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CDC Issued “Banned Words” List By Trump Administration: Transgender, Diversity, Science-Based

The Center for Disease Control has been issued a list by the Trump administration of banned words in official documents in preparation for next year’s budget.

• Fetus
• Transgender
• Diversity
• Vulnerable
• Entitlement
• Science-based
• Evidence-based

How does a health agency not use the words evidence-based?

Or science based?

From The Washington Post:

The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments — including HHS, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

In March, for example, HHS dropped questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in two surveys of elderly people.

HHS has also removed information about LGBT Americans from its website. The department’s Administration for Children and Families, for example, archived a page that outlined federal services that are available for LGBT people and their families, including how they can adopt and receive help if they are the victims of sex trafficking.

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First Same-Sex Weddings Take Place In Australia

Amy Laker and Lauren Price

History was made today in Australia as the first same-sex marriage, between Lauren Price and Amy Laker, took place in Sydney.

The couple had been planning a commitment ceremony on the date for a long time. But with Ms. Price’s family having already traveled from Wales in the UK and the recent legalization of same-sex marriage, the couple asked for special permission to marry before the new law is to take effect next month.

Another couple, Amy and Elise McDonald, surprised their 60 guests gathered for a commitment ceremony with marriage vows today as well.

Originally planned as a commitment ceremony, the couple realized they qualified for an exemption from the waiting period on financial grounds in that McDonald’s family had traveled from Asia and the United Arab Emirates for the ceremony.

Watch the TV coverage below.

Congrats to the happy couple! And to Australia!

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Sen. Bob Corker Flips From “No” To “Yes” On Tax Bill Thanks To Real Estate Investment Clause

Sen. Bob Corker

Short version: GOP Sen. Bob Corker, who is retiring, was a “no” vote on the current tax reform legislation.

He’s a multi-millionaire thanks to real estate investments.

Last minute language inserted into tax bill gives a big tax break to real estate investors.

Corker is now a “yes” vote.

From The International Business Times:

The new tax provision would specifically allow owners of large real estate holdings through LLCs to deduct a percentage of their “pass through” income from their taxes, according to experts. Although Trump, who became famous for his real estate holdings, has transitioned into branding in recent years, federal records show Trump has ownership stakes in myriad LLCs.

The new provision was not in the bill passed by the House or the Senate. Instead, it was inserted into the final bill during reconciliation negotiations between Republicans from both chambers. The provision, said experts, would offer a special tax cut to LLCs with few employees and large amounts of depreciable property assets, namely buildings: rent generating apartment and office buildings.

Sen. Bob Corker, who was considered a potential “no” vote on the bill, abruptly switched his position upon the release of the final legislation. Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Corker has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit.

Corker won’t have anyone to answer to once he’s out of office next year except his bank account.

This entire tax reform bill has been cobbled together with NO public hearings in a matter of weeks. Republicans released the legislation at 4:30pm on a Friday with plans to vote on the bill next week.

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ELLEN: Alabama Peanut Farmer Who Protested Roy Moore On Behalf Of His Lesbian Daughter

Alabama peanut farmer Nathan Mathis, who criticized U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore this week for calling gays perverts, appeared on ELLEN today.

Mathis picketed outside Moore’s Midland City rally earlier this week with a sign which read:

Judge Roy Moore called my daughter Patti Sue Mathis (who committed suicide) a pervert because she was gay. A 32-year-old Roy Moore dated teenage girls aged 14 to 17. So that makes him a pervert of the worse kind.

In honor of Patti Sue, Ellen donated $25,000 to The Trevor Project which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth, courtesy of Shutterfly.

I won’t spoil it for you, but Mathis is beyond touching in his honesty talking about his daughter as well as exceedingly charming in the way he expresses his world views.

Make sure you hit play below and watch. You’ll be very glad you did.

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How Ending Net Neutrality Could Actually Affect You

With the rollback of “Net Neutrality” by the FCC yeaterday, a lot of folks are hearing a lot about how this will or won’t affect you, the consumer.

Basically, it means that internet providers can charge different fees for different services; and they can treat different websites or outlets differently.

For instance, Comcast, which owns both Xfinity and Hulu, could decide to provide faster service to Hulu and slower service to direct competitor Netflix. Or any competitor of Hulu’s.

Additionally, if Comcast had a particular political leaning, they could slow down or block consumer access to websites with opposing political views.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo explains better than I. Watch below.

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Video: Trump Nominee For Federal Judgeship Painfully Unprepared For Senate Testimony

Much has been made in the past few days about judicial nominations coming out of the Trump White House of candidates who are not qualified to become federal judges.

Take, for example, Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley.

From The Advocate:

Mateer, who was nominated to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, has called transgender children part of “Satan’s plan,” supported so-called conversion therapy, and said marriage equality will lead to polygamy, bestiality, and people marrying inanimate objects. He made the comments in speeches in 2015, and they were uncovered by a CNN investigation this fall. He is currently Texas’s first assistant attorney general, and he previously worked for First Liberty Institute, a right-wing legal group. He had yet to be considered by the Judiciary Committee.

Talley was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. He is a Justice Department lawyer who has never tried a case — he is better known as a writer of horror novels and a ghost-hunter — and he was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. Despite this, he was approved by the Judiciary Committee.

What has now killed his nomination, though, is the revelation that he once made an online comment defending the early Ku Klux Klan, founded shortly after the Civil War to carry out a violent campaign to keep newly freed African-Americans from exercising their rights. He has made other incendiary remarks as well, such as saying after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that the U.S. needed “to stop being a nation of pansies and man up,” according to HuffPost.

And then, yesterday, Republican Sen. John Kennedy asked Matthew Spencer Petersen, who is nominated to be a US District Judge, basic questions of law. Questions he has no answer for.

To be absolutely honest, I don’t post this with any sense of glee or “gotcha.”

This is achingly painful to watch a man who obviously does not have the background or experience to be a judge at this time and his answers make that clear.

He should not have been nominated by Donald Trump. This is embarrassing for not only Trump but Mr. Petersen as well.

Why is the White House nominating people who have not ever argued a single motion in a courtroom for a lifetime appointment to the federal court bench?

Watch below.