Source: Associated Press

By Associated Press · Saturday, October 1, 2016

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Human Rights Council has appointed international human rights expert Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand as the first U.N. independent expert charged with investigating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

John Fisher, Geneva director of Human Rights Watch, said his appointment on Friday “made history” and “will bring much-needed attention to human rights violations against LGBT people in all regions of the world.”

Muntarbhorn, a law professor, has been on the council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria and previously served as U.N. special investigator on North Korea and on child prostitution and child pornography.

He co-chaired a meeting of experts that adopted the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

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Read more: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/10/un-appoints-first-expert-lgbt-violence-discrimination/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=ae68ef481e-20161001_LGBTQ_Nation_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4eab596bd-ae68ef481e-429583333

Hillary Clinton's campaign responded to the footage of Donald Trump's brief appearance in a Playboy porn film Friday with a jab at him over his recent "sex tape" allegations against Clinton's beauty queen ally.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Trump tweeted about an alleged "sex tape" showing former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who has emerged to join Clinton in accusing Trump of sexism.
The same day, BuzzFeed unearthed a 2000 Playboy softcore porn video that includes a cameo of Trump popping a bottle of champagne. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill later responded to the news.

"There’s been a lot of talk about sex tapes today and in a strange turn of events, only one adult film has emerged today and its star is Donald Trump," he told reporters.

Clinton, since Monday's presidential debate, has used Trump's past treatment of Machado when he owned the Miss Universe organization and remarks about her weight to paint him as sexist. Trump has escalated the feud this week as Machado gave interviews to several media outlets recounting derogatory comments Trump allegedly made about her appearance.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/298806-clinton-camp-on-trump-cameo-in-playboy-film-a-strange

A financial services group apologized to its guests after Rudy Giuliani delivered a speech at an event that focused on politics and reportedly included a racial remark about Mexicans, the New York Observer reported Friday.

Bob Trojan, CEO of the Commercial Finance Association (CFA), on Monday sent an email to its members apologizing for the off-topic remarks that the former New York City mayor and Trump campaign adviser included in his speech at the group’s “40 Under 40” dinner.

“At CFA’s 40 Under 40 Awards last Thursday night, keynote speaker Rudolph Giuliani veered sharply off course from the leadership message he agreed to deliver and presented unscripted personal opinions which were independent of CFA’s political position or core values,” Trojan wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Observer.

“While we, the event organizers, made every attempt to direct Mr. Giuliani’s remarks ahead of time to focus on leadership, for which he is renowned and has authored a book, there is always the possibility of such a surprise at a live event.”

“For those of you who were offended by Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, please accept my sincere apology,” Trojan added.

The Observer is published by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and campaign adviser.

-snip-

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/298823-financial-group-apologizes-after-giuliani-makes

By Editorial Board September 30 at 6:26 PM
ONE OF the most disturbing aspects of the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump is the legitimization it has provided for extremist discourse. Rhetoric that properly has been taboo in this country for a generation — overt racism, sexism, anti-Semitism — has begun to seep back into politics, with Mr. Trump and his closest associates providing cover. A telling example appeared this week in the form of a personal attack on the website Breitbart, whose executive chairman is Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman. Its subject was Anne Applebaum, who is one of The Post’s most distinguished opinion columnists, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and — as the item repeatedly and gratuitously pointed out — a woman of Jewish origin.

Nominally a response to Ms. Applebaum’s writings about populist movements in Europe and their resemblances to the Trump campaign, the piece was written by an obscure Polish American writer who has an agreement with the foreign ministry of Poland’s right-wing nationalist government to assist with communications. He described Ms. Applebaum as manipulating a shadowy global network of journalists and commentators (including this editorial page) in order to slander the current regime in Warsaw, which has been accused by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Obama administration of endangering democratic checks and balances.

“Hell hath no fury like a Polish, Jewish, American elitist scorned,” proclaimed the Breitbart article. Anyone who doubts the intention of the Polish foreign ministry’s chosen propagandist in using those terms need only read the comments beneath the article, which — uncensored by Breitbart staff — reek with anti-Semitic slurs.

We sought Mr. Bannon’s reaction to his website’s publication of the article, and in particular to its identification of Ms. Applebaum as Jewish. The only response from an aide was that the Trump campaign chairman was on leave from the website. In other words, Mr. Bannon has no objection. Expect more openly anti-Semitic rants at his website — and, if Mr. Trump is elected, in the United States at large.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/donald-trump-is-normalizing-bigotry/2016/09/30/9d754b2e-8731-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html?utm_term=.83453fb07816

Monica Lewinsky was not “violated” — and Rudy Giuliani’s sleazy claims minimize the seriousness of sexual abuse

The Trump campaign's effort to characterize a consensual affair as abuse muddies the crucial issue of consent

AMANDA MARCOTTE

Just when you think this election season can’t get any worse, Team Trump has decided to start doing what right-wingers are always accusing feminists of doing: lodging false accusations of sexual abuse, in this case at Bill Clinton. Well, really more at Hillary Clinton, who Donald Trump seems to believe is the person mainly culpable for whatever choices her husband makes about his behavior.

“But I sure would’ve talked about what she did to Monica Lewinsky — what that woman standing there did to Monica Lewinsky, trying to paint her as an insane young woman when, in fact, Monica Lewinsky was an intern,” former New York mayor and Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani told Elite Daily’s Alexandra Svokos. “And after being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you’re too stupid to be president.”

At this point, readers should simply assume this about anything said by anyone from the Trump campaign, but every bit of this rant is a lie. Hillary Clinton did not try to paint Lewinsky as an “insane young woman.”

(There are reports that Hillary may have derided Lewinsky using ugly language to a friend, but adults should understand that privately expressing uncharitable thoughts about your husband’s mistress is hardly something to get fussed about. Even Lewinsky said, “If that’s the worst thing she said, I should be so lucky.”)

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/01/monica-lewinsky-was-not-violated-and-rudy-giulianis-sleazy-claims-minimize-the-seriousness-of-sexual-abuse/

The right’s Sean Hannity problem: Conservatives loved the Fox News host until he became Trump’s hatchet man

"Nobody calls Sean Hannity" — but everyone fears him. How a right-wing media icon became Trump's towel boy

SIMON MALOY

It’s amusing to see portions of the conservative world recoil in horror at the behavior of Sean Hannity. The mega-popular Fox News host, one of the biggest stars of the right-wing media, has been absorbing sustained criticism from certain pundits and radio hosts for his overt and unseemly activism on behalf of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Hannity’s critics view Trump (correctly) as a threat to Republican politics, the health of the conservative movement and the country itself, and for Hannity to devote his energies and influence to electing him is, in their view, beyond the pale.

As Robert Draper writes in the New York Times Magazine this weekend, Hannity’s boosterism has made him the chief target of conservative media criticism over Trump, and Hannity is responding to the attacks with defiance in equal measure. He name-checks #NeverTrump conservative pundits and warns that he’ll blame them should Hillary Clinton win the presidency. Hannity has hosted town halls for Trump, has appeared in a Trump campaign ad, and has reportedly been offering pro-bono strategic and communications advice to Trump’s team. Every time Trump makes a sexist or racist gaffe, Hannity throws open his studio doors to give Trump the safe space he needs to get his talking points out.

When Trump’s not on the program, Hannity takes it on himself to do the spinning. The candidate spent most of this week lashing out at former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, which meant Hannity, the good foot soldier, was also on the attack against the beauty queen. “She may have starred in an adult film, and available apparently on multiple free porn websites,” Hannity told his radio audience (falsely).

What’s amusing about all this conservative criticism of Hannity’s vitriol and nonsense is that nothing Hannity is saying is out of character for him, or appreciably worse than what he’s been saying for years. Hannity’s brand of venom used to be met with approval or determined silence from the same people who criticize him now. The difference this time around is that Hannity’s behavior is damaging to their own interests, so they’re finally saying something in protest.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/01/the-rights-sean-hannity-problem-conservatives-loved-the-fox-news-host-until-he-became-trumps-hatchet-man/

Source: Reuters

01 OCT 2016 AT 08:13 ET

Germany’s economy ministry believes a Donald Trump presidency would severely damage the U.S. economy, according to an internal memorandum reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday.

The ministry expects “shrinking gross domestic product, fewer jobs and higher unemployment,” in the United States if the Republican candidate were to implement his campaign pledges, the magazine cited the memo as saying.

Trump, a billionaire businessman seeking his first public office, has proposed tax cuts worth $4.4 trillion and wants to curb government regulation and take a tougher stance on negotiating trade deals. He says his economic plan would produce annual economic growth of 3.5 percent and create 25 million jobs over a decade. But some economists have questioned the assumptions underpinning the plan.

Trump’s pledges are “not feasible”, Spiegel cited the memorandum as saying. Moreover, the plans would violate international or U.S. law and could be “no basis for a realistic economic policy.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/german-economic-ministry-a-trump-presidency-would-destroy-the-us-economy/

by Josh Feldman | 5:46 pm, September 30th, 2016

Gary Johnson‘s VP pick Bill Weld went a little off-message today by saying that he can’t think of anyone more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president. Weld started off the interview with Chuck Todd by defending his running mate over his “Aleppo moments” by saying he’s not a “pop quiz” guy and called him a “deep thinker.”

Todd pressed him on whether he would be concerned about being a spoiler. And very interestingly, Weld was very critical of Donald Trump and how threatened he is by the Republican nominee becoming president whilst saying he thinks “very highly” of Clinton.

And right after Weld argued why Johnson would be a better president than Clinton, this happened:



http://www.mediaite.com/tv/gary-johnsons-vp-im-not-sure-anyones-more-qualified-than-clinton-to-be-president/

Responding to Donald Trump’s relentless targeting of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) mocked Trump on Friday for focusing more on womens’ bodies than actual policy questions.

Warren frequently mocks Trump, and at one point was considered a strong option to be Clinton’s running mate for her ability to play the attack dog and call Trump out as a “thin-skinned bully.”

Warren launched into a series of tweets around the question “Is this what keeps you up at night, @realDonaldTrump?”

Read the full tweetstorm below:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/warren-tweetstorm-trump-machado

From the September 28 edition of WRKO’s The Howie Carr Show: (a.m. radio talk-show host/newspaper columnist in Boston)

-snip- (video)

HOWIE CARR (HOST): The most catastrophic decision though, I think, as we look back on it in 20 or 50 years, as the history books record it, is the Iranian nuclear deal. Because that could end up killing tens of millions of Americans by giving the Mullahs the technology and ending the sanctions that enabled them to get the technology and giving them the money, the cash, that they need to buy the technology to build nuclear weapons. And you know they’re going to throw them at us. You just know — and again, Obama thinks “Oh, I’m Mr. [politically correct]. I’m doing the right thing, you know? I don’t hold it against these savages. These people who think that adultery causes earthquakes. These people who execute victims of homosexual rape. I celebrate diversity.”

Well, you know what? When they — when, if they unleash nuclear weapons on United States of America — the homeland — they’re not going to ask, “Are you Mr. PC? Do you believe that the sound of the prayer call is one of the most beautiful sounds in the U.S.?” Those nuclear weapons are going to kill anybody, you know? Whether you’re gay, or whether you’re a beautiful person, or whether you are a Hollywood producer, or whether you’re an Obama bundler who got an ambassadorship. You are going to be dead, you know? It’s not just going to kill deplorables and bitter clingers, it’s going to kill everybody and that’s what these people don’t understand. And they’re just —

That’s the worst thing about this administration. They’ve taken — it took 230 years to make this the greatest country, the greatest society in human history, and they are trying to unravel it and destroy it for — I don’t know why. I still don’t know why. What is — this country handed everything to Barack Obama. He didn’t have to work for anything. Just because of the color of his skin he was given everything. And he still hates the country.

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http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-surrogate-obama-given-everything-color-skin/