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“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Still Alive And Well

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Reports of the death of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are greatly exaggerated.

Despite yesterday’s historic passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of the Murphy Amendment, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal compromise that will now be attached to the Defense Authorization Bill, and passage of a similar amendment in the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is, in fact, alive and well, and will be responsible for hundreds more discharges before its possible demise, thanks, in part, to the efforts of Senator John McCain and the military’s foot-dragging and unquenchable desire for power and control.

The fact of the matter is, (regardless of what you may have read or heard,) that even if and when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed, and months — or years — later, if and when the military decides how and when, and to what degree, to implement the DADT repeal, repealing the law that is “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” does not remove the policy nor the practice of discrimination or military discharges for homosexuality or homosexual conduct.

There will still be nothing in writing, no non-discrimination clause or policy, that forces the military to not discriminate against a person’s sexual orientation or sexual identity. There is, in essence, no ENDA for the military.

And remember, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a policy before it was enshrined into law in 1993. Behaviors are hard to change, especially after decades of use.

So, issue one: The military will be able to discriminate against someone’s sexual orientation if and when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed and implemented.

Issue two: With the signing into law of the Defense Authorization Bill, with the attached “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal compromise amendment, the military will have been given total control to decide when to implement the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, how to implement the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, and to what degree to implement the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.

The military could, and there have been hints that it will, take its time, and take years to fully implement the policy. Last year, Secretary Gates strongly mentioned the military took five years to implement racial integration.

The military chiefs, such as Gates and Mullen, who spoke intelligently, bravely, and with courage in front of Congress months ago to support ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be a plus, but Senator John McCain, in his despicable politicking attempt to defeat Tea Party wing-nut J.D. Hayworth, has managed to get on record the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines, saying they are “opposed [to] legislative action at this time.” So, now that they’ve lost ground on this point, they’ll be none-too supportive going into the process if the Defense Authorization bill is signed into law.

(And speaking of “if the Defense Authorization bill is signed into law,” Towleroad, via Politico, today reports yet another snag: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Threatened By Obama Veto Of Defense Bill Over Engine Funding Item. One more bump on the road.)

Oh yeah, and there is that small item of McCain threatening to filibuster the Defense Authorization bill as well, when it actually comes up for a vote this summer, because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” amendment.

One has to ask, as Justin Elzie (the first Marine to come out under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”) mentioned to me, why is the Pentagon putting so much weight on this as-yet unfinished study to determine if — oops — when and how, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be repealed? And, since this study is being funded by your tax dollars, will the American people be privy to the full, unedited report? Or, will the Pentagon cherry-pick and make public the parts they like best? Or, none at all…

(Pam Spaulding of “Pam’s House Blend” tweeted today, “Asked Gates’ Sp. Asst Michelle Jones about #DADT Pentagon Study. She said, smiling, “you’ll see some surprising things in it.” The mind reels…)

One also must ask, how on God’s green earth can an LGBTQ group, such as GOProud state, “Congress should not be involved in micro-managing military personnel decisions. Those decisions should be made by our military leaders – not by opportunistic politicians.”

Granted, GOProud supports the repeal compromise, but only because it does what we all fear: it grants total control to the military, the very organization that has, for centuries, discriminated against its own gay and lesbian servicemembers.

So, equality in military service is being threatened by John McCain in the Senate, along with the entire lock-step GOP, a potential filibuster on an as-yet un-scheduled Senate Defense Authorization Bill vote, the service chiefs’ “insubordination,” an un-finished “study,” the Pentagon’s lust for power and control, a threatened presidential veto of the entire bill over funding of two fighter engines, a president unwilling to twist arms for LGBTQ rights, a media giving false hope via misleading headlines, and, ultimately, the granting to the Pentagon free-range to determine when, how, and, essentially, if, to implement the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.

Yes, make no mistake: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is alive and well. The fight is far from over. In fact, the fight has just begun.

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News

‘We’re Not Gonna Fix It’: TN Republican Says Congress Can Do Nothing to Stop Gun Violence – Calls for Christian ‘Revival’

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19 mins ago

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March 28, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) says there’s nothing the 535 elected officials in the House and Senate can do to reduce gun violence and gun deaths.

“We’re not gonna fix it,” Congressman Burchett said on the steps of the Capitol.

“I don’t see any role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly,” he said in response to Monday’s school mass shooting in Nashville, where three nine-year olds and three adults were shot to death by a shooter with two AR-15 style assault rifles and a handgun.

READ MORE: Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

Instead of Congress enacting stricter gun laws, background checks, and a ban on assault weapons, Congressman Burchett said, “you’ve got to change people’s hearts,” as he called for a Christian revival.

“As a Christian, we talk about the church. I’ve said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country.”

Monday’s shooting at the Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School was the 130th mass shooting this year in America, bringing the death toll from all gun violence across all causes to 9989, including 403 children 17 or younger, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Congressman Burchett is a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, which has strong ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).

READ MORE: ‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

On Monday, Burchett released a statement saying, “Kelly and I are praying for everyone at The Covenant School, especially the families of the shooting victims. No one should have to go through that kind of horrific event or lose a loved one like that. I’m so thankful to those brave folks who brought down the shooter and took care of the students and their families.”

Earlier this month Rep. Burchett was one of 26 House Republicans on the Oversight Committee who refused to sign a simple two-sentence statement denouncing white supremacy.

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Trump Trying to ‘Pollute the Jury Pool’ With ‘Gibberish and Obstruction’: Analysis

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1 hour ago

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March 28, 2023

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Donald Trump has been hurling ominous warnings and racist insults against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ahead of a possible indictment, and legal experts fear those threats could provoke violence in the same way his rhetoric fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The former president has attacked state and federal prosecutors “thugs,” claimed two Black district attorneys are “racist” and used anti-Semitic tropes to suggests he’s the victim of a “globalist” conspiracy and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the prosecutors who are investigating him, reported The Guardian.

“Trump cannot stop the judicial process, although he can try to slow it,” said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor. “But he can undermine its credibility through his charges and by mobilizing his supporters. I see what he’s doing now as aimed at them, just as he tried to discredit the election returns in their eyes and anger them with baseless charges over the ‘steal.'”

Trump’s legal defenses have recently weakened after federal courts required some of his top aides, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, to testify in the Jan. 6 grand jury investigation, and compelled the testimony of his current lawyer Evan Corcoran in the classified documents case, and prosecutions in Manhattan and Georgia also appear to be nearing conclusion.

READ MORE: David Pecker is a ‘critical witness’ who could get Trump charged with a ‘second crime’: former prosecutor

“If I were on the prosecution teams in Manhattan or Georgia, I would expect Trump to assert every defense he can think of, including accusing the prosecutors of misconduct,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Michigan.

“None of these accusations about the motives of prosecutors, however, will negate the evidence of Trump’s own crimes,” McQuade added. “A jury will focus on the facts and the law, and not any of this name calling. The Trump strategy may work in the court of public opinion, but not in a court of law.”

Trump’s lawyers are using his trusted stalling tactic by raising “specious” objections in Georgia, according to former Watergate prosecutor Phlip Lacovara, and Trump is “trying to pollute the jury pool” with attacks on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

“All he needs is one juror who believes this is all a concocted plot,” Lacovara said.

Trump used many of the same tactics in his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, which ultimately led to the deadly U.S. Capitol attack.

“This is more of what we saw during the election,” said Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general in the George H. W. Bush administration. “He throws up gibberish and obstruction.”

 

Image: Hunter Crenian/Shutterstock

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Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

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17 hours ago

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March 27, 2023

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Governor Bill Lee quickly drew tremendous outrage in the wake of a school mass shooting where six people including three young children were shot to death. Social media users criticized the Tennessee Republican, who had signed a permit-less gun carry law, for declaring he was “praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” without posting any mention of the mass shooting.

Tweeting he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant,” Gov. Lee said, “As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.”

There was no mention of any loss of life, and, as Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts passionately noted, the “situation” was a mass shooting.

“If thoughts and prayers alone worked to stop gun violence, there wouldn’t have been a shooting at a Christian elementary school. It’s your actions – including weakening the state’s gun laws – that’s killing kids in Tennessee,” Watts also tweeted. “SHAME ON YOU.”

Gov. Lee signed a permit-less carry bill into law in 2021, at a Beretta gun manufacturing plant.

According to the CDC, as of 2020 – one year before the permit-less carry bill was signed into law – Tennessee ranked tenth in the nation in per-capita firearm mortality.

READ MORE: ‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

Meanwhile, others took notice of the gun culture Gov. Lee has fostered in “The Volunteer State.”

MSNBC analyst and Bulwark writer Tim Miller commented, “Tennessee governor Bill Lee issued a statement recently about how the drag ban in Tennessee ‘protects children.’ If only he would have instead focused on laws that might have prevented the mass murder of children in his state today.”

Historian Kevin Kruse pointed to an article from last year, after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, titled: “Rep. Clemmons Seeks Renewed Gun Laws, Gov. Lee Requests Prayer.”

“You chose prayer over gun reforms last year after the Uvalde massacre,” Kruse wrote. “And now here we are.”

The progressive website Tennessee Holler pointed out that Gov. Lee, along with GOP lawmakers, “just appointed Jordan Mollenhour to the [state] board of education— whose company was sued for selling ammo to an underage mass killer (SANTA FE) and sold ammo to at least one more (AURORA) He has ZERO education experience.”

Let’s Give a Damn founder Nick Laparra tweeted, “We are 86 days into 2023. So far, 9859 people have died by gun violence and there have been 128 mass shootings. Meanwhile, @GovBillLee spends his days being outraged over drag queens and CRT and book bans. This is Bill Lee’s and the GOP’s fault.”

See the tweets and video above or at this link.

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