Buck Fever

Alexander H. Jones, writing for "New Branchhead" on Substack, very recently called NC Sen. Buck Newton "the worst of the South," meaning Newton is a walking PowerPoint of the worst traits of bigoted Southern politicians. Newton ran for Attorney General against the then-incumbent Josh Stein in 2016, and he came perilously close to beating Stein. Newton, a lawyer in Goldsboro, is a graduate of AppState. One of his former classmates posted a now-famous take-down of Buck's character during his student days in Boone, a post which Pam'sPicks found and published before the 2016 elections (reprinted below).

Here's NC Newsline's blow-by-blow of Buck Newton's most recent hijacking of legitimate legislation to continue his crusade against queer people: 

Democrats serving on the North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee asked Republican Sen. Buck Newton (R-Greene, Wayne and Wilson) a week ago to reconsider his efforts to amend House Bill 805 — a noncontroversial measure designed to prevent sexual exploitation of women and minors that won unanimous support in the House — into a vehicle to advance the conservative social agenda on issues of gender identity and sexuality.

On Wednesday, Newton gave his answer: “No.”

As Newsline reported last week, when the bill was first considered by the Senate Committee, Newton — a committee co-chair — put forth a proposed amended version that defined the state’s recognition of two biological sexes: male and female. Newton also proposed the state maintain the vital records of anyone seeking to change the sex on their birth certificate.

At Wednesday’s committee hearing, Newton went a step further by introducing new language aimed at transgender individuals and school libraries....

...Newton’s new version of the legislation would also provide parents with access to a searchable list of library books available at each public school.

Local boards of education would be required to adopt policies to allow a student or their parent to request that the student be excused from specific classroom discussions or assigned readings if they believe it “imposes a substantial burden on the student’s religious beliefs” or invades the student’s privacy by calling attention to the student’s religion.

 

Pam'sPicks, Oct. 2016:

Newton graduated from Appalachian State University (sorry about that) with a political science degree and went immediately to work for Jesse Helms. Newton got his seat in the NC Senate during the 2010 Tea Party wave and has held onto it until announcing in late 2015 that he'd be leaving to run for Attorney General.

He made headlines in 2016 by loudly proclaiming his support ("keep our state straight!" he shouted to a rally in Raleigh) for HB2, the "bathroom bill" which has so tarnished the state in more ways than one, and for helping get it passed in a special session of the NC General Assembly.

His support for HB2 prompted this post on a Facebook thread:

I knew Buck Newton when he was in college. He was always very opinionated, angry, looked down on others, always saw things in simple terms, always quick to jump to conclusions, always claimed things were "common sense". He was always very judgmental and used bully tactics on others to make his opinion appear correct. He was always full of confidence based on simple, black and white views of the world. Several of us thought he was an idiot because of his lack of ability to see and understand what was beneath the surface of issues. This bill/law [HB2] sounds exactly like something college-kid Buck would do. Apparently, he has not grown much. There are many smart and wise people in North Carolina who see God's creation as it truly is - a very complicated marvel, so it is absolutely shocking that such a person of low understanding could rise to such power based on such a superficial foundation. Shocking. At one point in time, the earth being flat was "common sense", blacks being inferior was "common sense"... And, here we are... again.

Not for nothing did Buck Newton receive his perfect score from the American Conservative Union. He has voted to prohibit wind farms, to repeal the state's recycling program, to increase sales taxes on working families, and he has a 100% rating from the NRA (among many other things).

 

 

The Southern Baptist Church Has Always Been Safe Harbor for ... Flamboyance

 

Southern Baptists are hilarious. The largest Protestant denomination in the nation, wagged by the tail of 10,500 "messengers" (out of way-over 12 million total members), voted overwhelmingly at this year's annual convention in Dallas (happening this week) to approve a resolution calling for the reversal of Obergefell, the Supreme Court's decision 10 years ago legalizing gay marriage.

Andrew Walker, an "ethicist" (what?) at a Southern Baptist seminary in Kentucky, wrote the resolution and admitted that he and his anti-gay allies in the church are playing the "long game," like Maoists of old, never giving up their longshot at reversing the Law of the Land -- a public policy of sweeping and basic humanity, the legal right for gay couples to form family units, which is actually supported by a huge majority of Americans in poll after poll. The long game of people like Andrew Walker is based, after all, on what worked just fine in eventually getting rid of abortion rights. Their fanatical patience to outwit, outplay, and outlast majority opinion seems blessed right now by the general run of authoritarianism taking over the nation, not to mention the current membership on the Supreme Court (Messrs. Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and no telling who else). Political evangelicals -- those whose piety is most influenced (or dented, actually) by the colossal sinners they need to keep in power -- they know whose feet to kiss, who deserves a laying-on-of-hands. 

Anyhoo, I'm about to draw on decades of fairly intense immersion in the Southern Baptist ethos of West Texas -- as I contemplate how those Baptist messengers in Dallas must rationalize the implicit insult their vote against gay marriage must be to the closeted gays and, yes, queers, including frequently the church organist and music director, that sit in pews in every last one of those strict churches (I'm betting). Some LGBTQ Baptists, raised from infancy in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and Sunday night preachings and spring revivals and special youth activities, never left home, physically or psychologically, and never gave up their innocent and true faith that they have been saved and born again by the grace of Jesus Christ. They can't quit the church that nurtured them, the family and neighbors they enjoy dinner-on-the-ground with, and besides, they don't cause any trouble, stay to themselves, and anyway, everyone knows already, like everyone also knows you don't mention it, you don't speak of it, you pretend it isn't even there. Good Lord! Gay people -- many who admittedly didn't know (yet?) that they were gay -- they were everywhere in the Southern Baptist world I grew up in.

Not that I was a Baptist at first. I was the sole Pentecostal -- speaking in tongues, the works! -- in school with mainly Baptists, and a smattering of what everybody called Campbellites, and one or two Methodists. (Loved the Methodists because they weren't afraid to have fun. People said they held young-people dances in the church basement.)

I was actually good friends with at least two queer Baptists in high school, though in those days I didn't have a clue what that meant and probably neither did they. I did know that queer was something you didn't want to be called, without understanding at all the physical implications in that word. Queer kids from good families were common, not numerous but certainly there, and I later understood that they knew how to pass, to fit in, to be a part of the social fabric of that society -- accepted for their quirks, especially their unusual talents and high IQs. Whatever went on in private in the dark was beyond my ken, not to mention my elementary understanding. I was not just a nerd. I was an oblivious nerd. My obliviousness actually got joke-awarded as a senior when I received the Out to Lunch Award at a graduation luncheon (where else but at the local Baptist Church). My classmates were trying to tell me something, which I still didn’t get. I took the trophy and turned to my (closeted gay) friend, “What does this mean?”

I began to get more of a rough education in definitions when I attended Wayland Baptist College on a scholarship, the only Pentecostal on campus. Ironically, despite the macho reputation of a Texas-upbringing, the place was pretty well supplied with soft boys and what I heard for the first time called "squishes," actually really nice guys who were kind and generous and often very funny, who were majoring in music and psychology and English, pursuing the trajectory of their religion into church music and counseling and teaching -- hell, some of those nice boys actually thought they wanted to be preachers and were heavy into religion classes -- hiding or playing games with their identities and (I guess) suffering in the hollow silence. Some dated girls. Some even married girls and enjoyed by all appearances long, successful marriages. They never unraveled an inch of their carefully ironed fabric of denial and conformity.

Here’s a confession: I wasn't baptized into the denomination, at a fairly big church in Plainview-By-God, Texas, where I was a Junior in college, until I decided to social-climb. I had been dating a brainiac Southern Baptist woman, and we were going to get married. Her whole family was Southern Baptist. I thought I needed to be too. I had grown tired of being the only holy-roller, and had begun to think for myself. Some of my humanist teachers were making me less doctrinaire. I had become a skeptic who asked a lot of questions.

Considerably later came the scandals that ripped at our pious smugness -- the literal outings of Bible-thumping evangelical shouters who were discovered to be covering up a secret life, or revealed to be imposing themselves on young acolytes, or proving to be blabber-mouth drunks. I seem to remember one of those coming out of Jerry Falwell University recently. Hell, Jerry Falwell hisownself had a gay speechwriter named Mel White who also ghost-wrote Falwell’s autobiography as well as the official autobiographies of Pat Robertson and Billy Graham.

So this is the message the Southern Baptist majority have sent: Gays are just fine in church and serving as amanuenses and organists and music directors, even counselors and youth directors, as long as they live the lie, stay invisible and undemonstrative about any secret proclivities, not to mention any legal rights they might wildly and mistakenly think they need.

That’s why the Southern Baptists are unintentionally hilarious.

Why We Fight

 

By Jack Yordy

When COVID hit, I needed friendship and community more than ever. I sought these in the only safe place at the time, online, and I found it. I met people through playing games and common interests, and we formed our own little diverse queer community, my first LGBTQ+ friends. In 2022, when we were all vaccinated and ready to return to life outside of isolation, my online friends and I met in Chicago, and there they became my real friends. (For their privacy, I’ve changed their names.) 

Last weekend, I went to see them for the fifth time. I was picked up from the airport by James. He’s not very politically-oriented, but every time we get together we go to the bar and talk politics. I always look forward to those chats. He’s from California originally, and he used to enjoy hearing about the ridiculousness that goes on in red states. Last year he moved to Florida with his boyfriend, and he confided in me over a drink, “Man, it kind of feels like we’re always under attack now.”

On the second day, when everyone had arrived, we all went to the pool together. Corey was excited to go. He’s transgender and is self conscious about his body, but he’s also one of the bravest and most badass people I’ve known. He doesn’t like to embrace people he doesn’t know well, but he always says to me, “Alright, bring it in buddy!” He gives the best hugs. 

On Monday, I said my goodbyes in one of our hotel rooms. I walked out the door toward the elevators, and Sam yelled through the door, “Jack, no.” He ran down the hall and nearly tackled me. Half jokingly, he said, “Don’t leave, bro! When will I get to see you again?” Sam is the most carefree, hilarious, playful dude you’ll ever meet, but if you asked him what he wants to do with his life, he’d tell you he wants to raise kids with his future husband and spend time with his family and friends. I held onto him for a few extra moments before I had to go. 

On the flight home, I thought about what I’d do when I returned to school and work. I remembered the election. I remembered Project 2025, the rise of the far right, and the hateful, genocidal rhetoric being thrown at trans people. I remembered what James said about feeling unsafe and attacked. I remembered that Corey, who needs to take testosterone for the rest of his life, lives in a state where gender-affirming care for adults is at risk of being banned. I remembered Sam’s gentleness. The sadness I felt from leaving them dissipated into determination. 

That weekend was not just a fun vacation with friends. For me, it was a reminder of just how important the work I’m doing is, how important this election is. It’s the difference between enjoying my time with my friends and helping them prepare escape plans in case things go bad, putting together lists of essentials and making sure there’s somewhere for them to stay in a nearby blue state. It’s the difference between worrying about what games we’re going to play next week and worrying that they can’t get the healthcare they need. It’s the difference between missing them because I love them and missing them because they’re dead.

In Donald Trump’s America we are not welcome. James can’t feel safe with his boyfriend in their new home. Corey can’t get the life-saving healthcare he needs. Sam can’t have the life he wants. That’s why I fight. I want to feel safe, I want to be safe, I want to live happily, and I want that for my friends too. Fight with us. 

Jack Yordy is deputy operations director for the Watauga County Democratic Party and president of the AppState College Democrats.

I've Stopped Going to Tractor Supply

 

I was pleased when a brand new Tractor Supply store got built about a mile from my garden, which saved me a much longer trip to the garden center at the local Lowe's, and I spent a lot of money there on everything from a new manure fork to dog food. If I wanted to mingle with rural folks, Sunday just after noon was the time to visit, because lots of church-goers in their Sunday clothes made a stop there on their way home from church.

During the height of COVID, you never saw anyone in masks, including the cashiers, so I tended to stand out as maybe the only liberal in the store. I got a few side-eyes, but at my age the stinkeye doesn't much faze me.

The company had a good reputation nationally, especially for its diversity programs that encouraged voter registration and PRIDE festivals. Bloomberg praised it for promoting gender equality, while Newsweek called it one of the best U.S. companies for diversity.

But the current reign of MAGA hatefulness was bound to notice. So a conservative podcaster with a big following in Tennessee, where Tractor Supply is headquartered, posted a denunciation of the company because it supports queers. An employee had messaged the podcaster the inside poop that Tractor Supply was way too woke for his taste. “Start buying what you can from other places until Tractor Supply makes REAL changes,” the podcaster wrote on X on June 6. Other MAGA soldiers joined the boycott, and the company’s share price fell by 5 percent in the past month, according to the Financial Times.

So Tractor Supply caved to the bigots, issued a public letter recanting all its diversity efforts, and why on earth would I want to give any more money to a company with that little courage of conviction?

AppState Chancellor Under Fire for Suppressing the Queer Community on Campus

 

The Appalachian State University Graduate SGA has produced a string of accusations against Chancellor Sheri Everts alleging that she is behind the suppression of "Pride Week," the banning of drag shows on campus, and the actual firing of "at least four (4) Queer & Trans Staff and Faculty" without explanation (and presumably without cause). The document actually names names of those shown the door.

Other student groups have joined the out-cry against Everts (including the ASU College Democrats, which produced its own statement of solidarity). The student groups want Pride Week restored.

Aside from their condemnation of the AppState administration (principally Everts), the students don't raise the questions that immediately come to my mind ... that perhaps Everts is merely carrying water for the Republican-heavy Board of Trustees and the even-more-laden-with-cultural-conservatives Board of Governors, who have shown some eagerness for clamping down on what they consider the too-liberal university system. Everts has seemed all too willing to please those powers and not at all susceptible to the pleas and arguments of her own student body and faculty.

She's been highly unpopular on campus for a long time. The ASU Faculty Senate passed a "no confidence" resolution about her back in 2020, but nothing much about her style of authoritarian administration has changed.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein Willing To Move Residence

 

Democrat Lisa Grafstein was just elected to the NC Senate seat from northern Wake in 2022, but the Republicans targeted her with the new NC Senate maps by double-bunking her with another powerful Democrat, Jay Chaudhuri. It would be harmful to both senators to run against each other. So is Lisa Grafstein just out?

The news comes that she's willing to move residence and run further south in Wake.

She's not just a fighter. She's a litigator. This is what we found out about Lisa Grafstein when I wrote about her in October 2022 before she won her seat:

Grafstein is a Raleigh disabilities and civil rights litigator, currently on staff of the non-profit advocacy org Disability Rights North Carolina. She's listed on Super Lawyers as a top rated litigator. She's endorsed by both Lillian's List of North Carolina and by the national PAC Emily's List.

She's a first-time candidate but has a long involvement in politics, mainly running the election campaigns for Democratic judges Linda Stephens, Robin Hudson, and Suzanne Reynolds.

Grafstein won her primary last May against Patrick Buffkin with almost 67% of the vote.

Grafstein thinks she's now being silenced -- little does Ralph Hise know! -- because she's been outspoken for LBGTQ+ rights in that Raleigh room full of unreconstructed old men. She's thinking of moving to another Senate open district with no incumbent. She's no stranger to moving her residence. She says she's lived in many different houses in Wake County in her 33 years there, so another move -- while a pain in the ass, especially so because it's the result of political spite -- would be doable.

The Cruelty of the NCGOP

 

Rojas and Betts, in NYTimes today:

North Carolina became the latest state to block minors from having access to gender-transition care, as Republican lawmakers voted on Wednesday to override the governor’s veto of a bill restricting hormone treatments, puberty blockers and surgeries for young people.

The move came as the State Legislature’s Republican supermajorities marshaled the votes to topple several other of Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes, reviving legislation that limits female transgender students’ participation in school sports and restricts what can be taught in schools about gender and sexual orientation.

North Carolina now joins about 20 other states that have enacted legislation blocking access to transition-related care for minors, with many of those laws passed this year as conservative lawmakers across the country have seized upon L.G.T.B.Q. issues....

[Transgender advocates] have contended that denying access to this kind of care can be dangerous and detrimental to transgender youths, who have high rates of anxiety, depression and suicide attempts, and whose mental health could improve with gender-affirming care, some research has shown.

“You can say that this is not anti-L.G.B.T.Q., but it is,” Senator Lisa Grafstein, a Democrat, told other lawmakers during the debate on Wednesday. “What we’re doing here will hurt people.” ...

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has assailed Republicans for getting swept up in what he described as “political culture wars,” devoting their attention to targeting a small and marginalized group of young people instead of attending to more pressing issues confronting the state.

Special Shoutout to Tricia Cotham for joining and enabling this legislative menace.

Let Vetoes Blossom!

 

Governor Roy Cooper vetoed three hateful, unnecessary, intrusive, and obnoxious laws, which of course Berger/Moore will marshal their troops to override. All three target queer people because their small numbers in our population mean they're not strong enough to fight back, and the Republicans love weak victims.

H808, perhaps the most intrusive overreach of the session, puts the legislature between trans children, their parents, and medical experts. There's gathering pushback from families who support their kids, who know their kids better than Republican members of the General Assembly do, like this article currently in the News and Observer: "This 12-year-old wants to continue gender-affirming care. NC lawmakers are trying to stop it."

Add the story being told by a Democratic member of the House, John Autry, about his own granddaughter Savannah, recounted for Cardinal and Pine. The pain felt by the Autry family because of the insertion of state law into private family matters is powerful stuff. Gov. Cooper said in his veto message, "A doctor’s office is no place for politicians, and North Carolina should continue to let parents and medical professionals make decisions about the best way to offer gender care for their children."

Gov. Cooper also vetoed S49, a.k.a. the "Don't Say Gay" law, saying, “The rights of parents are well established in state law, so instead of burdening schools with their political culture wars, legislators should help them with better teacher pay and more investments in students.”

Finally, Cooper also vetoed H574, which Republicans called the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act," and which sets out to ban trans athletes from participating in school sports. Gov. Cooper called the legislation's policies "broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children that are already handled by a robust system that relies on parents, schools and sports organizations."

Proud of the governor for vetoing all three. Ashamed of the Republicans in the General Assembly for deciding that LGBTQ kids are the greatest threats to what's left of our civic pact.

Who's a Dick?

 

“It’s not the practice they hate— it’s the person. A guy in a dress must be kidding. A gay in a dress must be stopped.”

--Trae Crowder

Gov. Bill Lee, who has said he will sign the anti-drag show bill in Tennessee, was outed for cross-dressing when he was a youngster, with pictures, and then lashed out at a reporter for asking if he felt any hypocrisy. Gov. Bill Lee erupted: "Ridiculous question!" It's wrong to "conflate," he practically shouted, a harmless bit of white male fun with "sexualized entertainment." It's sexualized entertainment for Bill Lee because he can't help himself thinking about dick.

Authoritarianism Blooming Like Skunk Cabbage in Tennessee

 

I have occasional reasons to cross the state line into Tennessee. Lotsa North Carolinians do business in Johnson County. But after catching up on the craziness right now out our back door, I'm thinking of going cold turkey on the entire Volunteer State. Their leaders are currently volunteering to be the worst public dicks in the nation. Economic reaction is the only pressure that works. (See how NC suffered after the "Bathroom Bill" passed.)

Two days ago, on Thursday, February 23, Tennessee lawmakers officially passed joint legislation to create a new felony offense for anyone engaging in an "adult cabaret performance" on public property or in any location where the performance "could be viewed by a person who is not an adult." The criminalization of these "performances" would presumably extend to costumed dancers in Pride parades and to off-color jokes told by a trans comedian (there are plenty such professionals; check Netflix).

On the very same day, Thursday, February 23, Tennessee House Republicans also overwhelmingly passed a ban on gender-transition health care, including hormone therapy and surgery, for anyone under the age of 18. That's telling those "confused" teenagers! "You're going to be what I say you are. And you're grounded."

The Drag Show Bill (H6/S3), "An Act to Amend Tennessee Code," lists its favorite erotic fantasies -- topless, go-go, and all "exotic" dancers, plus strippers and "male or female impersonators who provide entertainment." That capaciousness for criminalizing sexy displays actually deploys the adjective pruient, a little used relic from an earlier era of shocked Victorian prudery. Any of the "entertainers" listed above who arouse pruient thoughts will be subject to prosecution. 

Pruient comes from Latin pruiens, originally meaning an itching (no lie!). For Roman soldiers, beset by fleas and lice and armor-rash, pruiens meant a physical itching but quickly took on a metaphorical meaning, itching for sex. In other words, it's ancient and obscure enough to become the standard for criminal intent in a new felony class in the State of Tennessee. 

The Tennessee legislators worry about the itch because they by God have the itch, feel the itch, and by-'n'-by scratch the itch (like all God's creatures). Their denial is a confession but also a power play. The Puritan tyrant is always covering for his own sin. Accounts for the obsession:

"Republicans are troubled by homosexuality and can't figure out how not to think about it."

--Garrison Keillor

Pruient.

Democrats hold a dismissible minority of seats in the two chambers of the Tennessee legislature. Republicans have a veto-proof majority in both houses and a Republican governor to boot, willing to sign whatever they want. One of the minority Democrats in the House, Rep. Justin Jones (who goes under the handle @BrotherJones on Twitter) stood up during the debate on the Drag Show Bill and delivered one blistering takedown of Republican hypocrisy (video can be seen here). “If we want to address the issue of obscenity and what’s harmful to minors, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t need a bill — they need a MIRROR.”

If there's still a shred of justice at any level of power in this country, the Courts will see that the State of Tennessee is legally persecuting an identifiable group, and you simply cannot do that in our Republic.

Controversial New Law Being Fast-Tracked in NC Senate

 

Senate Bill 49 was just filed yesterday, a fine piece of public school meddling titled "Parents' Bill of Rights," but as of today it's already being mulled in the Senate's Education Committee and is clearly being fast-tracked for quick adoption (in the now veto-proof chambers where Phil Berger rules). 

When the same law was introduced last year, it was quickly compared to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, and if anything, the new version this year has become more expansive. (Not that every provision is bad on the face of it, but some of it reads like a police state's wet dream for keeping children and teachers in a state of fear, like “The right to review all available records of materials their child has borrowed from a school library.”)

Good Lord! Do you think Mom and Dad will find out I was reading The Decameron Tales?!?!

A law so on-brand for the party that's all about freeeeeedom.

People in the Dark Put 40,000 Other People in the Dark

 

Moore County is east of Charlotte and is largely without electric power this morning because some people, so far unknown, used fire arms to shoot up a couple of Duke substations in a very targeted way -- “The persons who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” says the Moore County sheriff -- in the process knocking out power to most of the county and incidentally breaking a federal law that has brought in the FBI to investigate. And perhaps just incidentally, the outage happened as a drag show -- much hated and protested by Moore County rightwing activists -- was just getting started at a downtown theater in Southern Pines.

From the NandO coverage:

On her Facebook page, Emily Grace Rainey, an outspoken opponent of the drag show, posted an invitation to protest at the theater. After the lights went out, Rainey, who became known in Moore County during the pandemic for her opposition to mask mandates, posted on Facebook that, “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” 

Later, she posted that the Moore County Sheriff’s Office had come to her house to ask about the outage. 

“I welcomed them to my home,” wrote Rainey, who organized a group of Moore County residents to travel to Washington on January 6, 2021. “Sorry they wasted their time. I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters.”

Rainey said, “I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming, and wished them a good night...."

Emily Grace Rainey

So Emily Grace Rainey, who seemed to know something specific about the outage -- perhaps God told her about his mysterious ways with firearms -- got along swimmingly with the sheriff's office. Later, the sheriff himself, at a press conference yesterday, said flatly that Rainey's Facebook posts were "false." He said officers “had to go and interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her, but it turned out to be nothing.”

Hmmm.

Rainey has earned a very high profile in Moore County. On January 6th, while she was still on active duty at Fort Bragg attached to 4th Psychological Operations Group (PSYOP), she helped organize a hundred Moore County Republicans into buses for the trip to D.C. to hear Trump rev up the crowd on the ellipse. The Moore County group subsequently said they were not part of the storming of the Capitol, but Rainey was investigated by the Army for her political activity and is no longer in the military.

She had previously in 2020 sparked a run-in with the police in Southern Pines when she filmed herself tearing down yellow tape cordoning off a playground after Gov. Roy Cooper closed parks to prevent the further spread of COVID.

Incidentally, training in PSYOP means that Rainey has a handle on how "to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals" (Wikipedia). Whether she has talent, I know not, but it's clear she has skills, courtesy of the US government.

Ralph Hise Is an Asshole (Among Other Things)

 

Yesterday, Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Spruce Pine) (center in blue suit) turned
his back to every speaker who argued in front of his committee that H755
(Don't Say Gay Bill) would do harm to LGBTQ youth

Suddenly, the Republican majority in the General Assembly is rushing through H755, its own version of "Don't Say Gay" bill even though there's zero chance of its getting past Governor Cooper's veto. There can be only one reason for the uselessness of the gesture -- to rile up their base. May it also rile the hell up of the Democratic base.

The bill would ban any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity from the curriculum for kindergarten through third grade. It would also require the school to notify parents if any student, regardless of grade, begins to question their sexual identity in school—such as if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun to describe themselves.

Parents would also need to be notified if a student comes to a teacher or school staff with concerns about mental or emotional health, including any discussion of sexual orientation. (WRAL)

Those speaking against the bill, whom Sen. Hise disrespected so blatantly, "fear the bill could force students into coming out to their families before they are ready. Many studies show LGBTQIA+ youth make up a staggeringly disproportionate number of homeless youth. While some students may find their parents supportive, protesters fear some students forced to 'come out' may find themselves in dangerous situations."

The targeting of the defenseless continues apace in the NCGOP, for no other reason that perceived political gain.

Who Wants This on Our Supreme Court?

 

This sterling example of judicial temperament is running as a Republican in next year's North Carolina Supreme Court race ... Judge April Wood. She was just elected in 2020 to a seat on the NC Court of Appeals, the second highest court in the state.

Today, she's made herself infamous for associating herself with Lt. Guv Mark Robinson's recent bigoted rant in Winston-Salem. Here's Carolina Forward's poster on that unfortunate event:

In what century would I want this person on our highest court? In no century, no way, no how.

Define 'Trumpism'? See Mark Robinson

 

Our lieutenant governor since last year's election, Mark Robinson, has a bully's instincts: pick on the weakest on the playground. Physically, he indeed comes off as a great big bully, and he channels the Trump advice, "never apologize."

He's exactly what the Trump Party likes, applauds, gives money to, and elects. Billy Ball complains that no one visible in the NCGOP has called him out on anything he's said or done:

Robinson, the highest-ranking Republican in North Carolina, was open about his anti-LGBTQ beliefs long before he called queer folks “filth” at a Randolph County church in June. Long before he called trans folks “demonic” at a church in Raleigh in August.

So stow the shock. The hate isn’t a mistake, it is the message.

Robinson is not, as so many headlines labeled him, “homophobic.” He does not fear queer folks. He hates them. He will be remembered as a bigot, a spiteful buffoon who — best-case scenario — resigns today, even if that’s unlikely.

To call him out would invite bullying, and who wants that? Not Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Berger and NC House Speaker Tim Moore, who resolutely had no comment about Robinson's latest LGBTQ+ = "filth" statements (plural). But the NCGOP issued a message on its Facebook page saying the party "stands with" Robinson. Those are the two acceptable stances now for Republican office-holders watching their party transmogrify into a racist frat-initiation fueled by hatred. In the new Party of Trump it's either say nothing at all or be a lickspittle, groveling enabler of bad behavior and even worse morals. Those Trumpist voters will turn on you and take your hide -- any fellow Republican even thinking about criticizing the current drift. 

In Case You Were Wondering -- Yes, There Are Still Blockheads in the NC House

Larry Pittman

The chief blockhead among them ... Rep. Larry Pittman (Cabarrus and Rowan counties), who wears the label of "reverend" and thinks Abraham Lincoln was the worst possible president to represent the Republican Party, even if he was the first of that flavor and widely regarded as a great man. Rev. Pittman doesn't regard him that way.

Pittman is the chief sponsor of House Bill 65, along with co-sponsors and fellow blockheads Mark Brody (Anson and Union counties) and Keith Kidwell (Craven and Beaufort counties), a bill essentially intended to nullify gay marriage in the state. It's a ridiculous stunt that will go nowhere, and clearly Messrs. Pittman, Brody, and Kidwell have way too much time on their hands.

But they're master scholars of Constitutional law -- you bet! -- explaining why Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, was just wrong:

“Obergefell v. Hodges in effect has imposed the views of Secular Humanism on the People and the States of these United States in the matter of marriage law, which authority is not given to the federal government in the United States Constitution, and is, therefore, an unconstitutional establishment of religion and also an unconstitutional usurpation by the United States Supreme Court of powers reserved to the People or to the States.”

“In the wake of the Obergefell opinion, there have been increased efforts by the proponents of Secular Humanism to persecute nonobservers of the religion of Secular Humanism and to infiltrate public schools with the intent to indoctrinate minors to the Secular Humanist worldview, against the wishes of many of their parents, and to inculcate them with the Secular Humanist view on faith, morality, sex, and marriage. … It is an unsettled matter of opinion whether sexual orientation is immutable or genetic, and therefore, for a person to suggest that he/she was born homosexual or the wrong gender or that to disagree with their beliefs makes the dissenter a bigot, is nothing more than a series of unproven faith-based assumptions and naked assertions that are implicitly religious and may not be enforced by government upon anyone.”

Therefore: “Marriages between persons of the same gender not valid.”

Chalk this up to Trumpism ... the creeping sensation that you might be losing your grip on your fellow blockheaded peeps, so you need to redouble your efforts to play the sensational bigot and rile up the rubes, who you (bottomline) have utter contempt for.

Southern Conservatives Blink

Alan Blinder has an article in this morning's NewYorkTimes which highlights a growing nervousness across Southern states and in their Republican-dominated legislatures to pass more laws aimed at punishing LBGT citizens. In South Carolina, a "bathroom bill" similar to North Carolina's is stuck in committee and going nowhere. In Tennessee, a lawmaker who wanted another bathroom bill for public schools suddenly withdrew his proposal just eight days after introducing it. Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia vetoed a law "to shield religious groups from repercussions if they refused to employ or serve gay people."

“There’s been a slow IV drip of common sense to legislators, and you have lots and lots of people speaking to them and saying, ‘It’s not viable to do an extreme thing,’ ” said a law professor who has been studying recent extreme things and the extreme people who enact them.

Blinder thinks -- not without good cause -- that the example of what happened to North Carolina after it passed its bathroom bill (not to mention HB2 which attempted to outlaw gay marriage for eternity) has dissuaded many Southern lawmakers in other states from attempting to punish people for their sexual orientation. North Carolina lost business, lost investment, lost tourism, lost respect.

...though the [anti-LBGT] bills have often been popular with conservative voters, they go down very poorly with another important constituency: big business. Officials in states hoping to attract major investments from out-of-state corporations — like Amazon’s second headquarters — say they drew a lesson from the boycotts and cancellations that North Carolina suffered over its bathroom bill.

Blinder curiously does not mention another big "pucker factor" at work right now: It's an election year, shaping up to be a vicious gauntlet for some Republicans, and when there are so many fired-up voters who want to throw you overboard, it might be wiser not to rock the boat.

Not that the Republican masters in the North Carolina General Assembly have ever been wary of boat-tipping, since they gerrymandered themselves into cork-filled life-preservers.

Federal Judge Tells Trump, "You Can't Deny These Troops the Right To Die For Their Country"

Judge Kollar-Kotelly

Federal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has blocked Trump's ban on transgender troops. If you're keeping a box score, this is yet another of Trump's unconstitutional orders knocked down by federal judges, including the order limiting travel from Muslim countries and his attempt to punish so-called "sanctuary" cities.

The judge's "strongly worded" opinion pointed out that Trump's new policies likely violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution: “a number of factors — including the sheer breadth of the exclusion ordered by the directives, the unusual circumstances surrounding the President’s announcement of them [he tweeted it out in July, surprising the military], the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself — strongly suggest that Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claim is meritorious.”

The plaintiffs? Yes, a group of five transgender women serving in the Coast Guard, Army, and Air Force brought the lawsuit. According to Dave Phillips, "Many of the women had served for years as men and had been deployed to war zones before coming out to commanders when the [transgender] ban was lifted in 2016 [by President Obama]. One is a few years from retirement, according to court documents. Another told her commander she wanted to keep serving, but would resign if the military moved to forcibly discharge her."

Judge Kollar-Kotelly, incidentally, was first appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan.

Storm Saturday: ICYMI

Palatucci

1. Yesterday the Republican National Committee, meeting in Nashville, declared that there are no "very fine people" marching with racists, in an official resolution. But the resolution's author quickly added that denouncing white supremacists has nothing whatsoever to do with Big T in the White House, who had said that there were "very fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville.

“This has nothing to do with the president,” said Bill Palatucci, an RNC committeeman from New Jersey who wrote the resolution. “This is the RNC saying that racism and bigotry have no place in America” (therefore evidently making the White House an island unto itself, and not a part of America as a continent at all).

"Mr. Palatucci served as General Counsel to the Presidential Transition Committee of President Donald J. Trump. In this role, he was responsible for all legal matters related to ethics compliance and contracts and agreements between such agencies as the U.S. Department of Justice, General Services Administration, and the White House." (Gibbonslaw)

2. While a Cat 4 hurricane was bearing down on Texas, Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to fellow Birther and Hispanic tormentor, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County.

Message received! (There's a whole lot more being pardoned beside just Joe Arpaio.)

Question: Why didn't Trump pardon Arpaio at his rally in Phoenix, mere hours ago?

Reportedly, some White House aides convinced him it would create a storm of controversy. But he swished around and previewed the pardon anyway in front of that crowd, like a perfect little slut.

Hell-lo, Harvey! Just in time to provide cover! Not just for pardoning the whole concept of racial-profiling but also cover for this: 

3. WH Chief of Staff fires Sebastian Gorka.  Put a Marine in charge, you get ass-whippings. Gorka was a Steve Bannon creature (he also came from Brietbart), who had no defined job and lurked about in the alt-right, Islamophobic, Trump nimbus all through the Trump campaign, and looks like a Twilight Zone villain. Has an accent to go with it.

Retired Marine General John Kelly, recently put in charge of running the White House, revoked Gorka's security clearance while Gorka was on a two-week vacation, which essentially also eliminated his "job." Boom! Death by drone.

Gorka did not go quietly. The Federalist published his written "resignation" letter: “[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the [MakeAmericaGreatAgain] promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House. As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.”

So, Bannon and Gorka will be together again, back at Breitbart? If not America, they'll make Trump great again if it takes destroying the Republican Party.

4. Trump signs "memorandum" banning transgender troops from serving in the US Armed Forces. Remember he had tweeted on July 26 that he was banning preverts in the military, because he needed a distraction in the press from the catastrophic failure of the GOP to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The military essentially rebuffed the tweet and said (either in effect or literally), "Show us the beef in a signed order," which by the way would be stupid and offensive). 

But Trump finally signed what passes as an order (but was labeled "Memorandum") to the Pentagon, because he thought he couldn't afford to look weak ever, on any stupid topic, and with Harvey roaring on the Texas coast for distractive cover, he returned the military's pre-2016 policy under which no transgender individuals are allowed to serve openly in the armed forces. But with the memorandum Trump also simultaneously telegraphed the weakness of his case, leaving it totally up to General Mattis at the Defense Dept. and Whoever's Left at Homeland Security to decide what to do about transgender soldiers currently serving. "You guys decide," said the for sure entirely not weak Commander in Chief.

SNAFU, Trump-style. Shifting into Reverse while going downhill.

5.  Actual Harvey News: The Department of Homeland Security is currently without a permanent head. Two deputy director nominees at FEMA still await confirmation (either because Congressional Democrats have bogged down the process or because they're all going slow on nominations by a man who wanted his son's wedding planner as the director of New York Federal Housing). Trump has not even nominated someone to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

Trump, in his proposed budget released in May, recommended slashing FEMA programs and grants that help cities and states prepare for natural disasters (to the tune of $667 million), and he proposed cuts to the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. Trump recommended a 16 percent cut to the overall NOAA budget and a 32 percent cut to the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the agency’s main ocean, weather, and climate research office.

Because knowing science never pays off.

Our President Is a Thug

Trump is catching flak from conservatives because of his attacks on conservative darling Jeff Sessions. So what's a bully to do?

You veer right and slug the weakest kid on the playground and invite all the other bullies to pile on.

Everyone with a conscience knows why Trump suddenly and without warning banned transgender persons from the armed forces. He did so without consulting anybody with actual responsibility for the thousands -- yes, thousands -- of transgender persons already serving, many of them overseas. According to Davis and Cooper,

[Sec of Defense General Jim] Mattis, who was on vacation, was silent on the new policy. People close to the defense secretary said he was appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets, in part because of the message they sent to transgender active-duty service members, including those deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no longer welcome....

Some 2,000 to 11,000 active-duty troops are transgender, according to a 2016 RAND Corporation study commissioned by the Pentagon, though estimates of the number of transgender service members have varied widely, and are sometimes as high as 15,000.

Who does that thing?

A man (?) who never served a day in the military. A man who needed a convenient scapegoat he could sic his militantly anti-LGBT followers on. A man who needed a giant distraction. A man with no soul, no humanity, no decency, no idea of the pain and fear he was inflicting on fellow citizens.

He deserves to go to hell, either in this life or beyond. I trust that it will be in this life, so we can all watch.