The Daily Drift

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Mary Gonzalez, First Openly Pansexual Legislator, Explains How She Is Changing Minds In Texas

by Michelangelo Signorile

As the state legislative session comes to a close in Texas, Democrats have impressively managed to beat back the bulk of over 20 anti-gay bills conservative Republicans had created in committees in an effort to blunt a Supreme Court ruling this month that could bring marriage equality to the entire country, including Texas. Some of the bills were stalled by Democrats running out the clock, while Republicans chose not to move forward with others. Rep. Mary Gonzalez (D-Clint), a member of the Texas House from the El Paso area and the nation’s first openly pansexual legislator, says one way she tries to change minds among her colleagues in both parties is by fostering a “familial” bond, which she believes goes a long way toward helping people “overcome a lot of their prejudice.”
Sitting in her office at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, speaking with me for an interview for SiriusXM Progress, Gonzalez first wanted to dispel some misinformation about her identity. She first came out as pansexual — which is distinct from bisexual because it defines an individual who is attracted to various gender identities — in 2012 after first being elected, noting that she’d dated transgender and "gender-queer" people. But it had been reported that she came out as lesbian first and then later came out as pansexual. But, she explained, "lesbian" was never an identity that she claimed for herself.
“It’s a more complicated history,” she said. “The media labeled me [as a lesbian]. I always identified as queer or LGBT-identified or pan. When I first came out in politics, I used to say I was LGBT-identified and the media took that [as], ‘Well she must be lesbian’ as opposed to having a more complex understanding of our sexual community. And so, because of that I had to clarify that and say, ‘No, not lesbian. Love them. [laughs] but…’ I identify as pan and talk about what that means. And having those conversations does bring up gender diversity and the trans community. And so, I’ve been able to have a lot of conversations about that in the political world in Texas.”
Changing minds by exposing people to the diversity of gender isn’t easy, Gonzalez says, but it can be done.
“I’m not going to lie — those have a been a lot of difficult conversations at times,” she said. “But I think one of the best ways to combat homophobia and heterosexism is to use your own story as a tool for justice. So I tell my story, and these colleagues, while some people might have an impression about them, they also wind up being my friends. We work on other issues together. I’m on the agriculture committee. So I get to talk to a lot of conservative members and we care passionately about supporting agriculture in Texas. And we bond on those issues and then they really like me and they hear my story. And well, you know, I think that that they start to at least change their minds a little bit.”
Gonzalez tells a story that underscores the there are many ways that work at helping make people connect with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender — and pansexual — people.
“Last session I came onto the floor,” she said. “There were 3000 articles written about me. There were a lot of whispers, ‘Oh, there’s the — they don’t know a lot of language I use — they would go, ‘Oh there’s the gay one.’ And they would whisper. And I could hear it and it would be hurtful at times. But in March — because we started in January — March of 2013, one of the Republican legislators came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Mary Edna, do you know you’re the same age as my daughter?’ And I said, ‘No sir, I had no idea.’ And he said, ‘Well, on this floor you’re my daughter.’ To build relationships that are grounded in familial ways helps people to understand and overcome a lot of their prejudice, their misunderstanding and their stereotypes.”

US Finally Agrees With Reality, Cuba Not A Terror State

First off, Cuba has never sponsored terrorism. It did support left-wing groups in multiple countries, from Colombia to Spain, but those never qualified...

Cuba Is Not A Terror State

Another Fox News Shrieking Point Implodes: Illegal Immigration Lowest In 20 Years Under Obama

President Obama’s compassionate approach to immigration is working and wingnuts couldn’t be more furious about it.

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America’s Liberal Surge Continues As Pro-Choice Americans Now Outnumber Anti-Choicers

America’s move to the left on social issues continues as a new Gallup poll has found that for the first time in seven years more Americans identify themselves as pro-choice than pro-life.

A new Gallup poll found that:

Half of Americans consider themselves “pro-choice” on abortion, surpassing the 44% who identify as “pro-life.” This is the first time since 2008 that the pro-choice position has had a statistically significant lead in Americans’ abortion views.

…..

For most of the past five years, Americans have been fairly evenly divided in their association with the two abortion labels. The only exception between 2010 and 2014 was in May 2012, when the pro-life position led by 50% to 41%.

Prior to 2009, the pro-choice side almost always predominated, including in the mid-1990s by a substantial margin. While support for the pro-choice position has yet to return to the 53% to 56% level seen at the time, the trend has been moving in that direction since the 2012 reading.

The Koch fueled Republican takeover of state level offices has led to a surge in anti-choice legislation, but Republicans are out step with the direction of a majority of the country. At the federal level, when Congressional Republicans pass bills that take away the right to choose, they are appealing to a shrinking constituency of supporters.

Socially, the United States is moving to the left. Majorities in the country support immigration reform, same-sex marriage, a woman’s right to choose, and accept climate change as reality. On all of these issues, Republicans are in the minority.

The social movement to the left was also found in last week’s Gallup poll that revealed that social liberals outnumber social wingnuts. This hasn’t translated to success for Democrats in midterm elections because many millennials who share similar beliefs as Democrats don’t vote.

A recent poll by Toluna Quicksurveys found that Millennials support Democrats by a margin of 41%-21%, and 91% plan on voting in the 2016 election. The problem for Democrats is that 30% also said that they vote in presidential elections, but not in state and local elections.

Most Americans are pro-choice, but a sizable number of these individuals aren’t voting in the elections that determine the policy direction of many states on social issues. If pro-choice Americans don’t vote, their states elect governors and legislators that carry out an anti-choice agenda.

What this dynamic means for 2016 is that the Republican presidential candidates will be trying to win an anti-choice primary in order to run in a general election when the majority of voters are likely to be pro-choice.

The U.S. has shifted left on social issues, but for that shift to reflected in policy, voters must vote in non-presidential year elections.

Republicans can’t stop it. America is remembering it has always been a liberal nation.

Bernie Sanders Has More Support Than Every 2016 Republican Candidate In New Poll

According to the latest polling, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign has more support than the campaign of media favorites Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and every other Republican candidate.

The latest Quinnipiac Poll revealed that five Republicans are tied at the top of the Republican field. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee each were at 10%.

Do you know who is more popular than even the most popular 2016 Republicans? Sen. Bernie Sanders. In the same poll, Sanders was supported by 15% of Democrats for their party’s nomination. Sen. Sanders trailed Hillary Clinton 57%-15%, but his fifteen percent made him the second most popular presidential candidate in the country.

The media treats Republicans like Carly Fiorina (2%), Ted Cruz (6%), and Rand Paul (7%) like they are serious candidates, but Bernie Sanders has two to seven times more support than these three Republicans. Why does the media treat Sen. Sanders like he is token opposition to former Sec. of State Clinton instead of as the legitimately popular stand alone figure that he is?

The answer to this question is located in the media’s bias. The corporate press has convinced itself that the America is a wingnut country. They believe that liberal views are not “in the mainstream.” However, recent polling shows that the country is moving left.

Politicians like Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, and Mike Huckabee are more out of the mainstream than Bernie Sanders. The media is perpetuating the myth of a horse race election between Democrats and Republicans when the facts are that the Democratic Party has the two most popular candidates. One of those candidates is extraordinarily popular (Hillary Clinton) while the other is more in touch with the sentiment among average Americans (Bernie Sanders) than any candidate on the Republican side.

Bernie Sanders is legitimately popular. The prism that the media is trying to force this election into doesn’t fit. Sen. Sanders has a larger base of support than any Republican hopeful, which is why it is time for the media to stop pumping up Republican pretenders and face the reality that Bernie Sanders is legit.

The Republican Cabal Should Run Scared As Bernie Sanders’ Appeal Expands Toward Traditional Republican Voters

Bernie Sanders is starting to appeal to an unexpected demographic. This revelation should terrify the Republican Cabal.

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Defective Airbags

Koch Brothers Credibility Shot After $15 Minimum Wage Slashes Unemployment

After fighting against a $15/hr minimum wage, the right-wing economic think tanks have all been proven to be dead wrong.

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Winguts Are Literally Trying To Kill You

It’s time we faced the truth. 

The policies and positions of the wingnuts in this country would likely kill us all.

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Wingnuts Try to Use Their Own Failure To Regulate Wall Street to Smear Democrats

But no matter who they donate to, it's beyond disingenuous for wingnuts to pretend that their platform doesn't push for total deregulation of Wall Street and the…

After Dick Fuld’s embarrassing and uncomfortable first outing since the fall of Lehman Brothers, Andrew Stiles over at the wingnut rag Free Beacon eagerly claimed that Fuld is a big donor to Democrats, writing, “Given his history of political donations, its reasonable to assume that Fuld would prefer a Hillary Clinton presidency.”

Such high hopes.

But given the fact that Hillary Clinton was a Senator presiding over New York and thus Wall Street from January 3, 2001 to January 21, 2009, it’s reasonable to presume that Fuld wanted to grease the wheels. Since Stiles didn’t link to where he got his numbers that immediately followed this claim, Google took me to an old American Thinker blog post (also wingout  outlet) in which the author left out the donations Fuld made to Republican Senatorial Committee, PACs that serve Republicans, and in the last paragraph, conflated the employees of Lehman who donated to Obama with Fuld.

The link that author used to Open Secrets to claim that Fuld gave over a hundred thousand dollars to Democrats says “no records found”. The only way to get those kind of numbers from the numbers available is to count donations form employees, family members of employees, etc as if they came from Fuld.

The fact of the matter is that Fuld donated to both Republicans and Democrats. They all took his money, though I couldn’t find records of him donating after 2008. In 2008, for example, Fuld donated the to Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Barack Obama… Yes. That’s right. He greased the wheels every which way. He gave $10,000 to both Republican and Democratic Senatorial committees. Fuld donated to Bush/Cheney and to Democrats in 2000.

Fuld also donated to the “Freedom Fund” which in turn donated only to Republicans, another figure left out of the calculations used to prove that Fuld is a “benefactor” of Democrats and thus smear Democrats with his failure.

These people don’t donate to one party, they hedge bets like all entities that need laws bent their way.

This is why we must all remain vigilant about the policies politicians are hawking. But no matter who they donate to, it’s beyond disingenuous for conservatives to pretend that their platform doesn’t push for total deregulation of Wall Street and the dismantling of all speed bumps.

The Unrepentant ‘Gorilla’ of Wall Street Wants You to Bite Him

No, the “gorilla” of Wall Street is not in jail. Asked why he didn’t just ride into the sunset’, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers responded, “Why don’t you bite me?”

And those, ladies and gentlemen, are the words of a Wall Street bank’s CEO explaining why he has no regrets even though he oversaw Lehman Brothers during the biggest bankruptcy in this country’s history and played a rather large role in the financial collapse of 2008.

You, of course, might feel otherwise.

Breaking his seven year silence to speak at the Gandy Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Richard Fuld Jr (Dick Fuld) played fast and loose with the truth and wished for better days. Days when he and his kind were making risky bets on the backs of the American people with no regulation in sight. You know, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.

A very angry and self-pitying Dick, also known as the “Gorilla of Wall Street”, didn’t want to discuss his part in the biggest bankruptcy in the U.S. Instead of being accountable, Fuld blamed the Federal Reserve for his failures and greed with subprime mortgages, and ultimately laid blame on policy makers instead of the banks.

So he’s learned a lot.

The New York Times had this takeaway:

In the end, Mr. Fuld seemed hung up on the fate of his own firm, not the broader crisis that its bankruptcy helped ignite.

“Please understand, not a day goes by when I don’t think about Lehman Brothers. Not a day,” he said. “I’d love to tell you I’m over it, it’s behind me. It doesn’t happen. But having said that, I do have to move on.”

Bizarrely, though, while whining about how we need “new leadership”, he also blamed the Republican idealized situation of lack of regulations for his failures, “There was very little regulation or market supervision.” Translation: Someone should have stopped me!

Also at fault, that pesky Federal Reserve again for raising interest rates, because HELLO, all over-paid executives know that interest rates never change.

Fuld blamed easy credit and the “government’s push” to own homes (so he’s blaming Bush?), but he turned around and pulled a fast one, using small business as his “Trojan Horse” (to use Hillary Clinton’s term) to concern troll over too much regulation. Dick said the banks won’t lend to small businesses and that’s why the economy is bad. Now what do you suppose would fix this problem? Just take a wild guess.

Hint: Easy credit. You know, the thing that he says caused this problem, and the thing that made him very wealthy.

Mr. Fuld is worried about YOU! Specifically, you and income inequality. Sure, he got his, he made about $529 million between 2002-2007 and he wasn’t so worried about income inequality then. But perhaps he’s changed. If Dick cared about the little people and their businesses, you’d think he would have mentioned the 27,000 or so employees who lost their jobs due to his greed and failure to make good choices. But no mention of their devastation.

But Fuld is very worried about Iran’s nuclear capacity and Russia and claimed that the economy was not nearly as healthy as the stock markets might suggest. This must be why he thinks we need “new leadership”. Apparently Dick has a higher estimation of his cred about the real state of the economy than others do.

Dick sees himself not as he is, but as a movie icon from bygone times. He’s Rocky, y’all. “What did Rocky say? ‘It’s not how hard you hit but whether you get up after you’ve been knocked down.’ I love Rocky.” I guess that makes the American people Rocky’s punching bag.

Dick Fuld was not repentant or humble or even always aware of reality, referring to Lehman in the present tense at least once. Dick Fuld sounded like an unpleasant mixture of a petulant teenager blaming mommy and a bitter man with a bad memory, fussing over his hurts while cherry picking reality.

FEMA to States: No Climate Planning, No Money

Governors seeking billions of dollars in U.S. preparedness funds will have to sign off on plans to mitigate effects of climate change..

by Katherine Bagley

Beginning next year, governors that want the many millions in disaster preparedness funding from FEMA will have to sign off on plans acknowledging the climate change risks to their communities. The policy could put some Republicans governors who deny or question climate change, such as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal (pictured), in a bind. Louisiana is the nation's biggest recipient of FEMA funds, having received more than $1 billion between 2010 and 2014.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making it tougher for governors to deny man-made climate change. Starting next year, the agency will approve disaster preparedness funds only for states whose governors approve hazard mitigation plans that address climate change.
This may put several Republican governors who maintain the earth isn't warming due to human activities, or prefer to do nothing about it, into a political bind. Their position may block their states' access to hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA funds. Over the past five years, the agency has awarded an average $1 billion a year in grants to states and territories for taking steps to mitigate the effects of disasters.
"If a state has a climate denier governor that doesn't want to accept a plan, that would risk mitigation work not getting done because of politics," said Becky Hammer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council's water program. "The governor would be increasing the risk to citizens in that state" because of his climate beliefs.
The policy doesn't affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood or other disaster. Specifically, beginning in March 2016, states seeking preparedness money will have to assess how climate change threatens their communities. Governors will have to sign off on hazard mitigation plans. While some states, including New York, have already started incorporating climate risks in their plans, most haven’t because FEMA's old 2008 guidelines didn't require it.
"This could potentially become a major conflict for several Republican governors," said Barry Rabe, an expert on the politics of climate change at the University of Michigan. "We aren't just talking about coastal states." Climate change affects droughts, rainfall and tornado activity. Fracking is being linked to more earthquakes, he said. "This could affect state leaders across the country."
Among those who could face a difficult decision are Republican Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Greg Abbott of Texas and Pat McCrory of North Carolina—all of whom have denied man-made climate change or refused to take action. The states they lead face immediate threats from climate change.
The five governors' offices did not return requests for comment by press time.

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Texas-Size Republican Hypocrisy As a Result of Climate Change Deluge

It is true that all Republicans are blatant hypocrites, but now that go-it-alone awesome Texas experienced a little anthropogenic climate change weather, the Lone Star State's Republicans go totally off the edge…

It is curious why American dictionary publishers use any words to define “hypocrisy;” particularly when an image of the Republican elephant logo would suffice and save some ink and space on a page. It is true that all Republicans are blatant hypocrites, but now that go-it-alone awesome Texas experienced a little anthropogenic climate change weather, the Lone Star State’s Republicans, both tea party and mainstream Republicans alike, are demanding some of those hated “federal government handouts” they oppose for other Americans whether it is for food, housing, healthcare, or disaster relief.

If it is not theocrat Ted Cruz, the man aiming to be “Pope of the Confederate States of America,” stand-up badass Governor Greg Abbott mobilizing Texas’ militias to keep the United States military from taking over, ignoramus extraordinaire Louie Gohmert, or Representative Bill Flores representing an area ravaged by climate change rain; they all feel entitled to federal disaster relief from their ‘enemy’ who declared the area a federal climate change disaster. The Texas contingent in Congress all voted against disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy victims across the Northeastern U.S., but now that Texas needs it, they have no compunction demanding a swift response from the federal government; the one they hate with religious fervor and are generally prepared to battle over Texas’ sovereignty.

As spokesman for secession-minded Texas, the state that has no use for the federal government, Ted Cruz said he witnessed some climate change flooding and destruction climate scientists have spent twenty years warning idiotic Republicans was certainly coming. Cruz made a pledge to his Texas constituents that because, “Texans are hurting. They’re hurting across the state, Democrats and Republicans will stand as one in support of the federal government meeting its statutory obligations to provide the relief to help the Texans who are hurting.”

Wait, what? Texans are hurting and are unwilling to help themselves? The Heritage Foundation needs to send a teabagger delegation to tour the Lone Star state and do some heavy evangelizing about the character-building benefits of conservative style “personal responsibility,” helping themselves, learn about the “value and culture of hard work,” and stop “depending on and demanding handouts” from the federal government. It is a speech Texas Republicans have spent no small amount of time spouting as a reason to slash funding for any Americans in need, so it is a subject Texans will need little prodding to take to heart.

It is interesting that Texas Ted claimed disaster relief was a federal government statutory obligation; that is not what he calls Americans receiving their own self-funded Medicare or Social Security benefits. It is also not what he called disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy that suffered inordinately greater damage than just a little climate change rain. At the time the Senate was debating legislation for federal relief for the Northeastern United States after Hurricane Sandy, Cruz railed on the idea of the federal government spending a penny to help other Americans (who were not Texans) because “America is broke.”  In fact, Texas Ted armed himself with the Republican “crushing deficit” argument and preached a sermon on the need and value of austerity on the floor of the Senate. Cruz said that “This bill is symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington; an addiction to spending money we do not have. The United States Senate should not be in the business of exploiting victims of natural disasters to fund projects that further expand our debt.”

Although Cruz puts forth an incredibly hateful argument, and one borne of inhumanity, it is fair enough and in the spirit of continuity of message one that applies equally to the Texans who elected austerity-minded teabagger-Republicans like Cruz. In fact, if Cruz had even a semblance of the evangelical Christian integrity and faith he claims as a matter of course to whomever will listen, he would take out four days of television air time and address his constituency in prime time and tell them to bible-up, swim to church, get right with god, and appeal to Jesus for disaster relief. After all, most Americans are painfully aware that Texas Ted, like most Texans, and all Republicans, hate the federal government with a passion; particularly when it spends even a penny to help Americans in need; unless of course they are expatriates living in the state that does not recognize it is a part of the United States of America.

The climate change-caused deluge in Texas is just the latest Lone Star state’s need for federal disaster assistance and President Obama immediately pledged the full cooperation and support of the federal government Texans hate. What is hardly mentioned and little known is that despite its enmity with the federal government in general and FEMA in particular, Texas sucks up more federal disaster money than any other state in the Union and it still hates the federal government. In fact, Citylab has a comprehensive accounting of Texas’ disaster relief receipts and specifically noted that “Texas suffers more natural disasters than any state in the nation,” and it “absorbs more federal disaster assistance funds than any other state.” Texas is also home to some seriously deranged climate change deniers and they were furious at noted scientist Bill Nye and called him an “as*hole” for even suggesting, like climate scientists have predicted for decades, that both the severe drought in Texas and the flooding from a horrific deluge is the product of anthropogenic climate change.

Texas Republicans, both teabagger and mainstream types alike, always find a reason to deprive other Americans in every other state of their own taxpayer money; including money and taxpayer-funded resources specifically earmarked for disaster relief. That being the case, it is long past time for all Texas voters to figure out why Republicans think that Texans deserve even one stinking cent of taxpayer-funded disaster relief assistance. Texans want to secede, go it alone, and even elected a governor that called up the state militia to surveil the U.S. army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines to prevent an alleged assault and takeover.  Maybe the Lone Star state just sucks air and deals with the disaster on its own, without a penny of federal government assistance; it will be their long-desired opportunity to see their cherished 10th Amendment “federalism” in all its glory.

Or they can swallow their “Texas-size” pride, create an open letter to Americans who believe in such a thing as a “United” States of America and beg forgiveness for being secession-minded malcontents and end the letter with a humble apology to the country for being anti-federal government everything except disaster assistance for Texas. Most of all, they better start beseeching their almighty for forgiveness for electing Republicans who oppose helping other Americans in other states during their time of need, and then have the unmitigated hypocritical gall to demand the rest of the nation step up and fund disaster relief for Texas; the ‘special’ state that believes it is an awe-inspiring sovereign nation but not sovereign enough to handle a “little” rain courtesy of anthropogenic climate-change.

Wingnuts Claim Texas Flooding Caused Not by Climate Change but Witchcraft and Sodomy

Bryan Fischer and company think they can pinpoint sodomy and witchcraft as the causes of Texas flooding, but the bible - like science - disagrees…

Oh yes. Those Texas Republicans are outraged at the idea that global warming could be responsible for the devastating floods experienced by their state, which have forced them to sell their immortal souls as they go begging to federal dollars.
The good news is that it is not global warming that is to blame! It is witchcraft and sodomy! Yay!
(Ironically, this post was delayed because of those floods – did dog not want this story to see the light of day? If so, he failed in the face of technology)
“Rebecca in College Station, Texas” shared this theory with Bryan Fischer the other day during his radio show. She said that “the places that are underwater [are] are overrun with witchcraft and sodomy. If you go into those areas, you can just see it.”
Houston, she complains, “has a whole area that is like Sodom and Gomorrah.” Houston, she says, even has a “sodomite mayor”!
Right then! Enough of that! After all, dog smote Texas with wildfires a few years back. Why not a little flooding?
Well, there is the little issue that in Genesis 9:11 dog said, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
But I suppose it could be argued that dog didn’t promise to not to destroy Texas by flooding.
Loophole? Rebecca seems to think so:
“If dog is judging Texas, it’s because of the witchcraft and sodomy that we’ve allowed to run rampant,” Rebecca opined.
Fischer, always quick to agree to anything that doesn’t make sense in favor of the science right in front of his nose, said,

If you’re going to attribute the flooding in Texas to some kind of supernatural cause, you can make a geographical connection between the flooding and the practice of the occult and witchcraft and the embrace of homosexuality. That’s where the disaster is being felt the worse.

What, do these people have access to some kind of sodomite map that shows where sodomites live? Is there some kind of NSA sodomite satellite filter? And witches? Do the holy walk the streets sniffing for incense in the wind, trail the scent to houses and mark them with little crosses to be counted by the holy accountants?
This is not far-fetched. There was a pastor a few years ago who wanted to start a national registry of atheists, to keep track of those nasty little buggers. You know, instead of tracking little Duggars:

Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists !

Don’t pause to think though (last thing that’s going to happen here), because Fischer then showed his continued ignorance of his own bible as he said of Sodom and Gomorrah,

[dog] just wiped out those two cities where homosexuality had been embraced [so] if you’re going to make a case that there is some supernatural origin to this natural disaster, that would probably be the place to look.

If you actually READ the bible, unlike Fischer and probably Rebecca, you will find that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were not Sodomy and Gomorrahry but, according to Ezekiel the cities were destroyed apparently because of rampant Republicanism:

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her sisters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me. (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

Now sure, Genesis 19 relates a story where a couple of visiting angels disguised as men are besieged in Lot’s house by “the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man,” who wanted to get to “know” the strangers.
The interesting part is that 'christian' sites like GotQuestions? relay the story as evidence that dog hates homosexuality. Sure, GotQuestions? mentions the lack of hospitality from Ezekiel’s account, but they point out, helpfully, “There is probably nothing more inhospitable than homosexual gang rape.”
Well, okay look, so Sodom and Gomorrah were worse than New Jersey. “Welcome to New Jersey – Now Go Home” is certainly less unfriendly than “Welcome to Sodom – Now Assume the Position” but aren’t you a little offended by the suggestion that homosexual gang rape is somehow worse than heterosexual gang rape?
I mean, isn’t rape just plain bad in and of itself?
Well, apparently, in both jewish and christian eyes, Surprise Butt Sex should be limited to women.
In this regard, GotQuestions? curiously fails to mention the unhappy fact that Lot offered the rapists his two virgin daughters for their pleasure in place of the two strangers:
“Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them as you please.”
Now THAT is family values!
I don’t know how people can read the bible and not cringe and flee for the hills. I’m sure my Viking ancestors engaged in some promiscuous surprise butt sex of their own, but it wasn’t codified, for crying out loud.
Look, all this talk of inhospitality has got me thinking, and I’ve come up with a solution:
The secret is apparently for witches and sodomites to spread out over the general population and mingle, so that no single city can be targeted as a modern-day Sodom. Rebecca’s own conservative haven, nestled in an abortion-free valley, passed dog’s judgment and she was high and dry.
A witch moving there would be safe then, unless dog wants to kill people like Rebecca to get to the witch.
After all, dog did tell Abraham that if even 10 righteous could be found in Sodom, that he would not destroy the city with his divine wrathiness (Genesis 18:32). Now we don’t know how many people there were in Sodom, but many ancient cities were very small, a few thousand at most.
You could easily have a city then that was almost entirely filled with witches and Sodomites and God would not smite it, which I think seems to disprove Rebecca’s thesis.
The beauty of my thought processes here is that they are entirely biblical. You could even argue that the place that ought to have been flooded out was Rebecca’s inhospitable valley.
Here’s the thing: If Sodom had 5,000 people, then 10 people is only .002 percent of the population.
Thus, an area could be 99 percent given over to sodomy and witchcraft and still safe. We can safely conclude then that the floods are not caused by sin, but by global warming.

I think I’ve done my work here today. Texas, you can thank me later. My bill will be in the mail.

This Alaska Judge Likes To Say Sex Assault Victims Are ‘Asking For It’ — Karma’s About To Get Him

This guy’s picture is next to “douchebag” in the dictionary…

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Another Bombshell Rocks Republicans As Dennis Hastert Indictment Linked To Sexual Abuse

It’s not just sex, but sexual abuse. Sexual abuse perpetrated on an unidentified male.

This is what one of the Republicans who trolled President Bill Clinton over his own tawdry and inappropriate (but consensual) sex scandal is now accused of violating the law to cover up. And by accused, I mean indicted.

Republican Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday for allegedly violating federal banking laws by attempting to conceal $1.7 million in “hush money” to a male from his past.

According to two federal law enforcement officials speaking to Los Angeles Times Friday morning, that hush money was to cover up for “misconduct” committed when Hastert was a teacher and coach:

One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said “Individual A,” as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said.

Asked why Hastert was making the payments, the official said it was to conceal Hastert’s past relationship with the male. “It was sex,” the source said. The other official confirmed that the misconduct involved sexual abuse.

Hastert was to pay individual “A” $3.5 million to compensate for and conceal what the indictment refers to as “prior misconduct”. The Illinois Republican was once a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois.

According to two sources who spoke to Buzzfeed, U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon agreed to withhold the details of the “prior misconduct”.

Additionally, Buzzfeed reported that investigators considered adding a second victim to the indictment:

A source familiar with the investigation told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon considered but did not pursue additional charges against former Speaker Dennis Hastert, which would have included a reference to an Individual B, one of potentially several alleged victims of “prior misdeeds.”

Political strategist Joe DiSano observed, “Should be noted that all 3 GOP speakers (Gingrich, Livingston, Hastert) who went after Clinton had their own sex scandal.”

But it’s kind of worse, because a sex scandal is not sexual abuse.

In this case, if the official who spoke to the Los Angeles Times is correct, Hastert forced undesired sexual behavior upon these individuals. I am keeping my fingers crossed that these individuals were not underage or his students at the time, but no matter what the details, we once again this week have a gross sexual violation of a human being in the news, and the Duggars aren’t even canceled yet.

Sources say it was a student.

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