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New York Times Whitewashes Yet Another Top Anti-Gay Group. Why?

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Two years ago, the New York Times, as The New Civil Rights Movement reported then, “published a 1232 word glowing tribute to the anti-gay, anti-Islam SPLC-certified hate group, American Family Association, without any mention of the official hate group designation.”

Today, the Times forgot that lesson in journalistic malpractice, and published a whitewashed look at Focus On The Family, an organization that, while not a certified hate group, was created by anti-gay hate group founder and LGBT-demonizer Dr. James Dobson — who also founded the more rabid anti-gay hate group, Family Research Council, now headed by Tony Perkins.

There’s no doubt people, and organizations, can change — some things. But there’s no way a rabidly anti-gay group, regardless of whatever new marketing they use, can stop being a rabidly anti-gay source of hated that contributes to the dramatically high rate of LGBT youth and teen suicide.

READ: Gay And Straight Teen Suicide Attempts Higher In Conservative Regions

And the New York Times and author  Samuel G. Freedman are now complicit in this farce.

In “Focus on the Family Works to Change Its Message,” Samuel G. Freedman ignores that Focus On The Family since its inception in 1977 has worked to portray gay people as pedophiles, sick, twisted, and peddles other heinous falsehoods.

READ:

Gay Marriage A ‘Pernicious Lie Of Satan’ Says Focus On The Family

Gay Marriage Is ‘Actually About Silencing Christian Voices’ Says Focus On The Family

Freedman writes a slim profile of Focus On The Family president Jim Daly, whom he claims is trying “to turn down the rhetorical temperature on the debate” on LGBT people, same-sex marriage, and other civil rights issues.

“We’ve created an animosity,” he said in one emblematic moment of self-criticism. “We’ve said we hate the sin and love the sinner. But when you peel it back, sometimes we hated the sinner, too. And that’s not the Gospel.”

Oh, indeed you have.

Daly, not so long ago, said legalizing same-sex marriage would bring down civilization. A year later, Daly characterized the work of LGBT activists as “fascism.”

And just last year, Right Wing Watch reported that “Daly claimed that Satan himself is promoting same-sex marriage since ‘he hates marriage because it’s a reflection of God’s image.’ ‘The Enemy hates that, it’s disgusting to him,’ Daly said, “and with that, he wants to break it down, he wants to destroy it.’”

Apparently, the Times didn’t have the column inches to include those quotes, or the time to do any research.

To this day, Focus On The Family’s website promotes so-called “ex-gay” reparative therapy that has been deemed harmful by major medical organizations, as in their publication, Homosexuality Resources.

And then there’s Focus On The Family’s position statement on Civil Unions, Domestic Partnerships, and Reciprocal Beneficiary Contracts:

Focus on the Family maintains that the institution of marriage is intended by God to be a relationship between the two halves of humanity: a man and a woman. Further, nature attempts to provide every child with a mother and a a father, and social science agrees that this is the family structure in which children thrive. For these reasons, we oppose any other legal definition of marriage.

The articulated goal of the homosexual‐bisexual‐transgender advocacy movement is same‐sex marriage. In the meantime, it has been clearly stated that Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships are stepping stones to that end. Given the goal of redefining marriage, Focus on the Family opposes the legal creation of Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships as counterfeit policy attempts to imitate marriage. We further do not support the creation of special categories of rights based on sexual expression or gender identity.

Focus on the Family’s position is strengthened by threats to the religious liberty rights of groups that disagree with this movement. In some instances, faith‐based adoption and foster care agencies have decided to stop offering services due to the passage of civil union (or same‐sex marriage) laws that require these agencies to place children in same‐sex households — an act that would violate the organization’s religious views.

Additionally, we view Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships as discriminatory. Civil union and Domestic partnership arrangements are based on sexual expression and are therefore unfair to non‐ sexual domestic situations with equally legitimate claims to contractual provisions. Government policies should not discriminate against any member of society in regard to housing, employment, inheritance rights or medical decision‐making.

Caring for unmarried members of society does not require the redefinition of one‐man, one‐woman marriage. In lieu of Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships, a better approach may be Reciprocal Beneficiary Contracts that streamline existing benefits found in contract law, such as legal arrangements to co‐own or inherit property, medical visitation and decision‐making, guardianship of children, and medical benefits, if an employer allows. Such arrangements are equally available to any persons in domestic circumstances who do not qualify to marry. Furthermore, these contracts are not premised on the rights or privileges of marriage, sexual expression or gender identity.

Then there’s this disgusting anti-gay lie Focus On The Family promotes:

Homosexuality is a controversial issue today not because of an epidemic of hate toward gays but because activists have used a small number of reprehensible acts of violence against homosexuals to press for a government-imposed “normalization” of the homosexual lifestyle. This movement, breathtaking in its audacity and aided by a number of favor- able court decisions, is steamrolling over the moral traditions of Western civilization. All objections are labeled as “hate” and used as further evidence that more government action is needed.

The Times piece does point to Focus On The Family’s Citizen Link action center, which features these assaults on same-sex couples and LGBT people:

Ask Your U.S. Senators to Protect Marriage

Urge Your Senators to Co-Sponsor and Support the Military Religious Freedom Act (S. 3526)

Take Action to Protect Marriage

Take Action: Boy Scouts of America

Focus On The Family exists to marginalize and demonize the LGBT community. That they’ve found a new marketing slant makes their mission no less evil.

That the Times gives them the platform to deceive even more people is unacceptable.

Hat tip: Jeremy Hooper

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News

Trump Could Face 20 Years Behind Bars for ‘Serious Felonies’ at Mar-a-Lago: Legal Analyst

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August 14, 2022

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A legal analyst for ABC News pointed out that former President Donald Trump is potentially facing 20 years in prison for “serious felonies” after the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.

Dan Abrams told ABC host Jonathan Karl that the Department of Justice could indict Trump for multiple crimes after finding classified documents during the search.

“They’re very serious,” Abrams said of the charges. “And the one that’s being talked about most is this espionage act because it has the word espionage in it. But the truth is that when it comes to potential criminal sentences, the obstruction of justice statute is the one with the most potential prison time.”

“There you’re talking about up to 20 years behind bars,” he added. “So these are not sort of minor crimes we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the potential for serious felonies with regard to all three of the crimes being investigated.”

But Abrams threw cold water on the idea that a Trump prosecution would be easy.

“The fundamental question is going to be intentionality,” he opined. “How much do they believe that they did this on purpose? Were they intentionally ignoring subpoenas? Were they literally destroying documents?”

Watch the video below from ABC.

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

New Analysis Breaks Down GOP’s Flawed Response to the Mar-a-Lago Search

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August 13, 2022

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Republican lawmakers are reportedly at an impasse on whether or not they should be defending former President Donald Trump amid his latest flurry of legal woes. The party is also facing challenges with navigating some lawmakers’ critical assessments of law enforcement over the Trump investigation.

A new analysis is breaking down Republicans’ seemingly flawed response and how it underscores the cracks in the political party’s foundation.

According to Axios, the analysis comes shortly after documents released on Friday, August 12, offered details about the search which reportedly involved “highly classified materials believed stored in violation of the law at the ex-president’s private residence.”

Prior to the release of those documents, Republicans serving on the House Intelligence Committee participated in a press conference where they continued to criticize the investigation, describing it as being politically motivated.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) scrutinized the investigation deeming it a “complete abuse” of authority as she suggested it was being conducted because the former president is considered to be “Joe Biden’s most likeliest political opponent in 2024.”

However, some Republicans on the committee have offered a more leveled approach to the situation. Per The New York Times, “Trump allies have told top Republicans to tone down their criticism of the Justice Department ‘because it is possible that more damaging information related to the search will become public.'”

“It’s incumbent upon everybody to act in a way that’s becoming of the office they hold,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent, “And that’s not casting judgment on anything until you know all the facts.”

Others have attempted to defend the former president. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said, “You can say nuclear weapons, but there are things that are highly, highly classified, there are things that are not extremely classified.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is now selling merchandise on her website in support of a call to “defund the FBI” while Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted, “I will support a complete dismantling and elimination of the democrat brown shirts known as the FBI.”

 

Image: Elise Stefanik with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago via Facebook

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News

Trump Makes False Claims About Classified Documents – And Obama

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2 days ago

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August 12, 2022

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Donald Trump is responding to news reports he is under FBI investigation for actions covered by the Espionage Act by making apparently false claims about his mishandling of classified documents and about former President Barack Obama.

“Number one, it was all declassified,” Trump says in a post on his Truth Social site, a claim legal experts say is incorrect. For any president to declassify documents, experts say, there is a process that involves actions being taken on each individual document. They also say the president does not have legal authority to declassify documents related to nuclear weapons.

“Number two,” Trump continues, “they didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request.”

READ MORE: FBI Agents Searched Mar-a-Lago for ‘Classified Documents Relating to Nuclear Weapons’: Report

Again, according to reports, that too is false. DOJ issued a subpoena after the National Archives tried to get all the documents back and Trump still did not comply.

“They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago,” he continues in a separate post on Truth Social. “ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.”

Again, multiple reports say they did, numerous times.

READ MORE: DOJ Served Trump With Grand Jury Subpoena for Classified Documents Months Before FBI Raid: Report

None of his responses explain why he had at Mar-a-Lago what we now know were at least 35 cartons – 20 retrieved on Monday and 15 earlier this year – of items including confidential, classified, and top secret documents that were required by law to have been handed over to the National Archives.

“The bigger problem is,” Trump says, “what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?”

That is also false.

The National Archives on Friday issued a statement after Trump repeatedly spread the false claim that former President Barack Obama had 33 million documents in his possession.

“President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” was one of Trump’s false attacks on his Truth Social site.

“The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA),” the Archives said in a statement posted to its website Friday.

“NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA,” the Archives added. “Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”

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