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Exclusive — Fred Karger: Now That NOM Lost In Court We’ll Finally Find Out Who’s Funding Them

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In this exclusive op-ed, top National Organization For Marriage watchdog Fred Karger explores and explains who’s funding NOM’s anti-gay campaign “to demonize the LGBT community and deny us our full equality.”

Maine vs. NOM

“It’s very frustrating to be dealing with such a litigious group as this. You have to wonder what they’re trying so desperately to protect,” Attorney General Janet Mills said.

This quote came last week, right after the Maine State Supreme Court ordered the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to turn over the names of its donors to the 2009 campaign NOM ran and funded to take away gay marriage in Maine. Brian Brown, NOM’s president has spent millions of dollars and countless hours (including his two long depositions conducted by the Attorney General) to keep their donors secret.

LOOK: Maine Supreme Court Unanimously Rules NOM Must Hand Over Donor List

We now know from Brown’s depositions that three of his mega-contributors gave NOM $1 million, $400,000 and $300,000 to be used in the Maine election that year. Brown conveniently couldn’t remember the names of these three very generous donors when questioned by Maine Assistant Attorney General Thomas Knowlton a few months later.

Any guesses?

All evidence points to the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) created NOM in 2007 to qualify and pass California’s Proposition 8 the following year. The Mormon Church conspired with the Catholic Church in California, but the Mormons got busted. The LDS Church raised $30 million of the $40 million it took to pass Prop 8. Between 2008 and 2009 the Mormon Church was also investigated, prosecuted, fined and found guilty on 13 counts of election fraud by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for all it did to pass Prop 8 and didn’t report. By the time Maine rolled around a year later, it appears that the Mormon Church had retreated and tried to fly under the radar.

But did the LDS Church or one of its wealthy members write out the $1 million check to NOM expecting that it would never be discovered? What about the Catholic Church? It was the face of the campaign to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law that year, but Catholic dioceses from around the country gave openly to pass Maine’s Question 1. Its political arm, the Knights of Columbus gave $50,000.  So it’s unlikely that the Catholics wouldn’t launder additional money to NOM, and then go through nearly four years of legal battles to keep it secret.

Maybe the big checks came from California’s Howard Ahmanson who gave $1,395,000 to pass Prop 8 or Philadelphia billionaire John Templeton, Jr. who gave $1,100,000 to pass Prop 8. These two men don’t seem to mind being publically identified opposing marriage equality, but lots of these mega-donors backed away from supporting NOM, because it was under investigation.

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of The Maine Commission on Governmental and Election Practices has indicated that its nearly four-year investigation of NOM should be wrapped up by September of this year. That’s just about four years from the day I went to testify before the Commission, filed my sworn complaint and asked them to investigate NOM for alleged campaign money laundering. It was an exciting day when the Commission voted to investigate NOM. After the vote and before his press conference Brian Brown excused himself from the proceedings and went to make one phone call. I would sure love to know exactly whom he called.

We were ridiculed when Danielle Avel and I produced 83 emails from NOM head Brian Brown, many of which appealed for money to help pass Maine’s Question 1. Brown’s emails often said, “Give your money directly to NOM and your names will be kept secret.” Then Brown denied that, in his sworn affidavit which he had “notarized” in Virginia before flying up to testify in front of the Ethics Committee.

Wonder if there is any law against filing a false and misleading affidavit when testifying before the Maine Commission on Governmental and Election Practices?

Huge Thanks Go Out to the State of Maine

I want to thank the courageous efforts of both the Maine Attorney General’s office and the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. Both agencies have done the most incredible job of fighting back against NOM and its army of high priced attorneys for the past four years. Last week’s State Supreme Court ruling was a victory for everyone who believes in truth and transparency in elections.

Brian Brown and his National Organization for Marriage have worked overtime to demonize the LGBT community and deny us our full equality for half a decade. They have steadfastly refused to reveal where all their millions and millions of dollars to do so come from. Thanks to the courage and tenacity of Maine officials we will finally find out.

 

Fred Karger Bio 2013.docx - Google DriveFred  Karger, the first openly gay presidential candidate from a major political party in American history, is an American political consultant, gay rights activist, watchdog, political pundit, writer, public speaker, author, former actor and was the 2012 candidate for the Republican nomination for President.  Although he has never held elected office, Karger has worked on ten presidential campaigns and served as a senior consultant during the campaigns of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford.  

 

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‘Disgraceful’: ICE Slammed After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying US Congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

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She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

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U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

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Image via Reuters 

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Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

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A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

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Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

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That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

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Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.

Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.

“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”

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On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”

“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.

Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.

“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”

Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.

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Image via Reuters 

 

 

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