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CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Paul Watkins Worked for a Hate Group – And Now He’s In Charge of Consumer Protection

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How did someone with ties to anti-LGBTQ causes end up leading President Donald Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Ahead of Tuesday’s congressional hearing on fintech regulation, consumer watchdog group Allied Progress released a new report on how Paul Watkins, Director of the CFPB’s Office of Innovation, has hidden his past work for an anti-LGBT hate group.

Since being installed by Mick Mulvaney last year to slash regulations as head of the CFPB’s Office of Innovation, Watkins has spearheaded the bureau’s no-action letter initiative, which would allow him to exempt industry from anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT consumers.

The CFPB’s ‘No-Action’ letter proposal would make the recipient “immune from enforcement actions by any Federal or State authorities, as well as from lawsuits brought by private parties.”

Watkins is a conservative ideologue who has deep ties to anti-LGBT causes throughout his career. Watkins’ conservative credentials go back to his undergraduate years at Hillsdale College, consistently ranked by the Princeton Review as one of the least LGBT-friendly schools in the country. In law school, Watkins participated in the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a program run by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which he later worked for as an attorney.

ADF is a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group that has worked to legalize discrimination against the LGBTQ community for years. That may be why Watkins neglected to include it on his LinkedIn profile.

Today, Watkins is behind the CFPB’s efforts to exempt businesses from consumer protection regulations, including crucial anti-discrimination laws like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, even though there is strong bipartisan and corporate support for expanding civil rights laws to include protections for LGBT individuals.

The CFPB is responsible for protecting all consumers, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity—and Paul Watkins must be prevented from putting industry wishes and personal beliefs ahead of that mission.

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CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Trump Shamefully Withdraws United States from World Health Organization During Pandemic

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4 years ago

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July 7, 2020

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In an absolutely shameful move for Americans everywhere (whether they believe it right now or not), the Trump White House has announced its departure from the World Health Organization (WHO). The line was drawn in the proverbial sand on Tuesday, July 7.

“We have detailed the reforms that it [the WHO] must make and engaged with them directly, but they have refused to act,” Trump said.

According to The Hill, the United States contributes upwards of $400 million annually to the WHO — the group’s largest contributor — and public health experts have warned that a suspension of funds would severely damage the organization.

Following Trump’s ill-timed announcement, United States Senator Bob Menendez tweeted, “Congress received notification that POTUS officially withdrew the U.S. from the WHO in the midst of a pandemic. To call Trump’s response to COVID chaotic & incoherent doesn’t do it justice. This won’t protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick & America alone.”

“I disagree with the president’s decision,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it.”

“Withdrawing U.S. membership could, among other things, interfere with clinical trials that are essential to the development of vaccines, which citizens of the United States as well as others in the world need,” Alexander added.. “And withdrawing could make it harder to work with other countries to stop viruses before they get to the United States.”

It’s not the first time Trump has publicly denounced the WHO and it certainly won’t be his last. Trump said this past May that “China’s pattern of misconduct is well-known. For decades, they’ve ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars per year were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration. China raided our factories, off-shored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organization.”

Although Trump has put the plan in motion to extricate America from the WHO, there may still be a long legal battle ahead if Congress challenges the decision in court since Congress already allocated funding for the WHO in its current spending bill.


119 days, America. The world is literally watching.

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CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Experts Blast Barr for ‘Utterly Shocking Bad Faith’ NBC Interview Attacking FBI: ‘Hannity Is the Attorney General Now’

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4 years ago

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December 10, 2019

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“If there is a single thing William Barr is an expert on, it is ‘bad faith.'”

In a stunning move the Attorney General of the United States on Tuesday blasted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, widely separating himself from the findings of the Dept. of Justice Inspector General’s report. Barr also claimed the FBI should have ended the counterintelligence investigation into Donald Trump once he was elected president.

And Barr even said the FBI acted in “bad faith” in conducting the investigation into Trump and Russia.

Effectively, Barr is saying not only should the president never be prosecuted, but presidents should never be investigated. All these statements are contrary to what many if not most constitutional experts have said.

Barr also called the reasons for opening the Russia probe “very flimsy,” in an interview with NBC News’ Pete Williams.

Again, that is in direct contradiction into what legal and constitutional experts have said.

“I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,” Barr also told Williams.

Stunningly, Barr also tells Williams the Steele Dossier is “false.” Nearly none of it has been determined to be false.

He also falsely hunkers down on his false claim the Trump campaign was spied on.

Barr is getting blasted as his interview airs on MSNBC.

Here’s MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, who pulls no punches:

Here’s ACLU attorney Josh Block:

CNBC/NBC’s John Harwood:

CNN National Security and Legal Analyst Susan Hennessey:

NBC News and MSNBC Legal Analyst Glenn Kirschner:

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chairman, Intel Committee:

Others:

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CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Erick Erickson on Pete Buttigieg: ‘His Understanding of Christianity Isn’t Very Deep or Serious’

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5 years ago

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August 1, 2019

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Conservative evangelical personality and blogger Erick Erickson is at it again. The man who says he believes terrorist attacks occur because of God hates gay people just can’t help himself in a new Twitter rant regarding Vice President Mike Pence and 2020 presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

His racist attack on Americans is right in line with President Donald Trump’s rants as well.

He aligns himself with people who call people like Senator Kamala Harris “salty,” to say the least:

Five years ago, New Civil Rights Movement reported that Erickson was behind the nation’s  “First National Gun Appreciation Day,” conveniently scheduled for Saturday, January 19, Robert E. Lee Day. Lee was the Civil War hero of the Confederate Army.

He throws support around hate wherever he goes, including retweeting this nonsense:

Class act, this one.

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