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Texas GOP Governor Abbott Hypocritically Tramples On Religious Freedom

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Greg Abbott Orders Faith-Based Nonprofits To Stop Resettling Syrians

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is all about protecting religious liberty — except when he’s not. 

If the issue is same-sex marriage, for example, Abbott supports allowing government employees like Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to opt out of doing their jobs if they have religious objections. 

“Texans of all faiths must be absolutely secure in the knowledge that their religious freedom is beyond the reach of government,” Abbott said in a statement responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. “The government must never pressure a person to abandon or violate his or her sincerely held religious beliefs regarding a topic such as marriage.”

Likewise, if the issue is reproductive rights, Abbott believes employers should be allowed to opt out providing health coverage to women. In 2012, then-Attorney General Abbott joined five other states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government over the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act. 

“Obamacare’s latest mandate tramples the First Amendment’s freedom of religion and compels people of faith to act contrary to their convictions,” Abbott said at the time. “The very first amendment to our Constitution was intended to protect against this sort of government intrusion into our religious convictions.”

But now that the issue is Syrian refugees, Abbott appears perfectly willing to trample on the First Amendment rights of faith-based nonprofits. Under Abbott’s direction, the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission penned a letter to nonprofit agencies last week demanding that they comply with the governor’s efforts to block Syrian refugees. 

“If you have any active plans to resettle Syrian refugees in Texas, please discontinue those plans immediately,” Commissioner Chris Traylor wrote.  

Some agencies, including Catholic Charities of Dallas, have indicated they won’t go along with the directive from the governor (who happens to be Catholic). 

“Catholic Charities believes in a compassionate response to those who are fleeing violence and persecution around the world. We are called by the Gospel to reach out to all those in need,” Catholic Charities said in a statement.

Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, a faith organization that works closely with refugee aid agencies, expressed shock and dismay at Abbott’s letter.

“We are deeply concerned that the Governor’s letter directs those agencies to interfere with the religious freedom of faith-based humanitarian agencies working in Texas,” Moorhead wrote. “As we read the Governor’s letter, he appears to be directing state agencies to pressure faith-based organizations to violate the sincerely held beliefs of their religious traditions.

“The vicious and inhuman acts perpetrated in Paris, Beirut, and around the world on unsuspecting civilians by terrorists appall people of all faiths,” she added. “However, Governor Abbott’s fearful response now threatens to provide precisely the reaction terrorists hope to achieve-scapegoating of entire national and religious groups, and division among religious communities. Additionally, it runs roughshod over the freedom of religious humanitarian organizations in Texas to practice their faith.” 

Abbott, of course, is one of more than two dozen governors who’ve said they’ll stop accepting Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, even though they apparently lack the legal authority to turn them away. But Abbott has gone a step beyond most others. In addition to impinging on the religious liberties of nonprofit agencies, Abbott has violated Syrian refugees’ civil rights by ordering the Department of Public Safety to track those already in Texas. 

In an effort to justify his ridiculous actions, Abbott recently claimed eight Syrian refugees had been “caught” crossing the Texas border in Laredo. As it turned out, two Syrian families had actually turned themselves in, prompting Politifact to rate Abbott’s claim as “mostly false.” 

By Monday, Abbott had begun raising money based on his opposition to resettling Syrian refugees: 

Worst of all, Abbott’s rhetoric may be fanning the already fervent flames of anti-Islamic hatred among right-wingers in Texas. Over the weekend, protesters staged an armed rally outside a mosque in Irving, wearing bandanas over their faces and carrying long guns. 

“They’re mostly for self-defense or protection,” one protester with a 12-gauge rifle told The Dallas Morning News. “But I’m not going to lie. We do want to show force. … It would be ridiculous to protest Islam without defending ourselves.”

Fortunately, not all elected officials in Texas are as crazy as Abbott. Among those who showed up at the protest was Irving City Councilman Chris Palmer. 

“My initial impression was they were using them for intimidation,” Palmer told The Dallas Morning News, referring to protesters’ guns. “I doubt that they’d be happy if some of the Muslim churchgoers here showed up at their Christian church, their Baptist church, their Methodist church tomorrow morning with rifles slung over their shoulders.”

Meanwhile, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings have publicly rejected misleading, reactionary, xenophobic rhetoric from the likes of Abbott. Rawlings told MSNBC on Saturday that such rhetoric only plays into the hands of ISIS.

“ISIS wants us to be divided on this issue. ISIS wants us to demonize these Syrian refugees, wants us to alienate these children,” Rawlings said. “ISIS is no more Islamic than the Nazi senior staff was Christian, so we’ve got to differentiate between those. … I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue.”

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

 

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Targets Former Biden Official’s Religious Faith in House Hearing

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January 15, 2025

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During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) invoked God and religion to harshly question Martin O’Malley, the former Commissioner of the Social Security Administration and a former Governor of Maryland, about his personal views on abortion and his Catholic faith.

In her highly confrontational interrogation of O’Malley, a longtime Democrat who also served as Governor of Maryland for eight years and ran for president in 2016, Congresswoman Greene, a self-avowed Christian nationalist, invoked his Catholic faith to attack his beliefs about abortion.

“Since you’re very interested in being DNC chair, you are after all a lifelong Democrat politician — I don’t even know if you had a job in the real world, but you have been an elected politician for years,” Greene accused (video below). “Mr. O’Malley you’re also a Catholic, are you not?”

“I am,” O’Malley confirmed.

READ MORE: Trump Vowed ‘100%’ to End Ukraine War Before Inauguration — Now He Says It’s ‘Up to Putin’

“Do you serve God or do you serve the Democrat Party?” Greene asked.

“I serve God,” O’Malley responded.

An off-camera committee member interjected: “Mr. Chairman, as a Roman Catholic, I take offense at the suggestion that somebody has [inaudible] to God and their service as a Catholic.”

Greene tried to talk over the objection, which went unaddressed by the Republican majority chair.

“Mr. O’Malley, will you be supporting the murder of the unborn up until the day of birth like your party does? As DNC chair, will you be supporting the murder of innocent unborn people? Is that in line with your faith in God and the Catholic Church?” Greene said, appearing to grandstand.

“I trust the judgment of women and doctors over the judgment of government,” O’Malley patiently replied.

“Now, do you trust God’s judgment?” Greene continued. “Do you trust God that he loves and has created every single human being? Do you support the murder of unborn children and are you going to uphold that evil practice that the Democrat Party wants to continue? You see, abortions over 95% of them are unintended pregnancies. They use abortions as birth control. So are you going to continue the birth control practice of murdering the unborn children as chair of the DNC? Will that be, that be a policy?”

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Refuses to Say Trump Legitimately Lost the 2020 Election in Confirmation Hearing

O’Malley, appearing to near the end of his patience, replied, “I am pro-choice, and I trust the judgment of women and their doctors over judgments of government.`

“Well, thank you for letting God know where you stand with the murder of —” Greene snapped back before O’Malley interjected.

“I talk to God every day,” he declared.

“Yeah, well you might want to talk to him a little bit more, Mr. O’Malley, because you’re definitely in the wrong,” Greene charged.

The Republican from Georgia was not finished.

Minutes later she posted a short clip of her attack on O’Malley to social media, and wrote: “WATCH: ‘Catholic’ Martin O’Malley confirms abortion is the sacrament of the Democrat Party.”

O’Malley has been called “a Pope Francis Democrat” and a “a pray-every-morning, church-every-Sunday” believer, according to a 2015 Religion News Service article.

Watch the video below or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Antisemitism Is Wrong, But’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Pilloried for Promoting Antisemitic Claim

 

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Trump Vowed ‘100%’ to End Ukraine War Before Inauguration — Now He Says It’s ‘Up to Putin’

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4 hours ago

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January 15, 2025

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On the campaign trail last year, candidate Donald Trump, time after time, not only suggested he could swiftly bring an end to Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine, but at times even insisted he could—and would—do it before being sworn into office. But with Inauguration Day fast approaching, President-elect Donald Trump has washed his hands of a peace settlement, instead declaring that any resolution is now entirely in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I would fix that within 24 hours, and if I win, before I get into the office, I will have that war settled. 100% sure,” Trump said on Fox News in March 2024, HuffPost reported.

“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled — we’re going to get it settled and stop the death,” Trump adamantly told supporters in June 2024.

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Refuses to Say Trump Legitimately Lost the 2020 Election in Confirmation Hearing

“I would fix that within 24 hours, and, if I win, before I get into the office, I will have that war settled. 100% sure,” Trump vowed as far back as March 2023.

“If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” Trump said again just months later, at a CNN town hall in May 2023, as TIME reported. “It will be over. It will be absolutely over.”

These are just a few of the many times Trump promised to personally end Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Now, he has an entirely different set of promises.

Sunday night, during an interview with Newsmax, Trump was asked, “You’ve said you want the Ukraine war ended in 6 months. What is the strategy to do that?”

“Well, there’s only one strategy,” Trump replied, “and it’s up to Putin. And I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled with the way it’s gone, because it hasn’t got exactly well for him either. And I know he wants to meet and I’m gonna meet very quickly.”

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“I would’ve done it sooner but…you have to get into the office. For some of the things, you do have to be there,” Trump conceded, Reuters reported.

At a press conference last week, Trump went from promising peace before he took office, to six months after.

“I hope to have six months,” Trump told reporters, USA Today reported, before adding, “I hope long before six months.”

Trump has named Keith Kellogg to be his Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

Kellogg, appearing to attempt to split the difference, settled on a timeline for peace of just over three months.

“Let’s set it at 100 days and move all the way back and figure a way we can do this in the near-term to make sure that the solution is solid, it’s sustainable, and that this war ends so that we stop the carnage,” he said, HuffPost reported.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Loyalty to a Tyrant’: Cheney Invokes Jack Smith’s Report to Warn Senate on Trump Nominees

 

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News

Pam Bondi Refuses to Say Trump Legitimately Lost the 2020 Election in Confirmation Hearing

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5 hours ago

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January 15, 2025

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Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who helped Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, refused to unequivocally state that he lost the election during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday to become U.S. Attorney General.

If confirmed, Bondi would be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, and would have the final say on which crimes are prosecuted and which are not. Donald Trump has promised to pardon some, if not all, of those convicted of crimes related to his January 6, 2021 insurrection. Bondi has promised to investigate those inside the Justice Department who prosecuted the January 6 rioters and others connected to the attack on the Capitol and the insurrection.

Telling Bondi that “central to the peaceful competition of power in a democracy is the acceptance of the results of an election,” Democratic Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin stated, “To my knowledge, Donald Trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election.”

“Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?” Durbin asked Bondi.

READ MORE: Torture? Shoot Protesters? Greenland? Question After Question, Hegseth Refused to Answer

“Ranking Member Durbin, President Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi said, sidestepping the question. “He was duly sworn in and he is the President of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”

Having not given a direct answer, Durbin pressed on.

“Do you have any doubts that Joe Biden had the majority of votes — electoral votes — necessary to be elected president in 2020?” he asked.

“You know, Senator, all I can tell you as a prosecutor is from my first hand experience. And I accept the results,” Bondi, still not answering directly, replied.

“I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is President of the United States,” she added, “but what I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania, as an advocate for the campaign — I was an advocate for the campaign and I was on the ground in Pennsylvania and I saw many things there, but do I accept the results? Of course I do.”

“Do I agree with what happened in — I saw so much, you know, no one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country. We should all want our elections to be free and fair and the rules and the laws to be followed,” Bondi lectured.

Durbin expressed his dissatisfaction.

“I think that question deserved yes or no, and I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren’t prepared to answer yes,” he told her.

The New York Times reported that during Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi “would not explicitly say that Mr. Trump lost in 2020.”

During the presidential campaign, Bondi vowed on Fox News that “The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones.”

RELATED: ‘Loyalty to a Tyrant’: Cheney Invokes Jack Smith’s Report to Warn Senate on Trump Nominees

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Bondi “played an early and active role in spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election.”

“The investigators will be investigated,” she added.

Watch the videos below or at this link.

 

READ MORE: FBI Report on Hegseth ‘Insufficient’ Says Top Dem: ‘I Do Not Believe You Are Qualified’

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