Transphobes Gone Wild! Speaking from ignorance, Alabama State Representative Wesley Allen paves a road for putting doctors in prison

Headline:  al.com, 4/7/2022

The bill would make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for doctors to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones or to perform surgeries on transgender minors to help them transition. Doctors who provide the care say no such surgeries are done on minors in Alabama.

  

3/25/2022 update, "Where transphobes rule:  States where GOP legislators banned transgender girls from female sports". starts here.

Utah joins the Hall of Shame and Republican Kera Birkeland leads the celebration!

 

Other members include Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and West Virginia.

Headline from Wisconsin State Journal, 3/25/2022

Friday's deliberations came after more than a year of debate and negotiation between social conservatives and LGBTQ advocates. Republican sponsor Rep. Kera Birkeland worked with Cox and civil rights activists at Equality Utah before introducing legislation that would require transgender student-athletes to go before a government-appointed commission. 

The proposal, although framed as a compromise, failed to gain traction on either side. LGBTQ advocates took issue with Republican politicians appointing commission members and evaluation criteria that included body measurements such as hip-to-knee ratio. 

Then, in the final hours before the Legislature was set to adjourn earlier this month, GOP lawmakers supplanted the legislation with an all-out ban.  [emphasis added]

Original 3/22/2022 post starts here

Washington Post, 3/22/2022

Earlier this month, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) became the 11th governor to sign a bill banning transgender girls from joining female sports teams at school. The other states include Texas, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana and Arkansas, and South Dakota. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota vetoed a similar bill last April, citing reasons similar to those Holcomb noted in his letter and adding that there has “not been a single recorded incident of a transgender girl attempting to play on a North Dakota girls’ team.”

Related post:
Wisconsin GOP transphobes UPDATE: What Babs and Kat uphold in the state legislature.  (5/25/2021)

Michigan 2022 elections: Black GOP candidate runs in deep red district that is 88% White, 3% Black

 

Sources:  U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Ballotpedia

New York Times, 4/8/2022

Thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans need not win over too many Black voters to affect a handful of races, and dozens of Black Republican House candidates — a record number of them — are reshaping the party’s pitch.

[snip]

But tellingly, Black Republican candidates such as Ms. Green and John James, who is running for a Michigan House seat, are not advertising their party affiliations, just their biographies — a sign that the G.O.P. brand remains toxic in some corners.

Tellingly, indeed.  Welcome to GOP window dressing.  

John James was recruited to run in Michigan's 10th CD because it's a slam-dunk for any GOP candidate.  A Democrat is lucky to get one-third of the vote here.

Govtrack

And why wouldn't John James advertise his GOP affiliation in a district where his party wins elections this handily?

Source:  Ballotpedia

LOCK THEM UP: And let Michael Gableman and Steve Bannon be cellmates

 

The sleazy company Gableman keeps.  Let it last behind bars.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/8/2022

Vos' staff members want to pick up his office equipment on April 26, Gableman told Trump's former White House adviser Steve Bannon in a Thursday appearance on Bannon's podcast that was aimed at applying pressure on Vos to change course and continue paying Gableman $11,000 per month to continue the review.

In other words, Gableman needs the job; he's otherwise unemployable.  Downright toxic.

GET ME REWRITE: Scott Walker donor Maria Lazar buys a Court of Appeals seat on a wave of outside money

 

Headline and contributions:  Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Documents filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission showed a group called Fair Courts America (the bullshit starts here) located in Downers Grove, Ill., spent $250,000 in March on television ads to support Lazar. A second conservative group called Wisconsin Reform Fund (shady, very shady), which has a Madison address, spent $175,000 on ads in the Milwaukee television market to back Lazar, according to a review of television ad buys by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

The Sonny Boy chronicles: What Paul Farrow's GOP agenda really looks like

Paul Farrow headline:  Wisconsin Right Now, 9/8/2021

As the newly elected chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, my goal is to empower our grassroots leaders and strengthen our party from bottom to top as we work to achieve Republican victories up and down the ballot in 2022. I look forward to hearing the perspectives of activists across the state in how we can craft a strategy that will help us achieve success in all of Wisconsin’s diverse communities, from Superior to Kenosha.

In near-perfect alignment.

10/17/2020 update, "Anti-mask Waukesha County executive gets the virus', starts here.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services

From March 11 through July 31, Waukesha County reported a total of 805 Covid cases, an avarege of 5.6 new cases per day.

Since July 31, the county has reported an additional 9,130 cases, an average of 120 new cases per day.

The numbers belie Sonny's optimism.

Waukesha Patch

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/16/2020

8/29/2020 update,  "Waukesha County Executive stays the course and watches the virus numbers spike", starst here

Source:  Wisconsin Department of Health Services

There won't be a mask mandate in Waukesha County due to enforcement concerns and ample hospital capacity, Farrow says, (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/2/2020)

Waukesha County is #9 on the positive hit parade.

8/18/2020 update starts here

Two days and 153 cases later.

Source:  Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Waukesha County Executive

It's not working, Paul.


Original 8/14/2020 post starts here

The fantasy that Waukesha County Executive promoted in May.

Source:  Waukesha County Office of the County Executive

, 

The reality, 3 months later.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Related posts:

Wisconsin COVID-19 cases mapped and graphed.  (updated daily)

Brown County.  GET ME REWRITE: 5 white guys don't get their way on the Green Bay Common Council.  (7/22/2020)

Chippewa County.  Wisconsin News: Chippewa County public health director favors mask requirement, and so should all county residents.  (7/22/2020)

Clark County, Wisconsin: "A lot of people are very scared of the virus, for good reasons."  (7/16/2020)

Dodge County.   GOP leader Scott Fitzgerald wants Wisconsin Senate to strike down mask order as COVID-19 cases spike in his home county.  (8/8/2020)

Douglas County.  City of Superior City Council to residents: #WearADamnMask.  (7/23/2020)

Grant County.   Dear Sheriff Dreckman, Please find a job where mimicking GOP talking points is the only job qualification.  (7/31/2020)

Iron County.  Wisconsin coronavirus hot spot.  (7/27/2020)

Jefferson County.  Covidiots on parade at Jefferson County Board of Supervisors meeting.  (7/28/2020)

Marinette County.   Covidiots rule the day in Marinette County.  (8/14/2020)

Oconto County.  Covidiots rule the day in Oconto County.  (8/14/2020)

Pepin County.  In one week, Pepin County Wisconsin went from a 13.8 to 206.6 positive Covid test rate per 100,000 people.  (7/13/2020)

Racine County.  GET ME REWRITE. Face masks: Response to public health crisis or political litmus test? Racine County Sheriff flips off Tony Evers.  (8/2/2020) 

Sauk County.  Covidiots on parade at Sauk County Board of Supervisors meeting (chapter 2).  (7/25/2020)

Sauk County.  Baraboo Public Library reopens as coronavirus cases spike in Sauk County.  (8/14/2020) 

Wood County.  Dear Wood County residents, It's not a time for complacency.  Best, Retiring Guy.  (7/11/2020)

Sorry, Charlie, put away the boxing gloves. Let's just say for now that a larger percentage of voters will fill out a ballot this fall

 

Screenshot (top right) from Wisconsin State Journal email alert

Below:  Wisconsin Elections Commission (orange box added)

Wisconsin State Journal, 4/7/2022

Faced with a raft of contested local races and school referendum questions, fewer than one in five Dane County residents cast ballots in Tuesday’s election. 

Dane County voters cast 81,104 ballots, or about 18.5% of the adult population, the lowest turnout for the spring election in eight years. 

With no City Council races and just one contested County Board seat, turnout was even lighter in Madison, at just under 15.8%. That was the case even with a contested citywide Madison School Board election.

 

By way of comparison (November 2020)

 

Pop quiz: What is a woman?

 

Headline:  boingboing, 4/7/2022

As Monica Hesse said in The Washington Post: "Please note that by Hawley's new definition he would be forced to accept trans women, post-gender affirming surgery, as women too."

Meet Sean Harrington, computer forensics specialist and Robin Vos flunky

 

Are Wisconsin taxpayers picking up the tab for this guy, too?

Photo credit:  LinkedIn
Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 4/7/2022

Much of Thursday’s hearing focused on testimony from Stadler’s expert witness Sean Harrington, who specializes in computer forensics, to discuss if deleted records can be obtained from a private cellphone or email account. Essentially, Harrington said deleted data isn’t immediately removed from the device, but the longer the phone is in use, the higher likelihood that such deleted data has been purged.

And yes, folks, Sean is sporting one fantastic fedora.

Related post:

Dear Robin Vos, How much money did this junket cost Wisconsin taxpayers? Best, Retiring Guy.  (4/6/2022

Robin Vos in so many words: Who needs a fuckin' survey? You're darn tootin' there's a free speech problem on UW campuses

 

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 4/7/2022

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement that he was disappointed the System's "bureaucratic red tape" has delayed the survey because he believes there is a free speech problem on UW campuses.\

Related post: 

From the looks of it, we're reckoning with whiteness, for the most part, with this UW System free speech survey.  (4/7/2022

GET ME REWRITE: From the looks of it, we're reckoning with whiteness, for the most part, with this UW System free speech survey

 

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 4/7/2022

The project's research team includes [Tim] Shiell, a philosophy professor at UW-Stout; Eric Giordano, who cites survey research and design among his skillset as executive director of the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, the System unit that will administer the survey; UW-Eau Claire political science professor Eric Kasper, who specializes in U.S. constitutional law; UW-Eau Claire political science professor Geoff Peterson, whose teaching interests include U.S. politics and research methodology; and UW-Eau Claire psychology professor April Bleske-Recheck, who teaches research methodology and other psychology courses. 

Survey questions were then vetted by an advisory board that includes former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske (who also serves as a community member of the Wisconsin State Journal's editorial board); UW-Madison law school professors Franciska Coleman, a constitutional law scholar, and Jason Yackee, the adviser for the conservative Federalist Society; Sean Stevens, a senior research fellow for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national civil liberties group; Rick Esenberg, the president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty; Ryan Owens, a UW-Madison professor who scrapped plans to run as a Republican candidate in the Attorney General race this year; former UW Regent Tim Higgins; and Tricia Zunker, a former Ho-Chunk Supreme Court associate justice who has run for Congress as a Democrat.

 

And while we're at it.....

UW System

GET ME REWRITE: University of California pays hundreds of senior management staff 6-fiture salaries but can't pay an adjunct professor a penny

 

Headline:  New York Times, 4/6/2022

From Adler to Zhang, the list includes hundreds of senior management staff who make six-figure salaries.

University of California

Meet the members of the GOP "Putin wing'

 

Dead bodies in Bucha, Ukraine

New York Times, 4/7/2022

Related post:

Meet Tom Tiffany, enthusiastic member of House GOP Putin Caucus.  (4/7/2022)

Meet the Putin GOP Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. (4/6/2022

Town of Bristol puts Jeff Weigand over the top in Dane County Board District 20 race

 

District 20 is located in the northeastern corner of Dane County.  Weigand received 56% of the vote in the Town of Bristol.

Dane County Voting and Election Information

District 20 is located in one of Dane County's most conservative areas, comparatively speaking.

Dane County Voting and Election Information

GET ME REWRITE: Wisconsin State Journal editorial board spins an oldie

 

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 47/2022

Still indefatigable at 80, Thompson would bring some much-needed accomplishment and purpose to the Republican primary for governor, should he run. We hope he does, with a decision expected this month.

Indefatigable, indeed! He has the energy not only to travel to Mar-a-Lago but also to grovel at the feet of Donald Trump.  Amazing guy!

Related post:

Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial clown show.  (Series)

GET ME REWRITE: Move your business to Tennessee, where a GOP clown show has taken the state legislature hostage

 

Headline;  WPLN, 4/5/2022

 The Senate is scheduled to hear a bill that currently would do away with age limits for marriages between a man and a woman. On social media, the legislation drew backlash. Tweets criticized Republicans for creating a legal loophole for older men to marry underage girls. 

But, Sen. Janice Bowling’s testimony makes clear that the bill’s true focus is same-sex marriages. 

“It just declares that the marriage between a man and a woman is not a creation of the state government or its statutes, it is a common law right,” said Bowling, R-Tullahoma. 

That’s a fancy way of saying ministers will no longer have to sign off on same-sex marriages, which the U.S. Supreme Court made legal in Tennessee in 2015.

Popular Information email newsletter, 4/7/2022

The Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), a right-wing advocacy group, has been pushing for the change. David Fowler, a former state senator who heads the group, says the bill is necessary for people with conscientious objections to same-sex marriage. "As a minister, I can't sign and affirm something that is contrary to my conscience," Fowler said. In Tennessee, "marriage certificates do not require a minister’s signature."

Think about what will happen if the GOP wins the majority in the Senate and House this November.

GET ME REWRITE: Apparently, Vicki McKenna is not a functioning adult

 

Headline:  Op-ed by Michelle Goldberg in New York Times (4/4/2022)

Part of the answer is surely social media. As The Associated Press reported, the rumor, a mockery of transgender identification, has persisted in a Facebook group called Protect Nebraska Children. The same rumor has cropped up in Iowa, where a school superintendent had to send out a letter to students and parents debunking it; in Michigan, where a parent brought it up at a school board meeting; and in Wisconsin, where it was spread by a conservative radio host.

Meet the Despicables: the GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee

 

Senate Judiciary Committee, YouTube

GET ME REWRITE: Alabama Governor Kay Ivey newest attraction at GOP Clown Show

 

Headline:  al.com, 4/4/2022

“The fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals stole the election from President Trump, but here in Alabama, we are making sure that never happens,” the governor says in the ad, titled “Stole.” “We have not, and will not, send absentee ballots to everyone and their brother. We banned corrupt curbside voting, and our results will always be audited. I’m Kay Ivey. The left is probably offended – so be it. As long as I’m governor, we’re going to protect suppress your vote.”

Original 9/22/2021 post, " Killer Covid Queen and Alabama Governer Kay Ivey presides over a gruesome death statistic", starts here.

All but 2 of Alabama's 67 counties are at extremely high risk of COVID spread.

Headline from New York Times, 9/18/2021

Alabama has recently reported an average of about 60 coronavirus-related deaths a day, according to a New York Times database, and only 41 percent of the state’s eligible population is fully vaccinated.  

Alabama’s rate of full vaccination is on a par with Idaho’s, tied as the third-lowest rate in the country. The two that rank lower are Wyoming and West Virginia. 

Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, has urged the people of her state to get Covid vaccinations, but like many other Republicans, she objected when President Biden recently announced vaccine mandates, calling them “outrageous” and “overreaching.”

Related reading:
Media ignore a monster story -- the brainwashing to Covid monsters.  (Press Run, 9/22/2021)

But like so many news outlets, NPR missed the real story. The pile of Alabama deaths continue to mount not simply because of Covid. But because so many people in the Trump-friendly state have been brainwashed by bad-faith partisan actors and they refuse to get inoculated. Anti-science Republicans seem determined to spread the virus among their own voters, which seems inconceivable. 

Millions of conservative Americans are being brainwashed about the pandemic, and thousands are killing themselves in the process. Yet the media downplay the huge story, framing it simply as “vaccine hesitancy.”

Original 8/27/2021 post starts here

Headlines from AP and USA Today

Map from New York Times

During its third wave, Alabama set a new record for highest 7-day average of new Covid cases on August  21, 2021.

New York Times