Banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a Japanese high court rules

 Tokyo — A Japanese high court ruled Thursday that denying same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and called for urgent government action to address the lack of any law allowing such unions.

The court doesn't have the power to overturn the current marriage law, which has been interpreted to restrict marriage as between a man and a woman. Government offices may continue to deny marriage status to same-sex couples unless the existing law is revised to include LGBTQ+ couples, or a new law is enacted that allows for other types of unions.

The Sapporo High Court ruling said not allowing same-sex couples to marry and enjoy the same benefits as straight couples violates their fundamental right to have a family.

Ireland is one of the most pro-Palestinian nations in the world

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1233395830/ireland-pro-palestinian

The most notorious chapter of Ireland's WWII history came upon Hitler's death: Ireland's wartime leaders — President Douglas Hyde and Prime Minister Éamon de Valera — both offered official condolences to Germany's envoy in Dublin.

This was in 1945 — after the horrors of the Holocaust were known.

After the war, Ireland also allowed some Nazis to resettle there. Among them was Otto Skorzeny, whom the BBC has referred to as Hitler's "scar-faced henchman," who famously rescued Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity.

Historians say Irish neutrality was more about opposing Britain than out of any love for the Nazis. Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1921, barely 20 years before the onset of WWII.

News bits: Election propaganda; The reality disconnect; Rewriting history!

Now that Honest Joe and Crooked Don have secured their party nominations, our eyes and ears want to seek out the onslaught of divisive, de-rationalizing TTKP lies, slanders, crackpottery and irrational emotional manipulation that is most certainly coming our way.

TTKP: Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party

NPR reports about a key bit of Great white Replacement Theory propaganda that TTKP elites are test driving to see how good the lies’ traction (rage, terror, etc.) is likely to be with the public. The elite liars are lying about a tidal wave of illegal voting by illegal immigrants in the 2024 elections.  

It’s illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and numerous studies over the years have found that it almost never happens, but voting experts still worry the claims could take hold at a time when huge numbers of Republicans simultaneously don't trust elections and see immigration as the top problem facing the country.

“I think that’s what it’s meant to do — to freak people out over an issue. It’s a continuation of this myth of voter fraud,” said Gilda Daniels, an election law professor at the University of Baltimore. “It not only creates hysteria, but it [furthers] this idea that only certain people should be allowed to participate in the process.”

Given its apparent power to foment irrational fear, anger and outrage among the increasingly deceived TTKP base, this racist lie is likely to be prominent in the coming months. 

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Vox maybe inadvertently reports about the vast gulf in how Crooked Don’s supporters see him and his actual track record: 

Trump just opened the door to Social Security cuts. Take him seriously.

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump called for a ban on all Muslim immigration to the United States, the targeted assassination of terrorists’ family members, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and enormous corporate tax cuts.

And voters considered him the most “moderate” Republican candidate in more than four decades. [Huh? What?]

To the extent this perception had any basis in reality, it reflected Trump’s genuine moderation on one highly salient issue: Unlike many of his GOP predecessors, the mogul emphatically opposed any cuts to Medicare and Social Security. This likely made it a bit easier for ideologically conflicted older Rust Belt voters to pull the lever for a Republican.

Also in his track record of moderation are moderate accomplishments like (i) chronic lying including lying about the vast, still-ongoing stolen 2020 election lie, (ii) DJT’s violent coup attempt on 1/6/21, (iii) two impeachments, (iv) the indictments and criminal cases that are moving at the speed of cold molasses due to his stonewalling the courts, and (v) working with a cadre of convicted felons, many of whom he pardoned. 

Yeah, he definitely is a moderate! (sarcasm)

Q: If DJT is a moderate, what does an extremist look like? Putin? This guy?:

Is he a moderate too?

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The AP writes about another example of the massive TTKP propaganda campaign that is now getting underway in earnest. 

No, not that Earnest

This time the propaganda tactic is rewriting history:

House GOP launches new probe of Jan. 6 and tries 

shifting blame for Capitol attack away from Trump

House Republicans are launching a vast reinvestigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to push the blame away from Donald Trump, who has been indicted over his actions or his supporters in the mob siege trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., called Jan. 6 a “dark day” in U.S. history as he opened Tuesday’s hearing to delve into the investigation of pipe bombs that were left outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters that day. But, he said, “we still have many unanswered questions.”

The panel’s work comes as Trump and President Joe Biden are galloping toward a 2020 rematch this fall, and Republicans, some once skeptical of Trump’s return to the White House, have quickly been falling in line to support the former president. The House GOP’s high-profile impeachment inquiry into Biden has stalled without a clear path forward.

Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans intend to release a final report on Jan. 6 “to correct the incomplete narrative” advanced by the previous work of the Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack.

Germaine muses about the final report: The TTKP final, final report will find and expose Hillary’s deleted emails, with evidence of collusion with terrorists in the Benghazi fiasco and socialist deep state operatives in the federal government. From that, a connection with be made to the hidden deep state documents on Hunter Biden’s laptop and pictures of Anthony Weiner’s wiener. Those previously hidden documents will show that not only was Hunter a naughty newt, he and Joe together planned and executed the 1/6 coup attempt as a false flag operation by the pedophilic, socialist deep state operatives, rogue atheists and peeping Toms in trench coats pretending to be DJT supporters. 

There, I have set the record straight. Fact checkers agree:

☹️ Well OK, maybe the fact checkers are not quite in full agreement.

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For the last ~12 years, I have strenuously argued many times that dark free speech is tearing America apart. An article by Barbara McQuade that Time published a couple of weeks ago seems relevant:

Disinformation Is Tearing America Apart

“The information war is about territory—just not the geographic kind. In a warm information war, the human mind is the territory.” — Renée DiResta, The Digital Maginot Line

ON JANUARY 5, 2021, Rosanne Boyland left her home in Kennesaw, Georgia, for the ten-hour drive to Washington, DC. Boyland had fallen under the spell of the election-denier movement, bound by a belief that the incumbent president, Donald J. Trump, had won the presidential election but had been robbed of his victory through fraud.1 In fact, sixty-one courts and Trump’s own Justice Department had already rejected every claim of fraud, and federal cybersecurity and election officials had declared the 2020 election “the most secure in U.S. history.”

The next day, Boyland joined a mob egged on by Trump and stormed the U.S. Capitol to “Stop the Steal,” as the movement slogan went.

Like the rest of America, Boyland had been bombarded with false claims that Biden had used fraud to steal the election—a fabrication that would become known as “the Big Lie.” Eight others would also lose their lives as a result of the Capitol attack that was sparked by the deluge of disinformation.

In 2022, former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative, warned that 2020 was merely a dry run to steal future elections. He called Trump and his allies a “clear and present danger” to U.S. democracy. Indeed, after Trump was charged with crimes for efforts to upend the 2020 election, he began telling a second Big Lie—that the indictments were themselves election interference, filed solely to prevent his election to the presidency in 2024.

Is American democracy undergoing a slow erosion, invisible in real time but as devastating as a metastasizing cancer? Even if our form of government is not destroyed altogether, it risks becoming unrecognizable, controlled not by the people at large but by a small faction of the far right, willing to say or do anything to seize power. And while the current purveyors of disinformation do not represent every member of the GOP, the party’s silence is a form of complicity. When Republican leaders like former congresswoman Liz Cheney denounce their party’s disinformation, they are ignored or purged. Now that the potency of disinformation has been revealed, this weapon can be used by any demagogue or self-interested opportunist, regardless of political affiliation.

A key insight that McQuade mentions is the cancer-like malignancy of the disinformation threat. The cancer has been growing for decades. It arguably predates even Rush Limbaugh when he started spewing his poison on air in 1984. 

Q: Was Germaine premature to start whining about the dangers of disinformation or dark free speech all those years ago? Why could Germaine, often maligned as alarmist, hyperbolic, crackpot, liar, etc., clearly see a grave threat that most others could not, and some still cannot?

News bits: Christian nationalist bigotry; Regarding the benefit of a doubt; Regarding the Great Replacement

CNN reports about a proposed, hyper aggressive anti-LGBQT law:

A newly proposed law in Missouri could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they’re found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning.

Missouri state Rep. Jamie Gragg, a Republican, introduced HB 2885 last week. If passed and signed into law, the legislation would criminalize the act of “contributing to social transition” for anyone acting in an official capacity at their school, including providing informational or material support.

The proposed bill joins a string of anti-LGBTQ measures that have been filed in states across the US and comes amid a growing “parental rights” movement that seeks to empower parents to decide what can be taught in classrooms about gender, sexuality and race.  

In an interview with CNN affiliate KY3, Gragg said the goal of the bill is to “put the social learning development of our children back in the hands of the parents.”  

In 2023, at least 510 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union. The organization is also tracking 478 bills in the 2024 legislative session that restrict LGBTQ rights.

This is another example of the deranged bigotry, hate and irrationality that drives the morally rotted American Christian nationalist (CN) wealth and power movement. By making it a felony to support transgender students, CN elites rely on God-approved brute force. It is not a sex offense (punishable by up to 4 years in the slammer for each felony conviction) to simply support transgender people. Many transgenders have a hard time of it depending on how accepting their families are, or are not. This proposed law is an example of hateful, authoritarian CN bigotry in action. 

Anecdote: Back in my high school days, the sister of my closest friend was lesbian. She was sweet, kind, respectful and shockingly intelligent. When she told her parents about it, her father flew into a rage, kicked her out of the house instantly and never spoke to her again. She was kicked to the curb and had to fend for herself from that moment. That is an example of “parental rights” in action. 

Take away all tax privileges for all religion in 

America, right now! 

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A Salon article about the report by former special council Robert Hur raises the issue of who or what to believe when in doubt:

“Can’t make it up”: Experts say transcript shows special counsel Robert Hur “lied” about Biden

The full transcript undercuts Hur’s claims that Biden could not remember his son's death and had “poor” memory

The full transcript of President Joe Biden’s five-hour interview with special counsel Robert Hur’s investigators “paints a more nuanced portrait” of Biden’s memory than the special counsel’s report, according to The Washington Post, which noted that “Biden doesn’t come across as being as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be.”

The transcript “could raise questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having ‘significant limitations’ on his memory,” according to The Associated Press.

Hur in his report declined to charge Biden, arguing that it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict with a memory that the special counsel described as “faulty” and “poor,” noting that Biden could not recall when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

But Biden said exactly when his son died in the interview.

“What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30,” Biden said. When two others in the room chimed in with the year, Biden asked, “Was it 2015 when he died?”  

“Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, was it any of their damn business?” Biden said at a press conference last month.  

Attorney Andrew Laufer tweeted, “Hur lied. That’s really the only appropriate response.”

Several things in that quoted material indicate that Salon accords Hur the benefit of a doubt. For example, the article title put “lied” in quotes to soften the allegation, and stated that full transcript undercuts Hur’s claims, when the transcript contradicts Hur’s claims. To contradict means to assert the opposite of a statement, while undercut refers to weakening or hindering something.

Maybe Salon had to soft pedal its writing out of professionalism, giving Hur wiggle room to deny and deflect. But should known DJT supporters and MAGA partisans ever be given the benefit of any doubt? The public record is crystal clear that DJT, his partisans and the MAGA movement are all chronic liars (or deceived) and almost always acting in bad faith, usually tinged with malice.  

In my opinion, Hur, just like DJT and the MAGA movement, have earned distrust. They deserve no benefit of any doubt from people of good will who value democracy and truth. 

I think Hur is very likely a liar, ~97% confidence level.

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Meidastouch News reports about where sentiment the TTKP (Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party) and MAGA movement have toward the Great Replacement Theory, which was and will be a significant factor in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections:

“Is That Even Up For Debate?”— Lara Trump Embraces 

White Nationalist Great Replacement Theory

The racist conspiracy theory has been used by some to justify violence

A few days before becoming the RNC co-chair, Lara Trump went on Blaze host Alex Stein’s show. .... At a December Republican gala with Trump, Stein told racist and homophobic jokes implying jail time would make Black voters like Trump more and implied only “a homosexual” would take the COVID vaccine.

Stein [had a] conversation with Lara Trump about the Great Replacement Theory, which is a white nationalist belief that migrants are being imported to replace Europeans and white people in the United States:

Alex Stein: “I feel like Europe was kind of like the beta test. We saw what they were doing, and now it’s just, I mean, I don’t even know if Europe is recognizable anymore.”

Lara Trump: “According to friends of mine who live there or have moved from there it is not, most places. It’s like the wild, Wild West in a sense out there. It’s crazy.”

Stein: “Yeah, and then now that’s happening here in America. Do you think, this is kind of a tough question and this will be controversial, but the Great Replacement Theory, I think it’s real. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that. I don’t think it’s based on race, but I think they want immigrants to come here because they know that they’ll vote for them and, you know, democratic elections or at least vote for candidates that will give out free social services. So, for me, call me a conspiracy theorist, I don’t think it’s crazy to just let in millions of people in if you want to try to—”

Lara Trump: “Is that controversial? Is that even up for debate? Why else would you have a fully open border? Why else would you be letting people on the terror watch list just walk on in if you weren’t banking on at least the majority of the millions of people, I mean, they say it’s close to 10 million that we know of, it’s probably more like 15, if you weren’t banking on those people voting for you, why else would you repeal voter ID laws? Why would you do all this stuff if you weren’t banking on that?”

Demagoguing the Great Replacement Theory is a core bit of CN dogma and propaganda. 

Are Stein and Lara Trump credible? Or, is what they are saying, lies, based on deceit or bad faith, tinged with malice? In good faith, I accord both essentially no credibility, just like I accord Hur.

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This excellent 12 minute video by Frontline about the allegedly stolen 2020 presidential election reminds us of some things we really need to be aware of to some extent. It keeps fresh and in context the authoritarian horror we face again in 2024.

Thanks to Freeze Peach for bringing this video to my attention.

ICYMI...

Explain this to me:

(by PrimalSoup)

The stigma of depression…

I see a lot of commercials on TV these days about depression, and medicine you can get to help stave it off.

I know I have mentioned this before here, but I have been taking generic Celexa (Citalopram) (10mgs per day), a medication for depression, for at least 25 years now, maybe longer.  

I was once overly sensitive about things I had absolutely no control over and that many would think was no big deal. I’d hear someone yelling at their kid and I’d have to leave the area, I couldn’t stand to be around it. I’d see a dead squirrel on the street and I’d start crying. It came to a point where I knew I needed to address it somehow.  I did so through medication. I’m in much better control of myself nowadays, I’d say thanks to that med.  If I go off of it, which I've tried, I get that "black cloud feeling" come over me again, after a few days.

I really have a great life, so it's nothing like that. It's the bigger world I'm talking about that can bring me down.

But I’ve got a question. Why is depression seen as a shortcoming?  I’d say it’s a rather normal thing, or should be.  Anyone who is not depressed about the state of the world is the one with the problem, IMO. 

Talk about the stigma of depression. 

• Are you ever depressed?  If yes, what have you done about it? 
• How do you deal with the cruelties and other evils of the world around you (e.g., ignore them, avoid them, pretend they’re not there, accept them and move on, find/get religion to lean on, don’t give a fuck about them...it’s not your problem, other)?

Give me some advice on the best way to deal with what I’d call “normal depression.” 

(by PrimalSoup)