LGBTQ news and entertainment
Check out the next big project from my longtime buddy and uber-talented filmmaker, Gerald McCullouch (CSI, Bear City and Daddy). All Male All Nude (I’ve already got your attention, yes?) is an upcoming documentary set in one of America’s only all-nude, all-male gay strip clubs, Swinging Richard’s in Atlanta. Continue reading “Out Documentary: “All Male All Nude” From Gerald McCullouch”
James Corden, fresh from the holidays, takes time to honor music icon George Michael, who passed away recently.
In addition to Michael’s music, Corden acknowledges the iconic singer’s 2011 participation in the birth of a comedy skit that what would evolve into Corden’s now uber-popular “Carpool Karaoke” segments.
This morning, President-elect Donald Trump sent out this tweet which many interpreted as Trump believing in fugitive Julian Assange than the U.S. intelligence analysts:
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
And yesterday, Trump seemed to ding the intelligence community for “needing more time to build a case” regarding the Russian cyber-hacking during the presidential election. Note how Trump puts “Intelligence” in quotes…
The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Today, Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” saying he had more trust in the country’s intelligence community than in WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange. “I have a lot more faith in our intelligence officers serving around the world, very smart and experienced analysts that we have here in the nation’s capital, than I do in people like Julian Assange. I can tell you that much.”
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 4, 2017
Additionally, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called Assange a “sycophant for Russia” today on the conservative Hugh Hewitt radio show.
It seems so very odd for an American president-elect to choose the word of a fugitive on the run like Assange who trades in stealing information in a covert manner over the unanimous position of all 17 intelligence organizations of the United States.
Gospel singer Kim Burrell got herself cancelled from appearing on The Ellen Show after a video was released of Burrell giving a sermon on the “homosexual spirit” at Love & Liberty Fellowship Church in Houston, DeGeneres says Burrell will not appear.
Burrell was scheduled to perform “I See Victory” from the “Hidden Figures” soundtrack alongside Pharrell Williams. Williams is now slated to appear solo.
“For those asking, Kim Burrell will not be appearing on my show,” DeGeneres tweeted
For those asking, Kim Burrell will not be appearing on my show.— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 3, 2017
Here’s the skinny from the Washington Blade:
“Everybody in this room who’s filled with the homosexual spirit, beg God to free you,” Burrell says in the sermon. “You play with it. What does that mean? You’ll die from it. You play with it in God’s house in 2017, you’ll die from it.”
“You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis in your face, you are perverted,” Burrell continues. “You are a woman and will shake your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.”
In a Facebook Live video, Burrell defended her comments and said she “never said all gays were going to hell” and she makes “no excuses or apologies.”
“I never said ‘LGBT.’ I said ‘sin’,” Burrell says. “To every person who is dealing with the homosexual spirit, that has it, I love you and God loves you but God hates the sin in you and me. Anything that is against the nature of God.”
Watch the video below. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems clear she’s talking about gays and lesbians.
Burrell’s collaborator, Pharrell, posted this message in response:
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| Fitness model Nick Sandell |
Some news items you may have missed:
• Nick Sandell wishes you a shirtless Happy Happy New Year!
• Debra Messing says new Will & Grace episodes are not a done deal.
• Only 46% of Americans believe Donald Trump can handle an international crisis versus an average of 71% of his predecessors.
• Janet Jackson gives birth to her first child at 50.
• The Alabama NAACP is holding a sit-in at Sen. Jeff Sessions office until he withdraws his nomination for U.S. Attorney General.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed to offer free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of middle- and low-income New Yorkers.
• On New Year’s Eve, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of federal protections that would have barred those in healthcare services to deny reproductive health services as well as services to transgender people based on “religious beliefs.”
• It’s been 159 days since Donald Trump held a press conference. Back in the summer days of the campaign, he excoriated Hillary Clinton for going 179 days with answering questions from the press. Hypocrisy?
Even though all 17 of the U.S. intelligence agencies – ALL 17 AGENCIES!!! – agree “with confidence” that Russia willfully cyber-hacked American email servers in an attempt to interfere with the presidential election, Donald Trump says he knows “things that other people don’t know,” adding that he would share that info with the American people either today or Wednesday this week.
(p.s. today came and went with no announcement from Trump on the cyber-hacking)
From the New York Times:
“I just want them to be sure because it’s a pretty serious charge,” Mr. Trump said of the intelligence agencies. “If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong,” he added, referring to intelligence cited by the George W. Bush administration to support its march to war in 2003. “So I want them to be sure,” the president-elect said. “I think it’s unfair if they don’t know.”
He added: “And I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”
When asked what he knew that others did not, Mr. Trump demurred, saying only, “You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
Mr. Trump, who does not use email, also advised people to avoid computers when dealing with delicate material. “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe,” Mr. Trump said.
“I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe,” he added. “I have a boy who’s 10 years old; he can do anything with a computer. You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.”
I should add that since that reporting was made public, Team Trump has admitted that he hasn’t made the time to sit down with the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies to be briefed on what it is exactly they have as proof.
But he knows more than they do.
Because his 10 year old son can work a computer.
#sigh
Now, this is a lesson in class.
USA Today is reporting that just two months after a surprise loss in the presidential election, Hillary Clinton will attend the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
An aide to the Democratic nominee confirmed Tuesday that she and former president Bill Clinton will attend this month’s ceremony, speaking on condition of anonymity until plans are announced publicly.
It will be the first joint public appearance by Trump and Hillary Clinton since the three presidential debates that preceded Trump’s surprise election victory.
Bill Clinton will be one at least three ex-presidents at the Jan. 20 inauguration of Trump; George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter have also announced plans to attend.
Bush and former first lady Laura Bush “are pleased to be able to witness the peaceful transfer of power — a hallmark of American democracy,” spokesman Freddy Ford said Tuesday.
According to New York Magazine, Hillary decided to attend out of “a sense of duty and respect for the American democratic process.”
Trust and believe, had Trump lost he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the event.
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| Speaker of the House Paul Ryan |
House Republicans have now u-turned on their plan to gut the Congressional independent ethics panel.
From CNN:
House Republican leaders have pulled a proposal that would gut its independent ethics panel, amid widespread criticism of the plan, multiple lawmakers tell CNN.
The decision comes less than two hours after President-elect Donald Trump criticized the timing of the vote, which was scheduled for the first day of the new congressional session.
Trump called out his fellow Republicans Tuesday for proposing to curb the powers of the independent ethics panel as their first move of the year, although the President-elect suggested the ethics panel was “unfair.”
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS,” Trump said over two consecutive tweets.
The decision came after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters the vote was moving forward. He admitted he opposed the change and said he believed it should be done in a “bipartisan fashion” but said House Speaker Paul Ryan created an open process and “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
House Republicans voted 119-74 during a closed-door meeting in favor of Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s proposal, which would place the independent Office of Congressional Ethics under the control of those very lawmakers, a move that outraged Democrats and outside ethics organizations. The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on it as part of a larger rules package up for consideration Tuesday.
Just as he promised throughout the campaign, Donald Trump is beginning to threaten American companies that move jobs abroad by slapping them with a “big border tax” along the lines of 35% on imported goods.
Via Politico:
General Motors is the latest target of President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter cannon, with the Manhattan billionaire complaining that the American automaker is manufacturing cars in Mexico and importing them into the U.S. without penalty. “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning.
General Motors issued a statement in response regarding it’s manufacturing of the Chevy Cruze:
General Motors disputed the facts in Donald Trump’s Tuesday morning attack on the automaker, saying it makes most of its Chevy Cruze models in the United States. The company said in a statement that “all Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S.” are made at an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. It clarified that it builds hatchback models for global markets in Mexico, “with a small number sold in the U.S.”
Free trade agreements, including NAFTA, were constant targets of Trump on the campaign trail.