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UPDATED: NOM Hands Over Donor List From Maine Campaign Against Same-Sex Marriage – Details

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NOM, having exhausted nearly all legal options, has finally filed its list of donors whose contributions helped the anti-gay group fight a 2009 same-sex marriage campaign in Maine.

In 2009 the Maine state legislature passed a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry, and it was signed into law. Christian conservatives were furious, just months earlier having won marriage bans in California (Prop 8) and Florida.

NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, was still relatively new, but the anti-gay group went into action and campaigned heavily for the law to be placed before the people of Maine. It was, and voters overturned the legislation even before it had gone into effect.

That campaign against same-sex marriage cost NOM over $2 million, but the organization, headed at the time by Maggie Gallagher, refused to obey Maine election laws by filing its list of donors. For years, NOM has battled the State of Maine, and each time, NOM has lost.

Finally, the Supreme Court of the State of Maine, after an ethics committee fined the group $50,000, ordered them several weeks ago to hand over their list of donors.

Late Friday, NOM finally obeyed the court’s order and filed the list.

What it reveals is stunning, but consistent with other revelations journalists have discovered about the formerly well-funded group.

A handful of donors contribute the vast, vast majority of NOM’s funds.

For the fight in Maine, only six donors are listed, totaling just over $2 million, according to the Maine Sun Journal. The list can be viewed here.

One donor, Sean Fieler, a New York City resident who is also the chairman of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, donated over half the group’s funds for the Maine fight: $1.25 million.

Other donors include the Knights of Columbus ($140,000), two out of state individuals who each gave $300,000, and only one Maine resident, who gave $50,000.

Fieler’s Chiaroscuro Foundation claims if offers “the poor healthcare and educational opportunities that they need to thrive. We offer the saving grace of Jesus to all while defending everyone’s unalienable right to exercise the religion of their own choosing.”

It does not mention marriage, but on its website it states Fieler is also the Chairman of the American Principles Project, which was co-founded by NOM co-founder Robert P. George. Fieler is also a member of the board of Witherspoon Institute, which funded and directed the anti-gay parenting “study” by Mark Regnerus, which NCRM and many others have thoroughly debunked. Fieler is also on the board of the very anti-gay Manhattan Institute, which calls for anarchy in the face of government supported civil rights, including same-sex marriage and abortion.

UPDATE I: 2:09 PM EDT –
“The crooks & liars at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) got caught money laundering $2 million in the Maine gay marriage election,” Fred Karger, one of NOM’s greatest critics, told NCRM exclusively via an email conversation. “I am honored to have filed the original complaint against NOM nearly six years ago and traveled to Augusta four times to testify against NOM before the Maine Ethics Commission.”

“Kudos to Jonathan Wayne, its Executive Director, Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner and their offices for their six years of hard work beating NOM at every turn. Great to see NOM pay a record $50,500 fine and spend millions more in attorney’s fees. Today is a great day for truth and transparency in elections,” Karger, founder of the group Rights Equal Rights, adds.

 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

 

Image: Screenshot via UStream/NOM

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‘Lied Through His Teeth’: Senator Warns RFK Jr. Undermining Vaccine Will ‘Kill’ Kids

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U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is accusing Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of lying during his Senate testimony this week, and warning that the HHS chief’s efforts to destroy faith in the measles vaccine will lead to children dying.

“It’s not a small thing that Trump’s Cabinet thinks Congress and the American people are so dumb that they can tell brazen lies over and over. We can’t normalize this,” Senator Murphy urged.

“The way in which Trump and Trump’s cabinet lie through their teeth, unapologetically and brazenly, to Congress and the American people, is outrageous,” Murphy said in video (below) he posted online Friday. “And I really worry that we risk normalizing it by not calling it out when it happens.”

He called the exchange he had with RFK Jr. “maddening” and “heartbreaking,” and said the HHS Secretary “essentially says that he’s no longer recommending that families get the measles vaccine. That’s going to kill hundreds, if not thousands of kids in this country.”

Murphy then played a clip from Kennedy’s testimony (which NCRM covered earlier this week), and, he said, caught Kennedy in a lie.

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“By the way,” Kennedy told Murphy, “I said at the [House] hearing this morning that I was recommending the measles vaccine,” and told him to “look at the transcript.”

“So guess what I did?” Murphy says. “I went and checked the House transcript. It’s hours of testimony. I and my staff watched all of it, and guess what? Nowhere, nowhere in that transcript does he say he recommends the measles vaccine.”

“He lied through his teeth, and he did it because all of these MAGA sycophants have gotten used to lying. Donald Trump does it all the time, so they think they can do it as well. But we can’t normalize this because you can’t run a country if your leaders are lying to you every single day,” the Connecticut Democrat warned.

“RFK Jr. doesn’t support the measles vaccine, and he shouldn’t pretend that he does. He undermines the vaccine on a daily basis and whether we like his conspiracy theory positions or not, he should just be honest with the American people. They should all be honest with the American people, and none of us should normalize or get used to this amount of lying.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘It Meant Assassination’: Trump Blasts ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey for ‘8647’

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‘It Meant Assassination’: Trump Blasts ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey for ‘8647’

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President Donald Trump is attacking the FBI Director he fired, Jim Comey, who is reportedly under investigation  over a photo of sea shells formed into the numbers 8647. Top Trump law enforcement and intelligence officials claim it is a call for the assassination of the 47th President, although “86” is generally understood to mean “reject” or “eject,” and, since the 1930s, in restaurant parlance, has meant a menu item is unavailable.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” President Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that will air Friday evening. “A child knows what that meant.”

“If you’re the FBI Director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination.’ And it says it loud and clear,” Trump alleged.

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“Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant, and he did it for a reason, and he was hit so hard because people like me, and they like what’s happening with our country. Our country’s become respected again,” the President claimed. “And he’s calling for the assassination of the president.”

Baier interjected, saying: “Obviously, he apologized and said he —”

“Well, he apologized because he was hit,” Trump also claimed. “Look, he’s a very bad —”

When asked what he wants to see happen to the former Director of the FBI, Trump said he did not want to weigh in, and would let his Attorney General handle it.

“I don’t want to take a position on it because that’s gonna be up to Pam [Bondi] and all of the great people, but I will say this. I think it’s a terrible thing. And when you add his history to that, if he had a clean history, he doesn’t.”

“He’s a dirty cop. He’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency. But I’m going to let them make that decision.”

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Trump Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News on Thursday night she thinks Comey should go to prison for posting the “8647” photo.

Asked, “Do you believe Comey should be in jail?” Gabbard replied, “I do.”

“Any other person with the position of influence that he has,” she added, “people who take very seriously what what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be?”

“I’m very concerned for the president’s life. We’ve already seen assassination attempts,” she continued. “I’m very concerned for his life, and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.”

But others commenting via social media were quick to point to a number of “86” posts apparently made by right wing influencers and even a former member of Congress, as well as T-shirts for sale during the Biden years.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Image via Reuters

 

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‘Mad King’: Trump Teases ‘Fourth’ Term to U.S. Troops Overseas

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During a rally-style appearance before uniformed U.S. troops in Qatar on Thursday, President Donald Trump—serving as their Commander-in-Chief—floated the idea of a “fourth” term and falsely claimed victory in the 2020 election he lost. The appearance drew swift criticism for blurring the line between military service and political theater.

“As you know, we won three elections, okay?” Trump told the largely silent troops (video below). “And some people want us to do a fourth. I don’t know—I’ll have to think about that.”

“You saw the new, the new hat. The hottest hat is, it says, ‘Trump 2028: We’re driving the left crazy.'”

“When you see that. We didn’t need that hat, but, uh, it was it’s been an amazing period of time,” he concluded.

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Noting that Trump was speaking “at the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East,” CNN reported that the President “thanked the U.S. troops for political support.”

“There’s – nobody been stronger than the military in terms of backing us, nobody,” Trump said. “So, I just want to thank you all very much. Great honor. Thank you very much.”

CBS News national security coordinating producer Jim LaPorta, who has reported extensively on the military, wrote: “If this was a rally, the president’s remarks would be fine. But in front of service members who are expected to be apolitical, many Defense Department officials would find these remarks inappropriate.”

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The Bulwark’s Sam Stein observed: “Treating the troops like they’re at a campaign rally and sowing doubt about the past and future of American elections — all in one soundbite.”

Democratic pollster and strategist Luke Martin called it “especially jarring to see Trump flirting with blowing a hole in the Constitution in front of an entire crowd of people who literally swore an oath to protect it with their life.”

Independent journalist Mike Rothschild noted: “Making a statement like this in front of active duty troops would have generated months of scandal, hearings, and resignations in years gone by. Now it’s just another Thursday with the Mad King.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

 

Image via Reuters

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