Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Mario Cantone Channels New WH Comm Director Anthony Scaramucci

While SNL may have lost Melissa McCarthy’s “Sean Spicer” character, Comedy Central’s The President Show has introduced its version of rambunctious White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci in the form of actor, Mario Cantone.

TV viewers will remember Cantone from his role of “Anthony Marentino” on the HBO hit, Sex and the City.

Introduced by Anthony Atamanuik’s “President Trump” last night, Cantone got straight to work calling out beleaguered White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus.

“I’m going to fire so many people,” said Cantone’s Scaramucci. “I don’t know who it’s going to be, Reince, but I’m going to get to the bottom of the leaks in the White House. Do you hear me, Reince?”

Cantone showed up on CNN’s “New Day” to chat on the new gig, although morning TV doesn’t seem to be Mario’s thing.

Posted on

Trump To Police: “Please Don’t Be Too Nice”

Speaking to an audience of police officers in Long Island, New York, Donald Trump encouraged the officers not be “too nice” to folks they arrest.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in. Rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, you put your hand up like, ‘Don’t hit their head?’ And, they’ve just killed somebody? I said, ‘You can take the hand away.’”

Note the one guy in a cowboy hat on the right not applaud.

Remember when folks were considered innocent until proven guilty?

(h/t JoeMyGod)

Posted on

New Music: Michael Blume “I Am Not A Trend (No Rules)”

Photo: Cha’ves Williams

Out singer/songwriter Michael Blume dropped his latest single, “I Am Not A Trend (No Rules),” yesterday.

The track, celebrating individuality and self-love, is imminently listenable, layered with self-empowering lyrics, neo-soul melodies, punchy horns, and electronic bouncy beats.

“No one is a trend,” Blume shared with Nylon.com. “Each and every one of us lives a uniquely dynamic and complex life full of distinct needs, dreams, and fears. Too often we are taught to diminish this truth; we are told to mold ourselves to fit some external idea, concept, [and] way of being. Whether it be political, race-related, gender-based, how we look/dress/pray, too often our culture encourages us to do/act/be like some idealized, foreign version of who we actually are.”

“‘I Am Not A Trend (No Rules)’ speaks to the celebration of the self, “the New Jersey-native added.

After selling out two headlining shows at Bowery Ballroom with his 11-piece band and touring both the east and west coasts, he is spending his summer playing at major music festivals across the country including the New York City’s Governor’s Ball and two sets at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, DE. His tour schedule continues at Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA.

For more info, head over to www.mblumemusic.com.

I previously wrote about Blume here.

Listen below. I dare you not to bop.

Posted on

Defense Secretary Mattis Was “Appalled” By Trump’s Transgender Ban Tweets

In announcing his ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military, Donald Trump made a point to say the decision was made “after consultation with my Generals and military experts,” but apparently Trump blind-sided just about every on his military team.

And what he didn’t make abundantly clear was the ban was actually was a snap maneuver to save money for his Mexican wall.

You know, the wall Mexico was going to pay for?

From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump made the declaration on Twitter, saying that American forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. He said he had consulted generals and military experts, but Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was given only a day’s notice about the decision.

Mr. Trump elected to announce the ban in order to resolve a quietly brewing fight on Capitol Hill over whether taxpayer money should pay for gender transition and hormone therapy for transgender service members. The dispute had threatened to kill a $790 billion defense and security spending package scheduled for a vote this week.

But rather than addressing that narrow issue, Mr. Trump opted to upend the entire policy on transgender service members.

His decision was announced with such haste that the White House could not answer basic inquiries about how it would be carried out, including what would happen to openly transgender people on active duty. Of eight defense officials interviewed, none could say.

Mr. Mattis, who was on vacation, was silent on the new policy. People close to the defense secretary said he was appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets, in part because of the message they sent to transgender active-duty service members, including those deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no longer welcome.

Repeat: “The defense secretary said he was appalled…”

Posted on

WH Comm Director Covers New York Daily News: “Mooch Madness”

Unsurprisingly, new White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, lands on the cover of the New York Daily News this morning as folks are still talking about his expletive-laden rant to a reporter about White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus.

The Mooch is on the loose — and President Trump’s new attack dog is one angry, angry pooch.

“Reince is a f—ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said in a Wednesday night phone call to Ryan Lizza, a writer for The New Yorker.

Anthony Scaramucci takes shot at financial disclosure leakers
Scaramucci accused Priebus of, among other things, leaking to the press a dinner President Trump held earlier that night with the First Lady, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox News executive Bill Shine.

Scaramucci channeled Priebus as he railed on the phone: “‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the f—ing thing and see if I can c–k-block these people the way I c–k-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’”

Later in the call, after he promised to fire three to four people “by tomorrow,” the former Wall Street hedge fund titan unleashed his below-the-belt venom on White House strategist Stephen Bannon.

“I’m not Steve Bannon,” Scaramucci said after insisting he had no interest in media attention.

“I’m not trying to suck my own c–k. I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f—ing strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”

Posted on

Gay Republican Withdraws From Homeland Security Position Over White House Trans Ban

John Fluharty

Former executive director of the Delaware Republican Party, John Fluharty, has withdrawn his name from consideration for a position at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over President Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from the military.

Fluharty is openly gay.

Speaking to the Washington Blade, Fluharty said recent actions by the White House run “counter to my deeply held beliefs:”

“The president has squandered an opportunity to strengthen not only our nation’s example to the rest of the world, but he has also squandered his party’s ability to have creditable messengers in the LGBTQ community on issues where there can be agreement such as reform of our public education system, lower taxes, and growing our economy,” he said. “Issues that are important to all families.”

“The ban on allowing transgender heroes to continue to serve in the military, and the actions by the Justice Department the following day, have effectively alienated the Republican Party from our community for a generation,” added Fluharty.

Posted on

Senate GOP “Skinny Repeal” Bill Goes Down In 49-51 As John McCain Casts Deciding Vote

Sen. John McCain

It was a late night vote that finally put the nail in the Senate Republicans seven year plans to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.

A vote that saw Arizona Sen. John McCain remind folks why he likes to be called a “maverick.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “skinny repeal” went down in the vote of 49-51.

From the New York Times:

Senator John McCain of Arizona, who just this week returned to the Senate after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, cast the decisive vote to defeat the proposal, joining two other Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, in opposing it.

The truncated Republican plan that ultimately fell was far less than what Republicans once envisioned. Republican leaders, unable to overcome complaints from both moderate and conservative members of their caucus, said the skeletal plan was just a vehicle to permit negotiations with the House, which passed a much more ambitious repeal bill in early May.

The “skinny repeal” bill, as it became known at the Capitol this week, would still have had broad effects on health care. The bill would have increased the number of people who are uninsured by 15 million next year compared with current law, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Premiums for people buying insurance on their own would have increased roughly 20 percent, the budget office said.

Earlier in the day, Sens. McCain, Graham, and Johnson looked for assurances that, if passage of the “skinny repeal” would keep the process open, they might vote for it IF Speaker of the House Paul Rayn would promise to to swift vote the legislation and send it to the president “as-is” just for a win. Ryan issued a weak assurance but it seems not wholly convincing.

While the attention is focused on McCain, it’s important to note that Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had been stalwart “no’s” all week long.

The Twitterverse responded to the last night vote:

Posted on

WH Comm Director Goes On Unhinged Rant: “Reince Priebus Is A F*cking Paranoid Schizophrenic”

Wow.

Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker got a phone call last night from newly-installed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci who was all worked up that Lizza had tweeted about a dinner between Scaramucci, Donald Trump, and Fox News personality Sean Hannity.

Scaramucci demanded Lizza tell him who leaked the info.

Lizza reported the conversation today, and whoo-boy…

Here’s an excerpt. Clearly, Scaramucci doesn’t know the phrase “off the record.”

I asked him why it was so important for the dinner to be kept a secret. Surely, I said, it would become public at some point. “I’ve asked people not to leak things for a period of time and give me a honeymoon period,” he said. “They won’t do it.” He was getting more and more worked up, and he eventually convinced himself that Priebus was my source.

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited.

“Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channeled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

First of all, a “communications director” talks like that to the press?

Second, I’m guessing Lizza won’t be getting many more phone calls from the “Mooch.”

And finally, this is all kinda funny when you know how mild-mannered Ryan Lizza is. Picturing him on the end of this phone call makes me laugh.

And, one last tweet from the “Mooch” himself:

Posted on

Boy Scouts Of America Apologize For Trump’s Political Rhetoric “Inserted Into The Jamboree”

The Boy Scouts of America have apologized for President Trump’s unexpectedly political rhetoric during his speech at last week’s National Jamboree.

From BSA Chief Scout Executive Michael Surgaugh:

I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent.

The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937.

It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

As you may know, the BSA received thousands of complaints from scouts and parents alike for the political nature of Trump’s address to the scouts.