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McCrory Asked the Media to Put Out ‘More Accurate Information’ on His Anti-LGBT Law. So They Did.

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Politifact rates North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s Claims ‘False’

Governor Pat McCrory this week denounced what he claimed is a “very well-coordinated campaign” against his anti-LGBT bill, HB2. He accuses LGBT and civil rights groups of “distorting the truth,” and “frankly smearing our state in an inaccurate way and which I’m working to correct.” (See video above.)

“I hope the media starts putting out more accurate information on the facts between a basic common sense bill which allows businesses to determine their own restroom and shower and locker room facilities, not government,” the North Carolina Republican urged. 

“I frankly think some of the media has failed miserably in communicating the clear facts, especially the national media with the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Huffington Post,” McCrory attacked. “And we’re trying to clarify that [sic] facts, and I hope you put out the accurate information about the true facts of a common sense ordinance.”

Stunningly, McCrory once again insisted – lied – claiming HB2 has “not taken away any rights that currently existed in any city in North Carolina.”

“Every city and every corporation has the exact same discrimination policy this week as they had two weeks ago,” he said.

Be careful what you ask for, Governor.

Politifact, the non-partisan Pulitzer Prize winning arm of the Tampa Bay Times took Gov. McCrory up on his wish. It didn’t turn out well for him.

“Pat McCrory is wrong when he says North Carolina’s new LGBT law doesn’t take away existing rights,” the Politifact fact-checkers reported Wednesday afternoon.

“HB2 specifically says that local governments do not have the right to put [nondiscrimination] requirements on contractors,” Politifact says, adding, “it also took away a right that had previously been available to residents of any and every city in the state – the ability to file a state lawsuit over discriminatory firing.”

“This is a seismic issue,” Eric Doggett, a Raleigh, NC employment discrimination lawyer told Politifact. “It’s huge. It’s a massive loss of rights, and it happened with almost no debate.”

Another employment discrimination attorney, Laura Noble, said, “I won’t refer to this as a ‘bathroom bill’ because that’s really not what it’s about.” Noble says the law is “about the elimination of discrimination protections.”

Politifact concludes HB2 “took away the rights of cities to put certain anti-discrimination requirements on private contractors, and it nullified existing policies like in Carrboro and Raleigh. It might have also taken away the rights of cities and counties to pass their own in-house anti-discrimination policies, depending on which lawyer you ask.”

They add that HB2 “takes away the right of everyone in North Carolina to file a state-level lawsuit alleging a discriminatory firing, according to attorneys who represent both employers and employees in those cases.”

“But even if you discount the discrimination lawsuit changes and only focus on municipal government powers and rights, McCrory is still wrong,” Politifact charges.

“We rate this claim False.”

 

EARLIER:

3 States And Several Large Cities Now Banning Publicly-Funded Travel To North Carolina Over LGBT Law

Over 80 Top CEOs, Business Leaders Urge North Carolina Gov. McCrory to Repeal Anti-LGBT Law

North Carolina Attorney General: I Will Not Defend Gov. McCrory’s ‘Unconstitutional’ Anti-LGBT Law

 

Video and Screenshot: Charlotte Observer. Transcript: Talking Points Memo

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

READ MORE: Trump Goes on Wild Rant Targeting Judge and Attorney General After Being Found Liable for Fraud

Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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