Rock stars, conventions, and all manner of fun stuff have cancelled events in North Carolina because of North Carolina’s LGBT Laws.

Hi Straw, meet Camel’s back.

There’s a new kink in North Carolina’s LGBT controversy: A popular porn website is banning all computers from “The Tar Heel State.”

XHamster.com has been refusing to serve anyone from North Carolina since 12:30 p.m. EDT, Monday.

Instead, users with a North Carolina IP address are just seeing a black screen on their computer — no porn.

Okay, now don’t everybody rush over to Hamster.com because there’s more to this story.

The owner of the site explains his reasoning —

“Back in March, we had 400,000 hits for the term ‘Transsexual’ from North Carolina alone,” he said. “People from that state searched ‘Gay’ 319,907 times,” he added.

So what this means is that there’s one guy in North Carolina who spends all his time searching for gay and/or transexual themes or that there’s a fair amount of interest among those church going folks who spend Sunday afternoon in the basement with their computers.

Long time viewers know that I went to North Carolina in 2012 to fight against their anti-gay law.  I didn’t do much good but I did piss off a whole busload of church ladies in the Best Western Hotel free breakfast bar so it was not a wasted trip.

Thanks to Mel and Fred for the heads up.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton –

You can see it here.

I am up to my patootie in errands today but the story is online here.

Thanks to Kyle for the heads up.

Donald Trump says it’s not true that he never donates to charity.  He says he donated $102 million in the past five years and produced 93 pages of names, dates and amounts to prove it.

But, in that massive list, one thing was missing.

Not a single one of those donations was actually a personal gift of Trump’s own money.

They were donations from The Trump Foundation.  Donald Trump does not donate to the Trump Foundation.

“He’s using [the foundation] as a kind of checkbook, with other people’s money,” Leslie Lenkow­sky, a faculty member at Indiana University’s school of philanthropy, said after The Post described the recipients of the Trump Foundation’s gifts.

And not all the donations were to charities unless, of course, Serena Williams just became a charity.  And some guy named Brian.

And then there were the sneaky transactions.

In 2010, a man named Martin Greenberg was playing in a charity tournament at Trump’s course in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. A $1 million prize was offered to anybody who got a hole in one.

Greenberg did. But then, hours later, he was called back. The rules said the hole-in-one shot had to go 150 yards. But, according to court documents, Trump’s course had made the hole too short.

And even with all this baggage, he’s still a better candidate than Ted Cruz.

Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is an entrepreneur just like her Dad.

Also just like her Dad, the product she’s selling is dangerous.

The U.S. consumer safety authority is recalling about 20,000 Ivanka Trump-branded women’s scarves over concerns they could catch fire and injure their wearers, the agency said Wednesday.

The 100% rayon scarves, manufactured in China and embroidered with the name of the daughter of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump “do not meet the federal flammability standards for clothing textiles, posing a burn risk,” the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a notice.

The scarves were sold for between $12 and $68.  Not bad for a cheesy rayon Made in China scarf.

Her Dad also poses a burn risk but he’s going to cost us far more than that.

AND …

She’s also in trouble because she forgot to register to vote for her Dad in the New York primary.

Trump admits that Ivanka and Eric won’t be able to vote for him and explains why …

“They had a longtime register and they were, you know, unaware of the rules, and they didn’t register in time,” Trump told the hosts of “Fox and Friends.” “So they feel very, very guilty.” He continued: “They feel very guilty. But it’s fine. I understand that. I think they have to register a year in advance and they didn’t. So Eric and Ivanka, I guess, won’t be voting.”

One problem here.  They did not have to register a year in advance.  The registration deadline in New York was March 30th.  That’s 19 days before the primary.  Maybe her calendar caught on fire.

Thanks to Brian for the heads up.

The county commissioners in McLennan County have decided that it is too expensive and not a great idea to allow the carrying of weapons in the county courthouse.

Now, we’re not talking about some kale-eating free-loading bastion of liberalism. The only major city in McLennan County is Waco.  They have posted the required No Weapons Allowed signs on the courthouse door, so currently indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sprang into action.  He sent a stern letter advising the county judge that not allowing weapons in the courthouse is “a violation of state law.”

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said he’s not against guns and the county isn’t trying to take away anyone’s second amendment right.

McNamara said if guns were allowed in the courthouse, it would cost the county a lot of money.

“Money wise it costs a lot more. Manpower wise, yes, it would be I feel like an extreme outlay of manpower and money to accomplish what we would need to do to provide safety for our citizens,” said McNamara.

According to McNamara, the county would have to add personnel in the courthouse and would also have to provide lock boxes for the weapons outside each court room.

Best anybody can tell, there’s gonna be a standoff.  McLennan County says they will fight the Attorney General and the rightwing Texas Attorney General is saying screw local control.  I’m suspecting that both sides will bring guns to the fight.

I guess we could look at it this way – maybe if they allowed shooting inside the courthouse, maybe there would be less shooting outside the courthouse.  And the overpopulation of attorneys would not longer be a problem.

Thanks to Ralph for the heads up.

Those darn caucuses!  You never know what’s going to happen, and what you think happened when it does, didn’t actually happen how you think it did when it’s done.  Just ask Donald Trump, who is hemorrhaging delegates to Ted Cruz at state conventions that he thought he had already “won” at the precinct level.

In similar fashion, due to the vagaries of Wyoming Democratic politics, the estimated take from Bernie’s big “win” yesterday there is:  Sanders 7, Clinton 7.  Given that all 4 Wyoming superdelegates have already declared for Hillary, you can add the Cowboy State to Sanders long string of pyrrhic “victories,” where he outspent and outperformed Clinton, yet gained little ground, while she husbanded her resources and marshaled them for the fight yet to come.

“Seven in a row,” they crow, conveniently forgetting the size, scope and implications of those seven, versus the seven in a row Hillary had won prior to that.  All these contests have taken place over the last month, since the surprising Michigan win gave Bernie another apparent good night, even as he lost ground to Hillary’s blowout in Mississippi.  She then went on a run that included closed, semi-open and open primaries.  Plus the Marianas!  Those victories netted her 115 more delegates than Bernie.  Then the worm turned, and Bernie went on a tear, winning 6 caucuses and an open primary. 

Net gain?  79.  By contrast, Hillary netted 68 out of Florida alone during her run. Tell Sad Trombone he’s on in five.

And so, in the long month since Bernie’s Michigan win was said to signal his resurgence, he’s lost ground to the tune of 36 delegates.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, until you remember that, between the two of them, they’ve burned through nearly 1000 delegates during the same time.  He’s STILL 250 delegates down, with 1727 remaining.  A month ago, he needed to win 55% of the remaining pledged delegates to go into the convention tied.  Now, that’s climbed to 57%.

He has just about run out of runway, especially when you consider that the only two remaining caucuses are the US VI and Guam, each with 7 delegates.  Also, most of the remaining primaries are closed, meaning only registered Democrats can vote.  Why is this paragraph important? Because, quick! name all the non-caucus states where Bernie won an actual primary.

New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Vermont, Michigan and Wisconsin – all open primaries.  And, to be fair, he did win one closed primary: Democrats Abroad.

Recognizing that the pledged delegate count is out of reach, the Sanders campaign has shifted tactics and is hoping to convince all the superdelegates – the previously reviled and roundly criticized anti-democratic superdelegates – to change from Hillary to him.  And that’s a little sad.