Bobservations

Over breakfast, I told Carlos that Janet Jackson was starting a new tour, and that her announcement was this simple Instagram post: ‘Hi. It’s Janet. A new tour is coming.’ He looked at me like he was a dog who’d heard a whistle.

“You don’t know Janet Jackson, do you?”

“I do. She’s Michael’s sister.”

“Name one Janet Jackson song. Just one. I’ll wait.”

Needless to say I’m still waiting. Goddess love the fact that his pop culture knowledge is nil.

Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democrats and registered as an Independent surprising no one at all, except those who thought she’d run right to the Republican party.

The south portico of the White House was lit up in rainbow colors this week after President signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law.

Yet the march goes on …

Good news out of Louisiana … Democrat Davante Lewis defeated the incumbent three-term Public Service Commissioner and fellow Democrat Lambert Boissiere III to become … wait for it … the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to state office in Louisiana.

And it’s 2022.

Last week the Crook County Library in Oregon had a standing-room only crowd when it held a board meeting to discuss whether or not to segregate LGBTQ+-friendly children’s books into a separate section. The crowd overwhelmingly supported keeping the books where they are, and the board agreed in a 4-1 vote.

The march goes on …

Funny how no one noticed that the familiar Republican Party mascot pictured on the Patrick County GOP website hid KKK imagery in its negative space. It has since been replaced with the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia but, yeah, sure, no one noticed.

Indiana Republicans drafted a censure letter to send to GOP Senator Todd Young because he voted in favor of passing the Respect For Marriage Act; in Indiana you are censured for voting against bigotry and racism.

Maybe they should use that KKK logo for their branch of the party.

The other day we had a rare Sunday morning work meeting and when I walked in I saw about ten co-workers gathered around the conference table and I said, loudly:

“Any of you bitches make coffee?”

One co-worker gasped, and said:

“Bob! My little girl is here.”

Feeling horrified, I asked:

“Well … did she make coffee?”

Cut to five minutes later when this same woman, in describing a certain client of ours, used the cute phrase “motherfucker” to describe him … in front of her child.

Note to self: bitch is bad, but motherfucker is fine.

While GMA3 co-anchors T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach have been temporarily pulled off air, viewers have been treated  to fill-ins for the adulterous pair … like new ABC hire DeMarco Morgan who may be gay, but that is neither here nor there … Would You Hit It?

Vote As Though Your Life Depended On It, Because Some Lives Do

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t vote, thinks it doesn’t matter, feels like your vote doesn’t count, think about the disaster of 2016, and think about these things, and then Cast a Goddamned Vote:

Republicans in Congress are lining up behind legislation that would roll back protections for transgender Americans. The GOP has introduced a bill to block federal funding to colleges that allows transgender women to participate in sports with cisgender women, while a second bill would block funding to schools that disobey state laws regarding “materials harmful to minors,” mimicking state laws that have been used to remove books discussing history around race and LGBTQ themes; it’s a national Don’t Say Gay bill.

And though the bills have no chance of becoming law this year, since Democrats narrowly control both Houses of Congress, they signal the GOP’s efforts to demonize and criminalize our trans brothers and sisters. And Republicans would be in a position to advance those bills next year if they win control of the House or the Senate in the midterm elections, so now is the time to fight, by your vote, for our community because if the GOP wins this battle, the war against all LGBTQ+ Americans will be on.

And while the GOP seeks to discriminate trans Americans it also seeks to protect white supremacist Americans and Nazis in both our police force and military.

Last week the House approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to compel government officials to prepare a report on combating white supremacists and neo-Nazi activity in the police and military.

The amendment Passed despite every single Republican voting against it. The GOP is coming for trans people but not Nazis and white supremacists?

Also last week, when Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, passed two bills to protect women’s access to abortion and reproductive healthcare services, every single ‘No’ vote except one came from a Republican.

The second bill, the Right To Travel For Abortion Services, protecting the right to travel across state lines to obtain healthcare, including abortion, passed 223-205, with all 205 “No” votes coming from the GOP.

While both bills face extreme odds in the Senate, where Republicans have dubbed it “Abortion Tourism,” it does tell Americans where the GOP stands, and how far the GOP will go to make access to abortion completely illegal in the entire country.

And then we have Senate Democrats working on legislation to make contraception rights, same-sex marriage and parenting, and interracial marriage, the law of the land, but all but one of the Senate Republicans have refused to say they would vote for them.

Let all of this sink in: trans Americans are under attack, but Nazis are given a pass. Abortion rights, and the right of women to make their own choices about their own bodies, might become a criminal offense in America; contraception could become illegal; your same-sex marriage, my same-sex marriage, might be nullified; and interracial marriages, even Clarence and Ginni—which perhaps is Clarence’s plan all along—might be outlawed.

If you think your vote doesn’t count, or you think we don’t need your help defeating these racist, transphobic, homophobic, anti-women Republicans, then you aren’t thinking.

November is coming, CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE, or wait for the GOP to come after you, because they will.

NBC News  Newsweek   NCRM   NCRM

Take Them At Their Words

Oh, I just love when Republicans step in it and then try to scrape off their shoes and pretend they said nothing.

Last week during a call with members of the media, Indiana’s GOP Senator, Mike Braun said the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage decades ago, and that the decision should have been left to individual states.

No sooner than you could shout racism, or at least no sooner than a more intelligent person on Braun’s staff could get to him, five hours later, Braun released a statement saying he misunderstood "a line of questioning," and emphasized that he condemns racism "in any form."

It all happened during a press call when Braun said he believes abortion rights questions should have been left up to the states back when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

A reporter then asked if he applied the same reasoning to the Supreme Court's decision in 1967 that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage under the 14th amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law, and Braun said:

"When it comes to issues, you can't have it both ways. When you want that diversity to shine within our federal system, there are going to be rules and proceedings, they're going to be out of sync with maybe what other states would do. It's the beauty of the system, and that's where the differences among points of view in our 50 states ought to express themselves."

Not realizing what a racist tool he was sounding like, Mike Braun doubled down when asked if he would be agree with leaving the decision of whether to allow interracial marriage up to states:

"Yes, I think that that's something that if you're not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you're not going to be able to have your cake and eat it too. I think that's hypocritical."

And then hours later, after I’m sure his staff told him what a white sheet wearing asshat he sounded like, Braun backtracked:

“Earlier during a virtual press conference I misunderstood a line of questioning that ended up being about interracial marriage. Let me be clear on that issue — there is no question the Constitution prohibits discrimination of any kind based on race, that is not something that is even up for debate, and I condemn racism in any form, at all levels and by any states, entities, or individuals.”

I don’t know, Mike, when you answered the question on interracial marriage you seemed very clear it should be a state’s rights issue, and then suddenly you did a one-eighty.

Not quite buying it, but it does get the idea out there that, maybe, if votes go a certain way, those so-called conservatives can put a stop to that “mixing of the races” business.

And it’s not just interracial marriage … during the second day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing last week, Texas’ GOP Senator John Cornyn attacked marriage equality. His objection is that granting equal rights to LGBTQ people … let that sink in, granting equality … conflicts with the religious beliefs of some people, to which Jackson responded:

“Well, senator, that is the nature of a right. That when there is a right, it means that there are limitations on regulation, even if people are regulating pursuant to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” 

Indeed, rights are guarantees of freedom that the Constitution does not leave to the political process, not does it leave to churches of political parties who want to enshrine their religious beliefs … their religious beliefs … into law. 

Cornyn’s second complaint is that marriage equality is not in the Constitution, and therefore in guaranteeing the freedom to marry, SCOTUS invented a new right. But the same could be said then about Loving v Virginia which granted the rights of interracial couples to marry, so does Cornyn think interracial marriage is also a bad idea? Maybe his buddy Mike Braun was onto something?

Don’t think this is just one aging GOP loon spouting idiocy. Much of what the GOP “stands” for these days is stripping back any expansion of LGBTQ+ rights, from Florida’s, and other state’s, ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills to banning trans athletes from competing in sports, and more.

John Cornyn is giving voice to that hate-filled ideology, and his questions show us how the conservatives view LGBTQ+ equal rights and how they plan to undo them.

So, again, I will say this: if you believe that LGBTQ+ Americans deserve the same rights as every other American, including the right to simply exist, then get off your asses and speak up, and stand up, and … here it comes … CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE … because if, at the midterms, the Democrats lose the house, you can know that the target on our backs, the LGBTQ_+ community, and the target on the backs of teachers teaching actual history, and the targets on the back of women having the right to choose what they can do with their own bodies, and the rights of trans Americans to be seen and respected for who they are, will disappear.

And, other than racists and bigots and faux-Christians, who the hell wants that?

IndyStar  Mother Jones