A Tale Of Two Headlines
This is a political post.
If interested please scroll down…
This happened today.
This happened today.
I keep saying that the Republican party has but two goals:
- To help the super rich become richer.
- To make the lives of everybody else harder.
Because the Republican party, last year, lost its biggest vote driver for decades…abortion…they have come up with new demons to scare people into voting for them:
- Transgender people.
- Drag queens.
- The LGBTQ community.
The Republican party is demonizing these people…the Hitler playbook, 2023 version…to attract votes.
To attract votes.
Pure evil, live.
But while the Republican party is super-focused on a problem which does not exist, they wholly ignore a real danger to children.
Since November 1, 2022:
- Church leaders arrested for sexually abusing children or owning child porn: 120.
- Drag queens arrested for sexually abusing children or owning child porn: 0.
The Republican party is doing NOTHING about the former.
Notably absent from the Republican party is any policy to help you and me.
Like improving our infrastructure, reducing inflation, raising wages, creating jobs, improving healthcare, reducing the deficit, and on and on and on. All these issues though are being addressed by, yep, Democrats.
I keep asking: If you are still voting Republican, my question is why? Why are you helping to harm all of us?
I have not yet received an answer.
It sickens my soul watching what the Republican party is doing to my country.
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I totally agree. So many things that GOP politicians and states do range from offensive to criminal to insane.
I’m thrilled that AZ currently has some Dems in high office. Our GOP- controlled legislature can’t do as much damage at the moment.
Ross- You are insightful, and have great understanding of Reality! I cannot understand the cruelty, the criminal insanity of these out-of-control Republican/ Conservative/ Fascists.
I also cannot understand how or why people continue to vote for these “people.”
Thank you ALL aspects of your blog.
Agree. I do not understand what is wrong with people that support Republicans – people who are otherwise intelligent and kind. Is it all from listening to Faux News?
The bill is titled “Fairness in Women’s Sport Act”. The objective is to make sure that women’s sports remain a fair playing field for the women, since men biologically have an advantage over women. Just because someone transitions doesn’t mean that they lose that biological advantage. I agree with you that subjecting every girl and boy to a genital exam is a terrible idea and would cause far greater harm than the original issue. In fact, I could see where a large number of children (and/or their parents) would elect to not participate at all rather than be subjected to such an inspection. Wouldn’t a much simpler and far less offensive solution be to use birth certificates?
Hi, John! Men don’t have a biological advantage over women. This is just a Right-wing talking point. You know, I’m a biological male. And I suck at sports! Most biological men I know are not gifted at sports. So, a trans girl in sports does not = an advantage over all the biological girls on her team. For this to happen her biological gender is not relevant; having a gift is.
Moroever, this issue involves a minute minute minute number of people in America. Why then is a major political party so hyper-focused on it? I can assure you the GOP is not concerned about ‘fairness’ in sports. Nope. As I noted, the GOP lost their huge vote getter: abortion. Thus, they’ve latched onto demonizing the LGBTQ community, and this includes transgender people and drag queens.
For years I’ve been asking the same question: Is there a single thing the Republican party is doing to help most of us? I’ve yet to get a reply.
Rather, the Republican party is actively trying to harm most of us. Yet millions of people vote GOP, even though their party shits on them.
I don’t get it.
Hi Ross, With all due respect, I can tell you with 100% certainty that men have a significant biological advantage over women. Testosterone makes muscle and women don’t have it like men do.
so you would have no problem then with women who have transitioned to male playing male sports since they don’t have testosterone?
I don’t really have a problem with the issue as it doesn’t affect me and I don’t like to take positions on subjects that I am not well versed on. Given that males have the advantage, I don’t see how a woman to male transition would create the same controversy unless there was an excess amount of hormones involved. I do understand why it is controversial and how (for example) a young girl who trained hard and competed in her sport and lost to a transitioned female might find it unfair. Here is an article on the issue. In summary, a good swimmer as a male who became a dominant swimmer after transitioning and the impact she had on the other female competitors. https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/how-one-swimmer-became-the-focus-of-a-debate-about-trans-athletes#:~:text=Lia%20Thomas%20is%20not%20the,a%20debate%20about%20trans%20athletes.&text=Lia%20Thomas%20has%20been%20swimming,Texas%2C%20an%20All%2DAmerican
I want you to imagine that you have been training six days a week for 4-6 hours a day since you were ten years old so that you could rise to the highest level in your sport. Thousands of hours of training. Getting up at 5 am for early morning sessions and then doing it again after school. Missing events with your friends and family. Lots of sacrifice for the sport you love by you and your family with the goal to be the best. But… you lose to someone who has an advantage that no matter what you do and how hard you try (other than taking steroids), you can’t overcome. Think about Katie Ledecky or Michael Phelps – if they had faced a similar situation, do you think they would have been compelled to reach the level of accomplishment that they reached? Or would they have just given up? My guess is the latter. What a shame that would have been – for them an for us. And for all of the younger generations who want to emulate them.
You risk hurting someone to protect someone else. The goal should be to come up with a system where no one gets hurt and everyone thrives.
John, every athlete who competes will come across athletes with an advantage over them, by being better trained, more focused, more gifted, with a more agile mind, and so on.
Built into completive athletics is the fact that there will always be athletes who lose. One might spend a decades training for the Olympics…and come home a loser.
You also seem to assume that a trans woman = winner because she’s trans. But trans status guarantees no such outcome.
Of course athletes lose – many many more lose than do win. But they train and compete with the expectation of a level playing field. Otherwise, why bother? I am assuming only that there is the possibility of an unfair advantage. In 2022, the trans swimmer detailed in the article swam faster than any other female college swimmer up to the date of the article. Think about that – any other female college swimmer. That is an extremely high mountain to climb but was reached almost instantly upon transitioning. Who then did she lose to but another transitioned swimmer.
Hi again, John!
I agree that testosterone makes muscle and women don’t have it like men do. 95% of biologically-born women have testosterone below 2 nanomoles per liter. Trans women take testosterone blockers and, in a recent study of nearly 250 trans women, 94% of them had testosterone below 2 nanomoles per liter.
And, as I wrote, one of the biggest advantages to playing sports is to be gifted at it. I have testosterone but suck at sports so my testosterone offers me no advantage.
However, my post isn’t about trans women. It’s about the Republican party demonizing minorities.
Thanks for the discussion. BIG hug!
At the risk of being a completely annoying, I am going to leave one more reply. I can’t resist. You have said twice that you suck at sports. I don’t believe that at all – in fact I am sure you are wrong. My guess is that no one ever encouraged you to play sports and you never engaged. I play basketball. I was terrible at it at first, but I loved it. Over time I got better and eventually I was pretty good. I am 64 now and still play even though I suck now compared to my younger self. For whatever reason I still love it. I suck at golf because I don’t enjoy golf. I suck at tennis because I don’t enjoy tennis. I am sure I could be good at both if I loved them both.
I am in awe of the work you are able to accomplish on your house. It is amazing – I consider myself a hard worker and am (I think) younger than you but I could not do what you do. My assumption is that it is a work of passion for you. Same with the lights. Same with design. I am sure that if you had the same passion for a sport, you would be much better at it than you expect. You might have limitations but you still would be far more than “suck”.
John, I really do suck at sports!
And thank you for the kind words!
Meanwhile there was another report just released in Maryland from the Catholic Church releasing 150+ Names of clergy having abused children and ya know what? …. Not a single LGBTQ person., no Trans people, no Drag Queens, just more of your usual run of the mill straight republican white priests. The wrong people are being persecuted, but what else is new.
Hi, Gary!
The report is one of my headlines. It’s horrifying.
It’s super sad. Remember a time not so long ago when both parties were about the same amount of slimy. They could compromise with each other to get the pork barrel and pet projects they wanted for their own constituency but then were seen in DC restaurants or on a golf course being genuinely chummy? They could address the other party as “my friends from across the aisle” and say nice things about each other in public or even….gasp.. concede an election loss with genuine humility and complements for the victor. Now its Alien V.S. Predator (you decide which is which).
If we are continually scared and angry at each other, fixating on telling our neighbors how to live, who to love and what to do with their genitals, how do we come together to prevent our children from being murdered in their schools? fix our crumbling infrastructure? solve the macabre joke that is our labyrinthian healthcare system? revamp our education system to actually prepare our youth for the workplace of the future without saddling them with massive debt, and create a compassionate social system to care for our aged, poor and homeless….and oh yeah, maybe a little something about treating the planet a little less disposable? The answer is we can’t and that’s the point
It’s a daily all you can eat outrage buffet served up on a silver platter so that we can’t focus on our common problems, their actual causes and some real solutions because those cost money that will have to be raised through reasonable taxation on big corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Whitewater, BJ Impeachment, Benghazi, Hillary’s email server, Obama birtherism, marriage equality ruining the sanctity of marriage, the “wave of murderous illegal immigrants”, gay wedding cakes, BLM turn “all lives matter”, critical race theory being taught in kindergarten, LGBQT rights are indoctrinating kids, overturning Roe v Wade, drag queen story hour nonsense, then sprinkle in some 2nd amendment fetishism, and some good ‘ol Q anon bull$hit for good measure. Did the fixation and outrage over any of this crap make anyone’s life better? No but it sure did make some people’s life worse and, in some cases, much worse.
Dear Aaron,
I’ve written before about the differences between the brains of people who are Conservative and Liberal. It appears these differences are built in.
Conservative brains have much larger FEAR centers than do Liberal brains. In short, it’s easy to scare Conservatives. Hence, Republicans politicians know that, to get people to vote for them, fear is vital. Once one becomes aware of this it’s astonishing to see how obvious the tactic is.
BROWN PEOPLE ARE CROSSING THE BORDER TO RAPE YOUR WOMEN!
ISIS IS GONNA KILL YOU!
EBOLA IS GONNA KILL YOU!
DEMOCRATS ARE GONNA TAKE YOUR GUNS!
HILLARY IS A MONSTER!
DRAG QUEENS ARE GONNA RAPE YOUR KIDS!
Note that all this nonsense is coming from only one side. If a Republican politician can scare a person, that person will likely vote R rather than D.
Conservative brains also have much smaller EMPATHY centers than do Liberal brains. This is why Republicans normally don’t care about anything which doesn’t directly affect them. So, if a Republican doesn’t need food stamps then why should the program exist?
You ask: how do we come together to make things better? But you ask this as if it’s a question that can’t be answered. Democrats though ARE addressing the issues you list and ARE continually making things better. I’ve previously posted very long lists of all the things Democrats have accomplished to make the lives of the American people better. And the Republican list? Zero.
To repeat:
Democrats: working hard to help people.
Republicans: working hard to harm people.
It really is this simple.
You want things to get better?
Vote. And vote D.
You’re preaching to to choir Ross. Years ago I was an independent voter but I can’t vote for a Republican anymore. Even one that has good ideas, seems sane and is centrist. They can no longer disagree with their own party on anything without being being kicked out, no matter how bad or wrong it is for the country.
The problem is that to so many, the letter D after a name on a ballot makes it poisoned, no matter how centrist or conservative that person may be. I think right now you could run Jesus Christ himself as a Democrat and the Republican party along with Fox would find a way to get their followers to not vote for him.
Amen Aaron W….
It really is disgusting of the Repubs. I love how they try to justify their laws with its to protect the children. If they were so concerned about the children why aren’t they banning assault weapons? No, let’s ban Drag Queens cuz they are much more dangerous than some automatic weapon.
I keep hoping that we will get to a point where there is some common sense and decency in politics. But I’m afraid that won’t happen in my lifetime.
Hi, Dan!
The long arc of human history tilts toward beneficence.
This always gives me hope. And in my own lifetime I’ve experienced a vast improvement across many levels.
But the tilt isn’t always a smooth ride.
Republicans had to scramble quickly and salvage their relationship with a trans Republican donor. There was an anti trans, anti LGBTQ campaign on TikTok and they had to really backtrack & try to salvage the relationship with the donor who was trans…
All the ramifications, vagaries and aftermath of this fiasco are unknown to me.
However, I wondered why in the world would you support the Republican Party if you are trans, LTBTQ, etc….???