Body Parts Are the GOP’s Wedge Issue This Year

Aside from the Trumpetition going on with the Republican Party, its elected local adherents are busy supporting legislation designed to infringe on people who aren’t what they would like them to be.

As the New York Times recently noted, the GOP campaign against transgender individuals came about after they lost their case opposing same sex marriage. And now that some Republicans have figured out the hardcore anti-abortion platforms aren’t popular with voters, the million-plus transgender persons living in the US are now the targeted by right wing politicians.

• Four months into this year’s state legislative sessions, more bills targeting LGBTQ rights — particularly transgender rights — have been introduced and become law than at any other time in U.S. history, according to a Washington Post analysis.

The universal rationale for these laws is “protecting the children.” As children are denied meals due to food stamp cuts in states like Iowa, and are dying at the highest rate ever from gun violence, these dudes can only think about saving the patriarchy.

There’s more to this than religious fear mongering. Adherents of the great replacement theory want (white) women to start cranking out babies to stop the murderous hordes coming ashore. 

Some of these crusades are simply projection (they are what the ‘other’ is being accused of), as one can see with the spate of laws calling for banishing those who are supposed to be grooming children and the dozens of party leaders that have been busted for actually doing these crimes.

Having made my case, here are some pertinent examples of GOP hypocrisy, not necessarily related to genitalia.

Ali Alexander, the feral stop-the-steal activist involved in Jan. 6, has confessed via a mumbled word salad to soliciting underage boys to send him photos of their private parts, sometimes in exchange for using his celebrity status for introductions to far right figures. 

The Republican-led legislature in Montana has prohibited a member who happens to be trans from speaking on behalf of a bill they introduced.

The Republican Attorney General of Missouri has created a new form for citizens to report transgender individuals and those who might have helped them.

It’s a good thing Michigan dumped the MAGAcracy in  the 2022 elections, because Republican Senators recently took the ‘brave stand’ to stop a law criminalizing unmarried cohabitants from being wiped from the books.

The Texas legislature has passed a law mandating posting the 10 Commandments in every classroom. This has been tried before back in the 1950s until it was discovered that Catholics, Jews and Protestants all have slightly different versions in their approved bibles. Which will they use? I can bet big bucks it won’t be the Jewish version.

The people who scream loudest about voter fraud are actually the ones looking to influence elections by disenfranchising voters.

Cleta Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer and fundraiser who worked closely with former president Donald Trump to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, told a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Nashville over the weekend that conservatives must band together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters,

From the Washington Post:

• Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who has sued Republicans over their efforts to tighten student and youth voting laws, said Mitchell’s efforts appear aimed at making it harder for young people, who tend to vote Democratic, to cast their ballots.

• “Imagine if in every place in this presentation where she references campuses, she talked about African Americans,” Elias said. “Or every place she says students, she instead talked about Latinos. There is a subtle but real bigotry that goes on when people target young voters because of their age.”

A Wall Street Journal poll says eliminating wokeness is more important than protecting Social Security and Medicare. You do remember that Rupert Murdoch owns that paper, right?

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Some More News You Might Wanna See

Battle Over Labor Secretary Nominee Reflects a Larger Fight for Biden Via the New York Times. Imagine that! Republicans are sweating a Secretary of Labor who might listen to workers.

Senate Finance Chief: Nothing Unites GOP More Than 'Helping Rich People Cheat on Their Taxes' Via Common Dreams. Go figure! The GOP’s idea of raising the debt ceiling favors the wealthy.

Something Seems Out of Whack Here – Via KPBS & New York Times: Senator Alex Padilla announced more than $630 million in federal funding to address homelessness and housing insecurity across California. Meanwhile, a three-mile section of Highway 99 in west-central Fresno will undergo a $400 million overhaul. Yeah, I know it’s apples to oranges, but the ratio of dollar amounts says something about priorities.

Why U.S. conservatives are flirting with eco-fascism Via Emily Atkins at Heated. Add two parts racism and one part fear mongering and you can get the masses thinking about a different kind of environmentalism.

• Here are some examples from the last few months of prominent conservative individuals and organizations spouting fascist-inspired environmental thinking:

• Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said the government and media don't care about the environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio because the residents are "overwhelmingly white and politically conservative.” He added: “In both cases, had it affected the rich or the favored poor, it would be the lead of every news channel in the world.” (February 2023).

• Popular right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk said President Biden does not care about the environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, because it happened primarily to white people. "It's because the war on white people continues,” he said. “Why would you care for the white working class voters in eastern Ohio?" (February 2023).

• The House Judiciary Committee tweeted a clip from a hearing, claiming "Illegal immigration damages our ENVIRONMENT every single day." (February 2023).

How a stripper, a barista and an electrician ended up at a ‘Troublemakers School’ for L.A. labor activists Via the Los Angeles Times. A new generation of labor activists are coming up, ready to speak truth to power.

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Thank you for all the kind thoughts yesterday. My first round of immuno/chemo therapy left me  a little dingy but well enough to celebrate 38 years of marriage to Lisa.

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