Author: Randy Slovacek

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Madonna’s Newest Album Casts The Pop Icon As Secret Agent ‘Madame X’

Madonna becomes secret agent ‘Madame X’ for her next album

Madonna thrilled her fans this weekend as she teased the title and feel for her next album with a mysterious, stylized video clip.

In the video posted to her social media, Madge shares the news at a table of friends, “I’ve decided to call my record Madame X.”

As various characters or alter egos in elaborate costumes appear on the screen, we hear Madge say, “Madame X is a secret agent traveling around the world, changing identities, fighting for freedom, bringing light to dark places.”

She goes on to rattle off a list of identities that the enigmatic secret agent embodies.

“She is a dancer, a professor, a head of state, a housekeeper, an equestrian, a prisoner, a student, a mother, a child, a teacher, a nun, a singer, a saint, a whore, and a spy – in the house of love.”

In a simple summation, “I’m Madame X.”

The video also features Madonna singing a new song, a piano-driven piece with the lyrics, “The thing that hurts the most / is that I wasn’t lost.”

The 60-year-old pop star followed up the announcement with a couple of quick clips of the mysterious ’Madame X.’

For several weeks now, the queen of pop has posted various hints on her Twitter and Instagram accounts about the new project which now come into clearer focus.

No street date announced yet, but with this announcement we’re guessing the first single could come soon.

Madame X follows the 2015 release Rebel Heart, and will be Madonna’s 14th studio album.

More identities by Madonna’s ‘Madame X’

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SNL: Emma Stone Is Desperately Seeking ‘Deidre’

Emma Stone is desperately seeking ‘Deidre’

On Saturday Night Live last night, Emma Stone played an actress who takes her small part in a gay porn film way too seriously.

At one point, trying to flesh out the one-line role, she ad-libs a bit much to the director’s chagrin.

Director: “Uh, just say what’s in the script.”

Stone: “I was just trying to access ‘Deidre.’

Director: “There’s nothing to her. People are just going to scroll past so they can get off. She has no past, no future. She exists only to be cheated on.”

And yet, Stone continues to explore and delve into every small bit of ‘Deidre’ she can find.

If you’ve ever acted, you’ve probably met a version of Stone’s character. Watch below.

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Sen. Kamala Harris Releases 15 Years Of Tax Returns

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)

Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris of California has released 15 years of tax returns in an effort to provide transparency to the voters.

Via Politico:

Sen. Kamala Harris and her husband reported a total income of about $2 million in their 2018 federal tax return, according to a large release of filings on Sunday by the California Democrat that her presidential campaign is billing as the “most transparent” of the sprawling 2020 field.

Harris released 15 years of tax returns in all — three more than any other candidate. Harris’ records cover every year since 2004, when she was the elected district attorney of San Francisco.

In their 2018 return, Harris and her husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, listed an adjusted gross income of $1.89 million, including Harris’ Senate salary and the $320,000 she made from writing a book, “The Truths We Hold.” Harris and Emhoff were married in 2014, then began filing jointly. In 2018, they paid $563,426 in federal taxes and donated $27,000 to charity.

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What To Watch This Weekend

Ryan O’Connell in Netflix’s “Special”

What I’m watching this weekend:

Special

Ryan O’Connell’s unconventional comedy series is based on his own experiences as a gay man with cerebral palsy navigating sex and a career in TV. He not only stars in the series, but also serves as writer and executive producer.

Critics are loving the depiction of a physically challenged gay man through O’Connell’s lens. In one episode, he is convinced by a friend to hire a sex worker in order to lose his virginity. Instead of being ‘tragic,’ the sequence moves from awkward, to touching and eventually to a sweet, sexy resolution.

O’Connell recent told NBC News he’s still in “shock” the series happened.

“It feels very surreal, because I didn’t think that any of this could be possible,” he said. “I’ve been working in Hollywood for six years now, and I know that even the best ideas, even the best shows, with the best talent attached, the odds of one actually getting shot and made and released is very medium rare.”

Now available on Netflix.

Sauvage / Wild

Leo is 22 and sells his body on the street for a bit of cash. The men come and go, and he stays right here — longing for love. He doesn’t know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding.

Felix Maritaud plays Leo, a French hustler who’s a beguiling homo-goulash of low self-esteem and empathy, who falls in love with gay-for-pay Ahd (Eric Bernard), who doles out tenderness, disgust, and violence in equal doses.

“A powerful portrait of a gay male prostitute in free fall” – Guy Lodge, Variety

Now in limited release in theaters with new cities added each week.

Just Friends

Official synopsis: “On the 10th anniversary of his dad’s death, Joris still tries to come to terms with his father s absence when he meets the free-spirited Yad, who returns back home to his family after living on his own. Although very different, there is an instant spark between the two and they want to be more than just friends , but both have issues with their mothers that threaten to jeopardize their relationship.”

Cindy Lou Peeples at Frameline wrote, “Refreshingly, the family conflict in this romantic comedy is not that Joris and Yad are gay, but that they are defying family expectations in other ways and must make a new set of choices about how to be themselves.”

Available for rent on iTunes and Amazon Prime.

Game of Thrones

Yes, yes, yes – I know the final season of Game of Thrones premieres tonight.

The trailer for the new season has been viewed over 55 million times of YouTube, and fans can’t wait.

I’ve been hit or miss with the mega-hit show, but my hubby loves it, as do countless others.

Grab your dragon and tune in tonight on HBO.

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Trump Lies About Obama-Era Lawyer, Doesn’t Mention Charges Stem From Working With Trump Campaign Manager

(Graphic via CallToActivism)

Donald Trump got oh-so-excited about a former member of the Obama administration, Gregory Craig, being indicted this week.

As Call To Activism points out, though, the charges against Craig came from his involvement with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort years after leaving the Obama administration.

From The New York Times:

The indictment alleged that, while a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Mr. Craig took on work on behalf of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine.

The work was brought to Mr. Craig by Paul Manafort, then a political consultant for Mr. Yanukovych and later the campaign chairman for President Trump in 2016.

The charges stated that Mr. Craig lied in order to avoid registering with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and withheld information about the full scope of his activities.

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Right-Wing Loon: Mayor Pete Will Be “The Greatest Threat To Religious Liberty In Our Nation’s History”

Homophobe Bryan Fischer pens this essay for the virulently anti-LGBTQ American Family Associations' OneNewsNow site:
Bryan Fischer

These things make it to my inbox all the time. I only subscribe to such lists to keep tabs on what ridiculousness homophobic haters work themselves into.

Most of the mainstream doesn’t ever see this kind of hate, but we deal with it every day.

Every now and then, I like to share these here on The Randy Report because we should know this kind of hate exists.

Homophobe Bryan Fischer pens this essay for the virulently anti-LGBTQ American Family Associations’ OneNewsNow site:

Pete Buttigieg is an open and defiant homosexual who wants to be our next president. His sexual proclivities are enough all by themselves to disqualify him from the Oval Office.

We can certainly understand the left’s condemnation of Trump for his sexual romps with porn stars 12 or 13 years ago. This means, of course, that unless they are profoundly hypocritical, regressives will be able to understand our legitimate concerns about Buttigieg’s aberrant sexual conduct and what it means for his qualifications to become the leader of the Free World.

He is an enthusiastic supporter of “The Equality Act” (more accurately, “The Homosexual Supremacy Act”). This bill is the single greatest direct threat to the America established by the Founders. Under a Buttigieg presidency, it would indeed be “Homosexuality Uber Alles.” Buttigieg’s own sexual preference is a huge problem in all this. His identity is wrapped up in getting societal approval for his behavior. He cannot live in a society that does not celebrate his sexual choices. If that means trampling on the First Amendment, tough darts.

In other matters, Buttigieg believes “climate change” is a threat to our national security, and supports gun control laws, single-payer health care, and amnesty for illegal aliens. Do not let his boyish good looks and charm deceive you. He threatens everything that you and I cherish.

Under President Buttigieg, the First Amendment will be eviscerated. It will just be words on parchment, a relic of a time gone by when America was free.

Bottom line: President Pete Buttigieg will be the greatest threat to religious liberty in our nation’s history. Consider yourself warned.

Interesting that Fischer notes Buttigieg’s “boyish good looks and charm.”

Fischer was fired from his position as spokesman for the AFA back in 2015 after trying to connect LGBTQ people with Nazis, although he’s been allowed to continue hosting a radio show for the anti-LGBTQ organization.

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Why Doesn’t Trump Want Report That “Totally Exonerates” Him To Be Released?

Donald Trump tweeted this morning questioning why Congressional Democrats should be allowed to see the report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump

Now, if you had a report that “totally exonerated” you of any wrongdoing, wouldn’t you want the world to see that?

Donald Trump tweeted this morning questioning why Congressional Democrats should be allowed to see the report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Why should Radical Left Democrats in Congress have a right to retry and examine the $35,000,000 (two years in the making) No Collusion Mueller Report, when the crime committed was by Crooked Hillary, the DNC and Dirty Cops? Attorney General Barr will make the decision!”

Trump previously told the press that he wanted the report released to the public.

Now, why had he changed his mind? #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm

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Trump Dragged For Inciting Violence Against Member Of Congress

Donald Trump

It’s difficult to imagine that a president – a current occupant of the White House – could do something so lacking in dignity.

And yet, he did.

On Friday, Donald Trump incited anger against a member of Congress, Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Trump tweeted out an edited portion of a speech given by the congresswoman at a March event for the Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The full quote was:

“Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

But Trump’s video took just a few words from Ilhan – “some people did something” – and repeated it while cutting to video clips of the attack on 9/11. The intention was to make it appear as if Rep. Ilhan was downplaying the attack, which was not the case in any way, shape or form.

Trump was taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a military veteran and White House hopeful for 2020, responded on Twitter.

“After 9/11 we all said we were changed. That we were stronger and more united. That’s what “never forget” was about. Now, a president uses that dark day to incite his base against a member of Congress, as if for sport. As if we learned nothing that day about the workings of hate. That day, some people did this: killed thousands of Americans in order to try to make us smaller, more divided and less free. To weaken us by distancing us from our own values through fear and anger. This is the function of terrorism.”

Buttigieg continued: “I served overseas, at risk to my life, in the struggle against such terrorism. But it can only be fully defeated if we have leaders at home who defuse its capacity to sow hate—hate against Islam or against any number of “others.” The president today made America smaller. It is not enough to condemn him; we must model something better.”

“The threats against the life of @IlhanMN make clear what is at stake if we fail to to do this, and to beat back hate in all all its forms,” he concluded.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also condemned Trump’s actions: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”

And Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: “Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted this: “Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today.@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.We must speak out. ‘First they came…'”

And then there was the onslaught on Twitter using the #IStandWithIlhanOmar hashtag. Click here to get some of that.

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News Round-Up: April 12, 2019

Some news items you might have missed: • Even though his iPhone didn’t recognize his newly-32-year-old face this morning, I’m thinking Alex Abramov (above) will find a way to soldier on… • Rugby Australia has declared its intention to terminate Israel Folau’s contract over his anti-LGBTQ social media posts. • Donald Trump’s transgender military ban went into effect today. Nearly 15,000 Americans who signed up to put their lives on the line for the US could be impacted (read that ‘discharged’) by the new policy. • A Trump-supporting Oklahoma woman has been arrested after confessing to a spree of racist vandalism that targeted black, transgender and Jewish residents in two towns. • Two male dancers have joined the New England Patriots cheerleading team. • Check out the latest single from P!nk, “Can We Pretend,” from her upcoming album Hurts 2B Human out April 26. P!nk makes me feel good. I like her music, I like her musical perspective on life. If you’ve never seen her in concert (and I’m not a concert kinda guy) you have to go. It’s a totally feel-good experience. And I love that a lyric in this song is “Can we pretend that we both like the president?”