 |
Viola Davis, actor, on a Halloween costume at Target that seems a bit racist and the store’s apology for it: “Target, I do not accept your apology, and I do not believe that you understand the impact … the pain … the dehumanization of the above. These images laid the foundation and the ideology for every atrocity that has been committed against my people. We MATTER!! You have shown us that you are not on OUR side.” Target called the costume the "Kids’ Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume.” I think they totally missed the mark and even I see the hideous history behind that costume. Target pulled the item—that’s it, below right--and said the company “got this wrong,” was “deeply sorry,” and is “looking closely at how this happened.” Some racist running things at HQ seems plausible.  |
 |
Zohran Mamdani, Democrat Socialist Mayor of New York City,
on the mourning of both Israelis and Palestinians: “There must be room to mourn the lives of the more than 1100 Israelis that Hamas killed three years ago. There must be room to mourn the 74,000 Palestinians the Israeli government [has] killed since. What I appreciated about being at the vigil yesterday was a vigil that brought together New Yorkers to read testimonies of their own family members [and] of others who’ve been killed either on that day or in the genocide since and ends with a shared vision for peace and an end to the genocide.” This killing needs to end. Why the government of Israel would decimate an entire
country because of a group of terrorists is beyond me. Punish Hama and not the
people. And blame Israel for it, not the Jewish people. |
 |
Andrew Scott, out actor starring in Elsinore in
which he plays Ian Charleson who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1989 and the
importance of telling stories about the AIDS crisis: “I welcome things like Heartstopper and Heated Rivalry and Red, White, and Royal Blue and all those things that are joyful. I really, really, really do. And I think the fact that there’s lots of different types of gay drama, so to speak, on film [and] television is extraordinary. It troubles me a little bit because I think people perhaps don’t want to go back to a time when you’re talking about the AIDS crisis, or you’re talking about [a time] when it was incredibly difficult for gay people. I think that sometimes comes from a place of shame. You go, ‘I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to see that anymore.’ There’s something a little troubling about that for me, to say: ‘I don’t want to go and see something that was a difficult time.’ Because the shame does not lie with the gay people. The shame lies with the governments who ignored the AIDS crisis and the stigma that was around people and the innate prejudice that was in society. That’s someone else’s shame.” The shame is those who did nothing. The shame is on those who cheered gay men dying. We must never forget. |
 |
Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation Secretary Pete
Buttigieg, saying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should resign: “Well, Secretary Hegseth is attacking Americans he disagrees with politically, while failing to deal with the actual enemy in Iran so he has no business lecturing various people domestically that he doesn’t like. He needs to get to work and get us better results. [Hegseth and the Cankles’ regime] have created a huge strategic problem for the United States that will reverberate long beyond this war itself because they brought out the kinetic power of the most powerful military in the world, the American military, and failed to get their way,” Buttigieg said. “When that happens, you have created a massive problem for the safety of the American people, for the credibility of the American military. [Hegseth] should be working overtime, or better yet, he should be stepping aside and letting somebody who knows what they’re doing take that all-important office at the Pentagon and try to do a better job.” Buttigieg noted that the current president promised not to
get into foreign wars, and noted that the presidential administration pledged
to get Iran’s unconditional surrender and to keep the Strait of Hormuz, an
international waterway vital to global trade, open. Now, nearly eight months
into the conflict, Iran hasn’t surrendered, and the strait remains closed. |
 |
Dan Levy, out actor, has called out ALLEGED comedian Shane
Gillis over remarks he made about women during his SNL opening monologue last weekend: “Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them ‘whores’ misogynists. There's a difference there. By the way, I've seen more men's nipples at the gym than I've ever seen women showing their bodies off. But I'm speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it's complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted and it's a 'conversation' as opposed to a 'crime.' This is not a women's issue, this is an everybody issue. Because the more that men objectify women in the media, the more that other men see them as objects and treat them as objects. They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, OK? And I'm sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet, but fuck." Levy specifically took issue with a portion of Gillis'
monologue in which the comedian described going to the gym and observing that
"women just dress like whores now." So, so funny … cough. |
