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California Barber Cites Religious Beliefs to Refuse Transgender Army Veteran a Haircut

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The Barbershop in Rancho Cucamonga refuses to serve women and people who identify as transgender. “People go against what God has created, you start getting everything all out of whack,” he says.

A barbershop in Rancho Cucamonga is getting a lot of attention after refusing service to a transgender man. Army veteran Kendall Oliver went online to book an appointment for a haircut at The Barbershop, but was surprised and humiliated after being turned away.

“I identify as male,” Oliver told NBC4 News in an interview. “I just feel more comfortable that way… They said, ‘It doesn’t matter ma’am, we still won’t cut a woman’s hair.”

So why did The Barbershop really refuse service to Oliver?

“I have religious convictions that prevent me from cutting women’s hair,” explained Richard Hernandez, owner of The Barbershop. He refuses to serve women and people who identify as transgender. “It’s a shame for a man to have long hair, but if a woman has long hair, it’s her glory and it speaks to being given to her as her covering, and I don’t want to be one who is taking away from her glory.”

Oliver disagrees.

“I don’t see how that should affect a business. I’m a customer here, you provide a service, and everyone is entitled to that service,” Oliver said.

When interviewed by CBS2 News, Hernandez defended himself by saying, “It’s not our intention to discriminate against anyone based on sexual orientation or gender of anything like that. The Bible teaches us that a woman’s hair is her glory.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination by privately-owned places of public accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin. California goes even further by covering gender and sexual orientation. 

This incident is the latest example of people using religion to discriminate against others. It goes to show that the so-called “religious freedom” bills popping up across the country have consequences that extend beyond bakeries refusing to bake cakes for same-sex couples. Here are a few other examples:

  • In February 2015, a pediatrician in Michigan refused to treat a newborn because the child’s parents were lesbians. She said she had prayed before making her decision.
  • In April 2013, a man was arrested at a hospital in Missouri when he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, even though he had a power of attorney.
  • In February 2015, a gay man was refused funeral services for his husband and then when the funeral did take place, church members handed the family antigay pamphlets.
  • In January 2016, Republican State Senator in Nebraska introduced a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children in the homes of qualified LGBT parents.

“People go against what God has created, you start getting everything all out of whack,” Hernandez said when defending his right to discriminate; however he’s arguing a lost cause. Whether it’s denying the LGBT community medical attention, funeral services, marriage licenses, food, or even haircuts, discrimination is just wrong, period. In California, it’s even illegal. 

 

Image: Screenshot via NBC4 News

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‘Apocalyptic’: Trump Plan Would Be ‘Science Demolition Derby’ Experts Warn

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President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget reportedly seeks to effectively dismantle the scientific research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shut down critical weather laboratories, and slash the agency’s budget by more than 25 percent. NOAA serves as the primary source of weather forecasting in the United States and is a vital contributor to global forecasting efforts.

SCIENCE, the flagship journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that it has seen an internal document, and reports that the administration’s goal is to end climate research at NOAA.

“The document indicates the White House is ready to ask Congress to eliminate NOAA’s climate research centers and cut hundreds of federal and academic climate scientists who track and study human-driven global warming,” SCIENCE reveals. “The administration is also preparing to ask for deep cuts to NASA’s science programs, according to media reports today.”

Citing internal White House documents, CNN reports that the massive cuts may be enacted immediately.

READ MORE: ‘Beyond Contemptuous’: DOJ Slammed for ‘Sheer Indignation’ in Defying Judge

“The cuts would devastate weather and climate research as weather is becoming more erratic, extreme and costly. It would cripple the US industries — including agriculture — that depend on free, accurate weather and climate data and expert analysis. It could also halt research on deadly weather, including severe storms and tornadoes.”

Some are calling it privatizing access to weather data.

Dr. Robert Rohde, chief scientist at Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit providing climate and environmental data, called the plan “apocalyptic.”

“#$%!,” Dr. Rohde wrote on Friday. “This looks apocalyptic for NOAA’s climate research. Trump’s near-final budget proposal would end NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers.”

Meteorologist Matt Lanza calls it “devastating.”

“The function of weather forecasting requires climate data stored at these regional centers. Not to mention intentionally degrading satellites will stagnate progress on our research and understand of weather. Call your congressional representatives,” Lanza urged.

Science and environmental journalist Andrew Revkin calls it part of “Trump’s climate science demolition derby.”

Michael Lowry, a hurricane and storm surge expert, writes: “It’s hard to overstate how catastrophic this would be for hurricane forecasts. Should Congress approve the move, it would undo 50 years of hurricane forecast improvement. The folks taking a broad ax to climate are hacking away decades of progress to life-saving weather forecasts.”

Climate and hurricane specialist John Morales warns, “this will cost lives and livelihoods. It will further wreck the American economy (which is well on its way to being wrecked). Weather and climate impact a significant percentage of our GDP. It’s just stupid.”

READ MORE: ‘MAGA Leftist’ Ripped for Claim Trump Fights Wall Street for ‘Forgotten Working Class’

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) blasted the move in a video (below) late Friday afternoon.

“I’ve just learned the Trump administration is dismantling the research arm of NOAA, which gets us all of the weather and climate research we need, that people in agriculture need, that people in business need, and that all of a miracle of the world needs in terms of fighting climate change,” Congressman Raskin said. “But all of that is out the window now.”

“All of the research on hurricanes, your daily weather forecasts, it’s all going to be shift over now to private, for profit entities that want to make money off of the information that we were getting, and we should be getting as part of our government commitment to learn about the weather and to learn about the climate.”

He also slammed Republicans, saying that they “of course, don’t believe in climate change.”

“They think that’re going to address climate change by banning the use of the words, and now they’re going to remove the scientific capacity to get the information that we need. It’s just a scandalous and shocking and intolerable turn of events right here, and we’re going to fight them every step along the way to restore NOAA, to its full capacity.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: DOT Chief Warns Against ‘Fear Mongering’ as Second Aircraft Crash Turns Fatal

Image via Reuters

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‘Beyond Contemptuous’: DOJ Slammed for ‘Sheer Indignation’ in Defying Judge

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The U.S. Department of Justice is telling a federal judge it cannot comply with her orders—even after the U.S. Supreme Court directed the DOJ to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal U.S. resident wrongly deported by President Donald Trump’s ICE to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador built to hold accused terrorists.

In a heated hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Department of Justice to not “slow walk” her orders designed to attain Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the United States.

“We’re not going to slow-walk this,” Judge Xinis said, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported, “we’re not relitigating what the Supreme Court has already put to bed.”

The DOJ’s lawyer replied, “We read the Supreme Court’s order differently.”

READ MORE: ‘MAGA Leftist’ Ripped for Claim Trump Fights Wall Street for ‘Forgotten Working Class’

Earlier on Friday, after attempting to cancel a scheduled hearing, DOJ had allowed a 9:30 AM deadline to pass “with no information from the Justice Department about Abrego Garcia’s location or status, as demanded by the judge,” Cheney also reported.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis granted the government an extension to 11:30 AM, which also passed without a DOJ response.

Just past noon, Cheney reported: “DOJ says it won’t comply with Judge Xinis’ order because the deadline she set is ‘impracticable.'”

Lawyers for the Department of Justice told Judge Xinis via a court filing that “Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review.”

DOJ continued to defy the court, writing: “In light of the insufficient amount of time afforded to review the Supreme Court’s order following the dissolution of the adm. stay in this case, Defendants are not in a position where they ‘can’ share any information requested by the Court,” and added, “That is the reality.”

In court, Judge Xinis asked DOJ attorneys where Abrego Garcia is.

“Your honor, I do not have that information,” reported CBS News Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane and Jake Rosen.

READ MORE: DOT Chief Warns Against ‘Fear Mongering’ as Second Aircraft Crash Turns Fatal

“From now until compliance, [I am] going to require daily statuses, daily updates,” Judge Xinis said, according to ABC News’ Katherine Faulders. “We’re going to make a record of what if anything the government is doing or not doing.”

Former federal organized crime prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega called the Department of Justice’s tone and substance “beyond contemptuous.”

WUSA9’s investigative reporter Jordan Fischer noted: “You see plenty of self-righteousness in filings from DOJ all the time, but the sheer level of indigination in these immigration cases — even here, after losing at the Supreme Court — is something else.”

During Friday’s White House press briefing, a reporter asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that since the President of El Salvador is coming to visit President Donald Trump, “does President Trump want him to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia with him?”

Leavitt replied that the Supreme Court ordered the administration to ” facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘MAGA Cruelty’: Johnson Blasted for Blaming ‘Young Men’ to Justify GOP’s Medicaid Cuts

 

Image via Reuters

 

 

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‘MAGA Leftist’ Ripped for Claim Trump Fights Wall Street for ‘Forgotten Working Class’

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Batya Ungar-Sargon, a rising political pundit who calls herself a “MAGA leftist” and a “Marxist,” is facing backlash after echoing Republican talking points, attacking former President Barack Obama, and praising Donald Trump—all while getting basic facts wrong, including when each was in office, and then doubling down on her claims.

Some may remember the global financial crisis of 2008, which occurred during the final months of the presidential race that ultimately put Barack Obama in the White House — in January 2009. To help protect the financial industry, Congress passed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly known as TARP. President Bush signed it into law on October 3, 2008, as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Not according to Ungar-Sargon.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the 10 million Americans who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis, and how President Obama’s first act in office was to give $700 billion to the banks that caused it, including $3 billion in bonuses to the crooks who organized it,” she said on CNN’s “NewsNight” on Thursday.

“And I’m thinking about how those very Americans saw a president [Obama] pick Wall Street over Main Street and what they saw this whole week was a President willing to go out there and fight for the forgotten men and women of this heartland and take on the entire international global order for them.”

READ MORE: DOT Chief Warns Against ‘Fear Mongering’ as Second Aircraft Crash Turns Fatal

Her remarks were met with varying degrees of disbelief and pushback.

“Lots of people in the heartland have 401Ks,” Neera Tanden, who served as President Joe Biden’s Director of the Domestic Policy Council, reminded Ungar-Sargon. “They have jobs where they work for a company, that is thinking of now laying them off because the supply chain is impossible. The idea that he’s taking on the global elite, when he’s offering a giant tax cut to the billionaires, I’m sorry, it makes very little sense.”

Financial journalist James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” wrote: “TARP was necessary. But even if you don’t agree, blaming Obama for a law passed by Congress while Bush was president is a sign of total ‘Somehow it’s always liberals’ fault’ derangement.”

Thursday night, CNN’s Richard Quest slammed Ungar-Sargon’s claims Trump is “taking on” Wall Street on behalf of the forgotten working class.”

“Will we please stop this ‘forgotten working class’?” Quest urged. “Everybody in some shape or form is part of a working class, either historically, today or whatever, and every one of us, in some shape or form, lives in an economic environment where we are aware of what is happening in our own areas. But this idea that somehow it’s Wall Street versus Main Street and Main Street doesn’t care about Wall Street and Wall Street just wants —”

Friday morning, Ungar-Sargon doubled down on social media, writing: “In 2008, President Obama bailed out Wall Street and screwed over Main Street. In 2024, President Trump screwed over Wall Street to bail out Main Street. That’s what a lot of Americans are going to remember about last week.”

Veteran journalist John Harwood unleashed his anger, writing, “as if these bulls— cliches weren’t dumb enough, George W Bush was president in 2008 and Joe Biden was president in 2024.”

READ MORE: ‘MAGA Cruelty’: Johnson Blasted for Blaming ‘Young Men’ to Justify GOP’s Medicaid Cuts

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist, chastised CNN’s Abby Phillip and her producers, saying, “putting on bloviating ignoramuses should be a no-no.”

Phil Magness, an economic historian for a libertarian think tank, slammed Ungar-Sargon:

“How did a Marxist English PhD with no background or understanding in basic economics become the go-to cable news ‘economic’ commentator for the MAGA tariff agenda?”

2008, for some, was a long time ago. Some may not have been alive, many may not have been old enough to remember the events.

“​In September 2008 our nation was on the edge of falling into a second Great Depression,” the U.S. Department of the Treasury says on its website. “Confidence in the financial system was vanishing and panic was spreading.”

“Every major financial institution was vulnerable. The credit markets that provide financing for credit cards, student loans, mortgage loans, auto loans, small business loans and other types of financing stopped functioning,” Treasury added, noting that “a generalized run on the nation’s banking system was a real possibility.”

“The nation was losing almost 800,000 jobs a month and household wealth had fallen by 17 percent – more than five times the decline in 1929. It was out of these extraordinary circumstances that TARP was created to restore the nation’s financial stability and restart economic growth.”

Congress authorized $700 billion, but that number was scaled back much further under President Obama. Much of the funds that were allocated were repaid. The final cost to taxpayers was about $31.1 billion — less than 4.5% of the figure Ungar-Sargon quoted.

Former Obama National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor blasted Ungar-Sargon and CNN.

“Bush was President in 2008. Trump’s tariffs are cratering the economy in 2025. I would recommend that @CNN and @abbydphillip stop inviting on pundits who don’t seem to have a handle on the most basic facts about politics or economics.”

Another former Obama spokesperson, Aaron Albright, reminded that the “first major bill Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act….when he became president in 2009.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Giant Grift’: Calls for Trump Insider Trading Probe Surge Over ‘Corruption’ Questions

 

 

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