Posts

Posted on

Rick Gates Flips On His Former Partner Paul Manafort With Trial Testimony

Paul Manafort

Paul Manafort’s former business partner, Rick Gates, flipped – and flipped hard – on Manafort with his testimony in Manafort’s current tax/fraud trial

From CNN:

Rick Gates, the key prosecution witness in the tax and fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, told jurors Monday he had committed crimes alongside — and at the direction of — his former partner. Gates stated he and Manafort had 15 foreign accounts they did not report to the federal government, and knew it was illegal. Gates said he did not submit the required forms “at Mr. Manafort’s direction.”

The testimony from Gates, a former adviser to Donald Trump, comes after reaching a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year to testify against his former partner in a lucrative international political consulting firm. Manafort stared directly at Gates as he read aloud the details of his plea agreement, which could see him receive a reduced sentence, at the direction of a prosecution lawyer.

Posted on

Irish Prime Minister To Address Same-Sex Marriage During Visit By Pope

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar

According to Irish Central, the openly gay Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, will address the issue of same-sex marriage when he meets with the Pope on August 25th in Ireland.

Questioned on what he would say to the Pope about the ignoring of gay families by the World Meeting of Families, Varadkar said he would express “our view as a society and as a government that families come in all sorts of different forms and that includes families led by same-sex parents.”

Pope Francis is visiting Ireland to celebrate World Family Day, but LGBT groups have stated that same sex marriages are being deliberately ignored and treated like they are not families.

(photo credit: Arno Mikkor (EU2017EE) – CC license)

Posted on

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: I May Have To Say ‘Yes’ To An ‘Amazing’ BJ From Trump

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

 Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona is the latest to get punked by Sacha Baron Cohen.

Umm, I really don’t have words for this one.

So I’ll let The Daily Beast handle it:

Playing a Finnish “unboxing” celebrity named OMGWhizzBoyOMG with a shock of bright orange hair, Sacha Baron Cohen sat down with the former sheriff and first asked him to explain “what communists are doing to stop people having guns.”

“I have 43 guns,” Baron Cohen told his guest. “I’ve been collecting them for the upcoming race war.” Arpaio didn’t blink.

From there, Baron Cohen started asking Arpaio about his first “hand job,” adding, “If Donald Trump calls you up after this and says, ‘Sheriff Joe, I want to offer you an amazing blow job,’ would you say yes?”

“I may have to say yes,” he replied calmly.

Watch the whole thing unfold below:

Posted on

News Round-Up: August 6, 2018

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Naor Yazdan starts his week with a serious shoulder workout pump. #yassss

• Instagram came off a tad homophobic for deleting the account for the “Greeks Come True” 2018 calendar. While the calendar itself shows the men in revealing perspective, the Instagram account only shared tasteful photos. Check out some of the photos on the still-active Facebook page.

• This moment between Atlanta Braves players Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr. caught on camera sharing an affectionate embrace inside the team’s dugout sparked some seriously homophobic social media posts.

• Axios reports that Donald Trump loves to review and relive his performances at rallies and 2016 presidential debates. He apparently considers his quips to Hillary Clinton to be some of the greatest moments “that ever happened in the history of presidential debates.”

•Jerusalem Pride saw record turnout this year (over 30,000) just three years after a violent stabbing incident.

• “Get Together,” a new single by Sir Ivan, is a remix of the classic 1967 Youngbloods song. As Sir Ivan says, “As in the 1960’s, we are undergoing a time of deep divisions in our country. There’s never been a better time to get together.” All net proceeds of “Get Together” will go toward The Peaceman Foundation, which supports LGBT rights. I’ve always liked the tune – check it out below, and find it on iTunes.

Posted on

Madonna Announces 14th Studio Album To Be Released In Late 2018

Madonna on the cover of Vogue Italia

Madonna recently told Vogue Italia she left America for Lisbon to help her son David pursue soccer dreams — and also to get her kids away from Trump.

“This isn’t America’s finest hour,” the pop superstar says.

She also shared that she will release her 14th studio album later this year.

The photoshoot for Vogue Italia  was quite gorgeous.

MADONNA by night 🖤 for @vogueitalia #mertandmarcus #vogueeyewearA post shared by Mert Alas (@mertalas) on Jul 31, 2018 at 10:53am PDT

Posted on

Homeless Gay Valedictorian Gets Full Scholarship To Georgetown University

Seth Owen

What wonderful news.

Via The Hill:

Seth Owen, a high school valedictorian from Florida whose parents ostracized him because of his sexuality, has reportedly been offered a full-ride scholarship to attend Georgetown University in the fall. Owen, who graduated from First Coast High School in Jacksonville with a 4.16 GPA, captured headlines late last month after one of his teachers set up a fundraising page to raise money for his first year’s tuition at Georgetown.

“While the campaign has been ongoing, the professionals at the Office of Student Financial Services have continued to work with me to make my dream a reality,” Owen said on Friday in a statement sent to NBC News. “Due to their efforts and attention, they were able to adjust my aid package even further, my expected contribution is now $0. With these new adjustments, I will be able to attend Georgetown University this fall.”

Seth says he’s going to set up a scholarship fund for LGBTQ students “who find themselves in the circumstance I was in earlier this year.”

At this writing, the GoFundMe campaign is over $139,000.

Just spectacular news.

Posted on

Trump Confirms Russian/Trump Tower Meeting Was Collusion

Donald Trump confirmed via Twitter that the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting between Don Jr and a Russian government attorney was about getting dirt on political opponent Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

You may remember that when the story broke about Don Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian government attorney at Trump Tower during the 2016 elections, Donald Trump described the meeting as a short introductory meeting discussing a program about the adoption of Russian children that was popular with American families years ago but had been stopped by the Russian government.

Trump Jr. said the meeting was not campaign-related in any way.

And then his emails were made public and the world found out he’d lied.

Sunday morning, the president confirmed (seemingly by accident) that Junior’s meeting was, in fact, a confab about getting dirt from Russian agents about Hillary Clinton, which, by the way, is illegal.

Posted on

Trailer: ‘Where The Bears Are’ Season 7

Come September 10 we get the first episode of the final season of the popular, award-winning web series, Where The Bears Are.

Described as a cross between Murder She Wrote and The Golden Girls, these bears always seem to find themselves in the middle of a ridiculous murder mystery.

I’ll miss the series having covered it for years now. But the bears promise this last mystery will be the best yet.

Check out the trailer below.

And you can check out my recent interview with the oh-so-hunky Ian Parks from Where the Bears Are below:

Posted on

Cruising In Italy

The first day at the pool – ‘gay soup’

Sorry for the light posting lately, dear readers. I’m currently in Italy on the Atlantis gay cruise from Rome, Italy, to Barcelona, Spain, as an early celebration for hubby Michael’s 50th birthday.

We’re aboard the Celebrity Constellation and having an awesome time. Rich Campbell and his crew do such an awesome job of making these cruises so fun and inviting for the LGBT community.

Today, we woke up in Naples, Italy, and took part in an excursion to the island of Capri (the land of my husband, Michael Caprio’s people) and Positano. In between landings, the boat we were on stopped for about half hour periods for the 12 of us on the trip to swim in the gorgeous blue ocean here.

I’ll be sharing a bit more as the cruise progresses, but if you’ve never done an Atlantis Cruise, I highly recommend it.

And no, there was no paid sponsorship for the this post 🙂

The view from our cabin this morning as we docked in Naples, Italy

Just a bit of early morning encouragement

Michael swimming during a break in the day (I don’t do ‘ocean’)

Inside the world-famous Blue Grotto near Capri, Italy

Michael being a bit nervous in the beautiful church in Positano, Italy

Positano, Italy, was beautiful