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  • Originally posted by CNN

    Small City of Murdock Minnesota approves conditional permit to allow use of church building by a Whites-only group

    by Kay Jones and Leah Asmelash
    10 December 2020

    (Benson, MN) - The city council of a small city in Minnesota has allowed a Whites-only religious organization to use a vacant church purchased by that organization.

    Murdock, a town of fewer than 300 people, passed a conditional permit Wednesday to allow use of a church building bought by the Asatru Folk Assembly.

    The Asatru Folk Assembly describes Asatru as "the religion by which the Ethnic European Folk have traditionally related to the Divine and to the world around them." The website says that it is part of the "great Aryan religiosity."


    The Anti-Defamation League describes them as an "extremist group."

    City leaders said the passage of the permit was due to First Amendment rights.

    "We as the leaders of the City of Murdock want it to be known that the City of Murdock condemns racism in all of its forms: Conscious, Unconscious, any place, any time, now and in the future," Mayor Craig Kavanagh said during Wednesday's meeting. "We are committed to building a community that promotes equal justice and opportunity to every single person regardless of their race."

    "The Conditional Use Permit for the AFA is very controversial if you want to make it about religious beliefs, but what is failing to get mentioned is this vote was not about beliefs," Kavanagh said in a statement sent to CNN.

    "This vote was about a zoning permit to let an old abandoned church be used for exactly what it was built for "a church." Now I understand the beliefs of who will be using the church are much different from one another, but that is every person's 1st amendment right according to the Constitution."

    The local chapter of the AFA thanked the city for its vote, in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

    "To the City Council of Murdock, thank you. We know there was a lot of pressure on you to deny us our permit and right to worship," the post said. "We appreciate your fairness and this opportunity."

    Kavanagh's statement said the topic was a main topic of discussion at council meetings as well as in the community over the past few months. A public meeting was held in October and while the vote was originally scheduled in November, it was postponed so the mayor could bring in the city attorney and explain the legal ramifications, it said.

    "I can assure you that nobody thought we would have to deal with a topic like this in our little town, but nothing is predictable in the year 2020, it seems," he said.

    The AFA includes in its statement of ethics the following:

    "We in Asatru support strong, healthy white family relationships. We want our children to grow up to be mothers and fathers to white children of their own. We believe that those activities and behaviors supportive of the white family should be encouraged while those activities and behaviors destructive of the white family are to be discouraged."

    Kavanagh's statement went on to say that the city was advised to pass the permit, saying the circumstances could be a "substantial burden."

    "This town is still the same town it was before this CUP approval took place," Kavanagh said. "The vote last night had nothing to do with beliefs or race, it was strictly a zoning issue the council felt like it needed to legally abide by or it would have caused a substantial burden to the town. We as a council still want what is best for the City of Murdock and will always do so."

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    Last edited by JRT; 13 Dec 20,, 00:11.
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    • Originally posted by JRT View Post


      Small City of Murdock Minnesota approves conditional permit to allow use of church building by a Whites-only group

      Trump's legacy will be the gift that keeps on giving. Not unlike herpes.
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • Can we start a list of all the people who said COVID-19 was a hoax, or it would vanish in a miracle, or it wasn't any more serious than a normal flu, or that George and Bill are going to microchip folks?

        Since there isn't going to be enough vaccine to go around for many months to come, I'm thinking these people will volunteer to go to the back of the line, so that those who accept science can let the rest of us get on with living in the real world.

        Just a thought.
        Trust me?
        I'm an economist!

        Comment


        • Trump wants Congress to approve stimulus checks for 'more money than they're talking about'

          President Donald Trump is spending his final weeks in office urging Congress to include another round of coronavirus stimulus checks in the next relief package.

          Speaking to Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, Trump said he wants stimulus checks to be approved for "more money" than the options currently on the table.

          "I'm pushing it very hard, and to be honest with you, if the Democrats really wanted to do the deal, they'd do the deal," Trump said in the interview, which aired Sunday morning.

          "Right now, I want to see checks - for more money than they're talking about - going to people," he added.


          After months of stalemate and inconclusive discussions, Congress has once again resumed relief talks, this time turning to a $908 billion bipartisan package that does not include any money for stimulus checks.

          In October, the Democratic-led House passed a $2.2 trillion package. But Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struck it down and proposed a $500 billion bill as an alternative option. Then discussions reached another stalemate, as Democrats disagreed with the severe downsize in the amount of money allocated and Republicans refused to budge higher.

          The last time Congress passed a stimulus was in May, which gave millions of Americans $1,200 each to offset the financial difficulties brought on by the pandemic. Since then, various signs, such as a dip in grocery spending, have suggested that Americans are hurting for cash.

          With President-elect Joe Biden scheduled to take office on January 20, it's unclear whether Congress will even negotiate the $908 billion measure in time for the bill to make it to Trump.

          The proposal was intended to be a compromise between the two parties. But Republican lawmakers, including McConnell, are signaling that they are opposed to the package.

          The Republican Senate leader said Trump would not want to sign off on the current package as it stands.

          "At the risk of repeating something we all know, making law will require not just the Senate's approval, but also the signature of the President of the United States," McConnell said in a statement earlier this month.

          He said his own plan - which is a slimmed-down version of the $908 billion proposal - would go through.

          As Business Insider's Mia Jankowicz reported, neither the $908 billion package nor McConnell's proposal includes additional money for another round of stimulus checks.

          The White House has been pushing for a second round of checks for weeks.

          Two senators are echoing the president's pleas to Congress. Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley have teamed up to urge Congress to allocate enough money in the next stimulus bill to cut every American who earns up to $75,000 a $1,200 check.
          _____________

          Maybe...and this is just a thought, but stay with me here...Trump could send out invites or something, to the senior Congressional leadership, both Houses, both Parties, and get them in the same room...I dunno if he has anything available, maybe a white house or something...no, scratch that, it'll just become a super spreader event for that hoax that's somehow managed to kill 300,000 Americans...damn, if only we had the technology to meet "virtually" or something. Then maybe Trump could do an agreement or covenant or...deal. Or something. You know what we need! A businessman! Someone who does this thing all the time!

          Eh, what do I know.
          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • Kelly Loeffler just posed for a photo with Chester Doles, a former KKK leader who runs the white supremacist American Patriots USA.

            In 1993, Doles nearly beat a Black man to death.

            In 2017, he marched in Charlottesville. (One of Trump's "very fine people")

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            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

            Comment


            • Alex Jones Vows Biden 'Will Be Removed One Way Or Another' At Pro-Trump Rally

              Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones denounced President-elect Joe Biden’s White House victory before a crowd of Donald Trump supporters on Saturday, declaring that “we will never recognize” Biden and that he “will be removed one way or another.”

              “We will never back down to the satanic pedophile globalist new world order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden. And we will never recognize him,” the far-right radio host shouted from a stage at the second so-called Million MAGA March in Washington. He added: “So I don’t know who’s going to the White House in 38 days, but I sure know this: Joe Biden is a globalist, and Joe Biden will be removed one way or another.”

              Jones’ comments appeared to echo the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, which alleges without evidence that Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Trump. His use of the word “globalist” also raised concerns about anti-Semitism, as the term has been increasingly used in xenophobic and anti-Semitic contexts.

              David Weissman, who is involved with the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project, was among those highlighting Jones’ choice of language and warning that his speech appeared to be a call for violence.

              “This antisemitic trope should also be considered a threat, and Alex Jones should be arrested for incitement,” Weissman tweeted, echoing similar tweets that tagged the FBI.


              Trump still refuses to concede the election, claiming without evidence that the election was stolen from him.

              “We’re going to continue to go forward,” he said of his unsuccessful attempts to reverse the election’s result in an interview with “Fox & Friends” that aired Sunday morning.

              Trump’s remarks followed the Friday action by the Supreme Court, which became the latest court to dismiss a lawsuit by his campaign alleging widespread voter fraud.
              ____________

              "Globalist"....where have we heard that one before....
              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

              Comment


              • Loeffler campaign condemns photo with white supremacist

                ATLANTA (AP) — The campaign of Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is condemning a photo circulating on social media of her posing with a longtime white supremacist at a recent campaign event, with less than a month to go until the runoff elections that will determine the balance of the U.S. Senate.

                Loeffler did not know who Chester Doles was when she took a picture with him, her campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday. The picture was taken Friday at a campaign event in Dawsonville, Georgia.

                “Kelly had no idea who that was, and if she had she would have kicked him out immediately because we condemn in the most vociferous terms everything that he stands for,” Lawson said.

                Doles is a longtime white supremacist who spent decades in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Doles was sentenced to prison for the 1993 beating of a Black man in Maryland and again on weapons violations in Georgia.

                Doles is also associated with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang, with whom he marched in the 2017 United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

                In response to a message from AP, Doles said Sunday he had “publicly renounced racism on several occasions in the past couple of years.” Doles added that he attended a “redemption service,” standing “in front of an all-Black congregation and told my story and renounced all racism and asked for God’s forgiveness.”

                Doles posted the picture of him and Loeffler to his account on VK, a Russian social networking site where he has posted pictures of himself posing with other Georgia politicians, including Republican Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, the paper reported.

                Doles has attempted to insinuate himself into Republican politics over the past year, claiming to have renounced his past while maintaining ties with longtime friends in the white supremacist movement.

                In 2019, Doles started a new organization called American Patriots USA, a group supportive of President Donald Trump but deeply tied to the far-right militia movement. Doles endorsed several longshot political candidates in the 2020 election, but also attempted to tie himself to Greene, who had Doles removed from an event in September in Ringgold.

                Both major parties and activist groups are plowing tens of millions of dollars into Georgia ahead of Jan. 5, when David Perdue and Loeffler bid to hold off Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, respectively.

                Republicans need one victory to maintain their Senate majority. Democrats need a Georgia sweep to force a 50-50 Senate and position Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote.

                A flurry of top-flight surrogates has underscored the stakes of the race. President Barack Obama headlined a recent virtual rally for Democrats. President-elect Joe Biden plans to visit Atlanta this week to campaign for Ossoff and Warnock. Vice President Mike Pence was in the state last week and plans to return Thursday.
                _____________

                Yeah, sure you didn't know who he was. Just like Trump "didn't know" who David Duke was
                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                Comment


                • Originally posted by AP_News

                  Trump raises China concerns as reason to veto defense bill

                  by Darlene Superville
                  12 December 2020

                  (Washington, D.C.) — President Donald Trump offered a new rationale Sunday for threatening to veto the annual defense policy bill that covers the military’s budget for equipment and pay raises for service members: China. He did not outline his concerns.

                  Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the wide-ranging defense policy bill, which the Senate sent to the president on Friday, would be tough on China and must become law as soon as possible.

                  Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a potential veto from the president, who has a history of failing to carry out actions he has threatened.

                  “The biggest winner of our new defense bill is China! I will veto!” Trump said in a new tweet.

                  The White House did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Trump’s specific concerns about China.

                  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the bill would help deter Chinese aggression. Other GOP backers of the measure, including Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Senate leader, and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, have tweeted that the bill would counter threats from countries such as China.

                  Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s declaration that China is the biggest winner in the defense bill is false. Reed also noted the shifting explanations Trump has given for the veto threats.

                  “President Trump clearly hasn’t read the bill, nor does he understand what’s in it,” Reed said. “There are several bipartisan provisions in here that get tougher on China than the Trump Administration has ever been.”

                  A potential override of a veto would be a first for Trump and would come not long before he leaves office Jan. 20. A two-thirds vote is needed in each chamber for the bill to become law without Trump’s signature.

                  The president has made numerous threats over Twitter to veto the bill over a requirement that military bases honoring Confederate leaders eventually be renamed. He also threatened a veto to try to force lawmakers to include provisions — unrelated to the military and national defense — to punish social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election.

                  Congress has approved the bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, for nearly 60 years in a row. The current version affirms 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes more than $740 billion in military programs and construction.

                  The measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy and other military goals. Many programs can only go into effect if the bill is approved, including military construction.

                  McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, had urged passage despite Trump’s threat to veto it. McConnell said it was important for Congress to continue its nearly six-decade long streak of passing the defense policy bill.

                  In addition to the budget and pay raises it would provide, McConnell said the bill will “keep our forces ready to deter China and stand strong in the Indo-Pacific.”

                  Gallagher tweeted last week that the United States was at the beginning of a “New Cold War” with China and that the defense bill “takes important steps to help us meet these challenges and ultimately win this competition.” Thune had said in a tweet that the measure would help the U.S. defend against threats from China and Russia. “It’s important for this bill to become law ASAP,” he said.

                  Trump tweeted last Tuesday that he will veto “the very weak” defense bill unless it repeals Section 230, part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability. The White House said in a policy statement that “Section 230 facilitates the spread of disinformation online and is a serious threat to our national security and election integrity. It should be repealed.″

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                  • Pentagon official who reportedly loves insane conspiracy theories appointed to West Point board of visitors
                    CNN has revealed that Macgregor has a history of disparaging immigrants and refugees.

                    President Donald Trump has named a senior Pentagon advisor who has reportedly spread xenophobic lies about immigrants and made other outlandish claims to serve on the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors.

                    On Dec. 8, the White House announced that Trump intends to appoint retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor to the board, which provides independent advice to the president on morale, curriculum, discipline, and other issues at West Point.

                    Macgregor, who is currently serving as a senior advisor to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, is one of the six people whom the president can select to serve on the board for a three-year term. The board typically meets three times per year.

                    “Each Board member is appointed to provide advice on the basis of his or her best judgment on behalf of the Government without representing any particular point of view and in a manner that is free from conflict of interest,” according to the board’s official charter. “Except for reimbursement of official Board-related travel and per diem, Board members serve without compensation.”

                    CNN has revealed that Macgregor has a history of disparaging immigrants and refugees – and he has repeatedly called for martial-law to be established on the U.S./Mexico border so that soldiers can shoot any undocumented immigrants that try to enter the country illegally.

                    Macgregor has also described residents of large U.S. cities as “entitled,” and he warned they may become violent if the government were to end food stamps and other assistance to the poor, according to CNN.

                    And in 2019, he said on the Conservative Commandos radio show that billionaire George Soros was paying for foreigners to come to the United States in order to destroy American culture, CNN reported.

                    “Pretty soon, there won’t be very many Americans left inside the United States if they can ship in enough of these foreigners. And of course, the big falsehood is ‘well, they’ll all become Americans,” CNN quoted Macgregor as saying on the radio show. “Just give them time.’ We don’t see much evidence for that right now. In fact, we see the opposite. We see hardcore points of foreign culture that is hostile to the United States, hostile to our values, hostile to our way of life forming across the country.”

                    A West Point spokesman deferred questions about Macgregor to the White House, which did not provide a comment for this story.

                    Retired Army Capt. Mary Tobin, who co-founded West Point’s Black alumni organization Do More Together, told CNN that members of the military academy’s board of visitors are typically selected because of their character, which can influence West Point’s policy on diversity and other issues.

                    “And so now the question stands, what does this mean for the board of visitors at large at West Point?” Tobin told CNN. “What does this mean for the Academy? You know, what is this communicating to the Muslim immigrants, African Americans, Hispanic cadets that are there now? What does this say to them [by appointing Macgregor]?”
                    ________________

                    Another Trump clone gets inserted into the woodwork.
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                      I don't give a shit about the fact that she's linked to Soros and you damn well know it. Post more bullshit conspiracy theorist dog whistles and you are GONE.
                      But of course Koch Brothers money is just fine....
                      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                      Mark Twain

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Bigfella View Post

                        Republicans don't seem to much like recycling when it is for the benefit of the environment, but have no issue recycling old fashioned anti-semitism when Jews dare to disagree with them.
                        Pete, I may have my issues with that asshat but I am not....yet....ready to place the entire GOP in that racist bucket. Quite enough of them but not the party as whole.
                        “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                        Mark Twain

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by JRT View Post


                          ...

                          Sadly, it is a 1st Amendment issue until such time as they violate the law.
                          “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                          Mark Twain

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                            Pentagon official who reportedly loves insane conspiracy theories appointed to West Point board of visitors
                            CNN has revealed that Macgregor has a history of disparaging immigrants and refugees.

                            President Donald Trump has named a senior Pentagon advisor who has reportedly spread xenophobic lies about immigrants and made other outlandish claims to serve on the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors.

                            On Dec. 8, the White House announced that Trump intends to appoint retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor to the board, which provides independent advice to the president on morale, curriculum, discipline, and other issues at West Point.

                            Macgregor, who is currently serving as a senior advisor to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, is one of the six people whom the president can select to serve on the board for a three-year term. The board typically meets three times per year.

                            “Each Board member is appointed to provide advice on the basis of his or her best judgment on behalf of the Government without representing any particular point of view and in a manner that is free from conflict of interest,” according to the board’s official charter. “Except for reimbursement of official Board-related travel and per diem, Board members serve without compensation.”

                            CNN has revealed that Macgregor has a history of disparaging immigrants and refugees – and he has repeatedly called for martial-law to be established on the U.S./Mexico border so that soldiers can shoot any undocumented immigrants that try to enter the country illegally.

                            Macgregor has also described residents of large U.S. cities as “entitled,” and he warned they may become violent if the government were to end food stamps and other assistance to the poor, according to CNN.

                            And in 2019, he said on the Conservative Commandos radio show that billionaire George Soros was paying for foreigners to come to the United States in order to destroy American culture, CNN reported.

                            “Pretty soon, there won’t be very many Americans left inside the United States if they can ship in enough of these foreigners. And of course, the big falsehood is ‘well, they’ll all become Americans,” CNN quoted Macgregor as saying on the radio show. “Just give them time.’ We don’t see much evidence for that right now. In fact, we see the opposite. We see hardcore points of foreign culture that is hostile to the United States, hostile to our values, hostile to our way of life forming across the country.”

                            A West Point spokesman deferred questions about Macgregor to the White House, which did not provide a comment for this story.

                            Retired Army Capt. Mary Tobin, who co-founded West Point’s Black alumni organization Do More Together, told CNN that members of the military academy’s board of visitors are typically selected because of their character, which can influence West Point’s policy on diversity and other issues.

                            “And so now the question stands, what does this mean for the board of visitors at large at West Point?” Tobin told CNN. “What does this mean for the Academy? You know, what is this communicating to the Muslim immigrants, African Americans, Hispanic cadets that are there now? What does this say to them [by appointing Macgregor]?”
                            ________________

                            Another Trump clone gets inserted into the woodwork.
                            Fucking Macgregor
                            “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                            Mark Twain

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post

                              Pete, I may have my issues with that asshat but I am not....yet....ready to place the entire GOP in that racist bucket. Quite enough of them but not the party as whole.
                              No worries Buck. Not intended to cover all of them, but far too many.
                              sigpic

                              Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by Bigfella View Post

                                No worries Buck. Not intended to cover all of them, but far too many.
                                Sadly, yes
                                “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                                Mark Twain

                                Comment

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