Category: Uncategorized

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Clean Bandit’s New Video Shares Gay Couple’s Touching Story


 Randy Report favorite Clean Bandit teams up with Swedish sensation, Zara Larsson, for their new single and music video, “Symphony.”

The moving music video tells the story of a gay couple’s happy life marred by an accident.

The video is sweeping both visually and sonically, giving a nod to the band’s classical training.

The band’s first big hit was the 2014 3X platinum Jess Glynne collaboration “Rather Be,” which established itself as a massive global hit and ignited the career of the North London-born soul/pop singer.

The track held the #1 spot in the UK’s Singles Chart for four consecutive weeks and won a Grammy Award for “Best Dance Recording.”

You can find the new single on iTunes and all digital download sites.

Watch the powerful video for “Symphony” below:

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Oklahoma State Senator Arrested On Child Prostitution Charges Could Still Collect Pension

Leaders of both political parties in Oklahoma, plus GOP Gov. Mary Fallin, have called for the resignation of state Sen. Ralph Shortey in light of his arrest this week for prostitution-related charges.

If he doesn’t resign soon, the state Senate could vote to expel him.

However, due to state laws, Shortey will still be eligible for his pension as a lawmaker even if convicted.

Shortey, 35, has been in office long enough that he will get his state retirement. There is a law that strips elected officials of their pension if convicted of a felony like bribery, corruption, or perjury, but it does not include prostitution with a minor.

“Bribery means an automatic revocation of your retirement benefits, doing these things with minor children does not? I think that ought to change,” House Minority Leader Scott Inman said. Even if convicted, Shortey will receive over $9,000 a year from the state when he retires.

If that’s 25 years of retirement, for example, the State of Oklahoma will pay him nearly $230,000. Leader Inman told NewsChannel 4 he plans to file legislation next year to expand the law to include other felonies.

Transcripts of Shortey’s email exchange with the teen include a message from Shortey wherein he promised the boy he would  “f**k you like a good little boy if you keep calling me daddy.”

While Oklahoma’s age of consent is 16, child prostitution laws apply to anyone under 18.

Shortey, who is married to his high school sweetheart since 2002 and has children,  is still collecting his $38K annual salary as a state senator.

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Today In Awkward Body Language

President Trump with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today at the White House.

How about that body language?

At the :50 mark, catch Merkel ask Trump, “Do you want to have a handshake?”

No reply from Trump.

No handshake, no smiles, no nothing.

#awkward

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Trump Considers Legal Action Over MSNBC Reporting On 2005 Tax Returns

(photo: Gage Skidmore)

According to Fox Business News, Donald Trump’s personal lawyers are considering legal action against MSNBC and Pulitzer Prize winning author David Cay Johnston for reporting on two pages of the president’s 2005 tax return on the network’s Rachel Maddow Show this past Tuesday.

Trump’s tax returns were published Tuesday by DCReport.org, a website operated by David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter. They were simultaneously aired on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Legal experts say any case would be a long-shot given First Amendment protections for journalists and an important Supreme Court precedent that dates back to the famous 1971 “Pentagon Papers” case. Trump would also have to show that the journalists were complicit in stealing his tax returns—which both Johnston and Maddow have denied.

“Trump’s lawyers could try and sue but they will get the crap kicked out of them in court,” said veteran white collar attorney Stanley Arkin. “It’s the First Amendment. What are they going to sue them for? Stealing the returns? Nobody made any money out of it. Nobody was bribed.”

White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks would neither confirm nor deny the president’s interest in a possible lawsuit against MSNBC or Johnston.

In a statement, MSNBC told FOX Business: “There is no legal prohibition against journalists publishing these tax returns. It is protected by the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent.

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Tweet Of The Day: Hillary Clinton

Democratic political consultant Philippe Reines, who worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign, today tweeted, “Russians spy. Health Care is complicated. Diplomacy is exhausting. Who knew?”

Seeing the tweet, Hillary trolled Trump with a four-word reply, “Things I learned today.”

Bravo.

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Hater Rips Down And Stomps Pride Flag On Display Outside Congressman Alan Lowenthal’s Office

Via press release, we learn that California Congressman Alan Lowenthal, a member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, had a visitor enter the Congressman’s office and angrily attack the Pride Flag outside the congressman’s office.

Members of Congress have permanent fixtures outside each office to accommodate three flags, with two spaces going to the American flag and the member’s state flag. The third slot is used for a personal selection of the Congress member.

The flags are arranged so that they follow all laws regarding the display of the American flag.

From Lowenthal’s Facebook page:

Yesterday, an individual barged into my office in Washington and made a disparaging remark about the fact that I fly the Pride Flag outside my office. He then went back out into the hallway outside my office, removed the flag from its holder, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it. He told my staff that the flag was “disgusting, immoral, and goes against everything that is right.”

The Pride Flag is more than just a symbol of pride for the LGBT community–it stands for love, understanding, and unity.

As a Vice Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, I have flown this particular Pride Flag since 2013 in solidarity with the LGBT community. I have committed to fly it proudly until LGBT people have all of the same rights I have and until our laws protect LGBT people from discrimination and violence. Sadly, the violent and disturbing behavior of this individual yesterday demonstrated that we aren’t there yet.

His actions yesterday–intended to intimidate and demean–only make me and those that love freedom and justice want to fight that much harder. We simply MUST pass the Equality Act now! Introduced by my colleague, Rep. Cicilline, the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Congressman Lowenthal has been an LGBT community advocate and ally for more than four decades, sponsoring numerous pieces of legislation over the years in support of LGBT rights.

He has participated in the Long Beach Pride Parade since its inception, including the very first parade in 1984 where some parade members were forced to wear bulletproof vest due to death threats.

The flag that was stomped on has been on display outside the Congressman’s DC office since 2013, and visited the steps of the Supreme Court with the Congressman when the ruling on marriage equality was announced.

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White House: Meals On Wheels “Just Not Showing Any Results”

Mick Mulvaney

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney explained at a Thursday afternoon White House briefing why President Trump’s newly released 2018 budget cuts billions from the federal program (Community Development Block Grants “CDBGs”) that funds Meals on Wheels.

As many know, Meals on Wheels has provided vital, life-saving food and support for millions of people for 40 years. For many of Meals On Wheels clients, the food delivered to those folks is often the only meals they may eat. And, the interaction with the delivery folks may be the only social contact some of these seniors may have.

Specific to the LGBT community, many receiving Meals On Wheels services are HIV/AIDS patients who need the nutritional support.

Mulvaney said today that the CDBGs are “just not showing any results.”

“We can’t spend money on programs just because they sound good. I can’t defend that anymore,” Mulvaney said, repeating that Meals on Wheels and associated programs “don’t work.”

“We’re not going to spend [money] on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that they’ve made to people.”

Mulvaney also addressed cuts to after-school programs: “They’re supposed to help kids who don’t get fed at home get fed so they do better in school. Guess what? There’s no demonstrable evidence they’re actually doing that.”

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Maryland: Trump’s New Immigration Executive Order Blocked By 2nd Federal Judge

Hours after a federal judge in Hawaii ruled President Trump’s revised executive order on immigration from Muslim-majority countries is unconstitutional, a second federal judge in Maryland ruled the same.

From the New York Times:

The rulings were a second major setback for Mr. Trump in his pursuit of a policy that he has trumpeted as critical for national security. His first attempt to sharply limit travel from a handful of predominantly Muslim countries ended in a courtroom fiasco last month, when a federal court in Seattle halted it.

Mr. Trump issued a new and narrower travel ban, affecting six countries, on March 6, trying to satisfy the courts by removing some of the most contentious elements of the original version.

But in a pointed decision that repeatedly invoked Mr. Trump’s public comments, Judge Derrick K. Watson, of Federal District Court in Honolulu, wrote that a “reasonable, objective observer” would view even the new order as “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.”

In Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed that conclusion hours later, ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants, that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.

In the Maryland case, Judge Chuang, who was also appointed by Mr. Obama, declined to block the entire executive order from going into effect, but ruled that the most important section — banning travel from half a dozen countries — could not be enforced. His decision cited Mr. Trump’s public comments to conclude that there were “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose for the travel ban,” and that Mr. Trump may have intended to violate the constitutional prohibition on religious preferences.

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Trump Officially Backpedals On “Wire Tapping,” Meant “Surveillance”

At a heated White House press briefing, Sean Spicer had a near melt-down over what he feels is “unfair” coverage of President Trump’s assertion that President Obama personally ordered a wire tap on Trump’s phones in Trump Tower.

Spicer attempted to distort the bipartisan statement issued today by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Senate Intelligence committee which read, “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.”

So, to be clear, both the Senate and House Intelligence committees have announced they see no evidence of any surveillance by the U.S. of Donald Trump.

As expected, Spicer finally began backpedaling by saying what Trump meant when he tweeted “wire tapp” was “surveillance.”

To be exact, in two separate tweets Trump specifically said “tapping my phones:”

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Trump’s First Budget Beefs Up Defense, Slashes Most Domestic Programs

President Trump released his first budget proposal today, and it’s big on defense spending while sharply cutting just about every other government agency.

Here’s my long and short of it –

Winners:

• Defense Department – hefty 10% increase (additional $52 billion for warships and fighter jets)

• Homeland Security – 7% increase (additional $2.8 billion for 500 Border Patrol agents and 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel)

• Veterans Affairs – 6% increase (additional $4.4 billion primarily for veterans’ health care)

Losers:

• Environmental Protection Agency – cut 31% (cutting ALL climate change research)

• State Department – cut 29% (big cuts at United Nations)

• Agriculture Department – cut 21% (broad cuts to the National Forest System; eliminates loan and grant programs for water and sewage systems)

• Labor Department – cut 21% (scales back job training programs aimed at helping seniors and unemployed)

• Education Department – cut 14% (eliminates before- and after-school and summer programs; Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, which helps college students with the greatest need for financial aid, would also be eliminated)

• Cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services would target the National Institutes of Health, the U.S’s major medical research facility

Would eliminate entirely:

• the National Endowment for the Arts

• the National Endowment for the Humanities

• the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

• the Institute of Museum and Library Services

• the Community Development Block Grant program which funds Meals on Wheels

More info at the New York Times.