Can someone please explain?

I like to think of myself as an unequivocal supporter to the LGBTQIA community in their striving to be treated just the same as any other community, be accorded the same rights, and be free of discrimination and harassment. But I am also aware that I am not well versed in all the issues and nuances involved in that struggle and there is little real value that I can add to that discussion. Fortunately, there are other bloggers on FtB such as Crip Dyke who know much more about these issues so apart from giving general support, I tend to ‘stay in my own lane’ (as the kids say these days) and stick to topics that I know at least a little about or are greatly neglected by other FtB bloggers. In the greatly neglected category I mean, of course, cricket.
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The patronizing attitude of the Democratic establishment and Trump’s exploitation of it

When Donald Trump launched his racist attacks on the four Democratic progressive congresswomen of color, he was undoubtedly encouraged to do so by the way that others who support the Democratic party establishment had earlier criticized them and the way they did so. Take for example, Jennifer Rubin, a neoconservative and Never Trumper who is a columnist in the Washington Post. She, like other neoconservatives (Bill Kristol, Max Boot) who were solidly Republican but have become disenchanted with Trump possibly because in his election campaign he condemned the wars that they instigated and did not want to expand into new wars, now feel free to advise Democrats on what they should do. They hate the progressives in the Democratic party with a passion because they are opposed to the current wars and are not in favor of using the US military to further the neo-imperialist agenda.
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The British NHS vs. US health system

Stephen Fry narrates a comparison of the two health care systems and shows clearly why the British National Health Service is vastly superior to the ghastly system that we have here that works only for those with tons of money.

It is clear that the likely new prime minister of the UK will be Boris Johnson and that he wants to take the UK out of the EU even with no Brexit deal. He will then be desperate to carve out new trade deals with other countries and the US will be the main target, since he seems to view Donald Trump as a soul mate even though Trump will treat him like a lackey.

But the US will demand that for any deal to be made, he must first set about dismantling the NHS, reducing price controls on drugs, and allowing private health insurance companies to play a much greater role. You can be sure that the medical-pharmaceutical-health insurance industries are salivating at the prospect of gouging an entirely new population of people.

(Via Cory Doctorow)

More tales of the greedy rich

The state budget for Ohio should have been approved before July 1 but this year there was an impasse and it got delayed while the legislature and the governor tried to arrive at a compromise. A deal was finally agreed upon and the budget was due to be sent to the governor for his signature. But today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer (no link unfortunately) has a story about how at the last minute, a new provision was secretly introduced into the 3,000 page budget document without debate that would have reduced the taxes paid by the wealthiest suburb of Cleveland (called Hunting Valley) to the schools.
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Talia Lavin is tired of Jews being used as a shield

Donald Trump’s recent Twitter rant against four congresswomen of color where he told them to ‘go back where they came from’ has created much discussion about the use of this racist trope. This is a well-known xenophobic slur that pretty much anyone who can be seen as a non-white and non Anglo-Saxon ‘other’ by virtue of skin color, dress, accent, or name has at one time been subjected to. The New York Times asked its readers to recount incidents of this sort and got 16,000 responses (!) of which they published 67.
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Sofi’s choice

Some of you may have read the novel Sophie’s Choice by William Styron or seen the film starring Meryl Streep that was based on it. It was based on events in Nazi Germany and the event that gave rise to the title was when Sophie, a Polish Catholic, was sent to Auschwitz and the doctor in the camp forced her to choose to send either her son or her daughter to be gassed immediately, while the other child would be permitted to remain in the concentration camp.
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Jeffrey Epstein’s jail conditions

Jeffrey Epstein faces a fairly long period in pre-trial detention period in jail, now that his request for bail and to be under house arrest has been denied. Since the crimes with which he is charged are so awful and the judge found that he is obviously both a flight risk and a potential danger to other people, the denial of bail is not unreasonable. I became curious about what kind of conditions he faces while facing trial since we know that even after his conviction of sex crimes in 2009 in Florida, he was only assigned to the local country jail and was allowed out six days a week to continue his business, whatever that was, returning to the jail only at night.
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Brace yourself for a massively racist election

With his tweets demanding that four congresswomen of color go back to where they came from, and presiding over a rally where his supporters chanted “Send her back” about one of them Ilhan Omar while he looked on, Donald Trump has gone into full-bore racist mode and it is clear that almost all Republicans are still supporting him but are desperately trying to avoid answering whether his tweets are racist

It should be clear to everyone that Donald Trump’s re-election strategy is to go full-bore racist. The hard-core racists are loving it. His manifest lie, again caught on tape, that he tried to stop the chants is designed to give his kinda-sorta racist supporters an excuse that they can believe in and continue to support him while denying that they themselves are racist.
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Epstein denied bail

In a ruling that should not have been a surprise convicted sex offender, and all-round creep Jeffrey Epstein’s request for bail was denied because the judge thought he not only posed a credible flight risk but also posed a threat to the community. This is a man who should not be allowed anywhere near young girls and women.

“The government has established danger to others and to the community by clear and convincing evidence,” the Manhattan federal court Judge Richard Berman said on Thursday. “I doubt that any bail package can overcome a danger to the community.”
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But prosecutors portrayed Epstein as posing a risk. Authorities found possibly thousands of photographs in Epstein’s home showing young women, and “at least one individual in those photos … has self-identified as a victim of the defendant,” prosecutor Alex Rossmiller told Berman during Monday’s bail arguments.

“Just this morning, the government became aware that in a locked safe in the defendant’s mansion there were piles of cash, dozens of diamonds, and a passport appearing to be issued from a foreign country with a photo of the defendant and a name on that passport that is not the defendant’s name,” Rossmiller also said.

If an extremely wealthy person facing a possible lifetime in prison with multiple lavish homes in several countries and private jets and even his own damn island is not a flight risk, then the term would have ceased to have any meaning.

So now he will have plenty of time to reflect on the utter misery he has caused to so many women.