Orange Fascist-In-Chief Plans to Outright Legalize Discrimination

As promised…

From the Nation: Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination

A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

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From Melanie Mallon at Skepchick: Bannon And The National Security Council’s Secret “Kill List”

This is a rather terrifying article. As the title suggests, it’s about the NSC’s kill list, and the fact that Steven Bannon now has control over it.

The fact that the NSC has a kill list is bad enough. But now Bannon has a hold of it?

Things really do just keep getting worse…

While the United States and the world was in an uproar over Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) on immigration that even conservative sources view as unconstitutional and illegal, Trump reorganized the National Security Council (NSC), adding his chief strategist Steven Bannon and decreasing the participation and status of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, currently General Joseph Dunford, as well as the director of national intelligence (DNI), a position that remains vacated until a Trump nominee, currently Dan Coats, can be confirmed.

Although various national security and intelligence experts have spoken out against the president’s memorandum, the news has been all but swallowed up by the chaos surrounding the immigration EO.

Meanwhile, a specific and particularly terrifying possibility has been making the rounds on social media—that Bannon could have a role in a secretive NSC panel with the authority to place suspected terrorists, including Americans, on a kill or capture list and to make decisions to kill or capture without due process or any information or justification provided to the public.

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New on the US Education Task Force! The Return of Christian Young-Earth Creationism!

So… our Screaming Carrot Demon in Chief announced the name of the man who will be leading his Education Task Force.

If you were expecting someone who was actually qualified, you clearly weren’t paying attention to Betsy Devos. If the name I’m about to give you sounds like “of course. He would pick him.”, then you have been paying attention…

Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, will lead an education task force put together by President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the university told CNN Thursday.

Len Stevens, the school’s spokesman, said Falwell — the son of Jerry Falwell Sr., the late televangelist — will push to stop regulations coming out of the Education Department, especially those that apply to colleges and universities.

The White House declined to comment.

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Self Care – The Struggle Bus: Sinceriously

Sorry this is going up late. My bad.

This is episode 82 of The Struggle Bus (the most recent episode). From the page:

On this episode Kate and Sally jibber jabber about the state of the US right now and how to stay engaged while taking care of yourself. Then they answer emails about how to bring up ~sex stuff~ with a prospective partner, how to cope when the shit hits the fan all at once, and the best ways to support a loved one who miiiiight be struggling with how to reconcile their sexuality with their religion.

While they do talk about current events and Sir Tony Orange Hands, it’s all in the context of self care, and ways to cope. It’s a great episode, which is why I’m posting it…

Government Agencies Resist

This is absolutely amazing…

As you know, our Sputum-Filled Orange Julius in Chief has been issuing gag orders and otherwise silencing scientific agencies, especially when it comes to climate change.

And so, in response, multiple alternative resistance accounts have sprung up on Twitter, ready to fight for facts.

This short post is basically just a list of all the alternative Twitters I could find. I want to make this post an official database of all the Alt twitter accounts, so please; if you find any I missed, let me know in the comments so I can update the post. Thank you.

And special thanks to Dana Hunter, at En Tequila Es Verdad, part of The Orbit network, for alerting her readers (myself included) to this…

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Trump is Slashing Federal Funding to Sanctuary Cities… But You’re Mad That a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

Another thing the Bone-In Ham occupying the White House has done is target sanctuary cities, slashing their funding.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” which limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration agents. It follows through on his campaign-trail promise to withhold federal dollars from such cities, which might jeopardize support for services including education, health care, and housing for millions of American citizens.According to the executive order, dubbed “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” cities that do not comply with federal immigration enforcement agents “are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary.” It also notes that the director of the Office of Management and Budget will be responsible for obtaining and providing “relevant and responsive information on all Federal grant money that currently is received by any sanctuary jurisdiction.” It is not clear, however, which grants are at jeopardy.

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at the daily press briefing: “We’re going to strip federal grant money from the sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants. The American people are no longer going to have to be forced to subsidize this disregard for our laws.”

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Trump Outright Lied About the Existence of Voter Fraud and “Plans” to “Combat” It… But You’re Mad That a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

In case you forgot, the Failed-Steak-Salesman-in-Chief is an out-and-out bald-faced liar. And at least one of his lies will have devastating effects for citizens of the United States:

After His Claim of Voter Fraud, Trump Vows ‘Major Investigation’

President Trump intends to move forward with a major investigation of voter fraud that he says cost him the popular vote, White House officials said Wednesday, despite bipartisan condemnation of his allegations and the conclusion of Mr. Trump’s own lawyers that the election was “not tainted.”

In his first days in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has renewed his complaint that millions of people voted illegally, depriving him of a popular-vote majority. In two Twitter posts early Wednesday morning, the president vowed to open an inquiry to reveal people who are registered to vote in multiple states or who remain on voting rolls long after they have died.

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The Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines Have Been Given the Go Ahead… But You’re Mad That a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

So… His Lowness, Keeper of the Doritos, Trumplethinskin signed an executive order green-lighting DAPL and Keystone XL.

As he signed the paperwork in an Oval Office photo op, Trump said his administration is “going to renegotiate some of the terms” of the Keystone project, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of western Canada and connect to an existing pipeline to the Gulf Coast.

The pipelines had been stopped during the Obama administration. The State Department rejected a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and President Obama ordered work halted on the Dakota pipeline after Native American groups and other activists protested its route near culturally sensitive sites in North Dakota.

DAPL, if you will recall, was halted because they were going to build it through Native American land, violating treaty rights:

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which protested the Dakota Access pipeline, said it will take legal action to fight Trump’s decision, saying the pipeline “risks contaminating tribal and American water supplies while disregarding treaty rights.”

More about DAPL:

President Obama said in an interview published this week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was considering rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline to accommodate the “sacred lands of Native Americans,” sparking speculation over the fate of the controversial crude oil pipeline.

But it also prompted some to point out that the current path of the pipeline is actually a reroute itself, with critics calling this reroute an act of “environmental racism.”

A previously proposed route for the 1,172-mile pipeline had it crossing the Missouri River north of Bismarck, North Dakota, according to a document filed as part of the permitting process. The eventual route that was decided on, and is currently in construction, moved the water crossing of the crude oil pipeline south of the North Dakota capital, to just upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation.

And here is a PDF of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s call to action.

So now these environmental travesties are going to be built, violating land treaties with Native Americans and likely making Climate Change worse…

But it’s the Nazi getting punched in the face that’s the big problem, here…

Kid rolling eyes

 

Muslims Are Banned in the United States and 5-Year-Olds Are Being Arrested… But You’re Mad That a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

Since, apparently, some people insist on crying crocodiles tears over the fact that Nazi Richard Spencer got punched in the face, I’m just gonna start posting some perspective.

Warning… this series of posts will be maddening…

Trump’s latest executive order: Banning people from 7 countries and more

With just a few quick strokes of the pen, President Donald Trump on Friday banned — temporarily, for now — roughly 218 million people from entering the United States.

Trump barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for at least the next 90 days by executive order, which a senior White House official said later Friday is likely just a first step toward establishing a broader ban.

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