8 Fact-Checks On President Donald Trump Administration's This Week : NPR

The Trump administration continued to play loose with facts in week three....
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/11/514612245/8-fact-checks-on-the-trump-administration-this-week

Spicer claims he ‘clearly meant Orlando’ after citing mystery Atlanta terror attack three times (The Washington Post)

The incident drew comparisons to Kellyanne Conway's "Bowling Green massacre."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/09/spicer-claims-he-clearly-meant-orlando-after-citing-mystery-atlanta-terror-attack-three-times/?utm_term=.1c4bae7a8f02

The Orlando Shooter’s Mosque Is Helping The FBI, But Police Won’t Guard It From Racist Attacks

Ever since the tragic shooting of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida occurred earlier this month, members of a tiny mosque the gunman attended in Fort Pierce have been cooperating with the FBI and local police to assist with ongoing investigations, even as the center endures a rash of hateful visits and phone calls. Yet despite their efforts, worshippers say authorities are refusing to provide the community with a security detail.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, members of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce condemned the shooter and planned a blood drive to help the victims, releasing a statement saying they “repudiat[ed] anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence.” But as the days waned on, members grew worried of anti-Muslim revenge attacks on the house of worship.

Their concerns proved to be prescient: According to Wilfredo Ruiz, a spokesman for the St. Pierce mosque who also happens to be communications director of the Florida chapter of the Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), it wasn’t long before mosque members encountered Islamophobic hate....
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/01/3794953/florida-mosque-protection/

Trump Surrogate: Waterboarding Could Have Stopped Orlando Attack With Only a 'Bit of Discomfort'

Donald Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany suggested on Thursday that the recent terrorist attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino could have been prevent if the Obama administration had been willing to use waterboarding and put “someone in a bit of discomfort to extract information.”

On CNN’s New Day, McEnany was asked to explain Trump’s call to “bring back waterboarding” and “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

“I think that’s all consistent,” McEnany replied. “He’s talking about expanding the law the same way the Bush administration did to use this only when needed in very limited circumstances to get information from detainees.”

CNN host Alisyn Camerota and guest Ali Velshi both pointed out that waterboarding had been proven to produce unreliable information....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-surrogate-reccomends-waterboarding

Is Pope Francis a Lone Ranger on apologizing to gays?

When Pope Francis said this week that the church should ask forgiveness from gay people for the way it has treated them, he sparked yet another round of global headlines about how his unpredictable papacy is changing Catholicism.

But more than setting the church on a new course, Francis may have exposed the tensions within his own hierarchy over how to engage the gay community — tensions that have intensified in the weeks after the horrific massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead.

Francis’ comments Sunday (June 26) during an in-flight press conference on his return from a trip to Armenia came in response to remarks by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a top adviser to the pope. A few days earlier, Marx had said that the Catholic Church, as well as society, had treated gay people in a “scandalous and terrible” way....
http://religionnews.com/2016/06/30/is-pope-francis-a-lone-ranger-on-apologizing-to-gays/

House Republicans Will Only Pass Gun Control If Obama Recognizes ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’

This week, more than a week after House Democrats held a 25-hour sit-in and three weeks after 49 people were killed in a shooting in Orlando, the House will finally get a chance to vote on a gun-related proposal. Passing the legislation, however, would mean instructing the government to set up a department to focus on the “ideology” of “radical Islamist terrorism.”

The package up for a vote this week, the Homeland Safety and Security Act, includes a gun-control proposal similar to legislation introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Senate. Both bills — the GOP’s response to Democrats’ calls for gun control after Orlando — would notify the attorney general when a person who has been investigated for terrorism in the last five years tries to buy a firearm. The Justice Department would then have to go to court to prove “probable cause” to block the purchase.

The vote is largely symbolic, as Cornyn’s bill — even with National Rifle Association approval — failed last week in the Senate.

The bill is far from what Democrats were hoping for when they sat on the floor of the chamber overnight last month, singing and chanting and telling personal stories of gun violence. Some lawmakers have expressed their concerns:...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/05/3795524/terrorism-package-house-sit-in-gun-control/

Maddow BLASTS Christian Leaders For Their Horrific Remarks On Orlando

Pastors Praise Anti-Gay Massacre in Orlando, Prompting Outrage

After the massacre in Orlando, Fla., American religious leaders spoke in a largely unified voice, condemning the killer and mourning the dead. But at some extreme conservative Christian churches, there was another message: good riddance.

In the weeks since 49 people were slaughtered at a gay nightclub, remarks by pastors celebrating the deaths have brought attention to several outposts of anti-gay hostility across the country that until now had been operating mostly under the radar.

“The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die,” Roger Jimenez, a Sacramento preacher, exhorted his congregants on June 12, the day of the assault. “The tragedy is — I’m kind of upset that he didn’t finish the job! Because these people are predators! They are abusers!”...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/us/pastors-praise-anti-gay-massacre-in-orlando-prompting-outrage.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

Trump Lies About His Support Of Arming Clubgoers After Even The NRA Says It Makes No Sense

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has a notoriously interesting relationship with the truth — even with his own record. Monday morning, after on a pro-gun position so extreme even the NRA said was a bridge too far, Trump walked back his position and added one more flip-flop to the pile. After the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando last week, Trump said at least two times that if the people in the club had been armed, the story would have been different.... 

...Monday morning, however, he tweeted a clarification, saying that he was “obviously” not talking about clubgoers themselves....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/20/3790233/trump-flops-back-after-nra-criticism/

Coming Out Saves Lives: The Deadly Potential of Internalized Homophobia Is All Too Real

Omar Mateen was the guy at the bar, drinking alone in the corner. Those who describe him as a regular at Pulse, a nightclub located in Orlando, Florida, say that he was prone to making a scene. Ty Smith, who saw him there frequently, told the Orlando Sentinel, that “he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent.” Patrons remember him not as violent but kind of pathetic, a gloomy character prone to long rants about his father—that is, when he wasn’t offering to buy other men drinks. 

Mateen wasn’t just the saddest guy to ever hold a martini. He may have also been gay....
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/deadly-potential-internalized-homophobia

Cartoon: Thoughts and prayers

Now that we have had the deadliest mass-shooting in the history of the United States, can we please do something to help stop the carnage? Sadly, I’m not too hopeful—if we didn’t do much after twenty 6 and 7-year-olds were massacred in their classrooms, we probably won’t do much when 49 people partying at a gay club are gunned down.

 This is one of those cartoons where the research just sucked me down the rabbit hole. The deeper you look, the more awful this really is. Sure, assault weapons aren’t the only culprit in this tragedy. This and most other mass shootings require a warped mind as well as the tools to carry out an attack. But it seems to me the common denominator, and the most readily-solved part of the problem, is incredibly easy access to guns.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1539314
Thoughts and Prayers from MarkFiore on Vimeo.

The Orlando Shooting Was No Exception: Violence Against The LGBT Community Is Increasing

This past weekend, in what has become the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, 50 people were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando. While the attack has grabbed the attention of the entire country for its scope, violence against the LGBT community is not an anomaly.

A new report compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) collected data from 13 member organizations, using public sources or directly speaking with survivors. Data focused on hate violence that resulted in fatalities, which are classified as homicides, and non-fatal hate violence.

According to the annual report released on June 13, hate violence homicides against LGBTQ and HIV-affected people increased in 2015....
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/06/15/3788573/lgbtq-violence-report/

GOPer Defends Decision To Give Away Same Rifle Used In Orlando At Fundraiser

A Republican lawmaker from Tennessee is unwavering in his plan to give away AR-15 rifles, the same firearm used in Sunday's deadly attack in Orlando, Florida, as prizes at a fundraiser later this month.

State Rep. Andy Holt wrote a lengthy post on his Facebook page Monday bashing the media for asking if he'd still give away the same model of semi-automatic rifle used in the mass shooting in Orlando—as well as the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and in December's terror attack in San Bernardino, California—as a prize at his "Hog Fest" fundraiser on June 25.

His original plan was to only give away one rifle, but because of the backlash from the media, he'll give away two, according to WSMV....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/andy-holt-orlando-shooting-ar-15

President Obama Keeps Focus on Guns in Orlando: 'Why Is It They Think Our Liberty Requires These Repeated Tragedies'

At a makeshift memorial in honor of the 49 victims of the worst shooting in modern U.S. history, President Obama relayed a simple message from the surviving families after meeting with them and first responders on Thursday.

“They pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage,” Obama told reporters in Orlando, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden at his side. “We can’t wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in this world. But we can stop some tragedies,” he argued “We can save some lives.”...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/president-obama-keeps-focus-guns-orlando

Pharisees And Sadducees: The Religious Right Reacts To Orlando By Doubling Down

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden visited relatives of the Orlando dead yesterday. While they paid their respects, however, some Christian fundamentalists chose to celebrate the massacre.

“The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is – I’m kind of upset that he [Omar Mateen] didn’t finish the job!” said Pastor Roger Jimenez of Sacramento’s Verity Baptist Church. “I wish the government would round them all up, put them up against a firing wall, put a firing squad in front of them, and blow their brains out.”

Jimenez wasn’t the only one. According to The Washington Post, Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., also praised the shooting.....
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pharisees-and-sadducees-the-religious-right-reacts-to-orlando-by-doubling

Rubio’s Odd Excuse For Reconsidering His Promise Not To Run Again

...Rubio, whose once-promising presidential ambitious fizzled quicker than you can say “Little Marco,” now seems to have changed his mind. A Washington Post report cities Sunday’s mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando as a big reason for Rubio’s reconsideration:

Rubio said his decision followed a Sunday conversation with his friend, Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R), who is running to succeed him in the Senate, on the sidelines of the scene of the terrorist attack in Orlando. “Obviously, I take very seriously everything that’s going on — not just Orlando, but in our country,” Rubio said. “I enjoy my service here a lot. So I’ll go home later this week, and I’ll have some time with my family, and then if there’s been a change in our status I’ll be sure to let everyone know.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/17/3790013/marco-rubio-senate/

No, Congressman Brooks, The Muslim Community Doesn’t Want To ‘Kill Every Homosexual’ In The U.S.

An Alabama congressman responded to the recent Orlando shooting by demonizing the entire American Islamic community on Thursday, making the unsubstantiated claim that U.S. Muslims want to “kill every homosexual” in the country.

According to BuzzFeed, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) made the sweeping condemnation during an appearance on the Matt & Aunie show on WAPI radio, where he was discussing the recent tragic massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida at the hands of an ISIS-affiliated shooter. When Brooks was asked by the host why progressives “run away from the reality” that “mainstream Muslim thought” is purportedly to kill LGBT people, he responded by suggesting that Democrats were making a calculated play for Islamic votes, even though Muslims only make up roughly 1 percent of the U.S. population.

“On the one hand, [Democrats are] trying to appeal to the gay community, but, on the other hand, they’re trying to also appeal to the Muslim community, which, if it had its way, would kill every homosexual in the United States of America,” he said....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/16/3789542/muslims-mo-brooks-has-trouble-with-facts/

Senator Who Has Received More NRA Support Than Anyone Blames Obama For Orlando Shooting

On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the Sunday morning mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 50 dead.

“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures,” McCain said, according to The Guardian. “[Obama] pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked, and there would be attacks on the United States of America… It’s a matter of record, so he is directly responsible… The responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies.”

There’s a good reason why McCain would ignore guns and focus on foreign policy. According to data from the Center of Responsive Politics, no member of Congress has received more direct and indirect support from the National Rifle Association than the $7.7 million that has gone to McCain over the course of his career.....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/16/3789634/nra-favorite-john-mccain-blames-obama-for-orlando-shooting/

Congressman Denies Shooting Targeted Gay People Then Blocks Nondiscrimination Amendment

In the immediate aftermath of the Orlando shooting, many Republicans leaders offered their thoughts, prayers, and sympathies to the victims, but neglected to mention that the gay community had been targeted. One of those Republicans has since taken the step of actually denying that the gay community was targeted — and then he blocked a bill that would have protected them from discrimination....
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/06/15/3788738/congressman-denies-shooting-targeted-gay-people-blocks-nondiscrimination-amendment/

Trump Goes Apocalyptic: America's 'Not Going To Continue To Survive Like This'

Donald Trump offered a rather grim outlook on the nation's future in a wide-ranging speech at a campaign rally Wednesday in Atlanta. The event got off to a topical start, with Trump reiterating that he believed if the victims of a deadly mass shooting in Orlando, Florida had been armed there would have been fewer casualties. The tone of the speech turned significantly darker when he later pivoted to discussing where he could foresee the country going.

Trump shared a story about a friend with a terminal illness who was expected to live one more month and then outlived that life expectancy. "He's tough as hell," Trump said, going on to say that he thought his friend was similar to the United States, which was having "the blood sucked out of us." "It's amazing that our country can continue to survive, but you know? Eventually it's not going to survive. Just so you understand. Eventually it's not....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-strikes-apocalyptic-tone-atlanta-rally