Paul Rudd (in full-on beard mode) and Steve Coogan play bickering gay couple “Paul” and “Erasmus” in the new comedy Ideal Home, in which life is turned inside out when a ten-year old boy shows up at their door claiming to be Erasmus’grandson.
“We can’t have a kid. We couldn’t even handle that Yorkshire terrier. Thank god for that coyote – problem solved.”
Neither Paul, nor Erasmus, are ready to give up their extravagant lifestyles to be parents. But as things tend to happen in film comedies, kids have a way of teaching adults a few things about life.
The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally signed off on yesterday’s raid on the office of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
According to sources, the FBI agents were looking for documents and/or records related to payments to women who have alleged having affairs with Trump, plus any connections to the publisher of The National Enquirer in silencing one of the women.
The search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office seeks information about Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she carried on a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Mr. Trump’s.
Agents were also searching Michael D. Cohen’s office for information related to Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, who says she also had sex with Mr. Trump while he was married. Mr. Cohen has acknowledged that he paid Ms. Clifford $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement to secure her silence just days before the 2016 presidential election.
Rod J. Rosenstein, the veteran Republican prosecutor handpicked by Mr. Trump to serve as deputy attorney general, personally signed off on Monday’s F.B.I. decision to raid the office of Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal attorney and longtime confidant, several government officials said.
Trump has publicly groused that the ongoing investigations by the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are a “witch hunt” in what appears to be an attempt to make this all a partisan endeavor.
But, in truth, all of those making the big decisions into these issues have been Republicans.
From former FBI Director James Comey to current FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Ronan Farrow at 2018 Point Foundation Gala Photo credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Journalist Ronan Farrow came out as “part of the LGBT community” last night in New York City as he was presented with the Point Courage Award by MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, himself a past Point honoree.
The Point Courage Award recognizes those who have advocated for the future of the LGBTQ and allied community and believe investing in today’s potential will produce a brighter tomorrow.
In his acceptance speech, Farrow said, in part:
“Being a part of the LGBT community – which recognized that reporting I was doing early on and elevated it, and has been such a stalwart source of support through the sexual assault reporting I did involving survivors who felt equally invisible – that has been an incredible source of strength for me.
“LGBT people are some of the bravest and most potent change agents and leaders I have encountered, and the most forceful defenders of the vulnerable and voiceless, because they know what it’s like to be there.”
Farrow’s sexuality has been the source of quiet gossip since 2013. The 30-year-old didn’t specify if he identifies as gay or bisexual.
Farrow has earned kudos for his in-depth reporting on the allegations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein and the emerging #MeToo movement.
Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti was honored as well with the Point Impact Award, which recognizes those who make a significant impact on improving the LGBT and allied community.
Donald Trump was still in Twitter-rant mode this morning as he continued to rail about yesterday’s raid by the FBI on his personal lawyer’s office, home and hotel room.
Declarations of “Attorney–client privilege is dead!” and “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” flew from the Trumpster’s fingers even as the Twitterverse pointed out that attorney/client privilege does have limits.
If there’s evidence his lawyer, Michael Cohen, was aiding Trump in committing fraud, in the area of campaign finance for instance, attorney/client privilege becomes null and void.
It’s possible Trump had no idea that there are limits to attorney/client privilege.
Additionally, as I mentioned yesterday in my report on the raids, it is rare for the FBI to execute a search warrant on an attorney. For the FBI to have taken such extreme steps means they probably expected Cohen to be considering destroying evidence, but also had to convince a magistrate of that via hard evidence.
Plus, while Trump would like to believe this is all a partisan attack, folks were quick to point out that the top decision-makers who have been involved in the ongoing Trump investigations have all been Republicans.
“The [attorney-client] privilege takes flight if the relation is abused. A client who consults an attorney for advice that will serve him in the commission of a fraud will have no help from the law. He must let the truth be told.” Justice Cardozo for the Court, Clark v U.S., 1933
This tonight from a former FBI colleague: 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 “I’ve been an FBI special agent for 20 years and have only seen a handful of searches executed on attorneys. All of those attorneys went to prison.”
I use the attorney-client privilege. I know the attorney-client privilege. The attorney-client privilege is a friend of mine. And the attorney-client privilege is not dead. What is dead is using the privilege to hide illegal acts. And that has been dead for a long time. #basta
In video footage of the incident, four young men — one wearing a Florida International University T-shirt — are seen walking up to a bathroom area on Ocean Drive and Sixth Street at about 7:40 p.m. Sunday. Two other men walk out, and are immediately attacked by the four. One of the attackers shouts a Spanish slur used to refer to LGBT men before he and the other attackers begin repeatedly punching the two men.
When the two victims, who sustained multiple injuries to their faces, began to run away, the attackers chased them, Miami Beach police said.
One of the victims told NBC 6 News that he and his partner were holding hands when they were attacked.
“For me, the way we were dressed and everything and we were together, for me it was like, yes, it was a hate crime,” he said.
Police are asking for help to identify the men involved in the attack. Three are described as Hispanic white males, each about 5 foot 8, and between the ages of 19 and 24. Anyone with information should call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
A bystander, 29-year-old Helmut Muller, tried to intervene and stop the attack but the attackers turned on him knocking him out cold. Muller woke up in a pool of his own blood and eventually spent six hours at the hospital getting staples in his head to stop the bleeding.
The attackers now face felony battery charges. As mentioned above, if anyone has any info that could lead to the arrest of the men, please call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
You can see surveillance footage of the attack in the two local news reports below.
Conservative commentator Jamie Allman has resigned and his show at a Sinclair-owned station in St. Louis, The Allman Report, has been cancelled in the aftermath of his tweet threatening to “ram a hot poker up (Parkland high school shooting massacre survivor) David Hogg’s ass.”
Mind you – Allman’s tweet was a threat of sexual violence on a 17-year-old minor.
The tweet was eventually deleted and Allman took his Twitter account ‘private’ but not before the world screen-capped it.
It’s not exactly clear what kicked off Allman’s unhinged anger towards a 17-year-old high school senior he’d presumably never met. But then, with some of the nuts on TV today, its hard to understand a lot of what gets said.
Of course, the real reason Allman is toast is he immediately began hemorrhaging advertisers.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Upon further investigation, our franchise partner has stopped its advertising. Thank you again for your concern.
Posted at 8:30am Friday: We have immediately suspended all spending related to Jaime Allman indefinitely. We will not be deploying those dollars back into the station. We want to make a clear point, that this behavior is unacceptable.
This is a most unfortunate situation and what has taken place is contrary to PALM Health’s core values. We have contacted the radio station not only to voice our concern, but we have also stopped advertising on Jamie Allman’s show.
Jamie Allman made his account private. Guess he doesn’t like it when people take him to task for tweeting about sodomizing kids who survived school schoolings. Real titan of media right there.
BBC Scotland’s youth program The Social shares this spoken word poem illustrating the split-second choices LGBTs make every day when it comes to public displays of affection – even those as innocent as a good-bye kiss.
Twenty year-old Sean Lìonadh found himself in a state of “arresting helplessness” when a passer-by in Glasgow told him, “I’ve got nothing against gays, but do you have to do it in front of my kids?”
That “helplessness” eventually crystalized in his poetry and film-making becoming the short film, “Time For Love.”
I can admit that for years every one of the thoughts Sean addresses here has sped through my mind as a younger gay.
I’m not so afraid today, although lengthy hand-holding does put me on guard now and then. I’m not proud of that but it’s true.
Watch “Time For Love” below. This is how homophobia feels in 2018.
• Jimmy Kimmel has apologized for using gay jokes in his ongoing online feud with Sean Hannity.
• Even conservative pollster Frank Luntz says the GOP is in “deep trouble” and could very well lose both the House and the Senate in the 2018 fall mid-term elections.
• A dad’s request to see his son’s “boy toy” boyfriend went viral for all the right reasons.
• That hilarious time that Fox News accidentally posted a graphic with poll results showing them to be the “least-trusted” news network on the air. “That’s the not the graphic we’re looking for. Hold off. Take that down, please.” #oops
Update: The Washington Post now says Michael Cohen is “under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to a person with knowledge of the case.”
Whoa.
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Breaking news right now as word comes that the FBI raided the office and home of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in connection to the ongoing Stormy Daniels/Trump scandal.
Cohen has admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 just days before the 2016 election as part of a non-disclosure agreement regarding an alleged affair Daniels had with Trump.
According to The New York Times, prosecutors executed the search after receiving a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russian interference during the election.
Today’s search and seizure doesn’t seem to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation. Experts say today’s actions were the result of information Mueller had discovered and handed over to prosecutors in New York.
Mr. Cohen has stated in the past that he is cooperating with authorities regarding the Russian meddling and has turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators.
The Times reports the $130K payment to Daniels is only one of several topics being investigated by the FBI in relation to Cohen. Also seized today were tax documents, emails and business records.
Included in today’s search were communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.
The Times says review of those documents will require a special team of agents because conversations between lawyers and clients enjoy attorney/client privilege in most cases.
So Michael Cohen, the “Says Who” wiseguy lawyer, who knows where all the bodies are buried, and where all the porn stars were paid…
“Rosenstein, as the acting attorney general supervising Mueller’s work, has the responsibility of deciding whether to expand Mueller’s mandate to include the new topic or to refer it to a U.S. attorney’s office.” https://t.co/vjJD7WaQpD
Obviously very big deal. Because: – extremely unusual – needed search warrant – requires serious charges – requires strong evidence – judges are extra cautious with lawyers – warrant covered several areas, not just one issue – FBI wouldn’t do unless surehttps://t.co/kP6kbIymms
It’s my understanding that government doesn’t raid the offices of any lawyer lightly. The layers of bureaucratic approval that a raid of THE SITTING PRESIDENT’S LAWYER must have gone through simply boggles my mind. https://t.co/WjjZm69BsZ
Last week I reported on the new collection of re-gendered songs – Universal Love – recorded by some of the biggest names in the music industry and produced by longtime LGBT ally MGM Resorts.
From the press release:
The album includes boundary-changing songs from some of today’s most-beloved artists. Bob Dylan, one of the most influential and successful recording artists in American history, is among the visionary artists participating in this unprecedented project. Dylan re-recorded “She’s Funny That Way” as “He’s Funny That Way.” The album features five additional stellar artists whose involvement is a testament to the urgency of equality in entertainment: Kesha (“I Need a Woman to Love Me”), St. Vincent (“And Then She Kissed Me”), Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie (“And I Love Him”), Kele Okereke of Bloc Party (“My Guy”), and Valerie June (“Mad About The Girl”).
Phyllis James, MGM Resorts’ Chief Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, said, “We believe projects like this will help all of us reach a point where seeing the world through the lens of people who happen to be different from us becomes natural and commonplace. It is an immense honor for MGM Resorts to spearhead this inspirational project which celebrates LGBTQ dimensions of the universal emotion of love.”
Today we get the music video for Kesha’s contribution to the project “I Need a Woman.”
The video was shot on location in my town of Las Vegas at The Bellagio.
The music video not only features Kesha’s take on the song, but she also officiates the wedding of lesbian couple Lindsey and Dani.
The nuptials took place on March 26th, the anniversary of the first U.S. same sex marriage license.
