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Donald Trump Doesn’t Think Having Supporters Raise Their Hand & Pledge To Him Looks Hitler-esque

Calling in to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, Donald Trump said that having his supporters raise their hands and pledge their votes to him was in no way reminiscent of the famous “Heil Hitler” salute. In fact, he said he had “just heard” about such ideas and was surprised anyone could think that.

Trump also dodged questions on his “foreign policy” team telling co-host Mika Brzezinski that although she’s asked him three times over the past several weeks, he said he’d would reveal his team when the time was right.

Also on “Morning Joe” today, both Mika and Joe Scarborough seemed very defensive about their frequent interviews with The Donald. I’m guessing the rumors of them being a bit too cozy with the Trumpster have touched a nerve. Mika and Joe both made a big deal defending their Trump segments and saying they would welcome any of the other presidential candidates calling in at any time.

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Mid-Day Brain Break: Gymnast Alexei Nemov

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L'un des meilleurs du mondeL'un des meilleurs du monde (y)Posted by Blida Gymnastique on Friday, January 29, 2016

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Twitter War: Bette Midler & Kim Kardashian

It all begins so innocently – the fabulous Bette Midler tells a joke on Twitter:

Miss Kardashian, thinking that she can drop a few cute bon mots responded to the Divine Miss M thusly:

The “gift” Kim refers to was a tree that Bette planted in Kim’s name as part of Bette’s New York Restoration Project, so, of course, Miss M wasn’t going to leave it there:

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McDonalds Taiwan Ad Features Son Coming Out To Dad

A new ad spot from McDonalds Taiwan has gotten a lot of attention for it’s depiction of a young man coming out to his father.

The short video shows a young man passing his coffee cup to his dad. Written on the side of the cup – “I like boys.”

The stern father looks upset and leaves his son at the table. But soon, the father returns, picks up his son’s cup of coffee, and adds to the son’s written comment so that it reads, “I accept that you like boys.”

As warm and fuzzy as it is, some folks on the religious right in Taiwan are not happy about the commercial.

From Business Insider:

The Facebook video has now been viewed more than 3.6 million times, with the original post gaining more than 92,000 likes, and 11,800 shares.

However, not all viewers support the ad’s heartwarming message.

The secretary general of the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family, Chang Shou-yi, has called for a McDonald’s boycot following the ad, reports Shanghaiist.

“Because McDonald’s is frequented by many children, it is especially important to oppose the promotion of same-sex behavior,” Chang said in a statement on the ad. The Alliance “rebukes and boycotts all enterprises that are polluting the next generation.”

Despite the hate, social media response to the ad has been overwhelmingly positive, both in Shanghai and as it has crossed over to Western media outlets.

Taiwan is considered one of the most progressive countries in Asia. While same-sex marriage is not yet legal there, recent polling shows over 70% support marriage equality.

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Missouri Democrats Filibuster All Night Against Anti-LGBT Legislation

Democratic state Senators in the Missouri legislature have been up all night in an effort to filibuster SJR39 – legislation that would possible legalize LGBT discrimination in the “Show Me State.”

Many have pointed out the legislation is unnecessary because LGBTs are not protected in the state’s human rights laws. So, it’s already perfectly legal to discriminate against LGBTs in terms of housing, employment, or even wedding cakes.

From the Human Rights Campaign:

Today, HRC praised Missouri Senate Democrats for leading a historic filibuster – now in its 17th hour – to stop Republicans from moving forward with Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 39 – a measure that could enshrine discrimination against LGBT Missourians and their families into the state constitution.

Still going strong since 4:00 PM CT yesterday, these pro-equality state senators have been vigorously fighting an assault on equality that’s similar to so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” legislation introduced in other states. The extreme resolution would lead to a ballot measure that proposes to allow individuals, organizations, and businesses to use religion as a valid excuse to discriminate against LGBT people.

“These Missouri Senate Democrats working throughout the night to stop this outrageous assault on LGBT Missourians and their families are our heroes,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “This resolution has nothing to do with religious liberty and everything to do with enshrining anti-LGBT discrimination into the Missouri Constitution. We are incredibly grateful for these state senators who are standing up against overwhelming odds to proclaim that hate and discrimination are not Missouri values.”

The filibuster against the anti-LGBT resolution is being led by Democratic Senators Jamilah Nasheed, Jill Schupp, Scott Sifton, Jason Holsman, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Joseph Keaveny and Kiki Curls.

SJR 39 goes far beyond protecting the right of free exercise of one’s religion. While shrouded in language framed as prohibiting the state government from making funding or tax status decisions based on an organization’s views on marriage that are driven by religious belief, in reality it opens the door to discrimination against same-sex couples, their families, and those who love them.

If voted into law, LGBT people and their families could suddenly find themselves at risk of being denied many basic services. Taxpayer funded foster care providers and adoption agencies could refuse to place children in need of loving homes with same-sex couples. Taxpayer funded homeless shelters could turn away LGBT couples and their families. The legislation would have reckless intended and unintended consequences.

The resolution addresses no real problem in the state as no federal or state law requires religious organizations or clergy to sanction or perform same-sex marriages.

UPDATE: As the filibuster has now passed the 24 hour mark, the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson follows up with a few more details on the bill.

The law has four parts aimed at allowing religious people and organization to deny wedding services to same-sex couples:

* It prohibits the state from imposing a penalty on a religious organization who acts in accordance with a sincere religious belief concerning same-sex marriage, which includes the refusal to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony or allowing a same sex wedding ceremony to be performed on the religious organization’s property. (A religious organization under the resolution is construed broadly to include religious societies, corporations, schools, social service providers and hospitals.)
* It bars the state from penalizing an individual who declines, due to sincere religious beliefs, to provide goods of expressional or artistic creation for a same-sex wedding ceremony.
* It explicitly doesn’t prevent the state from providing lawful marriage licenses or other marital benefits. Under the resolution, hospitals couldn’t refuse to treat a marriage as valid for the purposes of a spouse’s right to visitation or to make health care decisions.
* It allows individuals protected under this resolution to use the law as a claim or defense in a legal proceeding regardless of whether the state is a party in the dispute.

Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri has also weighed in on the issue:

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Super PAC Runs Attack Ad On Donald Trump: “The Best Words”

By this point, we all have recognized that Donald Trump’s use of language on the campaign trail has been unorthodox, to say the least.

Now, the American Future Fund Super PAC, which describes itself as “a voice for conservative principles that sustains free market ideals focused on bolstering America’s global competitiveness across the country,” has begun airing this attack spot against Trump with a budget in the six figures.

Instead of a voice-over narration talking on why Trump might be bad for the country, the spot uses Trump’s own words. The vulgar ones.

Could this impact Trump’s momentum? We shall see.

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Donald Trump Doubles Down On Asking Supporters To “Pledge” Themselves To Him

Over the weekend I posted about a “pledge” Republican front-runner Donald Trump has begun asking his supporters at rallies to speak aloud while raising their right hands.

Despite comments that this all looks eerily like a “Heil Hitler” salute, Trump continued this at campaign stops today.

Abe Foxman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League, gave a statement to the Times of Israel explaining why he found this “pledge of allegiance” to Trump is so disturbing:

“As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America,” he told The Times of Israel.

“We’ve seen this sort of thing at rallies of neo-Nazis. We’ve seen it at rallies of white supremacists. But to see it at a rally for a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States is outrageous.”

“It is a fascist gesture,” Foxman said. “He is smart enough — he always tells us how smart he is — to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he’s asking them to swear allegiance to him.”

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Study Shows Which U.S. Cities Have Highest Rate Of Anti-Gay Tweets

Adobo.com, a site that helps tenants find apartments, did an analysis of 12 million tweets ranging from June 2014 to December 2015, looking for slurs and other language which could be considered prejudicial against certain minority groups (African-Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, women, gays and lesbians, transgender people, etc).

The study found that the city of Buffalo, New York, uses the highest rate of anti-gay tweets.

Referencing the study, LGBT activist Margaret Smith told the Buffalo News, “What this tells me is there’s a lot of work to be done. This is about a lot more than marriage. We are our words. Tweeting is a little anonymous, as is online behavior. But right now, there’s lot of people on television giving lots of other people permission to be hateful.”

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U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Alabama Supreme Court Ruling Against Same-Sex Adoption

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously reversed the Alabama Supreme Court’s refusal to recognize adoption regarding a same-sex couple.

From USA Today:

The justices upheld a challenge brought by an Alabama woman after her state’s highest court refused to recognize the adoption she and her former lesbian partner were granted in Georgia.

The couple never married and have since split up. But the case presented a test of an issue that crops up occasionally in state and federal courts since the Supreme Court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage: Can gays and lesbians be denied adoption rights?

The case was brought by “V.L.,” as she is identified in court papers, against her former partner “E.L.,” who gave birth to three children between 2002-04 while the couple was together. To win adoption rights for V.L., they established temporary residency in Georgia.

Now that they have split, E.L. agreed with the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled in September that Georgia mistakenly granted V.L. joint custody. E.L.’s lawyers argued that “the Georgia court had no authority under Georgia law to award such an adoption, which is therefore void and not entitled to full faith and credit.”

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which worked on the appeal, issued a statement today which reads in part:

“The Supreme Court’s reversal of Alabama’s unprecedented decision to void an adoption from another state is a victory not only for our client but for thousands of adopted families,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights Family Law Director Cathy Sakimura, who is representing V.L. “No adoptive parent or child should have to face the uncertainty and loss of being separated years after their adoption just because another state’s court disagrees with the law that was applied in their adoption.”