Mike Pence promotes fake martyrdom during Liberty University commencement

On Saturday, VP Mike Pence spoke at the commencement of Liberty University.  In his address, Pence spoke with the same tone deaf self-righteous hypocrisy which has marked his political career:

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” Pence said. “Be ready.” With his wife, Karen, sitting on stage as he spoke, Pence recounted the “harsh attacks” he said they endured when she returned this year to teaching art at a Christian elementary school where she’d worked when he’d served in Congress. Unlike her previous stint, this time Karen Pence faced scrutiny after news reports pointed out that the school bans gay students and teachers. 

“Throughout most of American history, it's been pretty easy to call yourself Christian,” Pence said. “It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.”

I don't know why Pence continues to play the "I'm only trying to follow my faith" game. There is a long paper trail showing that his idea of "Christianity" is undermining LGBTQ equality and safety. Not to mention that his idea of folks, particularly the LGBTQ community, "showing tolerance" to those like him is to allow ourselves to be discriminated against.

But for the record, it never hurts to remind people:

Family Research Council tries to protect Trump by lying about Mueller investigation

FRC head Tony Perkins 

I was wondering when hate group the Family Research Council would dip itself into the drama of Robert Mueller's report on the Russian interference in the 2016 election. For those not aware,  Mueller was investigating whether or not Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia  and did Trump attempt to obstruct the investigation

Using the same cherry-picking, sins of omission, and basic distortions it has over the years to denigrate the LGBTQ community, the Family Research Council is attempting to twist the outcome of Mueller's investigation in order to protect its cash cow of "access," Donald Trump. Apparently this requires more than a simple "mulligan."

FRC's distortions of Mueller's investigation is best shown in three paragraphs of a piece its president, Tony Perkins, wrote:

The spectacle at Wednesday's hearing wasn't lost on the liberal media either. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade. "The most straightforward procedural suggestion for addressing executive branch noncooperation is to subpoena documents and testimony and, if they aren't produced, hold the responsible individuals in contempt of Congress. This, it turns out, is not such a great idea," warns Suzanne Garment at NBC News. 

 For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion. Most of them want to know: when will this political circus end? Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) understands -- because he's one of them. I guess it ends, he told me on Wednesday's "Washington Watch," "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country." 

 But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt). And ironically, they don't need him to publicly release the unredacted report to read it. As members of Congress, they can go to a private, classified setting and access every word. Of course, there wouldn't be any television cameras in that room for Democrats to continue their theatrics.

There are so many lies in just these three paragraphs.

1. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade.

 Truth - Actually the view of the investigation is bit more split. According to a May 1 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 48 percent of Americans want more investigations while 46 percent thinks they should end. In all honesty, impeachment hearings still remains to be an unpopular idea.

2. FRC cites a piece by Suzanne Garment to enhance the claim that the public doesn't support more investigations.

Truth - But her piece had nothing to do with public sentiment. It was about the different ways the Democratic party can obtain testimony and documents for the investigation which Trump refuses to release.

3. For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion.

Truth - FRC cites a February 15 poll from right-wing leaning Rasmussen which says only 29 percent of Americans favor investigation and only IF Mueller doesn't find anything.  This was before the Mueller report was even released. Again, a more recent poll found that 48 percent of Americans want investigations to continue.

4. FRC quotes GOP Senator Josh Hawley: "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country."

Truth -  The investigation did not find any conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia. However Mueller  found 10 instances of possible obstruction by Trump.  He said he couldn't fully exonerate Trump of obstruction. Over 800 former federal prosecutors and Department of Justice attorneys who worked for Democratic and Republican administrations signed a letter saying that if Trump wasn't president, he would face charges of obstruction.  Lastly, it has been reported that Trump himself is walking back from the claim of "no obstruction."

Truth - Attorney General Barr has testified only once about Mueller's report and that was to Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1. He refused to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

5.  But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt).

Truth - Zack Ford of watchdog group ThinkProgress said this:

The Mueller report redacted four kinds of content: grand jury material, classified intelligence, matters related to ongoing investigations, and private information about “peripheral third parties.” It’s true that members of Congress cannot see the grand jury material, but they have every right to see the content redacted in the other three categories, as well as all of the underlying evidence that accompanies the report’s claims. And that’s what the subpoena asks for. 

As for the grand jury material, Nadler explained that Democrats had asked Barr to work alongside them to petition a judge to turn over those documents to Congress in a closed setting, the only way the material can be released. The request therefore does not compel Barr to break the law.

'Study says trans teens in schools with bathroom restrictions at higher risk of sexual assault' & other Thur midday news briefs

Transgender teens in schools with bathroom restrictions are at higher risk of sexual assault, study says - We know who the real predators are and it's not our transgender children.

Biden’s early support for same-sex marriage still remembered for impact - That's right. And we should never forget it.

Polish Activist Arrested Over Image Of Mary And Jesus With Rainbow Halos - Oh come on, folks. How is this wrong? 

Hundreds of sex workers and allies lobby to repeal New York’s ‘walking while trans’ ban - Good!

Hate group claims the Equality Act would force gays to be hired at places where children congregate

The American Family Association is telling more lies about the Equality Act

The Democrats in the House of Representatives are set to pass the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system.

But hate group the American Family Association calls it a "religious liberty wrecking ball" (complete with the lovely graphic of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi channeling Miley Cyrus from the "Wrecking Ball" video) and gives the following reasons why:

Female business owners, customers, and employees would then be forced to share their privacy in restrooms and dressing rooms with men who claim to be women. 

Health care providers and professionals would be forced to perform gender transition procedures (sex changes) and provide medical services (hormone therapy) that would violate their moral and religious convictions. 

Amusement parks, recreation centers, skating rinks, and daycare centers, etc. will be forced to employ people whose values on sexuality deviates from those of the employer. 

Adoption and foster care agencies will be forced to place children into same sex households and into homes of individuals suffering from gender confusion. 

College and professional sports stadiums would be required to open its restrooms to either sex.

The usual inane lies about the transgender community (i.e. transgender predator nonsense)  and gaslighting that people would be "forced" to do their jobs is bad enough, but the following reason really caught my attention:

Amusement parks, recreation centers, skating rinks, and daycare centers, etc. will be forced to employ people whose values on sexuality deviates from those of the employer.

Bear in mind that the AFA tries to couch this objection with the notion that the employer may not want to hire members of the LGBTQ community "because of his/her values" but the question has to be why did AFA spotlight these particular professions.

Most likely it's because these are places where children congregate.

So basically the AFA is saying that if the employers of places where children congregate have a problem with hiring members of the LGBTQ community, the problem lies with a law which wouldn't allow them to discriminate instead of them  having such irrational prejudices (which they can hide behind religious beliefs) about members of the LGBTQ community being around children.

It's no doubt intended to be a sly way to hide the "gays are a danger to children" lie behind the veneer of "religious liberty." If you ask me though, it comes across as rather sloppy.

But that picture of Nancy Pelosi is rather cute.

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'State Dept goes to court to take away birthright citizenship of gay couple's son' & other Wed midday news briefs

US State Dept. Goes to Court Again to Try to Tear Apart This Married Same-Sex Couple’s Twins - Disgusting. There is no need for the State Dept. to do this. 

Equality Bill vote expected next week in House, but what will happen when it hits the Senate? - We don't know. 

There are four things business leaders can do immediately to fight anti-LGBTQ laws - Amen! Write this down.

Trans people could lose access to health care if this large hospital joins a Catholic network - Ugh!!

Hate group leader Tony Perkins falsely blames gay soldiers for military sexual assaults

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council blames gays for military sexual assaults without having any proof.

Hate group leader Tony Perkins (of the Family Research Council) claims to know who's to blame for a rise in sexual assaults in the military - gay soldiers.

From Pink News:

Perkins, who Trump appointed to sit on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, hit out at gay soldiers after a report found that reports of sexual assault in the military have risen by 38 percent since 2016. 

The data from the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office found that female troops ages 17 to 24 were at the highest risk of being assaulted. 

Female troops are six times more likely than men to be assaulted, and 96 percent of female respondents identified the alleged offenders as male. 

However, Perkins claims that the problems are the fault of President Barack Obama, for permitting gay troops into the armed forces after the 2012 repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2012.

Interestingly enough, Perkins doesn't provide proof of his charges. He said the following:

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said Thursday that these are "persistent challenges" for the Pentagon. "To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable." As much as military leaders are trying to crack down on the problem, the reality is, there's only so much they can do. Unfortunately, most of these men and women aren't just victims of assault -- but of the sexually-charged environment that's been forced on them. Jackie Speier can complain all she wants, but in the end, she's blaming the military for a problem her party helped create. She voted to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" too, so it's a little late to be grumbling about the consequences. 

Back then, Democrats like her shrugged off the possibility that repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would have any impact on the ranks and are even now trying to resurrect Obama's Operation Transgender, which President Trump has moved to overturn. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when Congress introduced even more sexual tension into the troops, it put thousands of men and women in defenseless and compromising positions. To the relief of most Americans, President Trump has done everything he can to roll back the social engineering of the Obama years. We continue to be grateful that he had the backbone to roll back the gender confusion the last administration tried to inject into the military in 2016. But on some issues -- like this one -- it's tough to put the genie back in the bottle. 

The Left spent Barack Obama's entire presidency sexualizing the military, beginning with the repeal of DADT -- and continuing with the push for open transgenderism. Almost a decade later, I guess "we told you so" isn't a message his party wants to hear.

You will notice that for all of the gloating Perkins did, the one thing he did NOT do was to provide proof of his charges. The data he referenced didn't blame gay or transgender soldiers. I don't think Perkins cared though. Automatically blaming the LGBTQ community for sexual assaults in the military is an old distortion by  Perkins and FRC. The group made the accusation in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. And every time, these accusations were made without the courtesy of having any proof.

None of this makes any sense whatsoever, but since when did Perkins or FRC yield to sense and miss a chance to point a finger of blame at the LGBTQ community?

'TX businesses oppose 'license to discriminate' legislation' & other Tue midday news briefs

 TX businesses don't want this discriminatory mess.

Business Leaders Oppose 'License To Discriminate' Against LGBT Texans - Dang right!

Here’s Your Guide to Mike Pence’s Anti-LGBTQ Record - A little reminder never hurts.

Ellen’s interview with the Mormon valedictorian who came out at graduation left viewers in tears - This is wonderful. 

All The 2019 Met Gala Red Carpet Photos You Need To See - Frivolous, yes. But we all need a little frivolity now and then.