Sunday Facepalm

220px-Representative_David_Brumbaugh

Rep. David Brumbaugh. Wikimedia.

Oh hey, God will pick up the tab, no worry.

An Oklahoma lawmaker pushing a bill that would more-or-less ban abortion in the state dismissed concerns that the legislation would drag the cash-strapped state into a costly legal battle by suggesting God would take care of the state’s financial issues.

“Everybody talks about this $1.3 billion deficit,” state Rep. David Brumbaugh (R) said during Thursday evening’s deliberations of the bill, before invoking a saying he said a friend told him.

“If we take care of the morality, God will take care of the economy,” he said.

I guess ‘God’ only cares about economy of Oklahoma, and will only care if good ol’ Dave there legislates all those potential sluts into order. Perhaps the pile drive of the patriarchal thumb is what will fix economies all over. That’s a theory of economics, ennit?

Abortion rights groups warned that the legislation is unconstitutional and that it could invite a legal challenge if signed into law. A 2011 Oklahoma law that essentially banned drug-induced abortion was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court.

“I’ve heard almost every argument today about judicial challenge to this legislation and after much prayer and study, I ask myself this question,” Brumbaugh said. “Do we make laws because they’re moral and right, or do we make them based on what an unelected judicial occupant might question or overturn?”

Supposedly, laws are made to ensure freedoms, rights, justice, (yeah, I know) and to protect people. Those pesky freedoms and rights have been dismissed, there’s no concern for justice, certainly no empathy or mercy to be found, so who is it you’re trying to protect? Oh, clumps of cells. Forgot about those blobs for a moment, what with them not being people or anything.

He compared passing the abortion legislation in the face of a possible legal challenge to the abolition of slavery, the Civil Rights Act and the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

“Don’t let people tell you, ‘Unconstitutional arguments, Roe v. Wade,’ all this,” Brumbaugh said, referencing the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

I swear, one of these days I will actually drop dead from irony poisoning. Oh well, Dave’s bottom line message? Ignore the law until I make up one I like!

NBA: No All-Star Game for North Carolina

From left: NBA commissioner Adam Silver with Charlotte Hornets owner and retired NBA great Michael Jordan when they announced last year that the 2017 All-Star Game would be held in Charlotte.

From left: NBA commissioner Adam Silver with Charlotte Hornets owner and retired NBA great Michael Jordan when they announced last year that the 2017 All-Star Game would be held in Charlotte.

After having said last week that no decision had been made on pulling next year’s NBA All-Star Game from North Carolina, the league’s commissioner now says the game definitely will be moved if the state’s recently enacted anti-LGBT law isn’t changed.

“We’ve been, I think, crystal clear a change in the law is necessary for us to play in the kind of environment that we think is appropriate for a celebratory NBA event,” commissioner Adam Silver said today at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ commissioner meetings in New York City, The Charlotte Observer reports.

Full Story Here.

Trump: Let Trans People Use Bathrooms That Match Their Identity

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Donald Trump says North Carolina made a mistake passing its anti-transgender bathroom law.

The Republican front-runner for president said the state self-inflicted “economic punishment” when it passed House Bill 2, which not only banned local governments from including sexual orientation and gender identity in anti-discrimination ordinances, but also required transgender people to use the public bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t match their identity.

When asked about the law during a town hall on the Today show, Trump said there was nothing wrong with the way things were working before HB 2 was passed. “Leave it the way it is,” he repeatedly said is the best policy.

Okay, Trump sounding reasonable? I’ll admit, that threw me. But the normal stupid got right back on track:

Going even further, Trump said he’d let Caitlyn Jenner use whichever bathroom she wanted when visiting one of his properties.

Apparently, Trump has all his bathrooms labeled on all his properties. *Insert eyeroll here*

Full Story Here.

Tennessee: Not Giving Up

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Tennessee’s Anti-LGBT Bathroom Bill Is Dead. For Now.

Tennessee Rep. Susan Lynn has pulled her sponsored “Bathroom Bill,” which would require all public schools, including universities, to require students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender at birth. The controversial bill is strikingly similar to the much-protested North Carolina HB2, and to Georgia’s recently repealed HB 757.

Rep. Lynn said her decision wasn’t impacted by corporations, businesses, and LGBT advocacy groups protesting the measure, but instead because the discriminatory practices of the bill might lose Tennessee $1.2 billion of Title IX funding, a source of funding that forbids any discrimination based on sex.

….

During her April 18 press conference, Rep. Lynn said she had only intended to ensure protection: “We just did want to protect children at the state level.” But at that time, two transgender students—Jennifer Guents and Henry Seaton—were headed to Gov. Haslam’s office with more than 67,000 signatures opposing the legislation.

Although she’s pulled the bill from consideration, Rep. Lynn hinted at plans to revive the legislation in the future.

No, Rep. Lynn, your legislation had nothing to do with protecting children, and am I ever sick to death of the sanctimonious “for the children” excuse. If nothing else, have the honesty (we all know you have no integrity) to tell the truth: it’s all about your bigotry and your personal ick factor. Of course, you’re going to try and revive your bigotry law later on, nothing is more important that appeasing the bigot crowd, right? I have a better idea, Rep. Lynn – why don’t you visit the 21st century for a while?

Much Ado Over…

Women on 20s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced on April 20 that Andrew Jackson will be replaced by Harriet Tubman on the $20 Federal Reserve Note.

Women on 20s
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced on April 20 that Andrew Jackson will be replaced by Harriet Tubman on the $20 Federal Reserve Note.

Indigenous people have an interest here, to say the least. Before I get to that, the mere fact that a woman might end up on a piece of paper is apparently cause for outrage. Add to that fact it will be a black woman, and oh my, there goes the internet again, all blowed up, and you see things like this:

Bigots

hey all I know is she stole property. Jackson gave Indians a new home. Tubman was a criminal.

Jackson gave NDNs a new home? There are times the stupid is utterly infuriating. I know that most people don’t know anything at all about Indigenous peoples in uStates, but this is beyond the pale. You’re on the ‘net, you know. Take five minutes out and fucking learn something. As for Tubman being a criminal? Point me to one past uStates president that hasn’t been one. Oh, but they were white, so it was okay. Ms. Tubman saved lives. Jackson was a murderer. A bit of a difference there. But for those preaching #whitegenocide, this heralds the beginning of the end. I would have preferred Chief Wilma Mankiller to be on the $20, but I’m very happy with the choice of Ms. Tubman, assuming this actually happens.

Women on 20s organized to get a woman on U.S. paper money to celebrate the centennial in 2020 of the 19th Amendment, which extended the right to vote to women. They picked Jackson as their target in furtherance of another goal in their mission statement: “Removal of symbols of hate, intolerance and inequality…”

I learned something at that point that was highly gratifying. I know Cherokees who put 20s in their wallet in a manner that avoids looking at Jackson’s face. I know Cherokees who identify as Republicans because Jackson was a Democrat and are highly offended at Democrats having annual “Jefferson-Jackson dinners.” What I did not know is that Indians generally despise Jackson almost as much as Cherokees do.

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Bill John Baker, released a statement reacting to the decision to replace Jackson with Tubman:

Andrew Jackson defied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and forced the removal of our Cherokee ancestors from homelands we’d occupied in the Southeast for millennia. His actions as president resulted in a genocide of Native Americans and the death of about a quarter of our people. It remains the darkest period in the Cherokee Nation’s history. Jackson’s legacy was never one to be celebrated, and his image on our currency is a constant reminder of his crimes against Natives…

The Cherokee Nation applauds the work… to replace his image with the image of Harriet Tubman, whose legacy represents values everyone can be proud of.

Harriet Tubman to Replace Indian Killer and Slave Dealer Andrew Jackson on $20 Bill.

Back to Jackson.

Courtesy Whitehouse.gov Andrew Jackson took office in 1829 with one goal set firmly in his mind: Indians must be moved “beyond the great river Mississippi.”

Courtesy Whitehouse.gov
Andrew Jackson took office in 1829 with one goal set firmly in his mind: Indians must be moved “beyond the great river Mississippi.”

[Read more…]

Sounds So Horrible It’s Wonderful.

It’s pretty bad. It’s still not as bad as Pat Boone. Way to go protesters! If you’re in the area, think about making a horrible noise at another Pat.

‘Can You Hear Us Now, Pat?’: Awesome ‘Air Horn Orchestra’ Actually HB2 Protest At Governor’s Mansion.

LGBT Roundup

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Tennessee’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill” has gone down the drain again — and it will apparently stay there for at least a year.

In March, a legislative committee had delayed action on the bill by sending it to a summer study session, but the committee, under pressure from the far-right Family Action Council of Tennessee, revived it in early April. Today, though, its sponsor in the House of Representatives, Susan Lynn, said she would withdraw the bill until next year, reports Nashville paper The Tennessean. Full Story Here.

"We must take a stand against prejudice," says a statement on the band's website.

“We must take a stand against prejudice,” says a statement on the band’s website.

The members of Pearl Jam say North Carolina would be a better place without its new anti-LGBT law, so they’re canceling this week’s concert there and asking fans to support a repeal of the measure.

“It is with deep consideration and much regret that we must cancel the Raleigh show in North Carolina on April 20th,” says a statement posted by the band on its website Monday. Full Story Here.

The iconic classic rock band announced today that it is refusing to play any shows in North Carolina in protest of an anti-LGBT law.

The iconic classic rock band announced today that it is refusing to play any shows in North Carolina in protest of an anti-LGBT law.

Boston, known for classic ’70s hits such as “More Than a Feeling,” has canceled three shows scheduled for May in North Carolina in protest of House Bill 2.

Tom Scholz, the founder of Boston, apologized to fans who bought tickets in a statement posted on Facebook. “The removal of the shows from our schedule is a major disappointment. It has always been my wish to inspire people with BOSTON’s music,” Scholz wrote.  Full Story Here.

Skye Thomson was supposed to meet with Pat McCrory before he signed House Bill 2. The confab never took place, but the trans ninth-grader still has something to say to the governor.

Skye Thomson was supposed to meet with Pat McCrory before he signed House Bill 2. The confab never took place, but the trans ninth-grader still has something to say to the governor.

While Thomson, a trans boy attending high school in eastern North Carolina, spoke to two of McCrory’s staff members, a promised meeting with the governor never took place.

In light of HB 2’s passage, Thomson wrote an open letter to the governor, pleading with him to actually sit down and meet with him and other trans youth. Read the message below, via the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Dear Governor McCrory:

My name is Skye Thomson. I am 15 years old, I live in Eastern North Carolina, and I am a transgender boy. That means I was born a female and identify as a male.

I was in Raleigh for the debate on House Bill 2 on March 23. I was the only transgender student who got a chance to speak out against HB2, the so called “bathroom bill” that is supposed to keep everyone safe in bathrooms. But it doesn’t keep everyone safe, especially people like me. Imagine yourself in my shoes, being a boy walking into a ladies room. It’s awkward and embarrassing and can actually be dangerous. By putting this law in place you’re putting kids like me in danger.

Read the rest here.

16.

The largest mass execution in American history occurred under Abraham Lincoln’s watch. On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota warriors were publicly hanged after being convicted of war crimes, including needlessly killing civilians, murdering prisoners, defiling dead bodies and raping captured women and girls. The charges, originally brought against 393 Dakotas, stemmed from their attack of farmers and villagers in Minnesota earlier that year. Although all of the trials were shams and many of the convictions were unfair, it is significant to note that Lincoln reviewed the cases at all.

The largest mass execution in American history occurred under Abraham Lincoln’s watch. On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota warriors were publicly hanged after being convicted of war crimes, including needlessly killing civilians, murdering prisoners, defiling dead bodies and raping captured women and girls. The charges, originally brought against 393 Dakotas, stemmed from their attack of farmers and villagers in Minnesota earlier that year. Although all of the trials were shams and many of the convictions were unfair, it is significant to note that Lincoln reviewed the cases at all.

Abraham Lincoln: First President to See Natives as Equals.

The largest mass execution in American history occurred under Abraham Lincoln’s watch.

On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota warriors were publicly hanged after being convicted of war crimes, including needlessly killing civilians, murdering prisoners, defiling dead bodies and raping captured women and girls. The charges, originally brought against 393 Dakotas, stemmed from their attack of farmers and villagers in Minnesota earlier that year.

Known as the Dakota Uprising or the Sioux War, the one-month skirmish came after the Santee Sioux of Minnesota ceded their land to the U.S. and agreed to live on reservations. Then, as the federal government turned its attention to the Civil War, corrupt Indian agents failed to provide food and white settlers stole horses and timber. “The Dakota were literally starving,” said Paul Finkelman, a historian and professor of human rights law at the University of Saskatchewan. “They had no food and people who traded with them refused to give them money.”

[…]

Under Gov. Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota held military trials, convicting 323 Dakotas of war crimes and sentencing 303 to death. But the trials—even those for legitimate crimes—were corrupt and “completely absurd,” Finkelman said. “The Dakota didn’t speak English and they didn’t have lawyers,” he said. “The trials were totally unfair.”

Under U.S law, however, death sentences could not be carried out unless the President signed the orders. In an unprecedented move, Lincoln ordered a complete review of every charge, and ultimately confirmed only 39 of the sentences (one prisoner was granted a reprieve).

“Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on the one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I caused a careful examination of the records of trials to be made,” Lincoln wrote in a message to the Senate in December 1862. The Army executed 38 prisoners by public hanging on the day after Christmas.

[…]

The centerpiece of Lincoln’s presidency was the Civil War, but he also contended with Indian conflicts and genocide in the Midwest and Western frontiers, including the Sioux Uprising, the Sand Creek Massacre and wars with the Indians of the Southwest. Focused primarily on winning the war, Lincoln allowed army generals to dictate Indian policy.

In 1862, Gen. James Carleton began a war against Apaches and Navajos in New Mexico, where gold had been discovered on Indian land. Carleton told Col. Kit Carson that “All Indian men … are to be killed whenever and wherever you can find them.”

[…]

In his third annual message to Congress, in December 1863, Lincoln urged Indians to reject tribal culture and embrace civilization, which included principles of Christianity.

“Sound policy and our imperative duty to these wards of the government demand our anxious and constant attention to their material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, and, above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying influences, the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith,” he said.

Full Story Here.

Dwayne Doc Wanna at the Mankato Memorial, 150th anniversary, 2012. Jackson Forderer for MPR

Dwayne Doc Wanna at the Mankato Memorial, 150th anniversary, 2012. Jackson Forderer for MPR. http://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/12/26/social-issue/dakota-war-commemoration

John Kasich on Anti-LGBT Discrimination: ‘Get Over It’

Kasich

Kasich

Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich’s answer to LGBT people turned away by businesses is “get over it,” while his advice for those business owners it to pray.

Kasich, the governor of Ohio, has said he wouldn’t have signed anti-LGBT laws like the ones recently enacted in North Carolina and Mississippi, but today on CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash, he said that as president, he wouldn’t do anything to stop states from passing such legislation.

“There is a legitimate concern for people being able to have their deeply held religious beliefs, religious liberty,” he told Bash. “But there’s also people who we shouldn’t be discriminating against. … We need to strike a balance, and I just wish we’d take a breath and calm down and take a breath, because you see, trying to legislate that balance is complicated and you keep doing do-overs, because nobody gets it right.”

He continued, “What I would like to say is just relax, and if you don’t like what somebody’s doing, pray for them, and if you’re feeling like somebody is doing something wrong against you, can you just for a second get over it?”

[…]

He also mentioned, as he had previously, that he had attended a friend’s wedding to a same-sex partner, but he told Matthews, “I don’t think it’s right, and the wedding that I went to, they know that I don’t agree with them.”

I imagine they know just how much you disapprove now, Governor. I suspect you don’t have all that many gay friends whose wedding you have attended. Kasich probably wouldn’t seem so bad if he could manage to keep his mouth shut. Full Story Here.

Los Angeles Bans Official Travel to North Carolina, Mississippi.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti

“With one stroke of their pen, Gov. Pat McCrory and Gov. Phil Bryant have jeopardized the safety and dignity of countless transgender, gay and lesbian people — who are already at an increased risk for violent crime,” Garcetti continued, referring to the governors of North Carolina and Mississippi, respectively. “As someone who has fought for many years on behalf of LGBT Americans and their right to equal protection under the law, I will continue to do everything in my power to keep L.A.’s tax dollars from supporting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“State-sanctioned discrimination only perpetuates intolerance, hatred and violence,” said Councilmember Mike Bonin, who authored the resolution, in the same press release. “That is not at all what Los Angeles stands for, and today, we are sending a clear message that we will not endorse — with our dollars or our participation — discrimination toward our transgender, gay, lesbian, and bisexual sisters and brothers.”

Bloody well took them long enough. At least they have finally joined the sane faction in this toilet fight. Full Story Here.

Do I look sufficiently self-righteous?

John Kasich gives a Bible lesson to Jewish voters in Brooklyn (YouTube/screen grab)

John Kasich gives a Bible lesson to Jewish voters in Brooklyn (YouTube/screen grab)

I’m getting tired of feeling like I should just go pound my head into the wall. Or maybe pound someone else’s head into a wall. It’s a toss up. Kasich decides to Jesussplain to Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.

Uriel Heilman of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recommended on Thursday that Kasich abstain from giving Christian Bible lessons to Jewish voters.

“Talking about Christ’s blood during a visit to Borough Park? Oy vey,” Heilman wrote. “Please, somebody, prep this guy Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn want to hear about food stamps, affordable housing, Medicaid. Ix-nay on the Jesus-nay.”

Full Story Here.

Liberty Counsel Behind Anti-LGBT Bills in 20 States

Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis and Mat Staver (Fox News)

Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis and Mat Staver (Fox News)

The lawyer who represented Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis after she refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses told CBS News that his group was also behind anti-LGBT legislation being pushed in at least 20 states.

After governors in North Carolina and Mississippi recently signed laws limiting the rights of LGBT people, CBS News began investigating why so many anti-LGBT bills were cropping up in state legislatures around the country.

The network found that the conservative group Liberty Counsel had placed lawyers in all 50 states to draft legislation and advise lawmakers on how to rein in the rights of LGBT people in response to a Supreme Court ruling which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

CBS determined that bills tied to Liberty Counsel have been filed in at least 20 states so far.

“Well I certainly want to push back against that [same-sex marriage] ruling,” Liberty Counsel founder Matt Staver told CBS News. “It was a wrong ruling. It has no basis in the constitution.”

Full Story Here.

Goodbye, South Carolina

CEO Anthony Watson (Photo via Uphold.com)

CEO Anthony Watson (Photo via Uphold.com)

Now just the proposal of a so-called “bathroom bill” in South Carolina has sent one gay chief executive officer is packing his jobs for California.

Anthony Watson, CEO of Uphold, describes himself as an “openly gay, British CEO,” according to The State. He’s decided to take his financial services company, which has handled $830 million in transactions since 2014, to Los Angeles instead of sticking it out.

“I have watched in shock and dismay as legislation has been abruptly proposed or enacted in several states across the union seeking to invalidate the basic protections and rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) U.S. citizens,” he wrote on the company’s website Tuesday.

Watson specifically called out South Carolina senator Lee Bright who dimly announced his bill last week which would require people to use the bathroom of the gender assigned to them at birth.

[…]

“I mean, years ago we kept talking about tolerance, tolerance, and tolerance, and now they want men who claim to be women to be able to go into bathrooms with children. And you got corporations who say this is okay,” Bright said on the senate floor.

Yesterday, I said in comments that I didn’t think the people proposing and passing these bills were stupid. I do believe I’ve had a change of mind about that. This is a special kind of dim. Full Story Here.

Today’s LGBT roundup, and there’s some good news for a change!

Louisiana Gov. Bans Anti-LGBT Bias in State Employment, Services.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has come through on a promise to issue a pro-LGBT executive order — the first in the state to offer transgender people some legal protections against discrimination — and to repeal an anti–marriage equality one issued by his predecessor, Bobby Jindal. Full Story Here.

Breweries Are Fighting Bigotry With Beer.

Bummed by anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina? Here’s a novel way to fight it: Drink beer.

Thirty-six breweries in the Southern state have banded together to brew Don’t Be Mean to People: A Golden Rule Saison.

[Read more…]