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Georgia Feeling the Backlash From Passing Overreaching Anti-LGBT Bill

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People are angry with Georgia’s new anti-LGBT bill that also protects the KKK. So far, one company has vowed to leave the state. 

You’d think Republicans would have learned their lesson after Indiana was on the receiving end of a huge backlash for trying to make it legal to discriminate against LGBT people. Well, they didn’t. In what appears to be a direct reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court granting equal marriage rights to same-sex couples, legislators across the country have been working overtime to find new ways to attack the LGBT community. Earlier this month, we reported that the state of Oklahoma broke a record by submitting at least 26 anti-LGBT bills! Now, Georgia is stepping up to the plate to hit a home run with their latest hate-filled legislation, and they are quickly seeing the consequences.

Georgia state senators on Friday passed a controversial bill that allows any individual or ‘faith-based’ business, non-profit entity, or taxpayer-funded organization to ignore any law that conflicts with their religious beliefs about marriage. Basically, it’s a license to discriminate against the LGBT community without legal repercussions. For those of you thinking this law is just about “protecting” anti-gay bakers from having to bake wedding cakes for same-sex couples, think again.

Remember that doctor in Michigan who refused to treat a newborn last year because the baby had two moms? That could also be legal with this new bill. Georgia’s First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), or HB 757, would allow doctors to refuse treatment to patients if the doctor didn’t agree with that patient’s (or their family members) sexual orientation. It would allow foster and adoption agencies to deny qualified parents from adopting children, thus justifying using tax dollars to keep children homeless.

As if that weren’t enough to make you cringe, GOP Sen. Greg Kirk (photo) acknowledged his bill would protect members of the KKK from their hate-filled actions, and he had no problem with that.

“Couldn’t that organization, if they chose to do so, identify themselves as ‘faith based’?” State Senator Emanuel Jones asked referring to the KKK, an organization with a history of calling itself faith-based.

“I’m not an attorney,” Kirk responded. “I guess they could, Senator. I’m not sure. I don’t know what would stop them.

“So there’s nothing in your legislation that would stop them, is that correct?” asked Jones.

“That’s right,” Kirk said.

“Does that present a problem for you, Senator?” Jones continued.

After a long pause, Kirk simply said, “No.”

Many people took to Twitter to express their outrage over the senate passing the discriminatory bill.

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A few companies in Georgia, including Delta, Coca-Cola, and Home Depot, appealed the legislature to table the bill, insisting it will hurt their ability to attract employees and customers, but the Republican-dominated legislature didn’t seem to care. HB 757 passed the Georgia Senate on Friday with a vote of 38-14. The above companies have yet to make a statement since the bill’s passing, but one telecom company, 373K, has announced it is moving because of it.

“I’m gay, our CFO is gay, we have people from every walk of life working here,” co-founder Kelvin Williams told The New Civil Rights Movement in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. The company has decided to move to Nevada.

“I’ve got Muslims, Buddhists, atheists here,” he added. “We’ve got great Christians working for us. They’ve never thought of not serving anyone – that’s not the message of Christ.”

Former GOP Senate Majority Leader Ronnie Chance also spoke out in an editorial in Saturday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“No one in Georgia wants to go through what Indiana experienced. It is a little-known fact that Georgia state law offers no nondiscrimination protections for the LGBT community. In other words, this bill will take Georgia law from a “see-no-evil” approach to discrimination to tacit approval. That could prove devastating for our reputation as a great place to do business.”

GOP Gov. Nathan Deal made a public comment on the legislation and explained that the measure is still evolving. He mentioned he was working with his top aides, House Speaker David Ralston, also a Republican, and other legislative leaders, but declined to discuss specifics about the possible changes.

“We’re working with the leadership of the General Assembly now as that bill is continuing to move through the process,” he said. “So we’ll see.” He also added, “I don’t comment until things are finalized, and, by far, it’s not finalized yet.”

Since the governor seems to have concerns about the bill, that’s all the more reason to add pressure to companies and organizations to speak out. Daily Kos noted that the NCAA has been noticeably quiet about HB 757 and they are urging people to put pressure on the organization to stand up against the bill.

“The NCAA recently awarded their College Football Championship to Atlanta for January 2018. The NCAA’s nondiscrimination policy and threats of sanctions against the state of Indiana helped win the fight against Indiana’s RFRA last year. A similar threat to revoke the CFB championship would likely drive the GA legislature into a tizzy to kill this bill.”

Daily Kos is urging people to signal boost and tweet at NCAA’s press/media/legal contacts. We support that too. Feel free to use the following tweet:

.@NCAAStacey @NCAAgail @NCAAChristopher @NCAAEmily Why hasn’t NCAA spoken out against Georgia’s anti-LGBT bill with CFB 2018 champs in ATL?

While you’re at it, send tweets to @CocaCola, @Delta, and @HomeDepot too.  

Finally, here’s Gov. Deal’s contact information as well. Make sure you tell him that you don’t agree with state sanctioned discrimination.

Gov. Nathan Deal

Phone:

404-656-1776

Twitter: @GovernorDeal

Web email Link

 

 

Image via the Georgia Senate

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OPINION

‘I Hope You Find Happiness’: Moskowitz Trolls Comer Over Impeachment Fail

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U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is mocking House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer over a CNN report revealing the embattled Kentucky Republican who has been alleging without proof President Joe Biden is the head of a vast multi-million dollar criminal bribery and influence-peddling conspiracy, has given up trying to impeach the leader of the free world.

CNN on Wednesday had reported, “after 15 months of coming up short in proving some of his biggest claims against the president, Comer recently approached one of his Republican colleagues and made a blunt admission: He was ready to be ‘done with’ the impeachment inquiry into Biden.” The news network described Chairman Comer as “frustrated” and his investigation as “at a dead end.”

One GOP lawmaker told CNN, “Comer is hoping Jesus comes so he can get out.”

“He is fed up,” the Republican added.

Despite the Chairman’s alleged remarks, “a House Oversight Committee spokesperson maintains that ‘the impeachment inquiry is ongoing and impeachment is 100% still on the table.'”

RELATED: ‘Used by the Russians’: Moskowitz Mocks Comer’s Biden Impeachment Failure

Last week, Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) got into a shouting match with Chairman Comer, with the Maryland Democrat saying, “You have not identified a single crime – what is the crime that you want to impeach Joe Biden for and keep this nonsense going?” and Comer replying, “You’re about to find out.”

Before those heated remarks, Congressman Raskin chided Comer, humorously threatening to invite Rep. Moskowitz to return to the hearing.

Congressman Moskowitz appears to be the only member of the House Oversight Committee who has ever made a motion to call for a vote on impeaching President Biden, which he did last month, although he did it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

It appears the Moskowitz-Comer “bromance” may be over.

Wednesday afternoon Congressman Moskowitz, whose sarcasm is becoming well-known, used it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

“I was hoping our breakup would never become public,” he declared. “We had such a great thing while it lasted James. I will miss the time we spent together. I will miss our conversations. I will miss the pet names you gave me. I only wish you the best and hope you find happiness.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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OPINION

‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case centered on the question, can the federal government require states with strict abortion bans to allow physicians to perform abortions in emergency situations, specifically when the woman’s health, but not her life, is in danger?

The 1986 federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), signed into law by Republican President Ronald Reagan, says it can. The State of Idaho on Wednesday argued it cannot.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, The Washington Post’s Kim Bellware reported, “made a clear delineation between Idaho law and what EMTALA provides.”

“In Idaho, doctors have to shut their eyes to everything except death,” Prelogar said, according to Bellware. “Whereas under EMTALA, you’re supposed to be thinking about things like, ‘Is she about to lose her fertility? Is her uterus going to become incredibly scarred because of the bleeding? Is she about to undergo the possibility of kidney failure?’ ”

READ MORE: Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

Attorney Imani Gandy, an award-winning journalist and Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group, highlighted an issue central to the case.

“The issue of medical judgment vs. good faith judgment is a huge one because different states have different standards of judgment,” she writes. “If a doctor exercises their judgment, another doctor expert witness at trial could question that. That’s a BIG problem here. That’s why doctors are afraid to provide abortions. They may have an overzealous prosecutor come behind them and disagree.”

Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito appeared to draw the most fire from legal experts, as his questioning suggested “fetal personhood” should be the law, which it is not.

“Justice Alito is trying to import fetal personhood into federal statutory law by suggesting federal law might well prohibit hospitals from providing abortions as emergency stabilizing care,” observed Constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

Paraphrasing Justice Alito, Kreis writes: “Alito: How can the federal government restrict what Idaho criminalizes simply because hospitals in Idaho have accepted federal funds?”

Appearing to answer that question, Georgia State University College of Law professor of law and Constitutional scholar Eric Segall wrote: “Our Constitution unequivocally allows the federal gov’t to offer the states money with conditions attached no matter how invasive b/c states can always say no. The conservative justices’ hostility to the spending power is based only on politics and values not text or history.”

Professor Segall also served up some of the strongest criticism of the right-wing justice.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

He wrote that Justice Alito “is basically making it clear he doesn’t care if pregnant women live or die as long as the fetus lives.”

Earlier Wednesday morning Segall had issued a warning: “Trigger alert: In about 20 minutes several of the conservative justices are going to show very clearly that that they care much more about fetuses than women suffering major pregnancy complications which is their way of owning the libs which is grotesque.”

Later, predicting “Alito is going to dissent,” Segall wrote: “Alito is dripping arrogance and condescension…in a case involving life, death, and medical emergencies. He has no bottom.”

Taking a broader view of the case, NYU professor of law Melissa Murray issued a strong warning: “The EMTALA case, Moyle v. US, hasn’t received as much attention as the mifepristone case, but it is huge. Not only implicates access to emergency medical procedures (like abortion in cases of miscarriage), but the broader question of federal law supremacy.”

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

 

 

 

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Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

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Hours before his attorneys would mount a defense on Tuesday claiming he had not violated his gag order Donald Trump might have done just that in a 12-minute taped interview that morning, which did not air until later that day. It will be up to Judge Juan Merchan to make that decision, if prosecutors add it to their contempt request.

Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told Judge Juan Merchan that the ex-president violated the gag order ten times, via posts on his Truth Social platform, and are asking he be held in contempt. While the judge has yet to rule, he did not appear moved by their arguments. At one point, Judge Merchan told Trump’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche he was “losing all credibility” with the court.

And while Judge Merchan directed defense attorneys to provide a detailed timeline surrounding Trump’s Truth Social posts to prove he had not violated the gag order, Trump in an interview with a local television station appeared to have done so.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

The gag order bars Trump from “commenting or causing others to comment on potential witnesses in the case, prospective jurors, court staff, lawyers in the district attorney’s office and the relatives of any counsel or court staffer, as CBS News reported.

“The threat is very real,” Judge Merchan wrote when he expanded the gag order. “Admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint. The average observer, must now, after hearing Defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself.”

Tuesday morning, Trump told ABC Philadelphia’s Action News reporter Walter Perez, “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar. He’s got no credibility whatsoever.”

He repeated that Cohen is a “convicted liar,” and insisted he “was a lawyer for many people, not just me.”

READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

Since Cohen is a witness in Trump’s New York criminal case, Judge Merchan might decide Trump’s remarks during that interview violated the gag order, if prosecutors bring the video to his attention.

Enter attorney George Conway, who has been attending Trump’s New York trial.

Conway reposted a clip of the video, tagged Manhattan District Attorney Bragg, writing: “cc: @ManhattanDA, for your proposed order to show cause why the defendant in 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘷. 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 should not spend some quiet time in lockup.”

Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in this New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of “hush money” to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which experts say is election interference.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

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