Meme Of The Day: “How Sad It Must Be…”
News Round-Up: May 14, 2019
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| Dan Tai |
Some news items you might have missed:
• Instagram: Dan Tai shields his eyes from the sun (…or is he just flexing for us?…) #InstaHunk
• NY Times: Donald Trump Jr. and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reached a deal on Tuesday for the president’s eldest son to sit for a private interview with senators in the coming weeks.
• Daily Telegraph: Former Newcastle Jets player, Andy Brennan, becomes the first Australian male soccer player to come out as gay.
• JoeMyGod: Televangelist Pat Robertson says God will destroy America if The Equality Act passes. Just like when she was going to wipe us out after marriage equality and Gay Days at Disney.
• Bloomberg: Trump Tower, the 36-year-old Manhattan residence, is now considered one of the least desirable luxury buildings in New York City. Over the past two years, sales of condo units in the building have taken losses of up to 20 percent.
• New digital series Model Boy explores “the lives of the wide-eyed young men lured into New York’s notoriously fickle high fashion modeling world.”
Check out the first episode below.
Walmart Announces Free One-Day Delivery Service
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| (image via Wikipedia) |
It looks like Walmart is trying to one-up Amazon by offering free one day delivery service.
The Verge is reporting that you will soon be able to order online from a list of over 220,000 items, and an order of $35 or more gets your order to you in a day with no delivery fee.
The service is currently available in my town, Las Vegas, as well as Phoenix, Arizona, before rolling out in Southern California.
It will be interesting to see how the competition breaks down between Amazon and Walmart. While Amazon doesn’t have a minimum spend limit for each free delivery, you do have to pony up $119 a year for Amazon Prime membership.
Which I’ve done for years, by the way...
Amazon recently announced plans to get items ordered by Amazon Prime members to customers in one day, rather than the current two-day window.
Now, I don’t do Walmart for a number of reasons.
A study done by the Northwest Community group estimates that a Walmart opening up in a local town will actually decrease the community’s economic output over 20 years by an estimated $13 million.
Plus, folks in Wisconsin looked at the wages Walmart employees there made and the news wasn’t good. Walmart workers in the state rely on at least $9.5 million a year to subsidize medicaid for workers.
Candidates Offer Rainbow+ Campaign Gear For Pride
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| (via PeteForAmerica.com) |
With Pride Month just weeks away, some Democratic presidential candidates are serving up LGBTQ-themed Pride campaign swag adorned with rainbow stripes.
For the record: yes, I know Donald Trump has a lone rainbow t-shirt on his campaign site. He also openly opposes The Equality Act, so, there you go…
It’s probably not surprising that Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the only openly gay White House contender, is offering the most variety in campaign Pride merchandise – t-shirts, stickers, backpacks, pins – so you can show your support and Pride all at the same time.
The gear comes in not only rainbow stripes, but the familiar pink/white/blue colors of the transgender flag as well.
Interestingly, Buttigieg’s rainbow utilizes the new version of the Pride flag that includes black and brown stripes meant to embrace LGBTQ people of color.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is getting into the Pride mood as well offering a “Persist” t-shirt with rainbow colors.
Warren’s camp got a little creative with the colors as well since her buzz word “persist” has seven letters, so they added an extra touch of light purple to their rainbow.
On a ‘Pride for the People’ page of her campaign website, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) utilizes the traditional Pride rainbow stripes with her first name (which just happens to have six letters), but adds the newer black/brown stripes to her buzzword t-shirt, “Fearless.”
In the past, I’ll admit I’ve purchased Hillary and Obama t’s during campaign seasons, so I’ll probably snag something from the list here.
But even if you don’t want to get political, you can still get your Pride on in style with merchandise from Target (a whole treasure trove of rainbow items there) or sneakers from Adidas or Converse, who put out their own annual Pride kicks.
Texas Republicans Revive Anti-LGBTQ ‘Chick-Fil-A’ Bill
Last week, I reported that the anti-LGBTQ “Save Chick-fil-A” bill in Texas, House Bill 3172, had been successfully torpedoed by out state Rep. Julie Johnson.
The legislation, authored and sponsored by GOP state Rep. Matt Krause, would have banned cities and other governmental entities from taking “adverse action” against anyone for their “membership in, affiliation with, or contribution, donation or other support” to a religious organization.
It became known as the “Save Chick-fil-A” bill as supporters felt it would have helped avoid the recent boycott and eventual elimination of the fast-food chain from San Antonio’s airport. The fast-food restaurant has years of history of making donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations that advocate against LGBTQ rights.
The Dallas Voice had labeled the legislation one of the “most extreme anti-LGBT bills this session.”
Well, now the bill is back thanks to some last minute maneuvers in the state Senate, according to The Dallas News.
Senate Bill 1978, the companion bill to HB 3172, was filed by state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola).
Addressing the Senate Affairs Committee, Hughes told a practically empty room on Monday that, “The bill as filed ensures religious beliefs are protected from discrimination.”
Hughes emphasized that the bill was about “those uniquely American rights,” freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The room was nearly empty because the GOP-led Senate waived rules just minutes before so that the bill could be heard in committee without giving public notice.
Last week, when HB 3172 came up for debate, dozens showed up to denounce the legislation.
But with no one to debate the bill, the committee advanced the legislation to the full Senate. SB 1978 is on today’s intent calendar.
The Dallas News says Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, issued a statement via a spokesperson defending the last minute waiving of the Senate rules.
Sherry Sylvester, Patrick’s spokesperson, said it’s not uncommon to suspend the rules to speed up bills this late in the session.
Sylvester also went to lengths to say the language in SB 1978 is the same as matches the HB 3172, and that bill received “several hours” of debate last week.
“This is not a new bill,” she said, adding, “It’s passage will strengthen our protections for religious liberty — a priority for the Lt. Governor.”
Kathy Miller, the president of Texas Freedom Network, issued a statement calling the tactic a ‘ghost hearing.’
“It’s appalling to hold a ghost hearing and then take a snap vote that leaves virtually no chance for anyone to tell senators how such a sweeping discrimination bill would affect individuals and families across the state,” said Miller.
“The lieutenant governor is so desperate to pass a bill that shields discrimination against LGBT Texans that he no longer even pretends to care what anybody else thinks about it,” she added. “But ramming this bill through doesn’t change the fact that the majority of Texans oppose laws that allow the use of religion to hurt people simply because of who they are or whom they love.”
A poll by Public Religion Research Institute in March 2019 found that 54% of Texas oppose allowing businesses to refuse products or services to LGBTQ people due to religious beliefs. Thirty-nine percent say they favor the idea.
Meme Of The Day
Carol Burnett Show’s Tim Conway Dies At Age Of 85
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| Tim Conway (left) with the cast of The Carol Burnett Show in 1977 |
Tim Conway, one of the stars of The Carol Burnett Show in the 1970s, passed away at the age of 85 in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The longtime funnyman had recently suffered complications from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH).
From PEOPLE:
Conway is survived by his wife of 35 years, his stepdaughter, his six biological children and two granddaughters. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family would like donations to be made to The Lou Ruvo Brain Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The beloved actor is best known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show, winning viewers over with characters like the Oldest Man and Mr. Tudball, whose accent he has said was inspired by his Romanian mother. He was known to ad-lib his sketches — even surprising his scene partners — and won a Golden Globe Award for the series in 1976, along with Emmys in 1973, 1977 and 1978.
He appeared as a guest star on The Carol Burnett Show for eight seasons before becoming a regular in 1975.
“They used to do 33 shows a year on Burnett,” he told the L.A. Times. “She said why don’t you just be a regular on the show? I said I will tell you what. I will do 32 shows and leave one week open at the end, so I can guest on somebody’s show. I always guested on her show, but I did have the right to go somewhere else. My job on every show was to break everybody up.”
God, he was funny…
Mayor Pete Buttigieg ‘Slow Jams The News’ On The Tonight Show
Democratic presidential contender Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night, and took part in one of the late night talker’s recurring segments, ‘Slow Jam the News.’
Mayor Pete mainly stuck to introductory campaign info with Fallon and Tariq Trotter of the Roots serving up the one-liners.
Although, in one exchange, Buttigieg shared his recent appearance on Fox News Sunday was meant as a gesture of inclusivity wanting “everyone to join this campaign, Democrats and Republicans.”
“Democrats and Republicans?” queried a honey-voice Fallon. “So what you’re saying is – you go both ways?”
“No, I’m just gay,” Buttigieg responded simply.
And the crowd goes wild…
Watch the clip below.
News Round-Up: May 13, 2019
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunk Steve in LA (above) makes baseball much more palatable, no? And – he has the good sense to attend a Yankees game 🙂
• The Gaily Grind: A Canadian man filmed himself tearing down and burning a neighbor’s Nazi flag, saying he took matters into his own hands because “authorities weren’t going to.”
• Vox: In the new book, Commander in Cheat, sportswriter Rick Reilly explores Trump’s complicated relationship with the game of golf, and herculean efforts he goes to lie about his scores, sabotage his opponents, and generally defraud the sport. Sport reveals, in part, who we are. Golf reveals the cheat that is Donald Trump.
• LGBTQ Nation: Mike Pence whines that America has ‘little tolerance’ for Christians if he can’t be anti-gay.
• Gay Star News: A makeup company is marketing a new brand specifically to ‘macho men’ with black packaging and the name ‘War Paint.’ They say male skin is ‘different’ from female skin, and therefore men need their own manly brand of makeup.
• Instinct: Mr. Ratburn of PBS’ Arthur is gay, and married.
• InstaHunks Alex Abramov and Brett Miles hug it out after exploring NYC’s ‘The Vessel.’
Shocker: Donald Trump Opposes The Equality Act
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| Donald Trump |
Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade reports that Donald Trump will oppose the Equality Act, set for a vote in the full House of Representatives this Friday.
With a vote on the Equality Act in the U.S. House expected on Friday, a senior administration official indicated exclusively to the Washington Blade that President Trump opposes the bill.
“The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, this bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,” the senior administration official said via email.
More details about Trump’s position on the Equality Act may come soon from the White House, which traditionally issues a Statement of Administration Policy when legislation comes to the floor of either chamber of Congress.
The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.
During the 2016 presidential election, Trump laughingly promised to be “better for the gays” than Hillary Clinton.
The Blade also harkens back to an interview with The Advocate in 2000, when Trump was considering a third party run for the White House, where he said he supported amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation.
Let’s face it – no one expected Trump to support the Equality Act. And fortunately for him, the U.S. Senate will protect him from having to veto the legislation since it will never get a vote in the Senate.