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US Navy to Name Ship After LGBT Activist Harvey Milk

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The USNS Harvey Milk Will Memorialize the Celebrated Gay Activist and Politician

Harvey Milk, celebrated gay activist and politician, will soon be memorialized by the U.S. Navy as they christen a fleet oiler the USNS Harvey Milk, reports USNI News.

Milk, whose was the son of two Navy veterans, served aboard the USS Kittiwake as a diving officer during the Korean War. He was discharged from the Navy at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, and in 1977 become the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. He held the position until he was assassinated by a fellow city official the following year.

The USNS Harvey Milk’s announcement follows years of petitions and motions by organizations such as the Harvey Milk Foundation and the International Court Council to name a ship after the late politician.

“When he was assassinated,” the International Court Council writes, “Harvey Milk was wearing his U.S. Navy Master Diver belt buckle. He earned it during his four years of Honorable Service in the U.S. Navy, and was one of the achievements he was most proud of. The blood stained shirt, shoes and belt buckle are on display at the Historical Society.”

In 2012, his nephew and Harvey Milk Foundation co-founder Stuart Milk discussed the importance of naming a ship after his uncle. He told the San Diego LGBT Weekly that “as an American hero who proudly wore the uniform of a Naval officer, the naming of a major vessel after Harvey [would] add that most American value of equality and democracy to the proud message of inclusion for which military service now exemplifies.” Milk was referring, of course, to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

He continued that naming a ship after his uncle would “further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military.”

The ship’s christening joins the myriad of ways Milk’s life has been memorialized. In 2009, Milk was nominated for an Oscar for the Best Motion Picture of the Year and won for both Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

More recently, as vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine officially accepted his nomination last night at the Democratic National Convention, he invoked Milk’s name:

The USNS Harvey Milk will become the second ship to be named after a civil rights leader, and is reportedly of the John Lewis-class, named for sitting House of Representatives progressive John Lewis.

According to USNI, other names in the class “include former Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren whose court ruled to desegregate U.S. schools, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women’s rights activist Lucy Stone and abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.”

 

Images:
Harvey Milk in dress Navy Blue uniform for his brother’s wedding in 1954 via Wikimedia
Pride flag at Harvey Milk Plaza: photo by torbakhopper
 via Flickr and a CC license

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Rogan on Epstein Files: ‘Looks Terrible’ for Trump

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Prominent podcaster Joe Rogan warned that the handling of the Epstein files “looks terrible” for President Donald Trump and his administration.

“During Tuesday and Thursday’s episodes, Rogan criticized redactions the Department of Justice made from the files,” The Hill reported.

“Who knows what f — — happens with all this Epstein files s — —,” he said, according to video of his streaming show. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier and deeper and deeper.”

“Why would your name be redacted if you’re not a victim?” Rogan also asked. “Like, this is what’s crazy about all this. Like, how come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people?”

READ MORE: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

“Like, what is this?” the podcaster continued. “This is not good. None of this is good for this administration. It looks f — — terrible. It looks terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax. Like, did you not know?”

“Maybe he didn’t know if you want to be charitable? But this is definitely not a hoax. And if you’ve got redacted people’s names, and these people aren’t victims, you’re not protecting the victim. So what are you doing?”

“And how come all this s — — is not released?” Rogan asked.

 

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

 

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Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

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Far-right extremist livestreamer Nick Fuentes — who leads a “Groyper” following of mostly young men and brands himself “America First” — is putting President Donald Trump on notice ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I won’t even consider voting in the midterms unless the Epstein Files are fully unredacted, mass deportations resume, and we don’t go to war with Iran,” wrote Fuentes, who has 1.2 million followers on the X social media platform.

Some of Trump’s MAGA allies were furious this week as Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected numerous questions in a congressional hearing on that very topic.

Even before Bondi’s widely-criticized performance, Fuentes had called for her impeachment.

READ MORE: Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

“Pam Bondi needs to be impeached,” he said on his February 9 Rumble show, “America First,” as The Daily Beast reported. “You lied about the existence of the files. You lied about unindicted collaborators and accomplices.”

Fuentes has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist,” an “admirer of fascists,” and someone who “frequently relies on antisemitic tropes.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Fuentes has used his platforms to make numerous antisemitic, racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments,” and spreads “white supremacist propaganda.”

President Trump “has not condemned Fuentes,” and Vice President JD Vance “has only criticized him for attacking his wife,” The Week reported last month. “But Vance also appears keen to avoid alienating young Fuentes supporters, who could help him secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.”

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

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President Donald Trump issued another batch of pardons on Thursday, granting clemency to five former NFL players — the latest in what the Cato Institute has labeled a “blizzard” of pardons.

Trump’s pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson praised the move, which covers cases including those involving drug-related offenses and perjury convictions, according to The Guardian,

“Today, the President granted pardons to five former NFL players—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late great Dr. Billy Cannon,” wrote Johnson. “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation.”

Johnson went on to applaud the president “for his continued commitment to second chances.”

“Mercy changes lives,” she added.

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

The Cato Institute on Wednesday had said the scope and magnitude of Trump’s “blizzard” of pardons are “unprecedented.”

Before this latest round of pardons, Trump had issued 166 pardons — plus the mass pardons of about 1,500 people convicted on charges in connection with January 6 — since taking office just over one year ago. By comparison, President Joe Biden in four years issued 80 pardons.

“In other words,” Cato’s Dan Greenberg wrote, “even putting aside the rioters’ collective pardon, Trump is now issuing pardons at eight times the rate Biden did.”

READ MORE: ‘Political Stunt’: Trump Admin Rages After NYC Re-Raises Pride Flag at Stonewall

Greenberg put Trump’s pardons into several categories.

He noted that Biden’s pardons eliminated about $680,000 in penalties owed to victims or the federal government, whereas Trump’s pardons have wiped away about $1.5 billion.

Greenberg also said that “Trump has normalized the pardoning of disgraced politicians, such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez (who orchestrated a spree of state-sponsored drug trafficking leading to a 45-year prison term),” and others, such as Nevada legislator Michele Fiore, Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, and Arkansas legislator Jeremy Hutchinson.

Other concerns Greenberg noted are that aspects of some of Trump’s pardons “set off alarm bells for self-corruption—either of the president or of his associates.”

Finally, “Trump has increasingly focused on providing pardons to his campaign supporters who stretched or broke the law, such as John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis.”

READ MORE: ‘Politically Toxic’: Voters Say Biden Was Better Than Trump

 

Image via Reuters 

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