Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You Stealing State Property

And I don't mean pens.  I mean a whole, entire, official STATE PARK.  Stolen in the middle of the night and handed over to a bunch of freakazoids with no notice to the public - you know, the TAXPAYERS who actually OWN that piece of property.

It's not Bevin's property.  It doesn't belong to him.  He STOLE it.  Why haven't the state police arrested the motherfucker and thrown him in the dungeons below Eddyville?

The theft and the handover to a church are also blatant violations of both the Kentucky and U.S. Constitutions.  Why are KY Dems not screaming for impeachment?

Tom Eblen at the Herald:

Boone Station State Historic Site in southeast Fayette County is no more. Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration last month closed the 46-acre park and gave it to David’s Fork Baptist Church with no public input, notice or comment.

Daniel Boone, Kentucky’s most famous pioneer and first international celebrity, helped build cabins and a stockade there in 1779 after he left nearby Fort Boonesborough. He lived at Boone Station for about four years with other settlers. Since the 1990s, the property has been a small state park.

“Since the State is willing to give away the home of Daniel Boone, are all Kentucky’s historic sites now on the chopping block?” asked Phil Gray, a former manager of Boone Station and Fort Boonesborough State Park.

“The cost to the state for Boone Station is almost nothing,” Gray added. “There is a mowing contract and a very small electric bill each month. Upkeep on the fence. But that is it. When history loses, we all lose.”

Pastor Mickey Hyder said church leaders haven’t decided what to do with Boone Station. “We’re taking our time,” he said, declining further comment.

Yeah, they're gonna lay low until the furor dies down and then sell it for a clusterfuck subdivision.  In Fayette County, that is gonna run into the millions of dollars. Tax dollars that belong to the people of Commonwealth of Kentucky, not to Billionaire Bevin and not to a nest of morons who think an invisible sky wizard runs the world.

Boone Station has two old tobacco barns and a big granite monument the Daughters of the American Revolution erected in 1967. It also contains pioneer graves, which may or may not be Boone family members.

“That historic site is very important to the history of the Commonwealth,” said Leslie Miller of Louisville, the DAR’s state leader. “We hope that whoever owns the property, now or in the future, will continue to honor the historical significance of that place and continue to share the story of those brave early patriots with the public.”

SNIP

Giving away Boone Station is part of a larger Bevin administration effort that William Landrum, secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, described to legislators last fall as “reducing the footprint of state government.” He said the state is forming “partnerships” — essentially turning over operation and maintenance of some state parks, historic sites and natural areas to local governments or organizations so it doesn’t have to spend money on them.

There’s no doubt Kentucky’s state parks and historic sites have been underfunded. That’s because governors and legislators of both political parties over the past two decades have abdicated their responsibility to fix a broken tax system that doesn’t generate enough revenue to properly fund state government.

With some state parks, local officials could do a better job of developing and maintaining them than state government has. But do they have the resources and expertise to care for, preserve and interpret historic properties?

As I wrote in September, these places have been deemed Kentucky treasures. They have great educational and cultural value. Politicians shouldn’t give them away, especially under a cloak of secrecy. Anyone who cares about preserving Kentucky’s rich history should be asking questions and demanding answers.

This Is Not the Religious Liberty You're Looking For

The freakazoids are going to take this as proof that first, government bureaucrats are out to get them, and second, that the Transportation Cabinet's reversal means that the freakazoids can force everyone else to do what they say.

Both are false.

Of course you can buy a vanity license plate that reads "Pray 4."

No, of course you can not force the state to produce at taxpayers' expense license plates promoting your invisible sky wizard.

Actually, Kentucky should immediately revoke the driver's license of everyone who requests an "in god we trust" license plate.  Why?  Because drivers who put their trust in a mythological being are not putting their trust in speed limits, rules of the road or driving defensively.

Meet Your New ScapeGoat Class of Deportees: The Muslims!

This is the Constitution stating flat-out: No discrimination of any kind on religious grounds EVER. And the Supreme Court responding: Yeah, fuck religious freedom: discriminate all you want as long as it's against some brown ragheads.

Zandar, writing before today's decision:

Once again, this is all part of a plan to create a system where the government can rapidly detain and deport large numbers of people quickly.  It's only a matter of time of course before this mass deportation infrastructure, without due process, is used not just on those crossing the border now, but used on those already here.

Once you establish that those who are declared non-citizens by the government are not subject to due process, the government has the ability to strip citizenship -- and the legal rights that citizenship guarantees -- from anyone it chooses.  And once you have established that, that non-citizens have no legal rights, well, you can do pretty much anything to them.

I cannot overstate the dangers here.

History tells us exactly what authoritarian governments do in situations like this. 

And the ACLU, with reasons not to despair, but to fight:

It's a dark day in American history. The Supreme Court just allowed the Muslim ban to continue.

In a 5-4 ruling, justices sided with this cornerstone of Trump's discriminatory immigration policy. The latest version of the ban limits entry to the United States from citizens of five Muslim-majority countries in addition to a miniscule number of North Koreans and Venezuelans.

Let's be clear: This is a loss. But this isn't the end of the fight – we're committed to taking down this discriminatory ban on every front – in Congress, in the courts, and on the streets.

Here's what you can do to help RIGHT NOW:

• Take to the streets to shout NO MUSLIM BAN EVER and show your commitment to fighting back: Visit peoplepower.org to join a rally in your community today.
• Congress can end Trump's Muslim ban – but they won't do it unless we force them to: Sign the petition and demand action.
• Stand together: Attend a community forum bringing together Muslim communities and allies.
• Make it known that we're still fighting by posting this #NoMuslimBanEver graphic on Twitter and Facebook.

This isn't the first time the Supreme Court has gotten it wrong. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled in Korematsu v. United States to allow the government to rip Japanese people out of their homes and imprison them based on false claims of national security. It's one of the most shameful chapters of U.S. history – and now the Muslim ban decision joins it. History will judge today's decision harshly.

But I have hope. It's ultimately the people of this country who'll determine its character and future. In the first 24 hours of the Muslim ban, two of the defining themes of the Trump presidency emerged: Trump's determination to stamp anti-Muslim bigotry into national policy, and the key role of the courts and the public in stopping him. Today, the court failed. Now the public is needed more than ever.

I'm confident that our country will ultimately defeat the Muslim ban – as well as Trump's other hateful policies, like tearing children away from their parents at the border, hunting travelers on Greyhound buses, and turning away asylum seekers fleeing domestic violence. But we can't let up the fight – our rights depend on making our voices heard.

Thanks for keeping up the fight,



Omar Jadwat
Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project

 

No, Seriously, Don't Fuck With Rev. Barber

He brought down another repug governor who thought he could defy the people without consequence.  Bevin should surrender now before it gets worse.

Just to be clear, no previous Kentucky Governor has ever barred Kentuckians and their out-of-state guests from the Capitol.  That's because no previous Kentucky Governor, even the worst ones, threw temper tantrums of unconstitutional arrogance when anyone dared to disagree with them.

From the Herald:

A national leader of the Poor People's Campaign told a group of anti-poverty protesters Wednesday that Kentucky's policy of limiting the group's access to the state Capitol must be challenged in court.

The Rev. William J. Barber, national co-chairman of the campaign, spoke outside the Capitol during his second trip to Frankfort this month to meet with protesters. He said a Kentucky State Police policy of allowing only two members of the group into the statehouse at a time is "an old tactic from civil rights days" and courts in his home state of North Carolina have ruled its Capitol Rotunda is a public place for protesters.

"We believe the same thing will happen here when it is tested under the law," said Barber. "If you let this stand, what is next?"

Pam McMichael, team coordinator for the Kentucky campaign, said the group is exploring "the appropriate legal steps to vindicate our group's right and those of all Kentuckians."

State police recently implemented the two-at-a-time policy when several members of the Poor People's Campaign blocked traffic near the Capitol and entered restricted property around the Governor's Mansion, according to State Police Commissioner Richard W. Sanders. He said the policy would not apply to demonstrators who follow all laws and regulations.

Those regulations include obtaining a state permit to assemble inside the Capitol.

Barber said the Kentucky Constitution says nothing about needing a permit to gather inside the Capitol. He said that policy was "a smokescreen" that Gov. Matt Bevin's administration "has fed to the media."

Bevin Bars Protesters From Kentucky Capitol

In blatant violation of the Kentucky and U.S. Constitutions, of course.  That's not his fucking house.  It's OURS.  And we can get in any time we fucking want and stay as long as we fucking want.  This is outrageous.

 

Bruce Schreiner at the AP:

Anti-poverty activists were denied group access into Kentucky's Capitol on Monday following an outdoor rally where the nation's first work requirements for Medicaid were denounced.

About 400 people demonstrated in front of the statehouse, and many then marched to the front doors of the Capitol in hopes of entering. They were greeted by uniformed officers, and the group's leader was told only two demonstrators could enter at a time. When those two exited, another two would be allowed inside, rally members were told.

"So you're going to literally block us from our constitutional right?" asked the Rev. William Barber, co-chairman of the Poor People's Campaign, which helped organize the rally.

"Two at a time, sir," an officer replied.

That would be the Kentucky people's house.  The one we pay for. The one that is open to every single fucking one of us, no matter what nasty things we say about Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You.

A peaceful standoff ensued. The group chanted "let us in," prayed and sang a spiritual before moving from the front entrance. There were no arrests, and the activists vowed to return for another protest.

"That's not America," Barber said. "People who want health care, who are dying because they don't have it ... have a right to redress their government. This is a public building."

Once upon a time, quite recently, another Southern Governor got crossways with Rev. Barber, and lost re-election because of it.  Kentucky teachers and state employees are already guaranteeing Bevin's defeat next year, but politicians seeking higher office really should avoid annoying Barber.

On Calling Out the Smokey-Eyed Motherfckers

Charlie Pierce:

Think of how things have slid from the days when William Lloyd Garrison published his first issue of The Liberator in Boston in which Garrison wrote what I consider the essential statement of purpose for any country with a First Amendment.

I AM aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as Truth, and as uncompromising as Justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.

Horribly uncivil, that. But vigorous, for sure, and proudly free.

What's next? Child marriages and executing gays. They won't stop.

Don't worry, they said.  Allowing public prayer by citizens at public meetings is harmless.  It's not like elected officials themselves proselityzing on public property at public meetings ... oh WAIT.


From the press release, because they're not even trying to hide it.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 16, 2017) – Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is joining with West Virginia and 20 other states in filing an amicus brief in support of North Carolina’s writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review Rowan County v. Lund.

The Bevin Administration along with the states of West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin are petitioning the Court to uphold well-established precedents protecting the freedom of prayer before public meetings. (SIC)

“Intervention is critical to resolve the disagreement in the lower courts and to preserve the ability of state and local legislative bodies to accommodate the spiritual needs of lawmakers,” states the brief. “This Court should grant review to provide certainty for the thousands of state and local governments that have long allowed lawmaker-led prayer in their proceedings—and thereby continue a tradition that has become part of the fabric of our society.”

In recent months, lower courts have issued conflicting rulings in regard to this topic. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit (which covers Kentucky) and a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit both ruled in favor of religious liberty (SIC). However, the full 4th Circuit later reversed its panel’s earlier decision.

Citing two landmark Supreme Court cases—Marsh v. Chambers (1983) and Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014), the states argue that the 4th Circuit’s conclusion “is entirely unmoored from [Supreme Court] precedent.”

“Lawmaker-led prayer is a common and important form of legislative prayer, which connects lawmakers to a tradition dating to the time of the Framers and allows part-time and volunteer lawmakers to reflect the values they hold as private citizens,” the brief notes. “This Court’s review is necessary to undo the 4th Circuit’s erroneous decision, which would sweep away what has so long been settled, and threaten to create new controversy and begin anew the very divisions along religious lines that the Establishment Claus seeks to prevent.”

A copy of the full amicus brief can be downloaded here.

First, that's not how you spell "Clause." Second, "religious liberty" under the Establishment Clause does not mean "everybody else has to follow my religion."

In fifty years, christianist have gone from following biblical injunctions to not engage in the world outside the church to demanding that secular society adopt their freakazoid stupidity.

We ignored the warnings of history and the Founders and let them take over one step at a time, and now they're too powerful and our secular institutions too weak to stop them.

When they arrest you for mowing your lawn on a Sunday, don't say I didn't warn you.  

Take Your Bibbles to Bevin

Oooooh, our so-brave Governor Craven Heartless Worm really stood up to those godless libtards this time!  Making them all cry with his bold order to the Commonwealth's kids to show off by taking their bibbles to school!

No mention, of course, of the fact that the very godless Constitution guarantees exactly that right. Nor of the fact that the very same Constitution bars government-funded entities - like teachers, not students - from proseletyzing any religion to others under cover of government authority.

You can take a bibble or a koran or a bhagavad gita any public goddamn place you please.

I recommend taking a bibble to bevin's office in the capitol. Cover it in brown paper so he can't see what it is, and start reading jeebus' words from the new testament.  Set a stopwatch so you know how many seconds it takes before bevin screams at you for being a commiemuslinterrist and leftwingbleedinghearthippie, how dare you read that unamericanatheist shit to him.

When Free Speech Gets Patriotic

The First Amendment guarantee of free speech was designed to protect dissent.  Political speech that criticizes government is the most patriotic speech and thus deserving of the strongest protections.

Especially when that speech - "speech" of course including action, even if silent - offends members of the ruling class and their pet storm troopers

Dave Zirin at The Nation:

A remarkable coalition of athletes, activists, and academics has come together in solidarity with Michael Bennett against the slander being put forward to discredit him by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association. Their statement of support follows.

Statement of Solidarity With Michael Bennett

We, the undersigned, stand with Michael Bennett, a professional football player with the Seattle Seahawks, philanthropist and activist, following an incident of police brutality in Las Vegas. On the morning of August 27th, a reported shooting on the Vegas strip led to chaos. Michael Bennett ran for cover, as did hundreds of others. Instead of being assisted, video and photographic evidence shows that Las Vegas police targeted Bennett, put him on the ground in handcuffs while the primary officer took out a weapon and placed it near the back of his head. According to Bennett, the officer said that if Bennett moved, he would “blow [his] fucking head off.” Bennett was then put in a police car, and after a period of time let go without charges.

We condemn this act of racial profiling and excessive force perpetrated by the Vegas police against Mr. Bennett.

This story is awful enough. The response by the Las Vegas police union has been even worse. They have issued a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calling for Bennett to be investigated for “obvious false allegations against our officers.” Instead of refuting these allegations, the police union made reference to Bennett’s protests of the national anthem, writing, “While the NFL may condone Bennett’s disrespect for our American Flag, and everything it symbolizes, we hope the league will not ignore Bennett’s false accusations against our police officers.” They are, in effect, using Bennett’s political protest as a pretext to investigate him.

Since Bennett publicized his encounter with the LVMPD, a spokesperson for the police has confirmed that it is conducting an investigation of Bennett to determine “Whether Mr. Bennett was involved in the altercation at the hotel casino prior to his detention on Las Vegas Boulevard.” This is clearly an act of retaliation against Bennett for speaking out against police brutality. It is also a gesture of intimidation against anyone else who would dare challenge the right of the Las Vegas police department to act with impunity. This is unacceptable.

Michael Bennett has been sitting during the anthem precisely to raise these issues of racist injustice that are now an intimate part of his life. Now we stand with him.

This is a threatening escalation of the blackballing being perpetrated against Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and even of the deliberate breaking of Thabo Sefolosha's leg.  The next black athlete who dares to challenge the ruling power is going to get killed.

Who Took Gov. "Necessary Bloodshed" At His Word?

The Herald should send the motherfucker a bill for new windows.

Charlie Pierce:

It may have escaped your attention, but somebody shot out the windows of The Lexington Herald-Leader on Monday night. About which Kentucky's Tea Party governor, Matt Bevin, meeped:

"It's irresponsible and inappropriate… Any kind of behavior of that sort against any individual or an organization is wrong. Period…But let's get the facts before we overreact. Too often there is a lot of innuendo and hypothesis and people start to react to that."

Bevin, who has been critical of coverage by the Herald-Leader and the Courier-Journal of Louisville in the last week, added: "We should find out who is responsible and they should be held accountable for it."

This is a guy, mind you, who got up at the Values Voters hootenanny last September and suggested that bloodshed might be necessary to save America from a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency. But let's all remain calm when actual bullets are fired through the windows of a newspaper he doesn't like.

SNIP

The drumbeat of "fake news" from the highest office in the land is merely the high-rent version of those rallies. And it is having an effect out in the country. It is empowering ignorance and violence. It is encouraging mindless and pointless division. And it is handing people an easy way around acknowledging the fact that they handed the country over to a real-estate swindler and his family of grifthounds. It gives those people another target. And that's dangerous.

Is there anyone in the State Police patriotic enough to arrest Gov. "Trump is great for Kentucky" on felony charges of incitement?

You Want Public Funding? Then Pay Public Taxes, You Motherfucking Freakazoids.

They're not satisfied with the constitutional right to spew lies and indoctrinate stupidity into children and let those children die of treatable conditions in the name of their invisible sky wizard.

They're not satisfied with piling up tax-free fortunes from tax-free donations and then using that money to put themselves into public office where they attack science and reason and facts in their name of their invisible sky wizard.

 

They're not satisfied with making the United States of America into an international laughingstock for letting freakazoids dictate our national policies.

No, now they want the public dollars to which they do not contribute a single dime.

 

Wonkette:

Missouri’s Scrap Tire Grant Program recycles tires and subsidizes non-profits to upgrade their playgrounds with recycled rubber surfacing. Under the previous Democratic governor, religious institutions were barred from the program. This meant that Trinity Lutheran Church’s preschool could not receive a grant, but a Montessori school would be eligible.

SNIP

Trinity Lutheran argues that jungle gyms aren’t religious, and that excluding parochial schools from public funding illegally penalizes them for their religion. Their Christian kids are just as entitled to protection from skinned knees as your heathen brats, right?

Opponents argue that States have always had the right to exclude religious institutions from public funding, and 39 states expressly outlaw it in their Constitutions. For instance, Missouri’s Constitution says:

Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose, or to help to support or sustain any private or public school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever; (Art. IX, § 8)

Which seems pretty unambiguous, right?

There is also a PLOT TWIST. The former Democratic governor of Missouri Jay Nixon was replaced by Republican Eric Greitens, who is happy to disburse state funds to religious institutions like it says in the Bible. Under normal circumstances, that would mean that the case was moot — Trinity would get its rubber playground, and the case would disappear. But the Republican Attorney General has hired outside counsel to defend the old law, on the theory that maybe one day a future Democratic governor could reenact it. And if you think this reeks to high heaven, YOU ARE RIGHT. Missouri has propped up a fake opponent so that Trinity Lutheran and its adorable, skinned-knee toddlers can give us the magical gift of public funding for religious schools forever. Hosanna!

No Rights for Ideas

Divine Irony:

atheistcartoons:

Ideas should be discussed without any fear of any physical consequences of any kind. 

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. ” -Thomas Paine

Dissent Being Outlawed

They've tried it before, many times, and failed.  But they never had an all-authoritarian government and judiciary to support them before.

Charlie Pierce:

For example, in North Dakota, they are considering a law that would decriminalize…wait for it…"accidentally" running over protesters. From KTLA:

Rep. Keith Kempenich introduced the bill, which states that if a driver "unintentionally" causes injury or death to someone blocking traffic on a roadway, then the driver will not be liable for damages. Kempenich said he was spurred to act after Dakota Access Pipeline protesters last year moved to block public roadways, scaring some of his constituents. "It turned from a protest to basically terrorism on the roadways, and the bill got introduced for people to be able to drive down the roads without fear of running into somebody and having to be liable for them," he told CNN.

What kind of a mind comes up with this? Presumably, if he'd been in Selma in 1965, Representative Kempenich would have run down those terrorists on the Edmund Pettus Bridge because they were keeping him from getting to the Piggly Wiggly. The problem is that there's a kind of fever for suppressing dissent out in the states that has been unleashed with the inauguration of an authoritarian president.

In Minnesota, a proposed law would increase the penalties for public protest on a highway, and another proposed law would force any protester convicted of illegal assembly or public nuisance to recoup the police expenses for monitoring the demonstration. In Indiana, they're pushing a similar bill, as The Indianapolis Star reports.

An Indiana lawmaker says disturbing newscasts of chaotic and sometimes violent protests across the U.S. helped lead him to propose a bill that would direct police to use "any means necessary" to breakup mass gatherings that block traffic.

Any means, Gracie? Boy, this must be a real problem.

When asked, Tomes could not cite specific instances where protesters prevented or delayed an emergency response.

But…but…scary newscasts!

But he said he's seen troubling scenes on the nightly news and thinks people are overcomplicating the issue. "People get off track and get off on sidebars on this. It's just to get the streets opened up for traffic flow, for emergency personnel, for commerce — that's all," said Tomes, who added that he thinks protesters should get a permit if they want to block-off a street. As written, the bill would give authorities 15 minutes to "dispatch all available law enforcement officers" after receiving a report of 10 or more people illegally blocking traffic "with directions to use any means necessary to clear the roads."

But leave it to the newly insane state of North Carolina to come up with a new law dedicated merely to the protection of delicate fee-fees. The News Observer tells the tale.

The proposed legislation would "make it a crime to threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against a present or former North Carolina official in the course of, or on account of, the performance of his or her duties," Bishop said. "Because lines are being crossed," Bishop, a Republican who represents the 39th District in the North Carolina Senate, wrote in an email from his Senate campaign account.

And who is brother Bishop? Glad you asked.

Bishop was one of the sponsors of House Bill 2, or "the bathroom bill" which McCrory signed into law. The bill was criticized for nullifying local non-discrimination ordinances statewide, directing transgender people to use restrooms and locker rooms matching the gender on their birth certificate in government-owned buildings and initially revoking the right to sue in state court for discrimination.

Which, it should be said, is the reason that people are so upset with McCrory in the first place. Nevertheless, Bishop is soldiering on.

Bishop said such behavior should come with a five-year prison sentence and said he'll introduce the legislation to make it so in North Carolina, similar to an ordinance in the District of Columbia. "So should it be in North Carolina," he wrote. "This is dangerous. Jim Hunt, Bev Purdue and other governors never faced riotous mobs in their post-service, private lives, without personal security." Bishop said he also will urge his fellow legislators "to take other appropriate steps to guarantee the personal safety of Gov. McCrory by all means necessary."

These are going to be hard days for public protest and, if things keep up the way they're going, there are going to be more and more public protests. I genuinely fear for the safety of the protesters at the Standing Rock camp. But, more than that, I'm afraid that too many people don't understand the purpose of public protest anymore. We're going to have to remember that there is no provision in the Constitution providing for freedom of convenience.

More from Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:

Thus, someone's "right" to make money (enumerated in the Bill of Rights somewhere?) would be considered superior to another's exercising 1st Amendment rights, both according to state law and Ericksen's values. If the protesters carried guns, it would become a 2nd Amendment issue and a different matter altogether. Ericksen was Donald Trump's deputy campaign director in Washington.

Gov. "Forced Birth for All the Bitches" Bevin Orders Doctors to Rape Their Patients

Do not fall for the euphemism: "ultrasound" before an abortion refers to jamming a mechanical object deep into a woman's body against her will.  That's Object Rape, and that's what Bevin signing this bill requires.

From the media advisory:

Gov. Matt Bevin will ceremonially sign two historic pro-life measures during the Kentucky Right to Life Association’s annual “Rally for Life” at the Capitol on Wednesday. 
 

More than a dozen state legislators and pro-life advocates from across the Commonwealth will participate in the event, as Gov. Bevin commemorates the recently enacted Senate Bill 5 (protecting unborn children after 20 weeks of gestation) and House Bill 2 (requiring an ultrasound before a pregnancy is terminated), which both passed with broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly.

Yes, Kentucky DINOs are cowardly, misogynistic pieces of shit.  What else is new?

Not this:

State-sanction rape is not enough for Stan "Nobody can have sex that I don't approve of" Lee.

From the Courier:

Many conservatives have touted "defunding" Planned Parenthood as a goal for years, but a new bill targeting that organization potentially could affect a wider range of groups, including churches, if Kentucky's Republican-run legislature approves it.

House Bill 149 would prohibit public funds from going to any organizations or individuals that provide abortion services or are affiliates of that type of group. It includes exceptions for hospitals, universities and medical schools.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, said it targets Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, which currently doesn't provide abortions in the state. Critics say the legislation could prevent other organizations from getting public money.

"This legislation is directed at essentially defunding Planned Parenthood," Lee said. “This was designed to ... make sure there wasn’t a way for them to kind of sidestep this requirement, get around it and obtain funding.”

Lee said he filed HB 149 because he didn't think a similar bill in the state Senate went far enough in terms of preventing Planned Parenthood from getting a shot at public funding.

Under his bill, an organization wouldn't have to perform abortions to be considered an abortion-services provider. The bill says abortion services also include providing referrals to or information about facilities where abortions are performed as well as "providing counseling, advice, written materials or other information that encourages or promotes abortion."

 

Yeah, it's an unconstitutional gag rule and completely typical of Stan "No saying anything I don't want you to say" Lee.

 

Somebody need to start counting the bodies of all the Kentucky women who now cannot get health care anywhere.

You Are Not Entitled to Your Opinion

If your opinion is stupid.

 

PZ Myers:

You don’t get to declare whatever you dislike to be an opinion. You don’t get to regard your opinions as somehow sacrosanct. I am going to give you the information that shows your opinion is wrong, and the purpose of my teaching is to get you to change your opinions to something more productive and correct, and more in line with reality. Those kinds of opinions should not survive an encounter with the facts.

So I’m already in agreement with this philosophical position that “No, you’re not entitled to your opinion”. There are different kinds of opinions, and this is a very useful explanation.

Plato distinguished between opinion or common belief (doxa) and certain knowledge, and that’s still a workable distinction today: unlike “1+1=2” or “there are no square circles,” an opinion has a degree of subjectivity and uncertainty to it. But “opinion” ranges from tastes or preferences, through views about questions that concern most people such as prudence or politics, to views grounded in technical expertise, such as legal or scientific opinions.

You can’t really argue about the first kind of opinion. I’d be silly to insist that you’re wrong to think strawberry ice cream is better than chocolate. The problem is that sometimes we implicitly seem to take opinions of the second and even the third sort to be unarguable in the way questions of taste are. Perhaps that’s one reason (no doubt there are others) why enthusiastic amateurs think they’re entitled to disagree with climate scientists and immunologists and have their views “respected.”

I have to agree. The statements “I like chocolate ice cream” and “I think the earth is 6000 years old” are both opinions all right, in a shallow and colloquial sense, but they are qualitatively different. That I respect your right to have your own taste in ice cream should not imply that I also grant you the privilege to ignore our shared reality. The author, Patrick Stokes, explains all this with examples from anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers, but it’s true for lots of phenomena.

It’s the core of the Answers in Genesis claim that they are using the same facts, but different views (they prefer to use the word “worldviews” over “opinions”, but it’s the same thing). They think they’re entitled to their own opinions and interpretations of reality, and that they can look at a Cretaceous fossil and declare that, in their opinion, that dinosaur died in the Great Flood in 2304BC…they certainly have the right to say that, but they go further and demand that you respect that opinion as equally valid to that of a scientist.

We also see it in politics. Look at this claim by Scottie Nell Hughes:

“On one hand, I hear half the media saying that these are lies. But on the other half, there are many people that go ‘No it’s true,’” Hughes said. “And so one thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch, is that people who say ‘facts are facts,’— they’re not really facts.”

“Everybody has a way—It’s kind of like looking at ratings, or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore, as facts,” she added.

I’m pretty sure Hughes would argue that the facts show that she is a mammalian humanoid, with records to show that she was born to fully human parents, but it is my opinion that she, and all the other Trump surrogates, are actually alien reptoids who hatched from eggs incubated in a dungheap. And apparently, she’d agree that her facts are useless and my interpretation is perfectly valid.

Unless, of course, we can agree that some opinions are falsifiable.

As always, if your opinion is that scientific facts like global warming, heliocentrism and evolution are wrong, please report to the roof of the nearest 10-story building and jump off. Gravity is just an opinion.

Molly Knew

Via Political Animal:

The Only Free Speech is Praise For the Orange One

Try it, motherfucker.  The smoke from burning flags across the country will block out the sun.

TPM:

President-elect Donald Trump sent out an early-morning tweet Tuesday musing that burning the American flag should result in jail time or “loss of citizenship."

It is unclear what prompted the message.

Flag burning is a protected act of free speech under the U.S. Constitution. In Texas v. Johnson, a 1989 ruling, the Supreme Court invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag that were enforced by 48 states. A law passed the same year by Congress making it a federal crime to desecrate the flag was also struck down by the Supreme Court.

A constitutional amendment to ban flag burning or desecration has been proposed multiple times in the years since, but failed to pass, most recently in 2006.

Despite this precedent, Trump spokesperson Jason Miller remained unconvinced by CNN’s Chris Cuomo’s insistence that flag burning is a “protected constitutional right” during a Tuesday appearance on “New Day.”

“Can we agree on that?” Cuomo asked.

“No, we completely disagree,” Miller replied.

Miller repeatedly said that such a “despicable” act “should be illegal” and tried to pivot to a discussion of Trump’s cabinet appointees.

“You have to defend what is legal in this country under the Constitution. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean that it's not legal, it's not right for somebody. What do you want this country to be, only what you like? Only what President-elect Trump likes?” Cuomo asked.

“Flag burning should be illegal,” Miller said again, insisting there was a “big difference” between protecting the First Amendment and burning the American flag.

You know what's "despicable" and already is illegal? Profiting from your position as an elected official.  Like shaking down foreign leaders for bribes if they want a meeting with El Presidente.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress:

But even setting aside Trump’s unconstitutional call to criminalize flag burning, which became a staple of American conservative politics long before Trump emerged as a presidential candidate, Trump is calling for something even more extraordinary. He wants to strip citizenship — and with it, voting rights — from political dissidents. Federal law does permit Americans to lose their citizenship after “committing any act of treason against, or attempting by force to overthrow, or bearing arms against, the United States,” but flag burning is a far cry from treason or armed rebellion. It is a political statement, and democracy depends on the free expression of political ideas.

The president-elect of the United States has proposed stripping a political protester’s very status as an American. In the process, he would take away that person’s ability to vote — and thus to vote for someone other than Donald Trump. Today, Trump proposes this consequence for a very specific category of speech that most Americans view as odious. But once a person’s voting rights can be made contingent upon their beliefs, or their silence, then elections become increasingly meaningless.

Not to mention that criminalizing protest is yet another dead give-away of fascism, as if we needed another example.

Fascist Tangelo Throws Temper Tantrum

If the entire cast of Hamilton had screamed obscenities at Pence and then dropped trou and mooned the motherfucker, they still would absolutely not owe him an apology.

Apologize for free political speech?  What the fascist tangelo (props to Shakezula) thinks is appropriate punishment for actual protesters has the Abu Ghraib torturers terrified.

Shakezula at LGM:

Sure Pence is a man who has used his position to oppress gay people and women. Yes, there’s strong evidence that he dabbled in disenfranchisement. Yes, he’s second banana to a fascist tangelo. And no, you haven’t heard him utter a peep against the rest of the white supremacist goons on Team Trump. But Dave Itzkoff saw the man attend an insanely popular musical while surrounded by a Secret Service detail and knew he must be trying to engage [something] and could possibly get some ideas [about something]. Therefore the fact that some members of the audience booed Pence (others cheered), made Itzkoff ;_;.

SNIP

Anyone who has reason to fear fascist goons, tough shit on them and their 1st Am. rights. Should a member of the cast or theater staff, or some guy making deliveries to the building or someone who looks a bit Hamiltonish get mauled because the PEST blamed them for the booing, that will of course not be the fault of the Donald. And give him another chance, because he’s trying.

Bevin Turns State Employee Charity into Freakazoid Con Job

No, Gov. Lying Coward, state employees are not your private workers you can force to follow your freakazoid idiocy. 

"Servant leadership" is freakazoid code for fundamentalist proselytizing pretending to be secular.

State employees are secular representatives of a secular government providing secular services to residents of all religions and no religions.

Gov. Lying Coward does not get to appropriate the public service he does not pay for to spread his own freakazoid propaganda.

There are many excellent reasons for state employees to NOT contribute to KECC, most obviously the fact that it washes donations through the corrupt United Way, which takes a five percent cut.

But the best reason of all not to contribute is that Gov. Lying Coward has turned KECC into a freakazoid con game.

Dear Leaders of the Commonwealth,

As state employees, we work together each day to make Kentucky the greatest version of itself. Our roles may be varied and cabinet functions distinct, but we all make a significant difference. We lead by caring for others, devoting our time and talents, and lending a helping hand.

Kentucky Employees Charitable Campaign (KECC) provides a great opportunity to put this leadership into practice. Charities represented by KECC improve academic achievement, provide medical care to children and rebuild communities after disasters strike.

I am honored to serve as this year’s KECC Chair. The reason I selected Servant Leadership as our campaign theme is because servant leaders improve the well-being of their community through selfless generosity and commitment.

I challenge each of you to step up and be a servant leader. Your generous participation in KECC will touch the lives of those who need it most throughout the Commonwealth, including people and families in your community. Donations of any size help, and even more importantly, they assist Kentuckians in reaching their fullest potential.

Each year, the KECC Charities are carefully vetted, and work in partnership through this campaign to improve the lives of children, seniors and families across the Commonwealth. I encourage you to watch this year’s video and learn more about the charities through the links below. It’s important to understand how your donation can change the life of a fellow Kentuckian.

Thank you for your consideration. As citizens, we should take our state motto to heart: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” By working together, we can create a Kentucky that shines like a beacon for the entire world to see and emulate.

Sincerely,

Governor Matt Bevin

2016 KECC Chair

His Precious Religious Liberties

In case you've forgotten just how narrow and exclusive are the rights that repugs claim to defend, here's a reminder from Erik Looms at LGM that with Scalia dead, the new U.S. Supreme Court defender of white, straight, right-wing male freakazoids is Sam Alito:

... his precious religious liberties that apply only to right-wingers seeking to oppress women or gays.