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Iowa Republican demands Trump and DeSantis pay him for endorsement of his 'Patriotic Tractor'
May 30, 2023
Gary Leffler, an Iowa Republican whose "Patriotic Tractor" has long been a staple of the Iowa Caucus scene, says he's now open for business when it comes to his 2020 presidential endorsement.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Leffler said that he's keeping his options open for the 2024 primary, although he was a staunch Trump supporter before.
However, there is only one factor that will determine which candidate gets the coveted backing of him and his "Patriotic Tractor": Whoever hands over more cold, hard cash.
The Post reports that Leffler has gone to both the Trump campaign and that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ask them about the possibility of paying for his endorsement, but so far he hasn't reached a deal with either one.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'We were indoctrinated': Some Christian home-schoolers say they're breaking away from 'abuse'
"We don’t really look at it as a bidding war as much as my wife and I are praying and want to make sure we would feel comfortable in the direction,” Leffler told the Post. “We want to retire... We’ve been very upfront with both campaigns: we’re not doing it for free.”
The Iowa caucuses are a crucial early battle for Republican candidates, although winning them is not predictive of winning the nomination overall, as past winners of the caucuses have included Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), neither of whom went on to be nominated for the presidency.
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No president in US history 'abused the pardon power' more 'brazenly' than Trump: author
May 30, 2023
Former President Donald Trump has promised to pardon a "large portion" of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 if he wins the 2024 presidential election. It's a promise he would likely make good on; during his four years in the White House, Trump granted presidential pardons to a long list of cronies who were convicted of or pled guilty to federal crimes — from GOP operative Roger Stone to Paul Manafort (Trump's former 2016 campaign manager) to Michael Flynn (Trump's former national security adviser).
In an article published by The Bulwark on May 30, author Gabriel Schoenfeld stresses that America's Founding Fathers had good reasons for giving presidents the pardon power. But Trump, Schoenfeld laments, repeatedly "abused" that power — and will surely abuse it "on an even greater scale" if he returns to the White House in January 2025.
Schoenfeld explains, "The pardon power has deep roots in British law, with a precedent at least as far back as the statutory rolls of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs in the 7th and 8th Centuries…. As for the scope of the power, the Framers believed it should be exceptionally broad.… The pardon power granted to the president by the Constitution is nearly absolute."
But Trump, Schoenfeld adds, used "the pardon power in unprecedented fashion."
"The man who abused the pardon power in this brazen way is now once again the frontrunner in the Republican primary contest for the presidency," Schoenfeld warns. "Given President Joe Biden's age, given the fact that in 2020, Trump missed tying Biden in the Electoral College by a mere 45,000 votes, and given the fact that Trump actually succeeded in winning the presidency in 2016, there is an all-too-real possibility that he will be returned to the White House in 2024. During this month's CNN townhall, Trump said that if reelected, he would be 'inclined to pardon many' people convicted for their involvement in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol."
Schoenfeld continues, "Of course, one cannot know in advance, but this well might include those convicted of sedition — members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — like Oath Keeper leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes, sentenced last week to serve 18 years in prison. If Trump were to pardon Rhodes and his co-conspirators, along with many of the other roughly 1000 January 6th defendants, Trump will be in a position to forge what amounts to a personal militia, whose members, grateful and loyal to him, will have license to work his will outside of the law, secure in the knowledge that they will be pardoned, including for felonies as serious as sedition."
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'We were indoctrinated': Some Christian home-schoolers say they're breaking away from 'abuse'
May 30, 2023
A growing number of parents are rejecting their deeply conservative Christian upbringing and sending their own children to public school to help break the cycle of abuse and indoctrination they experienced, according to a report.
The Washington Post profiled a couple that had been taught growing up that public schools were demonic "indoctrination camps" aimed at destroying Christian families. But after a crisis of faith, they decided to send their own 6-year-old daughter to the elementary school near their Virginia home – and have been amazed at the education and social opportunities they had missed out on themselves.
“People who think the public schools are indoctrinating don’t know what indoctrination is. We were indoctrinated,” said Aaron Beall. “It’s not even comparable.”
The couple first rejected the terrifying corporal punishment their parents had inflicted, as prescribed by the book “To Train Up a Child” by the popular Christian home-schooling authors Michael and Debi Pearl. They soon found themselves questioning other aspects of their upbringing, the Post reported.
“When it came time for me to hit my kids, that was the first independent thought I remember having: ‘This can’t be right. I think I’ll just skip this part,’” Aaron Beall said, adding that he felt disoriented by his newfound skepticism. “It’s like having the rug pulled out from under your feet. All of reality is kind of up for grabs.”
The self-taught software engineer eventually lost his faith, and that caused his wife Christina to begin questioning the biblical literalism and patriarchal values that had been instilled in her, although she kept her religious faith.
“This is the guy I’ve been married to for eight years,” Christina recalled thinking. “I know him. I know his heart. I know what kind of parent he wants to be to our kids. These easy answers of ‘Oh, you’re just not a Christian anymore, you just want to sin’ … didn’t work anymore.”
The Bealls knew of many home-schooling families that had drifted away from the religious dogma that had been imposed on them, and they came to believe the law failed to protect children growing up in that world.
“It’s specifically a system that is set up to hide the abuse, to make them invisible, to strip them of any capability of getting help. And not just in a physical way,” Christina said. “At some point, you become so mentally imprisoned you don’t even realize you need help.”
Last year, a year after their daughter had started first grade, the couple decided to enroll their three other school-age children in Round Hill Elementary, and even their daughter wondered what might have been if her parents had the same opportunities she had been afforded.
“You should have asked to go to school,” said Aimee, who just completed her second-grade year. “It affects your whole life.”
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