Tag Archives: chris rodda

Mikey Weinstein also Accused of Faking Harassment as USAFA Cadet

In light of the recent revelation that an African-American Cadet Candidate at the USAFA Prep School “faked” racial harassment on himself and his peers, it’s worth remembering another Air Force Academy cadet who was once accused of faking prejudiced attacks on himself.

That would be then-Cadet Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.

In 1973, Cadet Fourth Class Mikey Weinstein was a member of CS-36, the Pink Panthers. It was there, in his first semester, that he says he experienced the anti-Semitism that he now says formed the foundation for his activism in later life. That harassment reportedly came in the form of notes taped to or slid under his dorm room door.

The short version: The harassing notes were investigated, Mikey Weinstein was accused of being the author of the notes, and Weinstein then punched an active duty officer investigating the incident.  The entire incident mysteriously went away after Weinstein had an 0200 rendezvous in the woods with a cloaked figure from the Anti-Defamation League.

Seriously.

In 2005, just as Mikey Read more

MRFF Gives MRFF an MRFF Award for Donating to MRFF

Mikey Weinstein’s good side, via Pam Zubeck.

A few years ago, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein begged his supporters to search for awards that his “charity” could win, even saying they’d provide the supporting text for the submission — meaning, of course, the MRFF was essentially trying to get itself “awarded”. And Weinstein wasn’t even shy about the motivation for such self-promotion, clearly stating on his own website at the time [emphasis added]: Read more

A Thousand Air Force Trainees Attend Humanist Chapel…Sort of

Over the past couple of years a group of self-described atheists and humanists has been hosting an alternative Sunday service for trainees at Air Force basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX. The effort was largely led by Victoria Gettman, a former US Army Sergeant on whose behalf Michael “Mikey” Weinstein once promised (and, predictably, failed to deliver) an “aggressive” federal lawsuit.

Gettman and her cadre have been lauding the attendance numbers at their non-theistic weekly gathering — including the fact it has now reached 1,000, the maximum capacity of the venue granted by the Air Force, meaning they have to turn trainees away.  But Gettman’s explanation has an interesting caveat [emphasis added]: Read more

Mikey Weinstein’s Lawyer Donald Rehkopf Lies in Accusation of Lying

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and those who work with his “charity,” the contradictorily named Military Religious Freedom Foundation, seem to have a innate problem with telling the truth. (Weinstein lackey Chris Rodda is the most famous, as she’s frequently made easily disprovable false statements in an apparent effort to defend the MRFF’s reputation.)

The most recent example of this lack of integrity came from Donald Rehkopf, the most recent legal face of Weinstein’s MRFF. (Despite being a lawyer — and the only paid member of the MRFF — Weinstein defers to others rather than act for his own organization.)

In a supreme twist of hypocrisy, Rehkopf was trying to accuse someone of lying — while not being so forthright himself.

Apparently set back on their heels by Tommy Vallejos’ defense of Sonny Hernandez, Donald Rehkopf declined to make a calm, reasoned, and rational rebuttal.  Rather, the MRFF advocate submitted a response claiming Vallejos was lying. Said Rehkopf:

It is ironic to have to remind the Rev. Tommy Vallejos of one of the Ten Commandments — not to lie.

Yet, in his Opinion letter, “Don’t persecute chaplain for practicing his faith”…he makes at least two false statements.

Rehkopf then makes his first accusation:  Read more

Sex Professor Susan Shaw Joins Mikey Weinstein’s Charity

Susan Shaw, described as the “Professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University,” has joined Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s “advisory board.”

For the most part, Weinstein’s board members have been irrelevant, except likely as sources of income for the “charity.” (To wit, Weinstein’s research assistant Chris Rodda didn’t even know who her own board members were at one point.)

Shaw, though, is particularly notable for proudly expressing bigoted views that rival Weinstein himself.

For example, earlier this year Shaw employed gross generalization, non sequiturs, prejudice and general antipathy when she attacked both Donald Trump and Christians with such statements as

Trumpian evangelicals make no attempts to mask their quest for power…Both Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rev. Franklin Graham, for example, have attributed Trump’s win to God’s intervention…[T]his [is a] modern iteration of a deuteronomic theology — God rewards the good and punishes the bad…

Shaw’s prejudice is revealed in her active omission of Read more

POW/MIA Recognition Day Earns Mikey Weinstein’s Ire

Last Friday, September 15th, was National POW/MIA Recognition Day. It is intended to honor the memory of those imprisoned as POWs and those who have not returned. It is one of the few days that Congress officially mandates the flying of the POW/MIA flag.

It should be a somber occasion of remembrance — but for Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, it’s a target for his vitriol if those ceremonies dare to associate a Bible with the event.

Weinstein recently shared Representative Steve Knight’s Facebook post about Palmdale, CA, hosting a POW/MIA ceremony attended by a high school JROTC color guard. Weinstein was apparently too lazy to even add his own vitriol to that which he copied and pasted from an obscure Facebook page apparently run by an atheist-MRFF supporter:

Do you see the egregious and disrespectful violation of our military code of conduct present at this divisive and Un-American service too?…

The #FilthyBook (Bible) on the table, the table that is meant for ALL our missing and fallen solders.

Did you notice the unsanctioned inclusion? Or are you just so used to seeing it slipped in there against protocol that you thought it was part of the display?…

Mikey Weinstein has been after the Bible for Read more

Chaplain Sonny Hernandez Criticized for Column on Religious Freedom

Last week US Air Force Chaplain (Capt) Sonny Hernandez published a column at Barbwire.com entitled “Christian Service Members: Avoid Supporting or Accommodating Evil!” The article has been widely criticized — from the much-expected Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, to Chelsea Clinton, to multiple other sites — by those who have taken issue with Hernandez’s views on Christianity and military religious freedom.

Some of the criticisms are laced with the vitriol of those who despise Christianity in any form but milquetoast — so it wouldn’t matter what Hernandez said. Some of the criticisms are more academic. But almost all call for Hernandez’s head — or at least a pro forma “investigation” followed by a foregone dismissal. While Hernandez may have said — and did say — things that seemed illogical, theologically questionable, or wrong, nothing he said was illegal or otherwise a violation of any rule, regulation, or law. Those who are attacking his ability to serve in the US military — that so-called bastion of tolerance and diversity — have no leg upon which Read more

Mikey Weinstein Represents “Uncomfortable” Clients

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has had a tough year. Since January his “charity” has made little headway in his attacks on Christians in the military. Weinstein has apparently struggled to find stories or those willing to complain — with the result that both he and his verbose research assistant Chris Rodda have been uncharacteristically quiet.

The religious environment in the military is so “bad,” in fact, that Weinstein is now relegated to “representing” people in government who are “uncomfortable”:

According to Weinstein, [intelligence] agency employees don’t want to go public with their complaints because of fear of retribution or being labeled as “leakers.”… But certain things are making them especially uncomfortable, such as officials signing off with the phrase “have a blessed day.”

That’s Jenna McLaughlin’s take at Foreign Policy last week, where she Read more

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