Middleboro Review 2: Ex-youth pastor GOP rep busted with underage intern

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Ex-youth pastor GOP rep busted with underage intern

OD Action is now atAdvocacy!

atAdvocacy is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Most of our team is here. We were all touched in profound ways as we saw yesterday’s shooting unfold out our window, on tv, and online all at once. We have dear friends who lost a father, a brother, a classmate. [tweet]

Our grief runs deep for the loved ones lost. We know this is a time for remembrance.

And as we grieve, there is no part of any of us — NONE — that feels that this is not also the time for politics. It has to be. [tweet]

One man, sick and twisted and tortured, carried out an evil act of mass murder. But it was a system of corruption and cowardice, led by gunmakers, the NRA, and the Republican Party that gave him the tools to turn his feelings into unspeakable carnage.

The man who pulled the trigger is dead. The Republican machine that put the gun in his hand lives on. [tweet]

Politics spawned America’s scourge of gun violence, and politics is the only the thing that can fix it. Don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s too soon to work to prevent the next tragedy. [tweet]

We know that in America, hundreds of families will end up feeling today as we did yesterday, and there will be hundreds more tomorrow. If we have any hope of ending this horrific cycle, we must not hesitate to get political. [tweet]

We will stay political.

We will stay vigilant.

We will fight on. ✊❤️

Daily Dose of Democracy:

Radical right-wing Texas GOP rep accused of inappropriate relationship with underage intern
Texas state Rep. and former youth pastor Bryan Slaton is the Bible-thumpiest, white baby-lovingest, hetero-marriage-respectingest man who absolutely despises gay people and smears them as being a threat to children for just existing — so of course he's been busted bringing an underage intern over to his apartment, plying her with alcohol, and asking her to lie about it.

Take Action: Convict Donald Trump!

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Trump’s own cabinet member turns on him on national TV
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, a crook in his own right, didn't pull any punches during a discussion about his ex-boss' growing legal problems. Bluntly put, he thinks Trump is in serious trouble and that the classified documents investigation in particular could sink him.

Take Action: Pledge to boycott Fox News!

Addidas busted profiting from kangaroo slaughter
Center for a Humane Economy: Every year, shoe giant Adidas funds the slaughter of anywhere from 1.5 million to 5 million kangaroos for their leather — all so addidas can make big bucks selling soccer cleats. The Center for a Humane Economy is fighting to end this barbaric practice — please consider chipping in to protect these innocent animals?

Senate panel will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court's ethical standards
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said the hearing will focus on "the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court's ethical standards," which sounds like an awfully tame way of saying "we must do something because the Supreme Court's legitimacy has been irreparably damaged." Now that we know Clarence Thomas was accepting bribes in the form of fancy trips and private plane travel for decades from a Republican megadonor, nothing short of impeachment and removal will save the court.

Take Action: Pass the Supreme Court Ethics Act!

At least 5 killed in live-streamed bank massacre in Louisville, Kentucky
The shooter, identified as a 25-year-old male, was employed at the bank, police said. The "weapon of choice" was once again an assault-style rifle that shouldn't even be legal in the first place, and the shooter was ultimately shot and killed by law enforcement. As horrific as this tragedy is, don't expect it to sway Republicans in the least. They cannot be convinced to care about the ceaseless bloodshed; for real change to occur, they MUST be voted out at the ballot box.

Nashville council votes to reinstate ousted Tennessee lawmaker
Thanks to a unanimous vote, Black state lawmaker Justin Jones will return to the Tennessee Legislature after he was unceremoniously removed last week by a gaggle of racist Republicans for daring to protest unchecked gun violence on the House floor. The Nashville Metropolitan Council suspended its rules to allow an immediate vote instead of holding a month long nomination period, swiftly sending Jones back to the Legislature to do the people's business.

Take Action: Tell Congress to vote NO on the bill to curb our online freedoms!

Police misled public; Nashville shooter did not have a "manifesto"
Despite reports to the contrary, it turns out that killer did not write about specific political, religious, or social issues. What police were quick to label a "manifesto" turned out to be "a series of rambling writings indicating no clear motive." This is a crucial clarification because Republicans have been gleefully promoting a false and deeply dangerous narrative that the shooter — who was transgender — carried out the attack specifically because of their gender identity and specifically targeted Christians. The GOP is desperate to demonize the transgender community as a threat to all of us, when in reality it's bigoted Republicans and their destructive, cruel policies who are a danger to every American.

Republican stunt finally BACKFIRES on them
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: It's about time.

Employers spend more than $400 million per year on "union-avoidance" consultants to bolster their union-busting efforts
High-profile union organizing campaigns and predictable corporate attacks on said campaigns at companies such as Amazon, Starbucks, and Google have shined a spotlight on workers seeking better pay and working conditions. Tellingly, brazen attempts to derail unionization efforts are on the rise, costing corporations more than $400 million a year. If companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars and still losing, imagine what the American working class is truly capable of if they continue banding together.

Biden judicial push hits roadblocks with GOP veto-power and Democratic absences
The liberal judge-confirmation train, which has been quietly but rapidly chugging along up to this point, has hit two major roadblocks. Firstly, 89-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein is out of the Senate with a case of shingles, leaving the Judiciary Committee locked at a 10-10 partisan split. The bigger issue is that Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin refuses to end the ridiculous "blue slip" tradition that allows senators to veto nominees from their home states, which has allowed GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith to block the nomination of Scott Colom. Republicans scrapped the "blue slip" tradition for circuit court judges under Trump, and there is literally zero reason for Democrats to continue allowing Republicans to obstruct us.

Gun deaths among American children and teens rose 50% in two years
According to a new analysis from Pew Research, gun deaths among American children and teens skyrocketed between 2019 and 2021 from 1,732 to 2,590 — a direct result of the Republican Party's fanatical refusal to pass even the tamest of gun-safety legislation.