Hansens amendment to an anti trans bill was to add to it a 12 week abortion ban (actually more like 9-10 weeks because of the definition of gestational age). This again was on Tuesday. The Democrats went crazy. You cannot add an amendment totally unrelated to the original bill and expect it to just be allowed to stand. Well this Nebraska's one house legislature and since there are 32 Republicans they can do whatever they want with the help of just one lone Democrat to stifle debate and move on to passing an unconstitutional law. Enter Senator Mike "Rat Bastard" McDonnell . A Democrat from central Omaha, a former fire chief and a DUI enthusiast but most of all one of those creatures I call professional Catholics. His religion is what motivates him, well that and he's running for Mayor of Omaha and he thinks being a homophobic anti woman hack is the path to victory. Catholicism, ah ya cant beat it if youre stuck in the middle ages. McDonnell provided the 33rd vote to turn that house of wealthy old people, ranchers with nothing to do in the winter, bankers looking out for #1, and retired housewives who get bored and are really bitter over their aging bodies.
So LB574 came up for final reading yesterday and the attempt to turn Nebraska into just another Mississippi of the North was full speed ahead. Some of us dont take the taking away of rights of women and trans gender kids lightly. We will not go away lightly.
The vote was set for somewhere around 4. The protesters were there at noon. The chanting began immediately just outside the legislative chambers. The glass doors were locked. The State Patrol was locked and loaded. The bigots in the chamber were ready to express their love for children and their even more love for the "pre-born" (the term pre born was IN THE BILL which is not a medical term and is now in Nebraska law making us look like the fools we are). The right wing groups were in a special protected class as they were allowed to look down on the protesters from the rotunda balcony which was allegedly off limits to anyone. A nice catholic woman stuck out her tongue at the gathered protesters as thats what 60 year old women do, right? A GOP operative named Matt Innis wanders around the rotunda snapping pics of people like he's some kind of crazed anti 1st amendment paparazzi. A man packing a gun on his hip stood around probably fantasizing about shootin some queers .
The chanting continued. You could hear it on the live feed of the Legislature. Senators needed to speak loudly to be heard. When the bills sponsor, a suburbanite white woman appointee totally owned by outside interests, Senator Kathleen Kauth , stood to express her "love" for children and how kids brains dont fully develop till age 25 (but they can be forced to give birth at age 12) and all this transgender stuff is just a phase kids go thru, the people in the gallery (in the chamber) erupted. Yelling and throwing things at her as she carried on about how these people were "outside the state agitators" the gallery was cleared as it had been earlier in the week when the abortion amendment was added. Kauth lives in a white woman bubble of fellow well off GOP haters and cannot believe there are those of us in this state who find her and her bill abhorrent.
The gallery people came down to be with the rest of us outside the chamber and thats when the State Patrol sprung into action. When a protestor was grabbed and shoved into a corner and held down by numerous officers well that's an instigation for some. One protester ran up and punched an officer which is not a good thing nor very smart. This caused a sudden wave of State Patrolman to pounce. What went on in that scrum was not visible to my eye but the sudden violence was infuriating. Stop the violence chants began. I surged forward because quite frankly I hate bullies and I wasn't thinking straight before reaching the scrum and then thinking better of getting into a fight with cops at my age. Stop the Violence was the best we could do.
Chanting, singing, laying down on the floor, disrupting the polite society continued until the vote. It was 33-15 just enough to pass with the help of Rat Bastard McDonnell. One vote to save our lives!!
The session adjourned and the cowards snuck out the back with the protection of the State Patrol and the GOP thugs standing there looking all tough. The heroes of the session, State Senators Machaela Cavanaugh and State Senator Megyn Hunt (who has an trans son) who had been called "groomers" for 81 days emerged to loud cheers, hugs and the sadness that they had failed to influence one decent person to just stop.
Look this bill will be thrown out by any court worth a shit (which is a big if that any exist). The bill has a clause that isnt even germane to the bill itself (that idiotic abortion ban). In the past the Nebraska Supreme Court has thrown out various other petitions about marijuana and gambling because they contained too many different subjects. Will they do it with this bill? We can hope. I'm not holding my breath.
Democracy is dying all over the world. Its ugly to watch authoritarian schmoes get their way because of gerrymandering and the people voting for Republicans just because they want to "own the libs". It's the strategy of a loser. The strategy of a middle school brain that never developed at age 25. Ya know like Kathleen Kauth.
Fuck this state. Its backwardness has always been frustrating but in a sense charming. The reasonableness in the inability to think forward has always been something one can deal with if youve lived here all your life. But since 2016 and the unleashing of vermin that had normally kept a low profile, this state has changed. Its mean, its profane and its just another Trump loving band of cultists just like the rest of rural America. Election deniers, conspiracy theorists and undeveloped brains have infiltrated our statehouse.
Vote them ALL OUT!
