Tag: Wisconsin

Posted on

News Round-Up: July 8, 2022

The Supreme Court of Slovenia ruled today that the country's bans on same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples are unconstitutional Some news items you might have missed: • Total Slovenia: The Constitutional Court of Slovenia legalized same-sex marriage and adoptions effective immediately after finding a law under which only heterosexual partners can marry and same-sex couples cannot adopt children to be unconstitutional. Continue reading “News Round-Up: July 8, 2022”

Posted on

When Homophobes Stiffed A Gay Waiter, The Universe Stepped In

Homophobic restaurant guests refused to tip their waiter when they perceived him to be a 'sinful homosexual'

A waiter in Madison, Wisconsin, was surprised to find restaurant customers had refused to tip him this past Sunday night. Instead, they left a homophobic note on the receipt that read, “Service was good but we don’t tip sinful homosexuals.” Continue reading “When Homophobes Stiffed A Gay Waiter, The Universe Stepped In”

Posted on

News Round-Up: January 5, 2021

Nicholas Yatromanolakis

Nicholas Yatromanolakis of Greece
Nicholas Yatromanolakis (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • The Independent: Greece has appointed its first openly gay minister as Nicholas Yatromanolakis, 44, (above) made history after he was named the new deputy minister of culture on Monday. • Instinct Magazine: Out radio host Larry Flick announced on Monday he will be taking a sabbatical from his Sirius XM duties in order to cope with some serious health issues as well as embrace some well-deserved ‘me time.’ • Variety: The Grammy Awards are being postponed until March 14 due to coronavirus-related concerns, a rep for the show confirms to Variety. The show, which is scheduled to be hosted by “The Daily Show”‘s Trevor Noah, was originally scheduled for January 31st.

• NPR: Kyle Rittenhouse, a young gunman facing criminal charges in the killing of two men and the serious injury of a third this summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, entered not guilty pleas to all charges during an arraignment Tuesday. The 18-year-old faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional reckless homicide, and violation of curfew the night of the shootings. • Washington Post: There is compelling evidence that covid-19 will have long-term effects on the brains and nervous systems of survivors as they age, and researchers on Tuesday announced a large international study to investigate the correlation between the coronavirus and cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia in later life. • TikTok: The video influencers are coming for the muscle gays who ignore commonsense guidelines to try and curtail the COVID-19 pandemic.

@dylanhorner1#fyp #covid19 #gay #lgbt #Bye2020 @sam.cushing @tylerspelane @koatysum @jakegrez♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod

Posted on

Wisconsin & Pennsylvania To Team Trump: ‘No’ And ‘No’

Donald Trump

Donald Trump speaking to Axios (screen capture)
First, the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out Donald Trump’s election lawsuit today. The response comes just two days after the Donald asked the high court to toss the certification of a contest he lost by nearly 21,000 votes. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In the 4-3 decision, the justices said they would not accept the case he filed directly with them. The president can try to pursue the matter in a lower court, but Thursday’s ruling is a setback that shows he is near the end of the road with his legal challenges in Wisconsin.”

And then, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Congressman Mike Kelly’s request to declare universal mail-in voting unconstitutional in the state. Kelly and other GOP plaintiffs were asking the high court to either invalidate 2.5 million mail-in votes or to completely erase the 2020 results in the Keystone State and order the GOP-controlled legislature to pick the presidential electors who will vote in the Electoral College. Kelly and company got a one sentence response.

#SoMuchWinning

Posted on

Trump Pays $3 Million For Wisconsin Recount, Biden Wins Again

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has cleared the way for a state ban on the harmful practice of conversion therapy

The recount of the presidential vote in Wisconsin – requested and paid for by the Trump campaign to the tune of $3 million – is complete and it appears Joe Biden’s lead increased by 87 votes. From the Washington Post:

The recount of presidential ballots in Wisconsin’s two largest counties finished Sunday, reconfirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the key swing state by more than 20,000 votes.

After Milwaukee County completed its tally Friday and Dane County concluded its count Sunday, there was little change in the final breakdown of the more than 800,000 ballots that had been cast in the two jurisdictions. As a result of the recount, Biden’s lead over Trump in Wisconsin grew by 87 votes.

“The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday,” tweeted Trump on Saturday as he saw the writing on the wall. “We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!”

Posted on

Biden Gains Votes In Wisconsin Recount Requested By Trump

L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden
Reuters reports the Trump requested recount in Wisconsin’s largest county concluded on Friday with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden gaining votes. Oops. The recount of nearly 460,000 ballots in Milwaukee County showed Biden gained 257 votes to Trump’s 125, resulting in a net gain of 132 votes for Biden. The unofficial statewide tally shows Biden defeated Trump there by about 20,600 votes. Since a full state-wide recount would cost the Trump campaign $7.9 million, the Donald chose to only recount Dane and Milwaukee counties — home to the cities of Madison and Milwaukee for the discount price of $3 million. Such recounts in the past have rarely changed the eventual results by more than a few hundred votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a more extensive statewide recount in 2016 and the recount only altered the results by 131 votes (in Trump’s favor).

Posted on

Trump Campaign Requests Partial Recount Of Wisconsin

With a 5 pm deadline looming today in Wisconsin for the Trump campaign to request (as previously indicated) a recount of the votes cast in the presidential election, which has been estimated to cost $7.9 million, the state has received reportedly received a $3 million payment from Team Trump for a partial recount. From AlterNet:

The recount the campaign is requesting is focused on heavily Democratic Dane County and Milwaukee County since Team Trump regards Democratic votes as inherently suspicious.

President-elect Joe Biden got 577,455 votes in those counties and won Wisconsin as a whole by 20,608 votes.

A recount would start this week and needs to be completed by Dec. 1. It’s extremely unlikely — virtually impossible, even — that even a statewide recount would net Trump more than 20,000 votes. A 2016 recount of the state got him an additional 131 votes.

Posted on

News Round-Up: November 16, 2020

Fitness guru Joel Green (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • Mindful Monday: Fitness expert and InstaHunk Joel Green (above) notes quite wisely, “Some of the best things in life aren’t things.”  • Reuters: The number of coronavirus cases in the United States crossed the 11-million mark on Sunday reaching yet another grim milestone as the third wave of COVID-19 infections surged across the country. Reuters data shows the pace of the pandemic in the United States has quickened, with one million more new cases from just 8 days ago when it hit 10 million, making it the fastest since the pandemic began. • Mediaite: Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui downplayed President Donald Trump’s involvement in the coronavirus vaccine breakthroughs on MSNBC telling viewers that the Trumpster “has never been very actively involved.” • AP News: Donald Trump will have to pay $7.9 million if he wants a statewide recount of unofficial results in Wisconsin showing him losing to Democrat Joe Biden by about 20,500 votes. In 2016, Wisconsin’s recount took about 12 days and only showed a change of 131 votes. • Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A recount in Georgia’s presidential race found more than 2,600 ballots in Floyd County that hadn’t originally been tallied. County election officials apparently didn’t upload votes from a memory card in a ballot-scanning machine. GOP leaders in the county believe Donald Trump could have a net gain of 800 votes from the discovery, which wouldn’t be enough to overcome Joe Biden’s 14,000+ vote lead. • Global News: A Halifax man says police aren’t doing enough to keep him safe after he says he was violently attacked by his neighbor for reporting him for domestic abuse. The victim recorded audio of the attack and posted it on Twitter. Warning: graphic audio.

Posted on

GOP Leaders In Key States Decline To Intervene In Selection Of Electoral College

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
One of the Trump campaign’s big ‘hail Mary’ moves is to try and flip the results of the presidential election by encouraging Republican-controlled state legislatures to disenfranchise voters in their states by picking members of the Electoral College that would vote for Trump instead of the Joe Biden for their state. But GOP leaders in key states flipped by Joe Biden in this election cycle have told the Associated Press they have no plans to subvert state laws.

State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.

“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”

The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden’s popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors.

Team Trump was probably hoping that such ploys would become entangled in legal rabble-rousing that would end up at the Supreme Court where the Donald’s handpicked conservative justices might hand him a win. In related news, the Washington Post reports “two prominent law firms have sought to withdraw from representing the Trump legal effort in Arizona and Pennsylvania.”

Posted on

‘Happy Days’ Stars Reunite For Democrats And Scott Baio’s Not Happy

The cast of ‘Happy Days’
Deadline reports much of the cast of the 1970s ABC sitcom Happy Days will come together for a cast reunion that will benefit the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Fans of the show will recall the series was set in Milwaukee in the 1950s. Scheduled to take part are stars Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Don Most, Anson Williams, Marion Ross and more on Sunday, October 25. It’s only going to be live-streamed once at 6pm CT on Sunday, October 25th. Fans and interested viewers must donate at least $1 to access the virtual fundraiser. Click here for more info. “We’re thrilled a show made famous in Milwaukee is coming back home to help make Donald Trump a one-term President,” said Ben Wikler, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “We know all roads to the White House go through the Badger State, and with the cast of Happy Days helping us raise money to take back the White House, we believe even more we can deliver a victory on November 3rd.”
Scott Baio on Fox Business (screen capture)
That said, Scott Baio, a proud Trump supporter who played ‘Chachi’ on the show, is not thrilled and not taking part. More about bitter Baio from Yahoo News:

Baio told anchor Maria Bartiromo a show like Happy Days with “traditional American values” shouldn’t be used to promote people like Biden and Kamala Harris. He also took aim at John Stamos, who offered to play Baio’s character “Chachi,” labeling the actor an “elite Marxist.”

“I think Stamos always wanted to be Chachi instead of paying second fiddle to a three-year-old,” Baio said, referencing Stamos’s hit show Full House which starred child actors Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

“I have been, you know, [whacked from pillar to post] for the past four years and by people who were supposed to be all-inclusive and understanding and loving,” Baio said. “And they’re all basically… they’re fascists and you’re not allowed to think outside of what they think, and I find it disgusting.”