Wonder who the GOP will offer up for the next governor's race. The Pro-Pedophile Sentient Thumb again? Mrs. Wife of Blind Vet Who Can't Find Coffee in Seattle? The Perpetually Unemployed Chair Thief? It's quite the Algonquin round table they've got going on.

"Oops"? Seriously, fuck Barr's fishing expedition. Durham didn't prove shit. Release the unredacted Mueller Report.

Wait till Russia ends the Black Sea grain deal, which will trigger a massive famine, and a huge influx of starving refugees into the E/U.

TFG would have abandoned Ukraine to his masters in the Kremlin, which just like Alsace-Lorraine, would have emboldened putin to invade Poland.

Vote Blue, because between Ukraine and Taiwan, without deft and intelligent leadership, the U.S. will likely find itself in a major war, and some of you reading this will likely wind up as cannon fodder.

@1 I'm guessing it's going to be either the Unrepentant Insurrectionist (Joe Kent) or the Christian Nationalist Insurrectionist (Matt Shea). I'd put my early money on Kent. They're going to see if they can pull a sub-40% performance statewide.

@5, or Loren "I'm Not Dead Yet! I'm Feeling Much Better!" Culp.

@3
‘Some of us’?
If there’s even a limited nuke-out, a minimum of 100 million in the USA. Real estate in the Southern hemisphere never looked so good!

If you are wondering what it would be like to go with TS preferred option on public drug use we need look no further than Oregon who decriminalized drugs in 2020.

https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2023/04/22/economist-magazine-a-longtime-proponent-of-drug-decriminalization-says-measure-110-is-struggling/

https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2023/05/13/survey-shows-oregonians-have-dim-outlook-on-efficacy-of-measure-110/

In case you don't want read further here are a couple good snippets:

"In the two years since the new law took effect, drug arrests are indeed down. However, overdose deaths in Oregon have risen sharply, far beyond the increase recorded nationally."

"On top of the struggle with funding, Oregon law enforcement agencies have issued roughly 4,450 citations since the implementation of Measure 110, but only 189 people have completed screening for addiction treatment"

Did anyone else notice that in the press photo of DeSantis's anti-diversity bill signing ceremony, he appears to be surrounded entirely by white people? Either the white-supremacist contingent in FL no longer feels the need to be coy about it, or else the guv committed perhaps the biggest unforced error in political optics since G.W. Bush signed the "partial birth abortion" ban surrounded entirely by men. Either way, worthy of note.

@3: where is this "Putin will invade Poland" stuff coming from? Poland is in NATO. Russian doesn't want any part of a direct engagement with NATO. Besides, the USSR already took 1/3 of Poland in 1939 - it's still the eastern thirds of Belarus & Ukraine.

Putin would take Moldova, sure. More of Georgia, sure. He may annex Belarus when Lukashenko crumps.

But Poland? I don't think he'd want it, except to have a land route to his Konigsberg exclave (which Stalin kept as a war prize).

@1/@5: Dr. Raul Garcia of Yakima.

@11, the dude who couldn't beat Culp in the primary last time? LOL

@11 What, the guy who took [checks notes] 5.4% of the vote in the 2020 gubernatorial primary, behind Loren Culp, Tim Eyman, and random dude Joshua Freed? The guy who would be campaigning on expertise and public health? Suuuuuure, that sounds like a good bet in today's Republican Party.

Let's face the reality of the Republican Party. Combined, Republicans took about 43% of the primary vote, so a successful gubernatorial candidate needs to win 15-20% in a crowded field or 20-25% in a two-person field. If a Republican candidate doesn't say that Trump won in 2020, they've instantly lost ~20% of the primary vote. It's theoretically possible that they could win, but it's pretty unlikely, especially if there's more than two people in the field. And if there are more than two Republicans running, there's a solid chance that Franz and Ferguson will both advance to the general election.

Hahahaha. Of course not included in Dipshits selective excerpt above:

"The Economist didn’t provide those figures."
and
"It’s certainly true that drug-related deaths are increasing among Oregon teenagers faster than anywhere else in the nation, as The Lund Report revealed in WW’s pages last month. But that rise began well before voters approved Measure 110."

So opioid deaths began increasing BEFORE measure 110.

And more importantly cherry picking "teenager" deaths is a cute trick. Because TOTAL opioid death rates in Oregon are lower than many Red states with STRICT criminalization. The coastal regions are younger. IE higher youth populations and coastal regions always see high migration of youth. So. Duh.

However the HIGHEST opioid TOTAL death rates are certainly NOT Oregon. They are all in criminalization states and almost all in RED states with the strictest criminalization policies.

For instance the highest rates are Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia, Tennessee, Florida and Alaska.

Deaths by state:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm

So criminalization is such a huge success, right?

The law, based on Portugals highly successful drug policy is only flawed because Oregon is not a nation and subject to the same vacuum effect as every other progressive policy suffers when surrounding states are regressive. IE: Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Utah just happily bus thier addicts and homeless to Washington and Oregon.

Because this is the rightwing solution to anything: distract with a Culture War and make it "somebody else's problem."

Nice try Dipshit. Lying again.

@14 you are so banal. Portugal is effective because they have treatment alternatives and if people don’t accept them there are consequences. Both articles note that decriminilizing without standing up alternatives FIRST is a recipe for a shit show which is why oregon voters may end up repealing Measure 110. Now who’s being dishonest?

"Sure they're cute now," he says looking at himself in a handheld mirror, "but just you wait. Men of Mediterranean ancestry never age well."

Actually, for a Disney invention they're having a pretty good run. A revival. Never really completely forgave them for that purity ring nonsense though even if it was imposed on them by corporate. Stupid. Duplicitous. Hypocritical. Up to their necks in tail, they were. Bet they're glad they are finally old enough to be out from under Mama. She was a button-punching case-and-a-half.

It's not segregation; it's just anti-diversity!

Because, as we know, segregation bad. No go. But diversity also bad, so anti-diversity good! You give, and I, in turn, receive!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/16/florida-ron-desantis-bigotry-doctors-gay-people

They are targeting Trans because they always attack minorities first, since the masses won't stand up for or sympathize with them. That's what they do; they attack the scapegoats, the socialists, the trade unionists, the immigrants, until everyone who could ever help you is neutralized once it's your turn. You see the kids getting shot on TV in their schools and your peers in their daily lives? For no reason at all? If you tolerate this, then your children will be next. Support no neo fascist return to singling out others as scapegoats for all the world's worst evils. Face it in yourselves and expunge it now. The way to respond to an abused and caged animal is not to torment it further. America cannot treat itself like that or anyone in the world. The suffering is unimaginable to you what others must survive through childhood. Don't leave your heart behind on the path to "security" or you will just destabilize civilization in exchange for firearms.

@18: Yeah, "they" weren't targeting trans a few years ago. Something changed. Lord, what could it possibly be?

Maybe it has to do with elementary teachers pushing pick your own gender theory onto kids. Kids are totally fine not even having to think about it at that age.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that tomboys or boys playing with dolls are actually homosexual and the gender in the blender folks are using sexual stereotypes (like Boston Children's Hospital) to lay the groundwork that they're transgender when they're just gay. Talk about homophobia!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that puberty blockers and cross sex hormones can have life long repercussions on a growing body.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that young adolescents should have the ability to decide whether or not they want to procreate when they're adults and not sterilize themselves prematurely.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that biological male muscle power has unfair advantage in women's sports.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that kids have depression and anxiety that has nothing to do with gender dysphoria, but get latched onto it after a few sessions with therapist who have hidden agendas. Only a subset of trans people have gender dysphoria.

But you're right Grab. The fascists are taking advantage the facts I just enumerated as evidence to make horrible laws against us.

@18 - maybe it has to do with the fact that, with Roe dead, the Repubs are concerned that the Talibangelicals are not going to be so motivated to come out and vote for them anymore, so they have to gin up another thing that Jesus hates.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that gay marriage didn't turn out to be that issue (it's been accepted with surprisingly little bloodshed) so they needed something else.

If you are correct that the anti-trans position on the right is so motivated by the desire to protect kids from making bad medical decisions, then why would the fix be to ban discussing the issue or to pass bathroom bills?

@20: Why would you think that politicians would not extrapolate on these issues as ammo for their partisan agendas?

@18, etc.: The bigots are targeting trans persons because they are fundamentally bullies, and by expanding civil rights, we have taken away all of their other victims. Hence their need to put teens with gender issues through living hell. It’s really the last group they can hate unreservedly. Add in the frustration of them being anti-choice without Roe, meaning they’re starting to lose their jobs at elections, and you have a perfect storm of hatred and bigotry, bitterly searching for a helpless target to torture.

@22: Kind of a zina-esque take on the matter, not that it doesn't have its basis in fact. But not sure if just wanting to be a bully motivates a parent enough to go vent at a school board meeting.

@19. How many of those maybe (nots) affect you directly?

@24: Because I'm G on the LGBTQ train and expected to just parrot the talking points of the radical left or just shut up.

@24: Whether directly or indirectly or not affected at all, does not negate or add credence to my opinion on the matter - or any other matter as a matter of fact.

You wouldn't ask the same question of someone listing reasons for gun control or abortion, now would you?

@21 - of course they would. My point is that these were non-issues until the Republicans needed another issue to con the rural Bible-thumpers into continuing to support them post-Roe.

@25. I mean you can still be the G in IGMFU and think for yourself. Nobody is policing your opinions, but your collective opinions on the matter are being legislated into deleting others' very existence because according to you they don't exist as you were raised to believe. If we each spring from an immortal soul in the image of our creator plus our breasted riblings, then we are all just Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap, jumping from one life's end into the next's beginning. If matter cannot be created or destroyed, than the essence of the body's inner animus must also pass.

All of us assume an arbitrary identity and role, but if you zoom out you could just as easily be a flea or a bird or any other of the literally countless beings on this planet. If you read enough books from others' minds, you will begin to understand. Not just the writing of business, but the entering of others' imaginations made reality. If an author is really good at that, it gets you to shift out of your own skull and into a whirlwind of history about to sweep away the future. You have to see that greater cycle at play. If you read Dune, you may also gain a greater perception of the past and future selves. The movie Defending Your Life. Nobody says you have to be anything other than yourself; that is the essence of feminism and freedom. Just own your perspectives but recognize that you're not a victim for having to face the consequences of supporting legalized bigotry from the most fringe elements on the right (stop deflecting to the left, it's a false dichotomy anyway). You've got to stop it with the binary thinking. You're always full of false dichotomies and bad faith whataboutisms. All this false anti wokeism is really just parroted crap and sulking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1qeipP8BfM

@28: How can anyone take you seriously when you didn't even address one of the issues in @19? You just categorize it all into bigotry without the intellectual honesty of responding any points I've written. My sentiments are by no means excessive to me, or Republicans, but other transsexuals as well like transitionjustice.org, kelly_cadigan on Twitter, and Gays against Groomers to name a few.

I don't need to read Dune to know what's going on. I just need to open my eyes. You should too.

That said, I will always champion trans who make the change in adulthood as that's when it's known it is really gender dysphoria and not same sex attraction or some emotional torment that nutty adults (including some parents) use to groom kids into thinking they're trans when they're not.

@30. What I'm trying to say isn't easy to express without sharing some common terms. But in the near future I'll address those points, as I've already had those conversations and they usually end up being walls of texts. Addressing those points in the manner you wish requires more time and energy than I've been willing to commit to the that dead horse which the GOP is reviving in the name of protecting kids while they let them get gunned down since there's nothing we can do about that, to quote Greg Abbott. Hell, why even have laws in the first place? You're afraid of the radical leftist anarchists, but then it's okay to get gunned down by people with no regulation to their ability to purchase firearms, regardless of background?

Anyway, I'm not even transgender and have never experienced gender dysphoria, and clearly you haven't either (not to dismiss your own journey through life's questions etc.), so any opinion I have on the matter is going to be second-hand. I don't know what it's like and it's ultimately not relevant to any discussion what my opinions are on the matter. What's really more important is that others feel compelled to bend the law to their very narrow interpretation of an incredibly complex and nuanced component of society that deserves all the time of day that you had for your rights.

Anyway, I'll get back to you later.