Category: News

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Nikki Haley Trolled For Throwing Shade At @PopcornFactory

Former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
Former ambassador to the United Nations, former governor of South Carolina and rumored 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley tried to drag a popcorn company on Twitter for being late on deliveries. It didn’t go well. Especially in light of Donald Trump’s toadie Louis DeJoy now in charge of the United States Postal Service whose new policies are slowing mail delivery down across the nation.

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Podcast: Instagram Celeb Murdered, What To Watch, EU Denies Funds For Six ‘LGBT Free’ Towns In Poland

The Randy Report podcast

The Randy Report podcast delivers the week's top stories in a quick, convenient podcast - 'the 60 Minutes of gay news - only shorter' In this week’s podcast: • A gay Instagram & TikTok influencer in Russia was found murdered in a possible hate crime • The world’s first openly gay prince denounces so-called ‘conversion therapy’ and calls for banning it in his native India • The European Union denied funding to six Polish towns that say they are “LGBT free” • Lifetime Channel has announced a gay romantic movie for the holidays and Hulu’s Love, Victor gets the green light for a second season • What to watch now? How about four short films exploring the intersection of coming out and soccer? Find The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders on Amazon here. • NYC-based singer/songwriter Kyle Motsinger releases his new disco-themed single, “No Shame,” that drops the beat on body shame. All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report podcast.

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News Round-Up: August 7, 2020

Pennsylvania legislator Brian Sims (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • LGBTQ Nation: A Republican lawmaker called the police this week on out Pennsylvania Democratic lawmaker Brian Sims saying that the gay legislator made him fear for his family’s safety. Sims denies the allegations. • Instinct Magazine: Walt Disney Studios and Hulu have decided to renew Love, Victor for a second season after the first season’s well-received debut in June. Hulu later announced that Love, Victor was the number one most-watched drama on the streaming platform during its premiere week in June. • theOUTfront: Premiering today on Disney+, the new documentary Howard pays tribute at the life of gay director/librettist/lyricist, Howard Ashman who also helped give a genie his magic and a carnivorous plant his menace and has made generations want to be part of that world.

• Means Happy: Get ready to be celebrated because Gay Uncles Day is a thing. Since around 2016, Gay Uncles Day has been widely celebrated on the second Sunday in August – it’s a great way of recognizing the diversity of our families, and also the important contribution that queer men make to family life. • Washington Examiner: With the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, leading President Trump by a wide margin in national polling, there could very well be a another “blue wave” come November. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted ratings in four more House races this week in the direction of the Democrats. • New Music: Australian pop star Kylie Minogue recently released the music video to her new single, “Say Something,” and it is all you could want in galactic glitter goodness. The vibe of the video could be described as Xanadu meets Starlight Express as the pop princess galavants across the universe on a golden steed surrounded by shirtless men. #TotallyNotGayAtAll

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Jerry Falwell Jr Placed On ‘Indefinite Leave’ After FlyGate Photo

Jerry Falwell Jr and friend
ABC News reports Jerry Falwell, Jr. has agreed to “take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University” in the aftermath of his posting then deleting photos on social media with his arm around a young woman and his pants unzipped. As the firestorm began, Falwell gave an interview to radio station WLNI explaining the photo was taken during a ‘costume party’ while on vacation. “I was like … trying to like … I had a pair of jeans on that I hadn’t worn in a long time and couldn’t get mine zipped either,” Falwell said on the air. Falwell has come under fire in recent months for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding students being on campus. Falwell, a huge supporter of Donald Trump, has served since 2007 as president of the Lynchburg university founded by his father, the late evangelist the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

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News Round-Up: August 6, 2020

InstaHunks Gymbear79 ‘social-fitnessing’ (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Yes, Wes Dupree (“Gymbear79”) is practicing his “social-fitnessing.”  Good on him… • The Wrap: Ratings for The Ellen DeGeneres Show sunk to a new series low last month following a bombshell Buzzfeed News report about the toxic work environment behind the scenes. Ratings for the talk show were down 9% from the prior week and a glaring -29% from the same week last summer. • Gay Star News: The Democratic Party has unveiled its platform for November’s elections and it is the most LGBT+ inclusive ever including major pledges to reverse Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies, ban ‘conversion therapy’, AND pass the Equality Act. • Winnipeg Sun: Former WWE pro wrestler Marty Jannetty posted (then deleted) on social media that at the age of 13 he murdered a gay man he was buying weed from after an alleged sexual assault. • NBC News: Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch Times that pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about coronavirus and protests in the U.S. Facebook took down the accounts as part of its enforcement against the use of fake accounts to inflate the reach of content or products on social media. The Epoch Times is owned by the virulently anti-LGBTQ Falun Gong cult, which also produces the touring acrobatics show, Shen Yun. • Cognitive Decline: Just days after Donald Trump was mocked for mispronouncing Yosemite National Park as “Yo-semites,” the Trumpster – who accuses former Vice President Joe Biden of not being mentally on point – referred to Thailand as “ThighLand.”

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New Unemployment Claims Top 1 Million For 20th Week

From the New York Times:

The government reported on Thursday that nearly 1.2 million workers filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week. It was the lowest weekly total since March, but signaled the continuing damage that the pandemic is inflicting on the labor market.

An additional 656,000 claims were filed by freelancers, part-time workers and others who do not qualify for regular state jobless aid but are eligible for benefits under a separate federal unemployment insurance program, the Labor Department announced on Thursday. Unlike the state figures, that number is not seasonally adjusted.

Although the number of new claims is down from the stratospheric levels reached in the early days of the pandemic, the million-plus tallies that have continued for 20 weeks in a row are still extraordinarily high by historical standards.

Economists estimate 30 million Americans are currently collecting unemployment benefits.

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Funny: Donald Trump Interviews Donald Trump

(screen capture)
Using footage from the now-infamous interview of Donald Trump by Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Justin T. Brown gives us Trump interviewing Trump. As one YouTube commenter wrote, “Somehow he is still losing the argument with himself.” Brilliantly edited. Just hit play.

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Burger King ‘Kevin’ Slaps Employee In Angry Rant

Austin Addison, of Butler County, Pennsylvania, is reportedly facing charges after he was caught on video slapping a Burger King worker across the face. The incident was recorded and the video has circulated widely on social media. Several reports say Addison entered the restaurant hyper-angry and looking for a female employee who he apparently knew. The clip begins mid-incident up with Addison screaming about an employee who ‘can’t count except for robbery and stealing stuff.’ Along the way, he threatens to somehow get the employee put in jail for ‘the rest of her life.’ For some unknown reason, the poor guy behind the counter, in trying to calm Addison down, gets slapped.

He was later picked up and charged with criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and harassment. From Heavy.com:

Court documents, available online on the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania website, show the incident at Burger King happened on June 26. A complaint was filed on July 8 and Addison was arrested on July 30. Records show he was released on his own recognizance, meaning he did not need to pay bail or post bond.

The criminal mischief charge is a second-degree misdemeanor, which in Pennsylvania, carries a possible punishment of up to two years behind bars and a fine up to $5,000 if convicted. Addison’s arraignment hearing was scheduled for September 22.

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News Round-Up: August 4, 2020

Me and Snoopy (photo: Denise Truscello)
Some news items you might have missed: • Snoop Watch:  Just a quick check-in to say Snoopy (the short one above) is doing great settling in with Michael and me. For those interested in #BeagleLife, most of my posts about Snoopy will be on Instagram here. Thanks to Denise Truscello for the pic and to everyone for all the messages of support about our new 14-year-old addition 🙂 • Instinct Magazine: The Lifetime TV channel has announced that it will release its first-ever holiday film with a same-sex romance as the central storyline. The upcoming tv movie is titled The Christmas Set-Up and follows two former high school friends who get (surprise!) ‘set-up’ by one’s mother during holidays at home. • Out Music: Acclaimed singer and songwriter VINCINT recently released “Hard 2 Forget,” the eagerly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed debut EP, The Feeling. The out artist has received raves from the media like this from Eonline: “VINCINT has kept us captivated with his sumptuous synth-pop sound and his outrageous vocals. As masterful with a full-throated belt as he is slipping into a soft falsetto, his is a voice.”

• WOW: Former Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington (who was fired from the show for using a homophobic slur) came out to FoxNews as a Trump supporter. In April, the actor tweeted he had left the Democratic party. • Sunday Times: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on why the now-infamous CATS movie turned out the way it did – “The problem with the film was that [director] Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show. The whole thing was ridiculous.” • CNN: After repeatedly seeking to discredit mail-in voting, Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed Florida’s election system is “safe and secure” and encouraged Floridians to vote by mail.

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Interview: Trump On COVID-19 Deaths ‘It Is What It Is’

Donald Trump

Donald Trump speaking to Axios (screen capture)
Other than Fox News’ Chris Wallace, I think this is the first extended example of a journalist going back and forth with Donald Trump on actual COVID-19 facts and data. Axios’ Jonathan Swan got a 38 minute sit down with Trump. In this clip, Trump argues about his ‘great success’ in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, it seems is comfortable with the ratio of death to diagnosed cases, while Swan is talking about the proportion of deaths to population in countries. Swan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.” Trump: “You can’t do that.” Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” As Swan points out, for example, South Korea has a population of 51 million but has experienced only 300 deaths from COVID-19 which factors out to 0.0005 percentage of the population has died from the virus. The U.S. has a population of 328,000,000+ but has suffered over 155,000+ deaths from coronavirus which means our percentage of the population that has died is much higher at .047. You’ll note in the clip, Trump hands Swan a graph with only four countries listed showing the U.S. being ‘the best.’ Talk about pick and choose. In the second clip below, as Trump argues the virus is ‘under control,’ Swan points out 1,000 Americans are dying on average each day. “It is what it is,” says Trump. Trump also admits he didn’t attend the funeral of civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) because “he didn’t come to my inauguration.” However, Trump does wish accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell “well.” Full interview at the end of this post.