LGBTQ news and entertainment
Randy Rainbow starts out your week with his parody of the Muppets classic, “The Rainbow Connection,” rewritten with more Trumpian lyrics – “The Russian Connection”
“And since you’re fixin’ to trump Richard Nixon
Your days are numbered and few.
Someday they’ll find it, the Russian connection,
The covers, the schemers, and you.”
From The New York Times:
North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday, the first test since a new president took office in South Korea this past week and called for dialogue with the North.
The missile took off from the northwestern city of Kusong and flew more than 430 miles before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement. Data on the launch was still being analyzed by the South to determine the type of missile.
Saying that North Korea had been “a flagrant menace for far too long,” the White House said in a statement late Saturday in Washington that the test served “as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions” against Pyongyang.
“The United States maintains our ironclad commitment to stand with our allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea,” the statement said.
It also noted that the missile had fallen closer to Russia than Japan, adding that “the president cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.”
Wait, what? Russians can be deceptive???
Who ever heard of that?
From Mediaite:
Yesterday, Donald Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. The White House didn’t allow the American press in, but did allow official Russian photographers.
Everyone from Chuck Todd to a former CIA official was mad about that. Whether it was an assault on the free press or straight-up dangerous to allow Russian crews to set up tech in the Oval Office, the involvement of the Russian news agency TASS was the only way American people got images from the meeting.
Now, the White House is upset about even that.
According to CNN, the Trump administration didn’t think that TASS would post the photos. In fact, CNN quotes an official as saying, “They tricked us,” and, “That’s the problem with the Russians — they lie.”
CNN also described how the Russian media acted in a pretty straight-forward way: “The Russians used the photos to troll the White House in its social media posts Wednesday.”
WH furious over Russian government photos of Trump meeting with Lavrov/Kislyak. “They tricked us,” an official said of Russians “They lie.”— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 11, 2017
As Washington, D.C. is still reeling from the firing of FBI Director James Comey, you have to know the Russians must be tickled pink.
I’m certain it’s just coincidence that Russia’s top diplomat just happened to be visiting the State Department today.
As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson introduced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a reporter asked whether the firing of the FBI Director would “cast a shadow” over the diplomatic talks.
With mock surprise, Lavrov responded, “Was he fired? You are kidding, you are kidding,” then smiled as he turned to leave the room.
I wonder when Putin told President Trump to fire Comey…?
Watch below.
Reporter: Does the Comey firing cast a shadow over your talks?Lavrov: “Was he fired? You’re kidding.” https://t.co/EA1e2llZNx
— CNN (@CNN) May 10, 2017
Kellyanne Conway gets more air-time today with CNN’s Chris Cuomo in a 19 minute segment wherein she turns in her own “Jan Brady” performance arguing that “you always want to talk about Russia, Russia, Russia!”
Knowing that Trump watches cable news voraciously, and he must love seeing someone defend him so strenuously.
Watch the performance art by Conway below.
My first response when I saw this exchange between Katie Couric and Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, was a chilling shiver up my spine.
Zakharova stopped by Yahoo News to talk with Couric about President Trump, U.S. airstrikes in Syria, and fake news.
BUT – Couric turned to the horrific reports of gay men being detained and tortured in Chechnya, and things went south very quickly.
Zakharova was not of a mind to discuss and shut Couric down, explaining there was an “investigation.”
Dodge, dodge, dodge…
Katie Couric asked a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman about the torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya.Her response is telling. pic.twitter.com/WOpZNCeDjJ
— Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun) April 28, 2017
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| Ben Cohen |
Some news items you may have missed:
• Woofy, shirtless, straight ally Ben Cohen tweets from the gym (above). #Grrrr
• Hundreds gathered outside the Russian embassy in London to protest on behalf of Chechen gays after weeks of reports indicating Chechnya has rounded up over 100 gay men in “concentration camps.”
• According to The Guardian, investigators looking into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion,” the source said. “This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.”
• The doctor who was forcibly dragged off a United Airlines flight apparently suffered a concussion, loss of two front teeth and a broken nose. #TheFriendlySkies?
• Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord calls President Trump “the Martin Luther King of health care.” Hmm, vagina grabbing president compared to humanitarian…
• Two “Jean Val Jeans” – Ramin Karimloo (currently in previews on Broadway for Anastasia) shares this awesome moment from a few years ago when the original star of Les Miserables, Colm Wilkinson, joined him in an encore of “Bring Him Home.” Ramin’s voice just kills – and how beautiful that he steps back to give Colm the last note.
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| Carter Page |
From The Washington Post:
The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.
The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.
This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.
During the Republican primary season last year, Trump identified Page as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign.
It’s worth noting that a FISA warrant is not a simple thing to obtain. FBI Director James Comes testified that application for FISA warrants are thicker than his wrists, referencing the amount of work that goes into compiling evidence for the warrant.
Much more at the link – I recommend a full read.
Newsweek reports that Russia has deployed it’s most advanced Black Sea warship to where the U.S. Navy destroyers that launched last night’s attack on a Syrian air field are currently located.
Russia deployed its most advanced Black Sea frigate Friday into the eastern Mediterranean, where U.S. Navy destroyers had launched an airstrike earlier that day against the Moscow-backed Syrian military. As Russian leadership condemned the U.S.’ first intentional attack on the military of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the country’s six-year conflict began, Russia’s Admiral Grigorovich frigate reportedly left its port of Sevastopol, Crimea, and headed toward the U.S. destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross.
Russia’s 4,000-ton warship came equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, one of Moscow’s latest and most deadly high-tech projectiles, and was headed to dock in the Syrian city of Tartus, according to Russia’s official TASS News Agency. The ship’s movement was also confirmed by Turkish ship spotter Yoruk Isik, who told the U.S. Naval Institute’s news agency that the ship had crossed the Bosphorus Strait only nine days after docking from a previous Mediterranean voyage.
BREAKING NEWS: Russian warships enter Mediterranean following U.S. air strike in Syria. pic.twitter.com/qq2MtFhkPn— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) April 7, 2017
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon, House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said, with no pause, that based on the evidence he has seen some Donald Trump associates will go to prison over their ties to Russia.
BLITZER: You want to elaborate on that give us more? Because that is obviously a very intriguing statement.
CASTRO: I wish I could, but I can’t at this time.
BLITZER: You’re confident that some Trump associates will end up in jail.
CASTRO: If I were betting, yes.
BLITZER: Including some working in the new administration or people who worked or advised the president during the campaign or maybe during the transition?
CASTRO: As you can imagine, Wolf, I will have to comment on that later. But my impression is that people will probably be charged and probably go to jail.
Watch below:
WOW. Rep. Joaquin Castro on Russia investigation: “I wouldn’t be surprised … that some people end up in jail” https://t.co/g6KvvWvuR8— Josh Sánchez (@jnsanchez) April 4, 2017