Tag: Nancy Pelosi

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Nancy Pelosi To Trump: Come To The House When The Government Has Been Opened

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a letter today to Donald Trump reiterating that she does not intend on hosting the annual State of the Union address in Congress until the ongoing federal shutdown comes to an end.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a letter today to Donald Trump reiterating that she does not intend on hosting the annual State of the Union address in Congress until the ongoing federal shutdown comes to an end.

From CNBC:

In a letter to Trump, Pelosi escalated a standoff over the annual address hours after the president said he would give the speech in the House chamber next week as planned. Earlier this month, Pelosi urged him to reschedule the remarks or deliver them elsewhere during a partial government shutdown.

Pelosi wrote that the Democratic-held House would not pass the resolution needed to approve the joint session of Congress where he would deliver the address. She said lawmakers “will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened.”

“Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened,” Pelosi wrote. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he introduced a resolution Wednesday to allow Trump to deliver the address, but it is unlikely to pass without Pelosi’s support.

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News Round-Up: January 17, 2019

This pic is an ad for a necklace by Dueros
Rodiney Santiago

Some news items you might have missed:

• The above pic featuring InstaHunk Rodiney Santiago is an ad for a necklace. #TheresAnecklace?

• Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino says the US State Department is ‘deeply disturbed’ by the latest reports out of Chechnya regarding the anti-LGBTI crackdown. But no one is doing anything about it.

• Donald Trump cancelled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s trip to meet with our soldiers in Afghanistan citing budgetary reasons due to his government shutdown, but hours later First Lady Melania Trump flew on an Air Force plane to Mar a Lago for a weekend holiday. #hypocrisy

• Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote to approve a recent House bill that would re-open the federal government. The government remains closed at this writing because McConnell refused to bring the bill up for a vote.

• Second Lady Karen Pence recently announced she’s going back to teach at a school in Washington DC that doesn’t allow gay kids or teachers. So, The Trevor Project sent copies of pro-gay kids book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, to the private school. #Awesome

• Former Minnesota rabbi Aryeh Leiv Cohen received a 2 day jail sentence after being caught in a police sting operation. Cohen was arrested after sexting with, and showing up expecting to have sex with, what he believed was a 15-year-old boy.

• Folks on the political right lost their minds today as newly-sworn Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave her first-ever speech from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Her three minute speech, on behalf of the 800,000 federal workers affected by the current Trump shutdown, broke the record for the most viewed video on C-SPAN’s Twitter account drawing over 1.6 million views.

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Networks Will Give Democrats Airtime For Response To Trump’s Address Tonight

The four television networks – NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS – have confirmed that they will air a Democratic response to Trump’s primetime address tonight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested equal time following Donald Trump’s address tonight to offer their rebuttal and vision for moving forward from the current government shutdown.

From The New York Times:

Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer will speak from the Capitol after Mr. Trump completes his remarks from the Oval Office, which are scheduled to be broadcast live by the major television networks. The dueling addresses from opposite sides of Pennsylvania Avenue will unfold at the close of Day 18 of a government shutdown over Mr. Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall that Democrats have steadfastly opposed.

Mr. Trump, who spent much of the first two weeks of the shutdown cloistered inside the White House saying little about it, is now using the powers of the presidency to focus public attention on his immigration message in an effort to build support for the idea of erecting a large wall on the border with Mexico. Democrats, newly in control of the House, are steering clear of talk of the wall itself, and instead are working to focus attention on the damaging impacts of the shutdown.

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Nancy Pelosi Names The Equality Act As A Top Priority In New Congress

As Nancy Pelosi returned to her position as Speaker of the House yesterday, she made a point of saying passage of The Equality Act will be a priority in the upcoming Congress.
(image via office of the Speaker of the House)

As Nancy Pelosi returned to her position as Speaker of the House yesterday, she made a point of saying passage of The Equality Act will be a priority in the upcoming Congress.

The legislation, which has already been introduced in the House before, would outlaw LGBTQ discrimination on a federal level.

“We will make America fairer by passing the Equality Act to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” Pelosi said in remarks as she was reelected to Speaker.

I’m always grateful to see LGBTQ legislation brought up, and the Equality Act does stand a good chance of being passed in the House with the newly-installed Democratic majority.

But with the Senate in Republican-control and Donald Trump in the White House, I’m not counting on the legislation becoming law any time soon, unfortunately.

The Human Rights Campaign estimates nearly 50% of LGBTQ Americans live in one of 30 states with no legal protections whatsoever, and could lose their job, be evicted or denied public services based on their sexuality or gender identity.

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Nancy Pelosi Vows To Make The Equality Act A Priority

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-D)

Should the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections, probable Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says passing the long-overdue Equality Act would be a high priority.

From Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade:

Speaking at an event Tuesday at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Pelosi identified the Equality Act as a personal goal in wide-ranging remarks about her plans for the next Congress.

“It isn’t in our ‘For The People’ agenda because it doesn’t get that specific, but there’s one more because it’s personal for me that I really want to do, and it’s called the Equality Act,” Pelosi said. “The Equality Act expands ending discrimination against LGBTQ people and women and adding that to the Civil Rights Act.”

Introduced by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) in the House and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in the Senate, the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.

The bill also seeks to update federal law to include sex in the list of protected classes in public accommodation in addition to expanding the definition of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks, transportation services and health care services.

Further, the Equality Act would establish that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty — can’t be used to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.

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News Round-Up: May 8, 2018

Birthday boy Nyle DiMarco

Some news items you might have missed:

• Happy, happy birthday to Nyle DiMarco! The DWTS/ANTM champ turns 29 today! The handsome model and actor is currently working as a producer on Broadway repping the revival of the hit play, Children of a Lesser God.

• An 88-year-old grandmother shut down her son’s homophobia in two sentences.

• Madonna served up fashion in a dramatic vein last night at the annual Met Gala where she sang “Like A Prayer,” “Hallelujah” and debuted a new song apparently titled, “Magic.” The theme for the evening was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.

• Raul Castro’s daughter is making the push for marriage equality in Cuba.

• House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi says if there are Democratic House candidates who want to say they won’t support her as House Speaker, she’s fine with it. “I think if they have to do that to win the election, I’m all for it. Just win, baby.”

• Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned a Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments funneled through his company to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election. #RuhRoh #DidHeSayRussia?

• The new interim memorial for the victims and survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting was unveiled today in Orlando, Florida. This tribute will remain until a permanent memorial can be built.

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News Round-Up: January 19, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Can we start the weekend admiring Nick Jonas (above) admiring his NY Yankees hat in the background? #TheresAHat?

• Indonesia’s IT Ministry is asking Google to block  LGBT-related networking apps.

• Check out the newly-announced list of nominees for the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards here.

• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be a guest judge on an upcoming episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” #YouBettaWerk

• And speaking of, on the latest episode of Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations podcast, RuPaul shares what he’s learned from drag: “What it teaches people is that all things are temporary. Everything’s temporary: just clothes, some paint, powder – this body, even, is temporary.”

• The FBI is looking into whether a top Russian banker funneled money through the National Rifle Association to help elect Donald Trump. It’s illegal to use foreign funds to influence federal elections, and the NRA spent $30 million on Trump’s behalf in 2016.

• Warning: NSFW – Fischerspooner shares their new single and music video, “TopBrazil,” from their upcoming album, Sir, produced by Michael Stipe due out February 16.

In the video, shadow and light create a collage of naked male bodies becoming one, all the while blurring the lines of masculinity and femininity.

Spooner explains, “The video celebrates a pop aesthetic typically reserved for the female archetype and liberates the male form to be sexual, expressive and fearless.”

I think it’s a very cool video, but again – Adult Content.

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Democratic Leaders Announce Deal With Trump To Protect DACA “Dreamers”

Via Reuters:

President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress have agreed to work together on legislation to protect “Dreamers,” the illegal immigrants who were children when they entered the United States, the lawmakers said on Wednesday, although a dispute erupted over exactly what had been agreed.

Following a dinner with Trump at the White House, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the “productive meeting” focused on “DACA,” a program established by former President Barack Obama.

“We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a statement.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed back on the idea that “The Wall” was part of the agreement:

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Nancy Pelosi On Steve Bannon: A White Supremacist In The White House

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued this statement via press release:

“After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together – not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry.

“Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign. There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration.

“Democrats are committed to finding common ground for hard-working families. But we will stand our ground and strongly oppose attempts by this Administration to scapegoat and persecute Americans because of who they are, how they worship, or who they love.”

On the other side of politics, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said of Bannon joining Trump’s team, “I think that’s excellent.”

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Nancy Pelosi Crushes Abortion Question From Conservative Reporter

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will not suffer fools well when pushed.

CNS News’ Sam Dorman tried to question Pelosi for her past defense of Planned Parenthood by asking, “is an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver a human being?”

Pelosi was quick to slap the question down, saying that it was ideologically-baited, and has, “no basis in what public policy is.”

Dorman attempted to push farther but Pelosi would not stand for it. She paused, then addressed the reporter: “I want to say something to you. I don’t know who you are… but I am a devout, practicing Catholic. A mother of five children.”

Pelosi continued, “I think I know more about this subject than you, with all due respect, and I do not intend to respond to your questions”.