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‘Bitch Just Make The Cake’: Bill Maher Takes On Anti-Gay Religious Fundamentalists

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Watch as Bill Maher takes on Christian and Islamic fundamentalists over their anti-gay positions, reminding Americans that both religions’ holy books call for the execution of gay people.

Bill Maher jumped into the nation’s recent debate over so-called “religious freedom” Friday night, reminding Americans that religious fundamentalists aren’t out of the mainstream, they are the mainstream.

First, the 59-year old atheist opened his “New Rules” segment by telling the religious right that they’ve already lost.

“Conservatives have to admit they’ve lost the culture wars when they’re reduced to demanding the right to not serve wedding cake to gay people,” Maher preached. “That’s the biggest problem facing America, not climate change, or terrorism, or the wealth gap, but gay cake? It’s not like gays are asking bakeries to make a giant penis cake that goes from soft to hard and squirts out butter cream,” he mocked.

And then Maher told some big truths that most Americans have chosen to ignore recently.

“Ever since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed his Religious Freedom Restoration Act he and like-minded conservatives have been trying to have it both ways. They hate discrimination, but they love the Bible, a book that commands you to discriminate. That’s what it says. Gay is an abomination and we must destroy it by denying it pastry. Of course the root of this problem is that more than half of all Americans believe that the Bible is the actual or inspired word of God. But, now 55 percent also support gay marriage – which must be very confusing. On the one hand, clearly, God has spelled it out. He hates fags. But, you like your gay neighbors Rob and Larry. But, the Bible tells you to kill them. Yes, it literally says kill them. What to do?”

Maher used the example California’s Christian attorney Matt McLaughlin, who recently made headlines by paying $200 to file a ballot initiative that, should the voters of California pass it, would mandate the execution of every gay person in the state, or, “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification.” McLaughlin’s Sodomite Suppression Act calls for gays to “be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”

McLaughlin, Maher notes, says that it’s “better” that non-gay Californians kill the gays rather than have to suffer “God’s just wrath.”

And more truth-telling.

“Now I know you’re saying, ‘this guy is so far out on the fringe,’ but that’s the scary thing: he’s not. And this is what never gets discussed in these ‘religious freedom’ issues. The reason fundamentalists are so stubbornly anti-gay is they truly believe that condoning homosexuality will bring on God’ wrath.”

Maher went through a list of professional anti-gay haters, including Rev. Jerry Falwell, whose Liberty University is were Ted Cruz chose to announce his candidacy for president. Also on Maher’s list were Pastor John Hagee, televangelist Pat Robertson, who is the head of Regent University, and Bob Jones University founder Bob Jones III.

“Take fundamentalists at their word. They literally believe this stuff,” Maher observed. “If you believe that God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah for being too gay, then, yeah, he must be itching to hit West Hollywood,” Maher quipped.

Maher then turned his focus, as he recently has tended to do, on countries that have a majority of citizens who are Muslim, like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan.

“Suffice it to say, in many Muslim countries, you wouldn’t have to work hard at all to get signatures on your ‘kill all the gays’ ballot initiative. In ten such countries, it’s already the law.”

And he reminded that Mohammad calls for the killing of anyone who engages in sodomy.

Maher then called for moderates to “hijack” Islam, as, he observes, happened with Christianity.

“People say ISIS hijacked Islam. No actually, the opposite is true. Religions do have hijackers, but the hijackers are the moderates, and I thank atheist God for them. They’re the ones who took a Sharpie to the Bible and redacted all the crazy parts until there was almost nothing left to read – like an email from Hillary Clinton. And now someone in Islam needs to do that with the Koran.”

“There’s so much wrong with America these days, take pride in the one thing that is legitimately better. We don’t let fundamentalists rule our shit. What’s the proof? Our gay battles are over cake. And even then, not once has one of these religious freedom laws been used to deny a gay person his wedding cake. It doesn’t happen. What happens is, there’s a lawsuit, it goes to court, and the judge says, ‘bitch just make the cake!'”

In the end, isn’t it time to put hate in the name of “religious liberty” back on the shelf, where old books, and not people, live?

Watch:

 

Image: Screenshot via YouTube
Thanks to Crooks & Liars and Towleroad for portions of the transcript

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‘No Amnesty’ and No Plan: Trump Ag Sec Grilled on Farm Labor as Deportations Continue

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One day after appearing in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tell reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented farm workers while insisting adults on Medicaid could replace them, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins faced sharp criticism for having no “concrete” plan to meet what she declared is the Trump administration’s goal of an entirely “legal” U.S. farm worker workforce.

“It sounds like you don’t yet have a concrete proposal to deal with farmers who rely on undocumented workers, am I right?” a Fox News Business host asked (video below).

“Well, no, we are working on it. We’re working on a concrete proposal,” Secretary Rollins insisted.

READ MORE: ‘Secretary Chaos’: Hegseth Running ‘Absolute Clown Show’ Critics Say, Amid Calls to Resign

“You’re working on it but that’s not a concrete proposal,” the host sharply charged.

“Well, no, the president has been very, very clear. We need to make sure that the food supply is safe,” Rollins said, before insisting that “ultimately, we have to move toward a 100% legal workforce, and that’s what this president stands for, and that’s what we’re doing.”

“The mass deportations will continue, but the president has been very clear that we have to make sure we’re not compromising our food supply at the same time,” Rollins said before declaring that “Congress has to fix it,” and U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer “is on it.”

“The border has to be secure and there will be no amnesty,” Rollins added, before the host again pointed out the administration has no plan yet.

READ MORE: Trump Claims ‘Tremendous Power’ to Run ‘Places’ Like DC and NYC

“It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’s fair to say there is a concrete proposal when you’re still working out details to try to deal with the needs of farmers who need a lot of these undocumented workers and at the same time not providing an amnesty.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

 

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‘Secretary Chaos’: Hegseth Running ‘Absolute Clown Show’ Critics Say, Amid Calls to Resign

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Last week, reportedly without consulting the White House, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unilaterally approved the decision to halt critical weapons shipments to Ukraine, which has been the target of increased attacks in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against the sovereign nation.

President Trump on Tuesday claimed he had no knowledge of who ordered the halt in weapons shipments. That pause came just after his July 3 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours later, Russia launched a massive bombing campaign against Ukraine.

“Russia launched its largest-ever drone and missile barrage on Ukraine, two days after the US stopped the delivery of some key weapons to Kyiv — including crucial interceptors used to shoot down Moscow’s missiles,” The Financial Times reported on July 4. “The barrage began soon after an hour-long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.”

READ MORE: Trump Claims ‘Tremendous Power’ to Run ‘Places’ Like DC and NYC

The halt of weapons to Ukraine was so catastrophic and damaging that it set off “a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government,” CNN reported. “The US special envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, were also not told about the pause beforehand and learned about it from press reports, according to a senior administration official and two of the sources.”

“The episode underscores the often-haphazard policy-making process inside the Trump administration, particularly under Hegseth at the Defense Department,” CNN added.

Last week’s halt was the third time Secretary Hegseth unilaterally decided to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to NBC News.

Pentagon officials last week said the halt was due to concerns over U.S. weapons stockpile levels, but NBC News reported that “an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.”

Hegseth’s decision “blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies.”

Now, critics are calling for Hegseth’s resignation.

Declaring the Defense Secretary “completely unqualified, and on an ego trip,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a post about Hegseth not informing the White House about his weapons halt.

“When is Pete Hegseth going to resign?” asked Congressman Lieu, a retired U.S. Air Force officer.

“This would be a good time for Congress to investigate Hegseth’s Pentagon and push for his resignation,” wrote Jeet Heer on Monday at The Nation.

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

Many of my GOP friends and colleagues are decorated military veterans who have risked their lives for our country,” remarked U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY). “If they believe — as they must — that @SecDef poses a grave danger to our national security and that of our allies, I hope they will urge POTUS to finally fire him.”

Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and host of the Independent Americans podcast, blasted Hegseth.

“No surprise here,” he wrote, also responding to a post about the weapons halt. “The sloppiness and incompetence is consistent. And his flawed leadership continues to disrupt and frustrate folks all across the Pentagon. And now, it’s also frustrating the White House and Trump himself.”

“He is Secretary Chaos,” Rieckhoff continued. “And every day he falls deeper beyond his depth. We are less safe, our allies are weakened, and our enemies are celebrating.”

Decorated former CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, wrote: “Leadership dysfunction at DoD…. This stuff just can’t happen… serious real world ramifications… (ie Ukrainians die). Is there any accountability?”

“Hegseth is running an absolute clown show,” warned Colby Badhwar of The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

RELATED: ‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump Claims ‘Tremendous Power’ to Run ‘Places’ Like DC and NYC

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President Donald Trump claimed the White House has legal authority to run parts of the country including Washington, D.C. and New York City, especially should he oppose its elected leaders. His remarks were another attack on the nation’s largest city, which his Transportation Secretary also targeted earlier on Tuesday.

Trump told reporters, “we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

“We could run D.C.” he alleged. “I mean, we’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.” Hey also claimed that the White House is currently “testing” running D.C.

Washington, D.C. and its 700,000 residents have an elected city council and mayor. While Congress maintains some control over the nation’s capital, a complete federal government takeover of a city would be unprecedented. Presidents have, at times, had to send in the National Guard, but never to permanently occupy and run a local government.

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

Trump added that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “is working very closely with the mayor and they’re doing alright. I mean, in the sense that we would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it.”

“The crime would be down to a minimal, would be much less, you know, we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want we want a capital that’s run flawlessly and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

If attempted, a federal takeover could raise serious concerns about voter disenfranchisement and further inflame opposition from advocates of D.C. statehood.

Trump also attacked Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, as “a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of b—s—.”

READ MORE: ‘Absolutely Mind Blowing’: Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Remark Draws Concern, Backlash

“I can tell you this,” Trump continued, I used to say, ‘We will not ever be a socialist country,’ right? Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not gonna have if a communist get elected to run New York, it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”

Trump has previously threatened Mamdani “with arrest, denaturalization and removal from the country while repeatedly branding him a communist,” according to The Independent.

Watch the video below or at this link.


RELATED: ‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

 

Image via Reuters

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