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Is Joy Reid Homophobic? (No.)

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OK. Let’s talk about Joy Reid. As many know, an amateur sleuth on Twitter who has previously unearthed some anti-gay remarks about Florida politician Charlie Crist has supposedly unearthed old blog posts right-leaning websites like Mediaite are publishing. The posts are supposedly screenshots of Reid’s old blog, in which she supposedly wrote anti-gay remarks, and which she says she shut down in 2011.

Reid also says that the newly unearthed anti-gay posts are not hers, that she did not write them. She also says she was hacked, and hired a cyber security expert who issued a report that states her blog was breached.

NBC News reportedly is not taking Reid off the air, and is allowing the law enforcement process to take place – Reid says she notified law enforcement last year when she found the fraudulent blog posts.

There are also some tweets that some are calling anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-LGBT, homophobic, transphobic, etc.

On the right, some are demanding NBC/MSNBC fire Reid, some are asking about an advertiser boycott, some are insisting she be punished – mostly because the left has been so effective at holding actual wrong doers accountable. The countless corrupt politicians/political operatives/fundraisers, etc. associated with the RNC and the Trump team have come under scrutiny from the left because of the wrongdoing, immoral, and possibly illegal acts that we see unfold literally every day.

The right sees this as payback.

But let’s do a few things. First, as far as the blog posts are concerned, Reid says she did not write them. A security expert says her site was breached. And she’s contacted law enforcement. Also, former Salon editor-in-chief Joan Walsh, who previously published Reid’s work from her old blog, says “none of us ever saw the kinds of homophobic posts she’s now accused of.”

“Also, to my knowledge, the offensive posts had no comments on them, while the posts she acknowledges had some lively comments debates,” Walsh adds.

Others have spoken out in support of her and her work:

We also should look at who’s pushing the “Joy Reid is a homophobe” lie:

I have no idea if Joy Reid wrote the blog posts Mediaite supposedly claims she did, and I’m not going to focus on them, as many others have.

But, the credibility of those who are “unearthing” these likely fraudulent blog posts should be questioned at this point, not Reid. She says they’re not hers, she was hacked, she has an expert supporting that statement, she contacted law enforcement when she found them, and a well-respected editor familiar with her work says she never saw homophobic posts. At this point the onus is on her accusers to prove their allegations.

Because the ones who are pushing this story is the anti-gay right. Fox News. Breitbart. The “alt-right” media outlets and “reporters.”

Now, there’s a lot that’s been written about the posts, not a lot that’s been written about her tweets.

So let’s look at some of the tweets some have characterizing as appalling.

And yes, a few are offensive. But many people on the right are pointing to are not.

Remember, these are from 2010 and 2010.

Yes, this is offensive:

This is not:

(For those who don’t know, George Rekers built an entire career out of attacking LGBT people. He made a fortune testifying in court on the “dangers” of gay people. Until he was caught returning from a European vacation with a gay male prostitute.)

Is this homophobic? No. Accurate? I have no idea nor reason to think Rush Limbaugh is gay, but apparently Reid did. Was she disparaging gay people in this tweet? Doubtful.

Last year in December Reid apologized for calling Charlie Crist “Miss Charlie.” He accepted her apology. Here’s a portion of what she wrote:

“In the years since I went from blogger to opinion journalist, I have also learned, through brilliant friends and allies in the LGBT activist community, how to better frame my critiques of those who challenge people’s right to love who they want, marry them, and walk in the world as fully free people.”

“Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling. It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better.”

If anyone has evidence of recent attacks on LGBT people Reid has made, let’s take a look at those.

The point is, if Reid were making anti-LGBT remarks today, absolutely we should hold her accountable. But there’s no evidence of that, and there’s plenty of evidence of her work supporting the LGBT community.

She has more than proven herself to be an LGBT ally today, and in the years since she made her questionable comments.

Does the LGBT community want the anti-LGBT right to decide who and what is anti-LGBT and homophobic?

Does the LGBT community want to take down our allies? That would leave us in a very lonely place.

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

READ MORE: Trump Goes on Wild Rant Targeting Judge and Attorney General After Being Found Liable for Fraud

Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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