Right Wing Extremists Can’t Read Words Explaining Military Chart On Religious Extremism?
The latest faux outrage brouhaha being peddled by right wing hate and fear merchants is one slide from an unofficial U.S. Army Reserve training course on “Extremism & Extremist Organizations.” At issue? The chart above, a powerpoint slide which right wing nuts have opted to misuse by removing the verbiage from the training script, created by someone not authorized to do so.
Read the headlines:
Military Warned ‘evangelicals’ No. 1 Threat (World Net Daily)
U.S. Army Training Manual: Catholics = al-Qaeda (National Review)
Army labels Catholics and Evangelicals as religious extremists (Examiner)
US Army Labeled Evangelicals, Catholics as Examples of Religious Extremism (Fox News Nation)
Army Labeled Evangelicals as Religious Extremists (Todd Starnes – Fox News)
The list goes on and on…
If you look at the graphic at the top and do absolutely no research, no sleuthing, no picking-up-the-phone, no investigating, nothing that requires a modicum of intelligence, you might deduce that the military has labeled Evangelical Christianity as “religious extremism.”
But, if you do sixty-seconds of Googling, you would find the graphic, where it came from and the underlying text that the instructor, albeit unauthorized, shared with his students.
It reads:
Extremism is a complex phenomenon; it is defined as beliefs, attitudes, feelings, actions, or strategies of a character far removed from the “ordinary.†Because “ordinary†is subjective, no religious group would label itself extreme or its doctrine “extremism.†However, religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world; every religion has some followers that believe that their beliefs, customs and traditions are the only “right way†and that all others are practicing their faith the “wrong way,†seeing and believing that their faith/religion superior to all others.
The willful ignorance, desire to crucify anything in the Obama administration as anti-American and anti-religious is pathetic. Partisan hacks that delight in causing controversy and spreading falsehoods or mistruths to divide our nation and advance their own extremist agenda are just embarrassing themselves.
And by the way, the force behind all these reports? The ADF, formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, now the Alliance Defending Freedom, which several “news” reports link to as providing the source materials.
Rather than accept the facts that even their own Todd Starnes at Fox News reported (albeit in a twists partisan manner):
Army spokesman George Wright told Fox News that this was an “isolated incident not condoned by the Dept. of the Army.â€
“This slide was not produced by the Army and certainly does not reflect our policy or doctrine,†he said. “It was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.â€
Wright said after the complaint was lodged, the presenter deleted the slide, and apologized.
the right wing extremists claim it’s the “U.S. Army” or the “Obama administration,” rather than a lone wolf instructor.
Mark Steyn’s at The National Review was the most ridiculous, warning, “Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.†If that’s true, it will be from right-wing extremist hate, misinformation, and willful ignorance like theirs.
Frankly, it’s pathetic, painfully easy to debunk, dishonorable, an assault on the intelligence of good Americans, and embarrassing. Yes, they are embarrassing themselves. If they didn’t have the ability to reach a wide audience, it might almost be amusing, but the consequences are real — and dangerous.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
