The 2003 Mission Accomplished speech gets its name from a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a televised address by United States President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003 and the controversy that followed.
~Wikipedia~
On May 4, 2017, the US House of Representatives rammed a bill which passed with a very narrow margin.
This is the famous ‘repeal/replace’ Obamacare.
After the fact, these people partied in the Rose Garden.
This act and the photos will come back and haunt anyone who was there.
The only thing that happened really was the ramming of this bill.
There’s still a lot to be done before it becomes the ‘law of the land’.
Grand jury is a legal body empowered to conduct official proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may compel the production of documents and compel sworn testimony of witnesses to appear before it.
Grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.
~Wikipedia~
This is the story that keeps on giving.
It seems that there’s action behind the scenes. This is the only thing that leaves some hope for the future.
Drumpf said he plans to change libel laws in the United States so that he can have an easier time suing news organizations.
During an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday, April 30, about the Drumpf’s first 100 days in office, the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, remarked that “newspapers and news agencies need to be more responsible with how they report the news.”
When asked whether the Drumpf administration wants to change laws to allow the President to sue the press, Priebus responded:
Freedom of the press in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment is generally understood to prevent the government from interfering with the distribution of information and opinions.
~Wikipedia~
I feel this is important information about what is happening in the Republican Administration lead by Drumpf and what we need to be aware of.
Keith Olbermann series called “The Resistance” continues.
Neil McGill Gorsuch (born August 29, 1967) is an American federal appellate judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
On February 1, 2017, Drumpf nominated Gorsuch to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia eleven months earlier.
Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting the U.S. Constitution.
Gorsuch Says Marriage Equality “Absolutely Settled Law,” But Gets Indignant About LGBT Rights
(LGBT OPINION)
Earlier on Tuesday, March 21, Senator Richard Durbin asked Gorsuch about his views on LGBT people, and President Trump’s nominee seemed annoyed about having to respond to the question.
“What about them?” he asked. “They’re people.”
When Durbin asked the nominee to give an example of a decision or statement he made that was favorable to LGBT people, Gorsuch declared that he feels all people are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
“Senator, I’ve tried to treat each case and each person as a person, not a ‘this kind of person,’ not a ‘that kind of person’ – a person,” Gorsuch replied.
“Equal justice under law is a radical promise in the history of mankind.”
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch was grilled about LGBT rights during his confirmation hearings this week, and while the U.S. Circuit judge referred to same-sex marriage as “settled law,” he refused to share his own opinion on the matter.
Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Drumpf
The Drumpf Republican administration’s far-reaching plan to arrest and deport vast numbers of undocumented immigrants has been introduced in dramatic fashion over the past month.
And much of that task has fallen to thousands of ICE officers who are newly emboldened, newly empowered and already getting to work.
Gone are the Obama-era rules that required them to focus only on serious criminals.
The transgender community, (the “T” in LGBT), hasn’t had an easy existence
There was plenty of hope during the recent years when rights for the LGBT community were recognized as basic human rights, including transgender rights.
However, the Drumpf administration has taken it upon themselves to start the dismantling of these human rights.
From Melanie Nathan, a blogger I follow …. “Today, February 22, that transphobic homophobe the putrid Trump AG, Jeff Sessions, did exactly what we thought he would do the moment he assumed office – AND so hand in hand with that other homophobe and transphobic piece of work Pence – as well as an apparently forced Betsy DeVos Of the Department of Education – announced that Title IX will no longer be enforced to protect transgender students equally in all school facilities, including restrooms.
Title IX guaranteed students the right to a safe and supportive learning environment regardless of gender and protects them from discrimination.
There is no reasonable basis for them to do this except spite and hate of a community that deserves protection and recognition.”
So disgusted!!
I think this is the beginning.
Like the #MuslimBan, the LGBT community is in the cross-hairs now. Bad things are headed this way!!
Transgender Children & Youth: Understanding the Basics
One of the most important and difficult tasks that parents face is how to best support their children while also setting the kind of boundaries and structure that helps them grow up to become responsible and successful adults. Sure, children and teens love to test the boundaries that adults set for them. But it is important to make distinctions between instances where “kids are being kids” and when they’re asserting things about themselves that are critical to their identity and development – as is the case with gender identity and expression.
~Gavin Grimm: Meet the Boy Laverne Cox Shouted Out at the Grammys~
(this case is so much more important now)
by MARY EMILY O’HARA
February 13, 2017
Who is Gavin Grimm — and why does Hollywood’s most high-profile transgender actress want you to learn about him?
Grimm is a 17-year-old high school senior in Virginia whose fight against the local school board will be argued at the Supreme Court on March 28. The transgender boy’s long road to the highest court in the country started at age 15, when he was forced to endure a series of school board meetings at which adults debated whether or not he should be allowed to use the boys bathroom at school.
ACLU attorney Josh Block told NBC News that Grimm’s case has taken on a new significance with President Trump now overseeing federal agencies like the Department of Education.
For the last 20 years the overwhelming majority of lower courts have been holding that out civil rights laws against sex discrimination protect transgender people,” said Block. “Gavin’s case is the first time the Supreme Court will consider the question and reaffirm that transgender people are protected. With a presidential new administration, these protections are more critical than ever.”
But the case, “Gloucester County School Board v. G.G.,” stands to impact every transgender teen and child in the nation: the Supreme Court will use it to decide whether Title IX protections on the basis of sex can be interpreted to include gender identity, and whether Obama-era guidance from the Department of Education can be considered the law of the land.
“I realize now this is much bigger than myself. And my greater goal now is to try to make things better for those who come after me.” Gavin Grimm is taking his fight for transgender rights to the Supreme Court this spring.
#ShePersisted goes viral after Senate votes to silence Warren
BY PAULINA FIROZI
02/08/17 08:10 AM EST
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) inadvertently created a rallying cry for supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) when he rebuked her after the Senate voted to prevent her from speaking.
As Democrats held the Senate floor overnight to protest Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-Ala.) nomination for attorney general, Warren quoted a 1986 letter that the late Coretta Scott King, a civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote opposing Sessions’s nomination for a federal judgeship at the time.
“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
The Senate voted 49-43 along party lines to prevent Warren from speaking on the Senate floor for the remainder of debate on Sessions’s nomination.
‘The threat from radical Islamic terrorism is very real, just look at what is happening in Europe and the Middle-East.
Courts must act fast!’
Drumpf, the ‘so-called president’
In a tweet coming shortly after Robart’s initial ruling, he called him a “so-called judge,” whose decision put national security in jeopardy.
The context of this bullish statement directed at the courts is that, on Tuesday, February 7, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will take up the issue of the legality of Trump’s presently suspended Muslim ban. This hearing comes as just one stop in an already long and winding legal battle between those opposed to the ban and those in favor of it.
Seattle Federal Judge James Robart ruled against the ban late last Friday, February 3, and the Trump administration has been up in arms ever since then, trying to get it reinstated.
It Is What It Is 