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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands’: GOP Vows ‘Stove War’ Legislation, Doesn’t Want Feds ‘Coming After Kitchen Appliances’

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It seemed to start Monday morning at 7:00 AM with an article at Bloomberg News: “US Safety Agency to Consider Ban on Gas Stoves Amid Health Fears.”

The hyperbolic headline did not hold up well, especially after its author two days later posted a “breaking” tweet: “The chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission says the agency has no plans to ban gas stoves after commissioner Richard Trumka’s remarks ignited a political firestorm.”

But the damage had been done the moment the article hit social media, and Republicans grabbed onto it as an example of Biden administration and liberal extremism, despite the facts in the article showing that “more than 12% of current childhood asthma cases in the US can be attributed to gas stove use.”

In reality, this is not news. Studies going back decades have shown gas stoves can be harmful to your health, and your children’s health, especially when there’s inadequate ventilation.

“There is about 50 years of health studies showing that gas stoves are bad for our health, and the strongest evidence is on children and children’s asthma,” the co-author of the study cited by Bloomberg says.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Far Dumber and Immoral and Ignorant and Lazy’ Than Staffers Knew Before They Worked for Him: Report

Just one week ago Yahoo News reported similar findings: “Gas stoves have given 650,000 U.S. children asthma, study finds.”

Instead of exploding in anger as Republicans are doing, Democrats quietly took action based on the report.

“Last month, eight senators and 12 members of the House of Representatives, all Democrats, signed a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission to take action to protect consumers from gas stove pollution,” that Yahoo News report noted. “The letter did not call for banning gas stoves, but instead asking for regulation to require ventilation and performance standards to limit leakage. CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in a subsequent webinar that a ban on gas stoves would be a ‘real possibility.'”

That 650,000 children have asthma as a result of gas stoves had no discernible impact on conservatives or GOP lawmakers, who went on the warpath, just as they have with masks and vaccines to battle COVID-19, just as they have with countless other culture war conspiracies.

Dr. Ronny Jackson, the disgraced former White House Physician to the President who is now a Republican U.S. Congressman from Texas, was among the first to falsely claim Democrats are coming for your gas stoves.

“I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!” he tweeted on Tuesday.

READ MORE: New Texts Show Staffer Allegedly Groped by Matt Schlapp Contacted Friend in Real Time: CNN

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded to his outburst, tweeting, “Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance.”

Jackson upped his anti-Biden assault.

“If that’s the case,” he tweeted, “the FIRST place they should ban gas stoves is at the White House! Biden can’t afford to lose ANY more of his cognitive abilities – he needs all the help he can get!!”

Many other Republicans have jumped on the pro-pollution bandwagon.

“Joe Biden is going after your gas stoves,” House Republican Caucus Chair Elise Stefanik of New York tweeted, which is provably false. “He is out-of-touch with hardworking Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) weighed in, linking to an editorial from the right wing National Review.

“Imagine a world where all tortillas are heated in the microwave. We must take a stand against this insanity,” Congressman Garcia tweeted.

He vowed to use his powers as a lawmaker to protect gas stoves, adding, “I will be joining my colleagues this week to introduce legislation that stops this Stove War from happening.” Congressman Garcia’s spokesperson did not respond to an email requesting comment.

It’s important to note that the issue with gas stoves did not show up overnight. Just googling “gas stoves” turns up hundreds of articles, including one from 2014 from the federal government’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It offers nearly the same concerns as articles over the past week.

“Natural gas cooking appliances, which are used by a third of U.S. households, can contribute to poor indoor air quality, especially when used without an exhaust hood. Gas stoves emit nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and formaldehyde (HCHO), each of which can exacerbate various respiratory and other health ailments,” it reads.

READ MORE: McCarthy: Santos Will Get Committee Assignments Because He Hasn’t Been Criminally Charged

In fact, environmental, health, and consumer protections attorney and law professor Jack Lienke, the Regulatory Policy Director for NYU’s Institute for Policy Integrity, points to a 1986 report that warned of health hazards from gas stoves.

GOP lawmakers nevertheless continued their fear-mongering.

U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, Republican of Tennessee, a pharmacist and businesswoman, appeared unaware of the existence of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which unlike most actually reports directly to Congress and to the President.

“The federal government should never be powerful enough to come after your kitchen appliances,” Congresswoman Harshberger said.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, created by Congress 50 years ago in a law signed by then-President Richard Nixon, a Republican, literally comes after your kitchen appliances, and many other products, when they are deemed unsafe or harmful.

One lawmaker who is aware of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who declared his opposition to banning gas stoves – which, again, is not happening.

“This is a recipe for disaster,” Sen. Manchin wrote. “The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner. I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”

“If this is the greatest concern that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has for American consumers, I think we need to reevaluate the commission,” he threatened.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Wednesday night mocked conservatives’ lies about gas stoves.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Former GOP Congressman Calls for Marjorie Taylor Greene to Be Censured After Calling President Biden a ‘Liar’

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14 hours ago

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February 7, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) numerous times heckled President Joe Biden as he delivered the State of the Union Address, including repeatedly calling him a “liar.”

Not in modern history has anyone so clearly disturbed the decorum of the nationally-televised event watched live by 40 million Americans. Not even U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who infamously also called the President a liar – “You lie!” – during another nationally-televised event, that one by President Barack Obama in September of 2009.

Tuesday night Congresswoman Greene repeatedly yelled, “You lie!” and, “Liar!” at President Biden, who, ironically, was sitting one seat back from his current position the last time it happened.

Here is that moment:

Greene also heckled President Biden at other times throughout his speech – something she and Rep. Lauren Boebert did one year ago, also during the State of the Union.

Republican former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger Tuesday night tweeted, “Did @RepMTG just yell ‘liar’?! Awful. Yet she will not be punished in response.”

READ MORE: ‘Salute Their Flags’: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Appears to Attack LGBTQ Americans and BLM During Angry GOP SOTU Response

He then called for Greene’s censure – and called for her fellow Republicans to do it.

“The GOP should lead the censure of @RepMTG for her behavior,” Kinzinger tweeted.

He wasn’t done.

Posting a screenshot of Greene standing during the State of the Union heckling President Biden, with her thumb pointing down, Kinzinger asked, “My fellow Republicans… you really want this as a role model for your kids? Do you really think the next generation will want to be part of this? I don’t.”

Kinzinger went one step further, reposting a tweet likening Congresswoman Greene to the fictional Disney villain Cruella de Vil – a comparison many on social media had been making during the evening’s event.

“Representative Joe Wilson was formally rebuked by the House on Tuesday for his outburst during President Obama’s health care address,” The New York Times reported, less than a week after what was at the time an unthinkable act. “The vote came after a Congressional clash over civility that showcased the deep partisan divisions in the House.”

Congressman Wilson also apologized for calling President Obama a “liar,” barely hours after his outburst.

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” he said in a statement. “While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

Congresswoman Greene likely will not apologize, and likely will not face any formal rebuke.

 

 

 

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Salute Their Flags’: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Appears to Attack LGBTQ Americans and BLM During Angry GOP SOTU Response

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17 hours ago

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February 7, 2023

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Arkansas GOP Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders appears to be targeting the LGBTQ community and its allies, Black Lives Matter activists and supporters, and all of the “left-wing” as she takes a national platform as the Republican Party’s chosen representative to deliver its response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

“Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols.. all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is -your freedom of speech,” the former Trump White House press secretary is expected to say, based on excerpts from her prepared remarks. “That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”

The excerpts do not specify the “rituals,” “flags,” or “false idols” Huckabee Sanders is referring to, but no one on the left salutes the LGBTQ pride flag or Black Lives Matter flags or banners, and no one on the left forces anyone to worship or partake in any rituals.

“In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire, but you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country,” she will also say, in remarks that sound like the ex-president’s.

READ MORE: ‘Progress and Resilience’: Biden in SOTU Will Remind Americans He Is ‘Building an Economy Where No One Is Left Behind’

“And while you reap the consequences of their failures, the Biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day. Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols.. all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is -your freedom of speech. That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”

And yet, Huckabee Sanders, ignoring her own direct attack on some American families during her State of the Union response, will then say: “Republicans believe in an America where strong families thrive in safe communities. Where jobs are abundant, and paychecks are rising. Where the freedom our veterans shed their blood to defend is the birthright of every man, woman, and child.”

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

The ‘White Power Movement’ Is Ramping Up Its Attacks on Energy Infrastructure – Anti-Terrorism Expert Explains Why

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1 day ago

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February 7, 2023

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Professor, historian and author Kathleen Belew, one of the United States’ top experts on white supremacist and white nationalist terrorism, has often stressed that violent, racially motivated attacks shouldn’t be viewed as isolated incidents, but as part of a broader movement. And when Belew made a Monday night, February 6 appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” she explained how a Maryland woman’s alleged role in a plot to attack five energy substations in the Baltimore area fits into the overall “white power” game plan.

Earlier in the day, law enforcement officials had announced the arrest of Maryland resident Sarah Beth Clendaniel, who, they allege, conspired with fellow white supremacist Brandon Russell in that plot. Clendaniel and Russell, according to officials, hoped to completely disable energy infrastructure in Baltimore and deprive the city of electricity for an extended period of time.

During her conversation with Maddow, Belew emphasized that this was not an isolated incident. White supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis, according to the professor, are targeting energy infrastructure in general — not just in Baltimore, Maryland.

READ MORE: Why the power grid is an ‘attractive target’ for domestic terrorists and white supremacists: report

Belew, author of the 2019 book, “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America,” told Maddow, “The electrical part may be new, but infrastructure attacks by this movement are not new. This is a strategy that was pioneered by a group called The Order in 1983…. Infrastructure attacks are one kind of violence among several others that are all laid out in a strategy in common in order to bring about what the movement seeks, which is the overthrow of the United States and the creation of a white ethno-state — mass violence against communities of color and even genocide against non-white peoples.”

According to Belew — who teaches at Northwestern University in the Chicago suburbs — attacks on energy infrastructure and the January 6, 2021 insurrection are both part of the “white power” game plan.

Belew told Maddow, “Infrastructure attacks sit next to a show of forced violence like the January 6 attack on the Capitol and mass casualty violence like the Oklahoma City bombing. All of these exist together within one broad ideology in the white power movement.”

READ MORE: Terrorism expert explains why the Great Replacement theory is so central to white racist ideology

Watch the full video at this link.

Image via Wikimedia and a Creative Commons license

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