Ain't That America XXII

Another week down, and we’re watching our elected officials, mostly those on the so-called Right, holding parties while the government is shutdown, flying free on the taxpayers while the government is shut down, and basically acting like self-entitled brats while hundreds of thousands of people go without income and food and health benefits … but there are a few bright spots, so let’s go …

One month into the shutdown, where thousands of Americans are going without pay, where thousands are going without food, Cankles flew to Mar-Illegal where he threw a $3.4 million Great Gatsby themed Halloween party.

This is the 13^th time he’s flown to his Florida lair and used $60 million in YOUR tax dollars to do so. And when Cankles was asked about the 700,000 federal workers going without pay he blamed the Democrats.

The GOP controls the White House, the Senate, the House and SCOTUS but the Democrats are behind the shutdown.

Nancy Mace, the South Carolina GOP congresswoman  and transphobic loon threw a hissy fit against law enforcement at Charleston International Airport . Officers with the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department were tasked with meeting Mace at 6:30 AM to escort her from the curb to her flight and had been told that she would be arriving in a white BMW; at 6:35 they were told she was running late but they say they never saw the car arrive.

Shortly before 7 am, officers learned Mace was at the entrance for the Known Crewmember program—an access lane with a smaller checkpoint overseen by the TSA and intended for flight crew members. When officers located her, Mace began “loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us about the department … calling them ‘fucking incompetent,’ and ‘this is no way to treat a fucking US Representative’” and claimed they “would never treat Tim Scott like this.” The entire walk to gate B-8 she was cursing and complaining and often doing the same into her phone and continuing to do so until she finally boarded the aircraft.

After Mace’s flight took off, the report states, an American Airlines gate agent approached the officers And “stated he was in disbelief regarding her behavior. He implied that a US Representative should not be acting the way she was.” A TSA supervisor told the officers “he was very upset with how she acted at the checkpoint” and said Mace had “talked to several TSA agents the same way” and that they would be “submitting a report to his superiors about her unacceptable behavior.”

TSA agents are not currently being fully paid, due to the ongoing government shutdown and Nancy Mace, a self-entitled, bigoted, MAGAt fool treats them like they’re her servants.

Kash Patel gets caught red-handed "grifting off the American public" by abusing a $60 million FBI jet and taxpayer money for a wrestling date night with his much younger girlfriend.

According to FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin the public flight logs for Patel’s plane—identified as N708JH—show that it landed at Pennsylvania’s State College Airport on October 25th at 5:40 PM. That’s the same day that the 45-year-old Patel's 26-year-old “girlfriend” Alexis Wilkins performed as a country music singer at the Real American Freestyle pro-wrestling event at Penn State.

It would have been bad enough if Patel had used the plane  on the public dime to watch his girlfriend perform, but the logs also show that his jet left the Penn State airport at 8:03 PM and then landed in Nashville soon after … where Wilkins lives.

Again, in the middle of a shutdown, the GOP is treating government workers like peasants and living the high life.

The Cankles Regime is moving to undercut state-level efforts to wipe medical debt from Americans’ credit reports, just as millions across the country are facing massive healthcare premium increases stemming from congressional Republicans’ refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Punishing the people is the GOP way.

So much for begging for a Peace Prize … Israeli strikes killed at least 100 people across Gaza last week in what appeared to be the deadliest day since a cease-fire was agreed between Israel and Hamas three weeks ago.

Color me confused, but doesn’t “cease-fire” mean you cease firing?

Cankles told a hangar full of American military personnel to go and buy Japanese cars:

“They’re going to be putting auto plants all over the United States to the tune of $10 billion. So that’s Toyota, so go out and buy a Toyota.” 

Make America First by buying a Japanese car.

A social media video post by Bobbie Coleman, chairperson of the Hardin County Kentucky Republican Party depicted President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes dancing to a song from Disney’s “The Lion King” and depicted other Democrats as animals and Cankles as a lion.

It was instantly condemned as “vile and reprehensible” by state GOP Chairman Robert Benvenuti  who wants an investigation and promised the “harshest action available to us” against those involved and so Little Bobbie Racist issued what she considers an apology:

“I apologize for sharing the video and for amplifying offensive imagery of former President Obama. As someone who does not engage in racist tropes—”

And we’ll stop … Little Bobbie Racist doesn’t engage in racist tropes but simply reposts them. Now let’s go back:

“—I did not consider the underlying meaning that this video may have had—”

And we’ll stop … Little Bobbie Racist want’s y’all to believe that she had no idea that posting a video showing Black people as apes was racist. Let’s finish up:

“—I am not racist and any suggestion to the contrary does not reflect my values or character.”

Oh Bobbie, Little Bobbie Racist, you are a racist because a person who wasn’t racist wouldn’t post this garbage and then probably share it with all your friends in the Klan so you could get a big chuckle.

Listen up, America, this is the second time in as many weeks when members of the GOP have shown themselves to be racists and Nazis … when someone shows you who they are, believe them: Bobbie Coleman is a racist.

The Pentagon has rolled out a new policy that will severely undercut the ability for transgender troops who have been banned from the armed forces by the Cankles Regime to turn to boards of their peers to argue for their right to stay in the military. If military separation boards decide to allow transgender service members to remain in uniform, commanders can override that decision.

This new program, under DUI Hire, Paranoid Pete Hegseth, breaks with longstanding policy that boards act independently.

It is the Pentagon’s latest step to drive transgender troops out of the armed forces following an executive order from Cankles.

Texas Democrat Congressman James Talarico has a little something to say about the GOP focusing on transgender Americans:

“Muslims are 1%. Trans people are 1%. The folks you’re afraid of? They’re 1% [of the population] but there’s another 1%—the 1% that owns nearly half the wealth in this country. And they’ve taught us to fear the wrong 1%.”

Talarico asked Americans to stop scapegoating marginalized communities, and challenged us to look up, not sideways, for the source of their struggle:

“There is no left and right. There’s only top and bottom.”

Working people have far more in common with each other than with the billionaires driving inequality and in this time of rising costs and shrinking opportunity, is his speech reminds us that the real fight isn’t about identity—Muslim, trans, immigrant—but it’s about power.

And We The People can take back the power.

Cankles latest HGTV renovation project was a marble and gold update to the White House’s Lincoln bathroom but California Democrat Gover Gavin Newsom trolled Cankles by sharing an AI-generated image of Cankles echoing Marie Antoinette:

“WOW!! THE QUEEN HAS A NEW BATHROOM.”

And then also added:

“(Americans lose food benefits tomorrow).”

Once again, as Americans suffer, as government workers lose their income and their jobs, this is how the GOP responds.

In a stunning, and bipartisan, rebuke, more than 100 federal judges—including a dozen appointed by Cankles himself—have slammed the Fascist Regime’s new immigration policy that effectively orders ICE to jail everyone facing deportation, regardless of how long they’ve lived in the U.S. or whether they’ve ever committed a crime. This “mandatory detention” order overturned 30 years of established law and practice, stripping immigrants of their basic right to even ask for release on bond while awaiting a hearing.

Now, judges across the country are saying enough is enough and 100 judges, appointed by Ronald Regan and every president since, have, as Cankles’ appointee U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek, said:

“Courts around the country have rejected the government’s new interpretation. This Court now joins the consensus.”

The Resistance at work.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco has indefinitely barred the Cankle’s Administration from firing federal employees during the government shutdown.

Illston granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that were set to expire Wednesday.

Illston, nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

Of the hundreds of towns that crowd Florida’s coastline bordering the broad blue sea between America and Mexico, only one has a street named Gulf of Mexico Drive. For 68 years, the main road through the small island town of Longboat Key on Florida’s Gulf Coast has used that name … GMD to the locals.

And despite the preferences of Cankles and Florida Governor Gogo Boots, the locals want to keep it that way. After hearing from hundreds of residents who objected to changing the name of the 10-mile-long road to Gulf of America Drive, Longboat Key town commissioners voted to keep the name as is.

Longboat Key is an affluent town and the median age is 71; it’s also conservative, with nearly twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats. But town leaders said 83% of the residents oppose the name change.

Bipartisan Resistance.

An Arkansas  federal court issued a temporary restraining order blocking Lakeside School District No. 9 from displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. This marks the third time the court has blocked school districts from implementing Arkansas’ Act 573, the law requiring schools to post a government-chosen version of the Ten Commandments.

Arkansas schools are ranked in the bottom half of the U.S., with recent reports placing the state around 34th to 45th overall but this is the stand they take.

Don’t educate your children, indoctrinate them.

José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen [WCK] is known for feeding people amid war, hurricanes, and other disasters but now the DC-based group will take its mission closer to home to provide warm meals for furloughed federal employees on day 27 of the government shutdown.

Free lunch from Lebanese Taverna and 2Fifty BBQ, both members of the WCK Chef Corps, will be available at Canal Park in Navy Yard from 11 AM to 2 PM and WCK will continue feeding federal workers throughout the shutdown.

The government is throwing parties at Mar-Illegal or flying their “girlfriend” home from date night or acting like self-indulgent toddlers at airports while Americans are stepping up to help Americans.

Read on …

Dozens of Democratic attorneys general and governors are planning to sue the Cankles’ Regime over its decision to not tap emergency funds amid the government shutdown to keep food aid flowing to 42 million Americans.

Cankles officials say they cannot legally tap a $5 billion contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] amid the shutdown to pay benefits in November.

So they opt to let people go hungry.

Nearly nine months after Cankles became chair of the Kennedy Center and more than a month into its main season, ticket sales for the center’s three largest performance venues are the worst they’ve been in years, with tens of thousands of seats have been left empty.

Since early September, 43% of tickets remained unsold for a typical production, meaning that, at most, 57% of tickets were sold—though some tickets may have been “comps.”

That compares with 93% sold or comped in fall 2024 and 80% in fall 2023.

USDA Sec. Brooke  Rollins, at a press conference with Little Johnson called SNAP “an extremely corrupt program” until this administration and Cankles’ focus on making sure every taxpayer dollar is spent appropriately.

Like for Kash Patel to have a date night? That spending is okay?

Vice President JD CouchFucker Vance was on The New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast with host Miranda Devine and discussed the controversy involving Twitch streamer Hasan Piker whose followers spotted his dog wearing an electronic training collar in a video and accused him of using it to administer corrective shocks to the animal. CouchFucker said:

“If you can actually cause suffering to an innocent animal, you’re probably the kind of person who doesn’t worry about suffering in people as well and that’s been my experience. If you mistreat dogs, that’s a 100 percent sign that you’re gonna be a really terrible person.”

Um, JD? Remember Kristi Noem shooting a dog because she didn’t like it? You seem okay with that.

CNN’s Jake Tapper was interviewing James Comer, GOP Congressman from Kentucky, about Cankles and his family raking in millions from crypto ventures and Comer said the quiet part out loud:

“Well, it’s something that we are, like you, reading about this. We’re trying to digest it. The difference between the way the [Cankles] family operates and the Biden family is they’re admitting they’re doing this.”

Admitting they are grifters.

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visits South Korea this week, he will face off against one of the most dangerous enemies to military readiness: Facial hair. Service members with shaving waivers are not allowed to attend the event with Hegseth, which will be held at Camp Humphreys, because apparently Pete can’t grow facial hair and will feel less manly?

I don’t know, I just can’t figure out why DUI hire, Paranoid Pete fears facial hair.

NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, who head is apparently permanently lodged inside the large anal cavity of Cankles, attempted to give credit for Japan’s successful HTV-X1 cargo spacecraft launch to Cankles by calling the launch  “a milestone to advance [Cankles'] vision.”

Of note to Duffy, who should pull his head out, the mission was a wholly Japanese operation by JAXA, launched from Tanegashima aboard an H-3 rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

Duffy is perfect for Cankles.

Speaking of Cankles and Japan, he told US troops in Japan that water ruins magnets:

“You know, the new thing is magnets. So instead of using hydraulic that can be hit by lightning and it’s fine. You take a little glass of water, you drop it on magnets, I don’t know what’s going to happen. So, you know, the elevators come up in the new carriers—I think I’m going to change it, by the way—they have magnets. Every tractor has hydraulic, every excavator, every excavating machine of any kind has hydraulic. But somebody decided to use magnets. I’m going to sign an executive order. When we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults and it’s hydraulic for the elevators. We’ll never have a problem. Everybody agrees. But, ahh, these people in Washington.”

Goddess, what a dumb fuck.

Don’t be like that … do this ….

Bobservations

No Carlos story this week because he’s gone into hiding for a few days. See, he was walking by the guest room the other morning and saw Rosita sitting in the curvy scratching tool and thought:

“She’s so sweet.”

Then he looked closer, and that’s when he went into hiding.

It’s like Cats of the Corn …

Girl Fight! That messy feud between the two dumbest MAGAts in Congress, Large Marge Green and Lauren Bobo Boebert burst right into the open this week when the two got into a spat and Greene called Boebert a “little bitch.”

It all happened because both women want to impeach Joe Biden for being a good president and a Democrat, and Greene went all Howler Monkey after Boebert leveraged a procedural tool to force a vote on her own impeachment resolution, thereby undercutting Marge, who had offered her own resolution,

Poor Marge and Bobo, both vying to be the Illiterate Queen of the MAGAts.

Right after the White House displayed a Pride flag, Fox News … that bastion of journalistic integrity … hold for laughter … claimed the Pride flag the White House used promoted pedophilia.

Fox made no mention of the fact that when their parent company promoted Pride month in 2022 it wrapped its corporate logo in the very same flag.

I guess it’s not a giant leap to go from lying to hypocrisy.

If you ever wondered what he was thinking, here’s an inkling:

Excerpts from Tuxedo's diary, March 27, 2010:

Day 2555 of my captivity...

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am.

Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow—but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released—and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously an idiot. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.

For now...

I kid … we never had a bird.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, has amped up his anti-transgender campaign and is now calling “cisgender”—a term that refers to people who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth—a slur and not to be used on his site.

Of note, is that Musk has a transgender daughter who legally filed to change her name in 2022 because of her “gender identity” and “the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form.”

Lesson: Elon Musk is as terrible a human being as he is a parent.

In  Arkansas, a  federal judge struck down the state’s law forbidding medical treatments for children and teenagers seeking gender transitions, blocking what had been the first in a wave of such measures championed by GOP lawmakers across the country.

In his ruling, Judge James Moody Jr. said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.

Because, again, it’s all about scaring their base with stories of parents “changing” their children’s gender on a whim. Good on Judge Moody.

Texas Governor, and asshat, Greg Abbott vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded vote-by-mail access for people with disabilities—specifically people who are blind or paralyzed and need assistance marking their ballot.

The guy in the wheelchair wants to make it harder for people with disabilities to vote, and so it deserves saying again: if I ever see Abbott at the top of the stairs in his wheelchair, I will push it down the stairs.

We’re going old school this week. I watched a documentary on Tab Hunter the other night—and he was drop dead beautiful back in the day—and it got me to thinking about the Hot Men of Hollywood, 1950s Edition, so here you are. Clockwise from the top left … Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman. Which One Would You Hit?

Hey Arkansas? F%k All The Way Off

Arkansas politicians, well, to be fair, Arkansas GQP anti-LGBTQ+, transphobic politicians, are continuing their war on our trans brothers and sisters because … ignorance, hate, fear, stupidity.

Last week the Arkansas Legislature passed House Bill 1749, which would prohibit hormone treatments, puberty blockers and transition-related surgeries for transgender minors, and for a hot minute it looked like the bill would fail when Governor  Asa Hutchinson vetoed it, but then the GQP-controlled legislature overrode the veto.

Now before you congratulate Hutchinson for being an ally, he also said that while he did not like the bill, he didn’t believe anyone under eighteen should be allowed to have gender reassignment surgery, so, yeah, not a friend.

And now it appears the GQP feels emboldened to continue their war on trans Americans, because they also passed a bill that says teachers would not be required to address students by a name or pronoun inconsistent with the student's biological sex.

The House's 62-21 vote—mostly along party lines—sends the measure to the Senate. Two lawmakers voted present, and 14 didn't vote; fourteen sat on their hands. But, in a surprise move, two Republicans, Frances Cavenaugh and Jeff Wardlaw, voted no.

So, there are some in the party who see this bill for what it is: hate.

It all began when GQP Representative Mary Bentley, who sponsored the bill, claimed some teachers had raised concerns to her about students who have changed their name or pronoun several times in a year, or use three different names in as many classrooms, and fear that they'll be sued for not addressing the child by their preferred name or pronoun:

"It's not compelling anyone's speech. It's not prohibiting anyone's speech. It's helping those professors and teachers in our schools that do not want to be sued for not using a certain person's pronoun.”

Really, Mary? I remember being in school, and on the first day being addressed as Robert, and telling my teachers to call me Bob; it’s not hard to call people by their names, and really not so hard to learn a person’s pronouns. And it’s not so hard to remember he/him, she/her, or they/them.

Democratic lawmaker, the aptly named Fred Love says that intentionally not referring to someone by what they want to be called is "one of the most disrespectful things that you can do:

"That's one of the simplest decencies that we can give someone. ... That's not hard. That's not difficult. That's just a bit of decency and a bit of respect and I think that's what we need to do."

But then GQP Representative Mark Lowery told a story about a "male student who wanted to be called by a female name" and was referred to that way by teachers, even though the student’s parents would only address the student by the birth name. That’s tough; but even Lowery admits that this new Hate Bill does “not specifically address the example I'm giving you.”

So, let’s go back to Mary Bentley, who pulled out that old chestnut about students changing their name between classes or asking to be identified as an animal:

"We have a real issue in our state, and I need our districts to take a look at this and do more than this bill does. This bill is just a first step to help protect our teachers but when we have students in school now that don't identify as a boy or a girl but as a cat, as a furry, we have issues."

Hey Mary, you bigoted fool please give one example of a student asking to be identified as an animal. I’ll wait.

That’s what I thought. Oh, and to make one thing clear, this isn’t about teachers being sued for misnaming or misgendering any student anywhere, anytime, ever, because, even in Arkansas, no teacher has ever been sued for that,

This bill is intended to make transgender, non-binary, gender fluid students, less than, because politicians cannot wrap their heads around the idea.

My name’s Bob. My pronouns are he/him, and I identify as male, gay male,

That’s not so hard to remember and doing that for our trans brothers and sisters goes a long way toward making everyone at least feel equal.

Arkansas Online

A Gaggle of Qidiots

Arkansas’ Q Governor, Asa Hutchinson, just signed new legislation that allows doctors and other health care workers to refuse to perform certain services if they have “conscience-based objections.”

That’s GQP lingo for Don’t Help The Gays.

Senate Bill 289—The Medical Ethics and Diversity Act—is a retread of an earlier Hate Bill that was presented in the 2017 legislative session. Ethics? Diversity? Not so much.

But I guess in Arkansas if you first can’t pass a Hate Bill, try, try again.

There’s a proposal looming in North Dakota to shield schools and teachers from lawsuits arising from those schools and teachers posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

In public schools.

And one asshat, GQP state Senator Janne Myrdal, even listed a litany of social ills, including sex trafficking, child sex abuse and crowded jails, that she says could be remedied with displays of the Ten Commandments in North Dakota schools.

Honey, if that worked at all, posting your list of rules that a great many Christians do not follow in your churches and religious schools would have ended those social ills years ago.

Try a little something called Separation of Church and State. And keep your religious idiocy out of public schools.

Senator Steve Daines [Q-MT] is quite the idiot.

During  a visit to the Mexican border with other Senate Q’s, to spew the lie about a crisis, he lamented the loss of the meth trade from Montanans to Mexicans:

“Twenty years ago in Montana, meth was homemade. It was homegrown. And you had purity levels less than 30%. Today the meth that is getting into Montana is Mexican cartel.”

Seriously. He’s genuinely upset that Montana’s meth trade is losing business to Mexican cartels.

You cannot get much more asshatted than Steve Daines.

Even some of his own Party members couldn’t hide their reactions to Daines’ idiocy. Fellow Senator Mike Lee [Q-UT] couldn’t stop smiling as Daines whined about the death of meth in Montana, and even began looking at the ground to hide his smile.

Steve Daines. Asshat.

Arkansas Neighborhood Fights Racism For Christmas

Chris Kennedy, who lives in Arkansas with his wife, Iddy, and their four-year-old daughter, has been putting an inflatable Black Santa in their front yard for years, but this year he got a letter from “Santa” about his lawn display:

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration. You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years. Your being jealous of my race is no excuse for your dishonesty. Besides that, you are making yourself the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Obviously, your values are not that of the Lakewood area and maybe you should move to a neighborhood out east with the rest of your racist kind.”

Well, as folks do nowadays, Kennedy took his outrage to Facebook live:

“I just got something in the mail that is one, incredibly offensive, and two, just says where we are. I am trying to be as nice as I can in this very moment because I am actually filled with rage. It’s very disheartening because it’s holiday time; we’re in a pandemic.”

And, also as folks do nowadays, the good decent honest non-racist kind of folks, when Kennedy’s neighbors found out about “Santa’s” letter, they took their own stance: all over the neighborhood, Black Santas started appearing in front yards. And as more and more people joined in, local stores are running out of Black Santas.

Chip Welch, the first neighbor to erect his own Santa said:

“It was unsolicited, it was undeserved, it was un-Christmas, and hopefully it was not reflective of Lakewood, and certainly not reflective of the kind of country I want to live in. We were all pretty concerned about it, and we decided it would be poetic for everyone to get Black Santas.”

Ben Keller, another neighbor, joined in:

“When we saw what happened to Chris, we knew we couldn’t just stand by and not do anything. We instantly decided what better way to support him than getting our own Santa display?”

Keller’s young son is Black, he said, and “he is absolutely thrilled to see some Santas that reflect back to him.” 

And the same goes for Chris and Iddy Kennedy’s daughter:

“There is definitely more positive than negative. The outpouring of support made me realize that this is the perfect place to raise our daughter. She may not understand but she definitely notices the Black Santas popping up. I would like to think that’s a warm and fuzzy feeling. I didn’t see it growing up, but the fact that it will be normalized for her gives me hope for the future.”

It gives me hope, too, that maybe the hatred we’ve been seeing the last four years might be lifting. Wouldn‘t that be the best Christmas gift of all?

LGBTQ Nation

GOP Loon Justin Harris "Gave" His Adopted Kids To A Rapist

Justin Harris is an Arkansas Republican state lawmaker; he’s also the owner of a Christian pre-school. He and his wife adopted two young girls, but when things got a little tough, they basically gave the girls away.

In Arkansas, they call this “re-homing” and it’s perfectly legal; I guess, to Republicans and Christians, recycling children when you’ve grown tired of them, or it gets too hard, or becomes too much work, is just fine.

But the father of the family to whom Harris pawned off his two adopted daughters — a man whom Harris hired as a teacher at his Christian pre-school — raped the 6-year-old girl that Justin Harris gave him.

Justin Harris refuses to speak to the media, but released a statement through his lawyer:

"Representative and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how."

Odd, how the Harris’ are claiming to be the victims in all of this, when it was a six-year-old girl who was raped.

And it seems that their argument that there could have been "abandonment charges" seems unlikely, after Arkansas Department of Human Services [DHS] spokesperson Amy Webb said:

"[DHS] can intervene in a number of ways — do they need respite on the weekends? Does the kid really need some inpatient psych services, or additional therapy? … If none of that works, then they can come to us and say, 'We have exhausted all of our available resources. Please, help us. We cannot take care of this child.' And we will take that child back into custody if the family has exhausted all available resources, and we will do that without any repercussions for the family."

So the Harris’, if they were having trouble with these two girls, could have simply taken their case to DHS, who would have taken the girls back and then tried to have them adopted again. But it seems to me, that Justin Harris and his wife thought they might get a little bad press for “giving the girls back” and instead chose to “re-home” them to a man who would rape one of the girls.

I’m not saying Justin Harris knew what this rapist would do, but had they simply said to DHS, ‘We cannot do this,’ then one little girl might not have been sexually attacked; and two little girls might not be thinking, today, that they are just something that can be passed along from family to family because it was too hard to take care of them.

Apparently that’s what passes for a good Christian in the Justin Harris home. And to the Arkansas GOP, too; Justin Harris will face no legal punishment for his actions, and he has the full support of Republican leadership, who say this issue "is past tense." 

House Republican Majority Leader Ken Bragg said Harris is "a dedicated Christian," and "a family man with the highest integrity who cares deeply for the welfare of children."

Uh huh. Keep saying that and maybe one day those two girls might even believe it.

via NCRM