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Tennessee Parents Wage War On Gay-Straight Alliance, Compare Club To ISIS

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Hate Speech, Bible-Based Attacks From Anti-LGBT Parents Underscore Need For GSAs

Opponents of a Gay-Straight Alliance at a rural Tennessee high school are comparing the club to the terror group ISIS and calling on school officials to resign for allowing it.  

The GSA met for the first time this week at Franklin County High School in Winchester, Tennessee, a town of 8,500 about 70 miles northwest of Chattanooga. 

On its web site, the school explains that under the federal Equal Access Act and long-established court precedent, it is required to allow the GSA if it allows other extracurricular clubs. 

“The FCHS GSA will foster a safe environment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students and their allies,” a description of the club states. “The FCHS GSA will offer a space where LGBT students and their allies can speak freely and honestly with their peers about issues specific to LGBT students without fear of rejection or harassment.” 

In response to news that the GSA had formed, Winchester parent and business owner John Wimley launched a Facebook page calling for people to attend the next Franklin County school board meeting and “protect traditional marriage” by standing against the GSA. 

“OK F.C. [Franklin County] if we do not ban [SIC] together and stop this B.S. the next thing you know they will have a F.I.M.A. (Future ISIS Members of America) #PutGodInSchoolsPlease,” Wimley wrote.  

wimley.jpg

Wimley’s Facebook profile picture consists of a graphic featuring a cross that reads, “Jesus died for you. Allah wants you to kill innocent people and die for him.”

Posted by John Wimley on Friday, December 25, 2015

But his call for putting God in schools seems to contradict what he told WBRC-TV for a story about the GSA.

“I don’t believe there should be religion or sexual preference taught in any school,” Wimley told the station. “I don’t understand where they’re coming from, and I want answers,” he said. “Everybody wants answers.”

In response to Wimley’s hate-fueled ignorance, supporters of the GSA launched a Facebook page calling for a boycott of his business, the Tennessee Car Care Center. But Wimley wasn’t the only person who compared the GSA to ISIS. 

Martin Jonathan, who apparently attended Franklin County High School but now lives in San Antonio, according to his Facebook page, called the GSA “ungodly” and “wrong.”

“The more we conform to this ever changing society the more weak we become as a Christian nation,” Johnathan wrote. “What would be your opinion on a group initiating an ISIS club @ FCHS? Allow it so they don’t become the next suicide bombers?”

“Unbelievable how times have changed,” Johnathan added. “What a disgrace. Not the FCHS I was raised in nor the one for my children. … [Principal Greg] Mantooth should be forced to resign. The parents and taxpayers in FC shall be heard.” 

Others argued that because some teachers have posted rainbow flags in their classrooms indicating that they’re LGBT allies, people should also be allowed to display rebel flags, Christian flags, “Panther club” flags, white pride flags and gang symbols. 

The photo above is one of the “flags” teachers who are allies have posted, indicating a safe space.

“I’m gonna start this by saying, I don’t [give] a damn who likes me or what I think!” wrote parent Candice Candy Maxwell. “But, what I do [give] a damn about is when something is thrown in my backyard and is pushed in my kids’ face by students of different lifestyles [and] faculty that support it! … Keep your shit in your backyard and I’ll do the same. Throw it around and push it in my kids’ face just because, and by God I’ll be the first to come unglued!” 

Christian Bullington, a student who co-founded the GSA, wrote below a post about the club from news outlet Franklin County Buzz that he was “astonished how much hate I see on here and everywhere.” Bullington also responded to allegations that GSA organizers threatened to sue school officials if they didn’t allow the club. 

“We did not threaten anyone,” Bullington wrote. “I have wanted this group since I started at Franklin County High School. I have pushed and pushed but Mantooth and the board said no, no, no, no, no — until we found out that we are federally protected and that we are allowed to start the group. Now I’m sorry that a lot of you don’t agree with the group, but find it in your heart for acceptance and peace.” 

The other co-founder of the GSA, Josh Dailey, elaborated on the need for the club. 

“LGBT students in our school especially are bullied on a daily basis, and to be honest, I’m tired of seeing it as well as receiving it, so we have a club called GSA, which is a federally protected program, to give these students a safe place to go so we can stop bullying at the source as well as being there to support each other,” Dailey wrote. 

To support the GSA, like the club’s Facebook page. 

Watch WBRC’s report above. 

 

Image via Facebook

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‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

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Nikki Haley dropped out of the 2024 presidential race exactly two months ago, and yet on Tuesday 128,000 Indiana GOP primary voters cast their ballot for the former Trump UN Ambassador instead of the presumptive Republican nominee.

“Unexpected warning signs for Trump in busy Indiana primary,” reports Politico, which notes, “Nikki Haley’s performance in the already concluded presidential race could be a sign of trouble for Trump in more competitive states.”

Haley, also a former South Carolina governor, was consistently getting double-digit percentages of the GOP primary vote before she dropped out of the race, even in red states. (All vote totals and percentages are from the Associated Press via Google and are current as of time of publication.)

In Alabama, Haley took 13%. In Oklahoma, 15.9%. In Texas, 17.4%. Tennessee, 19.5%.

READ MORE: ‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely

But after Haley dropped out, effectively handing Trump the nomination, Republican primary voters continued to vote for her, and continued to vote for her almost always in double-digit percentages.

In Arizona, Haley won 17.8% of the primary vote. In Georgia, 13.2%. In Kansas, 16.1%.

And last night in Indiana, Haley took 21.7% of the vote.

It’s not just solidly “red” states.

In New Hampshire, Haley won a whopping 43.2% 0f the GOP primary vote.

Tuesday night as the Indiana results were still coming in but pretty much solidified, David Nir, publisher of Daily Kos Elections, asked, “Is Nikki Haley getting *more* popular? Right now, she’s at 21.6% in Indiana with more than 70% reporting. If it holds, that would be her best showing since dropping out after Super Tuesday.”

Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, replied, “No. It doesn’t have much at all to do with Nikki Haley. It’s that the broadest coalition in American politics is the anti-Trump coalition.”

READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’

Amanda Carpenter, a Republican political commentator who once worked for far-right GOP lawmakers including Senators Ted Cruz and Jim DeMint, agrees with the anti-Trump theory.

“It’s almost as if…more and more Republicans, each day, are rejecting Trump. Perhaps these [Indiana] voters heard what their former congressman and Governor and later Vice President Mike Pence had to say about the president he served?” she wrote. “In all seriousness though, this is not a Nikki Haley movement showing up in double digits in multiple states. It’s anti-Trump GOP voters. Can you hear them yet? This is real.”

The New York Times last month took a look at what is called the “zombie vote,” votes for candidates who have already dropped out.

According to the Times, the “zombie vote in this year’s Republican primary has actually been low by historical standards. In Democratic and Republican primaries going back to 2000, roughly a quarter of voters picked a candidate other than the eventual nominee even after all the other serious contenders had exited the race.”

READ MORE: Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’

“For Mr. Trump,” the Times adds, “what matters is how many of Ms. Haley’s primary voters will rally behind him come November. Polls have shown that her supporters are likely to say they will vote for Mr. Biden. Even so, those same polls often find that many of those voters already supported Mr. Biden in 2020.”

The Nation’s John Nichols last month pointed to just that, after the Pennsylvania primary:

“Haley is not campaigning, but she just won almost 158,000 GOP primary votes in the critical state of Pennsylvania. Democrats think they can swing many of them to Biden.”

Late Tuesday night, pointing to Haley taking more than a third of the vote in some Indiana counties, Nichols concluded, “These numbers continue a pattern of rejection of Donald Trump by precisely the Republicans and Republican-leaning independents he needs in November.”

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‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely

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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon late Tuesday afternoon issued an indefinite postponement of the court date in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump on Espionage Act charges, in the indictment commonly referred to as the classified documents case.

Claiming it would be “imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” along with other matters, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote: “the Court finds that the ends of justice served by this continuance…outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial.”

Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports, “It may be months before we know the new schedule.” Trial had been slated to begin May 20.

“With 13 days before her trial was supposed to kick off, Judge Cannon finally says what has been obvious to every legal journalist I know: She’s not just canceling the existing trial date; she’s also not picking a replacement,” MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin reports.

READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’

The 37 count indictment was brought after Trump removed well over 1000 items, including hundreds of classified documents, out of the White House, retained then refused to return them, allegedly violating several statutes under the Espionage Act.

“Trump mishandled classified documents that included information about the secretive U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack,” according t0 the federal indictment, Reuters reported last year.

The trial now is not expected to conclude before the November presidential election this year.

This is news but it’s hardly unexpected,” declared professor of law, former U.S. Attorney, and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance wrote. “Judge Cannon seems desperate to avoid trying this case. This isn’t justice. defendants aren’t the only ones with speedy trial act rights, we the people have them too.”

“After the election,” professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter commented, “if Trump wins Jack Smith gets fired, the case gets dismissed, and Judge Cannon is ready for SCOTUS.”

READ MORE: Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’

Attorney and author Luppe B. Luppen noted, “Judge Cannon’s rationale for indefinitely postponing Trump’s classified documents trial is that a large number of pretrial motions remain unresolved—a state of affairs she has literally engineered by failing to resolve them.”

Professor of law and noted election law expert Rick Hasen asked: “Is it too cynical to believe that Judge Cannon timed the announcement of the postponement of a Trump classified documents trial to take away from the salacious sex details from Stormy Daniels’ testimony today?”

National security attorney Brad Moss served up a “silver lining to Cannon not setting a new trial date: she isn’t blocking the DC or Georgia election cases from resuming in the late summer/early fall, pending SCOTUS ruling on immunity.”

Foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst David Rothkopf added, “Justice delayed is justice denied. Both the defendant and the public have the right to a trial ‘without unnecessary delay.’ (Sixth Amendment.) When does Jack Smith seek a remedy for the problem Judge Cannon clearly represents? Tick freaking tock.”

READ MORE: Judge Hands Trump ‘Incarceration’ Threat as Experts Say Next Time He’ll Toss Him in Jail

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Trump Battled to Go to Son’s Graduation – So Why Is He Speaking at a Fundraiser That Day?

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Last month Donald Trump falsely told reporters Justice Juan Merchan had blocked him from attending his youngest son’s high school graduation, refusing to give him the day off from his required attendance at his New York criminal court case.

Justice Merchan had actually told Trump he would take the request under advisement, but Trump quickly ran to reporters painting the judge as heartless.

On April 15 Trump said, “it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son who’s worked very, very hard and he is a great student.”

“It looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial,” Trump alleged.

The Associated Press reported, “Trump then furthered his criticism of the judge on his Truth Social platform, writing in one post both that he ‘will likely not be allowed to attend’ and that ‘the Judge, Juan Merchan, is preventing me from proudly attending my son’s Graduation.’ He wrote in another post less than two hours later that he is ‘being prohibited from attending.'”

READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’

None of that was accurate.

Last week Judge Merchan granted Trump the day off from court to attend his son’s high school graduation.

But The Lincoln Project and others on Tuesday posted the announcement for “Minnesota’s 2024 Lincoln Reagan Dinner With Special Guest DONALD J. TRUMP” on Friday, May 17, 2024.

Trump, as The New Republic notes, will be the headline speaker at the event in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which starts at 5:00 PM.

The fundraiser offers supporters the opportunity to spend $100,000, which grants them “10 VIP Dinner Seats | 10 VIP Reception Passes | 3 Photo Opportunities with President Trump.”

Or, for example, for $50,000, a supporter can get a “Chairman’s Host Table – 10 VIP Dinner Seats | 10 VIP Reception Passes | 1 Photo Opportunity with President Trump.”

KARE reports “the visit is expected to be the former president’s first trip to Minnesota of the 2024 election cycle.”

READ MORE: ‘I’m Not Talking About That Meeting’: Noem Implies She May Have Met With Kim Jong Un

Trump has strong motivation to head to Minnesota.

Over the weekend, as NBC News reports, “Top officials for former President Donald Trump’s campaign believe they can flip Democratic strongholds Minnesota and Virginia into his column in November, they told donors behind closed doors at a Republican National Committee retreat Saturday.”

Barron Trump’s graduation from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida reportedly will be the same day, May 17. Depending on timing, It’s possible Trump could fly from Florida to Minnesota to get to the fundraiser by 5 PM.

Watch Trump’s remarks from April 15 below or at this link.

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