Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Key West: Gay Couple Allegedly Threatened By Trump Supporter “You Live In Trump County Now!”

A gay couple was the victim of a hate crime in uber-gay Key West, Florida, last Thursday.

From FL Keys News:

Kevin Seymour, 38, and Kevin Paul Taylor, 49, said it was a drunken tourist who followed them as they rode south on Duval Street “calling us faggots and a slew of other anti-gay remarks,” according to a police report.

At one point, the scooter rider struck the rear tire of Seymour’s bike, knocking him to the ground.

“We were victims of a hate crime last night biking home from dinner,” Kevin Paul Taylor posted on his Facebook page. “He kept stopping in front of us and swerving into us. Finally Kevin got ahead of him and the guy charges him with his scooter and runs into him and knocks him off his bike. Kevin is okay.”

“I bet you faggots voted for that bitch Hillary,” the suspect said to the couple. “Well, you live in Trump country now.”

A witness gave a statement to police backing the couple’s story and officers said there may be security video available from nearby businesses.

Police described the scooter rider as a white man in his mid- to late 30s with “a southern accent” wearing gray shorts and a blue polo shirt. His moped was a black Eclipse rented from A and M Rentals with the license plate MCUT33, police said. It was found parked outside the Southernmost, 508 South St.

As the scooter followed the couple, Seymour told the man he would call 911. “If you do that, I’ll cut you up,” the man replied, according to reports.

Posted on

Paul Krugman On Republican Vs. Democratic Approaches To States’ Economies

All-around economic smart guy Paul Krugman tweets today:

“Tax-raising liberal Jerry Brown and tax-slashing true believer Sam Brownback took office at the same time. How’s it going?”

Any questions?

Posted on

Over 120 Generals Protest Trump’s Proposed Cuts To Diplomacy Budgets

Arguing that foreign policy can’t be approached by a purely militaristic stance, more than 120 retired generals have signed and sent a letter to congressional leaders prompted by the news that President Trump plans to propose major cuts to foreign aid and diplomacy programs in his upcoming budget.

Even though Defense Secretary James Mattis said during his stint as commander of U.S. Central Command, ‘If you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition,'” President Trump’s view is military might far outweighs diplomacy.

From CBS News:

One signer is Marine Gen. John R. Allen, a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general, former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and 2014-2015 Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL appointed by President Obama.

“Cutting the State Department budget by 30 percent is consigning us to a generational war. We cannot fight our way out of this. It is an issue which can be decided by decisive diplomacy and enlightened development,” General Allen told CBS News.

“If [the president] wants to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism, his only hope of doing it is not through an interminable war on Islam. It is by funding the very things in the State Department that give us the capacity to work with other countries and to help, in the context of development, to change the human condition in places in the world where young men and women are radicalized by virtue of the social environments they are in. They are pushed into the arms of extremists who we must fight.”

Other prominent generals who signed the letter include former NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. William Casey.

Posted on

New Orleans: We Welcome Everyone

New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC) and members of the New Orleans community gathered together during Mardi Gras 2017 to create a tourism video letting potential visitors know that New Orleans welcomes everyone.

Via press release:

If there ever was a celebration to honor diversity and equality, it is Mardi Gras New Orleans. To emphasize this important message that New Orleans is ‘always open’, New Orleans tourism joined people from all over the community at New Orleans’ famous Bourbon and St. Ann streets to march together in its first-ever Reverse Parade.

Through word of mouth, some four hundred citizens gathered and volunteered their time to create a message of diversity and equality. Donning full make-up, Mardi Gras garb, beads, or just plain clothes, the New Orleans community and its supporters marched backwards in a symbolic gesture shedding colorful clothing and masks along the way. Everything stopped, quiet ensued, then a flag appeared stating “We Are Never Going Back.” Music filled the streets as participants marched forward in celebration.

“New Orleans has a history of welcoming all people all the time,” said Mark Romig, President and CEO of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC). “The amount of excitement and numbers of citizens who came to participate in the parade and film is a testament to the city’s determination to never relinquish its achievements in human rights.”

Posted on

President Bush On US Under Trump: I Don’t Like The Racism And Name-Calling

During President Obama’s years in the White House, former President George W. Bush refused (wisely) to criticize his successor saying he didn’t want to make a difficult job that much harder.

A month into President Trump’s administration, though, Bush has voiced some artfully phrased comments about the new Commander-In-Chief.

Via PEOPLE.com:

“I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling and I don’t like the people feeling alienated,” Bush, 70, tells PEOPLE in an interview for the new issue of the magazine on newsstands Friday.

“Nobody likes that.”

A spokesman for Bush previously told PEOPLE that neither he nor the former first lady voted for Trump – or for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton – in November. Both of the Bushes, who had campaigned for Bush’s younger brother Jeb in the 2016 Republican primaries, cast write-in votes on Election Day for a candidate they did not reveal.

Posted on

Academy Awards’ TV Ratings Continue to Slide

Bad news for ABC: La La Land/Moonlight “Best Picture” flub aside, this year’s Oscars drew only 32.9 million viewers with a 9.1 rating among adults 18-49. That’s a nine year low for Hollywood’s biggest night.

From USA Today:

The Oscars high point came in 1998, when 55 million watched blockbuster Titanic win best picture; its low, a decade later, in 2008, when 32 million watched No Country for Old Men win in the midst of a bitter writers strike that saw many boycott the ceremony.

The more recent high was 43.7 million in 2014, in a ceremony hosted by Ellen DeGeneres that honored 12 Years a Slave as best picture.

Posted on

Trump: I’ve Done Just About More Than Anybody In The First 4 Weeks In Office

President Trump

President Trump, speaking to his besties at Fox News, explained this morning that he’s “done just about more than anybody in the first four weeks in office.”

Of course, at this point in President Obama’s first term he had expanded health care to 4 million kids and cut taxes for 160 million Americans.

Trump has issued executive orders and spent three out of four weekends away from the White House golfing at a cost of $10 million to the nation’s taxpayers.

With his approval numbers languishing in the low 40s/high 30s (currently 42% according to Gallup), Trump had more self-praise to deliver to his fawning friends at Fox News:

Posted on

Moonlight Stars Take It Off For New Calvin Klein Ad Campaign

Trevante Rhodes

The male stars of newly-minted Academy Award-winning “Best Picture” Moonlight are taking part in a new ad campaign for Calvin Klein underwear.

Check out “Best Supporting Actor” winner Mahershala Ali (below) who’s celebrating not only his big win last night but the birth of his daughter.

And Trevante Rhodes (above) has a full schedule with two big action films on his plate: Horse Soldiers and a reboot of Predator.

Younger cast members Alex Hibbert and Ashton Sanders also take part in the campaign.

Mahershala Ali
Posted on

News Round-Up: February 27, 2017

(photo: Joan Crisol)

Some news items you may have missed:

• Check out the Instagram account of acclaimed international photographer Joan Crisol (Rolling Stone, Zero, Playboy). Color, texture, and sensual staging are all front and center in his gorgeous imagery.

• Don’t miss the premiere of When We Rise, a four-night mini-series chronicling the journey of LGBT rights in America. The series begins tonight on ABC at 9PM ET.

• The father of slain Navy Seal William “Ryan” Owens refused to meet President Trump at Dover Air Force Base when Owens body was returned to his family. “I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald. Owens has now requested an investigation into the events which caused his son’s death.

• President Trump’s family trips have cost taxpayers nearly as much in a month as President Obama in an entire year. Remember when he criticized Obama for “wasting” the taxpayer’s money?

• White House press secretary Sean Spicer is now conducting “random phone checks” with his staff in an effort to find the source of “information leaks” in the West Wing. Spicer recently called an “emergency meeting” in his office and when staffers arrived they were told to dump their electronic devices on a table to be checked for outgoing messages.

• This weekend 17-year-old Mack Beggs, a trans high school student from Euless, Texas, won the state wrestling championship in his weight class. Beggs was forced to compete, however, in the girls division due to the University Interscholastic League (UIL), which oversees high school athletics in public schools in Texas, which ruled he had to compete as the gender listed on his birth certificate. Parents are now upset that Beggs seemed to have an advantage over his female opponents thanks to his testosterone treatments. UIL rules only allow such substances to be used if they’re part of a medical treatment, which they obviously are. Beggs has stated he would prefer to wrestle in the boys category.

Texas high school wrestling champ Mack Beggs
Posted on

President Bush On The Media: “I Consider The Media To Be Indispensable”

We haven’t heard much from President George W. Bush since he left office in 2009.

Over the Obama years he kept pretty silent, choosing to stay out of politics. I thought that served him well. After the tumultuous economic conditions of his last year in office, it felt right that he chill for a while.

But this morning, during an interview with Today show host Matt Lauer, he was asked about a number of topics regarding the Trump administration.

Asked if he considered the media “the enemy of the people” as Donald Trump has described it, Bush praised the press for it’s role in our democracy:

“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”

Regarding the idea of an investigation into the Trump/Russia connection, Bush said, “I think we all need answers.”