From attacks against ‘the homosexual movement’ and ‘the HIV people’ to lamenting church and state separation as a ‘moral lobotomy,’ Barr is not only bad, he’s dangerous.

Some Americans right now are probably thinking that President Donald Trump’s announcement he will nominate William Barr as Attorney General is a good move. They would be wrong.

Barr (photo, left, with President George H.W. Bush) is a former Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. His résumé makes him seem qualified. But his history, policies, beliefs, and actions disqualify him.

William Barr is a devastating pick for LGBTQ people, people who support a woman’s right to choose, those who believe in the separation of church and state, and anyone who believes the rule of law must apply to all – including the President of the United States.

Barr served for 14 months as President George H.W. Bush’s last Attorney General. But it was during his time as Deputy Attorney General that he exposed a set of beliefs and took actions that make him not only unqualified – but dangerous.

It was the early 1990’s, and Barr was able to overturn a draft rule that would have allowed people living with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States. Not only did he stop that rule from taking effect, he proposed that even refugees living with HIV/AIDS seeking asylum not only should be barred from entering into the U.S., they should be sent to America’s military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Today, that’s where America sends enemy combatants in the war on terror.

In a 2001 interview he called people with HIV/AIDS, “the HIV people.” He bragged that he had told Colin Powell, who at the time was serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “we’re not bringing these people into the United States.”

That’s far from the only reason he should not be confirmed.

Another reason? Barr thinks Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

There are other statements he’s made that make clear his beliefs and interpretation of the Constitution are just plain wrong – and dangerous to a diverse, progressive America.

“This moral lobotomy of public schools has been based on extremist notions of separation of church and state or on theories of moral relativism which reject the notion that there are standards of rights or wrong to which the community can demand adherence.”

That’s what Barr had to say in 1992, on the topic of separation of church and state, as GLAAD reports in a statement sent to NCRM opposing Barr’s nomination.

“It is no accident that the homosexual movement, at one or two percent of the population, gets treated with such solicitude while the Catholic population, which is over a quarter of the country, is given the back of the hand. How has that come to be?” Barr, who is Catholic, once also said.

In that same essay Barr called for school “vouchers at the state level and ultimately at the federal level to support parental choice in education. We should press at every turn for the inclusion of religious institutions.”

GLAAD says that “like his predecessor Jeff Sessions, Barr has a vicious anti-LGBTQ history, even suggesting that equality for LGBTQ Americans has ‘led to America’s decline.'”

“William Barr, who has wrongfully suggested that LGBTQ people – not Trump and his destructive policies – have harmed the United States, is the latest in a long line of replacements who President Trump has appointed to his Cabinet who are just as anti-LGBTQ as their predecessors,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “If confirmed, there’s little doubt that William Barr would continue the Trump Administration’s objective of erasing LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation.”

President Donald Trump kicked off Wednesday by sticking to his midterms gameplay of focusing on the “caravan” of mostly Honduran women and children who are already exhausted from walking hundreds of miles from their homes into Mexico.

And he lied. Again.

While his supporters on Fox News are also spewing lies about the migrants, claiming they will bring smallpox – a disease that was fully eradicated worldwide by 1980 – to America, the Pentagon announced it is sending, at Trump’s direction, 5200 troops to the border in response to the migrants.

Perhaps afraid there won’t be enough photos of troops at the border “defending” frightened Republican voters to motivate them to go to the polls, Trump has decided to throw even more accusations about Hondurans.

“The Caravans are made up of some very tough fighters and people,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Fought back hard and viciously against Mexico at Northern Border before breaking through. Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan. Should stop them before they reach our Border, but won’t!”

This of course is mostly a lie.

Trump followed that up with this:

Our military is being mobilized at the Southern Border. Many more troops coming. We will NOT let these Caravans, which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members, into the U.S. Our Border is sacred, must come in legally. TURN AROUND!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018

Some “very bad thugs and gang members.”

There is, of course, zero proof of that.

The Washington Post’s Kevin Sieff, who is traveling with the caravan, offered these tweets in response to one of Trump’s similar fear-mongering tweets and comments to reporters last week:

Hello from southern Mexico, where no one covering the caravan has met anyone from the Middle East, and there is no way to discern anyone’s criminal history. https://t.co/wKoCfhY0mO

— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) October 22, 2018

“You have some very, very bad people in the caravan. You have some very tough criminal elements within the caravan.” pic.twitter.com/Xxx3LZP3WS

— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) October 21, 2018

“I will seal off the border before they come into this country, and I’ll bring out our military.” pic.twitter.com/sjXssTA6oU

— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) October 21, 2018

The New York Times did report that last Friday, when the migrants entered Mexico, there was “a tense hourlong standoff, during which migrants hurled objects at the police, including rocks and shoes, the police fired canisters of tear gas, forcing the migrants into a retreat.”

Six police officers were injured.

“After the violence had subsided, however, leaders of the caravan organized the migrants into orderly lines for processing by Mexican migration officials.”

That hardly warrants a description of, “Fought back hard and viciously against Mexico at Northern Border before breaking through. Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan.”

And it lasted an hour.

Perhaps President Trump is just getting bad information. A Google search turned up nearly no news of attacks on Mexican police by migrants. There was this fact check of Trump’s false claims, and an embarrassing report in a far right wing website called American Thinker, (perhaps an oxymoron?), which insisted that the caravan is “as many as 10,000 strong now,” and the altercation at the border ended with police badly injured.

They offered this tweet as “proof” (You may have to click on the photo to view it, it shows a bloodied police officer.)

@LoriLandRich
“Migrants” bloodied this Mexican policeman.Perhaps lethal force at the US border in order. No catch and release.Back to your sh#t hole countries or a slab in our morgues. https://t.co/ltINm9I65H

— Mazeppa (@maltanite) October 22, 2018

It took less than 60 seconds to find that the image, or at least its description, is fake.

It is a photo from 2012, according to the European Pressphoto Agency, when Mexican police detained 1000 protesting students.

It seems nearly all the claims from the right about the migrant “caravan,” which is a few thousand people, mostly women and children, marching by foot in search of a better life, are just plain false.

Why are Republicans so scared? Why is Donald Trump?

The Washington Post on Tuesday published this video of what Trump calls “very tough fighters,” and, “very bad thugs and gang members.”

Maybe if he watches it he’ll be less frightened?

Probably not. His “fear” is racism, plain and simple.

Image: Screenshot via Washington Post/YouTube

Imagine if you listened to Fox News all the time. When you’re having your morning coffee. Driving to work. Getting alerts on your phone during the day. Maybe you catch a few minutes on TV during your lunch hour. You see Fox News tweets on your break. And you listen on your way home, when you’re stuck in traffic. Maybe you watch a few more minutes at the gym. Or when you’re visiting a neighbor or friend, and the TV just happens to be tuned to the Fox New channel.

Here’s what you’d be seeing and hearing all the time: Immigrants are crossing the border by the thousands. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And none of them are very good people.

Sound familiar?

Oh, and they’re going to help Democrats overthrow the U.S. government.

John Kerr from Media Matters just put together this compilation of Fox News hosts and their GOP operatives obsessing (aka, lying) about immigration. It’s a good slice of what your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members who watch the conservative cable news outlet are hearing all the time.

Take a look:

Fox News claims that immigrants will:
-kill you
-drug you
-rape you
-replace you
-and help democrats overthrow the governmentpic.twitter.com/henz2SgyJ3

— John Kerr (@JohnnyHeatWave) October 19, 2018

Yes, the “caravan” of 3000 or 4000 immigrants from Honduras, are seeking asylum because they live in such horrific poverty and violence the country was (until recently) literally named the murder capital of the world.

“To have 3000 people in a caravan, cross the American border, break American law, recognizing that if that happens, the next caravan will be even bigger,” Newt Gingrich warns. “Everybody who thinks we don’t have enough crime in America, enough drugs in America, enough violence in America, vote Democrat.”

“An organized effort to crush or rush the border, right before the midterm elections,” Laura Ingraham fear-mongers, later asking if they’ll “be stopped, ever?”

“Criminal illegal aliens coming in, it’s basically end the rule of law,” one Fox News guest says.

And on and on and on.

“Criminals mixed in with these families.”

“Human trafficking.”

“Democrats,” Laura Ingraham screams, then pauses for effect, “want to abolish ICE.” They also “want to replace you, the American voters, with newly-amnestied citizens, and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.”

“Radicals Dems prefer open borders, more crime, more drugs,” Lou Dobbs shrieks, then pauses for effect, “and more illegal immigrants.”

“They’re going to tell you it’s about civil rights or some other principle they pretend to care about,” Tucker Carlson claims, “but they’re lying. It’s about seizing power, and holding it. That’s their only aim – they’re deadly serious about it. While you were grilling in the backyard last night, they were plotting, in effect, a coup.”

And just to be clear, it’s not true.

What is?

Immigrants, including those in the country illegally, (which is a misdemeanor), commit crimes at a far lower rate than U.S. citizens – especially those whose families have been here for generations.

Democrats do not want open borders, more crime, or more drugs – although the majority of the country supports the legalization of marijuana. They don’t want to replace anyone (except, perhaps, the current occupant in the White House, snd the GOP in Congress.) Few Democrats want to abolish ICE – although many want the agency cleaned up.

Democrats are not – repeat, not – plotting a coup. Republicans, on the other hand, effectively are – since they are doing everything in their power to take away the right to vote.

Sorry, Tucker, Laura, Lou, Newt, Sean, and all the other propagandists at Fox News. You’re wrong, and America is going to prove it to you on November 6.