I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

A few years ago, musician Phil Collins went through an ugly divorce with Orianne Cevey. He was granted a divorce but she refused to leave the marital home until he had her removed, and then they got back together, though they remained divorced.

But it was while they were living together as a couple, and while Phil was on tour, that Orianne met and secretly married Thomas Bates in Las Vegas. The happy couple then took over Phil’s Miami house “‘by a show of force’ with armed guards who surrounded the property” and tried to have Phil evicted. But, once again, after a year, Phil had the lovebirds removed from his home, and suddenly Orianne was no longer happy with Thomas—who says she threatened to chop off his dick—and she filed for divorce.

And it’s through those divorce papers that we learn Orianne “ordered” Thomas through an escort service where he was, ahem, advertised as a “sexy intellectual” according to the divorce paperwork:

“At the time the parties met, Husband was employed by an escort service …. The Wife selected Husband through the escort service and insisted on dating him. The parties’ relationship rapidly progressed into a meaningful romantic relationship. Wife persuaded Husband to leave the escort service to marry her.”

Sadly, after getting the boot from Phil, Orianne posted the news of her divorce from Thomas on Instagram:

“I am filing for divorce from my husband, Thomas Bates. I believe the emotional distress of the COVID quarantine caused me to act in ways and do things that were out of character. Fortunately, I have faced challenging situations before and like I always have, I will muster the strength I can, the best team I can find and the courage to do the right thing.”

Part of that strength is gathered from entering Phil’s home—dammit, man, change the locks already—to auction off things in her life that no longer “sparked joy” … like Phil’s gold records, Phil’s awards, and 5,000 pairs of Phil’s shoes.

But all is not lost for Thomas, as he still has his dick and his escort resume, and because he and Orianne married with no prenup, the money she earns from purging her less joyous possessions is half his.

Until he finds another wife.

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Yes, I know, The Slap was the big news at the 94th Academy Awards but the Second Biggest News was Liza In A Wheelchair pushed onstage by Lady Gaga. But was that all that we thought it was, or not? The appearance of Liza Minnelli in that state caused many to worry about her physical state, but maybe the wheelchair was a second choice.

According to Liza’s friend and frequent collaborator, Michael Feinstein, Liza wasn’t happy with her appearance. Appearing on SIriusXM’s Jess Cagle Show Feinstein says Liza’s back has been giving her problems and she asked to appear onstage in a director’s chair alongside Gaga when the curtain opened, but just five minutes before she was set to present the Pest Picture award, a stage manager told her she had to use a wheelchair.

Liza initially said, “Fuck That!” and was prepared to come out on her own but Feinstein says she was forced into the wheelchair:

“She was nervous. I mean, and it made her look like she was out of it. And she was just so shaken up that it was. Can you imagine being suddenly forced to be seen by millions of people the way you don’t wanna be seen? That’s what happened to her.”

Really, Michael? Liza Effing Minnelli asks for a director’s chair and they couldn’t find one in all of Hollywood, but they just happened to have a wheelchair at the ready?

Try again.

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In 2017, Blac Chyna, who had a baby and a TV show—Rob & Chyna—with Rob Kardastrophe filed a lawsuit against the entire Kardastrophe-Jenner family—The Woman, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall, Kylie, and Rob—over claims of assault, battery, domestic violence, defamation and interference with prospective economic relations.

Chyna, whose real name is Angela White, ALLEGED that Rob is an abuser intent on destroying Angela White, the mother of his child, and she says that, in revenge, the Kardastrophe-Jenner family became media predators, slut-shaming her on social media and killing her hit television show [‘Rob & Chyna’] which had already begun filming a second season. And so now Chyna wants $40 million for loss of earning damages and $60 million in loss of future earning capacity damages.

But the best part is that, as the trial began, Kim, Khloé, Kylie and That Woman, appeared in the courtroom during jury selection; even better, they were left unprepared for what potential jurors think of them.

These Four Whores of the Apocalypse did not like it when their lawyer, Michael Rhodes, asked a group of potential jurors if they had strong positive or negative feelings toward reality television.

One man says he’d never watched Keeping Up with the Kardastrophes but:

“I have watched [Kim] Kardastrophe’s sex tape, and I don’t think I can be impartial on this case.”

The response elicited a roar of laughter from the other potential jurors, though the K’s were less than amused. Kim was ALLEGEDLY very upset, but then, you know, don’t lay flat on your back, heels to Jesus, letting your boyfriend ride you like a rodeo clown, and don’t drop to your knees to worship Dick, and film, and then let your mother sell that tape to a porn company to jumpstart your career, m’kay?

Several other people said they knew only about the K’s because their kids watch the show and follow them on social media, while one juror admitted it would be difficult to be impartial because he doesn’t like reality TV and wished the show “wasn’t on any longer.”

Here are more juror comments:

“Anything that has to do with their names is just a big no for me. I don’t think reality TV is good for society.”

“I sincerely hope none of these people get any wealthier because of this.”

“I don’t think they were the best role models. I wouldn’t let [my daughter] watch anything involving them.”

And it’s only going to worse for the K’s once the trial actually starts because Blac Chyna will say anything to get those 100 million coins.

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I Didn't Say It

Mallory McMorrow, Michigan Democrat State Senator, defending herself from an attack from Republican State Senator Lana Theis:

“I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can’t claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say No. You say, ‘She’s a groomer. She supports pedophilia. She wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they’re white.' I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense.”

This is what Democrats need to do. Stand the fuck up and speak the fuck up and call out this lunacy as nothing but a fear tactic meant to scare up votes for the GOP.

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Charlee Corra, child of Roy Disney, Walt’s grandnephew, has come out as transgender—pronouns are he/him and they/them—to speak out against the anti-LGBTQ+ bills that Disney originally failed to condemn:

“I had very few openly gay role models, and I certainly didn’t have any trans or nonbinary role models. I didn’t see myself reflected in anyone, and that made me feel like there was something wrong with me. That’s what makes legislation like the “Don’t Say Gay” law and other anti-trans laws so harmful … They can’t learn about their community and their history at school, or play sports or use the bathroom they want to use?”

It’s all about simple respect, taking people as they are, whether you fully understand it or not.

At the HRC gala, when Corra publicly came out, ha also announced that the Disney family would be matching donations of up to $250,000 at the annual Human Rights Campaign gala in March. Last week, Corra’s father Roy upped the ante to $500,000 in the fundraising email.

Maybe the family can help erase the harm that the company inflicted on the LGBTQ+ community.

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Ian Mackey, openly gay Missouri lawmaker, called out state Representative Chuck Basye’s new bill that allows school districts to vote on banning trans student athletes from youth sports, and brought up Basye’s own gay brother:

“Your brother wanted to tell you he was gay, didn’t he? Why would he think [his family wouldn’t accept him]? I would have been afraid to tell you too. I would have been afraid to tell you to because of stuff like this because this is what you're focused on. This is the legislation you want to put forward. This is what consumes your time ... I was afraid of people like you growing up. Thank God I made it out … I think every day about the kids who are still there who haven't made out, who haven't escaped from this kind of bigotry. Gentlemen, I'm not afraid of you anymore, because you're gonna lose. You may win this today, but you're going to lose.”

They’ve lost already when you realize how they shut people out, their own family members, for a vote, for a political position; they sold their souls for power.

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Tom Suozzi, New York Democrat state Representative, who is running against Governor Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary, has called a controversial new Florida law aimed at discouraging discussions about sexuality and gender in classrooms “reasonable”:

“I think it’s a very reasonable law not to try to get kids in kindergarten to be talking about sex. I wish it wouldn’t become such a hot button issue where people are just attacking each other—it’s just common sense. I’m very much in favor of equal rights, I’m very much in favor of treating gay people fairly and treating them like the human beings they are.”

And he thinks denying the right to exist in discussions is equal? No one, no one, is saying that kindergartners will be discussing sex, but if the topic of sexual orientation comes up—which, keep in mind, is not about sex, but orientation—simply explain that sometimes men love women, and sometimes men love men, and women love women..

It saddens me that a Democrat is either this ignorant or this pandering.

UPDATE: Suozzi wants to make clear that he doesn’t support Florida’s controversial new law restricting discussion of sexual orientation in schools, despite saying some aspects of it were “reasonable” and made “common sense.”

Uh huh. But that’s exactly what you said, until the public caught wind of it, and now you’re changing your tune.

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Frank Niceley, a Tennessee GOP state Senator, who voted in favor of a bill to cut down on homeless camps spoke on the Senate floor about how Adolf Hitler is an example of hope for the homeless:

“I haven’t given y’all a history lesson in a while and I wanted to give a little history on homelessness. In 1910 Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for two years Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses. And then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books.”

Last I checked he wasn’t in the history books for his eloquence, but for the murder of 11,000,000 human beings.

Seriously, Tennessee, this is what you elect to office? That explains your backwoods, back water, toothless cousin fucking state.

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Mayim Bialik, on how she was asked to "tone it down" while hosting, citing how her gender plays a role:

"I think as a woman there's a special consideration, because when women sound definitive or stern it's a different message than when men sound definitive or stern. And a lot of times when people will say, 'Oh, you sound like you think you know it all,' I'll think, 'Gosh, that's just because I'm using an affirmative voice.' One of the neat things about having a woman in this role is it's bringing up a lot of questions about the labels we put on those things. One of my biggest challenges is I'm so impressed that people know the answers that they've asked me to tone down how excited I am when people get them right, which I think is a great note to get."

Personally, I like Bialik on Jeopardy, even more than I like Ken Jennings, and to think they asked her to ‘tone it down’ seems highly misogynistic.

God forbid a woman should sound definitive.

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Bobservations

There are times when I feel like I’m living in a real-life version of some TV hick town where they roll the sidewalks up at 5PM every day.

Carlos recently had a court interpretation in a town called Cayce, about 45 miles from our home, and since he doesn’t drive, I took the day off from work and off we went. We got to the courthouse and went inside … there is one courtroom, and outside the courtroom door is a metal detector. Carlos told the bailiff what he was there for and we were told to have a seat and wait until the case was called.

We waited about a half hour and then another bailiff came out to tell Carlos that the client he was to translate for, had not shown up, and so the case was being held over until they could get the man there. Court was, in fact, over for the day, and it was just 9:30 AM.

But the best part was that, as Carlos filled out paperwork to get paid for his time, the bailiff walked over to the  metal detector, unplugged it, and wheeled it into a closet near the courtroom door; then she took the small table that held the one basket used to hold personal items as you went through the detector and tucked into the closet, too.

I was waiting for them to put the wheels on the courthouse and drive it to the next town for court.

Seriously, ask yourselves what the GOP has proposed to do about healthcare, or immigration, or climate change, or COVID because all they seem to do is push guns into our hands and scare us with migrants running amok over the borders and Mickey Mouse being a pedophile.

The GOP-controlled Florida Senate has voted to dissolve Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District as punishment for standing against the Don’t Say Gay Bill. The Reedy Creek Improvement Act allows Walt Disney World to reside in Florida unregulated, acting as its own “government” and creating a special taxing district that acts with the same authority as a county government.

The termination of this act transfers a whopping $2 billion worth of debt from Disney over to Florida taxpayers, resulting in a new tax assessment of $2200 a year for Orange and Osceola County families.

All because Ron DeSantis got his panties in a snit.

A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving child raping priests with some 300 victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.

You know, if the Catholic Church would simply have those rapists arrested and tried for their crimes, they might save some of the money that they are clearly fonder of than children.

Speaking of payouts … If you're ever sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and quietly say:

"Did you bring the money?"

It looks like GOPQAnon Madison Cawthorn is in hot water again!

Many North Carolinians are pissed at Maddie C. after he reportedly spent $2,950 to stay at Skylaranna—a luxury resort in his hometown of Hendersonville. And they’re even more angry that  he billed his constituents $2,000 that very same week for “food and beverages” from establishments like Chick-fil-A, Bojangles chicken, Joey’s NY Bagels, as well as a number of non-detailed payments to his government credit card.

Best of all, is that while Maddie was lounging at a luxury resort and shoving Chick-fil-A into his traitorous piehole, he Tweeted:

“Democratic politicians certainly love wasting your hard-earned tax dollars while forcing your businesses to shut down.”

Pot meet Kettle.

Once again Consuelo has expressed her displeasure that Tuxedo makes an appearance weekly in this space and she does not. So, she perched herself on the bed, slapped on her most imperious punim, and demanded to be photographed.

I obliged because she threatened to use my leg as a scratching post. Again.

I was shocked when I saw this, but it’s true … QAnon nutjob actor has-been Ricky Schroder is getting a star on the Walk of Fame.

Wait—what? It’s not the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it’s the lesser known, well, unknown, walk of fame in Valencia, so, um, yeah, congrats?

Remember the Bill O’Reilly meltdown on TV years back—if not, Google it, it’s high-larious.

Well, this week the meltdown happened again when Billy’s JetBlue flight to Turks and Caicos was delayed by several hours and he went off on an airline employee:

“You’re going to lose your job.”

And when the employee tries to respond, O’Reilly shrieks:

“You f***ing scumbag. Don’t talk to me like that.”

I don’t know what’s funnier, Bill O’Reilly going Full Karen in an airport, or Bill O’Reilly flying JetBlue.

The same Tucker Carlson who thinks gay people are disgusting is the Tucker Carlson telling men they need to tan their balls in a glowing vise.

Lastly we have model Casey Field who models for Wilhelmina. He’s kinda cute, kinda shy, kinda naked, but … Would You Hit It?

Architecture Wednesday: Suncrest

Another home on the water, though this one, Suncrest, is an idyllic retreat on Orcas Island.

This 3,000-square-foot residence sits on a 26-acre site comprised of a mature Douglas fir and Pacific madrone forest, with rock outcroppings and several small ponds. Since the clients wanted a home that minimized site impacts—and utilized their favorite materials like wood and concrete—the home was positioned where the forest gives way to a rocky clearing with views to the Salish Sea, a waterway straddling the United States and Canada. In addition, the home was carefully situated to require a minimum of tree removal and to allow every room in the long, narrow footprint of the home a view of the sea and forest.

The material palette of the home was chosen to harmonize with the colors and textures of the natural surroundings and consists of wood from the forest—Douglas fir and madrone—along with concrete, zinc, steel and glass.

It seems quite simple, simple style, simple materials, and yet the exteriors are fantastic. I love the gentle curve of the home, it’s narrow, basically one room wide, nature, it’s respect for the land and the forest.

I could live quite nicely there.

Click to emBIGGERate ...

Amazing Architecture

Bowen Turner Raped Three Women And Got Probation

Once again the headlines throughout South Carolina are focused on the state’s “injustice system” though this time is not about the Murdaugh Murders. This is about 19-year-old Bowen Turner, accused of raping three women between 2018 and 2019 but given just five years’ probation on a single charge of first-degree assault and battery thanks to Judge Markley Dennis.

One of those victims was Dallas Stoller who committed suicide in November 2021 due to alleged bullying from classmates for reporting the rape. Bowen Turner raped Dallas Stoller in 2019, six months after he’d been accused of raping another girl, and yet despite the availability of physical evidence and witness testimony—as well as an affidavit from Dallas Stoller—the sexual assault charges against Turner were dismissed, because Stoller had died.

No one seems to care that she died of a self-inflicted wound after being raped.

Worse, is that while  out on bond in Stoller’s case—and just 41 days after his lawyers successfully argued to have his ankle monitor removed—Bowen Turner was accused of raping Chloe Bess.

Bowen was placed on house arrest for the rape of Stoller, but between November 2021 and February 2022, he violated that court order more than 60 times; he visited a golf course, he went to friends’ houses; he even went to Dallas Stoller’s grave. And though the court order called for his immediate arrest upon violation, the Second Circuit Solicitor’s Office—which appears to have known about the violations since early March—failed to act.

Instead, at the end of March, a hearing was scheduled for early April 8 to address the violations, and yet that hearing turned out to be not about violating his house arrest, but about a plea deal put in place by his attorney, Brad Hutto, who happens to be a powerful state senator.

In that plea deal, Turner’s first-degree criminal sexual assault charge was reduced to a first-degree assault and battery charge, even though Chloe Bess was willing to testify that she had been raped. Funny, though, because the plea deal now states that Bowen Turner just “harmed” or threatened to harm Chloe Bess, the same girl Brad Hutto slut-shamed in court in 2019, claiming she had consensual sex with Turner. Turner’s deal requires him to adhere to the rules of the sex offender registry for the next five years, and if he does that, the serial rapist will not have to register as a sex offender.

These are the facts of the cases against Bowen Turner … from the two young women who spoke out:

Dallas Stoller knew Bowen Turner. They were classmates and their families knew each other. They had the same friend circle, which was why they were both at the same party on Oct. 7, 2018.

Stoller admitted to drinking at the party, btu at some point her friends noticed she’d gone missing. One of her friends searched the woods and found Dallas Stoller lying on the ground unresponsive, and Bowen Turner standing over her  pulling his pants up.

Dallas Stoller’s mother picked her up shortly after she was found and took her to a hospital. She was badly beaten, bloody and bruised, one of her eyes was completely bloodshot from strangulation, and her was black and blue from strangulation.

Dallas completed a sexual assault exam at Medical University of South Carolina and identified her attacker as Bowen Turner. In January 2019, Turner was arrested and charged in Dallas’ case.

It was during the investigation, that Dallas’ family learned that Bowen Turner had been accused of another rape in April 2018 in Calhoun County. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division [SLED], investigated a third sexual assault accusation made against Turner, but no charges were filed in that case. 

But Bowen Turner, under arrest for raping Dallas Stoller, was released on a $10,000 bond and ordered to wear an ankle monitor. Three months later, his attorneys asked to have his ankle monitor removed, even though there was ample evidence that Turner violated his probation,  and the solicitor’s office and the judge agreed.

In early June 2019, Bowen Turner was accused of the rape of Chloe Bess.

Chloe Bess had gone out with a group of friends and her twin brother, but after a miscommunication, her brother and best friend left the party without her to get food. Chloe stepped outside to call her best friend and that’s when Bowen Turner found her.

Bowen Turner lived down the street from Chloe Bess and attended church where Bess’ father was the pastor, but they weren’t good friends. Bess told Turner she was going to leave, but he kept telling her not to leave; she found that strange and says:

“And then I just remember him pulling me into, like a tree line. There was a truck parked there. The next thing I know, I’m on the ground, and he’s a lot bigger than me, I only weigh like 115 pounds, … and so there was not much I could do at that moment in time.”

Chloe Bess says she tried to scream but nothing came out, and that’s when Bowen Turner raped her. After the assault, Chloe Bess got up and ran as fast as she could, hiding in the bushes and calling her friend.

Chloe Bess also had a sexual assault exam at the hospital and reported the assault to authorities and named Bowen Turner as her rapist.

Turner was again arrested. Though he was initially denied bond, his attorney, Brad Hutto, argued that Turner didn’t belong in the Department of Juvenile Justice because he “wasn’t a gang member.”

A judge placed Turner on house arrest with strict guidelines, and we already know how that went down; Bowen Turner, a privileged white rapist ignored the law and did as he pleased.

But what did Dallas Stoller and Chloe Bess do? Well, they endured significant bullying from people in the Orangeburg community, who posted comments on social media with the hashtag #FreeBowen. It was so bad for both girls, they changed schools.

Chloe Bess moved out of South Carolina state , while Dallas Stoller transferred from the College of Charleston to the University of South Carolina Beaufort, where the bullying continued until she took her own life last November.

How does this happen? How does a serial rapist get off so easily?

Well, in South Carolina, circuit court judges are ”elected” by state lawmakers, many of whom are trial lawyers. This system gives attorneys who are also legislators an unusual amount of power because the judges who rule in their cases also need their support for reelection. These legislator-attorney’s roles also grant them access to public agencies that non-legislator attorneys might not have, and it is because of this system that legislator-attorneys—many of whom are handsomely paid for their services—are particularly well-positioned to defend their clients. Critics of the system say these attorneys aren’t hired for their legal skills so much as they are for their influence.

In the case of Bowen Turner, it appears to have been either money well-spent or the perfect storm.

Prosecutor David Miller is highly respected in his field and has a long list of accomplishments in his career, but Miller has sought to become a circuit court judge and so would need support from members of the legislature … like Bowen Turner’s attorney, Brad Hutto, who has been a state senator since 1996.

In addition, Bowen Turner’s father, Walt Turner, was an investigator with the 1st Circuit Solicitor’s Office at the time Turner was charged, making him another familiar face in the Orangeburg Courthouse.

Then there’s Judge Markley Dennis who is known as a judge who is inherently friendly to defendants. According to news reports from 1994 to the present, Judge Markley Dennis has a history that includes controversial decisions:

In 1995 he sentenced a father, who admitted to raping his daughter from the age of 5 until she was 14, to therapy.

In 2000, Dennis was criticized for the light sentences he handed out to the perpetrators of one of the biggest public embezzlement scandals at the time in Sumter County. More than $3 million was stolen, misspent and misappropriated by more than a dozen Sumter school district administrators, and yet one of the men, a popular coach who was facing up to 25 years in prison, was given just 90 days in jail. The coach was ordered to pay $45,000 in restitution despite the more than $200,000 he’d been accused of taking.

The sick part of this is that these so-called legislator-attorneys defend this kind of bull shit by saying this is “how things work.”

Bowen Turner can rape three women in South Carolina, but not face charges in one case because the victim killed herself waiting for her day in court, and not face charges in the other case because a state Senator slut-shamed the girl.

It really isn’t the heat, it’s the stupidity.

Bowen Turner is a rapist. Everybody needs to know that.

And Brad Hutto needs to know that when Bowen Turner rapes again, and I’ve no doubt he will, that crime will be on his hands, too, because he used his influence over a judge to get a rapist off.

The Bad and The Good ... Monday April 18, 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 …

Florida

The Department of Education has said the state will exclude over fifty proposed math textbooks because their content included references to critical race theory and other “prohibited topics” and “unsolicited strategies.”

In math books?

Perhaps they were suspicious of the “secret” meanings behind the = and ≠ signs?

I mean, it is Flori-duh, after all.

GEORGIA

GOP Governor Brian Kemp is expected to sign a bill allowing Georgia residents to carry handguns in public without a license or background check into law Tuesday.

Yes, you don’t need a license, and no one will check if you are a criminal, a domestic batterer, a thief, a person suffering from mental illness, or just an angry White man looking to even the score.

What could go wrong?

Florida

GOPQanon Governor Ron DeSantis has joined his fellow Republican governors in stomping on a woman’s right to make her own healthcare choices by signing a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks.

The bill does not grant exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.

So, Florida, if your husband rapes you daughter, set up the nursery! If any woman is being trafficked and ends up pregnant, then traffic the baby, too.

Always remember that in Florida, woman cannot choose.

Mississippi

For the third year in a row, GOP Governor Tate Reeves has declared April to be Confederate Heritage Month, keeping a tradition his predecessors began 29 years ago, saying:

“April is the month when, in 1861, the American Civil War began between the Confederate and Union armies, reportedly the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil.”

And, this is rich, after issuing the same proclamation last year, Reeves appeared Fox News to say there “is not systemic racism in America.”

Reeves' Confederate Heritage Month proclamation comes a month after he signed a so-called "critical race theory" ban into law, saying CRT "humiliates" white people and makes white children "feel guilty because of their race."

No, they feel guilty letting racist pricks govern their state.

And now for some good …

Pennsylvania

Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has pulled ahead as the US Senate frontrunner over Conor Lamb, with 41% of registered Democrats saying they support him and 17% of voters supporting Lamb.

Fetterman first gained notoriety in 2013 when, as mayor of a small Pennsylvania town, he defied state law and performed a same-sex marriage ceremony. In 2021 he made national news by defying a ban on rainbow flags in the Pennsylvania Capitol.

Vote Blue Pennsylvania.

Tennessee

The General Assembly’s bill that sought to create a legal marriage pathway available only to straight couples will not advance this year following public outcry over the initial version of the legislation.

After a tough line of questions from GOP colleagues bill sponsor Representative Tom Leatherwood said he wanted to send the bill to summer study. The move kills the bill for the session, though it could re-emerge next year.

Good.

Kansas

Democrat Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a proposal that would have banned transgender athletes from girls’ sports and another that would have required schools to let parents challenge classroom curriculum, something she calls a “teacher demoralization act.”

Republican lawmakers are expected to try to override both of the vetoes, but face potentially long odds.

Good.

America

With at least 15 states enacting or considering bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the U.S. Air Force is offering medical, legal, and relocation assistance to servicemembers whose families have been harmed by such laws, according to a recent press release:

“Various laws and legislation are being proposed and passed in states across America that may affect LGBTQ Airmen, Guardians, and/or their LGBTQ dependents in different ways. The Department of the Air Force [DAF] has assignment, medical, legal and other resources available to support Airmen, Guardians and their families. The health, care and resilience of our DAF personnel and their families is not just our top priority … We are closely tracking state laws and legislation to ensure we prepare for and mitigate effects to our Airmen, Guardians and their families. Medical, legal resources, and various assistance are available for those who need them.”

Also, if the service members live in states where it’s illegal for trans youth to get medical care, “Commanders can work to get the service member to an assignment where their loved ones can receive the care they need.”

The Air Force is the only branch of the U.S. military known to be offering these services to servicemembers and their queer and trans family members.

Now, that’s Good News.

Please note that the Good News, the sensible news, comes from Democrat-run states, and Democratic Governors. That speaks volumes.

Get educated and save yourselves from The Stupids.

And CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!