In this week’s podcast: • A young man standing outside a gay nightclub in North Carolina was shot leaving him paralyzed, and people all over the world come together to help with his recovery. Crowdfunding link: www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-pedro • A new report shows LGBTQ discrimination costs Jamaica over $11 billion a year • A lawmaker won her bid to become the first female and first LGBTQ mayor of Bogota in Colombia, considered the second most important office in the country after the president • On the 5th anniversary of his public coming out, Apple CEO Tim Cook has no regrets • Award-winning writer/director Sebastian LaCause has a new indie film project – ‘Holy Water.’ Video pitch link: kck.st/35n6y2s Hustling trailer link: youtu.be/MWhbQ3nBDjU All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
Lawrence VanDyke (screen capture) Donald Trump’s judicial nominee for a post on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was reduced to sobbing during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday when he was questioned about his past positions regarding LGBTQ people. Lawrence VanDyke, who currently serves as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, turned red in the face as a letter from the American Bar Association was read which concluded he was “not qualified” for the bench, according to CNN. Based on interviews with 60 judges and lawyers who had worked with VanDyke, the ABA’s letter concluded he could not treat LGBTQ litigants fairly. “Some interviewees raised concerns about whether Mr. VanDyke would be fair to persons who are gay, lesbian, or otherwise part of the LGBTQ community,” the letter read. “Mr. VanDyke would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community.” VanDyke rejected the notion that he wouldn’t treat LGBTQ people fairly. “I do not believe that,” VanDyke told the Senate Judiciary Committee members. “It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God,” adding, “they should all be treated with dignity and respect.”
“It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God, and they should all be treated with dignity and respect.”
VanDyke is now crying when asked about his unfairness to LGBTQ people, saying all people should be treated with dignity and respect.
Does he regret his longtime affiliation with the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom or his arguments in favor of discrimination?? — Zack Ford (@ZackFord) October 30, 2019
The ABA also wrote that VanDyke was found to be “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules.” Although VanDyke is a former solicitor general of both Nevada and Montana, the ABA felt he “lacks humility, has an ‘entitlement’ temperament, does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful.” VanDyke told the Senate committee he was “disappointed, shocked and hurt” when he read the ABA letter on Tuesday evening, adding that he was “still processing” it. He also made mention that the lead evaluator of the ABA’s committee had donated to one of his political opponents in the past. What he didn’t include was that the $150 donation occurred five years ago, and the evaluator recused themselves from the vote that found him to be unqualified for the bench. It’s important to note that VanDyke does have a 15-year history with the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal organization, Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF has spent years attempting to link homosexuality with pedophilia, has advocated for sterilizing transgender people, and has represented individuals like anti-LGBTQ Colorado baker Jack Phillips and Washington state homophobic florist Baronelle Stutzman. In 2004, he penned a strident essay opposing same-sex marriage and argued against same-sex couples raising children. He wrote a ‘friend of the court’ brief in 2010 which argued college student groups were allowed via the First Amendment to bar LGBTQ students from membership. As Solicitor General for Montana, he joined an amicus brief in Hollingsworth v. Perry which defended his state’s ban on marriage equality in 2013. In another brief in U.S. v. Windsor, VanDyke defended the Defense of Marriage Act which blocked the federal government from recognizing any legally performed same-sex marriages. He wrote, “Opposite-sex couples are the only procreative relationships that exist, which means that such couples are the only ones the government has a need to encourage.” (source: CNN)
The House of Representatives approved a resolution to move forward with a public phase of the ongoing-impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump by a vote of 232-196. Two Democrats – Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02) and Rep. Collin Peterson (MN-07) – voted against the resolution. Both represent districts where Trump won in 2016. Former Republican, now Independent, Rep. Amash voted for the resolution. No Republican voted in favor of the resolution. Four House members (one Democrat, 3 Republicans) didn’t vote. From the New York Times:
The vote was 232-196 to approve a resolution that sets out rules for an impeachment process for which there are few precedents, and which promises to consume the country a little more than a year before the 2020 elections. It was only the third time in modern history that the House had taken a vote on an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president.
Practically speaking, the resolution outlines the rights and procedures that will guide the process from here on out, including the public presentation of evidence and how Mr. Trump and his legal team will be able to eventually mount a defense.
Nancy Pelosi presided over the vote – a rare occurrence for a Speaker of the House.
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve the rules for the Trump impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/ga2cyO5Xje
The President’s misconduct makes today’s impeachment resolution necessary. To honor our oath to the Constitution. To honor the rule of law. To hold this President accountable. And show that nobody is above the law. Not even the President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/AYH2Gmo7Gt
Ramses Principe (image via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Ripped AF Ramses Principe (above) is staring down Hump Day like a Boss! • OUT: Despite the beautiful monologue by the father at the end of the coming of age film, Call Me By Your Name, author Andre Aciman says he never intended to imply Elio’s dad was gay. • Twitter: Don’t forget – Game 7 of the World Series takes place tonight. Will the Houston Astros make it their second title in three years, or will the Washington Nationals bring it home for the very first time? You know I love baseball…
• C&C: You may have heard about GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns, but how about ‘ComeF*ckMe’ fundraising? A Twitter user shared a screen capture of a Grindr chat inviting someone to an orgy, but there was a $50 entrance fee. Turns out the event was to raise money to help the families of two victims of a shooting incident pay funeral costs. #ok… • NPR: New numbers from the Commerce Department show the economy lost steam during the summer and early fall. GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew at an annual rate of just 1.9% during the third quarter. That’s a deceleration from the lackluster second quarter when GDP grew at a 2% pace. • Morning Consult: As the primary season edges closer and closer, the lead many Democratic White House hopefuls held over Donald Trump in hypothetical match-ups is tightening according to Morning Consult polling. (image via Morning Consult)
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (cropped image via Flickr/cellanr – CC License) Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced today that his social media platform will soon stop all political advertising.
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…
A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.
While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.
Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.
These challenges will affect ALL internet communication, not just political ads. Best to focus our efforts on the root problems, without the additional burden and complexity taking money brings. Trying to fix both means fixing neither well, and harms our credibility.
For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! 😉”
We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we’re stopping these too.
We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.
In addition, we need more forward-looking political ad regulation (very difficult to do). Ad transparency requirements are progress, but not enough. The internet provides entirely new capabilities, and regulators need to think past the present day to ensure a level playing field.
We’ll share the final policy by 11/15, including a few exceptions (ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed, for instance). We’ll start enforcing our new policy on 11/22 to provide current advertisers a notice period before this change goes into effect.
A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address.
15-time Grammy Award winner Eminem (via Instagram) The internet is buzzing after a short clip of a new track by rappers Eminem and Joyner Lucas surfaced titled, “What If I Was Gay?” With Joyner’s debut studio album on the horizon, it’s widely expected the track will arrive on that release. Rapper Joyner Lucas (via Instagram) The short 13-second snippet, first reported by HipHopNMore, includes some provocative lyrics. “What if I told you I was out of place? Wait, what if I told you I was gay?” raps Joyner. Em counters back, “What if I’m a hypocrite who’s just afraid to face truth? Wait, what if I told you I’m gay too?” Admittedly, there’s no context, but it’s certainly intriguing considering Eminem’s controversial history with the LGBTQ community. The 15-time Grammy Award winner came under fire for using anti-gay slurs on several of his early tracks like “Marshall Mathers” in 2000 and “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” in 2002. In an attempt to hit the reset button, he appeared with Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards for one of the most memorable duets in Grammy history. The two artists performed Slim Shady’s “Stan” with Elton at the piano crooning the Dido sample from the track as Em delivered the rap. In a 2017 interview with Vulture, Eminem was asked about his homophobic lyrics:
The first time I got a taste of being called anti-gay was on ‘My Name Is’ when I said, ‘My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was my English teacher was a guy.’ All I was saying was I don’t swing that way. So when I started getting flack for it, I thought, ‘Alright, you people think I’m homophobic? Watch this.’ I was trying to push the buttons of people who were calling me something that I wasn’t. The honest-to-God truth is that none of that matters to me: I have no issue with someone’s sexuality, religion, race, none of that.
This new track would be the second collaboration for Joyner and Eminem. Eminem had previously teamed up with Joyner for “Lucky You” which was featured on Em’s 2018 studio album, Kamikaze. (source: HHNM)
Donald Trump After House Democrats released language for a resolution on proceeding with the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s communications with the president of Ukraine, the White House issued this statement – the equivalent of a written meltdown:
The resolution put forward by Speaker Pelosi confirms that House Democrats’ impeachment has been an illegitimate sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House vote.
It continues this scam by allowing Chairman Schiff, who repeatedly lies to the American people, to hold a new round of hearings, still without any due process for the President.
The White House is barred from participating at all, until after Chairman Schiff conducts two rounds of one-sided hearings to generate a biased report for the Judiciary Committee. Even then, the White House’s rights remain undefined, unclear, and uncertain – because those rules still haven’t been written.
This resolution does nothing to change the fundamental fact that House Democrats refuse to provide basic due process rights to the Administration.
The White House has said for weeks the inquiry was ‘illegitimate’ without a vote by the full House, which is not required by the U.S. Constitution. Now they’re getting one.
My hubby, Michael Caprio, posing with just SOME of Olivia Newton-John’s gold albums Some news items you might have missed: • Olivia Newton-John: My hubby, publicist Michael Caprio, is in Los Angeles this week with his client Olivia Newton-John, who will be auctioning off much of her memorabilia this weekend at Julien’s Auctions with proceeds going to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Center. Above are just some of her gold and platinum records that will be available. And yes, the famous leather jacket and pants from the finale of GREASE are up on the block as well. #GotAMillion? • People: Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown, who was booted this week from Dancing with the Stars, says he’s “proud” of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer (who’s still in the hunt for the trophy) and feels like he’s connected with Spicer about LGBTQ issues. • Back To Stonewall: Self-loathing gays plan to lobby Congress AGAINST passage of The Equality Act. #smh • KIT212: If you happen to be appreciative of rugby butt, Kenneth has just the thing for you (below). More at the link. James Tadasco (via kenneth-in-the-212) • AP Fact Check: Donald Trump told reporters that he tried to warn people about Osama bin Laden in a book he ‘wrote’ in 2000 before the terrorist directed the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Trouble is the Donald barely mentioned bin Laden and there was no “warning.” #WeCanReadDonald • Journal Express: What is up with these ‘gender reveal’ events getting violent? A woman in Iowa was killed by flying debris due to an explosion that came as part of a gender reveal celebration Saturday. • Jimmy Kimmel Live: When Barack Obama went on TV to announce they killed Bin Laden, he spoke for nine and a half minutes. Trump yesterday, when he announced they killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, did for 48 minutes. So, for further comparison, we thought it might be fun to mash-up Trump’s speech about al-Baghdadi with Obama’s on Bin Laden.
Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain) From the New York Times:
A White House national security official who is a decorated Iraq war veteran plans to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine’s president to investigate one of his leading political rivals, a request the aide considered so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior.
Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman of the Army, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, twice registered internal objections about how Mr. Trump and his inner circle were treating Ukraine, out of what he called a “sense of duty,” he plans to tell the inquiry, according to a draft of his opening statement obtained by The New York Times.
He will be the first White House official to testify who listened in on the July 25 telephone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry, in which Mr. Trump asked Mr. Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
In another article, the Times notes that Colonel Vindman has a master’s degree from Harvard in Russian, Eastern Europe, and Central Asian Studies. He has served in the United States’ embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, and in Moscow, and was the officer specializing in Russia for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before joining the National Security Council in 2018. He earned a Purple Heart in Iraq, had a master’s degree from Harvard, and now works at the White House across the hall from his equally accomplished twin brother. However, since he was brought to the United States as a 3-year-old child from Ukraine, right-leaning news outlets and social media have already begun a smear campaign against him calling Vindman some kind of Ukraine double agent/spy. Trump himself tweeted that Vindman is a ‘Never Trumper,’ for which there is no evidence or proof.
Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call “concerned” today’s Never Trumper witness. Was he on the same call that I was? Can’t be possible! Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!
.@brikeilarcnn on ex-Rep. Duffy’s remarks on Alexander Vindman: It’s "anti-immigrant bigotry, and it's an odd questioning of patriotism coming from Sean Duffy, the guy who spent part of his 20s on MTV’s 'The Real World'… while Alexander Vindman spent his on foreign deployments.” pic.twitter.com/QofMhMKu58
Seriously? Wow. So shameful. Vindman is a patriot, who has served his country with honor both on and off the battlefield. He was a first rate officer at the embassy, one of the best on the team. https://t.co/IN1P5P0BLO
God forbid we should have national security professionals who can communicate with foreign officials in their native language & are country specialists. Vindman has a valid security clearance, which is more than can be said for the president & 2 of his senior advisors. https://t.co/7RXY8wKEMf
That “Never #Trump‘er witness” is a decorated WAR HERO. With a PURPLE HEART. Who SERVED his country HONORABLY for decades. Unlike you…a DRAFT-DODGING COWARD TRAITOR. How DARE you attack his character? #Vindman#WhistleblowerGate#Ukraine
The witness, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, was awarded a Purple Heart after sustaining injuries from an IED when he was deployed in Iraq. The closest thing Trump ever got to a Purple Heart was when he yanked one from Lieutenant Colonel Louis Dorfman at a Trump rally.
Donald Trump (image via public domain) From the Washington Post:
House Democrats said Monday that the House will vote Thursday to formalize procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
Democrats said the move would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the inquiry continues.
The text of the resolution was not immediately available, but House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said it would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the investigation continues. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people,” he said.
In this week’s podcast: • A young man standing outside a gay nightclub in North Carolina was shot leaving him paralyzed, and people all over the world come together to help with his recovery. Crowdfunding link: www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-pedro • A new report shows LGBTQ discrimination costs Jamaica over $11 billion a year • A lawmaker won her bid to become the first female and first LGBTQ mayor of Bogota in Colombia, considered the second most important office in the country after the president • On the 5th anniversary of his public coming out, Apple CEO Tim Cook has no regrets • Award-winning writer/director Sebastian LaCause has a new indie film project – ‘Holy Water.’ Video pitch link: kck.st/35n6y2s Hustling trailer link: youtu.be/MWhbQ3nBDjU All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report 
