Randy Rainbow 'interviews' Donald Trump

When Betty Bowers looks in her rearview mirror, she probably sees Randy Rainbow gaining on her.

WV weatherman freaks out over spider on monitor

Notice how quickly and self-consciously Mr. Hughes readjusts his voice to an appropriately male broadcast register after circumstances beyond his self-control fail to escalate.

House GOP gets 7 Republicans to switch votes to allow federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTs

Did your congressional representative vote to allow LGBT discrimination by federal contractors based on the "religious freedom" of for-profit corporations slopping at the federal trough? Find out here.

Iowa's GOP Rep. David Young was apparently among the turncoats who knuckled under to GOP pressure to sell out his gay constituents.

Shameful @RepJeffDenham, @RepGregWalden, @RepMimiWalters, @RepDavidYoung switch vote, support #LGBT discrimination (1/2)

— Hoyer Press Shop (@HoyerPress) May 19, 2016

For Immediate Release:May 19, 2016

Contact:Mariel Saez 202-225-3130

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after House Republicans held a vote open to make their Members change their votes in order to defeat an amendment that would ban discrimination against LGBT Americans:

“Today, House Republicans defeated an amendment by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney that would ensure that federal contractors cannot discriminate against LGBT employees.  Several Republican Members initially cast votes in favor of Rep. Maloney’s amendment but shamefully changed their votes after it was clear the amendment would pass, leading the amendment to fail by just a single vote.  Not only did they vote against equality and inclusion, but those who switched their votes did not even have the courage to do so openly in the well of the House.  They did so quietly from the back benches, contrary to established practice that requires vote-switching to be done in person at the Clerk’s desk, and House Republican leaders held a two-minute vote open for nearly eight minutes.
“But the action they hoped would slip quietly under the radar will instead surely be heard loudly and clearly across the nation as a rallying cry to all who cherish equality, justice, and civil rights – that those who stand against the full inclusion and protection of LGBT individuals and their families ought to be called out and held accountable.  House Democrats will continue to hold them accountable for their anti-LGBT record and their actions as long as it takes to ensure that the words of our Declaration ring true across this land:  that all ‘are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’”

Oh, look: Hillary bros are rude, sexist mofos too!

And if Hillary doesn't immediately offer an abject apology to every Bernie supporter and his or her unborn progeny and beam it to every corner of the known universe, then she obviously supports this kind of abuse!

I'm sorry but I had to laugh. all "tolerance & peace" until getting a reply not in line w his view. What a hypocrite pic.twitter.com/iv1MaxHEyp

— Sara Cohen (@saracohennyc) May 20, 2016

Which House members voted to allow antiLGBT bias by federal contractors?

Like this post? Share it via social media icons below at the end of the post.

Here's the vote, directly from the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Iowans may be interested in knowing that their GOP representative, David Young, was among those who knuckled under to GOP leadership pressure, selling out his gay constituents.
     In respect of Nebraska, Adrian Smith was the only House member to vote to allow antiLGBT bias among federal contractors. Republican Jeff Fortenberry and Democrat Brad Ashford voted to protect their LGBT constituents from such bias.
     Members voting "Yes" on the Maloney Amendment voted to narrow so-called "religious freedom" exemptions by corporate defense contractors.
     Members voting "No" (who prevailed by one vote) were voting to allow virtually unchecked discrimination against LGBTs on the flimsiest of pretexts. 

#TBT to when @RepSeanMaloney's amdt had the votes, until @HouseGOP abused regular order to ensure discrimination. https://t.co/krz86D4gQe

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) May 19, 2016

     Below: outraged House members register their outrage at the GOP leaderships switcheroo:



FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 226
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)
      H R 4974      RECORDED VOTE      19-May-2016      11:32 AM
      AUTHOR(S):  Sean Maloney of New York Amendment
      QUESTION:  On Agreeing to the Amendment

	Ayes	Noes	PRES	NV
Republican	29	213		3
Democratic	183			5
Independent
TOTALS	212	213		8

---- AYES    212 ---

Adams Aguilar Amash Ashford Bass Beatty Becerra Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brady (PA) Brown (FL) Brownley (CA) Bustos Butterfield Capps Capuano Cárdenas Carney Carson (IN) Cartwright Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coffman Cohen Connolly Conyers Cooper Costa Costello (PA) Courtney Crowley Cuellar Cummings Curbelo (FL) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny DeFazio DeGette Delaney DeLauro DelBene Dent DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Dold Donovan Doyle, Michael F. Duckworth Edwards Ellison Emmer (MN) Engel Eshoo Esty Farr Fitzpatrick Foster

Frankel (FL) Frelinghuysen Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Gibson Graham Grayson Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Gutiérrez Hahn Hanna Hastings Heck (NV) Heck (WA) Higgins Himes Honda Hoyer Huffman Hurd (TX) Israel Jackson Lee Jeffries Johnson (GA) Jolly Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Kildee Kilmer Kind Kirkpatrick Kuster Lance Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lee Levin Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Lujan Grisham (NM) Luján, Ben Ray (NM) Lynch MacArthur Maloney, Carolyn Maloney, Sean Matsui McCollum McDermott McGovern McNerney McSally Meehan Meeks Meng Moore Moulton

Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Nolan Norcross O'Rourke Pallone Pascrell Paulsen Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Peterson Pingree Pocan Polis Price (NC) Quigley Rangel Reed Reichert Rice (NY) Richmond Ros-Lehtinen Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Schrader Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Sherman Sinema Sires Slaughter Smith (WA) Speier Stefanik Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tonko Torres Tsongas Upton Van Hollen Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Walz Wasserman Schultz Waters, Maxine Watson Coleman Welch Wilson (FL) Yarmuth Zeldin

---- NOES    213 ---

Abraham Aderholt Allen Amodei Babin Barletta Barr Barton Benishek Bilirakis Bishop (MI) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Blum Bost Boustany Brady (TX) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Buchanan Buck Bucshon Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Chaffetz Clawson (FL) Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comstock Conaway Cook Cramer Crawford Crenshaw Culberson Davis, Rodney Denham DeSantis DesJarlais Duffy Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Ellmers (NC) Farenthold Fincher Fleischmann Fleming Flores Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett Gibbs Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Griffith

Grothman Guinta Guthrie Hardy Harper Harris Hartzler Hensarling Hice, Jody B. Hill Holding Hudson Huelskamp Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurt (VA) Issa Jenkins (KS) Jenkins (WV) Johnson (OH) Jones Jordan Joyce Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger (IL) Kline Knight Labrador LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Long Loudermilk Love Lucas Luetkemeyer Lummis Marchant Marino Massie McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McKinley McMorris Rodgers Meadows Messer Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mullin Mulvaney Murphy (PA) Neugebauer Newhouse Noem Nugent Nunes Olson Palazzo Palmer Pearce Perry

Pittenger Pitts Poe (TX) Poliquin Pompeo Posey Price, Tom Ratcliffe Renacci Ribble Rice (SC) Rigell Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rohrabacher Rokita Rooney (FL) Roskam Ross Rothfus Rouzer Royce Russell Sanford Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Sessions Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Stewart Stivers Stutzman Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiberi Tipton Trott Turner Valadao Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Walters, Mimi Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Westmoreland Whitfield Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Yoder Yoho Young (AK) Young (IA) Young (IN) Zinke

---- NOT VOTING    8 ---

Fattah Herrera Beutler Hinojosa

Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Salmon

Swalwell (CA) Takai

NE AG: equal bathroom access for the transgendered would "retraumatize" sex assault victims

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson has freely and frequently tapped public money to advance his antigay agenda, filing legal action after legal action from Nebraska and in conjunction with other attorneys-general.
     His latest action was a letter sent Tuesday to federal officials vowing that his office "will do everything in its power to resist" Obama's guidelines to protect transgendered students.
     Some excerpts:

     ...Your May 13, 2016, joint guidance letter regarding transgender students, will likely create a more threatening environment to students who are prior victims of sexual exploitation...
     ...The proposed guidance puts prior sexual exploitation victims at risk for retraumatization. According to reports promulgated to the U.S. Department of Justice, one in four females under the age of 18, and one out of six males, will be sexually assaulted. Approximately 23% of those sexual assaults will be inflicted by a person under the age of 18. Sadly, the victimized child will not report the majority of these incidents to authorities. The Departments' [sic] guidance, which seeks to require schools to allow students in restrooms, locker rooms, or showers designated for members of the opposite sex, may exacerbate the traumatization of these young victims. This is not to suggest that transgender students are more likely to commit assaults...

     Nebraska's GOP governor, Pete Ricketts, piled on, urging local school boards and the state's Department of Education to reject the Obama administration's guidelines. He added that, "as a parent" he would worry if his children were using a restroom with a student of the "opposite sex."

Violent homophobe offers to be Donald Trump's spiritual adviser

Duck Dynasty dry drunk Phil Robertson's old man sancti­mony has a nasty, violent provenance but Robertson blames that history on Satan and a permissive 60s culture — not himself — insisting that outside forces were responsible for the eight years of liquor and substance abuse in his 20s during which he savagely beat a bar owner and his wife over a rent dispute, sending them to the hospital and forcing his wife and small sons to fend for themselves while he hid in the woods of a neighboring state from the Louisiana State Patrol for four months.
     After repeatedly kicking his wife and kids out of the house, Robertson finally straightened up.
     Now, Robertson is offering his spiritual counseling services to Donald Trump, since his first choice, Ted Cruz (who attended an Iowa confab at which at least two "death to gays" preachers spoke), is presidentially indisposed for the foreseeable future.
     Here's what an Atheist husband and father thinks of Phil Robertson's version of morality.

Here's that brutal video of Hillary "lying for 13 minutes straight"; first up: gay marriage

Here's Hillary's State Department email complaining about changing
"mother and father" to parent 1 and parent 2 on passport applications
to accommodate gay parents. To read, click to enlarge.

     If you thought the outrage displayed by Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention was brutal, you obviously haven't seen this viral video, now approaching 7 million views.
     The Hillary boosters who are twisting reality into an innuendo pretzel attempting to burn Bernie on gay marriage are not going to like the first part of this at all.
     The video comes with the following disclaimer: "This is not a pro-Trump video. Don't worry — he's next."

Literate country songwriter Guy Clark dead at 74 of cancer

The Tennessean described Clark, a native Texan who died in Nashville this morning as:

...gravel-voiced troubadour who crafted a vast catalog of emotionally charged, intricately detailed works that illuminated and expanded the literary possibilities of popular song.

     The obituary mentioned that his work was recorded by Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Bobby Bare, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson "and legions of others."
     In the "others" category would be Clark's longtime friend, the great Jerry Jeff Walker, whose cover of L.A. Freeway is probably the best known of all Clark's songs. Here is Walker performing it:

Is there a subtext in that billboard, Phonecia, or is it just happy to see us?

Dog whistle or not, control freak Mayor Stothert must have approved it, right?
     Regardless, boys and girls, know this: if you're LGBT and kicked out of your apartment solely for that reason by a homophobic landlord, you needn't bother calling the Omaha Human Rights and Relations Department, because you're not covered.
     Across the river, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, you would be, so yeah, in Omaha, in housing, for LGBTs, fairness really is a fairy tale.

Big Pharma wants you to think only bad actors are price gouging. Don't believe it

The PR narrative of the pharmaceutical industry is that bad actors like Turing Pharmaceuticals' greed poster boy/CEO Martin Shkreli are giving their business a bad name. But Reuters recently reported that:

     Prices for four of the nation's top 10 drugs increased more than 100 percent since 2011, Reuters found. Six others went up more than 50 percent.

Now, there is evidence of cruel price gouging on naloxone — an antidote to opioid overdoses. (The DEA says that half of the 46,471 drug-related deaths in 2013 were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin.)

      Five versions of naloxone are now on the market — no failure there — and still, its price keeps rising.
      The list price of Kaleo Pharma’s auto-inject version – specifically approved for a people without medical training to use in a life-threatening crisis — soared from $575 to $3,750 per two-dose package in just two years, according to Truven Health Analytics. Amphastar’s product cost $66 for two syringes at the end of 2014, nearly double the price a year earlier. Two vials of Hospira's generic, which cost $1.84 in 2005, shot up to $31.66 by 2014.

Which Nebraskan did Nixon hate more, Cavett or Carson?

Our money, based on released audio tapes, would be Nixon's namesake...

'What a bitch!' Reaction to Roberta Lange's 'monkey business' at NV Dem Convention

With motions pending, Chair Roberta Lange ended the Las Vegas convention in the following manner, according to a witness: "Makes a motion. Seconds her own motion. Passes her motion. Runs off the stage."
     Clinton supporters apparently challenged the credentials of enough Sanders supporters (about 64) to give themselves a 33-delegate edge.
From The Hill:

     Leslie Sexton, a convention credentials committee co-chair, took the microphone just after the final results were read and said she had a minority report but was not allowed to give it.

     The crowd started up loud chants of “Let her speak” and “recount,” and after a few minutes a DNC committee member gave her the podium.

     Sexton reported that nearly 64 Bernie Sanders delegates to the state convention were excluded from the convention process. Sanders only had 33 fewer delegates than Clinton in attendance. 

     “The credentials minority report is based on the challenge of 64 Sanders delegates. Contrary to the procedures and precedents set by the committee, nearly none of these 64 people were presented with the opportunity to be heard by the committee or to demonstrate that they are registered Democrats," Sexton said. "Without the opportunity to be heard, no delegate could be stricken. The actions of the credentials committee violates the spirit of the Nevada state delegate plan which encourages full participation in the democratic process, and it violates the spirit and values of our state and our nation."

     The DNC committee member said the report would be submitted to the DNC.

 VIDEO EVIDENCE: #RobertaLange: @rlange9 CHEATING during #NVDemConvention #TeamBernieNV #BernieOrBust #Nevadahttps://t.co/cuH1TDalvd

— #ForThePeople (@BernieVolunteer) May 15, 2016

CA Rep.: FBI detained former Sen. at airport to keep him from getting 28 pages of 9/11 report declassified

Read the Tampa Bay Times article

 From The Hill:

     ..Rep. Gwen Graham (D-Fla.) and her father, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.), were detained by the FBI in 2011 at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. The message from the agents, according to the Grahams, was to quit pushing for declassification of the 28 pages.
     The FBI "took a former senator, a former governor, grabbed him in an airport, hustled him into a room with armed force to try to intimidate him into taking different positions on issues of public policy and important national policy, and the fact that he wasn’t intimidated because he was calm doesn’t show that they weren’t trying to intimidate him," Sherman said in an interview with The Hill's Molly K. Hooper.

Advertising: 'different' son outs self to daddy, asks 'You never wanted to try it?'

Some people are saying this mocks coming out. We'll only say that it could have been a lot funnier in the right hands.


(Via JMG)

Maher: Libs may be responsible for man-buns, but Trump is your problem, conservatives

 Closer: When did the party of personal responsibility become the party of "Look what you made me do!"

(Via Towleroad)

Transman to ADF: You weren't so concerned with privacy rights when you defended sodomy laws

Hari Sreenivasan, on PBS's News Hour, refereed Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defending Freedom and transman Alex Myers of Phillips Exeter Academy, who said this to the spox of the right wing pressure group which has recently become terribly worried about the sanctity of "privacy" in public, open bathroom, shower and changing facilities:

      In terms of privacy rights, I think you might be looking at modifying particularly locker room facilities to allow every student, cisgender and transgender, for more privacy. And I think that what you will find largely is that transgender want to go into restrooms, want to go into locker rooms, they want to use those facilities, they want to use discreetly, and they value their own privacy.
      And they are not likely to intrude on others. I would also add that I find I rather ironic that, at this point in time, the conservative movement is mentioning privacy as a right, when, for so many years, they enacted and enforced sodomy laws, which had no respect for people’s privacy.

PGA's Greg Owen strips to shorts in Players practice round, takes birdie

The birdie was a baby Blue Jay which fell out of a tree and was flailing in a pond. AKSARBENT's grandmother also liked Blue Jays; one really liked her back because she would let it drink good Scotch out of her glass on the deck.

     Golfers who remove their pants in public are an important world phenomenon that AKSARBENT will continue to monitor assiduously. Lest you think us trivial, know that Glenn Beck also takes this very seriously.
     We last wrote about this in 2013, when adorable Danish golf pro Andreas Hartø, competing on the 14th hole in the European Tour's Trophée Hassan II tournament, dropped his pants to chip from the water rather than taking a drop.

American Counseling Association rips Tennessee for new antiLGBT law; cancels Nashville conference

The ACA did not mince words in the following video explaining its action.

Of all the state legislation impacting counseling during my 30 years with ACA, the new Tennessee law, based on Senate Bill 1556. House Bill 1840 is the worst...

From the YouTube annotation:

Richard Yep, Chief Executive Officer of the American Counseling Association, explains ACA's decision to relocate the 2017 Conference & Expo. Learn more at http://www.counseling.org/about-us/My...

(h/t Towleroad)

If this husky isn't the world's biggest crybaby, then we don't know what

We'll never complain about the cat's reluctance to relinquish our chair again.



The YouTube description:

This is why they say huskies are stubborn! They're very smart but they have low motivation to please their owners. Zeus loves playing in the water in the bathtub and wants the water turned on. Even though it's time for his walk he howls in protest because he wants to play in the water!

Video and transcript: U.S. Atty Gen. Loretta Lynch, a native North Carolinian, explains federal civil rights suit against NC over HB2

Lynch changed the prepared remarks, which read "my state of North Carolina" to "my home state of North Carolina. Lynch was born in Greensboro. Gov. McCrory is from Ohio.

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good afternoon and thank you all for being here.  Today, I’m joined by [Vanita] Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.  We are here to announce a significant law enforcement action regarding North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also known as House Bill 2.  
     The North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2 in special session on March 23 of this year.  The bill sought to strike down an anti-discrimination provision in a recently-passed Charlotte, North Carolina, ordinance, as well as to require transgender people in public agencies to use the bathrooms consistent with their sex as noted at birth, rather than the bathrooms that fit their gender identity.  The bill was signed into law that same day.  In so doing, the legislature and the governor placed North Carolina in direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity.  More to the point, they created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals, who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security – a right taken for granted by most of us.  
     Last week, our Civil Rights Division notified state officials that House Bill 2 violates federal civil rights laws.  We asked that they certify by the end of the day today that they would not comply with or implement House Bill 2’s restriction on restroom access.  An extension was requested by North Carolina and was under active consideration.  But instead of replying to our offer or providing a certification, this morning, the state of North Carolina and its governor chose to respond by suing the Department of Justice.  As a result of their decisions, we are now moving forward. 
     Today, we are filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state of North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina.  We are seeking a court order declaring House Bill 2’s restroom restriction impermissibly discriminatory, as well as a statewide bar on its enforcement.  While the lawsuit currently seeks declaratory relief, I want to note that we retain the option of curtailing federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina as this case proceeds.
     This action is about a great deal more than just bathrooms.  This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them – indeed, to protect all of us.  And it’s about the founding ideals that have led this country – haltingly but inexorably – in the direction of fairness, inclusion and equality for all Americans.
     This is not the first time that we have seen discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress for our nation.  We saw it in the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation.  We saw it in fierce and widespread resistance to Brown v. Board of Education.  And we saw it in the proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions intended to stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded the right to marry.  That right, of course, is now recognized as a guarantee embedded in our Constitution, and in the wake of that historic triumph, we have seen bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community.  Some of these responses reflect a recognizably human fear of the unknown, and a discomfort with the uncertainty of change.  But this is not a time to act out of fear.  This is a time to summon our national virtues of inclusivity, diversity, compassion and open-mindedness.  What we must not do – what we must never do – is turn on our neighbors, our family members, our fellow Americans, for something they cannot control, and deny what makes them human.  This is why none of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something they are not, or invents a problem that doesn’t exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment.
     Let me speak now to the people of the great state, the beautiful state, my state of North Carolina.  You’ve been told that this law protects vulnerable populations from harm – but that just is not the case.  Instead, what this law does is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share.  This law provides no benefit to society – all it does is harm innocent Americans. 
     Instead of turning away from our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, let us instead learn from our history and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past.  Let us reflect on the obvious but often neglected lesson that state-sanctioned discrimination never looks good in hindsight.  It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based upon a distinction without a difference.  We have moved beyond those dark days, but not without pain and suffering and an ongoing fight to keep moving forward.  Let us write a different story this time.  Let us not act out of fear and misunderstanding, but out of the values of inclusion, diversity and regard for all that make our country great. 
     Let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself.  Some of you have lived freely for decades.  Others of you are still wondering how you can possibly live the lives you were born to lead.  But no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama Administration wants you to know that  we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward.  Please know that history is on your side.  This country was founded on a promise of equal rights for all, and we have always managed to move closer to that promise, little by little, one day at a time.  It may not be easy – but we’ll get there together. 
     I want to thank my colleagues in the Civil Rights Division who have devoted many hours to this case so far, and who will devote many more to seeing it through.  At this time, I’d like to turn things over to Vanita Gupta, whose determined leadership on this and so many other issues has been essential to the Justice Department’s work.

Watch: NC Gov. McCrory's presser on suit against fed demand that state not enforce HB2, antiLGBT law

Yesterday, HRC had this to say about Gov. McRory's complaints that the federal government wasn't giving his state enough time to comply with the Justice Department's demand that HB2 be repudiated and not enforced:

     “If HB2 was passed in a day, it can be repealed in a day, too. Pat McCrory’s excuse that he needs more time to comply with the Department of Justice after he rammed through and signed HB2 in the dark of night in a matter of hours doesn’t hold water,” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown. “Pat McCrory even admitted on national television that his biggest excuse for passing HB2 is a lie. He couldn’t cite a single example of threats to public safety from non-discrimination ordinances like the one in Charlotte. That’s because they do not exist. HB2 is breaking federal civil rights laws and has put billions of dollars in federal funding on the line. It must be fully repealed immediately.”
     “Failing to meet the deadline set by the DOJ jeopardizes billions of dollars in federal funding for North Carolina. This is not the time to play political games. Governor McCrory needs to make the repeal of HB2 his number one priority before the deadline expires.” said Equality NC Director of Advancement Matt Hirschy. “HB2 was passed in a under a matter of 12 hours and was signed by Governor McCrory in the dead of the night. After months of economic havoc, and now with billions of dollars in federal funding hanging in the balance there is simply too much on the line to delay a full repeal of HB2.”

Today, HRC and Equality North Carolina issued the following press release following McCrory's earlier announcement that he (not the state's attorney general, who refuses to defend HB2) would sue the federal government to forestall enforcement actions against North Carolina after passage of HB2.

     Today, the Human Rights Campaign and Equality NC issued the following statements in response to the news that Governor Pat McCrory has filed a lawsuit defending his deeply discriminatory HB2.
     "North Carolina's HB2 law is blatantly unconstitutional and violates federal civil rights law,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “The Department of Justice has already been clear that it violates the civil rights of North Carolinians. The idea Governor McCrory is going to waste even more time and millions more taxpayer dollars defending it is reckless and wrong. HB2 is a vile law attacking transgender North Carolinians and leaves many more unprotected from discrimination. Rather than defending it, Governor McCrory should be working with state lawmakers to fix the mess he’s created."
     "The lawsuit that was filed today is just another tactic to delay a decision and is a continued waste of taxpayer dollars when it is already very clear that the only option is a full repeal of HB2,” said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro. “The 4th circuit court has already provided guidance on this and continued litigation by the state is simply wasteful. The state house and senate must fully repeal HB2 with Governor McCrory's leadership."
North Carolina has already lost more than a half billion dollars - and counting - in economic activity just from companies canceling or reconsidering plans to come to the state, and in cancelled conventions, concerts, and other lost tourism dollars. That doesn’t even include potential economic development that now just won’t happen in North Carolina because of HB2’s discriminatory provisions, or the potential catastrophic loss of federal funding for schools, roads, bridges, and other essential services.
     The U.S. Department of Justice determined North Carolina’s discriminatory HB 2 violates federal civil rights law -- including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 -- and gave McCrory and state officials until today to address the situation “by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement HB 2.”
     HB2 has eliminated existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and prevents such protections from being passed by cities in the future. The legislation also forces transgender students in public schools to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, putting 4.5 billion dollars in federal education funding at risk. It also compels the same type of discrimination against transgender people to take place in publicly-owned buildings, including in public universities, convention centers, and airports. It also eliminated the ability of North Carolinians to be able to sue if they experienced discrimination in the workforce, including on the basis of race, religion, national origin and sex.  Lawmakers passed the legislation in a hurried, single-day session, and Governor McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dead of night.
     North Carolina has the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first state in the country to enact a law attacking transgender students, even after similar proposals were rejected across the country this year -- including a high-profile veto by the Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota.

Two comedians salute GOP race dropout Ted Cruz

And a belated bonus: Rainbow's fond goodbye to Marco Rubio

Pastor Weasel, stopped in airport with loaded handgun, asks god why he made this mistake again

This time they're going to throw the book at him and it won't be a bible.

     "When it occurs twice with the same individual, it warrants prosecution," Omaha interim city prosecutor Tom Mumgaard said.
     Mumgaard charged Weasel with a misdemeanor: carrying a concealed firearm in a restricted area.
     "If you have a concealed weapon permit, you have an additional responsibility that comes with that permit and that is to at all times know where your weapon is," Mumgaard said.

Weasel, AKA "Dobie" (!), told KETV that he has asked god why he made this mistake twice and now he knows: it's not his fault, it's god's:

"...perhaps he's trying to use this so others can learn from my mistake and then perhaps he's using this to teach me, so that something worse wouldn't happen,"

Weasel isn't the only Omahan who has had trouble keeping track of his gun.

KETV calls hugely expensive, pilot-killing, air show trick pony F-22 an example of the military's 'finest'

KETV's segment tonight on the the so-called "Guardians of Freedom" military air show this weekend in Lincoln wasn't one of the station's best efforts. In fact, it was a cringeworthy piece of puffery by Andrew Ozaki, normally a terrific reporter:

     The Nebraska National Guard, Lincoln Chamber and Airport Authority put on the free show every five years. It's a chance to showcase the military [sic] finest, including the Air Force's new F-22 Fighter, and possibly inspire young kids to dream about being in the cockpit some day...
     "The smiles on the kids faces really make it such a special experience," [Blue Angels Cmdr. Ryan] Bernacci said.

     Maybe those kids wouldn't be smiling so much if they knew how much potential college education money has been spent on boondoggle programs like the F-22.
     The $79 billion F-22 fleet, supposedly operational since 2005, has been grounded multiple times while the Air Force investigated its oxygen problems. Not until late 2012 did the service believe it had fixed the problems.
     Perhaps the egg-sucking Air Force PR tool contingent at KETV should watch its own network. ABC News said this about the F-22 in 2014:

     The next generation Raptor, which has a total program price tag north of $79 billion, had sat out two wars and at least one previous smaller conflict since going operational in late 2005 before being called on to hit a single target in Syria Monday: an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "command and control building."

The plane has killed at least one pilot. Others have blacked out in it and still others have refused to fly the thing.

     From 2008 to 2012 pilots reported experiencing confusion, sluggishness or disorientation – sometimes even blackouts – at the controls of the plane more than two dozen times. In one instance, a pilot became so disoriented that his plane skimmed treetops before he was able to pull up and save himself. In May 2012, two Raptor pilots told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” they were too afraid to fly the plane.

      In another, more drastic case, Air Force pilot Capt. Jeff Haney died in a crash in 2010 after the oxygen system in his plane malfunctioned. After an investigation, the Air Force faulted Haney for failing to fly the plane properly while suffering a “sense similar to suffocation.” The plane’s manufacturers eventually settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the Haney family. 

This ad for bottled water from Michigan isn't a parody

The first ad, made by McCann Erickson, predated the Flint crisis, and wasn't a satire, even if it is now. It was, however, kinda cheesy. It's still online, amazingly. As for the product, we clicked around on Michigan.org and couldn't find any trace (har, har) of bottled water from Michigan. Must not be selling...

Neither is this one, the mother of all those Pure Michigan ads, which ends with the words:

Come realize water's true potential. Dive in — to the waters of Pure Michigan.

 (Perhaps it's time to take this one discreetly off YouTube...)



These two ads, from the Not So Pure Michigan series, are, of course, satires. Flint's is rather lame; we're partial to the one about Saugatuck. Too bad the creator isn't as good at scriptwriting as he is as videography and editing.

Nebraska Tourism bon vivants in hot water after audit

The State Auditor has released a 79-page indictment of very free spending by the director and staff of the Nebraska Tourism Commission, which included these interesting items:

• Questionable expenses for a photo shoot across Nebraska in June, 2015 that included alcohol, cigarettes, and mileage reimbursements for trips where gasoline was also billed to the state. The photo shoot also paid $550 to the daughter of Tourism Commission director Kathy McKillip to be one of the models.
• $44,00 paid to one speaker at the 2015 State tourism conference.  The state also paid for extra meals, and chair massages.
• No procedures to review purchase orders against contracts, which resulted in expenses $4.4 million over the contracted amount with the advertising firm Bailey Lauerman over the course of three years.
• Gifts including thousands of dollars meals and alcohol often provided by Bailey Lauerman, which were given to Commission director McKillip, Commission employees, commissioners, and their spouses.

But what brands of cigarettes and hooch, you might ask:

"several bottles of wine, three bottles of Tanqueray Gin, a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian whisky, multiple packs of Coors beer cans, a box of Marlboro Gold Pack 100’s(Cigarettes), and a significant amount of other alcohol purchased during meals while on the shoot.

 AdWeek's Agency Spy column sarcastically noted:

     ...And in a completely unrelated development, Bailey Lauerman EVP and general manager Rich Claussen announced that he will be stepping down from his position to join “a pro-entrepreneurship group” after spending a whopping 30 years with the agency.
     In other news, McKillip said she had “nothing to do” with the agency’s decision to cast her own daughter as the campaign’s star.
     We just hope for the sake of all involved that the work inspires a lot of people to vacation in Nebraska.

 The State Auditor engaged in a bit of snark too:

There was also a nice discussion of possible nepotism in the agency:

The Tourism Commissioners met Tuesday in Omaha — at the Henry Doorley Zoo.

The Nebraska Family Alliance calls this law 'common sense'

160 companies have called for HB2's repeal. 20 conventions have already been cancelled in North Carolina because of it. Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Cirque de Soleil, The Blue Man Group and others will no longer perform in North Carolina. The biggest furniture trade show in the state called out the law. The owners of "West Side Story" will no longer allow that musical to be performed in North Carolina. And that's just the beginning.
     Yet the Nebraska Family Alliance thinks the law is "common sense" because it will keep men out of women's restrooms. Or so they say. Watch this video and see if you agree. Is such an extremist organization one that you want influencing public policy? (The Nebraska Family Association has shown that it is even willing to try to peddle junk science like the Regnerus Study to the Unicameral via Dave Bydalek, a former employee of the Nebraska Family Alliance hand-picked by Attorney General Don Peterson for a position in his office.)

Fact checker snopes.com examines claim that Target's stock "imploded" after right wing boycott

Historical index of Target's stock price since last Spring

In a piece headlined "Stock, Drop and Troll" Snopes.com reminded its readers that correlation is not causation in respect of sensational articles "published by conservative outlets such as Breitbart, Freedom Outpost, and MRCTV, all reporting that Target's stock was "imploding" [and "plummeting"] due to a boycott over the store's policy to allow transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponded with their gender identity."
     Snopes pointedly noted that,

A) Target's stock price drop at the end of April was not unusually large, and
B) Walmart (which the AFA encouraged its members to patronize instead of Target) did not see an increase in stock price during the same period; in fact it took a "similar hit on April 19th."

     Lately the American Family Associated has been speaking with a rather forked tongue about its militant behavior. One has to wonder which AFA pronouncement is the lie: the Assertion in the interview by AFA Governmental Affairs Director Sandy Rios, or AFA's tweet the very next day saying the exact opposite.

Disgraced Rep. Aaron Schock was slyly dissed in Obama WHCD joke video

It was subtle and it was fleeting but it was there. At 1:16 in the excerpt below, Former Speaker John Boehner, after advising Obama on what to do in retirement (and before tempting him with a cigarette) said, at the 1:16 mark: "You know what? I finally got the grand bargain — on a sweet Chevy Tahoe."
     One wonders if Boehner even knew he was being set up by the White House script.