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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

37 Senators Just Voted Against a Bill Protecting Same-Sex and Interracial Marriages. All Were Republicans.

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The U.S. Senate Wednesday afternoon voted to end a filibuster on a critical bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages by a margin of 62-37. All 50 Democratic Senators were joined by 12 Republicans in voting yes, and 37 Republicans voted no.

60 votes were needed to avoid a GOP filibuster.

The Respect for Marriage Act itself is both narrow and incredible in that it changes nothing in the U.S. unless the Supreme Court overturns landmark rulings in cases like Obergefell, which found same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, or Lawrence v. Texas, which found a constitutional right to sexual intimacy.

READ MORE: Franklin Graham’s Extremely False Claims About the Senate’s Same-Sex Marriage Protection Bill Are Riling Up His Base

Should that happen, states and the federal government, if the bill becomes law, would merely be required to recognize legal marriages of same-sex couples. That’s it. All the religious protections that people of faith currently enjoy would be unchanged, contrary to numerous false claims of far right extremists and religious extremists.

And yet, 37 Republicans decided that in spite of same-sex marriage enjoying a favorability rating of 70% (per Gallup) and 61% of Americans saying legalization of same-sex marriage is good for society (Pew), the newly-re-elected Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, and 36 of his fellow GOP Senators voted to block the bill.

The bill is expected to receive a final vote this week, possibly as early as Thursday. Should it pass as expected, the bill will head back to the House for a final vote since it has been altered from their version. It is expected to pass there again. Afterwards, it will head to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he will sign it into law.

The 37 Senate Republicans who voted against the bill, according to the Senate’s roll call vote list include: Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Barrasso (R-WY),  Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), James Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Richard Shelby (R-AL), John Thune (R-SD), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

READ MORE: In Tight Election Race Ron Johnson Said He Would Not Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Bill – He Will Vote Against It Today: Report

Of note, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) did not vote, but in July he unleashed an exceptionally angry attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the bill passed the House.

“Is there a single case about it?” Sen. Sasse, often wrongly considered to be a moderate, said. “I’m not not answering questions that are about hypotheticals that are just Pelosi trying to divide America with culture wars. I think it’s just the same bullshit. She’s not an adult.”

Images via Senate.gov

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Reacting to a Cult Leader’: Trump Supporters Organizing to ‘Stock Up on Weaponry’ Says GOP Adviser

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During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show,” GOP political advisor Lucy Caldwell expressed alarm at the prospect of street protests following Donald Trump’s claim that he will be arrested on Tuesday and then pointed to reports of online chatter that hints at violence.

Speaking with host Jonathan Capehart, Caldwell was asked about the Trump Truth Social post about his imminent arrest as well as his announcement that he will be holding a rally in Waco, Texas, the site of the Branch Davidian siege in 1993.

“Am I reading too much into Donald Trump’s rally in Waco given that history?” host Capehart asked.

“I don’t think you’re reading too much into that at all,” Caldwell replied. “He knows exactly where he is going, he has savvy strategists around him, this is not coincidental .”

RELATED: Kevin McCarthy is ‘aiding and abetting’ Trump’s new threats of violence over arrest

“And I think that what was just said was right,” she continued. “He has been setting up this narrative this whole time; what he said at CPAC a couple of weeks ago, where he said ‘I’m your retribution.’ When he talks about ‘we’ he uses the first person pronouns to describe ‘we’ the collective being under attack, what ‘we’ must do what they’re doing to us.”

“He is using typical classic cult leader language to bring these people into the fold and they’re responding,” she elaborated. “In between when he announced that is that he expects to be arrested next week, and when he announced that cult rally in Waco, investigators have seen that actually his supporters did go online and start organizing to buy protective gear, to stock up on weaponry. To do all the things that people do when they’re reacting to a cult leader.”

“It’s a very grave and dangerous situation, but I think Jonathan, you are not over-reading the tea leaves at all here,” she added.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Experts Warn Trump Is Encouraging Violence One Day After He Announces Rally at Waco on 30th Anniversary of Siege

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Early Friday evening Donald Trump announced he will hold a campaign rally in Waco on March 25, which falls during the 30th anniversary of the 51-day deadly siege in that Texas community. Barely more than 12 hours later the one-term ex-president under at least four criminal investigations posted a statement that some, including legal experts, warn is encouraging or inciting violence, or is “a call for violence,” after claiming he will be arrested on Tuesday.

For those who would like a refresher, in 1993 agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raided the headquarters of religious cult leader David Koresh and his Branch Davidians. Armed with warrants, federal agents targeted the compound searching for stockpiled firearms. By the end of the standoff, four ATF agents and 82 Branch Davidians had been killed.

Two years later The New York Times pointed to right-wing reaction to that raid, and to the Ruby Ridge siege, as the basis for Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which the FBI called “the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history.” 168 people, including 19 children, were killed that day.

Marcy Wheeler, a well-respected journalist who writes about civil liberties and national security, Saturday morning warned: “If you want to talk about Trump inciting violence, it’s probably plenty early to point out that Trump staged a rally in Waco during the 30 year anniversary of the siege.”

READ MORE: ‘A BFD’: Legal Experts Say Judge Ordering Ex-President’s Attorney to Testify Means ‘Trump Probably Committed Crimes’

NBC News presidential historian and author of ten books, Michael Beschloss, summed it up: “So Trump is planning his first campaign rally for Waco on thirtieth anniversary of the siege where a cult leader challenged the authority of the federal government and threatened violence.”

Saturday morning, in several lengthy all-caps rage posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed he was being arrested on Tuesday, and demanded his followers “protest, take our nation back!”

Retired FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi, now a well-known NBC News national security analyst, wrote: “Cult leader to hold rally where wanted cult leader refused to surrender to feds 30 years ago, killed ATF agents, and ran deadly stand-off where at least 75 died: Donald Trump will host first 2024 presidential rally in Waco.”

Former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, who led the Bureau’s investigation of Russia’s attack on America’s 2016 presidential election and was targeted by Trump, who demanded his firing, pointed to a passage in another of Trump’s rage posts from Saturday morning, highlighting this phrase: “with no retribution.”

Trump, in his Saturday morning rage posts, offered support for the more than 1000 January 6 rioters and insurrectionists who have been arrested.

“American patriots are being arrested & held in captivity like animals, while criminals & leftist thugs are allowed to roam the streets, killing & burning with no retribution,” he wrote.

That line echoes his now-infamous speech earlier this month at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump declared. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

On December 19, 2020, Trump posted a now-infamous tweet, saying: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” and “Be there, will be wild!”

READ MORE: Trump’s Tuesday ‘Arrest’ Freak-Out Will Come Back to Haunt Him in Court: Legal Expert

Strzok says Saturday’s “retribution” reference is “Will be wild 2.0,” referring to Trump’s December 2020 tweet that’s widely seen as a “call to arms,” including by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Legal, national security, and political experts are warning that Trump is encouraging or inciting violence, all over again.

“Trump also calls on his supporters to ‘PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’—words that echo the language he used to encourage violence in the days leading up to the events of Jan. 6, 2021,” says Anna Bower, who writes for Lawfare Blog and has been reporting on Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis’ election fraud investigation into Trump.

“To be clear: Trump is encouraging violence,” adds Bower. “It’s a move ripped from his Jan. 6 playbook, when he told supporters at the Capitol ‘..if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ His conduct was contemptible then; it remains contemptible now.”

That “fight like hell” remark is echoed in another comment Trump made recently, as Strzok points out.

Responding to news five local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are coordinating security for if and when Trump is indicted, Strzok writes:

“So if indicted, law enforcement is worried about violence from the followers of the guy telling his followers two weeks ago, ‘This is the final battle, they know it…Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country’? This is the stuff of failed states.”

Olivia Troye, a former Dept. of Homeland Security official who also worked on national security and homeland security at the National Counterterrorism Center during the Trump administration, issued this warning: “Trump has issued a call for violence. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Republicans need to publicly rebuke this dangerous rhetoric immediately.”

Donald Moynihan, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy professor, says, “The thing about Trump, is that you never can be sure when it all might tilt over into political violence. Because for sure, that is how some of his followers will read ‘take our nation back’ in the context of his possible arrest.”

Top national security attorney Brad Moss says: “Trump is trying to incite another mob for next week.”

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen told The New York Post on Saturday, “Donald would have no reason to put out the statement unless he has been contacted by the [office of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg] and advised accordingly.”

“Donald’s post is eerily similar to his battle cry prior to the January 6th insurrection; including calling for protest,” he added. “By doing so, Donald is hoping to rile his base, witness another violent clash on his behalf and profit from it by soliciting contributions.”

Author and political commentator Jared Yates Sexton, who covered the Trump 2016 campaign and hosts a live weekly podcast, issued this warning:

“For everyone who has spent years now trying to argue that Donald Trump isn’t a fascist or a demagogue, open your eyes. Facing indictment he’s calling for unrest and violence. Exactly as he did when he was soundly beaten in an election. We’re in this thing. Time to get serious.”

UPDATE: March 19, 10:42 AM –
Attorney, MSNBC/NBC News anchor and legal analyst Katie Phang says an email from “Alvin Bragg to his office reflects that Trump’s Truth Social post was interpreted as a threat.”

 

Image: Hunter Crenian / Shutterstock

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Trump’s Tuesday ‘Arrest’ Freak-Out Will Come Back to Haunt Him in Court: Legal Expert

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Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday just moments after Donald Trump claimed he is going to be arrested on Tuesday, former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said the former president’s all-caps post on Truth Social that seems to encourage violence will become evidence in future indictments.

Speaking with host Katie Phang, Kirschner said the two posts will come back to haunt him — and the former president knows what he is doing by inciting his fans.

“I would slap a government exhibits sticker on this post and I would introduce it at his criminal trial,” Kirschner explained. “And this is a dark moment in our nation’s history.”

“Because what we have just seen is basically, ‘come to D.C. on January 6th. Will be wild 2.0.’ And I am sorry to say that for months I have been saying on air and online, that the moment Donald Trump knows he’s been indicted, his first post will be come to Manhattan or come to Georgia for my arraignment — will be wild.”

Speaking with host Katie Phang, Kirschner said the two posts will come back to haunt him — and the former president knows what he is doing by inciting his fans.

“I would slap a government exhibits sticker on this post and I would introduce it at his criminal trial,” Kirschner explained. “And this is a dark moment in our nation’s history.”

“Because what we have just seen is basically, ‘come to D.C. on January 6th. Will be wild 2.0.’ And I am sorry to say that for months I have been saying on air and online, that the moment Donald Trump knows he’s been indicted, his first post will be come to Manhattan or come to Georgia for my arraignment — will be wild.”

RELATED: Trump announces his impending ‘arrest’ and calls for protests: ‘Take our nation back!’

“He knows precisely what he is doing,” he elaborated. “He used similar language to incite, first of all, to entice his supporters to come to D.C. on January 6th. and then he proceeded to incite imminent, lawless action and he has done it all over again.”

“But, everything Donald Trump does is a miscalculation Katie, and here is why,” he added. “He has now just given the judge that will preside over his arraignment hearing food for thought about what kind of conditions should be set for the release of this dangerous man pending trial.”

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