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Maryland Same-Sex Marriage Bills: So What Happened At The Hearing?

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Two committees from the Maryland House of Delegates heard debate Friday from lawmakers and lawyers, laypeople and laity, pastors and priests —  both for and against two highly-contested same-sex civil marriage bills during a marathon debate that lasted ten hours. One bill would recognize the right of lesbian and gay couples to marry, making their relationships equal and legal under the law, the other would impose a constitutional ban on all same-sex marriages in the state of Maryland, codifying discrimination and second class citizenship directly into the constitution.

No vote has taken place yet.

Governor Martin O’Malley, who, like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, sponsored the same-sex marriage equality bill and delivered opening remarks as Friday’s hearing began. O’Malley is certain to sign a same-sex marriage equality bill were it to make its way through the full House and Senate. A similar bill last year passed the Senate but not the House. Currently there is not a majority for or against same-sex marriage in Maryland.

“This bill balances equal protection of individual civil marriage rights with the important protection of religious freedom for all,” O’Malley testified.

“It is not right or just that the children of gay couples should have lesser protections than the children of other families in our state,” O’Malley added, according to a report in The Washington Blade. “Nor would it be right to force religious institutions to conduct marriages that conflict with their own religious beliefs and teachings.”

Testimony against same-sex marriage was often heated and vociferous, relying primarily on bible-based rhetoric, ignorance, and flawed ideas of same-sex relationships, along with flawed and refuted studies, while testimony for same-sex marriage relied on primarily on legal arguments, personal experiences, and included a great many religious leaders who support same-sex marriage.

But not all religious leaders who testified were supportive of gay marriage. Nor were some of their congregants.

“All these ministers talking about their homosexuals — let’s go chapter and verse and see who’s a liar,” one anti-gay citizen yelled, preaching from the Bible, adding, “homosexuals destroy the foundation of civilization,” and “the homosexuals will be cast in a lake of fire.” His testimony lasted almost five minutes.

Another arguing against marriage equality claimed that “lifestyle choice” leads to HIV/AIDS and therefore Maryland should ban same-sex marriage. The ignorance and irony of his comments escaped him.

“I’m not a ‘homo-phobiac’ nor a ‘xeno-phobiac.’ People who have special propensities can do what they will,” Delegate Emmett Burns said. “Same-sex marriage is bad for people of my church and bad for the state … I don’t want your protection … The law is that marriage is between a man and a WO-MAN,” he proclaimed. “You cannot protect our churches – you don’t know how. Gays and lesbians are protected because they can hide their sexual orientation – they are already protected,” adding, “Children are being used in this process. Children are being used for the purpose of same-sex marriage.”

Others who testified against marriage equality were professional gay-haters, like one Alliance Defense Fund attorney who quoted Aristotle, ironically, perhaps, not realizing that Aristotle was gay and praised same-sex unions.

But Delegate Simmons might have been the hero of the day. The Washington Post wrote that he “peppered a panel of religious leaders opposed to the bill with questions about the source of their opposition. Simmons suggested the only reasons were rooted in a desire to impose their religious beliefs on others.”

“I have heard no evidence at all how same-sex marriage effects your families, the church. . . . There’s not a syllable of evidence. You just don’t like it,” Simmons said.

Simmons also challenged another citizen who testified vehemently against marriage equality and claimed he was concerned about the future of “traditional marriage,” and worried because he believed the institution of marriage was in trouble.

“Last year we made divorce easier, did you come to testify against that?,” Simmons asked, receiving a squirming answer that meant “no.”

“We’ve had bills dealing with domestic violence, have you ever come to testify about them?,” Simmons continued. The respondent, stunningly, claimed he saw no relationship between domestic violence and preserving marriages.

Simmons also told a religious leader preaching biblical concepts against gay marriage, that he himself is a straight man, married 41 years, and said,  “[Gay] people who want to get married have a right to be left alone from people like you.”

Governor O’Malley, who had kicked off the heating at 1:10 PM, returned at 11:20 PM in time to hear the final comments. The hearing ended at 11:40 PM. It is unclear but a committee vote might take place as soon as Monday.

For additional reporting, read John Riley’s report at MetroWeekly,  and Lou Chibbaro Jr.’s report at The Washington Blade.

Image via Equality Maryland via Twitter.

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‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

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Democratic strategist and pundit James Carville, responding to the international outcry and condemnation over President Donald Trump’s failed efforts to acquire Greenland, predicted that he will likely lose big in the November midterm elections.

“I think the world wants to return, with the United States as being part of the world,” Carville said on his podcast. “And I think the way that that happens is Trump has to be humiliated.”

“He has to be electorally humiliated, and I think there’s a good, good chance that’s gonna happen this November in our elections,” he said. “It’s not enough that he just walk away, and the Democrats take over the presidency.”

There has to be “a well laid plan and strategy to utterly humiliate him, to the point that everybody around the world says, ‘This m — —, or no one like this m — —, is gonna ever come back and lead the United States,'” Carville declared.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Miscalculated’ and It ‘Backfired’: Columnist Explains What Led to Trump ‘Failing’

“I think that’s the possibility, and I think if that happens, I think we can renormalize the world a lot faster than most.”

“And he’s completely crazy,” Carville also remarked. “He’s going downhill.”

According to the New York Post, Trump will be campaigning during the midterm elections as if he were on the ballot.

“President Trump will treat the November midterm election like a presidential campaign, his senior leadership team tells The Post — traveling like he’s on the ballot, flooding key races with cash and hammering home how his policies will help Americans with affordability,” the Post reported.

Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House Chief of Staff and his former campaign co-chair, told The Post, “He’s going to campaign like it’s 2024.”

READ MORE: Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

Image via Reuters

 

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Trump ‘Miscalculated’ and It ‘Backfired’: Columnist Explains What Led to Trump ‘Failing’

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President Donald Trump “miscalculated” his level of support — especially on the issues that won him re-election in 2024, and it has “backfired,” according to an opinion columnist.

In “Why Trump is failing,” Steven Roberts in the Columbia Missourian writes: “Trump has called 2025 ‘the greatest first year’ of any president, but a majority of Americans strongly disagree.”

“To hardcore MAGA loyalists, the president can do no wrong. But rabid Red Hats account for only about 35% of Americans,” observes Roberts.

He identifies where the president is losing support: “since Trump received almost 50% of the popular vote, that means about 15% of his backers were not true believers, and they are the ones who are slipping away.”

Roberts identifies why.

“The single biggest reason Trump won a second term was economic discontent with the Biden administration, and it’s the single biggest reason so many voters are now disillusioned,” he says, pointing to a CNN poll that, he writes, finds “55% say Trump’s policies have actually made things worse and almost two-thirds say he has not done enough to reduce their cost of living.”

But Roberts offers more.

READ MORE: Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

He explains that Americans supported Trump’s policies on immigration when it was about immigrants at the border.

“They were ‘others’: easy to demonize and dehumanize. They had no voice and no identity, and Trump and his media managers could control what voters knew and felt about them.”

But, he continues, “Trump miscalculated, and his show backfired,” because his targets are no longer “faceless hordes but real people with jobs and families, friends and neighbors.”

The came the shooting of a Minneapolis mother of three, Renee Good.

“The administration tried to brand her as a domestic terrorist who had caused her own demise by driving at the agent. But the videos — seen by more than 80% of Americans — told a different story,” he writes. “Good simply did not look like a terrorist. Plus, independent news organizations analyzed the cellphone footage and concluded that it ‘contradicted’ the official line.”

Trump “lost control of the narrative, and public opinion turned against him.”

The president’s other miscalculation: his stance on the affordability issue, an issue that arguably got him re-elected.

With just 36 percent of Americans saying Trump has the right priorities, Roberts surmises that is simply his “loyal MAGA base.”

And he warns that if this trend continues, voters at the polls in November will “take it out on his party.”

READ MORE: These 19 Democrats May Already Be Jockeying for a Presidential Run: Report

 

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Trump Unleashes Wild Ego-Fueled Social Media Grievance Storm After Davos Defeat

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President Donald Trump on Thursday unleashed dozens of rapid-fire social media posts after what critics described as a difficult few days at Davos. His speech there reportedly further strained relations with U.S. allies, following his Greenland gambit, which produced few if any clear gains and drew criticism over its diplomatic costs. The rollout of Trump’s Board of Peace also struggled to gain traction, with a handful of European allies participating in the inaugural signing ceremony.

In spoke of the more recent posts, Trump went off on “Fake Polls,” while admitting that they have his approval rating “in the low 40s,” although The Economist shows his net approval rating currently at 37%.

“We have the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, we have the Strongest Border in History, nobody has ever done a job like I have done, and they have me in the low 40s,” he complained. “The Democrats destroyed Healthcare, I’m trying to fix it, and they give me FAKE low numbers. Fake Polls on the Economy, on the Border, on just about everything, are ridiculous and dangerous. The REAL Polls have been GREAT, but they refuse to print them.

“The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times,” he wrote. “Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results — Not just the fact that it was heavily skewed toward Democrats. They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!”

READ MORE: Top Conservative Think Tank Roasted Over ‘Retrograde’ Marriage and Family Report

Some posts promoted questionable claims, including suggesting that annualized U.S. GDP grew to more than 5 percent — while most expectations and Congressional Budget Office predictions are currently about half that number.

He promoted a claim that he “helped create ‘The Martin Luther King Jr International Freedom Games’ in 1966,” when he would have been about 20 years old.

Other posts he promoted talked about the U.S. trade deficit, alleged illegal voting in the 2020 election, immigration, tariffs, globalism, Don Lemon, Supreme Court oral arguments for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and one declaring Trump the “greatest President in the world.”

Another post offered the transcript and video of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller allegedly claiming, and without evidence, that James Comey, Jim Clapper, John Brennan, Lisa Monaco, and President Barack Obama “all conspired and worked together to sabotage, undermine, unravel, and overthrow the United States government and the democratic institutions and structures of this country.”

That post, as Raw Story reported, appeared to be in response to former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s currently ongoing congressional public testimony.

Another post included video of Argentinian President Javier Milei attacking “wokeism” while praising the “Americas.”

READ MORE: These 19 Democrats May Already Be Jockeying for a Presidential Run: Report

 

Image via Reuters 

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