The Fight for Mahto Paha.

Courtesy aimag.com The new Full Throttle Saloon’s plans call for construction of 400 cabins and RV hookups shown in the aerial photo at the base of Bear Butte.

Courtesy aimag.com
The new Full Throttle Saloon’s plans call for construction of 400 cabins and RV hookups shown in the aerial photo at the base of Bear Butte.

The fight for the sacred grounds of Bear Butte has not gone well, and now the biggest asshole of biker assholes is planning on wholesale desecration. White people, so darn thoughtful and stuff.

Tribal leaders fear that Bear Butte, one of the seven traditional sacred sites of Northern Plains tribes in or near the Black Hills, is in serious danger of further moral and environmental degradation after a local planning board recommended that Meade County commissioners grant full approval for construction of the “world’s biggest biker bar” on a campground practically at the base of the butte.

Applying for the plot approval is Michael Ballard, whose original Full Throttle Saloon, east of Sturgis, was widely hyped to be the “World’s Largest Biker Bar.” He hopes this new Full Throttle Saloon will be even more successful than the original, which burned down last September. Ballard has obtained unanimous preliminary approval from the Meade County Planning Commission on April 18 and from the Meade County Commission on May 11.

Rosebud Sioux Tribe, President William Kindle, reached in his office Wednesday, said the tribe continues to explore every option to prevent further desecration around “Mato Paha,” and stood by his May 25 statement to the planning board, in which he said his tribe had “grave concerns because this would additionally impact an area that is already stressed by those outsiders who feel the need to develop additional adult entertainment/play spaces, which are located in close proximity to our place of prayer, Bear Butte.

“Not only would this bring additional people imbibing in alcohol, and obnoxious revelry near our sacred site, there would most likely be a serious impact to the water and the ecology of the area.” In addition to a new Full Throttle Saloon, Ballard’s plans call for construction of 400 cabins and additional RV hookups for an adjacent campground — to be named The Pappy Hoel Campground.

Full Story at ICTMN.

Sunday Facepalm

Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.

Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.

Well, the KKK is back at it with their little flier campaign. It’s a bit more involved than the last effort in Georgia.

Following the mass shooting at gay nightclub ‘Pulse’ in Orlando, Florida, the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi gave out anti-gay pamphlets to the homes in Gautier and Ocean Springs along the Gulf Coast.

[…]

In response to news reports of the incident, Brent Waller, who identifies as the Imperial Wizard of the United Dixie White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Realm of Mississippi, said it’s his right to distribute whatever material even if locals do not welcome them.

‘I got the same right under the First Amendment to pass out pamphlets and literature just the same as the newspaper does,’ Waller told the Hattiesburg American.

Waller defended his group’s anti-gay sentiments by saying that black people and Muslims are also their list.

‘[The pamphlets were] put out in a legal fashion, nobody’s being targeted,’ he said. ‘There’s some things about gays, but there’s also some things about blacks and we’re coming out with one on Muslims next week.’

Goodness, he sounds a wee bit defensive. I’ll admit to being quite amused at the politically correct disclaimer after the Boycott 101’s final paragraph:

“Don’t let the outside immoral crowds and their news media get your butt in a bind. We will never bow to homosexuality and bestiality or other unnatural sexual perversions that go against the laws of nature and GOD.”

It said: “This is a mass flier drive, no one is being targeted because of race, religion, national or sexual orientation.“

Emphasis mine. Not overly amused though, because while the Klan is not remotely the same powerful organization it used to be, given the rise of the far right everywhere, along with white nationalism, it doesn’t pay to completely discount such groups. There’s a great deal of ugly in the Boycott 101 flier, but even the Klan, it seems, has had to learn where to carefully draw a line.

And Waller said he and his group don’t want outsiders coming into his state “spreading their liberal agenda.”

“Our state is being bombarded by outside views,” he said. “They get on the news about the flag and gay rights agenda.”

But the straight white perspective is rarely told, even though the bulk of Mississippi residents are white, Waller said.

According to a U.S. Census report issued in July 2014, an estimated 62 percent of the state’s residents are white.

“We’re the Klan that’s been here since the Civil War,” Waller said. “We have long been the voice for the white right wing. People may not like our views, but we are entitled to them.

“We’re not out here hanging people no more, but we certainly have some viewpoints that some people don’t agree with, but we certainly have some who do. I don’t sugarcoat it. I’m not politically correct. We are the main group for the white man. We have been for 150 years.”

Waller said the UDWK will continue to push for the right to be heard.

“We’re really going to get the message out this summer,” he said. “As long as we’re not using any inflammatory or hate-type material in our fliers we’re OK.”

And contrary to popular belief, Waller said, he has nothing against gays as long as they don’t flaunt their lifestyle.

“If somebody wants to live a certain lifestyle, I’m cool with that,” he said. “But if they want to push their agenda on us … I had one of those gay churches contact me. I told them I’m going to pray for you. You don’t have to worry about us harming you, but I think what you are doing is wrong.”

It does appear, at least for now, that the Klan remains mostly de-fanged.

Via Hattiesburg American, and Gay Star News. Boycott 101 Flier.

The Pulpit Stomp, O Those Filthy Sodomites!

Pastor Steven Anderson (Screenshot/YouTube)

Pastor Steven Anderson (Screenshot/YouTube)

After the June 12 massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Anderson posted a video in which he said there are “50 less pedophiles” in the world. Forty-nine people were killed in the mass shooting at the gay nightclub.

Anderson has been reaping the consequences of his words, and he is not happy about it.

“It’s war. You know what the filthy sodomites have done toward our church and us, and our friends and our fellow pastors that actually have the guts to say what needs to be said? Here’s what they’ve done in the last few weeks,” he told his congregation. “They got our PayPal account shut down so that we can’t take anymore online donations. We set up with another company, GivLet, they got that shut down. Qgiv, they got that shut down. BitPay, they got that shut down. They shut down our iTunes podcast. They shut down Brother Jimenez’s PayPal account. They shut down Brother Romero’s PayPal account… The landlord of Pastor Jimenez is saying, ‘hey we’re not going to renew your lease.’”

[…]

Anderson was clearly angry that these words have come back to haunt them.

“I mean these people are dedicated,” he said, about LGBT rights activists. “These people are researching, they’re finding out where we bank, they’re finding out who we do business with. They’re trying to get us shut down on all fronts, and you know what, let me tell you something, I’m sick of it.”

He then jumped up on his podium and started pointing at the audience.

“And you know what, if you’re not gonna back us up then get out of here, we don’t need your help,” he said, before launching into an invective-filled rant calling LGBT people “dogs.”

I guess that whole “reaping the whirlwind” business isn’t okay if it’s aimed at them. Full Story Here.

Brexit, Nexit, Frexit…

Marine Le Pen with Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (AFP Photo/Vladimir Simicek)

Marine Le Pen with Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (AFP Photo/Vladimir Simicek)

Brexit, Nexit, Frexit, Fuck it. The chain has begun, with far-right, racist leaders all over* cheering Brexit, and whipping up similar sentiments all over Europe. I’ll just give you one small quote, and you can go read the rest, I hate beginning the day with despair.

— And the leader of Germany’s right-wing populist AfD Frauke Petry said in a Facebook post the Brexit was a warning that “if the EU does not abandon its quasi-socialist experiment of every greater integration then the European people will follow the Brits and take back their sovereignty.”

Yeah! Can’t have that whole humans being compassionate and caring stuff going on, oh no.

*Including American racist moron, Trump.

Full Story Here.

Stonewall: Where [White] Pride Began.

Last year, I was excited to hear a movie was going to be made about Stonewall. I wasn’t so excited when I heard it would be directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot). Then I thought to myself, well, how bad could even Emmerich do, it’s a great story, filled with amazing people. Optimism really doesn’t pay off. After last September, I heard many negative noises about the film, and promptly forgot about it.

Did you see Stonewall? Based on its abysmal box office performance, it seems safe to assume you did not. The terrifically abominable thing — just a badly-planned and shoddily-executed work from start to finish — premiered last September and grossed just $187,674.

Stonewall is offensive on two counts: Not just for being a lousy movie, but also for whitewashing history. The 1969 Stonewall riots, as has been well-documented, was a landmark event for LGBT rights; two of the most prominent protesters were trans women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

But Stonewall director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot) wanted his movie to appeal to the masses, he explained to Buzzfeed, and in order to get that mainstream appeal, he created a fictional protagonist, Danny. Danny is gay but, in Emmerich’s words, “very straight-acting.” He is cis and he is white. He moves from Indiana to New York City and, in the film, is the brick-throwing rebel that incites the riots that sparked a movement.

:Gobsmacked: So Emmerich thought a white, cis-het appearing, apple pie and mom guy would magically appeal to the ‘mainstream’. Who did he think was going to be the major audience for a movie about Stonewall? This reminds me of the often blank reaction people get when they realize that indigenous people are still around – Stonewall was in 1969, and no, not everyone there and involved is dead, let alone long dead.

Perhaps it will not surprise you to know that many, many LGBT individuals and allies objected to this act of erasure — Johnson makes little more than a cameo, Rivera is M.I.A. — and over 20,000 people signed a petition promising to boycott the movie altogether.

No, that doesn’t surprise me at all.

One might think that Emmerich, nearly a year out from his film’s release and subsequent commercial and critical failure (Rotten Tomatoes rating: 9 percent) would, upon reflection, realize his errors. Or not! In an interview with The Guardian pegged to the release of sure-to-be-cinematic-masterpiece Independence Day: Resurgence, Emmerich “sighs at the memory of his passion project’s reception.”

“My movie was exactly what they said it wasn’t. It was politically correct. It had black, transgender people in there,” Emmerich said. “We just got killed by one voice on the internet who saw a trailer and said, this is whitewashing Stonewall. Stonewall was a white event, let’s be honest. But nobody wanted to hear that any more.”

Stonewall was a white event. Did I say I was gobsmacked before? No, Stonewall was not a white event. It wasn’t even close to a white event. Titus Montalvo, a Stonewall vet, put the crowd at 70% Hispanic and Black. That’s not overwhelmingly white, but I suppose to an Independence-minded Emmerich, that constitutes a white event. Mr. Emmerich, please, stick with your idiot pleaser popcorn flicks, and consider staying very, very quiet about events such as Stonewall. No one appreciates your continued whitewash.

Full Story Here.

Ownbey’s Final Solution.

Oklahoma state Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, in 2013. CREDIT: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki.

Oklahoma state Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, in 2013. CREDIT: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki.

An Oklahoma lawmaker personally propagated an article over the weekend calling for a “final solution” regarding “radical Islam,” arguing that the 1,400-year-old faith is not a religion and should not be protected under the first amendment of the Constitution.

On Sunday, Oklahoma State Rep. Pat Ownbey re-published an article to his Facebook page entitled “Radical Islam – The Final Solution.” The article was originally published on the personal blog of Paul R. Hollrah, an Oklahoman who touts himself as a “retired government relations executive,” but Ownbey appears to have copy-pasted the piece and reposted it in its entirety, citing Hollrah.

The author is seemingly unaware that the phrase “the final solution” was used by Adolph Hitler and Nazi leadership to describe the horrific genocide enacted against Jews by the Third Reich during World War II, also known as the Holocaust. Instead, the article Ownbey shared purports that in light of the recent massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando by an ISIS-affiliated shooter, Islam should no longer be categorized as a religion in the United States — or in any western nation.

I really find it difficult to believe that Ownbey is in any way unfamiliar with the phrase the final solution or its meaning. It’s just another alt-right move: “hey, it won’t be like that, we can do a final solution right, you betcha!”

“…if we in the west are to protect our children and grandchildren from the horrors of a worldwide Islamic caliphate, we must first dispense with the cruel fiction that Islam is just another religious denomination, subject to all of the legal protections afforded legitimate religious sects,” Hollrah argues. “Islam is not a religion, subject to First Amendment protections, as we in western cultures understand the term. Rather, it is a complete political, legal, economic, military, social, and cultural system with a religious component.”

Hollrah — who, like presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, appears to be opposed to Muslim immigration into the United States — goes on to blast Christian traditions such as the Catholic Church that take a welcoming approach to Islam, accusing them of being naive. He then defends Trump’s Muslim ban by citing the Communist Control Act of 1954 before insisting that the West “quarantine” all Muslims.

“And since the 95% of Muslims who are described as either ‘moderate’ or ‘un-radicalized’ appear unwilling to play an active role in keeping their radicalized brethren in check, we have no long term alternative but to quarantine them… prohibiting them from residing anywhere within the civilized nations of the Earth,” he writes.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not even wrong. As for prohibiting them from residing anywhere within the civilized nations of the Earth, once again, we see an American asshole who thinks America runs the world. This point of view is so damn pervasive, and so very poisonous. How do we rid ourselves of this cumbersome and meddlesome belief?

The author of the article at Think Progress goes on to debunk all this ineffable, but dangerous twaddle. A good read.

The “Disarmed Citizen Compensation Act”

State Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger) is proposing the “Disarmed Citizen Compensation Act” that would impose liabilities on businesses that ban guns.

State Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger) is proposing the “Disarmed Citizen Compensation Act” that would impose liabilities on businesses that ban guns.

A state lawmaker wants businesses that ban guns to be held strictly liable for any gun-related injury that might occur in their premises, and to pay triple damages.

The “Disarmed Citizen Compensation Act” is the brainchild of Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger).

“This bill will give the citizens of Wisconsin a better chance of defending themselves and their loved ones against this scourge of terrorist activity,” Gannon said in a news release.

[…]

Gannon’s bill would discourage businesses from posting signs stating that firearms and other weapons are prohibited on the premises. That option was part of Wisconsin’s concealed carry law. License holders who violate the restrictions can be subject to a fine of up to $1,000.

Wisconsin became the 49th state to allow concealed weapons in 2011 with the passage of Act 35. More than 300,000 people have since obtained permits.

To encourage businesses to allow concealed carry, the concealed carry law provided owners immunity from any liability that may from any gun incident on the premises.

But the law didn’t address liability in the opposite scenario — a business that posts a weapons ban and has a gun incident.

Under Gannon’s bill the liability would attach automatically. In other words, if someone — a concealed carry permit holder or otherwise — injured or killed someone with a gun inside a store that had a sign prohibiting weapons, the business would be on the hook for triple the damages to any victims.

Gannon, who is in the property and casualty insurance business, said he was not aware of any similar law in other states.

Anyone surprised at this step of punishing people who don’t want guns on their premises? I think uStates has become the living embodiment of The Peter Principle.

Full Story Here.

Make America White Again.

"Make America White Again" billboard in Polk County, Tennessee (Amy Hines Woody/Facebook)

“Make America White Again” billboard in Polk County, Tennessee (Amy Hines Woody/Facebook)

Rick Tyler, an independent Congressional candidate for Tennessee’s 3rd district, is facing a boycott of his restaurant business after he advertised his candidacy with racist billboard messages like “Make America White Again.”

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Tennessee resident Amy Hines Woody expressed her outrage by posting a photo of the “Make America White Again” sign, WTVC reported.

“This disgusting bunch of bigotry was erected about 20 minutes from our house,” she wrote, noting that Tyler owned Whitewater Grill in Ocoee. “Please, if you are the decent and loving people I know you to be, boycott this business.”

A Web address on the billboard redirects to Tyler’s campaign website, which explains that the candidate chose a sign that “is difficult to ignore and its message comes across as authoritative and influential.”

Tyler also suggests that his billboard is based on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Difficult to ignore? Yeah, okay, I’ll say that much is so. Authoritative and influential? Well…perhaps in a Nazi-ish manner. Mostly, Mr. Tyler, it comes across as the same old bigotry, with a healthy helping of asshole whine added in.

“Of great significance, as well, is the reality of the Trump phenomenon and the manner in which he has loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse,” he noted. “The Make America White Again billboard advertisement will cut to the very core and marrow of what plagues us as a nation.”

Oh FFS, the mealy mouthness! Yes, Trump has brought bigotry back into popularity, and rather than bigoted assholes feeling rather shamed, they are screaming, having fits of hysterics, and collecting guns even more. The very core and marrow of what plagues us…yeah, that would be brown people, right? I rather expect all the pasty queer people will have to go too.

A second sign used words from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech along with an illustration of the Confederate flag surrounding the White House.

If I ever manage to find my eyebrows after they fell off the back of my head, I might then gather up my jaw from somewhere on the floor. What. In. The. Fuck.

Oh, here it is, folks, via Daily Kos:

tyler

Tyler said that he planned to put up other billboards, including “Fight federal tyranny / Stop the Muslim invasion” and “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be miscegenators.”

Jesus Fuck, it gets worse.

The candidate told WRCB-TV that he did not hate people of color, but wanted to return to a “1960s, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver time when there were no break-ins; no violent crime; no mass immigration.”

Aauuuuggghhh no no no no no no. People this fucking ignorant should just have to leave. I don’t care where they go, just go. 1960s Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver was television, you scant-brained asshole. uStates was not stuffed to the gills with benign papas smoking pipes who always had time for their children, with wives maintaining sparkling clean houses and cooking vast meals in dresses, fuck me heels, and pearls. There were plenty of break-ins, a lot of crime, actually, violent and otherwise, and as for mass immigration? Holy shit, just go away.

Via Raw Story.

GOP: Guns, God, and Surveillance.

http://www.advocate.com/politics/2016/6/20/not-even-orlando-could-get-senate-act-guns

http://www.advocate.com/politics/2016/6/20/not-even-orlando-could-get-senate-act-guns

After many of them sent “thoughts and prayers” toward the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando last week, Senate Republicans cast enough votes against a group of gun safety bills on Monday — including two proposals from within their own party — to prevent them from moving forward.

The move, while perhaps not surprising, still angered many Twitter users who supported the measures, which included expanded background checks and a ban on gun sales to individuals on terrorism watch lists.

Tweets

There’s more at Raw Story.

In the meantime, the GOP has made clear what they do think will help: more surveillance. Yep, let’s erode the rights of citizens a bit more, it will be okay!

enate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote late on Monday to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to use a secretive surveillance order without a warrant to include email metadata and some browsing history information.

The move, made via an amendment to a criminal justice appropriations bill, is an effort by Senate Republicans to respond to last week’s mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub after a series of measures to restrict guns offered by both parties failed on Monday.

“In the wake of the tragic massacre in Orlando, it is important our law enforcement have the tools they need to conduct counterterrorism investigations,” Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican and sponsor of the amendment, said in a statement.

The bill is also supported by Republican Senators John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions and Richard Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Privacy advocates denounced the effort, saying it seeks to exploit a mass shooting in order to expand the government’s digital spying powers.

[…]

The amendment would broaden the FBI’s authority to use so-called National Security Letters to include electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails’ senders and recipients.

[…]

The amendment filed Monday would also make permanent a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the intelligence community to conduct surveillance on “lone wolf” suspects who do not have confirmed ties to a foreign terrorist group. That provision, which the Justice Department said last year had never been used, is currently set to expire in December 2019.

Full story here.

Mississippi Anti-LGBT Law Stands.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

A federal judge in Mississippi has allowed to stand a new state law that permits people to deny wedding services to same-sex couples based on religious objections.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves argued in his four-page order that since none of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs would be harmed by the law in the immediate future, a preliminary injunction would be inappropriate.

“Here, none of the plaintiffs are at imminent risk of injury,” Reeves wrote.

The law HB1523 is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2016. The implications and reach of this HB go quite far, as this article points out.

Right, advocating bigotry isn’t harmful at all! Asshat. Full story here.

I didn’t call you a nasty name!

churchsign_1466358853451_3180419_ver1.0

This church sign in Buford, GA, received publicity several days ago, now it’s been vandalized. I don’t agree with vandalizing the sign, although I certainly understand the impulse, especially when this sort of reasoning rears its head:

Wright, who said he didn’t regret displaying the message, questioned what the vandal was mad about because he said gays and transgender people weren’t called a “nasty name.”

So, the intense nastiness and ugliness of the message doesn’t matter at all, because no nasty names. No cussing. Never heard that one before, oh no. :colossal eyeroll:  Wright also denied that the sign could be a tool of hatred, as it wasn’t based in hatred at all. Nope, no hatred, just the biblical facts, ma’am.

“If you are transgendered or gay, your lifestyle is sinful, that’s a moral thing,” he said. “It’s a perversion again nature. … That’s your lifestyle and you’re trying to force it. This part of society is not going to be forced on.”

Wright added that Christians need to stand up for what’s in the Bible instead of being politically correct. He said he’s spoken out against President Barack Obama’s views on marriage and the recent statement about gender identity in school restrooms.

So, it’s a moral thing, it’s a perversion, it’s just a lifestyle. An immoral, perverted one, of course. But no hate, no. As Georgia Voice pointed out, Wright added his little silverish lining:

Wright expressed he doesn’t expect everyone to agree with him, but that LGBT individuals are still welcomed to attend service at his church.

“The church is open for service. They’re invited in,” he said.

Which goes right back to what Zack Ford was saying in No, We Cannot Weep Together. These so-called invitations are an absolute crock which seek only to utterly erase our lives.

Via GwinnettDaily and Georgia Voice.

Sunday Facepalm

facepalm_estatua

Didn’t have to go far for this Sunday Facepalm, they are all over, and epic. Epic failures in humanity. We start with one John Stemberger…

The Florida Family Policy Council’s John Stemberger wrote in an email to his group’s members today that in the wake of the massacre at a gay club in Orlando on Sunday, he wants to see greater “unity” among Floridians in the form of more American flags and fewer “special interest rainbow flags” in memory of the victims:

The Pulse nightclub is right next to a Dunkin Doughnuts, Wendy’s, Radio Shack and a 7-11 store where I often buy gas and get my children Slurpees. I ride my bike through this area of town often. This is in part why this tragedy has affected me so deeply. This is my community. These are our streets and neighborhoods. The people that were killed and injured are not just “gay.” They are human beings! They are my neighbors! They are fellow Americans! Honestly, I am really tired of seeing special interest rainbow flags and wish we could see more American flags, as we stand together in unity against our greatest mutual enemy, radical Islamic jihadists!

He responded to criticism of conservative Christian LGBT rights opponents in the wake of the attack, saying that “Christians should be prepared to be attacked and persecuted if they do not bow down and pledge allegiance to the gay pride flag and all it supposedly represents.” LGBT rights advocates’ strategy, he said, is to “manipulate and bully Christians into submission to the new orthodoxy of the moral revolution.”

Christians should be prepared to be attacked and persecuted if they do not bow down and pledge allegiance to the gay pride flag and all it supposedly represents. In stunned disbelief, I was listening to CNN at 1:30am on Sunday night and I heard the leading gay-rights activist from Los Angeles being interviewed. She openly said you don’t need to find a terrorist cell to find this kind of hatred. All you need to do is look right here in America at fundamentalist Christians. The CNN anchor did NOTHING at all to challenge her or question her about her outrageous claim.

We need to be prepared for the stunning and false narrative of the Left which is that all major world religions, including but especially Christianity, breed hatred and create a hostile environment which “causes” the kind of violence we saw in Orlando. The goal of gay-rights activists is to try and get Christians to stop proclaiming God’s design for marriage, gender and human sexuality. And they are not playing fair. The goal to simple. If you disagree in any way, no matter how gentle, loving or respectful they will call you a “hater” and a “bigot.” They will scream at you publicly and test how committed you are to your beliefs. Their strategy is to manipulate and bully Christians into submission to the new orthodoxy of the moral revolution. Please know that as for me and “our house” at the FFPC, we will never be moved by this attempt at intimidation.

Just a fine example of a good person, eh? Well, there are more examples.

Timothy Buchanan of the far-right outlet BarbWire responded yesterday to the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando by urging members of the LGBT community to go back into the closet and stop provoking people to commit violent acts by kissing in public: “It’s worth considering that homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals might be safer returning to the closet. Flaunting gross immorality and defiant wickedness that is hideous, odious and wretched to an overwhelming majority of people is a foolish and dangerous course of action.”

“Those who come to the United States from other cultures — some of which are infinitely more moral than our own — are going to be offended and repulsed by the rampant depravity that has become a defining characteristic of our culture,” he added. “No amount of education, sensitivity training or political indoctrination will change that.”

Diversity, Buchanan said, is destroying American culture and society, along with the liberal policies of the “evil” Democratic Party and its support for “murder, sexual depravity, lust and rebellion.”

Unfortunately, there’s more of this at Right Wing Watch. Next up, Kevin Swanson, who thinks a whole lot of us should just be put to death because that would make life so much better:

Yesterday, Colorado-based pastor Kevin Swanson addressed the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando by arguing that homosexuality and Islam are both inherently violent because God gives gay people and Muslims up to their dishonorable ways and other sins like murder.

“Why do homosexuals murder homosexuals?” he asked. Because, according to Romans 1, “God gave them up to vile passions.” “Violence” and “murder,” he said, are deeply tied to homosexuality. […] Swanson hosted an event last year with GOP presidential hopefuls including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, where he repeated his longtimebelief that a just government would put gay people to death.

More of this upstanding gent at Right Wing Watch. Onto Sam Rohrer, who explains the intense biblical foundation of uStates, and how the queers are chasing god away:

American Pastors Network president and former Pennsylvania lawmaker Sam Rohrer linked Sunday’s mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando to Supreme Court decisions securing rights for LGBT people, telling conservative talk radio host Steve Deace this week that Supreme Court decisions involving marriage equality and “God’s order for human sexuality” have helped to cause God to remove “His hand of protection” from the country.

[…]

“God has made very clear,” Rohrer explained, “that every nation that He has established — and He establishes all nations, we’re told that all nations are established by God, even the very geographical boundaries of the nations are determined — that when a nation, any nation, does what God says, meaning that they fear Him, that they uphold and enforce God’s moral law and God’s design for the family and for the family and for civil government, all of those are His, when those things are done, then God will bless a nation.”

“One of those blessings are the increase of wealth, one of those things is a security and protection from the neighbors around them,” he continued, “even the enemies will be at peace with them, we’re told in a number of places in Scripture. But when a nation backs off of that, particularly a nation such as ours that has a very biblical basis in an understanding of biblical principles — that’s where our Constitution came from, Declaration of Independence before that came out of that. When those things were there and put in place, when a nation turns their back on those things as we have and [are] increasingly, arrogantly doing, then at that point the justice of God says ‘I cannot any longer bless’ and these things which you’re doing will lead to not His lack of blessing, but insecurity and so forth.”

More of Sam at Right Wing Watch.

There’s also Rick Wiles: Orlando Massacre Was God’s Judgment On America and Dave Daubenmire: Gays Murdered In Orlando Were On The Devil’s Team

That should get your Sunday started in all the right wrong ways.

Targeting Women.

Joseph-Backholm-1024x592

I first read about this several days ago, when it wasn’t well known, and people weren’t terribly sure if this was a real deal or not. Unfortunately, it’s a real deal.

Conservatives in Washington are currently collecting signatures for a referendum to overturn the state’s transgender protections. It is a measure that rivals North Carolina’s HB2 in the way it targets transgender people for discrimination. And now its proponents are encouraging men to follow women into their bathrooms to get their signatures.

Joseph Backholm, director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW), is leading the signature collection process for what has been labeled “Initiative 1515.” In recordings anonymously delivered to the Gender Justice League of Seattle, Backholm can be heard encouraging male petitioners to camp out near women’s restrooms, ask women for their signatures, then follow them into the restroom if they don’t agree to sign.

At one meeting on April 27, Backholm can be heard giving various tips to petitioners, such as going to places like retirement communities, where the residents are all registered voters who are excited to have visitors. “For gentlemen,” he then suggested, “what I would encourage you to do, if you are so bold and you want to make the point, take your petitions and stand outside the women’s restroom at the mall, and if any of the women don’t want to sign it, just go ahead and follow ’em on in [laughter from crowd]. ‘Maybe this will be a better time to sign our little petition’, and we can make the point that way.”

[…]

At a May 10 event, Backholm made the suggestion one more time, claiming that he and another petitioner were going to enter a women’s spa together — naked — and, “We’re gonna tell the ladies, ‘If you don’t think we should be here, you need to sign our petition.’ And we think that would be wildly successful.”

Confronted with the recordings by KIRO 7, Backholm refused to comment. King County Sheriff John Urquhart, on the other hand, had no problem confirming that anybody who follows Backholm’s suggestion will be arrested.

And rightfully so. Backholm’s contention, as he makes constantly evident in his public remarks — including the above podcast — is that Washington state’s gender identity protections allow this kind of bathroom intrusion by anybody. That conclusion is based solely on rejecting that transgender women are women and that transgender men are men.

[…]

The notion that transgender protections allow men to enter women’s restrooms has — to this point — been an invented hypothetical that has never actually happened. Backholm and the I-1515 campaign are now trying to actually create that problem in real life for the sole purpose of scaring people into voting against transgender equality.

The campaign opposing I-1515, Washington Won’t Discriminate, is now calling for Backholm to lose his job for “inciting others to commit crimes and putting voters in danger.”

Now is the time for people to be very good citizens. If you see one of these asshats hanging around a public lav, call the cops. Report them every single time. Multiple reports would be even better. Anywhere you see these bigots, report them. Use the current law against them, and it will be an excellent demonstration that existing laws are more than sufficient, there’s no need for their added on hate against transgender people.

Via ThinkProgress.