Donnie Romero, a pastor who wished death to gay people, resigned after admitting to a few of his “sins.” Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Watch LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
“Donnie Romero — a pastor who gained national attention after his views on the Pulse nightclub shooting inspired a protest from LGBTQ advocates — has resigned. In a video posted to YouTube, Romero says that he had sinned by paying for sex, gambling and using drugs.
Romero — formerly the pastor of Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas — publicly voiced support for the Pulse nightclub gunman, who opened fire inside the popular LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando and killed 49 people. A June 2016 Dallas Morning News report says Romero’s words sparked a protest.
‘These 50 sodomites are all perverts and pedophiles, they’re the scum of the Earth and the Earth is a better place now and I’ll take it a step further,’ Romero said in a sermon published online, the publication reports. ‘I’ll pray to God like I did this morning, and I will again tonight, that God will finish the job that that man started,’ Romero said.”
Remember these are a large part republican’s brownshirt maga enforcers using threats of violence and scaring people into closing legal events and removing legal books while white washing the US history. They are the violent threat issuing part of the US Taliban and as the end of the article says they are normalizing political violence targeting the LGBTQ+ events / people. Hugs
Members of the Proud Boys march in Manhattan against vaccine mandates on 20 November 2021 in New York City. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Document of 23 pages shows the lengths to which the far-right group goes to prepare for potentially violent encounters and exposes the militaristic structure and language it has adopted
The document is so dowdy and formal it resembles the annual minutes of a society of tax accountants. Its index lists sections on “objectives” and “rules of engagement” and carries an “addendum” that provides recommendations for hotels and parking.
On the cover, two words give a clue to the notoriety of the group that produced it: “MAGA” and “WARNING”. That and the date: 5 January 2021, the day before the US Capitol attack.
Proud Boys developed plans to take over government buildings in Washington DC
Read more
What goes unsaid on the cover and is barely mentioned throughout the 23 pages is that this is the work of one of the most violent political gangs in America, the far-right street fighters who Donald Trump told to “stand back and stand by”: the Proud Boys.
The document, published by the Guardian for the first time, gives a very rare insight into the meticulous planning that goes into events staged by the far-right club.
The Proud Boys have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and are alleged to have acted as key organizers of the violent assault on the Capitol.
In the wake of January 6, which has been linked to the deaths of nine people, the New York march featured in the document was called off and the strategy so fastidiously laid out was never implemented. But the document remains sharply revealing.
It shows the lengths to which the Proud Boys go to prepare for potentially violent encounters and then to cover their tracks – something prosecutors have stressed but that has never been seen in the group’s own words. It exposes the militaristic structure and language the Proud Boys have adopted, and their aspiration to become the frontline vigilante force in a Trump-led America.
It also provides clues as to how the group continues to spread its tentacles throughout the US despite the fact that many of its top leaders, including its national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, are behind bars awaiting trial on charges of seditious conspiracy.
The purpose of the document is to provide a “strategic security plan” and call to action, summoning Proud Boys members to a pro-Trump Maga march that was scheduled for New York City on 10 January 2021. That was four days after Congress was to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election – the occasion that would be targeted by the fatal insurrection.
The document was obtained from a Proud Boys member by the extremism reporter Andy Campbell as he researched his new book, We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism. The book will be published on Tuesday. Campbell shared the document with the Guardian.
The author of the document is Randy Ireland, who as president of the group’s New York branch, the Hell’s Gate Bridge Chapter, is one of the most prominent Proud Boys in the US north-east. The paper was circulated through Telegram, the encrypted chat app widely used by the Proud Boys as an organizing tool, to at least nine other chapters in New York and beyond.
Campbell told the Guardian the decentralized structure of the group, into what it claims are 157 active chapters in all but three states, is one of the Proud Boys’ greatest strengths, as reflected in the autonomous nature of the New York planning.
“Chapter leaders like Randy can create their own events, run independently of each other,” Campbell said. “Enrique Tarrio and other leaders are in prison, but these guys are going to continue what they are doing.”
‘We will not disappoint’
The language in the planning paper is overtly militaristic. Ireland designates himself “General of Security Detail”, while his underlings in the chain of command are “VPs” of “Recruiting”, “Scout Security” and “Team Leads”.
The plan is for 60 or so Proud Boys at the 10 January event in Manhattan to be corralled into seven “tactical teams” of five to eight men each (they are all men, as one of the overriding values of the group is misogyny). Members are told to bring protective gear, including “knife/stab protection, helmets, gloves, boots etc” and to make use of radio channels, walkie-talkies or Telegram to communicate with each other.
They are to stick together in groups and under no circumstances allow “Normies” – ordinary Trump supporters who are not Proud Boys – or “Females” into their ranks.
“Their presence will jeopardise the health and safety of all those involved with Security, and simply cannot be allowed to happen!” Ireland writes.
Maps reproduced at the back of the document show positions “scouts” and “tactical teams” should adopt at key points along the route of the march, which was planned to start at Columbus Circle and pass Trump Tower.
“That spot is understood in a very public way to hold special meaning for us,” the paper says, referring to Trump’s home on Fifth Avenue. “WE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT!”
Campbell, who has been reporting on the Proud Boys since they started turning up at Trump rallies in early 2017, describes them as America’s most notorious political fight club. In the planning paper, he sees equal parts fantasy and danger.
“These guys see themselves as super soldiers, like some sort of military outfit,” he said. “On one level it’s funny, as nothing is in fact going to pan out the way they say it will. But on another level, it’s alarming because it shows how much thought they put into this stuff.”
In We Are Proud Boys, Campbell traces the group from its birth in 2015-16 through to its central role on January 6 when a member, Dominic Pezzola, became the first person to breach the US Capitol. At least 30 Proud Boys have been charged in relation to the insurrection, including Tarrio and four others accused of seditious conspiracy – among the most serious indictments yet handed down.
The group was invented by the British-born founder of Vice magazine, Gavin McInnes, who branded himself a “western chauvinist” and peddled in bigotry. McInnes floated the Proud Boys name on his online chatshow in May 2016, introducing them as a “gang” and inventing a uniform, a black Fred Perry polo shirt with yellow trim.
McInnes was careful to brand his creation as harmless fun, a satirical male-only patriotic drinking club that later attached itself to all things Trump. But Campbell argues that from the outset political violence was baked in.
A Proud Boy was an organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which an anti-fascist protester was murdered. The group has held violent gatherings in Portland, Oregon. Outside a Republican event in New York in 2018, several members were arrested and charged with felonious assault.
‘Street-level violence’
Proud Boys membership is structured into four ranks, known as “degrees”, the fourth granted once you “get arrested or get in a serious violent fight for the cause”, as McInnes himself explained. In an interview with Campbell for the book, McInnes denied promoting violence and insisted the Proud Boys were never proactively aggressive, only reacting to leftwing attacks.
That official line is reiterated in the document published by the Guardian. Ireland is careful to portray the Proud Boys as a defensive group.
He writes: “If any violence does spout off, all Proud Boys are expected to respond immediately – only so far as to eliminate and end that threat to them or others. VERY IMPORTANT: Once the threat has been neutralized, WE STOP!”
But there is a glaring contradiction: Ireland presents his chapter as a non-violent organization yet it goes out seeking violence. He assigns the group, uninvited, the role of a vigilante police force.
“We are there as the first line of defense for all event attendees,” he writes, then contradicts himself by saying the only role of the Proud Boys is to play a “back-up role” to law enforcement and to “force them to do their jobs”.
That speaks volumes. It carries the implication that if the police will not assail anti-fascist protesters, Proud Boys will.
“I’ve reported at Proud Boys events where they stood back and relaxed as police lobbed teargas and other munitions into the crowd of counter-protesters,” Campbell said. “Then the Proud Boys didn’t have to do what Randy Ireland is hinting at here – step in and do the fighting themselves.”
For Campbell, the most disturbing aspect of the document is that, with its soft-lensed double-talk and contradictory meanings, it falls into arguably the main ambition of the Proud Boys: the normalization of political violence. Despite having so many leaders behind bars, the group is prospering.
As new chapters pop up, Americans are increasingly inured to the idea of heavily armed gangs in public settings. Proud Boys have posed as “security details” at anti-abortion rallies, anti-vaccination demonstrations, pro-gun protests and of course Trump rallies.
“The street-level violence the Proud Boys helped to create is now being carried out by regular people,” Campbell said. “You saw it on January 6, you see it at Planned Parenthood and LGBTQ+ events where people are harassed and attacked by everyday Americans.”
The momentum behind the nation’s wave of book bans is growing. A total of 1,648 individual books have been banned as of June, according to a new report from PEN America, a nonprofit focused on defending the right to freedom of expression in literature, journalism, and education. Those banned titles were written by 1,261 different authors, 290 illustrators, and 18 translators.
Out of those books, 674 titles, or 41 percent of all banned books, have an LGBTQ+ protagonist or secondary character or focus on LGBTQ+ themes. Another 659 times, or 40 percent, have a protagonist or prominent secondary character of color, and 338 banned books, or 21 percent, talk about issues of race or racism. Book bans have taken place in 138 school districts across 32 states. But there are three states that account for an overwhelming majority of the bans: Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas.
The organization identified 50 groups operating at the national, state, or local level that advocate for bans in K-12 schools and said it appears that the majority of those groups formed in the last year. They range from local Facebook or online groups to more established conservative organizations.
One of those groups is Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that came together last year to fight for parental rights in Florida and has since spread across the country.
PEN America has identified another seven national groups with numerous chapters, as well as 38 groups operating at the state, regional, or community level that appear unaffiliated with the national groups or with one another, the report says.
Worth noting is that there are no books banned by liberal-left organizations, which have been maligned as being merchants of cancel culture. This makes clear that the true enemies of free speech are right wingers.
If you don’t like the subject of a book, don’t read it. Seems simple, right? But what do you expect from fascists, I mean, look at Monica, One Mad Mom. She has no idea that her TV has a Power Off button.
I personally think it is a mistake to wait until after the midterm election to put the bill on the Floor of the Senate. Republicans have asked for this because they understand voting against it carries a penalty and so will voting for it. If the vote against it the money and the independents might vote against them for their opponent. But if they vote for it their own base will vote against them. After the midterms and they win their races what is there to induce them to vote for it when they won’t have the threat of the independents voting for their opponents and their base will still turn against them if they vote for it. The point is after the midterm election is over there is little to no downside to the republicans voting against it. So what leverage the Democrats have now will be gone. Sorry I don’t accept well they gave their word, we have seen how far you can trust that. If this doesn’t pass then Schumer needs to be run out of the Senate. But to the crap spewed by the liberty counsel and the cases they push demanding Christians be exempt from anti-discrimination laws and be allowed to take public money but not serve all the public like everyone else is required. You know, they want special privileges. They want the right to hate to be enshrined into law. They demand that their religious doctrine be the laws of the land and everyone forced to live by them. Meet the US Taliban. Hugs
Via email from hate group leader Mat Staver:
Natural marriage keeps a culture strong. Sexual immorality and lack of monogamy kill a culture. If you want to destroy America, pass HR 8404. That is why we must warn members of the Senate to STOP HR 8404.
The “Respect for Marriage Act” will throw gasoline on the fire that is burning down marriage, family and the objective reality of gender in our nation!
Only six more Senate votes are needed to pass HR 8404. There are 16 Republican senators who have not publicly committed how they will vote on this bill. Rush your urgent faxes to every senator you can to block this bill.
The time to turn back the unbridled Jezebel spirit poisoning American minds, bodies and culture is NOW! It is successfully perverting a third American generation and destroying our Judeo-Christian culture before our eyes!
Liberty Counsel is fighting for the soul of America by fighting disastrous policies like HR 8404, and by defending religious freedom and life in state and federal courtrooms across America. But we are only able to perform this mission-critical work because of faithful supporters like YOU.
Won’t you prayerfully consider making a recurring monthly donation to fund this intensifying legal battle for religious freedom? Every donation made today will be DOUBLED IN IMPACT by a Challenge Grant. Thank you in advance.
Earlier this month Staver claimed that the bill will legalize pedophilia, polygamy, incestuous marriages, and “child brides.”
In the years since gay marriage was passed (first in states and then federally) they can’t find examples of damage to society? They keep claiming it does harm but can’t even think of isolated examples?
The same for gays in the military. All that uproar and panic. Not one story of problems. (As a younger relative in the navy told me, “We all already pretty much knew who was gay and we didn’t care before and we don’t care now.”)
Their prophecies of doom and gloom never come true but they always keep pushing that doom off into the future and somehow there are millions of people believing them. Of course, religion has been doing this shit for millenia.
“Natural marriage,” as though animals in the wild “marry” one another. I detest the way these bigots usurp terms that bolster their side while being a put-down to the other. And didn’t we hear all this scare-mongering before Obergefell which never materialized? Damn these bigots!
“Natural marriage”, like “natural law”, is US Protestants aping Roman Catholic theology because enforcing their gender ideals is more important to them than honest originality.
They’ve already pushed “covenant marriage” as a contrast to equal legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Interesting that it hasn’t taken off anywhere once the straights realize it’s just a way to go back to outlawing (straight) divorce. (Under covenant marriages same-sex divorces would still be legal, since they weren’t *real* marriages to begin with.)
An entire generation of young adults and soon-to-be young adults has grown up with marriage equality all their lives, and the USA is still here– despite the best efforts of Trump and the Republican party.
“Natural marriage” — does that include marriage between one man and several women? One woman and several men, as in one cultlure in Africa? What about thoe peoples in China that don’t recognize marriage at all?
Come to think of it, there’s nothing “natural” about marriage to begin with — it’s purely a human cultural institution.
As for “fighting for America’s soul”, I don’t doubt that for a minute. I just don’t like what you plan to do with it.
Remember this lawyer will have access to all the government information required by law to be turned over to trump because trump is the defendant. Another way the top secrets of the nation get spilled to the rest of the world. This special master going over the classified documents must be quashed. Hugs
Donald Trump had his political organization Save America PAC which is under investigation by the DOJ pay $3 million to hire a Florida lawyer named Chris Kise. It now turns out that Kise is a registered foreign agent for the government of Venezuela according to the FARA filings. This is particularly disturbing since Kise is seeking access to the top secret classified records that the DOJ obtained in connection with its August 8 search warrant.
Soldiers took her husband at gunpoint after the Ukraine invasion. Then she learned he was in Russia.
“The hardest thing is to wait,” said Natalia Kulakivska. “To wait and understand that there is nothing I can do.”
Scottie's Playtime 