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UPDATE: Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Apologizes To Parkland Student After Losing Advertisers

Well, that didn’t take long.

Just hours after three advertisers (pet food company Nutrish, Trip Advisor and WayFair) announced they were dropping their ads on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s evening show for trolling high school senior and Parkland gun massacre survivor David Hogg over his college admission status, the TV host has issued an apology.

Ingraham wrote on Twitter:

Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @DavidHogg111. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David… immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how “poised” he was given the tragedy. As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion.

I do wonder – would she be apologizing if this weren’t Holy Week?

You can only imagine network execs had a big say in the apology that was so quickly forthcoming.

You’ll recall more than 50 advertisers dropped their ads on “The O’Reilly Factor” after reports surfaced that settlements had been made to women who accused the show’s host, Bill O’Reilly, of sexual harassment or impropriety that ultimately led to his firing from Fox News.

“She only apologized after we went after her advertisers,” Hogg told The New York Times. “It kind of speaks for itself.”

“I’m not going to stoop to her level and go after her on a personal level,” he said. “I’m going to go after her advertisers.”

At this writing, Nutrish, Expedia, Wayfair, TripAdvisor, and Nestle have all dropped their advertising on Ingraham’s show.

This is how the free market works, see? She gets to act out as she wants, but we also get to react as we want to her snotty behavior.

Hogg and others responded to Ingraham’s tweets:

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Laura Ingraham Losing Advertisers Over Trolling Parkland High School Student

Yesterday I reported that Fox News host Laura Ingraham had the very bad taste to troll high school senior and survivor of the Parkland gun massacre, David Hogg.

Ingraham thought it would be cute to pants Hogg after he shared on social media that he’d received his 4th college rejection letter despite a 4.1 GPA and, of course, helping to organize one of the largest rallies in the history of the United States. #Leadership

Hogg followed up on Ingraham’s tripe with a call to action from Ingraham’s Fox News advertisers:

Well, this morning we get the news that Rachel Ray’s pet food brand Nutrish is cancelling their ads on Ingraham’s show.

And Trip Advisor has announced they are following suit. From CNBC:

In a statement on Thursday, a company spokesperson said that TripAdvisor does not “condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster.”

“In our view, these statements focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency. As such, we have made a decision to stop advertising on that program,” the spokesperson said.

There you go, Ingraham. That’ll learn ya.

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Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer: Deposing Trump and Cohen “Not Gonna Happen”

Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti

Yesterday, Stormy Daniels’ attorney pushed to depose Donald Trump under oath in the case regarding an alleged affair with the adult-film star years before he took office.

The aggressive step is just the latest development in the lawsuit filed by Daniels against the president and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. This follows amending the lawsuit to include a charge of defamation against Cohen.

Daniels is attempting to have the agreement reached just days before Trump won the presidency in 2016 declared null and void. For the sum of $130,000 the agreement requires Daniels to remain quiet about the alleged affair.

Daniels’s attorney, Michael J. Avenatti, says that Americans were told “a bucket of lies” by Trump’s White House and by Cohen, and a deposition is needed to determine if the agreement was “lawful.”

The White House has previously told the press that Trump denies having any affair with Daniels.

This morning, David Schwartz, the lawyer who represents Michael Cohen, told NBC host Megyn Kelly that a motion filed by Daniels’ legal team seeking to depose the president and Cohen under oath won’t be happening.

“It’s absolutely not going to happen — not in this case, anyway, because the case itself is completely frivolous,” Schwartz said.

Avenatti trolled Schwartz on Twitter in the fiercest of ways:

It’s looking more and more that Avenatt is right about Schwartz not being the sharpest legal tack in the shed.

Last night, Schwartz sat down with CNN’s Erin Burnett and announced Cohen was acting independently when he created an LLC and paid Daniels, though he used several Trump Organization addresses.

He went on to say Cohen drew up the agreement without telling Trump, and that’s why his signature isn’t on the document.

“The president was not aware of the agreement. At least, Michael Cohen never told him about the agreement,” Schwartz said. “Michael Cohen left the option open. That’s why he left that signature line, the option open to go to him. He chose not to. He chose to bind the LLC, EC LLC and Stormy Daniels into the contract.”

Legal minds found that statement troubling.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti explained on Twitter that this statement supports Daniels’s claim that the agreement is void, as it says in the document that only Trump, not Cohen’s LLC, can enter into an agreement with her.

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Trump Dismiss Yet Another Cabinet Member #NoChaosWhiteHouse

“You’re fired!” says Donald Trump to VA Secretary Shulkin

President Trump dismisses yet another Cabinet member!

The President announced via Twitter that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is out and that he is nominating his physician Dr. Ronny Jackson to replace him.

From The New York Times:

After weeks of uncertainty atop the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Trump said on Wednesday he plans to replace its secretary, David J. Shulkin, with Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the White House physician and a rear admiral in the Navy.

The announcement punctuated what has been a sharp fall from favor for Dr. Shulkin, a politically moderate former hospital executive, who delivered Mr. Trump a string of bipartisan legislative victories at a time when he was struggling to find them. And it adds to a significant shake-up of Mr. Trump’s senior staff, which has already included the secretary of state, director of the C.I.A. and the president’s national security adviser.

The secretary’s prospects dimmed last month after the department’s inspector general issued a report describing “serious derelictions” related to a trip Dr. Shulkin took last year to Britain and Denmark. The report found that Shulkin spent much of the trip sightseeing, charged first class travel for his wife and improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets as a gift.

But there is no CHAOS in the White House. This is peeeeeerfectly normal. #Not

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News Round-Up: March 28, 2018

Some news items you might have missed:

• NYC actor/singer Jim Newman (above) is giving you serious cowboy, which makes total sense as he’s the “Cowboy” in a very famous disco band. Wanna guess which one? #SaveAHorse

• Legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to marry in Northern Ireland has advanced to a second reading.

• A father had his girlfriend rape his 11-year-old autistic son because he was afraid the boy was gay. Both father and girlfriend have been convicted and face life in prison. #LifeInPrisonSoundsRight

• We could see over 150 LGBTQ candidates in elections this fall as members of the tribe run for national, state and local office.

• Congress may be fixated on Facebook for data breach during 2016 election, but Donald Trump is apparently obsessed with Amazon. I’m sure it has nothing to do with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also owning The Washington Post.

• Speaking of Trump, it looks like the bloom is off the rose as far as former Trump fan Ann Coulter is concerned. She told an audience of college Republicans last night, “I knew he was a shallow, lazy ignoramus, and I didn’t care.”

• With over $24 million in box office in two weeks, coming-of-age/coming-out film Love, Simon ranks in the Top 25 highest grossing teen romance movies of all time.

• Bonus Love, Simon: Keiynan Lonsdale, who plays one of the love interests in the hit gay teen comedy and came out as bisexual last year, just dropped a new queer love anthem, “Kiss the Boy.”

The song will be included on an upcoming album from Lonsdale.

Check out the lyric video below which is off-the-charts in its awesome diversity.

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Hump Day Round-Up

Whoo! So busy here at Randy Report Central! Gotta love a pot of coffee.

I’ve been on a blogging roll this morning, but stopping and alternating hours with working on choreography for South Pacific at San Diego Musical Theatre. We started rehearsals last night and open April 28. So, if you’re in the area come check out the show!

I’m getting up to get some sunlight on my face like Dr. Marco (above) who’s not only a fitness trainer but a medical student!

Here’s some more outdoor Hump Day eye-candy to help you get to Friday 🙂

A post shared by Jose Javier (@javixca) on Mar 27, 2018 at 3:52pm PDT

A post shared by Nick Sandell (@nick_sandell) on Mar 26, 2018 at 7:56am PDT

A post shared by azzankaseri (@azzan_kaseri) on Mar 28, 2018 at 11:09am PDT

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Fox News Host Mocks Parkland Shooting Survivor For College Rejections


 Fox News host Laura Ingraham took to Twitter today to mock 17-year-old high school student David Hogg who survived the Parkland gun massacre on February 14.

Hogg, a leading voice since the shooting and helped organize one of the biggest rallies in the history of the country, recently shared on his social media that he’d been turned down by four colleges.

Ingraham thought it would be wise to attack the kid.

How gross a human being do you have to be to attack a high school student because you don’t like his “politics?”

Personally, if I was a college/university looking at a student with a 4.1 GPA and all the leadership he’s shown the past several weeks since seeing his fellow students gunned down, I’d snap that student up.

But, just so you know, Hogg has the fire to stand up to bullies. Note this from the past weekend:

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Federal Judge Allows Emoluments Case Against Trump To Move Forward

Donald Trump’s legal woes just got that much more complex as a federal judge just ruled that lawsuits brought by attorneys general in both Maryland and District of Columbia alleging foreign gifts made to Trump can move forward.

However, the decision by Judge Peter Messitte of the US District Court of Maryland narrows the scope of the case to Trump Organization activities in Washington.

Other Trump properties like Mar-a-Lago will be out of bounds for this legal proceeding.

Maryland and DC filed the case saying that the Trump International Hotel holds a special advantage over nearby hotel and entertainment properties, and that the Trump hotel got special tax concessions.

In his ruling, the judge made note several times that foreign governments have shifted their business from hotels like the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons to the “President’s Hotel.”

Due to the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, presidents are barred from illegal “gifts” from foreign countries.

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Retired Generals & Admirals: Trump Transgender Military Ban Is “Troubling Move Backward”

More than 20 retired generals and admirals are opposing the latest version of President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military in a new statement Tuesday.

“The administration’s announcement on the treatment of transgender service members is a troubling move backward,” the 26 officers wrote in their statement via the Palm Center, which researches issues of gender and sexuality.

“There is simply no reason to single out brave transgender Americans who can meet military standards and deny them the ability to serve.”

More from The Hill:

In their statement Tuesday, the retired officers argue the new policy is similar to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which banned gays and lesbians from serving until Congress repealed it.

“Many of us personally experienced the belated removal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and faced firsthand how that mistaken policy set back our force and enabled discrimination against patriotic gay and lesbian Americans,” they said. “We learned a clear lesson: the singling out of one group of service members for unequal treatment harms military readiness, while inclusion supports it.”

Transgender troops who are able to serve under the new policy, they continued, would do so “under a false presumption of unsuitability,” not be able to receive needed medical care and will live in “constant fear” of being discharged.

“We should not return to the days of forcing men and women to hide in the shadows and serve their country without institutional support,” the officers said. “This deprives the military of trained and skilled service members, which harms readiness and morale.”

In his report, Defense Secretary Mattis recommended banning most transgender soldiers except under three specific criteria:

• If they have not had gender dysphoria for 36 months

• If they have been diagnosed after entering service but do not need to transition gender

• If they are currently serving troops who came out and are receiving treatment since the ban on their service was first lifted in 2016.

Trump’s new policy is currently stalled from going into effect as four separate federal courts have issued injunctions against the ban calling the new policy unconstitutional.