Know the Facts and ...

Here’s your weekly reminder to vote, and to vote smart …

The Pennsylvania House passed a bill to allow child sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers. Eighty Republicans voted against that.

Don’t forget.

 

Last week GOP Representative Thomas Massie did something Congress has avoided doing when he stood on the House floor and publicly named 14 people he says should be investigated and prosecuted as Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirators:

Jes Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, David Copperfield, Lapo Elkann, Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Frédéric Fekkai, Edoardo Teodorani, Jean-Luc Brunel, Daniel Siad, Ramsey Elkholy, Prince Andrew, and Lesley Groff

Massie took those names to the floor of Congress, put them into the public record, and is still pushing.

Massie is backing the Epstein Files Transparency Act II, which would give victims, state attorneys general and members of Congress legal standing to challenge the Justice Department in court over withheld or improperly redacted records. It would also give state and local prosecutors access to unredacted files when they are investigating possible violations of state law. Massie says the DOJ is still withholding more than 3 million Epstein-related files and he’s trying to open another legal path to get at them.

This is what congressional oversight is supposed to look like. Whatever you may think about Massie, he deserves credit for refusing to let this disappear.

But then … Speaker of the Huse, Republican Little Mike’s Johnson has canceled final two weeks of September sessions and plans to stop voting on anything after September 14, leaving DC until after the Midterms in November.

And all because Thomas Massie’s bipartisan push to force action on the unreleased Epstein files is gaining signatures.

Johnson and his GOP band of pedophiles and pedophile protectors were elected to govern, not run from accountability or work to only protect the Rapist In Chief.

Vote Blue.

 

The Republican Governor of Wyoming has asked the State Attorney General to look into the conduct of the Regime’s Department of Justice’s election observers deployed to the state for the recent primary election.

This is the Resistance.

 

While a group pf MAGAts were protesting in Portland recently, about 23 of them parked their cars at a local Fred Meyer’s store parking lot. They unloaded guns and body armor and batons from the January Sixth Collection™ and then carpooled to downtown Portland. To incite racist violence.

Fred Meyers had every single car towed at $1,000 a pop.

That’s the Resistance.

 

United Healthcare Group posted $6.25 billion in profits in the last quarter while also denying 32% of all prior authorization claims.

The made billions while denying one of every three medical requests.

People paid their premiums and United Healthcare Group denied their claims and kept their money.

This is American healthcare and it’s time it stopped.

 

NBC News has reported that Social Security benefits will be cut for tens of millions of retirees in late 2032 unless Congress takes action.

But if Bernie Sander’s Social Security bill is signed into law, Social Security would be solvent for another 75 years, benefits would go up by $2400, 91% of Americans would not pay a penny more in taxes and the wealthy would finally pay their fair share by scrapping the cap on all taxable income.

Vote Blue for change.

 

Cankles has literally done nothing his entire second term except rename things for no reason, enrich himself and his fellow pedophiles and rapists, get us into a war he’s too stupid to get us out of, and spend our money on tributes to himself.

That’s all.

 

Remember the Big Beautiful Bill now known as the Big Beautiful Delay since it doesn’t take effect until after the 2026 Midterms so as not to hurt Republicans who supported before the election? Here are some of the cuts coming after November …

Medicaid work rules.

Flood aid restrictions.

Clean energy credits end.

Student loan changes.

Affordable housing cuts.

Rural hospital funding declines.

The GOP hopes you forget these cuts and vote for them in November.

Spread the word.

Vote Blue for Change.

 

Major John "Alex" Klinner was from Trussville, Alabama. He joined the Air Force through ROTC and flew tankers for eight years, four deployments, 362 combat hours. On March 12 his KC-135 went down in western Iraq and Klinner and five other airmen died. He left his wife, Libby, and three children under three; Alabama lowered its flags; thirteen thousand strangers sent his family more than a million dollars.

On March 18, Cankles and DUI Hire Pete Hegseth stood on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base as Alex Klinner came home. Pete Hegseth stood there. They knew his name in March. But last weekend, Libby Klinner posted this:

"The Air Force recently told me that because we haven't officially declared war, my kids and I aren't eligible for some benefits. So not only was my husband killed in a war he never wanted to participate in, but now the benefits we're left with are being dictated by semantics and public perceptions. Six months of a war that we can't call a war."

Her husband died under hostile fire in a combat zone but the paperwork won't use the word ‘war’ and this week the Vice President proved Libby right when he said:

"I wouldn't call it a war."

The same week, the Commerce Secretary said there had been no American deaths in it at all even though eighteen Americans are dead. Six of them died on Alex Klinner's plane.

On Thursday, CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Vance at the White House whether he and the President would personally ensure the Klinner family gets every benefit it is owed and he didn’t even know her name:

"Obviously, our hearts break for every single person who has lost their lives in this operation. We want to be as helpful as we can and make sure she gets everything she is entitled to."

Her name is Libby Klinner. Her husband's name is Alex. The only word this administration won't say is war.

 

People are tired of the politics …

Tired of whether or not a child gets lunch being political.

Tired of whether or not a person gets medicine being political.

Tired of whether or not a family gets to stay housed being political.

Tired of whether or not clean water is worth protecting being political.

It all feels political because this Regime has turned basic human decency, basic human needs, into  something you have to vote for.

Make it stop.

Spread the word for the Midterms that the Regime has already slowed down the United States Postal Service to rig the election so here’s what you need to do:

Vote early and in person.

Mail your ballots at least two weeks before election day.

Use drop boxes to get your ballot in.

And if you live in a rural area where polling places have been closed, offer to drive your friends and neighbors to the polls.

We all must stand together.

 

And lastly … Labor Day is a perfect time to remember that Congress hasn't raised the federal minimum wage in 17 years.

That’s all, except …

The Funny Papers

Jack Ohman, David Horsey, Bill Bramhall, MacLeod Cartoons, John Darkow, Christopher Weyant, Ann  Telnaes, Tim Campbell, Ted Littleford, Nick Anderson, Rick McKee, Mike Luckovich, Matt Wuerker, Dave Whamond, Michael de Adder, Adam Zyglis,

The Bad and The Good ... Monday May 23, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile because there are dumb people everywhere and it seems they are all trying to out-dumb one another with fear and loathing, but there are some bright spots … so here goes:

BAD

MICHIGAN

Republican Jacky Eubanks, Thing 45’s pick for a state Senate seat. is promising to ban all birth control if elected:

“I guess we have to ask ourselves, would that ever come to a vote in the Michigan state legislature? And if it should, I would have to side with it should not be legal. People believe that birth control—it’s better because then you won’t get pregnant and you won’t need to have an abortion, but I think it gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that’s not true and that’s not correct. Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.”

Welcome to the 1950s and, please, one reporter, just one, please ask Jacky if she’s ever had sex outside marriage.

WASHINGTON DC

Catherine Glenn Foster, president of the Americans United for Life campaign group, was summoned by the GOP  as an expert witness during a House judiciary committee meeting on access to abortion and said this:

“In places like Washington D.C. [fetuses] are burned to power the lights of the city’s homes and streets. The next time you turn on the light, think of the incinerators.”

She was not questioned about where she gets her facts by any one ion the GOP because … ignorance and fear are the talking points.

VIRGINIA 

GOP Delegate Tim Anderson is threatening to file a restraining order against Barnes and Noble and Virginia Beach Schools to enjoin them from selling or loaning the books Gender Queer and a Court of Mist and Fury because he says they are obscene though neither book fits that definition, and neither book is pornography.

Barnes & Noble has yet to respond to the legal action but, as a private business, they are allowed to sell what they wish to sell and are under no obligation by anyone to move materials out of their facilities.

Still, to the GOP, Gay is Bad.

OKLAHOMA

The state Legislature gave final approval to a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions starting at fertilization, which would make it the nation’s strictest abortion law.

The bill is modeled on one that took effect in Texas, which has relied on civilian instead of criminal enforcement to work around court challenges, but it goes further than the Texas law because it also subjects abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion to civil suits from private individuals.

The GOP will force women to have babies, but not give a damn about the child once its born.

KENTUCKY

The state’s GOP Representative Thomas Massie cast the only vote against a House resolution honoring Jewish Americans’ heritage and denouncing a rise in violence motivated by antisemitism. The resolution passed the House with 420 votes with Massie’s ‘No’ and either Republicans abstaining from voting.

He voted No to simply denounce a rise in Hate Crimes, and ‘No’ against honoring Jewish American’s heritage.

Let that sink in.

NEW JERSEY

GOP State Senator Edward Durr has introduced legislation that would prohibit teachers from bringing LGBTQ-related instruction into classrooms from kindergarten through sixth grade, while students in seventh through 12th grade can “only” be exposed to LGBTQ topics if a parent gives consent.

If the bill is passed, parents would be allowed to sue schools that employ educators who violate the law by incorporating topics such sexual orientation or gender identity into the curriculum without a parent’s consent.

They will freely teach Hate, though.

GOOD

MAINE

When no adults would revive the community Pride parade in Belfast, Maine, a group of motivated Belfast Area High School students stepped up to make sure that the event—which has been on a pandemic hiatus—happens this year.

The city’s first-ever Pride parade and festival took place in 2016, and became an annual tradition, but no adult organizers had come forward this year to keep the tradition going after being canceled for the last two years due to COVID.

So, twenty high school students secured a permit from the city of Belfast, found sponsors, raised money for banners, flags and other expenses and grappled with the procuring of liability insurance.

That’s the future, y’all.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

GOP Governor Chris Sununu announced he would veto a piece of legislation, the “Parental Bill of Rights,” that critics say could require New Hampshire schools to out LGBTQ+ children to their parents.

A Republican with common sense? Who knew?

AMERICA

About two-thirds of Americans say they do not support overturning Roe v. Wade, and also shows that two-thirds of Democrats say the contents of the SCOTUS leak make them more likely to vote in November, as compared to just 40% of Republicans who said so.

This survey showed that voters would cast their ballot in favor of a Democrat in their local congressional district if the election were held today.

Vote Blue!

WYOMING

GOP Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican representing Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, speaking at commencements of several schools, including the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, and said that “the existence of two sexes, male and female” was a “fundamental scientific truth.”

She was roundly booed by the students, the educated students.

That is also the future, y’all.

Remember, We The People have to make the Good News happen by speaking up and standing up and shouting out and voting to remove those people from office who are out to harm women, People of Color, and the LGBTQ+ community in their quest to take this country backwards.

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

The GOP Is Desperate For A Win So ... Cheat

Isn’t it funny how the GOP keeps talking about how they are not trying to make voting harder for people, and then they come right out and doe exactly that?

For months, the GOP, under the leadership of the traitorous racist rapist, Thing 45, has been putting new restrictions in place making it harder for people of color to vote, and now they are trying to make it harder for another color to cast a ballot: the Blues.

Thing 45 has endorsed a legislative effort to end crossover voting in Wyoming. The bill would end same-day party affiliation change in Wyoming to prevent Democrats from voting in Republican primaries because the GOP fears that Democrats will turn out en masse to vote for Liz Cheney.

Yes. If successful, the bill would become effective almost immediately, in time for the 2022 primary and general elections, when Liz Cheney is up for reelection against the Thing 45-endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman.

The GOP meddling in elections is how they try to win, not by running a fair campaign and letting the people of Wyoming choose. But I guess their anti-choice stance goes for the ballot box, too.

Casper Star Tribune

Architecture Wednesday: Moosebluff House

I’ll keep it simple …

I like the name.

I like, er, love, the views.

I love the modernity mixed with the rustic woods and the industrial steel.

I love that bathtub view.

I love all the fireplaces, inside and out.

I live for that kitchen.

That’s all.

OneKindDesign

Architecture Wednesday: Queens Lane

It’s cold here in Smallville and we’re nearing those wintry holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I need snow … and wine … and this place, with the perfect name, Queens Lane—fir for a queen—fills the bill.

Located along the Snake River just north of Jackson, Wyoming, this massive home, and outbuildings, is surrounded by mature cottonwoods, a pond, and several streams. The architects were inspired by the early twentieth century National Parks lodge architecture so large timbers, logs and stones make up the exterior.

In addition to the main house, there are two outbuildings—a shop/office and a wine silo … more on that later—that have a more traditional western log structure.

I love the rustic lodge feel of the home, and the I-don’t-know-how-many fireplaces throughout; and the views to the snowy meadows beyond … and the quiet of snowfall. My one quibble is with the guest room and the animal head on the wall; luckily I won’t be sleeping there.

In fact, I’ll probably be passed out in the wine cellar silo. That’s right, silo.

Since the compound lies in the Snake River flood plain, a standard wine cellar would not do, and so the idea of a silo, filled not with grain, but The Grape, was used. The interior of the silo is inspired by a wine cask, with reclaimed fir woodwork and a spiral staircase that accesses hundreds … hundreds … of bottles of wine bottles. You climb the stairs and make your selection and then keep climbing to the third floor where you sit and sip and admire the view.

And perhaps, as I said, fall asleep, because after that much wine I ain’t walking down a three-story spiral staircase!

One Kind Design