Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Some news items you might have missed:
• HuffPost: Apparently there are ads on porn sites suggesting men pour apple cider vinegar on their junk to increase size??? Do. Not. Do. This. Continue reading “News Round-Up: August 12, 2021”
(stock image via Depositphotos)A study that purportedly criticized the efficacy of wearing face masks during the pandemic is about to be retracted after some funky facts came to light.
From Retraction Watch:
A study that warned of the perils of using face masks as a precaution against contracting Covid-19 appears slated for retraction, Retraction Watch has learned. The 2020 paper, “Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis,” was written by Baruch Vainshelboim, who listed his affiliation as Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health System.
But the study gained wide circulation earlier this month, thanks in part to some conservative politicians, and became the subject of fact-checks by the Associated Press and Snopes, which pointed out that the paper was published by an exercise physiologist with no academic connection to Stanford University or the NIH in a journal that accepts “radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas.
Stanford has disavowed both Vainshelboim and the paper.
Snopes, the fact-checking site, cited the study as false and misleading: “The paper was published by an exercise physiologist with no academic connection to Stanford University or the NIH in a journal that accepts ‘radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas.'”
Vainshelboim is not a medical doctor but reportedly holds a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Porto in 2014.
The paper got renewed traction this month after the far-right leaning fake-news site, The Gateway Pundit, which has been banned from Twitter for repeatedly posting misinformation.
Stanford Medicine strongly supports the use of face masks to control the spread of COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/DiY3sWezCN
— Stanford Medicine (@StanfordMed) April 21, 2021
Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson (screen capture)During his Wednesday night show, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson told his audience that his producers had acquired “incriminating documents” about Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, but the documents had “vanished” while being shipped from New York to Los Angeles.
From The Independent:
In a bizarre segment on Wednesday night’s show, Carlson alleged that his team mailed the documents from New York to Los Angeles after receiving them from a “source” on Monday, but that the bundle never arrived.
Without providing any further details or evidence, Carlson said the “damning” documents had “vanished” on route, heavily implying foul play.
Carlson said a producer had shipped the documents to him from New York to Los Angeles via a “brand-name company”. When they didn’t arrive, the shipping company told Fox that their package had been opened and the documents had “disappeared”.
Viewers questioned why Fox shipped the only copy of such “damning” material without making any kind of back-up, and the segment has since been a subject of ridicule on social media.
Within the last hour, a spokesman for UPS told The Daily Beast that they had located the mysterious package Carlson suggested had been deliberately misplaced or intercepted because it contained “damning” materials on the Biden family.
“After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return,” the spokesman said.
If I understand the implications of his argument, I believe Tucker is arguing the Deep State ate his homework. Or something like that. https://t.co/BxqnFT4hyx
— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) October 29, 2020
this is actually important, beyond being comical: the reason the Hunter laptop story has gone nowhere is bc Rudy etc ***won't produce** the laptop for reporters to confirm etc.
instead, we get idiotic dog-ate-my-homework nonsense from Tucker https://t.co/FukAykaFEv
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) October 29, 2020
Talk about petty…
Axios is reporting that the White House will soon order all federal agencies to not renew their subscriptions to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Yes, those would be the two newspapers Donald Trump has repeated raged against on Twitter for what he feels is biased, ‘fake news’ reporting.
The announcement came just hours after Trump appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show calling the two papers ‘fake.’
The White House said on Tuesday that it would cancel its own subscriptions to the Post and the Times, after Trump complained that they were “fake” during an appearance this week on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in an email to the Wall Street Journal: “Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving—hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved.”
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| (screen capture via CNN) |
This is bad.
CNN interviewed a group of women presented as ‘Republican’ voters who happen to support Donald Trump, when they are actually part of an organized group that promotes the Donald.
From The Washington Post:
The seemingly random group of eight women were, in fact, members of an organized group dedicated to promoting Trump. The group calls itself the Trumpettes of America 2019 Palm Beach Team, although CNN and correspondent Randi Kaye didn’t mention anything about such a group. Nor did the anchors, including Anderson Cooper, who introduced Kaye’s report.
The network simply identified the panelists individually, with their names appearing onscreen next to the word “Republican.” Kaye gave no hint that the women knew one another and had a common cause.
As a result, the segment left the impression that CNN had assembled a panel reflecting a cross-section of opinion from Republican women about the crossfire between Trump and four freshman Democratic congresswomen of color, whom Trump told to “go back” to their own countries in Sunday tweets, despite all four being American citizens.
Rather than a cross-section, however, the Trumpettes were plainly of one mind.
Some of the women had appeared on CNN before, and neither time was an affiliation to being part of an organized Trump group acknowledged.
Edward Wasserman, dean of the University of California at Berkeley journalism school, described the lack of disclosure as “a fraud on the viewer.”
Wasserman told the Post the network may have withheld the identity of the group “to cover up the lack of news value in the interview and to provide ‘something that looks like balance’ in the face of Trump’s criticism that CNN is anti-Trump.”
The women do seem pleased with how the segment went, even going so far as to promote the clip on their Facebook page.
However, note that they encouraged their followers to watch them on “the Anti-Trump Fake News CNN Show.”
There’s gratitude for you…
Things got testy between Donald Trump and Fox Business News host Maria Bartiromo on Friday as she asked about his continuing attacks on deceased Sen.John McCain.
When she observed that his attacks divide more than unite the country, Trump stated again that his attacks only come up because of reporters question, and then he called Bartiromo “fake news.”
“I didn’t mention John McCain until you asked me a question about John McCain,” said Trump, clearly agitated. “I could say I have no comment but that’s not me. But you shouldn’t have brought it up. Actually, I thought you weren’t suppose to bring it up but that’s OK. Fake news, every once and a while.”
Bartiromo didn’t back down, saying, “It’s not fake news. You just told me why you have an issue with him.”
After the interviewed, Bartiromo made a point of telling the TV audience, “For the record, there were no conditions or stipulations agreed to ahead of the interview.”
Here’s Donald Trump indicating that Maria Bartiromo broke some sort of agreement not to mention his attacks on John McCain, then calling her “fake news.”Anything less than complete fealty is punished.
He’s also lying, he started all this by angrily live-tweeting about McCain. pic.twitter.com/6S73OYMNcc
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 22, 2019
Earlier this month, Trump mentioned McCain during a press event with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro: “I’m very unhappy that he didn’t repeal and replace Obamacare, as you know. He campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare for years.”
“I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be,” he added.
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| Joe Blizzard |
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunk Joe Blizzard is setting some serious ‘beard goals.’ #Woof
• White House officials are considering diverting disaster funds earmarked for Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and California to build Donald Trump’s beloved ‘wall’ under the guise of declaring the border situation a ‘national emergency.’
• Did you hear about the United Airlines pilot and copilot having sex in the cockpit during a flight? Me neither. But fools who came across the fake story on the fake news site World News Daily Report swallowed the bogus story hook, line and sinker.
• After reviewing recent HIV research, experts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) say they agree with over 300 health agencies around the world: HIV positive people with an undetectable viral load cannot sexually transmit HIV.
• Hate crime charges have been filed against a Washington state man who groped and punched a married lesbian couple at a Seattle Seahawks game.
• Check out this promo video for the upcoming WorldPride Main Event on Saturday, June 29, 2019, which will bring the entire LGBTQ community and its allies together on one ginormous dance floor at New York City’s largest venue, the Jacob Javitz Center.
Click here for more info on Pride Festival.
Some news items you might have missed:
• Ok, I can hear you already, “Randy, that hot pic of Gus Kenworthy is just click bait! Why do you do this to us?” But it’s not – see that phone grip that says ‘Be True?’ Proceeds from sales will help Gus raise $1 million for his AIDSLifeCycle campaign. Click here to buy. See? I’m here to help 😉
• Josh Hutcherson revealed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that he and Hunger Games co-star Liam Hemsworth once stripped naked together at Berlin fetish club. Pics or it didn’t happen…
• Manchester Pride has announced they’ve added a black and brown stripe to their Pride flag to represent Black, Asian and ethnic LGBTQ people. What do you think – do we need a new version of the iconic rainbow flag? I think the original flag already represented everyone…
• Fox and New Regency have announced that they’ll release a karaoke version of box office juggernaut Bohemian Rhapsody in 750 theaters across the US and Canada starting this Friday, January 11.
• Seniors and ‘ultra conservatives’ shared about seven times more ‘fake news’ on social media than younger adults, moderates and super liberals during the 2016 election season.
• It may be the middle of winter, but Aussie singer Troye Sivan has his head in summer sunshine with his new music video for “Lucky Strike.”
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| Robert Chain of Encino, California |
A California man was arrested this week for making multiple death threats targeting the Boston Globe using homophobic slurs.
Robert Chain of Encino, California, has been charged with making threatening communications in interstate commerce after he allegedly called in threats to the Boston Globe newsroom 14 times over a 12-day period between August 10 and 22.
The threats apparently stemmed from the Globe’s call for newspapers across the nation to publish op-ed pieces in support of a free press all on the same day.
From the Department of Justice:
On Aug. 10, 2018, the Boston Globe announced that it was requesting that other newspaper publications around the country publish a coordinated editorial response to political attacks on the media. The coordinated editorial response was to be published on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018.
According to court documents, immediately following the announcement, Chain began making threatening calls to the Boston Globe’s newsroom.
In the calls, Chain referred to the Globe as “the enemy of the people” and threatened to kill newspaper employees.
In total, it is alleged that Chain made approximately 14 threatening phone calls to the Globe between August 10 and 22, 2018.
Over 300 newspapers took part in the coordinated editorials.
Homophobic slurs “faggot” and “cocksuckers” were a popular choice of insult used by Chain.
According to an affidavit filed by the FBI, Chain said in an August 13 phone call, “Hey, how’s your pussy smell today, nice and fresh? We are going to shoot you motherfuckers in the head, you Boston Globe cocksuckers. Shoot every fucking one of you.”
During a call on August 16, Chain used the word “faggot” as he continued to threaten the Globe, which he referred to as “the enemy of the people.”
“You’re the enemy of the people, and we’re going to kill every fucking one of you. Hey, why don’t you call the F, why don’t you call Mueller, maybe he can help you out buddy. Still there faggot? Alright, why, you going to trace my call? What are you going to do motherfucker? You ain’t going to do shit. I’m going to shoot you in the fucking head later today, at 4 o’clock. Goodbye.”
In a call on August 22, the 68-year-old told the Globe, “You are the enemy of the people, and I want you to go fuck yourself.” Chain added that he would continue with this threats “as long as you keep attacking the President.” Chain went on to use the term “fake news” in that same phone call.
The phrases “enemy of the people” and “fake news” have been used many times in past months by President Trump as he has attacked various news outlets in public statements.
I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2018
In fact, since the deadly gun shooting in June at the Maryland newspaper, The Capital Gazette, Trump has used the term nine times.
When police entered Chain’s home, they found over 20 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Chain faces a possible five year prison sentence, one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
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| Donald Trump |
Thanks to a campaign initiated by The Boston Globe, over 350 newspapers across the country issued op-ed pieces in a coordinated defense of the media from Donald Trump’s calls of “fake news.”
The Trumpster, in predictable fashion took to Twitter to rant: “THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE WINNING!”
THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE WINNING!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018