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GOP State Senator Compares LGBT Activists to Nazis, Then Fundraises Off His Attacks

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‘The Head of the Nazi SS Was a Homosexual’ Claims Sen. Jason Rapert

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Arkansas Republican state Senator Jason Rapert is comparing LGBT activists to Nazis, and then fundraising off his attacks. 

“The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers,” Sen. Rapert wrote on his Facebook page on August 12, as AmericaBlog‘s John Aravosis noted. “Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology.”

The comparison of LGBT people to Nazis is beyond offensive. Hitler arrested an estimated 100,000 LGBT people, sent up to 15,000 to concentration camps, and killed untold thousands of them, according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

“I don’t care what THEY believe,” Rapert continued, doing his best to dehumanize gays, “but I refuse to let them intimidate those who disagree with them. Our laws should not give special protections to people who behave this way. It is a sad time in American history.”

“I believe you should be allowed to believe as your conscience dictates – but I oppose forcing anyone to comply with your belief system and especially punishing people who believe commonly held moral standards. It’s all very un-American.”

Rapert effectively is saying LGBT people must comply with his belief system, but he is not subject to the basic idea of even respecting LGBT people as people. He’s also disrespecting the laws of a sovereign state.

What, exactly, got Rapert so angry?

An opinion piece at the far right wing website The Daily Caller, by an attorney of the anti-gay hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is representing Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman, who has finally been able to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take her case.

Put simply, Stutzman has lost her argument – and her case – at every turn. She refused to sell flowers to a long-time customer who was marrying his fiancé. Stutzman claims creating a floral arrangement for a wedding of two people of the same sex violates her religious beliefs. The ADF for years has wrongly been insisting Stutzman may lose her home, her business and her life savings, and has been blaming LGBT people for that – while fundraising off it.

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In February they told supporters they needed to raise $24 million. That was just one of the about 150 articles, press releases, and other pages on the ADF’s website that mention Stutzman.

In reality, the laws of the state of Washington, and the voters who elected the lawmakers who believe human rights laws are important in a civil society, are the ones actually responsible for the case against Stutzman. Meanwhile, Stutzman has been given several chances by Washington officials to pay a nominal fee, $1000 to $2000 to settle the case and make it disappear, yet has repeatedly refused.

In response to the hundreds of Facebook comments he received – the majority of which appear to oppose his remarks – on Tuesday afternoon Rapert again took to Facebook, this time asking for money in response to comments from people explaining to him why his beliefs are not only inaccurate, but offensive. 

“Friends, as you can see from the hate-filled posts here the past few days, radical liberals are raging against me for standing up for Barronelle Stutzman – the little 72 year old Christian florist being targeted for ruin simply for declining to participate in a gay wedding,” Rapert wrote. “If you want to protect Religious Liberty and help me keep speaking the truth in the face of lies and anti-Christian bigotry – please help me by donating today.”

Wednesday morning Sen. Rapert announced on Facebook, his campaign fundraising was going well: “We deposited $8,200 yesterday!”

But that not the end of Rapert’s attacks on “radical liberals” and LGBT people.

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In the comments on his Facebook post about Stutzman, Rapert accused LGBT activists of “using tactics of those who once targeted them,” and claimed, “it is reported that the head of the Nazi SS was a homosexual.” (That would likely be a surprise to Heinrich Himmler.) 

Rapert also claims the people of Arkansas elected him “to stand against bigotry like this,” meaning to stand against ensuring business owners treat people equally.

“There is a real problem with hostility from LGBT activists that rises to the level of true intolerance and intimidation,” Rapert said,  chastising people who made comments he felt were inappropriate or “un-American.”

Rapert also misrepresented a June Rolling Stone article on LGBT activist and mega donor Tim Gill, who has spent hundreds of millions of his own money to support LGBT equality. 

Former OutServe-SLDN board member Josh Seefried, whose activism helped repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, weighed in on the Facebook post. Rapert responded with a false claim about LGBT equality activist Tim Gill.

“When the largest donor to the LGBT movement declares that they are going to target Christians and punish them as the ‘wicked’, doesn’t that sound just like the Nazis who changed the definition of Jews to be something lower than human so they could get away with killing them?” Rapert asked.

He’s referring to a June Rolling Stone article, in which Gill says: “We’re going into the hardest states in the country,” and, “We’re going to punish the wicked.”

So egregious was the response from the far and religious right that the article’s author was forced to pen a follow up, blasting the them for falsely asserting that “the wicked” refers to Christians – and noting that Gill has received death threats as a result.

Not once in my profile does Gill talk about “targeting” Christians. Not once does Gill so much as hint at singling out Christians or adherents of any other religion. Not once does the word “Christian” appear.

…

“The wicked” is anyone who stands in the way of progress on equal rights for LGBTQ people: politicians, activists, lawyers, some people of faith, and plenty more with no religious affiliation whatsoever.

On Sen. Rapert’s Facebook page, many of the comments scolded or criticized him (see screenshot below). Here’s one good example:

You actually believe Nazis committed genocide-murdering 6 million Jews-because Jews “disagreed with Nazi ideology”? Nazi ideology is: “murder Jews.” 

To suggest LGBTQ people, who simply want to be treated as equal and to be allowed public lives & the same rights & securities as everyone else, are Nazis is the height of stupidity & is truly dangerous rhetoric. Nazis do exist in our country – they marched in Charlottesville and murdered a young woman – and they exist in our White House. They must be denounced & defeated. LGBTQ people must be respected & protected under our Constitution-and because it’s the ethical and moral thing to do.

You should denounce your own statement, get educated, and rethink what makes you such a hateful person.

Meanwhile, back to the senator from Arkansas.

“All of you better wake up. God defines who is and is not wicked – not gay marriage supporters,” Rapert continued in his screed about the Rolling Stone article. “I will not be silent in the face of these threats against Christians just as I have not been silent in the face of the same people who devalue babies lives and kill them by the millions. Our country is very sick within our soul. We need God.”

Actually, Senator, you need reading comprehension and to spend some time better educating yourself. Because almost nothing you’ve written in your Facebook post was correct.

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‘Repercussions’: Democrats and Republicans Stand Against ‘Pro-Putin’ House GOP Faction

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April 18, 2024

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Some House Democrats and House Republicans are coming together toward a common opponent: far-right “pro-Putin” hardliners in the House Republican conference, who appear to be led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Congresswoman Greene has been threatening to oust the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Last month she filed a “motion to vacate the chair.” If she chooses to call it up she could force a vote on the House floor to try to remove Speaker Johnson.

House Democrats say they are willing to vote against ousting Johnson, as long as the Speaker puts on the floor desperately needed and long-awaited legislation to fund aid to Ukraine and Israel. Johnson has refused to put the Ukraine aid bill on the floor for months, but after Iran attacked Israel Johnson switched gears. Almost all Democrats and a seemingly large number of Republicans want to pass the Ukraine and Israel aid packages.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene, ‘Putin’s Envoy’? Democrat’s Bills Mock Republican’s Actions

Forgoing the possibility of installing Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, which is conceivable given Johnson’s now one-vote majority, Democrats say if Johnson does the right thing, they will throw him their support.

“I think he’ll be in good shape,” to get Democrats to support him, if he puts the Ukraine aid bill on the floor, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) told CNN Thursday. “I would say that there’s a lot of support for the underlying bills. I think those are vital.”

“If these bills were delivered favorably, and the aid was favorably voted upon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene went up there with a motion to remove him, for instance, I think there’s gonna be a lot of Democrats that move to kill that motion,” Congressman Krishnamoorthi said. “They don’t want to see him getting punished for doing the right thing.”

“I think it is a very bad policy of the House to allow one individual such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is an arsonist to this House of Representatives,” U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane, when asked about intervening to save Johnson. He added he doesn’t want her “to have so much influence.”

U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, one of several Republicans who won their New York districts in 2022, districts that were previously held by Democrats, opposes Greene’s motion to vacate – although he praised the Georgia GOP congresswoman.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports Republicans “say it’s time to marginalize hardliners blocking [their] agenda.”

D’Esposito, speaking to Raju, called for “repercussions for those who completely alienate the will of the conference. The people gave us the majority because they wanted Republicans to govern.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, like D’Esposito is another New York Republican who won a previously Democratic seat in 2022. Lawler spoke out against the co-sponsor of Greene’s motion to vacate, U.S. Rep. Tim Massie (R-KY), along with two other House Republicans who are working to block the Ukraine aid bill via their powerful seats on the Rules Committee.

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a former Navy pilot, blasted Congresswoman Greene.

RELATED: ‘They Want Russia to Win So Badly’: GOP Congressman Blasts Far-Right House Republicans

“Time is of the essence” for Ukraine, Rep. Sherrill told CNN Wednesday night. “The least we can do is support our Democratic allies, especially given what we know Putin to do. To watch a report and to think there are people like Marjorie Taylor Greene on the right that are pro-Putin? That are pro-Russia? It is really shocking.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), as NCRM reported Thursday, had denounced Greene.

“I guess their reasoning is they want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the Speaker over it,” he said, referring to the Ukraine aid bill Greene and her cohorts want to tank. “I mean that’s a strange position to take.”

The far-right hardliners are also causing chaos in the House.

“Things just got very heated on the House floor,” NBC News’ Julie Tsirkin reported earlier Thursday. “Group of hardliners were trying to pressure Johnson to only put Israel aid on the floor and hold Ukraine aid until the Senate passed HR2.”

HR2 is the House Republicans’ extremist anti-immigrant legislation that has n o chance of passage in the Senate nor would it be signed into law by President Biden.

“Johnson said he couldn’t do it, and [U.S. Rep. Derrick] Van Orden,” a far-right Republican from Wisconsin “called him ‘tubby’ and vowed to bring on the MTV [Motion to Vacate.]”

“No one in the group (Gaetz, Boebert, Burchett, Higgins, Donalds et al.) were threatening Johnson with an MTV,” Tsirkin added. “Van Orden seemed to escalate things dramatically…”

Despite Greene’s pro-Putin and anti-Ukraine positions, her falsehoods about “Ukrainian Nazis,” and Russians not slaughtering Ukrainian clergy, reporters continue to “swarm”:

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Afraid and Intimidated’: Trump Trial Juror Targeted by Fox News Dismissed

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‘They Want Russia to Win So Badly’: GOP Congressman Blasts Far-Right House Republicans

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17 hours ago

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April 18, 2024

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A sitting Republican Congressman is harshly criticizing far-right House Republicans over their apparent support of Russia.

“I guess their reasoning is they want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the Speaker over it. I mean that’s a strange position to take,” U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a three-term Texas Republican rated a hard-core conservative told CNN’s Manu Raju, in video posted Thursday. “I think they want to be in the minority too. I think that’s an obvious reality.”

Congressman Crenshaw was referring to the movement led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), now joined by U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), over the Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s decision to finally put legislation on the floor to provide funding to Ukraine to support that sovereign nation in its fight against Russia.

“I’m still trying to process all the b*llsh*t,” Crenshaw added.

Crenshaw on Thursday also commented on Speaker Johnson’s remarks, stating he will hold the Ukraine funding vote regardless of attempts to oust him over it.

“To be clear, he’s being threatened for even allowing a vote to come to the floor. For allowing the constitutional process to play out as intended by our Founders. That’s a wild thing to consider, especially when his enemies consider themselves ‘conservative.’ Not conserving the painstaking constitutional process our Founders created, that’s for sure. Conserving Putin’s gains on the battlefield, more like it.”

Journalist Brian Beutler, a former editor-in-chief at Crooked Media, called it, “darkly funny to me that a pincer movement of MAGAns and leftists mock liberals for claiming the GOP works hand in glove with Russia, and then multiple conservative Republican dissenters are like ‘no it’s true, we’re lousy with Russian influence.'”

Watch Crenshaw’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene, ‘Putin’s Envoy’? Democrat’s Bills Mock Republican’s Actions

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OPINION

Marjorie Taylor Greene, ‘Putin’s Envoy’? Democrat’s Bills Mock Republican’s Actions

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19 hours ago

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April 18, 2024

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For years U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been called “Pro-Putin.” As far back as 2021, her first year as a member of Congress, the question had been raised on social media: “Is Marjorie Taylor Greene a Russian asset?”

In 2022 The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.org reported: “Marjorie Taylor Greene Parrots Russian Talking Point on Ukraine.”

Back then, as the article highlighted, Greene had said, “there is no doubt that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s actions in Ukraine are despicable and evil.”

Now, she promotes a far more favorable view of President Vladimir Putin and his illegal war against Ukraine, a sovereign nation which the Russian autocrat wants to incorporate – at least partly – into Russia.

Just last week Greene spread demonstrably false pro-Russia talking points about a “war on Christianity” while defending and promoting President Vladimir Putin.

READ MORE: ‘Afraid and Intimidated’: Trump Trial Juror Targeted by Fox News Dismissed

“This is a war on Christianity,” Greene told far-right propagandist Steve Bannon. “The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians, the Ukrainian government is executing priests. Russia is not doing that.”

That’s just plain false, as NCRM reported.

Largely in response to her strong opposition to the U.S. supporting Ukraine, and her spreading Russian disinformation and flat-out pro-Putin falsehoods, Greene’s fondness for Putin and Russia has been making headlines.

“Republicans Who Like Putin,” was the headline last month at The New York Times, which observed: “A few Republicans have gone so far as [to] speak about Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in ways that mimic Russian propaganda. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused Ukraine of having ‘a Nazi army,’ echoing language Putin used to justify the invasion.”

“The Putin Republicans Have the Upper Hand” warned Washington Monthly‘s David Atkins on Wednesday, reporting on “conservative extremists led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

“They admire the strongman as a Christian nationalist leader, and won’t support Ukraine. The global consequences of their besotted love affair with the Russian strongman could be cataclysmic.”

“Russia Is Buying Politicians in Europe. Is It Happening Here Too?” The New Republic‘s Alex Finley wrote last week. The photo at the top of the page? Marjorie Taylor Greene.

READ MORE: ‘Used by the Russians’: Moskowitz Mocks Comer’s Biden Impeachment Failure

Finley pointed to Greene’s interview with Bannon, “about Ukraine’s persecution of Christians, which is a Kremlin talking point aimed at boosting the pro-Moscow wing of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church. The U.S. should be spending money on the border with Mexico, not on Ukraine aid? That’s a Kremlin talking point. Russia invaded Ukraine to defend itself against an expanding NATO? That’s a Kremlin talking point. Call for a cease-fire, and give Russia Crimea and eastern Ukraine? That’s a Kremlin talking point.”

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post last week ran this headline: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she ‘seriously hates’ people who support sending more aid to Ukraine: ‘Most repulsive, disgusting thing happening’.”

Then there is Greene’s obsession with Nazis. Specifically, equating Ukrainians with Nazis, which she did several times over the past week, including on Wednesday. That earned her the condemnation and wrath of U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who demanded: “Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler.”

Wednesday night, Congressman Moskowitz, known for his use of humor and sarcasm to make his points, declared: “Just submitted an amendment to Bill drafting appointing MTG [Marjorie Taylor Greene] as Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.”

Moskowitz’s amendment was in response to Congresswoman Greene’s amendments requiring members to “conscript in the Ukrainian military” if they vote for the Ukraine military funding bill, as Juliegrace Brufke reported.

READ MORE: ‘Big Journalism Fail’: Mainstream Media Blasted Over Coverage of Historic Trump Trial

The Florida Democrat wasn’t joking, as Axios’ Andrew Solender pointed out Thursday morning.

Moskowitz did not stop there.

He drafted legislation on Thursday to name the Capitol Hill offices occupied by Congresswoman Greene after the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, infamous for promoting appeasement in dealing with Adolf Hitler.

Chamberlain also signed the Munich Agreement, which allowed Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia.

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