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News Round-Up: June 11, 2021

(screen capture via dash camera footage)

Some news items you might have missed:

• USA Today: An Arkansas woman says she had no safe place to pull over in July 2020 when a state trooper tried to stop her for speeding, so she turned on her hazard lights and slowed down. Moments later, the officer rammed her vehicle, causing it to flip over and injuring the woman, who was pregnant at the time, according to a lawsuit filed in May.

• Washington Post: Donald Trump’s Justice Department secretly subpoenaed Apple for the data of two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as the data of their current and former staffers and family members, in an aggressive push by the Trump administration to determine who was leaking classified information to the news media, according to a committee official.

• CNN: Darnella Frazier was honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board today “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice.”


• New York Times: During a recent visit to Argentina by the prime minister of Spain, President Alberto Fernández tried to connect with his guest by paying (xenophobic) homage to Argentina’s European immigrant heritage. “Mexicans emerged from Indigenous people, Brazilians emerged from the jungle but we Argentines arrived on boats. On boats from Europe.” #SwingAndMiss

• Raw Story: A Proud Boy charged with taking part in the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building January 6 requested pre-trial release from jail claiming ‘chronic back pain.’ But according to prosecutors, his back pain didn’t stop him from wielding an axe handle against Capitol Police officers.

• Twitter: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) is calling out corporations who are flaunting their support for Pride Month while they also donate to the campaigns of anti-LGBTQ politicians.

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Proud Boys Leader Lashes Out At Trump

Ethan Nordean (circled) in a photo provided by the Justice Dept and Eddie Block Films
Ethan Nordean (circled) in a photo provided by the Justice Dept and Eddie Block Films
Ethan Nordean (circled) in a photo provided by the Justice Dept and Eddie Block Films

So, now they’re mad. Now that they’ve been made a fool of.

“Fuck Trump! Fuck him more than Biden. I’ve followed this guy for 4 years and given everything and lost it all. Yes he woke us up, but he led us to believe some great justice was upon us…and it never happened. Now I’ve got some of my good friends and myself facing jail time cuz we follow this guy’s lead and never questioned it.”

More from USA Today:

Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean lashed out at President Donald Trump, accusing him of misleading his supporters and then deserting them despite their unwavering loyalty.

“We are now and always have been on our own. So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and s— on us on the way out,” Nordean said in an expletive-laden message about the former president. “F— you trump you left us on [t]he battle field bloody and alone.”

Nordean is one of several members of the extremist group with ties to white supremacy whose members describe themselves as “Western Chauvinists.” He’s among the more than 400 people who have been charged for their alleged roles in the deadly assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Read the full article here.

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News Round-Up: April 7, 2021

Our pup Brody on the lookout
Our pup Brody on the lookout
Brody on the lookout

Some news items you might have missed:

• Brody Watch: Just to let you know – we are soooooooo safe thanks to our fearless pup (above). Brody has no fear it seems other than not getting enough attention 🙂

• NBC News: Lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced a bill that would prevent doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery for anyone under 21. Senate Bill 514 would also compel state employees to notify parents if their child displays “gender nonconformity” or expresses a desire to be treated in a way other than the gender they were assigned at birth.

• USA Today: First lady Jill Biden, the military mom in the White House, is working with Joining Forces which helps military and veteran families, caregivers and survivors get the support they need. After weeks of listening sessions with military families, Biden said her priorities will focus on employment and entrepreneurship, military child education and health and well-being.

• Daily Beacon: A Tennessee lawmaker has proposed a bill that would prohibit the use of any materials in schools that, in the language of the bill, “promote, normalize, support or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles.” Opponents say erasing LGBTQ people from history books would send the message to queer kids that they arent’ “normal.”

• CNN: At least one of the Capitol riot defendants has flipped against the Proud Boys, agreeing to provide information that could allow the Justice Department to bring a more severe charge against the group’s leadership. The development is the first indication that people charged in the insurrection are cooperating against the pro-Trump extremist group.

• Instagram: Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman is the first-ever poet to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine – and when I say ‘grace’….I mean GRACE. #gorgeous

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News Round-Up: January 20, 2021

lawn boy with no Donald Trump yelling

A photo of the meme lawn boy with no Donald Trump yelling (but the Proud Boys are turning on Trump)

Some news items you might have missed:

• New Day: I thought a lot about the right image to lead this news round-up today. After years of the popular meme of the lawn boy being yelled at by Donald Trump, today – no yelling. #AndExhale #PoofHesGone

• LGBTQ Nation: Antony J. Blinken, Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his confirmation hearing that he will enact policies that will allow American embassies to support and protect LGBTQ rights around the world by flying the rainbow flag.

• LA Times: The FBI raided the Huntington Beach apartment of openly-gay far-right extremist Kristopher Dreww, who boasted on social media about attending the invasion of the U.S. Capitol. No arrest took place but undisclosed items were removed from the residence.

• Meidas Touch: Bette Midler has a message for Donald Trump. I’m so happy to wave ‘so long dearie’ to the Trump years in the White House, but how could I not post this?

• Washington Post: Donald Trump had imagined a showy military send-off, however only a modest crowd of a few hundred loyalists showed up at Joint Base Andrews to see him off. The event had more of a feel of a county fair than a big-budget extravaganza. In a Trumpian twist, the music that played as he ended his remarks was the Village People’s “YMCA,” a singalong staple from his boisterous political rallies.

• New York Times: The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group who were staunch supporters of Donald Trump, have begun to turn on the Trumpster calling him “weak” and “a total failure.”

• The Daily Beast: As it became clear that Trump was not, in fact, going to suddenly appear and order the arrest of all the Democrats, QAnon believers – like the Proud Boys – also began to wonder if they had been tricked.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger On Trump: ‘I Know Where Such Lies Lead’

Arnold Schwarzenegger compares Trump supporters to Nazis in Twitter message
Arnold Schwarzenegger compares Trump supporters to Nazis in Twitter message
Arnold Schwarzenegger (screen capture)

Arnold Schwarzenegger, movie star and former Republican Governor of California, did not hold back in a recent video message posted to Twitter that compares the recent invasion of the U.S. Capitol to the violent 1938 attack on Jews known as the “Night of Broken Glass” in his native country Austria.

“I grew up in a country that suffered from the loss of its democracy,” said Schwarzenegger after noting that the 1938 violence was perpetrated by a “Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys.”

The 73-year-old former politician shared that he grew up knowing people who weren’t Nazis or anti-Semites but who “just went along” with the violence. That included his own father who he admitted would come home drunk and beat him and his mother, like other neighborhood men who were “in emotional pain for what they saw or did.”

“It all started with lies, lies, lies and intolerance,” he continued. “Being from Europe I’ve seen firsthand how bad things can spin out of control.”

“He sought a coup by misleading people with lies,” he said. “I know where such lies lead.”

He also declared that Donald Trump would go down as the “worse president” in history.

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News Round-Up: October 5, 2020

Some news items you might have missed:

• The Advocate: Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have opened the court’s term by calling for the overturning of its 2015 marriage equality decision. The Obergefell v. Hodges decision threatens religious liberty, Alito wrote in a statement in which Thomas concurred.

• The Gaily Grind: Nearly a week after President Trump instructed the far-right extremist Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by” during 2020’s first presidential debate after being asked to condemn them, internet users have reclaimed the #ProudBoys hashtag by flooding Twitter and Reddit with photos of gay men in love and expressing physical affection.

• Pink News: Nursing student Michelle Ramos Vargas has become the 30th known trans person to be killed in the United States so far this year, and the sixth killed in Puerto Rico in the same period. Vargas’ body was found with multiple gunshot wounds in San Germán, Puerto Rico in the early hours of September 30.

• NowThis News: A super-cut of the times Donald Trump, who now has COVID-19, has mocked face masks. ‘A lot of people don’t want to wear masks.’

• Wall Street Journal: The IRS is investigating longtime National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre for possible criminal tax fraud related to his personal taxes. According to public filings, his total reported pay from 2014 to 2018 was $11.2 million. In August, he was charged in a civil suit by New York Attorney GeneralLetitia James with taking millions of dollars of allegedly undisclosed compensation in the form of free yacht trips, private jet flights for his family, exotic safaris and other benefits.

• BBC: Facing a rising rate of coronavirus infections in France which began to grow exponentially in late August, officials in Paris will shut all bars completely from Tuesday after the French government raised the city’s coronavirus alert to maximum following a period of high infection rates. On Saturday, the country reported nearly 17,000 infections marking the highest rate since the country started widespread testing.

• Star-Telegram: Trump supporter Jason Lata was arrested on suspicion of assault causing bodily injury after he punched a man in a video clip that went viral. Video of the incident shows Lata in a hat yelling profanities at the victim and screaming “Turn it off!” as an anti-Donald Trump rap song by YG appeared to be playing in the background. Lata, who was standing with other men who were wearing Trump T-shirts, then punched the victim in the face.

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News Round-Up: June 5, 2020

(image via sadanduseless)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Summer Fashion: So, I don’t know if it’s a ‘thing’ but someone is apparently trying to make lace shorts for guys (above) a ‘thing’ this summer? #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm

• Washington Blade: In yet another attack by the Trump administration to enable legal discrimination against LGBTQ people, the Justice Department is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to allow religious-affiliated adoption agencies that receive tax-payer dollars to refuse child placement into LGBTQ homes.

• Out Music: 80s pop icon Limahl (“Neverending Story”, “Only For Love”, “Too Shy” with Kajagoogoo) returns with “Still in Love,” his first foray into the mainstream in over eight years. American Songwriter calls the new track “a soulful and sultry pop ode to the darker side of love, that recurrent backfire of amore, and finding oneself after being crushed by it.”

• Buzzfeed News: A police officer in Salem, Oregon, was caught on video warning a group of white supremacists to seek shelter before the police were planning to tear gas the area and  avoid being arrested for violating a curfew so officers “don’t look like [they’re] playing favorites.”

• Newsweek: Donald Trump finally got his wall/fence. But instead of being a barrier on the U.S. southern border, it’s a barricade around the White House. I’m sure you can parse the irony on your own.

• The Advocate: Police fired bang shots at a queer bar owner in North Carolina after he’d set up a first aid station in his parking lot to treat peaceful protestors who had gotten injured.

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Founder of White Nationalist Group Proud Boys Defends Using “Faggot”

Gavin McInnes (screen capture)

A group of Proud Boys, a homophobic, white nationalist group, took to the streets of Manhattan last Friday after attending a speech by the group’s founder, Gavin McInnes at the Metropolitan Republican Club.

Several members of the racist group (the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Proud Boys as a hate group) were captured on video after the event beating and kicking three individuals.

During the attack, one of the assailants can be heard yelling, “You’re not so brave now, faggot.” Another member of the group calls one of the victims “a f**king foreigner.”

In the aftermath, the New York Police Department, which had already arrested three of the protesters, has said it believes it can bring charges against nine Proud Boys who took part in the attack.

McInnes, though, took to his podcast on Sunday to defend the use of the word “faggot” by his followers.

As reported by Media Matters, McInnes says the incident began when a protester attempted to steal one of the Proud Boys’ MAGA hats.

“You know, someone jumps you, steals your hat and then gets beaten so bad that the kid, the antifa kid they beat up was in tears. He was crying. Now, while this person is crying, I’m sorry, but faggot is a handy term. It’s very rarely used against gays. In fact, Louis C.K. has this whole bit about how I would never call a gay a faggot because you don’t call homosexuals faggots, you call faggots faggots. It means someone — it means a man who is crying, basically. In fact, most gays I know are a lot tougher and more alpha than most straights.”

In an appearance on the conservative media outlet Newsmax, McInnes tried to say the word “faggot” is just a term used when hyped up in fist fight.

“When someone’s adrenaline is pumping, he’s going to say, ‘Are you brave now, f-word?’” McInnes said. “He didn’t mean it like it was some sort of homosexual attack.”

He also put the blame on the protesters, known as Antifa, for getting the Proud Boys so wound up that they had to use the word “faggot.”

Here’s more background on Gavin McInnes and his Proud Boys: