South Dakota’s theocrats seem to be so distracted by their fractious spat over an Article V convention that they let this year’s transgender war in Pierre drop with a whimper. All three trans-panic bills died in committee this week:
- HB 1296 died Monday in Senate Taxation. That bill would have mandated that every school district write up a transgender potty policy so that Family Heritage Alliance and other Christian warriors could turn every school board meeting across the state into a Sharia-for-Jesus recruitment session.
- SB 202 died Wednesday in Senate State Affairs. That bill would have required warning labels on every public restroom indicating that users might meet someone of the opposite sex within. (Some would contend that such signs would have increased public restroom usage, having the same effect as putting up a “Ladies Night!” sign outside the bar.)
- SB 160 died yesterday in Senate Education. That bill would have prohibited any instruction in “gender identity” or “gender expression” in grades K–7, which would have banned schools from putting up signs distinguishing the little boys’ room from the little girls’ room. Republicans were so embarrassed by this measure that they tried to cover with a hoghouse, turning SB 160 into a mostly harmless parental-consent requirement for standardized tests. That hoghouse received the actual death vote.
Two lessons here:
- While we liberals have mostly ignored the constitutional convention bills, maybe we need to salt the hopper with a couple such measures every year, just to distract the folks who usually fight the transgender war.
- Elect Billie Sutton. Having a governor whom everyone knows will veto paranoid, bullying transgender bills deflates the momentum for such dreck and keeps legislators a little more focused on bills that need to get done.
you may have noticed…”Three Teachers Dead; Fourteen Students aged 14-18 Dead:”
The transgender wars, abortion, guns, immigration–issues Republicans scream to distract when they obstruct health care, tax cuts for the 1% and gerrymandering.
Republican Sen. Adelstein and Sen. Tieszen (frmr Police chief, dec.) took no action after my son’s death with a military rifle he (a Boys State-er) carried around in a portable chair bag in his trunk in the high school parking lot. His 18th birthday money was used (I wouldn’t let him buy it at Scheels–too sexy. He had signed up for the Marines). He shot a thousand rounds with friends and their parents but saved the last one for himself. An officer or dep. sheriff mentioned some of his brain tissue was in a tree. A month later his gun permit came in the mail.
So lets hear it from our 2nd Amendment promotors here. crickets, crickets
I’m sorry for you loss Leslie.
I would be happy to discuss the issues you have brought up and to show you where you are wrong.
You make your arguments and I will debunk them.
You are a brave lady leslie. I respect and thank you for your candor. Only idiots would support the NRA/Russia group these days. Both have been or will be indicted for what amounts to treason regarding our democracy, but that is a whole different argument that votes must address to rid ourselves from. In case anyone missed it, 13 Russian nationals have been indicted for election rigging during the 2016 national election. Some of that influence also was noted here in South Dakota as well as the rest of the states. How can one argue with treason?
The transgender bills make me think you are correct Cory. These kinds of poison pills are exactly what will keep the closeted roypublicans occupied until they are removed from office.
“Trans-panic bills”–well said. And SB 160. Yeah, keep the kids uninformed and “innocent” that there might be someone who’s different who might also be human. Keep the kids dumb and uninformed. That always helps.
don’t try to shift the court. hit the ball
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/18/1741614/-How-the-Republicans-stole-the-Second-Amendment
I like Mr. H’s “salt the hopper” idea. The libbies should salt the hopper with a few really badly written crazy law bills every year to distract those who are insaner than most. It would probably be the best thing they could do to gain respect and followers in the legislatures. Like the guy who ties the meatball to a string attached to his belt and runs down the alley so all the rabid and tick infested dogs go that way instead of towards the fancy restaurants where the rest of us eat.
grdz, we proud liberals, progressives, dems and enviros have values, integrity, and truth so there won’t be any gaming the system from our side. some say that’s why we lose in SD. I think it goes back to 1876 settlement
BAH, Ms. leslie, the perversion of the entire initiated measure process is an admitted gaming the system approach from the libbies. They have admitted not being able to elect people and shifted their efforts to wrecking the initiated measure process by gaming it. The IM #22 will be the end of the gaming and probably the Democratic Party, as the Indys and Liberatarians will continue to take over and the Democratic Party will become soon a footnote in history. People will shrug, and move on.
Grudz, I don’t understand why you claim the initiative process is “gaming the system.” It’s written into the SD Constitution. It is the system, written and passed into the constitution by folks who were prescient enough that the could foresee good legislation could be passed and bad legislation could be checked by the citizens not beholden to party bosses or special interests.
Lying to the public about measures initiated, Mr. Pay, turns the majority into a group opposed to such deception and “gaming of the system” and they will put their collective boot on the neck of the measures initiated. That is my explanation for Ms. leslie, who is claiming that the libbies don’t “salt the hopper.” I would tell you that all of the putting of the boot on the neck of the measures initiated is also all in the system, written and passed into the constitution by the folks who were not prescient enough to foresee big, dark, out-of-state money being used to game the system. The heinous IM, #22, will forever be posted next to Slick Rick’s picture as the beginning of the end of the measures initiated. I was recently in an establishment who has a spot on the wall for just such a picture.
“Lying to the public” is something I associate more with legislators and governors than the people who initiate ballot measures. You look at all the dead bodies, some of little children, that have resulted from recent episodes of corruption in SD and you realize how deeply, deeply flawed the SD governmental structure is. These high and mighty folks even lack the will to investigate so that such instances of the innocent victims of will not have to suffer such “governance” again. Those corrupt people are the ones who think they are above the law, and above the will of the people. And you have the audacity to call a measure designed to clean up this corruption and arrogance so that no more bodies are found with gunshots in them as “heinous.” Yeah, you might not like it. You might vote against it, but I would dare say the heinous ones are the ones who fear the people’s right to initiate an end to their corruption and arrogance. They are damn right to fear it.
Are you afraid to discuss the issues leslie?
Jason, you are one sick S.O.B.!
When you were a school boy some one needed to take you out behind the out house and educate you! Regularly!
I’ll be your huckleberry Jason. How much money did your NRA get from Putin? Why would they take the money? Why do you believe that the ends justify the means regarding treason?
Mr. Pay, you blame the government for that bad, bad fellow killing his family? Do you blame the government because they caught him and cancelled the contract and he knew he’d be prosecuted so he went over the edge? Or are you saying they should not have bothered to catch him and cancel the contract and those poor little kids, murdered by a bad man doing really bad things, and that naughty government caught him and forced him to be even more evil? Your statements confuse me and conflict with all the howler monkey cries of “corruption” from Mr. Sutton.
Grudz, I know you are from South Dakota and that apparently has some handicaps associated with it.
mfi – any thoughts on the library in Iowa being petitioned to segregate books that discuss issues about gender identity and sexual preferences?
One idiot iowan said “The concerns that we have with these books being on the shelves would be the same concerns that we would have if they had books about eating Tide Pods on the shelves, aimed at teenagers.”
There are just as many ignorant hicks in your state as there are in ours. Ignorant hicks are nation-wide, and world-wide.