Vote. Vote Blue. And Here's Why, AGAIN!

It’s been a few weeks since we checked in on the GOP and their special brand of bigotry and ignorance, so let’s dive right in …

NORTH DAKOTA

The state GOP voted last week to raise their own meal reimbursements to $45 a day. This happened less than two weeks after that same state GOP blocked a bill to provide free school lunches to low-income students.

Tell me again how the GOP is pro-family or pro-children.

 TENNESSEE

GOP lawmakers have expelled two Democrat Representatives, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, from the House for taking part in a peaceful demonstration for gun reform that was staged in the aftermath of a Nashville school shooting that left six people dead. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, was barely saved from expulsion.

Of note, the two Democrats expelled were two Black men, while the white woman was saved.

FLORIDA

Ron DeSantis signed HB 543 into law this week that will allow Floridians to carry a concealed firearm without the need for a permit. People can now carry concealed firearms without going through the background screening and training that is currently required to have a concealed carry license.

More guns. Less control.

IDAHO

The state legislature has passed the nation’s first law that makes it illegal for minors to travel out-of-state to get an abortion without parental consent.

Idaho already has a near-total abortion ban in place but neighboring Washington and Oregon allow minors to get an abortion without their parent’s consent, so Idaho will restrict its residents from interstate travel for abortion access.

Why not just lock up all pregnant women until they give birth?

FLORIDA

A survey finds that among Florida’s incoming college freshmen, dissatisfaction with Governor Ron DeSantis’s education policies runs deep … deep enough in some cases to make them look for college opportunities in another state.

Intelligent.com surveyed over 1,000 Florida students, including 783 still in high school and 364 current undergrads and found that 91% of prospective college students disagree with the governor’s policies and that 1 in 8 graduating high school students won’t attend college in Florida due to education policy in the state.

Florida will become a ghost town save for the elderly and the fascists.

MISSOURI

The Missouri House has put forth new budget bills that would eliminate state funding for libraries across the state. The House Budget Committee has proposed to cut the entire $4.5 million budget slated for Missouri libraries last week after the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] filed a lawsuit to overturn a new Missouri law that bans “explicit sexual” images from all school materials, including library books. The law, passed last year, does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts; only photos, drawings, videos and other visual depictions are prohibited but librarians and other school officials face up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine for violating the policy.

It might be easier just to ban all books.

MONTANA

Republicans in the state Legislature are trying to change the rules for next year’s Senate primary to make it easier to defeat Democrat Senator Jon Tester and win back the Senate majority.

A bill moving through the statehouse would change the structure of the election from the party primary system currently in place to a jungle primary in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. The move would essentially box out Libertarian candidates who would likely vote Democrat ensuring a GOP victory.

If they can’t win fairly, they change the rules and cheat.

MISSOURI

State Attorney General Andrew Bailey has issued an emergency regulation regarding gender transition interventions on minors and launched a website to report allegations of malpractice at gender clinics in the state:

“It’s about protecting children for me. We’ve got to inject some sanity into this conversation. Gender is an objective reality defined by biology, in the same way that gravity is an objective reality. It is unhealthy to deny objective reality.”

He really only cares about cis gender children, to be fair. Trans kids are less than.

FLORIDA

As happens in fascist states, the rules are changed to enable the fascist to do as they please.

This week the Florida Senate scheduled a change via committee vote of the “Resign to Run” law.

This is certainly meant to allow Ron DeFascist to keep his job as governor should he fail in his attempt to take the White House in 2024.

ON THE UPSIDE …

SCOTUS

This week the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in an ongoing case involving West Virginia’s law banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams at school. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and the hopefully soon-to-be-impeached and removed from the bench Clarence Thomas dissented.

The court’s action came on its “shadow docket” so-called because decisions are made without full briefing or argument and decided with little or no explanation.

Some 19 states have enacted laws like West Virginia’s anti-transgender law but no appeals court has yet ruled on the question.

WISCONSIN

Last week voters gave control of the state’s highest court to liberals for the first time in 15 years after Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly in a race that served as a referendum on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The tide is changing in Wisconsin; let’s hope that trend keeps moving forward.

NEW JERSEY

Democrat Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order No. 326 establishing New Jersey as a safe haven for gender-affirming health care by directing all state departments and agencies to protect all persons, including health care professionals and patients, against potential repercussions resulting from providing, receiving, assisting in providing or receiving, seeking, or traveling to New Jersey to obtain gender-affirming health care services.

“Across the nation, we are witnessing attacks led by certain states that seek to undermine the equality, dignity, and safety of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender and non-binary youth. As leaders, our greatest responsibility is ensuring that every person we represent, regardless of their gender identity or gender expression, is entitled to respect, fairness, and freedom. We will continue to uphold these principles in New Jersey and support every person’s right to live freely and authentically by making our state a safe haven for those seeking or providing gender-affirming health care.”

Finally at least one safe haven for our trans brothers and sisters.

Pay attention … vote … speak up … vote … because if we don’t all stand together one day all of this country will be like Florida and Tennessee and Missouri and Idaho, and the GOP and the traitors come for us all.

The Bad and Some Good ... Monday May 9, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile because there are dumb people everywhere and in the wake of that SCOTUS leak, it’s even scarier, especially given the shortage of Good News … so here goes:

BAD

LOUISIANA

A newly proposed bill would charge women with crimes in the cases of miscarriage or in fertility treatments like IVF. Attorney Gwyneth O’Neill explains the cruel bill: 

“This makes embryos people … Freezing an embryo would become a battery. Disposal of an embryo… would be a negligent homicide.”

Seriously.

WASHINGTON DC

We are learning that while Thing 45 was in office, he asked Mark Esper, his Secretary of Defense, about launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and cartels while keeping US involvement secret.

Perhaps Thing 45 could have asked Junior where he gets his drugs and just dropped bombs on American drug labs.

INDIANA

Andrew Wilhoite, who is accused of murdering his wife in March and dumping her body in a creek, and in jail awaiting trial, has secured a spot as one of three Republican candidates in the race for a seat on the Clinton Township Board.

I cannot make this shiz up.

IDAHO

Janice McGeachin, Idaho’s GOP Lieutenant Governor, running against Governor Brad Little in the GOP primary, held a campaign rally featuring radical right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin, election conspiracy theorist Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers, and extremist broadcaster Stew Peters, all of whom addressed the white nationalist America First Political Action Conference in February, as did McGeachin.

Seriously Idaho?

KANSAS

Johnson County city HAS unanimously voted to ban a living arrangement aimed at helping tenants decrease the amount of rent they pay.

The new ordinance defines a co-living group as a group of at least four unrelated adults living together in a dwelling unit; the ordinance states that if one adult is unrelated to another adult, then the entire group will be classified as unrelated.

They’re coming for The Golden Girls, y’all.

FLORIDA

While Governor Ron DeSantis vilified the Disney as “dishonest” and hypocritical and pushed to strip it of a special tax status and punish its leaders for challenging his policies, he and most Republicans in Florida will not be returning the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash they received from the entertainment giant.

Hypocrites, they are.

PENNSYLVANIA

GOP Senate candidate and Muslim Mehmet Oz’s campaign blasted a primary rival for “pathetic and xenophobic” attacks against him while in the exact same statement he bragged that Thing 45 endorsed him.

The same Thing 45 that pushed pathetic and xenophobic Muslim bans.

TENNESSEE

The state will soon strictly regulate the dispensing of abortion pills and impose harsh penalties on doctors who violate them, under legislation recently signed into law by GOP Governor Bill Lee.

Once enacted, a medical clinician will be required to be physically present when abortion pills are administered to a patient even though federal regulations now allow mail delivery nationwide.

ARIZONA

If, as people think, the Supreme Court overturns women’s constitutional right to abortion, Blake Masters, an Arizona GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, thinks judges should also take aim at the right to buy and use contraception.

Just for women, I think; condoms should still be legal.

TEXAS

GOP State Representative Briscoe Cain says he’ll propose legislation barring local governments from doing business with any company that provides travel benefits for employees seeking abortions like …

GOOD

TEXAS

Texas GOP State Representative Briscoe Cain is gunning for Tesla, which officially moved its corporate headquarters last year from Silicon Valley to Texas, after the company said it would cover “travel and lodging support for those who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state” such as abortions.

Tesla may become the Disney of Texas.

WAaHINGTON

The Liberty Lake City Council voted 4-2 to not force the local public library to remove a popular, award-winning LGBTQ book, “Gender Queer” from its shelves after Erin Zasada tried for the second time to get the book banned.

Zasada filled out a form asking if she’d read the book and she checked. ‘No.’ and also said:

“I don’t believe in banning books, period. I don’t believe in that at all. This is not a First Amendment issue. This is not an attack on an LGBTQ group, this is a fight against sexually explicit content directly aimed at minors.”

Before she files another report to remove a book from the public library—a book that is shelved in the Adult Section—she ought to read up on book banning and see that it’s exactly what she’s trying to do.

As I said, not a lot of good this week but that means 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 in their quest to take this country backwards.,

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

The Bad and The Good ... Monday April 25, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile, because, literally, there are dumb people everywhere ... but that's what makes it so frightening. So this week, I decided to include some Good News as sort of a palette cleanser for the crazies …

BAD

FLORIDA

We know that GOPQAnon Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill to dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District last week, but now comes the question of who pays all the news taxes, and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph says:

“The moment that Reedy Creek doesn’t exist is the moment that that those taxes don’t exist. You’re literally taking $163 million a year of taxes that Disney pays for Reedy Creek and wiping it down to zero. I don’t see that Orange County doesn’t raise property taxes by 20% to 25%. That’s what Orange County would probably have to do to cover this financial situation.”

But, hey, DeSantis smacked a cartoon mouse!

FLORIDA [Again]

Dozens of books were recently taken off Walton County schools library shelves  and School Superintendent A. Russell Hughes said:

“I did it for just a welfare of all involved, including our constituents, our teachers, and our students. I’ll continue to do those things and perhaps add some.”

One of those books was “Everywhere Babies,” published twenty years ago as an ode to infancy. It has long been a staple of family bookshelves, libraries, bookstores, a recommendation in new parent groups, and a Best Seller. So, why was it removed? Don’t Say Gay.

Though there are not any explicitly LGBTQ persons depicted in the book, author Susan Meyers says she believes her book was banned due to a single drawing of a man with his arm on another man’s shoulder.

Sinful!

MICHIGAN

A fundraising message sent by GOP state Senator Tom Barrett, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the newly drawn 7th Congressional District, claims:

“President Biden is forcing 5-year-olds to learn about gender reassignment surgeries, gender identities, and other radical ideas. Every American needs to step up TODAY and stop this sick and twisted ideology from poisoning our children.”

Barrett’s original fundraising appeal came via text and appeared to be an appointment confirmation for “Your Child” to receive “Gender Reassignment Surgery Tomorrow at 9 AM”  and asks:

“If you would like to CANCEL this appointment because you do not believe in teaching young children about dangerous transgender ideologies, please sign your name NOW.”

He has zero qualifications or ideas so he runs on fear and lies.IDAHO

IDAHO 

Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, who is running for governor, will appear with Stew Peters for a political rally next month.

Stew, who? Peters is a white nationalist who supports Vladimir Putin, who, he claims, is “more honest than anyone in our government.” Peters is a racist who claims Russia is “the only country that’s not under the thumb of the criminal banking cabal.” He’s a white supremacist who popularized the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is actually a synthetic form of snake venom and has repeatedly called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be executed.

And Janet McGeachin wants to appear at a rally with him.

Seriously, Idaho? This is the best you can do.

TEXAS

Proving himself to be a huge asshat, Texas GOPQAnon Governor Greg Abbott’s rule that doubled the inspections for commercial trucks coming in from Mexico, because he says the trucks were carrying undocumented immigrants and drugs,  caused delays that cost the U.S. nearly $9 billion in gross domestic product.

The rule was in effect until, Abbott realized his dumbfuckery.

Another “government is too big Republican” costing millions, er, billions, to the American people because they haven’t a clue what’ s going on.

TENNESSEE

GOP lawmakers passed legislation making camping on public property a misdemeanor crime, a law which effectively criminalizes homelessness. 

Poverty is now a crime in Tennessee, y’all, and you can face a misdemeanor offense and a $50 fine or community service requirement if you don’t have a home.

ARIZONA

The Senate passed two controversial education bills last week, one that will empower parents to sue if they feel like educators are interfering with their right to direct their child’s upbringing, and another that would assist parents in monitoring their child’s library habits.

Let me say this, you wingnut GOP parents: rather than sue a teacher for doing his or her job, why not quit your job, stop going to Starbucks, buy a smaller house, and homeschool your precious babies so you can raise them to be ignorant fucks like yourselves?

GOOD

TENNESSEE

A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote after her probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating she was done with probation for a 2015 felony conviction.

For trying to register to vote. In case it isn’t obvious, because this is still America, land of the White Free, Pamela Moses is a Black woman.

Although Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January, she was granted a new trial in February after it was learned that her defense council has not been privy to certain documents in the hands of prosecutors.

Now, finally, the charges are dropped.

KENTUCKY

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings has temporarily blocked a state law that effectively eliminated abortions in Kentucky after the state’s two remaining clinics said they couldn’t meet its requirements.

The decision was a victory for abortion rights advocates and a setback for the GOP-led, anti-women legislature, which passed the law in March and then overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of the measure last week.

Both of the clinics have resumed healthcare services for the women who chose to make their own choices.

FLORIDA

I love a good Letter to the Editor and this one, clearly from someone living in Ron DeSantis’ Flori-duh is just spot on. Sadly, when I saw the phot, the name was redacted because I’d love to give proper credit to the author. Anyway, here goes …

“Gov. Ron DeSantis claims Florida is a ‘Free state.’ Baloney!

It’s a free state if you’re rich, if you give millions to his re-election campaign, if you’re a wealthy developer or if you’re a CEO of a big corporation.

Bit by bit. DeSantis is taking away everyone else’s freedoms.

Freedom to put solar on your roof? No! Freedom to vote? No! Freedom for women to make their own health care decisions? No! Freedom to be who you are? No! Freedom for local government to decide local issues? No!

Freedom for children to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? No! Freedom for businesses to offer diversity training for employees? No! Freedom to afford a place to rent? No!

Freedom to access affordable healthcare? No! Freedom for teachers to provide an honest teaching of history? No! Freedom to discuss sexual orientation in schools? No!

DeSantis’ ambition: Position himself in 2024 as the heir apparent to [Thing 45]. He wants to corrupt not just Florida but the entire country.

You can stop him, but you have to register and you have to vote! Let’s get rid of Gov. Ron and let Florida be a truly free state—again.”

In other words: CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

When Democrats vote, Democrats win.

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!

Architecture Wednesday: Outpost

This is Outpost, and artist’s live/work studio and sculpture garden set on twenty acres in the remote, harsh high desert of Bellevue, Idaho. This ain’t your mama’s vacation spot.

Rising from the high desert floor against a dramatic backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains, this 3,882 square foot house was designed to age gracefully, to restrict impact on the land and to sort of force the owner to spend time outside. Now, the high desert is a windy spot, so there is an enclosed “paradise garden” where the owner has planted roses, grapes, and espaliered fruit trees that is separated from the landscape by thick masonry walls, but you are still outdoors.

A readily available construction material—concrete block—is used for the primary structure, making it quick and inexpensive to build. Interior finishes include unfinished recycled fir floors, walls, and cabinets; plaster made from natural clays and pigments; and Carrara marble kitchen counters. All of the other materials used in the structure, including the concrete block, car decking [structural tongue-and-groove material], and plywood, require little or no maintenance and are capable of withstanding the extreme weather that characterize the desert’s four seasons.

The separate studio/office, laundry, powder room, garage, and mechanical room are all on the lower entry level, and upstairs is designed around one open, multifunctional room overlooked by a mezzanine bedroom; with living spaces on the second floor, the home remains above the winter snowpack, and provides 360-degree views of the surrounding high desert and mountains.

It’s harsh, like the landscape, but fully functional, and environmentally friendly, and seems like an outpost on a distant planet.

That’s what I call a getaway.

OneKindDesign Olson Kundig

They're Everywhere ... Monday March 14, 2022

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

MISSOURI

GOP state Representative Brian Seitz has introduced a bill that would ban the termination of ectopic pregnancies.

An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus, most often in the fallopian tube, and can be life-threatening for the mother if left untreated; in addition, the fetus cannot survive to be carried to term.

But Seitz’s bill, if passed into law, would make performing, inducing or attempting to perform or induce an abortion for such a pregnancy a class A felony carrying a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

Woman of Missouri, is this what you want? A man telling you what to do with your body when he clearly has no idea what he’s talking about?

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

FLORIDA

The GOP-controlled Florida Senate approved legislation—dubbed the ‘Stop Woke Act—to limit how workplaces and schools teach race and identity. The measure prohibits trainings that cause someone to feel guilty or ashamed about the past collective actions of their race or sex, and its passage clears the way for Governor Ron DeathSantis to sign one of his top legislative priorities into law.

Stop Woke is also known as The White Fragility Act on this here blog.

MARYLAND

GOP US Senator Ted Cruz visited the “People’s Convoy” in Maryland last week, even riding in the lead vehicle and waving to protesters.

I mean, other than running off to Cancun last year when Texas got too cold for Rafael, is there any other way to show that he has the tiniest dick in Congress than by climbing abroad a big rig and waving like a QAnon puppet.

Texas, really?

GEORGIA

Days before a key legislative deadline, Georgia’s GOP state senators have proposed their own ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill to deter teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom.

While the bill stands little chance of passing this late in the legislative session, it does show how bigotry and hatred are working their way around the nation.

Still a note to the GOP asshats: you may stop people from saying Gay, but you will never stop people from being Gay.

IDAHO

The Idaho House of Representatives passed a bill that could lead to librarians being prosecuted for checking out materials that are deemed harmful to minors. If this bill—ironically, it is House Bill 666—passes into law, it would remove an exemption that protects libraries, schools, museums, colleges and universities and their employees for “disseminating material that is harmful to minors.”

GOP state Representative Gayann DeMordaunt sponsored the bill and said it is necessary to protect children from what she described as pornography and obscene material she said has seen making its way into libraries where children can access it.

Idaho needs a Don’t Say Gayann bill.

ALABAMA

GOP Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill that eliminates the requirement of a state permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Yep, no permit required; anyone can carry a gun, anywhere, anytime, ever. Ivey says:

“Unlike states who are doing everything in their power to make it harder for law abiding citizens, Alabama is reaffirming our commitment to defending our Second Amendment rights. I have always stood up for the rights of law abiding gunowners, and I am proud to do that again today."

I guess by ‘law abiding citizens ‘ she means the ones that shoot up schools and churches and Walmart and movie theaters.

Of note: you need a license to drive a car but a gun? Not so much.

TEXAS

Ed Young, the pastor of the multi-site Fellowship Church in Texas, said in a sermon Sunday there are levels of hierarchy in Heaven and warned Christians who do not use their spiritual gifts to serve God’s kingdom will not be elevated to a higher position when they die.

In other words., make sure you give a bunch of money to Ed Young ort else God will smite you.

Fucking Faux Christian.

FLORIDA

Negotiations between the state Senate and House of Representatives, both controlled by the GOP, broke down, with the two sides unable to agree on a bill that would require inspections of aging condo buildings and mandate that condo boards conduct studies to determine how much they need to set aside for repairs.

Florida Republicans did manage to find the time to create new laws attacking LGBTQ+ citizens, voting rights, women, and educators, but “ran out of time” to stop fatal building collapses.

That’s Flori-duh in a nutshell.

TENNESSEE

Republicans in the Tennessee Senate voted to confirm Jordan Mollenhour,  Governor Bill Lee‘s nominee to the State Board of Education, despite Mollenhour being involved in a lawsuit related to his online ammunition business, Lucky Gunner, selling ammunition to a 17-year-old who shot and killed ten people and wounding another 13 at a Texas high school in 2018. The company was also sued for selling over 4,000 rounds of ammo to the man who fatally shot 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012.

Jeff Yarbro, the Democratic Minority Leader of the Tennessee Senate said:

“There are nearly 7 million people in Tennessee surely to God the governor could have found one state board of education nominee who’s not in ongoing litigation about illegally selling ammunition used in a deadly school shooting.”

Mollenhour, who currently represents one district on the Education Board, sailed through his confirmation hearing: 26 of 27 Republicans voted to confirm. One abstained. All six Democrats voted against. The Tennessee House also has to confirm Mollenhour. The vote is scheduled for today.

IDAHO

The Idaho House of Representatives passed legislation to make it a crime punishable by life in prison for a parent to seek out gender-affirming health care for their transgender child.

GOP Representative Bruce Skaug says his bill is necessary because minors are too young to make life-altering decisions about their bodies.

The bill cleared the Idaho House by a vote of 55-13, and now heads to the Senate, where Republicans hold a 28-to-7 majority over Democrats.

Putting parents in jail for life because they love and accept their trans children.

Fuck off Idaho.

Get educated and save yourselves from The Stupids.

And CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

Architecture Wednesday: Boar Shoat House

While not the intent of the homeowner and architect, this is a home created for a pandemic, meant for social distancing and lockdown.

The owners of the Boar Shoat—a family term for youthful vivacity—wanted to get away, not from a virus, but from city life, and create a place to distance themselves from social stresses, literally unplug from social media, and commune with nature and one another. And so the owners looked to the places of their childhood, and found it along a gentle natural berm, beside a stand of aspens, in some sixty acres of grassy hills, beneath the Rocky Mountains of Southern Idaho.

The home was conceived as a kind of crash pad and a base camp; three small structures—main house, guest house, and storage—flanking a large outdoor living space under a canopy that protects it from the weather. Even better, with no utility connections for miles, Boar Shoat is a self-sustaining retreat that uses passive solar for electricity and heat; the windows are positioned to harness free energy from the sun during the winter, while roof overhangs cool the home in summer. In addition, the owner wanted low- to no- maintenance building materials: the exterior is clad in metal panels suited for the harsh winters of the open range. The interior is simple, and designed to bring views and vegetation inside through expansive floor to ceiling windows. Clean white walls act as a gallery for art, and natural wood ceilings warm and soften the space; untreated concrete floors offer a durable surface, perfect for the home in the middle of nowhere. Outside, the landscape is left ruggedly wild to add to the feeling of being among nature, yet far away from everything.

Socially distant, in a good way.

Click to emBIGGERate.

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