Franken writes: "You can be a hard worker, show up on time, and get exemplary performance reviews, but in 33 states in this country, you can still be fired if your boss discovers that you're gay or transgender, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Senator Al Franken. (photo: Cory Ryan/Getty Images)
What Is Speaker Boehner Waiting for on ENDA?
09 November 13
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s we debated -- and ultimately passed -- the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) this week, I discovered something fascinating: Americans were frankly surprised to learn that in the majority of states, it's still perfectly legal to fire someone because they're gay. You can be a hard worker, show up on time, and get exemplary performance reviews, but in 33 states in this country, you can still be fired if your boss discovers that you're gay or transgender, and there's nothing you can do about it.
In fact, in one recent poll, eight in 10 Americans believe that it is already illegal under federal law to fire or refuse to hire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It's not. But just the fact that a vast majority of Americans think ENDA is already the law is evidence of how obviously right it is that we finish the job and make ENDA the law.
After decades of struggle, we have achieved a number of huge victories in rapid succession-ending Don't Ask Don't Tell; overturning the federal ban on same-sex marriage; the achievement of marriage equality in an increasing number of states, including this year in my home state of Minnesota.
Equality in the workplace is something Minnesota achieved two decades ago when we outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. At the time, only a few states prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, and Minnesota was the first to include protections for transgender workers.
For LGBT Minnesotans, having that law in place has meant that they don't have to live in fear of being fired, or discriminated against in hiring, just because of who they are, or whom they love. But if you're an LGBT American living in one of the states without these protections, very little has changed.
Some in Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner, oppose ENDA because, they claim, it will cause frivolous lawsuits and hurt businesses. The Minnesota experience shows that those fears are unfounded. There has not been a flood of lawsuits, because the rights of LGBT Minnesotans are widely respected. And, as home to 19 Fortune-500 companies, Minnesota has become an ever better place to work and do business.
Last year, a vice president from Minnesota-based General Mills, one of the world's largest food companies with 35,000 employees, explained to a Senate committee why the company supports extending the same legal protections that Minnesotans enjoy to workers across America, saying the company's policy of inclusion has contributed to its innovation and growth.
"Employees who are members of the GLBT community are incredible contributors to our enterprise," he told the committee. "Absent their unique perspectives, talents, and gifts, we would be less competitive and successful. Simply said, talent matters. Now more than ever, American business needs to leverage the ingenuity of all sectors for our nation. Discriminatory barriers to top talent just don't make business sense."
Many other large Minnesota-based employers -- Target, Supervalu, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Medtronic, 3M, Cargill, Best Buy -- have benefited from having similar company-wide policies in place.
Minnesota's small businesses also have seen benefits. Nancy Lyons, who owns a small, 70-person Minneapolis software business says that the protections and peace of mind that her employees get from not living in fear positively impacts every aspect of their lives, from their productivity at work to their family lives.
It is long past time that LGBT employees around the country be guaranteed the same rights that they have had in Minnesota for 20 years. In Minnesota, our law has given LGBT Minnesotans peace of mind and freedom from discrimination at work and improved the overall climate in our state for those individuals, for families, and for businesses.
Americans should cheer the Senate passage of ENDA this week, and the incredible progress we have made in recent years on LGBT rights across the country. So Mr. Speaker, what are you waiting for?
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The so-called goldwater rule has never been anything to serious psycho-historia ns. One of Post's colleagues who discredits his work wrote a book on Bush called "Bush on the Couch."
It was Freud who first introduced the idea of using psychoanalysis to write about famous people of history or contemporary times. Of course, there are limitations but the insights are often good.
I've read all of Post's work on Saddam Hussein. It is trivial, banal, and clearly a hatchet job. I have several friends who met Saddam personally in Iraq. I've spoken on the phone with Saddam's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz. These are not scary people. They are not psychopaths like GW Bush or Dick Cheney. There's no need to run out of the room. But that is Post's drama and banality.
You mean like Hamlet? Wasn't likely to take offense or sue.
In what capacity did you speak with Aziz? Were you a Russian operative?
A large number of mental health professionals agree with Post's concerns, including John Zinner in this article, who goes farther than Post. Other mental health professionals have spoken up since earlier in Trump's presidency.
There's never been a POTUS before who displayed, over and over, such a lack of character, intellect & due diligence to serve as POTUS, or who has surrounded himself with unqualified advisors. He repeatedly reminds people of a young child. Mental health professionals have described him as a malignant narcissist with paranoid tendencies.
Millions of Americans have become extremely & increasingly alarmed about the man in the White House, and the dangers that he may or does pose. Trump has operated out in public for a long time now (even tweeting during the wee & pre-dawn hours). There is more than sufficient information for many mental health professionals to have developed strong opinions that they may wish to share with the public, to provide warnings. They should be free individually to share those opinions, even though their organizations would probably still be well advised not to make statements about the mental condition of elected officials or candidates.
So you got a thoroughly incompetent businessman in her place. What he will do is totally unpredictable which is what he promised. She was still promising Goldwater when she low-blowed Sanders.
They were both"malignant narcissists," but she lost.
Pushing these false equivalences of yours has become its own kind of delusional propaganda imo. Plenty of reasons to criticize Clinton, to reject her completely, but Trump is a unique phenomenon and the POTUS, debate is warranted.
My post is not a Hillary rant, or any kind of rant, except perhaps at Raskolnikov's message. BTW, Bernie was the candidate I really supported.
I'm anti-war all the way, & always have been. My only reference to Russia was in asking Raskolnikov how he happened to be on the phone with Saddam's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.
I have a lot of gripes against Hillary, including unfairness to Bernie & failing to conduct a good enough campaign to defeat the ignorant, incompetent, cruel time bomb who won. But she's not a malignant narcissist. You haven't really read up on it.
If HRC had been elected & tried to start a war with anyone, we would have had to fight to stop her. Meanwhile, the POTUS escalated in Afghanistan & bombed Syria, just another of his reversals of position since his campaign.
Trump did not deserved to winn. Heavily involved in activism and a delegate to the Democratic Convention, a degree in Neurolinguistic s & MSS, Trump reproduced Hitler's method and targeted those married to ignorance until death....Or just plain lazy to research candidates. Yes I know they are angry but they are devoid of common sense. They will find out soon enough as they thrown under the bus. Part of Trump's Plan is another form of Genocide.
I confess, I smiled and even let a cheer to Hillary losing. Karma brought her her just deserts as it came back a bit heroine the ass as well as those in the Party who wanted to keep the power of the money machine along with her cohorts greed. to shun Bernie.
The real inventor of CIA pyschological profiling was John Gittinger. He's featured in this documentary -- "You have treated me as a fish long enough"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-noXrfZH52o
The problem with Post is that his analysis is based entirely on information given to him by the CIA. Some of it has also been published in the US press. The CIA is not honest in the reports it creates about leaders it wants to destroy. It invents really lurid fantasies. Post accepts those stories as true. He has been criticized by others in the profession for taking these stories as fact.
A psychological analysis really can only be made after long and careful face to face meetings with the subject. Post never meets the people he writes about. He's only providing fodder for the mass media character assassinations of foreign leaders. Post's work is really propaganda, intended for consumption by frightened Americans. There are very good psychoanalysts who try to write analyses that get into the minds of important people in the world.
"lack of character" is a moral judgment or a value judgment, not a psychological analysis. It means you don't agree with or value the kind of mind Trump has. I don't either. But there are many people who value it highly. They like his bluntness, openness, combativeness, and ignorance of history and world events.
I do think that GW Bush had a worse character than Trump. Although he was smarter, Bill Clinton may also have had a worse character. All of our presidents have been really bad or evil people, including Obama who should be given an academy award for playing the role of nice guy. Maybe Trump will turn out to be the worst of the lot. He certainly has the potential to be the very worst.
We are in a mess. High office too often attracts terrible people or the good ones are pushed out rather brutally.
The important thing is that as a society we have rewarded and promoted sociopaths so that they now control many of our national institutions -- government, corporations, courts, schools. We've rewarded the kinds of personalities they have. Trump is part of that trend. He's now being regime changed by people who are even worse sociopaths than he is. (I'm not making a psychological analysis here. I'm using the term as common term).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-WTmhUQlN0
If you were high enough in Russian gov to chat with Saddam's foreign minister, and went to China with Putin recently, you must be close enough to Vladimir to bathe in HIS narcissism that Dump is emulating... Tell us more...Curious minds want to know!
WMS was a really great organization and did important work. It is now defunct. Its leaders have passed away.
But over the weeks here, enough clues have been adding up in this 62 year old historian's noggin to make me wonder. KBG Putin stays in shape physically with judo. Perhaps KGB Putin keeps his propaganda / disinformation skills honed here?
If so, it wouldn't be the first time I have outed a Head of State online... Search, "RSN Queen Elizabeth Irish Slaves."
He died in 1976, soon after F-16 (same engine) rollout, at age 54. Cancer suddenly appeared in his back and spread. A single tiny grain of plutonium in his car seat would have accomplished that nicely, eh?
by Elias Canetti
Rascalnikov said it right. You should be writing for New yorker's public, not RSN.
If you have any experience with our current legal system you are likely aware of the ease with which conflicting psychiatric testimony can be obtained.
Be careful what you wish for...
Over time we are repelled by those we know in our soul are evil (Hitler, Pol Pot, etc.). We are repulsed by those who we know are awful human beings. Many in our Congress today, most with an R in front of their name as examples.
I have witnessed Presidents since Kennedy and voted as soon as i could. I was inspired by John Kennedy, repulsed by Nixon and incredulous when GW Bush was elected. He and Darth Cheney should be rotting in jail for what they did in lying about WMD and attacking Iraq .
Barak Obama is probably the most moral, ethical, smart and decent human being who ever served as President. The Racist Repubs thwarted him at every turn and are among the awful and corrupt.
Donald Trump is from a completely different planet. Tens of millions of us knew from the start of the campaign that this was not a normal person and saw him as a joke - how could any American with a brain and soul vote for hits idiot without morals, how could we hold him up as a model for our children. Most knew from the start that Trump was a buffoon - and now he's anointed many like him to the most senior positions in our government at the most critical time in history. How could highly trained shrinks not weigh in here? We cannot allow this moron be used as a willing fool to those around the world who wish us harm? That's truly insanity and those who say they would vote for him again truly need their head examined.
But Trumpolini Trumplethinskin seems ok to you?
That said, he is extremely scary. He decided to bomb Syria while emotional over the photos of children struck with chemical weapons, & without formulating any actual foreign policy to guide the decision. His psyche appears quite fragile & thin-skinned, & he has no experienced, rational foreign policy advisors,
But individual members should have their freedom of speech, & should not be constrained if they see a duty to warn. So the APA should rescind the Goldwater Rule.
Granted, the mental health professionals who speak out might not win over any Trump voters--althoug h it might help with those who feel betrayed. Those who speak out might have an impact on people who didn't vote last time & will next time.
But for those of us who were & will be strongly against Trump, it's helpful to have professional opinions that help us understand the monster. I was not familiar with malignant narcissism, but when the first report with a diagnosis came out, & that was it, it suits him to a T(rump). I encourage people to read what malignant narcissism is.
Now, now, it's been said that those who make carte blanc assertions as fact combined with excessive use of upper case shouting may also have "...severe personality defects...".
What the hey, could be we're all a little crazy...
"Still crazy after all these years"
Paul Simon
With an immoral GOP running both houses of Congress, nothing will happen unless & until Mueller's or another investigation find dirt that enough Republicans find repelling--or until the Dems retake Congress next year.
People have been working since GW Bush won with only an Electoral College majority to round up enough states willing to commit their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner that we won't have to have any more popular vote losers as POTUS. I believe the blue states are in but we need some red states. This end-run is necessary because amending the Constitution is impossible, thanks to the red states.
The GOP unfortunately lacked leaders willing to convince their voters that Trump was unfit--& it lacked candidates strong & moral enough to defeat his bigoted, ignorant bluster. Then HRC failed to go after the Rust Belt votes that decided the Electoral College outcome.
Bernie would have won, IMHO, & we could have had a POTUS focussed on the needs of the people of this country, & one who would oppose discrimination & division.
He's no more crazy than the GOP base and the years, decades, of insane right-wing propaganda that made his presidency inevitable. A malignant narcissist becoming a beacon of hope for the brainwashed masses makes perfect sense to me. You're right, he will come out unscathed, probably win a second term. 'The left', whatever the hell that means, still believes the average American sees him as offensive and outrageous. How could they not? Bull chit, they love him. The more 'the left' debates the danger and calls him insane, the more they martyr him. That's what America has devolved to.
Eventually the GOP base will wake up to the fact that they've been screwed, just like with Bush at the end of his second term. Just more debt and more of the nation's wealth in the hands of the top 1%. Wages will remain stagnant and the cost of health care will continue to rise. At least we stopped sharia law from taking over Kansas!
I feel like we're experiencing the Bush years all over again in a lot of ways. Much hope during his first years, believing he couldn't possibly win a second term. It got so bad at the end of his presidency, I thought the Reagan Era had finally come to a crashing end. Both parties would have to move back to a more sane and stable center. How could the crash of 2008 not bring about some change?
Boy was I wrong. We got a corporate, lame duck Democrat in the White House for 8 years while the GOP emerged stronger than ever. We laughed at the Koch funded Tea Party and their sad little rallies yet they elected a president, even if we're not calling him the Tea Party candidate. I'm afraid I've become a pessimist. Our only hope is for a generation or two to die off.
Politically, none of the weak men who ran against Trump were capable of standing up to Trump's bullying, & they allowed themselves to be swept along with his politics of hatred. I would have been disgusted to have any of them as POTUS. And yet, none of them would have been so ignorant & unqualified, so surrounded with unqualified people, so incapable of governing, so willing to obstruct justice, so willing to brag to the Russians & give them secrets provided in confidence by an ally, so unwilling to read & learn, & so erratic & childish & thin-skinned & unbalanced that he deeply frightens so many Americans & so many other people around the world.
Trump showed us that even a presidential candidate can cross every line and come out on top. Clinton utters one insulting word and loses the election and people are still blaming the election on that one sentence. That might be accurate. Trump insults millions of Americans for months on end and wins. Journalists have normalized the hate by insisting it was his appeal to rust belt voters, lies about factory jobs, that helped him the most. One of many double standards that helps to keep conservatives in power.
That is the most frightening outcome of this election imo, even if Trump is impeached, he has shown right-wing extremists who now run the country that there are few limits that voters will tolerate.