Saturday, August 31, 2019

I Ain'tOne To Gossip But ....


Remember that cringeworthy moment at the Oscars a few years ago when totally-not-gay John Travolta introduced Idina Menzel as “Adele Dazeem”? Yeah, well, he’s at it again.

At this year’s MTV VMAs Travolta, along with totally-not-closeted Queen Latifah—do I sense a theme?—presented the Video Of The Year award to Taylor Swifty for You Need To Calm Down. And Travolta handed the statuette to a drag queen he thought was Swifty.

Perhaps he didn’t know who Swifty was, even though she opened the show … and when she won for her video, she gave Classic Swifty-Who-Me-Realness, and still Travolta picked a drag queen—Jade Jolie, from RuPaul’s Drag Race—as the real Taylor Swift.

But at least he got her name right.
Methinks he doth protest too much.

Prince Andrew recently claimed in a second official statement that he knew Jeffrey Epstein and saw him once or twice a year, but that he never saw Epstein do anything inappropriate with underage girls.

Back in 2009, Paul Page, a former police officer who served in the Royal Protection Command [RPC] talked about Andy’s ALLEGED visitors at Buckingham Palace, and now, thanks to The Mirror,  his words are out there for everyone’s enjoyment … well except for Andy and his mum, The Queen.

Page made the ALLEGATIONS against Prince Andrew while on trial in ’09 for investment fraud; he was found guilty and given six years in jail. Page’s testimony about Andrew was locked up, but now it’s out there:
“It was not just the royalty protection officers who abused their position, members of the Royal Household also frequently did. The biggest culprit was Prince Andrew … [who] … would often have lady friends come to visit, including frequent visits by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the disgraced late Robert Maxwell.”
Ghislaine Maxwell is the woman who ALLEGEDLY recruited women for Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, and Page says Maxwell made frequent palace calls and always brought young women with her. Page claims Ghislaine and the female guests never signed the Buckingham Palace gate book, and that members of the RPC would drive the secret female guests home.

Page’s  former RPC boss Dai Davies confirmed that members of the Royal family can bring in guests without checking them in, because it’s “their home.” Davies also confirmed that Prince was known to have many “glamorous good-looking young ladies,” but that he wasn’t aware any of them were underage.

To be fair, having random women show up at the palace probably isn’t anything new, but if they were brought to Andy by Ghislaine Maxwell, it doesn’t look good, eh?
Lori Loughlin, the star of College Admissions Scam, went back to court this week with her College Admissions Scam designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli and if you saw her enter the courthouse, you’d know she thinks her goose is cooked.

The first time she appeared in court Loughlin was smiling and waving to “fans,” and may have even signed an autograph or bribery check, but this week, she was head down, eye contact avoiding and rushing into court.

Why? Well, Lori has ALLEGEDLY been Googling herself—and not in the fun way—and is a’scurred this won’t turn out well. But that’s what happens when you pay some hustler half-a-million dollars to make up fake credits, fake resumes, fake accomplishments, to get your two less-than-intelligent daughters into USC.

And even worse than waiting for a Google alert about yourself is the fact that Lori and Mossimo have seen their neighbors become just so busy they can’t come to the pool party, or return that cup of sugar, or be a character witness for them.

Prison might be a nice change.
Well, Billy Bush … yes, that Billy Bush, the one who laughed as _____ talked about grabbing women “by the pussy” … has got a new gig.

Bush is set to host a revamped edition of Extra, now called ExtraExtra—who thinks of these names, they’re a genius?—and swears he will be better at this job than he was the last one.

Meaning that if a racist blob of orange goo jokes about grabbing women’s pussies, he won’t laugh.

Bitch, please, you will always be known as the man, the husband and father of daughters, who laughed about sexual assault. But, hey, at least you’re making coins again, right?
Nothing funnier than a TV judge getting busted. Amirite, Judge Mathis?

It appears that a valet in Detroit has accused Mathis of being a cranky diva by shrieking at him and spitting at him because Mathis had to wait for his car like regular folk.

I hope the valet sues and Mathis goes before Judge Judy because she will hand him his ass in a hot minute!
Oh, the Stewart-Goop Feud is heating up again, and I am living for it!

It seems that the Bloods and Crips of the lifestyle brand market—Martha Stewart and Gwyneth Paltrow—are at it again, and Martha has backup.

While on the season premiere of Barstool Sport’s The Corp podcast, Martha was asked by host Alex Rodriguez about her long-standing spat with Poop, er, Goop, and we learned that the beef is real, and still on-going. A-Rod asked Stewart about her businesses in the lifestyle, cooking and publishing markets, and then asked about Goop—because he’s banging JLo and he loves some tea—like this:
“How would you describe what Gwyneth Paltrow is doing today versus what Martha Stewart created years ago.”
And Martha, who has politely asked that Paltrow stick to acting … hehe “acting” … pulled an ‘I don’t know her’ moment about Gwynnie, saying:
“I don’t follow goop. Sometimes I look at products that she’s selling … I wish every young entrepreneur well and I hope that there are many, many, many different kinds of entrepreneurs … if they’re movie stars or hardworking women like I am, who are not movie stars… If they have a good idea, I want them to be able to succeed. So good luck, Gwyneth.”
If they are movie stars or hardworking women like I am.

Damn, Martha, you still got. Whoever said prison would soften you didn’t know what they were talking about.
In the wake of the Is-Taylor-Swift-A-Drag-Queen  moment at the VMAs John Travolta is back on damage control for being a bona fide asshat.

Travolta was on Dallas-Fort Worth’s Hot 93.3, and when asked about the mess-up, he shrugged and made it sound like he didn’t mistake Jade for Taylor … except he did … and also said that no matter what he does … like totally f**king up Idina Menzel’s name, it makes headlines:
“There’s so many people that bombarded the stage, that I was looking for [Swift]. So, the video has me trying to find her, and you know, I thought it was so funny the way it was interpreted. And it’s cool, I didn’t care.”
But the point, ma’am, is that Swifty cared. You practically Kanye’d her again!

But the real gem of the interview is when he talked about other things he’s done that make news … and, no, he’s not talking about that lip-lock with his private pilot a few years ago; it’s this:
“If I shave my head, it’s headlines.”
Shave your head? Bitch, please, you took your rug off.

Friday, August 30, 2019

I Didn't Say It ...


Beth Ditto, singer, shades Taylor Swift for her sudden LGBTQ activism:

“I was like, great anthem… straight white girl? Cool, thanks. Released just in time for Pride! I wonder where the proceeds are going for that, you know? That’s the thing that bothers me about it.”

I’m also bothered by the fact that Swifty was never very vocally pro-LGBTQ—she did donate to fight an anti-LGBTQ referendum in Tennessee last year—and then suddenly she has a video featuring every gay theme she can come up with; using the LGBTQ community as accessories in a music video.
Go.Away.Swifty.
Pete Buttigieg, on the anniversary of John McCain’s death, noting the death of the GOP under _____:

“John McCain did a remarkable job of reaching out to people of different persuasions. He was very convincing to independents because he did not appear to be dogmatic and he really prided himself, I think, on openness—especially with the press. I have taken a lot of lessons from that, even though my values and ideas are very different than his were. I do think he had that capacity to see across the aisle, to partner with others. Something that is on desperately short supply in the Republican Party right now. I think they are poorer as a party for having evolved from the party of John McCain to the party of [_____].”

McCain was never my favorite, but compared to _____ and the GOP of today, he was a saint.
Patricia Ward Kelly, Gene Kelly’s widow, in an open letter to Lara Spencerfor her slamming of Prince George taking ballet:

“In 1958, my late husband, the dancer, director, choreographer Gene Kelly, decided to take on the stigma facing male dancers in an Omnibus television program for NBC that he created and starred in called “Dancing, A Man’s Game.” He hoped that by aligning the great sports stars of the day—Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas, Vic Seixas, Sugar Ray Robinson, among others—he could challenge and destroy the shame surrounding male dancers once and for all. For Gene it was more than a professional task. It was, in his words, a personal “crusade” to show that dancers are athletes and that it is okay for a man to be graceful. As he says in the special: “What could be more graceful than a football player throwing a pass—what is more excitingly beautiful than the swift movement of a double play? Every motion a good athlete makes is as beautiful as any a dancer makes. Gene would be devastated to know that 61 years after his ground-breaking work, the issue of boys and men dancing is still the subject of ridicule—and on a national network. ABC must do better.

Gene Kelly knew better in 1958., but 51 years later Lara Spencer, in a feeble attempt at humor, perpetuates gender roles.
Bill Maher, on the impending _____-created recession:

“I’m just saying we can survive a recession. We’ve had 47 of them. We’ve had one every time there’s a Republican president. They don’t last forever. You know what lasts forever? Wiping out species!”

Wiping out racist Republican presidents by voting them out helps, too. Oh, and remember that last recession, the one during W’s term that Obama fixed? Yeah, we can do that again.
Kanye West, speaking out of his ass on his new “fashion” line:

“I’ll be working on designs and looking at references from 3,000 years ago and reading the Old Testament at the same time. [Leviticus] says ‘You should keep my statutes. You should not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.’ I tell my apparel team that the clothes that we’re using are of a single material. I remember sending a manager I used to work with a really rude email about how every time he wore this wool jacket with leather sleeves, he set culture back by ten years. So now I can send him the verse from the Bible that says, ‘You should not wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of materials.'”

I wonder how this illiterate tool feels about shellfish and football and the LGBTQ community.
Candice Keller, Ohio State GOP Representative, blaming these last two mass shootings on gay marriage, drag queen advocates, and President Obama:

“After every mass shooting, the liberals start the blame game. Why not place the blame where it belongs? The breakdown of the traditional American family (thank you, transgender, homosexual marriage, and drag queen advocates); fatherlessness, a subject no one discusses or believes is relevant; the ignoring of violent video games; the relaxing of laws against criminals (open borders); the acceptance of recreational marijuana; failed school policies (hello, parents who defend misbehaving students): disrespect to law enforcement (thank you, Obama).”

Funny, you ignorant tool, the El Paso shooting blamed immigrants and channeled white supremacist hate speech from your party’s leader.
Not one word about The Gays, drag queens or even Obama.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice, and hero of mine, on people on the right trying to hurry her death:

“There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced, with great glee, that I was going to be dead within six months. That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now dead himself, and I, am very much alive.”

I saw a Tweet that said the first person that will live to be 150 has already been born, and someone replied that they hoped it was RBG.
So do I.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Bobservations


The other night Tuxedo and I were watching television when Carlos came into the room and joined us. We watched for a while and then it was time to go to bed. I do what I always do, pick Tuxedo up from my lap, give him smooches and ask if he’s ready for … well, it goes like this:
“Are you ready for sleeps? Do you want some sleeps? Let’s go sleeps.”
Carlos says:
“Are you talking to me?”
Yes, he thought for a hot minute that I, a grown-assed man—albeit a cat loving grown-assed man—would say to another grown-assed man:
“Are you ready for some sleeps? Do you want some sleeps? Let’s go sleeps.”
Oy. He kills me.
The other morning Lara Spencer and the Good Morning America team ridiculed news that Prince George was interested in pursuing ballet: Spencer said:
“Prince William says ‘Prince George absolutely loves ballet.’ I’ve got news for you, Prince William. We’ll see how long that lasts.”
And they all laughed because grown-ups, parents of children of their own mind you, find it high-larious in 20-effing-19 that a boy might like ballet, or maybe he’d grow up to be a little light in his loafers if allowed to dance.

Spencer was rightly dragged all over social media by male dancers who asked why in the world she would say such things and on Monday morning, she apologized and then had a sit down with three male dancers to sort of explain why she shouldn’t have said what she said.

Um, Lara? Because it’s 2019 and if boys want to dance, let ‘em. And if girls wanna play football, let ‘em. Save your gender bias for your own family.

Asshat. And as for the rest of you on GMA who laughed? Fuck you, too.
Pope Francis wants us all to pray for the fires in the Amazon to get under control … like politicians who send their prayers after mass shootings.

Forget the prayers. Howsabout asking for the world to take this fire, these fires, as seriously as they all took the fire at Notre Dame, because last I checked, the burning of that cathedral wasn’t affecting the entire planet.

I pray for world leaders to do something rather than pray. Okay, Frankie?
Marysville, Michigan  political newcomer and city council candidate,  Jean Cramer stunned an election forum last week by answering a question about the diversity of Marysville with this:
“Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible.”
Yes, she did. And, after others in the forum denigrated Cramer for her blatant racism, a reporter asked if she wanted to clarify her response:
“As long as, how can I put this? What Kathy Hayman [someone who spoke about having a biracial family] doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong. (A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not.”
She’s against anyone who isn’t white having anything to do with white people.

If you can see how this doesn’t make her a racist, point it out to men, please.

UPDATE: Cramer has dropped out of the race, proving that if you wanna get rid of a racist, shine a light on them and they'll scurry back under the dryer like a cockroach.
The Kansas City Health Department is facing backlash for pouring bleach on meals meant for the homeless earlier this month while citing issues related to how the food was prepared. 

Apparently, Free Hot Soup KC had intended to distribute food—home-cooked chili, foil-wrapped sandwiches and soup—to the homeless, but the city's health department confiscated the items at separate parks where the food was meant to be distributed. Officials claim the volunteer group did not have a permit and that the food was not prepared in approved kitchens, therefore deeming it a public safety risk. 

Okay, but wasn’t there any way to check the food, or check the kitchen where it was prepared before deciding to dump bleach on it?

Oh, and Free Hot Soup KC returned to that same park with meals on hand on Sunday and no health officials intervened in that gathering.

I guess they were all at church?
Vaping.

How does anyone with a brain firing on more than two cylinders truly think that sucking hot air into your lungs is a healthy alternative to smoking?

How stupid are we?
You ever wonder why _____ is always ranting about Chicago …. maybe it’s because Chicago will not let up on him.

Oh, too bad, so sad.

See, _____ billboards get vandalized as soon as they go up, the University of Illinois is in an uproar over his speaking engagement and now the Wiener's Circle, one of Chicago's best hot dog stands, is offering _____ his very own special menu item:

A 3-inch hot dog called the "_____ footlong." Wiener's Circle employees are also wearing hats that say "Make Wiener's great again."

I love you, Chicago.
Liars gonna lie … a viral clip from the G7 hit social media this week proving that not only does Melanie not speak French, but that she forgot she told everyone she could.

During a joint press conference between French President Emmanuel Macron and her husband, Macron spoke French for many long-form answers and Melanie, who we’ve been told speaks fluent French, needed the translation headset to understand Macron.

Or, maybe she was using it when her husband spoke to translate gibberish into nonsense?

And then, also at the G7, _____ claimed that Melanie has “gotten to know” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even though everyone, even his own White House, admits the two have never met.

And then … CNN accused _____ of lying after reviewing photos from the G7 summit and determining that the White House ran cover for him not attending a climate change meeting.

Cuz his chair was empty during the meeting.

Truth be told, however, an empty chair was probably more useful in a climate change summit than _____.
Pretty soon it’ll be an empty house … Jerri Ann Henry, the executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, has resigned over the group’s endorsement of _____ for reelection.

Henry, who was the first woman to lead the LCR, submitted her resignation last Friday and left on Monday citing her discontent with _____ and dissatisfaction with LCR’s endorsement of him.

She joins Jennifer Horn, Robert Turner II, who once led LCR’s D.C. chapter, and Rachel Hoff, who gained notoriety during the 2016 Republican National Convention for arguing for LGBT inclusion in the Republican Party during the platform drafting process.

It looks like soon the LCR will be just delusional Log Cabin spokesman Charles Moran.

Sorry, not sorry.
Now for a palate cleanser … Hot Man, model and fitness instructor,  Trevor Michael Opalewski.


Sexy. Fit. Hot. Nekkid.


Okurrrrrr …


Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Architecture Wednesday: Le Phare, The Lighthouse


This is Le Phare—the Lighthouse—a home, built in 2010, in the region of Cap-à-l’Aigle in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada.

The Lighthouse is part of Les Terrasses Cap-à-l’Aigle, a residential hillside development offering stunning views of the town of La Malbaie, the St. Lawrence River and the surrounding mountains.

The architects designed the house to appear as though it was coming out of the steep terrain, and topped it with an environmentally-friendly green roof that also makes it part of the landscape, while acting as an insulating layer to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer.

A wide gateway that doubles as a carport and covered entrance rests on a retaining wall/storage unit that was necessary given the condition of the very steep terrain. On the ground floor is the main living areas, a continuous open plan without any apparent structure, and windows facing east, south, and west. The lower level accommodates four bedrooms and two full bathrooms arranged in a linear way following a clear axis perpendicular to the main volume above allowing for each room to get a view.

It’s the kind of house that appears to float above the landscape while clearly being part of it; it’s the kind of house that maintains its simplicity while offering the most stunning views. It’s the kind of house where you can truly get away from it all, while looking out at it all.

Click to emBIGGERate ...


_____'s Gay Hating Gay Boasting Hypocrisy


It seems like it was just last week… cuz it was … when _____ bragged about his endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans, an ALLEGED LGBTQ group, saying he was the best ally of our community. And for a hot minute, right after he was elected, it appeared to be true …

Fourteen days after his ill-attended inauguration, _____ did something  that, at first, seemed like the right thing to do: the White House put out a press release promising to safeguard LGBTQ rights, specifically claiming that _____ would not overturn a 2014 Obama administration executive order protecting LGBTQ employees of federal contractors from workplace discrimination.

And then he began chipping away at our rights, and late last week it was announced that his administration would like to make it legal for LGBTQ Americans to be fired simply for being themselves. The White House is filing a series of briefs in three critical LGBTQ rights cases set to be heard by the Supreme Court this fall as to whether the protections of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sex, extends to sexual orientation and gender identity. 

In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, gay men say they were fired because of their sexual orientation, while in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes up the case of a funeral director named Aimee Stephens who was fired from her job after transitioning to female.

Can you, or me, or any LGBTQ American be fired just for being LGBTQ? Well, after that first of many thousands of lies he’s told America in general, and our community specifically, _____has made it clear that his position is: Yes, you can.

And yet the LCR still stands behind him, licking his … boots? We are being shoved back into the closet by a man who has called himself our greatest ally, and who promised not to do this very thing.

The DOJ is also trying to overturn a ruling that set a major precedent back in 1988—Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins—that defined “sex discrimination” as including gender stereotyping. In that case, Ann Hopkins was denied a promotion at consulting firm Price Waterhouse because, as a Lesbian, she was viewed as too aggressive. The court found that this type of stereotyping fell under the definition of sex discrimination.

And all three new cases—Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia; Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda; R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—are relying on the Hopkins decision to show that discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status is a form of gender stereotyping. 

Don Zarda, a skydiving instructor, was fired after revealing to a client that he had an ex-husband; had he been female, such an admission wouldn’t have triggered a dismissal. In Stephens’ case, she’s being accused of violating the funeral home’s dress code, but had she been a cisgender woman, there would be no violation. But the DOJ brief discounts that argument, claiming that discriminating against Stephens was OK because the funeral home owner, Thomas Rost, would’ve also discriminated against a transgender man.

Oh, well doesn’t that make it all better.

The DOJ brief also mentions Thomas Rost’s religious beliefs, even though they’re not part of his argument. The brief makes sure to quote Rost’s assertion that allowing Stephens to present as a woman “would be violating God’s commands if [he] were to permit one of … male funeral directors to wear the uniform for female funeral directors while at work.”

But it’s not just SCOTUS and the DOJ; using religion, and let’s be queer, it’s the white Christian faith, as a shield for bigotry and homo- and transphobia, _____’s Labor Department has proposed a rule that makes it easier for companies to discriminate against LGBTQ workers because of God.

Now remember, this is from the guy who called himself our greatest ally, and who promised to keep us safe from discrimination, but, again, just last week a reporter at the Washington Blade asked _____ if he was OK with his administration taking steps to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce and _____ refused to answer, saying, instead:
“I’ve done very well with that community and some of my biggest supporters are of that community, and I talk to them a lot about it. I think I’ve done really very well with that community.”
Well, sir, that community, other than the self-loathing asshats in the LCR who have yet to jump ship because they’re enjoying a nice tax cut which helps them look away from hatred and homophobia, is not with you.

And our allies are not with you.

And even if you call yourself our ally, be clear that in 2015, you pulled in just 14% of the LGBTQ vote, and I don’t see that number getting higher this next time around.

We’re here.

We’re queer.

And we see you as the lying homophobic jackass that you are.