Cuyahoga County Council’s public hearing postponed

Image credit: stemgenex.com

I’ve posted twice on The Cuyahoga County Council’s intended power grab to meddle in the lives of residents. As posted earlier:

The Cuyahoga County Council has been quietly working on legislation to establish a county-wide "Human Rights Commission" that will affect every city, resident, business, and church in the county.  The three-person commission is intended to hear ALL cases of discrimination in Cuyahoga County relative to sexual orientation/gender identity.  LGBT citizens will be provided legal assistance paid for by our tax dollars.  This piece of legislation hurts business, puts our safety at risk, and punishes people of faith.   This ordinance permits biological men, who consider themselves to be a woman, to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room in "all places of public accommodation."

But the public hearing scheduled for Sept. 12 has been postponed again; I wonder if that’s a good sign. Just received an Alert from Ohio Value Voters:

The public meeting to discuss and vote on the proposed "Human Rights Commission" at the Cuyahoga County Council has been placed on HOLD (once again) and will NOT be held on September 12, 2018.

A date for the meeting has not been announced.

Previous Cleveland Tea Party blog posts are here and here.

# # #

Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones – Who’s Next?

image credit: savvygirls.ca

I don’t click very often at InfoWars, which is accessible on several aggregator sites [as of this posting, the website is still up, including reports of the censorship]. But that’s not the point. Mike LaChance at Legal Insurrection has a scary report “based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy”:

The deplatforming of Alex Jones by social media sites should disturb you whether you are a fan or not. I’ve never been a fan of Jones or his Infowars site. I’ve never gotten past the time Jones led an angry mob against Michelle Malkin in 2008. Still, if this can be done to him it can be done to anyone.

Twitter was the last holdout of the Jones purge, but announced their decision yesterday.

Eli Blumenthal writes at USA Today:

Twitter bans conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Infowars from social network for violating ‘abusive behavior’ policy

Alex Jones has been kicked off of Twitter.

The controversial founder of conspiracy website Infowars was banned from the social network Thursday afternoon. Both Jones’ personal account and that of his website were removed by Twitter.

“Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope,” Twitter’s official Safety account tweeted. “We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations.”

This strikes me as a violation of Jones’s First Amendment rights. As the headline says, “who’s next?” Read the rest of the Legal Insurrection account here.

UPDATE at 2:10PM via PJ Media: Alex Jones: "I’m the 'Beta Test' for Tech Companies to Start Censoring Conservatives."

# # #

Richard Cordray's upcoming campaign event

Guess who's coming to Cleveland? Cleveland.com reports:

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Richard Cordray in Cleveland on Sept. 13, one of Obama's first electoral rallies of the 2018 midterms.

Cordray is a former Obama administration official, having served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. . . .

The Cordray campaign did not immediately provide a time or location for the rally, other than to say in a press release it would be in the evening.

This event will be open to the public.

# # #

REPOST: A Bad Idea from the Cuyahoga County Council

art credit: gamesageddon.com

Cuyahoga County Human Rights Commission 

REPOSTED FROM AUG 21

Cleveland Tea Party would not have a role to play in, say, the ongoing targeting of the Colorado baker who won’t produce a cake celebrating gay marriage or transgendering. However, one of the three core Tea Party values is limited government, and the Cuyahoga County Council is planning to take it upon itself to further meddle in the lives of residents. Our friends at Ohio Value Voters sent out the message below (warning: Cringe Alert). Mark your calendar, make some phone calls, or send messages:

Residents of NE Ohio

Public Testimony Requested

Wednesday, September 12 at 5:00 PM

The Cuyahoga County Council has been quietly working on legislation to establish a county-wide "Human Rights Commission" that will affect every city, resident, business, and church in the county.  The three-person commission is intended to hear ALL cases of discrimination in Cuyahoga County relative to sexual orientation/gender identity.  LGBT citizens will be provided legal assistance paid for by our tax dollars.  This piece of legislation hurts business, puts our safety at risk, and punishes people of faith.   This ordinance permits biological men, who consider themselves to be a woman, to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room in "all places of public accommodation."

On Wednesday, September 12th at 5:00 pm the County Council of Cuyahoga County, Ohio will hear public testimony against Ordinance No. O2018-0009 sponsored by: County Executive Budish and Councilmembers Brady, Miller, Houser, and Simon.  

Resources/Articles and ACTION items: 

Click Here For Council Meeting Instructions

Action Item: Tell the council (by phone/email) to Vote NO on Ordinance No. O2018-0009. Click Here for a list of Phone Numbers/Email Addresses of Council Members

Read this article, "How to think about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Policies and Religious Freedom," by Ryan T. Anderson

Resource: List of Gender Identities & Pronouns

The above linked Heritage Foundation Article is good but rather long. I found a shorter article – and it pulls no punches –zeroing in on “Marxism and Marriage” at American Thinker here. 

I also checked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which already has jurisdiction over claims related to LGBT; see here. The Cleveland Field Office website is here; its page for filing a charge of discrimination is here. So the Cuyahoga County Council's intended power-grab can also be filed under the Department of Redundancy Department.

# # #

Blue Angels rehearsing

And they look just like a demonstration at the Air Show!

# # #

Happy Labor Day weekend

Art credit: Kewlgraphics.com

# # #

Winning on trade

art credit: moziru.com

News Gingrich’s latest message includes a short summary of President Trump’s trade deals:

The breakthrough in trade negotiations with Mexico is, to use one of President Trump’s favorite words, huge.

Most of the so-called experts had said the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) couldn’t be renegotiated. They insisted Trump had offended Mexicans so much with his harsh language that the Mexican government wouldn’t come to the table. They asserted building the wall would alienate the Mexican leadership. They were just plain wrong.

President Trump’s progress on NAFTA sends five big signals:

1.    Making good on a big, disruptive pledge that set his 2016 campaign apart from every other candidate, President Trump kept his word and is forcing a difficult negotiation toward success.

2.    President Trump proved, once again, that tough language and tough negotiating can actually lead to breakthroughs. Unlike most politicians, Trump is willing to endure heat to achieve success.

3.    As a result of his seriousness on trade, other countries are now approaching Trump about trade negotiations (note German Chancellor Merkel’s call this week for trade talks).

4.    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to be clever when he ambushed and attempted to embarrass President Trump during a press conference at the G7 Summit in Canada. Trudeau is now discovering that Trump has a good memory. Canada now has virtually no leverage in trying to play catch up with the U.S.-Mexico negotiations.

5.    The Trump Administration’s continued attention to economic matters – despite the liberal media’s daily efforts to get him and his team off balance through dishonest reporting and smear stories – is paying off. The average American sees the economy getting better and better. And the average American increasingly thinks the success is due to President Trump.

Mr. Speaker’s full message is posted at Fox here.

# # #