This just in: Today, I want to talk about how Republicans put lipstick on a pig in hopes of making is seem less…pig-like.

The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech.

What the First Amendments does not do it allow you to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire. This is because you will be causing a panic in which people can be injured.

In other words, you can’t use your right to free speech in a way that is willfully and avoidably harmful to others. (I’m not a lawyer but this is how I interpret this.)

In the same way, you can’t stand in the middle of the street holding a sign that says, “Detour. Turn right here.” When people turn right they drive straight off of a cliff.

Seems pretty obvious.

But, we are allowed to go online and tell people, falsely, that a politician is a pedophile. People read this and decide to take the law into their own hands. They take action against something that is not true; action that results in injury to another.

Trump can incite a crowd to riot and kill and we act like it’s not a big deal. “He has a right to say whatever he wants.” Wrong.

All of this Fake News that we find from Republicans and on outlets like Fox news is inspiring violence. It does so willfully and avoidably. It is no different from yelling “Fire” in a theater.

Another example…

In Iran, morality police arrested a young woman for not wear her headdress appropriately. She later died of a supposed “heart attack.”

Iran’s “morality policy” have nothing to do with morals. They have everything to do will suppressing women and mandating strict adherence to the religious beliefs of their leaders. In short, its all about control to maintain power.

In the United States, we don’t have “morality policy.” Instead, we have “republicans.”

Republicans plan on arresting young women, and those that support them, if they fail to comply with the religious beliefs of the party. Anti-abortion laws are not “pro-life”. They are about suppressing women and imposing their personal beliefs in magic on others.

By the way, “Pro-Choice” means I want you to decide what to do with your body and I want to decide what to do with my body. “Anti-Abortion” means, I want to decide what to do with my body and I want to decide what to do with your body.

You can put lipstick on gun rights. You can put lipstick on voter suppression. You can put lipstick on unlimited campaign finances.

A pig with lipstick is not less pig-ish. It’s just a pig with lipstick.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim