The ugly face of Republican authoritarianism.
The twisted, distorted, angry, hateful face of a Republican Party who desperately serves the morbidly rich and gives lip service to average working Americans at the same time that they're doing everything they can to destroy the lives of average working Americans by cutting Social Security, huge cuts in Social Security Administration in this Trump budget, cutting Medicare - an over five hundred billion dollar cut to Medicare - in this Trump budget, cutting Medicaid, cutting food stamps, cutting WIC - women infants and children's - programs, cutting money to education, transferring more and more money out of public schools into private - particularly religious - schools and right-wing private schools, for-profit private schools.
All the things that this administration is doing. Cutting back on safety for everything from miners to average working people. Reducing regulations that stop fracking and refining operations from poisoning people downwind. Allowing the coal companies to dump more and more coal waste into our rivers, thus poisoning downriver communities that draw drinking water from the rivers.
Ryan Zinke destroying our national monuments and turning them over to foreign mining companies to rape the United States for foreign profits that will be recycled back into Republican coffers.
This is what's going on. This is the level of obscene greed and criminality that has come to represent the Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization, the Republican Party, the modern-day GOP, the party where in 2000 when George W Bush decided he was going to run for president, they literally flipped the stars on the elephant upside-down. The upside-down five-pointed star is the satanic star, it's the goat - the two horns at the top, the two ears on the side and the chinny chin chin on the bottom.
When you flip it right side up, you've got the star on the US flag, that's what's on the Democratic logo, on the donkey. On the Republican logo since 2000 we've had three satanic stars. Surprised? I'm not.
And you want to really see how it plays out? Well, there's an Idaho State Senator, his name is Dan Foreman and a group of high school students contacted him in Idaho. They are Idaho high school students and they wanted to lobby their senator, right? Nothing wrong with that. In fact, we're encouraged to do that, right? Lobbying is something every senator likes.
And what they specifically wanted to lobby him for was two things:
Number one: there was one piece of legislation in the State Capitol that allowed women to receive up to a 12 month supply of prescribed birth control pills. Apparently right now in Idaho if you get a prescription you can only fill it for one month at a time. And they're just asking for convenience.
Number two: the state has an old sex education law and they wanted it updated to include training on sexual assault. What is rape? What does it mean when someone says no?
These were the students' requests and these were both pieces of legislation that were before the Idaho State Senate: properly and appropriately expand sex education to include consent, and allow pharmacies to sell us 12 months worth of birth control instead of just one month at a time.
So what did Republican senator Dan Foreman do when these students showed up at his office? And by the way, the students who showed up at his office had driven seven hours to meet this guy. He agreed to meet them at 9 o'clock in the morning and they were hundreds of miles away so they got up very early in the morning to drive to this guy's office to meet with him to say please vote for these two relatively innocuous pieces of legislation.
But gee, it was girls wanting to have something to do with arguably control over their own bodies.
He threatened them:
"...not honoring my commitment to be in a meeting. Abortion is murder. I stand against it. I am a Roman Catholic. I am a conservative Republican. I think what you guys do, stinks. "
A member of the group said, "that is your choice," and he replied:
"You're damn right it's my choice. So stay out of my office... Next time you walk into my office you're going to be dealing with ISP."
He threatened them - next time you walk in my office you're going to be dealing with the state police. Paul Dillon, the public affairs director of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho said this diatribe was "unhinged". He said...
"Even if you disagree with what we have to say, there’s no excuse for that kind behavior. He was being a bully."
This is amazing. But these guys they're hysterical. You come in and say you want to talk about sex ed and women's rights, "oh, it's abortion, I'm hysterical." You say hey, I'd like to talk about people dying in our schools, "oh my God, it's gun control."
Because these Republicans, they're getting so much money from the right-wing Catholics and the forced birth folks and they're getting so much money from the National Rifle Association and they really don't want to be held to account for it. They don't want to answer to their people.
And the same thing is happening right now with the kids who survived the Parkland massacre. This from a piece of over Think Progress: "The far-right smear campaign against students who survived the Parkland massacre."
They're being targeted because they don't want more classmates to die and they talk about how this guy Gateway Pundit - a far-right blog that has press credentials into the White House - which is basically trashing David Hogg, one of the young young people who are speaking out because his father is a retired FBI agent. Therefore the FBI which is out to get Donald Trump must be helping this kid get in front of the cameras. Therefore maybe the FBI shot at the school, who knows? But Mr.. Wintrich of Gateway Pundit is all over this.
And then Jim Hoft, the editor of of Gateway Pundit, appears on One America News - another right-wing network funded by billionaires - this is crazy, all the hate that is being spent on these kids.
When did killing children become a partisan issue?
When did the Republican Party become the party of killing kids?
