LGBTQ news and entertainment
And check out that brutal headline: “The Trump Family – Secrets & Lies – Donald Trump taught his children to fight dirty and win, no matter what the cost. How the ruthless family culture has shaped Don Jr., his siblings-and-the presidency.”
Poor Eric, the third favorite, doesn’t even make the cover.
You can read part of the article here.
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| Don Trump Jr. (L), Paul Manafort (C), Jared Kushner (R) |
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has announced that Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will testify in an open hearing under oath on July 26.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 24, but in a closed door session.
Why is Kushner’s testimony happening under wraps as opposed to Junior and Manafort?
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN, “There has been an enormous amount that has been said publicly but it’s not under oath, which means that people are free to omit matters or lie with relative impunity.”
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| Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell |
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has scored the “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to bring up to a vote next week and the news is not good.
According to the CBO, the legislation would lead to 32 million fewer people with health coverage over the next 10 years.
From the Huffington Post:
This isn’t the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the measure to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shelved Monday because it lacked enough support to pass ― and that President Donald Trump and some Republican senators are trying to revive.
Instead, McConnell said he plans to bring up legislation bluntly entitled the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, which is based on a bill Congress passed in 2015 and that President Barack Obama vetoed last year.
Both the House-passed American Health Care Act and the Better Care Reconciliation Act sought to erect new health insurance systems and new, less generous forms of financial assistance as well as eliminate many of the Affordable Care Act’s regulations and consumer protections.
The Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, by contrast, would merely eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits for private insurance, funding for its Medicaid expansion, the individual mandate that most Americans obtain health coverage or face tax penalties, the mandate that large employers offer health benefits to workers, and the taxes on wealthy people and health care corporations.
The result of those policies, the Congressional Budget Office projected in its report Wednesday, would be vastly more uninsured people and an unsustainable health insurance market.
Taking away financial assistance for private insurance and funding for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would cause millions to lose coverage, including 17 million next year alone.
But the damage to the health care system would go deeper. Absent the individual mandate ― which encourages low-cost healthy people to enroll in coverage ― and the tax credits for insurance policies sold on the exchanges, insurers would be forced to increase premiums to cover the expense of treating those customers who are sick enough that they are motivated to buy coverage.
The CBO report also predicts premiums in the individual marketplace (which is how I buy my own health insurance) would double over the next 10 years.
Excellent news from Rhode Island where Gov. Gina Raimondo signed into law her state’s recently passed bill which bans “ex-gay” therapy torture.
With a sweep of her pen, Raimondo makes Rhode Island the 10th state in the country plus Washington DC to outlaw the harmful practice.
Add to that mix several cities which have passed their own municipal bans, and we’ve got some progress happening on this important issue.
From the Human Rights Campaign:
“No child should be put through the dangerous and inhumane practice of conversion therapy,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Medical professionals agree this outdated and discredited practice not only doesn’t work, but can also have life-threatening consequences. It is nothing short of child abuse. We thank Governor Raimondo and the Rhode Island Legislature for protecting the state’s LGBTQ youth.”
Rhode Island is now the eleventh jurisdiction — and the fourth state so far this year — to enact these crucially important protections. Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New York, and New Mexico all have laws or regulations protecting youth from this abusive practice. A growing number of municipalities have also enacted similar protections, including cities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
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| Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada (L) next to President Trump |
President Trump held a lunch with Republican Senators today where he said they should skip the planned August recess and remain in Washington until they pass a health care reform bill.
Just curious – will Trump stay in Washington as opposed to jetting off to one of his golf courses?
At the lunch, Trump took some not-so-veiled swipes at GOP senators who weren’t on board the recent GOP health care bill. He took direct aim at Nevada Sen. Dean Heller who was seated right next to him.
Via the Daily Beast:
“The other night I was surprised when I heard a couple of my friends—my friends, they really were and are. They might not be very much longer, but that’s okay. I think I have to get them back,” he said to laughter in the room, at one point turning to Heller to say, “[You were] the one we were worried about. You weren’t there. You’re going to be.”
And then Trump added: “He wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” The president continued, as Heller’s smile turned uncomfortable: “I think the people of your state—which I know very well—I think they’re going to appreciate it whenever you do.”
Trust and believe that it was no accident that Heller is seated right next to the president.
Heller, currently in his first term, is considered the most vulnerable Republican senator up for re-election next year as Hillary Clinton won Nevada handily in last year’s presidential election.
Watch Trump needle Heller below.
President Trump warns Senator Heller over health care defection: “He wants to remain a senator, right?” https://t.co/6HAjzjpwdZ— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) July 19, 2017
According to Forbes Magazine, Dr. Phil ranks at the top of TV entertainers in 2017.
Ok, who saw that coming?
The good news is out lesbian talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is #2.
Take a look at the rest of the Top 10 via the AP.
Forbes stipulates that the earnings listed below includes income from TV appearance, endorsements, merchandising, non-TV performances and producing.
1. Dr. Phil McGraw, $79 million (talk-show host, personality, producer).
2. Ellen DeGeneres, $77 million (talk-show host, personality, producer).
3. Jerry Seinfeld, $69 million (comedian, sitcom star).
4. Gordon Ramsay, $60 million (personality, celebrity chef).
5. Ryan Seacrest, $58 million (personality, radio host, producer).
6. Louis C.K., $52 million (sitcom star, comedian, producer).
7. Judy Sheindlin, $47 million (courtroom-show host, personality).
8. Kim Kardashian West, $45.5 million (reality show star, personality).
9. Simon Cowell, $43.5 million (TV personality, producer).
10. Steve Harvey, $42.5 million (TV host, comedian).
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| Donald Trump Jr. |
People.com reports that Donald Trump Jr., who is currently in the spotlight for his June 2016 meeting with a “Russian government attorney” who promised to deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton at the height of the presidential campaign, is “miserable” having his father in the White House and can’t wait for the four year term to end.
Long outshone by his sister—first at the Trump Organization and now in the White House, where she and her husband, Jared Kushner, have West Wing offices and White House titles—Don Jr. has had a harder time adapting to life after the election.
Most weekends, he escapes Trump Tower Manhattan to a rustic cabin upstate with his wife, Vanessa, and their five children. He’s a regular at the Riverside Café in Roscoe, New York, where the manager says Trump Jr. is “good people,” doesn’t seek attention, and “never has his hair slicked back like he does on TV.”
A friend of the Trump brothers tells PEOPLE they hate their role as First Sons: “Eric and Don, they never wanted this.”
Adds a source in their circle: “Don can’t do any deals, because he’ll be overly scrutinized. He just goes to work every day and is miserable.”
So are we, Junior, so are we…
The Trump administration may be promoting “Made in America” week at the White House, but that theme doesn’t quite jive with the budget proposed by the administration which, if passed, would cut 40% from federal job training programs.
Those programs are vital for helping train American workers for new jobs.
Watch the report below from MSNBC.
Important note from @SRuhle: Trump’s ‘Made in America’ week is at odds w/ his proposed budget—which calls for cuts to job training programs. pic.twitter.com/N9KgXnYlul— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 19, 2017
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| With Grammy Award winner Richard Marx |
Some news items you might have missed:
• File this under “Someone needs attention:” Donald Trump, all butt hurt from Senate Republicans’ failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, has hastily scheduled a rally in Ohio next week so his followers can love all over him.
• GOP Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas jumped the subway tracks that connect Congress to avoid speaking to reporters after his announcement with fellow Senator Mike Lee torpedoed the Republican health care bill last night.
• A Brigham-Young professor was fired for writing a pro-LGBT post on her Facebook. #SRSLY
• Andrew Garfield has clarified his now-infamous “gay without the physical act” comment saying he was taken out of context. And he was.
• Dallas businessman Jeffery Payne, owner of the Dallas Eagle and a former Mr. International Leather, has announced he will run for governor challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s bid for re-election.
• I was down on the Las Vegas Strip yesterday interviewing the fab Richard Marx (above), who is about to begin his residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas in August. I attended a sneak peek of his show, “Satisfied: Only The Hits,” later in the evening. A tiny bit of last night’s showcase is posted below. Podcast interview coming up soon!
Another morning, another Twitter rant from Donald Trump.
The New York Times reported yesterday that the president had an hour long previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit earlier this month.
According to reports, the impromptu discussion included only Putin, Putin’s translator, and Trump. No one other staff from the U.S. was present.
The hourlong conversation in Hamburg, Germany, took place at a private dinner of the world leaders at a conference hall on the banks of the Elbe River during the Group of 20 economic summit meeting. It followed a more than two-hour formal meeting earlier in the day between the two presidents that included their foreign ministers and featured a fraught discussion about Moscow’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections.
In the earlier meeting, Mr. Trump questioned the Russian president about his role in the American elections, Mr. Putin denied his involvement, and the two men agreed to move beyond the dispute in the interest of finding common ground on other matters, including a limited cease-fire in Syria.
But the intimate dinner conversation, of which there is no official United States government record is the latest to raise eyebrows. Foreign leaders who witnessed it later commented privately on the oddity of an American president flaunting such a close rapport with his Russian counterpart.
John Kirby, a diplomatic military analyst, told CNN, “While smaller pull-aside meetings are common, it is strange that a pull-aside with someone like Putin — especially Putin — would not include at least another national security official and a translator.”
But this morning Trump took to his Twitter account to admonish the media for reporting the meeting and described the “fake news” as “sick” and “dishonest.”
While the Trumpster tweeted that the media characterized the dinner as “secret,” that isn’t what news outlets were reporting. The dinner itself, and Trump’s attendance were well known.
What wasn’t apparent was an hour long chat between the two world leaders. And with no American aide to take notes, no one knows what was discussed.
The first volatile tweet read, “Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!”
That was followed by, “The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!”
Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is “sick.” All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017
The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017