34 Testiest Moments From the Brooklyn Democratic Debate



http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/34-testiest-moments-from-the-brooklyn-democratic-debate-20160415

3. "I think you need to have the judgment on day one be both president and commander in chief." -Hillary Clinton, responding to Bernie Sanders' assertion that he believes she's qualified but doesn't trust her judgement

4. "Let's talk about judgment. Let us talk about the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country." -Bernie Sanders

10. "It may be inconvenient, but it's always important to get the facts straight. I stood up against the behaviors of the banks when I was a senator." -Hillary Clinton

11. "Secretary Clinton called them out. Oh my goodness, they must have been really crushed by this. And was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements?" -Bernie Sanders

"How's Joe Paterno?" Trump asked supporters. "Are we gonna bring that back? Right? ... How about that whole deal?"

A campaign spokeswoman later confirmed that the GOP presidential front-runner wasn't talking about Paterno himself but about his statue, which was removed from outside the football stadium four years ago, angering students and many alumni.

The statue was taken down after a university-commissioned report accused the late coach and three administrators of concealing sex abuse claims against Sandusky, a claim Paterno's family denies.

In February, two artists involved in producing the Paterno statue said they're working on two new statues of the coach in a secret location.

http://www.ktnv.com/news/national/donald-trump-forgets-that-joe-paterno-died-asks-how-hes-doing-at-rally

http://www.towleroad.com/2016/04/sharon-stone/

Sharon Stone has cancelled filming of an upcoming project in Mississippi as a result of the state’s newly passed anti-LGBT ‘religious freedom on steroids’ bill, HB 1523.

The film’s producers informed Mississippi Film Studios president Rick Moore that the law was a deal-breaker for Stone.

The unnamed film project reportedly tackles the consequences of cyberbullying. James Cromwell is slated to direct.

The Little-Known Movers Behind North Carolina's Anti-Gay Law: Ted Cruz's Advisers

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/ted-cruz-advisers-north-carolina-anti-lgbt-bill



Charlotte anti-LGBT activists David and Jason Benham

As he worked to rally evangelical voters a week before North Carolina's March 15 primary, Ted Cruz gave a speech at a church in the Charlotte suburb of Kannapolis, where he was joined by a trio of prominent local social conservative supporters: Charlotte pastor and congressional candidate Mark Harris and the Benham brothers, the telegenic real estate entrepreneurs whose house-flipping show on HGTV was canceled in 2014 when their history of anti-gay activism came to light. At the event, Cruz thanked Harris for "calling the nation to revival," and called David and Jason Benham "an extraordinary voice for the Christian faith."

For years, Harris and the Benhams have been at the forefront of every battle to oppose gay rights in North Carolina. This past February, they were at it again, this time against a nondiscrimination ordinance proposed in Charlotte that, among other things, allowed transgender people to use public restrooms based on their gender identity and protected LGBT people from discrimination by public institutions. The advocacy of these top Cruz supporters against the Charlotte ordinance eventually led the North Carolina legislature to push through one of the most sweeping anti-LGBT measures in the country, a law that has caused a national outcry and caused many companies, including PayPal, to scrap plans to invest in the state. The law, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, strikes down all existing and future LGBT nondiscrimination statutes in North Carolina and requires that transgender people use bathrooms based on their sex at birth.

Harris' and the Benhams' state activism is significant because, if Cruz wins the presidential race, the considerable influence of these three religious activists could extend far beyond North Carolina. In February, Cruz appointed them to his campaign's advisory council for religious liberty, along with 16 other conservative Christian leaders. The GOP candidate has promised that this group will "guide his policies to protect religious liberty"—policies that could look very much like the anti-LGBT bill in North Carolina. The group is filled with key players in the anti-LGBT world, including Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council (which is classified as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center); it has already recommended that Cruz, if elected president, should stop federal employment discrimination protections for LGBT people, direct federal agencies to change their interpretation of "sex" to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity, cancel the mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage, and much more. Cruz has surrounded himself with this group of anti-LGBT heavyweights, and the work of Harris and the Benhams in North Carolina provides a glimpse into what this group can accomplish when it comes to rolling back LGBT protections in the name of religious freedom.

Harris and the Benhams first rose to prominence in 2012, when they helped organize the movement to pass a North Carolina constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions. The Benhams—who are sons of an evangelical minister, and who had previously worked to quash local pride parades and organize anti-abortion protests—testified in favor of the measure and at one point equated the battle against marriage equality with fighting Nazis. Harris has been a well-known Baptist minister in Charlotte since 2005 and his church contributed more than $50,000 to the campaign to ban same-sex marriage. (The amendment passed but was invalidated in 2014 after a Supreme Court ruling.)

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7333141/ringo-starr-cancels-north-carolina-concert-anti-lgbt-law



On Wednesday (April 13), Ringo Starr joined the horde of artists speaking out against North Carolina's controversial new law and canceled his June 18 performance at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre.

In a press release, the Beatles drummer said, "I'm sorry to disappoint my fans in the area, but we need to take a stand against this hatred. Spread peace and love.”

Gov. McCrory's executive order signed into law last week, which revised North Carolina's controversial HB2, has been called the most "anti-LGBT" legislation in the nation. Within his executive orders, McCrory has made it illegal for a transgender individual to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Similarly, towns can no longer prevent businesses from discriminating against customers based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Starr was previously scheduled to perform in Cary, North Carolina, on his All Starr Tour. Last week, artist Bruce Springsteen also canceled his North Carolina concert, calling the law "an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress."

In 2004, companies that owned Austin stores selling sex toys and a retail distributor of such products challenged a Texas law outlawing the sale and promotion of supposedly obscene devices. Under the law, a person who violated the statute could go to jail for up to two years. At the time, only three states—Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia—had similar laws. (The previous year, a Texas mother who was a sales rep for Passion Parties was arrested by two undercover cops for selling vibrators and other sex-related goods at a gathering akin to a Tupperware party for sex toys. No doubt, this had worried businesses peddling such wares.) The plaintiffs in the sex device case contended the state law violated the right to privacy under the 14th Amendment. They argued that many people in Texas used sexual devices as an aspect of their sexual experiences. They claimed that in some instances one partner in a couple might be physically unable to engage in intercourse or have a contagious disease (such as HIV), and that in these cases such devices could allow a couple to engage in safe sex.

***

In 2007, Cruz's legal team, working on behalf of then-Attorney General Greg Abbott (who now is the governor), filed a 76-page brief calling on the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to uphold the lower court's decision and permit the law to stand. The filing noted, "The Texas Penal Code prohibits the advertisement and sale of dildos, artificial vaginas, and other obscene devices" but does not "forbid the private use of such devices." The plaintiffs had argued that this case was similar to Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas' law against sodomy. But Cruz's office countered that Lawrence "focused on interpersonal relationships and the privacy of the home" and that the law being challenged did not block the "private use of obscene devices." Cruz's legal team asserted that "obscene devices do not implicate any liberty interest." And its brief added that "any alleged right associated with obscene devices" is not "deeply rooted in the Nation's history and traditions." In other words, Texans were free to use sex toys at home, but they did not have the right to buy them.

The brief insisted that Texas, in order to protect "public morals," had "police-power interests" in "discouraging prurient interests in sexual gratification, combating the commercial sale of sex, and protecting minors." There was a "government" interest, it maintained, in "discouraging…autonomous sex." The brief compared the use of sex toys to "hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy," and it equated advertising these products with the commercial promotion of prostitution. In perhaps the most noticeable line of the brief, Cruz's office declared, "There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship." That is, the pursuit of such happiness had no constitutional standing. And the brief argued there was no "right to promote dildos, vibrators, and other obscene devices." The plaintiffs, it noted, were "free to engage in unfettered noncommercial speech touting the uses of obscene devices," but not speech designed to generate the sale of these items.

In a 2-1 decision issued in February 2008, the court of appeals told Cruz's office to take a hike. The court, citing Lawrence, pointed to the "right to be free from governmental intrusion regarding 'the most private human contact, sexual behavior.'" The panel added, "An individual who wants to legally use a safe sexual device during private intimate moments alone or with another is unable to legally purchase a device in Texas, which heavily burdens a constitutional right." It rejected the argument from Cruz's team that the government had a legitimate role to play in "discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation." No, government officials could not claim as part of their job duties the obligation to reduce masturbation or nonprocreative sexual activity. And the two judges in the majority slapped aside the solicitor general's attempt to link dildos to prostitution: "The sale of a device that an individual may choose to use during intimate conduct with a partner in the home is not the 'sale of sex' (prostitution)."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/ted-cruz-dildo-ban-sex-devices-texas

Black Keys: We Regret Inducting Steve Miller After Rock Hall Insults
"He said, 'The whole process was unpleasant,'" Dan Auerbach says. "And for Pat and I, the most unpleasant part was being around him"
By Jason Newman April 13, 2016

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/black-keys-we-regret-inducting-steve-miller-after-rock-hall-insults-20160413

Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach has had multiple "sleepless nights" since inducting Steve Miller into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last Friday. Miller has become the unlikely focal point of the ceremony after calling the music industry "fuckin' gangsters and crooks" and lobbing verbal grenades at his record label rep ("I wanted to pull him by his necktie and kick him in the nuts&quot and the Hall of Fame itself ("Everybody is kind of a dick and an asshole.&quot

What do you think about what's happened the past four days?
Um, well, I guess Pat and I definitely... [Pauses] I guess we felt, I don't know, we read a lot of things and we got a really uncomfortable feeling when we first met Steve. He had no idea who we were. No idea. The first thing he told us was, "I can't wait to get out of here." He knew that we signed up to do this speech for him. And he made no effort to even [laughs uncomfortably] — he didn't even figure out who we were. I don't live in New York City. This is like three days out of my life flying from Nashville and leaving my kids at home.

It was just a real eye-opener for us. Because as we get older, I hope that when I'm in my twilight years, I can look back and be grateful to the people who have appreciated me and to be able to give back. Because music is about sharing and passing on inspiration and that was his opportunity to do that; not just lashing out in a way that was just completely unfocused.

What was your initial reaction when you realized that he didn't know or care who you were?
Pat and I were both definitely disappointed, to say the least. But you never really know what to expect when you meet quote unquote "superstars." Rock & roll superstars, it used to be different for them. Playing stadiums and selling millions and millions of albums. It's almost like he doesn't have respect for the younger generations and how hard it is in the business today. When he made his first record, he did it at Olympic Studios with Glyn Johns. Pat and I made our first record in a basement with broken gear.

Wine retailer David Trone will report to the Federal Election Commission later this week that he has spent $9.1 million of his own money so far in pursuit of the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, making him all but certain to become the biggest self-funding House candidate ever.

Trone, who lives in Potomac, made the disclosure in a full-page ad in this morning’s Washington Post. In the ad, he explained that as a first-time candidate running against better-known opponents, he needed to spend what was necessary to convey his positions on issues. He also said that relying on his own resources would leave him unencumbered by special interests once in office.

“I certainly could have raised enough money to fund a competitive campaign,” said Trone, who is accepting individual contributions of no more than $10. “But the PACs, lobbyists and big dollar donors who give money would expect special attention. No matter how well-intentioned, those contributions and the candidates who take them are part of the reason Washington is broken.”

Campaign finance reports covering activity from Jan. 1 through April 6 are due on Thursday. Trone did not enter the race until late January, so this week’s filing will be the first official look at how he has spent his money.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/david-trone-spends-91-million-of-his-own-money-on-md-congressional-race/2016/04/12/29f5827c-00c2-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html