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Florida Bill Banning Pride Flag Would Make Showing Support for LGBTQ People a ‘Political Viewpoint’

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A Florida Republican lawmaker’s bill declares showing support for LGBTQ people is a “political viewpoint,” despite the existence of LGBTQ Democrats, Republicans, independents, and entirely unaffiliated and non-political LGBTQ people.

The goal of GOP State Rep. David Borrero’s legislation is to ban all versions of the LGBTQ pride flag from any and all local government buildings, including schools and universities.

“A governmental entity may not erect or display a flag that represent [sic] a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint. The governmental entity must remain neutral when representing political viewpoints in displaying or erecting a flag,” HB 901 reads.

The bill makes no mention of religious flags.

READ MORE: ‘GoFundMe’: Experts Say Clarence Thomas Being ‘Sponsored by Billionaires’ Is ‘Bribery’

This is the second time Rep. Borrero has tried to get LGBTQ pride flags banned from government buildings.

“Borrero’s bill is similar to legislation he and Tampa Republican Sen. Jay Collins filed in February (SB 668),” Florida Politics reports. “Collins later filed an amendment with a list of allowable flags, including the Confederate flag, but quickly withdrew it and his original bill from consideration.”

It is possible this legislation could gain more traction now.

“Last year, a parent sued the Palm Beach County school district over a pair of pride flags hung in his seventh-grade child’s classroom. He echoed DeSantis’ repeated assertion that the flag represents a concerted effort to ‘indoctrinate‘ kids,” Florida Politics adds.

On his campaign website, Rep. Borrero talks about “moral values” and “conservative principles,” and says, “Religious freedom is under assault and gravely at-risk in our state and nation. While freedom of speech and religious freedom are being attacked by the liberal media and liberal special interests, additional protections need to be established to ensure churches, synagogues and religious organizations do not lose their tax-exempt status and are able to practice their faiths and express their values without intervention from the government.”

Last month, Borrero announced, “I’m proud to stand with and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.”

READ MORE: DeSantis Says Trump Not a Danger to Democracy and Should Have Gone Further

Benjamin J. Kirby, who appears to have been the communications director for the mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, responded to the news, writing: “Creating the tradition of raising the #pride flag over #StPete City Hall was a wonderful legacy of the Kriseman Administration. I hope all my #LGBTQ friends in Florida recognize the danger of the Republican Legislature and vote accordingly in November.”

Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ nonprofit advocacy organization, responded by warning: “If conservative lawmakers won’t stop trying to erase us, we won’t stop showing up to oppose them.”

 

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‘Pay-to-Play’: Trump Offers ‘Fully Expedited’ Approvals for $1 Billion Investments

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President-elect Donald Trump pledged to fast-track permits and tamp down regulations, including environmental, for any entity that wants to invest $1 billion or more in America, while offering no specifics or parameters, including how the federal government could arbitrarily overrule state and local laws.

“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

During the campaign, Trump told oil and gas executives and lobbyists at a closed-door Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that if they invested $1 billion in his campaign, he would scale back or remove environmental regulations.

READ MORE: ‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report

“Attendees included executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry,” The New York Times had reported in May. “The event was organized by the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who has for years helped to shape Republican energy policies.”

Trump has announced his nominee for Secretary of the Interior will be North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

“Under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Forbes reports, “the federal government is required to conduct environmental reviews before approving energy production plans, infrastructure builds and other projects.
​ How Trump will help investors get around regulations isn’t clear, but Trump has vowed to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, projects that are often stymied or killed in the regulatory process.”

Critics blasted Trump’s statement.

314Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office,” wrote: “To tackle the climate crisis, Congress needs to pass and enforce bold, evidence-based legislation. However, Donald Trump doesn’t believe that billionaires should have to follow the law. In his world, they can pay-to-play and bypass crucial environmental protections. That’s why we’ll always fight to #ElectScientists who will fight back against his anti-science agenda and hold these bad actors accountable.”

“A government of oligarchs that will exist to solely serve the interests of oligarchs while distracting working people with culture wars. Foreign corporations & persons can loot & pollute the US and bypass regs that protect the health of Americans as long as they got lots of cash,” observed MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.

Journalist David Leavitt asked, “How many animals will go extinct because of this? How much quicker will this hasten the destruction of our planet?”

READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’

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‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report

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The Secretary of Defense nomination of Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News weekend co-host under a cloud of allegations ranging from sexual assault and sexual harassment to abuse of alcohol to financial mismanagement of two charities, appears to have turned around after several media appearances, and the support from key Republican Senators, especially Joni Ernst, who is being subjected to a “swarm of MAGA attacks,” Politico reports.

Senator Ernst, a combat veteran who sits on the critical Armed Services Committee and initially appeared skeptical about Hegseth running the world’s largest and most lethal military, has opened the door to the possibility of giving him the thumbs up.

Ernst “previously said she wasn’t ready to back Hegseth. But after their second meeting on Monday, she said she’d be ‘supporting him through this process’ — though she would not say whether she would ultimately vote in favor of his confirmation,” ABC News reports.

Meanwhile, Politico reports Ernst’s possibly changed stance may have something to do with the extraordinary pressure she is receiving, thanks to Trump’s transition team and MAGA allies.

READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’

“In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.”

Politico adds that “the palpable shift demonstrated how grassroots pressure, combined with the influence of Vice President-elect JD Vance, helped bolster Hegseth only days after Trump was drawing up contingency plans to tap Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instead.”

“People in Trump’s orbit believed that if Hegseth’s nomination was ‘sacrificed’ to Ernst, it would become a ‘feeding frenzy’ with the president-elect’s other controversial picks.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, who served in the military for decades, on Tuesday appeared dismissive of the numerous allegations against Hegseth, claiming that they were made anonymously. He seemed prepared to afford the nominee the same civil rights as if he were being prosecuted and tried in a court of law, and not a presidential cabinet nominee to head the Pentagon, which has a budget of just under $1 trillion.

“The accusations are anonymous, the police report I’ve read uh, right now, he’s in pretty good shape,” Graham told CNN’s Manu Raju (video below). “I think he’s very smart, I actually was with him in Afghanistan what he’s doing is his duty, I was over there very briefly as a reservist. So, the accusations about mismanaging money and about, um, nonconsensual behavior, if they come forward, I will listen to those accusations, but they have to be credible and they have to be presented in a fashion that Pete can rebut.”

READ MORE: ‘USA Is a Threat’: Canadians Slam ‘Bully’ Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ Mockery of ‘Governor Trudeau’

“So he’s much better off this week than he was last week,” Graham said.

Raju reports there currently are no GOP Senators who have said publicly they absolutely will not vote for Hegseth.

But Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal “says a number of his GOP colleagues are opposed to Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be Defense Secretary,” reports CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane. “But he says GOP colleagues might still vote for Hegseth because ‘Trump is a bully and a tyrant.'”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘I Love His Charisma’: Republican Lauds ‘Man of Integrity’ Hegseth Who Will ‘Get Rid of DEI’

 

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‘USA Is a Threat’: Canadians Slam ‘Bully’ Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ Mockery of ‘Governor Trudeau’

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Overnight, President-elect Donald Trump continued his verbal assaults on Canada, America’s largest trading partner and a top defense partner, by calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of the “Great State of Canada.” Some Canadians are striking back.

After the November election, Trump announced that one of his first actions would be to impose massive tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. The President of Mexico fought Trump in the press, explaining that his border demands were nonsensical since Mexico was already doing what he was calling for.

But Prime Minister Trudeau decided to fly down to Mar-a-Lago to negotiate with Trump—who is not yet President—and by doing so, some claim, gave Trump the upper hand.

“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website at 12:06 AM Tuesday. “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!”

READ MORE: ‘I Love His Charisma’: Republican Lauds ‘Man of Integrity’ Hegseth Who Will ‘Get Rid of DEI’

During their Mar-a-Lago meeting, Trump reportedly mocked Trudeau to his face with his “51st state” trolling, according to Fox News.

Trump’s midnight move followed Prime Minister Trudeau saying on Monday that Americans “are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive,” The Associated Press reported. Trudeau also threatened to retaliate.

Trudeau warned that Trump’s tariffs would “mean real hardship for Americans,” who “import 65% of their crude oil from Canada, [and] significant amounts of electricity. Just about all the natural gas exported from Canada goes to the United States. They rely on us for steel and aluminum. They rely on us for a range of agriculture imports. All of those things would get more expensive.”

Trump last week promoted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of him standing in snow looking out at what was supposedly Canada but was reportedly the Matterhorn, the mountain that borders Switzerland and Italy.

On Sunday Trump falsely claimed on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that America is “subsidizing Canada to the tune of over $100 billion.” He appeared to be referring to the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which is not “over $100 billion.” In 2023, it was $67.9 billion. The U.S. economy is about ten times that of Canada, and the U.S. population is about eight times that of Canada.

READ MORE: ‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents

“If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state,” Trump angrily declared.

Some in the U.S. suggested Trudeau meeting with Trump may not have been the best move.

“Trudeau running down to Mar-a-Lago right after Trump posted his tariff threat was a huge mistake. Now Trump thinks he owns him. Amazing after all this time so many people still have no clue how to deal with him,” noted MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.

Prime Minister Trudeau “hopping on a flight to mar a lago on back of us tariff threat (correctly) perceived as weakness by president-elect trump,” noted Ian Bremmer, founder of the political risk research and consulting firm Eurasia Group. He added that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “has handled this better.”

But critics in the U.S. and Canada are blasting the President-elect.

“Trump’s ‘great state of Canada’ would have cast 20 Senate votes to convict him at his 2021 impeachment trial,” wrote The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former Bush 43 White House speechwriter who reportedly coined the term “axis of evil.”

“Perhaps Trump doesn’t realize that annexing Canada would be handing Democrats control of the House, Senate, and White House … ?” observed The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser.

Disrespectful trolling of Canada and other countries around the world by Trump is a feature of who the man is, not a bug. The world is an unstable and dangerous enough place,” warned Bruce Anderson, a Canadian pollster and political commentator.

Canadian pundit Laura Babcock also issued a warning, writing, “FFS this is EXACTLY what I warned about on radio: Trump has a proven process of signalling, mocking and normalizing preposterous ideas (Manifest Destiny in this case) so he can weaken resistance to them! It’s how he destroys norms. We need to fight back early and often Canada.”

Former Cabinet Minister and Deputy Premier of Alberta, Canada, Thomas Lukaszuk added, “Referring to Canada as US state and to our Prime Minister as Governor must concern us all. This arogant passive aggressive language shows Trump has no respect for Canada’s sovereignty and the integrity of our borders. Such language is dangerous and can’t be tolerated.”

Canadian journalist Geoffrey Johnston slammed “ignorant bully” Trump, writing, “Canada will never join USA. Time for Canadians to stop thinking of USA as a friend. Under Trump, USA is a threat to Canada’s economy & sovereignty. Most Canadians prefer our cooperative ways to American private medicine, gun violence, & imperialism.”

See the videos and social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: Butker’s ‘Traditional Values’ PAC Took Retiree Cash, Spent Most on Fundraising: Report

 

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