Hypocrites or fools?

Terrence Heath wrote:

But it takes a special kind of leader to take that fear, distill it into hatred, and fill us up with it. Donald Trump proved himself just that kind of leader when he supported a registry of Muslim-Americans, special ID badges for Muslims, and finally promised to ban all Muslims from entering the US. If you think those ideas sound vaguely familiar, you’re right.

So can we call him and his supporters Fascists yet?



Five children of gay parents sued the Austrian government saying that they were being stigmatized because their parents could not marry. The Administrative Court in Vienna ruled against them, saying in part children of unwed parents no long face much social criticism. Appeals to national courts are now possible.



The Romanian Parliament soundly defeated a bill that would have granted civil unions. It was strongly opposed by the Orthodox Church. The bill was introduced by Green Party president Remus Cernea. He is also calling for strict separation of church and state.



The Parliament of Slovenia passed marriage equality last March. The Catholic Church and conservative groups demanded a referendum. It was voted down with 63% against. Thank Pope Francis.



Remember all that noise from various GOP Congresscritters demanding Planned Parenthood be defunded. Didn't happen. That huge budget bill recently passed includes full funding of Planned Parenthood. With such loud kvetching from the GOP, how did we manage that? Robert Kuttner, in Huffington Post, wrote that (1) Dems held firm. (2) The GOP read the polls that say 60% want PP fully funded. (3) Speaker Ryan told his party that they could not withstand the bad publicity of another gov't shutdown. (4) PP and its leader Cecile Richards are astute political players.



In a second part of his column Kuttner poses a question to ponder. The GOP is all for openly carrying guns into all types of venues. Will they allow guns in their nominating convention in Cleveland? Ohio is an open-carry state. If attendees must check guns at the door they are hypocrites. If they admit guns they are fools – one can imagine a shootout between Trump supporters and Cruz supporters. Maybe reporters need to pack heat.



Kuttner adds condemnation of the interest rate hike by the Fed. The Fed had said they were raising rates to keep inflation in check – but according to their goals inflation is too low. Besides, the job market is softer than it looks. The official unemployment rate of 5% doesn't include those who have stopped looking for work or in a job with too few hours. The Feds said the markets expected the raise. In response, the markets tanked.

Slovenia!

Slovenia has approved same-sex marriage! The bill was hotly contested, but passed by a wide margin. An anti-gay group will push for a referendum on the law. That already happened back in 2012, when voters rejected an earlier marriage law. But getting to a referendum won't be easy because in 2013 the referendum law was changed so referendums on human rights issues are no longer allowed. (What a great idea! Wish we had done that here.)



I had written about Arkansas enacting a law that prevents cities from passing non-discrimination laws. Cities are now responding. (1) North Little Rock stated their commitment to fair and equal opportunities regardless of sexual orientation. (2) Businesses in Little Rock have started displaying stickers showing a rainbow hued state outline and the words "We serve and hire equally."



For a while there has been a Prayer Station inside the City Hall of Warren, Michigan. An atheist proposed putting up a Reason Station as well. The city refused. The cit said it wanted to avoid conflict and disruption in City Hall. Besides, the city didn't want an anti-religion presence, depriving religious groups of their constitutional freedoms. The ACLU sued, and won. So a Reason Station should appear in Warren's City Hall soon.



A recent poll found that more that 2/3 of Americans think the wealthy pay too little in federal tax and more that 60% say the middle class pays too much.



As the Latino population in some cities, such as Yakima, Washington, grows, local politicians have a way of keeping them out of government. Yakima is one-third Latino but there are no Latinos on the city council. The reason is all city council representatives are "at large." That means 50% of the voters can control 100% of the seats. That's even better than Gerrymandering and similar to what was (and is again) done to prevent blacks from serving in city gov't. Lawsuits can be effective in solving this problem. Alas, they're also expensive and take lots of time.