Category: News & Comment

Defend Equality: Gays Are Arming Themselves

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Defend Equality
Members of Rainbow Reload, an LGBTQ gun group, see firearms as a way to protect themselves from growing threats. (Todd Bookman/NHPR)

NPR: “Amid the hikers and snowmobilers in the park today, these are members of a group called Rainbow Reload, an LGBTQ gun club that offers experts and the gun-curious a chance to practice firearms skills in a supportive environment.

“Similar groups exist across the country, often under the name ‘Pink Pistols.’ Rainbow Reload members stress that their mission goes beyond mere hobby: The goal is to prepare and protect themselves from a rising chorus of threats against LGBTQ+ people, including those stemming from hate groups.

“’If the world is dangerous, then you have to be dangerous back,’ says [Fin Smith, Rainbow Reload organizer], who, like everyone interviewed, requested some level of anonymity citing concerns about their safety. ‘And that very much has pushed me to where I am now.’”

Pew Research Reports on Demographics of the 118th U.S. Congress

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Pew Research Center accesses the demographic makeup of the newly elected Congress every two years. They consider lawmakers’ race and ethnicity, gender, age, educational background and religion. Pew also assesses how the demographic profile of Congress has changed over time and how it compares with the nation. Here’s some of what they found:

The 118th Congress achieved several demographic milestones when it was sworn in this past January. It is the most racially and ethnically diverse Congress to date, has more women lawmakers than any Congress before it, and reached a new high for lawmakers who are gay, lesbian or bisexual. Religiously, the 118th Congress remains overwhelmingly Christian, with 469 lawmakers identifying this way, but this is the lowest total since at least 2009.

These demographic changes in Congress reflect shifts that are happening in the broader nation. But as you might expect, Congress still looks quite different from the country it was elected to represent. Women account for 28% of all members of Congress, for example, but around half of the overall population. And only one member of Congress – independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – identifies as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 29% of U.S. adults who identify that way.

Pew Research Center studies the demographic composition of Congress for several reasons. One is that this research fits in with our long-term focus on demographic change in the United States. Another is that demographic shifts in Congress can have important consequences for politics and policy. New lawmakers often bring new perspectives, and their voices can be influential as Congress tackles the public’s long to-do list for the coming year and beyond.

Brookings: Young Voters Poised to Energize the Democratic Party for Years to Come

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The Democratic Advantage Among Young Voters Is True Among Key Racial and Ethnic Groups
The Democratic Advantage Among Young Voters Is True Among Key Racial and Ethnic Groups

Bookings: “Political scientists and forward-looking politicians have been debating the ultimate impact of the two youngest American generations — Plurals (Gen Z) and Millennials — on the nation’s partisan future for some time. With these two generations scheduled to become a majority of the American electorate later this decade, election results and a spate of recent data from Pew research are providing an increasingly persuasive answer. Younger voters should be a source of electoral strength for Democrats for some years to come.”

Move over George Santos. Meet Rep. Andy Ogle (R-TN), Another Freshman Liar in the GOP House

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Lying GOP Reps. Andy Ogle (R-TN) and George Santos (R-NY)
Lying GOP Reps. Andy Ogle (R-TN) and George Santos (R-NY)

News Channel 5 Nashville: “If you believe Middle Tennessee’s newest congressman, he’s not only a businessman, he’s also an economist, a nationally recognized expert in tax policy and health care, a trained police officer, even an expert in international sex crimes.

“But an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that Andy Ogles’ personal life story is filled with exaggerations, a story that’s often too good to be true.”

Read the full report.

Dominion Voting Systems Legal Filings Show Fox TV Hosts Knew They Were Lying to Viewers

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Liars: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham
Liars: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham

Heather Cox Richardson: “A legal filing today in the case of Dominion Voting Systems against the Fox News Corporation provides a window into the role of disinformation and money in the movement to deny that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

“Dominion Voting Systems is suing FNC for defamation after FNC personalities repeatedly claimed that the company’s voting machines had corrupted the final tallies in the 2020 election. The filing today shows that those same personalities didn’t believe what they were telling their viewers, and suggests that they made those groundless accusations because they worried their viewers were abandoning them to go to channels that told them what they wanted to hear: that Trump had won the election….

“The filing says that not a single witness from FNC testified they believed any of the allegations they were making about Dominion”

Poll: Trump Leads DeSantis Nationally

Buck Banks


According to Political Wire, a Quinnipiac poll finds that when GOP voters are given a list of 14 names of Republicans who either have said they are running for president in 2024 or are seen as potential candidates in a Republican primary, Donald Trump receives 42% of the vote followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who receives 36%.

Nikki Haley receives 5%, Mike Pence receives 4% and Mike Pompeo receives 4%. No other candidate garners more than 2% of the vote.

When the potential field is narrowed to only four candidates, however, voters are split between Trump at 43% and DeSantis at 41% — a virtual dead heat. Haley receives 6% and Pence receives 4% in this hypothetical 4-way Republican primary.

College Board Slams DeSantis, Department of Education for Lying About AP African-American Studies Course

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Vice: “The organization that sets Advanced Placement curricula came out swinging at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying in a statement published Saturday that the state’s Department of Education ‘slandered’ its AP African-American Studies course, and accusing the DeSantis administration of lying about its communications with the College Board.

“The College Board also disputed that it had diluted the course and made contemporary topics like Black Lives Matter and reparations optional only after the Florida governor said the class would be banned from being taught in Florida schools….

“’We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value,’ said the statement, which is only attributed to the College Board. ‘Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field…

[…]

Investigators Have Trump Laptop Containing Classified Documents

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CNN: “Former President Donald Trump’s legal team turned over more materials with classified markings and a laptop belonging to an aide to federal prosecutors in recent months, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN…

“The Trump attorneys discovered pages with classified markings in December, while searching through boxes at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The lawyers subsequently handed the materials over to the Justice Department.

“A Trump aide had previously copied those same pages onto a thumb drive and laptop, not realizing they were classified, sources said. The laptop, which belonged to an aide, who works for Save America PAC, and the thumb drive were also given to investigators in January.”

Jerusalem Post: GOP Florida Freshman Rep Lied about Being Jewish, Had Nazi Grandfather

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Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna

Jerusalem Post: “Florida Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna was outed by The Washington Post on Friday for lying about her Jewish heritage in a previous interview with the Jewish Insider in November 2022.

“Not only is Luna almost certainly not Jewish, but also according to several family members, reports the Washington Post, Luna’s paternal grandfather Heinrich Mayerhofer, who died in 2003, served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany when he was a teenager in the 1940s.

“‘I was raised as a Messianic Jew by my father,’ Luna had told the Jewish Insider, clarifying that she identifies as a Christian. ‘I am also a small fraction Ashkenazi.'”