www.nbcnews.com

Young-hae Chi #ufo #conspiracy nbcnews.com

Space aliens are breeding with humans, university instructor says. Scientists say otherwise.

[A]n instructor at the University of Oxford in England believes the [alien] abductions are real. Young-hae Chi, who teaches Korean at the university, also claims to know what the aliens have in mind. In lectures given at the university, he says they're creating alien-human hybrids as a hedge against climate change. To support his unorthodox theory, Chi notes that for several decades the number of reported alien abductions has risen. He bases this statement on the work of David Jacobs, a retired Temple University historian who has published several books on ufology and who runs the International Center for Abduction Research.

[...]

Jacobs has interviewed more than a thousand people who claim to have been abducted, using hypnotic regression that apparently allows them to recall their unearthly encounters with aliens. (Mind you, this too is controversial, and Jacobs himself admits that people should be skeptical of these recollections.)

Chi takes the claims at face value, and links the growing number of abductees cataloged by Jacobs to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases. He doesn't imply a cause and effect: The abduction experiment is not responsible for global warming. Rather, it's a reaction to it. The extraterrestrials are producing hybrids that can better withstand the rigors of a toastier planet. By producing a new model of Homo sapiens, this project would eliminate the need for difficult climate accords or elaborate geoengineering projects. It would also help the aliens themselves — who are said to be living among us — by preserving the part of their DNA that's carried by the temperature-tolerant hybrids.

Donald J. Trump #racist #wingnut nbcnews.com

Trump, throughout his nearly two-hour speech, suggested his support from Black Americans stem from their understanding of how corrupt systems can lead to "great evil."

"Some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and to deny them their rights," Trump said. "I think that's why the Black people are so much on my side now because they see what's happening to me happens to them."

Trump said Black Americans showcased their support for him through their embrace of merchandise emblazoned with his mug shot.

“My mug shot — we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population," Trump said. "You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know, they do shirts and they sell them for $19 apiece. It’s pretty amazing — millions by the way."

Donald J. Trump #racist #wingnut nbcnews.com

Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
In a speech to a group of Black conservatives, he also said Black Americans "embraced" his mug shot more than anyone else.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump claimed that Black people like him because he has faced discrimination in the legal system, which is something they can relate to.

"I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against," he said.

I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population. I am being indicted for a lot of different groups by sick people, these are sick, sick people," Trump said Friday night in a speech at the Black Conservative Federation's annual gala, at which he received the "Champion of Black America" award.

Justin Mohn #psycho #wingnut nbcnews.com

Pennsylvania man arrested after allegedly killing his father and displaying his decapitated head on YouTube

Jan. 31, 2024, 3:21 AM PST

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after allegedly killing his father, before displaying his decapitated head in a gruesome YouTube video while spouting right-wing conspiracy theories.

Justin Mohn, 32, is accused of killing his father, Michael Mohn, police told NBC News. While police did not release the victim’s age, public records show him to have been 68.

Mohn was taken into custody about 100 miles away from the crime scene on suspicion of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and possessing an instrument of crime with intent, according to a court docket released early Wednesday.

He was arraigned at 4 a.m. and denied bail, Middletown Township Police Capt. Pete Feeney said.

In the YouTube video, which was titled "Mohn's Militia - Call To Arms For American Patriots" and is cited in a police complaint, Mohn is seen wearing gloves and holding his father's head in a plastic bag. Later, the head can be seen in a cooking pot.

Mohn says his father was a federal employee for 20 years and refers to him as a traitor, calling for the death of all federal officials and attacking President Joe Biden's administration, the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ community and antifa activists. YouTube removed the video, which is more than 14 minutes long, hours after it was posted.

[…]

Oklahoma State Rep. Justin Humphrey (R) #racist nbcnews.com

An Oklahoma bill has stirred controversy in the state Legislature for seeking to label Hispanic people who are gang members as terrorists. No other racial or ethnic group is singled out in the legislation

The bill, written by Republican state Rep. Justin Humphrey, proposes that any person who “is of Hispanic descent living within the state of Oklahoma,” is a member of a gang and has been convicted of “gang-related offenses” would be deemed a terrorist. Humphrey has since apologized for zeroing in on Hispanic people and plans to change the language in the bill to "undocumented"

Humphrey told NBC News that the bill was meant to focus on “those people who are here illegally and who are coming across the border and trying to do harm to America and to Oklahoma”[…]
Humphrey has also said that “Chinese nationals” are contributing to the fentanyl crisis, but did not explicitly mention that group in the bill. There were 3,547 unintentional drug overdose deaths in the state between 2017 to 2021, according to data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Fentanyl was involved in 579 of those deaths[…]
Humphrey has proposed another controversial bill this legislative session that seeks to use animal control to remove "furries," individuals who role-play as anthropomorphized animal characters, from school activities

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad; Ramesh Solanki #fundie nbcnews.com

Netflix has removed an Indian language film from its platform after the movie faced a backlash on social media for depicting the daughter of a Hindu priest eating meat.

Hindus are India’s largest religious grouping and Hindu priests, as well as their families, are typically vegetarian.

“Annapoorani — The Goddess of Food,” a Tamil-language film that was released in theaters in December and aired on Netflix later the same month, was no longer available on the international streaming platform as of Thursday.

[…]On Wednesday, protesters from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a hardline Hindu organization with ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, shouted slogans against Netflix and the movie at the company’s Mumbai office, according to a post on X by VHP spokesperson Shriraj Nair.

The film depicts the daughter of a Hindu temple priest in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu eating meat and later entering a high-stakes cooking contest, where she cooks meat.

“This film ... is intentionally released to hurt Hindu sentiments,” Ramesh Solanki, who described himself as the head of an organisation called “Hindu IT Cell,” said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Dylan Quattrucci #wingnut #psycho nbcnews.com

The No. 2 official in New Hampshire on Donald Trump's presidential campaign told police to kill themselves in an expletive-ridden Jan. 6 video shot close to the U.S. Capitol, according to a recording posted this month by an X account associated with the "Sedition Hunters," a group of online sleuths who have helped authorities identify hundreds of people present that day.

"If you are a police officer and are going to abide by unconstitutional bulls---, I want you to do me a favor right now and go hang yourself, because you’re a piece of s---," Dylan Quattrucci, the deputy state director of Trump's campaign in New Hampshire, says in the video. "Go f--- yourself."

Four officers who responded to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, later died by suicide. The Justice Department determined this month that one of the officers, Jeffrey Smith, died in the line of duty as part of a process that awards survivor benefits to his widow.

Two people who are familiar with Quattrucci confirmed to NBC News that the man in the video is him. The video shows him wearing the same outfit he was wearing in tweets he posted that day that were first surfaced by WMUR-TV of Manchester.

While the Capitol is in the background behind him, there is no evidence that he entered the building.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who testified in October at the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial, praised his former colleagues on Thursday night and called Quattrucci "a failure."

“I hope Dylan Quattrucci will take the time to comprehend that 4 members of Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Dept did die via suicide and that the efforts to stop the certification of duly elected President Biden failed in part because of their brave heroics,” U.S. Dunn told NBC News in a text message. “You are a failure. Those men will be remembered for service to their country. And you’ll be remembered as the guy in the cheap suit during the failed insurrection.”

Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe #wingnut #transphobia nbcnews.com

A recent comment by a Montana Republican state lawmaker who sponsored legislation to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors has gone viral and drawn backlash online.

State Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, suggested during a floor debate that she would rather risk her daughter dying by suicide than allow her to transition. Seekins-Crowe did not say that her daughter identified as transgender, but said she was “one of those parents who lived with a daughter who was suicidal for three years.”

"One of the big issues that we have heard today and we've talked about lately is that without surgery the risk of suicide goes way up. Well, I am one of those parents who lived with a daughter who was suicidal for three years," Seekins-Crowe said in her remarks in March. "Someone once asked me, 'Wouldn't I just do anything to help save her?' And I really had to think and the answer was, 'No.'"

"I was not going to give into her emotional manipulation because she was incapable of making those decisions and I had to make those decisions for her," Seekins-Crowe said.

She continued, "I was not going to let her tear apart my family and I was not going to let her tear apart me because I had to be strong for her, I had to have a vision for her life when she had none, was incapable of having none."

Seekins-Crowe said that she was scared and "spent hours on the floor in prayer because I didn't know that when I woke up, if my daughter was going to be alive or not. But I knew that I had to make those right decisions for her so that she would have a precious, successful adulthood at that time."

Ann Coulter #racist #fundie nbcnews.com

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is under fire for a racist tirade against new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley

In an appearance on the "The Mark Simone Show" podcast this week, Coulter made several xenophobic comments about Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents. "Why don't you go back to your own country?" Coulter said

Coulter, known for her racist and anti-immigrant stances, attacked India, as well

"Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history," she said. "What's with the worshipping of the cows? They're all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?"

Haley did not respond to a request for comment

Coulter also called Haley a "bimbo" and a "preposterous creature," criticizing her for having advocated removing the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse in the wake of the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston

"This is my country, lady," she said. "I'm not an American Indian, and I don't like them taking down all the monuments"

Rep. Mike Johnson and 32 other Republican Congresmen #wingnut #homophobia #transphobia nbcnews.com

A national 'Don't Say Gay' law? Republicans introduce bill to restrict LGBTQ-related programs

The bill’s definition of “sexually-oriented material” includes anything that relates to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Congressional Republicans introduced what some are calling a national version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill — or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana and 32 other Republican members of Congress on Tuesday introduced the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022, which would prohibit the use of federal funds “to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes.”

The bill defines “sexually-oriented material” as “any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects.”

The sweeping legislation would affect all federally funded facilities and programs, which would include public libraries, federally funded schools, military bases and hospitals. It would prohibit schools, for example, from providing sex education or library books that include LGBTQ topics to children under 10. It would also bar public libraries from using funds to host Drag Story Hour events — a national program started in 2015 in which drag performers read children’s books to kids.

Johnson described the bill as “commonsense.”

“The Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology,” he said in a statement. “No federal tax dollars should go to any federal, state, or local government agencies, or private organizations that intentionally expose children under 10 years of age to sexually explicit material.”

Some critics on social media have called the bill a version of Florida’s recently enacted Parental Rights in Education law “on steroids.”

[...]

Various fundie parents #biphobia #conspiracy #crackpot #dunning-kruger #fundie #magick #transphobia #god-complex #homophobia nbcnews.com

A mural painted by a high school student came under fire when parents alleged it was promoting LGBTQ imagery and witchcraft.

Earlier this year, a Grant, Michigan, high school sophomore won a contest “to brighten up” the middle school health center, according to a statement from Grant Public Schools (GPS). GPS says the student received approval to paint images of “smiling children” and as well as the message “Stay Healthy.”

image

At a school board meeting on Oct. 10, parents accused the student artist of promoting witchcraft by including the Hamsa hand [a Latin American good luck symbol] as well as the video game character that bears the likeness of a demon. Parents also objected to the use of LGBTQ colors.

“I put my art up there to make people feel welcome,” the student artist said, her voice breaking, in footage captured at the meeting by WZZM-TV, a local news station based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

One man at the meeting called the mural “hate material.”

Another adult at the meeting said, “I feel like (she) did a really good job finding excuses to defend the things you put on. None of us are that stupid.”

The student artist left the meeting in tears.

Igor Lanis #conspiracy #crackpot #psycho #quack #wingnut nbcnews.com

The Michigan man who gunned down his wife, nearly killed their daughter and was fatally shot by police had fallen down a “rabbit hole” of conspiracy theories leading up to the shooting, his other daughter said.

Lanis, a suburban Detroit auto industry employee, was arguing with his wife, Tina Lanis, 56, and daughter Rachel Lanis, 25, early Sunday when the two women were about to drive away from their home — but not before he opened fire with a shotgun, Rebecca Lanis said.

Rachel Lanis called 911 at about 4:11 a.m. Sunday and “stated that she had just been shot by her father” on Glenwood Drive in Walled Lake, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

When deputies and Walled Lake police arrived, Igor Lanis came out the front door with a Remington 870 pump action shotgun and shot at officers before they returned fire and killed him, the sheriff’s office said.

Tina Lanis was found dead, “shot multiple times in the back, and it appears that she was also attempting to flee out of the front door,” the sheriff’s office said.

The family dog, Sammy, also was found dead, shot multiple times.

Rebecca Lanis primarily blamed her father’s worsening mental state on QAnon, the false but widespread conspiracy theory about — among many other things — Trump’s leading a top-secret war on a cabal of pedophiles and criminals.

“In 2020, after the election, he started going insane. He went off the deep end," Rebecca Lanis said. "He started going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and QAnon. First it started with the ‘stolen election,’ and then he started talking about worse things, 5G, the vaccine, just everything."

She said he began to believe that the "deep state stole the election and that there’s a worldwide cabal out to get conservatives.”

Donald Trump #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #mammon nbcnews.com

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday defended hosting a Saudi-funded tournament at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, by casting doubt on any connection between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Asked to respond to harsh criticism from families of Sept. 11 victims who are urging Americans to protest the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament, Trump suggested there was still uncertainty surrounding the attacks.

“Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have,” Trump said.

Ricky Shiffer #wingnut #psycho #conspiracy nbcnews.com

A man identified by two law enforcement sources as Ricky Shiffer, who died in a confrontation with police after he fired a nail gun at a Cincinnati FBI building, appeared to post online in recent days about his desire to kill FBI agents shortly after former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was searched.

Two law enforcement officials confirmed Shiffer’s name. Shiffer was at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to three people aiding law enforcement who saw him in photos taken from the day of the attack; however, it’s unclear whether he went inside the building. Shiffer frequently posted about his attendance at the Capitol on social media.

On Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, Shiffer appeared to have posted a message detailing his failed attempt to gain entry to the FBI building.

“Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t. If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops while,” the account @RickyWShifferJr wrote at 9:29 a.m. ET, shortly after police allege the shooting occurred.

Shiffer posted to Truth Social multiple times in the days after the FBI searched Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, about wanting to engage in violence. One post called for people to arm themselves and be ready for “combat.” After another user responded that his photo and information had been forwarded to the FBI, Shiffer’s account responded: “Bring them on."

In response to another user who asked whether Shiffer was advocating for terrorism, Shiffer’s account responded that users should kill FBI agents “on sight” and also target a vague list of enemies who try to stop the slayings. In reply to another user Tuesday, the account responded, “You’re a fool if you think there’s a nonviolent solution.”

Russian Duma #homophobia nbcnews.com

Russian parliament moves to expand 'gay propaganda' law
The expanded measure would ban public discussion of LGBTQ relationships in a positive or neutral light, and any LGBTQ content in cinemas.

Russia’s parliament moved Monday to tighten already stringent restrictions on the discussion of LGBTQ rights and relationships.

A draft bill calling for the broadening of a 2013 ban on the “promotion of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors, widely referred to as the “gay propaganda” bill, was announced on the website of the parliament, or Duma.

Introduced by a cross-party group of six Communist and socially conservative deputies, the bill would ban public discussion of LGBTQ relationships in a positive or neutral light, and any LGBTQ content in cinemas.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliament speaker and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed similar measures earlier this month. On July 8, he spoke in favor of a broad ban on disseminating information on LGBTQ relationships after Russia had withdrawn from the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, in March.

“With the exit from the Council of Europe, demands to legalize same-sex marriages in Russia have become a thing of the past. Attempts to impose alien values on our society have failed,” Volodin wrote on Telegram.

Pro-Kremlin figures have repeatedly pitched the ongoing war in Ukraine as a battle against “Western values,” which they say include LGBTQ visibility and rights.

On the same day the bill was submitted for consideration, Putin formally recalled Russia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, via a decree published Monday on the Russian government portal for legal information.

Last month, Putin signed into law a bill releasing Russia from its responsibility to enforce ECHR judgments issued after March 15, when Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe. The ECHR was established by a 1953 convention drafted by the then-newly formed council, which all member states are expected to ratify.

Payton Gendron #racist #conspiracy #wingnut nbcnews.com

A manifesto allegedly written and posted by the suspect in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 people laid out specific plans to attack Black people and repeatedly cited the “great replacement" theory[…]
The manifesto, which appears to have been written by 18-year-old Payton Gendron, included a shared birth date and biographical details with the suspect in custody. The PDF was originally posted to Google Docs at 8:55 p.m. Thursday, two days before the shooting[…]
The manifesto, which has not been modified since it was posted on Thursday, includes elaborate details of a planned shooting. The document claims the suspect chose Buffalo because it was the city with the highest number of Black people in his vicinity[…]
The manifesto includes dozens of pages antisemitic and racist memes, repeatedly citing the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory frequently pushed by white supremacists, which falsely claims white people are being “replaced” in America as part of an elaborate Jewish conspiracy theory. Other memes use tropes and discredited data to denigrate the intelligence of nonwhite people[…]
Gendron claims that he was radicalized on 4chan while he was “bored” at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020

The document also claims “critical race theory,” a recent right-wing talking point that has come to generally encompass teaching about race in school, is part of a Jewish plot, and a reason to justify mass killings of Jews[…]
Gendron repeatedly cites Brenton Tarrant[…]
Suspect said he planned to post his manifesto and links to his livestream to 4chan, to a knockoff of the now-defunct extremist website 8chan and to servers he frequented on the chat service Discord, in part to see if his livestream was working

Danny McCormick & Louisiana legislators #crackpot #wingnut #sexist nbcnews.com

Louisiana lawmakers advance bill that would classify abortion as homicide

A bill advanced Wednesday by Louisiana legislators would classify abortion as a homicide, potentially allowing authorities to charge women and girls with murder and criminalize in vitro fertilization, critics said.

The bill, dubbed the Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act, passed 7-2 out of a state House subcommittee two days after Politico published a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that the court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The bill will now move to a full House vote. The legislation would still need support from the Senate and the governor before it could become law.

Speaking at a hearing Wednesday, the bill’s sponsor, Danny McCormick, compared the move to flout federal laws protecting abortion to the state’s approval of medical marijuana.

"If more than 15 states can defy the federal government, we can do it to save the lives of innocent babies," he said. “We cannot wait for the Supreme Court to confirm that innocent babies have the right to life."

“The taking of a life is murder, and it is illegal," he added.

The bill’s text, which says the legislation aims to “ensure the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all unborn children from the moment of fertilization,” it instructs the state to disregard federal abortion rulings, including Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Ellie Schilling, a Louisiana lawyer who represents reproductive health care providers, said at the hearing that the bill would amend state law to allow authorities to charge someone who is pregnant with homicide or criminal battery “at any stage of gestation,” according to Reuters.

Palmetto State Armory #wingnut #mammon #psycho nbcnews.com

Gun dealers are marketing weapon parts and ammunition using a right-wing slogan widely understood as code for profanity directed at President Joe Biden.

Palmetto State Armory, which operates a 12,000-square-foot gun store in Columbia, S.C., the state capital, is marketing a “LETSGO-15 Stripped Lower Receiver,” which is a part meant for an AR-15-style assault rifle.

The product description on the company’s website says the fire selector on the weapon part features three modes: “’F@CK!’” (Safe), “’JOE!’” (Fire), “’BIDEN!’” (Full-Auto).”

“Love how PSA is in touch with the current Let’s Go Brandon situation,” says one of the comments below the product description. “More than half of America and other parts of the world are chanting. The current administration is destroying our country.”

The company did not respond to NBC News requests for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates threats against the president, declined to comment.

At least two other firms in other states, Culper Precision and My Southern Tactical, are advertising an AR-15 magazine for sale with a “Let’s Go Brandon” sticker.

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” has become right-wing code for “F--- Joe Biden." It originated from a moment during an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, when a driver named Brandon Brown was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. A nearby crowd was chanting something difficult to make out, and the reporter suggested they were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer the winning driver. But it became increasingly clear they were saying, “F--- Joe Biden.”

A stripped lower receiver is the part of the AR-15 rifle that contains the serial number, making it the only part of the weapon required to be purchased through a licensed dealer.

Garrett Soldano #fundie #sexist nbcnews.com

A Michigan Republican candidate for governor recently said that rape victims who become pregnant shouldn’t get abortions, according to a video of the comment that went viral Monday.

Garrett Soldano made the remark on the right-wing podcast “Face the Facts with April Moss,” and a liberal news site, Heartland Signal, tweeted a video of the conversation Monday.

Soldano, a chiropractor running in a crowded Michigan race, said that he wants to promote a culture that inspires pregnant women to have their babies and lets them know "how heroic they are and how unbelievable that they are, that God put them in this moment. And they don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person that changes humanity.”

Soldano shared a story about how one of his mentors was adopted and learned that his birth mother had been raped by several men in a subway station.

“It kind of like tore out his heart when he found that out, but then he started to really appreciate and understand what his birth mother went through, that she had the courage to deliver him,” Soldano said, adding that his mentor went on to help thousands of people improve their lives.

Black Oxygen Organics #quack #mammon nbcnews.com

The social media posts started in May: photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of the black water. They tagged the posts #BOO and linked to a website that sold a product called Black Oxygen Organics

Black Oxygen Organics, or “BOO” for short, is difficult to classify. It was marketed as fulvic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants, that was dug up from an Ontario peat bog. The website of the Canadian company that sold it billed it as “the end product and smallest particle of the decomposition of ancient, organic matter”

Put more simply, the product is dirt — four-and-a-half ounces of it, sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie and sold for $110 plus shipping
[…]
BOO[…]claims many benefits and uses, including improved brain function and heart health, and ridding the body of so-called toxins that include heavy metals, pesticides and parasites
[…]
Testimonials like these make up the majority of posts in dozens of Facebook groups, set up and overseen by BOO sellers, with hundreds of thousands of collective members, where BOO is heralded as a miracle drug. Teams of sellers in these private Facebook groups claim that, beyond cosmetic applications, BOO can cure everything from autism to cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. Conveniently in these times, BOO proponents say it also protects against and treats Covid-19, and can be used to “detox” the newly vaccinated, according to posts viewed by NBC News
[…]
Black Oxygen Organics’ compensation plan, like most MLMs, is convoluted. According to their company handbook, sellers, called “brand partners,” can earn income in two distinct ways: through retail commissions on bags of BOO they sell, and through recruiting other sellers

Gina Peddy #crackpot nbcnews.com

A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom

A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up”
[…]
Peddy did not respond to messages requesting comment. In a written response to a question about Peddy’s remarks, Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district is trying to help teachers comply with the new state law and an updated version that will go into effect in December, Texas Senate Bill 3

“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements”[…]“Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable”

Rick Santorum #crackpot #racist #wingnut #fundie nbcnews.com

[Article from April 26, 2021]

Rick Santorum says 'there isn't much Native American culture in American culture'

The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania made the remarks to a conservative audience as part of a broader comment on America's early European settlers.

In remarks to conservative group the Young America's Foundation on Friday, Santorum argued that the culture of the United States is largely unchanged since it was birthed by "Judeo-Christian" values.

Santorum, 62, a Republican from Pennsylvania who served in the Senate from 1995 to 2007 and is now a CNN commentator, said there was "nothing here" before European settlers arrived.

"We came here and created a blank slate," Santorum said. "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."

Cynthia Abcug #conspiracy #crackpot nbcnews.com

A Colorado woman has been accused of plotting to kidnap her child, who had been removed from her custody, in a raid with the help of far-right QAnon conspiracy theorists.

The woman, Cynthia Abcug, 50, was charged last month with conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping, according to police in Parker, in Douglas County.

According to an arrest affidavit, Abcug's daughter, who was still in her custody, told police and child services caseworkers in September that her mother had "gotten into some conspiracy theories and she was 'spiraling down it'" since her sibling was removed from the home. She also said her mother had stopped attending therapy two months earlier.

Abcug's daughter said her mother had become abusive and was planning a "raid" to get her other child back, the affidavit said.

The girl also said that her mother had procured a gun and that an armed man — who she said was "definitely part of this group QAnon" and was sleeping on their couch for "self-defense" — planned to carry out the kidnapping raid with her mother, according to the affidavit.

Eduardo Moreno #conspiracy nbcnews.com

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors charged a locomotive engineer who worked at the Port of Los Angeles with intentionally derailing a train at full speed near the Navy hospital ship Mercy because of suspicions over its activities surrounding COVID-19, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro, California, was charged with one count under a little-known train-wrecking statute that carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in the incident Tuesday, according to the 10-page criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Moreno, who was held overnight, was turned over to FBI agents Wednesday morning. He was expected to make an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors claim Moreno ran the train off the tracks. It crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest more than 250 yards from the Mercy in an incident that was captured on video.

Although the train leaked fuel oil, which required cleanup by firefighters and other hazardous materials personnel, no one was hurt.

A California Highway Patrol officer who witnessed the crash and took Moreno into custody told authorities that he saw the train, which is used to haul shipping cargo, smash through a barrier at the end of the tracks before it drove through several obstacles, including a steel barrier and a chain-link fence. It slid through one parking lot and another filled with gravel and smashed into a second chain-link fence, according to the affidavit.

The complaint alleges that when the officer approached him, Moreno said: "You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching. I had to. People don't know what's going on here. Now they will."

The affidavit said Moreno, who waived his right to speak to an attorney before being interviewed by investigators, admitted in two post-arrest interviews that he intentionally ran the train off the track because he wanted to bring attention to the government's activities regarding COVID-19 and was suspicious of the Mercy.

In his first interview with Los Angeles port police, Moreno acknowledged that he "did it," saying he was suspicious of the Mercy and believed it had an alternative purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover, the affidavit states.

Moreno also told investigators that he acted alone and had not planned the attempted attack, according to the affidavit. He said he knew that derailing and crashing the train would bring media attention and that "people could see for themselves," referring to the Mercy, according to the affidavit.

In a second interview with FBI agents, Moreno said "he did it out of the desire to 'wake people up,'" according to the affidavit. "Moreno stated that he thought that the U.S.N.S. Mercy was suspicious and did not believe 'the ship is what they say it's for,'" it said.

Ralph Drollinger #fundie #homophobia nbcnews.com

In a blog post titled “Is God Judging America Today?” a pastor who leads a weekly bible study group for members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet appeared to blame the coronavirus pandemic on several groups, including those who have “a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality.”

America “is experiencing the consequential wrath of God,” the Rev. Ralph Drollinger wrote in a lengthy March 21 "Bible study" on his Capitol Ministries blog, which caused outrage among several national LGBTQ advocacy groups.

In addition to gays and lesbians, Drollinger — who The New York Times recently referred to as the Trump Cabinet's “shadow diplomat” — also laid blame on people with “depraved minds,” environmentalists and those who deny the existence of God for igniting "God's wrath."

In an email sent to NBC News on Thursday, however, Drollinger said his coronavirus post was misinterpreted, adding that he does not "believe that homosexuality played any role whatsoever in the coronavirus."

Follow along here for live updates on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

He explained that when it comes to God, there are a "panoply of wraths." So while he believes homosexuality causes one type of God's wrath (wrath of abandonment), it's a different type than that which may have manifested in the coronavirus (sowing and reaping wrath).

James Mason #racist #wingnut #psycho nbcnews.com

A fan of Charles Manson and follower of Hitler, James Mason published essays in the 1980s that now act as the inspiration for a militant neo-Nazi group linked to multiple murders in the U.S.

“Revolutionary discipline must mean that WE will be the single survivor in a war against the System,” Mason wrote in 1985. “A TOTAL WAR against the System.”

But nowadays, Mason isn’t waging war with the system. He is, in fact, dependent on it.

The 67-year-old white supremacist lives in a government subsidized apartment in Denver and eats at soup kitchens.

In a brief interview last week, a few days after he was spotted picking up a meal at a city-run center for “homeless and hungry seniors,” Mason said he sees no contradiction between his writings and his lifestyle.

“Guerilla warfare, man. Guerilla warfare,” Mason told NBC's Denver affiliate KUSA. “You’ve gotta take what you have to get what you need.”

Mason’s old writings have gained new life with the rise of the Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group bent on overthrowing the government through terrorist acts and guerrilla warfare tactics.

[...]

In a typed letter, Mason initially declined an interview with KUSA for “purely tactical reasons.” But a reporter caught up with him this month.

In the interview, Mason rejected the suggestion that Nazis have been in decline since losing World War II.

“Look at the shape society is in. Look at the goddamned shootings. Look at the drugs. The suicides and the crime and everything else,” Mason said.

“I say this country lost. And decade by decade I see my beliefs proven over and over again. We’re prophets. Nobody’s listening to us, but they’re going right off the cliff thinking we’re nuts.”

Mason initially seemed to push back against the idea that his writing had inspired young neo-Nazis to commit violence. “If they were acting on my words, they wouldn’t be doing the things they’re doing,” he said.

But Mason, who insisted he's not a member of Atomwaffen, followed with an ominous and ambiguous statement about the possibility of violence.

“If you must do it, it seems to me to be only common sense that you’d want to do it right,” Mason said.

“Because it’s the end of your life. You may die out there in the street via SWAT team, or you may spend the rest of your life in the joint. Make it count for god’s sake.”

He did not elaborate.

First Assembly of God Church in Blackwell members and Rev. Bill McKissick #fundie #homophobia nbcnews.com

A church is under investigation after a gay man said he was ambushed and held down by congregants who tried to pray away his sexuality.

Sean Cormie, 23, told KFOR-TV, NBC’s Oklahoma City affiliate, that his family had been urging him and his partner, Gary Garner, to attend services at First Assembly of God Church in Blackwell, Oklahoma, ever since Cormie came out as gay last spring. After months of persuasion, the pair attended services on Sept. 8.

“I wanted to go to church and make my mom proud,” Cormie said.

After the service, the pastor, Bill McKissick, began preaching about homosexuality and approximately 12 congregants gathered around the couple, according to Cormie.

"They hold me down, pin me down, and I’m crying, and the Holy Spirit just comes through me, and they keep speaking in tongues, praying over me," Cormie said. "I was just crying, 'Mercy, mercy.'"

Cormie said that Garner was pushed out of the church, but as Cormie attempted to leave, he was punched in the face and held down by the congregation. After leaving the church, Cormie filed a police report with the Blackwell Police Department. Police Chief Dwayne Wood confirmed to NBC News that the investigation is ongoing.

McKissick and his wife, Tami, who is also a pastor at the same Pentecostal church, issued a statement on Facebook about the incident, stating that the church’s congregation “is comprised of people from all different backgrounds.”

“In response to allegations that have been made, this incident began as a family matter that escalated. Our church would never condone restraint of any person unless they were engaged in violent activity,” the McKissicks wrote. “There is much more to this story, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement to bring all of the facts to light as a rush to judgment is not in anyone's best interest.”

Liberty Counsel and Mat Staver #homophobia nbcnews.com

The U.S. Senate last month unanimously passed a bill that would explicitly make lynching a federal crime. Not everyone, however, is pleased with passage of the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act.

Liberty Counsel, an evangelical nonprofit that opposes gay rights, and its chairman, Mat Staver, are taking issue with the bill’s inclusion of LGBTQ people.

"The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can't stop them from coming the rest of the way in," Staver said in an interview with conservative Christian news outlet OneNewsNow. “This is a way to slip it in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the juggler [sic] at some time in the future."

Staver told OneNewsNow that his organization, which has been labeled an anti-LGBTQ “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is lobbying lawmakers in the House to have them remove the bill’s “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” language before taking a vote.

Similarly, the group encouraged Congress in November to remove language about "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" discrimination from a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

Marcie Bianco #sexist nbcnews.com

What does a midlife crisis look like in the 21st century?

Frittering away your life savings on a red sports car is so last century. Instead, today’s man who is grappling with the limitations of his mortality spends $90 million on a rocket to launch a $100,000 electric car, helmed by a robot by the name of “Starman,” into space.

“We want a new space race,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in a press conference shortly after the launch of his company’s Falcon Heavy rocket — and his Tesla Roadster — into space earlier in February. Like a child, he gleefully continued, “Space races are exciting.”

And Musk isn’t the only billionaire looking to enter the space race. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has his private aerospace company, Blue Origin, while Virgin’s Richard Branson, a prominent adventurer, created Virgin Galactic back in 2004.

These men, particularly Musk, are not only heavily invested in who can get their rocket into space first, but in colonizing Mars. The desire to colonize — to have unquestioned, unchallenged and automatic access to something, to any type of body, and to use it at will — is a patriarchal one. Indeed, there is no ethical consideration among these billionaires about whether this should be done; rather, the conversation is when it will be done. Because, in the eyes of these intrepid explorers, this is the only way to save humanity.

It is the same instinctual and cultural force that teaches men that everything — and everyone — in their line of vision is theirs for the taking. You know, just like walking up to a woman and grabbing her by the pussy.

It’s there, so just grab it because you can.

The desire to colonize — to have unquestioned, unchallenged and automatic access to something — is a patriarchal one.

“I want to be clear, I think we should be a multi-planet species, not a single planet species on another planet,” Musk said at the 2015 Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. “What kind of future do you want to have? Do you want to have a future where we are forever confined to one planet—or—one where we are on many planets?”

This Columbusing attitude — a strident business acumen laced with an imperialist ethos — comes with an air of benevolence: Musk doesn’t just want to colonize Mars to satisfy his ego. No, he wants to colonize Mars to help his fellow humans. “I really think there are two fundamental paths [for humans]: One path is we stay on Earth forever, and some eventual extinction event wipes us out,” he said.

In this way, colonizing Mars is a “collective life insurance policy.” Although considering the last 500 years of colonization on this planet alone, one could wonder whose lives, according to Musk and other rich white men like himself, are worth being insured.

But again, this impulse to enter the “space race” isn’t simply the embodiment of the American spirit of invention or forward-thinking entrepreneurship. Neither is it driven by the kind of nationalist Cold War fervor that inspired the creation of America’s space program in the 1950s.

Rather, the impulse to colonize — to colonize lands, to colonize peoples, and, now that we may soon be technologically capable of doing so, colonizing space — has its origins in gendered power structures. Entitlement to power, control, domination and ownership. The presumed right to use and abuse something and then walk away to conquer and colonize something new.

The Friday before SpaceX’s launch, legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin reiterated to me over lunch that it is imperative that we talk about space exploration in terms of “migration,” rather than using words like “colonize” or “settle” when talking about going to Mars.

Through a feminist lens, Aldrin’s deliberate word choice revealed an important reality of the space race: This 21st century form of imperialism is the direct result of men giving up on the planet they have all but destroyed.

Luis Javier Ruiz & Christopher Doyle #fundie #homophobia #transphobia nbcnews.com

A survivor of the June 2016 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 people dead now says he has found Christ and is no longer gay.

“I should have been number 50!,” Luis Javier Ruiz said in a message posted to Facebook. “Going through old pictures of the night of Pulse, I remember my struggles of perversion, heavy drinking to drown out everything and having promiscuous sex that led to HIV. My struggles were real! The enemy had its grip, and now God has taken me from that moment and has given me Christ.”

Ruiz shared this revelation just ahead of the Freedom March, to be held May 5 in Washington. The event bills itself as a “celebration of freedom from homosexuality and transgenderism. The event's organizers have partnered with Voice of the Voiceless, a religious group whose mission is “to defend the rights of former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attraction, and their families,” according to its website.

Christopher Doyle, founder of Voice of the Voiceless, told NBC News this weekend's event is "about celebrating our lives and not hating the LGBTQ movement."

"We made a conscious choice to leave homosexuality, and we should be able to do that without being mocked," Doyle wrote in an email.

Ruiz, who was featured in a social media post for the Freedom March above the words “Homosexuals Can Change!,” is expected to attend Saturday's event along with others “celebrating freedom from homosexual/transgender lifestyles,” according to the Freedom March’s Facebook page.

Ruiz did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.

Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs #sexist nbcnews.com

Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs recently announced it has compiled a list naming 367 suspected gay citizens to test them for sexually transmitted diseases, according to the official journal published by the Central Asian country's Prosecutor-General’s Office.

The journal also said prosecutors and police identified the 319 men and 48 women through operations called “Purge” and “Morality” but did not describe the methods used or the purpose of the operations.

An anonymous police source told news agency AFP that the government created the registry, because “strict medical records were needed for members of the gay community because such people have a high risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections through infectious diseases.”

Neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Prosecutor-General’s Office could be immediately reached to comment on these statements.

Various Neo-Nazis #racist nbcnews.com

[Excerpt of news article entitled German Neo-Nazis Embrace Vegan Cooking, Techno Music, Hipster Clothes]

MUNICH, Germany — Neo-Nazis are keeping their black combat boots and bomber jackets in the closet as they try to force their way into mainstream German society.

Security officials say many young fascists are adopting more stylish and less intimidating images, with some branded "nipsters" after embracing hipster-style clothing as well as techno and hip hop music.

Far-right extremists even recently launched a "Vegan Cooking Channel" on YouTube featuring masked young men preparing simple recipes and providing household tips.

"If the young people don’t find skinhead types attractive, then they [the neo-Nazis] will simply die out, so they have to find something new," said Daniel Koehler, an expert on radicalization who has counseled right-wing extremists in the past. “There are many different ways in which neo-Nazis now portray themselves" that are "not immediately seen as the violent skinhead, neo-Nazi type," he added.

“When they find new recruits, who have grown up with the Internet, a different type of music, a different clothing style, they will bring them in,” Koehler told NBC News.

Issues such as animal rights, the environment, equality for women are sometimes used as a smoke screen by the extremists as they try to lure followers to their scene.

Germany’s far-right NPD party once launched a youth welfare service, which offered to help young people find jobs. It has also tried to bring its extremist ideology to young people through with the release of so-called "schoolyard CDs."

Contemporary right-wing bands such as Kategorie C, which offer "Anti Sharia Team" T-shirts to fans on its website, and rapper Makss Damage, whose lyrics include "Kill these anti-German sons of b******," are among the new generation of artists making waves.

And in April, two far-right extremists wearing Cookie Monster costumes were arrested by police, while trying to lure in young children with leaflets reading, "To be German is cool."

Anti-Trump protesters #fundie nbcnews.com

The protesters seemed polite at first.

"Please move," one of them told limo driver Luis Villarroel as he stepped out of a stretch Lincoln at 12th and K streets. He'd just dropped off clients headed to President Trump's inauguration, and was looking for a spot to wait for the return trip.

Before he could do anything, things turned ugly.

Several people began pounding on the car. Villarroel, who is 58 and has driven trucks and limos for a quarter century, said he asked them to stop.

With that, they turned on him.

Random objects rained down. A sandwich. A half of a brick. Something cut his hand.

"These kids, mostly they were kids, you couldn't see their faces but you could tell they were young," Villarroel recalled later. "I think they think that the limo represents people who are rich and use the limo."

He watched someone throw a flare into the car. He stamped out the flames with his shoes.

Then police came, releasing pepper spray and flash grenades. They told him to get out of there.

Before he left, Villarroel saw the crowd jumping on the limo. Then he saw the car catch fire.

Later, he saw footage of it burning on TV. Police and witnesses said windows of businesses were also smashed, and bricks were thrown at police during the day of protests that roiled the nation's capital.

He called his employer, who sent a replacement limo to ferry his clients home again.

"I had a bad experience today, but I am still alive," the married father of one said.

As for the protesters, Villarroel had a clear message: "They have the right to protest but they don't have the right to destroy things."

Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. #quack #wingnut nbcnews.com

Anti-Vaccine Activist Says Trump Asked Him to Head Commission on Vaccine Safety

After meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower Tuesday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told reporters that Trump has asked him to "chair a commission on vaccination safety and scientific integrity" and that he has accepted.

Both Trump and Kennedy have spread fringe theories linking vaccines to autism in children, an idea that medical experts overwhelmingly reject and have warned is endangering public health by discouraging parents from immunizing their kids.

"President-elect Trump has some doubts about the current vaccine policies and he has questions about it," Kennedy told the press. "He says his opinion doesn't matter ... but the science does matter, and we ought to be reading the science and we ought to be debating the science."

A spokesman for Trump, Hope Hicks, told NBC News later that the president-elect was "exploring the possibility of forming a committee on autism" with Kennedy but that "no decisions have been made at this time."

Kennedy drew fire last year for describing a "holocaust" of children allegedly hurt by immunization at a screening of a film on the topic (he later apologized for the term).

Trump tweeted several times in 2014 that the use of multiple vaccinations caused autism, claiming at one point "the doctors lied." Doctors and researchers who specialize in infectious diseases expressed concern after Trump and other candidates promoted the theory in a Republican debate in September 2015.

"Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic," Trump said at the time.

He offered no details or evidence on the case. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement after the debate calling his comments "dangerous to public health."

On Tuesday, the AAP's leaders offered "to share the extensive scientific evidence demonstrating the safety of vaccines" with the new commission.

"Claims that vaccines are linked to autism, or are unsafe when administered according to the recommended schedule, have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature," the group said in a statement. "Delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease."

Autism Speaks, an organization that advocates for individuals with autism, released a statement to NBC News after Trump's meeting with Kennedy, reiterating its conclusion that vaccines were unrelated to the condition.

"Over the last two decades, extensive research has asked whether there is any link between childhood vaccinations and autism," the statement said. "The results of this research are clear: Vaccines do not cause autism."

Doctors trace the popular fear to a debunked 1998 study in the British medical journal Lancet that the publication later retracted after discovering its lead author was involved in a lawsuit against drug companies and used flawed methods.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there is no link between autism and vaccines, citing numerous subsequent studies. An Immunization Safety Commission organized by the Institute of Medicine examined the issue and reached the same conclusion in multiple reports.

But the theory persists, aided in part by celebrity advocates. Experts have warned that this small but vocal group of doubters is helping fuel outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough in communities where parents decline to vaccinate their children.

Health experts who have worked on vaccination policy and science strongly criticized Kennedy's reported new role in interviews.

Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor of maternal and child health who chaired the Immunization Safety Commission, expressed concern that Trump and Kennedy might lend a presidential seal to misinformation.

"If the committee comes out saying there is an [autism] association, there will be people who avoid vaccines," McCormick told NBC News. "There have been actual deaths attributed to lower immunization rates."

Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and father of an adult daughter with autism, said he feared the commission could provide new momentum for vaccine skeptics at home and abroad.

"By appointing [Kennedy], it's going to create a new national 'anti-vaxxer' movement," he said.

Trump has generally been skeptical of scientific expertise, however. He has repeatedly claimed the overwhelming body of research linking climate change to human activities is a hoax.

He is one of several politicians to draw rebukes from medical experts in recent years for entertaining vaccination and autism links. Former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann claimed an HPV vaccine caused a child to become "retarded" after a Republican debate in 2011. More recently, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), an ophthalmologist, and Dr. Ben Carson, a surgeon, also raised concerns that too many vaccines pose a danger.

In 2008, then-candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain indicated to activists concerned about the issue that they supported research into the matter. Obama and Clinton later said that the science was settled and urged families to vaccinate their children.

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