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News Round-Up: August 2, 2017

Some news items you might have missed:

• I’m half-way through my week, Instahunk Steve Raider (above) is half-way through his day at the beach. Switch places?

• Donald Trump has (finally) signed legislation that imposes further sanctions on Russia for meddling in the 2016 election. The measure also limits his own authority to lift those sanctions. I’m surprised he would do that to the Motherland.

• Former White House photographer Pete Souza responds to reports that Donald Trump told golf club members that the White House is “a real dump:”

• The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah on Los Angeles booking the 2028 Olympics: “Because this is Hollywood, there will be big changes … For example, the entire Chinese Olympic team will be played by white actors.”

• Facing 24 counts of prosecutorial misconduct, former Congressman Aaron Schock is shocked federal investigators have dug into personal aspects of his life, including whether rumors that he is gay are true or not. Maybe it was the Downton Abbey-styled office that gave it away? Or perhaps the turquoise belt paired with a plum checkered shirt?

• Announcing “It’s time for The Wall,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan gets all butch riding a horse in dad jeans with hip EDM music in the background of this 30-second clip of his trip to the Mexican border. Wearing a headset and Ray Bans, Ryan goes full #MAGA for “The Wall.” Watch below.

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First Look At The Upcoming Broadway Adaptation Of FROZEN

I know, I know… no one wants to see a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Broadway adaptation of FROZEN. But, if you did… 🙂

FROZEN will play its out-of-town tryout at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts August 17 – October 1, 2017.

Tickets for Broadway performances will go on sale later this year.

Visit http://frozenthemusical.com for more info.

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Trailer: “Call Me By Your Name”

When the film adaptation of André Aciman’s acclaimed book, Call Me by Your Name, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the response was immediate rapturous, critical approval.

The flick was a strong presence at several other major film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival.

Vulture declared the film “feels like a landmark.”

Directed by Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash, I Am Love) and set in the Italian region of Lombardy during the early 1980s, Call Me by Your Name follows young Elio (breakout Timothée Chalamet), on the cusp of college and the child of two brainy aesthetes. During the summer we meet Elio, he finds himself bewitched by Oliver (Armie Hammer), a strapping American student who has come to assist Elio’s professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) for several weeks.

At first, Elio doesn’t quite know what to make of Oliver: Though Elio offers to show the older man around, he lightly mocks Oliver’s casual brashness behind his back. Book-smart and steeped in culture, Elio thinks he knows just about everything already, but as he finds himself increasingly drawn to Oliver — culminating in a romance that’s teased in this trailer — he soon finds out how much there is to learn about love, sex, and the life he’s going to lead.

In addition to the top-shelf work of the two leads, the film’s romantic cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom has been hailed by many as a sure Oscar contender.

Due in theaters November 24.

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56 Generals & Admirals Say Trump Trans Ban Would “Degrade Readiness”

In a statement sent to the Palm Center today, 56 retired General and Flag Officers said President Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service members would cause “significant disruptions.”

The statement read, in part:

“The Commander in Chief has tweeted a total ban of honorably serving transgender troops. This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy.

“As a result, the proposed ban would degrade readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. Patriotic transgender Americans who are serving— and who want to serve—must not be dismissed, deprived of medically necessary health care, or forced to compromise their integrity or hide their identity.

“President Trump seeks to ban transgender service members because of the financial cost and disruption associated with transgender military service. We respectfully disagree and consider these claims to be without merit.

“The RAND Corporation, as well as research in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the financial cost of providing health care to transgender troops would be, at most, $8.4 million per year. This amounts to one one-hundredth of one percent of the military’s annual health care budget. As for ostensible disruptions, transgender troops have been serving honorably and openly for the past year, and have been widely praised by commanders. Eighteen foreign nations, including the UK and Israel, allow transgender troops to serve, and none has reported any detriment to readiness.

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GOP Sen. Jeff Flake: “My Party Is In Denial About Donald Trump”

Excerpted from his new book, Conscience of a Conservative, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona goes all in deconstructing and taking responsibility for the process that gave rise to a President Trump.

Via Politico:

I will let the liberals answer for their own sins in this regard. (There are many.) But we conservatives mocked Barack Obama’s failure to deliver on his pledge to change the tone in Washington even as we worked to assist with that failure.

It was we conservatives who, upon Obama’s election, stated that our No. 1 priority was not advancing a conservative policy agenda but making Obama a one-term president—the corollary to this binary thinking being that his failure would be our success and the fortunes of the citizenry would presumably be sorted out in the meantime.

It was we conservatives who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures who would later be embraced and legitimized by far too many of us.

It was we conservatives who rightly and robustly asserted our constitutional prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government when a Democrat was in the White House but who, despite solemn vows to do the same in the event of a Trump presidency, have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued. To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial.

[snip]

For a conservative, that’s an awfully bitter pill to swallow. So as I layered in my defense mechanisms, I even found myself saying things like, “If I took the time to respond to every presiden­tial tweet, there would be little time for anything else.” Given the volume and velocity of tweets from both the Trump campaign and then the White House, this was certainly true.

But it was also a monumental dodge. It would be like Noah saying, “If I spent all my time obsessing about the coming flood, there would be little time for anything else.” At a certain point, if one is being honest, the flood becomes the thing that is most worthy of attention.

At a certain point, it might be time to build an ark.

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Legal Jeopardy: President Trump Dictated Misleading “Russian Attorney Meeting” Statement Issued By Don Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. (L) and Donald Trump Sr. (R)

According to the Washington Post, President Trump himself dictated the statement his son Donald Jr. would initially release regarding his meeting with a “Russian government attorney.”

Whether it is criminal or not, it never looks good when someone who is being criminally investigated works to hide information or mislead. To release this statement under the guise of coming from Don Jr. was an organized effort to mislead the public.

Worse, the Donald’s own lawyer twice denied the president’s involvement in drafting the statement.

From the Washington Post:

Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.

The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy.

As a refresher, this is the message that Donald Trump dictated for his son to release:

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.

“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”

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Randy Rainbow Trolls Anthony Scaramucci – “Sychophant Italiano”

Man, Randy Rainbow is FAST!

Just a day after Anthony Scaramucci was summarily dismissed from his 10-day stint at White House Communications Director, Randy offers his video farewell to the Mooch, via Nine the Musical: “Sychophant Italiano.”

And for all you who have been emailing Randy about “Bohemian Rhapsody,” there’s a message in this for you 😉

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Animated Queer Short: “In A Heartbeat”

This adorable animated short follows a closeted school boy named Sherwin who runs the risk of being outed by his own heart after it pops out of his chest to follow the boy of his dreams, Jonathan.

The project was funded via Kickstarter. The project is the senior thesis of two students at Ringling College of Art and Design.

The duo originally sought $3,000 in funding but received $15,000!

Lots of “heart” in this story about love and acceptance of LGBTQ youth. I think it’s pretty much a perfect gem of a moment. The pace, the expert use of music, the artful expressions…

Just, watch below – you’ll be glad you did 🙂

Over 560,000 views in less than a day.

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Out Music: Superfruit “Vacation”

Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying, 3-time Grammy Award-winners with Pentatonix, continue to add color and flavor to this summer’s queer musical landscape as Superfruit.

The pop pair keeps dropping music videos for their new EP, Future Friends, Superfruit’s new two-part debut studio album. And we couldn’t be happier.

Future Friends—Part One is available now; Future Friends—Part Two will debut on September 15.

Formed in 2013 as a side-gig when not performing with Pentatonix, the colorful duo’s videos have racked up over 350 million views.

Describing the different musical approaches, Grassi told OUT, “With Superfruit, it’s a little more gay-friendly and a lot more open, more sexual, more liberated.”

In “Vacation,” the boys are clearly putting style above surroundings. And why not when you can bop on a budget with a gay groove like these two?

Watch the guys “vacay in their own way” below.