A National Embarrasment

 


Texas Governor Greg Abbot is a national embarrassment. You'd have thought George W. would be the most embarrassing governor in Texas's history. Then Rick Perry came along. Now Abbott has managed to slither under even that low-set bar.

It wasn't bad enough that he bought into the Jade Helm conspiracy nonsense. Or, if he didn't actually believe it himself, he apparently felt obliged to pander to the lowest-IQ portion of the electorate and, frankly I don't know which is worse.

Anyway, if that wasn't crazy/stupid enough, now there's this:

Scientology Group Urged Veto of Mental Health Bill

• by Morgan Smith

After a Church of Scientology-backed group helped organize a campaign against it, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed legislation that would have given Texas doctors more power to detain mentally ill and potentially dangerous patients, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune.

Yep, now he's pandering to Scientologists of all people. Maybe he's the one person in America who didn't see or at least hear about "Going Clear?"

 

I mean, you do know these people are nuts, right? Well, the believers in Scientology are nuts, the ones running it may just be running the most hugely successful long-con since some Japanese chef convinced people that sushi is food.

But surely it can't just be because the Scientologists objected, right? There was peobably something in the bill that caused conservative Texans to rail against it. Maybe it involved an expenditure of tax monies? The bill must have been controversial, no?

The governor's early June veto of Senate Bill 359 caught many of the measure’s proponents off-guard. The legislation had sailed through the House and Senate with little debate and only a handful of negative votes — and during committee hearings in both chambers, a range of mental health advocates, medical groups and law enforcement officials showed up to testify in its favor.

So, Republicans, Democrats, doctors and police were all in favor of this bill? So who was against it, besides the insane cult that is Scientology?

In a letter hand-delivered to the governor’s office on May 20, the “SB 359 Veto Coalition” said the bill threatened the “delicate balance” between providing “access to humane care and treatment for persons suffering from mental illness and safeguarding the person’s legal right." It characterized the bill as granting “sweeping powers” to hospitals that could lead to fraudulent mental health detentions and threaten a patient’s right to refuse medical care.
Others lending their names to the letter included the Texas Home School Coalition, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the anti-vaccine group Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education and Texans for Accountable Government, a libertarian organization currently campaigning to stop water fluoridation in Austin.

 So, a crazy cult, crazy home-schoolers, crazy anti-vaxxers and crazy Birchers? An entire coalition of unhinged imbeciles that are scared of science? That's the anti-this-bill constituency and Abbott actually went along with them? He sided with the dimwits, dullards, dolts and dunces over cops and doctors?
And, yes, also the League of United Latin American Citizens, who may or may not be crazy - I've never heard of them- and did actually have a legitimate concern about the law being used to incarcerate recent immigrants, but no one thinks for a second that a Latino group had any influence on Gov Abbott. Generally, he would have voted against them just to prove his anti-brown-people bona fides.

Mary Jensen, executive director of the San Antonio branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, who worked to shore up support for the bill throughout the legislative process, said she was “very surprised” by the veto.
“Right now, [doctors] cannot legally hold [patients], even though they know they are a danger to themselves, or they might go back to their house and harm their family members. There is nothing a doctor can do,” said Jensen.

So there's a decent chance that some Texans may be hurt or killed because of this. Because the governor of an actual state of the USA took mental health policy advice from people who think that psychiatry is a fraud because all mental problems are caused by the ghosts of dead martians that are attached to everybody.


So, congratulations, Texas. Three governors in a row that are national embarrassments. Each one worst than the last!

Oh Dear God!

First of all, how the hell did this take this long?

'19 Kids and Counting' Cancelled

By MICHAEL ROTHMAN and LESLEY MESSER 2 hours ago Good Morning America

"After thoughtful consideration, TLC and the Duggar family have decided to not move forward with '19 Kids and Counting.' The show will no longer appear on the air," the network told ABC News in a statement.

Thoughtful consideration? How much fucking thought do you have to put in to cancelling a show featuring a sexual predator and the parents who covered up his crimes? And why is the Duggar Family allowed to be part of the decision? Is this one of those things like when someone gets fired the company says he "left to spend more time with his family?" Because I really don't see how the Duggars should be entitled to this kind of face-saving statement.

Oh, but it gets worse.

TLC added in its statement that a campaign to raise awareness on child sexual abuse, including upcoming work with the Duggar family on a one-hour documentary was in the network's future. 

 Are you fucking kidding me?

Not only are you going to keep doing business with this sick family, but you're enlisting them in a campaign about child sexual abuse?
Well, I guess they're the experts.

Here's the statement Jim Bob and Michelle issued regarding the abuse their daughters suffered:

With God’s grace and help, Josh, our daughters and our entire family overcame a terrible situation, found healing and a way forward. We are so pleased with the wonderful adults they have all become."

So, these are the new spokespeople for sexual abuse awareness? People whose answer is if you suffer sexual abuse, just pray about it and it will all work out just fine. Everyone will grow up and put it behind them and be just wonderful adults, including the molester who can marry, have his own children and probably about a million nieces and nephews and it's just fine for them to spend the weekend at Uncle Josh's house!

The abuser goes unpunished, the victims get no counseling or therapy, and everything is just fine.
That's the sex abuse awareness you want to spread, TLC? And you're going to pay these sickos to be involved in this farce?

Shouldn't this have gone without saying?

The great Louie DePalma once said "I never thought I'd have to make this rule, but no Vivaldi in the garage."

I have to think that the CDC felt the same surprise/befuddlement when they had to issue this warning:

Don't kiss your chickens:

 Backyard flocks spread Salmonella, CDC warns

So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says at least 181 people in 40 states have been infected with Salmonella from direct contact with live poultry such as chicks, ducklings and chickens, many of which were kept in small backyard flocks. Thirty-three people had to be hospitalized.
"Many ill people in these outbreaks reported bringing the live poultry into their homes, and others reported kissing or cuddling with the live poultry," the CDC said in a statement. "These behaviors increase a person's risk of a Salmonella infection."

People are getting salmonella by making out with chickens.
I'm just going to sit here for a minute and let that sink in.
People are kissing and cuddling chickens.
The dirty bird!

"Instances of Salmonella in backyard flocks are much lower than commercial processors," she said. "Salmonella is in poop, it's in dirt -- you can get it any time you don't wash up properly. I do recommend against kissing your chickens," she added.

Yeah, because apparently chicken beaks are covered in salmonella-ridden poop! 

Jeezus, the balls on these fuckin guys!

Israel wants US compensation for Iranian deal

"There is no point in criticising the administration for now, because soon we will need to speak with the Americans about the amount of compensation to Israel,” another anonymous source told Arutz Sheva, an Israeli right wing news portal.

Compensation? Compensation? Why the fuck should you get compensation? The US and other nations made a deal with Iran. It's not costing you anything. It has nothing to do with you.


I am so goddamm sick of Israel driving our foreign policy just because a bunch of American mouth-breathers think that Jesus can't come back and start the Apocalypse without Israel being protected by us.

So, you know what Israel? The grownups are doing diplomacy. Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.

And as to the matter of compensation. . .

Defying the Courts

So, I don't know if you noticed, but recently the Supreme Court ruled that America has to stop treating same-sex couples like second-class citizens. When it comes to marriage, anyway. So naturally, a lot of Bible-thumpers have their Fruit of the Looms in an uproar over this development. And some of them are county clerks and judges who will now have to issue marriage licenses or perform weddings for couples even if they're both guys (Agh! The horror!) But not to worry, they've found a solution. They've come up with a very clever plan to say "nuh-unh" and "you can't make me" and "you're not the boss of me, Supreme Court."

Clerk won't issue same-sex marriage license

GRANBURY — The Hood County Clerk says she will not issue same-sex marriage licenses.
"Morally, this is wrong," Katie Lang said Monday from her office in Granbury.  "The truth is, it is in the Bible that marriage is between one man and one woman."

Um, ya know, the ironically-named Katie Lang, you might want to check your Old Testament

Solomon “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.” I Kings 11:3

Also, you might want to check your America, because our laws don't get based on what the Bible says, or on what Katie Lang thinks it says. 

And seriously, your name is Katie Lang? And you're a homophobe? What, did you change it from Birkenstock B. Toklas?

And it's not just her, of course. 

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is one of a handful of local officials across the country who have refused to comply with the court's order. Davis and others say it violates their religious beliefs. Davis told the Louisville Courier-Journal said that her "deep religious convictions" prevent her from complying with the Supreme Court's decision, and so she has decided to issue no more marriage licenses to any couple -- gay or straight.

And some clerk in Texas has actually published what she seems to think is a legal basis for giving the Supreme Court the finger.

July 4, 2015

Declaration of Obedience to Law and Defense of Natural Marriage

Whereas, the County Clerks of Texas are tasked with upholding the Constitution and Laws of the State of Texas and the written United States Constitution; and Whereas, on June 26, 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, five justices of the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion with no basis in the Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment, American law, or Western history, purporting to overturn Natural Marriage and inventing a false "right" to same-sex "marriage;" and

Of course she issued this bullshit on July 4. Of course she did. Because this is an act of courage tantamount to the Founding Fathers disavowing any allegiance to the British monarchy who were sure to respond with military action. What a brave, brave woman. She could actually lose the job she's refusing to do and be forced to raise a million dollars of Go Fund Me.

But, sure. The Supremes decision had no basis in the Constitution. Obviously a low-level state functionary with no legal background knows that better than a group of experienced jurists. And yes, obviously, by allowing same-sex couples to have the same marriage rights as heteros, the Supreme Court has "overturned" "Natural" marriage. That's why no heteros can get married anymore.

Whereas, two justices essential to the majority, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, failed to recuse themselves from Obergefell after publicly showing personal bias, in violation of federal law mandating that "Any justice...shall disqualify h[er]self....[where her] impartiality might reasonably be questioned."   (28 U.S.C.A. § 455);

And no one could possibly question the impartiality of Scalia or Thomas or Alito. Why, they're the very picture of objectivity!

Whereas, in contrast, the Declaration of Independence explicitly recognizes that the Creator has endowed mankind with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, under the Rule of Law, consistent with the created order; and

Okay, how many times do we have to cover this? The Declaration of Independence is NOT a legal document. It was a piece of p.r. designed to convince the other monarchies of Europe not to intervene on the behalf of Britain. And I'm pretty sure that the pursuit of happiness should include being able to marry the person of your choosing. I know it was for me.

Anyway, it goes on and on like this.

But here's the thing I don't get.

Your religious beliefs make it impossible for you to, in good conscience, issue marriage licenses to gay couples? Fine. That's your right, more power to you. Then you resign in protest. You don't say "I'm only going to do the parts of my job that I feel good about."

It's great that you want to take a stand for what you believe, but why would you think that there would not be consequences?
 I was raised fundamentalist Christian. We were always told that there were going to be things out in "the world" that were going to be problematic for us, and we might have to have the courage of our convictions to stand up and say "no, I can not do this great wickedness and sin against God." But we were told that this kind of stance would have consequences. We might lose our jobs, we might lose friends, etc. Why would you think you could stand up for what you think is right and not face any repercussions?
Jesus told his disciples (somewhere in Acts, I think) that they needed to be prepared to suffer for his sake, that they would  risk persecution on his behalf. And he meant actual persecution. By the Romans. Like imprisonment, floggings, even death. Not having protesters with rainbow flags trying to make you feel bad.

But, as always, conservatives want to have it both ways.
They want to stand up for discrimination and be spared any consequences.
So enjoy the unemployment line, homophobic assholes!





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