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Marvel Comics Legend Stan Lee Dead At 95

Stan Lee, who led Marvel Comics for decades, has died at the age of 95.
Stan Lee (photo: Gage Skidmore)

Stan Lee, who led Marvel Comics for decades, has died at the age of 95.

He began his career at the Marvel predecessor, Timely Comics, as a gofer for $8 a week.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Lee, who began in the business in 1939 and created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, X-Men, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Ant-Man and other characters, died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a source told The Hollywood Reporter.

Lee’s final few years were tumultuous. After Joan, his wife of 69 years, died in July 2017, he sued executives at POW! Entertainment — a company he founded in 2001 to develop film, TV and video game properties — for $1 billion for fraud, then abruptly dropped the suit weeks later.

He also sued his ex-business manager and filed for a restraining order against a man who had been handling his affairs. (Lee’s estate was estimated to be worth as much as $70 million.) And in June 2018, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Police Department had been investigating reports of elder abuse against him.

On his own and through his work with frequent artist-writer collaborators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee catapulted Marvel from a tiny venture into the world’s No. 1 publisher of comic books and later a multimedia giant.

In 2009, the Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, and most of the top-grossing superhero films of all time — led by The Avengers’ $1.52 billion worldwide take in 2012 — featured Marvel characters.

“I used to think what I did was not very important,” he told the Chicago Tribune in April 2014. “People are building bridges and engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed.”

As a young introverted kid, comic books were truly my escape.

I collected practically all of the Marvel Comic line. The characters carried their own personal flaws along with their vaunted super-powers.

They were often unsure,  and occasionally, they might fail. Only to get back up.

That world of make-believe, where I could imagine being powerful and immune to the teasing and bullying I encountered at school, was what got me through my early years.

I remember realizing, as an adult, that the X-Men series was an allegory about gay people and that lifted me up a bit. I learned about power, responsibility, teamwork, and understanding the courage it can take to do the right thing.

RIP Stan Lee. #Excelsior

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Wisconsin High School Students Throw Full-On ‘Sig Heil’ In Prom Photo

(Click image to enlarge)

Folks are kind of flummoxed by a photo taken at the junior prom of Wisconsin’s Baraboo High School showing the class’s male students doing a ‘sig heil.’

Law & Crime points out the event was last spring, but the photo just came to light when it was posted to the Twitter account @GoBaraboo that has since been been made private.

It was posted with the caption, “We even got the black kid to throw it up #BarabooProud.”

One guy in the front was clearly doing the sign for white power:

Vice contributor Jules Suzdaltsev asked Twitter to help him do a deep dive into the matter, and he began getting private messages from students at the school saying they had seen and heard a lot of racist language while attending the school.

One student who graduated from BHS this spring wrote Suzdaltsev saying he could “100% support the claims of racism at that school.”

“The use of the n-word was pretty common among a lot of white students, whether jokingly or not,” he added.

Another told Suzdaltsev that the day after Donald Trump was elected, students were yelling “White Power!” in the hallways.

Folks did note that one student, in the upper right hand corner of the photo, was clearly not having the moment.

Suzdaltsev spoke with the student, Jordan Blue, who said the photo was taken so quickly he couldn’t leave. But he also shared that he’d been bullied by his classmates for years.

“My name is Jordan Blue, I am the boy captured in the photo to the far right. The photo was taken during our Junior Prom Photos. I clearly am uncomfortable, with what was happening. I couldn’t leave the photo as it was taken within 5 seconds. The photographer took the photos telling us to make the sign, I knew what my morals were and it not to salute something I firmly didn’t believe in. I attend BHS, these classmates have bullied me since entering middle school, I have struggled with it my entire life and nothing has changed. These are the boy of Class of 2019, nothing has been done and my question is… with anything ever be done. I truly & firmly believe we need to make a change to this horrible act, it need to stop. Bullying. Immaturity. And just taking things as a “joke”…”

According to Suzdaltsev, the photographer (identified as local motorcycle photographer Peter Gust) has taken the photo album down from his website and issued an odd message calling out “malevolent behavior on the part of some in society.” He seems to be blaming the scandal on folks taking issue with the idea of telling students to do a Nazi salute.

The photo has even received international attention as the Twitter account for the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted, “This is why every single day we work hard to educate.”

Baraboo School District Superintendent Dr. Lori Mueller issued this statement:

The Barabook School District sent the following letter to parents this morning in response to a photo on social media.

Dear Parents/Guardians of Baraboo School District Students:

Early this morning, a photo that was taken last spring of some Barabook School District students who appear to be making extremely inappropriate gestures began circulating on social media. The District has confirmed at this time that the photo was not taken on school property or at a school-sponsored event.

The school district is investigating this situation and is working with parents, staff and local authorities. If the gesture is what it appears to be, the district will pursue any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal, to address the issue.

With that, we want to be very clear: the Baraboo School District is a hate-free environment where all people, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or ancestry, are respected and celebrated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lori Mueller, Superintendent

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Podcast: Midterm Elections Recap, Tanzania, Rock Hudson & Colton Haynes

In this podcast:

• As the close races are finding a victor days later, I break down the midterm elections on how LGBTQ candidates did, as well as how the “Blue Wave” will affect our community.

• The US State Department denounces the hideous human rights violations against LGBTQ people in Tanzania.

• Hollywood legend Rock Hudson is getting a big screen biopic treatment by out super-producer Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon).

• And Colton Haynes surprised fans with a cover of “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman.

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

If you enjoy catching up on LGBTQ news in a quick podcast, I’d appreciate it if you would share The Randy Report with your friends.

I like to think of this podcast as the 60 Minutes of gay news — only shorter 🙂

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NY Times: No Power, Hot Food Or Thanksgiving For US Troops At Mexican Border


 The New York Times has published a devastating depiction of the 5,600 US troops sent to the US/Mexican border.

Even though the migrant caravan isn’t expected to reach the border for weeks, and the Border Patrol & National Guard were more than equipped to handle the situation, the soldiers were deployed as part of Donald Trump’s explosive midterm election campaign promises.

But it turns out reality isn’t nearly as winning as a stump speech at a campaign rally.

There’s little electricity, no hot food, showers were only recently constructed, and most of the soldiers will miss not only Veterans Day with their families, but most probably Thanksgiving as well.

All so Donald Trump could whip up his followers.

From The New York Times:

The military’s morale issue is almost as worrisome. The deployment orders last until Dec. 15, meaning the troops will be on the border over Thanksgiving. They will have little to do beyond providing logistical support, unless Mr. Trump declares martial law. The troops will not be enforcing United States immigration law — that would run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, unless a special exception is made.

“When you give a soldier a real mission, you have less of a morale problem, even if it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving,” said Representative Anthony G. Brown, Democrat of Maryland and a former Army helicopter pilot who served in the Iraq war. “But when you send a soldier on a dubious mission, with no military value, over Thanksgiving, it doesn’t help morale at all.”

As it was at the bases in those early war zones, electricity at Base Camp Donna is scarce except to power lights and communications gear. In the last several days, the soldiers installed a small shower tent. Men and women have set hours for bathing. Permitted shower length: seven minutes.

There is no mess hall, just the brown, prepackaged M.R.E.’s. Military police officers patrol the perimeter at night, armed with handguns. The tents sleep 20 soldiers and have no electricity or air-conditioning. Phone charging is relegated to a few generators that power the spotlights around the living area.

Military experts estimate the deployment could cost as much as $200 million.

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French President Shades Trump: “Nationalism Is A Betrayal Of Patriotism”

At a ceremony on today commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a direct slap at Donald Trump’s “America first” approach to international affairs.
French President Emmanuel Macron

At a ceremony on today commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a direct slap at Donald Trump’s “America first” approach to international affairs.

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” said Macron. “By saying, ‘Our interests first, who cares about the others,’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what gives it grace and what is essential: its moral values.”

Trump, along with 80 other world leaders, was sitting just feet away from Macron at the time.

The Trumpster famously declared himself a “nationalist” recently as he campaigned for the midterm elections.

The video below shows the world’s leaders gathering for the ceremony, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump beamed at seeing, as well as part of Macron’s speech.

This comes just a day after Trump decided to skip a ceremony at an American cemetery honoring fallen WWI soldiers because of a light fall of rain.

The Twitterverse was more than happy to show off tons of photos of President Obama at past Memorial Day events in the rain.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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SNL Says ‘Goodbye’ To Attorney General Jeff Sessions

With the news that Donald Trump fired his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, one day after the midterm elections, how could SNL not say goodbye to their “Jeff Sessions” played by Kate McKinnon?

It’s time to pack up and get out, “Jeff,” but before you do some folks want to come say good-bye including Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Aidy Bryant), Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), Eric Trump (Alex Moffat), Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro).

As Sessions wonders what else he could have done to please his boss (“I don’t understand what I did wrong? I put kids in cages. I said no to gays? What more did you want?”), Bennet’s Pence finds his mind wandering: “I’m sorry, I heard the words ‘gays in cages’ and I went somewhere crazy.”

And the Trump boys, Junior and Eric, check in with Sessions to see if they are going to get “some penis” (or subpoenas, but, whatever).

And then Mueller is the final goodbye, but at least he brings a going away present.

Watch below.

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Banner Day For Trump: Disses WWI Memorial Service Due To Light Rain, Threatens To Withhold Funds From California As The State Burns

A new forest fire raged on in California today, destroying more than 150 homes in Malibu, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and Westlake Village areas.

A new forest fire raged on in California today, destroying more than 150 homes in Malibu, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and Westlake Village areas.

Donald Trump took to Twitter to address the issue, but it wasn’t quite the ‘presidential’ tone California might have hoped for.

Trump’s take was to blame “gross mismanagement of the forests.” The Donald’s answer was to threaten “no more Fed payments” unless things were brought more inline with his thinking.

The head of the California Professional Firefighters was not amused.

“The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is Ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,” stated California Professional Firefighters President Brian K. Rice.

“At a time when our every effort should be focused on vanquishing the destructive fires and helping the victims, the president has chosen instead to issue an uninformed political threat aimed squarely at the innocent victims of these cataclysmic fires,” Rice added. “At this moment, thousands of our brother and sister firefighters are putting their lives on the line to protect the lives and property of thousands. Some of them are doing so even as their own homes lay in ruins. In my view, this shameful attack on California is an attack on all our courageous men and women on the front lines.”

It goes without saying that California sends FAR more money to the federal government than it ever gets back in support given that the Golden State is the 5th largest economy in the world.

For the President of the United States’ first reaction to be condemnation of the state rather than empathy for the Americans who are losing their homes was unsettling to say the least.

I’m of a mind to believe that Trump’s lack of empathy comes in part from the fact that he will never win the Golden State when he runs for reelection in 2020. So, I doubt he cares much for California.

Just ask Puerto Rico.

I’m not the only one who thought the response was less than ‘presidential.’

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Florida Orders Recounts For 3 Races Including Governor & Senate

And the recounts in Florida have been ordered!

Via the Orlando Sun-Sentinel:

After receiving unofficial election results from all 67 counties, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Saturday officially ordered machine recounts in three statewide elections – U.S. Senate, Governor and Agriculture Commissioner.

Now, county election officials will feed ballots into machines to recount the results in those races. The second round of results is due to the state by 3 p.m. Thursday.

If the results show a margin of 0.25 percent or less, which appears to be the case in the most heated race between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott for Senate, a hand recount is ordered. Results from a hand recount would be due Sunday, Nov. 18 at noon.

The votes cast in the U.S. Senate race were within 0.15 percentage points, a margin of less than 13,000 votes out of more than 8 million cast.

The Trumpster is none too happy about the news:

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Justin Trudeau Shades Trump For Skipping WWI US Cemetary Visit Due To Rain

Trudeau threw some non-too-subtle shade Trump's way as he spoke at Vimy Ridge, dropping his umbrella as the rain came down saying, "As we sit here in the rain, thinking how uncomfortable we must be these minutes as our suits get wet and our hair gets wet and our shoes get wet, I think it's all the more fitting that we remember on that day, in Dieppe, the rain wasn't rain, it was bullets."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking in the rain
Donald Trump flew to France to observe the 100th anniversary of the signing of the World War One armistice with other world leaders, but is getting backlash for his decision to skip a memorial service at a U.S. cemetery there due to rain.

According to sources, rain is something that’s always planned for when it comes to presidential travel.

From Reuters:

Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser for strategic communications under President Barack Obama, said the excuse about the inclement weather did not stand up.

“I helped plan all of President Obama’s trips for 8 years,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is always a rain option. Always.”

Despite the light rain, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a moving ceremony in Compiegne, northeast of Paris, to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the World War One armistice.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended his own ceremony to pay tribute to Canadian troops killed at Vimy Ridge, on the battlefields of northeastern France.

Trudeau threw some none-too-subtle shade Trump’s way as he spoke at Vimy Ridge, dropping his umbrella as the rain came down saying, “As we sit here in the rain, thinking how uncomfortable we must be these minutes as our suits get wet and our hair gets wet and our shoes get wet, I think it’s all the more fitting that we remember on that day, in Dieppe, the rain wasn’t rain, it was bullets.”

Nicholas Soames, a British member of parliament who is a grandson of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, tweeted,“They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry.“

Veterans group VoteVets also found the rain excuse less than compelling tweeting, “Donald Trump complained about having to stand in the rain, to speak about the massacre in Pittsburgh, because it messed his hair up (more). Today, he will skip honoring fallen American heroes of WWI, and stay in his hotel room, because of some rain.”

And former U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns wrote, “Did the President really not visit the American military cemetery today in France? It is his duty to honor our soldiers who fought in 1917-18. Astonishing.”

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Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence Proclaim Stormy Daniels “Saint Tempestuous!”

My buddy Aaron Baldwin of San Francisco sends me this today:

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence recognize individuals who exemplify the Order’s commitments to Activism, community service, and the advancement of human rights with our highest honor: Sainthood. Stormy Daniels’ bravery in sharing her story and speaking truth to power earned her the respect and admiration of the Sisters.

We surprised her last night at her appearance at the Penthouse Club in North Beach in San Francisco and proclaimed her “Saint Tempestuous, Eye of the Hurricane of Truth and Stormer of the Barricades of Injustice!”

She was extremely overjoyed to see us and seemed truly humbled by the honor.