Tag: Republicans

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Leaked Memo Urges GOP House Members To Pressure Amazon Regarding Conversion Therapy Books

(stock photo of depressed teen via Depositphotos)

A memo currently being circulated among Republican members of Congress asks the lawmakers to “contact Amazon with concerns” regarding “censorship” after the online retail giant announced it had removed books on the subject of so-called ‘conversion therapy.’

Earlier this month, Amazon announced it had removed all books by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, widely credited as the ‘father of conversion therapy.’

The action by Amazon was the result of months of complaints and an online petition that garnered over 82,000 signatures demanding the removal of the titles which included A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, Healing Homosexualityand How a Gay Boy Became a Straight Man.

Conversion therapy, sometimes known as reparative therapy, has been shown to lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide.

The discredited practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity has been widely denounced by major medical organizations like the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association as phony ‘pseudo-science.’

Currently, 18 states plus dozens of local municipalities have banned the harmful practice for minors.

But Vice News obtained a copy of the memo, given to members of the Republican Study Committee, which includes more than 70% of all GOP members of the House. The document was handed out during a private meeting of the members on Wednesday.

It would appear that Republicans want to see Nicolosi’s books back in circulation on Amazon.

“These books were available on Amazon until an LGBT activist repeatedly petitioned Amazon to remove the ‘homophobic books’ from the company’s website,” reads the memo per Vice News. “Amazon removed Dr. Nicolosi’s books and those of several other authors on similar topics.”

“It is not clear that any of the banned books have violated an Amazon policy,” continues the document. “But rather that the company is choosing to censor speech.”

The memo urges the GOP lawmakers to read an article from the Federalist which tries to assert hypocrisy for banning books on conversion therapy when Amazon still sells history book about Hitler, Mussolini, KKK leader David Duke and U.S. terrorist Timothy McVeigh.

Calling the LGBTQ community “a supposedly oppressed and marginalized group,” the Federalistarticle states the community “wields an extravagant amount of power” aimed at “anyone who chooses not to support” LGBTQ rights.

Vice News contacted Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) who has previously chaired the Republican Study Committee. Walker shared he didn’t know about the move to pressure Amazon but admitted he thinks Amazon shouldn’t be in the business of ‘banning speech.’

The author of the online petition, Sky Gray, told Vice News via email that the goal of banning conversion therapy books could be hampered with members of Congress getting involved.

”It shouldn’t be surprising that the conservatives are in support of conversion therapy; they’ve made it clear they are in the past,” said Gray. “It looks like this is going to be a bigger fight than previously anticipated, though I knew it would be an uphill battle.”

“Looks like the hill just got a lot steeper, with this knowledge in mind,” he added.

A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling released in April this year showed 80% of respondents believe performing conversion therapy on minors should be illegal.

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News Round-Up: April 15, 2019

Some news items you might have missed:

• Now, y’all know the fab Shoshana Bean is back on the Broad Way starring in Sara Bareilles’ Waitress, right? Annnnd, her leading man is the oh-so-talented Jeremy Jordan? Get to the Brooks Atkinson Theater before they be gone. #JustSaying

• A jury sentenced a man to death because they thought he would enjoy being in prison for life because he is gay.

• Dallas police arrested 29-year-old Edward Thomas on a charge of aggravated assault for the brutal beating of a transgender woman. Authorities are investigating whether the brutal attack caught on video should have hate crime charges attached, although gender identity is not a protected class in the state. The video, posted to Facebook, is quite disturbing as Thomas punches the victim over and over as a crowd stood by.

• At Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, an unnamed student tore down a large hanging sign advertising the school’s Gay Straight Trans Alliance (GSTA). The vandal crumpled up the sign into a ball and dropped it into the crowd below as dozens of students laughed and clapped.

• A 40-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against his parents for throwing away his porn collection that he estimates was worth $29,000.

• Donald Trump has a challenger for the 2020 Republican nomination – former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld has officially declared as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2020.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders has released 10 years of tax returns showing both income and tax rate jumped after presidential campaign, and revealing his millionaire status.

• I could really, really wish to be in Mykonos right now with this guy… 🙂

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Out On The Campaign Trail, President Obama Puts It All In Perspective

President Obama ,out on the campaign trail this week for midterm elections, reminded me (again) why I loved this guy as president.

Here’s just a few examples of how clear he makes it all to understand.

Remember how ‘Hillary’s email’ was the worstest thing in the world in 2016?

OMG, the sky is falling! She’s leaking classified info! She’s irresponsible.

And then this week comes the report that Donald Trump doesn’t like using his secure government phone.

So, he tweets and calls informal advisers like Sean Hannity on his iPhone – a phone that apparently the Chinese and Russian governments can listen in on.

Barack puts it all in perspective:

Dang, I miss this guy.

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After Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich, GOP Senate Blames Rising Deficits On Medicare/Social Security

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Remember when the Trump tax cuts were not only going to pay for themselves but lower the deficit?

Yeah, not so much.

From Bloomberg News:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed rising federal deficits and debt on a bipartisan unwillingness to contain spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and said he sees little chance of a major deficit reduction deal while Republicans control Congress and the White House.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem,” McConnell said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News when asked about the rising deficits and debt. “It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.”

McConnell’s remarks came a day after the Treasury Department said the U.S. budget deficit grew to $779 billion in Donald Trump’s first full fiscal year as president, the result of the GOP’s tax cuts, bipartisan spending increases and rising interest payments on the national debt. That’s a 77 percent increase from the $439 billion deficit in fiscal 2015, when McConnell became majority leader.

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54% Of Republicans Feel Kavanaugh Should Be Confirmed Even If Sexual Misconduct Allegations Are True

A recent Marist poll shows a majority of Republicans - 54% - feel Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if the allegations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford are true.

A recent Marist poll shows a majority of Republicans – 54% – feel Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if the allegations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford are true.

Drilling down a bit deeper, the results showed 48% of Evangelical Republicans don’t mind his confirmation even if the accusations by Ford are true. That says something, doesn’t it?

Thirty-two percent of Republicans do not believe Kavanaugh should sit on the high court if Ford’s allegations are true.

Only 12% of Democrats believed that he should be confirmed if the allegations are true.

The same poll showed Kavanaugh is upside down in his approval ratings with 31% approval versus 37% disapproving.

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House Republicans Fail To Pass Their Own Immigration Bill

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives failed today to pass their more extreme immigration bill by a vote of 193-231.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says he will not bring a more narrowly tailored bill to the floor for a vote.

But with Donald Trump’s recent executive order addressing family separations at the border possibly being challenged in courts, Ryan may have to rethink that position.

It’s still possible that a solution might be found in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled he would consider emergency legislation on the issue.

All 49 Democratic Senators have signed on in support of a bill they’ve crafted that would legally put an end to the family separations but it’s doubtful McConnell would embrace the legislation.

Here’s the report from CBSN below.

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FBI Denounces Release Of GOP Memo Citing “Grave Concerns About Material Omissions Of Fact”

(image via Flickr – Dave Newman)

On Monday, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a four-page memo which they say shows serious anti-Trump bias in the FBI’s ongoing investigation into possible Russian interference and/or collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The memo pulls information used to obtain the original FISA warrant which allowed U.S. intelligence units to surveil foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, Carter Page, who was apparently communicating with Russian officials.

House Democrats contend the memo “cherry-picks” only parts of the warrant to paint a certain picture. The Dems wrote their own memo to be released with the GOP version, but the Republicans on the committee blocked that from happening.

For clarity, it’s useful to know that the average FISA warrant application contains between 50-60 pages. So four pages would clearly not represent full transparency.

The Justice Department has already raised flags about the danger of releasing the memo.

And now the FBI, under command of Director Christopher Wray (hand-picked by Donald Trump), says the bureau has “grave concerns” about releasing the memo.

From The New York Times:

The “F.B.I. was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,” the bureau said in a statement. “As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

Though Mr. Wray’s name was not attached to the statement, the high-profile comment by the F.B.I. thrust him into a confrontation with President Trump, who abruptly fired his predecessor, James B. Comey. Mr. Trump wants to see the memo released, telling people close to him that he believes it makes the case that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials acted inappropriately when they sought the highly classified warrant in October 2016 on the campaign adviser, Carter Page.

The president’s stance puts him at odds with much of his national security establishment. The Justice Department has warned repeatedly that the memo, prepared by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, is misleading and that its release would set a bad precedent for making government secrets public. F.B.I. officials have said privately that the president is prioritizing politics over national security and is putting the bureau’s reputation at risk.

Republicans say it was not made clear to the judge who signed off on the warrant that part of the info in the application, the now-infamous “Steele dossier,” was financed in part by the Democrats during the election.

Donald Trump has claimed the dossier has been proven to be wholly false, but in reality some parts of the dossier have been proven.

Congressional Republicans have been trying to discredit not only the dossier but agents within the FBI. They point to private text messages between two agents last year that seemed to indicate sympathy for Hillary Clinton.

Interestingly, CNN is reporting today that one of those agents, Peter Strzok, who was removed from the investigation, actually drafted former FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress that reopened the investigation into her email use.

Strzok, who co-wrote what appears to be the first draft that formed the basis of the letter Comey sent to Congress, also supported reopening the Clinton investigation once the emails were discovered on disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop, according to a source familiar with Strzok’s thinking. The day after Strzok sent his draft to his colleagues, Comey released the letter to Congress, reigniting the email controversy in the final days of the campaign.

Now, if Strzok wanted the investigation reopened, how does that make him “sympathetic” to Hillary Clinton?

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Poll: Republicans Could Bear The Brunt Of Government Shutdown Blame

Only hours before a possible shutdown of the federal government, a new poll shows the Republicans would bear the brunt of responsibility for the ensuing debacle.

According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll:

• 48% of those surveyed would place the blame on Donald Trump and the Republicans

• 28% would hold Democrats responsible

• 18% say both parties would share the blame

• Among the very important political Independents, 46% would blame Republicans compared to 25% who would say Dems would be responsible.

This would be the first time in modern history that the government would shut down while under control of one political party.

I thought Donald Trump’s big skill was “bringing people together” to get a deal…?

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News Round-Up: December 2, 2017

Some news items you might have missed:

• Woofy Alex Abramov (above) says, “Everyone should believe in something. I believe I should go to the beach this weekend.” You gotta admit, Alex wears the beach very, very well 🙂

• Analysis by Newsweek shows the current tax bill in the Senate would devastate support systems and services for LGBT Americans.

• Uri Kokia has come out as gay making him the first professional basketball player to come out as gay in Israel. In an interview, Kokia said, “I want to show you can make a long and glorious career as a gay man.”

• A father in Mills, Wyoming, is accused of attacking his 15-year-old gay son with a knife because the father disapproved of homosexuality.

• Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold of Texas, who prides himself as a “family values” politician used taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment case to the tune of $84,000. Farenthold had told his former communications director he had “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” about her.

• In related news, Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina reportedly used $150,000 in taxpayer money to settle a veteran-discrimination and retaliation claim with a former aide.

• Anthony Rapp has received a lot of social media attacks after telling his story of sexual misconduct by Kevin Spacey 30 years ago when Rapp was 14. Rather than fight back, Rapp decided to share them all with the world.

• Check out this touching holiday video featuring uber-cute pooch, Chobo.

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Video: Senate Republican Leaders’ Awkward Silence Over Roy Moore Allegations

Forty-four seconds of silence from these Republican leaders as reporters as questions about embattled Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore.

The lawmakers were gathered to promote the reveal of their newly-crafted tax plan, but the ongoing Roy Moore sex scandal was the only thing on reporters’ minds.

#Awkward

(h/t JoeMyGod)