(screen capture via DSquared2) Some news items you might have missed: • Instinct Magazine: The acclaimed indie film, Ma Belle, My Beauty, a queer polyamorous love story that was embraced by critics when it debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has scored a distribution deal. • AP News: A federal judge has dismissed a discrimination lawsuit by a transgender fire chief due to a technical flaw with the initial complaint she filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Rachel Mosby led a rural Georgia city’s fire department for more than a decade, then got fired 18 months after first coming to work as a woman. • DSquared2: Model Malik Delgaty (top image) puts on a private show in this provocative one minute spot for the brand’s Stripped2 underwear line. “What happens in the Secret Room will remain at the Secret Room.”
• BosGuy: It’s ‘Furry Friday’ at the Boston-based LGBTQ blog and this week’s hottie ticks the “fur” and “ginger” boxes 🙂 • HuffPost: Six Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay and 29 others are under investigation for their alleged roles in the riot last month. According to Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), one of the suspended officers took a selfie with a person who was part of the mob that overtook the Capitol. Another wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and appeared to direct rioters around the building. • New York Post: Wait – Sen. Ted Cruz’s Mexico vacation blunder gets even worse. After telling reporters his home, like many Texans, had lost water and heat – he apparently left the family poodle Snowflake behind in the cold.
Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t trust with your dog.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Being a native Texan, I’ve been checking in on my brother and friends who have been severely impacted by the terrible freezing cold catastrophe happening in the Lone Star state. As I’m sure you’ve seen, there are rolling blackouts (or just plain ‘blackouts’) happening across the state. My brother, like many Texans, went without water for a few days. And now 7 million residents are being told to boil water before drinking it as water treatment plants haven’t gotten back up to speed. First, Gov. Greg Abbott tried to blame the power outages on the Green New Deal which isn’t even effective legislation anywhere. Abbott pointed to wind towers freezing as a big part of the problem when wind only makes up about 7 percent of the state’s power. The real problem has apparently been the fact that natural gas lines froze, plus Texas has refused to spend any money on its energy infrastructure in forever. Warmer weather is thankfully on the horizon (my weather app says temps will get back up in the 40s on Saturday), but Twitter flipped out last night when it was discovered Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) boarded a plane for a family vacation to Mexico while his constituents are in the midst of a statewide emergency. Fox News reports:
Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico, with his family this week as Texas dealt with a winter storm that left millions without power, Fox News has confirmed.
Photographs of Cruz, R-Texas, at an airport began circulating on social media late Wednesday, with people alleging that the senator had left the state for Cancun amid a major crisis. A Republican source told Fox News that the allegations Cruz was traveling to the Mexican city are true.
“The photos speak for themselves,” the source said. Cruz’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Thursday morning.
Cruz put out a statement saying his family asked to go on a vacation so he accompanied them to Cancun but meant to return today. But there are reports his original return ticket was for Saturday. Not a good look abandoning your state during an enormous natural disaster, Rafael.
Guess which US Senator from Texas flew to Cancun while the state was freezing to death and having to boil water? pic.twitter.com/fNY00EmMMR
Cruz's statement suggests he always planned to come back today and wasn't planning to vacation in Mexico. This report indicates he's lying. https://t.co/qljaKdbYIh
Heidi Cruz is a managing director at Goldman Sachs and a Harvard graduate. I think she's entirely capable of navigating airports with her kids on her own. Ted Cruz is a liar, a fraud, and a human piece of garbage.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) More players sign up for political theater as 11 Republican Senators announce they will join in objecting to certifying state Electoral College results. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is apparently up for joining Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for the reindeer games on Wednesday in an attempt to play up to Donald Trump and his followers as he’s certain to make another run for the White House in 2024. From Axios:
Cruz, who, like Hawley, is thought to be considering a 2024 presidential bid, plans to release a statement this afternoon announcing his plans. Once the Texas Republican does so, several other senators from his party are expected to follow in a coordinated effort they consider distinct from Hawley’s.
Republicans involved in these talks include Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
Basically, the exercise on Wednesday will consist of reading the results of each state in alphabetical order. If a House member and a Senator object in writing to any state’s results the two chambers separate and are given two hours to debate whether to accept the challenge. In that the House is controlled by the Democrats, we know the House will vote the effort down. Even though the Senate is led by a bare Republican majority, Democrats will only need a handful of sane GOPers to vote down any challenge. But what this will do is slow down the confirmation of the Electoral College by a rate of two hours for each state the nutjobs challenge. IF the Senate were to agree to the challenge and the House oppose it, the Electoral College Act calls for the tie to be broken by counting the slate of electors certified by the top executive officer of a state – the governor. “The votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted.” In all of the swing states Trump has tried to question – Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada – the governors have certified Joe Biden electors. All that to say, as I began, that this is all political theater.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be President and Vice President of the United States in 18 days.
It is a sad and tragic day for our country that 140 members of the House of Representatives, 13 senators and a defeated president are attempting to undermine American democracy and our Constitution.
With all due respect to my Republican colleagues in the Senate who are doing this: can you please get a grip? Election officials across the country, including Republican Governors, have certified these results. This is embarrassing. https://t.co/J4GY3TbIZX
So tell me Ted, you believe there was fraud in 7 States, but not in your own State? You believe that 81 Million Americans Votes Dont Matter? You believe the Media Doesn’t Call the Elections, but in 2016 when they did it was ok… Imagine if Hillary didn’t Concede? @tedcruz
Today Ted Cruz called to overturn the 2020 election by creating an “Electoral Commission” to review Trump’s FABRICATED claims of fraud. BTW the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was created after the corrupt Electoral Commission failed America as Cruz is aware. https://t.co/6FdQnejxx1
• Finally, a public bathroom sign (above) that makes sense.
• The Advocate takes a look at newly-announced presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s history on LGBTQ issues.
• GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has been fined $35,000 for failing to disclose $1 million in campaign funds.
• Michael Jackson fans are suing his alleged victims for taking part in the recent HBO documentary Leaving Neverland for sullying the memory of the pop star.
• Indie singer/songwriter/producer Lauv (nominated for “Best New Pop Artist at the 2019 iHeart Radio Music Awards) drops his stripped-down video of hit single “i’m so tired…” with Troye Sivan.
Lauv said on the stripped performance, “Troye and I went to Henson Recording Studios to make this acoustic version of ‘i’m so tired…’ and we ended up including the infamous bridge. Also, Troye is an angel…go check it out and enjoy.”
Troye added, “I’ve had the insane joy of playing this song live now for the last few weeks and have never felt a ground swell like this for a song I’m on before. So excited to put out this acoustic version of ‘i’m so tired…’ with Lauv!”
We all knew this was coming. I’m just surprised it took this long.
A new anti-Ted Cruz ad from Progressive Change Committee (not affiliated with Beto O’Rourke campaign) uses images of Sen. Ted Cruz and sound bites from Donald Trump to describe the Texas Republican:
“I must tell you something about Ted Cruz. I have never, never met someone who lies more than Ted Cruz.
One of the great liars of all time. That’s why we call him ‘Lyin’ Ted.’
Lyin’ Ted! He holds the Bible high, and then he lies.
Ted Cruz, he’s taken so much money from so many different people, and he’s totally controlled.
He’s a nasty guy, nobody likes him, nobody in Congress likes him.
Cruz is not a truthful person.
Cruz is the most dishonest guy I think I’ve ever met in politics.”
Donald Trump says that he and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz have buried the animosity of the 2016 Republican primary as he heads to Texas today.
“He’s not ‘Lyin Ted’ anymore; he’s ‘Beautiful Ted!'”
Trump is traveling to Texas to hold a massive get-out-the-vote rally for Cruz in the final days of a closer-than-expected race against Democrat Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
Watch below.
WATCH: President Trump on his evolved relationship with Sen. Cruz: “He’s not Lyin’ Ted anymore, he’s Beautiful Ted.” pic.twitter.com/nThXaBL1Kq
The editorial board of the Houston Chronicle, the hometown newspaper of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, has endorsed his Democratic opponent, Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
With eyes clear but certainly not starry, we enthusiastically endorse Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate. The West Texas congressman’s command of issues that matter to this state, his unaffected eloquence and his eagerness to reach out to all Texans make him one of the most impressive candidates this editorial board has encountered in many years.
Despite the long odds he faces – pollster nonpareil Nate Silver gives O’Rourke a 20 percent chance of winning – a “Beto” victory would be good for Texas, not only because of his skills, both personal and political, but also because of the manifest inadequacies of the man he would replace.
Ted Cruz — a candidate the Chronicle endorsed in 2012, by the way — is the junior senator from Texas in name only. Exhibiting little interest in addressing the needs of his fellow Texans during his six years in office, he has kept his eyes on a higher prize.
He’s been running for president since he took the oath of office — more likely since he picked up his class schedule as a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Houston’s Second Baptist High School more than three decades ago. For Cruz, public office is a private quest; the needs of his constituents are secondary.
RealClearPolitics’ average of polls shows Cruz ahead of O’Rourke by 7 points.
Democratic senatorial candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke has raised more than three times the amount of incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz for the upcoming midterm elections.
U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, raised $38.1 million for his U.S. Senate campaign in the third quarter, a new record for the largest fundraising quarter ever in a U.S. Senate race, according to his campaign.
The haul more than tripled Republican incumbent Ted Cruz’s fundraising for the past three months, which Cruz has said was over $12 million. O’Rourke has consistently raised more than Cruz in the race, but this is the widest gap yet.
The $38.1 million is by far the largest amount raised in a quarter by a Senate candidate, surpassing Republican Rick Lazio’s record of $22 million in 2000 for his bid against Democrat Hillary Clinton in New York.
Cruz currently averages a 7 point lead in the polls according to RealClearPolitics.
And according to the most recent Texas Senate Quinnipiac poll, Cruz leads O’Rourke, 54%-45%.
Plus, Cruz’s favorability is +8 (52-44) while O’Rourke has a divided 45%-47% (-2) favorability rating.
Although, I see RCP doesn’t list this new poll from Reuters/IPSOS that shows O’Rourke leading by 2 points.
The race for Ted Cruz’s U.S. Senate seat keeps getting more and more heated as polls show Cruz in almost a dead heat with Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in three decades.
Last week it was reported that an activist group is raising money to place anti-Cruz billboards in the state quoting a 2016 Donald Trump tweet which claimed Cruz was “all talk, no action.”
Trump has now announced that he would be holding a “major rally” for Cruz in Texas next month.
Several recent polls have shown Cruz and O’Rourke in a dead heat, though the deep-red state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in three decades.
In related news, possible 2020 presidential challenger Michael Avenatti says he will hold a competing “resistance rally” in Texas at the same time as the Cruz/Trump event.
I am excited to announce that I will be leading a large resistance rally in Texas at the exact same time of Trump’s (details tba). All groups are welcome to join. We must fight fire with fire and we must send a message that we will fight to make America America again. #Basta
• The first Quinnipiac University poll for this year’s race for Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat in the U.S. Senate is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), his Democratic challenger, only 3 points behind Cruz 47%/44%. O’Rourke has raised $6.7 million compared to Cruz’s $3.2 million in campaign donations.
• Lobbyists at the anti-LGBT organizations the Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council were secretly involved in drafting the Trump administration’s policy banning transgender military service members. And now those same folks are hopping mad because their communications have been subpoenaed which could reveal to the world their hateful statements.
• Fraternity brothers at a joint-hosted Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Sigma Xi-Lambda off-campus party last Friday broke the leg of a gay man in an alleged homophobic attack. Watch the report below.
