“Turn to Leviticus 20:13, because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS.” “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” “And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant. “No homos will ever be allowed in this church as long as I am pastor here. Never! Say ‘You’re crazy.’ No, you’re crazy if you think that there’s something wrong with my ‘no homo’ policy.”
– Anti-LGBT Pastor Steve Anderson from the pulpit of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona
Twitter announced the top “Liked” and “Retweeted” posts of 2017, and the results might be a bit unexpected for some folks.
Considering the turmoil and angst Donald Trump creates with his favorite social media platform, it’s surprising that Trump is nowhere to be found on either list.
The big news is that none of the year’s ten most-retweeted tweets are by Donald Trump. Instead, three are by Barack Obama—and two of the top three most-liked tweets are Obama’s, too. (The second-most-liked tweet is from the singer Ariana Grande, written after the bombing at her Manchester concert, in May.)
In perception, this has been the year of D.J.T. on Twitter, tramping like an angry wildebeest across the civic turf. But, according to the company’s numbers, the largest footprint on the landscape has really been B.H.O.’s.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion,” goes Obama’s most-liked post of 2017, with 4.6 million hearts. (It also had 2.7 million retweets, making it No. 2 on that list.) The quote is from Nelson Mandela, and the included photo is of Obama hanging out with toddlers of many skin colors.
Below that, at No. 5, is President Obama’s official valediction (“I’m asking you to believe—not in my ability to create change, but in yours”), and, at No. 8, his final wave goodbye (“It’s been the honor of my life to serve you. You made me a better leader and a better man”). His note to Senator John McCain, after the announcement of his brain cancer (“Give it hell, John”), is the third-most-favorited.
The article goes on to say one reason Obama’s tweets land so much better is they tend to be of a nature that folks are proud to be associated with. In other words, uplifting.
Another thought is that Obama’s supporters make a point to underscore Obama’s tweets as method of poking at Trump’s followers.
Those athletes must meet strict guidelines and will compete under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia” (OAR). They will wear a uniform with that name on it and the Olympic anthem will be played at any ceremonies.
The invitations will be decided upon by a panel led by the Chair of the Independent Testing Authority (ITA), Velerie Fourneyron, but it will be the IOC who ultimately decides.
Russia’s Olympic Committee has been ordered to reimburse the IOC’s costs of investigating the doping scandal and it must also pay $15 million.
Vitaly Mutko, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and former Minister of Sport, has been barred from attending any future Olympic Games.
Mark Stern, reporter for Slate, offers his first impressions after attending the SCOTUS arguments today regarding Colorado baker Jack Phillips who refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple for their wedding.
According to Stern, things may not look promising for the good guys.
Just got out of arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop. I think the anti-gay baker wins 5-4.
Kennedy doesn’t seem to agree that refusing to serve a same-sex wedding is inherently anti-gay discrimination. And he said Colorado has been “neither tolerant nor respectful” to the baker’s “religious beliefs.”
Kennedy did suggest that a baker who put an anti-gay sign in his window would create “an affront to the gay community.” But then he implied that Colorado is discriminating against Christian bakers.
Roberts, Alito, and Gorsuch all obviously supported the anti-gay baker. Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Breyer were extremely skeptical of his position.
I only see one way progressives win: Kennedy says compelled cake-baking isn’t speech, but religious discrimination may have infected this case. Then remand for further findings on free exercise.
I think there is a decent chance that there are 5 votes for this resolution. But I also think it’s more likely that 5 justices find a reason to rule for the baker.
Just got out of arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop. I think the anti-gay baker wins 5-4.
Kennedy doesn’t seem to agree that refusing to serve a same-sex wedding is inherently anti-gay discrimination. And he said Colorado has been “neither tolerant nor respectful” to the baker’s “religious beliefs.”
Kennedy did suggest that a baker who put an anti-gay sign in his window would create “an affront to the gay community.” But then he implied that Colorado is discriminating against Christian bakers.
Roberts, Alito, and Gorsuch all obviously supported the anti-gay baker. Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Breyer were extremely skeptical of his position.
I only see one way progressives win: Kennedy says compelled cake-baking isn’t speech, but religious discrimination may have infected this case. Then remand for further findings on free exercise.
Like @ssamcham and @jpscasteras I think there is a decent chance that there are 5 votes for this resolution. But I also think it’s more likely that 5 justices find a reason to rule for the baker.
David Badash, at The New Civil Rights Movement, posted this on Facebook:
It looks possible, even likely, LGBT civil rights will lose in today’s SCOTUS case. The is bad, not only for the LGBT community but for all minorities, and women.
Those who voted for Trump, Stein, Johnson, or wrote in someone other than Clinton, esp. in battleground states, helped put Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. A Clinton win would have put a progressive on the Court, and we would have won this case.
If people who believe in equality lose this case, so many in America will suffer. This is what happens in a deeply divided society where every single vote is critical. Go ahead, come at me.
Totally woofilicious French model Killian, using his killer bod as a backdrop, shares his favorite beard grooming products in this newly-posted video on Instagram.
Now, I may need to go excuse myself for a minute… #Dang Watch below.
Congressman John Conyers Jr. the longest-serving member of the House, announced today during a radio interview that he is retiring
Facing allegations of sexual misconduct, Conyers, who is also the longest-serving African-American in history, endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to replace him.
“I am retiring today,” Mr. Conyers said from a hospital in Michigan. “I am in the process of putting together my retirement plans. I will have more about that very soon.”
He continued to deny that he had harassed any of his former employees and said he did not know where the allegations came from.
“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we are going through now,” Mr. Conyers said. “This too shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children.”
The decision sets up a battle within the Conyers family for his Detroit-area House seat. Ian Conyers, a Michigan state senator and the grandson of Mr. Conyers’s brother, said he also plans to run for the seat held by his 88-year-old great-uncle.
“His doctor advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him just in terms of his health,” Ian Conyers, 29, said.
Just days ago, 20th Century Fox suspended production on the upcoming Freddy Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody noting director Bryan Singer’s “unexpected unavailability.”
Monday, however, Fox announced Singer is no longer with the project.
“Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody,” the studio said Monday in a statement.
The decision reflected an escalating clash between Singer and actor Rami Malek and was caused by the helmer being missing from the set, necessitating the Dec. 1 production shutdown of the film in which Malek stars as Freddie Mercury, frontman of the rock group Queen. The pic has been shooting in London.
In announcing the shutdown last week, producers Fox, New Regency and Graham King initially said filming was being suspended because of Singer’s “unexpected unavailability.”
Denying he acted unprofessionally, Singer claimed the studio refused to allow him to tend to “a gravely ill parent” as well as to his own health. “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen,” he said in a statement, “but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.”
According to reports, this isn’t the first time Singer has disappeared during filming. He also went AWOL during the shoots for X-Men: Apocalypse and Superman Returns.
After seven years of affording same-sex couples “registered partnerships,” Austria’s Constitutional Court has ruled that by 2019 full marriage equality must be available to same-sex couples.
Same-sex couples in Austria have been able to enter only into “registered partnerships” since 2010, with nearly the same rights of married couples. But the court ruled that “the distinction between marriage and registered partnership … cannot be upheld in this day and age without discriminating against same-sex couples.”
“The resulting discriminatory effect is seen in the fact that through the different title of the family status, people living in same-sex partnerships have to disclose their sexual orientation even in situations in which it is not, and must not be, relevant and … are highly likely to be discriminated against,” the court said in its ruling.
It said that restrictions on same-sex marriage would be lifted at the end of 2018 unless the government did so itself earlier. The ruling will remove the words “two people of different sex” from the law on marriage. It will keep civil partnerships as an option and will open them up to straight couples.
Amid the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, Alabama Republican Roy Moore has told the public on more than one occasion ” I do not know any of these women.”
Now, one of the women who dated Moore when she was a teenager has come forward with evidence that he did indeed know her. And she’s pretty mad he called her a liar.
Debbie Wesson Gibson was in her attic hauling out boxes of Christmas decorations last week when she noticed a storage bin she said she had forgotten about. Inside was a scrapbook from her senior year of high school, and taped to a page titled “Those Who Inspire” was a graduation card.
“Happy graduation Debbie,” it read in slanted cursive handwriting. “I wanted to give you this card myself. I know that you’ll be a success in anything you do. Roy.”
Gibson said that after finding the scrapbook, she was not sure whether to make it public given the threats she received after publication of the original story. Then she heard what Moore said last week, s said, and contacted The Post.
“He called me a liar,” said Gibson, who says she not only openly dated Moore when she was 17 but later joined him in passing out fliers during his campaign for circuit court judge in 1982 and exchanged Christmas cards with him over the years. “Roy Moore made an egregious mistake to attack that one thing — my integrity.”
What made her decision to share the documents easier, she said, was watching and re-watching a video she has on her cellphone of Moore speaking last week and deciding that supporting the women who have come forward was more important than staying silent.
“At 34 minutes and 56 seconds into the video, he says, unequivocally, I did not know any of them,” Gibson said. “In that moment, it changed my perspective. I knew he was a liar.”
Even with the evidence Ms. Gibson has brought forth, it won’t make a difference.
Alabama voters have made it clear they have no problem with electing an accused child molester.
And regarding the age difference? The story has now shifted to indicate such age differences were normal for Alabama 30-40 years ago.
