SICKOFITRADLZ: November 2024

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Rashida, you in danger, girl, and, Rashida, you're on your own

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "They Don't Seem To Realize That They Host A TV Show" which is funny all by itself. But I love that Isaiah's decided to run with Miss Sassy. For those who don't know, JD Vance is a cross-dresser, we've seen the photos where he was 28 years old or older. Donald Trump's vice president is a cross-dresser. We should never forget that or let anyone else forget it.

Our first cross-dressing vice president.

Now for some completely unsurprising news, Sean Craig (The Daily Beast) reports:

A Republican running to fill a soon-to-be-vacant seat in the House of Representatives appeared to threaten the chamber’s only two Muslim women Tuesday, telling them they should “consider leaving before I get there.”

In a message to Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Florida state Sen. Randy Fine added the cryptic hashtag “#BombsAway.”

Fine is running to replace Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who is set to step down in Florida’s 6th Congressional District to be President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

Trump has endorsed him in the race.

Of course he has. "Molly, you in danger, girl," Whoopi Goldberg tells Demi Moore in Ghost. And Shonda Rhimes titled one of the best SCANDAL episodes "Molly, you in danger, girl."

So, Rahsida, you in danger, girl.

And, Rashid, you on you own.

Bitch, that's why we needed Kamala. But you and your sister worked to destroy Kamala and deliver Michigan to Trump.

So I don't give a s**t about what happens to you. I may speak out in defense of Ilham. I need to check what she did with regards to Kamala's campaign.

Sorry, Rashida, you racist. A Black woman wasn't good enough for you. I guess you're racist and homophobic like the bulk of Arabs and Muslims in Dearborn and Hamtramck.

Well you delivered Trump to the White House, big girl.

That's on your ass and I don't give a s**t now what happens to your ass.

Whatever it is, you brought it on yourself by refusing to stand with Kamala against a despot.

Again, you're on your own.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, November 27, 2024. The horrible grifter Jill Stein did achiever her goal, THE NATION's Katrina vanden Heuvel is a Twitter buddy to a homophobic, anti-abortion, Trump supporter (that she reTweets), BLUESKY is on the rise and (to those e-mailing after Stan's post), I revisit my visit with Earl Holliman from two years ago.

Let's start with this.

I'm going to try to be as kind as I can to Zac and Gavin of THE VANGUARD.

First, thanks for tackling the topic. It's a good topic, it's a worthy topic.

Second, you make some strong points in the video -- especially with regards to grifter Jill Stein's hypocrisy. More could be said on that hypocrisy -- you could do a 24-7 feed for a week and still not have enough time to cover it all.

But?

Jill Stein did win.

Her goal was not to become president. Even as crazy as she is -- and her supporters were -- she knew she was not going to win.

Her goal was the same reason that Trump's allies donated to her and gave her legal representation: To ensure the Democratic Party did not win.

Jill accomplished her goal.

She took away votes.

She didn't just do that with the people who voted for her.

That's not the point of Jill Stein.

Her point is to mount her high horse and for her supporters like Amy Goodman to pitch her as what we need. "Oh, she's brilliant! She's great! Look, over there, it's the Black woman. It's Kamala. She's not as great Jill. She's nothing. How can anyone vote for the Black woman."

Trump didn't think Jill would become president. He didn't think she'd get a ton of votes from people who would vote for Kamala. What he knew she could do was be POSTER GIRL FOR THE LEFT and attack Kamala and degrade Kamala and destroy enthusiasm for Kamala thereby depressing turnout.

That's what Jill did.

That's what Amy Goodman and others backed.

And now we have Trump back in the White House.

You need to understand that.

Pay attention next time as the Greens front another presidential candidate and they spend all their press time attacking the Democratic nominee. That's not a third party -- that's a GOP auxiliary.

Let's move over to Danielle Moodie as a needed palette cleanser.

When I wrote that Johnny Depp was making a big mistake, was in a mid-life crisis, that the woman didn't really love him and it would all end in horror -- words I had all said to his face -- and it came to be, our e-mails were non-stop on where is it one after another. We're starting to get that again as a result of Stan's "Earl Holliman:"

Earl Holliman died.

Not sure what to say.

Over a year ago -- maybe two -- C.I. noted at THE COMMON ILLS a man over ninety whose health was faltering was hiding in the closet. She noted it was an actor. A mutual friend asked C.I. to meet with the actor because they thought he would feel better if he came out. So C.I. talked to him about that and told him that people would embrace him.

As C.I. noted at THE COMMON ILLS, she didn't think the man would ever come out, that he would go to his grave in the closet.

That man was Earl Holliman.

He's dead now and Craig Curtis had to announce the death. Who? His husband.

I don't know if people are sincere in their e-mails or not. If it wasn't a holiday weekend -- I'm starting now -- I would ignore it. But if I do that right now, it's going to pile up in the e-mails and I'm not looking forward to the way that goes.

September 5, 2022, "My Labor Day Weekend:"

Hope your Labor Day Weekend was better than mine.

A friend asked for a favor. Could I speak to one of their former clients?

By phone? No problem.

No, in person.

He lives in the valley. I did not want to go.

But he thinks he's dying -- he's thought that before. And the man he's spent his life with wants him to come out and called my friend.

"I'll send a car."

Yeah, you better because I'm not driving in the valley, let alone to it.

So he's an actor. Unlike some closeted actors and actresses, he can't insist his mother would be shocked -- his mother died long, long ago. How old is he? He's so old that ____ _____ once bearded for him back when she was a starlet -- a decade before she became a respectable actress and a winner of numerous awards.

He won an award too. Many, many decades ago.

He made a lot of movies.

He was like Orlando Bloom. He didn't really sell tickets but no one who went to the movies he was in felt like they'd been short changed. So he was more like Orlando Bloom than, for example, Josh Harnett.

He's been part of five classics -- one is a camp classic but it's a classic none the less. He was popular on the big screen but never a star. In TV, he'd finally become a star.

He's well over seventy and he won't step out of the closet. He's worried what people will think.

What people will think? Few thing of him today and even fewer know he's alive.

By the time the sixties ended, so did his pretense of dating actresses. By the 80s, the never married status should have registered.

No one's going to be appalled. Coming out would be seen as brave. And if he truly is on the end cycle (again, he's thought this before but he's edging ever closer to 100 so this could be it), coming out would mean he would make the In Memoriam reel at the Academy Awards broadcast. It would also mean renewed interest in his work. He hasn't played a role in a film or TV show in over two decades.

It would also mean that it would come out (his being gay) on his terms. He could give a few interviews as his life wound down (if he is indeed dying) and talk about what is was like coming up in Hollywood in the fifties. There would be tremendous interest for historical, sociological and media reasons.

The more we talked, the more obvious it was that nothing was going to happen re: his coming out. I offered to hook him up with Lily Tomlin because in our only conversation before this one -- a conversation that took place over 30 years ago -- he'd expressed that he was a fan of Lily Tomlin's and then, he leaned in, and sotto voice added, "I've heard she's gay." To which I replied, "You mean like you."

Is that why, all these years later, his former publicist had arranged this meeting? No. It was because, I was told by the actor, I was known for not sugar coating. That reputation's been there for years but it was when the Iraq War was about to start and I told off a roomful of big names as they tried to figure out how best to 'message' what was coming -- as opposed to standing up against it -- that the reputation really took hold. I didn't realize what a bitch I was considered -- and I'm fine with that. I did rip people apart -- fake ass, faux lefties who are held up as heroes by a public that doesn't know better. I don't regret a word I said (and I'm very grateful to the friend, a film director, who stood up and walked out of the room with me) and it was past time that someone said it to those fake asses.

Apparently, the actor feels the country has gone astray (it has) with one war after another and, as a veteran himself, he has loved hearing about that moment when I told off a bunch of fake asses. (It's rather notorious within the industry.)

I told him the truth. He can act on it or not.

Not only would it be good for his image -- coming out -- it would be good for others who need role models. The man's not had any scandals in his life -- no arrests for drug use or what have you. When people do think of him, they think of him fondly because he didn't wear out his welcome.

It would also be good because someone's going to talk after he's dead. Better he be the one to talk about it now.

"He's so old that ____ _____ once bearded for him back when she was a starlet -- a decade before she became a respectable actress and a winner of numerous awards." That was Jane Fonda.

"He's been part of five classics -- one is a camp classic but it's a classic none the less. He was popular on the big screen but never a star. In TV, he'd finally become a star."

The camp classic is FORBIDDEN PLANET. The other four classic movies were GIANT, THE RAINMAKER (he won a Golden Globe for his performance), THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI and GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL.

"He hasn't played a role in a film or TV show in over two decades" -- 2000 was when he did his last acting roles.

He passed away Monday and he's survived by his husband Craig Curtis. He was twice enlisted in the Navy -- the first time for only a year -- he was kicked out when they found out he was underage. After finishing high school, he rejoined.

On TV, he became a big star supporting Angie Dickinson on POLICE WOMAN.

Aside, from Ava and my "TV: Who gets the green light, who gets the work?:"

And we realize how awful its been for all women and how recent the change has been.

Those two promotional photos above ran in the October, 1974 issue of Ms. magazine. Sue Cameron's "Police Drama: Women Are On The Case" opened with, "Not since Barbara Stanwyck starred in The Big Valley has a woman had the lead in a weekly dramatic series. This year Angie Dickinson and Teresa Graves have hit prime time as the leads of two police stories, Police Woman (NBC) and Get Christie Love (ABC)." The last new episode of The Big Valley aired in May of 1969. From then until September 11, 1974, when Get Christy Love debuted, there had been no female star of a TV drama. (Police Woman debuted September 13th.)

39 years later, NBC thought it was acceptable to unveil a fall season without one show -- sitcom or drama, 30 minutes or hour long -- that starred a woman?

I wasn't friends with Earl. We met once at a party -- I believe we nodded at one another from time to time at other gatherings. And then, in 2022, I visited him at his request and we spoke at length.

Stan notes he died in the closet. It would have been better for him if that wasn't the case. But at least he wasn't closeted completely. But it did wear on him. He did struggle with the idea of coming out, he did see that as something that would be freeing.

What held him back?

A century of lies and attacks from society. He was a sexy man with a strong sex drive. Warren Beatty, a contemporary of his, was the same. But Earl was attracted to men. Warren got a star build up long before BONNIE & CLYDE due to who he dated and slept with as much as for his performances.

That didn't happen to an out gay actor.

When we spoke, and note that he hadn't acted in film or TV in over 20 years at this point, he just knew any offers would dry up if he came out. That's not the case. If he had come out, it would have given him a cachet he no longer had. There would have been an interest -- renewed interest -- the same as what Richard Chamberlain experienced after coming out in 2003.

Earl didn't understand that times had changed. He was confused about a lot of things.

Like?

The whole industry knew he was gay back when he working. He posed as straight when we met -- the Lily Tomlin line -- until he got that I already knew and that it wasn't a problem to me. When we met, there were still some men and women who would feel the need to pose as offended. And I say pose because a number of them were gay men and lesbians in the closet. In fact, there's a closet case just a little younger than Earl -- and still alive -- who always made it show of being upset when meeting someone gay. He's even written laughable books -- as a 'straight' man -- about things like Noel Coward coming on to him but we'll save that for another obituary -- I mean, I don't want to be thrown off the ship into the ocean.

It never matters, for employment in the industry, if you're gay.

It did matter if the public knew you were gay. Then the studio would be nervous.

And that went on forever. To a degree, it still does. Anne Heche and Ellen were a couple. That was known before Anne was hired for that film with Harrison Ford -- SIX DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS. The pre-filming panic only ensued when they went public as a couple. Then the studio panicked. That was 1997.

So there was the employment issue.

He was also confused -- pretty much his entire career -- about what he was.

He was not a romantic lead actor. He really was a supporting actor who sometimes was elevated higher.

THE RAINMAKER typifies who he was on stage -- a supporting actor and someone a little slower on the draw than the audience. This was not leading man roles and that's because of certain characteristics he had -- none of which was from being gay, to be clear.

But he -- and his team -- for decades thought he was just the one role away from being a leading man and that required more closeting.

That role was never going to come. He didn't have the weight. He was good at getting laughs and, if he could have been cast in comedies, he might have risen to leading man there. Jim Carey is tremendously talented and can do drama but he loses his spark when he does drama. When he does comedy, he is more at ease and we, as an audience, are more comfortable. In POLICE WOMAN, he got to do comedy -- it was a drama, not a sitcom but his character got to banted with Angie and that was the highlight of any episode.

He and his team -- his people -- spent way too many years -- wasted them -- on roles that never came because they were all wrong for him. In the end, it's his moments of relatability that stand out in your mind. Not some heavy drama scene, but that moment of just breathing and being. That's a gift and people sometimes don't get that they have it or they don't appreciate what they have.

When you're not getting the roles you want, it's easy to pretend you're the victim of a whisper campaign and need to go deeper into the closet. But he didn't get the roles that he wanted because that's not what he projected. He spoke of Burt Reynolds -- who he was friends with -- and how he never got those roles. No, he didn't. Burt was a lech onscreen. He was not kind, he was not good. Earl projected a caring and decency. He could play the Warren Beatty role in ISHTAR, for example. Burt was the 'bad boy' to some -- to his fans -- but he never managed to go much beyond that because what he projected was someone who was going to use you for all the good times he could and then move on.

It can be hard for any of us to see who we actually are. It can be even harder to see what others see in us. He had an element that lifted the projects he was in. But the element wasn't going to work in a dramatic role without any comedy. Again, barring a comedy find of a role, he was a supporting actor.

Acceptance of that would have made his life easier.

Anyway, I didn't mean to dictate that much on that into the snapshot but he was a nice man and he did achieve in his career and he will be missed by many including his husband. Maybe to young Americans today, there's something in his life story that they can find.

An angry e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) claims I haven't given Naomi Klein her due. She has left Twitter for BLUESKY!!!!! "Just like you're asking people too but you don't give her a single credit to that, do you!"

What do you say?

Learn to read.

The pinned Tweet on her Twitter -- no link to Twitter -- is:

I’ve stopped posting here for the time being. Find me on Bluesky (http://naomiaklein.bsky.social) and Instagram/ Threads (naomiaklein). And my free newsletter, which is about to become more fun! Subscribe at http://news.naomiklein.org/newsletter

That's what she posted to Twitter.

Coward couldn't leave Twitter.

She's just left "for the time being."

What is that?

Is that like, in 1965, while concerned Americans are marching on Selma, you do a brisk walk through Duluth as part of your daily constitutional and want credit for being a member of the Civil Rights Movement?

Seriously, one is a Civil Rights action, the other is just a stroll.

So Namoi's smart enough -- after THE GUARDIAN, NPR, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gabrielle Union and so many more -- millions more -- to see that being on Twitter -- on a racist platform that preaches hate -- might be bad for her 'brand' or 'logo' so she scoots over to BLUESKY but our 'brave' 'activist' doesn't have the spine to just walk away from Twitter completely.

Naomi's not going to help us with the lunch counter sit-in but she will wave to us as the police escort us out and then will spend hours talking about her 'bravery' during the difficult situation.

Are you a racist, Naomi? Then why aren't you off that platform? You've got one toe in the freedom pool and the other in the Whites Only pool. Why should we give you credit for a damn thing?

Grasp that there is vile and disgusting hate speech and photos all over Twitter -- little ha-has about Black people being enslaved again. I'm not even going to do it. I'm not going to list all the things wrong with Twitter for the left.

Naomi's too concerned about building up her follower count to do the right thing.

DO THE RIGHT THING!!! It's not just a great film by Spike Lee, it's something we should try to live up to.

The only good that came from the e-mailer was it made me wonder if racist Katrina vanden Heuvel was still on Twitter?

She is and it's oh so worse than I could have imagined.

Katrina vandenHeuvel reposted

memer

@memer_mem

Nov 25

Sally Field shares details of her illegal abortion.

‘We can’t go back,’ the actor said.

She was just 17yrs i forgive her

#sallyfield

Rest of video THREAD 👇

You forgive her?

Oh, well, thank heaven. I normally wouldn't presume to speak for Sally but I do know her and I think her reply to you would be NSFW and that's because (a) she didn't ask for forgiveness (nor has she done anything to be forgiven for) and (b) she doesn't give a damn what some hateful homophobe thinks of her.

Homophobe?

"I forgive her" -- Katrina reposted that garbage.

WTF?

She's unhinged over that fact that I've noted her racism for weeks here. She's a part owner of THE NATION and she's a good liberal and she's . . .

She's a racist. And what upsets about that charge I've made is that her own actions back it up. That's why she's suffering fall out. All I did was point out the reality no one wanted to grapple with or address.

Now mutual friends and people I know at THE NATION report back over and over how she's enraged that people are calling her a racist. Here's a quote from her friend that called me on Saturday, "She's losing her s**t over this."

She's clearly lost her mind.

What 'left' woman would publish a Tweet from a man saying he forgives a woman for having an abortion?

What woman would indulge an insufferable man?

Not a feminist. But as Ava and I pointed out long ago, Katrina's no feminist ["The Nation featured 491 male bylines in 2007 -- how many female ones?"].

memer is trash. And 'left' Katrina is reposting him and endorsing what he Tweeted and endorsing him.

Has she gone completely nuts? Is it time to put her in a home?

Here are some of memer's other Tweets:

memer

@memer_mem

Nov 22

#Khalid comes out as gay after being outed by ex-lover

Khalid's parents tried their best but the devil won

Homophobe. Raging homophobe. And that's who Katrina vanden Heuvel reTweets?

memer

@memer_mem

Nov 20

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted in New York over a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme, the Justice Department says.

We thank God Donald Trump will be in the driving seat. Justice will be serve because he did not make a deal with a demon Must Go.

That's Katrina's man. She's reTweeting a homophobic Trump supporter.

She should hang her head in shame. She's a racist who is reposting anti-abortion Tweets from a Trump supporting homophobe.

Get off the world stage, Katrina. Or, in fact, don't. Stay on that stage and prove to the world just how right I am about you.

BLUESKY is not a hate speech site. It does not want to bring back slavery, it does not want to destroy the rights of women or LGBTQ+ people. And that's why it's growing.

There's much to find on BLUESKY.

Let's wind down with this from "Media: You apparently can't teach common sense to journalists (Ava and C.I.)" where Ava and I point out what a liar and idiot Glenn Greenwald actually is:

Common sense?

They have none which is how the meet-up happened.

But let's stay with the lack of common sense.

Alleged pedophile and sex trafficker Matt Gaetz had to abandon his nomination for Attorney General of the United States; however, please note this came only after the disgusting foursome of Matt Stoller, Lee Fang, Ryan Grim and Glenneth Greenwald championed and defended his nomination.

Glenneth, a transphobe who hates lesbians as a class, went so far as to insist Matt Gaetz had earned the right to be confirmed it on the issue of gay rights alone. He Tweeted, "He was also the key figure in having Florida repeal its ban on same-sex couples adopting (sorry, just facts)."

Glory Hole Glenn is always a liar. That wasn't a fact that he served up, it was a lie.

Glenneth knows his aged fan base swallows any lie he tells and he's no longer important enough for most to bother fact checking. He figured he'd get away with yet another lie.

"He was also the key figure in having Florida repeal its ban on same-sex couples adopting (sorry, just facts)."

What does that say to you? That statement implies that Matt Gaetz ending the ban on gay and lesbian couples adopting.

Lie. Lie. Lie.

Where to begin?

How about the fact that the ban -- pushed by Anita Bryant -- was not on same-sex couples. It was on any gay person.

What a stupid idiot.

He's always hated lesbians and that's why he missed March of 2002 when Rosie O'Donnell came out as a lesbian. Steve Rothaus (KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS) reported that month:

Rosie O'Donnell learned last year that Florida is the only state that flat-out won't allow gay people to adopt. That gays can become foster parents in the Sunshine State, but not permanent adoptive parents.

The TV star and magazine editor -- who lives in Miami Beach with her partner and three children who were adopted in New York -- suddenly realized she would not be allowed to keep the 4-year-old foster daughter entrusted to her by the state of Florida.

"She will soon be adopted by friends of mine. I am not legally able to adopt this child, because I am gay," an outraged O'Donnell writes in the introduction to a book, Too High A Price: The Case Against Restricting Gay Parenting, to be published this week by the American Civil Liberties Union.

O'Donnell decided to out herself and join forces with the ACLU after reading about Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, a Miami Beach couple fighting in court to adopt their three foster sons. On Aug. 30, 2001, a federal judge in Miami upheld a 1977 Florida law that prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting.

At that same time, only one other state prohibited gay adoptions -- and that was Mississippi -- but, pay attention Glory Glenn -- it prohibited couples adopting -- gay couples -- it did not, like Florida did -- prohibit gay couples and an individual gay man or lesbian from adoption.

"He was also the key figure in having Florida repeal its ban on same-sex couples adopting (sorry, just facts)."

So Glenn the lousy lawyer was wrong -- he was wrong when he said the ban was on same-sex couples. No, you damn fool, you damn liar, the ban was on gay couples and on a single gay man adopting and on a single lesbian adopting. If you're too lazy to read the original law, you could refer to 2004's LOFTON V SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN & FAMILY SERVICES which argued that there was a difference between a single straight person adopting a child and a single gay person.

Glenn's a liar and a loser.

"B-b-b-but, Ava and C.I., he was right about Matt Gatez being key to the ban being repealed!!!!"

No. He was lying there as well. There are two more lies to cover. One is that Matt was key to the ban being repealed. He's referring to Matt adding an amendment to a bill in 2015. Now, more reality, though Matt has a 'son' who he 'adopted' that many in Florida have thought was his lover, Matt's no friends of LGBTQs and never was. The legislators who served with Matt that we spoke to noted that Matt didn't want the bill to pass -- the one he added the amendment to. He added it, we were told, at the last minute hoping to kill the bill and it almost did kill the bill in Florida's senate (Matt was in the lower chamber). It wasn't seen as a bill that was going to pass -- especially not as the senate received it three weeks before the end of their session..

So there's that lie.

But here's the big lie, Rosie and the ACLU brought the issue to attention in 2002. Matt acted in 2015. Guess what happened between those two events?

In 2010, the courts found the 1977 law to be unconstitutional and it was no longer enforceable (IN RE: GILL).

Oops!

Bitch slapped across his lying face.

You need to stop believing that Glenn tells the truth and you especially need to grasp that he never knows the law.

Common sense should have told you decades ago that Glenneth doesn't know the law but he sure knows how to lie.

Common sense is your friend. Learn to trust it.

There will be a post by me tomorrow. It'll depend on when I can break away from cooking. But we do post on Thanksgiving. It may be late in the morning or early in the afternoon. Friday? I'll do something but it might not be up at the usual time on Friday. Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's A Choice!" went up yesterday. The following sites updated:

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Hate merchant Nancy Mace

Isaiah's has a new THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's A Choice!" and I love it. That's the disgusting Nancy Mace who is attacking trans people. She is a hate merchant. And she's butt ugly. She did a little video of herself walking around last week and I couldn't register any of her anti-trans hate speech because I was too appalled by the camel toe. A trans person being trans is just being who they are. Nancy deciding to sport camel toe? Like JD Vance says, "It's a choice!"

On trans people, Noah Berlatsky (Insider) reports:

As a kid, our daughter was about as easy to deal with as it is possible for a kid to be. She toddled off to school cheerfully and toddled back, babbling about Greek myths or gardening or whatever hippie Waldorf stuff they were doing in her hippie Waldorf classroom.

She hung out with her mom and watched "The Last Airbender" until there was no more "Last Airbender" to watch. When her middle-school friends embarked on dicey extracurricular trouble-making, like stuffing fireworks in bottles to see what would happen, she invariably told them this was a horrible idea and absented herself before said fireworks blew up and scattered glass everywhere.

She practiced her cello without nagging. She kept her room spotless because she liked it spotless. She always remembered to turn in her homework. She was a dream.

And then, adolescence struck.

Of course, when you're a parent, you expect the teenaged child to be somewhat spikier and less accommodating than the pre-teenaged child. We should have been prepared.

We had gotten complacent, though, because while her peers started to become cranky and recalcitrant in 7th and 8th grade, our daughter was still trotting happily off to class well into high school.

The big change came during junior year (which also happened to coincide with the pandemic lockdown, just for bonus misery). That's the year our daughter came out as trans.

Make a point to read the whole article.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, November 26, 2024. Elizabeth Warren warns of another Trump nominee, cult member Tulsi Gabbard wants the DNI job to serve her country or to serve 'guru' Chris, GLAAD offers their election analysis and much more.

One crazy nominee after another from Satan Trump. Senator Elizabeth Warren issued this statement on one of his latest nominees:

In response to the news that President-elect Donald Trump has named Scott Bessent to serve as U.S. Secretary of Treasury, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

“Wall Street may be breathing a sigh of relief at Scott Bessent’s nomination, but working people see no help coming their way. Mr. Bessent’s expertise is helping rich investors make more money, not cutting costs for families squeezed by corporate profiteering.

“A Treasury Secretary must safeguard our financial system, ensure the fairness of our tax system, and expand economic opportunities for the middle class, particularly around housing affordability. I have been a fierce critic of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s extreme interest rate hikes and lack of transparency, but I have never questioned that it is his job to make those decisions. It would be a serious error for the Trump administration to interfere with the Fed’s independence, as Mr. Bessent has suggested.

“I do not know if Mr. Bessent will transfer his loyalty from Wall Street investors to America’s workers, but I am willing to work with anyone to advance the interests of working families. I look forward to reviewing the Treasury Secretary nominee’s record and meeting with him ahead of his confirmation hearing.”

###

In a sign of just how crazy our world has become, Trashy Tulsi Gabbard remains Satan's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Trina observed last night:

She's an uninformed idiot and if she gets appointed and we have a terrorist attack on American soil, I won't just be calling for her to be fired, I will be calling for her to be imprisoned and for every senator who supported her nomination to be behind bars.

Appointing her would be a crime. You do not fill that position with an incompetent who has no experience.

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) explains:

Since being named President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is facing new scrutiny for her ties to an alleged cult.

As The Daily Beast notes, Gabbard became the first practicing Hindu member of Congress when she was elected to represent Hawaii’s 2nd district in 2013. But she is also reportedly connected to a fringe off-shoot of the Hare Krishna movement known as the Science of Identity Foundation. As The New Yorker noted in a 2017 profile, Gabbard’s parents “joined the circle of disciples” surrounding the group’s founder, Chris Butler, when the family moved to Hawaii in the 1980s. As a child, Gabbard spent two years at “informal schools run by followers of Butler.” Gabbard has referred to Butler as her “guru dev” or spiritual master.

[. . .]

Gabbard’s aunt, Sinavaiana Gabbard, told The Independent in 2022, that her niece’s 2020 campaign was largely staffed by Science of Identity members and claimed that Gabbard’s presidential bid was directly related to Chris Butler’s pursuit of political influence.

So while holding the office of Director of National Intelligence, she would be serving 'guru' Chris? And that's acceptable how?

At MOTHER JONES, David Corn notes:

In March 2024, Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and failed presidential candidate whom Donald Trump has tapped to be director of national intelligence, created a political action committee called Defend Freedom, Inc. The group posted a bare-bones website featuring photos of Gabbard and declared it “was organized to elect patriots who will fight to defend America’s Peace, Security, Prosperity, and Freedom.” It asked for donations of up to $5,000 to “make an impact across America.” Tens of thousands of people contributed to Gabbard’s PAC. Through mid-October it raised $1.9 million, including a $16,552 transfer from another Gabbard PAC called Team Tulsi.

Of all the money it pulled in, Defend Freedom, Inc. devoted only $20,000 to contributions for a small number of candidates, all far-right MAGA-ish Republicans: US Senate candidates Kari Lake and Tim Sheehy, and US House contenders Joe Kent, Brian Jack, and Mayra Flores. (Before running for a congressional seat in 2022, Flores published social media posts promoting QAnon.) Where did all the money go? Gabbard’s outfit spent $1.3 million on operating expenses—at least $1 million on fundraising and direct mail, according to its filings with the Federal Election Commission. Like many PACs, it acted mainly as a money-churning machine that generated donations that mostly profited vendors and consultants.

Defend Freedom, Inc. is one of a network of organizations Gabbard has assembled in recent years, and they warrant a thorough review as part of her Senate confirmation process.

Gabbard is a highly unconventional candidate for the DNI job, which entails overseeing all 18 agencies in the US intelligence community (including the CIA and the NSA). She has espoused fringe views often in sync with Moscow talking points. She provided a preemptive defense of Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and afterward boosted the conspiracy theory advanced by Russia that the United States had been collaborating with Ukraine to develop biological weapons to deploy against Russia. Her fondness for Putin has earned her favorable coverage from Russia’s propaganda outlets, and her appointment, if she is confirmed, will likely spook intelligence services throughout the world and make them hesitant to collaborate with US intelligence. She also has no experience managing or holding a senior position within a large organization, let alone an agency with the task of safeguarding the nation. Consequently, an extensive vetting of Gabbard ought to focus on her own political operation.

In February, Gabbard established a Super PAC called For Love of Country, Inc. Its name echoed the title of a book she would release in April with the subtitle “Leave the Democrat Party Behind.” Gabbard had quit the Democratic Party in 2022, proclaiming herself an independent, and she went on to become a highly partisan commentator, hurling harsh rhetoric at her former party. The promotional material for this book claimed that the Democrats were now “controlled by an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by woke ideology and racializing everything.” It slammed the Democratic Party as “a clear and present threat to the God‑given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”

The cult member is an embarrassment to the country. Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg (INDEPENDENT) report on just how stupid Tulsi is:

In the summer of 2015, three Syrian girls who had narrowly survived an airstrike some weeks earlier stood before Tulsi Gabbard with horrific burns all over their bodies.

Gabbard, then a US congresswoman on a visit to the Syria-Turkey border as part of her duties for the foreign affairs committee, had a question for them.

“How do you know it was Bashar al-Assad or Russia that bombed you, and not Isis?’” she asked, according to Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian activist who was translating her conversation with the girls.

It was a revealing insight into Gabbard’s conspiratorial views of the conflict, and it shocked Moustafa to silence. He knew, as even the young children did, that Isis did not have jets to launch airstrikes. It was such an absurd question that he chose not to translate it because he didn’t want to upset the girls, the eldest of whom was 12.

“From that point on, I’m sorry to say I was inaccurate in my translations of anything she said,” Moustafa told The Independent. “It was more like: How do I get these girls away from this devil?”

Anyone who knew anything about Iraq gathered quickly that Tulsi was not anti-war and didn't give a damn about the Iraqi people or know anything about them despite her brief time in Iraq. In 2015, the idiot goes to Syria and wants to cross-examine young girls about Isis bombing them. Isis. Isis did not -- still doesn't -- have war planes. They are a terrorist organization.

How cruel and stupid must you be to meet three Syrian girls, their bodies covered with burns, and you want to hector them about ISIS which had nothing to do with the attacks?

It's worse though because it goes to her basic stupidity that argues against her being the Director of National Intelligence. She left Iraq in 2005. Isis had not emerged yet. So she leaves Iraq, she gets elected to Congress and goes to Syria ten years later and does not know that Isis doesn't have war planes? Grasp that. She always tries to leverage her time in Iraq as something that makes her an expert in some manner. But ten years after she left Iraq, while Isis was on everyone's radar, she didn't know enough to know about war planes. Point, that's how disengaged she actually is, how uninformed and how deeply, deeply stupid.

Back to the article:

Larry Pfeiffer, the director of George Mason University’s Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, said Gabbard’s apparent susceptibility to foreign disinformation and her affinity for strongmen will give pause to American allies with whom the US routinely shares intelligence on common threats.

Intelligence services, he explained, are notoriously territorial and tight-lipped on sources and methods – particularly when it comes to so-called human intelligence, or Humint, which refers to information collected by and from spies and sources within hostile governments.

Pfeiffer said foreign allies are likely already concerned about how a second Trump administration will handle intelligence, given the president-elect’s record. He also predicted that Gabbard’s confirmation as DNI would cause even more problems among skittish partners.

“I think they wouldn’t feel like they’ve got an American confidant that they can deal with on a mature level,” he said. “I can guarantee you that the foreign intelligence services of Europe, including the Brits, are all having little side conversations right now about … what is this going to mean, and how are we going to operate, and what are we going to do now.”

She's an idiot. Convicted pedophile Scott Ritter is vouching for her. That goes to just how disgusting she is. And I'd love to know how Satan Trump thinks he can pull off this nomination? His conservative voters are going to be proud of Tulsi? A cult member -- not a Christian. An idiot with no experience. Someone way too connected to America's declared enemies. And someone supported by a convicted pedophile and liar.

Scott got out of prison after the third arrest, after crying at his trial when he was found guilty, and he had to go on probation and he had to register as a sex offender.

But Scotty showed up with all sorts of dirty -- Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberely, Aaron Mate and Katie Halper, etc -- and they never told people he was a convicted pedophile. And he lied when he was saying he was going to sue and beat up people who called him a pedophile because it wasn't true!!!!! In fact, he lied to Jimmy Dore that the prison warden said he wasn't really guilty. Hmm. Scott Ritter did not serve his full sentence. He applied for parole and it was granted. When I asked if the warden told him that -- because that's a key detail -- I was told he was lying. I then asked what he told the parole board?

He told them he wanted to get caught. (A lie he also tried during the trial.) And that he'd learned his lesson. And only because of that did they (wrongly) release him.

So Scott's not just a convicted pedophile, he's a liar. That was explained to him and it was also explained to him that parole board's didn't take kindly to looking they got played.

Scott Ritter no longer threatens anyone with violence and he seems to have learned that lying about what he told the parole board is a no-no.

It's a shame that 'left' people who platformed and continue to platform him -- Margaret Kimberley, Danny Haiphong, Katie Halper, Aaron Mate, etc -- are okay with platforming a convicted pedophile.

You know this came up in the '00s. He was arrested twice. A friend at CNN warned me that we didn't need to cover him or include him due to a scandal about to break. The scandal was his second arrest. He'd managed to use his UN connections to cover up the first arrest for trying to sleep with an underage girl. Then came the second arrest and no big favors were coming his way this time. Happens once, maybe you're innocent, happens twice? He was able to make a deal with the court and it was supposed to be buried. But it came out and he insisted the whole thing was Bully Boy Bush's fault. And losers like Sy Hersh (the ultimate deep state) went around promoting him. Guess who else did? Our two racists Katrina vanden Heuvel and Amy Goodman. Katrina, to her credit, grasped that no woman with a child should be promoting a convicted pedophile and Scott Ritter was gone from THE NATION. As Amy Goodman continued to promote him -- and never note on air that he had been arrested twice for pedophilia -- I pointed out that there would be another arrest and she'd have to take a hard look at herself. The third arrest came when Barack Obama was president. So the "Bully Boy's out to get me!" lie didn't work. Then he went to court and cried like a baby except when he glared at the arresting officer who said that, no, he didn't want to get caught, that, in fact, it was a scene out of TJ HOOKER when Ritter saw the cops and tried to jump a curb.

Amy Goodman never took accountability for promoting a pedophile -- on her program, in her columns, in her books. But then, she never took accountability for publishing in HUSTLER either -- see Aura Bogado's "Hustling The Left:"

In a full hour interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, which aired on hundreds of stations throughout the country several months ago, Larry Flynt was briefly questioned about the exploitation of women in his work. Flynt's response was that, 'most of the criticism comes from the radical feminist movement, who really [sic] only claim to fame is to urge a bunch of ugly women to march behind.' This is the same group of women who screamed in the margins in the days leading to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, yet on hundreds of popular left stations, Flynt's words went unchallenged. Goodman did not include another guest to confront Flynt. Instead, she read a dated quote in which Gloria Steinem voiced her opposition to Flynt and compared his use of the First Amendment to racist and fascist publications that similarly serve to degrade people. Flynt's response was short and easy: that Steinem's work was useful in the 1960s, that she is out of touch today, and that if she is offended by his magazine, she should not read it. Goodman's questions quickly moved on to another topic. Before the interview ended, Flynt adds that '[T]here are only a handful of us that are lobbing grenades into the Bush camp. It's me, Michael Moore, Howard Stern, Molly Ivins, D.H. Hatfield, Greg Palast, you know, you can count them all on both hands.'

Flynt's myopic view of the world makes him blind to the work that so many others do. And, because he controls a tremendous amount of capital, he is able to dodge criticisms against his degradation of women while legitimizing himself to the popular left by publishing progressive journalists. Flynt has become sophisticated at amplifying his voice through his enormous means of production to avoid any real concerns about his product.

In the days that followed, the program was flooded with comments condemning Flynt and the broadcast. Democracy Now's response was to have two feminists, Susie Bright and Susan Brison, debate the merits of pornography, centered around the Flynt interview. Democracy Now attempted to have these women argue over the issue of pornography- while two weeks earlier the program featured a longer interview with a pornographer, unchallenged.

Amy also allowed Larry Flynt to dictate what she asked John Perkins in a 2005 interview. She's done so much and managed to get away with so much. Racist Amy needs to be put in check. As Rebecca noted last night:

i was on the phone with t and we were talking about the racists on the left who worked to defeat kamala harris. it was a long list. but we both agreed the most disgusting was amy goodman.

you know her, the new york busybody who always pretends to care about racism. but really doesn't. and who used her program to attack kamala day after day during the general election.

that bitch knew what she was doing.

that's what hurt kamala - goodman and the other left racists. and we need to stop giving them donations and we need to make sure that they go away. shut down their nonsense because they'll do it again.

they worked for trump this time and we should never forget it and we should never forgive it.

And I note all of that to make the point that Amy will never take accountability for electing Trump via her non-stop, daily attacks on Kamala Harris. If they haul Amy off to Gitmo, I won't cry. Might giggle, but I won't cry for a racist who sold out the left getting carted off by the man she elected.

At JACOBIN, Joseph Gubbels wants you to know that "Democracy Is Not a Customer Loyalty Program" and my problem with the article? None. My problem with the author? None. My problem with JACOBIN? Huge. Why are they publishing this article? It goes completely against what they published over and over in the three month general election campaign. Those articles told you Kamala Harris was evil and genocidal and this and that. The toy radical left -- no real radical does the poor work that JACOBIN does online -- if you're looking for true radical left -- not posers -- go to the Party for Socialism and WORKER'S WORLD.

The expectation that parties should earn our votes originates from and reproduces this marketized, elitist, and privatized model of politics. When we expect businesses to earn our dollars, we accept that our only role is to pay, while they decide how to produce. To speak of parties earning our votes is to apply this same idea to politics: it means accepting that our only role is to vote, while political elites decide how to rule.

However, the consent involved in competitive democracy is even more limited than consumer choice. The exclusion of the people from any role in decision-making means their consent is not sought for whether or how elites will govern, only which elites will govern — voters don’t choose the product, only the producer. Since our only role is to vote, not to decide, once it’s determined that we have consented to government (even tacitly), all decisions about what we have consented to are no longer up to us.

Ultimately, this disempowering model of politics stems from the heart of liberal political philosophy: the idea that democracy is consent to government. We can’t consent to our own actions, only what is done to us by others, so all discussions of consent presuppose that one side acts and the other is acted upon. Thus, the liberal idea of consent to government rules out the republican idea of self-government by the people and implies instead that a passive people is governed by an active elite.

Expecting parties to earn our votes accepts and reinforces our degradation from self-governing citizens, who participate in public life, to consenting voters, who authorize elite rule. Dropping this expectation is the first step toward ensuring that political parties serve their only legitimate function in a democratic society: as institutions for people to develop, discuss, and advocate their own ideas and thereby shape their society.

It's an interesting article, one worthy of discussion and debate. But the argument that JACOBIN's now posting goes against everything JACOBIN did in the lead up to the election as they joined others on the left in tanking Kamala Harris' campaign.

Need a laugh at another repugnant website that worked overtime to destroy Kamala? How about TRUTHOUT and how about the gall it took for them to attach this to their articles the day after the election:

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy

"We're with you!" they proclaim. The "now" in soot voice is supposed to be ignored. Check their archives. Look for when they were "with you" on voting for Kamala. Day after day, they published content. Count the positive pieces on Kamala, count the negative pieces on Kamala. Then laugh as you grasp just how stupid they think we are.

But they need money so they lie now and tell you that they're here to help. After they helped elect Donald Trump, they show up to tell you that if you just give them money, they'll defeat Donald.

Let's wind down with the analysis of the election that Jae Moore did for GLAAD:

In multiple states this election year, voters signaled an overall shift away from “parents’ rights” issues, fear mongering, and partisan politics, including the rejection of anti-trans candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson as well as other state and local educational posts.

North Carolina voters also rejected Moms for Liberty-endorsed Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Michele Morrow, whose campaign and record was nearly equally as disturbing as Robinson’s

Morrow’s anti-LGBTQ record included a defamatory rant against opponent Mo Green, who received the endorsement of state LGBTQ organization Equality North Carolina. Morrow falsely and dangerously misrepresented the plus symbol in LGBTQ+ in a post on Twitter/X: “NEWSFLASH…the ‘+’ includes PEDOPH*L*A!!” The American Psychological Association notes that the plus is often added “to recognize those not captured within or represented by the acronym LGBTQ,” including asexual, intersex, and nonbinary people.

In a recorded clip on her website and YouTube, Morrow addressed a school board, laying bare her values under the guise of “protecting our children.”

“We are talking about trying to figure out how to make our children be as successful as possible, and I am sure that that is your goal. And what we have been called tonight is what they’re claiming we’re saying to children. We’re having an adult conversation,” Morrow said. “There are not children in this room. We aren’t going into the schools and calling them names. They call us Marxist, and hateful, and bigots, and everything else under the sun. Well, let me tell ‘ya: Less than five percent of the entire population of North Carolina identifies as LGBTQ. You guys all claim you want democracy. You know what democracy is? It’s the majority plus one! It’s 50 plus one! You know what? More than 50 percent of the people in this state claim that they believe in God – almighty God, who made us male and female. God who made marriage between a man and a woman. God who said that we must protect our children.”

Morrow had also falsely labeled the public schools she wanted to lead as “indoctrination centers,” while her record included participation in the January 6 insurrection, and called for the execution of former President Barack Obama. Political comedy channel The Good Liars held Morrow accountable for her actions.

In a viral clip, Jason Selvig approached Morrow with printed copies of her threatening tweets under the guise of requesting an autograph. After stroking her ego, he read the now-deleted social media posts back to her, word for word, before making a hasty escape.

Morrow ultimately lost the race to Mo Green, who captured just over 51 percent of the vote.

Green served as superintendent to North Carolina’s third-largest school district, Guilford County Schools, and was Executive Director of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which “has invested more than $691 million into North Carolina” to “address the impact of racism ingrained in state institutions — including schools — and support ideas aimed at mitigating hate’s effect on policy and people.”

Green’s platform includes a promise to “celebrate the good in public education” and “ensure safe, secure learning environments,” and opposes The Parental Bill of Rights, which bans discussion about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms, and requires that schools out students to their parents if they request a change to their name or pronouns.

“Every child deserves to learn, and every staff member deserves to work, in an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive,” Green said.

State’s Most Populous County Wakes up, Rejects Several Anti-Trans Candidates

Also in North Carolina, three of four Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates were defeated in races for Wake County Board of Education:

District 5: Incumbent Lynn Edmonds “soundly” defeated Ted Hills. During her first term, Edmonds “voted, alongside the board’s six other Democrats, to bring the school system into compliance with new, federally-mandated protections for LGBTQ students.” Hills opposed the Title IX updates.
District 6: Sam Hershey, an anti-book book ban advocate, beat challenger Josh Points “by a 40-point margin.” Hershey voiced support for compliance with federally-mandated Title IX updates.
District 8: Lindsay Mahaffey, who was endorsed by the Equality North Carolina PAC, was elected to her fifth term. Her opponent Elizabeth McDuffie rejected Title IX protections for transgender students and campaigned alongside Michele Morrow.

District 3 incumbent Wing Ng was the only anti-LGBTQ candidate elected, but his victory was narrow. INDY Week reports that Equality North Carolina PAC-endorsed Jordyn Blaise lost “by a razor-thin margin of just about one point.” Lastly, Toshiba Rice won her bid for reelection to District 4. Rice voted to support compliance with the Biden-Harris Administration’s federal Title IX updates.

Equality Victories in the Sunshine State

While Florida’s 60 percent supermajority requirement led to narrow losses for abortion rights (57.2 percent voted in favor of expanding access to abortion) and legalized recreational marijuana (55.9 were in favor), a GOP-supported proposed constitutional amendment that would have led to partisan school board races also lost. In their rejection of this amendment, the League of Women Voters of Florida and other opponents said, “schools should not be politicized and everyone should be welcome at schools regardless of party affiliation.”

Moms for Liberty- and Ron DeSantis-affiliated candidates faced significant losses in the 2024 election. As GLAAD previously reported, 11 out of 23 DeSantis-endorsed candidates, and six out of 14 M4L picks lost their races outright during the August primary. The November runoff further cemented their losses:

Katie Blaxberg defeated DeSantis and M4L-endorsed Stacy Geier for Pinellas County School Board by over four percentage points (52.06% to 47.94%).
Michelle Bonczek bested Mark Cioffi, who was endorsed by DeSantis, by nearly 10 percent (54.99% to 45.01%).

Meanwhile, Equality Florida (EQFL) saw significant growth in their political representation. With the organization’s leadership on the ground, they doubled the number of LGBTQ legislators in the statehouse, one of their explicit goals for the election. But they didn’t only make gains in the statehouse. All told, more than 85 EQFL-endorsed candidates, including eight members of the LGBTQ community, were elected to office.

“In the fight against extremist takeovers of Florida school boards, voters rejected DeSantis’s culture wars and divisive agenda,” Equality Florida said. “This year, we delivered DeSantis and Moms for Liberty a string of humiliating school board defeats. Nearly two-thirds of DeSantis-backed school board candidates lost their races this year. Meanwhile, over 72% of Equality Florida Action PAC endorsed school board candidates won their elections. This progress is proof of the power of resistance. We are turning the tide, even when it feels like everything is stacked against us.”

Propelling the “Relentless Flow of Acceptance”

Journalist and transgender rights activist Erin Reed has been tracking the results of down-ballot races throughout the country.

“Even in affirming states, school boards can make life difficult for LGBTQ+ students,” Reed wrote in her newsletter, “or, in states with anti-trans and anti-queer legislation, they can push back against restrictive policies.”

Reed’s reports on social media include LGBTQ news with an emphasis on transgender rights. In a post-election message of support to her trans and queer readers, she drew parallels between the 2024 election and the fight for marriage equality in the early 2000s that pushed on despite setbacks.

After former President George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, “he delivered a State of the Union speech where he said, for instance, that he will enshrine a constitutional ban on gay marriage into United States law,” Reed said. “And I could stop there. I could say that there are people that likely did stop there, that saw this and said that there was no future, but you cannot stop the relentless flow of time. You cannot stop the relentless flow of acceptance.”

The following sites updated: