Author: Randy Slovacek

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PA Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Another Trump Election Challenge

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
Another loss for Team Trump as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed an election challenge led by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, who attempted to argue that universal mail-in voting violated the state constitution. From NBC News:

Kelly, along with several other Pennsylvania Republicans, sought to invalidate millions of mail-in votes, which could have ceded a key state won by President-Elect Joe Biden to President Donald Trump.

The ruling said, “Petitioners sought to invalidate the ballots of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who utilized the mail-in voting procedures. … Alternatively, Petitioners advocated the extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the General Election and instead ‘direct the General Assembly to choose Pennsylvania’s electors.'”

The high court ruled no on all counts and said, “All other outstanding motions are dismissed as moot.” It said the claim could have resulted in the “disenfranchisement” of millions of voters.

The court also criticized Kelly and company for filing their lawsuit more than a year after the law establishing universal mail-in voting was passed by the state legislature. Today’s ruling wipes out a lower court order that had blocked officials from certifying the Keystone State’s election results. More than 26  election challenges filed by Team Trump have now been dismissed by courts in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. So. Much. Winning.

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Biden Gains Votes In Wisconsin Recount Requested By Trump

L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden
Reuters reports the Trump requested recount in Wisconsin’s largest county concluded on Friday with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden gaining votes. Oops. The recount of nearly 460,000 ballots in Milwaukee County showed Biden gained 257 votes to Trump’s 125, resulting in a net gain of 132 votes for Biden. The unofficial statewide tally shows Biden defeated Trump there by about 20,600 votes. Since a full state-wide recount would cost the Trump campaign $7.9 million, the Donald chose to only recount Dane and Milwaukee counties — home to the cities of Madison and Milwaukee for the discount price of $3 million. Such recounts in the past have rarely changed the eventual results by more than a few hundred votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a more extensive statewide recount in 2016 and the recount only altered the results by 131 votes (in Trump’s favor).

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News Round-Up: November 27, 2020

(image via Instagram/MrOliverDoxie)
Some news items you might have missed: • Instagram: Today’s lead image comes from the adorable Mr. Oliver Doxie account – if you love dachshunds (and who doesn’t?) – you should follow here. The caption for the pic: “When you eat too much and wear a blanket around the house like…” #WhoHasntBeenThere? • The Hill: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams are among the list of nominees for TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year distinction for 2020. • Kenneth-in-the-212: Check out Kenneth’s weekly collection of the what’s what in LGBTQ publications like entertainment journalist Karl Schmid on the cover of A&U Magazine (below).
(image via A&U Magazine)
• New York Daily News: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro doesn’t intend to get vaccinated for coronavirus, despite having suffered from the virus himself earlier this year. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine said populations can safely stop social distancing if at least 75% of people are vaccinated with a shot that’s over 70% effective. • CBC News: A disabled young man who works as a greeter at a Walmart in British Columbia, Canada, was assaulted – pushed to the ground and punched repeatedly – after asking a customer to wear a mask in the store.

• Wall Street Journal: The number of people hospitalized in the U.S. due to Covid-19 surpassed 90,000 for the first time, as the pandemic loomed over Thanksgiving Day celebrations. • The Street: Walt Disney plans to lay off a total of 32,000 employees in the first half of 2021, a further reduction in its workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic and severe drop-off in visitors to its theme parks continues to slam its business. Still, the company will be issuing $1.5 billion to its shareholders.

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Trump Loses PA Challenge In 3rd Circuit Court Of Appeals

Donald Trump

Donald Trump on 60 Minutes (screen capture)
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed last weekend’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit brought by Team Trump in Pennsylvania that was argued by Rudy Giuliani. Pennsylvania has already certified its election results which show President-elect Joe Biden won the Keystone State by 81,660 votes. And Trump can’t blame the judge in this new ruling – it was one of his own nominees. The all-GOP panel agreed the case had ‘no merit.’ From the New York Times:

The 21-page ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was a complete repudiation of Mr. Trump’s effort to halt Pennsylvania’s certification process and a full-throated affirmation of a decision last Saturday by Judge Matthew W. Brann of Federal District Court in Williamsport, Penn., who dealt the Trump campaign its initial defeat in the case.

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote on behalf of the appeals court. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”

Trump’s lawyers have already announced they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court where Trump believes his 3 handpicked justices would give him a win. BUT – most legal eagles doubt the high court would be willing to take up a case where the evidence is lacking and ultimately won’t change the outcome of the race. Even if SCOTUS were to take the case and rule in Trump’s favor, Biden would still have 286 votes in the Electoral College – far more than the required 270 to win the White House.

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Streaming Event: World AIDS Day 2020 – A National Conversation

Announcing the 2020 World AIDS Day National Conversation

Announcing the 2020 World AIDS Day National Conversation 2020 marks 40 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States, a pandemic that has led to nearly 700,000 lives lost and still no cure four decades later. This year, our nation struggles through another pandemic – the fight against Covid-19 – where the horrific loss of life has surpassed 250,000 in a matter of months. World AIDS Day 2020 – A National Conversation will be presented virtually on December 1, 2020 beginning at 10 am PST at www.aidsmemorial.org or at www.youtube.com/aidsmemorial. The event is free to the public and will be available for viewing on the same websites after the initial broadcast for those who can’t join live. Through a distinguished list of guest speakers, video storytelling, and musical tributes, the forum allows people to come together and honor the lives lost, the survivors, the activism and the heroes from over the span of four decades and two horrific pandemics. Award-winning actor and long-time AIDS advocate, Judith Light, will host the day’s commemoration event that will feature Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and David D. Ho, M.D., Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University. They will be honored with the memorial’s National Leadership Recognition Award. Mayors from cities that have been on the frontlines of both pandemics will lead a conversation on the impact the two pandemics have had on marginalized communities and how HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 have disproportionately affected communities of color and the systemic barriers that compound poor health outcomes. Activists who have helped spark change and movements will lead a conversation about activism during both pandemics and the ongoing struggle for social justice. During the event, the National AIDS Memorial will officially unveil the first-ever virtual exhibition of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on its website that features nearly 10,000 Quilt panels representing all 50 states and U.S. territories, using the power and beauty of the Quilt to help the nation heal during these difficult times. The program will conclude with the traditional Reading of Names of newly engraved names at the memorial of loved ones lost to AIDS and those who loved them.

(via press release)

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LGBTQ Marching Band Makes 1st Appearance On Thanksgiving Day Parade

Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (image via Instagram)
The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps is one of the first queer marching bands in the United States, founded in 1979 in New York City. This year, the Big Apple Corps became the first openly LGBTQ group to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. From The Atlantic:

The band had to get creative in order to rehearse safely and legally this fall. Practicing indoors was out of the question, so its usual space in a Manhattan parish center would have to be traded for something without walls.

The band needed daylight, so rehearsals would be limited to weekends. New York did not allow gatherings of more than 50 people, but more than 80 musicians and color-guard members and confetti-cannon shooters needed to practice, so organizers began to investigate their options in New Jersey. They soon settled on a parking lot in the Newark suburbs, between a soccer stadium and a PATH station.

For six sunny Saturdays in October and November, the members of the Big Apple Corps spaced themselves eight feet apart along the yellow lines of the parking spaces, covered the ends of their instruments with plastic, and played.

Many on the Twitterverse noted the inclusion of an LGBTQ marching band wishing they’d seen such representation when they were in their marching band days. Congrats to everyone on the achievement! You can watch a bit of the Big Apple Corps’ Thanksgiving Day performance of the ABBA hit ‘Dancing Queen’ below.

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Snappish Trump Loses Cool At Press Conference

During his Thanksgiving Day address at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump told reporters that if the Electoral College confirms president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, “they’ve made a mistake,” but he would give up power and leave the White House. When Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason asked to clarify his response in a follow-up question, Trump blew his cool and snapped at Mason, “Don’t talk to me that way – you’re just a lightweight. Don’t talk – I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.” Note – Jeff Mason is no ‘lightweight.’ He’s an experienced journalist and highly regarded in Washington, D.C. Trump did not confirm whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration in January. Experts and officials have said there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 US elections.

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#TBT – Thanksgiving Produced By Marie Callender’s

Ignore my face – Marie Callender’s did right by us
Hot hubby Michael and I have been cooking all morning, but I was reminded of the time we did a ‘pre-cooked’ Thanksgiving meal from Marie Callender’s. p.s. it turned out tasty, but we like our family tradition-recipes 🙂 We are a household that cooks on the holidays. In the past several years, Michael has become more and more the ‘foodie,’ which bodes well for me 🙂 Michael does his Food Network & New Jersey Italian thing, and I offer my southern/soul food cuisine. But I thought I’d do a little #TBT when in 2013 we experimented with a prepared Thanksgiving meal from Marie Callenders.

Like the original Pilgrims, Michael returns from foraging in the wilderness for our Thanksgiving feast. p.s. check out the bicep.  Nice, right?

 

Armed with my cookbooks, I’m taken a bit aback.

 

Michael is so proud.

 

Now, wait a minute…. Oven?  Microwave?

 

Truth.

 

Michael attempts to help with the mashed potatoes

 

Michael poses to show how hard it is to unpack the box from MC. Note the flour splashed on his face…

 

“Look at me!  Look at all I prepared!”

 

Intimate but bountiful.  OK – I’m loving the ease of all this.

 

“Not yet, kids…. not yet….”

 

The glass table top helps to tell the backstage story of what’s going on down under…

 

This pic represents pure love.  Not thinking it’s love of Michael and I, but “pure love….”

 

I made Michael take this cheesy pic.  Thanks to wonder dog Bruno for photog duties.

 

Ok, I have to admit – Marie Callender’s rocked Thanksgiving this year

 

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Trailer: ‘The Prom’ With Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Andrew Rannells

Meryl Streep and James Corden in ‘The Prom’ (photo: Netflix)
Netflix drops the official trailer for the upcoming screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical The Prom. The stellar cast includes Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Andrew Rannells, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Kay Place, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Jo Ellen Pellman, and Ariana DeBose.
James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells, Meryl Streep in ‘The Prom’ (photo: Netflix)
Synopsis:

Dee Dee Allen (three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (Tony Award-winner James Corden) are New York City stage stars with a crisis on their hands: their expensive new Broadway show is a major flop that has suddenly flatlined their careers.

Meanwhile, in small-town Indiana, high school student Emma Nolan (newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman) is experiencing a very different kind of heartbreak: despite the support of the high school principal (Keegan-Michael Key), the head of the PTA (Kerry Washington) has banned her from attending the prom with her girlfriend, Alyssa (Ariana DeBose).

When Dee Dee and Barry decide that Emma’s predicament is the perfect cause to help resurrect their public images, they hit the road with Angie (Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman) and Trent (Andrew Rannells), another pair of cynical actors looking for a professional lift.

But when their self-absorbed celebrity activism unexpectedly backfires, the foursome finds their own lives upended as they rally to give Emma a night where she can truly celebrate who she is.

In select theaters in December and premieres on Netflix on December 11, 2020.