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GOP State Senator Compares LGBT Activists to Nazis, Then Fundraises Off His Attacks

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‘The Head of the Nazi SS Was a Homosexual’ Claims Sen. Jason Rapert

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Arkansas Republican state Senator Jason Rapert is comparing LGBT activists to Nazis, and then fundraising off his attacks. 

“The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers,” Sen. Rapert wrote on his Facebook page on August 12, as AmericaBlog‘s John Aravosis noted. “Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology.”

The comparison of LGBT people to Nazis is beyond offensive. Hitler arrested an estimated 100,000 LGBT people, sent up to 15,000 to concentration camps, and killed untold thousands of them, according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

“I don’t care what THEY believe,” Rapert continued, doing his best to dehumanize gays, “but I refuse to let them intimidate those who disagree with them. Our laws should not give special protections to people who behave this way. It is a sad time in American history.”

“I believe you should be allowed to believe as your conscience dictates – but I oppose forcing anyone to comply with your belief system and especially punishing people who believe commonly held moral standards. It’s all very un-American.”

Rapert effectively is saying LGBT people must comply with his belief system, but he is not subject to the basic idea of even respecting LGBT people as people. He’s also disrespecting the laws of a sovereign state.

What, exactly, got Rapert so angry?

An opinion piece at the far right wing website The Daily Caller, by an attorney of the anti-gay hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is representing Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman, who has finally been able to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take her case.

Put simply, Stutzman has lost her argument – and her case – at every turn. She refused to sell flowers to a long-time customer who was marrying his fiancé. Stutzman claims creating a floral arrangement for a wedding of two people of the same sex violates her religious beliefs. The ADF for years has wrongly been insisting Stutzman may lose her home, her business and her life savings, and has been blaming LGBT people for that – while fundraising off it.

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In February they told supporters they needed to raise $24 million. That was just one of the about 150 articles, press releases, and other pages on the ADF’s website that mention Stutzman.

In reality, the laws of the state of Washington, and the voters who elected the lawmakers who believe human rights laws are important in a civil society, are the ones actually responsible for the case against Stutzman. Meanwhile, Stutzman has been given several chances by Washington officials to pay a nominal fee, $1000 to $2000 to settle the case and make it disappear, yet has repeatedly refused.

In response to the hundreds of Facebook comments he received – the majority of which appear to oppose his remarks – on Tuesday afternoon Rapert again took to Facebook, this time asking for money in response to comments from people explaining to him why his beliefs are not only inaccurate, but offensive. 

“Friends, as you can see from the hate-filled posts here the past few days, radical liberals are raging against me for standing up for Barronelle Stutzman – the little 72 year old Christian florist being targeted for ruin simply for declining to participate in a gay wedding,” Rapert wrote. “If you want to protect Religious Liberty and help me keep speaking the truth in the face of lies and anti-Christian bigotry – please help me by donating today.”

Wednesday morning Sen. Rapert announced on Facebook, his campaign fundraising was going well: “We deposited $8,200 yesterday!”

But that not the end of Rapert’s attacks on “radical liberals” and LGBT people.

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In the comments on his Facebook post about Stutzman, Rapert accused LGBT activists of “using tactics of those who once targeted them,” and claimed, “it is reported that the head of the Nazi SS was a homosexual.” (That would likely be a surprise to Heinrich Himmler.) 

Rapert also claims the people of Arkansas elected him “to stand against bigotry like this,” meaning to stand against ensuring business owners treat people equally.

“There is a real problem with hostility from LGBT activists that rises to the level of true intolerance and intimidation,” Rapert said,  chastising people who made comments he felt were inappropriate or “un-American.”

Rapert also misrepresented a June Rolling Stone article on LGBT activist and mega donor Tim Gill, who has spent hundreds of millions of his own money to support LGBT equality. 

Former OutServe-SLDN board member Josh Seefried, whose activism helped repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, weighed in on the Facebook post. Rapert responded with a false claim about LGBT equality activist Tim Gill.

“When the largest donor to the LGBT movement declares that they are going to target Christians and punish them as the ‘wicked’, doesn’t that sound just like the Nazis who changed the definition of Jews to be something lower than human so they could get away with killing them?” Rapert asked.

He’s referring to a June Rolling Stone article, in which Gill says: “We’re going into the hardest states in the country,” and, “We’re going to punish the wicked.”

So egregious was the response from the far and religious right that the article’s author was forced to pen a follow up, blasting the them for falsely asserting that “the wicked” refers to Christians – and noting that Gill has received death threats as a result.

Not once in my profile does Gill talk about “targeting” Christians. Not once does Gill so much as hint at singling out Christians or adherents of any other religion. Not once does the word “Christian” appear.

…

“The wicked” is anyone who stands in the way of progress on equal rights for LGBTQ people: politicians, activists, lawyers, some people of faith, and plenty more with no religious affiliation whatsoever.

On Sen. Rapert’s Facebook page, many of the comments scolded or criticized him (see screenshot below). Here’s one good example:

You actually believe Nazis committed genocide-murdering 6 million Jews-because Jews “disagreed with Nazi ideology”? Nazi ideology is: “murder Jews.” 

To suggest LGBTQ people, who simply want to be treated as equal and to be allowed public lives & the same rights & securities as everyone else, are Nazis is the height of stupidity & is truly dangerous rhetoric. Nazis do exist in our country – they marched in Charlottesville and murdered a young woman – and they exist in our White House. They must be denounced & defeated. LGBTQ people must be respected & protected under our Constitution-and because it’s the ethical and moral thing to do.

You should denounce your own statement, get educated, and rethink what makes you such a hateful person.

Meanwhile, back to the senator from Arkansas.

“All of you better wake up. God defines who is and is not wicked – not gay marriage supporters,” Rapert continued in his screed about the Rolling Stone article. “I will not be silent in the face of these threats against Christians just as I have not been silent in the face of the same people who devalue babies lives and kill them by the millions. Our country is very sick within our soul. We need God.”

Actually, Senator, you need reading comprehension and to spend some time better educating yourself. Because almost nothing you’ve written in your Facebook post was correct.

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Senator Suggests Trump Engaging in ‘Stochastic Terrorism’ Amid Pet-Eating Immigrant Lies

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September 13, 2024

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Donald Trump is on his fourth day of promoting his false claim that 20,000 undocumented Haitian migrants were dumped on Springfield, Ohio and have destroyed the townsfolk’s way of life, including by stealing people’s pet cats and dogs and eating them. Now, one U.S. Senator is suggesting the Republican presidential nominee is using “stochastic terrorism” to help his flailing presidential campaign.

A bomb threat and another, unspecified threat forced several Springfield elementary schools and one middle school to evacuate or not open Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, the Springfield city hall was evacuated and shut down, as were some state motor vehicle offices.

The emailed bomb threat on Thursday echoed Donald Trump’s and U.S. Senator JD Vance’s racist lies.

“My hometown of Springfield is becoming a thirdworld (expletive) because you allowed the federal government to dump these (expletive) here,” the email stated, USA Today reports. “We have Haitians eating our animals and then you lie and claim this is not happening when we see this happening. I’m here to send a message, I placed a bomb in the following locations…”

RELATED: ‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

During Tuesday’s presidential debate Trump had falsely said: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

On Thursday he used the lie to promote the candidacy of a Republican seeking to unseat Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

And on Friday, despite the bomb threat and other unspecified threat, Trump said in a press conference he would travel to Springfield and vowed to do “large deportations” from that city and send the legal immigrants he removes to Venezuela.

The “20,000 illegal Haitian migrants” are reported 12,000 to 15,000, ABC News reports, and they are not “illegal.” They are in the country legally, and the town as far back as a decade ago resolved to invite immigrants to help rebuild their failing economy and businesses.

Also on Friday, while reportedly not repeating the racist pet-eating lie, Trump dismissed the bomb threats as unimportant.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is not dismissing them, but he is asking how anyone could function again under a Trump presidency, and suggesting Trump is engaging in stochastic terrorism.

RELATED: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

“Think about what it would be like to have four years of a President engaging in overtly racist stochastic terrorism against people pursuing the American dream and then just ask yourself what your immigrant grandparents would want you to do. Kids deserve to go to school safely,” Senator Schatz wrote.

Wajahat Ali is a New York Times contributing op-ed writer, Daily Beast columnist, and author of “Go Back to Where You Came From.” Responding to the news Friday of more school evacuations, Ali wrote: “Stochastic terrorism thanks to Trump and Vance.”

Mother Jones’s D.C. bureau chief David Corn, an MSNBC analyst, also noted: “Trump and Vance incite. Look up stochastic terrorism.”

And Mother Jones on X posted: “Days after Trump went on a racist rant during the presidential debate, the city of Springfield, Ohio, received a bomb threat that was explicitly hostile to immigrants and Haitians. This further proves that Trump’s demonizing rhetoric portends violence.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Faces Increasing Calls to Participate in Second Debate

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‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

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19 hours ago

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September 13, 2024

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For the second day in a row, elementary school children in Springfield, Ohio, were forced to be evacuated due to threats: a bomb threat on Thursday and an unspecified threat on Friday. The threats come after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance, have repeatedly spread lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield this week, including that they are stealing residents’ cats and dogs and eating them.

Thursday’s bomb threat specifically mentioned the false claims about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets, USA Today reported.

“Three schools in Springfield were evacuated or closed Friday, based on guidance from police, school officials said,” local NBC affiliate WLWT reports. “Officials with the Springfield City School District said that based on information they got from the Springfield Police Division, students at Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated and moved to another district location.”

A Springfield middle school was also ordered closed Friday morning, before classes began, and “at least one Springfield location of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is closed.”

READ MORE: ‘Screaming About Eating Cats Is Not a Solution’: Walz Rallies Michigan Crowd, Slams Trump

On Thursday, a bomb threat targeting Springfield city hall and an elementary school forced evacuations of those buildings.

“Police Chief Allison Elliott said that due to the seriousness of the threat, officials evacuated multiple buildings in addition to City Hall, including BMV Springfield Driver’s Exam Station, Ohio License Bureau Southside, Springfield Academy of Excellence and Fulton Elementary School.”

Despite the reports of the bomb threat on Thursday, hours later Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform to promote the Republican nominee working to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, by spreading more anti-Haitian immigrant racism.

“Bernie Moreno has a very good chance of winning Ohio against a Radical Left Democrat, Sherrod Brown, with what is happening in Springfield, and other parts of the State,” Trump declared Thursday afternoon, referring to the far-right extremist Republican who is currently leading in the polls by low single digits.

Trump then invoked his racist Haitian immigrant lies.

“Ohio is being inundated with Illegal Migrants, mostly from Haiti, who are taking over Towns and Villages at a level and rate never seen before.”

On Truth Social, Trump on Thursday also posted memes of cats, including one with them holding a sign that says, “Don’t let them eat us, vote for Trump.”

RELATED: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump had falsely claimed, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

USA Today also reported that the “false rumor that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating pets began to circulate in the days leading up to the debate and was further popularized through posts from running mate J.D. Vance about his own state and AI-generated images shared by Trump, Elon Musk and the Republican House Judiciary Committee.”

J.J. Abbott, former press secretary to then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, responded to ABC News immigration reporter Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García’s viral social media post reporting Friday’s threat and evacuations:

“In 2018, the GOP and Trump’s anti-immigrant conspiracies led to the deadliest mass shooting in recent PA history at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The gunman took him seriously and literally. There’s nothing funny or intriguing about this dangerous racism.”

Many others responded to that reporter’s post.

“No sanitizing this. @jdvance and @realDonaldTrump bear full responsibility. They’re promoters of terrorism; and they did it intentionally,” wrote columnist, reporter, and former editor in chief of Crooked Media Brian Beutler.

“Ohio should look at this insanity and vote accordingly. Conspiracy peddling has real consequences. You can’t unring that bell. Donald Trump and JD Vance don’t care,” noted constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance are terrorizing schoolchildren. They are unfit for any public office, let alone the highest,” responded attorney Andrew L. Seidel.

“JD Vance and MAGA influencers whipped up a blood libel panic and now children in Springfield are being traumatized by their lies. Hell isn’t hot enough,” commented the co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible, Leah Greenberg.

“There’s a line from Charlottesville to Jan 6 to this. Trump speaks, his supporters act,” wrote political analyst and researcher Arieh Kovler.

“Trump could stop this but he won’t because he believes it serves his interests. It’s the same J6 behavior of spreading false conspiracy theories to inflame his supporters and then sitting back and watching instead of stopping it,” noted political science professor Michael McDonald.

READ MORE: Trump Faces Increasing Calls to Participate in Second Debate

 

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‘Screaming About Eating Cats Is Not a Solution’: Walz Rallies Michigan Crowd, Slams Trump

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22 hours ago

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September 13, 2024

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Minnesota Governor and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz took aim at Donald Trump Thursday night at a rally in the battleground state of Michigan, where the Harris campaign is leading the ex-president by an average of less than two points.

The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger posted a photo of the overflow crowd at the Grand Rapids Public Museum:

Gov. Walz’s speech (full video here) was decidedly down-home and neighborly, but he had no trouble going on the attack as well.

He told the audience that their friends and neighbors had watched Tuesday night’s presidential debate, during which Trump had lied that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Walz did not denigrate Trump supporters. Instead, he said that after the debate, “I don’t hear them out there much. I don’t see them out there much. They’re a little bit – because they’re good people. They’re our neighbors. They’re like, ‘that didn’t look very presidential.’ Screaming about eating cats is not a solution. It’s not a solution.”

RELATED: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

“Well,” Walz continued, “what Kamala Harris was talking about is things that you actually care about. They might not be sitting down at the bar talking about banning books, but they might down there be talking about, ‘how can I afford a house? I’m working hard. I’m working hard. I want to have a house,’ and because that house becomes a home to some of these folks. Your real estate mogul, venture capitalist, whatever, that’s just an asset to be traded and sold to whoever you want. For us, it’s a place we gather around the kitchen table to talk to our kids about what happened in school. That’s what Kamala Harris wants for you. That’s what she wants for you.”

The 60-year old governor who is the only one of the four candidates on either ticket with a positive net approval rating (Harris comes in second), focused on midwestern values.

“What I am most proud of is because of all the things Donald Trump has stolen and all the things he did, what is unforgivable, is him stealing our joy. So here’s the thing, Kamala Harris is bringing not only solutions that focus on you. She’s doing it with a smile and joy on her face.”

“This guy, this guy on purpose, and make no mistake, it’s on purpose. He broke our political system. He tried to break our faith in one another. He tried to break the thing that makes Midwesterners stick together. We’re positive people, for God’s sakes. We walk on water half the year, we have to be it’s cold as hell,” Walz said. “We don’t care. We dig our neighbors out. This guy is trying to tell you your neighbors the enemy. This guy’s trying to tell you that he knows best about what folks in Grand Rapids need. Well, trust me, nothing could be further from the truth.”

“So here’s the deal, we’re nice folks. We’ll dig you out after a snow storm. We’ll say ‘hi’ at the store. Some of us might even let you merge on the highway. Not all of us,” he joked. “We have a saying for that. It’s Minnesota Nice, is what we call it. I’m sure you have it too. But the one thing I’ll tell you about Midwesterners that stretches across that beautiful blue wall of Northern America here, the one thing about us is, don’t ever mistake our kindness for weakness.”

READ MORE: Multiple-Location Bomb Threat Follows Trump and Vance’s False Dog-Eating Immigrants Claims

Walz also went after school shootings while reassuring supporters Democrats support the Second Amendment.

“Leaves are changing,” Walz said, as The Detroit News reported. “Friday night football’s back. Our kids have a new start and they’re going in. It’s a time of excitement and hope. Everything we want. That’s what we want for our kids.”

“But too many of our kids, these first days of school, are a time of sheer terror. A time that is going to stick with them forever,” he said, referencing school shootings.

“I know guns, you know guns,” he said. “Kamala Harris is a gun owner, by the way, which you found out. I’m not going to take any crap (from Republicans) about the Second Amendment. We support the Second Amendment.”

“But our first responsibility,” Walz continued, “is keeping our children safe. And you can have both.”

He also referred to shootings as “that crap,” and reminded the crowd that it “does not happen in other places in the world.”

Walz, a former U.S. Congressman who served for 24 years in the U.S. Armed Forces, called Donald Trump a “criminal.” Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York for business fraud in an attempt to subvert the 2016 election.

He told the crowd Vice President Harris’s debate performance should have not been a surprise.

“She took on the predators. She took on the fraudsters,” Walz said. “She took down career criminals and powerful corporate interests, which, by the way, was on the stage the other night, all those things so, so this time, just to be clear, that criminal being on the stage got put in his place.”

“And this is what true leadership looks like. And she says this time and time again, and I love it. A mark of true leadership is not who beats people down, it’s who lifts people up, who lifts them up. So so when it’s a bully, and there’s a time she proved she can beat some people down if they need it.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Faces Increasing Calls to Participate in Second Debate

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