There are 330 million people in America and the entire Republican Party works for one man. How do you demand a bill, negotiate a bill, then tank your own bill? Who does the Republican Party work for because it’s sure not the American people.
Newly unearthed footage from Jan. 6, 2021, appears to show a rioter — a man identified in an NBC News story nearly two years ago — firing a gun into the air outside the Capitol during the attack. Online sleuths who have aided in hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions say he is the same man they identified to the FBI who is currently individual No. 200 on the bureau’s Capitol Violence page, which he first appeared on three years ago.
Videos and photographs from the Capitol on Jan. 6 showed him with what appears to be a gun in his waistband. That man, John Emanuel Banuelos, told Salt Lake City police that he was at the Capitol and had been captured on film with a gun. Banuelos has not been arrested or charged in connection with Jan. 6; the Salt Lake City police had arrested him in connection with the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Christopher Thomas Senn in a park on July 4, 2021.
As the piece points out, the cult continues to claim that no guns were present during the Capitol riot even though multiple rioters have been convicted on gun charges.
Of note, the new video only came to light because former West Virginia state Rep. Derrick Evans, a convicted rioter who is now running for Congress, used it in a campaign ad. Snork! Evans is now claiming that the rioter with the gun is a fed. Because of course.
NEW: Jan. 6 footage appears to show rioter firing a gun in the air during Capitol attack https://t.co/dnsoBOA8gz
Convicted J6 #SeditionVIP Derrick Evans has come up with some new Jan6 footage from the NE courtyard. I've snipped out most of his commentary and broken into parts. The most notable bit is #CowPoke John Emanuel Banuelos firing his weapon in the air. That's in part 2. pic.twitter.com/LcRHiNqT1b
As @Jacob_Scholl reports, John Emanuel Banuelos has been arrested twice since he fatally stabbed a man in July, and he’s got warrants out. But he’s never been charged in connection with Jan. 6. https://t.co/aH2W3Os224
We have this known to be a lie, having already seen dozens of photographs of insurrectionists with firearms, as well as Secret Service and DC police reports confirming such.
Like GOP Congress guys said.. just a tourist visit.. you always shoot guns at the Statue of Liberty if you’re GOP, right? Folk Please, Work for DEM WINS ahead so we can have Investigations into WHO FUNDED the Jan. 6th mob.. They had printed T-shirts and all, eh?
“As the piece points out, the cult continues to claim that no guns were present during the Capitol riot even though multiple rioters have been convicted on gun charges.”
Wasn’t trump saying this just like yesterday or day before? I think it was the Hannity interview maybe. He has the worst timing.
At every rally, Trump loves to tell the story that references the only thing he knows about global security – the transactional relationship we have with our NATO allies. NATO has kept the US out of a major conflict in Europe since its inception in 1949. The treaty mandates that if any member nation is attacked by any other nation, all 31 other signatories will come to their defense. That has served as an incredibly powerful deterrent to the rest of the world.
Trump, however, has always been hostile to the NATO alliance. Perhaps not coincidentally, Vladimir Putin stated decades ago that it was one of his greatest dreams to separate the US from the other NATO countries. It appears, in Donald Trump, he has found the man to help accomplish that dream.
The canard/excuse that Trump will rely upon is that some other NATO member nations are not spending the 2% of GDP on defense that is stated by the treaty. This has always been somewhat elastic as some nations have dipped above and below that over the years, but almost all nations in NATO have been in full compliance almost all the time.
Trump loves to tell the story about how he threatened the other NATO countries to “pay up.” He casts this as if they owe us money that they refuse to pay. It is simply a question of them increasing their own defense budgets – not money they owe us. But Trump has now taken this earlier threat to the next level, expressly stating at his rally today that he will refuse to honor the treaty if any ally is attacked who is spending less that the 2%. He then took that even further by inviting our enemies to “do whatever the hell they want” to that country.
Trump: One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, Well, sir, if we don't pay and were attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said.. No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. pic.twitter.com/2RPVDFZIXy
This is why the world is in fear that Trump will be elected. He will refuse to honor any treaties and trade agreements. The USA will be an untrustworthy nation. It is a fearful time.
A certain amount of trust was restored with Biden’s election but if Trump slithers in again that’s it – no one will ever trust us again, and they’d be right to feel that way.
None of us here in the E.U. today feel that we can totally trust the USA. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. It’s no secret that your GOP has been bought out by the Kremlin.
Just returned from a long trip to France and everyone I spoke with specifically mentioned building independent defense capabilities. They find America unreliable because of our politics. Putin needs to read the room the europeans are not going to back down.
And the next time the US needs an assist, doesn’t matter who is in charge, the answer… the polite will be a simple no. Because the USA isn’t doing anything to prevent a repeat occurrence.
I was among friends and it’s important to hear the truth. We are THE economic and military powerhouse still, not China, but nobody I met wants to live in our culture.
He’s not just saying the quiet part out loud. He’s shouting it in ALLCAPS. The fact that there is a substantial chance that he could be elected president again is already an enormous stain on our country’s credibility.
Before now, making a statement like this would have killed any other presidential candidate’s political career dead dead dead. Like less than 1% support.
Which just goes to show that we are now, thanks to Trump, in uncharted territory, “the upside down” as Stranger Things puts it.
I really do hate MAGA voters. All of this is their fault.
Please notice the legislators use their religious beliefs to force their religion on all people in the state. My god doesn’t make mistakes so you have to put your body at risk having your rapists baby even if you are a little child yourself, and you have a different faith than mine. My god, my god, my god, they scream as they stamp their feet. Worship my god the way I do they yell at people.Women are nothing but vessels for a man’s use, pleasure, and birthing his off spring. She should be happy to be property. I know it is so because I believe it is what a mythical being told me that I follow. They don’t get that not everyone goes to their church and wants to live by their idea of god’s laws / church doctrine. I can not decide if it is pure ego that thinks they have a right to force their religious views on everyone, if it is ego that makes them ignore all science in favor of belief, or if it is a desperate need to please their god and show it that they are worthy of him. Like a child desperate to please an abusive parent. Hugs. Scottie
Missouri was the first state in the nation to ban abortion and seemingly remains determined to be as cruel as possible.
Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin said forced pregnancy and birth could be “the greatest healing agent” for rape victims in his arguments against adding a rape exception to the state’s abortion ban.
Photo: Rick Brattin/Facebook
In 2022, Missouri was the first state to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and anti-abortion lawmakers in the state are continuing their streak of cruelty. On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban. Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery proposed the amendment by pleading with her colleagues to “show an ounce of compassion” for victims. As it currently exists, McCreery said the ban tells victims, “We’re going to force you to give birth, even if that pregnancy resulted from forcible rape by a family member, a date, an ex-husband or a stranger.”
As if voting to reject McCreery’s amendment weren’t insulting enough to victims, state Sen. Rick Brattin (R) explained his vote by arguing that being forced to carry their rapist’s baby could be “healing” for victims. “If you want to go after the rapist, let’s give him the death penalty. Absolutely, let’s do it,” Brattin said. “But not the innocent person caught in-between that, by God’s grace, may even be the greatest healing agent you need in which to recover from such an atrocity.” Seemingly trying to make his comments as horrific as possible, Brattin also managed to compare abortion to slavery.
Another Republican, state Sen. Sandy Crawford, argued against rape exceptions because “God doesn’t make mistakes”: “Even in some of these very horrific cases, there was a reason that God allowed there to be a child out of this situation,” Crawford elaborated. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Bill Eigel—who’s running for governor—inexplicably claimed McCreery’s proposed amendment would “bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” stating, “A one-year-old could get an abortion under this.” To this, a Democratic senator returned, “I don’t know that a one-year-old could get pregnant, Senator.” I really don’t know what to say to any of this, except that Republican lawmakers clearly have no good arguments in support of their heinous laws and the violence they’re inflicting on survivors and pregnant people—and that becomes clearer every day when they start inexplicably invoking pregnant one-year-olds.
Missouri legislators’ rejection of a rape exception comes after, last month, new research estimates that in states that have banned abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, there have been an estimated 64,565 rape-induced pregnancies. Of these 64,565 pregnancies, 91% were in states with bans that lacked rape exceptions.
Missouri Republicans’ arguments against a rape exception are the latest contribution to anti-abortion politicians’ hall-of-shame hits on the topic of rape and abortion. Over a decade ago, failed Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin gave us “legitimate rape” (his claim that there’s no need for rape exceptions because “legitimate rape” won’t result in pregnancy). And ever since—certainly, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe—it feels like every other month there’s a new outlandish, wildly offensive comment from anti-abortion officials about abortion and rape. Shortly after Roe fell, a Utah Republican said she “[trusts] women enough to control when they allow a man to ejaculate inside of them and to control that intake of semen,” therefore negating the need for abortion for rape victims.
Also in 2022, a Michigan Republican candidate said he told his daughters “If rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.” A Republican state lawmaker in Ohio called pregnancy from rape “an opportunity.” Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) acknowledged the abortion ban in his state could force child rape survivors to carry their rapist’s babies, but shrugged off the idea of personally doing anything about it: “I would prefer a different outcome than that, but that’s not the debate today in Arkansas. It might be in the future, but for now, the law triggered with only one exception … in the case of the life of the mother,” he said in June 2022. In other cases, Republican lawmakers have refused to even address rape victims speaking out against their laws altogether.
McCreery introduced the proposed rape exception as an amendment to a Republican-sponsored bill that would continue Missouri’s ban on taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Democratic lawmakers in other states have also run into problems trying to add exceptions—including rape exceptions—to their state abortion bans, and rape victims and advocates have argued that the processes to access rape exceptions are too cumbersome for victims. “It may not be today or tomorrow, but down the line, this could happen to someone you love,” Hadley Duvall, a rape survivor who’s helping to lead an effort to add a rape exception to Kentucky’s ban, told Jezebel in January about the prevalence of sexual violence. “And if you can look them in the eye and tell them ‘You don’t deserve this medical procedure, even though your innocence was taken from you, your health is in danger’—I don’t know how they live with themselves.”
Per Jezebel, Brattin went on to compare abortion to slavery. Brattin first appeared here in 2017 when he declared that there’s a “distinction” between human beings and LGBTQ people. That earned him a scathing rebuke from the editorial board of the Kansas City Star. In December 2023, Brattin appeared here when he authored or co-sponsored nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ bills. One of his bills would make it a felony to perform drag in the view of children, another would institute a K-6 “Don’t Say Gay” law.
In 2014, Brattin introduced a bill that would require women seeking abortion to get written permission from the father of the fetus. In 2022, Brattin ran for the US House, finishing second in the GOP primary.
My aunt had a former student who was a result of a rape. He is now in prison as a result of several acts of violence against different people due to anger issues. Anger issues brought on in large part by his mother who made no secret of the fact he wasn’t wanted and how much she resented him. This fucker has no clue what he is talking about. P.S. Even in ones with “happy endings” the woman in each story made clear it was HER choice and no one else should get to make that for them.
State-level legislation and executive orders this year shifted from censoring racial issues in classrooms and instead focused on censoring LGBTQ+ issues, according to a new report from PEN America. At the same time, this significant shift also created an increased resistance to these unpopular laws and policies.
The free-expression nonprofit PEN America has been tracking what it describes as “educational gag orders” since 2021. While such bills introduced in 2021 and 2022 focused on limiting how issues of race and racism could be taught in classrooms, in 2023, conservative lawmakers and advocates turned their attention to banning discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in K–12 classrooms.
The anti-LGBTQ+ group’s candidates lost big in at least four states.
“It appears that America’s would-be censors now see proposals to restrict conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity as more of a winning political issue than efforts to restrict discussions of race and racism,” the report stated. “Leveraging that presumed support, [conservatives] have attempted to enact sweeping restrictions on what school-age children can read and learn.”
PEN America documented 110 state-level bills introduced during the 2023 legislative sessions that it defined as educational gag orders. Only 10 became law, while four other restrictions on education were imposed via executive orders or state or system regulations. Of those 110 bills, 39 specifically targeted how public school teachers could discuss LGBTQ+ issues (five of those also applied to private schools).
According to the report, about three-quarters of those anti-LGBTQ+ bills were modeled on Florida’s infamous “Parental Rights in Education Act,” commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
These restrictions resulted not only in the marginalization of LGBTQ+ students and students with LGBTQ+ family members, they have also had a devastating impact on public education more broadly, forcing teachers to self-censor and contributing to teacher shortages across the country, the report added.
“If teachers are afraid to make any mention of race or LGBTQ+ identities in the classroom, if they are afraid to answer student questions, if quality educators are leaving and cannot be replaced, students are the ones who suffer most,” PEN America’s report stated.
While efforts to impose educational censorship are expected to continue into 2024, the report also offers reason for hope in the form of increased resistance to such legislation. According to PEN America, at least 13 different lawsuits challenging educational gag orders are currently pending, and political resistance has also grown.
“Over the last three years — and especially in the past twelve months — an increasing number of national groups have begun dedicating significant resources to combat educational censorship,” according to the report. “Simultaneously, a network of state-centric groups — many of them founded by parents, community members, and educators themselves — has emerged to take the fight directly to the local school board or state legislature.”
As PEN America notes, growing public opposition to educational censorship targeting issues of race and LGBTQ+ identity could ultimately make such legislation less attractive to conservative lawmakers.
Photo: Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 
