Idaho State Senator Threatens High School Kids with Arrest for Participating in Democracy
By Thom Hartmann A...
The ugly face of Republican authoritarianism.
The twisted, distorted, angry, hateful face of a Republican Party who desperately serves the morbidly rich and gives lip service to average working Americans at the same time that they're doing everything they can to destroy the lives of average working Americans by cutting Social Security, huge cuts in Social Security Administration in this Trump budget, cutting Medicare - an over five hundred billion dollar cut to Medicare - in this Trump budget, cutting Medicaid, cutting food stamps, cutting WIC - women infants and children's - programs, cutting money to education, transferring more and more money out of public schools into private - particularly religious - schools and right-wing private schools, for-profit private schools.
All the things that this administration is doing. Cutting back on safety for everything from miners to average working people. Reducing regulations that stop fracking and refining operations from poisoning people downwind. Allowing the coal companies to dump more and more coal waste into our rivers, thus poisoning downriver communities that draw drinking water from the rivers.
Ryan Zinke destroying our national monuments and turning them over to foreign mining companies to rape the United States for foreign profits that will be recycled back into Republican coffers.
This is what's going on. This is the level of obscene greed and criminality that has come to represent the Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization, the Republican Party, the modern-day GOP, the party where in 2000 when George W Bush decided he was going to run for president, they literally flipped the stars on the elephant upside-down. The upside-down five-pointed star is the satanic star, it's the goat - the two horns at the top, the two ears on the side and the chinny chin chin on the bottom.
When you flip it right side up, you've got the star on the US flag, that's what's on the Democratic logo, on the donkey. On the Republican logo since 2000 we've had three satanic stars. Surprised? I'm not.
And you want to really see how it plays out? Well, there's an Idaho State Senator, his name is Dan Foreman and a group of high school students contacted him in Idaho. They are Idaho high school students and they wanted to lobby their senator, right? Nothing wrong with that. In fact, we're encouraged to do that, right? Lobbying is something every senator likes.
And what they specifically wanted to lobby him for was two things:
Number one: there was one piece of legislation in the State Capitol that allowed women to receive up to a 12 month supply of prescribed birth control pills. Apparently right now in Idaho if you get a prescription you can only fill it for one month at a time. And they're just asking for convenience.
Number two: the state has an old sex education law and they wanted it updated to include training on sexual assault. What is rape? What does it mean when someone says no?
These were the students' requests and these were both pieces of legislation that were before the Idaho State Senate: properly and appropriately expand sex education to include consent, and allow pharmacies to sell us 12 months worth of birth control instead of just one month at a time.
So what did Republican senator Dan Foreman do when these students showed up at his office? And by the way, the students who showed up at his office had driven seven hours to meet this guy. He agreed to meet them at 9 o'clock in the morning and they were hundreds of miles away so they got up very early in the morning to drive to this guy's office to meet with him to say please vote for these two relatively innocuous pieces of legislation.
But gee, it was girls wanting to have something to do with arguably control over their own bodies.
He threatened them:
"...not honoring my commitment to be in a meeting. Abortion is murder. I stand against it. I am a Roman Catholic. I am a conservative Republican. I think what you guys do, stinks. "
A member of the group said, "that is your choice," and he replied:
"You're damn right it's my choice. So stay out of my office... Next time you walk into my office you're going to be dealing with ISP."
He threatened them - next time you walk in my office you're going to be dealing with the state police. Paul Dillon, the public affairs director of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho said this diatribe was "unhinged". He said...
"Even if you disagree with what we have to say, there’s no excuse for that kind behavior. He was being a bully."
This is amazing. But these guys they're hysterical. You come in and say you want to talk about sex ed and women's rights, "oh, it's abortion, I'm hysterical." You say hey, I'd like to talk about people dying in our schools, "oh my God, it's gun control."
Because these Republicans, they're getting so much money from the right-wing Catholics and the forced birth folks and they're getting so much money from the National Rifle Association and they really don't want to be held to account for it. They don't want to answer to their people.
And the same thing is happening right now with the kids who survived the Parkland massacre. This from a piece of over Think Progress: "The far-right smear campaign against students who survived the Parkland massacre."
They're being targeted because they don't want more classmates to die and they talk about how this guy Gateway Pundit - a far-right blog that has press credentials into the White House - which is basically trashing David Hogg, one of the young young people who are speaking out because his father is a retired FBI agent. Therefore the FBI which is out to get Donald Trump must be helping this kid get in front of the cameras. Therefore maybe the FBI shot at the school, who knows? But Mr.. Wintrich of Gateway Pundit is all over this.
And then Jim Hoft, the editor of of Gateway Pundit, appears on One America News - another right-wing network funded by billionaires - this is crazy, all the hate that is being spent on these kids.
When did killing children become a partisan issue?
When did the Republican Party become the party of killing kids?
Comments
#2
Todays response by the NRA at CPAC (a conservative audience) was as close to Fascism and Nazi culture as it gets. They are scheduling the next mass murder in America.
#3
The peaceful left.
Liberals used to believe that words mattered and images had consequences; the casual glorification of carnage trivialized violence and only made it more acceptable — and likely.
In 2017, the obsessive hatred of Trump led, for instance, to many obscenities: Madonna told us she dreamed of blowing up the White House, comedian Kathy Griffin posed with a bloody facsimile of Trump’s head, Snoop Dog shot a Trump likeliness in a video, a Shakespearean company ritually stabbed Trump-Caesar every night on stage, Johnny Depp joked, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? … It has been a while, and maybe it is time.”
Take the high road??? I think the children were listening!
#4
@#3 HotCoffee
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
#5
It is interesting that "He Who Is Named Hot Coffee" looks only at the actions of private citizens with no formal conection to the Democrats. These are not the elected officials that Thom has been talking about so can it HC! Elected officials, if they are not sold out shills, will generally take time to consider all sides of an issue, determine what the voters want and take some action. And, yeah, Johnny Depp lives in France. Should we invade the wine country?
#6
Thanks Diane,
Max
I suppose next you will tell me the dems don't go fund raising with...(Cloony $15 mil all by himself) these peaceful folks... yeah right. How much was it 1.2 billion?
Easy to find pic's of Obama and Hillary with every one of them....google images works really well.
You can pretend if you want....but pretending isn't truth.
Also I'm a she so you're wrong about that too.
#7
What a completely insensitive buffoon!!
He needed a talking points card to respond to survivers of the Stoneman Douglas school shooting... WTF!!
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3fc888/5a8ef00afe1ff612bc2adf70/bGlzc2VqZW...
#8
#1 - I don't believe in the religious concept of a devil opposing good
But, I do believe in the rational concept of devilish and we are it incarnate
#9
I'd like to share this one, but in some parts of the story it says Ohio & in others it says Idaho.
#10
How charming. HC and DiRey, patting each other on the back after abetting another school massacre. And the richest of all is HC bloviating about the left's obsessive hatred of Trump. This coming from the very one that can hardly go a minute without venting her spleen about her hatred for Hillary. The one who incessantly trolls the internet like a drug addict needing another fix, looking for any morsel, not matter how large small or from who what when or where, to reinforce her crazed mania of sticking another needle in her Hillary voodoo doll. The one, even a year after the election, that has to continually slither around in the mud, just so she can come on here and vomit out her anti-Hillaryisms. But of course, were the haters!
Lets face it, when coffee is left on the burner too long, it becomes bitter and hard to digest.
By the way, if you haven't checked out Randi Rhodes, lately, she's better than ever. As she pointed out today, Republicans want gun-free zones for everyone but themselves. You can't go to the Republican convention carrying a gun. You can't go to a Trump rally carrying a gun. You can't go to CPAC carrying a gun and I'll bet you can't go to a Wayne LaPierre speech carrying a gun. But these same bastards had to make sure that they had some dimwitted bigot asshole show up at an event where Obama was speaking, packing heat, I mean exercising his second amendment right.
Jeff, thanks for that link. Talking points that were, no doubt, written by the NRA!
#11
Obviously Dan Foreman forgets that he is a public servant. He is employed by the families of those students. They need to just fire his simple ass.
Foreman: "I am a Roman Catholic." "I am a conservative Republican." What the hell does being a Roman Catholic and Conservative Republican have to do with democracy and the will of the vast majority?....absolutely nothing!
What kind of fool would brag about being a Fascist Catholic?
#12
Stopgap,
Anyone who can read the posts can tell who the bitter one is. The truth does seem to make you especially cranky!! LOL
#13
There's a vast difference between Coffee's Hillary derangement syndrome and everyone elses obsessive hatred of Trump. I don't think I even need to explain!....or just read Thom's first paragraph.
#14
Yeah stopgap..
I think HC is just a little too tightly wound! Maybe too much caffeine?!?
Take a look at her last couple posts on yesterdays blog. She was conflating abortion with the school shooting... Pretty messed up! I think its time to switch to decaf...
#15
Yeah Jeff, You gotta love how that if we don't turn the other cheek, we are the hateful warmongers. God forbid that we might try to organize and try to raise some money too! How dare us? How terrible that some rich person might be sane enough to want to help save the planet, protect the children, insure a bit of comfort for the elderly (including Me!) and support other progressive causes.
It seems they are so obsessed with money that they cannot believe that anyone thinks other than them….anyone that doesn't always bow down to the god of the almighty buck, can't be trusted or believed and is an enemy that has to be crushed.
#16
Very well said. Your quite the wordsmith.
#17
Problem I see is the 2-party System is Obsolete> It's come compleatly off the rails where members of both parties wear blinders and R just in it for theirself enrichment, unable to discuss issues so SOLUTIONs fall by the wayside as opposing sides stick to their DOGMA It's unwritten law of Engr'g that a Problem can be defined by "any undesireable result" Hence America's Problem is a Dysfunctional 2-party system unable to solve ANYTHING & disolves into a fight to gain control at all costs, no common sense to find solutions at all We'll either end up in a 2nd Civil War or WW3 will be the common denominator to bind us as a singular nation again> I now understand what my GrandPa' menat when he said "They aught to marched outside, lined up against a wall and SHOT" (All of 'em)
#18
Stopgap,
If you think what the libs are doing in #3 is turning the other cheek...I feel sorry for you. If you and your supporters here can claim that those are not acts promoting violence your mentally ill. Or maybe you like violence as long as it's directed at repubs.
First you try to dismiss it by saying but...but it wasn't the politicians...then it's turning the other cheek. You are good at swicthing the subject if the truth gets to close to home.
You dismiss comments about hillary by pretending she wasn't the other candidate...or thats in the past...well no, cause thats what got you all riled up was that she lost.
She lied, she cheated, she ran with Harvey Weinstien and and most every pervert that tossed her a dime and so much more. You Dems chose her. YOUR mistake.
Sorry you won't face the truth and you whine because someone dares to come here and tell it to you.
You can insult me all you want but it doesn't change the truth.
The repubs are just as slimey, but then I'm not defending them. I defend issues not politicians.
#19
Her brother Bailey lived with my family for about 6 mos. Met her Mom too ...back when people wen't so hateful.
As you hate on Christians remember MLK was a Christian and Maya always claimed to be a Christian under construction.
“Alone” “Lying, thinkingLast nightHow to find my soul a home,Where water is not thirstyAnd bread loaf is not stone.I came up with one thingAnd I don't believe I'm wrong,That nobody,But nobodyCan make it out here alone. Alone, all alone,Nobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone. There are some millionairesWith money they can't use,Their wives run round like banshees,Their children sing the blues.They've got expensive doctorsTo cure their hearts of stone,But nobody,No, nobodyCan make it out here alone. Alone, all alone,Nobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone. Now if you listen closelyI'll tell you what I know...Storm clouds are gathering,The wind is gonna blow.The race of man is suffering,And I can hear the moan,'Cause nobody,But nobody,Can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone,Nobody, but nobody,Can make it out here alone.”
- Maya Angelou
#20
So a few comedians have had jokes abkut Trump. Kind of leaves himself open for it with the thousands of Tweets, lies and talking point notes. But I do remember republicans leading chants of "lock her up". Why is she not locked up? Because it was all a Fox News promotion.
#21
With all of the distractions we are missing out on Mueller's indictment of the former (coffee boy) Campaign Manager Manafort and his side kick Gates. Our POTUS hung around with some great guys. How does the chant go?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-m...
#22
Boxcar, I don't think the problem is necessarily the two party system. The biggest problem is MONEY. Take money out of our elections and you would probably put an end to the two party system just by default. Adding another party at this point is only enabling the rich oligarch's ability to divide and conquer.
#23
HC, The only issue I see you defending is Hillary-hating. I don't see how that is supposed to undo all the destruction done by Trump…how that will clean up the planet...how that will balance the budget…how that will feed the poor…how that will protect children from being gunned down in school…how that will solve climate change. I don't see how electing the most immoral, amateurish, corrupt, unqualified, embarrassingly inarticulate inept person to ever hold the office of the president, was the better alternative. Virtually every word that comes out of Trump's mouth is a lie and whenever we call him on it, all you can do is rant and rave about Hillary.
Again for the nth time…Hillary is not the president. She is no longer a factor. Hillary hating is not solving anything. Trump is now the president and it is his actions, his bigotry, his incessant greed, his mental instability, his laziness and unwillingness to familiarize himself with the issues, that incurs our wrath. Not to mention that everyone he nominates for a cabinet post is totally unqualified and even openly hostile to the very post they were appointed to.
As Legend pointed out, the Republicans chanted "lock her up" but who is being locked up? The very people close to Trump that chanted "lock her up." And who is locking them up? Lifelong conservatives like Mueller and Rosenstein that actually study the facts, not just troll right wing sites for incredulous conclusions based on rightwing, think-tank fantasies.
#24
I think I have figured something out. A few of you here have disclosed where you live and looking at the timestamp on your posts, some of you people are up all night spitting out stomach bile in the form of posts here.
Thom, you should start billing these sock puppets for therapy provided. You have unwittingly become the outlet for their hatred. If any of them came up from the basement and stepped out of the house before posting, they may hit the news by evening.
Kids, try a couple hundred Tums and a doobie around 11:00 PM then hit the My Pillow for 6-8 hours. It will do a lot for your blood pressure.
#25
Fox News is incredibly dangerous to this country. It literally warps peoples thinking. They provide news but also give the opinion that you should have on that news. They repeat and repeat driving it into peoples minds. How many times did they show people chanting "Lock Her Up". How much Benghazi did they broadcast? Do they report on Trumps failed mission in Yemen? Even the knee level camera angle of the good looking girls keeps eyes on the screen. It use to be that news was reported. But Fox has O'Reilly (had), Hannity, Carlson and others that preach what you should think. What is funny is every troll on this sight will come back and say they do not watch it. Well, Trump does.
#26
Like a f@#king scratched record.. Hotcoffee, like the Fox faithful, just wont drop the"Hillary" witch hunt!! When you listen to them.."foaming at the mouth".. They really want to string her up and burn her at the stake!!
You and l know its a perversion of news. A complete distortion of the truth. And its a completely orchestrated diversion, to create a distraction...
...From the REAL INVESTIGATION!
You know.. I like coffee too.
But l know my limit.
Like l said earlier.. You really do need to switch to decaf!!
#27
Yes DiRey, we have figured out something too. What kind of warped nazi/fascist spends their time concerning themselves with where "you people" live and what time "you people" put up their posts? "Stable geniuses!!!" Cuckoo Cuckoo!
Jeff, you hit the nail on the head, and what a hard head it is. I hope you didn't break your hammer. It's just one rabbit hole after another with these conservatives.
#28
Reynolds.
I do smoke "doobie" Maybe you should heed your own advice.. And light some up too!
I think..it just might "open up" your narrow minded head!!
#29
Personally, I love Hillary Clinton. She put Donald Trump in the White House.
BTW, thanks again for making the day.
#30
A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
#31
Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth.
Two quotes by Malcolm X...
#32
Now its time to listen to Thom on the radio.
Just updating you Reynolds. Since l now know..just how concerned you are, with how l spend my time...
#33
Thanks for spotting the error, I've corrected it.
#34
Gun Control
Regulating guns can be justified by the protecting the general welfare of US citizens clause of the US constitution.
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