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San Bernardino Terrorism Survivor Leads Amazing Pro-LGBT Counter-Protest Against Westboro Baptist

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WBC Pickets California School, Blames Gay-Straight Alliances for Terror Attack

A woman who survived last month’s terror attack in San Bernardino helped lead a pro-LGBT counterprotest of Westboro Baptist Church at the high school she attended on Monday. 

Jennifer Stevens, a 22-year-old environmental services technician and LGBT ally, was shot in the abdomen during the rampage that left 14 of her colleagues from the San Bernardino County health department dead. 

On Monday morning, Stevens joined hundreds of students, faculty and staff outside Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, as they overwhelmed a handful of picketers from the Kansas-based “God Hates Fags” church. 

WBC elder Steve Drain told USA Today College that the anti-LGBT hate group chose Redondo Union for the protest in part because the San Bernardino shooting was “an outpouring of the wrath of God.”

Posted by Pamela Burrus on Monday, January 11, 2016

“You’re talking about a whole nation that has embraced public policies and laws condoning and enabling and supporting sin, up to and including stuff like gay-straight alliances in the high schools,” Drain said. 

According to the church’s website, WBC visited Redondo Union “to warn the living.” 

“We do not know if there is a little soul that will hear these words and heed the warning and escape the wrath that is coming upon this earth,” the group wrote. 

Lola Chase, co-president of Redondo Union’s Gay Straight Alliance, told Channel 11, the local Fox affiliate, that she and others organized the counterprotest with the help social media. 

Posted by Tashia Hinchliffe on Tuesday, January 12, 2016

“This is the kind of school Redondo is — we are loving and liberal and accepted,” Chase said. “She [Stevens] was shot in the San Bernardino attacks so we think it’s a big factor as to why they have signs that say ‘God sent the shooter.'”

Brennon Mendez, a Columbia University student home on break, said if anything, WBC’s hatred actually fuels the type of violence seen in San Bernardino. 

“It’s despicable and disrespectful to the survivor, to her family, and to all survivors of mass shootings,” Mendez said. “But the two issues are not unrelated. Hate speech causes you to form a violence against LGBTQ youth. In my opinion, the Westboro Baptist Church’s hate speech isn’t just a barrage of offensive slurs, but also presents a grave threat to the health, wellness, and safety of the LGBTQ youth in the South Bay.”

Posted by Tashia Hinchliffe on Tuesday, January 12, 2016

The handful of WBC picketers visited Redondo Union after protesting outside the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. 

“They ought to be lucky ducks we were here to tell them the word of God today,” WBC member Rachael Hockenbargar told Channel 11. 

Although counterprotests of WBC are common, Monday’s was one of the more remarkable responses to the group in recent memory.  

Among those who joined the protest were former Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin, who was the first openly gay Republican mayor in California, as well as Redondo Union Principal Nicole Wesley. 

“It’s one of those things where we take a negative experience and we turn it into a positive,” Wesley told CBS Los Angeles. “It’s time for them to go back to Kansas.”

Watch a report on the counter-protest above and below, watch students and their supporters cheer as the WBC leaves. 

 

Embedded images via Facebook
Cover images screenshots via CBS LA

 

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News

Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

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April 19, 2024

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The Fox News host who targeted a juror serving on Donald Trump’s criminal New York trial is now suggesting the ex-president should violate his gag order and “force” the court to throw him in jail, by quoting the Fox News host.

Jesse Watters came under fire earlier this week for profiling juror number two, sharing possibly identifying information published by a myriad of reporters but then using that information to pass judgment on her ability to serve.

“I’m not so sure about juror number two,” Watters concluded on Fox News.

Jurors, at the judge’s direction, were to remain anonymous, for their protection and the protection of the trial.

The judge excused her, after she said she felt she was not able to be impartial because friends and family were calling her asking if she had been chosen to serve on the Trump trial, after the media blitz.

New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan admonished the press for reporting the information, but some news outlets appeared to ignore his warning.

Watters on Wednesday “did a segment with a jury consultant, revealing details about people who had been seated on the jury and questioning whether some were ‘stealth liberals’ who would be out to convict Trump,” the Associated Press reported.

READ MORE: Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

Trump later posted Watters’ quote on his Truth Social platform, leading some, including New York prosecutors, to ask the judge to cite him for allegedly breaking his gag order.

Judge Merchan ordered Trump to not mention witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or the family members of prosecutors and court staff, CNN has reported.

New York prosecutors told Juge Merchan Trump has violated the gag order at least ten times.

“Prosecutor Christopher Conroy described the ‘most disturbing’ example as a social media message Trump posted on Wednesday evening quoting a Fox News host as saying, ‘They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,'” Politico reports.

That host was Jesse Watters.

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

Friday afternoon, Watters appeared to egg Trump on, urging the ex-president to violate the gag order.

“I would make them put me in jail,” Watters said on Fox News. “I would have a tweet about something perhaps I said on ‘The Five’ or ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ and I would force them to throw me in jail.”

Watch Watters’ remark below or at this link.

 

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Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

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April 19, 2024

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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) says some of his fellow House Republicans would “take a bribe” to throw the razor-thin GOP majority to the Democrats if a far-right faction calls up a motion to oust Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, allowing Democrats to hand the gavel to the Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. he warned if that happens, Democrats would immediately declare Trump ineligible to be President, pack the U.S. Supreme Court, and pass numerous laws like the American Rescue Plan.

“I do believe in a one seat majority there could be one or two or three of my colleagues who would take a bribe in one form or another in order to deprive the Republicans of a majority at all,” Gaetz said Friday on his podcast (video below.)

He added, “the risk that one or two of my corrupt Republican colleagues might take a bribe, take a walk, feign an ailment and flip this thing to the Democrats is a risk that is too high for me at this time.”

Gaetz’s fellow far-right Florida Republican member of Congress, Anna Paulina Luna, told listeners, “I heard that when, if and when the motion vacate is introduced, that there will be immediate resignations of a couple of more moderate members of Congress. And in the event that that happens, that ultimately means it does go to a Democrat speaker.”

RELATED: Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last month filed a “motion to vacate,” which she can use at any time to force a vote to oust the GOP Speaker, Mike Johnson. U.S. Rep. Tim Massie (R-KY) and just today, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has signed on as co-sponsors.

Congressman Gaetz told listeners if Democrats do take the House through a force vote to remove Johnson, Democrats would “be declaring Donald Trump an insurrectionist and setting up a barrier to him being able to become the president United States.”

“That’ll be their leadoff hitter, and then the chaser to that shot will be a massive spending package that looks a lot more like the American Rescue Plan. They will blow past every concept of every cap ever imagined. You’ll be looking at Universal Basic Income, you could be looking at packing the Supreme Court.”

Watch a short clip of Gaetz’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

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Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

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6 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed Friday the majority of Democrats will support Republicans’ Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and Gaza foreign aid legislation as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson lost support of another member of his conference to a faction determined to oust him.

“Democrats will provide a majority of our majority as it relates to funding Israel, humanitarian assistance, Ukraine, and our allies in the Indo Pacific,” Minority Leader Jeffries said. “It remains to be seen what Republicans will do in terms of meeting the national security needs of the American people, but it was important for House Democrats to ensure that the national security bills are going to be considered.”

Despite Republicans having a one-vote majority, more Democrats on Friday voted to move the critical and long-awaited foreign aid bills forward than did Republicans.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

The 316-94 vote included 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voting yes, and 55 Republicans and 39 Democrats voting no.

Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke posted the list of Republicans voting against their party’s legislation.

Calling it a “rare” moment in modern congressional history to have to rely on opposition party votes to pass legislation, BBC News reports Speaker Johnson’s “hold on power is tenuous, and the legislators who oppose him – and his bid to provide aid to Ukraine – occupy some key positions within the House’s power structure.”

Amid the procedural vote to move the foreign aid funding bills forward, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican of Arizona, announced he is joining Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Congressman Tim Massie (R-KY) in formally announcing their will vote to oust Speaker Johnson.

Gosar, like Greene, is reportedly a Christian nationalist. In 2022 CNN reported his “lengthy ties to White nationalists, [a] pro-Nazi blogger and far-right fringe received little pushback for years.”

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

“We’ve been very honest in our assessment of the situation from the beginning,” Jeffries on Friday also declared. “At the appropriate time as House Democrats, we will have a conversation about how to deal with any hypothetical motion to vacate.”

“Moscow Marjorie Taylor Greene, Massie, and Gosar are quite a group. But central to our conversation is to make sure that the national security legislation in totality is passed by the House of Representatives.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

 

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