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Congressional Candidate, Decorated Officer Attacked For Participating In Air Force Gay Pride Run

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Colonel Michael Bob Starr Accused of ‘Social Engineering’ By GOP Opponent

A Republican congressional candidate and decorated Air Force colonel has come under fire from one of his GOP primary opponents for participating in LGBT Pride runs while he served as a commander at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. 

Retired Col. Michael Bob Starr is among eight Republicans battling in the hotly contested March 1 primary for the District 19 seat being vacated by right-wing GOP Congressman Randy Neugebauer. 

According to the far right website Breitbart Texas, oil field worker and GOP candidate Jason Corley is attacking Starr for appearing in LGBT Pride runs in 2014 and 2015 that were sponsored by the Pride Alliance at Dyess AFB, where Starr served as commander of the 7th Bomb Wing. 

During a candidate forum sponsored by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars on Friday, Corley reportedly questioned why Dyess AFB is supporting LGBT service members. 

Although Starr didn’t directly respond to the attack, Corley later told Breitbart he raised the issue because he’s concerned about the military “being used for social engineering,” as well as the possibility of the government paying for gender reassignment surgery for transgender service members. The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on open service was repealed in 2011, and the Pentagon is currently working towards changing its ban on trans service members. 

Corley also said Starr’s participation in the Pride runs suggests voters in the conservative district may not know enough about the retired colonel, who’s picked up key endorsements in recent weeks and is among the favorites to advance to a runoff for the GOP nomination in one of the nation’s most conservative congressional districts. 

“We know he served in the Air Force, and I appreciate that,” Corley told Breitbart. “But, what else do we know about him? This is an agricultural region and we need candidate who knows ag. We don’t need another Neugebauer.”

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In addition to publishing several photos of Starr participating in LGBT Pride runs at Dyess AFB, Breitbart cited a 2015 newspaper article in which a Pride Alliance member praised the colonel’s support for the group, as well as a 2014 press release from the 7th Bomb Wing titled, “Progression, acceptance and our LGBT Airmen.”  

Those things are evidence that both Starr and Dyess AFB were “actively involved in the business of promoting the social engineering project underway,” according to Breitbart, which also notes that the retired colonel doesn’t mention his support for the Pride Alliance on his campaign website. 

According to his campaign site, Starr spent 23 years in the Air Force and dropped some of the first bombs on Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. He’s received numerous awards and decorations, including three Bronze Stars, and was responsible for 12,000 active-duty members, civilian employees and family members at Dyess AFB. 

Starr, who’s been married to his wife for 23 years, also pledges on his site to “defend life and the pro-family values we all share.” 

At another recent District 19 forum, Starr said he’d consider an exception to abortion bans for “the immediate life of a mother,” which drew a rebuke from another candidate who said such a provision would give doctors an excuse to perform the procedures. 

Corley, meanwhile, joined several of the District 19 hopefuls in railing against LGBT rights, calling be transgender “a mental disorder that someone should seek treatment for” and attacking U.S. Supreme Court justices who sided in favor of nationwide marriage equality. 

“Republicans in Congress voted to OK these guys to let them in there,” Corley said. “When I go to Congress, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to jump up and down, stamp my foot, beat on the table and say, ‘No, we’re not going to allow this.'”

Corley’s campaign logo features two oil rigs, and his favorite slogan is: “Stop voting for the men in suits. Vote for the man in steel-toed boots.” 

Corley also called for a “Ted Cruz-style” candidate for speaker of the House, and praised Neugebauer for yelling “baby killer” on the House floor in 2011. 

“I was like, ‘Hey, that’s my congressman. Thanks for standing up for that.'” Corley said. 

 

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

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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.

READ MORE: New WSJ Poll Is Devastating for DeSantis and His ‘Anti-Woke’ Policies

 

 

 

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Mystery Grand Jury Witness in Trump Hush Money Probe Is Former ‘Enquirer’ Publisher and Trump Ally

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March 27, 2023

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Avid followers of the Manhattan District Attorney’s moves noted the grand jury had been called into service for Monday, and soon news leaked that yet another witness would be testifying in the probe into Donald Trump’s alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Monday afternoon, NBC News’ Garrett Haake reported live on MSNBC that the mystery witness was David Pecker, the former tabloid publisher of the “National Enquirer,” who reportedly had been looking for stories in 2016 to protect Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Haake notes Monday was Pecker’s second appearance before the grand jury in the hush money case.

The New York Times also reported David Pecker as the grand jury witness, calling Pecker “a key player in the hush-money matter. He and the tabloid’s top editor helped broker the deal between the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s fixer at the time.”

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

“While the focus of Mr. Pecker’s testimony is unclear, he could provide valuable information for prosecutors. A longtime ally of Mr. Trump, he agreed to keep an eye out for potentially damaging stories about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign,” The Times reports. “For a brief time in October 2016, Ms. Daniels appeared to have just that kind of story. Her agent and lawyer discussed the possibility of selling exclusive rights to her story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump to The National Enquirer, which would then promise to never publish it, a practice known as ‘catch and kill.'”

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman weighed in, noting, “nothing about that decision [to have Pecker testify] suggests any change of heart on Bragg’s part to indict Trump.”

Former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU professor of law, notes that Pecker’s “testimony can show the [hush money] scheme was designed to affect outcome of election.”

“He reportedly communicated directly with Trump on payment,” Goodman adds.

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

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15 hours ago

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March 27, 2023

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First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, speaking Monday afternoon at a National League of Cities conference, told attendees, “Our children deserve better,” as she broke the news of the Nashville school mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School where three children and three adults were shot dead.

“You know,” Dr. Biden, herself an educator and clearly pained by the news, began her remarks by saying, “I hate to say what I’m gonna say next because you know you’re so enthusiastic and with so much energy and hope and I feel it.”

“But while you’ve been in this room, I don’t know whether you’ve been on your phones but we just learned about another shooting in Tennessee, a school shooting and I am truly without words and our children deserve better, and we stand – all of us – we stand with Nashville in prayer.”

READ MORE: New WSJ Poll Is Devastating for DeSantis and His ‘Anti-Woke’ Policies

The First Lady, a former public high school English teacher and currently a professor of English at a community college, was speaking at the organization’s Congressional City Conference.

Watch Dr. Biden below or at this link.

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