Connect with us

Breaking: Duke University President Calls for ‘Full Repeal’ of North Carolina Anti-LGBT Law HB2

Published

on

‘We Urge a Full Repeal of HB2’

Richard Brodhead, the President of Duke University, has just issued a statement urging North Carolina to repeal fully HB2, the highly-controversial anti-LGBT law legal experts have called “unconstitutional.” 

“We deplore in the strongest possible terms the new state law, HB2, that prevents municipalities from establishing laws that protect members of the LGBTQ+ community and others from discrimination and eliminates some economic advancement opportunities for underrepresented communities,” the strong statement reads.

It notes the “damage” North Carolina has “suffered” because of HB2, to “its national and international reputation as a leader in the fair treatment of its citizens.”

“Scholars from states and municipalities that have imposed bans on government travel to North Carolina have been unable to travel to Duke to continue vital ongoing research partnerships or attend academic conferences. Prospective students, faculty and staff, as well as Duke alumni planning visits to campus, have voiced concerns about whether they will find a hospitable environment in North Carolina. These developments have the potential to limit the value that Duke and other colleges and universities contribute to the state, namely producing trained graduates and expanding the frontiers of knowledge.”

It concludes, “this new law runs counter to the ideals of Duke University — and, we believe, to those of our great state. We urge a full repeal of HB2.”

The statement is also signed by Provost Duke University Sally Kornbluth and A. Eugene Washington, Duke’s Chancellor for Health Affairs and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System.

Duke University, established in 1838, is a powerful institution in North Carolina, and has a $7.3 billion endowment and a $4.5 billion annual budget.

The strong statement comes as a powerful blow to the Republican leadership in the General Assembly and especially to Gov. Pat McCrory, coming just one day after his fateful “Meet the Press” interview and after weeks of defending HB2, while calling its opponents poorly-informed. 

 

Image via Twitter 

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Trump Vows Retirement Boost for Millions — Expert Questions His Fiscal Authority

Published

on

56 million Americans without an employer-backed retirement saving plan, like a 401(k), could benefit from a proposal President Donald Trump made during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, but one expert warns he may not have the authority to do so.

Declaring that he wanted to fix a “gross disparity” in America’s retirement system, as CBS News reported, Trump said that “half of all of working Americans still do not have access to a retirement plan with matching contributions from an employer.”

Trump appears to be using a plan provided to federal government employees, the Thrift Savings Plan, as the template for the new retirement accounts.

“The current retirement system effectively excludes millions of Americans who lack access to 401(k) and similar plans, according to a recent report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS),” CBS News noted. “The nonpartisan group found that most Americans without an employer-sponsored plan are unlikely to put any money away for retirement.”

These new plans would “ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market,” Trump said.

Some financial experts lauded the idea.

“The time has come because so many people are now older and they realize the promise of the 401(k) just didn’t materialize,” retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, director of The New School for Social Research’s Wealth Equity Lab, told CBS News. “This goes much further than any other legislation in the last 45 years to get money into low-income workers’ retirement accounts.”

But one expert disagreed with Trump’s plan, and his authority to fund it.

“Not only does the administration lack the fiscal authority to seed 401(k)s with a $1,000 taxpayer match, nor is this a good idea,” Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, told CBS News. “Americans need a simpler system of tax-advantaged savings via universal savings accounts, not more tax-advantaged accounts (ie Trump accounts) or related handouts.”

Meanwhile, according to Semafor, Trump’s plan may end up not even being his own.

“One option: resurrecting former President Barack Obama’s MyRA program, which Trump shuttered in 2017, citing high costs. Obama announced that plan, which eventually drew 30,000 participants, during his 2014 State of the Union.”

 

Image via Reuters 

Continue Reading

News

Media Mogul Who Urged Prayer for Trump’s Win Met With Top White House Aide: Report

Published

on

The billionaire head of a Berlin-based global mass media behemoth that owns influential outlets including Politico, reportedly met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday.

Mathias Döpfner serves as chairman and CEO of Axel Springer SE, a publishing group that operates in dozens of countries and counts U.S. private equity firm KKR — co‑founded by Republican donor Henry Kravis — among its principal owners. According to Forbes, Kravis gave one million dollars to Donald Trump‘s 2017 inauguration committee.

In the U.S., Axel Springer also publishes Business Insider and Morning Brew.

New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin reported that Wiles met with Döpfner in, according to a source, “an introductory, get-to-know-you meeting.”

READ MORE: Trump Slammed for ‘Bragging’ He Kicked Millions Off Food Stamps

The meeting comes just one day after President Donald Trump delivered his controversial State of the Union address and less than nine months before the midterm elections.

Döpfner sent an email to his top executives before the 2020 election, asking if they would like to join him to pray for the re-election of Donald Trump, according to reports. The email came one year before Axel Springer sealed the deal to purchase Politico.

“Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” Döpfner wrote in the email, The Daily Beast reported, citing an article in The Washington Post.

“No American administration in the last 50 years has done more,” Döpfner added.

“When asked about the message,” The Daily Beast reported, “Döpfner initially denied it existed, going so far as to say: ‘It has never been sent and has never been even imagined.’ When confronted with a printout of the email, he explained that he may have sent it ‘as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump.’ ‘That is me,’ he added. ‘That could be.’”

In a 2022 analysis titled “The Scandalous History of America’s Newest Media Baron,” Foreign Policy reported: “The new owner of Politico, Axel Springer, has a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes.”

READ MORE: ‘Bloodshot Eyes of Crazy People’: Trump Lashes Out at Two ‘Deranged’ Dems in New Wild Rant

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

‘Bloodshot Eyes of Crazy People’: Trump Lashes Out at Two ‘Deranged’ Dems in New Wild Rant

Published

on

President Donald Trump escalated his criticism Wednesday of two progressive congressional Democrats who shouted at him during his State of the Union address, denouncing them as “mentally deranged.” In his wild rant he said that the lawmakers had “the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people” and, suggesting deportation, added, “we should send them back from where they came.”

“When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

U.S. Reps. Omar and Tlaib had denounced the fatal shootings by federal agents of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. “You have killed Americans!” the two yelled, according to NBC News.

READ MORE: Trump Slammed for ‘Bragging’ He Kicked Millions Off Food Stamps

“When people can behave like that, and knowing that they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians, so bad for our Country, we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.”

Trump’s targeting of the left did not end there.

He suggested that the two members of Congress should join with Hollywood star Robert De Niro.

They “should actually get on a boat with Trump Deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!”

Trump did not specify which remarks he believed to be criminal.

“When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States,” Trump also wrote.

“The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much. The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy!”

READ MORE: Weakened Yet Dangerous: Columnist Says Trump’s ‘Great Enemy Is Time’

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.