In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s crass reference to “Pocahontas” during a ceremony at the White House yesterday meant to honor Native American veterans of WWII, the leader of the Navajo Nation said he found the reference to be an ethnic slur and inappropriate for the occasion.
During an interview with CNN, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said Trump’s political attack on Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren during a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers was “uncalled for.”
“This was a day to honor them, and to insert something like that — the word ‘Pocahontas’ as a jab to a senator — you know, that belongs on the campaign trail,” Begaye said. “That doesn’t belong in the room when our war heroes are being honored.”
Sonny Skyhawk, the founder of American Indians in Film & Television, told CNN that Trump deliberately held the ceremony in front of a painting of President Andrew Jackson who signed the Indian Removal Act. That legislation led to thousands of Native American deaths due to over 60,000 being forced to relocate.
Skyhawk said there’s no way Trump didn’t know the history, noting, “Andrew Jackson is one of his heroes.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends LGBT Pride
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will formally apologize in the House of Commons in Ottawa this afternoon for the Canadian gay purge of the 1950s.
The “purge” began in the mid-20th century amid fears that the Soviet Union would be able to blackmail LGBTs for their private lives. Homosexuality was illegal in Canada until 1969.
In addition to the official apology, the government will offer reparation of over $100 million to those who were affected during the time.
The Canadian government will also donate $250,000 to LGBT charities that spotlight anti-LGBT discrimination and homophobia.
Legislation will be introduced that will allow Canadians to apply for removal of criminal records for convictions in the past, and families of those deceased will be able to do so as well to clear their loved ones’ names.
Canada is following the lead of several other major countries who have reflected on the poor treatment of LGBTs.
Timothée Chalamet (L) and Armie Hammer (R) in Call Me By Your Name
Acclaimed gay coming-of-age film Call Me By Your Name had a great start on the awards season last night at the Gotham Independent Film Awards picking up “Best Feature” and “Breakthrough Actor.”
I predict it’s going to be a fun couple of months for Timothée Chalamet, who plays the young male lead in the highly anticipated film.
As Australia’s Senate debates marriage equality legislation, with hopes of passing by Christmas, same-sex marriage opponents are seeing their amendments meant to water down the bill voted down in rapid succession.
The amendments would have added far-reaching exemptions into the bill, including the right for all celebrants to refuse to solemnise gay weddings on religious or conscientious grounds and legal protections for people who don’t believe in same-sex marriage or think gay relationships are wrong.
Their decisive defeat is a considerable victory for the “yes” campaign and LGBTI advocates, who feared opponents of same-sex marriage would try and insert clauses into the bill that would roll back anti-discrimination law.
The first amendment debated by the Senate would have effectively allowed civil celebrants to refuse to marry same-sex couples based on their religious or conscientious beliefs. It was defeated 42-24.
The second would have legislated widespread legal freedom of speech protections for people who hold various beliefs, including those against same-sex marriage but also against same-sex parenting and relationships, as well as an anti-detriment clause and a legislated parental right to pull children out of classes that mention the relevant beliefs. It went down 44-20 after a few hours of debate.
A further amendment relating to defence force chaplains was also defeated, as were amendments in relation to registered charities and religious organisations, with similar margins.
After the five amendments from the conservative bloc were defeated, the Senate also voted down two amendments from Brandis and resources minister Matthew Canavan.
The first, defeated 36-27, would have inserted a line about religious freedom taken from the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights into the bill, and the second, defeated 38-25, would have extended a right to civil celebrants to refuse to solemnise gay weddings.
BuzzFeed News understands that supporters of the legislation are confident that very few, if any, amendments will get up and the Smith bill will pass the Senate largely unamended.
President Donald Trump on Monday called Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “Pocahontas,” an attack he uses often, during a White House event celebrating Navajo Code Talkers.
Just to remind you, here’s the video:
Here’s the video: Trump calls Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’ while honoring Native American code talkers: “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.” pic.twitter.com/hjZ5MInDDf
Unfortunately, his son Eric decided he wanted to compete with brother Don Jr. again for the high honor of “Dumbest Trump.”
Eric picked a fight with an ABC News reporter arguing since ABC’s parent company is Disney, and Disney made the animated feature Pocahontas, the reporter has no standing to say using the word “Pocahontas” is “offensive.”
The irony of an ABC reporter (whose parent company Disney has profited nearly half a billion dollars on the movie “Pocahontas”) inferring that the name is “offensive” is truly staggering to me.
Okay, now lets break down the ABC reporter/ Disney thing.
Using the word “Pocahontas” as the title of a movie about, “Pocahontas” is not offensive. It would be weird if they called the movie something else. That’s kind of how history works. You don’t get to make up names. 3/
Now, when your dad used “Pocahontas,” he wasn’t actually talking about Pocahontas. He was talking about Elizabeth Warren. That’s how it becomes offensive. Does this make sense to you? Maybe you need examples? 4/
Eric Trump doesn’t understand the difference between Disney making a movie about the actual Pocahontas, and his dad calling a white senator “Pocahontas.” https://t.co/0IW4GqKdrW
Ummm, bright eyes, that movie was about celebrating the actual person Pocahontas. Your father using it as a term of derision for a Dem senator in front of heroes is what is offensive.
For all those who say calling someone Pocahontas isn’t a racial slur would you say the same if the President called someone “Booker T.” Or “Confucius” or “Menachem” as a way to highlight question of African or Chinese or Jewish ancestry?
• Hate crimes against LGBTs have doubled in five years in Russia
• Democratic senators introduce the LGBT Elder Americans Act
• A growing number of millennial men are more prone to identify as the more fluid “mostly straight” than use the term “bisexual”
• The highly anticipated gay-themed film, “Call Me By Your Name,” leads the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards with six nominations and does great box office in its first week in domestic release.
• Pink and Channing Tatum challenge gender-norms in her new music video, “Beautiful Trauma.”
All that and more on this episode of The Randy Report.
Washington Post reporter interviews “Jaime Phillips” regarding fake Roy Moore story she brought to the Washington Post
Wow. A far-right organization that attempts to embarrass mainstream news media has failed to fool The Washington Post with a phony pregnancy story about Alabama Republican Roy Moore.
A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.
In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.
The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.
But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas who was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2010 for using a fake identity to enter a federal building during a previous sting, declined to answer questions about the woman outside the Project Veritas office, a storefront in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on Monday morning shortly after the woman walked inside.
“I am not doing an interview right now, so I’m not going to say a word,” O’Keefe said.
Besides exposing the woman and Project Veritas for the shenanigans, the article is an engrossing read for demonstrating the detailed research that goes into the WaPo’s reporting.
The article shows how researchers:
• Noted the woman’s Alabama cell phone number even though she said she only lived there a summer as a teen.
• Found a GoFundMe page by a woman of the same name asking for money to help her move to NYC where she had just accepted a job with a “conservative media movement to combat the lies and deceipt of the liberal MSM.” When confronted with the page, the woman said she was referring to a job at The Daily Caller, another right-wing outlet. But when the WaPo dialed The Daily Caller, they’d never heard of her. The page was amended within hours that same day to say the campaign was closed.
• The WaPo called a company she claimed she works for outside of NYC and no one there had ever heard of her.
All in all, it looks like the story only helped to show the lies some right-wing groups will go to, and the professionalism of the WaPo to get to the truth before printing a story.
The Washington Post made a point of sharing that they don’t usually print stories that come from “off the record” interviews, but Martin Baron, The Post’s executive editor, had this to say:
“This so-called off-the-record conversation was the essence of a scheme to deceive and embarrass us. The intent by Project Veritas clearly was to publicize the conversation if we fell for the trap. Because of our customary journalistic rigor, we weren’t fooled, and we can’t honor an ‘off-the-record’ agreement that was solicited in maliciously bad faith.”
In the end, all Project Veritas succeeded in was to confirm that The Washington Post does solid reporting.
Watch this video via The Washington Post. By the time the reporter makes it clear the info they’ve found, it’s pretty awesome to see “Jaime Phillips” get busted.
• The Anaheim Ducks tweeted, then deleted, this video of Ryan Kesler walking around the Ducks’ offices in his “birthday suit” to celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Hockey League yesterday.
The @AnaheimDucks released this cringe-worthy and tone-deaf video of Kesler walking the office naked. The tweet has since been deleted. pic.twitter.com/b0DNTyT0aE
• Forty people were injured in Spain’s Canary Islands this weekend when a popular gay nightclub’s dancefloor collapsed plunging dozens of clubgoers down into the basement.
• The FDA has approved the first two-drug daily regimen for treating HIV.
• Former Olympic swimmer for the UK, Mark Foster, who has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and acts as a commentator for swimming coverage, has come out at the age of 47.
The video was released alongside a study of 1,000 men that showed 67% believe a man’s role in society has evolved; 45% say they have felt unable to share their feelings because of their gender, and 23% admit that they still feel pressure to be a ‘man’s man.’ Watch the video below.
Today at a White House event honoring the three surviving Navajo code talkers from WWII, Donald Trump joked about calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.”
“We have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time – longer than you. They call her ‘Pocahontas!'”
The comment took place in front of a portrait of President Andrew Jackson who signed the Indian Removal Act.
According to reporters present, the comment was met with abject silence.
Here’s the video: Trump calls Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’ while honoring Native American code talkers: “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.” pic.twitter.com/hjZ5MInDDf
Why are people getting SO UPSET about me using the “Pocahontas” indian slur in front of the WWII Navajo Code Talkers veterans? My racist friends and I think it’s SO FUNNY! #MondayMotivationpic.twitter.com/YB6QTvaODv
Elizabeth Warren responds to Trump's new 'Pocahontas' remark on MSNBC: "It is deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it though a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur." https://t.co/2EiILol15V— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 27, 2017
