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Mississippi Supreme Court Acknowledges Parental Rights For Non-Biological Mother

A Mississippi woman has regained her parental rights to the child born during her marriage to her ex-wife in a new ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

From the AP:

Mississippi’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a woman has parental rights to a 6-year-old boy born to her ex-wife when the two were married, in a case watched by gay rights activists and groups aiding in vitro fertilization.

Christina “Chris” Strickland brought the appeal, challenging a lower court decision that an anonymous sperm donor still had parental rights and that Strickland did not. Strickland ultimately hopes to win 50-50 custody of Zayden Strickland, who bears her last name and was born by Kimberly Day through artificial means when Day and Strickland were married.

All nine state Supreme Court justices found problems with the original, lower court ruling by Rankin County Chancery Judge John Grant III.

It’s difficult to rationalize how a judge gives an anonymous donor (who is unknown to the child and probably always will be) equal rights to a birth mother but cuts out the other woman who has been a mother to the child since birth.

If Strickland had been a man in a heterosexual marriage that had a child through use of an anonymous sperm donor, I’m certain he would have still been treated like the father he was and been given parental rights without question.

Chief Justice William Waller Jr. acknowledged the Mississippi legislature needed to clarify state law:

“The Legislature should speak directly to the recognition of the legal status of children born during a marriage as the result of assisted reproductive technology,” Waller wrote.

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Life Comes At You Fast

Twitter user Owen Benjamin found out the hard way life comes at you fast.

He recently took to Twitter to attack Parkland high school shooting massacre survivor David Hogg.

Yep, that’s a grown man attacking a 17-year-old high school student who recently survived a shooting massacre.

Just a fact check here – David Hogg has pointedly said he has no intention of calling for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment.

Anyway, you know what’s coming, right?

I have to say, if your ability make an income is dependent on being on Twitter, maybe you should consider that before acting like a fool.

It’s hysterical that Benjamin’s “big man” tweet attacking Hogg said he didn’t have sponsors because he didn’t need them and then whines saying he can’t make a living without his Twitter.

Actually, he does have “sponsors” via his Patreon page where it looks like he’s making over $7,000 a month. #WTF?

So I’m not crying any crocodile tears for OB. Act like a fool, get treated like a fool.

By the way, Benjamin considers himself a comedian. I thought comedians were funny…?

The best thing about the whole episode is David Hogg never even acknowledged Benjamin’s existence. #FTW

Just so you get a better sense of how “funny” Mr. Benjamin is:

(h/t Boy Culture)

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Tommy Vietor Of Pod Save America: When Trump Attacks The Vulnerable “He Reveals His True Character”

Tommy Vietor of Pod Save America


Pod Save America is a no-bullshit podcast about politics hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor that breaks down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how to help.

In a recent live event, co-host Tommy Victor, in explaining the “caravan” of people fleeing violence in Honduras heading towards the U.S., shared why he “hates” Donald Trump: “When he pounds on the people who have it the worst, he reveals his true character.”

That ugly truth about Trump is a big reason why I can’t stand the current resident of the White House.

Watch below.

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OUT: Gus Kenworthy & Adam Rippon On Friendship, Hate Mail & “That Kiss”

In an extremely candid interview with Cyd Zeigler for OUT, Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon reflect on the adventure that was the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the pressures most of the world was unaware that they faced.

An excerpt:

Gus Kenworthy: I got so many messages, like, “Why are you even there? You got last place.” Well, first of all, I didn’t get last place, I made it to the final. But also, I was at the fucking Olympics. I didn’t get here because I’m a gay athlete — it wasn’t handed to me. I qualified the same way that everyone else did. It took a lot of fucking grit and gumption and hard work to get to this position. Anyone that discredits it is truly just a troll.

But also, it does suck. Being out was such a fucking cool experience, but no straight athletes were checking their messages or comments the day before their event and seeing death threats and super-hurtful shit from internet bullies. The day before my event I read messages that were like, “I hope you fall, I hope you break your legs, you’re a piece of shit.” I had a message that was like, “I want to curb stomp you, you faggot.” I’m like, OK, cool, there’s someone out there that wants to put my teeth on a curb and stomp on my neck. It takes a lot to read that about yourself and know that there are people out there that don’t want you to succeed.

Adam Rippon: And then you go and represent those people. I’m an American representing the United States of America, and I would get a pit in my stomach every time there was somebody on social media with an American flag in their name. The most consistent message I got was, “I hope you fail, I hope you fall. I’ve never cheered against someone in my entire life.” That was really consistent — it was pretty much across the board.

That somebody could go out of their way to say they’re proud of their country and that they love it, and they’re a patriot, and then turn around and taunt their athletes is incredibly disrespectful. They’re the opposite of a patriot. You don’t represent America. You represent you and your family and your small-minded whatever. That’s not American.

But the boys of winter make it clear that PyeongChang was very much a huge net positive for them as the first out men to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.

You can watch the bromance between the BFFs in action during their OUT photo shoot below:

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Trump Will Skip White House Correspondents Dinner For 2nd Year In A Row

Donald Trump

For the second year in a row, Donald Trump will skip the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.

The long-standing event, begun in 1921, serves to celebrate the First Amendment, fund scholarships for gifted students in college journalism programs and honor excellence in journalism.

“I sort of feel like the press so bad, it’s so fake, it’s so made up,” Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York Friday morning. “So I just think I want to get it straightened out with the press before I do it.”

The dinner has been attended annually by every president for 37 years. The last president to miss the event was Ronald Reagan, who was, understandably, recovering from an assassination attempt in 1981.

The fact is a regular ritual of the dinner is the president standing making several minutes of remarks in jest.

Many say the Trumpster is afraid he would bomb in the humor department. He also, apparently, does not care to spend an evening with those he vilifies on a regular basis on Twitter.

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Maryland Becomes 12th State Plus District Of Columbia In Automatic Voter Registration

(image by Maryland Dexter GF via Flickr)

Maryland has become the 12th state in the U.S. to adopt automatic voter registration.

The new law will automatically register voters when they obtain a driver’s license, use state social services or buy insurance on the health exchange.

Automatic voter registration will go into effect in July 2019.

From The Baltimore Sun:

Voters can decline to be registered. But advocates say the automatic voter registration program’s out-opt structure will end up getting more people registered than the current opt-in one.

Already, the Maryland Vehicle Administration and other state agencies offer residents the option of registering to vote. The new law will have state workers informing residents they will be registered to vote unless they decline. It also requires people who electronically file taxes to be offered an opportunity to register to vote.

Oregon was the first to pass automatic registration in 2016 and the result was 270,000 new voters registered and the highest voter participation of any state in the union in the last presidential election.

Anything that encourages eligible voters to take part in the democratic process is a good thing 🙂

More please.

Currently Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia have adopted automatic voter registration.

p.s. 4 million teens turn 18 before the 2018 election.
p.s.s. 17-year-olds can register to vote if they will be 18 on or before Election Day.

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Unemployment Remains At 4.1% For Sixth Month In A Row

The March jobs report is out and, according to experts, its something of a disappointment.

The U.S. economy added just 103,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street economists expected 185,000, according to Bloomberg.

For the 6th straight month the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

Average earnings per hour are up 2.7% compared to this time last year.

The January and February reports were revised down which resulted in 50,000 less new jobs than previously reported.

All of that said, the U.S. economy is showing itself to be in solid shape, as it has been now for 8 years.

This isn’t something new, something that Donald Trump has created. With 90 straight months now of positive growth, it’s notable that the first 76 of those months were heavy-lifting under the Obama administration coming out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The good news is Trump’s policies haven’t had a negative effect as we continue on the same trajectory of the previous 7 years before him.

The bad news is wage growth is not being reflected in a way that most economists expect.

Republicans will always tell you jobs mean more money. And certainly having a job means having money.

But considering the healthy economic environment we’re seeing, employers are not passing that on to employees in the form of higher wages.

In light of the current employment market, an increase of only 2.7% in hourly wages is on the measly side.

We’ll see if the possible trade war with China has an impact on the U.S. jobs market in the next 6-8 months.

(source)

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Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer: Stormy Can Describe Trump’s Junk In Great Detail

Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti

Megyn Kelly TODAY spoke with Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, who is currently pushing for the case to receive a public hearing rather than be heard behind closed doors, as President Trump’s attorneys are asking.

Avenatti says his position is that the non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed “is null and void and she’s free to speak,” and adds that there’s “a lot more” to her story.

“When she sat for that interview, it actually lasted over two hours in length. The portion that the American public saw was only about 14 or 16 minutes. CBS, they’re a conservative network. There’s a lot of information that was said that did not make it into the final piece. For instance, she can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail. That did not make it into the piece.”

Confident, clear and concise about his points, I find Avenatti to be very compelling.

And then there’s the fact that he’s hot AF.

Watch below.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Trump On Stormy Daniels: I Didn’t Know About $130K Payment, Ask My Lawyer

Donald Trump – Liar in Chief

In what appears to be the first direct statement from Donald Trump regarding the ongoing Stormy Daniels “affair” debacle, Donald Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One today that he did not know about the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels by his lawyer, Michael Cohen.

From CNN’s Jeff Zeleny: “President Trump says he did not know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Asked why Cohen made payment, Trump said: ‘You have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is my attorney you’ll have to ask him.’ Trump adds he did not know where Cohen got money.”

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Trump Lies About Voter Fraud Again: In California Millions Vote Many Times

Speaking to a crowd in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Trump told attendees that in California “the same person votes many times,” reviving his oft-repeated lie about voter fraud.

“In many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say ‘oh that’s a conspiracy theory,’” Trump said. “Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people. And it’s very hard because the state guards their records. They don’t want to see it.”

Trump went on to congratulate West Virginia’s because “You were with me from Day One.”

It does without saying that there have been many investigations into voter fraud and not one study has found anything close to “massive voter fraud.”

Watch the comments below.