First, several members of the world champion Boston Red Sox announced they would not be attending the annual White House reception.Today, Boston’s CBS News affiliate noticed the crack team at the White House clearly doesn’t follow baseball all that much.
It looks like someone on the White House staff doesn’t know much about Boston or baseball. The Boston Red Sox will meet with President Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon to celebrate their 2018 World Series championship.The event has already been clouded by issues of politics and race. Now there’s the embarrassing typo. “President Trump Welcomes the 2018 World Series Champions The Boston Red Socks to the White House.” There has been no comment from the White House yet.
Trump World is getting that much more complicated:
• Don Trump Jr., Trump’s eldest son, has been subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee (led by Republican Sen. Burr) to answer questions about his contacts with Russia, according to Axios‘ Jonathan Swan.
SCOOP: Republican-led Senate Intel Committee subpoenas Donald Trump Jr. over Russia matters. First congressional subpoena – we know of – for one of President Trump’s children https://t.co/f8jQhkewPd
In an op-ed for the New York Times, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes suggests it’s time to consider breaking up the monopoly that is Facebook.
Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government. He controls three core communications platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — that billions of people use every day. Facebook’s board works more like an advisory committee than an overseer, because Mark controls around 60 percent of voting shares.
Mark alone can decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use and even which messages get delivered. He sets the rules for how to distinguish violent and incendiary speech from the merely offensive, and he can choose to shut down a competitor by acquiring, blocking or copying it.
And I’m worried that Mark has surrounded himself with a team that reinforces his beliefs instead of challenging them. We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American. It is time to break up Facebook.
As he was recovering from a life-shaking breakup, out singer/songwriter Kisos penned (in real time) his upcoming EP, sweet nothings, featuring one track for each of the 5 stages of grief.
The lead single, “Happily Ever After,” is a bouncy electro-pop bop with the handsome artist deep in denial, using delusion as poisoned motivation to better himself and survive the pain of seeing his ex with someone new.
In an interview with Billboard, Kisos revealed that many of the sets and props for his new video are the actual locations of his heartbreak. The bed in the video, for example, belongs to a different ex-boyfriend (and now friend) of his, where he spent days dealing with the breakup the song talks about. “It’s also where I literally/figuratively beat myself up over the ex after him, running to John (his friend and former boyfriend) for comfort when I couldn’t sleep alone,” he says
Making the video as authentic as possible was important to the singer; he says that he used real objects from his life as props in order to create a relatable experience for his audience. “I’m not kidding when I say I wanted to make the most honest visual, even if it’s embarrassing!” he says. “I’ll show the vulnerable parts of myself if it helps others feel less alone or ashamed.”
CNN reports that Bud Light will sell rainbow-colored aluminum bottles in bars nationwide for Pride Month 2019.
For each case of beer sold, Bud Light will donate $1 to GLAAD.
The rainbow bottles are among Pride Month actions the company is taking this year with GLAAD. It’s also a sponsor of the Governors Ball Music Festival May 31-June 2 in New York and will host an all-LGBT lineup of performers on its own stage.
The company’s support of the LGBT community dates back to the 1980s, said Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing, in a news release.
“The way we see it, our beer is for everyone to enjoy,” Goeler said. “With the release of these new bottles, we hope to create something that everyone can feel proud to hold during Pride month.”
Pride month is celebrated each June. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the riots at New York’s Stonewall Inn that launched the gay rights movement.
“Bud Light stood with the community at a time when many brands did not, and their continued outspoken support sets the bar for other global brands,” Zeke Stokes, GLAAD’s chief programs officer, said in a new release.
Reuters reports that Donald Trump’s ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen, says he helped evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr. with a “situation” regarding some racy photos.
And shortly thereafter, Falwell surprised the world by endorsing Cohen’s boss for president.
Months before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s game-changing presidential endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016, Falwell asked Trump fixer Michael Cohen for a personal favor, Cohen said in a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters.
Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs ― the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation.
According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf.
Now you know why Falwell directed his evangelical flock to support the man who cheated on his wives, cheated the vendors who worked for him, and bragged that he liked to “grab ’em by the p*ssy.”
It will come as no surprise that the Falwells declined to comment for the article.
The New York Times has reportedly obtained printouts from Donald Trump’s “official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994.”
It may come as no surprise that the Donald was not nearly as successful as he has touted for years.
In fact, in the years leading up to his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, which purported Trump to be a self-made billionaire, he was hemorrhaging millions and millions of dollars.
The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.
In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.
Over all, Mr. Trump lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years. It is not known whether the I.R.S. later required changes after audits.
The Times goes on to note that one maneuver Trump would use to stay afloat was to acquire company shares with borrowed money, then publicly announce he was considering a takeover. Once the stock price would bump up, he would quietly sell his shares. The Times reports Trump reported $67.3 million in such stock gains from 1986 through 1989. However, savvy stock watchers eventually stopped taking his takeover announcements seriously.
Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, said in a statement that the tax information was false but didn’t point out any specific errors, according to the Times. He reportedly told the newspaper that IRS transcripts “are notoriously inaccurate.”
Of course, the good news is Trump’s people can clear up any inaccuracies by providing the actual tax returns which would show the Trumpster to be all that he’s claimed to be all these years, right?
By the way – yes, there’s a Trump tweet for everything. This one from 2012 didn’t age too well, did it?
HALF of Americans don’t pay income tax despite crippling govt debt…http://t.co/gDAUj0Kt
McConnell: End “Groundhog Day” of Trump investigations. “Case closed,” declared the man who declined to warn American voters of Russian interference https://t.co/Lk7d6RmbAD
The Washington Blade is reporting that Cuba’s annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia marches – scheduled for May 11 in Havana and May 17 in Camagüey – have been cancelled.
Posted on the Facebook page of the National Center for Sexual Education, which is directed by Mariela Castro, is a statement saying the events were cancelled due to “current uncertainty the country is experiencing.”
The Facebook post goes on to say the Cuban Ministry of Public Health made the decision to cancel the events.
The first Pride parade held in Cuban occurred in 2009.
LGBTQ Cubans were disappointed when marriage equality was removed from a draft of Cuba’s new constitution.
Audiences for this year’s globetrotting edition of Broadway Bares will get to travel the world and check out the sexy sights when New York City’s hottest dancers take to the stage of the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 16 for two amazing performances.
Broadway Bares: Take Off, the 29th edition of the sexy annual fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will offer sky-high striptease set to today’s pop music. With skin-tastic, travel-inspired modern burlesque, Broadway Bares: Take Off will definitely put the lust in wanderlust.
According to press materials, this worldwide romp will feature dance vignettes “from a risqué red light district to a tantalizing taming of the bull; from a mega-hot Burning Man to a celebratory return to Stonewall, you’re invited on a worldwide romp with sexy dancers as your frisky flight crew, tour guides and cultural attachés.”
Created in 1992 by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Hairspray, The Full Monty), the soon-to-be Broadway director/choreographer invited six friends to join him for a night of go-go dancing at a New York City bar. That evening raised over $8,000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Fast forward to 2018, where Broadway Bares: Game Night, a tantalizing twist on board games, raised a whopping $1.875 million. The 28 editions of Broadway Bares has raised more than $19.1 million.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDSis the major supporter of essential social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. BC/EFA also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.
The two performances of Broadway Bares: Take Off are scheduled for 9:30pm and midnight. The evening is guaranteed to be some of the most fun you’ll have on a Sunday night, so get your tickets now.
