2015-09-09T13:40:03-08:00

Last updated on: September 9, 2015 at 1:40 pm   By

In a blistering assault, The Nightly Show’s Larry Wilmore challenges the anti-gay bigotry of Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and her supporters.

Alluding to the Ku Klux Klan, Wilmore told his audience:

I don’t know about you guys, but when I see a group of people from the South with white crosses cheering to not allow people their constitutional rights, it kind of just gives me a tingly, lynch-y feeling.

Wilmore rejected the claim being made by some that Davis is like Martin Luther King:

So, let me see if I’ve got this right: a lady forcing her religious beliefs onto an entire community refusing to do her job reminds you of King’s 7,000-word meditation on non-violence and racism in the church. Oh God, I haven’t seen someone miss the point so dramatically since they made Robert De Niro the intern in ‘The Intern.’ It doesn’t make sense.

And just to clarify for the Kim Davis supporters who think this lady is a Dr. King: in his ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail,’ King actually condemned the contemporary churches – quote, ‘weak, ineffectual voice,’ and said, ‘Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent – and often, even vocal – sanction of things as they are.’ Martin Luther King was actually in opposition to the church’s unwillingness to support the oppressed. Kim Davis, on the other hand, is using her church to oppress people even more.

Wilmore continued:

Going to jail – going to jail for what you believe in does not necessarily put you on par with Martin Luther King. Jeffrey Dahmer was in jail because he believes in eating people. That doesn’t make him a freedom fighter. (audience laughs and applauds) And frankly, if you’re going to compare Kim Davis to someone from the 1960s civil rights movement, it should be this guy – that’s right; that’s right – Alabama governor and dippity-do poster boy, George Wallace, who famously stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in defiance of the Supreme Court order to desegregate.

Watch the clip below:

(Image via Screen Grab)
(Image via Screen Grab)

 

2015-09-09T10:34:29-08:00

Last updated on: September 9, 2015 at 10:34 am   By

In a brilliant and succinct analysis, George Takei schools Kim Davis supporters on the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law in American society.

Responding to an orgy of anti-gay bigotry as conservative Christians gathered to celebrate and deify their new martyr, Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, after her release from jail, Takei posted the following on his Facebook page:

Well this is a bit of a circus. So let us be clear: This woman is no hero to be celebrated. She broke her oath to uphold…

Posted by George Takei on Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Well this is a bit of a circus. So let us be clear: This woman is no hero to be celebrated. She broke her oath to uphold the Constitution and defied a court order so she could deny government services to couples who are legally entitled to be married. She is entitled to hold her religious beliefs, but not to impose those beliefs on others. If she had denied marriage certificates to an interracial couple, would people cheer her? Would presidential candidates flock to her side? In our society, we obey civil laws, not religious ones. To suggest otherwise is, simply put, entirely un-American.

In his post Takei offers a clear and concise statement of American values, and in so doing reveals the intellectual and moral poverty of those religious extremists trying to justify the illegal and immoral conduct of a deviant county clerk named Kim Davis.

In response to Takei’s post, a Kim Davis supporter named Shawn replied with the following:

George, learn the first amendment.

Takei responded to Shawn with yet another brilliant civics lesson:

The First Amendment has two clauses that are relevant here. One is the Establishment Clause, and the other is the Prohibition Clause. Congress may not prohibit free worship, and that is what so many claim, wrongly, is being violated. But it is also not empowered to establish any religion, nor to enact any laws favoring one religion over the other. Permitting a state employee to foist her religion upon others, denying them a fundamental right as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell, would be to give government, through this agent, the power to impose religious doctrine and viewpoint. That it cannot do. Ms. Davis is in effect establishing religion by using her governmental powers to impose her religious views. I know the First Amendment, Shawn. Do you?

The celebration and deification of Kim Davis is an ugly reminder of the bigotry that permeates the conservative Christian community in the United States. However, the remarks of Takei, and other good and decent Americans like Takei, give hope that such ignorance and bigotry may one day be defeated, or at least kept in check, and relegated to the darkness of other religious superstitions long since abandoned by intelligent and reasonable people.

(image via Twitter)

(image via Facebook)

2015-09-08T16:44:20-08:00

Last updated on: September 8, 2015 at 4:44 pm   By

Mat Staver, the attorney who is representing anti-gay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, claims a same-sex marriage licenses is like a license to “sodomize children.”

Staver displayed his obnoxious anti-gay Christian bigotry while appearing on the “WallBuilders Live” radio program, where he said that requiring Davis to issue same-sex marriage licenses is like requiring her to provide licenses to “sodomize children.”

The following is an excerpt from Staver’s remarks, via Right Wing Watch:

A clerk provides licenses to do something. A license to operate a motor vehicle on the road, a license to build a particular facility or a license to do this or a license to do that or a license to operate a business. So that person is licensing someone to do something and in this case, they’re licensing what? They’re licensing something that is directly contrary to the core of their religious convictions, to engage in sinful activity among same-sex relations and sanction something that is contrary to the Scriptures and that is marriage of two people of the same sex.

To force someone like that to give a license for something that will legalize, that will put a stamp of approval on something that is absolute rebellion against God, sinful, then that is a direct collision of unprecedented magnitude.

Staver continued, saying that requiring Davis to do her job is like requiring her “to grant a license to engage in pornography, to grant a license to sodomize children or something of that nature.”

The moral depravity required to equate same-sex marriage with sodomizing children in unfathomable. Staver is a monster, and the Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which has been correctly identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

(H/T Right Wing Watch)

From left to right: Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis, Mat Staver (Image via Reddit)
From left to right: Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis, Mat Staver (Image via Reddit)
2015-09-08T14:53:01-08:00

Last updated on: September 8, 2015 at 2:53 pm   By

In an orgy of anti-gay bigotry, Christians gather to celebrate and deify their new martyr – Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis.

At a rally in support of Davis this afternoon, GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee went so far as to deify the would-be saint, declaring:

God showed up in the form of an elected official: Kim Davis.

Huckabee went on to say:

Today I was proud to stand with Kim Davis as she was released from jail. Kim Davis should have never been locked up for being a Christian and for following her conscience and the law.

An emotional Davis, who had just been released from jail after previously being found in contempt of court for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, told the cheering crowd:

I just want to give God the glory. We serve a living God who knows exactly where each and everyone stands. Keep pressing, don’t let down because he is here. He is worthy.

Davis was released from jail shortly before the 3 p.m. event at the Carter County Detention Center began.

The Advocate reports on the obnoxious celebration of anti-gay bigotry:

Speaking along with Huckabee at what was essentially an antigay rally broadcast on live TV were Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Davis’s attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, right-wing activist brothers Jason and David Benham, former Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin, National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown, and another of the resistant clerks, Casey Davis. The rally was capped by an appearance by Kim Davis, who emerged as loudspeakers blared “Eye of the Tiger.”

The despicable spectacle is a reminder of the ugly bigotry that permeates the conservative Christian community in the United States. And while not all Christians are as backward and morally repugnant as Davis and her supporters, the fact is that too many American Christians support and celebrate the narrow-minded and mean-spirited prejudice of Davis and those like her.

Sometimes, it is embarrassing to be an American.

https://youtu.be/_OmYAKytFQg
(Image via Screen Grab)
(Image via Screen Grab)
2015-09-08T09:27:42-08:00

Last updated on: September 8, 2015 at 9:27 am   By

Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk who was jailed after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, has been released from jail.

U..S. District Judge David Bunning, who jailed Davis for contempt of court on Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, ordered Davis be freed on the condition that she not interfere with her deputies, who have been granting marriage licenses to gay and straight couples since Friday.

Although Davis has been instructed she may not interfere with deputy clerks issuing marriage license, it will be interesting to see if Davis complies with the instructions.

First impression: this is good news. In jail, Davis was perceived as a martyr by conservative Christians desperate to paint themselves as victims of religious persecution. Out of jail and in the light of day, Davis is just another anti-gay bigot hiding her prejudice behind her religious superstitions.

This is a developing story. Expect updates.

Read Judge Bunning’s order:

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis ordered released from jail

Kim Davis (Image via Carter County Jail)
Kim Davis (Image via Carter County Jail)
2015-09-04T11:07:05-08:00

Last updated on: September 4, 2015 at 11:07 am   By

A bigot and a tyrant: Anti-gay Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis terrorized her staff and made life miserable for her employees.

Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, terrorized her staff, who wanted to follow the law and issue same-sex marriage licenses, but were too afraid of Davis to do so.

Yesterday  a judge found Davis in contempt of court and had her placed in jail. Today, with their boss safely in jail and powerless, the county’s deputy clerks began issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

In an interview with the Kentucky Trial Court Review, Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins explains that the deputy clerks in Kim Davis’ office wanted to obey the law and issue same-sex marriage licenses, but they were too afraid of their boss to come forward and say so.

The following is an excerpt from a report on the interview with Watkins posted to the Kentucky Trial Court Review Facebook page:

Watkins indicates that Kim Davis “does not represent” Rowan County and is not representative of its inclusive values. From day one, Watkins told Davis “I will not and cannot support you” in her defiance of the law. Not only that he was clear he would not represent her as the law in the case of same sex marriage is clear. While he has no stance on same sex marriage, well-established federal law must be followed. Watkins wanted to emphasize several other things. First that everyone who works at the courthouse has endured cursing as they enter the building. And it’s not just at her office. Everyone in the courthouse is scared to come to work. Second that Liberty Counsel will leave Kim Davis high and dry when this charade is over. Watkins thinks the funds they raise off the case should go to Rowan County. Finally and most importantly he has learned that deputy clerks would issue lawful marriage licenses. They are simply afraid to do so. And if Judge Bunning instructs them to do so . . . they will. Davis has put, in the words of Watkins, her employees and everyone in the courthouse in a “terrible position.”

It is good to know that Davis does not represent Rowan County, and that the vast majority of the Rowan County staff rejected Davis’ religious bigotry as a justification for persecuting same-sex couples. There is no excuse for refusing to follow the law and issue marriage licenses.

Also, the point that Davis is being exploited and victimized by anti-gay conservative Christian interest groups is one that needs to be made. Davis may be an ignorant bigot, but the Liberty Counsel, Republican politicians, and other anti-gay interests are exploiting and manipulating Davis for their own ends.

Perhaps most telling is the concluding note left by Shannon Ragland of the Kentucky Trial Court Review:

Ed. Note – The takeaways from the Watkins interview are clear. Davis is acting alone in her zealous mission. Her conduct has terrorized not just her staff but everyone that works in the courthouse. And all for a foolish mission aided by out of state charlatan lawyers trying to raise money for their “religious liberty” mission.

Shannon Ragland

Kentucky Trial Court Review

All in all, the interview with Rowan County Attorney Watkins paints a grim picture of life under Kim Davis, a self-righteous religious bigot who terrorized those around her.

(H/T ThinkProgress, Joe My God)

Kim Davis (Image via Carter County Jail)
Kim Davis (Image via Carter County Jail)

 

2015-09-03T09:51:16-08:00

Last updated on: September 3, 2015 at 9:51 am   By

Today a judge found anti-gay Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in contempt of court and had her placed in jail.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning told Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis she would be jailed until she complied with his order to issue the licenses. Davis said “thank you” before she was led out of the courtroom by a U.S. marshal.

Judge Bunning said he could not fine Davis because someone would pay the fine, according to WKYT TV. He said he would send her to jail until she agreed to begin issuing marriage licenses.

Judge Bunning said:

The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order. If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.

Earlier, in an exclusive interview to Fox News, Davis said:

I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to go to jail, I sure am. This has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. This is about upholding the word of God.

This is a heaven or hell issue for me and for every other Christian that believes. This is a fight worth fighting.

Davis made national headlines for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to any couples since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June. Davis, an Apostolic Christian, claims issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples would violate her deeply held religious beliefs.

Despite a previous Supreme Court ruling compelling Davis to give out marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she refused to comply with the order. As a result she was compelled to appear in court today to face contempt charges.

Davis and her deputy clerks were summoned to appear before U.S. District Judge David Bunning after citing her religious beliefs and “God’s authority” to deny the issuance of the licenses.

Bottom line: Davis is a hypocrite and a bigot. She belongs in jail for refusing to honor her obligation as an elected official. If her religious superstition and bigotry prevents her from doing her job she needs to resign.

 

(Image via Screen Grab)
(Image via Screen Grab)

 

 

2020-12-17T11:59:50-08:00

Last updated on: December 17, 2020 at 11:59 am   By

Domestic terrorists: According to their leader Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers, an American far-right anti-government militia organization, will lead a “bloody civil war and revolution” if Trump leaves office and Joe Biden is sworn in as president.

Right Wing Watch reports:

Stewart Rhodes, pro-Trump leader of the anti-government extremist group Oath Keepers, posted an open letter to President Donald Trump Monday urging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act against “domestic traitors,” order “trusted military units” to “seize all databases of the CIA, FBI, NSA, DNI, etc and the records held by all state electoral systems and administrators,” and declassify evidence of treason by “corrupt and compromised elites” who he claimed had worked with the Chinese government to subvert the election.

In his open letter Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes writes:

Through well-orchestrated mass vote fraud, the Communist Chinese and their domestic enemy allies are about to install their illegitimate puppet, Joe Biden, and his equally illegitimate puppet running mate, Kamala Harris, into the White House, with their treasonous fingers on the nuclear launch codes.

You must act NOW as a wartime President, pursuant to your oath to defend the Constitution, which is very similar to the oath all of us veterans swore.

We are already in a fight. It’s better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets.

Please don’t do it. Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021. Strike now.

If you fail to act while you are still in office, we the people will have to fight a bloody civil war and revolution against these two illegitimate Communist China puppets, and their illegitimate regime, with all of the powers of the deep state behind them, with nominal command of all the might of our armed forces (though we fully expect many units or entire branches to refuse their orders and to fight against them) and with their foreign allies also joining in to assist in the suppression of American patriots.

The Oath Keepers are a heavily armed, self-described “Christian militia.” The anti-government militia has previously been involved in tense, armed standoffs with federal agencies, and  even went to Kentucky to prevent the arrest of Christian martyr Kim Davis after she defied the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.

Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the Christian militia is “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today,” noting:

The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today. While it claims only to be defending the Constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans.

Make no mistake: The Oath Keepers are domestic terrorists, and should be treated as such. 

Bottom line: According to their leader Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers, an American far-right anti-government militia organization, will lead a “bloody civil war and revolution” if Trump leaves office and Joe Biden is sworn in as president.

Report: Oath Keepers Plan ‘Bloody Civil War’ If Trump Leaves Office (Image via YouTube)
Report: Oath Keepers Plan ‘Bloody Civil War’ If Trump Leaves Office (Image via YouTube)
2020-10-05T12:54:26-08:00

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 12:54 pm   By

Theocracy alert: Earlier today Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Alito signaled that they will overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 decision that guarantees the right to same-sex marriage nationwide.

Advocate reports:

Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have opened the court’s term by calling for the overturning of its 2015 marriage equality decision.

The Obergefell v. Hodges decision threatens religious liberty, Alito wrote in a statement in which Thomas concurred. 

CNN reports:

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, lashed out on Monday at the religious liberty implications of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide.

Obergefell v. Hodges is the “landmark civil rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

On Monday Thomas wrote:

[Obergefell v. Hodges] enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss.

…

By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix. Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.’

For the record, same-sex marriage does not have “ruinous consequences for religious liberty.” On the contrary, same-sex marriage has no effect on religious liberty.

In the same decision Alito wrote:

Due to Obergefell, those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in society without running afoul of Obergefell and its effect on other antidiscrimination laws.

…

In Obergefell v. Hodges … the Court read a right to same-sex marriage into the Fourteenth Amendment, even though that right is found nowhere in the text. Several Members of the Court noted that the Court’s decision would threaten the religious liberty of the many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman. If the States had been allowed to resolve this question through legislation, they could have included accommodations for those who hold these religious beliefs. … The Court, however, bypassed that democratic process. Worse still, though it briefly acknowledged that those with sincerely held religious objections to same-sex marriage are often ‘decent and honorable,’ … the Court went on to suggest that those beliefs espoused a bigoted worldview.

Pro Tip: If your religious superstition demands that you try to deny same-sex couples the right to marriage, you are, in fact, a bigot. Full stop.

The following is a sample of reactions via Twitter:

Bottom line: Earlier today Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Alito signaled that they will overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 decision that guarantees the right to same-sex marriage nationwide.

Report: Justices Thomas And Alito Plan To Overturn Same-Sex Marriage (Image via SCOTUS)
Report: Justices Thomas And Alito Plan To Overturn Same-Sex Marriage (Image via SCOTUS)
2019-10-10T11:42:53-08:00

Last updated on: October 10, 2019 at 11:42 am   By

Domestic terrorists for Jesus: The Oath Keepers, a dangerous, anti-government, Christian militia, will be providing security at a Trump rally in Minneapolis on Thursday. 

Newsweek reports:

Republicans at President Donald Trump’s rally in Minneapolis on Thursday will reportedly be escorted by a typically heavily armed group that has been called “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today.” 

According to the Newsweek report, the Oath Keepers posted an alert on their site on Saturday stating volunteers were needed to “protect Trump supporters” at Trump’s rally. 

The alert states:

The violent communists of Antifa have issued a national call to action for Antifa and other radical, America hating leftists to converge on the upcoming Trump rally in Minneapolis on Oct 10 to ‘disrupt’ the Trump rally with an Antifa black block ‘America is Canceled’ protest against capitalism. We also expect trouble from the same radical leftists in Minneapolis that assaulted Trump supporters in 2016.

Note: Antifa is short for anti-fascist, and the only people who should be worried about Antifa are the people sympathetic to fascists, i.e. people like the Oath Keepers.

The Oath Keepers are a heavily armed and self-described “Christian militia.” The anti-government militia has previously been involved in tense, armed standoffs with federal agencies, and  even went to Kentucky to prevent the arrest of Christian martyr Kim Davis after she defied the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.

Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the Christian militia is “one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today,” noting:

The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today. While it claims only to be defending the Constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans.

Earlier this month,  responding to a tweet from President Trump threatening civil war, the Christian militia eagerly tweeted their support for a “HOT civil war”:

We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859. That’s where we are. And the Right has ZERO trust or respect for anything the left is doing. We see THEM as illegitimate too.

Bottom line: The Oath Keepers, a dangerous, anti-government, Christian militia, is longing for civil war, and will be providing security at a Trump rally in Minneapolis on Thursday.

Dangerous Christian Militia Providing Security For Trump’s Minneapolis Rally (Image via YouTube)
Dangerous Christian Militia Providing Security For Trump’s Minneapolis Rally (Image via YouTube)

 

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