Vote Blue. Here's Another Slew of Reasons Why

Here we are again, with a wee taste of the lunacy, racism, criminality, and bigotry and hate inside the GOP … and let’s start with the Dog Killer:

SOUTH DAKOTA

Y’all know that dog killing liar Kristi Noem, has a book coming out but now her office is saying she will go back and correct some errors … like when she claimed to have met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un:

“I remember when I met with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants—I’d been a children’s pastor after all.”

Except that never happened though Noem’s spokesperson claims it was an “error” to include Kim in a list of world leaders who Noem has met. And other “corrections” in future editions will include removing a false claim about a conversation with Nikki Haley that never happened, and the time Noem says she declined French President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to sit in his box during an Armistice Day Parade because he supposedly made “pro-Hamas comments.” His office says that “never” happened.

Noem stands by her lies as being “small errors.”

It’s not a stretch from Republican to liar, or even dog killer to liar.

On the upside, a county Republican group in Colorado has cancelled a fundraiser featuring Kristi Noem after she wrote gleefully about murdering her dog.

Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Nancy Pallozzi said that the group’s fundraising dinner was being cancelled “due to safety concerns” after the group, the governor and her staff, and the hotel hosting the event received “numerous threats and/or death threats.”

People don’t like dog killers.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto pushed back on a claim by Nancy Mace, the GOP Representative from South Carolina, who says that progressive billionaire George Soros funded the groups involved in pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Mace claimed:

“You’ve got groups that are funded by George Soros. There are Palestinian rights groups that I believe are involved, funded by George Soros, and they need to be off of our college campuses if they’re committing violence, full stop.”

 Cavuto, no stranger to dealing with lying Republicans like Nancy Mace, said:

“There’s no proof that these are funded by George Soros, by the way… their folks have denied that.”

“We’ll agree to disagree, I guess.”

“I’ve just looked for the checks and I haven’t seen them yet.”

Nancy Mace is a Kristi Noem wannabe.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

The New Hampshire House passed a bill to raise the legal age of marriage to 18; Senate Bill 359 states that “no person below the age of 18 years shall be capable of contracting a valid marriage, and all marriages contracted by such persons shall be null and void.” Under present law, that age is 16.

But GOP Representative Jess Edwards argued that taking away the possibility of marriage could lead more 16- and 17-year-olds to abortion:

“If we continually restrict the freedom of marriage as a legitimate social option, when we do this to people who are a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved, are we not in fact making abortion a much more desirable alternative, when marriage might be the right solution for some freedom-loving couples?”

Yes, he’s worried about sixteen-year-olds having abortions as opposed to forcing them to marry at that age.

ALABAMA

The House voted to make school and public library staff criminally liable for distributing “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent, placing libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies and entertainment. GOP Representative Arnold Mooney sponsored the legislation.

Seriously. And it would force school and public librarians to remove a book that someone finds obscene or harmful to minors within seven days of written notice to the library director or principal. If they don’t they could face a misdemeanor.

It’s unclear who will determine if the book is obscene.

SOUTH CAROLINA

During an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, GOP Senator Tim Scott—his head still up Hair Furor’s ass looking for that VP nod—repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election.

Yes, the election that hasn’t happened yet, he says will be rigged if Hair Furor doesn’t win. Welker tried, and tried, and tried again to get Scott to say he will accept the results of the 2024 election:

“Will you commit to accepting the election results of 2024: Bottom line?”

“At the end of the day, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump.”

“Yes or no? Will you accept the election results of 2024 no matter who wins?”

“That is my statement.”

No, the statement is Tim Scott is a pandering, goose-stepping asshat who is doing Hair Furor’s bidding because he wants a high-profile spot in the Traitor’s administration.

TENNESSEE

GOP Governor Bill Lee plans to sign a bill state legislators sent to his desk that would allow school staff members to carry concealed handguns on school grounds:

“What’s important to me is that we give districts tools and the option to use a tool that will keep their children safe in their schools.”

No money for books or computers or more teachers to reduce class size, but a bill to allow teachers to carry weapons.

PENNSYLVANIA

GOP Representative Mike Kelly, an outspoken critic of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, used the law to receive a grant to install solar panels at one of his car dealerships. 

Kelly has long derided the Inflation Reduction Act, which made his grant possible, saying:

“The bill provides $375 billion in so-called ‘climate change’ legislation, which include $7,500 tax credits for wealthy Americans to purchase electric vehicles (EV).”

He voted that you can’t benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act, but he can.

GOP hypocrisy, and the fact that they think their constituents are stupid enough to fall for his lies.

TEXAS

GOP Representative Troy Nehls has repeatedly claimed to be the recipient of two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman Badge from his time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a review of his service record by the Pentagon show Nehls received one—not two—Bronze Star medals. And his Combat Infantryman Badge from Afghanistan was revoked from his service record in 2023 because Nehls served as a civil affairs officer, not as an infantryman or Special Forces soldier.

Emily Matthews, Nehls’ press secretary, declined to discuss the matter or provide any explanation for the discrepancies.

More lies from Republicans.

GOODNEWS

GOP CONVENTION

NBC News interviewed more than 15 major corporate fundraisers and consultants with corporate clients, and many have expressed concern over a charged political climate that they worry could backfire on their brand or where an investment would not pay off.

They say that Hair Furor and the baggage that comes with backing him, and that slew of GOP liars, hypocrites and thieves I just mentioned, was most often cited as a consideration by many of the corporate donors and consultants to avoid any connection with the GOP and RNC.

Uh oh; if the RNC doesn’t get corporate sponsorship coins, how with they ever pay Hair Furor’s legal bills?

UTAH

Less than 72 hours after the launch of a reporting form to help Utah enforce its transgender bathroom ban, the Utah auditor’s office says it has received nearly 4,000 complaints. And all of them appear to be “bogus.”

Utah Auditor John Dougall says his office created the online reporting tool to comply with GOP Representative Kera Birkeland’s “Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying and Women’s Opportunities.

Birkeland is a former Mrs. Utah beauty pageant contestant and her sole previous legislative record is a successful resolution that criticizes Shaquille O’Neal’s free throw record and mocks his movie’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Really.

Oh, and last year she introduced an anti-abortion bill that was condemned by her own sister, who is a rape survivor.

CNN

News anchor Kaitlan Collins caught GOP Senator J.D. Vance flat-footed during a line of questioning on the current pro-Palestine protests on college campuses across the country.

Collins quizzed the pro-Hair Furor senator on his views regarding the value of free speech versus the safety and well-being of students whose lives have been disrupted by the protests on campus—to which Vance replied that police should only become involved if protesters are breaking the law:

“My view on this is that Israel’s our ally, that we should support them, but you can’t police people for being anti-Israel or pro-Israel. You can police people for violating the law, and we have seen some of that with some of these protests.”

“OK. So you agree that people who break in and vandalize the building should be prosecuted?”

“Exactly.”

Collins then brought up Vance’s past support for the pro-Hair Furor insurrectionists who broke into the US Capitol on January 6.

And Vance gave :::crickets:::

KANSAS

State Republican legislators in Kansas failed to override Democrat Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors; the vote was two votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority.

The vote in the House was expected to be close after LGBTQ+ rights advocates raised questions about whether the provision against promoting social transitioning is written broadly enough to apply to public school teachers who show empathy for transgender students.

And that’s just a small taste of GOP lunacy ... dog killing liars, fearmongering liars, those in favor of child marriage so teens cannot get an abortion, book banning librarian jailers, those who are already saying the 2024 election is rigged, arming teachers, GOP hypocrisy, more liars about their military service … but there is some spots of Good News.

pardoning traitors for political points; gibberish speakers; anti-military criminals; lunatics and Big Liars; Christian Nationalist Nazi sympathizers; party over country fools; unfit for political office; liars and flip-floppers; and Arizona.

So what do we do if we want more Good News? We ...

Vote Blue. Here's Another Slew of Reasons Why

Here we are again, with a wee taste of the lunacy, racism, criminality, and bigotry and hate inside the GOP …

WASHINGTON DC

House Speaker and Good Christian Nationalist Mike Johnson went down to Mar-Illegal this week and came back to tell us that he is proposing a bill to make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote and the Cult cheered.

Of course, none of them made note of the fact that it’s already illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote.

You cannot fix stupid … and liars.

COLORADO

Don Wilson, a Republican state representative left a loaded, semiautomatic handgun in a bathroom at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday night at the same time that Democrats are trying to ban firearm possession in the building and the GOP is fighting them.

And yet the Wilson’s idiotic actions have proven why the Democrats stance in needed when even a so-called legislator can’t keep track of a loaded firearm.

KENTUCKY

Brian Ormes, a Republican candidate for state House of Representatives was arrested and booked for first-degree strangulation, menacing and fourth-degree assault with no visible injury.

According to Fort Wright police, the incident happened on Monday night when a 17-year-old male reported being assaulted by Ormes  inside the Walmart. Police say Ormes admitted to being in an altercation with juveniles because of their unruly behavior in the store, which he said impacted the safety of his child.

So he strangled a kid?

FLORIDA

While family and friends distributed posters of George Riley Jr., a missing Republican Party of Florida executive director, it was discovered that he was holed up in a Hampton Inn, where authorities say he trashed his room.

Riley was kicked out of a room at the Hampton Inn in Kissimmee after a desk clerk observed him “under the influence;” employees of the hotel had talked to Riley in his hotel room and found that he had “urinated and vomited throughout.” The assistant general manager noted that Riley was purchasing alcohol while staying at the hotel, and that he had bought so much booze from the store inside the hotel that the manager had to order more.

The party of Family Values, pissin’ and pukin’ …

ARIZONA

After the Arizona Supreme Court upheld their 1864 abortion law, which calls for 2-5 years in prison for anyone involved in performing an abortion, Kari Lake fired off a statement saying that she disagrees with the decision and hopes that the voters will overturn it in a referendum this November when her Senate race is also on the ballot against Ruben Gallego.

There’s just one big problem for lying, hypocritical fraudster Kari Lake … when she was running for Governor in 2022 she said the exact opposite repeatedly, saying she hoped that the Supreme Court would “do the right thing” and overturn Roe.

Huh, Kari Lake is a liar? Go figure …

IOWA

Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law this week making it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to be in Iowa. The law, which takes effect July 1, has elevated anxiety in Iowa’s immigrant communities and mirrors part of a Texas law that is currently blocked in court.

Even local police officers in the state are confused about the bill; Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert says immigration status does not factor into the department’s work to keep the community safe and that most police agencies are “not equipped, funded or staffed” to take on federal government responsibilities.

But, hey, the Governor wants Brown people arrested.

LOUISIANA

The Louisiana House Committee on Education advanced House Bill 121 by GOP Representative Raymond Crews that prohibits the use of transgender and nonbinary youth’s chosen names and pronouns in public K-12 schools without parental permission. In addition, House Bill 122 by GOP Representative Dodie Horton would limit discussion of gender and sexuality in public K-12 schools.

The Legislature approved both bills last year, though then-Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed them, and Republicans were unable to overturn his action. But now Louisiana has a GOP Governor, Jeff Landry, who  filed a card in support of both Crews’ and Horton’s Hate Bills.

GOOD NEWS

MAINE

After a fiery debate over a bill to protect health care workers who provide abortion and gender-affirming care from out-of-state lawsuits crossed a line in the Maine House and lead to lawmakers censuring two Republicans.

GOP Representative Michael Lemelin claimed that the mass shooting that killed 18 people last October in Lewiston, Maine and the recent winter storms were God’s revenge for “immoral” laws adopted by legislators, and he described the shield bill as “inspired by Lucifer himself” another GOP lawmaker, Shelley Rudnicki, announced that she agreed with Lemelin’s remarks.

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross told Lemelin and Rudnicki that the remarks were “extremely offensive and intentionally harmful to the victims and the families of the Lewiston tragedy, the House of Representatives, and the people of Maine.”

But, hey, God …

KANSAS

Democrat Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill that would ban transgender minors from receiving gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy, setting up another veto override fight over GOP efforts to regulate the lives of trans residents.

Kelly says the bill dictates to parents how to best raise and care for their children, adding that the legislation is not a “conservative value, and it’s certainly not a Kansas value” and “tramples parental rights.”

The measure passed in the Senate 27-13 with a veto-proof majority. The House vote was still two votes short of a veto-proof margin. But if two House Republicans who were absent from the initial floor vote now vote to override, the House would gain the two-thirds majority necessary.

And that’s just a small taste of GOP lunacy ... pardoning traitors for political points; gibberish speakers; anti-military criminals; lunatics and Big Liars; Christian Nationalist Nazi sympathizers; party over country fools; unfit for political office; liars and flip-floppers; and Arizona.

So what do we do? We ...

The Pedophiles Are Inside The Churches ... Still

I don’t follow rightwingnut and faux Christian, Tomi Lahren, on Twitter, but I do see her posts every so often, where she rants about the LGBTQ+ community and drag queens sexualizing and grooming children. And every time she posts her nonsense, I ask her—though she never responds because it doesn’t suit the Hate Narrative she pushes, why she says nary a word about so-called Men of God, Men of Faith, who groom and abuse children and are arrested and imprisoned for such.

So, here’s some info for Tomi, that I will share to her page, and no doubt not hear a word about it …

CALIFORNIA

Jose Andres Lopez, A retired Orange County pastor, was sentenced to 186 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two young girls with whom he is related from 1991 to 2020.

ALASKA

Dwight Chris John, age seventy-one, who served on the governing board of a Christian & Missionary Alliance church, has been charged with six counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the 1st Degree, seven counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor 2nd Degree, Sexual Abuse of a Minor 3rd Degree, and three counts of Incest. The Investigation is ongoing.

CALIFORNIA

Michael Sasser, a Modesto man who stepped down from his role as a church youth leader a month before his arrest has pleaded guilty to three counts of child molestation for acts that occurred during a period of months in 2022 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

KANSAS

Joseph Heidesch, s former private Catholic school teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, pleaded guilty to one felony count of sexual exploitation of a child and 25 counts of breach of privacy for secretly recording video of more than 100 girls and will spend five years in prison with no chance of parole.

VIRGINIA

Scott Asalone, now 66, A former Loudoun County Catholic priest, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old child; Asalone is required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

TEXAS

Daniel Savala, who’s accused of sexually abusing multiple men in the Assemblies of God’s Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, has also been arrested in Houston on sex abuse charges involving minors.

It’s the second arrest in an investigation started in April by Waco Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit. On May 23, Chris Hundl, former leader of the Chi Alpha chapter at Baylor University and pastor of Mountain Valley Fellowship in Waco, was arrested on identical charges in Waco. According to police records, Hundl drove two boys to Savala’s residence in Houston where Savala “masturbated both children” in his home sauna.

OHIO

Robert Auxter, a former Monroe pastor at Grace Lutheran Church was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of Gross Sexual Imposition, which are third-degree felonies. Auxter is required to register as a tier 2 sex offender.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Daniel Kellan Mayfield, youth pastor at Gowensville First Baptist Church faces new charges of video recording girls—as young as 14—in the bathroom of the church he was fired from recently. He was also charged with using his phone to video record a woman while she was showering at her mother’s home in Greenwood County.

PENNSYLVANIA

Brandon S. Dasilva, a former youth pastor in Ephrata man is charged with possessing child pornography—and it’s not his first offense; he was also charged in February 2021 and failed to register his Twitch account and email address with Pennsylvania State Police, which was a condition of a prior conviction.

MAINE

Raymond K. Chang, a 36-year-old pastor at “Resurrection Church” was arrested on a warrant alleging he sexually assaulted a child. The victim reported being sexually assaulted by Chang multiple times from when she was 12 to 14 years old. The affidavit quotes the victim as saying that she reported the sexual abuse to a family member and in response the family got together with members of Chang’s former church—which is not named in the affidavit—and she was told to apologize and to forgive Chang.

CALIFORNIA

Steven Brian Arey, a former youth pastor in Tulare who was working for the California Department of Corrections at the time of his arrest in 2019, was sentenced to 300 years in prison on 20 counts of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Kevin Straughan, a former minister of Agape Ministries Church, is accused of strangulation and sexual assault and is being investigated for similar charges in Florida. Straughan has been indicted on several charges, including four counts of sexual assault and second-degree assault of children. Police said the victims were people he knew, including children.

TEXAS

Michael Anthony Romero, a former employee of a Magnolia church, has turned himself in and confessed to ‘inappropriate behavior with adolescents’ during his time at the ministry.

OHIO

The Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias, a Roman Catholic priest who has led parishes in Mansfield and Fremont, has been found guilty on all five counts of sex trafficking, two of which involved victims who were minors. Zacharias admitted to having had sexual relations with several men but maintained that the sex never involved anyone younger than 18 but a nine-page affidavit accuses Zacharias of “grooming” victims to use their drug addiction as a way to perform sexual acts on them.

MISSISSIPPI

Daniel Paul Harris, a Mississippi educator who, with his wife, founded the Kaimen Center to provide activities and experiences for children and adults of varying disabilities, was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of molestation involving a child, two counts of sexual battery and one count of unnatural intercourse.

CALIFORNIA

Stephen McCurtis, pastor at Maricopa Community Church, has been charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child after a girl alleged McCurtis kissed and touched her inappropriately. The girl when she was 12 & 13 at the time. McCurtis denies touching the child intimately but told a deputy that he kissed her but claims he was not the pursuer, that the 13-year-old girl pursued him.

LOUISIANA

Jacob De La Paz, who left his employ at St. Thomas More High School abruptly, has been arrested after a video surfaced showing him shirtless and apparently saying sexually suggestive things to student he tutors. He has been charged with the federal crime of enticing a minor to produce child pornography or child sexual assault material.

IOWA

Jordan Dee Andrew Webb, who served as a missionary in the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, was found guilty of one count of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony; incest, a class D felony; and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

See, Tomi, not one drag queen or gay person in the bunch, and yet these people, many of whom have been arrested, charged, tried and found guilty, or admitted guilt, will every appear on your timeline, because you just want to push forward the rightwing, GOP, faux Christian, lies about LGBTQ+ people.

But we see you, and we know who’s grooming children.

h/t JoeMyGod

Meme Dump

The Funny Papers

Dave Whamond, Jack Ohman, Ed Wexler, Bill Bramhall, JD Crowe, Nick Anderson, Drew Sheneman, Ed Hall, John Deering, Mike Thompson, Clay Bennett, Ted Littleford, Matt Wuerker, David Cohen, Mike Luckovich, Michael de Adder

The Bad and Some Good ... Monday May 16, 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 were a couple of semi-bright spots … so here goes:

KENTUCKY

A homework assignment given to several middle-schoolers at Christian Academy of Louisville [CAL] encouraged them to persuade an imaginary friend to reject homosexuality.

Not so much as Don’t Say Gay, as Don’t Be Gay. Screenshots show the assignment required students to write a letter to a hypothetical friend "struggling with homosexuality" and persuade them "God's design for them is good”:

"Assume that you have known this friend since kindergarten, that you go to the same church and that you have been pretty good friends over the years until now … The aim of your letter should be to lovingly and compassionately speak truth to the person you’re talking to in a way that does not approve of any sin. Instead, TRY TO PERSUADE THEM OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S DESIGN for them."

CAL School System Superintendent Darin Long said the assignment had been given as “part of a unit of study which discusses 'What are humans and where is their identity, and how a person could discuss homosexuality with a friend from a biblical perspective with compassion and love.

You’re sinning; you’re wrong: that doesn’t reek of compassion and love. Judgement. Not so Christ-like, CAL.

KANSAS

It seems the GOP’s newest strategy to win votes it to trot out that old ‘Gay Is Bad’ mantra that helped George W Bush take the White House in 2000. And Kansas’ junior senator, Republican Roger Marshall, is taking his culture war fight to Hollywood and cartoons.

Marshall sent a letter to the board of the TV Parental Guidelines asking it to update its criteria for the warnings it puts on children’s programming citing “parents raising legitimate concerns on sexual orientation and gender identity content on children’s TV shows.” When asked for a list of the offensive LGBTQ+ programming, Marshall spoke of Netflix’s “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” and Nickelodeon’s “Danger Force” and the idea that normalizing these cartoons will turn kids gay.

I used to watch Bugs Bunny slap on a wig and squeeze into a pencil skirt to pull one over on Elmer Fudd and it didn’t turn me trans.

I also watched plenty of cartoons that were decidedly straight and they didn’t turn me hetero.

As Popeye said, 'I yam what I yam,' and it ain’t no cartoon’s fault..

TEXAS

Governor Greg Abbott and other GOP state lawmakers shifted about $1 billion in federal Coronavirus aid to help pay for their campaign to arrest migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

We just passed a million COVID deaths in this country and the GOP is using money that could have helped a COVID patient in a publicity stunt.

But, hey, immigrants bad.

AMERICA

Retired Army Lieutenant General, disgraced ex-National Security Advisor and QAnon High Priest Loon Michael Flynn is now spouting another ridiculous lie … that COVID vaccines contain “dormant pathogens” that will be triggered into action when 5G towers issue an 18 gigahertz signal for one minute causing the IP36 gene deletion among the vaccinated to be activated and turning them into zombies.

Looks like Flynn’s brain has already been eaten by the undead.

GOOD

TEXAS

The state Supreme Court has ruled that neither GOP Governor Greg Abbott nor GOP Attorney General Kern Paxton had the authority to order child abuse investigations of families that provide certain medical treatment for their transgender children.

The downside is that the court did not go so far as to order a blanket ban on all such investigations, saying that decision was up to the Department for Family and Protective Services [DFPS].

Still, it’s a step …

FLORIDA

Lyman High School students were upset after school officials announced that they would cover up any yearbook photos that displayed any part of a “Don’t Say Gay” student-led walkout last March, causing a delay in yearbook production so the book could fit in with homophobic school board policies.

But the yearbook controversy has ended and Lyman High School students will receive a complete yearbook, without covered photos and captions, after the Seminole County Public Schools board voted unanimously to put disclaimer stickers in the yearbook instead of covering three … three … photos from that student walkout.

The photos in question? Students holding Rainbow flags and a “Love is Love” sign, along with quotes from students sharing their views on the legislation and why they participated in the protest.

A small win, but I’ll take it.

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!