Conor Climo (screen capture) A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty Monday to a federal weapons charge after plotting violent attacks on an LGBTQ bar, a synagogue, and the Anti-Defamation League. Conor Climo, 24, signed the plea agreement that was filed in January in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the agreement reads, in part, “Defendant stated that he wanted to do more against the groups he hated by carrying out violent attacks against them.” “Defendant admitted to discussing plans for violent attacks online against the Anti-Defamation League, a local Las Vegas synagogue, and a local bar,” continued the document. In the agreement, Climo admitted the unnamed bar catered to an LGBTQ clientele. Climo was arrested in August last year after being monitored communicating via encrypted internet chat with individuals identified as white supremacists. He reportedly told an undercover FBI informant he was “scouting places to attack.” In his communications with the undercover agent, Climo sent a satellite image of the synagogue he planned to target which highlighted a possible escape route. Climo also used homophobic language and spoke about surveilling an LGBTQ bar in downtown Vegas in the encrypted chats. When the investigators arrived at Climo’s home with a search warrant, they found “hand-drawn schematics and component parts of a destructive device” which included oxidizing agents, flammable liquids and circuit boards. An AR-15 assault-style weapon and a bolt-action rifle were also confiscated during the search, according to NBC LA. He was charged with possessing an unregistered firearm in the form of the component parts of a destructive device. A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office said, “Climo would regularly use derogatory racial, anti-Semitic and homosexual slurs.” Appearing in court wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit on Monday, the Review-Journal writes, “Climo stood with closed fists at a podium, mostly answering ‘yes, your honor’ and ‘no, your honor,’ to a series of standard questions.” AsI reported in August, Climo made headlines in 2016 for ‘patrolling’ his neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault-style rifle and survival knife. At the time, he told local ABC News affiliate KTNV, “I’ll pretty much stay within constitutional bounds when I’m doing this.” ‘Pretty much stay within constitutional bounds???’ He also told the reporter he would be looking for ‘suspicious activity,’ which he defined as “people outside when they’re not supposed to be.” In the interview, Climo admitted he had no formal training in patrolling, policing, or dealing with possibly tense situations. CNN reports Climo will return to court on May 14 where he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to the plea deal, he will also be required to undergo mental health treatment and be monitored via an electronic device upon his release from prison. Climo’s story is especially chilling as Las Vegas was the site of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, when 58 people were killed and more than 500 hurt in October 2017. Here’s the 2016 report from KTNV:
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Hunky Dan Tai (above) starts the week looking forward – “Everything the light touches is our kingdom.” Follow Dan on Instagram here. • CBS News: Pete Buttigieg (who was named the victor of the Iowa caucuses by a squeak) is asking for a partial recanvass for 66 precincts as well as a recanvass of all in-state satellite caucus locations. The former South Bend mayor said he believes the discrepancies identified by his campaign would result in a net increase of 14 state delegate equivalents if corrected. • Oscars 2020: I loved Janelle Monáe’s opening number for the Academy Awards. Beginning with the theme from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and then moving into a robust celebration of “all the amazing talent in this room,” the 34-year-old told the audience, “I’m so proud to stand here as a black, queer artist, telling stories.” The dancers were on point, the visuals creative, and when Billy Porter joined the number to knock out some “I’m Still Standing,” it all went over the top. #Bravo
• Washington Post: Federal prosecutors on Monday said longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone deserves a sentence of 7 to 9 years in prison for lying to Congress and tampering with a witness related to his efforts to learn about hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. • Virginia: The Virginia state House on Monday passed HB 972, which would decriminalize marijuana, by a vote of 64-34. The state Senate is expected to pass its own version shortly. Gov. Ralph Northam has signaled his support for the measure. • Out: Netflix announced today that the popular series Sex Education will, indeed, return for a third season. • USA Today: For the first time in the 2020 Democratic primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took the lead in a national Quinnipiac University poll, overtaking former Vice President Joe Biden, just after the Iowa caucuses and one day ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Sanders received 25% support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, with Biden at 17%.
New national Quinnipiac poll just out: Sanders 25% Biden 17% Bloomberg 15% Warren 14% Buttigieg 10% Klobuchar 4% Everyone else 2% or less
In this week’s podcast: • Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a historic night at the Iowa Caucuses • Voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly approved protections for LGBTQ people • Virginia becomes the first state in the South to approve statewide LGBTQ protections • A beloved morning talk show host in the UK came out as gay • A star of the Netflix docuseries ‘Cheer’ is getting ready to climb to the top of the human pyramid All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report Hit the play button below to listen, and if you enjoy catching up on LGBTQ news in a quick podcast, please share this with your friends 🙂
Donald Trump (image via Twitter/photoWhiteHouse) The Twitterverse pretty much lost it when the Twitter account @PhotoWhiteHouse shared the photo above with the caption, “@realDonaldTrump returns to the White House from Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by William Moon at the South Lawn of the White House on February 7, 2020.” Moon isn’t an official White House photographer nor an official member of the White House News Photographers Association, but Vox reports he “appears to be a Trump enthusiast who attends White House open press events.”
@realDonaldTrump returns to the White House from Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by William Moon at the South Lawn of the White House on February 7, 2020 pic.twitter.com/n1a1Z93LrJ
Who on the earth can even take this person seriously? First step: to be taken seriously he needs to fire his makeup straff…but one good thing, his appearance is on line with his performance and behaviour 👍🏻🤡#OrangeFace 😮 pic.twitter.com/tFaf01GQp8
Anthony Varrechia (via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Like a LOT of folks, I find designer Anthony Varrecchia (above) to be sooo sexy. I’ve been meaning to point out, by the way, that I try to feature a wide range of InstaHunks – younger, older, muscular, beefy, bear-y, all races…Someone made a remark to me a few months ago on my ‘lack of diversity’ in the choices of eye-candy and I was like…whaaaat? • NY Times: Just hours after Donald Trump had Lt. Colonel Alex Vindman escorted from the White House, Trump has fired Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union. Both testified in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine. • New Hampshire: Two new polls show Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading the pack in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. A new NBC News/Marist poll finds Sanders gets support from 25 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the Granite State, while Buttigieg gets support from 21 percent. The Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll puts the two even closer with Sanders at 24 percent and Buttigieg at 23 percent. • Courthouse News: At a record 20.4 million voters, California officials announced Thursday over 80% of the state’s eligible voters are registered to vote in next month’s Super Tuesday primary – the highest rate for a presidential primary since 1952. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla says there are currently over 3 million more registered voters compared to a similar point in the 2016 presidential election. • Washington Post: Just days after the earth saw its warmest January on record, Antarctica has broken its warmest temperature ever recorded. A reading of 65 degrees was taken at Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula on Thursday, making it the ordinarily frigid continent’s highest measured temperature in history. • ABC News: In a rare dissent within party ranks, Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont said during a news conference that he believes Donald Trump abused his power and shouldn’t be in office. He added the U.S. Senate should have been allowed to hear more from witnesses who could have provided evidence about the charges against Trump. • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in local gay rags across the country, like Ben McLaughlin and Lee Gonzalez on the cover of Chicago’s GRAB Magazine.
“LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” his attorney David Pressman said in a statement. “The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy.”
Pressman added that, “the most powerful man in the world – buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit” had “decided to exact revenge” on Vindman.
Vindman had, as part of his duties, listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy, which was at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
The Washington Post first reported on efforts by the White House to push out Vindman, citing two people familiar with the move, as part of a broader targeting by Trump of perceived enemies in the wake of his acquittal in the Senate after a two-week trial. The Post reported that Vindman would be reassigned to a job at the Defense Department.
Other than to embarrass him, there was no reason to “escort” a decorated Army officer honored with a Purple Heart medal after being injured in Iraq in 2004. In his opening statement during his appearance before Congress, Vindman included an emotional message to his father. “You made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of America in search of a better life for our family,” said Vindman. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”
This is appalling. Lt. Col. Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, has honorably served our country and is a true hero. @realDonaldTrump will do anything to hide the truth and retaliate against truth-tellers, which should alarm all Americans. #VindmanisaPatriothttps://t.co/Qqehs1yhWL
This is reprehensible. There was no need to humiliate Vindman this way, nor was it appropriate to retaliate against him for testifying before Congress. Where is @ChuckGrassley, who in 2018 released a video assuring feds they wouldn't face retaliation for testifying to congress? https://t.co/DvyhYwoyF8
Dayton Kingery on left (image via screen capture) When a student at Chapman College in California went on a drunken homophobic, racist rant in an economics class Tuesday morning his fellow students took it upon themselves to eject him from the space. Dayton Kingery, 21, was captured on video that was shared on Twitter announcing he’d been “drinking Bacardi all day” before declaring “I f*cking hate n*ggers.” In the video clip, another student can be heard to say “You should probably chill, buddy.” After repeating the statement a few more times, he shifted his focus to queer people telling the class “I f*cking hate f*ggots, too – how about that?” At that point, the students in the room were done. One classmate informed Kingery, “All right, you’ve got to get out of here, bro.”
This is Dayton Kingery. He’s a student at Chapman university in CA. This morning he went on a racist & homophobic rant during a lecture. This bigot needs to be expelled ASAP @ChapmanU. pic.twitter.com/yQmIc9PK70
In a second clip also posted to Twitter, Kingery is seen arguing with someone in the room, saying, “You don’t know who I am, guy. I’m not kidding … I’ll bury you. I’m worth, like, $50 million.” He then turned to another student in the classroom, poked him and said, “This f*ggot right here.” That student, having had enough of the intoxicated tirade, can be seen standing up to Kingery telling him, “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me.” At that point, he’s ejected from the classroom but is handed the wrong backpack. Kingery throws that backpack down the hall and then proceeds to stomp on it yelling, “I hope your laptop was in there, you f*cking f*ggot.”
Here’s part 2 of the video. This is horrifying. Tag @ChapmanU and let them know that Dayton does not belong on campus. He’s a threat to black & LGBTQ students. pic.twitter.com/Pv7taAVSZU
When campus security was called to the scene, the 21-year-old ended up in a violent scuffle with the officer. When officers from the Orange Police Department attempted to arrest him, he resisted resulting in the cops placing him in a hobble restraint in order to remove him from campus. Kingery was arrested and charged with suspicion of making criminal threats, felony vandalism (for destroying the laptop in the backpack), and elder abuse for injuring the campus security guard who was over 65-years-old. Dayton Kingery (mug shot via Orange Police) The university issued a statement on Thursday that Kingery was no longer a student at the school. The statement posted to Twitter from Chapman President Daniele Struppa read, in part, “Racist and homophobic conduct will not be tolerated on this campus, and we took decisive and swift action.” “A situation such as this is difficult, it affected many and we want to provide the needed support as we all move through this difficult time.”
(2/2) We will soon be communicating additional resources available to you (via your Chapman email) as a member of the campus community. A situation such as this is difficult, it affected many, and we want to provide the needed support as we all move through this difficult time."
Struppa also expressed her “deepest apologies to the Black and LGBTQIA communities who were specifically targeted” during the drunken rant. Here’s the report by CBS Los Angeles:
Shania Twain and her boys (photo: Denise Truscello) Some news items you might have missed: • Las Vegas: Shania Twain (above), the top-selling female country artist of all time, has announced additional dates for her Las Vegas residency show, “Let’s Go!” at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Bonus – there are shirtless boys in the production as well 🙂 • Advocate: Pose star Billy Porter has clapped back at the homophobes who launched a petition against Sesame Street after it was announced the openly gay actor will be appearing on the long-running children’s show. “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it,” Porter said, according to Page Six. “Like, what about me singing with a penguin has anything to do with what I’m doing in my bedroom?” • Newsweek: New poll results from Morning Consult released Monday showed all five of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination (Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Warren) defeating President Donald Trump in hypothetical match-ups. • SNL: Don’t forget it’s RuPaul Week on Saturday Night Live! Check out the teaser video for Ru’s hosting gig this Saturday.
• Charisma News: Virulently anti-LGBTQ activist Franklin Graham is taking legal action against the 7 venues in the UK that canceled his booked appearances after public outcry over his hate speech. • Politico: Andrew Yang’s campaign fired dozens of staffers this week after an abysmal finish in the Iowa caucuses, according to four former staffers who were let go. Yang finished sixth in Iowa, receiving just 1 percent of delegates, according to the most recent count. • Houston Chronicle: The Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT group, will not have a booth at the Texas GOP Convention yet again. At a recent meeting, the State Republican Executive Committee moved to deny the group the booth. The group has applied for a spot at the event for at least 20 years without success. • World Of Wonder: In his upcoming book Name Drop, Ross Mathews shares a ‘Mean Girls’ moment from 2007 when The View host Barbara Walters gestured to Mathews backstage at the gabfest and barked, “Who is he and why is he here?” • The Informant: Jan Peter Meister, a 52-year-old registered sex offender, was arrested after telling federal authorities he drunkenly left a threatening voicemail at Congressman Adam Schiff’s Washington, D.C. office after watching Fox News and googling the congressman’s phone number: “I’m gonna fucking blow your brains out you fucking piece of shit.” Doesn’t he sound nice?
Kevin Hart (screen capture) You may recall the kerfuffle that occurred when, shortly following the announcement he would host the 2019 Oscars, Kevin Hart experienced enormous backlash after decade-old anti-gay tweets surfaced. Eventually, Hart stepped down from the hosting gig. In his recent Netflix docuseries, Don’t F**k This Up, Hart shared with the TV audience, “I’m a firm believer in laying in the bed that you made. If there’s something that you did, then you did it. You know, there’s no wiggle room around it. You can address it, and then you can move on.” Which brings us to a new interview with Men’s Health Magazine wherein Hart admits he didn’t handle the scandal well.
“With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was,” he says. He got angry, reacting as though the only problem was that people were calling him homophobic, which he feels certain he’s not.
“I got ten years where I made sure not to joke or play in the way that I did back then because it was a problem,” he says. “I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay. I’m a people person. I’m going to love you regardless.”
But now he sees a layer that he overlooked at the time—that he missed a chance to condemn violence in every shape and form to anyone for being who they are. “It wasn’t until close friends like Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels, and Ellen [DeGeneres] talked to me and explained what they didn’t hear me say that I understood.
Donald Trump used this morning’s bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast to attack “dishonest and corrupt” individuals who opposed him in his impeachment trial singling out Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) who voted against Trump, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. NBC News reports:
Entering the stage, Trump lifted up a copies of USA Today and The Washington Post with headlines reading “ACQUITTED” and “Trump Acquitted” splashed across the front pages, displaying them to the crowd.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so. So many people have been hurt and we can’t let that go on. And I’ll be discussing that a little bit later at the White House.”
At prayer breakfast, Trump unloads: "As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people they have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation."
It's fitting that @realDonaldTrump would use a prayer breakfast to complain about what's been done to him. He still has no sense of what he's done to the country. And he has no sense of what a prayer breakfast is about. To him its only about him. As Godless as it gets.
Pres Trump only shook hands with those on his side of the Dais. @SpeakerPelosi was seated on the other side of the Dais – and @POTUS didn't walk down to greet those dignitaries. He sat quietly as Pelosi delivered a prayer for the poor and persecuted. pic.twitter.com/h2am3CYQGV
Trump just walked into the National Prayer Breakfast & didn’t bow in submission to God, but held up papers saying acquital & flaunted his supposed glory & victory. What’s worse, preachers & many other attendees applauded him. pic.twitter.com/MWPH63EjXy
As I reported in August, Climo made headlines in 2016 for ‘patrolling’ his neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault-style rifle and survival knife. At the time, he told local ABC News affiliate KTNV, “I’ll pretty much stay within constitutional bounds when I’m doing this.” ‘Pretty much stay within constitutional bounds???’ He also told the reporter he would be looking for ‘suspicious activity,’ which he defined as “people outside when they’re not supposed to be.” In the interview, Climo admitted he had no formal training in patrolling, policing, or dealing with possibly tense situations. CNN reports Climo will return to court on May 14 where he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to the plea deal, he will also be required to undergo mental health treatment and be monitored via an electronic device upon his release from prison. Climo’s story is especially chilling as Las Vegas was the site of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, when 58 people were killed and more than 500 hurt in October 2017. Here’s the 2016 report from KTNV: 
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