A Month In and How's The GOP Doin' So Far?

Just like Missouri did last week, this week members of Florida House staff leadership, who are appointed by Republicans, have posted flyers throughout the Capitol showing what to wear; women are being asked to never show their shoulders when House members are present in the building.

Now, to be fair, the Florida Legislature—majority GOP—has had its fair share of sex scandals. In the past but are they suggesting women are to blame because of bare shoulders?

This may seem minor, but it’s another case on GOP men not taking responsibility for their actions and requiring other people to adjust to fix the problem.

Hey, GOP men of the Florida Legislature, stop bein’ so rape-y.

 

I find it funny the GOP calls themselves the Party of the Working Class when one of the first things the new Congress does is offer up tax breaks to the rich, but this explains everything.

Last week Republicans gathered in Florida to elect the chair of the RNC and the bitching and complaining began at once.

Oh, not about the chair, or the election, but at the cost of everything. Rooms at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach resort where the RNC met start $1,283 for Wednesday night—with a AAA discount—and $881 for Thursday; also included is a mandatory $55 a night resort fee. Parking your car is another $75, per day,

The GOP ran on high gas prices, inflation, and are now railing about the cost of eggs, but choose a luxury resort that most of their constituents could never afford to hold their little meeting.

Out of touch, much?

 

North Dakota has a new proposed bill which reads:

“A board of a school district, a public or private school, or a teacher in a public or private school may not adopt a policy establishing or providing a place, facility, school program, or accommodation that caters to a student’s perception of being any animal species other than human.”

Yes,. The furries are back and are in North Dakota, according to rightwingnuts in the state GOP.

One of the bill’s sponsors, loon and GOP Representative Lori VanWinkle said her state does indeed have students who don’t identify as human, but as “cats and dogs.”

In addition to going after bathroom litter boxes, the bill also bans accommodations for transgender students.

Like all the other GOP morons who  ranted about furries and litter boxes, VanWinkle has offered no proof, not a  photograph, not a witness statement, nothing, to prove her newest cause even exists.

 

Karma is a fun bitch, you know? I mean, it was just a couple of weeks back that former Vice President Michael Elizabeth Pence demanded, with a foot stomp and  a head snap, that a special counsel be appointed to look into President Biden‘s handling of classified documents, after a small number had been found in his former office and then at his home.

On the other hand Michael Elizabeth Pence has said nary a word about appointing a special counsel to investigate the classified documents found at his private residence.

Pence, who is expected to launch a 2024 presidential run, had taken to the right-wing media talk circuit, demanding “equal treatment” by the DOJ for President Biden, after AG Merrick Garland had appointed a special counsel in November to investigate Thing 45’s possibly criminal handling of classified documents.

What goes around, Mike? Amirite?

 

Fewer than one-third of Americans believe that House GOP leaders are prioritizing the country’s most critical issues.

Just 27% of Americans believe that GOP leaders in the House have had the right priorities, 73% say they haven’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.

Border? Fentanyl? Inflation? Guns?

Nope, Hunter Biden’s laptop.

But it’s not just Democrats and liberals who are annoyed; 42% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents disapprove of the GOP leadership.

Not a good look for the Party of Traitors.

Really? Really.

Sometimes things make you wonder what in the actual hell are some people thinking, and doing, and saying …

Out there in Washington, despite having disavowed White nationalism last spring when one of its adherents endorsed him, Republican Joe Kent, a US House candidate decided it would be smart to give an interview to a Nazi sympathizer and White nationalist in which he touted his support for far-right figures like Anti-Semite Marjorie Taylor Green and White Supremacist supporter Paul Gosar and praised MAGAt policies.

Okay, people in Washington's 3rd Congressional District, take him at his word: he supports Nazis, White Supremacists and Anti-Semites; is that who you want in your state Congress?

QAnon nutbag DeAnna Lorraine also spoke with a Christian nationalist—I call them Nationalist Christians because then you can call them what they really are: Nat C’s—Laura Witzke and said this:

“We understand that the deep state, they have weather manipulation technology. They have DARPA [Defense Advanced research Projects Agency]. They know how to manipulate and create big storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, climate change, etc. And these huge hurricanes always seem to target red states, red districts. And always at a convenient time, right before elections or in this case possibly because Ron DeSantis has been stepping out a line a lot and challenging, fighting the deep state.”

Yes, the Democrats and the deep state are so powerful that they can send hurricanes to Florida because they don’t like Ron DeSantis; except we all know DeSantis is fucking Florida all on his own.

In Congress twelve GOP senators, most of whom are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to justify the show of force that accompanied the arrest of Mark Houck.

Houck, president of The King’s Men, a Catholic ministry created to “unite and build up" men, has twice assaulted a man because he was a volunteer reproductive health care clinic escort.

Houck is said to be pro-life except when he is shoving women’s rights advocates to the ground, and the GOP doesn’t think he deserved to be arrested because it happened in front of his children.

Maybe he shouldn’t have assaulted anyone, eh?

In Colorado, the GOP candidate for governor, Heidi Ganahl, is trotting out the Furries Conspiracy again, saying students in Colorado schools are self-identifying as animals:

“Not many people know that we have furries in Colorado schools…kids identifying as cats. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado and schools are tolerating it. It’s insane.”

Except for the fact that one school district she called out, Jeffco Public Schools, released a statement:

“There is absolutely no truth to this claim. There are no litter boxes in our buildings and students are not allowed to come to school in costume. There are no furries or students identifying as such during the school day.”

But hey, if it gets you elected the GOP will try anything.

Down in Florida, GOP Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott sent a joint letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee chairs to secure funding “provide much needed assistance to Florida” in the wake of Hurricane Ian. Good, except that when the bill was voted on, Rick Scott voted 'No' and Little Marco didn't even show up to vote.

Meanwhile, in the House the vote to offer assistance was approved by a vote of 230 to 201, with Republicans overwhelmingly opposing the measure; and every single Florida Republican House member voted against it.

The GOP in Congress doesn’t even care about their own constituents in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.

And, then again in Florida, a second-grader was expelled from Victory Christian Academy, a Christian day school, because her parents refused to take a picture of her in a bathtub.

School officials at Victory Christian Academy told the girl’s parents that the picture was part of a homework assignment that included instructions to “send picture of you doing reading homework in bathtub,” and since they didn’t comply. the child would be subject to “an administration withdraw.”

Let that sink in, a Christian wants parents to take a photo of their child in a bathtub and send it to the school … for what? I mean, I keep reading about these pastors and ministers and reverends and priests molesting children and now this school wants bath time photos.

Who’s doing the grooming?

After news reports exposed the bathtub homework and fallout, Victory Christian removed the assignment from the school’s second grade curriculum.

Go figure.

They're Everywhere ... April 4, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile, because, literally, they're everywhere ... but that's what makes it so frightening.

WISCONSIN

Karen Mueller, a Chippewa Falls attorney who is a key player in a movement to take the impossible step of decertifying the 2020 election, is running for Attorney General on a platform of using the office to prosecute doctors who did not administer the anti-parasite drug ivermectin to dying COVID-19 patients.

That’s all. Except, please note, her name is Karen.

ARIZONA

Last week Doug Ducey, Arizona’s GOPQANON governor, signed a series of bills that will outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the US Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams.

He also signed a bill requiring voters to prove their citizenship to vote in a presidential election.

If you’re a woman, or you’re an LGBTQ+ ally, or you simply believe you have a right to live your own life, vote this motherfucker out of office.

TEXAS

GOP Congressman Pete Sessions appeared on a far-right podcast where he embraced the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.

The replacement theory is a conspiracy espoused by white nationalists who claim Democrats want to fundamentally transform American by “replacing” the white population through a combination of immigration and asymmetric birthrates.

Well, I’m not saying  the Democrats want to replace all white people, but I’d like to see almost every single white Republican replaced.

NEBRASKA

After a televised debate, GOP state Senator Bruce Bostelman cited a debunked rumor that schools are placing litter boxes in school:

“They meow and they bark and they interact with their teachers in this fashion. And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?”

Bostelman has since apologized for being an ill-informed fuckwit.

UTAH

The Utah GOP-controlled Legislature voted to override Governor Spencer Cox’s veto of a controversial bill that would bar transgender girls from participating in school sports matching their gender identities.

The House voted 56-18 in favor of the override, with all Democrats and two Republicans—Representatives Robert Spendlove and Mike Winder—voting against the anti-trans measure. The Senate voted 21-8 to override the veto, with all Democrats and two Republicans—Todd Weiller and Daniel Thatcher—voting against hate.

That means in the entire Utah statehouse, just four Republicans stand against hate.

FLORIDA

GOPQANON Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that would impose School Board term limit requirements statewide and also offer parents and others a mechanism to purge texts they don’t like from the classroom.

The bill will require school districts to list all library and instructional materials in use in an online database, with a multi-step review process before adoption, including a mandatory public hearing and a “reasonable” opportunity for public comment.

If only there was a mechanism in place for the people of Flori-duh to see that their governor is an out-of-control fearmongering, anti-LGBTQ+ racist and could remove him from office.

Oh yeah, CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

IDAHO

Idaho has become the first state to enact a law modeled after a Texas statute, banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and allowing the law to be enforced through civil lawsuits to avoid constitutional court challenges.

GOP Governor Brad Little signed law the measure that allows people who would have been family members to sue a doctor who performs an abortion after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo. :Little says he stands with “Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies.”

Little, however, has done little, to protect children once they’re out of the womb.

And this, for a change, we can end this post with something good …

US District Judge Mark Walker has struck down portions of a Florida election law, saying that the state’s GOP-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters.

Wait. What? Suppress Black voters?

The law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods, and those changes made it difficult for Black voters who, overall, have more socioeconomic disadvantages than white voters.

Get educated and save yourselves from The Stupids.

And CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

They're Everywhere ... Part Trois

 It's almost like shooting fish in a barrel, and so here we go again:

TEXAS

Jason Selvig from The Good Liars attended Thing 45’s recent rally and met the guy who may be the former president’s dumbest supporter. He’s a vaccine “villian”—according to his misspelled shirt—and has some crazy ideas on how to protect yourself during the pandemic caused by a virus that attacks the respiratory system … smoke cigarettes.

Selvig spoke to the unnamed man and asked about that shirt:

“Is that how you spell villain?”

“No. V-I-L-L-A-I-N. I grabbed the wrong graphic when I sent it to the T-shirt place to make a prototype,”

“But you still wore it today?”

“Yeah!”

The man went on to explain that he hadn’t been vaccinated because he has type O negative blood and he smokes cigarettes.

“There were studies that have come out of France—nicotine users tend to not be susceptible to things.”

“So nicotine users are not susceptible to things. Lung cancer might be one of the exceptions.”

“Well, I don’t smoke any of the name-brand stuff.”

Seriously.

NETHERLANDS

The city of Rotterdam will spend weeks dismantling the historic Koningshaven Bridge so that Jeff Bezos’ 417-foot-long, three-masted superyacht can reach the open seas this summer.

The ship was under construction in the Netherlands, but it is too tall to pass under the bridge so the bridge will come down.

Bezos and boatmaker Oceano asked Rotterdam officials to temporarily dismantle the bridge and pledged to reimburse the city for expenses.

Get ready for Amazon to charge you more so Bezos can show the world he has a huge boat and a tiny dick.

MICHIGAN

Garrett Soldano, a Michigan Republican candidate for governor, says rape victims who become pregnant shouldn’t get abortions because, he wants to promote a culture that inspires pregnant women to have their babies and lets them know “how heroic they are and how unbelievable that they are, that God put them in this moment. And they don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person that changes humanity.”

God decided they should be raped and have to carry their rapist's baby?

OKLAHOMA

A newly proposed bill in Oklahoma from State Senator Rob Standridge would punish any public-school teacher who promotes any position “in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students.”

Senate Bill 1470 was prefiled this week by Standridge, a MAGAt lunatic who filed a different bill last month to ban all books with sexual content, especially ones that affirm trans identities, from public school libraries.

Under this bill a discussion of evolution or birth control could trigger the punishments, which include a $10,000 fine or termination.

TEXAS

Furries are back, and this time they’re in Texas … a few weeks ago we talked of a school district in Michigan inundated with phone calls about the schools putting litter boxes in bathroom so children who identify as furries can use them.

This week in Texas, Michelle Evans—a member of Moms for Liberty and cofounder of Texans for Vaccine Choice—Tweeted:

“Cafeteria tables are being lowered in certain [Round Rock ISD] middle and high schools to allow ‘furries’ to more easily eat without utensils or their hands (ie, like a dog eats from a bowl).”

I guess anyone can run for office, even the crazies.

Get educated and save yourselves from The Stupids.