on the West, namely how the Red Scare laid down the groundwork for the modern anti-trans panic in sports. From the media’s open misogyny to literally cartoonish fearmongering, there’s a lot to unpack.

@EssenceOfThought7 hours ago Today’s video explores the Cold War’s impact on the West, namely how the Red Scare laid down the groundwork for the modern anti-trans panic in sports. From the media’s open misogyny to literally cartoonish fearmongering, there’s a lot to unpack.

What the Don, et al. are doing with the “Black Jobs”, from The Root magazine

Trump Always Had a Plan To Eliminate ‘Black Jobs’ and Here it Is…

While boasting about Black employment, Trump is targeting ‘good government jobs’ in doomsday plan.

By Joy Rice Published 17 hours ago

While Trump boasts about his administration’s success in creating “Black jobs,” he and his inner circle are actually fine-tuning plans to eliminate them as part of his desire to dismantle the federal government.

That means tens of thousands of so-called “good government jobs” with benefits would be shipped out of the Chocolate City or gone nationwide, with Republican appointees replacing Black civil servants. This is not only alarming, but also indicates Trump’s deep disregard for the very communities he claims to support.

At the recent presidential debate, Trump claimed that migrants were responsible for “taking Black jobs,” perpetuating xenophobic sentiments.

“They’re taking Black jobs now,” he said. “They’re taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.”

What’s worse? Trump didn’t say. He also didn’t explain what a “Black job” means to him.

Trump continues to assert that his policies led to record-low unemployment rates among Black workers. Black unemployment did drop to 5.3% in August 2019 during his presidency, but he always fails to mention that it fell to a record low of 4.8% in April 2023 under President Biden, according to a Federal Reserve Bank analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But his campaign speeches and website reveal a starkly different agenda. And no matter how much he tries to deny it, they mirror the Project 2025 playbook written by members of his team and released by the Heritage Foundation. Trump’s plan is to drastically gut the government and federal workforce, a sector where Black Americans are significantly represented. This move threatens the stability and economic security of Black families who rely on these positions.

In addition to reclassifying 50,000 jobs, Trump says in a campaign video that “as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out, and I mean immediately out of Washington, to places filled with patriots who love America.”

This contradictory approach not only undermines Trump’s previous claims, but also raises questions about his inconsistent attempts to galvanize the Black community, which often involves harmful rhetoric and superficial gestures.

Whether making baseless statements alleging immigrants are taking “Black jobs” or enlisting rappers and entertainment figures like Amber Rose to endorse his campaign, his approach to Black voters has been disingenuous and predicated on a narrow and stereotypical view of Black culture — not the real needs and contributions of the Black community.

Joy Rice is a junior in political science at Howard University.

https://www.theroot.com/trumps-real-plan-to-get-rid-of-black-jobs-1851600374

Things happened on this date in history:

July 19, 1848 
The first Women’s Rights Convention in the U.S. was held at Seneca Falls, New York. Its “Declaration of Sentiments” launched the movement of women to be included in the constitution.The Declaration used as a model the U.S. Declaration of Independence, demanding that the rights of women as individuals be acknowledged and respected by society. It was signed by sixty-eight women
and thirty-two men.
The impetus came from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, both of whom had been excluded, along with all the other female American delegates, from the World Anti-Slavery Convention (London, 1840) because of their sex.
Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist leader attended the convention and supported the resolution for women’s suffrage.When suffrage finally became a reality in 1920, seventy-two years after this first organized demand in 1848, only one signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration, Charlotte Woodward, then a young worker in a glove manufactory, had lived long enough to cast her first ballot.The Seneca Falls Convention and the Early Suffrage Movement https://www.gilderlehrman.org/ap-us-history/period-4?modal=/history-resources/essays/seneca-falls-convention-setting-national-stage-womens-suffrage

July 19, 1958
Several black teenagers, members of the local NAACP chapter (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), entered downtown Wichita’s Dockum Drug Store (then the largest drugstore chain in Kansas) and sat down at the lunch counter.Wichita sit-in sculptureThe store refused to serve them because of their race. They returned at least twice a week for the next several weeks. They sat quietly all afternoon, creating no disturbance, but refused to leave without being served. Though the police once chased them away, they were breaking no law, only asking to make a purchase, a violation of store policy.This was the first instance of a sit-in to protest segregationist policies. Less than a month later, a white man around 40 walked in and looked
at those sitting in for several minutes. Then he looked at the store manager, and said, “Serve them. I’m losing too much money.”
That man was the owner of the Dockum drug store chain.
That day the lawyer for the local NAACP branch called the store’s state offices, and was toldby the chain’s vice president that “he had instructed all of his managers, clerks, etc. (statewide), to serve all people without regard to race, creed or color.”

July 19, 1974 
Martha Tranquill of Sacramento, California, was sentenced to nine months’ prison time for refusing to pay her federal taxes as a protest against the Vietnam War.

July 19, 1993
President Bill Clinton announced regulations to implement his “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays in the military, saying that the armed services should put an end to “witch hunts.” The policy was developed by General Colin Powell, then Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eventually summarized as “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, don’t harass.”

July 19, 2000
A federal administrative law judge ordered white supremacist Ryan Wilson to pay $1.1 million in damages to fair housing advocate Bonnie Jouhari and her daughter, Dani. The decision stemmed from threats made against Jouhari by Wilson and his Philadelphia neo-Nazi group, ALPA HQ.

Bonnie and Dani Jouhari

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjuly.htm#july191848

CNN fact checks the Republican National Convention

I know I make people click a lot more than Scottie does; he works hard to get so much good info so we can stay aware. I’m reading here, https://poodyheads.wordpress.com/2024/07/17/cnn-fact-checks-the-republican-convention/ , which leads to here, https://dianeravitch.net/2024/07/16/cnn-fact-checks-the-republican-convention/ , then went here https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/15/politics/fact-check-night-one-republican-national-convention to get the fact checking, which seems quite good, so skip to that (then go back to the others.) I say seems because I don’t watch their pageant, and I think I more avidly avoid it this year than I have since they quit broadcasting the actual convention activities on CSPAN. Anyway, go see! It helps us when we run across someone who might be watching in the belief they’re getting information as opposed to circus work (no offense intended to circuses. Except the ones that still use animals, I don’t mind insulting them.) Snippets:

*Sen. Blackburn claims Biden administration hired 85,000 new IRS agents

Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee claimed in her speech Monday that the Biden administration has hired 85,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents to “harass hardworking Americans.”

Facts First: This claim is false. 

The Inflation Reduction Act – which Congress passed in 2022 without any Republican votes – provided an about $80 billion, 10-year investment to the IRS. The agency plans to hire tens of thousands of IRS employees with that money – but only some will be IRS agents who conduct audits and investigations. Many people will be hired for non-agent roles, such as customer service representatives. And a significant number of the hires are expected to fill the vacant posts left by retirements and other attrition, not take newly created positions.

The 85,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury Department report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees – not solely enforcement agents – over the course of a decade with a nearly $80 billion investment.

From CNN’s Katie Lobosco 

*Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Transgender Day of Visibility

Greene said while attacking Democrats in her convention speech that “the establishment in Washington” held Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter this year.

“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday,” the Georgia Republican said.

Facts first: This claim needs context. Transgender Day of Visibility has been held annually on March 31 since it was started in 2009 as a day of awareness to celebrate the successes of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring and can change year to year. The holiday happened to fall on March 31 in 2024.

Responding to Republicans criticizing President Joe Biden, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in an April 1 briefing said she was “surprised by the misinformation” surrounding Easter and Transgender Day of Visibility falling on the same day.

“Every year, for the past several years, on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility is marked. And as we know — for folks who understand the calendar and how it works, Easter falls on different Sundays every year. And this year, it happened to coincide with Transgender Visibility Day.  And so, that is the simple fact,” she said.

From CNN’s Jack Forrest 

*Republican chair falsely claims Middle East was ‘at peace’ four years ago

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in his speech on Monday: “Four years ago, Europe and the Middle East were at peace.”

Facts First: Whatley’s claim is false. Whatever the merits of the Abraham Accords that Trump’s administration helped to negotiate, in which Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates agreed in 2020 to normalize relations with Israel (Morocco and Sudan followed), there was still lots of unresolved armed conflict around the Middle East four years ago in mid-2020 and when Trump left office in early 2021.

The list notably included the civil war in Yemen; the civil war in Syria; and the conflicts between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, between Israel and Hezbollah on its border with Lebanon, between Israel and Syria, and what former State Department official Aaron David Millercalled “the war between the wars between Israel and Iran on air, land and sea.” Also, the US, its allies and civilians continued to be attacked in an unstable Iraq.

“It’s a highly inaccurate statement,” Miller, who worked on Mideast peace negotiations while in government and is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said last fall, when Trump himself made a similar claim about having achieved peace in the Middle East.

Dana El Kurd, senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC think tank, also called that claim “false” when Trump made it. She said in a November email: “The Abraham Accords did not achieve peace in the Middle East. In fact, violence escalated in Israel-Palestine in the aftermath of the Accords (using any metric you can think of – death tolls, settlement violence, etc).”

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

*RNC video attacks Biden with two-year-old gas price figure

The Republican National Convention featured a video attacking Biden over the price of gas. But the video misleadingly deployed out-of-date figures as if they were current.

A narrator claimed: “When President Trump left office, gas cost only $2.20. Under Biden and Harris, gas skyrocketed to the highest price in history, over five bucks a gallon.” Later in the video, a young man said, “Within my first year of driving, I’m having to deal with an average of $5.03 across the nation,” and a woman said, “It’s impossible to pay $5.03. We need to care about our people better than that.”

Facts First: These claims about Biden-era gas prices are two years out of date. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was about $3.52 on Monday, according to the AAA. The national average did, under Biden, hit a record high of more than $5 per gallon – about $5.02, according to AAA data – but that happened in June 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a global spike in oil prices. The RNC videos offered no indication that the national average has since fallen substantially.

Also, the national average on the day Trump left office in January 2021 was about $2.39 per gallon, not $2.20, though it was lower than $2.20 in some states.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

(More on the page)

Jess Piper on current events

My heart wanted to fail back when now-AG Kobach was our Secretary of State. It was not at all boring! It seems that MO could be in for similar adventures. It’s vital to pay attention to all the races on the ballot. Everyone’s got their reasons for running, and it helps everyone when we know about those reasons. In addition, Jess has important words about gun violence.

On Political Intimidation

When the gun nuts run for office…

JESS PIPER

JUL 16, 2024

Let’s talk about a kind of boring state position…the Secretary of State.

Yawn, right?

Wrong. The race for this position should be as interesting as it sounds…a calm race to fill an important position. But it’s not. Not in Missouri and not in other GOP-dominated states.

What are the duties of a Secretary of State, and why should we pay attention?

The Secretary of State is the chief elections official in Missouri, bearing responsibility for the administration of statewide elections involving both issues and individuals, and oversees local verification of petition signatures for initiative petitions. The Secretary of State’s Commissions section authenticates official acts of the governor, and has the authority to appoint and commission notaries public.

That’s a very important position. It seems like the person in charge of the elections for the entire state should be serious and not bend toward extremism.

Let me introduce you to a few candidates for Missouri Secretary of State, but let me first remind you of Missouri politics and gun culture. From the Kansas City Star:

“Even when gun policy isn’t mentioned explicitly, the presence of firearms in political messaging has come to act as a kind of visual shorthand that can quickly signal pro-gun attitudes without a word.”

First up, Adam J. Schwadron of St. Charles. Here is his recent mailer to Missouri voters:

Adam Schwadron, Missouri Secretary of State candidate. Photo, political mailer.

Adam looks as if he has a lot of big feelings as evidenced in the stickers and paint on his AR, but the point of the matter? Why did he send this mailer out to Missouri voters? What message is he creating by holding an AR while seeking the position of Secretary of State? What is an AR meant to convey about voting systems and fair elections and constituent petitions?

What would it feel like as a constituent to deliver a petition to a man you know feels comfortable enough to take and send pictures shooting an AR?

Adam looks absolutely menacing holding the AR. I can’t help but feel that this is meant to convey intimidation. It can be scary to receive a mailer from a current Missouri lawmaker, running for higher office, pointing a high-powered gun at an unknown target. I’m not sure why his campaign thought this imagery appropriate?

Yes, I do…because others are doing it.

Meet Senator Denny Hoskins, who is also running for Missouri Secretary of State as a Republican. Denny has a long history of gun fanaticism.

From April 2024:

The Missouri Senate is considering an anti-red flag law proposal. The bill would prevent guns from being taken away from anyone because of a court order or protection order. Senator Denny Hoskins introduced the bill and called it the Anti-Red Flag Gun Seizure Act.

Denny has opposed efforts to reduce gun violence through legislation like red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to temporarily take the weapons of people who a court has decided are at risk of harming themselves or others. It’s no surprise that he would included guns in his campaign for the Secretary of State, but it is no less grotesque.

Senator Denny Hoskins is not in the photo above, but he was more than happy to post the picture on his Facebook feed. The woman standing next to Hoskins’s sign is holding a rifle with a silencer and scope.

A few days later, on July 15, just two days after the shooting at the Pennsylvania Trump rally, Sen Denny Hoskins posted the photo below. In the photo, Denny is holding an AR. The Pennsylvania shooter used an AR to kill one person and wound others, including the former President.

Denny Hoskins, Missouri Secretary of State candidate. Photo: Screenshot, Facebook

I thought the Republicans were calling for the temperature to be turned down after the rally tragedy?

I have saved the best for last…well, the worst. The very worst. Meet Valentina Gomez. In a statement, Gomez said she would deploy the National Guard to oversee Missouri voting.

Valentina Gomez, Missouri Secretary of State candidate. Photo: Screenshot X

Gomez has filed for the SOS position, but I don’t think she has any plans to actually try to win the position. I haven’t quite been able to figure out what she’s up to, but she is using hyperbole and extremism along with assault-style guns to make her points. She seems unhinged in most of her statements…many of these statements also have nothing to do with the office she is running for. She loves rage-baiting.

She has used a homemade flamethrower to burn books stating, “When I’m Secretary of State, I will burn all the books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children. MAGA. America First.”

Gomez also uploaded a strange video in which she is running through the suburbs with a vest with a flag decal that gives the impression that she is current military or a veteran — she is neither. She states, “In America, you can be anything you want,” and continues with, “So don’t be weak and gay,” “Stay f-cking hard.”

The video has since been removed, but another is still up on Twitter. It was posted just hours before the July 13 Trump rally shooting. You can find it here. In the video, Gomez references JK Rowling and offers to take her to a shooting range before firing off several rounds at an unknown target.

But why? Why would three separate candidates for Missouri Secretary of State send out such violent messages to the voters in my state?

Fearmongering. To stir up hate and discontent. To represent authoritarianism. To showcase an illiberal democracy.

These candidates are following the gun lobby’s playbook — they are leveraging the demagogue’s playbook. They are attempting to manipulate voters, or in the very least, intimidate voters.

We can counter this gun extremism by not voting for the folks who push it on us. We can stand against gun violence and demand better gun legislation. We can elect lawmakers who will pass common sense gun laws that will protect constituents.

A little of that common sense would go pretty far in Missouri. Especially in the race for Secretary of State.

Gun nuts need not apply.

~Jess

https://open.substack.com/pub/jesspiper/p/on-political-intimidation?r=1pk2l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Mary L. Trump’s The Good In Us

The Most Anti-Woman Ticket in History

Donald and J.D. Vance are coming for women’s rights

MARY L TRUMP

JUL 17, 2024

Donald was never going to pick a woman to be his running mate. He has far too much contempt for us. 

In Vance, he’s found someone who hates women as much as he does; someone who wants to control them as much as he does. If the Trump/Vance ticket wins this election, it will be the beginning of the end of women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

Our corporate media don’t seem to care, but I’m fairly certain American women haven’t forgotten that, with the help of Mitch McConnel and Leonard Leo, my uncle rigged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, overturning over 50 years of precedent and stripping away a basic human right from half of the population. Maybe they think we’re as fixated on President Biden’s age as they are, but we don’t have the luxury of forgetting. While the press might want to gloss over or downplay Vance’s backwards views on women, I can promise you that American women do not. 

Vance’s website has a whole section entitled “End Abortion.” When asked if he believes whether or not there should be exceptions for rape or incest, he said, “two wrongs don’t make a right” We know he thinks women in abusive marriages should stay with their abusers for “the sake of the children.” 

Just days after Roe was overturned, Vance tweeted: “If your worldview tells you that it’s bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you’ve been had.”

And then there’s what he told fellow misogynist Tucker Carlson: “We are effectively run in this country… by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made. And they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

American women will know misery if by some great tragedy Donald and Vance get into the White House because those two will make The Handmaid’s Tale our reality. 

If you think I’m exaggerating, just look at Vance’s record. As NBC reported this week: “Like most Republicans, Vance has consistently voted against Democratic-led legislation to codify abortion rights, restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, establish federal rights to access contraception and create protections for in vitro fertilization.”

Last year, after Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights, Vance called the people’s decision a “gut punch.” 

“There is something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that it is liberating to murder their own children,” Vance said after the vote. “So, let’s keep fighting for our country’s children, and let’s find a way to win.”

Vance found his way to a win by sucking up to a man who demands total obedience, humiliation, and subjugation—especially from those, like Vance, who had spoken out against him in the past.

We need to recognize that the white men who see women as breeding stock have created a strong alliance. This week we learned that Elon Musk—who, along with fellow tech billionaire and all-around vile human being Peter Thiel, pushed hard for Vance to be the pick—is donating $45 million a month to Donald’s super PAC.

On Tuesday morning, we learned from a video accidentally leaked by Robert Kennedy’s son, that my uncle is colluding with the independent candidate to win the election.

These are scary times, but it’s good to know where everyone stands. I stand with the women of America. So do Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

We know where Donald and Vance stand. And we need to make sure neither of them gets anywhere near the Oval Office. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/marytrump/p/the-most-anti-woman-ticket-in-history?r=1pk2l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

$1.4M For DeSantis’s Migrant Flights “Unaccounted For” – JMG

$1.4M For DeSantis’s Migrant Flights “Unaccounted For”

Did we just catch him with a state funds kick back?   We know he is dirty and willing to do what ever he has to win the big prize, but is the crimes going to be this easy to catch?   Next is to try to hold him accountable, as he has set up a kingdom here in Florida that he can order to block and defend him.    Hugs

The Miami Herald reports:

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has so far paid more than $1.5 million to a politically connected contractor for a program to fly migrants from Texas to northeastern states — but the private jets chartered by the contractor cost only a fraction of that sum.

Newly released public records show the contractor, Destin, Florida-based Vertol Systems Company, was quoted a price of roughly $153,000 for two charter plane trips from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. That leaves about $1.4 million in Florida taxpayer funds unaccounted for.

Vertol has connections at the top of the DeSantis administration. The high-ranking DeSantis official who supervised the migrant flight program, public-safety czar Larry Keefe, handled Vertol’s legal work for years. He also served as President Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

Read the full article.

Glenn • 6 minutes ago

Somebody had pay to get the FOX camera crew there to record the migrants’ arrival. Also, I think there was a videographer on board not to mention the mysterious coyote (recruiter) who seems to have disappeared.

jeffg166 • 14 minutes ago

Check Ron’s cookie jar.

Friday • 18 minutes ago

I can dream DeSantis gets busted and thrown in prison right after the right-wing donors get done shoving aside and destroying Trump. 🙂

Davið • 25 minutes ago

Can you say “Secret Illegal Offshore Bank Account”?

rednekokie • 27 minutes ago

Just another example of politicians sucking the government cow. It happens daily, folks.

cfa • an hour ago

They also had to pay a few hundred dollars to the “travel agents” who recruited the passengers for the flights.

So it’s really only $1,399,500 that’s missing.

UiscePreston Mark • 3 hours ago

Since sales tax is 80% of Floridumb’s revenue stream, it does rely on a huge tourist trade to make up for a lack of state income tax. So it’s not just the idiotic voters.

Karl Dubhe IV • 4 hours ago

Kickbacks? Maybe Ron can join Don in prison? If the DOJ gets off of their asses.

John T • 3 hours ago

No big deal, he’ll just write an executive order to criminalize woke journalists who ask questions about how Florida government spends money. Florida voters will love his display of dominance.

Eliot • 3 hours ago

I’ll bet his well-documented history of corruption had NOTHING to do with his election “victory.”

clay • 3 hours ago

A Christian Adoption Service! A Biblical Theme Park! A Children’s Cancer Charity!

check their pockets.

Jenna Hope ❤(●’◡’●) 2022 • 3 hours ago • edited

But he has Christian values$$$, case dismissed ! Christians ALL vote for him for his Christian decency (culture!) and Christians ARE VERY FORGIVING!

DJ Fifth-and-a-Half Element • 3 hours ago • edited

DeSantis will have anybody who comes after him detained/arrested/disappeared faster than you can say Rebekah Jones.

American Christians busted pushing conversion therapy in Costa Rica by undercover reporters

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/11/therapists-affiliated-u-s-hate-groups-telling-lgbtq-people-costa-rica-gay-wrong/

A conversion therapist told one undercover reporter that his parents watched porn before he was born, which made him gay.
 
By      
A child on the floor, crying
Photo: Shutterstock

Therapists linked to two U.S. organizations are telling LGBTQ people in Costa Rica that homosexuality is wrong and that only a “sadistic god” would create a gay person, according to a report from Open Democracy.

A second report also found that the same conservative Christian groups are also undermining U.S. laws, pushing conversion therapy in municipalities that have outlawed the practice. The undercover investigation found two conversion therapy counsellors operating in states where the practice is prohibited. One advised a reporter posing as a 17-year-old lesbian to “suppress” her orientation, including by starving herself.

 

Therapists connected to Focus on the Family and the Exodus Global Alliance made the comments while ‘treating’ or offering to ‘treat’ undercover reporters posing as gay or lesbian people.

Focus on the Family was founded in 1977 by conservative psychologist James Dobson. Dobson, who Mike Pence considers his role model, is known for his extreme views, including his push for corporal punishment that has now been found to have traumatizing effects for children. Dobson also once said that the shooting at Sandy Hook happened because of gay marriage, and in the same vein published a newsletter with a letter that said fathers should take their sons into bathrooms to show them that they have the same private parts.

Exodus Global Alliance is the global wing of the disbanded and controversial ex-gay group Exodus International. James Dobson also founded the Family Research Council, a group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Conversion therapy is considered “ineffective” and “harmful” by the Pan-American Health Organization and has been condemned by Costa Rica’s official associations of psychologists and psychiatrists. The Netflix documentary, Pray Away, offers an in-depth analysis of the ex-gay movement, with testimonials from former members of Exodus International explaining the sinister machinations behind the anti-LGBTQ group.

One of the reporters for the exposé posed as a married woman who had become involved in an extra-marital lesbian relationship. She contacted Enfoque a la Familia – the Costa Rican arm of Focus on the Family – via its website, where she was able to book and pay in dollars for an online therapy session with a psychologist listed on the site.​​

Another reporter posed as a young gay man. He went to Exodus Latinoamérica, Exodus Global Alliance’s group.

Both therapists the reporters contacted were certified by the Costa Rica’s Psychology Association, CPPCR, despite the organization calling for a ban on conversion therapy.

The woman’s therapist said the word “guilt” ten times and told the reporter that homosexuality was wrong. The practitioner also went on to say that homosexuality is the imperfect “lifestyle” that is learned or developed.

“God created man and woman[…] our perfect match, and he’s perfect and marvelous. This [homosexuality] is learned, is something developed on the road,” she said.

The practitioner then asked if she would like to cast out her desire for women.

At Exodus, the male reporter’s psychologist said that homosexuality is a sin.

“I serve God first. I’m not treating homosexuality as common people do[…] God says this is a sin, so we treat it as a sin.” She also said that “nobody is born homosexual, because only a sadistic God would forbid this sin in the Bible and, at the same time, create you like that.”

Another reporter went undercover to an Evangelical church in the nation’s capital San José for counselling on how to handle his “unwanted homosexuality.” He experienced a 90-minute session full of misleading and derogatory claims from a pastor.

She claimed that most gay people are drug users, compared gay sex to defecation, and said that porn, sexual abuse, and parental sin are reasons for being gay. The pastor also claimed that the reporter was probably born after his parents watched porn, thereby making him “born tainted.”

The pastor defended her claims about the links between homosexuality and drug use, pornography, sexual abuse, parental sins, and masturbation, which, she said, are “conclusions” drawn from her “40 years of experience as a Christian spiritual counsellor” and from biblical verses that she quoted for each of the claims in her reply.

Costa Rica is looking to ban conversion therapy in 2022 with a bill, but LGBTQ rights advocates acknowledge that even if it passes, religious groups like Exodus and Focus on the Family will find a loophole around the ban. Most conversion therapy practitioners are not licensed medical professionals.

Shi Alarcón, a sociologist and sexual diversity activist for an LGBTQ youth support group in Costa Rica known as Casa Rara, says she has seen these conversion therapy camps expanding across Costa Rica. Teenagers are being subjected to the traumatic torture at alarming rates, she said.

“If I listen to ten teenagers per month, eight tell me they were taken to or were offered [conversion sessions at churches] or were told by their mothers: ‘We’re going to do this,’” Alacarón said.

Alacarón supports a conversion therapy ban, but she says that we need to advocate for broader scopes on banning conversion therapy in all places, including churches.

“We need to widen the scope of hate crimes to include ‘conversion therapy’ – and stop calling it ‘therapy,’” she said. “We need to stop relinquishing the words that we use to feel fine – ‘family,’ ‘therapy,’ ‘health’ – to conservative groups.”

Costa Rica’s bill is poised to face strong opposition from anti-LGBTQ organizations like Focus on the Family and Exodus International—through branches that are shown to be under the control of its U.S. affiliates. Both groups still operate in U.S. states where conversion therapy is currently banned.