Category: News

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Newsom Picks CA Sec Of State Alex Padilla For Kamala Harris Senate Seat

Secretary of State Alex Padilla will succeed Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate (photo via FB)
The Los Angeles Times reports that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will choose his state’s current secretary of state Alex Padilla to fill the remaining two years of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s U.S. Senate term. Harris will be resigning from the Senate next month prior to being sworn in as the country’s first female Vice President. Harris’s departure will mean there will be no Black women serving in the chamber. Padilla will be the first Latino from California to serve in the Senate. From the LA Times:

At age 26, Padilla won a seat on the Los Angeles City Council during the anti-immigrant tumult of the 1990s after California voters approved measures requiring “English-only” public schools and banning immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally from government assistance and services.

Padilla, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went on to become the city’s youngest council president, a state senator and California’s current, two-term secretary of state.

Newsom will now turn to choosing who will replace Padilla as secretary of state.

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News Round-Up: December 21, 2020

Joe Manganiello makes a great sexy Santa
Some news items you might have missed: • Sexy Santas: I realized I haven’t been on my game when it comes to sexy Santas this year, so I’m hoping to make up ground a bit with the snap above of Archenemy star Joe Manganiello at the beach 😉 • Right Wing Watch: Right-wing pastor E.W. Jackson declares that Drag Queen Story Hour is “the equivalent of pedophilia” and says parents who take their child to such an event “need to have their children taken away from them.” • CNN: Donald Trump has turned to a fringe group of advisers peddling increasingly dubious tactics to overturn the results of the election, creating a dire situation that multiple senior officials and people close to the President say has led to new levels of uncertainty at how Trump will resist the coming end to his tenure. • Christmas Music: Tayla Parx contributes this short but sweet track, “Ain’t A Lonely Christmas Song,” to the 2020 Atlantic Records holiday release, Still Home For The Holidays.

• The Hill: Thousands of Trump supporters are planning a virtual “second inauguration” for President Trump on Jan. 20, the same day of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. More than 60,000 people have indicated on Facebook that they plan to attend the event being billed as “Donald J. Trump 2nd Presidential Inauguration Ceremony.” • New York Times: A former Justice Department attorney pens a personal apology for the work she did in the Trump administration and for failing to push back more. • Elle Magazine: A journalist who covered the case of now-convicted pharma bro Martin Shkreli fell in love with him, quit her job, divorced her husband,…and then Shkreli ghosted her. • Variety: Outfest and GLAAD have partnered to produce a PSA with the cast and artists from the soundtrack of Hulu’s queer-centric rom-com, Happiest Season, to discuss the importance of finding chosen family for LGBTQ people during the holidays.

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Fox News Poll: 42% Say Trump ‘One Of The Worst Presidents’ In History

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
A new poll from Fox News Channel (of all places!) does not reflect well on Donald Trump and his presidency. Some of the results of the new survey: • 55% of respondents say the U.S. is worse off now than four years ago compared with 32% who say things are better • A majority (52%) disapprove of the job Trump has done versus 47% who give the Donald a thumbs-up • Trump’s best marks come on his handling of the economy which 52% approve of, but he’s underwater when it comes to foreign policy, the pandemic, immigration or health care • 42% of those polled say Trump will be viewed as one of the worst presidents in the nation’s history, only 22% believe he’s one of the best
(graphic via Fox News)
Click over to Fox News for a full rundown of the results.

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Bill Barr Trolls Trump In Final Press Conference

Attorney General Bill Barr (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
For a guy who couldn’t stand up enough for Donald Trump, Bill Barr had no problem clapping back at the Donald during his last press conference as Attorney General. In the wake of reports that the Trumpster is mulling over declaring martial law and seizing voting machines, calling for a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter; and deflecting blame from Russia for the recent cyber attacks on multiple federal agencies, Barr now publicly disagrees with Trump on: Voter fraud: “I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. … If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was inappropriate, I would name one. But I haven’t and I’m not going to.” The recent SolarWinds cyber hack: “From the information that I have, I agree with Secretary Pompeo’s assessment. It certainly appears to be the Russians, but I’m not going to discuss it beyond that.” Hunter Biden: “I think to the extent that there is an investigation, I think that it’s being handled responsibly and professionally, currently within the department. And to this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel. And I have no plan to do so before I leave.”

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Romney: Trump Has ‘A Blind Spot When It Comes To Russia’

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) didn’t tiptoe around his thoughts on how Donald Trump is handling his final days in the White House. Asked about Trump’s response to recent cyber-attacks on government and major corporations this week – attributed to Russia – the 2012 Republican presidential candidate told CNN’s Jake Tapper Trump has “a blind spot when it comes to Russia and so you can expect that that’s the response he would have.” Romney also said that “it’s sad in a lot of respects” how the Donald is “casting about” railing about his reelection loss when he could be taking a victory lap with the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines.

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Trump Breaks Silence, Defends Russia From Cyber Hacking, Lies About Election Loss (Again)

Donald Trump in the Oval Office (image: public domain)
After days of silence, while the U.S. continued to battle with daily COVID-19 deaths exceeding 3,000 per day and the news of a massive cyber spy campaign against the country, Donald Trump finally emerged from his solitude to downplay any role Russia might have had in the attack. The intrusions into federal agencies reportedly included the State Department, the Treasury, Homeland Security, Energy and Commerce Departments, as well the National Institutes of Health. Even though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told conservative pundit Mark Levin on Friday that Moscow is responsible for the computer hacks – “This was a very significant effort, and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity” – Trump continues to defend Russia and its leader, President Vladimir Putin. Trump tweeted this morning that he has been “fully briefed” on the incident (I’d hope so) and deflected responsibility from Russia by suggesting “it may be China.” Tagging Pompeo, Trump tamped down concerns writing, “The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control.” He then careened back to his baseless claims that he won the presidential election (he didn’t) by suggesting cyber hackers might have “hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election.” Factcheck: Trump’s own cyber experts at the Department of Homeland Security have guaranteed no voting apparatus was infiltrated during the election.

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News Round-Up: December 18, 2020

Bremen Menelli (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • Men’s Variety: With gyms closing in parts of the country due to COVID-19, here are 10 tips on how to exercise outside this winter during the pandemic – although InstaHunk Bremen Menelli (above) seems to have it figured out 😉 • Gay Star News: After a seven-year campaign, Switzerland’s parliament has passed the final vote on same-sex marriage, making the central European country the 29th country in the world to approve marriage equality. • KIT212: Kenneth round’s up the what’s what in LGBTQ publications each week like this issue of Dallas Voice. • LGBTQ Nation: A 17-year-old transgender girl died by suicide earlier this week, just days after she was humiliated by a school administrator for wearing a skirt. • OMG Blog: The brainless bombshell known as the bimbo is one of our most familiar tropes, but recently, a new brand of halfwit hottie has been gaining recognition. Enter the himbo. Like their bimbo counterparts, the requirements for a himbo are simple: They’re hot, kind… and not too bright.

• The Advocate: A gay couple in Eureka, California, woke up to find their Christmas decorations had been ripped down, torn, and smeared with feces. The local police chief has announced that, if found, the perpetrator will be charged with a hate crime. • Metro Weekly: A federal judge has ordered the state of Wisconsin to provide a transgender inmate with gender confirmation surgery to treat her gender dysphoria. Although she was permitted to receive hormone treatments, counseling, and even allowed to wear some women’s clothing, she was denied gender confirmation surgery after requesting it in 2013. • NBC News: A Republican committee in Virginia unanimously passed a resolution censuring Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., saying he betrayed the party’s values when he officiated a same-sex wedding in 2019.

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Axios: Trump Could Issue ‘Wave Of Pardons’ Today

Donald Trump (photo: public domain)
Axios reports there could be a flurry of presidential pardons issued today by Donald Trump.

Trump has been considering pardons for friends and allies, as Axios reported, interrupting conversations with associates to spontaneously suggest he add them to his pardon list. He already pardoned his former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Sen. Rand Paul called on Trump to pardon Edward Snowden in an article for The Federalist on Thursday. A source with direct knowledge of the planning said they did not expect Trump to follow through with a Snowden pardon.

Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are said to be in the mix for consideration.

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Early Voting In Georgia Runoff Breaking Records

A prosecutor in Georgia is reportedly in the early stages of investigating Donald Trump for attempting to overturn the election results in the state

According to The Hill, the folks in Georgia are fired up and showing up to vote in the upcoming runoff election for two U.S. Senators that will decide who controls the Senate in the next year.

Roughly 168,000 Georgians went to the polls on Monday, the first day to vote early in-person in the state’s two critical Senate runoff elections, according to numbers provided by the Georgia secretary of state’s office. By comparison, some 128,000 voted on the first day of early voting for the November general election.

Another 314,000 people cast absentee ballots on the first day of the early-voting period. 

The first-day early in-person turnout broke a record previously set in October when early in-person voting began for the 2020 general election.

Georgia doesn’t break down early voting by political party, so not sure if these are Democrats or Republicans, or both showing up. The U.S. Elections Project reports 24,000 voters who did not take part in the general election have cast ballots in the runoff election so far.

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News Round-Up: December 17, 2020

Austin Wolf scored at the 3rd annual PornHub Awards (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • OUT: Adult entertainment giant Pornhub held its third annual awards last night. The winners are decided by real data (based on what users searched, viewed, and sought after the most this year) from PornHub.com, which according to its website brings in over 140 million daily visitors and over 55 billion searches. Among the winners was Austin Wolf (above) who scored as ‘Top Daddy Performer’ of the year. • Boy Culture: Patti LaBelle’s gay Trumper nephew made headlines when he became involved in a deeply weird online mystery, in which he was apparently tweeting on behalf of a white Republican. Miss Patti had some words with her nephew. • LGBTQ Nation: Federal judge slaps down an Ohio law that bans transgender people from correcting birth certificates. Score one for the good guys! • Instinct Magazine: Josh Brolin is breaking the internet with his birthday suit photo. • TMZ: Atlantic City is auctioning off the opportunity of demolishing the long-closed, decaying Trump Casino. • The Advocate: Legendary gay actor Sir Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, X-Men movies) is among the latest to get the new vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. The 81-year-old star said he’s feeling “euphoric” after getting his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. “I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone.”