On Sunday, during Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe took the stage and delivered a shockingly racist “joke” about Puerto Rico, calling it “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.” He followed up with another “joke” about “carving watermelons” with Black people, while Tucker Carlson mocked Kamala Harris’ racial identity, and another speaker likened the Vice President to a prostitute managed by “pimps.”
The legacy media has rightly focused intense coverage on the rally and what it reveals about Trump and the racism of the MAGA movement.
But it’s fair to ask—what took so long? This is nothing new. For MAGA, cruelty has always been the point, often aimed at minority groups while mainly ignoring the white supporters who form the movement’s base.
For a decade, the legacy media has struggled to cover Trump without normalizing him or fueling his hate-driven MAGA movement.
The reason is simple: Trump isn’t just a political candidate—he’s a fascist hate merchant who sells an addictive brand of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia.
The cruelty and divisive racial politics aren’t accidental—they’re a calculated strategy to keep his supporters angry, loyal, and primed to view Trump and the MAGA movement as the only solution to save an America he describes as a “garbage can.”
His rhetoric has mainstreamed the worst of white supremacy, conspiracy theories, and Christian nationalist ideas, creating a twisted feedback loop that both he and his supporters feed on.
At COURIER, we’re committed to breaking this cycle by holding Trump and the far-right media accountable. And we meet people where they’re most likely to encounter this cruel rhetoric – on social media news feeds and in email inboxes – and counter it at the source with real news.
This is how we fight back, and with your support in the final days of this election, we can call out Trump’s extremism, correct disinformation, and expose those who fuel it.
Together, we can build a media landscape where lies and hate don’t go unchecked, and communities receive truthful, empowering journalism to help them become better citizens and neighbors.
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Bloat and 'Bigotry': Six Democrats Join With House GOP to Pass $833 Billion Pentagon Budget
“The far-right extremists in Congress and their enablers have made their values clear: bigotry over inclusivity, security, and our climate."
Previewing what one anti-war group called "a terrifying, hate-driven vision of a U.S. government under undivided conservative control," the Republican-controlled U.S. House on Friday not only passed its latest military spending package of nearly $1 trillion, but included a number of amendments attacking the bodily autonomy and other rights of service members.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed in the House largely along party lines, with 217 voting for the $884 billion package and 199 voting against it.
Six Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Donald Davis (N.C.), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Mary Peltola (Alaska), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wa.)—joined with the Republican majority to help pass the measure.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, once again noted her disapproval of a bill that places military spending over "investments in domestic priorities, from education to housing, healthcare to childcare," as she has in previous years—but the annual Pentagon funding package drew additional ire for its inclusion of amendments related to abortion rights, transgender healthcare, and other culture war battles.
"For the second year in a row, MAGA House Republicans pursued a path of extremism for the annual Pentagon authorization bill to continue waging their attacks on climate action, reproductive rights, LBGTQ+ rights, and communities of color," said Jayapal. "This bloated $833 billion Pentagon authorization bill approves $8.6 billion in additional tax dollars for an out-of-control military budget, expanding costly and unnecessary weapons systems while banning gender-affirming care, abortion travel, and diversity efforts for servicemembers."
The amendments pushed through by Republicans include one proposed by Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), which would block a Biden administration policy that reimburses members of the military for travel costs they incur when seeking an abortion, and one put forward by Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), which would block funding for gender-affirming medical procedures for service members.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) proposed a ban on any funds in the legislation being used to implement President Joe Biden's climate change executive orders.
Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) proposed placing Pentagon jobs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on a permanent hiring freeze, and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) added an amendment requiring the Reconciliation Monument, a Confederate memorial, to be relocated to Arlington National Cemetery.
On Thursday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) called the latter amendment "disheartening."
"Mr. Clyde is proposing that we return a monument to treason to our national cemetery without any accompanying context or education," said Beyer. "The monument in question is a basic ode to the Confederacy, to romanticize a lost cause."
The Republicans' amendments, said Stephen Miles, president of Win Without War, aimed to "turn the NDAA into a vehicle for numerous far-right, hate-fueled amendments that attack the core rights of our friends, neighbors, and communities."
While doing so, said Miles, the GOP "left positive amendments on the cutting room floor, like needed efforts to repeal the 2002 [Authorization for Use of Military Force], cut the ballooning Pentagon budget, and renew and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to do justice to victims of radiation exposure from nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining."
"The far-right extremists in Congress and their enablers have made their values clear: bigotry over inclusivity, security, and our climate," Miles added. "We thank our progressive allies for pushing for amendments that would have helped everyday people. Now that Republicans have made their decision, we need a unified chorus from Democrats that our basic rights aren't up for debate, and to have these hateful measures stripped from the final bill."
Jayapal added that progressive members of the House were barred from proposing amendments to "protect human rights abroad, reaffirm congressional war powers, strengthen labor and civil rights for service members, and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in military spending.
The NDAA in its current form is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-led Senate, where the Armed Services Committee held a markup this week on its own version of the legislation.
Jayapal expressed hope that after the November elections, the NDAA process will be "led by a Democratic House that allows an open and robust debate on the issues Americans care about—national security and peace, upholding human rights, protecting our servicemembers and their families, and taking on the climate crisis and corporate corruption—not cynical attacks on vulnerable Americans."
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) conduct a news conference on June 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
MAGA MORONS are attacking Dr. Fauci to make COVID STUPIDTY a campaign issue?
There are STATISTICS and FACTS .... you know what FACTS are...right?
Apparently MAGA MORONS don't!
CAPE COD erected an undeserved pedestal to a woman who had NO SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION and just BLABBERED!
LINDA ZUERN was a dedicated BIGOT, LOUD MOUTH and ignorant promoter of her
ANTI-VAX IGNORANCE.
PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS in Europe don't invest $$$ as the US does in promoting the
MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. They invest in PUBLIC HEALTH.
EUROPE was testing all the BOGUS CURES that DIM WITS such as LINDA ZUERN
were promoting. They tested those BOGUS CURES in hospital settings where any adverse
reactions could be addressed.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE was discredited prior to LINDA ZUERN's BABBLE.
The MAGA DIM WITS cheer at the prospect of DIAPER DON banning mandatory
vaccinations because they refuse to INFORM THEMSELVES.
CHINA made the VIRUS SEQUENCE available.
Did you see it? Do you comprehend its significance?
Let's work together to support those who worked to protect PUBLIC HEALTH and silence
the stupidity and ignorance. WE need SCIENTIFIC EXPERTISE to protect us.
Anti-LGBTQ activist who tried to stop vaccine distribution dies of COVID-19
Local activist Linda Zuern is being honored for her commitment to "all the conservative causes" - including vaccine opposition - after passing away due to COVID-19.
Linda Zuern at a 2019 Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates meeting.Photo: Screenshot/YouTube
A rightwing, anti-LGBTQ activist who tried to stop her state from distributing coronavirus vaccines has died due to complications from COVID-19.
Linda Zuern of Bourne, Massachusetts passed away last week at age 70 at a hospital in Boston. She had to be flown to the hospital due to her severe case of COVID and was in a coma at the end of her life, breathing through a ventilator. She was not vaccinated against coronavirus, according to people who knew her.
“She was a strong woman who believed in speaking the truth and defending our freedoms in America,” said Republican State Committeewoman Deborah Dugan (R), a close friend of Zuern. Many people who knew her described her as a staunch conservative who worked to stop immigration, supported Donald Trump, and helped with a variety of local conservative causes.
“She did so much for all the conservative causes,” said former Massachusetts Republican Assembly President Mary Lou Daxland.
But in the end it was one of those conservative causes that cost her her life.
Zuern recently protested against the state’s “VaxBus,” which helps get vaccines to people in rural areas of Massachusetts.
She spent three terms as a member of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates. At one of the last meetings this past December, she advocated for more doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, despite the fact that clinical trials showed that it was ineffective and has negative potential side effects. The idea that the government is suppressing information about the effectiveness of the malaria drug in fighting coronavirus, though, has become an article of faith for some opponents of the vaccines.
“That’s just a concern of mine that politics has gotten into the way of really helping people who are sick,” she said, accusing the Barnstable County Department of Health and the Environment of not looking into preventative measures to keep people from catching COVID-19.
At the meeting, the department’s director Sean O’Brien said that they were working on two proven preventative measures – testing and the nascent vaccine rollout.
“She did her homework and knew what she was talking about,” he added. “She put her time in.”
Her Facebook feed shows what kind of homework she was doing. She spent the past several years sharing links to articles on disreputable websites promoting conspiracy theories and outlandish YouTube videos.
Many from this past year were about claims that President Joe Biden stole the election from Donald Trump, that the January 6 Capitol insurrection was actually the work of leftist activists, and that the “Deep State” has been trying to remove Trump from office because he opposes child sex trafficking too much.
She even posted support for the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, the idea that Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a pizza restaurant in D.C. The conspiracy theory led to a gunman going to the pizza restaurant to liberate the children who were supposedly kept in the basement, despite how the restaurant didn’t have a basement.
Zuern also took time to oppose LGBTQ equality. She spoke out against her state’s ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy, which she called “evil” and “offensive to parents, Christians, conservatives and moral people.”
“Another politician taking away your parental rights,” she wrote, linking an article about the conversion therapy ban. “The government knows best on how to raise one’s child! Sounds like socialism to me.”
Trump Supporter Who Protested Against Vaccinations Dies of COVID-19
Linda Zuern, a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a protester against COVID-19 vaccines, has died of coronavirus. She lived in Bourne, Massachusetts. She was 70.
Zuern reportedly contracted the virus after visiting her mother in South Dakota, following the death of her father. During their return trip to Bourne, both women contracted the illness, the Cape Cod Times reported.
While her mother survived, a MedFlight had to transport Zuern to a Boston hospital in early June. She fell into a coma and was placed on a ventilator until she died. She hadn't gotten vaccinated against the virus, her friends told the aforementioned publication.
Zuern opposed local vaccinations efforts, both as a member of the county government council, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, and as a volunteer with a local conservative group called United Cape Patriots. Last December, while serving her third term on the Assembly, she pushed for local doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. Trump had also promoted the same anti-malaria medication for that very purpose. But in June 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that scientific evidence didn't indicate any significant benefits that outweighed the drug's potential risks. In the same meeting, Zuern also criticized the Barnstable County Department of Health for not examining methods to prevent people from contracting COVID-19. The department's director, Sean O'Brien, said the department's prevention plan was focused on testing and rolling out the newly-developed vaccines.
Linda Zuern, a Trump-supporter who actively protested against COVID-19 vaccines in Bourne, Massachusetts, died of coronavirus. In this photo, a protester holds an anti-vaccination sign as supporters of President Donald Trump rally to reopen California...DAVID MCNEW/GETTY
MAGA's very own Kid Rock got what he wished for after partaking in a disastrous interview with Rolling Stone where he got much more unhinged than normal. Rick Strom breaks it down. Give us your thoughts in the comments below!
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It's difficult to understand how a defendant on pre-trial release in four criminal cases is still allowed to endanger the community by holding hate rallies that inspire violence.
This video discusses the history of Trump's dangerous and reckless rhetoric - from inspiring a significant rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans during the COVID pandemic, to inspiring a silent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, to his most recent comments about "immigrants forming an Army" and "living in tents" in "our places."
The law provides that if a defendant who is on pretrial release in a felony case presents a danger to the community, he is to be detained pending trial. And yet, Trump remains free to endanger anyone he pleases. This is not how our criminal justice system was designed to work.
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