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Why Are Top Anti-Gay Activists Holding A Meeting In A US Senate Building Today?

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Located in Washington, D.C., the building above is the Dirksen Senate Office Building. It was named after Everett Dirksen, who served first in the U.S. House, from 1933–1949, and then in the Senate, from 1951-1969. The Republican Minority Leader, Dirksen helped to write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sadly, a grotesque act is about to take place in the building that bears the name the of civil rights champion.

Today, top anti-gay activists will be meeting not just with U.S. Senators and their staff, but will be holding that meeting — which is open to the public — for U.S. Senators and their staff in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to further their agenda of hate.

“The Family in America” is the name of a symposium which “will be held from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562,” a press release states. Of course, in order to book a meeting and a room in a Senate office building, you need the support of a U.S. Senator. No word yet on which Senator is sponsoring the event, but “The Family in America” is a project of the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, and its protégé, the World Congress of Families.

UPDATE #1:
The meeting space has been pulled. No word on if the meeting has been moved.
Anti-Gay Meeting Of Radical Religious Right Group Canceled By Sen. Mark Kirk
UPDATE #2:
John Boehner finds them a meeting space.
Boehner To The Rescue — Of International Anti-Gay Organization Promoting Russia’s Policies

What will they be discussing?

This:

While the current U.S. administration persists in its efforts to redefine marriage and family, other nations are seeking a reaffirmation of the natural family. Australia has just elected a conservative government and given the largest budget area to Kevin Andrews, long-time defender of the family and World Congress of Families supporter; Russia recently banned the propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” to minors; and across Europe and Africa, nations are concerned with life issues, shrinking populations, and the disintegration of the natural family. Here in America, what can our pro-family legislators learn—positively and negatively—by studying our colleagues’ actions abroad?

Yes, they would like to model U.S. law and policy on Russia’s laws that essentially make it illegal to be gay, or to “promote” homosexuality.

Remember earlier this year when Vladimir Putin signed the law that made any discussion of homosexuality a crime in Russia? Remember just before that, when National Organization For Marriage (NOM) president Brian Brown traveled to Russia — but kept his travels a secret — and now stands accused of breaking federal law? Brown spoke with Russian lawmakers, reportedly to urge them not only to continue to ramp up their war on gay people but to remove children from same-sex couples and LGBT parents.

Who was behind Brown’s conversations with Russian anti-gay lawmakers? The World Congress of Families.

Who is holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today? The World Congress of Families.

Remember last month, when Tea Party leader Rick Scarborough called for a class action lawsuit against homosexuality? Scarborough runs a group called Tea Party Unity. Who is on Tea Party Unity’s steering committee? Don Feder of the World Congress of Families. (Feder is the author of a lovely little article titled, “Top 10 Ways Democrats Are Like Nazis.”)

Who is holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today? The World Congress of Families.

Now, do the names Austin Ruse, Janice Shaw Crouse, or Steven Mosher ring a bell? If you’re a close follower of the religious right’s anti-LGBT and so-called “pro-family” work, they do. Those three happen to be the main speakers today at the World Congress of Families’ symposium.

“These shameful individuals represent the worst of America, and it’s an outrage that they will now bring their vitriol to the United States Capitol,” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “After spending years exporting their hate to other regions of the world and contributing to a culture of anti-LGBT violence in Russia, these zealots should be condemned by all Americans and especially by our elected leaders.”

Ruse, an occasional Breitbart contributor, is the president of the virulently anti-gay Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). In September, Ruse and over 100 anti-LGBT activists and organizations signed a letter supporting Russia’s anti-gay laws and Vladimir Putin‘s war on gays.

(Yes, more evidence of America’s religious right working to make homosexuality illegal in Russia.)

Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America offers a particular brand of anti-gay hate and ignorance. She has claimed the Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA will lead to a “bleak future” including “imprisonment” for Christians — no date set – and claimed that gay people die 20 years younger, commit suicide three times the average rate, are prone to syphilis and anal cancer, and cannot maintain long term relationships.

Griffin notes that Crouse, “celebrated a proposed law in Uganda that would make being LGBT punishable by death. Crouse called it a, ‘biblical and cultural stand against the radical homosexual agenda.’”

Steven Mosher is President of the Population Research Institute, which Equality Matters calls “a far-right anti-contraception organization.” Author of Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, Mosher is a proponent of the anti-women scare meme developed by the religious right, called “demographic winter,” which claims that abortion and contraception should be banned because Muslims supposedly make babies at a higher rate than Christians.

It was turned into a “documentary” in 2008.

Unsurprisingly, NOM cofounder and former chair, Maggie Gallagher, is a subscriber of this farcical scare tactic.

In 2011, Mosher, who is the father of nine children, delivered a short speech (you can listen to it and you should) on his “demographic winter” ideas and admitted he was headed to Russia in 2012, to help them figure out how to make more babies.

More evidence of America’s religious right working to make homosexuality illegal in Russia?

Is it a coincidence that this crowd believes that gay people and same-sex marriage are antithetical to their main goal of populating the world with more conservative Christians in a race against Islam?

Here’s a look at their craziness:

//www.youtube.com/embed/3NfuWba9RR8

 

So, we have several of America’s top anti-gay activists, intent on populating America and the world with more Christian babies, holding a meeting organized by the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society and the World Congress of Families.

The World Congress of Families just happens to have strong ties to Vladimir Putin. They’ll be holding their next conference in Moscow next year.

And they are holding a symposium in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562, today.

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

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News

‘I Didn’t Say That You Said That’: Trump Backpedals as ‘Obnoxious’ Reporter Corners Him

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December 8, 2025

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President Donald Trump tried to backpedal on last week’s promise to release full video of a second boat strike some are calling unlawful, when cornered by a reporter he subsequently denounced as “obnoxious” and “terrible.”

Video shows that Trump did promise to release the full video, telling reporters last Wednesday, “whatever they have, we’d certainly release.”

On Monday, ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott said to Trump, “Mr. President, you said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela.”

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“I didn’t say that,” Trump replied. “You said that, I didn’t say that.”

“This is ABC fake news,” the president added.

“You said that you would have no problem releasing the full — okay, well, Secretary Hegseth —” Scott continued.

“Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me,” Trump said.

“He now says it’s under review,” she explained. “Are you ordering the secretary to release that full video?”

“Whatever he decides is okay with me,” Trump responded.

After the president claimed that every boat the U.S. military destroys saves 25,000 American lives, the reporter pressed him to confirm his position on releasing the video.

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“Didn’t I just tell you that?” he charged.

“You said that it was up to the secretary,” she responded.

“You are an obnoxious reporter in the whole place,” Trump said, attacking Scott. “Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible, actually a terrible reporter, and it’s always the same thing with you.”

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GOP Struggles to Message on Affordability as House Republicans Kill Affordability Bill

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December 8, 2025

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Republicans are taking heat on two fronts as they struggle to win the affordability messaging battle while killing affordability legislation.

“Republican lawmakers, aides and strategists tell NBC News they worry that high prices and their party’s poor messaging on affordability could cost them in the midterms,” the news network reported over the weekend.

Politico reported on Monday that “Republicans are divided over how to address growing cost-of-living concerns over health care, housing, student debt and more.”

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As President Donald Trump calls affordability a “hoax” and a “con job,” recent polls show his approval rating is underwater, and some say Republicans have not made the affordability crisis a central legislative focus.

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune appeared to suggest affordability is an issue to tackle down the road.

“We haven’t probably messaged as effectively as we should,” Leader Thune said in an interview, Politico noted. “I think we’ll have lots of opportunities now that we’re getting into an election year to talk about the things we’ve done and how they are going to lead to things being more affordable for the American people, probably starting with tax relief next year.”

One of the things Senate Republicans did was join with Democrats to pass out of committee — unanimously, some Democrats noted — a bill to improve housing availability and affordability.

House Republicans killed the legislation, known as the ROAD to Housing Act.

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“Just this weekend, congressional leaders released a compromise version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act without housing legislation sought by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), after House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and other key House Republicans objected.”

Senate Democrats expressed outrage.

“Leave it to House Republicans to fumble a comprehensive, bipartisan housing package that passed out of the Senate committee UNANIMOUSLY!” decried U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN).

“Unbelievable,” lamented U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA). “House Republicans just killed our broadly bipartisan housing affordability bill, which would have been a great first step towards lowering skyrocketing rents & mortgages. Republicans are actively torpedoing progress towards lowering your rent.”

“Trump claims he wants to lower housing costs, but his allies in the House just axed a bipartisan bill that UNANIMOUSLY passed the Senate to do just that,” noted U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “If Republicans keep blocking legislation to cut housing costs, Democrats will pass it ourselves when we take back Congress.”

The communications director for U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), James Singer, summed it up: “It’s not the message, it’s the policies.”

Economist and economics professor Justin Wolfers told CNN, “When we talk about affordability, so much of what’s going on with prices is in fact a direct result of public policy. We’ve seen tariffs that have raised costs. We’ve seen a big rise in deportations, which are making it difficult for farmers to bring in their crops. We’ve seen health insurance premiums rise as Congress has fiddled with Obamacare subsidies.”

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Image via Reuters

 

 

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‘Corrupt’: Kushner’s Role in Warner Brothers Discovery Takeover Bid Draws Fierce Blowback

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December 8, 2025

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On Sunday, President Donald Trump declared that he will “be involved” in the federal government’s decision on whether to allow the streaming service Netflix to buy mass media and entertainment conglomerate Warner Brothers Discovery. On Monday, Paramount Skydance, another mass media and entertainment conglomerate, announced a hostile takeover bid for WBD — with news soon following that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is part of the Paramount offer.

“Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix, and Kushner’s involvement only strengthens that case,” Axios reported. “Paramount is led by David Ellison, whose billionaire father Larry is a major supporter of President Trump.”

Axios added that Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, “was not mentioned in Paramount’s press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.”

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Fortune reported that “Affinity and the other outside financing partners have agreed to forgo any governance rights, which Paramount said means the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States would have no jurisdiction over the transaction.”

But Axios’ Sarah Fischer wrote on social media: “Ask yourself, why would anyone want to put money into an investment of this caliber and have no governance rights or board seats?”

“Essentially,” she added, “people want to have control/access/political power behind the scenes.”

“Reality is,” Fischer explained, this hostile takeover is a good explanation “of how capitalism/democracy can be exploited for political gain,” with “Paramount essentially betting our open system incentivizes shareholders to take [the] best financial deal even if it means giving soft power” to three sovereign wealth funds, the President, and his son-in-law.

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Critics are blasting Kushner’s and Trump’s involvement.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) remarked, “Donald Trump said he’ll ‘be involved in’ deciding if Netflix can buy Warner Bros. Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals? It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts.”

Award-winning journalist Sophia A. Nelson, responding to trump’s remarks, observed: “This is ridiculous. Corrupt. And NOT what a President gets involved in.”

Professor, investor, and marketing executive Adam Cochran wrote: “Trump is talking about him personally being involved in deciding the fate of the Netflix-Warner Brothers deal, and how it’s ‘bad.’ Meanwhile his son-in-law is financing the competing offer. There has truly never been a more corrupt administration in US history!”

Alexander Vindman, former Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC), wrote: “F– NO to another corrupt Trump deal. Nepobaby, Jared’s, involvement would deliver CNN to MAGA.”

NewsNation’s Kurt Bardella, a communications advisor and media relations consultant, asked: “Alexa, what is a ‘conflict-of-interest’?”

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