Category: Uncategorized

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Broadway Honors Prince With Curtain Call Love

Last night, the cast of Broadway blockbuster (and recent Pulitzer Prize winner) Hamilton rocked out at their curtain call in honor of Prince to his mega-hit “Lets Go Crazy.”

And over at The Color Purple, Jennifer Hudson and company brought down the house with their rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

I love my tribe.

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North Carolina: Anti-LGBT “Pledge” Falls Flat

The haters in North Carolina say they have no animus towards the LGBT community.

Right?

Except, that is, when they want to force legislators to sign a “pledge” that no pro-LGBT protections will ever happen as long as the lawmakers are in office.

The folks over at anti-LGBT NC Family Policy Council began to circulate the above pledge designed to keep HB2, the new hate law in the state, in place.

But notice that third bullet point – “That I will not vote for any bill that would add the terms “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” or “gender expression” to HB2 or any other statute or state policy.”

So, in reality, it’s not JUST about “protecting children” from bathroom predators. It’s about keeping the gays from having equal rights.

NC Capitol has the details on how the haters in NC backpedaled out of this mess:

John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, sent the pledge to all members of the House and the Senate. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, he had emailed lawmakers, saying the pledge was circulated “inadvertently” and should be ignored.

“We had considered providing a means, prior to the convening of the 2016 Legislative Session, by which we could continue to encourage North Carolina lawmakers to stay strong in your leadership defending the privacy and safety of all North Carolinians, and clarifying that there is no patchwork of confusing local laws in the state that are harmful to commerce, labor, and trade,” Rustin said in the email. “However, we decided not to move forward with this pledge and respectfully ask that you disregard yesterday’s e-mail.”

State House Rep. Darren Jackson made sure the “pledge” was seen by the public:

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Bernie Sanders: Super-Delegates Will Start Moving To Me And That’s How I’ll Win Dem Nomination

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Some politically-minded folks have begun asking if/when Sen. Bernie Sanders might consider ending his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in light of Hillary Clinton’s increasing lead in the delegate count.

While some call for Sanders to drop out now, there’s really no reason for him to do so; he has plenty of money, and as long as he’s in the race he has a voice.

But the Sanders team also has another gambit: super-delegates are going to start peeling off Clinton (the front-runner) and move to his column.

From The Hill:

Sanders currently trails Clinton in pledged delegates, 1,428 to 1,151. The count increases to 1930 to 1,189 when including unbound superdelegates. The former secretary of State needs just 435 more delegates to secure the nomination before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia at the end of July.

Part of the reason why the Sanders campaign believes it’s still viable is his team says many of Clinton’s unbound superdelegates are getting ready to jump ship and throw their support behind the Vermont senator. Mook shot down that claim on Wednesday, saying it’s unrealistic.

I’m not sure what the logic is behind this “path to the nomination.”

Why would Democratic leaders in the party move away from the person with the most pledged delegates AND the highest popular vote count to move to the #2 guy?

Plus, don’t forget that just a month or so ago Sanders’ supporters bemoaned the idea of super-delegates saying the idea of them is unprincipled. Now he’s going to try and win based on super-delegates overturning the will of the popular vote?

Maybe I’m a little slow here, but I don’t see why anyone would do that.

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Trump Advisors To Republicans: Don’t Worry – It’s All An Act

During a closed door meeting in Florida, Donald Trump’s senior advisors told Republican leaders to not worry – the first part of the campaign has been an act put on by the Trumpster “projecting an image.”

From the Associated Press:

Trump’s newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, made the case to Republican National Committee members that Trump has two personalities: one in private and one onstage.

“When he’s out on the stage, when he’s talking about the kinds of things he’s talking about on the stump, he’s projecting an image that’s for that purpose,” Manafort said in a private briefing.

“You’ll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You’ll see a real different guy,” he said.

The Associated Press obtained a recording of the closed-door exchange.

“He gets it,” Manafort said of Trump’s need to moderate his personality. “The part that he’s been playing is evolving into the part that now you’ve been expecting, but he wasn’t ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase. The negatives will come down. The image is going to change.”

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NBA To North Carolina: Change Anti-LGBT Hate Law Or We Move 2017 All-Star Game

More bad news for North Carolina in the aftermath of the state’s anti-LGBT legislation, HB2.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the hate law remains “problematic” for the league, and if the law is unchanged by next year, the currently scheduled All-Star game will have to be moved to a new location outside of North Carolina.

From the Charlotte Observer:

Silver’s comments on the state’s controversial House Bill 2 came at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ commissioner meetings Thursday, according to attendees.

Earlier in the day, Silver again called the law “problematic” for the league as it stands, but he said he’s confident state lawmakers will “do the right thing.”

“We’ve been, I think, crystal clear a change in the law is necessary for us to play in the kind of environment that we think is appropriate for a celebratory NBA event,” Silver said at the APSE event.

And speaking on ESPN’s Mike & Mike morning radio show, Silver said the NBA is more interested in working with local businesses and governments to effect change in the law, rather than in setting ultimatums about the 2017 All-Star Game, which is to take place in Charlotte.

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ESPN Fires Curt Schilling Over Anti-Transgender Meme

Talking Points Memo has the details:

ESPN announced Wednesday night that it was firing former World Series champion Curt Schilling from his role as a baseball analyst after he posted several anti-transgender memes to his public Facebook profile.

“ESPN is an inclusive company,” ESPN said in a statement. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

The memes Schilling posted on Monday appeared to support a recent spate of legislation in various states requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth sex. After facing intensive criticism online, Schilling doubled down in a lengthy public blog post calling his detractors people “just dying to be offended.”

After taking a day to assess the impact of his posts, ESPN dismissed Schilling.

Schilling has got the network in hot water before. After sharing a meme comparing Muslims to Nazis last August, he was suspended from hosting duties for the duration of the rest of the baseball season. Back on air in February, he received no reprimand for suggesting that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “should be buried under a jail somewhere.”

Here’s the meme Schilling shared which was supposed to represent transgender women:

Of course, the wingnuts have all come out in an outrage, but more interesting is the response from Schilling’s wife who took to Facebook to proclaim what a transgender ally Schilling is:

Now, does the person Shonda Schilling describes in her post sound like the “educated” and “loving” person who would post the meme above?  I can’t imagine anyone who has trans friends would share that image.

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Greta Van Susteren: Put Harriet Tubman On The $25 Bill

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren closed her show last night with an off-pitch rant regarding the news that ‘Underground Railroad’ hero, Harriet Tubman, will be replacing slave-owner President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

Van Susteren said the Obama administration “went stupid” and was dividing the country with a “completely unnecessary fight,” closing with this:

“Give Tubman her own bill. Like a $25 bill. We could use a $25 bill. Put her picture on that and we could all celebrate. That’s the smart and easy thing to do. But no, some people don’t think and would gratuitously stir up conflict in the nation. That is so awful, and yes, dumb.”

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Music Superstar Prince Dead At 57

TMZ reports that the artist known as Prince has died at the age of 57.

The Associated Press has confirmed the report.

Prince’s body was discovered at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota early Thursday morning.

Multiple sources connected to the singer confirmed he had passed. We’ve obtained the emergency dispatch call for a “male down, not breathing.”

The singer — full name Prince Rogers Nelson — had a medical emergency on April 15th that forced his private jet to make an emergency landing in Illinois. But he appeared at a concert the next day to assure his fans he was okay. His people told TMZ he was battling the flu.

Prince earned countless awards during his career – 7 Grammy Awards, including his huge Purple Rain (over 20 million units alone), the soundtrack to his highly successful film of the same title, which led to the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.

In addition to being a fan of the musical genius, I can’t help but recall I met my husband at Prince’s compound, Paisley Park, outside of Minneapolis in 1994 at a recording session I was doing. Just being at the legendary recording studio was a thrill.

What a loss. And at such a young age. Gone too soon. 

We don’t cry because we knew them, we cry because they helped us know ourselves.