Politics Briefing newsletter: Liberal access-to-information reforms don’t quite meet promises – The Globe and Mail

Good morning,

The Liberals have finally introduced legislation to fulfill one of their campaign promises: reforming Canadas access-to-information law. For users of the law, which allows the public to access government documents under certain guidelines, the long-awaited Liberal bill is a mixed bag: it boosts proactive disclosure and gives more powers to the Information Commissioner (a kind of watchdog of the law), but it breaks a promise to apply the access to ministers offices and gives government the ability to dismiss requests it believes are made in bad faith.

Well see how the reforms address the complaints of those who use the access-to-information system frequently (predominantly businesses and members of the public), such as long delays and redacted information. A few examples from this writers experience: months-long delays for routine reports, including packages sent to our office for reporters who stopped working here years ago; paragraphs from a news article, included as part of an email sent from one public servant to another, that were blacked out because they were publicly available information (figure that one out); and basic factual information that is excluded because cabinet members could use it as a basis for making a decision.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and Mayaz Alam in Toronto, with James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Let us know what you think.

CANADIAN HEADLINES

Thats not all...Justin Trudeaus Liberals are in a final sprint to introduce some policies before Parliament rises for its three-month summer break. The governing party is putting new limits on the use of solitary confinement, eventually keeping the practice to no more than 15 consecutive days. The Liberals will finally table its national-security legislation today, which sets out to undo many of the changes made by the previous Conservative government. And there will be a new way of appointing directors to the board of the CBC/Radio-Canada, to address past allegations of partisanship.

Senators defeated a motion to hive off the infrastructure bank legislation from the budget bill, clearing the way for the Liberals to get their bill passed on schedule.

The Liberal government says it will have a backup plan for the regulation of legalized marijuana in provinces that dont create their own regimes.

The Commons indigenous affairs committee says the federal government has routinely failed to address the issue of suicide in Canadas indigenous communities and must dramatically improve its care of children.

And a few public figures being criticized for things theyre saying on social media: Governor-General David Johnston apologized yesterday for referring to Indigenous Canadians as immigrants in a CBC Radio interview that aired over the weekend; Dwight Duncan, the former Ontario Liberal finance minister and current chairman of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, is under fire from opposition MPs for making partisan comments on Facebook; and Conservative MP Kellie Leitch is getting flak for a tweet about Syrian refugees and domestic violence.

Nik Nanos (The Globe and Mail) on cloudy ways: The data suggest that the cloudless sunny ways are over. Sure, some days will be better than others for the Liberals. Now, reality will set in as more Canadians focus on what the Liberals have done to make things better for that large swath of Canadians who consider themselves part of the middle class.

Andr Pratte (The Globe and Mail) on independents in the Senate: It is true that over the past year, the Senate has amended a relatively large number of government bills. In many cases, those amendments were accepted by cabinet, which agreed that they made its bill better. In other cases, the amendments were rejected and the bill sent back to the Senate, unchanged, for final approval. What happened then? Did the FrankenSenate insist on its amendments and try to impose its will on the House of Commons? Not at all.

Chantal Hbert (Toronto Star) on retiring Quebec Conservative Denis Lebel: It is an open secret that the premier would like to recruit Lebel to run under the provincial Liberal banner in next years Quebec election. But Lebel claims he is done with politics for the foreseeable future. That may change depending on how the wind is blowing in the lead-up to the provincial campaign.

Andrew MacDougall (CBC) on access-to-information reform: Ask yourself what is better: public policy that's made in secret and then revealed to the public, or a policy process that pulls its punches because its authors didn't want to ask or answer the uncomfortable question or challenge from their colleagues during its development?

Andrew Coyne (National Post) on government aid for the media: The one thing it will not do is save the industry. It wont fix our problems. It will just make them easier to avoid. Worse, it will draw us into the political arena, not just as observers but as an issue in our own right.

Stephen Maher (iPolitics) on a media bailout: I suspect the Liberals foot-dragging on all this has to do with (my former employer) Postmedia, which took a strongly pro-Conservative position in the last election. The Liberals likely would rather stick pencils in their eyes than bail out Postmedias bosses. They may hope those bosses are gone by the time they dole out the money. You have to wonder, though, how much of an industry will be left to bail out if they keep dragging their feet.

B.C. UPDATE

B.C.s Liberal government is abruptly reversing course on several major policy areas as the party faces almost certain defeat in the legislature. The party says it is now in favour of a ban on corporate and union donations, increases to social assistance rates, and letting mayors find ways to fund transit upgrades without a referendum. Just over a month ago, the party ran an election platform on doing the opposite. Critics say its little more than a cynical death-bed conversion, but the Liberals insist they are learning the lessons of a rebuke at the ballot box.

B.C.s Green leader has made opposing a massive hydroelectric project in the provinces north a key issue for his party, but it wasnt long ago that Andrew Weaver was an enthusiastic booster. Mr. Weaver wants to scrap the Site C dam, and his power-sharing agreement with the New Democrats includes a pledge to put the project to a fresh review. Mr. Weaver, who plans to visit the region tomorrow to make his case, says the economics have changed and the power that will be generated simply isnt needed.

And if the B.C. legislature turns out to be totally dysfunctional, will voters be prepared to head to the ballot boxes again? No, says a survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Seventy-one per cent of respondents say they would like the elected officials to keep at their work, though those who said they supported the BC Liberals were more likely to want an electoral re-do.

Gary Mason (The Gobe and Mail): "It is a clear attempt to win back the affections of former supporters who cast their votes for others last month. The Throne Speech will be the Liberals first attempt at contriteness, something that does not come naturally to them."

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

The London mosque attack is the latest incident to rock the U.K.s stability after a tumultuous first half of the year thats seen multiple terrorist attacks, a general election and uncertainty over the future of its relationship with the European Union. Details from the attack are still emerging but witnesses say the suspect, who has been arrested on attempted murder and terrorism charges, deliberately targeted Muslims because of their faith.

The U.K. and the EU officially kicked off Brexit negotiations yesterday nearly a year after British voters narrowly chose to begin the process of leaving the single market and three months after British Prime Minister Theresa May officially triggered Article 50. The entire undertaking is expected to take around two years and it appears that the EU has the upper hand after day one. Both the EU and U.K. teams feature veteran negotiators.

Former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed in October, 2011. In the six years following his death, the billions of dollars tied to his estate have been filtering through the dark underworld of arms deals and illicit money, according to a new United Nations report. Shortly before dying he had reportedly sold one-fifth of Libyas gold reserves and was known to have business holdings across the African continent. After his death, the money vanished but is reportedly being smuggled across borders through locked boxes and in hidden bank accounts.

Voters in Georgias 6th district will choose their representative today in whats become the most expensive, and arguably the most overhyped, House race in U.S. history. Democrat Jon Ossoff will face off against Republican Karen Handel in a two-person race -- both advanced after a multi-candidate primary on April 18. The district has been historically Republican but Democrats are looking for their first big win in the Trump era after narrowing margins in special elections. In the time in between the primary and todays special election, France has held its presidential elections and parliamentary elections, and the U.K. had an entire general election campaign from writ drop to vote.

A BuzzFeed News investigation suggests that Russian security services and organized crime have been carrying out assassinations on British soil for years -- and U.K. police have, for various reasons, stayed out of it.

A data firm associated with the Republican National Committee inadvertently leaked the personal information of nearly 200 million Americans through a publicly available Amazon web server. The private details include everything from addresses and birthdates to complex psychological and political analyses.

And heat waves are expected to become more and more deadly across the world due to climate change. If all countries agreed to abide by the Paris [climate] agreement tomorrow, you are still going to have close to 60 per cent of the worlds population facing deadly conditions for 20 or more days per year, scientist Camilo Mora said.

Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on extremism and London: While these may appear to be two strands of extremism, one Islamist and the other far right, ostensibly posed against one another, any up-close examination of their opinions and rhetoric reveals that they have the same view of the world, the same mirror-image political goals, and now the same tactics.

Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on Amazon, innovation and automation: Innovation always has a cost. The vacuum-cleaner store will disappear, if it hasnt already. Bookstores gone. Department stores gone. Shopping malls gone. Grocery stores will consolidate into a couple of supermegachains. Millions of warehouse workers, retail sales clerks, cashiers gone. As Barack Obama warned in an exit interview earlier this year, the real job killer isnt free trade, its automation.

Nesrine Malik (The Guardian) on hate, radicalization and normalization: Hate crimes of any nature do not occur in a vacuum, and there is a particularly urgent need to examine the context in which this attack took place. For innocent people to become targets, two things must happen: first, incitement to hatred, and then normalisation. Incitement happens when anger is stirred up and people are depicted as less than human. Normalisation occurs when the incitement is repeated, when it begins to feel like part of the scenery. After that, acting on that rage can begin to feel like less of a crime.

Follow Chris Hannay on Twitter: @channay

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Politics Briefing newsletter: Liberal access-to-information reforms don't quite meet promises - The Globe and Mail

Flashback: When Liberal Sites Mocked Otto Warmbier For Getting What He Deserved – Townhall

After suffering 17 months of brutal captivity in North Korea, Otto Warmbier died Monday, having spent more than a year in a coma before his release last week.

After news of his death, Twitter users were quick to resurface articles from liberal sites Salon, Huffington Post, and Bustle in 2016 mocking the college student for getting what he deserved.

Warmbier was accused of stealing a propaganda poster from the hotel he was staying at in North Korea and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Huffington Post: North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal

This Huffington Post blog sure aged well. pic.twitter.com/8DSZ1uL6qe

This Huffington Post piece is even more outrageous today than when it was originally published. https://t.co/kraXAbNJQF

Bustle: Why Do People Blame Otto Warmbier For His North Korea Sentence? Privilege Can Sometimes Come At A Price

Here's Bustle, engaged in the same victim-blaming back in the day pic.twitter.com/BYVBx0FY4t

Salon: This might be Americas biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea

Reminder that Salon was downright gleeful when Warmbier was first arrested pic.twitter.com/BIMB9f7nEb

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore: Straight Outta Pyongyang Frat Boy Arrested in North Korea

Best thing about this 2016 #hottake from Wilmore and Salon is they both completely buy the Norks version of events. Truth to power, fellas. https://t.co/IsGe4PjW4c

As one Twitter user quipped, they put the "ass" in "class."

Peach State Beatdown: Can Handel Survive Ossoff Insurgency in GA-06?

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Flashback: When Liberal Sites Mocked Otto Warmbier For Getting What He Deserved - Townhall

Tucker Spars With Liberal Strategist Behind #HuntRepublicanCongressmen – NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Tucker Spars With Liberal Strategist Behind #HuntRepublicanCongressmen
NewsBusters (press release) (blog)
Tucker Carlson, Fox News' heir to Bill O'Reilly's slot in their primetime cable lineup, often fills the hour with bewildered glances, engaging dialogue, and outright mockery of his typically-deserving opponents who he brings on to the program. Monday ...

and more »

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Tucker Spars With Liberal Strategist Behind #HuntRepublicanCongressmen - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Garrison Keillor: A Liberal Sees Some Problems With Big Government – Hartford Courant

I am a registered liberal who mostly toes the party line but I am not devoted to the idea of big government. I loathe the law in New York state requiring gas pump nozzles to not latch. This means that I must stand beside my vehicle, holding the nozzle lever open, instead of latching it and walking into the gas station to use the john which, if you're an older male and hear gushing liquid, you feel a powerful urge to do, so thanks to legislative over-regulation, I am on the verge of humiliating myself.

Liberals believe in universal suffrage, but I don't think the right to vote should be extended to people walking around with wires going into their ears. If you need to walk through the world in a state of stupefaction, you don't belong in a democracy. The ballot should belong to people who pay attention.

I have other strong conservative tendencies: I accept limitations as inevitable, even sometimes futility. I once gave a very funny speech in the chapel of an Ivy League college and my voice went ricocheting around the Gothic arches and came back to me 15 seconds later and it was incomprehensible, even to me whose voice it was. I might as well have been speaking Navajo. Nobody laughed. I did not complain to authorities. I was amused. Stuff happens.

Life is unfair. The National Endowment for the Arts bestows pots of gold on poets, chickenfeed on humorists, and so what? The federal government is responsible for the announcement in airports warning you to report to authorities any stranger who asks you to carry an object aboard an aircraft. It's like telling people to report any sightings of unicorns. But who cares? Not I.

All around Washington stand handsome temples housing the ABA, NEA, AFL-CIO, the Federated Organization of Associations, the Organization of Associated Federations, the American Scatological Society, the National Recidivists Alliance, all of which have marbly lobbies and numerous executive vice presidents whose job is to buttonhole public servants. My group, UNCLE, the United Newspaper Columnists in the Language of English, has no such temple. We are harmless, like the Moose and the Elks, and ask only to be left alone.

Same with my other group, Minnesotans Oppressed by Rather Obsessive Self-Effacement (MOROSE), which, despite our resistance to attitudism, refusing to cheer at football games or join singalongs, has only dug a hole for itself. People regard us as a joke. We are not. We are victims of a self-mortifying culture and dare not ask anything for ourselves such as major defense installations, which go to Texas or California, but what are you going to do?

So there I am, pumping gas in Poughkeepsie, about to wet myself, all because of big government, and it dawns on me that back in my boyhood days, patient and practical-minded men and women got into politics and formed a strong bipartisan bloc that worked for decent mental health facilities and prisons, made higher education available to children of mail clerks and waitresses, created parks and protected wilderness all the basic stuff of government. That bloc seems to have evaporated and now we are locked in bitter conflict about which way is up and whether the earth is round. Crankiness is in the driver's seat.

Meanwhile, dreadful things are afoot. Powerful people want to put potheads in prison, clamp down on travel to Cuba, let banks mess around however they like, deport the folks who pick the lettuce and slaughter the hogs, and work assiduously to ease the troubles of the very rich, and if one says boo to them, they blame the media or my aunt Sally. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country lest the quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog and President Etaoin Shrdlu endure. Sad! Total loser! You know it, I know it.

Republicans, beware. The tables will turn. We liberals will regain power by the simple method of redistricting. We will incorporate the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah into California, and usher in a hundred years of progressivism. What goes around comes around. Be wise. The Senate majority staffers who are trying to put lipstick on a cruel House health care bill are spitting into the wind. In 20 years, Obamacare will be gone, replaced by universal Medicare, and you will be employed as carnival workers, running the kiddie rides, and you'll stop for gas in New York and remember this column and ask yourselves, "Why didn't we listen to him then?" Well, why don't you?

Garrison Keillor is an author and radio personality.

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Garrison Keillor: A Liberal Sees Some Problems With Big Government - Hartford Courant

The Liberal Media’s Double Standard – Townhall

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Posted: Jun 20, 2017 12:01 AM

In 2011, after a severely mentally ill young man in Tucson, Arizona shot Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, wounded almost 20 more, and killed six, including a 9-year-old girl, it took the liberal media elite a nanosecond to pin the crime on -- who else? -- conservative Republicans and their supposed "toxic rhetoric."

While police were still scouring the crime scene, Paul Krugman, The New York Times hard-left columnist wrote: "Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right."

An editorial in the Times also pinned the Tucson violence on Republicans: "It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman's act directly to Republicans or Tea Party members. But it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge."

Reporter Matt Bai wrote in the Times that conservatives who use words like "tyranny" to describe politicians shouldn't be "blind to the idea that Americans legitimately faced with either enemy would almost certainly take up arms."

In Politico, Michael Kinsley, a quasi intellectual of the progressive left, wrote that, "The suggestion, finally, is that the right is largely responsible for a political atmosphere in which extreme thoughts are more likely to take root and flower."

They blamed Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly and Fox News in general and Sarah Palin in particular. Never mind that the gunman was mentally ill -- and not just a little bit. Never mind that there was not a shred of evidence that he ever heard the name Sarah Palin or any of the others. That, to elite media liberals, was irrelevant. The only point they cared about was linking conservatives to a crime committed by a mentally unstable young man.

Now it's 2017 and we have the shooting on the baseball field. And we have lots of people on both sides saying it's time to tone down the rhetoric.

Sounds good. But before we attempt that, a few questions are worth asking:

Where were the liberal elites when Madonna said she wanted to burn down the White House?

Where were the liberal elites when so-called progressives took to the streets with their signs that said Donald Trump was Adolf Hitler?

Where were the liberal elites when Democrats said Trump was not a legitimate president and that he was a threat to the United States of America?

Where were they when Maxine Waters, the progressive Democratic congresswoman from California, said Trump's cabinet was composed of "scumbags"?

Where were they when progressives said Republican policies would, as Mollie Hemingway writes in the Federalist "destroy the planet, enslave women, or kill sick people"?

Where were they, Hemingway asks, when mainstream media outlets routinely imply that the president of the United States is a "Russian stooge committing treason, or simply suggest that he needs to be removed from his duly elected office by whatever means."

Yes, the liberals along with conservatives were there when Kathy Griffin figured that given the nonstop barrage aimed at President Trump she could safely and without consequence take a picture of herself holding a bloody decapitated head of you-know-who in her hand.

But where were the liberal elites when progressives decided it was just the right time to stage "Julius Caesar" in New York's Central Park with the lead character resembling none other than Donald Trump -- who is stabbed to death on stage.

Oh, the liberals loved that one. Besides, they said, the assassination of Caesar (or Trump) shows "the disastrous effects of violence" as one liberal supporter of the play put it.

I'm sure they'd say the same thing if conservatives staged "Julius Caesar" starring a Barack Obama lookalike. I'm sure they'd brush off the assassination scene, once again, as much ado about nothing.

Let's be clear: The producers of "Julius Caesar" aren't responsible for the shooting on the baseball field; neither are Madonna or Maxine Waters or the progressives who believe Trump is Hitler or liberals who think he's not a legitimate president.

But the man who is responsible, James Hodgkinson, wasn't a raving lunatic like the killer in Tucson. He was a politically savvy anti-Trump zealot who hated Republicans and loved Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow and more than a few more progressive media elites. And, no, they're not responsible for the shooting, either.

But before we go to the surefire "both sides must tone down the rhetoric" routine -- something, by the way, that won't last long if history is any indication -- let's be as clear as the liberal media elite were in 2011. While hard-right Republicans have crossed the rhetorical line more than a few times, much of the angry rhetoric today is coming from liberals and progressives. They are the ones who are creating an atmosphere where something horrible could, and did, happen.

To change just one word in Paul Krugman's column right after the Tucson massacre: The suggestion, finally, is that the (SET ITAL) left (END ITAL) is largely responsible for a political atmosphere in which extreme thoughts are more likely to take root and flower.

Only the gunman is responsible for what happened last week in Virginia. But it's not only time for the crazies on the left to tone down the rhetoric; it's way past time for the liberal media elite to hold their fellow progressives as accountable in 2017 as they held conservatives in 2011 -- for a crime they had nothing to do with.

College Student Detained In North Korea Has Died

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The Liberal Media's Double Standard - Townhall

In ‘The Retreat of Western Liberalism,’ How Democracy Is Defeating Itself – New York Times

The strongest glue holding liberal democracies together, Luce argues, is economic growth, and when that growth stalls or falls, things tend to take a dark turn. With growing competition for jobs and resources, losers (those he calls the left-behinds) seek scapegoats for their woes, and consensus becomes harder to reach as politics devolves into more and more of a zero-sum game.

Many of the tools of modern life are increasingly priced beyond most peoples reach, Luce writes. One study shows it now takes the median worker more than twice as many hours a month to pay rent in one of Americas big cities as it did in 1950; and the costs of health care and a college degree have increased even more. There is rising income inequality in the West; America, which had traditionally shown the highest class mobility of any Western country, now has the lowest.

As nostalgia for a dimly recalled past replaces hope, the American dream of self-betterment and a brighter future for ones children recedes. Among the symptoms of this dynamic: a growing opioid epidemic and decline in life expectancy, increasing intolerance for other peoples points of view, and brewing contempt for an out-of-touch governing elite (represented in 2016 by Hillary Clinton, of whom Luce writes: her tone-deafness towards the middle class was almost serene).

Trumps economic agenda (as opposed to his campaign rhetoric), Luce predicts, will deepen the economic conditions that gave rise to his candidacy, while the scorn he pours on democratic traditions at home endangers the promotion of liberal democracy abroad. Americas efforts to export its ideals had already suffered two serious setbacks in the 21st century: George W. Bushs decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and the calamities that followed; and the financial crisis of 2008, which, Luce writes, was not a global recession but an Atlantic one that raised serious concerns about the Western financial model. (In 2009, Chinas economy grew by almost 10 percent, and Indias by almost 8 percent.)

What fund of good will the United States retained, Luce suggests, Trump has been rapidly squandering, with his dismissive treatment of NATO and longtime allies, and his overtures toward autocratic leaders like Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Within days of his inauguration, Luce writes, Trump had killed the remaining spirit of enlightened self-interest that defined much of post-World War II America. Given this situation, Luce adds, the stability of the planet and the presumption of restraint will have to rest in the hands of Xi Jinping and other powerful leaders, though he predicts that chaos, not China, is likelier to take Americas place.

Luces conclusions are pessimistic but not entirely devoid of hope. The Wests crisis is real, structural and likely to persist, he writes. Nothing is inevitable. Some of what ails the West is within our power to fix. Doing so means rejecting complacency about democracy and our systems resilience, and understanding exactly how we got here.

Luces book is one good place to start.

Follow Michiko Kakutani on Twitter: @michikokakutani

The Retreat of Western Liberalism By Edward Luce 234 pages. Atlantic Monthly Press. $24.

A version of this review appears in print on June 20, 2017, on Page C4 of the New York edition with the headline: Inside Job: The Harm the West Is Inflicting on Itself.

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In 'The Retreat of Western Liberalism,' How Democracy Is Defeating Itself - New York Times

Liberal groups are teaming up to pressure GOP lawmakers on health care over summer recess – Washington Post

More than a dozen left-leaning organizing groups are joining forces to lead a national day of action next month against the Republican plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.

The events are set for July 29, what is scheduled to be the first day of the congressional summer recess, and organizers are hoping the Our Lives on the Line protests including a flagship rally in Washington will set the tone for several weeks of aggressive activism to persuade key lawmakers to back off their repeal efforts.

Health care is priority No. 1 right now, said Nicole Gill, executive director of Tax March, which organized more than 100 rallies across the country on April 15. She said the health-care push represents the first instance where the leaders of recent progressive-oriented marches have joined forces

Organizers of the Jan. 21 Womens March and the April 22 March for Science are involved, along with Indivisible, the group that has aimed to focus grass-roots progressives on influencing lawmakers; Organizing for Action, the activist group associated with former president Barack Obama; Our Revolution, born out of the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); as well as MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and others.

We all have represented different issues or causes, and I think it speaks to the importance of health care in our communities across the country of why this is the thing thats going to pull us together, Gill said.

There is one big catch for progressives: If President Trump and Republican congressional leaders have their way, the GOP health-care bill will be law by the time July 29 rolls around and some lawmakers are suggesting Republicans stay in Washington until a bill is passed.

[While House passes GOP health-care bill, Senate prepares to do its own thing]

The House passed the American Health Care Act in May, and the Senate is now debating revisions to the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated could lead to coverage for 23 million fewer Americans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced his intention to have the Senate vote on the legislation by months end, though major internal divisions in the GOP persist, and that timeline is in doubt.

[Senate hard-liners outline health-care demands with Medicaid in the crosshairs]

Gill acknowledged that congressional Republicans are hoping to pass a bill before the summer recess even starts and that the situations not looking great. But she said whether that happens, there will be reason for progressives to rally.

I really dont know that we can predict either way how this is going to turn out before recess, she said. Either way, what weve seen is since 2008, basically, theres been a Republican-led assault on the idea of health care in this country. And whatever happens with this bill, thats a problem.

The summer recess, set to run from July 29 through Sept. 5, will be an important opportunity for opponents of President Trump and GOP policies what has come to be known colloquially as the resistance to render their dissatisfaction in person to Republican lawmakers at town halls, office hours and other in-district events.

The 2009 summer recess was a turning point in the Democratic push to pass the Affordable Care Act. Lawmakers across the country were accosted by activists affiliated with the nascent tea party movement, and while Democrats were able to push the ACA through less than a year later, the protests firmed up GOP opposition to the bill and set the stage for massive Democratic losses in the 2010 midterm elections.

To some extent, the tea party did kind of write a playbook on how to engage in grass-roots activism, Gill said. What I think weve done is much different. It is much more diverse and diffuse and grass-roots driven than anything theyve ever done, and I think that represents our movement that we are not easily characterized into one category or one type of person. The Resistance, so to speak, is resisting on a number of fronts and in a number of different ways, and that to me is a pretty big difference from what the tea party did.

People got engaged right away, and especially starting with the Womens March, she added. That was definitely not a town hall. That was not protesting for media coverage. That was people who were frustrated and upset, and they took to the streets, and that has continued. I think the energy is real, and its not going anywhere.

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Liberal groups are teaming up to pressure GOP lawmakers on health care over summer recess - Washington Post

Tough Liberal love – Liberal Democrat Voice

Without doubt, this was a tough election, and I wasnt even in a lead campaigning role, let alone running. (I thought about the latter, and was approved; but I then campaigned in my home constituency of Sheffield Hallam.)

Gutted about our loss of Nick Clegg, I took to the blogs and comments on Liberal Democrat Voice over the past week to see how our national results were perceived across the party. Despite some celebration, they also demonstrate that there is much discontent, with rallying cries for radical centrism to so long, liberals alike. Evidently, tough Liberal love is in order.

It would make sense for us to take stock of the core challenges as the leadership bids begin. The new leadership and conference will determine the direction of the party: are we to continue the strategy of placing the Lib Dems on an axis of value politics, or return to decisions about left, right or centre? But besides direction, there are two other key themes which I think need urgent debate, too.

There is anger among many at the way Tim was allegedly pressured to resign, from those unelected Lords, no less, who represent the very party thats in favour of Lords reform.

But more fundamentally, as Liberal Democrats we need to redefine what we mean by our commitment to democracy, both internally and externally. For example, we were against a second independence referendum in Scotland, which was absolutely the right call, and helped get us three additional MPs. But we were in favour of a second referendum on Brexit, without much evidence that the mood had changed, and it turned out to be not that appealing to the electorate.

Most political parties and ideologies are somehow contradictory: its what should make them attractive to the mainstream. But framing our Brexit approach as about democracy above all else opened us up to another easy line of attack, aside from incoherence. When Andrew Neil in an otherwise bizarrely angry interview called us populists who arent popular (or something to that effect), he had a point. The 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote was a loss. So as a party, we need to debate what being a democrat means for us, for our internal governance, and for the country.

There is also frustration that Tims resignation (wrongly) suggests were precisely not the party for freedom of thought.

The issue here seems to be that parts of the party (and much of the way weve spoken of our recent electoral successes) promotes what Mark Lilla has called identity liberalism. Hes claimed controversially that it lost Hilary Clinton the American presidency, and that Democrats there should instead move towards a post-identity liberalism.

We are not only in an era of Trump; in Britain we have our second female Prime Minister who is, for the second time, Conservative. I think we need to ask whether we are presenting ourselves and our fight for personal freedoms and fairness often through personal representation of, or attachment to, minority and currently or historically marginalised identities in a way that is actually resonating with the British electorate at large.

I had my misgivings about Tims leadership, but as a gay man I would far rather a leader who stood up for rights and private conscience over one who claimed to know, embody or worse approve of! some generalised gay identity. Could we achieve more through an issues-based, over identity-focussed approach to our political position? Its another question that I feel needs to be put to conference this year.

* Sean Williams is a Lib Dem member in the Sheffield Hallam constituency

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Tough Liberal love - Liberal Democrat Voice

Exclusive: Labour, Liberal Democrats and SNP MPs plot to bring down the Government over Queen’s Speech – Telegraph.co.uk

Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP MPs are joining forces to try to bring down Theresa May's Government by passing amendments in Wednesday'sQueens Speech.

The Opposition parties only need seven MPs to change sides to overturn the Government's 13-strong working majority which could trigger a no confidence motion in Parliament.

The parties are looking at defeating the Government on amendments covering legal rights for tenants to demand protection from the risk of fire, easier access to the single market, a Brexit commission, hundreds of millions of pounds more for the NHS and an open Irish border after Brexit.

The amendments will be published in the next 24 hours and come as leftwing activists prepare to march on Parliament in a Day of Rage protest against austerity tomorrow.

If any of the amendments are voted through it could signal the end of the Government. Historically if the Queens...

Originally posted here:

Exclusive: Labour, Liberal Democrats and SNP MPs plot to bring down the Government over Queen's Speech - Telegraph.co.uk

Liberal groups focus on Ivanka Trump – ABC News

Getting nowhere with her father, liberal advocacy groups have been looking for an ally in Ivanka Trump. They haven't had much luck.

In recent weeks, activists have been appealing to the younger Trump for help on climate change, international labor conditions and immigration. But the first daughter, an influential adviser to President Donald Trump in her own right, largely has sought to stay out of the fray. Still the efforts underscore the politically charged position she occupies as she seeks to advance a positive agenda while avoiding weighing in publicly on her father's more controversial policies.

The most high-profile campaign directed at the president's daughter has come from New York-based China Labor Watch, which has been investigating working conditions at factories in China that have made Ivanka Trump products. The group on Thursday renewed a call for her to speak out about the detention of activists involved in the investigation and on their findings about labor conditions. They said they have sent a second letter to her at the White House to raise concerns.

Ivanka Trump's brand has sought to distance itself from the manufacturer under scrutiny, saying the company last made its products three months ago.

Trump, who spent the past week promoting the administration's efforts on job training, did not respond to requests for comment.

With her focus on issues that typically draw liberal or bipartisan support, Ivanka Trump has left many with an impression that she does not share some of her father's policies. But she avoided weighing in publicly on her father's travel ban, border wall, proposed budget cuts or the Paris agreement, leading liberal critics to question her influence.

Now some groups are trying to spur her to act.

Before the president announced he would exit the Paris climate accord, the Natural Resources Defense Council started an online petition asking people to email and call Ivanka Trump to push her father to stay in the deal. The call for action implored people to "raise a massive outcry" and ask her to "do everything in her power to persuade the president to keep our promise."

"As we began hearing he was leaning in the direction of pulling out, we threw a Hail Mary," said Ben Smith, the group's digital advocacy director, adding that they sought to "appeal to what seems to be a well-reported story that she's sympathetic."

Smith said 50,000 people signed the petition, "which is on the higher end of the performance scale for us."

Last week, Amnesty International launched a campaign that seeks to educate Ivanka Trump on their efforts to shut down a residential center in Pennsylvania that houses detained immigrant parents and children. The advocates say the facility, which has a contract with the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a detention center.

"She says she cares about women and kids and child care. She says she wants to use this power she now has. We're following up on that," said Naureen Shah, senior director of campaigns for the U.S. section of Amnesty International.

Shah added: "It's not a shaming campaign. She says she wants to do it."

"Democrats do not have many lines into the White House, they don't have a lot of different ways to influence the president," said Democratic strategist Lis Smith. "His daughter remains one of the few ways they are able to get to him."

In interviews, Ivanka Trump has stressed that this is her father's administration and has said she airs her views with her father privately. During a recent interview on "Fox and Friends," she expressed surprise about the "level of viciousness" that the administration had encountered in Washington, a statement that some found curious given her father's aggressive rhetoric.

Saying her father's administration wants to do "big things," she added: "I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn't supposed to be easy."

She moved her family to Washington before her father's inauguration. She serves as an unpaid aide to the president and stepped away from executive roles running her brand and at the Trump Organization, though she retains ownership of the brand. She has been more visible lately, working on a plan for paid family leave that is included in the president's budget, taking part in the president's first foreign trip and appearing with her father to talk about job training.

Republican consultant Alex Conant, who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential bid, said the advocacy campaigns were unlikely to make a great impact on the first daughter. "As long as she has a thick skin, those campaigns will be unsuccessful and she'll remain effective," he said.

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Liberal groups focus on Ivanka Trump - ABC News

White Liberal Tears and Racism From Parents In Response to Seattle Teachers Wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-Shirts – The Root

A Black Lives Matter protest in Charlotte, N.C., following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Last October, teachers in the Seattle Public Schools district planned a Black Lives Matter in the Seattle Public Schools event that consisted of wearing t-shirts with the slogan printed on them, despite the fact that a similar effort at Seattles John Muir Elementary in September was met with criticism, hate mail and threats of violence.

They expected backlash, and they got it, in the form of white parents from the citys wealthier neighborhoods writing to their school principals and saying that they were displeased that such an event would take place, because a Black Lives Matter day was too militant, too political and too confusing for their young children, according to KUOW.

Because the parents would not speak directly with them about their displeasure, KUOW made a public records request and published their emails with all identifying information redacted.

The letters range from Not All White People to What about Martin Luther Kings dream in tone, but in the examples cited, KUOW notes that the parents complaining are from one of the whitest, most affluent and staunchly liberal neighborhoods dotted with rainbow yard signs that say All Are Welcome

From KUOW:

Wrote a parent at Laurelhurst Elementary: Can you please address why skin color is so important? I remember a guy that had a dream. Do you remember that too? I doubt it. Please show me the content of your character if you do.

From Eckstein Middle School in Wedgwood: What about red and black or yellow and white and black? How does supporting Black Lives Matter help that gap?

And from Bryant Elementary in Ravenna: Im writing to share what my 9-year-old daughter told me about what she learned in class regarding the Black Lives Matter discussion. She said she felt bad about being white. And that police lie and do bad things.

Stephan Blanford, a Seattle school board member who is black, and whose doctoral research focused on race and public education, told KUOW, This is what Ive come to call Seattles passive-progressiveness. We vote the right way on issues. We believe the right way. But the second you challenge their privilege, you see the response.

This is a common refrain whenever the topic of Black Lives Matter comes up. Its as if no matter how many times we explain Black Lives Matter doesnt mean other lives dont, people still overlook that and what to argue about why Black lives should matter more than any others. It is the Not All Whites reaction that leads into All Lives Matter and ends with black people being called racist simply for pointing out that black lives should in fact matter.

The white parents in Seattle are a microcosm of supposedly liberal white people all over America who want to be good allies, but cant seem to move past semantics in that allyship. They get hung up on words, and not the greater actions that the words are speaking against.

Before you go over to KUOW to read the rest of the emails, pay attention to what happens in the comments of this post. Even as I type this right here and forewarn you, people will immediately jump and call me racist just for posting this.

Read more at KUOW.

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White Liberal Tears and Racism From Parents In Response to Seattle Teachers Wearing 'Black Lives Matter' T-Shirts - The Root

Liberal ministers snub Boeing, meet Lockheed Martin at Paris Air Show – BNN

OTTAWA -- Aerospace giant Boeing appears to have gotten the cold shoulder from the Trudeau government in Paris.

Three cabinet ministers are in the French capital this week to promote Canada's aerospace sector and meet with various companies at the prestigious Paris Air Show.

Those meetings include discussions with fighter jet makers such as Lockheed Martin, which is hoping its F-35 stealth fighter will replace Canada's aging CF-18s.

But Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains say there are no plans to meet with Boeing, despite previous talks to buy 18 interim Super Hornet fighter jets from the company.

It's the latest Liberal government snub of Boeing following the U.S. firm's recent trade complaint against Canadian rival Bombardier.

Ministers say the plan to buy Super Hornets from Boeing has been put on hold, as the government considers all options for buying interim jets.

More:

Liberal ministers snub Boeing, meet Lockheed Martin at Paris Air Show - BNN

Conservative liberalism – Wikipedia

Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement.[1] It is a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism.[2] Conservative liberal parties tend to combine market liberal policies with more traditional stances on social and ethical issues.[specify][3]

"Instead of following progressive liberalism [i.e. social liberalism] Robert Kraynak, a professor at Colgate University, writes , conservative liberals draw upon pre-modern sources, such as classical philosophy (with its ideas of virtue, the common good, and natural rights), Christianity (with its ideas of natural law, the social nature of man, and original sin), and ancient institutions (such as common law, corporate bodies, and social hierarchies). This gives their liberalism a conservative foundation. It means following Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Edmund Burke rather than Locke or Kant; it usually includes a deep sympathy for the politics of the Greek polis, the Roman Republic, and Christian monarchies. But, as realists, conservative liberals acknowledge that classical and medieval politics cannot be restored in the modern world. And, as moralists, they see that the modern experiment in liberty and self-government has the positive effect of enhancing human dignity as well as providing an opening (even in the midst of mass culture) for transcendent longings for eternity. At its practical best, conservative liberalism promotes ordered liberty under God and establishes constitutional safeguards against tyranny. It shows that a regime of liberty based on traditional morality and classical-Christian culture is an achievement we can be proud of, rather than merely defensive about, as trustees of Western civilization."[4]

In the European context, conservative liberalism should not be confused with liberal conservatism, which is a variant of conservatism combining conservatives views with liberal policies in regards to the economy, social, and ethical issues.[3][5] The roots of conservative liberalism are to be found at the beginning of the history of liberalism. Until the two world wars, in most European countries the political class was formed by conservative liberals, from Germany to Italy. The events such as World War I occurring after 1917 brought the more radical version of classical liberalism to a more conservative (i.e. more moderate) type of liberalism.[6] Conservative liberal parties have tended to develop in those European countries where there was no strong secular conservative party and where the separation of church and state was less of an issue. In those countries, where the conservative parties were Christian-democratic, this conservative brand of liberalism developed.[1][7]

In the United States, according to Peter Lawler, a professor at Berry College, neoconservatives might be classified as conservative liberals: "[...] in America today, responsible liberalswho are usually called neoconservativessee that liberalism depends on human beings who are somewhat child-centered, patriotic, and religious. These responsible liberals praise these non-individualistic human propensities in an effort to shore up liberalism. One of their slogans is 'conservative sociology with liberal politics.' The neoconservatives recognize that the politics of free and rational individuals depends upon a pre-political social world that is far from free and rational as a whole."[8] In the American context, conservative liberalism, as well as liberal conservatism, should not be confused with libertarian conservatism, influenced by right-libertarianism.

Link:

Conservative liberalism - Wikipedia

Even Liberals Are Worried About Liberal Extremism – Fox News Insider

Experts on extremism are increasingly shifting their focus from right-wing extremism to what they see as a rise of violence on the left, according to a new report.

"The past few months have seen enough of a rise in politically motivated violence from the far left that monitors of right-wing extremism have begun shifting their focus, and sounding the alarm," a report on Vice.com said.

Liberal violence has seen an uptick since President Trump was elected.

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The subject of left-wing violence reared its head last week after a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on congressional Republicans playing baseball last Wednesday, injuring five including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).

At UC Berkeley earlier this year, protesters started fires, attacked crowds of people, and smashed property.

Left-wing extremism is nothing new, the Vice.com report admitted, citing the Black Panthers and Weather Underground.

What were seeing is the democratization of extremism and the tactics of radicalism," said Brian Levin, former New York City police officer anddirector of California State University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Levin added that his warnings about the rising tensions have been dismissed in the past.

'Encouraging Violence Against Republicans': New Yorkers Rip Caesar Play

'Crooked Hill' Street Sign Altered With 3 Additional Letters...

NFL's Kaepernick Compares Cops to Fugitive Slave Patrols

See more here:

Even Liberals Are Worried About Liberal Extremism - Fox News Insider

Even de Blasio thinks proposed surveillance bill is too liberal – New York Post

A City Council bill that would force the NYPD to reveal its anti-terror tools and tactics is too liberal even for the citys left-leaning mayor who charged Sunday the act would create a roadmap for the bad guys.

If we start to lay out everything we do to gather information to fight crime and fight terrorism, if we lay that out too publicly and in too much detail, unfortunately, it provides a roadmap for the bad guys. And I am not ever going to be comfortable with that, Mayor de Blasio told John Catsimatidis on his 970-AM radio show.

There are a lot of people gunning to hurt New York City, and we are not going to help them do it by giving them the kind of information that would only make our enemies stronger.

The councils Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act would require the NYPD to issue reports on what kinds of spy gadgets it uses like cell-phone trackers and X-ray vans used to peer through walls as well as how cops store and protect the private information theyve collected.

Sixteen Council members are currently sponsoring the bill, but it would need the backing of 34 to override a mayoral veto.

The NYPDs counterterror chief John Miller also trashed the bill on Catsimatidis show, where he said the plan would be a disaster that puts cops lives in danger.

It would allow criminals to learn way too much, way too easily, Miller said.

Its one-stop shopping one website where we would post everything we use and what the limitations on it were and what it was for.

Council members Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan) and Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx) introduced the bill, but Miller claimed it was probably written by activists under the nutty belief that the NYPD is surveying innocent people.

Nobody is going to call the ACLU down to the City Council or Congress because we have a terrorist attack, Miller said.

That is going to be me at that table with the police commissioner and the chief of detectives answering those questions.

De Blasio agreed that cops are already sticking to the law when gathering intelligence.

The NYPD uses tools to gain information, there are clear stipulations to make sure everything is done constitutionally and legally. Theres clear internal oversight, the mayor said.

Police Commissioner James ONeill also railed against the bill Friday, tweeting that the NYPD is vehemently opposed.

It provides terrorists, criminals, & others with a roadmap on how to harm #USA, he wrote.

More here:

Even de Blasio thinks proposed surveillance bill is too liberal - New York Post

The state of my dangerous liberal rhetoric will remain strong and loud – Daily Kos

First of all, its not like this is really a new argument theGOP has decided to put forward following this shooting. Just a few days prior, Eric Trump railed about the hate that has been heaped on him and his father following a report that The Donald had been skimming money from Erics charity foundation directly into his own pockets.

In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free--that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization.

Erics response to this report, which came from that dirty rotten hippy publication Forbes,was to argue that All Morality is gone and these are not even people. But its actually more telling to listen to what else he said because he made this not just personal, but into a specific target attack on the entire Democratic agenda in general.

Asked by host Hannity, Dont you wish you went to Washington so you could deal with this everyday? the presidents son sneered at Democrats.

Ive never seen hatred like this, he responded. To me, theyre not even people. It is so so sad.

Morality is just gone, he continued. Morals have flown out the window. We deserve so much better than this as a country. Its so sad you see the Democratic Party and they are imploding. Theyre imploding, they have no message. You see the head of the DNC who is a total whack-job. Theres no leadership there. And so what do they do? They become obstructionists because they have no message of their own.

Democrats are obstructionists because they have no message of their own? Frankly, the Republicans and the president havent even taken the first steps to try and reach out to Democrats on anything. Demsactually do have some fairly specific proposals on healthcare, but instead congressional Republicans passed a bill without their inputdespite a horrible CBO score and now the Senate Republicans are doing the same thing almost literally under the cover of night using a secret bill that no one has even seen.

I would argue that our agenda is to remain part of the Paris Climate Accord, to further investments in, and support of, clean and renewable energy sources rather than gut them as Trump has threatened, to retain and repair the Affordable Care Act rather than repeal it, to strive to make college affordable if not free, to address the opioid crises by increasing access to treatment rather than cutting that funding, to increase mobility for workers whove lost their jobs by helping them retrain for newly emerging industries rather than cutting that funding orgutting worker safety rules, we would prefer to continue to investigate and reform abusive police departments rather than ignore them and shut down effectivecivil rights enforcementand that stating ourpositions or pointing out Trumps legal and ethical failings doesnt come from a place of hate. It comes from a place of truth.

Most peopledon't criticize Donald Trump because they hate him, obviously excluding the contractors he repeatedly ripped offand women who have accused him of sexual assault,its because they love America and seriously fear what he seems intent on doing to it, and for that matter the rest of the world.

But now, after lastweeks shooting we have Congressional Republicans complaining that their constituents have come up to them and angrily said that theyre trying to get people killed [by repealing the ACA.] They argue thats not fair, and thats just so so mean.

Yeah, well, math, facts and commonsense show that between 25,000-36,000 people per year will likely die if the ACA is repealed without a viable replacement:

Uninsured adults are at least 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults who have private insurance. See state-level breakdowns of the 26,100 people between the ages of 25 and 64 who died prematurely due to a lack of health insurance in 2010.

Nearly 36,000 people could die every year, year after year, if the incoming president signs legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act.

This figure is based on new data from the Urban Institute examining how many people will become uninsured if the law is repealed, as well as a study of mortality rates both before and after the state of Massachusetts enacted health reforms similar to Obamacare.

So when people say this, they arent beingmean,theyre being factual. This is not hate speech, thisis criticism. Fact-based criticism.

Civility is generally a good thing. But something I thinkbeing more civil isnt whats really being asked here. Yes, of course, we should focus and be critical of theissues and, where reasonable, refrain from demonizing any particular faction or group. But IMO thats not what these Republicans are asking for.Whats being asked isfor liberals to simplyshut up, and then all will be well.

I dont speak for anyone but myself, but I can pretty much guarantee thats. not. gonna. happen.

After the many previous mass shootings that have plagued the nation, the complaint from the right has typically beenNow is not the time to make things politicalwhen people mention that perhaps the reason so many people are getting killed by guns, might have something to do with the prevalence of guns themselves. In response, theyve often argued that this critiqueis an attack on everyones SecondAmendment Rights. Asking for trigger locks is too much. Asking for comprehensive background checks is too much. Our rights are clearly more important than the lives lost.

It doesnt matter that America averages 33,000 deaths per year as a result of firearms.It doesnt matter that over 60% of those deathsare suicides by people who are perfectly legal gun owners, not criminals, not gangbangers, not terrorists. Itdoesn't matter that the Alexandria shooting was the 154th mass shooting so far this year, and not even the only mass shooting to occur that same day.It doesnt matter that this particular shooter was a legal gun owner, who had a history of violence against women and perhaps that has as much do with his final actions as anything specifically political. We maynever really going to know for sure what his motivations truly were.

But none of that matters because we have to protect our rights, damnit.

Now were told that the real problem isnt that we have more guns in the nation than we have people, its because some people have the nerve to use their First Amendment rights totalk too much and that theyare just too vulgar.

Talking with Fox News, Gingrich pointed fingers at left-wing hysteria that he says has exploded ever since President Donald Trumps election last fall, as evidenced by Kathy Griffins latest stunt in which she held up a likeness of Trumps severed head.

The intensity on the left is very real, Gingrich said. Whether its a so-called comedian holding up the presidents head in blood, or its right here, in New York City, a play that shows the president being assassinated. Or its Democratic leading national politicians who are so angry they have to use vulgarity because they cant find any common language.

Right, so Kathy Griffins joke-failwiththe fake Trump head that hadblood coming out of his wherever and Senator Gillibrand dropping anF-Bomb is why a guygrabbed a gun and went after Republicans?

Remind me exactly who was it that invited Ted Nugentwho once said Hillary Clinton was a Worthless BitchandBarack Obama was a piece of shit and that heand Eric Holder needed their heads chopped off and Hillary Clinton should be hangedto the White House for dinner again?

Then again, maybe its all the fault of Shakespeare?

[Don] Trump Jr. retweeted a report about those witness claims, and he also approved another tweet by a conservative commentator linking the shootings to a recent production of Shakespeares Julius Caesar that depicted the presidents assassination.

Because its not like somebodythought to do the same thing, a modern day version of Julius Ceasar including the assassination of the head of state, when Obama was president.

Except that they did in 2012.

While Delta Air Lines and Bank of America have dropped their sponsorships of New Yorks Public Theater over a President Trump-inspired staging of Shakespeares Julius Caesar, corporate sponsors at the Guthrie Theater had no public reaction to a 2012 staging that featured a black actor in the role of Caesar.

Caesar is stabbed to death in the middle of the play.

I am a person that believes that hateful rhetoric can sometimes inspirenegative outcomes, so Im not ignoring the center of their concern.But I do think theres a difference between strong rhetoric and violently dangerous hateful rhetoric. Theres a difference between strong speech built on facts and hate speech built on lies, and I have my doubts that many ofthe Republicans really know that difference at all.Theyre just using this tragedy as an opportunity to attack the First Amendment rights of those they oppose while taking no responsibility of their own.

For example, there was the time this guy showed up a pizza parlor because someone was promoting a totallyfalse story that Hillary Clinton and John Podestawerelinked to a child prostitution ring. And Imnot just saying he was there because of thatstory.He said he was there with a gun because of that story.

A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to self-investigate a false election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign.

I for one do not recall Republicans criticizing the deliberate spreading of this false story and finding fault with the media outlets that pushed it without having a shred of proof.But now, today we have this:

Fox News anchor Melissa Francis then played a clip from Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) who said some of his best friends are Democrats and that the House passes a lot of bipartisan legislation, but its the major issues that lead to political discourse that has in my opinion, led to such an uptick in just hateful, hateful rhetoric of all sides, and I stand here today and say stop. We have to stop.

BERGMAN: I agree with Rodney wholeheartedly in that the hateful rhetoric serves no positive purpose. In fact, today it served a negative purpose. But unfortunately, and Im looking at all the media in the eye when I say this: friendships and cordial relationships dont make good news. So I can tell you, especially as the president of the freshman class of Republicans, we are united along with our Democratic freshman counterparts to bring civility back to the 115th Congress.

FRANCIS: So you think its the medias fault?

BERGMAN: I think the media is complicit if they keep inciting, as opposed to informing.

The media areinciting instead of informing? You mean inciting like telling people what the CBO score for Trumpcare is?Yeah, okay.

I just have to say Im skeptical of Republicans who claim they really want to stop all the hateful, hateful rhetoric on all sides.Its not like we heard all this Kumbahyah talk when it was suggested that somebody may have helpedincite violence against dozens of congressional offices by using a map placing targets on their districtsI didnt hear Republicans saying people shouldnt do that.

Gabrielle GIffords is who said it.

On April 23, 2010, an angry phone call came into a congressmans office in Tucson, Arizona. The voice on the line was a male, on the young side, brimming with fury over immigration. The caller announced he was going to come down there and blow the brains out of the congressman and his staff, an aide later recalled. Then the caller said he would do the same to Mexicans crossing the border. Minutes later, police evacuated the offices of Rep. Ral Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat whose congressional district sits immediately to the west of Gabrielle Giffords. [...]

As several media outlets reported, the door to Giffords Tucson congressional office was vandalized last March after her vote in favor of the health-care bill. But the event that ratcheted up the violent chatter was the April signing of Senate Bill 1070, an Arizona law that gave local police broad powers to discover illegal immigrants.

As shown by the above video, it was Gabriel Giffords herself who brought up the issue of the crosshairs map before she was ultimately shot in head, and fiveothers persons were killed, by a crazed shooter in Tucson later that year.

But rather than denounce rhetoric that actually did promoteviolence and vandalismat the time, instead what we heard back then was Blood Libel.An argument based on the ideathat Giffordsherself pointingout the incitement, was itself asource of the incitement.

To his credit Rep. Steve Scalise himself had much better things to say about Giffords than Palin did.

Still as a result of all this, I dont take these fresh newplatitudes all that seriously. I reallydont think theyre sincere because there have been plenty of chances for that sincerity to be shown, and repeatedly they have failed.

We didnt hearthis call for civility and unity from the GOPafter Sandy Hook which Trump-pal Alex Jones says was a false flag and Paul Ryan said Obama was only talking about it to distract from his failed policies,not after the Holocaust Museum Shooter who was planning to target David Axelrod, or the Knoxville Unitarian Church Shooter,which was an attack on liberals inspired by a book from a frequent OReilly guest, or Dylann Roofs murder spree in Charleston in reaction to the trial of George Zimmerman and right-wing rhetoric about excessive black violencepushed by the CCC and oftenshown on Bill OReillysprogram, or the attempted attack on the Oakland ACLU and Tides Foundation inspired by the overblownrhetoric of Glenn Beck about those organizations, or the Las Vegas cop killers who were from the Bundy compoundand said they wanted to spark a revolution against the government, orthe attack on Planned Parenthood inspired a by phony video by right-wing anti-abortion activists, or the Alt-Reich Nation killer who knifed ROTC Cadet Lt. Richard Collins to death earlier this year, or the Sikh Temple shooter who mistakenly thought the worshiperswere Muslim, or last months terrorist in Portland who killed two bystanders with a knife after harassing a pair of Muslim girls, or the more1,000 Hate crimes that sparked up immediately after Trumps election.

Im not holding my breath that things are suddenly gonna get all unity-like because Rep. Scalise was shot in the hip.Hopefully, he and all the rest recoversafely.But Im terribly sorry I just cant take empty meaningless platitudes like thisseriously.

Or this.

To which I say...

Sure Im a skeptic, but Im not a cynic. Im not saying theres absolutely no hope.If the GOP can take responsibility and apologize for their ownparticipation in this escalating rhetoricthe way that Kathy Griffin apologized within hoursI just might believe them. Maybe.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if it had came up when Trump was saying "KNOCK THE CRAPOUT OF THEM!" tohis rally crowds.

I might believe the GOP was sincere aboutharsh rhetoric if it came up when Trump was saying "I'll pay for your lawyers fees" to beat protesters.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said 3-5 million illegal votes were cast against him.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if they didn't lie about "Voter Fraud" while gerrymandering and suppressing the Democraticand minorityvote.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said Judge Curiel was too racist a Mexican to make a fair decision.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if it came up when Trump said Gold Star Father Khazir Khan was allied with ISIS.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said Mexicans were rapists, killers and criminals. And some, a few, were good people.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if it they had ever said the same thing to #AltRightbigoted so-called free speech championtrolls like Miloor Richard Spencer.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it they ever recognized a terrorist when he's a white guy andhis victims are liberal, black or Muslim.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if, when Russia wageda CyberWar against America, they wouldnt stick their heads in the sand or else#BlameObama for something he once said to Medvedev.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if they didn't call the findings of all 17 intelligence agencies and the investigation of18 different mysterious contacts with Russians a "witch hunt."

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if people likeJason Miller werent calling Senator Kamala Harris "hysterical" for asking Jeff Sessionstough questions.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if it came up when Eric Trump was saying his fathers critics were"not even people."

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoricif so many of them hadntsaid Barack Obama was an illegal alien with a falsified birth certificate, anillegitimate president, a secret Muslim, an Arab,the anti-Christ, a communist, a socialist, a liar, a criminal, a drug dealer, a welfare thug-in-chief, a food-stampPresident, was incompetent, was the founder ofISIS,a fraud, aradical black liberation theology Kenyan Mau Mau revolutionist anti-colonial who simply wasnt smart enough to get into Harvard or become editor of theHarvard Law Review without affirmative action, who neededBill Ayers to ghost-writehis own best-selling book about his own life and fatherbecause hereallyhated America and all it stood forandwhen they werefeeling boldwas really justanother lazynigger.

But none of that has happened. Not yet. We havent heard an apology for any of it either. Im not expecting we will.

As a result I have no intention of backing off the Republicans or Trumpwith what I have to say about them or their policies one iota.I will not be giving them an inch. The state of my dangerously factual liberal rhetoric will remain strong, and it will remain loud.

And to be honest, I lied, Im not sorry about it at all. Not even slightly.

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The state of my dangerous liberal rhetoric will remain strong and loud - Daily Kos

Obama-Era FCC Caught Red-Handed Giving Preferential Treatment To Liberal Groups – The Daily Caller

A high-level employee at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2014 appeared to give leaders of liberal-leaning groups preferential treatment for posting and publicizing comments on the agencys public forum for the net neutrality debate.

Details of the highly friendly support were firstdescribedby then-The Washington Posts Nancy Scola, who referred to it as an unusual collaboration in an in-depth report on the FCCs filing system. Those details became significantlymore incriminating after Mike Wendy, directorof the market-oriented nonprofit MediaFreedom, recentlyreceived once-classified piecesof electronic communications years after he filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Wendy alleges that, along with other conservative organizations, they were not given the same effortful and enthusiastic treatment their liberal counterpartsreceived.

The FCC hosted a period in 2014 where anyone could submit feedback on so-called net neutrality, a nebulous term loosely defined as the principle that internet service providers have no right to discriminate against certain forms of traffic (like spam), nor to offer faster speeds to higher-paying customers. For supporters(usually liberal), it means all traffic receives equal treatment. For critics (usually conservative), net neutrality is a government takeover that prevents companies from investing in faster infrastructure.The FCC at the time invited people to publish their thoughts about net neutrality on the public filing system in an attempt to have the rule-making process for internet regulationas democratic as possible. But how democratic and equal that process was can now be called into question.

Our biggest focus right now is making sure everyones comments get submitted and counted,Holmes Wilson, presumably the same person who is the co-founder of Fight for the Future, wrote in an emailto at least three other people who worked for the agency in some respect.

Gigi Sohn, a top counselor tothen-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, responded using her official agency email address.

Thanks so much to all of you for your efforts, Sohnwrote. Well do our best and keep our fingers crossed too! Ill be out of town tomorrow, but will be checking emails,and (sic)David and Sagar will be at your service.

Sohnnot only provided assistance for technical issues, but also publicizedthe advocacy groups purportedly authentic numbers.

Just a note that weve got 500k or so more comments that were held up by server issues today. It would be great if you could pass press on to us for the real number,Wilson said in anemail.

Can you tweet from @fcc early today, something like: The FCC server has had problems with the large number of comments, so the number on the docket website is not the official number. Well have an official number soon, Wilson askedin a separate email dated September 11th, 2014, at around 10:26 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).

Not long after, the government agency obliged.

(Mike Wendys screenshot of former FCC spokespersons social media post)

Marvin Ammori, a board member for liberal groups Fight for The Future and Demand Progress, and David Segal, an active liberal political activist, also appeared to closely collaborate with Sohn, as evident in the emails Wendy obtained and published. (RELATED: Net Neutrality Activists Tied To Violent Groups, Convicted Al-Qaida Terrorist)

(Screenshot of a tweet from Marvin Ammori, including Wendy and others replies)

I was very surprised that they agreed to take an outside groups comment count or request to promote the number of comments coming in via social media, Katie McAuliffe, federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. I would never have asked or expected to receive special treatment on comment counts, particularly having the FCC post a tweet drafted for them.

Aside from the ease with which the FCC agreed to say almost exactly what the liberal groupswanted to be said, providing assistance evento the great extent FCC officials gave is not a problem in itself. But leaders of other right leaningorganizations, like Wendy and Phil Kerpen of the advocacy group American Commitment, said they were barely even able to get their foot in the door.

When our side decided to engage in the clicktivism battle, we tried to sort of use the same tactics to drive massive public comments, Kerpen told TheDCNF. But becausethe FCCs public filing system was so antiquated as Scola and others including people at the FCC have corroborated to TheDCNF comments supporting both sides of the debate were not able to make it to the platform for all to see.

Our team got some help from low-level FCC employees who kind of answered the phone the way anyone just calling in would, Kerpen explained. But we certainly didnt get any kind of high-level assistance from high-level staffers managing media requests and helping to shape a narrative.

Wendycan attest to Kerpens frustrations. He says he contemporaneously wrote respective, but similar letters to the FCC inspector general and Wheeler to investigate the facts around Scolas story. After several failed attempts to get a sufficient response to his inquiries for more information, he continued re-crafting his FOIAappeal. Wendysays the FOIA officer he was working with was helpful. He blames the FCC Office of the Inspector General for being difficult and purposefully withholdingthe informationfrom him in spite ofphysically visiting itsheadquarters at one point.

Kerpen believes that the level of service and assistance was completely one-sided because the FCC wanted to help them reach the predetermined outcome of their process.

What upsets Kerpen and Wendy even more is that the FCC isntsupposedto be political. Rather, it is to be an independent expert agency that makes decisions based on data, facts, economics and the law. Since specific staff members at the FCC, like Sohn, essentially bended over backwards tohelp one side but failed to help others with different political views, they believe the agency rendered itself partial and subservient.

Whiletheunusual collaboration occurred roughly three years ago, it quite aptly applies to happenings related tothe contemporary FCC. The same exact battle for which one side of the debate has the most comments is currently a hot-button issue (even though the degree to which it will ultimately affectpolicy is dubious). When the newly-led FCC opened a new forum for public comments months ago, like clockwork, a measuring competition started again. Both far-left advocacy groups and conservative organizations are clamoring over who hasmore comments supporting their arguments in order to boast about who has the public behind them.

In 2014 at least, its fairly clear that regardless of who actually garnered more comments in their favor, the FCConly helped one side, the liberals.

The DCNF reached out toHolmes, Sohn, Ammori, Segal and others mentioned or involved in the disclosed emails for comment, but they did not respond.

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Obama-Era FCC Caught Red-Handed Giving Preferential Treatment To Liberal Groups - The Daily Caller

NYTimes downplays role of liberal politics in baseball shooter’s motive but emphasizes ‘anti-Muslim’ Portland stabber – TheBlaze.com

The New York Times was criticized over the weekend after running a story where the paper seemingly tried to rewrite the motives of James Hodgkinson, the lone gunman who is responsible for the ambush shooting on congressional Republicans last week.

While the motive behind the attack will likely never be known, most believe hyper-partisan politics are to blame. After all, Hodgkinson only attacked Republicans and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) continues to fight for his life in the hospital after being gravely injured from a bullet fired by Hodgkinson.

Indeed, when authorities confirmed last Wednesday that Hodgkinson was the shooter, the 66-year-olds social media postings began to be heavily scrutinized because they painted a clear picture: Hodgkinson was a stalwart supporter of socialist politics and had a deep hatred for President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Despite the wealth of evidence that supports the motive being partisan hatred, the Times on Saturday attempted to paint a much different picture: that Hodgkinson attacked the congressmen because he was an unstable man and it had nothing to do with politics.

The storys headline emphasizes that idea: Before the Gunfire in Virginia, a Volatile Home Life in Illinois.

The story said:

No one can truly know what motivates a man to drive halfway across the country, live out of his car as Mr. Hodgkinson apparently did and attempt a mass killing of members of Congress. In the days since the shooting, much has been made of Mr. Hodgkinsons strong political views he was an ardent supporter of Senator Bernie Sanderss bid for the 2016 presidential nomination, and he railed against President Trump and Republicans in Washington on his Facebook page and in letters to the editor of the local newspaper.

But another aspect of his personality may have also presaged the shooting: his troubled home life.

The story goes on to say that Hodgkinson likely suffered from some sort of mental illness and his political beliefs had little to do with his desire to target only congressional Republicans, even quoting a local Democratic staffer who categorically denied that Hodgkinson ever volunteered for them.

The paper then went on to describe in detail Hodgkinsons life as a foster parent and detailed the much darker moments of his life like one instance of domestic abuse and the decision of one foster child to commit suicide.

And while it is helpful for investigators to know Hodgkinsons background in order to develop a better understanding of who the shooter was, the Times story seemingly ignores what most others dont, including one of Hodgkinsons Illinois neighbors, who told the paper that while life moved on for other people following the 2016 election, the election never ended for Hodgkinson.

People voiced their criticisms of the paper on Twitter:

One person even tweeted to one of the storys authors that the Times is playing to its base with the story:

The author then said the story was just journalism, before being accused of trying to cover up the shooters actual motive:

But, of course, the Times doesnt always try to whitewash the ideological beliefs of people who commit atrocities.

Last month, when a racist man killed two people on a Portland commuter train, the Times emphasized the fact that the perpetrator was racist and had anti-Muslim views.

One story read: Three Men Stood Up to Anti-Muslim Attack. Two Paid With Their Lives.

Another was headlined: Oregon Man Accused of Deadly Anti-Muslim Tirade Continues Rant in Court.

And even another: Two Killed in Portland While Trying to Stop Anti-Muslim Rant, Police Say.

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NYTimes downplays role of liberal politics in baseball shooter's motive but emphasizes 'anti-Muslim' Portland stabber - TheBlaze.com

Coming Liberal bills to reform Access to Information, national security measures – rdnewsnow.com

OTTAWA TheTrudeau government plans to cap the spring sitting of Parliament withlong-awaited legislation on Access to Information andnational security bills unlikely to be debated by MPs inaserious way until the fall.

With just days left before MPs are slated to retreat to their ridings for the summer, the bills will at the very least signal the government's intention tofulfil key promises.

The government had promised an initialwave of changes to the Access to Information Act by the end of winter what Treasury Board President Scott Brison called "early wins" on overhauling theantiquatedlaw intended to give Canadians access tofederal files.

Theplanned amendments included giving the information commissioner the power to order release of government records and ensuring the access law applies to the offices of the prime minister, cabinet members and administrative institutions that support Parliament and the courts.

The pledge was considered an essential plank of the government platform on transparency designed to differentiate the Trudeau Liberals from Stephen Harper's Conservatives, who broke 2006 campaign promises tomodernize the access law.

In March, Brison's office cited the complex nature of the task in delaying the Liberal plans.

The bill to be introduced Monday by Brison, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybouldcould be the first substantialset of amendmentsto the access law in 34 years. The government has also promised a full review of the law by 2018, and mandatory reviews every five years thereafter.

The Access to Information Act allows people who pay $5 to ask for everything from internal federal audits and meeting minutes to correspondence and studies. Departments are supposed to answer within 30 days or provide valid reasons why they need more time.

However, the system has beenalmost universallycriticized as slow,out of dateandbeset byloopholes that allow agencies to cling to information, including files more than half-a-century old.

In her recent annual report, information commissioner Suzanne Legault said the law was being used as a shield against transparency.

On Tuesday, the government plans to remodel several Conservative anti-terrorism measures and introduce newprovisions with a bill from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale plainly titled "An Act respecting national security measures."

The extensive package of legislation will include more robust oversight of Canada's border agency, which has faced some pointed questions over issues including in-custody deaths.

In addition to new scrutiny for the Canada Border Services Agency, the billwill propose changesto ensure existing security watchdogscan exchange information and collaborate more easily on reviews.

The legislation will also follow through on Liberal promises during the last election torepeal "problematic elements" ofomnibus security legislation ushered in by the Conservatives after a gunman stormed Parliament Hill.

TheTrudeau governmenthascommitted to ensuringall CSIS warrants respect theCharter of Rights and Freedoms,to preserving legitimate protest and advocacy, and to definingterrorist propaganda moreclearly.

It has also pledged thatappeals by Canadians on the no-fly list will be subject to mandatory review.

The Liberals say the overall idea is to strike a balance that ensures security agencies have the tools they need to keep Canadians safe, while respecting the rights and freedoms of a democratic society.

Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

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Coming Liberal bills to reform Access to Information, national security measures - rdnewsnow.com

Burqas Banned and LGBT Muslims Welcome at Germany’s First ‘Liberal’ Mosque – Newsweek

Full-face veils are banned; Men and women, straight or gay, can pray together; Sunnis and Shiites, who in other parts of the world are engaged in bloody conflicts, are encouraged to sit side-by-side.

Welcome to Germanys first liberal mosque.

Dozens of people gathered for Friday prayersled by a female American imam at the opening of Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin on Friday, the AP reported.

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The mosque was the realization of an eight-year dream of German-Turkish womens rights activist Seyran Ates, who moved to Germany from Turkey as a child and was part of a government agency assisting with the integration of Muslims in Germany.

I couldn't be more euphoric, it's a dream come true, Ates, 54, told AP this week.

The mosque is jointly named after Ibn Rushd, a 12th century Andalusian Islamic scholar also known as Averroes, and German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It currently occupies the third floor of an old Lutheran church in Moabit, a neighborhood with a sizeable immigrant population.

German-Turkish lawyer, author and activist Seyran Ates (R) readies the prayer area prior to an inaugural friday payer at the Ibn Rushd-Goethe-mosque in Berlin on June 16. Men and women can pray together at the mosque, which is also open to LGBT Muslims. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty

Ates said the mosque will be open to all but added that women would be proscribed from wearing the burqaa veil that completely covers the face and leaves just a mesh screen for the wearer to see throughand the niqabwhich covers the face except for a small slit for the eyes. [This is] for safety reasons and because it is our conviction that the full-face veil has nothing to do with religion, but is a political statement, Ates told German magazine Spiegel. Germanys lower house of parliament recently passed a bill banning full-face veils for people in certain professions, including judges and soldiers.

Read more: 10,000 Muslims will march in Cologne on Saturday against terrorism

More than 4 million Muslims live in Germany, with the majority coming from Turkey. Under Chancellor Angela Merkels open doors policy, Germany has taken in more than 1 million refugees since 2015, most of whom are from Muslim-majority countries Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Merkel has come under fire from conservative elements in Germany for the policy, and tensions have been further inflamed by Islamist-inspired attacks carried out in the country. In December 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian migrant whoseasylum request was turned down by German authorities earlier in 2016, drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

A police car is parked in front of the St. Johannis Protestant church which houses the Ibn Rushd-Goethe-mosque in Berlin on June 16. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty

Germany and Turkey havebeen at loggerheads since German authorities banned Turks living in Germany from carrying out rallies in support of changes to the Turkish constitution that would give more power to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader accused Germanys government of fascist actions that were reminiscent of the Nazi period.

Ates said that the new mosque was designed to give modern and liberal Muslims the opportunity to show our faces in public. She said that she had received threats from people about the project, but that most of the feedback had been beautiful and positive, AP reported.

The womens rights activist was the subject of an assassination attempt in 1984 when working as a counselor for Turkish women and was previously attacked by the enraged husband of a former client. She will start Arabic and Islamic theology studies later this year and hopes to become an imam.

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Burqas Banned and LGBT Muslims Welcome at Germany's First 'Liberal' Mosque - Newsweek