Ain't That America VII

Well, what a week it's been in America … floods killed over a hundred people in Texas while the government twiddled … now a pair of GOPers are claiming Democrats control the weather … the Cult is real and they love being sent to one of Kristi’s Koncentration Kamps … TACO flipped and flopped on tariffs again … DUI hire Pete Hegseth overstepped after perhaps being over-served … and some good news from couple of spots, even from a Republican … The Felon in tights …

Under pressure from worried farmers and hotel owners, The Felon’s regime put on their Flip Flops to launch a program to streamline issuing visas for temporary, migrant workers to try to make sure fruits get picked, meat is packed and lodgings are cleaned.

I have a suggestion … create a pathway for citizenship to every immigrant and just round up and deport the criminals.

Multiple governors say they’re being increasingly pushed to scrounge for disaster recovery money without the support they traditionally rely on from the federal government. The Felon has the sole power to issue disaster declarations, but states are finding emergencies that would usually qualify for federal assistance are being slow-walked or denied in recent months.

Well, what do they expect? He’s busy helping the 1%.

As FEMA responds to the deadly flooding in Texas, one key resource is missing: FEMA leader. David Richardson, the agency’s acting administrator. He has not been to the site of one of the nation’s deadliest floods in this country in the past 25 years.

Former FEMA officials said Richardson’s absence raises concerns that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem AKA Border Barbie AKA Dogkiller AKA Koncentration Kamp Kristi is controlling FEMA’s response.

The Felon announced plans to impose a 50% tariff on all goods from Brazil, in part due to the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged plot to remain in power after losing an election.

Criminals stick together.

The Felon is so dumb? How dumb is he? So dumb that he praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking “such good English.” Odd,. Cuz Liberia’s official language is … English … while The Felon’s is blabbering bull shit.

Immigrants being detained in federal holding rooms in Lower Manhattan have complained of being unable to bathe or change clothes, cramped conditions, sometimes being provided just one meal a day, and sleeping on concrete benches or the floor.

But they’re brown people so, yeah, the regime doesn’t care.

GOP Representative, and certified asshatted loon, Tim Burchett has cosponsored Marjorie Taylor Greene’s House bill that would ban supposed weather control by the Democrats.

Yes, that’s what they believe and, well, say it’s, true … could Democrats send a hurricane to Large Marge’s house and slide a tornado over Burchett’s home?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine, setting off a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government and the so-called president.

At a press conference, when asked who authorized the pause, the inept, confused, demented, hate-filled lump of gelatinous rotted flesh AKA The Felon, said:

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”

Sounds like a well-oiled machine, doesn’t it?

The TACO is insisting ::: foot stomp head snap ::: that the August 1 tariff deadline set this week in letters to U.S. trading partners is firm and won’t change though it’s the opposite of what he said earlier in the week when he said the deadline was “firm but not 100% firm.”

Flabbier than his fat ass.

After the Big Billionaire Bill passed both the House and Senate, Wisconsin GOP Representative Derrick Van Orden responded to this Tweet:

“17 million people just lost health care. 18 million kids just lost school meals. 3 million Americans just lost food assistance.”

… with:

“YES!”

When they tell you who they are, believe them, and Van Orden has told you he is a goose-stepping fascist who works for The Felon and The Billionaire Class, but does nothing for We The People.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins wants all the immigrants removed from the fields across America and replaced with people on Medicaid.

So, if you’re looking for your Nana to take her to her chemo treatment, check the corn fields.

Arpineh Masihi, a devout MAGAt is being held in a detention center in the Mojave Desert and wants y’all to know that she still supports The Felon.

Masihi was born in Iran but has been in the US since she was three. She became a target for ICE over crimes committed 17 years ago, was arrested in June, and says this from her detention cell

“He’s doing the right thing because lots of these people don’t deserve to be here. I will support him until the day I die. He’s making America great again.”

And they say it’s not a cult. Good luck back in Iran, dear.

A federal judge has once again barred the regime from enforcing The Felon’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship.

US District Judge Joseph Laplante made the ruling after immigrant rights advocates implored him to grant class action status to a lawsuit they filed seeking to represent any babies whose citizenship status would be threatened by implementation of the regime’s racist directive.

One step forward …

North Carolina GOP Senator Thom Tillis has a warning for the regime as he finishes out his time in office:

“The president should know if there is anyone coming up for a nomination through any committee of my jurisdiction that excuse January 6 that they’re not going to get confirmed in my remaining tenure in the US Senate.”

Tillis is still angry about the violent events that unfolded after The Felon sent a mob of criminals, drug dealers and rapists to attack the US Capitol to protest the 2020 election results.

With little discussion, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed three bills intended to provide further safeguards to LGBTQ+ citizens: the first bill prohibits the withholding or denial of elective medical care based on a person’s real or perceived gender identity or expression; the second bill aims to pre-emptively shield the LGBTQ community against being barred from society by future federal legislation; the third bill lessens the legal penalty for engaging in sex work from a misdemeanor to a summary offense.

Good on Pittsburgh.

Federal immigration agents would be banned from wearing most face coverings but be required to wear visible ID during public enforcement operations, according to a proposal from Democratic U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Cory Booker.

If the ICEstapo is doing nothing wrong, then show yourselves, identify yourselves.

In a new documentary, Surviving Ohio State, survivors of sexual predator Dr. Richard Strauss say Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan knew about the sexual abuse the student-athletes suffered and did nothing about it.

Jordan declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but his name is frequently brought up by former Ohio State wrestlers and a referee.

Jordan knew and did nothing; he’s complicit.

And now for a laugh … The Felon was ridiculed last week after the White House posted an image of the gelatinous lump of flesh as Superman with the tagline:

“THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN [_____].”

Of course, people had words:

“Guess the Epstein list is your kryptonite, huh?”

“As a Trump voter, this is cringy as hell.”

“Just imagine the response if the Biden White House had posted something like this. But Trump is graded on some kind of never-seen-before curve and this craziness is normalized.”

The AI hilarity is right next to the real blubbering tool.

PS MAGAts are up in arms because the director of the new Superman film, James Gunn, keeps reminding them that Superman is an immigrant!

So there we have it, another week of madness and sadness and fascism and racism down, and another week closer to the midterms where you know what to do ...

Stories of Pride: It's Not Just A Hug

Scott Dittman’s friend, Denna, told him she was headed off to Pittsburgh Pride with the LGBTQ support organization called Free Mom hg, and he decided to tag along. But first, he bought a t-shirt thatsaid:

“Free dad hugs.”

And he went along and wandered through the celebration; a celebration where some in the crowd, might have had fathers and mothers who disowned them for being LGBTQ. Dittman had no idea how much his shirt, and a hug, would mean to those who saw him, and to him. He posted his story to Facebook:

“I know that she saw me from across the street. I wasn’t paying attention. By the time she got to me, she had tears in her eyes. She stood in front of me and looked up at me, with a look of sadness and helplessness that I’ll never forget. She hugged me with everything she had. And I hugged her back. She held on for so long, melting into me, and thanked me endlessly. And I can’t stop thinking about her.

What she must be going thru with her family … the ones who are supposed to be there for her no matter what. Who does she go to when she needs advice on love, money or just life? Who does she share old memories with that only her parents would have been there for? What are her holidays like? How often does she hope for that phone call, with unconditional love on the other end?

I don’t know her story. But it doesn’t feel like a huge leap to assume she’s lost those who should love her the most and forever.”

The second person he hugged broke down in tears as well.

“He was kicked out at 19 when his parents found out. They haven’t spoken to him since. He cried on my shoulder. Sobbed. Squeezed me with everything he had. I felt a tiny bit of that pain that he carries with him every minute of every day. He was abandoned because of who he loves.

You could tell they hadn’t had something as simple as a hug from their dad in a long time. That broke my heart. It was an honor to be involved in that, but it was terrible at the same time.”

He concluded his Facebook post with these words:

“Imagine that, parents. Imagine that your child feels SO LOST FROM YOU that they sink into the arms of a complete stranger and sob endlessly just because that stranger is wearing a shirt offering hugs from a dad. Think of the depths of their pain. Try to imagine how deep those cuts must be.

Please don’t be the parent of a child that has to shoulder that burden. I met WAY too many of them, of all ages, today.”

Since sharing his story, Dittman says he’s been contacted by over 1,500 people. Obviously, many have been rejected by their parents for being LGBTQ, but he also heard from parents, who’d rejected their own children, but read his post and wanted to thank him for doing what they hadn’t done with their own children.

2019, and parents are still turning their backs on their children for being who they are, and yet a stranger has more empathy, sympathy, love and compassion.

The march really does go on …

LGBTQ Nation

Being Transgender In High School ... In Pittsburgh ... In Utah

Late last week, calling it the right thing to do for some of their “most vulnerable” children, the Pittsburgh Public School board voted unanimously to enact a nondiscrimination policy that outlines the rights, protections and support systems that area schools must provide for transgender students.

The guidelines allow transgender students to use bathrooms and participate in physical education classes and intramural sports that align with their gender identity; even better, it asks that trans students be addressed by their preferred name and gender pronoun. Trans students may  request alternative accommodations, including a private office restroom, curtain partition or a separate changing space if they feel uncomfortable but the new policy also makes it clear that “under no circumstance should any student be required to use sex-segregated faculties that are inconsistent with their gender identity.”

It’s a move in the right direction, and a continuing understanding of what it means to be transgender; it’s a good move for the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

But … at the very same time, Utah’s Alpine School District board members are pushing the district to reject $40 million in federal funding because of the Obama administration’s order for public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

Basically, they’re saying, ‘Keep your 40 million, we want to discriminate transgender students instead.’

I guess teaching hate is better than having an extra $40 million in your school budget.

Pittsburgh

Utah

Architecture Wednesday: Emerald Art Glass House

The term ‘one-of-a-kind’ home is one that gets bandied about a lot; rarely are the homes one of-a-kind, but rather they are just amazing homes, on beautiful lots. And then you have those ‘work from home’ spaces, which really seem like glorified office space.

Well, the Emerald Art Glass House is truly a one-of-a-kind home and, well, not a work from home space, but a work under home space.

The house is a site-sensitive, cantilevered home for the owners of Emerald Art Glass, located on Pittsburgh’s South Side slopes. The home actually floats above the glass manufacturing facility and resembles a modern day foreman’s shack.

The industrial shape of the home, and the steel siding, help it to relate to the factory below, while a living roof connects the house visually to the slopes beyond.

Glass products are featured throughout, celebrating the owner’s craft: A radical, north-facing, butted, “Greenheat” radiant-heated GLASS facade functions from outside as a sign for the glass factory and from inside as a view catcher. A unique, glass rain-screen system clads a concrete block core. Inside the core, a glass stairway winds its way from the ground floor to the kitchen.

And it’s green: the architect decided to ‘recycle space’ in the same way we recycle our garbage, by putting to use the unused space above the owner’s warehouse in a dense urban neighborhood. In addition, the house is crafted of recycled materials and geothermal well-generated forced air complements the radiant heated floors and glass.

Emerald Art Glass house is located near that other architectural marvel, Falling Water, but it extends three times farther than that Wright House, making it probably the world's longest residential cantilever.

It’s quite the hangover.

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