LGBTQ news and entertainment
Just in time for Friday! Randy Rainbow delivers again with this uber-clever parody of the Hamilton tune, “The Room Where It Happened.”
So many Russians in the room where it happened…
Watch below. #brilliant
For a bit of #ThrowBackThursday, I’m thinking of my girl, Olivia Newton-John.
Her brilliant 2006 album, Grace and Gratitude, was a touchstone for my cancer journey back in 2009.
She re-released the album, dubbed Grace and Gratitude Renewed, in 2010 with added tracks, including a contribution from Grammy winner David Darling.
When she re-released the album in 2010, it debuted at #2 on the Billboard New Age chart – a new frontier for her.
I was clear of my cancer at the time, and Olivia asked me to direct a charity concert of the album. I was, of course, honored.
The new iteration of G&G featured a new song, “Help Me To Heal.” There wasn’t a music video for the album, but her team gave me raw footage from the original recording sessions in Toronto, Ontario, inviting me to create.
What you see below became the “official” music video for the song. How cool is that?
The album is easily a highlight of her already golden career. Not necessarily a “new age” release, it’s relaxing, revitalizing and helps people “breathe” after day-to-day pressures. I think it’s quite fantastic.
As many know, Olivia is currently facing a recurrence of her breast cancer from 1992.
I hear she is doing very well with her current treatment, and I look forward to seeing her back onstage next month.
#F*ckCancer #TeamONJ
Apparently, Team Trump didn’t realize the president was sitting down with the New York Times for such an in-depth interview.
Quel surprise…
Via Politico:
Trump did not consult before the interview with his lawyers, who weren’t aware that he was going to be talking about the investigation extensively, according to a person close to the legal team. He didn’t prepare answers with top aides, some of whom were unaware he had been in such a lengthy interview with The New York Times.
While the chat was scheduled, it went longer than they expected and was far more wide-ranging, one official said. “It was Trump saying what he thought,” this person said. “It’s what he does every day on Twitter.”
Afterward, some in his circle didn’t learn about the full extent of his comments until they were posted online, an adviser said.
I’m sorry, but this should really make all Americans who are concerned about jobs in the U.S. mad.
According to The Hill, Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort has asked the federal government to be allowed to hire 70 foreign employees.
And I’m not talking high-end, high-training jobs.
We’re talking cooks, housekeepers and servers.
The jobs would begin on Oct. 1 and end in May 2018, according to the filings. Those positions would take advantage of the H-2B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nations to the country for temporary, nonagricultural work.
The Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter, Fla., also filed a request to hire temporary foreign workers as cooks for the same period of time.
The requests came as the White House celebrates what it has designated “Made in America Week,” highlighting American-made products and re-upping the administration’s emphasis on bringing jobs back to the U.S.
Employers must establish that there are not enough American workers able or willing to fill the temporary positions in order to qualify for H-2B classification.
The cook positions at both Mar-a-Lago and the golf course pay $13.34 per hour, according to the filings. The server jobs pay $11.88 per hour, while the housekeeping positions pay $10.33 per hour.
As a presidential candidate and in his first six months in office, Trump touted the importance of U.S. manufacturing and labor and savaged international trade agreements, saying they have killed American jobs.
It is impossible to believe that there are not 70 people in the Palm Beach area who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fill jobs for servers or housekeepers.
How this fits into Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” theme makes no sense.
Trump spent the 2016 campaign railing against lost American jobs. He can personally hire 70 Americans right now.
#smh
Former NFL star O. J. Simpson, in prison for nine years since being convicted stealing sports memorabilia in Las Vegas, has been granted parole.
He will be released from prison no sooner than October 1st.
From the New York Times:
O. J. Simpson, the former football hero and actor whose good-guy image vanished when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, will go free after serving nine years in a Nevada prison on charges stemming from an armed robbery, a state parole board ruled on Thursday.
Mr. Simpson, who turned 70 this month, went before the board as a man convicted of taking a group of accomplices, two of them armed with guns, to a cheap Las Vegas hotel room in 2007 to take hundreds of items from a sports memorabilia dealer. But it is the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, for which he was acquitted after the most-watched trial in history, that have cast the longer, darker shadow over his life and reputation.
After his conviction in 2008, a judge sentenced Mr. Simpson nine to 33 years in state prison, meaning that he becomes eligible for parole for the first time on Oct. 1. Based on his age and the fact that he has been a model prisoner, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners granted his release the first time it was considered, rather than denying parole and making him wait years for another chance.
President Trump told the New York Times yesterday that it would be improper for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to expand his current investigation into the Trump’s business dealings, but that’s exactly what Mueller is now doing.
Via Bloomberg:
The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.
FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development in New York with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.
The investigation also has absorbed a money-laundering probe begun by federal prosecutors in New York into Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, however, making the boundaries fuzzy.
As the Texas legislature begins debating an anti-transgender “bathroom bill” during a special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, Jeff Moseley, CEO of the Texas Association of Business, announces a seven-figure media buy to oppose the hideous bill.
Via press release:
“Today the Texas Association of Business is announcing a seven-figure media buy in opposition to the unnecessary bathroom bill.
“For more than 95 years, TAB has been on the front lines of every issue that impacts Texas businesses; and today we represent more than 2,000,000 employees and $6 Billion in business.
“What affects business in Texas affects ALL Texans: it affects our schools, our roads, our state budget, and our quality of life. When businesses succeed, Texas communities and families succeed.
“The bathroom bill distracts from the real challenges we face and would result in terrible economic consequences—on talent, on tourism, on investment, on growth, and on small businesses. That’s why TAB and the Keep Texas Open for Business coalition are investing heavily in this effort and remain steadfastly opposed to this unnecessary legislation.”
You’ll recall the young Mr. Greyson Chance, whose performance at his 6th-grade talent show ended up on YouTube and garnering over 59 million views.
Of course, that’s the same Greyson Chance who Ellen DeGeneres invited onto her TV show and summarily signed him at the age of 12 as the first artist on her new recording label eleveneleven.
Fast forward to today, as a 19-year-old Chance has come out via an expressive and very well-written Facebook post:
The decision to write this came after I received a message from a brave individual. Such message inspired me to shed light on an aspect of my private life which I have kept distant from my career in music.
I came to fully recognize that I was gay when I was sixteen. I decided not to publicize my sexuality largely due to a matter of privacy, as I was still trying to find comfort and confidence within my own skin. Further, I always found conversations regarding music, politics, art, books – and the greatness of Nas’ catalog – to be far more interesting than what type of guy I was into. This is still true today.
While this message is most definitely overdue, I encourage anyone who is navigating their sexuality to devote as much time as they need to the process of finding self-confidence, self-acceptance, and self-love. Hell, for me, it took years to write this message. Nevertheless, I figured now was the time to let a few more friends know that I am happy, I am here for you, and I am proud of who I am.
Cheers
-G
Here’s the spectacular video that started it all for Greyson. The clip now has over 59 million views. What an incredible talent at such a young age.
Congrats, Greyson, on living life loud and proud!
In what can only be described as “stunning,” President Trump told the New York Times that had he known Attorney General Jeff Sessions would recuse himself on all matters pertaining to Russia, he would have never fired him. Trump says the decision to recuse was “very unfair to the president.”
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the president also accused James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Mr. Trump criticized both the acting F.B.I. director who has been filling in since Mr. Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.
Trump also draws a red line in the sand saying Robert Mueller should not look into his family’s financial records, again raising the question, “What’s he hiding?”
It’s interesting how much Trump bashes the NY Times but then sits down with them for these lengthy interviews. It’s like he wants their approval so very badly.
Listen to the president below then head over to the New York Times for the wide-ranging interview.
The President today effectively asked Sessions for his resignation. Will he resign or insist on being fired? https://t.co/bShMQJtrBI— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) July 20, 2017
Huge, if true. The president publicly attacked his Attorney General. How do you recover from that? https://t.co/rNbrt6XfAj— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 20, 2017
The sheer #thirst that the president has for the New York Times’ approval is something to behold.— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 20, 2017
Why would Trump care whether Sessions recused himself or not unless he wanted him to quash the investigation? Unbelievable thing to admit.— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 20, 2017
Suspect threatens cop if he looks in the freezer chest in the basement. https://t.co/52buVy2OPV— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 20, 2017
UPDATE – AG Sessions told reporters today, “We love this job. We love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”
AG Sessions on POTUS' comments: "I have the honor of serving as attorney general…I plan to continue to do so as long as that's appropriate” pic.twitter.com/5HglGhsuBZ— ABC News (@ABC) July 20, 2017
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Some news items you might have missed:
• Brazilian model and personal trainer Rodiney Santiago (above) moved from Hump Day right to the weekend. #woof #morewine
• As Republicans in the Texas legislature begin a special session with hopes of passing an anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” a new poll shows 53% of Texans oppose such laws.
• Richard Grenell, homocon and former spokesman for the United States at the UN, is Donald Trump’s pick as Ambassador to Germany. Grenell is Trump’s first openly LGBT ambassador nominee.
• Gee, how did this small little-known company get a seat at the White House Technology table? Hint: Jared Kushner
What a surprise: Jared Kushner just did something super shady pic.twitter.com/bTqyeJwxRy— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 19, 2017
• You might be surprised to find out I’m actually an introvert. Not shy, but definitely an introvert. Check out these spot on illustrations that really demonstrate how an introverts mind works. It might surprise you 🙂
• Teen Wolf star Ryan Kelley shows fans what a “full moon” really looks like.
• Fitness model Ignacio Pérez Rey is feeling the summer time vibes 🙂