Author: Randy Slovacek

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News Round-Up: November 23, 2020

L-R Ben Lewis, Blake Lee in ‘The Christmas Setup’ (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • OUT: A new poll from GLAAD shows only 14% of LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Trump, while 81% voted for the projected president-elect Joe Biden. • The Hill: Sixty-six percent of Republican voters support President Trump running for president again in 2024, according to a new survey.  Also in the poll: 86% would support Trump calling for national unity, 38% would support Trump refusing to give up power and remain in the White House, and 46% would support Trump starting his own TV network. • Lifetime Channel: Check out the first trailer for Lifetime’s The Christmas Setup (lead photo above) – the cable network’s first-ever holiday movie centered on an LGBTQ romance. The film stars real-life couple Blake Lee and Ben Lewis, and The Nanny star Fran Drescher. Looks super-cute! Premieres December 12 at 8 pm ET.

• New York Times: More than one million people were screened by the TSA on Sunday – more than on any day since the pandemic took hold in March. That number is about half of what it was in 2019, but experts are concerned that people flying to visit their families for Thanksgiving could increase the spread of the coronavirus. • Mediaite: Far-right nutjob Dan Bongino floated on his podcast Monday that he would consider running for president of the United States in 2024. Bongo has previously run for Congress three times – in Maryland and Florida – and failed each time. • Twitter: Donald Trump Jr., currently quarantining in a private cabin somewhere due to testing positive for the coronavirus, is becoming more and more erratic on social media. In this recent tweet, he asks about burning down the house for Thanksgiving…? #NotFunny

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Michigan Certifies Biden’s Win In Great Lakes State

UPDATE: I realized I wanted to include this information as some GOP officials or Trump supporters have made mention of ‘unbalanced precincts’ which occurs when there are a small number of ballots that don’t equal the total number of voters noted in the poll books. I think this is important to know. From the Washington Post:

Out-of-balance precincts can occur for several reasons. A machine may fail to scan the name of a voter on an absentee ballot envelope. A voter can make a mistake on a ballot and request a new one, or sign into the poll book but leave before casting a ballot.

This fall, 179 Detroit precincts, or 28 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 433 votes, according to state and county data.

Four years ago, when Trump won the state by a narrow margin, the number of out-of-balance precincts was larger: 392 Detroit precincts, or 59 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 916 votes, the data show.

In 2016, when the discrepancy was less than half that of 2020, neither the RNC nor the Trump campaign asked for an audit to verify the veracity of the ballot count.

The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted to certify the results of the 2020 election on Monday. The 3-1 vote by the board – made up of two Democrats and two Republicans – effectively awards the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden, who garnered over 155,000 more votes than Donald Trump in the election. One of the two Republican members – Norman Shinkle – was the lone holdout who abstained from approving the results. Shinkle told the Washington Post in an interview last week that he was considering delaying the certification citing a debunked conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his campaign that voting machines had deleted thousands of Trump votes. As CNN’s Jake Tapper points out via Twitter, with Georgia having certified Friday, Michigan doing so today, and Pennsylvania tonight (once Philadelphia certifies at 7 pm tonight), President-elect Joe Biden will have more than 270 electoral votes.

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Out Music: NIKO ‘Thinking About You’

Out singer/songwriter NIKO recently released his latest – a dance floor filler titled, ‘Thinking About You.’ After his romantic single, “Try,” NIKO ups the heat and the tempo with this dance track that explores the darker side of love and seduction. “The song tells the story of someone who is constantly chasing after the next thrill, but in doing that, loses the person who really cares for them,” says NIKO. “It’s about the emotional dynamics of not being able to resist your physical instincts, and then having to face the consequences.”

Singer/songwriter NIKO (via official website)
Born and raised in Milan, NIKO’s first musical endeavors began as creative collaborations with DJs as a songwriter and vocalist in the Italian city. After spending time in the UK, working with music producers in Manchester and London, NIKO decided to launch his career as a solo artist with his first EP RMNC 21 in 2019. Listen to the new single below and you can check out my previous coverage of NIKO and his music here.

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Carl Bernstein Names 21 GOP Senators Who Despise Trump

L-R Donald Trump, Carl Bernstein
Legendary Washington, D.C. journalist Carl Bernstein has publicly named 21 Republican Senators who he says have expressed their ‘extreme contempt for [Donald] Trump and his fitness to be POTUS.’ Bernstein, who was one of the two reporters who broke the Nixon Watergate scandal, declares in his tweets he’s ‘not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially’ in sharing the names.

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Misdemeanor Charges For Trumper Breathing On Protester

The New York Daily News reports a Trump supporter, Raymond Deskins, 61, who got in the face of a protester and ‘forcefully exhaled’ without a face mask has been arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after a private citizen obtained a warrant through a county magistrate. The incident occurred near the entrance to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on Saturday. As the alleged assault wasn’t witnessed by law enforcement, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told the victim they’d have to apply for a warrant through a county magistrate. And they did. Why do Trumpers have to act like this? It’s just childish.

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News Round-Up: November 22, 2020

Chris Hemsworth (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Avengers/Thor star Chris Hemsworth (above) helped himself to an ‘extra large donut’ prompting his Marvel co-star Chris Pratt to implore him to “stop working out” because Pratt’s trainer said, “Since we’re gonna be in the same movie and everything, he doesn’t want me to stand next to you if you look like that…” LOL • Gay Star News: The Czech Republic’s new coronavirus rules allow ‘traditional’ weddings with up to 15 guests. However registered partnerships – which have been legal for same-sex couples since 2006 – can only go ahead if they are ‘urgent.’ • NY Times: Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday disavowed Sidney Powell, one of his lawyers, after she made wild accusations of Republican governors being involved in a payoff scheme to manipulate voting machines. In an interview with NewsMax, she said, “Georgia’s probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up.” • CNN: A Nevada district judge on Friday denied a request brought by a conservative activist to halt the certification next week of the state’s election results that show President-elect Joe Biden leading in Nevada by more than 33,000 votes. The case was filed by conservative activist Sharron Angle and her organization, the Election Integrity Project, against Nevada’s Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske — the only Republican statewide officeholder. • Fox5Vegas: Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak implemented a “statewide pause” in order to help mitigation efforts against the spread of COVID-19, a move that will not shutdown the economy, but will tighten mask requirements and reduce capacity limits. New regulations include required masks for Nevadans “at all times” (indoor and outdoor) and 25% capacity for public gatherings. • NY Post: Actor Ricky Schroder helped get Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse out of jail on a $2 million bond Friday in exchange for securing the rights to a movie about the teen shooter. Rittenhouse is charged with shooting and killing Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and wounding a third man while with a militia group during protests of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

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Fort Worth’s Joel Burns Revisits Viral ‘It Gets Better’ Moment

Joel Burns today and in 2010 as he gave his ‘It Gets Better’ speech (screen captures)
Taking part in the ’10 Years Better’ series from the It Gets Better Project, former Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns revisits the viral video of his city council meeting speech in October 2010 where he shared aspects of his young gay life and spoke out about LGBTQ bullying. The new series features celebrities and everyday people who recorded It Gets Better videos early on, rewatching and reacting to their video. Host Emile Ennis Jr. speaks with guests about their life since — how it’s gotten better/evolved, and their message today for LGBTQ+ youth. After video footage of his 2010 city council speech went viral, Burns found himself in the national spotlight regarding LGBTQ bullying and teen suicide. Burns says he’s “still wowed that these few minutes have had this lasting impact some ten years later.” As someone who grew up in Fort Worth, watching the speech – by the first man who had run for office as an openly gay man – had a powerful and very personal impact on me.

The morning of the city council meeting Burns read of 19-year-old Zach Harrington taking his own life in nearby Norman, Oklahoma, due to homophobic bullying. Burns used his announcement time during that meeting to share some of his own coming out story (including being bullied in high school) and then segued to the growing epidemic of suicides by young LGBTQ people. The 4-term city councilman’s prepared remarks originally included his own history with having had suicidal thoughts, but as he shares with Ennis Jr. in the video below, he stopped himself. “I realized, oh my god, my parents are probably watching this right now and I never told them I thought about committing suicide.” While Burns was still in that council meeting, news outlets began reporting on his story.

Former Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns (screen capture)
In the following days, he remembers thinking maybe 300 people might see the video. Then, the numbers climbed to 3,000, then 30,000, then 300,000 and eventually garnered over 3.1 million views on YouTube. Burns says he received over 20,000 emails regarding the speech and countless letters. One letter was addressed simply to ‘Joel Burns, Fort Worth. Inside was a note on a torn piece of paper. “This is what remains of the letter I wrote for my roommate to find with my body,” remembers Burns. “I happened upon your speech and I decided to burn the rest of it.” “It’s a reminder that there’s a lot of pain experienced by people all over the world. And they need reminders like the It Gets Better Project gives them that things will, indeed, get a lot better.” The It Gets Better Project began as a viral social media movement in 2010 and has grown to an organization with global affiliates across 17 countries and 4 continents.

You can watch Burns’ powerful 2010 speech below.

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Chris Christie: Trump’s Legal Team Has Been ‘National Embarrassment’

Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie (screen capture)
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News’s George Stephanopolous today that after dozens of failed legal challenges in court, Donald Trump should stop trying to delay the obvious results of the 2020 presidential election. “I have been a supporter of the president. I voted for him twice, but elections have consequences and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.” The former Trump ally added that the president’s legal team has become a ‘national embarrassment.’ “Quite frankly, the conduct of the President’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” said Christie on ABC. “They allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom, they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud.”

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Podcast: Author/Illustrator Mike Curato’s Terrific Graphic Novel ‘Flamer’

In this episode of The Randy Report podcast, I chat with award-winning author and artist Mike Curato, who recently released his debut YA graphic novel, FLAMER, a coming-of-age story that confronts ideas of homophobia, bullying, body image and coming to terms with identity in every sense of the word. Curato’s YA graphic novel follows 14-year-old Aiden Navarro who navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), as he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. Unfolding over the course of the last week of Boy Scout camp in 1995, Aiden’s story is heavily inspired by Mike’s own experience as a Boy Scout (and eventual Eagle Scout) and his coming out as a teenager.

Author & Illustrator Mike Curato
The Hollywood Reporter called FLAMER “the kind of book that might change its reader’s lives.” I grew up as an avid fan of comic books, and I can see why graphic novels have become the grown-up version of that visual medium. I really enjoyed not only Mike’s prose but his illustrations which are clever and powerfully evocative in their own right as a part of the storytelling. If you haven’t checked out graphic novels lately – this is the one! FLAMER is available on Amazon here, and at Bookshop.org here.

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Trump Loses Pennsylvania Election Lawsuit (Again)

Donald Trump (via Axios – screen capture)
A federal judge has thrown out the Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Pennsylvania hoping to stop the certification of ballots there likening Team Trump’s arguments to Frankenstein’s monster, saying it appeared “haphazardly stitched together.” From the New York Times:

A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed on Saturday night a lawsuit by the Trump campaign that had claimed there were widespread improprieties with mail-in ballots in the state, ending the last major effort to delay the certification of Pennsylvania’s vote results, which is scheduled to take place Monday.

In a scathing order, Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote that Mr. Trump’s campaign, which had asked him to effectively disenfranchise nearly seven million voters, should have come to court “armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption” in its efforts to essentially nullify the results of Pennsylvania’s election.

But instead, Judge Brann complained, the Trump campaign provided only “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” that were “unsupported by evidence.”