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NY Same-Sex Marriage Equality: Anti-Gay NOM Releases Poll Of Old People

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NOM, the National Organization for Marriage, Tuesday issued results of a poll that claims, “57% of New Yorkers Reject Same-Sex Marriage, Just One in Four Want the Legislature to Decide the Issue,” but an examination of the published results indicate the poll methodology is severely flawed, heavily weighted with older, conservative respondents, and the pollster, QEV, is an organization whose marketing brags of its president’s affiliation with the Republican Party.

NOM, identified as an “anti-gay group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, claims that “57% of New Yorkers Reject Same-Sex Marriage,” without stating clearly that only 302 registered voters were polled — a very small sample. Other disturbing factors from NOM’s QEV poll (embedded below also) include that the results state that only 7% of respondents were aged 18-39. A much larger proportion of registered voters — not to mention the population of New York in general — is aged 18-39.

More importantly, studies show that those 40 and older become increasingly opposed to same-sex marriage, which is often cited as the ultimate reason why, over time, same-sex marriage equality is inevitable.

67% of the respondents polled in the NOM/QEV survey reported they were married, a much larger percent than are actually maried in the state of New York. The 2010 U.S. Census states that 49.1% of New York men and 43.3% of New York women are currently married.

It’s not illogical to state that those who are married, and older, on average, might feel marriage should not be extended to same-sex couples.

Additionally, 40% of respondents stated they were conservative or very conservative on social issues, and only 34% stated they were liberal or very liberal.

The poll, while titled, “June 2011 Flash Survey,” does not state specifically when it was conducted, what the margin of error is, what percent of households were called (assuming this was actually a telephone survey) had landlines versus how what percent called had cell phones, what the racial breakdown was, what percentage were Hispanic, Latino, etc.

These are all standard factors published by reputable pollsters.

QEV’s own marketing states, “The soul of our work is the utilization of public opinion data to craft an actionable communications strategy which achieves your public relations or legislative goals. This is why the collection of opinion data is where our work begins — not where it ends.”

Additionally, QEV states that its president, Steven Wagner, “conducted much of the research behind the GOP ‘Contract with America’ during the 1994 campaign,” and adds that Wagner, “was the Political Director of the National Republican Institute for International Affairs, the Republican Party’s international office.” Further, QEV’s marking states, “Mr. Wagner has also served on the Republican leadership staff of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has served in senior positions in numerous campaigns for federal office, including two Presidential campaigns.”

Clearly, this latest salvo, a flawed poll by a pollster who highlights his work as a Republican and with Republicans, released when the vote on marriage equality in the New York State Senate was already expected to have taken place, shows just how desperate NOM and Maggie Gallagher truly are.

Recently, NOM made headlines when it released an interview with former NFL Super Bowl star David Tyree, who has since repeatedly stated that same-sex marriage will led to “anarchy,” and that government has no business redefining marriage. Tyree is African-American, and perhaps forgot that African-Americans — unlike gays and lesbians — have benefited from the U.S. government’s expansion over time of marriage equality.

NOM NY 2011 Survey on Marriage

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Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

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President Donald Trump, his team, and his allies are “saboteurs” who are “wrecking” all the institutions that brought America prosperity and prestige, says a fascism expert who warns that the president may take action to disrupt — or even cancel —a future election.

Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and a scholar of fascism, is an expert on authoritarianism and strongmen. She spoke with Politicon’s James Carville and Al Hunt on Friday.

When asked whether it is “accurate” to call Trump a fascist, Dr. Ben-Ghiat replied, “He’s got many fascist qualities, and they’re recycling Nazi slogans now,” she observed.

Trump, she continued, “made a campaign video that said that he was going to — he was going to create a ‘unified Reich.'”

READ MORE: Trump Warns CNN and MS NOW: Stop Booking Ty Cobb and Miles Taylor

“They’re taking from the fascist playbook,” she added, noting that they “love” Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and “all autocrats.”

“They are trying their best to have an authoritarian state and destroy our democracy,’ she warned.

Ben-Ghiat agreed that she is worried that Trump would try to do something to intervene in the elections, perhaps by not holding one.

The “more they feel backed into a corner,” she observed, “and these are people, these strong men, who live in fear of being — getting into a position where they can be held accountable.”

“It’s inconceivable that he would just leave office normally,” she noted. “So you can’t underestimate what they’re going to do.”

“It could be the Insurrection Act, it could be trying to have a state — some kind of state emergency to cancel the election,” she said. “ICE could be used in violent ways or intimidating ways to get people to stay home.”

READ MORE: ‘God Doesn’t Care if You Score a Touchdown’: Critics Torch Christian Sports Movement Op-Ed

“All kinds of tricks could be used.”

“They’re not gonna give up without a fight,” she warned.

Ben-Ghiat also said, “I have been saying since February — and people thought I was like a conspiracy theorist — that Trump and company are saboteurs.”

“They’re trying to sabotage America so thoroughly that it’ll be wrecked for generations, and that’s why they’re wrecking medical research, scientific research, child welfare. All the things that brought America prosperity and prestige in the world have to be wrecked.”

“I truly see Trump as in office in part to solve Putin’s problems. And to make autocracy flourish.”

“He’s trying to take down America in every way. So that it has its role in the Western hemisphere, and then Xi can do his thing in Asia, and Putin can prosper, and all the failed, horrible states can have a new life, because the U.S. military or the U.S. — they’re not gonna come after them.”

READ MORE: ‘This Is How It Begins’: Alarm Bells Erupt Over FBI Midterms Email to Election Officials

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Trump Warns CNN and MS NOW: Stop Booking Ty Cobb and Miles Taylor

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President Donald Trump, in what appeared to be an attempt to pressure two major cable news networks, warned against booking two prominent former officials from his first administration.

Trump targeted CNN and MS NOW — formerly MSNBC, which he called “MSDNC” — while denouncing attorney Ty Cobb, a former member of the White House legal team who reported directly to the president, and former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor.

The president called Cobb “one of the Worst Lawyers in Washington, D.C.,” and a “WHACKJOB, who I hardly knew,” and said Taylor is “another major Loser … who I have no idea who he is.”

He charged that both “make livings talking about me like they know me well.”

READ MORE: ‘God Doesn’t Care if You Score a Touchdown’: Critics Torch Christian Sports Movement Op-Ed

“So, when you watch these two guys on Television, which, fortunately, doesn’t happen often because there’s very little audience at either CNN or MSDNC,” he wrote, “remember, they know nothing about me — Just two DOPES trying to make a ‘buck’ by pretending to know something about someone who turned out to be very famous.”

Trump already was the president when they served in his administration.

“These two Networks are forewarned not to put them on the air again, because they have no knowledge or credibility with respect to anything have [sic] to do with DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Last month, Cobb “claimed President Trump is experiencing a ‘significant decline’ in his mental faculties,” according to The Hill.

“I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are, you know, palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians,” Cobb said.

Trump’s social media post came just about the same time that he or someone with access to his social media account deleted what many, including several prominent Republicans, denounced as a racist meme that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

READ MORE: ‘This Is How It Begins’: Alarm Bells Erupt Over FBI Midterms Email to Election Officials

 

Image via Reuters 

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‘God Doesn’t Care if You Score a Touchdown’: Critics Torch Christian Sports Movement Op-Ed

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Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, a Washington Post guest opinion piece praising the deliberate growth of the Christian sports movement is being met with criticism by readers who appear to largely disagree with professional sports becoming overtly religious.

“Today athletes are some of the most prominent Christians in public life, far exceeding any pastor or priest,” writes Paul Putz, director of the Faith and Sports Institute at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. “And the interviews offered at the end of sporting events may be the only time many Americans will hear a proclamation of faith.”

“Christians will be prominently featured during the biggest sports Sunday of the year. Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Patriots quarterback Drake Maye have already used the run-up to the game to share their faith in Christ,” he notes. “When the contest starts, players will be found at various points kneeling in prayer, and pointing upward to God in celebration.”

READ MORE: ‘This Is How It Begins’: Alarm Bells Erupt Over FBI Midterms Email to Election Officials

Putz also points to the event’s popular commercials, which he says for the fourth year will include “the latest Jesus ad from the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign.”

“And during the postgame interviews they’ll hear the winners give glory to God, while the losers try to make sense of the disappointment, perhaps turning to the Bible for solace.”

Putz makes clear that this “transformation” from a largely secular game to one infused with religion “did not happen by accident,” but is “the result of a Christian sports movement that has been growing since the 1950s.” He points to evangelical sports ministries such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Pro Athletes Outreach, and Athletes in Action.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes reportedly has come under scrutiny over the years for its recruitment efforts in public high schools, and for its statements against homosexuality.

Readers offered sharp criticism.

READ MORE: ‘I Have Stopped Nuclear Wars’: Trump Defends Letting US-Russia Arms Treaty Expire

“People of faith have always been in sports. They just didn’t feel the need to ram it down our throats before,” wrote one reader in the most popular comment.

“I hate to break it these athletes but God doesn’t care if you score a touchdown. God hopefully has more important things to be concerned about,” said another.

“Performing public Christianity is not Christianity, which Republicans do not seem to get at all. Aren’t we all just sick of politics and culture war dressed up as religion?” asked still another.

“Football Christianity and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes…really?” asked another reader. “What does that have to do with the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, compassion teachings, taking care of the poor, the hungry, the stranger, the ill? Where are they in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles? When people were being rounded up, beaten, shot, pepper sprayed, dragged from their homes and automobiles?”

READ MORE: Another Georgia Republican Bails as Mike Johnson’s House Sees Even More Exits

 

Image via Reuters

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