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Alabama: A Study In Campaign Contrasts

Embattled GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore

It’s a study in contrasts when looking at today’s campaign ads coming out of the Alabama special election for the U.S. Senate.

First up, Roy Moore’s rather tabloid-esque response to “false allegations” in a “scheme by liberal elites and the Republican establishment” meant to derail his run for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old seat in the U.S. Senate.

Meanwhile, Democrat Doug Jones’ new ad highlights Moore’s views that preschool is “detrimental to children and our country,” which he expressed in a 2007 op-ed for far-right wing site WorldNetDaily.

The essay was apparently in response to Hillary Clinton’s calls for universal pre-kindergarten classes for four-year-olds.

Compare for yourself – who would you vote for?

Moore, who was twice kicked out of office for disobeying the law and accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct?

Or the other guy, Jones, who successfully prosecuted murderers and the KKK, and stands up for education for your children?

Doesn’t seem like a difficult choice to me.

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Gay-Themed “Call Me By Your Name” Opens To Highest Per Theater Average Of The Year

It was an awesome opening weekend for gay-themed indie film, Call Me by Your Name.

Not only did the movie receive 6 Independent Spirit Award nominations, but the film racked up about $404,000 in its opening weekend for the domestic box office.

Screening in only 4 theaters (Los Angeles and New York), Call Me By Your Name averaged $101,219, reports Deadline.

That means the flick has this year’s highest per theater average in the United States.

Based on the coming-of-age novel by André Aciman, the highly anticipated Call Me by Your Name follows Timothée Chalamet as “Elio,” a young man who falls in love with American exchange student “Oliver” (Armie Hammer) at his family’s home in the Italian countryside.

Reviews for the film have been almost universally glowing with a 98% “Fresh” rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and there’s serious Oscar buzz around the movie.

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Chile To Begin Debate On Marriage Equality

Chile’s government will begin debate today on whether to change existing marriage laws to include same-sex couples.

On August 28 President Michelle Bachelet introduced legislation that would define marriage as ‘a solemn contract by which two people, of the same or different sex, unite themselves, and for life, in order to live together, to procreate and to help each other.’

Chile’s Senate Constitution Committee has called on LGBT advocacy groups to step up and make their case for marriage equality.

Since 2015, Chile has extended limited legal recognition of same-sex couples via civil unions.

Bachelet also supports efforts to strengthen hate crime and anti-discrimination law against the LGBTQ community as well as legislation that would allow transgender Chileans to legally change their names without requiring sex reassignment surgery – although the bill on transgender protections has stalled due to a lack of political will.

But time is of the essence as Bachelet will step down in March 2018, and one of the two leading candidates to replace Bachelet does not support marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Currently, only Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay have legalized same-sex marriage in South America.

On Saturday, over 100,000 marched in support of marriage equality in Santiago, Chile.

Watch below.

(source)

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Trump Calls For “Fake News” Contest After Making Fake TIME Magazine Covers Of Himself

The man who once made fake TIME Magazine covers of himself and proudly had them on display in his golf clubs has the stones to call for a “Fake News” contest.

Donald Trump tweeted this morning, “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”

Aside from the content of the tweet, two things jump out as I read this:

1. Trump somehow believes he is America’s “favorite” president

2. He interestingly put “me” in parentheses. He felt he had to identify himself as president? Maybe he doesn’t believe he’s president?

And let’s check in with the Twitterverse for reaction:

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Donald Trump Now Says Access Hollywood “Grab’Em By The Pussy” Tape Is Fake

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump’s “support” for Alabama Republican Roy Moore (if you can call it that since Trump won’t use his name) stems in part from Trump’s own experience with sexual misconduct allegations.

Although, are they allegations if the president copped to them? Like the now-infamous Access Hollywood tape that captured Trump boasting he likes to “grab’em by the pussy?”

According to the NYT, Trump has now asserted that that tape is fake.

He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)

As everyone in the world knows, just hours after the video surfaced Trump issued a statement which read, in part, “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”

This morning on CNN, host Chris Cuomo was gobsmacked that the Donald would even attempt to claim “fake” over a year later when he acknowledged the veracity of the tape at the time.

“I think it is way more troubling than it is getting credit for,” Cuomo said of Trump’s newly reported denials. “I don’t think this is an offhand comment. I think he believes this will work with people. That if he doubts its authenticity. That is him. On. That. Tape! Okay? That’s who it is. He said what he said. He even kind of owned it.”

Some folks believe the new “fake” story is Trump’s preparation for any new video or audio that may be revealed by the investigation being headed up by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump is getting ready to call any and all evidence against him “fake.”

Watch Cuomo and company below.

By the way, if Trump believes in Roy Moore so much, why isn’t he campaigning for the guy before the election? Other than he’s probably seen the polls and doesn’t like the political calculation…?

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Turkey: Capital City Of Ankara Bans LGBTI Events

From Mic:

Officials in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara have indefinitely banned all events hosted by LGBTI rights groups in a move one advocacy group called “a disgraceful breach of the freedom of assembly,” the Associated Press reported Sunday.

The ban took effect Saturday, according to the AP, and applies to any gathering or event hosted by an LGBTI group, including film screenings, panels and performances.

According to the BBC, the new ban was in direct response to a German-language gay film festival, Pink Life QueerFest, that had been scheduled to take place in Ankara and was sponsored by the German Embassy.

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HRC & West Elm Team Up For #GivingTuesday “Love Is Love” Collection

The Human Rights Campaign has teamed up with West Elm to launch a special “Love is Love” collection on Giving Tuesday, a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.

The “Love is Love” collection includes a trinket dish, candle, dinnerware, ornament and mug.

More from the Human Rights Campaign:

Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

To honor the day, West Elm is committing 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of items in its “Love is Love” line, available online and in stores, including the popular “Love is Love” mug, to HRC’s work protecting historic gains the LGBTQ community has made in recent years, fighting discriminatory laws and practices, and mobilizing members and supporters to advance equality.

For more than a year, half of the proceeds from the sale of the unique mug at West Elm and the rest of the Williams-Sonoma family of brands, as well as other “Love is Love” items, have helped HRC continue its increasingly essential work.

The mug, candle, trinket dish and dinnerware are patterned with multi-colored tiny hearts, while the ornament is filled with multi-colored hearts. On all of the products, the statement “Love is Love” is featured prominently. The “Love Is Love” mug is also available online at the HRC store, with proceeds benefitting the organizations and its work fighting discriminatory laws and practices, and mobilizing members and supporters to advance equality.

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CNN To Trump: It’s Your Job To Represent U.S. To The World – Not Ours

After his fifth day in a row on a golf course, Donald Trump took to Twitter today to attack (yet again) CNN News and pump up Fox News.

“Fox News is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly,” the president wrote. “The outside world does not see the truth from them!”

Not sure exactly what set that off, but CNN was ready to clap back at the Trumpster, tweeting that it isn’t the network’s “job to represent the US. to the world.”

“That’s yours,” the network’s comm team wrote. “Our job is to report the news.”

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Amid Sexual Misconduct Rumors, Rep. John Conyers To Step Down From Dem Leadership Role

Rep. John Conyers

From the New York Times:

Representative John Conyers Jr., the House’s longest-serving lawmaker, is stepping aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee amid an investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed former aides.

“After careful consideration and in light of the attention drawn by recent allegations made against me,” Mr. Conyers said in a statement on Sunday, he is stepping aside on the Judiciary panel “during the investigation of these matters.”

The announcement came five days after the revelation that Mr. Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, had settled a complaint in 2015 by a former employee who had said she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into the matter.

“I deny these allegations, many of which were raised by documents reportedly paid for by a partisan alt-right blogger,” Mr. Conyers said in the statement. “I very much look forward to vindicating myself and my family before the House Committee on Ethics.”

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Conyers deserved “due process” and advised she believed he would “do the right thing.”