YOUTUBE & GOOGLE REMOVES CENSORSHIP OF SOME LGBT CONTENT AMID BACKLASH

YOUTUBE & GOOGLE REMOVES CENSORSHIP OF SOME LGBT CONTENT FOLLOWING BACKLASH:

HOWEVER CONTINUES TO CENSOR CONTENT OPPOSING OBAMA & SOROS' AGENDA.

IS OBAMA STILL PRESIDENT OF THE US?


Sources: Endgaget, The Guardian, YouTube


****** YouTube pledges to 'fix' Restricted Mode's LGBTQ+ censorship

The company says that filtering out the videos along with mature content was a 'mistake.'

After a post by Rowan Ellis, many people recently noticed that YouTube's Restricted Mode filter consistently blocked videos containing LGBTQ+ related content. Despite tweeting that it is supposed to only filter mature content, users tracked down selections like this Tegan & Sara video that were blocked despite being incredibly tame.

In a blog post tonight, YouTube VP Johanna Wright stated that "we must and will do a better job."

The exec admitted that "...this feature isn't working the way it should.

We're sorry and we're going to fix it." While claiming that only 1.5 percent of traffic comes with Restricted Mode turned on, Wright also said that as a matter of principle, access to "important content and different points of view" should be allowed. YouTube has already manually unblocked a few videos where the system made "mistakes in understanding context and nuances," but she also writes that it will take time to roll out more changes.

TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAWS NOT TRUMP'S PRIORITY (CHARLOTTE, NC)

TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAWS NOT TRUMP'S PRIORITY FOR AMERICA (CHARLOTTE):

NOR IS TRUMP TRYING TO TURN ALL BLACK MEN GAY.


Sources: ABC News, The Economist, Charlotte Observer, YouTube


**** The Trump administration reverses guidelines on transgender bathrooms


But presidents cannot change the law and it is up to courts to enforce it

ON February 22nd, the Trump administration announced it would withdraw its predecessor’s guidelines regarding the accommodation of transgender students in America’s government-funded schools.

Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s press secretary, said that the president had “made it clear throughout the campaign that he’s a firm believer in states’ rights”. Issues like transgender bathroom access, he added, “are not best dealt with at the federal level".

The move has disheartened liberals and cheered conservatives, but its impact is likely to be more limited than either side expects.

Nine months ago, officials from the education and justice departments officials sent a letter and 25-page instructional pamphlet to school districts across the country.

The message was simple:

America’s schools should permit transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

In the face of new laws in North Carolina and other states imposing a biological test on bathroom access, the Obama administration noted that “the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

This principle, it added, is “consistently recognised in civil rights cases”.

Thirteen states immediately challenged the letter in court. Days before the school year began last autumn, a federal district judge issued a nationwide injunction barring its enforcement.

The Obama administration, Reed O’Connor ruled, had not followed appropriate procedures before offering its interpretation of Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how those provisions bear on the protections due to transgender students.

Mr O'Connor confirmed in October 2016 that his order against Mr Obama’s transgender policy applied not just in the 13 states that brought the challenge but to every school district in the country.

Later that month, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy now in his final semester at a Virginia high school that will not permit him to use the boy’s bathroom. Mr Grimm’s complaint is set for argument at the court on March 28th.

Civil-rights groups and left-leaning politicians reacted with dismay to Mr Trump’s change of policy.

A representative from the American Civil Liberties Union said the move “shows that the president’s promise to protect LGBT rights was just empty rhetoric”.

Maura Healey, the attorney-general for Massachusetts, wrote that Mr Trump “is sending a message that discrimination is acceptable”. Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator from Illinois, called it “a major setback in the fight for civil rights”. Conservatives, meanwhile, are cheering the about-face.

Gary McCaleb, a lawyer at the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom, said, “No longer will federal officials distort federal law that is meant to equalise educational opportunities for women, and no longer will they force local officials to intermingle boys and girls within private areas like locker rooms, showers, hotel rooms on school trips, and restrooms".

Two considerations should temper reactions on both sides. First, Mr Trump’s change of policy is not a wholesale reversal of Mr Obama’s stance on trans rights; it is, instead, a withdrawal pending further consideration.

The “Dear colleague” letter issued on February 23rd criticises the May 2016 missive, along with another guidance letter from January 2015, in brief and general terms: “These guidance documents do not...contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX”.

It then briefly recounts the litigation battle over bathrooms, noting the legal dispute over whether discrimination against transgender people amounts to “sex” discrimination. But Mr Trump’s letter does not itself stake out a definitive claim:

The government “has decided to withdraw and rescind” Mr Obama’s guidance, it reads, “in order to further and more completely consider the legal issues involved”.

And the letter closes by affirming that protections are still in place against “discrimination, bullying and harassment” and that “all students, including LGBT students” deserve to attend schools where they “are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment”.

This rather conciliatory closing, along with the lack of a full-throated condemnation of Mr Obama’s position, may owe something to squabbling inside the White House over the move: it appears that Betsy DeVos, the new Education secretary, opposed the change but bowed to the demands of Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, after Mr Trump intervened.

So Mr Trump’s change of policy is quite a bit softer, both in tone and content, than it might have been.

A second factor mitigates the significance of the change still further: whatever a president’s spin on civil-rights law may be, the law itself remains the same. “With or without guidance”, the National Women’s Law Centre tweeted yesterday, “Title IX is still the law of the land & schools still have an obligation to protect trans students.” Many states have already adopted transgender-friendly policies in their schools.

States that do not offer adequate accommodations will face lawsuits, and it will be up the courts—not the executive branch—to interpret and enforce the law.

OBAMA'S GAY NANNY WAS A TRANSGENDER PROSTITUTE IN INDONESIA (TRUTH)

OBAMA'S CHILDHOOD INDONESIAN NANNY WAS A TRANSGENDER PROSTITUTE:

OBAMA'S MOTHER (ANTHROPOLOGIST) INTRODUCED OBAMA TO GAY LIFESTYLES AT AGE EIGHT.

THIS MAY EXPLAIN WHY OBAMA FOUGHT SO HARD FOR LGBT ISSUES AND WANTED ALL BLACK MEN TO BE GAY.


Sources: AP, Daily Mail, Reuters, Young Turks, YouTube


****** Revealed: Barack Obama's gay transgender prostitute nanny who made him laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick


Evie, 66, cared for future Commander in Chief she called Barry in late 60s
Offered job after she impressed Obama's mother with steak and rice
When family left Indonesia, she became a sex worker and now lives in a slum
Barack Obama's former nanny has been revealed as a gay transgender man who made the future president laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick.

'Evie' cared for the boy she called Barry when his mother Ann Dunham moved to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in the late 1960s.

Openly gay, she would leave the house dressed in full drag - but was very careful that Barack never saw her.

'He was so young and I never let him see me wearing women's clothes,' Evie said. 'But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up.'

Former life: Barack Obama's former nanny Evie, who was born a man but believes she is a woman, on the left of this picture
The nanny, who turned to prostitution after the family left and now lives in a slum, met the future commander-in-chief's mother at a cocktail party in 1969.

Dunham, who had moved to the country two years earlier with her second husband Lolo Soetoro, sampled Evie's beef steak and fried rice and was so impressed that she offered her a job.

It did not take long before she was also eight-year-old Barack's carer, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.

Neighbours recalled they often saw Evie, who believes she is really a woman, leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag.

But when the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. Evie moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.

She said: 'I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me. I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay.'

It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and - because the country was still under the dictatorship of General Suharto - soldiers.

They often rounded up 'banshees' or 'warias', as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused.

Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.

Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling nation of 240million, but activists estimate seven million.

Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise.

They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.

But societal disdain still runs deep - when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke.

They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners.

And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfil, such as reproduction.

'They must learn to accept their nature,' says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council.

'If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously' they have 'to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed'.

Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender.

In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The raid that changed everything came in 1985.

Evie and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.

When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her. 'We searched all night,' said Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. 'Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in.'

Evie decided, then and there, to live the rest of her life as a man. She ditched her tight, flowery dresses, brocade vest and bras.

Now 66, she said: 'I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that. So I decided to just accept it. I've been living like this, a man, ever since.'

Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighbourhood confirmed Turdi had worked there as Barack's nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya.

Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food.

She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she has never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.

As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who could not stand having such a 'sissy' for a son. She said: 'He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul.'

Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.

She made her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager.

And then she met Obama's mother. Evie now seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She said she is just waiting to die.

She added that she did not know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.

Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighbourhood confirmed it is true.

'Many neighbours would remember Turdi. She was popular here at that time,' said Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house.

'She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry.'

Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.

For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason - for the first time in a long time - to feel proud.

'Now when people call me scum,' she says, 'I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'

MATTIS SCORES CONGRESSIONAL WAIVER TO LEAD PENTAGON (AVOIDS PC QUESTIONS)

GEN MATTIS SCORES CONGRESSIONAL WAIVER TO LEAD PENTAGON:

AVOIDS POLITICALLY CORRECT GAMES DURING CONFIRMATION HEARINGS.

MATTIS LOVES THE USA & RESPECTS US MILITARY.

Sources: Times of Israel, C-Span, YouTube

******* Trump’s Pentagon chief: The capital of Israel is Tel Aviv
~ "The capital of Israel that I go to, sir, is Tel Aviv, sir, because that’s where all their government people are."

Diverging from the signals the president-elect has been sending out, James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis opts to ‘stick with US policy’.


President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Pentagon said Thursday that the United States should continue treating Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital, breaking with Republican members of Congress and intimations the incoming president could fulfill his campaign pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Asked during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee if he supported the embassy’s relocation, retired Marine Corps general James “Mad Dog” Mattis said, “Right now I stick with the current US policy.”

Facing an hours-long session of questions from senators, he emphasized: “The capital of Israel that I go to, sir, is Tel Aviv, sir, because that’s where all their government people are.” He also noted, however, the determination was not part of his remit as defense secretary nominee.

“I would defer to the nominee of Secretary of State on that, sir,” he said.

The last three successive presidents have maintained that the future status of Jerusalem should be settled in final negotiations between the parties, as both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their rightful capital.

But Trump has indicated since his victory in November he will no longer honor that tradition. In December, he nominated his longtime friend and attorney David Friedman, a vocal supporter and donor to West Bank settlements, to be the next US ambassador to Israel

In a statement announcing the selection, Friedman said he expected to carry out his duties in “Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

Trump also repeatedly promised during the campaign that he would move the embassy. While past presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also vowed on the trail to do so, neither fulfilled that promise once they assumed the responsibilities of conducting America’s foreign policy.

Mattis’s position further underlines a difference with most Republican on Capitol Hill, who make up the majority in both chambers of Congress.

The Obama administration allowed passage of a United Nations Security Council Resolution last month that condemns settlements as a violation of international law. The text states that all areas Israel captured in the 1967 war — which includes East Jerusalem and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, with the Temple Mount and Western Wall, the holiest sites in Judaism — are “occupied Palestinian territory.”

Earlier this month, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller (R) proposed the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act, which urges Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there.

Mattis declined to comment on the motion Thursday, telling the senators he needed more information on the particulars of its content.

He also diverged from most GOP lawmakers in expressing support for a two-state outcome to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“If it brings peace to the Middle East,” he said, while also indicating he is willing to hear alternatives despite his skepticism that another resolution to the conflict exists.

“If there’s another solution, I’d be happy to hear what it is,” he said, before later stressing America had a “vital interest” in the two sides reaching a peaceful accommodation to their decades-long dispute.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, also endorsed the two-state solution.

In the past, Mattis has been a critic of the Israeli settlement enterprise, asserting that its continued expansion imperiled Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state.

“If I’m in Jerusalem and I put 500 Jewish settlers out here to the east and there’s 10,000 Arab settlers in here, if we draw the border to include them, either it ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don’t get to vote — apartheid,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in July 2013.

During that same conversation, he also said the United States pays a security price with the rest of the Arab world for its support of Israel.

Mattis, who headed the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) under President Obama from August 2010 to March 2013 (a post that has command authority for all US forces in the Middle East with the exception of Israel), did imply during Thursday’s hearing that his former boss did not always send a comforting message to Israel as an ally.

There was “a sense” in Jerusalem, Mattis said, that the administration has been “indifferent to their security concerns.” Under that assessment, he told committee members, it was “time to build trust” with the Jewish state.

Mattis also addressed the Iran nuclear deal, saying he thought it was an “imperfect” pact, but that the US had an obligation to abide by its terms. “When America gives her word, we have to live up to it and work with our allies,” he said.

During the campaign, Trump sent conflicting messages on the Iran accord, suggesting he would both abrogate the deal and enforce rigorously. Since being elected, his top advisers have indicated he will not withdraw from the deal unilaterally unless Iran violates the agreement.

MCCORY TO REPEAL HB2 AFTER CHARLOTTE LEADERS REPEAL LGBT BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE

GOV MCCORY TO REPEAL HB2 AFTER CHARLOTTE LEADERS REPEAL LGBT BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE:

CHARLOTTE'S MAYOR JENNIFER ROBERTS WANTED TO HELP HILLARY BUT IT BACKFIRED.

CHARLOTTE'S POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED LGBT BATHROOM ORDINANCE WAS ONLY FORCED ON PRIVATE BUSINESSES & PRIVATE SCHOOLS NOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THUS THE REASON WHY GOV MCCRORY SIGNED HB2 INTO LAW IN THE FIRST PLACE.

CHARLOTTE'S BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE WAS ABOUT 2016 POLITICS NOT DISCRIMINATION.


Sources: CBS News, Charlotte Observer, YouTube


****** Gov. Pat McCrory calls for special legislative session Wednesday to repeal HB2


Following a surprise move by Charlotte City Council on Monday, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has called for a special session Wednesday to consider repeal of House Bill 2.

The governor’s statement came in a series of rapidly unfolding events that could signal an end to the nine-month drama that has catapulted North Carolina into national headlines. HB2, seen by critics as an anti-LGBT measure, prompted boycotts and cost the state millions of dollars as well as lost jobs.

Monday’s events also underscored the continuing tensions between Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper.

McCrory’s call came hours after Charlotte City Council voted 10-0, with the support of Cooper and Democratic Mayor Jennifer Roberts, to rescind the LGBT ordinance that prompted HB2.

“This sudden reversal, with little notice after the gubernatorial election has ended, sadly proves this entire issue, originated by the political left, was all about politics at the expense of Charlotte and the entire state of North Carolina,” McCrory said in a video statement.

Cooper, who lobbied for the council action, announced earlier that GOP legislative leaders had promised to repeal HB2.

“Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore assured me that as a result of Charlotte’s vote, a special session will be called for Tuesday to repeal HB2 in full,” Cooper said in a statement. “I hope they will keep their word to me and with the help of Democrats in the legislature, HB2 will be repealed in full.”

In a joint statement of their own, Berger and Moore said politics was behind the council vote.

“Today Roy Cooper and Jennifer Roberts proved what we said was the case all along: their efforts to force men into women’s bathrooms and shower facilities was a political stunt to drive out-of-state money into the governor’s race,” the Republican leaders said. “For months, we’ve said if Charlotte would repeal its bathroom ordinance that created the problem, we would take up the repeal of HB2.”.



This is the third time such an offer has been floated.

First in May and then in September there were efforts to get the council to rescind the ordinance that extended anti-discrimination protection to the LGBT community and allowed transgender people to use the public bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

Most council members never went along with the deal.

Since then Cooper defeated McCrory in a hard-fought race that wasn’t settled until McCrory conceded Dec. 5 as a recount entered its final hours.



Late-night lobbying

Council’s Monday morning vote came after late-night lobbying by Cooper himself. He called Democratic Mayor Pro Tem Vi Lyles at 10 p.m. Sunday and Democrat Julie Eiselt a half-hour later.

He said “if we cleaned up our books, that the General Assembly was motivated to call a special session to repeal (the law), and we felt this was our best opportunity,” Eiselt told the Observer.

Cooper and others believe that the best chance to repeal HB2 is this month before new legislators take office in January.

Roberts and council members had considered a similar deal earlier in the year but had rejected it.

Roberts on Monday was in the difficult position of defending the repeal. The vote “should in no way be viewed as a compromise of our principles or commitment to nondiscrimination,” she said.

But earlier this year, and as recently as last week, the mayor said that LGBT rights weren’t negotiable. Local and national gay rights organizations had adamantly opposed a symbolic repeal vote. The Human Rights Campaign said earlier this month that there should be no compromise between the city and the state.

But Monday they applauded the city’s move.

“HB2 is precisely why North Carolinians went to the polls and ousted Gov. McCrory last month,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “It’s time for state lawmakers to repeal HB2 and begin repairing the harm this bill has done to people and the damage it has done to North Carolina’s reputation and economy.”

State Rep. Chris Sgro, a Guilford County Democrat who is president of Equality NC, said earlier this month that he opposed any compromise.

“I firmly believe that Roy Cooper, Jennifer Roberts and the majority of City Council are committed to winning the full complement (of rights) for LGBT people both in Charlotte and across the state,” he said Monday. “All eyes …are on Raleigh watching for the General Assembly to do the right thing.”

Republican council member Kenny Smith, who is considering running for mayor, said the Democratic-controlled council was “playing politics” with the decision. He said the same deal has been available for months, but that council members waited until McCrory lost the election.

State GOP Chairman Robin Hayes agreed. He said the Charlotte ordinance was “never more than a nakedly partisan political weapon aimed at sabotaging Gov. McCrory’s re-election bid, while inflicting economic suffering on the people of North Carolina.”

It’s unclear how a vote to repeal HB2 would go. Democratic votes are virtually assured. Many Republicans remain in support of the bill.

“Lawmakers shouldn’t now betray those who supported them and compromise common sense principles, like privacy, dignity, and freedom for all citizens,” Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, said. “To do so would be to advance the Obama administration’s agenda, not freedom and common sense.”

A ‘reset’

The city’s repeal includes language that says its nondiscrimination ordinance will be revived if the General Assembly doesn’t repeal HB2 by Dec. 31.

Republican council member Ed Driggs said he’s worried legislators will see that deadline as Charlotte dictating to Raleigh. He proposed that the Dec. 31 deadline be removed, but his motion failed.

Some business leaders were surprised but happy at the news. Maxwell Hanks, a broker with Spectrum Properties leasing the new 300 South Tryon office building, said HB2 has been hurting business recruitment in the state

“Rescinding HB2 will be a great way to close out 2016 and start 2017,” said Hanks. He said the move would be a “reset,” and that it would help him and other brokers lure companies to move to the state.

There was no advance notice that the ordinance would be discussed at the City Council meeting. The city charter allows the manager or mayor to place any item on the agenda – even without public notice first. Democrat James Mitchell made the motion to vote on the matter and Smith seconded.

Roberts said voters’ feelings about the issue have been known and voiced. But when the issue was last discussed, many in the LGBT community urged the city not to repeal the ordinance.

“The community always has a chance to weigh in,” Roberts said. “There will be much more conversations about equality.”

Lyles said council members would try in 2017 to pass some LGBT protections, though it’s unclear what they would be.

It’s possible the state might allow Charlotte to pass legal protections for gay and lesbian individuals in places of public accommodation, but any new ordinance that allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity would likely be rejected again by legislators.

Some Democratic council members have long said they don’t want to “leave the transgender community behind.” But if there are future protections, the city will likely be forced to do just that.

Democratic council member John Autry said Monday’s vote turned his stomach. But he said he decided to support the compromise after talking with one of his daughters, who is gay.

He said she told him that the city’s vote was the best thing to do “in the long run.”

Democratic council member Patsy Kinsey didn’t attend the meeting.

A special session on Wednesday would come five days after lawmakers completed another special session in which they passed measures taking away many of the new governor’s appointment powers.

By itself, Charlotte’s move will not have any immediate impact on the status of lawsuits against HB2 by the federal government and the American Civil Liberties Union, among other groups.

UNC law professor Maxine Eichner, an expert in LGBT matters, said if the General Assembly follows through with the removal of HB2, the opposing sides in the court fights could both ask that the cases be dropped. Or the courts could rule that the lawsuits are now moot.

PAT MCCRORY CONCEDES TO ROY COOPER AFTER HB2 BACKLASH & BACKPEDALING

PAT MCCRORY CONCEDES TO ROY COOPER AFTER HB2 BACKLASH & BACKPEDALING:

MCCRORY DIDN'T LOSE DUE TO PASSAGE OF HB2. IT WAS HIS BACKPEDALING.


Sources: CBS News, Wall Street Journal, YouTube


***** Pat McCrory Concedes North Carolina Governor’s Race to Roy Cooper:

The Republican incumbent had protested the result, but his opponent’s vote lead grew.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina conceded his bid for re-election to Democrat Roy Cooper on Monday, ending a monthlong skirmish over the incumbent’s unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularity.

The governor’s race was extremely close, but the tally of absentee and provisional votes drove Mr. Cooper’s lead to more than 10,000 votes, up from about 5,000 votes out of 4.7 million cast in unofficial results on Election Day.

Mr. McCrory’s team had filed protests in dozens of counties, claiming that he was behind in the vote because of fraud.

But local boards of election, dominated by Republicans and appointed by Mr. McCrory, had found no widespread evidence of wrongdoing.

In a video statement, Mr. McCrory said “the majority of our citizens have spoken,” and he congratulated Mr. Cooper, the attorney general, and said he would work to ensure a smooth transition.

The gubernatorial race was an outlier in North Carolina, which elected President-elect Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Burr and other Republicans running statewide for treasurer and lieutenant governor.

But Mr. McCrory lost the state’s two biggest metropolitan areas of Charlotte and Raleigh, both of which he carried in 2012.

Many voters said they disapproved of Mr. McCrory’s championing of a law restricting public bathroom use by transgender people.

Mr. Cooper thanked Mr. McCrory for his service and called for unity after a “divisive election season.” In a statement, he said, “I know there is more that unites us than divides us.”

The governor-elect said his priorities would be investing in schools and supporting working families.

But the GOP still has veto-proof majorities in both houses of the legislature, and his allies say it is likely that he will spend much of his time seeking to block a legislative agenda rather than advance his own.

Mr. McCrory, who was first elected in 2012, had solicited supporters for funds to help pay for legal costs in challenging the results. His team’s allegations of fraud prompted Republicans to pledge to change election laws if necessary when the legislature reconvenes early next year.

Election law has been a contentious topic in North Carolina. Last summer, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a voter ID law and other restrictions passed by the state in 2013, saying they disproportionately affected black voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a separate challenge to North Carolina’s congressional maps, as Democrats say Republicans inappropriately drew districts based on race.

PULSE GAY NIGHTCLUB MASS SHOOTING vs CHICAGO GANG MASS SHOOTINGS (RACE)

PULSE GAY NIGHTCLUB MASS SHOOTING vs CHICAGO GANG SHOOTINGS

ALL LIVES MATTER.

HUMAN LIFE IS HUMAN LIFE.

Sources:  ABC News, CBS News, Chicago Suntimes, YouTube

Last Saturday night in a Gay nightclub (PULSE) in Orlando, Florida,  more than 50 human beings were Murdered by a member of the terrorist organization ISIL.

The victims were killed during a Mass Shooting event.

ISIL quickly claimed responsibility for this life-stealing event.

Many of the victims killed during Mass Shooting were WHITE.

Meanwhile in the city of Chicago, Illinois, several BLACK boys and Teens are Murdered each day due to Gang Violence Shootings.

Which Murders do you think the mainstream media focuses most on?

All lives matter right??

****** ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING

MAN WHO RECENTLY MOVED FROM CHICAGO TO ORLANDO KILLED IN PULSE SHOOTING

A man who recently moved to Orlando from Chicago is among the victims in the Orlando nightclub mass shooting.

Angel Candelario, 28, who was born in Puerto Rico but moved to Chicago to get an education. He started as a temp but was quickly snapped up to work full time and then promoted, before being sent off on his next - and, it turned out, final - adventure.

"He was always focused on his studies," Candelario's brother Alexi said. "I would ask him, 'Let's go out,' and he would say, 'No, I can't go out because I have to study.'"

"I just can't gather the words to express how much sadness I feel that Angel had to leave like this," says Charles Wesby, an ophthalmic technician and one of Candelario's former coworkers at the Illinois Eye Institute.

He was hired at the Illinois College of Optometry in August of 2014. His first role there was as an assistant in pediatrics. He was then promoted to technician at the Rosenbloom Center.

"Very sad to hear this news, I mean devastated. And then the more you think about it, you get angry as well. You know, how and why could this happen?" says Dr. Dominick Opitz, optometrist at the Illinois Eye Center.

"It's just such a tragic disaster that happened and for me to know, personally, someone who was within that tragedy is just even more difficult to deal with. I mean, all of those lives were lost. Forty-nine lives were lost," Wesby says.

MCCRORY vs LORETTA LYNCH: MCRORY MAY LOSE

MCCRORY vs LORETTA LYNCH: MCRORY MAY LOSE

WHITE MAN vs BLACK WOMAN FOR 2016 POLITICS.

MCRORY STOOD UP AGAINST POLITICAL INTIMIDATION BUT HE MAY HAVE DONE SO TOO LATE.

Sources: Fox News, CNN, Citizen Wells, Youtube

In February 2016, despite wide voter opposition, Charlotte City Council members passed a Transgender Bathroom Sharing Ordinance which only forced Private Businesses, Private Schools (not Public Schools), Churches and Non-Profit agencies to comply.

The Ordinance was due to become effective April 1st.

In March 2016, North Carolina Gov Pat McCory and the NC General Assembly repealed the Charlotte Ordinance via passage of House Bill 2.

Ironically the man who spearheaded passage of Charlotte's Transgender Bathroom Ordinance is an LGBT Advocate who was Convicted of taking Indecent Liberties with a 15-yr old boy on a field trip.

The mainstream media refuses to report on this fact.

In May 2016, GOP North Carolina Gov Pat McCrory is suing the Federal gov't for its overreach in trying to force every state and commonwealth in America to enact laws which order Private Businesses and Churches to allow Transgender people to use Bathroom facilities of their personal choice.

US DOJ Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a Black Woman from North Carolina, claims that denying Transgender people access to use Bathrooms of their choice is a Civil Rights Violation.

In response to Gov McCrory's lawsuit, Loretta Lynch has now countersued the state of North Carolina.

So here we have a Powerful Black Woman from North Carolina fighting a Powerful White Man from North Carolina over Bathrooms for Transgender people during a critical election year.

Unlike Black people, Transgender were not Biologically born Transgender. Instead their sexual orientation is merely a Lifestyle choice.

Millions of US citizens are unemployed, the US Military is lacking in crucial funding for Training so they can defeat ISIL and America's Borders are porous yet Obama has Politicians fighting and wasting US Taxpayer money over Bathrooms for Transgender people.

God Forbid!

I stand with Gov McCrory on HB2, however this public legal battle may indeed cost him re-election.

Why?

Because McCrory sat quietly for too long and then allowed Obama to intentionally drag him into a Cultural Political war for the sole purpose of destroying Pat McCrory's political career forever and for the 2016 election.

I will continue to Pray diligently for Gov McCrory and for the entire United States of America.

**** North Carolina, U.S., square off over transgender rights

(CNN)The United States and North Carolina tangled over transgender rights on Monday, with the Justice Department filing a civil rights lawsuit over the state's so-called bathroom bill and state officials defiantly filing suits against the federal directive to stop the implementation of the controversial legislation.

Also, a major player in North Carolina -- the state's public university system -- defied the governor and legislature and told the Justice Department on Monday it intends to act "in compliance with federal law" as it relates to House Bill 2, known as HB2.

The Justice Department seeks declaratory relief and threatens to curtail federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina.

With hundreds of millions of dollars in funding at stake, UNC System President Margaret Spellings said longstanding policy prohibits university personnel from discriminating on the basis of, among other things, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, announcing the U.S. legal action to reporters on Monday, cast the bathroom bill issue as the latest civil rights struggle of the era.

"It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had other signs above restrooms, water fountains, and on public accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference. We've moved beyond those dark days," Lynch said.

The act bans people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with their biological sex. Since its passage in March, North Carolina has become a national battleground on the issue of transgender rights. It has drawn a flurry of condemnation from civil liberties groups, LGBT advocates and major businesses. It has also won praise from groups like the Family Research Council.

After the law's passage, musicians Bruce Springsteen, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, and the bands Pearl Jam and Boston canceled concerts in the state. Those cancellations have cost one major venue nearly $200,000 in ticket sales.

PayPal and Deutsche Bank have both canceled plans to expand into North Carolina.

The Justice Department said last week that "access to sex-segregated restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a term, condition or privilege of employment. Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from their gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII," a section of the Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination against workers on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion.

The federal government demanded the state "remedy" the act or risk being in violation of federal law. 

Instead, North Carolina officials filed a lawsuit calling the Justice Department's position a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act." Top state legislators, Phil Berger and Tim Moore, also filed a complaint against the Justice Department.

But Lynch on Monday said the legislature and governor put the state in "direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity. More to the point, they created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security, a right taken for granted by most of us."

After the federal government asked the state to certify by the end of the day Monday that it would not comply with or implement the bill's restriction on bathroom access, Lynch said the state requested an extension and that had been under "active consideration."

Instead, the governor and the state chose another course: a lawsuit.

"But instead of replying to our offer or providing a certification, this morning, the state of North Carolina and its governor chose to respond by suing the Department of Justice. As a result of their decisions, we are now moving forward," Lynch said.

The federal suit also says the state is in violation of Title IX, the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 that bans gender discrimination in education, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex. 

"This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms," Lynch said. "This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them."

Lynch said there have been "discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress": the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation, the resistance to Brown V. Board of Education, and the "proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions that were intended to stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded the right to marry."

"That right, of course, is now recognized as a guarantee embedded in our Constitution. And in the wake of that historic triumph, we have seen bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community," she said. 

She told transgender people that the Obama administration "will do everything we can to protect you going forward."

'Not a protected class'

McCrory's communications director Josh Ellis said after Lynch's remarks that the governor is "appropriately seeking legal certainty to a complex issue impacting employers and students throughout the country" but "in contrast, the attorney general is using divisive rhetoric to advance the Obama administration's strategy of making laws that bypass the constitutional authority of Congress and our courts." 

The act puts in place a statewide policy that bans individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex and stops cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay and transgender identity. That power is reserved for the state under the new law. 

North Carolina officials defend the act and said it doesn't violate federal law. The state also said the United States didn't give the state enough time to deal with the matter.

McCrory said Monday that he requested an additional two weeks to respond but was told he would be granted one week, and only if he issued a statement concurring with the Justice Department.

The lawsuit filed by the governor and Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry calls the demand that the state "remedy" the legislation by Monday or risk being in violation of federal law "a baseless and blatant overreach" and said it is making a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act."

McCrory's argument also said the state of North Carolina hasn't been given enough time to respond and that the federal government is overstepping its authority.

In a Monday news conference, McCrory blamed the city of Charlotte for raising the issue of gender identity and public restrooms. The matter was not on the state's agenda, he said, until the city imposed a mandate that "caused major privacy concerns about males entering female facilities and females entering male facilities."

Because, he said, this is now a national issue -- and could affect every U.S. company with more than 15 employees -- McCrory called on Congress to revisit the anti-discrimination provisions under Titles VII and IX.

"Our nation is one nation, especially when it comes to fighting discrimination, which I wholeheartedly support," McCrory said. 

North Carolina homes in on Title VII in its lawsuit, saying precedence is clear: "Transgender status is not a protected class under Title VII," and it cites a half-dozen cases that it says back its stance. Only Congress can change this, the lawsuit says.

Even if the state felt transgender individuals were afforded federal protection, the Justice Department demands overstep, the state suit says, because the law "allows accommodations based on special circumstances, including but not limited to transgender individuals." 

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, McCrory said the federal government was trying to tell every government agency and company employing more than 15 people "that men should be allowed to use a women's locker room, restroom or shower facility."

He said later that the "new, complex and emotional issue" pitted privacy against equality.

The lawsuit emphasizes that no one is facing discrimination because the law applies equally to everyone.

"All state employees are required to use the bathroom and changing facilities assigned to a person of their same biological sex, regardless of gender identity, or transgender status," it says.

The lawsuit filed by Berger, North Carolina Senate president pro tempore and Moore, state House Speaker, reflected the views of many of the bill's supporters that people "expect to encounter only other people of the same biological sex" when they are in intimate setting such as public bathrooms.

It says the "ideological extremity -- and utter unworkability -- of the department's position on the issues in this case is astonishing." 

TARGET CHRISTIAN BOYCOTT GROWS (HRC & PAYPAL'S INTIMIDATION)

@Target

NATIONAL CHRISTIAN BOYCOTT OF TARGET GROWS:

IT'S NOT ABOUT LGBT DISCRIMINATION; IT'S REALLY ABOUT SILENCING CHRISTIANITY FOREVER.

OBAMA'S STRATEGY TO DIVIDE AMERICA FOR 2016 POLITICS SUCCEEDS.

@HB2

Sources: MSN, Fox News, USA Today, Youtube

***** More than 500,000 boycott Target over transgender bathroom policy

A conservative Christian activist group has gained more than half a million signatures and counting from people pledging to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy.

The petition started by the American Family Association on Wednesday raises concerns that Target's inclusive stance on transgender rights encourages sexual predators and puts women and young girls in danger, because "a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom."

The boycott has more than 503,000 signatures as of Monday morning, marking it as one of AFA's most popular campaigns.

"This is the best response we’ve ever had this quick," says AFA President Tim Wildmon, attributing the protest's viral nature to the fact that "everybody knows who Target is, and it’s an easy-to-understand issue." 

Wildmon says Target stands "to lose a lot of customers who won't come back." But Target is standing by its policy.

"We certainly respect that there are a wide variety of perspectives and opinions," says Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder. "As a company that firmly stands behind what it means to offer our team an inclusive place to work — and our guests an inclusive place to shop — we continue to believe that this is the right thing for Target."

She added that hundreds of Target stores "have single-stall, family restrooms for those who may be more comfortable with that option."

Target made its position public in a blog post last week, stating that the company welcomes "transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity." The announcement comes as legislation on transgender issues in multiple states has spurred several major corporations and businesses to take a stance on LGBT rights. 

The American Family Association, a non-profit based in Tupelo, Miss., frequently protests on issues that target what it considers traditional family values.

Its more recent campaigns include canceling the organization's use of PayPal after that company pulled back on plans to open a new facility in North Carolina, which recently passed a law requiring transgender people using public bathrooms to use the one that aligns with their gender at birth.

DONALD TRUMP OPPOSES HB2 BUT I STILL SUPPORT HIM & MCCRORY

DONALD TRUMP OPPOSES HB2 BUT I STILL ENDORSE HIM:

IN MY OPINION TRUMP IS THE BEST 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR AMERICA.

MY SUPPORT FOR GOV MCCRORY ON HB2 REMAINS THE SAME.

Sources:  NY Magazine, NBC, YouTube

***** Donald Trump Comes Out Against North Carolina’s ‘Very Strong’ Bathroom Bill

Donald Trump says transgender people should be able to "use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate." On NBC's Today show Thursday morning, the GOP front-runner said he opposes North Carolina's "very strong" bathroom bill, which allows businesses to prohibit transgender people from doing just that.

"North Carolina did something that was very strong and they're paying a big price. And there's a lot of problems." Trump said. "Leave it the way it is. North Carolina, what they're going through, with all of the business and all of the strife — and that's on both sides — you leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic punishment they're taking."

Trump went on to say that he opposes the idea of creating a new, third bathroom specifically for transgender people because "that would be discriminatory, in a certain way," and because "it would be unbelievably expensive for businesses and for the country."

North Carolina governor Pat McCrory's office issued a statement in response to Trump's remarks:

"Governor McCrory has always said that North Carolina was getting along fine before the Charlotte city council passed its unneeded and overreaching ordinance. Now that it has been overturned, businesses can adopt their own policies - like Target has - instead of being mandated to allow men into women's restrooms by government."

Ted Cruz, Trump’s closest rival for the Republican nod, is a staunch defender of the legislation, arguing, “Men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls.” Ohio governor (and imaginary presidential contender) John Kasich has said he would not have signed the bill.

MCCRORY vs HB2 BACKLASH ON "MEET THE PRESS" (BULLYING & HYPOCRISY)

PAT MCCRORY vs HB2 BACKLASH ON "MEET THE PRESS":

MCCRORY ADDRESSES POLITICAL HYPOCRISY & HRC BULLYING.

CHARLOTTE'S REPEALED BATHROOM ORDINANCE EXCLUDED ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUT NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS IN THAT??

Sources:  NBC, Meet The Press, Charlotte Observer, Youtube

******Gov. McCrory Defends NC’s HB2 On "Meet the Press"

Gov. Pat McCrory defended North Carolina’s law on LGBT rights Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” but said the issue warrants further discussion and not overheated rhetoric.

The new law establishes a statewide nondiscrimination policy that excludes gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes and forbids cities and counties from adopting their own policies. The governor said it wasn’t the state’s role to impose policies on the private sector.

But McCrory acknowledged that the issue of bathroom use by transgender people — which was the basis of the current controversy, following Charlotte’s attempt to allow choice according to gender identity, rather than physical sex at birth — needed to be addressed.

“We have to have more dialogue, not threats,” McCrory said.

Host Chuck Todd challenged McCrory on that point, noting that the General Assembly rushed a bill through in a single day in a hastily called special session and that the governor signed it into law that same night. “You guys debated for, like, 10 seconds,” Todd said.

McCrory said the speed was necessary to stop the Charlotte ordinance from going into effect on April 1.

“This is a national debate that has literally come on in the last three months,” McCrory said. “No one talked about it until Houston,” where voters rejected an ordinance expanding gay and transgender protections.

Todd said some of the same arguments on House Bill 2 were made by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in opposition to racial civil rights. “The same argument was used to defeat laws that are now considered untouchable,” Todd said.

McCrory said he didn’t know of any businesses in North Carolina that had discriminatory practices, and repeated, “This extremely new social norm came in a very quick time, and we need to have these discussions.”

Yet he only said the provision in HB2 that eliminated the ability to file employment discrimination lawsuits in state court should be repealed, not the bathroom provision.

Todd said NBC had estimated that North Carolina has lost $39.7 million to $186 million because of the law, and that others had estimated the loss in billions of dollars, due to companies and events not coming to the state in protest.

McCrory also said the national news media incorrectly have compared the law to religious freedom bills in Georgia and Mississippi, noting that last year he vetoed a bill that would have allowed magistrates to opt out of performing same-sex marriages.

“We haven’t had a religious freedom bill, because I’m governor,” he said.

McCrory said there is a disconnect between national corporations and everyday people.

“You know, I was in Hamlet, North Carolina, a small town that can be at any town in the United States of America,” he said. “I walked into a buffet restaurant, African American buffet restaurant, and the people just welcomed me with open arms and said, ‘Thanks for protecting us.’ I got back in my car, and I got a call from someone in corporate America going, ‘Man, you’ve got to change this. We’re getting killed.’”

Earlier in the program actor George Clooney called North Carolina’s law “ridiculous.” McCrory said Hollywood didn’t have a place in a serious discussion about the issue, and said the new Batman movie was being shown in China, which has a terrible human rights record.

McCrory’s appearance on national TV comes despite his lack of appearances in North Carolina. He has held only one brief news conference and one TV interview on the topic since signing the bill.

Soon after the TV show, McCrory’s campaign committee emailed a plea for contributions, saying the governor had just left the set, where he “defended North Carolina against the coordinated campaign of attacks and selective outrage from out-of-state special interests, the corporate elite and the national media.”

The campaign of attorney General Roy Cooper, who is running against McCrory for governor, sent out a response to the TV appearance: “Today Governor McCrory doubled down on his belief that businesses should be able to fire an employee for being gay,” spokesman Jamal Little said. “It’s that antiquated, discriminatory attitude that is driving businesses away and hurting our reputation.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the national organization fighting to overturn HB2, issued his own reaction in an email:

“Today, a nation watched as Gov. McCrory invoked an outdated and retrograde argument to defend his decision to write discrimination into state law and deny equal treatment under the law for LGBT people. Pat McCrory can’t have it both ways and say he doesn’t want the government to tell the private sector what to do while he also sticks his head in the sand and ignores more than 160 businesses who have clearly said they want HB2 repealed.”

During “Meet the Press,” McCroy cited the Human Rights Campaign as an impediment to constructive conversation, calling them “more powerful than the NRA.”

“But they are putting on a lot of pressure, instead of having good dialogue,” he said.

An earlier version of this post inadvertently said McCrory called the new law government overreach. He was referring to the Charlotte ordinance.