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UPDATED: Bloggers, Activists Band Together Against NC’s Anti-Gay Amendment One

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Bloggers, activists, and concerned allies today are working to raise money to defeat North Carolina‘s anti-gay Amendment One, which not only would ban same-sex marriage via a constitutional amendment, but would removes legal protections and rights from both same-sex and opposite-sex couples and their children. This is the final week before voting day, May 8, although reports state early voting is high.

A Twitter-based fundraiser for today, started by Courage Campaign’s Adam Bink, to defeat Amendment One is underway, with at least two dozen opponents of the measure vowing to donate $1 for each new follower added until midnight tonight. Of course, yours truly is participating, so if you’re on Twitter, please make sure you’re following me: @davidbadash. I’ve also have been promised matching funds by the very generous Peter Flom. If you’d like to match me, let me know via Twitter or email.

Among the fundraisers today are political satirist & co-creator of The Daily Show, Lizz Winstead, and fellow bloggers Pam Spaulding, Scottie Thomaston, Joe Sudbay, Jeremy Hooper, Scott Wooledge, Bil Browning, Laurel Ramseyer, Lane Hudson, and of course Adam Bink.

Also joining the fundraising efforts are Andy Szekeres, Michael Crawford, Rick Jacobs, David Hall, Katherine Chesson, Rich Ferraro, Josh Wynne, Allison Palmer, Todd Beeton, Cameron Tolle, Nathan Henderson-Jam, Julia Rosen, Neil Pople, Andy Kelley, Rich Ferraro, CLP, Amy Bergquist, Nathan Henderson-Jam, Kathy Plate, Robyn Ochs, K. Travis Ballie, Ted Eytan, MD, AWOP Radio,  and Nation Hahn.

And Protect ALL Families from North Carolina, and the TN Equality Project are joining us!

There’s a Storify list of participants, too.

Here are posts by Pam Spaulding, Scottie Thomaston, Scott Wooledge,  and we’ll add more to this list soon!

“It’s striking that proponents of the bill seem so blithely unconcerned about 50,000 families who need the protection of the state from their abusive, but unmarried, partners,” Scott Wooledge today writes, adding:

Proponents of the bill continue to call the danger to domestic violence laws “lies” but thus far no one other than their three paid hired legal guns-for-hire “experts” seems to be agreeing with them. Their “experts” practice in the areas of international law, military litigation, free speech, church and state issues. None of them appear to have any experience in family, criminal litigation, or constitutional law.

Please, do what you can to help? Follow me and/or offer to match my contributions, donate directly. And spread the word!

UPDATE:

Here’s the final list of participants:
@adamjbink, @davidbadash, @dmcrawford, @joesudbay, @pamspaulding, @indiemcemopants, @tedeytan, @LizzWinstead, @clarknt67, @tlanehudson, @AndySzekeres, @kathyplate, @robynochs, @richferraro, @andekelley, @bilerico, @cooper888, @toddbeeton, @goodasyou, @KTravisBallie, @nathanhjb, @juliarosen, @denisdison, @notfakeandrew, @CourageCampaign, @davidhalldc, khj, @laurelramseyer, @pullenparkqueer, @allisonpalmer, @camerontolle, @alb68, @HRC, @TNEquality, @quietis, @rickjacobs, GetEQUAL, @waymonhudson, @chrismassicotte, @xavierla, @raylab, @blabbeando, @pghlesbian24, @madingbaum, @sandibehrns, @matt-thorn, @benjyraymunson, @joshco, @rockrichard, @KarlFrisch @AaronKrager

I’m proud and grateful to say that 122 people followed me on Twitter yesterday, making my goal of $100 easy to reach. If you’re one of them, if you shared this story, or if you helped in any way, I’m grateful. Thank you. And to the very generous Peter Flom, who graciously offered to match me, thank you. What a wonderful act of generosity and kindness!

UPDATE #2 Phil Reese at The Washington Blade is reporting more than 50 bloggers and activists were involved, netting the Coalition to Protect NC Families $43,000 yesterday. Outstanding!

Also raised? Hopes and awareness, and friendships.

To the two people on Twitter who told me I had better keep my promise (was there any doubt?) here’s proof — my donation receipt:

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ypJsBXd42-I%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

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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.”

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

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.

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

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.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

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.”

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

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.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

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.”

READ MORE: Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

 

 

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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.”

READ MORE: White House Touts Trump’s ‘Track Record’ on Affordability

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.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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