Random Musings

That picture of Mittsy and _____ sharing a candlelight meal looked, to me, like the most Grindr date in the world ... and, is it just me, or does anyone else think Mittsy could write a book on how a man can go from being a con man and a fraud and the worst possible candidate for president in all of history, to being the great unifier of the American people in a matter of months. Or, maybe Mittsy will write a book on how he kissed some ass to get a government job.

It’s no secret around Casa bob y Carlos that when it comes to decorating for the holidays—that’s our home this year—I become somewhat of a tyrant.

So, I made a little mash-up of who I am on Decorating Day. Look familiar?

The Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. is reminding us, in the wake of white supremacists openly offering Nazi salutes and denigrating Jews, that “the Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words”:

“The Museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders, and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hateful speech.”

That was the museum’s response to the meeting of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank headed by Nazi poster boy Richard Spencer, who resurrected Nazi propaganda and wondered out loud if Jews “are people at all.”

That’s worth remembering the next time you hear someone call Spencer and his ilk the “Alt-Right” because Alt-Right means white supremacists.

So, when you see these people, look them in the eye and say something because Hate will almost always look away, or scurry back into the darkness.

Last weekend Carlos and I watched Sausage Party OnDemand™. It’s an R-rated cartoon about food and, well, the very idea of a hot dog f**king a hot dog bun was high-larious.

Just sayin’.

Get ready for a _____ White House, where his children will lurk in the corners, and where President ____ will be listening to his team of advisors, riddled with white nationalists, climate deniers, and those swamp dwellers he promised to take out of politics.

So a group has started a _____ investigative fund with the goal of raising $100,000 through sales of a t-shirt.

Resist. ThinkProgress will be hard at work exposing the realities of a _____ presidency, like how he will, okay, ALLEGEDLY, use his power to grease the wheels on a construction project in Argentina that will directly enrich his own family ... on his cozy relationship with both the Alt-Right and the NRA.

If you want to help, Resist. One hundred percent of the proceeds go towards resistance.

The father of a California soldier recently killed in Afghanistan says he felt disrespected and hurt by passengers who booed him and his family when they were on a flight to meet his son's remains.

Recently, Stewart Perry, his wife and daughter were on an American Airlines flight from Sacramento to Philadelphia with a transfer in Phoenix to receive the remains of his son, Sgt. John Perry, who had died in battle.

The flight to Phoenix was 45 minutes late and the crew, fearing the Gold Star family might miss their connecting flight, made an announcement for passengers to remain seated to let a "special military family" deplane first.

Sweet, right? Kind, no?

Well, not for those passengers in First-Class who booed the announcement and complained that they paid first-class fares meaning they were the special passengers.

America in The Age of _____. Me first.

SyFy has a new show called Incorporated, set in a 2074 where corporations have seemingly unlimited power—not a stretch really .... The show centers around Ben Larson, a young executive who risks everything to infiltrate the all-controlling corporate world and save the woman he loves.

More importantly than that, is that Larson is played by Sean Teale and he.is.hot.

Just sayin’.

So, cereal giant Kellogg’s has decided to cease advertizing on ultra-conservative website Breitbart, as is their right, and released this statement:

“We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that are not aligned with our values as a company. We recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are working to remove our ads from that site.”

Now, the usual suspects are crying foul, with Breitbart leading the charge:

“Kellogg’s decision to blacklist one of the largest conservative media outlets in America is economic censorship of mainstream conservative political discourse. That is as un-American as it gets.”

Freedom of Speech is un-American? Choosing when and where you advertize is un-American? Oh, Breitbart, sit down.

In high-larious news, if former CIA director and retired General David Petraeus win the heart of President-elect _____ and becomes his Secretary of State, maybe _____ can throw in a pardon as well to make the job easier for Petraeus.

See, back in 2015, Petraeus pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information—the stuff he shared as pillow talk with his mistress which, apparently the GOP has no problem with—and that would require a presidential pardon for Petraeus to assume the role of secretary of State.

In addition, Petraeus might have to get his probation officer’s permission to leave the state of North Carolina to travel for his job.

Yup. Sorry about that Middle Eastern crisis, but the Secretary of Sate is still wearing his ankle bracelet and cannot leave the house.

That’s what happens when criminals get government jobs.

Oops. It looks like North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s just about done.

Though he stomped his feet and demanded a recount of every single vote cast in the election—because he lost by 5,000 votes—the recount seems to show that his Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, just broke the 10,000 vote mark, meaning that McCrory has no right to demand a recount.

You’ve been flushed, asshat.

In more high-larity from the _____ transition team is news that half-wit, has-been, half-term, Mama Grizzly Bore™ might be in line to be _____’s Secretary of the VA.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest government agency, with over 300,000 federal employees and a budget of $182 billion for 2017.”

It’s crazy, I know—we all know—but I love that all this lead to Josh Barro—who recently left the GOP for our side—to Tweet:

“Nothing would say "supporting veterans" like appointing a lazy dilettante to oversee their health.”

I don’t usually watch The Voice, but I have been seeing videos of Billy Gilman’s performances  online and I like what I hear.

Gilman made history back in 2000, when at age 11 he became the youngest artist to have a Top 40 hit on the country charts; his debut album went to #2 on Billboard’s Country Chart, and he followed that up with two gold albums. Then things got rocky, either because Billy’s voice changed as he went through puberty or, as he seems to see it, country music lost interest in him when rumors swirled that her might be gay:

“In recent years when I did come back to Nashville, there were rumors and whispers — is he or isn’t he? For many that know Nashville and how much I love the industry… being a gay male country artist is not the best thing. You know, if people don’t like your music, that’s one thing. But after having sold over 5 million records and having a wonderful life in the music industry, I knew something was wrong when no major label wanted to sit down and have a meeting and listen to the new stuff. I’d do a showcase in Nashville and no major label showed.”

Now Billy Gilman is out and may well be the front-runner on The Voice and, gay or straight, he deserves the shot.

Lastly, in our Tweet of the Week, comes pollster Nate Silver fact-checking ditzy blond _____ mouthpieces Kellyanne Conway’s claim that _____ won in an historic landslide:

Sit down, Kellyanne.

Ty Herndon Comes Out ... Then Billy Gilman Does, Too

After nearly two decades in country music and after nearly twenty years of speculation over his sexual orientation, Ty Herndon has come out as gay:

"I have an awesome relationship that I've been in for a good number of years. I] love him very much and he loves me."

Herndon was married twice in the past and revealed that both is ex-wives knew he was gay when they married him; sounds like marriages of convenience to stave off the rumors of his homosexuality.

"I had a lot of people around me that I trusted at a time and I was like, 'Hey, you know this about me but the world doesn't. So I'm gonna need to call on your services for a little while.' It was unfortunate that I had to do that, but I felt that's what I had to do to have my career. Standing on some pretty solid legs today, so I get to tell my truth today."

Truth. That’s what it means; being able to be yourself, love yourself, and let everyone know exactly who you are, damn the torpedoes.

"I've dreamed about being in country music since I was 6 years old. It's my life, it’s what I do, it's who I am, and I went to great lengths to cover up that fact to be to be a country star."

Rumors began circulating about Herndon's sexuality back in 1995, when an undercover male police officer alleged that Herndon exposed himself in a park where he’d gone to buy crystal meth:

"I wish I had really great recall or memory about that. I think I had been up for like 6 days doing drugs the night and the day was really a huge blur for me."

Now fully clean and sober, Herndon is looking forward to a future with Matt, his partner of five years.

Happiness, truthfulness; it’s all in those two words: I‘m gay.

And then, hours later, it happened again …

On the heels of Ty Herndon’s coming out, fellow country music performer Billy Gilman announced that he, too, is gay.

He had his Coming Out on YouTube, and during the five-and-a-half-minute long video, Gilman credited his friend Ty Herndon for making his road a little easier to follow. But, at the same time, he talked about the mere rumor that he might be gay hurt his career, and likely cost him a record deal:

“I threw a showcase in Nashville, and no major label showed. … It’s difficult for me to make this video, not because I’m ashamed of being a gay male artist, or a gay artist or a gay person, but it’s pretty silly to know that I’m ashamed of doing this knowing that I’m in a genre and an industry that’s ashamed of me for being me.”

Several months ago, a reporter took a picture of Gilman and his partner. He says at that moment he knew what he needed to do.

“It was in that moment that I knew that I’d rather it be from me, than you reading it from somewhere else. I can honestly say I’m scared to death.”

Scared, sure, because you never know what the future holds for you, especially in the country music arena.

I mean, look at it: it appears that Ty Herndon was encouraged to get married twice to maintain a heterosexual image; it seems that just the rumor that Billy Gilman was gay stopped him from signing with a major Nashville record label even though he’d been a very popular child star in country music.

And then there’s Chely Wright.

In the late 90's, after years of singing in Nashville, Chely Wright had her first Number One country hit, "Single White Female".  She followed that up with three other top 10 hits and sold over a million singles in the United States. She made her first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry on September 16th, 1989 and made many subsequent appearances, especially after having that Number One. But, since coming out as gay in 2010, Chely Wright she has not once been invited back to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, even though she was considered a regular, pre-2010.

The good news is, that may be changing, slowly. Ty Herndon notes that he’s seeing increased support for gay country singers, and the LGBT community in Nashville and Country Music:

"Traditionally in country music, we don't see a lot of support for the LGBT community, but that's changing so much. Nashville is changing so much. I mean my goodness… Kacey Musgraves won Song of the Year for [the lyrics] 'follow your arrow, wherever it points' and two amazing songwriters that happened to be gay wrote that song."

So, maybe there is hope that gay country artists can record music, can be openly gay, and can be invited back to the Grand Ole Opry.

Failing that, at least allow the good folks at Homo HQ to offer a big “Howdy” and a “Welcome Out” to Ty and Billy, and to make sure they receive the Obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven and a copy of The Gay Agenda.

Welcome out, boys, welcome out.

Ty Herndon

Billy Gilman