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Tom Cotton Blocks Senate PRESS Act Designed to Protect Journalists

“Sen. Cotton’s hostility to press freedoms demonstrates exactly why these protections are needed, said one advocate, calling for inclusion of the bill in an end-of-year spending package.”

The MAGA World is bracing for the Jan. 6 committee to release its exhaustive report and make criminal referrals. It comes as new coup evidence emerges.

Talking Points Memo obtained text messages from 34 GOP lawmakers to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, pushing conspiracy theories and the big election lie.

The vast trove of text, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump’s inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the Capitol on January 6.

The Devil Is In The DeSantis Details

Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an expert on fascism and authoritarian political leaders. She had recently stated… “People need to start paying attention…

“DeSantis is NOT a more normal, better disciplined version of Trump… He is a dangerously power-hungry, self-serving, corrupt bigot.

He may be worse than Trump because Trump was a fool. DeSanctis has the potential to be a fascist, unafraid to impose his personal views on everyone, using the power of government.

If DeSantis is becoming many Republicans’ answer to their “Trump problem” his rise is because of his of authoritarian sympathies and attitudes, not in spite of them. He promises a more “respectable”-seeming version of illiberal rule than the baggage-laden outrage specialist that is Trump. No wonder dozens of billionaires have backed him…

But let’s be clear: The man whom Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post celebrates as “DeFuture” would, in fact, continue Trump’s relentless attempts to turn back the clock on social progress in America by silencing and disenfranchising tens of millions who don’t fit into Republicans’ white Christian vision for the nation.”

Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee to a federal court in Texas, spent much of his career trying to interfere with other people’s sexuality.

Last week, Kacsmaryk issued an opinion in Deanda v. Becerra that attacks Title X, a federal program that offers grants to health providers that fund voluntary and confidential family planning services to patients. Federal law requires the Title X program to include “services for adolescents.”

Before I get into the Christmas spirit and want to be more forgiving, I have to say this… It’s Freedom Of and From Religion

It seems many believe that only pertains to their specific type of religion. They think all others are either fake, false or fantasy and should be banned or ignored. They also believe the country’s government and laws should be based on their religious beliefs.

That sounds absurd to me. I can read and I’m fairly intelligent. The Constitution and the founding fathers intent is very clear; you have yours and I’ll have mine, but the government shouldn’t have any.

Our country’s founders — who were of different religious backgrounds themselves — knew the best way to protect religious liberty was to keep the government out of religion. So they created the First Amendment — to guarantee the separation of church and state.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that everyone in the United States has the right to practice his or her own religion (not necessarily yours or mine), or no religion at all.

Throughout history, people have fought wars over religious differences, have tortured and executed whoever they thought didn’t believe in their god(s), discriminated and persecuted “non-believers” and forcefully “converted” those they believed needed salvation.

A great deal of all that still goes on in countries around the world and unfortunately, we are facing a challenge here in our own “Land of the Free.”

Right-Wing Christians pouring dollars into, and pressure on our government and judicial systems in order to enact legislation and laws that support their specific faith is not what freedom of or from religion is about, it’s quite the opposite. It’s Theocracy in action.

Florida’s Department of Health and Board of Medicine misrepresented the review’s conclusion by stating 80% of children will “lose the desire” to identify with a sex not assigned at birth.

Studies used to support the 80% figure in the review did not reference gender identities; it centered on the persistence and desistence of gender dysphoria in adulthood. Steensmalater wrote that “using the term desistence in this way does not imply anything about the identity of the desisters.”

Breaking News: The House has passed a landmark bill protecting same-sex marriage.

While the bill would not set a national requirement that all states must legalize same-sex marriage, it would require individual states to recognize another state’s legal marriage.

It’s not perfect, but it sure as hell beats no protection at all in many of our backassward states.

Soon, conservatives justices could do more to catapult the country into a theocratic morass than any previous Supreme Court term in modern history.

We’ve already seen a woman’s right of choice decimated by the current court and while it may be denied, the religious right is influencing the court and pushing their ideology into law. I’ve listed a couple of cases that may be decided in the near future; each one cloaked in the guise of religious freedom.

Brackeen v. Haaland
In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in response to a crisis during which Native children were funneled into state foster care systems and shipped off to white Christian evangelical families. Stripping brown and Black children of their culture and heritage and forcibly assimilating them into white America is a hallmark of Christian evangelism. History is rife with tales of missionaries traveling to far-flung lands to “tame” the “savages.”

Well, you don’t have to travel to any far-flung lands to see white Christian evangelism at work. One need only read the briefing in Brackeen v. Haaland. Texas argued that the Indian Child Welfare Act harms Native children because it prohibits them from being raised according to white middle-class standards. 

303 Creative v. Elenis
In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Court is being asked to weaponize the First Amendment against LGBTQ people, permitting bigots to claim freedom of religion as they turn same-sex couples away from their businesses. The website designer plaintiff in 303 Creative, like the baker in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado, is claiming that her websites are an expression of her artistry, and compelling her to build a website for a same-sex couple would be an infringement on her free speech rights. She is making these claims even though no one has even asked her to make a website for a same-sex couple. 

The LGBTQ community needs protection. But the FedSoc Six think protecting a vulnerable group of people—a group that is literally under siege in this country—is less important than a bigot’s right to discriminate by claiming freedom of religion.

-from Rewire News Group

It’s A Huge Win For Us All…

I’m elated that Senator Warnock has been declared winner in the Georgia runoff election and I offer congratulations to him on a decent and well run campaign.

However, that the margin was so close is telling of a hypocritical Republican Party that has become so very blinded in their quest for power that they’ve lost site of what can make America great… justice, equality and diversity.

In a way, I feel a little bit sorry for Walker. He has been used and abused by an elitist group of predominantly white demagogues whose primary goal is to benefit themselves. They don’t actually care about Walker or you and me.

Good luck Senator Warnock and keep fighting for what is just and right.

While They’re All About Rights Of The Unborn, They Don’t Seem To Care At All About A Woman’s Right To Choose Or About Protections For The Living, Such As…

Gun Laws, Welfare, Child Care, Health Care, Sick Leave, Social Security, Environmental Protection And Climate Change Just To Name A Few.

Rather than looking out for us all, Republican lawmakers are pushing for further restrictions on reproductive health, even in states where abortion is already banned.

Near-total abortion bans are in effect in 13 states, and others have limited access: In Georgia, the procedure is banned for people later than six weeks of pregnancy, and in Florida and Arizona, it is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Two bills in Texas show how legislation could prevent people from leaving the state to access abortion.

Republican lawmakers have put forth a bill that would prohibit government entities from giving someone money that might be used to travel out of state for an abortion. Another bill would eliminate state tax breaks for businesses in the state that help cover their employees’ travel costs associated with getting an abortion outside of the state.

Some states have expressed interest in limiting access to some forms of emergency contraception such as Plan B.

Florida legislators have already said they intend to pass a new abortion ban this year. In South Carolina, whose six-week ban has been blocked by state courts, legislators came to an impasse this summer over the details of their proposed near-total abortion ban — specifically whether to include exceptions for people pregnant because of rape or incest.