Let's Focus, People

Via Juanita Jean:

Bevin Makes Dick Move That Is Insulting to Dicks

jesus christ even Trump is more mature than this.  What's next? Bevin leaving a flaming bad of dog shit on Beshear's front porch?

And shame on Governor Lying Coward for exploiting Gold Star families in his infantile temper tantrum against Governor Steve Beshear.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

The name of former first lady Jane K. Beshear has been removed from the Capitol Education Center on the grounds of the Kentucky Capitol.

Gone is the sign with her name in front of the building that serves as an education and welcoming facility for more than 60,000 guests to the Capitol campus every year. Gone are the plaques in the building that bore her name.

First Lady Jane Beshear introduced her husband Gov. Steve Beshear during the swearing-in ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 at the Capitol in Frankfort.  

 

The Bevin administration plans to rename the center, which sits adjacent to the Capitol and Executive Mansion, to honor Kentucky’s military heritage with the goal of special recognition to Kentucky’s “Gold Star” families, Pamela Trautner, spokeswoman for the state Finance and Administration Cabinet, said Thursday.

SNIP

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear named the center in his wife’s honor last November shortly before leaving office and soon after Republican Gov. Matt Bevin was elected to succeed him. Beshear said his wife was responsible for securing private donations to help outfit the center, including $250,000 from Duke Energy, and appliances for the center’s kitchen from General Electric.

Bevin and the Beshears have been at odds since early in the Bevin administration.

Bevin removed Jane Beshear in December as a member of the Kentucky Horse Park Commission, an appointment Steve Beshear had made. The two have accused each other of corruption in their administrations and the Beshears’ son, Attorney General Andy Beshear, has taken Bevin to court for making mid-year university budget cuts and revamping governing boards.

Steve Beshear said in an email Thursday night that “it’s certainly the governor’s prerogative to change the name on this building if he chooses.”

“I named it after Jane because she raised over $250,000 from the private sector to transform that old, abandoned building into a place where Kentucky schoolchildren visiting our Capitol could eat lunch and learn about different kinds of energy used in Kentucky,” he said. “She never sought any recognition for her efforts, but I was proud to surprise her by naming the building for her.”

Steve Beshear said he hopes Bevin leaves a plaque on the inside of the center “that tells how the first lady created it, because I’m sure our military families would want to know the story of how it came about.”

It's Class vs. Trash, and I don't have to tell you which is which.

But it's the cops who need protecting

Kentucky legislators will introduce a Blue Lives Matter (Way More Than the Innocent Civilians This Bill Will Give Cops Permission to Murder in Cold Blood) bill when the General Assembly convenes in January.  
 

Find out if your legislator is one of these morons and vote the racist, pants-shitting panderer out of office in November.

 

Crooks and Liars:

It was another traffic stop. Philando Castile was driving with his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, when they were pulled over at a traffic stop for a broken taillight, according to a video Reynolds posted on Facebook just after he was shot.

The officer “asked him for license and registration,” she says. “He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he’s licensed to carry. The officer said don’t move. As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times.”

The video shows a uniformed police officer holding a pistol on the couple from outside the car. The officer can be heard to say, “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand out.”

“Please don’t tell me my boyfriend’s gone,” she says. ”He don’t deserve this, please. He works for St. Paul Public Schools. He’s never been in jail, anything. He’s not a gang member, anything.”

According to reports since she posted the video, Mr. Castile died at the hospital.

 

This happens every day. The only difference in this case is that she took video, documented her story and posted it to Facebook.

Pay special attention to the fact that Castile was armed, but carried a permit, that he informed police he was armed before he reached for his wallet.

And now he is dead. Tell me something. If he had been white and armed, would he be dead?

Gun rights are for white people only.

Bevin Attacks Fake Problem By Making Real Problem Worse

So Governor Pants-Shitter asks his overworked, underpaid, about-to-lose-their-pensions state workers to do his fucking job for him and find instances of "red tape" that he can then use to eliminate yet more state jobs and brag about saving money that he is actually wasting.

I'll just annotate this little missive with what I imagine a state employee might like to say to Kentucky's only guv:

Fellow Public Servant of Kentucky,

Stop right there, motherfucker.  You are not, never have been and never will be a "public servant." You're a freakazoid billionaire greedhead who thinks "public service" is getting serviced with public money.

This morning we are announcing a new initiative aimed at cutting red tape in government, and I am asking for your help.

There is no red tape in government.  That's a conservative shibboleth that the wingnuts have been bellowing since progressives first started making government work for people who weren't obscenely rich shitheels.

There are currently more than 4,500 administrative regulations in Kentucky. For decades, they have been put in place by state agencies to address problems, shortcomings, isolated issues or other matters state leaders deemed appropriate to regulate. 

Just 4,500?  When we need at least 10 times that number?  Every minute in this state, some private business is fucking over a Kentucky customer, resident, public building, public land, public waterway, public airspace or public investment.  And getting away with it because 4,500 regulations is not nearly enough to stop the raping.

Of those 4,500 regulations, approximately 15 percent have not been reviewed since 1974. They simply stay on the books, year after year, and regulators are required to enforce them.  This must change. 

What must change is adding more regulations to cover the countless attacks on the public purse and the public good by companies getting away with murder because they are so UNregulated.  

While some regulations are very necessary and protect the public safety, others can stifle economic growth, impose unnecessary costs on businesses and impede private sector investment. Our new Red Tape Reduction Initiative is an effort to review every regulation currently on the books. The goal is to eliminate those regulations deemed unnecessary or duplicative, simplify those considered too complex and judge each for intent and effectiveness. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  oh fuck stop you're killing me.  Because killing me and all my public-spirited friends for the profit of your billionaire friends is the one and only goal of eliminating regulations.

As a state employee, you have firsthand knowledge of regulations that are unnecessary, outdated, poorly written or too complex. This is your chance to help us identify those regulations and then help us do something about them.

What state employees have is heart attacks and strokes and stress-caused early death from trying desperately to hold this state together despite not having the regulations they need to do their jobs.

A website has been established, redtapereduction.com , where you can suggest regulations that should be reviewed. Periodic updates will also be available on the progress of this initiative.

Why don't you hang from a rope until there is a single "update" on this fake-ass "initiative?"

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful response to this request.  I look forward to hearing from you.

No, you look forward to ignoring what I say and continuing to drag Kentucky down the Brownback Path to Haiti-dom.

With gratitude for your service,

Matt Bevin

Governor

No, no - fuck YOU very much.

Real Patriots Pay Taxes

After racism, this is the biggest divide between Americans: we who define patriotism as working to create and strengthen the common good vs those who define patriotism as working to enrich and strengthen selfish individualism.

Crooks and Liars:

Former Clinton Labor Secretary, Robert Reich has teamed up with MoveOn.org to celebrate our 240th birthday this Fourth of July. He understands that it's very important to not only love your country, but be aware of the responsibilities of a truly patriotic American.

SNIP
Reich outlines five basic principles of true patriotism. His definition praises the country that we love, without demonizing the institution of government.

1. First: It's not simply about waiving the American flag and it's not mostly about securing our borders putting up walls keeping others out. It's about coming together for the common good.
2. Second: Patriotism 'isn't cheap.' As such, a real American patriot pays his fair share of taxes to fund services, utilities, roadways, social programs, education, healthcare and the most expensive military on the planet. The Presumptive Republican Apricot nominee has yet to reveal his tax returns,and it's widely believed they would divulge some rather 'creative accounting', possibly to the degree that he hardly pays anything back for all the benefits he's received from this nation, the country he claims to love.
3. Third: Patriotism is about preserving fortifying and protecting our democracy, not intimidating it with big money and buying off politicians.
Trump has bragged about his own history of buying politicians who, as he so delicately pronounced, "kiss my ass."

4. Fourth: True patriots don't hate the government of the United States, they're proud of their country. They know the government is a tool to help solve our problems together.. They may not like everything it does and they justifiably worry when special interests came too much power but true patriots work to improve our government not destroy it *cough cough, like the GOP* The Conservative SCOTUS justices responsible for Citizens United decision unequivocally prove that the GOP was best served by this blatant selling of Democracy to the highest bidder.
5. Finally: Patriots don't pander to devisiveness - they don't feel racist or religious or ethnic divisions. They aren't homophobic or sexist or racist. AMEN!

Liberal Xians Just As Bad If Not Worse

I think the liberal xians who claim jeebus and their invisible wizard friend in the sky want nothing but peace and love and rainbow ponies are a bigger long-term threat to humanity than all the hate-mongering freakzoids everywhere.

 

Because all they're doing is confirming the fundamental freakazoid claim that human beings ought to do whatever they think their sky wizard friend is telling them to do.

 

Conservatard or liberal, it's the concept that's wrong.

 

PZ Myers:

This particular news program goes out of its way to get liberal ministers to oppose the hatemongers, but they’re just as bad: rationalizing your behavior as “this is what my god wants me to do” is just as fallacious when it’s supporting humanist views as when it’s supporting murderous views. How about suggesting that we not kill, because they are fellow human beings, or that we should be tolerant, because human beings have diverse views, and behavior that does not harm others ought to be accepted?

Whose Slave?

Divine Irony:

Bevin Gets Stomped by Planned Parenthood

Oh, man, I can't wait to see what unconstitutional shit the forced birthers in the Kentucky General Assembly come up with to try to get around the new judicial consensus in favor of abortion RIGHTS.

From the Courier:

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has tossed out a lawsuit by Gov. Matt Bevin's administration against Planned Parenthood that alleged the reproductive health organization illegally provided abortions at its new clinic in downtown Louisville.

In dismissing the lawsuit filed by Bevin's general counsel, Steve Pitt, Judge Mitch Perry found that Planned Parenthood had, as it had claimed, been following directions of state officials when it began offering abortions in December as part of its effort to obtain a state license.

Lawyer Thomas Clay, who represents Planned Parenthood, said his clients were "very pleased" with the decision.

"It remains to be seen whether the Bevin will accept this decision or whether it will seek appellate review," Clay said.

You mean appellate review to the new pro-abortion majority on the Supreme Court?  Is Gov. Pants Shitter that eager for a beatdown from Notorious RBG and Sonia "Supreme" Sotomayor?

Go ahead, motherfucker. 

Abortion RIGHTS, Motherfuckers

It's not no-charge, no-questions-asked abortion-on-demand yet, but it's a big step closer.

Crooks and Liars:

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt is completely overturned FIVE TO THREE, with Roberts, Alito, and Thomas dissenting.

Breyer and Kennedy join Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan in the majority. Scotusblog:

Both the admitting privileges and surgical center requirements place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, constitute an undue burden on abortion access, and thus violate the Constitution.

We'll have more as we have time to read the opinion. A very good day for once.

Most importantly, the women on the court finally got the chance to lay some facts and reality upside some freakazoid conservatard heads, and took full advantage.

You'll recall that Sotomayor made her opinion known during oral arguments in March, that demanding surgical centers in order to take two pills was massively stupid. We can't quote this paragraph from Slate enough. Go read the whole thing for a feel-good about the future of SCOTUS once Madam President has a few justices added on.

It felt as if, for the first time in history, the gender playing field at the high court was finally leveled, and as a consequence the court’s female justices were emboldened to just ignore the rules. Time limits were flouted to such a degree that Chief Justice John Roberts pretty much gave up enforcing them. I counted two instances in which Roberts tried to get advocates to wrap up as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor simply blew past him with more questions. There was something wonderful and symbolic about Roberts losing almost complete control over the court’s indignant women, who are just not inclined to play nice anymore.

Damn right.

You gotta love this:

 

RBG's...conclusion is designed to give today's opinion as broad a reach as possible: ....Providers laws like H. B. 2 that “do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion... cannot survive judicial inspection."

This decision is expected to affect other state's efforts to put provider restrictions in place.

Anti-Terrorism Immunization in Louisville

They're all Americans now.

From the Courier:

The children — from Somalia, Burma and Iraq — had only been in the United States for weeks or days. They're refugees, forced to leave their homes because of war or persecution.

Now they were experiencing their first summer camp.

As part of a five-week Kentucky Refugee Ministries program, more than 40 children, ranging from kindergartners to seventh-graders, are taking morning classes in science, math, art and English. They'll also partake in field trips, an art show and other activities planned by the resettlement agency, which has run the camp for at least a decade.

For the students, the program provides an opportunity to learn English, socialize in the language and experience American classrooms, where they are expected to participate and ask questions.

For parents, who worry about the language barrier their child will face in school, it'll ease their kids' transition this fall.

Refugee children — who numbered roughly 600 last year in Louisville — often struggle to integrate into their schools, said Meagan Floyd, youth services coordinator for the agency.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety and learning difficulties, she said. And because their schooling abroad faced frequent disruption, they also begin below grade level, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article85982022.html#storylink=cpy

And the Horse You Rode in On

Bevin: No money for working poor people to have health insurance that would save the taxpayers billions, but a blank check for freakazoids committing intellectual child abuse.

Shame on you, Herald, for the cutline "Life size Noah's Ark will wow guests with its large size" and I don't mean because that line is badly written.

First, Noah's Ark is a myth.  It never existed, so it can't be "life-size."  Second, as huge as that motherfucker is, it still would not hold a one-millionth of the total animals the bibble claims it did.

And third, if you're wondering why the Freedom from Religion Foundation is not all over this abomination, it's because they know the political and judicial game in Kentucky is rigged against the U.S. Constitution.

From the AP:

Kentucky is paying $190,000 in attorney fees to the Christian group that won a tourism tax benefit for a Noah's ark attraction that will open soon in central Kentucky.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article85804012.html#storylink=cpy

330 Million Gods

Divine Irony:

religionisbs:

Because they’re not there, duh 😛

Bevin runs crying to mommy, calling Beshears mean ol' doodyheads

Well, he never claimed to be Henry Clay.  Also, projection is an amazing drug.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin said Thursday that former Gov. Steve Beshear is “an embarrassment” to the state and his law firm and that his son, Attorney General Andy Beshear, opposes him because “it’s clearly genetic.”

That's the same Governor Steve Beshear who was President Barack Obama's special guest at the State of the Union, the man lauded nationwide for this foresight and courage and plain genius in implementing kynect and Medicaid expansion,  the history-making leader who put Kentucky on the road to finally kill generational poverty.

Gov. Lying Coward is the one who is destroying working Kentuckians' last hopes and throwing a temper tantrum because Gov. Beshear isn't thanking him for it.

In response, former Gov. Beshear said in an email, “As a lifelong Kentuckian who gave over 30 years of public service to the people of this state, I have always worked to bring people together. As governor, even when there were disagreements on issues, we were able to have respectful and healthy discussion.

“Kentucky would be better off if Gov. Bevin followed that philosophy and realized that name-calling and insults do nothing to help Kentucky’s families.”

Attorney General Beshear said in an email that he has publicly disagreed with Bevin but has never attacked him personally. “His comments are beneath the dignity of that office. Kentuckians deserve better.”

Is Gov. Pants-Shitter trying to emulate the Orange Menace, or is self-destructive arrogance a side-effect of being filthy rich?

I know: both.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article85536627.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article85536627.html#storylink=cpy

Racist Voting Quote of the Day

Kevin Drum:

I don't have any personal axe to grind on Brexit. Except for one: I am sick and tired of watching folks like Boris Johnson, Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump, and others appeal to the worst racial instincts of our species, only to be shushed by folks telling me that it's not really racism driving their popularity. It's economic angst. It's regular folks tired of being spurned by out-of-touch elites. It's a natural anxiety over rapid cultural change.

Maybe it's all those things. But at its core, it's the last stand of old people who have been frightened to death by cynical right-wing media empires and the demagogues who enable them—all of whom have based their appeals on racism as overt as anything we've seen in decades. It's loathsome beyond belief, and not something I thought I'd ever see in my lifetime. But that's where we are.

American Greatness and Who Tried to Kill It

From Charlie Pierce:

I wonder how that possibly could have happened in this country. How did we abandon our dreams of greatness that we demanded of our self-governing Republic. We didn't dig the Panama Canal. Our government did, after it stole the land from Colombia. We, as individuals, didn't tame the West. Our government did, with railroads and homesteading and the U.S. Cavalry. We didn't ourselves build the Hoover Dam. Our government did. We didn't create our own private space exploration. Our government did. 

How could the country have come to such a sorry pass? Perhaps a clue can be found in a speech given from the U.S. Capitol by a newly elected president on a cold, clear January morning in 1981.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. 

Sad.

How is Gov. Lying Coward Killing KY Poor People Today?

By eliminating the Medicaid expansion that has saved thousands of Kentucky lives and thousands of Kentucky health care jobs and brought billions of dollars in economic growth to the Commonwealth.

A couple of facts before we get to Bevin's lies:

• Medicaid expansion covers working poor people.  The ones holding down two or three minimum-wage jobs so they make too much money for basic Medicaid but not enough to get kynect subsidies. 
• No, shrinking Medicaid back to the pre-Obamacare levels will not "save $2.2 billion."  It will COST Kentucky taxpayers far more than $2.2 billion in emergency care for people who no longer have health insurance and in expensive long ambulance trips for people whose local hospital closed because Medicaid funding disappeared. 
• Not to mention the dead people.  Many, many dead people deliberated murdered by Governor Lying Coward.

From the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin announced Wednesday he's seeking a Medicaid waiver from the federal government.

Bevin said if the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services does not grant the waiver, he will still move ahead with his plan to repeal Medicaid expansion in the state. 

If the Medicaid waiver is approved, Bevin said it will result in $2.2 billion in taxpayer savings.

The waiver is asking the federal government to allow able-bodied, working-age people to "take ownership" of their coverage, Bevin said. He unveiled Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health, or HEALTH, where Kentucky would impose premiums on Medicaid expansion users from $1 to $15, depending on their income levels. 

The new Medicaid program would put money toward drug addiction services.

The fuck it will.  More taxpayer dollars will flow into the pockets of Beshear's billionaire buddies running storefront addiction clinics, but no actual services will be provided. likes

Bevin said his plan isn't to kick people off health care but it will make Medicaid more accessible by making it more accountable. Requiring Medicaid expansion users to pay for their own premiums will give them "dignity and respect," he said.

The program would begin as a pilot program that will be later rolled out across the state.

The waiver will be released publicly today.

Bevin's Wet Dream for Kentucky

... is actually worse than what repugs have done to Kansas.  Even Brownback hasn't neutron-bombed the state's flagship university.  Yet.

Charlie Pierce:

Sliding north, we find ourselves in the failed state of Kansas, now in the fifth year of the Brownbackian Dark Ages, as such things are reckoned. Somehow, the fact that Kansas' status as a supply-side lab rat has dropped the state down a political garbage chute the likes of which hasn't been seen since they shredded the Articles of Confederation is beginning to seep under the guardhouses of the gated communities. The head of a healthcare company is fleeing to the Missouri border and he's not shy about telling the world why. 

From Pathfinder Health Innovations CEO Jeff Blackwood: 

It wasn't just that Brownback was conservative; it was that he is seen as a tool of the Koch brothers and ALEC, a conservative think tank and lobbying organization. Brownback used his influence and funding to eliminate "moderate" republicans from the Kansas legislature and install his hand-picked conservative cronies. He couldn't do the same with the Kansas Supreme Court, which has ruled a number of the conservative legislature's laws as unconstitutional, so Brownback's administration decided to threaten to cut off funding to the court system and is actively pursuing legislation to impeach the Supreme Court.

Kansas has become a test center of "trickle down" economics, espoused by economist Arthur Laffer during the Reagan years. Nowhere has there been as thorough an implementation of Laffer's policy recommendations… and nowhere has there been as dramatic a failure of government. Under Brownback's direction, Kansas implemented an unprecedented tax cut in 2012, eliminating taxes for LLCs and professional firms (for full disclosure, PHI is a C Corporation) and making the largest cuts in the highest tax brackets. He shifted taxes to create a heavier burden on property and sales taxes, which typically represent a larger burden on lower income brackets. Brownback declared that this tax cut would be a "shot of adrenaline" for the Kansas economy, but the reality is that the tax cuts have had the opposite effect. Kansas lags neighboring states in job growth. For 11 of the last 12 months, Kansas has dramatically missed revenue targets, falling deeper in debt and facing another round of degraded bond ratings.

The worst part is that the burdens for the shortfalls rest on the shoulders of those who can least afford it – children and the developmentally disabled.

No kidding, tell us what you really feel.

The funding problems got so bad that Osawatomie State Hospital's mental health ward had to significantly cut staffing. Over 40% of their staff positions were dormant, leaving the remaining staff overworked and unprepared. This understaffing resulted in an improperly released patient murdering a 61-year-old man, and a hospital worker was raped, having to rely on other patients to save her. In January 2016, the Osawatomie State Hospital lost its certification to provide mental health services, cutting off federal funding that counted for roughly half of the hospital's revenue. It is unclear what will happen to the patients and staff at Osawatomie State Hospital, leaving the fates of the patients in limbo.

The state's public education system, once considered one of the best in the nation, hasn't been spared, either. You'll hear claims from Kansas officials that funding to education is at an all time high, but it's just an accounting trick – they chose to shuffle money for special education and retirement funds through the schools so it could appear as an increase on the books. Salary freezes, underfunding to the point of being ruled unconstitutional, laws allowing teachers to be imprisoned for introducing potentially "offensive" content, cuts and delays in $100 million in payments to the state-run retirement fund, and legislation specifically targeted to cripple the Kansas teacher's union are all part of an ongoing effort to undermine the public education system in Kansas. Instead, the Brownback administration plans to offer vouchers to encourage families to send their children to private and religious schools.

To double down on these policies, Brownback is now ignoring the $250 million shortfall predicted for 2016, instead opting for headlines about closing Kansas to refugees and blaming the "liberal media" for the state's economic woes.

In the end, I believe the goals of the Brownback administration are going exactly to plan – starve the state of resources to the point where it just makes sense to turn over critical government functions to for-profit entities. I can't, in good conscience, continue to give our tax money to a government that actively works against the needs of its citizens; a state that is systematically targeting the citizens in most need, denying them critical care and reducing their cost of life as if they're simply a tax burden that should be ignored. It's because of these moves that I have decided to deny Kansas revenue from Pathfinder's taxes by moving our company to Missouri.

This guy says it flat out–Brownback has engineered the failure of government in Kansas to prove to himself and to the world that government inevitably fails. It's not often that you see it made that plain, and now it's time to point out that enough voters in Kansas showed up and re-elected this cluck in what only can be seen now as a suicide pact.

 You know Governor Lying Coward is thinking up ways he can one-up Brownback and create the Galt's Gulch libertarian paradise of the Bluegrass.

How Convenient

Divine Irony:

Here Are Aerial Images of Ken Ham’s Ark Under Construction. Notice Anything Un-Biblical?

atheistassessment:

You’ve probably seen the artist’s rendering of Ark Encounter, Ken Ham’s Biblical theme park that focuses on Noah and the Great Flood. I’m posting it here to refresh your memory – followed by three stills from a drone-mounted video camera. The images, from November, show how the construction is progressing in the real world. Notice any differences?

Full Story: http://ift.tt/1N6M5UL

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AtheistAssess
Atheism Merchandise: http://ift.tt/12PrbzT

“Noah could too have had diesel-powered cranes! And cement mixers! And welding equipment! We just don’t know!"

Drowning Out the Haters

We were right across the street from the motherfuckers at Fifth and Main.  With their stupid "homo sex is sin" sign and their self-hating closet case screaming through a bullhorn about "penis in rectum" and the brave ones holding up rainbow flags to block them.

Then the first marchers appeared, and the cheers rose and kept rising and you couldn't hear the hate anymore.

From the Courier:

Drag queens in shimmering dresses waved from high atop floats. Families and their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender loved ones marched side by side west down Main to the parade's end at the Belvedere. The mayor, police chief and other city leaders walked beside them, too.

The Orlando tragedy didn't dominate the 15th annual Kentuckiana Pride Parade, but the many groups carrying signs in memory of the victims were a constant reminder.

Fairness Campaign volunteers walked with the names of those killed June 11 at an Orlando gay nightclub, the dead filling their banner. A church group carried 49 red roses attached to papers with the 49 names.

The parade comes nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last summer. Perhaps it was that recent victory, or the aftermath of the prior weekend that brought out thousands Friday, said Jeremy Walsburger.

"It's wonderful to see so many people out here," he said. His mother joined him for her first pride parade, as did many of his coworkers.

"It was never a moment I thought we'd have together," he said. "I'd also never thought I'd see my mayor being so supportive. It's just not something you imagine growing up in a one stoplight town."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer asked residents this week to march with him in solidarity with the LGBT community.

Toward the end of the parade route, JJ Love, his hair done up in a curly, rainbow Mohawk, watched the parade with his boyfriend Tim Netherton.

Love and Netherton met at a now defunct coffee shop in downtown Lousiville, just across the street from gay bar Tryangles. Netherton had recently ended his 17-year marriage.

Now, more than a decade later, his ex-wife and many of his children and grandchildren came to pride to show their unending support.

"We want individuals to know that it's OK to just be yourself," Netherton said. "No matter what that means."

 This atheist's favorite sign, carried by someone marching with a church group:

"God (heart) U. She Thinks UR Fabulous."

OK, Lexington: You've got a tough act to follow next Saturday.

No, Anti-Trumpist repugs are not voting for Hillary. Ever.

Yeah, no, this isn't happening.

There are no such things as independents, swing voters or undecideds.  There are repugs too embarrassed to call themselves repugs and who register as "independent" but who always - ALWAYS - vote repug.  And there are dems who are too stupidly pure to call themselves Democratic voters and who register as "independent" but who always - ALWAYS - vote Democratic.  When they don't sit at home on Election Day and sulk, that is.

Any attempt by Hillary or any other Democratic candidate - like the always-moronic Democratic candidates for the Kentucky state House - to pick up "anti-Trump" repug voters is doomed to not just fail, but to take the entire Democratic campaign down with it through either pissing off actual Democratic voters or giving false confidence that this election is going to be a blowout.

Stop. Just Stop.  

 

There are millions of loyal Democratic voters who would be happy to vote for Hillary - unless they think the election is already a dem blowout or they think they're being taken for granted.

 

Those are the voters you need, Hillary.  Those are the voters you need to court.