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Trump Knocks Transgender Potty Laws; Cruz Calls Trump PC

Nothing should surprise us any more when a reality-TV show host is about to win the Republican nomination for President. But try this sentence on as another sign that we have slipped into alternative universe: Ted Cruz called Donald Trump too politically correct to be President after Trump said we should let our transgender neighbors use the bathroom they feel is appropriate:

Trump began Thursday by criticizing the law that targets transgender people, saying legislators in the Tar Heel State should have left well enough alone.

“There had been very few complaints the way it is,” Trump said on NBC’s Today show. “People go — they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble.”

…On the Today show, Trump said he didn’t know whether he has transgender employees — “I probably do” — and said yes when asked whether he would allow Caitlyn Jenner to use any bathroom she wanted in Trump Tower.

“That is correct,” Trump said [David M. Jackson, “Trump, Cruz Spar over North Carolina Transgender ‘Bathroom Bill’,” USAToday, 2016.04.21].

Here’s the ad the Cruz campaign turned out almost immediately to prove he can be a better bully than Trump:

If Trump is part of the “PC Police,” I’m Mike Huether’s chief of staff. Trump himself in the same Today interview said replacing Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is an act of “pure political correctness.”

Lest we think the fascist Trump is turning over a new leaf, Media Matters notes that Trump spent much of his Today appearance compounding his lies about his positions on abortion, taxes, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. While Trump’s comment on the transgender issue suggests more common sense and decency than that expressed by a majority of South Dakota legislators did with their vile words this Session, it is more likely that Trump is merely continuing to treat words as playthings and pretending toward the mushy middle that he fantasizes will allow him to compete in the general election.

27 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2016-04-22 07:52

    Imagine either idjet in close proximity to the “red” button. If that doesn’t scare folks into voting Democrat nothing will.

  2. Edwin Arndt 2016-04-22 09:32

    I don’t think transgenders are seen as the problem. Rather, it is those males inclined
    toward sexual predation who enter the womens bathroom under the guise of being
    transgender that these laws are trying to address. If you truly think something like that
    will never happen you have your head in the sand.

  3. crossgrain 2016-04-22 09:45

    Edwin – Might it happen that a guy will fake being transgender and attempt to enter a womens can to prey on our innocent daughters? Sure. It most likely will (or already has) happened. Does that mean that we need to violate the rights of an entire class of our friends and neighbors? Absolutely NOT.

    Think of what you’re saying here. What if the argument were to ban guns entirely? Because if we don’t ban all guns, somebody might use a gun in a crime. If owning a gun shouldn’t be outlawed because it would violate our rights even though it’s been shown to cause some harm, how does violating the rights of folks to piddle where they want make any sense?

  4. Edwin Arndt 2016-04-22 10:59

    I thought about what I said before I said it and stand by what I said. We don’t have the
    right to piddle where ever we want now. For example, a public street, so there is ample
    precedent for regulating where we go to the bathroom. Crossgrain, if you’re okay with
    the situation you describe, you are beyond my reach. ‘Nuff said.

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-22 11:07

    Edwin, I’m pretty sure that any male predator who tries to take advantage of this law will be arrested, tried, and convicted of being a sexual predator.

    Of course, if fears of male predators can justify punishing an entire class, perhaps we should extract semen from all males when they pass puberty and then castrate them. That would end the threat to our innocent girls far more effectively, wouldn’t it?

  6. bearcreekbat 2016-04-22 11:09

    Crossgrain is right Edwin. We already have a myriad of laws that are designed to protect our women and children from assaults. The hypothetical person you describe that plans on assaulting our daughters is not the type of person who will be dissuaded by any transgender bathroom law, especially if that person already is not deterred by our much more draconian criminal laws and penalties for sexual crimes and crimes against minors.

    If huge prison sentences do not deter your predator, anti-transgender bathroom laws will not provide one iota of protection against the type of predator that you fear. Instead such laws simply marginalize good people trying to live a decent life as the gender they believe they are meant to be.

  7. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-22 11:17

    But before we go cutting off anyone’s testicles, let’s remember that Cruz’s and Edwin’s bathroom predator is a myth:

    Cruz’s appeal to women’s safety through the idea of a “bathroom predator” is the favorite tactic of anti-LGBT activists working to pass so-called “bathroom bills.” It’s also a well-debunked myth. Law enforcement experts, government officials, and women’s safety advocates in cities and states across the country have thoroughly rejected the talking point, calling it “beyond specious” [Rachel Percelay, “What Reporters Covering The Trump/Cruz Bathroom Bill Feud Need To Know About “Bathroom Predators’,” Media Matters, 2016.04.21].

    Our daughters face real dangers. The imaginary bathroom predator is not one of them.

  8. MC 2016-04-22 11:18

    The real scary part about this whole scene is if Mr. Trump gets the nomination, he will be the head of the GOP. He will set the tone for all the GOP races.

  9. crossgrain 2016-04-22 11:26

    Edwin – Yeah, there’s precedent for where we pee, but that’s based on sanitation more than anything else. Nobody’s arguing for their right to pee in the middle of the street, so you’re absolutely correct in that transgender folks shouldn’t pee in the street either.

    And for the record, I’m not okay with rape, Ed. I’m okay with giving up some measure of security so that we have necessary freedom.

  10. Steve Sibson 2016-04-22 11:29

    “The imaginary bathroom predator is not one of them.”

    Typical for propagandists to ignore truth:

    “It’s unclear whether the man who broke into the women’s restroom of the Seattle pool was protesting the rule or just testing its limits.

    He returned to the restroom for a second time later that evening, when young girls were changing for swim practice.

    People who frequent Evans Pool were outraged that the man would take advantage of the new rule, designed to protect the rights of the transgender community.

    “Either identify yourself as a transgender or you’re not and you’re just taking advantage of a loophole,” MaryAnn Sato, who uses the locker room a few times a week, told KING-5 TV.

    “Sort of works against the point they’re trying to make. They’re causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable,” Aldan Shank, a pool regular, said.

    No one was arrested in the case, and police weren’t called.”

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/wa-man-women-bathroom-test-transgender-ruling-article-1.2535150

  11. mike from iowa 2016-04-22 11:40

    Yesterday a 2 year old terrorist American toddler shot hisownself with mom’s gun. Tiday seven people,mostly kids were killed near Cincinnati, Ohio.but now is not the time to talk about protecting kids from guns because some pervert may see a female peeing in the female bathroom.

  12. mike from iowa 2016-04-22 11:41

    A 16 year old girl was beaten to death in her high school bathroom by a number of pervert girls dressed as ….wait for it…. girls.

  13. Don Coyote 2016-04-22 12:01

    From cah’s link:

    “Cruz’s appeal to women’s safety through the idea of a “bathroom predator” is the favorite tactic of anti-LGBT activists working to pass so-called “bathroom bills.” It’s also a well-debunked myth. Law enforcement experts, government officials, and women’s safety advocates in cities and states across the country have thoroughly rejected the talking point, calling it “beyond specious.” ”

    Really? Beyond specious? Well-debunked myth? Think again. From 2013:

    “Charges were filed Tuesday against a man who wore a wig and women’s clothing to disguise himself as he allegedly used a concealed camera to record “hours” of video of women in a Los Angeles-area department store restroom.”

    http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Secret-Recording-Store-Mall-Antelope-Valley-Palmdale-Restroom-207541101.html

    And again, from 2010:

    “A 51-year-old man wearing women’s clothing was arrested for allegedly undressing in front of children at Walmart.

    Police say Norwood Smith Burnes, 51, of Rome, has a long record of indecent exposure and was on probation for public indecency when the latest incident occurred in the women’s bathroom at Walmart in Calhoun, the Rome News-Tribune reported.

    Burnes was in “stages of undress while on the stone floor and would do this in the presence of several young children,” witnesses told police. When police arrived, they found Burnes wearing a short skirt and jacket, black leather coat, high heels, red nail polish, green eye shadow and jewelry.”

    http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/cross-dressing-man-arrested-for-exposure-at-walmar/nQddG/

    And yet again, from 2012:

    “A man wearing a bra and wig was arrested Friday after he was spotted in a women’s bathroom at Everett Community College, police said.

    Officers responded to the scene at about 1:30 p.m. after a college staff member said she saw the man go into the women’s rest room and alerted security personnel.

    An investigation found that the suspect had gone into the rest room while two women were inside, according to a police report. The women were later interviewed and said they had no idea that the man was there.

    When police interviewed the man, he claimed that he had gone into the bathroom to use the facilities.”

    http://komonews.com/archive/police-man-in-bra-and-wig-found-in-womens-bathroom

  14. Don Coyote 2016-04-22 12:12

    @mia: And I’m sure somewhere in your universe somebody slipped and fell getting out of a bathtub and died. Not to mention all those deaths from drinking milk past it’s expiration date. And until we solve those problems why put another on our plate? You never were very good at multi-tasking were you?

  15. W R Old Guy 2016-04-22 12:21

    DC, Where in those stories does it say the males claimed to be transgendered? There is a big difference between a sexual predator and a transgender. I’m guessing you also perceive all homosexuals as predators that prey on children and adults that they find “attractive”.

  16. Don Coyote 2016-04-22 13:05

    @WRGuy: The argument being made is the problems created by giving the privilege to transgenders to chose whatever restroom/shower matches your identifying gender are not just limited to the exposure of females to male genitalia in what was once a semi-private, same sex setting but also to sexual predators posing as transgenders taking advantage of those settings . Do you honestly think there won’t be an uptick in these occurrences with the demands now being made by transgenders? Think again.

  17. leslie 2016-04-22 13:46

    too funny cory! brilliant word-smithing:

    “Nothing should surprise us any more when a reality-TV show host is about to win the Republican nomination for President.
    But…Ted Cruz called Donald Trump too politically correct to be President after Trump said we should let our transgender neighbors use the bathroom”.

    Cruz is a far worse danger but that the Republican nomination for President will be Trump, guarantees the implosion of the GOP LIVE ON SCREEN. Others far smarter politically think the lumbering elephant won’t fall. but it is carrying far too much baggage.

    otoh cruz burnt all his bridges…so why not run for president,… what the hell.

    under the bridge burns the fire of PC-ness. love it-hate it-blame it for everything. simple thought perhaps says complexity is frustrating, so since “trump tells it like it is–cutting thru the PC bull sheit”, thus his popularity. home school is the great reaction to political correctness in politics, religion, and meanness. seseme street is satan.

    when the TV show host and the press revel in outrageousness to garner votes and ratings, we tune out to their jingos while rome burns. Hired SD firemen T, N&R do nothing except measure where a careful sound byte will gather frightened votes.

  18. leslie 2016-04-22 13:47

    jingles

  19. Robin Friday 2016-04-22 13:56

    Don Coyote: and none of these reports had anything to do with transgender.

  20. Porter Lansing 2016-04-22 13:59

    Politically Correct and Political Correctness are terms used continually and embraced by bigots like Don Trump attempting to shield themselves from valid criticism. Correct is Correct Don, no matter what qualifier you put in front of it.

  21. bearcreekbat 2016-04-22 14:13

    When did it become a request for “special treatment” if a group objects to a new law, like the potty bill aimed only at transgender people, that singles out that specific group, and only that group, with special prohibitions and restrictions? It would more more accurate to say that the group in question simply wants to be left alone to live their lives.

  22. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-04-22 17:21

    Robin’s right: Don continues to conflate sexual predators with transgender people and trumpet a threat that does not happen.

    Think about it: If all a person does is go in a bathroom, pee, wash, and leave, nothing else happens. If Joe Sicko sneaks into the ladies room and starts ogling ladies, the ladies say, “WTF?” and report him. If Joe Sicko follows my daughter into the ladies room while I wait outside, she screams bloody murder, I run in shouting “Man on the floor!” and put Joe on the floor hard.

    And think like a predator for a moment. If Joe Sicko really wants to harm some little girl, he’s not going to do it in a public restroom where other people can walk in at any moment and where he will draw attention to himself. Joe Sicko looks for easier opportunities to attack victims.

    Again, read the evidence. Listen to the police. Good grief, listen to Donald Trump. There’s no need for a paranoid anti-trans law here. Let’s just all go pee and mind our own business.

  23. W R Old Guy 2016-04-22 19:49

    DC remember there is more to being transgender than just saying that you are. Transgenders go through a long process of physical and mental consultations, hormone treatments and surgery.
    Someone who walks into a rest room and says they are transgender will have to prove it by providing testimony from doctors and mental health people. You can’t just say you are transgender and walk free.

    Cite a documented case where a verified transgender was also a sexual predator. Good Luck.

  24. grudznick 2016-04-22 20:05

    Everybody who bothers with trying to legislate potty business needs to be unelected. So sayeth grudznick.

  25. John Mayor 2016-05-10 23:39

    THE GAY/ LESBIAN AGENDA FREQUENTLY POSES AS A TRANSGENDERED AGENDA (and… the Gay/ Lesbian Agenda, and the Transgendered Agenda, not to be confused with the “Gay/ Lesbian Transexual Agenda”, and the “Gay/ Lesbian Transexual Gender Re-assignment Surgery Agenda”!… which are other matters, altogether!)!
    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    ALL GAYS/ LESBIANS WERE NOT SIMPLY “BORN THAT WAY”!… AND!… JUST AS ALL TRANSEXUALS WERE NOT “BORN THAT WAY”!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    Such thinking, would suggest that there’s no such thing as “FREE WILL”/ “CHOICE” when it comes to sexual orientation (the TRULY TRANSGENDERED, being the exception to this!)! And again!… not to be confused with those who are merely transexual!… or!… transexuals who have “CHOSEN” “Gender Re-assignment Surgery”!… and!… DESPITE EVIDENCE OF ANY PROVEN BIOLOGICAL/ GENETIC PREDISPOSITION TO BEING “BORN THAT WAY”, AND POSSESSING A TRULY “TRANSGENDERED BIO-SEXUAL ORIENTATION”!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    THE RATIONALE FOR “TRANSGENDERED GENDER RE-ASSIGNMENT SURGERY” IS NOT SYNONYMOUS!… AND IS NOT TO BE MADE SYNONYMOUS!… WITH “GAY/ LESBIAN TRANSEXUAL GENDER RE-ASSIGNMENT SURGERY”!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    For!… it’s one thing for a six year old boy to want to cut off his genitals due to an overwhelming biological (hormonal) predisposition to femininity!… but!… it’s quite another issue, to do so, based on a series of “familially-based, peer-based, or socially-based behavioral influences (and!… on many occasions!… due to incidents of ‘incest-based, peer-based, or stranger-based SEXUAL ABUSE’!– whether as children, and/ or, as adults!)”!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    So… the question, is:… are you “coming out” to reveal your acceptance of your gay/ lesbian “CHOICE” of orientation (i.e., a “CHOICE” based on whatever “NURTURE-BASED/ non-biological” circumstances may have led you to your resolve!)!… or!… are you anxious to end the REAL MENTAL/ EMOTIONAL PAIN of hiding a TRULY “BIOLOGICALLY-BASED CONDITION” THAT YOU HAVE HAD– HAVE!– NO CONTROL OVER (AND WHICH MAY HAVE LED YOU– IS LEADING YOU!– TO THE POINT OF SELF-HARM!… OR!– WORSE!… SUICIDE!)?

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    If it’s the former… fine!… THAT’S YOUR “CHOICE”!… BUT (and… if it was your “FREE CHOICE”!), DON’T THEN, HAVE YOURSELF– AND/ OR US!– BELIEVE, THAT YOUR DECISION TO COME FORWARD WAS BASED ON SOME BIOLOGICAL/ GENETIC PRECONDITION THAT “PREEMPTED” YOUR “TRUE DECISIONMAKING (I.E., THAT YOU WERE ‘BORN THAT WAY’!… OR HAD NO ‘FREE CHOICE’ IN THE MATTER!)”! AND!… IF YOUR “WOULD-BE CHOICE” WAS “PREEMPTED” BY WAY OF SOMEONE ELSE’S MANIPULATION OF YOUR “FREE WILL (E.G., BY WAY OF AN ABUSER!)”!… AND, YOU’VE SUFFERED– AND/ OR ARE SUFFERING!– MENTAL/ EMOTIONAL PAIN AS A RESULT OF SOMEONE ELSE’S PAST– AND/ OR PRESENT!– MANIPULATION OF YOUR OTHERWISE “FREE WILL”!… THAT MANIPULATION DOES NOT EQUATE TO BEING “BORN THAT WAY”! AND SO!… AND AS SUCH!… YOU MUST BEGIN TO SORT OUT– HONESTLY!– WHAT HAS HAPPENED (AND/ OR IS HAPPENING!) TO YOU!… AND TO SEEK TO EITHER ACCEPT A TRULY “TRANSGENDERED STATE”!… OR!… SEEK TO ESTABLISH WHETHER YOUR “WILL” IN YOUR SEXUAL ORIENTATION, WAS “PREEMPTED”– AND/ OR IS BEING “PREEMPTED”!– BY ANOTHER, OR OTHERS!… OR NOT!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    As for “BATHROOM LAWS”!… a “THIRD BATHROOM”!– AND DESPITE THE COSTS, AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS!– would be a wiser solution, than pitting hetero males and females (adults, or children!) against the transgendered, and/ or gays, or lesbians! And to offset the costs for “The Third Bathroom (an excellent title for a movie… starring whoever! And wherein!… a gay, and lesbian meet– and fall in love!)”, I’d suggest, Crowdfunding campaigns!… and/ or!… the proceeds, from a movie!

    ___________________

    NEW PARA/ SPACE

    ___________________

    Please!… no emails!

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-05-11 06:34

    [Please, no all caps. With just a tiny bit more effort, you can format your exclamations in bold or italics using simple HTML coding: <b:gt; and <i$gt; tags will do the job. You can also simply hit {Enter} twice to get a clean paragraph break.]

    The only agenda on my (and apparently Trump’s) side of this issue is the “Keep Government out of of Everybody’s Pants” agenda. The agenda of North Carolin and certain South Dakota legislators seems to be the opposite, which is creepily akin to the agenda of sexual abusers.

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