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President Obama: ‘Fundamentally Disagrees’ With Trump Immigration Order

President Obama has issued a statement regarding President Trump’s controversial immigration executive order:

President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.

While normally former presidents don’t chime in on a new president’s actions, in that the Trump administration has brought up Obama’s name as “having done the same thing” regarding immigration bans in the past, I think it’s fair game for Obama to issue a statement.

In the past 24 hours, Trump representatives have begun pointing to a ban of Iraq immigrants during Obama’s time in the White House.

From CNN:

Trump’s order temporarily banned immigration from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia and indefinitely stopped Syrian refugees from coming to the United States.

Though the current White House has compared Trump’s action to what Obama did in 2011 when “he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,” Obama’s move was much narrower in scope. It was crafted in response to two Iraqi refugees implicated in a bomb making scheme and while it did not outright ban refugees from coming to the United States, it did increase the amount of vetting each Iraqi refugee received.

It’s a curious tactic, in my view, for Trump to campaign on a strong message of criticizing everything the Obama administration did, and then once in office and use an excuse of “Obama did it.”

#Weak

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Vanessa Williams Honored As 2017 “Woman Of The Year” By Nevada Ballet Theatre

Me with Vanessa Williams, husband Jim Skrip and my hubby Michael Caprio
at pre-gala reception hosted by Fendi (all photos by Denise Truscello)

I had the distinct privilege of paying tribute to my longtime college pal and gorgeous superstar, Vanessa Williams, Saturday night as she was honored in Las Vegas by the Nevada Ballet Theatre as their 2017 “Woman of the Year.”

Vanessa and I both entered Syracuse University as freshmen music theatre majors in the fall of 1981, and have remained close friends since then.

Nevada Ballet Theatre has a long history of honoring women of distinction at their annual gala event. Of the many luminaries honored in the past, several come from the world of Broadway including Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Debbie Reynolds, Bette Midler and Debbie Allen (who served as Vanessa’s Honorary Chair this year).

In addition to being a leading ballet company in the U.S., NBT provides premiere dance education to young people in Southern Nevada in order to groom the next generation of dance enthusiasts. NBT’s Academy is regarded as one of the top ballet training centers in Las Vegas.

Plus, their many outreach programs take the art form of dance to students in underserved kids across Southern Nevada. Future Dance and its many initiatives provide scholarship opportunities to over 400 students a year and the program successfully reaches over 20,000 students annually.

Longtime friend David Weinreb, the CEO of the Howard Hughes Corporation which sponsored the evening, was the Dinner Chair and introduced Vanessa as she made her grand entrance into the ballroom at the Aria Hotel. One of the highlights of the night was a couple of swinging ‘surprise duets’ by Vanessa and Weinreb (“On a Clear Day” & “On the Sunny Side of the Street”).

Before she took to the stage to accept the evening’s honor, I was asked to pay tribute to Vanessa. Including the requisite list of awards and nominations that Vanessa has deservedly received over the years (from the Grammys to the Emmys to the NAACP Image Awards and more), I shared a personal anecdote from a few years ago when I had reached the end of my cancer journey in 2009.

While my chemotherapy treatments had done the trick, they had left me completely hairless and severely bloated making me almost unrecognizable. I looked like “Uncle Fester” from The Addams Family. I was very self-conscious to the point of being demoralized.

I was set to attend one of Vanessa’s concerts here in Las Vegas during that time and worried about shocking her when I went backstage. But Vanessa, always so intuitive to her friends, handled the “reveal” perfectly.

As she rounded the corner and saw me, Vanessa didn’t break stride, she didn’t blink, she didn’t miss a beat as she hugged me exactly as she always does.

She then held me at arm’s length and said with that sassy Vanessa Williams tone said, “You look fab with your bald head.”

She followed that with some of the most beautiful words in the English language: “Do you want to hang backstage and have chardonnay and fried chicken?”

As I remembered that story, it occurred to me that “chardonnay and fried chicken” is actually a perfect metaphor for the Vanessa Williams who’s friendship I love so much.

Like chardonnay, she’s always elegant, light, bright and intoxicating. And like fried chicken, she is truly “Soul Food” – always making everyone around her feel comfortable, relaxed and at home.

Vanessa, glamorous as always, wearing a gown by Christian Siriano, took time during her acceptance speech to advocate for the arts,  saying in part, “They are essential for mankind.”

You can check out a few photos below, all by the fantastic Denise Truscello (click pics to enlarge).

“But us, old friend, what’s to discuss, old friend?
Here’s to us; who’s like us?
Damn few…”

What an honor to introduce Vanessa Williams at the
Nevada Ballet Theatre’s 2017 Black & White Ball 
Vanessa Williams accepting her honor from Nevada Ballet Theatre
as 2017 Woman of the Year

Vanessa Williams (C) with dancers from the Nevada Ballet Theatre & the NBT board

Jim, Michael, Vanessa and me at the table during the event.
It’s The Black & White Ball, so there’s got to be a b/w photo, right?

Michael, Vanessa, Jim and I on our way from pre-event reception to the gala
I think of this as our “Reservoir Dogs” shot 🙂
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Funny (Not So Funny) Super-Cut Of Education Secretary Nominee Betsy DeVos’ “Defensive Smiling”

The Washington Post reports on the growing pushback on the nomination of billionaire Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.

Over 300 lawmakers from all 50 states have announced they oppose DeVos for the position, in great part because she has no experience in education.

Labor unions, civil rights leaders and advocates for children with disabilities have all joined the growing chorus of naysayers.

In addition to her lack of experience as an educator, she has no training or degrees in the area of education. She’s worked for years to undermine public schools in favor of a voucher system that would allow parents to take public school money and shift that to private, for-profit schools.

And, of course, we all know the millions she and her family have donated to anti-LGBT groups like the Family Research Council.

After her confirmation hearing, I noted that I found her disingenuous smile to be smug and grating. It looks like I wasn’t the only one.

Check out this viral video (below) from Super Deluxe – “Betsy DeVos: Defensive Smiling”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Best Moments From The 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards

My favorite moments from last night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards:

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Podcast: The Week In LGBT News – AGT’s Brian Justin Crum; Recapping LGBT Legislation

My weekly podcast recaps the past week’s most compelling pop culture, political and entertainment news of interest to the LGBT community.

On this week’s show:

• America’s Got Talent‘s Brian Justin Crum drops his first single since the TV talent competition – “Show Me Love” featuring Toy Armada and DJ Grind. Find it here on iTunes.

• Conservative Wyoming legislators withdraw anti-LGBT legislation House Bill 135

• North Carolina’s Republican state Senate Leader says his state’s hateful “bathroom bill” – HB2 – isn’t going away any time soon

• Woofy Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims introduced a bill that would outlaw so-called “conversion” or “ex-gay” therapy

• How would the repeal of the Affordable Care Act affect LGBTs?

• Republicans in Congress plan to re-introduce the “First Amendment Defense Act” which would allow anti-LGBT folks to discriminate same-sex couples

• President Trump has a bumpy week as his administration proposes a 20% tax on Mexican imports to pay for “The Wall,” and his immigration plans cause protests across the country

You can click here to subscribe to The Randy Report podcast for free from iTunes.

Click below to listen to this week’s show:

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News Round-Up: January 29, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) says this is what a hangover looks like. Looks good to me #morewine #grrrr

• Sir Elton John and Paul Rudnick are working on a stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.

 • North Carolina state Senate Leader says anti-LGBT “bathroom bill” HB2 isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

• Congressional Republicans will reintroduce the anti-LGBT legislation the First Amendment Defense Act. The bill, which President Trump has promised to sign into law, would allow anyone with “deeply held religious beliefs” to legally discriminate against LGBTs.

• In light of Uber’s CEO willingness to work with President Trump, and ridesharing rival Lyft’s announcement to donate $1 million to the ACLU, folks are dumping and deleting their Uber accounts in massive numbers.

• In case you haven’t been paying attention, folks in the “pro-life” movement not only want to outlaw safe abortions, they think “the pill” and IUDs should be illegal as well.

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President Trump’s Immigration Policy Could Cause Whiplash

President Donald Trump

Today there are massive protests continuing across the U.S., including in front of the White House, against the president’s executive order regarding immigration which:

• suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days

• halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely

• bars entry for three months to residents from Muslim-majority countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen

It’s understandable that folks have been confused about the reach of President Trump’s immigration plan.

Not only does it affect refugees and residents from the countries listed above, it’s been back and forth whether the decree includes those “green card” holders who are legal permanent residents of the United States.

Apparently, the policy was hammered out by the White House policy team, avoiding the usual interagency process that would normally assist in providing operational guidance.

On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security leadership saw the final details just before the order was finalized, government officials said. Officials at DHS determined that the executive order’s restrictions did not apply to green card holders.

On Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security reversed, saying that the president’s order did apply to green card holders who were traveling to the United States from the seven countries affected.

Later, White House officials announced that green card holders from the seven countries would need a case-by-case waiver to return.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told NBC News’ Meet The Press: “As far as green card holders, moving forward, it doesn’t affect them.” He later added: “If you’re traveling back and forth you’re going to be subjected to further screening.”

Saturday afternoon in the Oval Office, when asked about the rollout, Trump said all governmental agencies were “totally prepared.”

“It’s working out very nicely,” Trump told reporters. “You see it at the airports. You see it all over. It’s working out very nicely and we’re going to have a very, very strict ban, and we’re going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.”

(source)

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Nevada Leads The U.S. In Job Creation

Hey, hey, hey – my homestate of Nevada has moved from zero to hero in Gallup’s Job Creation Index.

Nevada led the way as the U.S. showed strong job growth in 2016, scoring highest among all states in Gallup’s 2016 Job Creation Index.

The rise to the top spot completed a six-year climb for Nevada, which ranked last among the states in both 2009 and 2010.

Moving in the other direction, Wyoming scored last among the states for 2016 — eight years after topping Gallup’s first Job Creation Index in 2008.

Each night in its Gallup Daily tracking survey, Gallup asks employed Americans to report on hiring activity at their place of work. Gallup’s Job Creation Index is based on the percentage of workers saying their place of employment is increasing the size of its workforce, minus the percentage saying their place of employment is reducing the size of its workforce.

For the nation overall, the Job Creation Index score has grown each year since 2009, from -1 to +32 in 2016 (43% hiring, 11% letting go).

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Trump Elevates Steve Bannon To National Security Council

Steve Bannon

This would have made bigger headlines yesterday were it not for the protests at airports over President Trump’s executive order on immigration.

This is a big deal.

From Business Insider:

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Saturday that removed the nation’s top military and intelligence advisers as regular attendees of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, the interagency forum that deals with policy issues affecting national security.

The executive measure established Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon as a regular attendee, whereas the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence will be allowed to participate only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.”

“The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history,” Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.

“The one person who is indispensable would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view,” McCain added. “So it’s of concern, this ‘reorganization.'”

John Bellinger, an adjunct senior fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations and former legal adviser to the National Security Council, wrote on Saturday that the change is “unusual.”

“In the Bush administration, Karl Rove would not attend NSC meetings,” Bellinger said. “According to former Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, President Bush did not want to appear, especially to the military, to insert domestic politics into national security decision-making.”

With his permanent seat at the NSC meetings, Bannon has been elevated above the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, who was not offered an open invitation.

Remember that Steve Bannon has no experience in national security. He ran a white nationalist propaganda website until six months ago.