Bobservations

I am a terrible person to buy gifts for because I really don’t want anything and when I need something, I get it myself. So, as my birthday approached—sidenote: thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday—I told him I’d give him a clue, and here it is:

“The husband of a presidential candidate from last year wrote a book I would like to read.”

“What? Say it again?”

“The husband of a presidential candidate has written a book and I would like to read it.”

Cut to yesterday and there’s a gift on the table—a book—and I open it up to find that it was ‘Trust’ by Pete Buttigieg. I said to Carlos:

“I didn’t realize Pete had written a book … ”

“I thought it was the one you asked for.”

I said, again:

“The husband of a presidential candidate wrote a book …”

“Oh, Chasten?”

“Yes, Chasten.”

We went out for the day and stopped in at Book on Broad where he ordered the book. But. As he asked the shop owner about the book, I heard him say Chasten Buttigieg, and the shop owner said:

“Yes, I have it: ‘Trust.’ By Pete Buttigieg.”

So, it really wasn’t his bad, it was hers. Luckily, he, um, straightened her out.

Tuxedo is growing ever more annoyed by Republicans who think sedition isn’t impeachment worthy.

Traitor insurrectionist, and North Texas realtor, Jenna Ryan, the Private Jet Terrorist, has been kicked off PayPal for attempting to solicit donations for “legal fees and losses.” Ryan, who was arrested last week, asked her Twitter followers to help her pay her attorney’s fees:

“I am accepting donations to pay legal fees and losses due to my arrest and charges by the FBI.”

Well, no, honey, it’s due to your being an ignorant fool who thought you could take over the nation’s capitol. Ryan had raised just $1,000 when PayPal shut her down.

Oh, sorry. Not sorry.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the last administration’s coordinator of the Coronavirus Task Force is now saying that she disagreed often with the administration and their response to the virus even though she never said one single word until now.

When asked what her biggest mistake was during her time in the last administration, she wishes she’d been “more outspoken,” especially on the issue of COVID testing and drinking bleach and shining flashlights up our asses.

Too late, doc, you and your scarves are complicit. Now, go away.

Color me surprised but asshat FauxChristian Franklin Graham is standing up for bigot and homophobe, Aussie tennis legend, Margaret Court. One of the world’s greatest women’s tennis players, Court will receive the Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC), the highest category of honor awarded as part of Australia Day.

This is the same woman who has maintained that being gay is the work "of the devil" and has also compared it to Hitler. And so, these FauxChristians, who spew hate stick together; one getting as national honor, and one propping her up.

They can both fuck all the way off. God is watching and she is not happy.

At the same time, however, up here in America, President Biden signed an executive order overturning the former administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. The ban, which allowed the military to bar openly transgender recruits and discharge people for not living as their sex assigned at birth, affected up to 15,000 service members.

Biden said that the last thing America needs is to deny any American their right to serve their country.

It is a new day.

The great Cloris Leachman passed away this week at the age of 94. A brilliant actress and comedian and human being, she was feisty and outspoken and just plain fabulous. From The Last Picture Show through the Mary Tyler Moore Shoe and on into Young Frankenstein and beyond, she was brilliant.

RIP And thank you.

Republican Senator Rob Portman announced that he will not seek a third term in 2022. He blames his decision on the schism in the GOP between the old guard Republicans and the MAGAts and Proud Boy  and QAnon of today.

Portman will be around, however, to vote on the impeachment of the last president and has said that “as a juror, I’m going to listen to both sides. That’s my job.”

Portman is one of the few in the GOP to blame the last president for the Capitol riot.

It was just a couple of years ago that North Carolina was at the center of one of those Bathroom Ban initiatives, to deny trans people the right to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. But that was then … when the GOP ruled the state, and this is now, with Democrats in the statehouse.

But now, three North Carolina municipalities—Hillsborough, Carrboro and Chapel Hill—have passed ordinances protecting the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination. These new non-discrimination ordinances are the first in the state since a provision, put in place by the GOP in 2016, in a state law barring such measures expired in December.

And now, four years later, Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger, says the party won’t do a thing about the new ordinances because, ahem, he and his party have more important items on their mind.

Or maybe they realize anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry is on the way out in North Carolina.

Add Google to the growing list of companies will not make contributions from its PAC during this election cycle for any member of Congress who voted against certifying the results of the presidential election, following the deadly Capitol riot.

Microsoft has paused its PAC contributions as well. It will decide by February 15, after soliciting employee feedback, about whether to continue stopping donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying the election results.

Good.

Saverio Pescucci, a self-described “super chill, friendly, gay, Covid responsible” New York City ballet dancer is going viral after posting a thirsty apartment search ad in a popular Facebook group.

As part of his Brooklyn or Manhattan room search, Pescucci posted on the 284,800-member Gypsy Housing group on Facebook, and included a handful of photos of himself, in all his sexy glory, to spur interest. His post, naturally, went viral, with almost 1,000 likes and more than 400 comments.

And, Pescucci has found a room to rent, though, sadly, it’s not the one he was offered here in South Carolina.

Just sayin’.

Bobservations

Last week _____ unveiled the new logo for the “Space Force”, the recently formed sixth branch of the Armed Forces; the Draft Dodger said:

“After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!”

Many people noticed that the Space Force logo looks very similar to that of Star Trek’s Starfleet Command but … one person pointed out that the Starfleet logo is actually based on the Space Force logo because Starfleet won’t be founded until 2130.

Think on that.

In another case of this country becoming the land of hate of poor people, poor people of color, last week SCOTUS gave the go-ahead for one of _____’s hardline immigration policies.

Now this country—whose Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor …”—will now implement a rule denying legal permanent residency to certain immigrants—the brown ones, I’m guessing—that are deemed likely to require government assistance in the future.

Only the wealthy need come in. America, as we knew it, as it has been for over two hundred years, is over.

If you need me, I’ll be in California, snorkeling …

Last week, at the Rodney Strong vineyards in Sonoma County, a “blending tank door”  popped open and spilled :::gasp::: 97,112 gallons of red wine spilled into the nearby Russian River.

I’ll be gone all week until that spill is completely cleaned up!

Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe have been reprimanded by Tennis Australian after staging an on-court protest at the Australian Open calling for the Margaret Court Arena to be renamed.

The tennis legends strode across the court this week carrying a banner bearing the words 'Evonne Goolagong Arena', in recognition of the Australian ex-player. The pair want the arena’s named changed because Margaret Court, while a legend, is also virulently anti-LGBTQ+.

Navratilova and McEnroe's protest came one day after Tennis Australia commemorated the 50th anniversary of Court's calendar Grand Slam.

But she was a hate-filled bigot then, and remains so today. It’s time her name was scrubbed from the arena.

Just this week, at a rally in New Jersey, _____crowed:

“The money is won. And we are now building that beautiful wall. This powerful border wall is going up at record speed, and we just reached over 100 miles of wall. And next year we’ll be over 400 miles. And shortly thereafter it will be complete.”

Mere hours later a section of that powerful wall—not a new section but a replacement section—fell over in 37 mph winds; trees next to the wall have kept it from falling over entirely.

It’s like the wall is as flimsy as _____’s impeachment defense.

Demi Lovato released the song Sober in June 2018, and in it, she admitted to tumbling off the wagon after six years of sobriety. One month later, Demi overdosed. Demi spent some time getting treatment in rehab, and since she’s gotten out, she’s laid low career-wise.

But at last week’s Grammys she gave the performance of the night with a song called Anyone that she wrote just four days before that overdose. It’s painful, and yet the message should be heard.

“Anyone, please send me anyone

Lord, is there anyone? I need someone

Anyone, please send me anyone

Lord, is there anyone? I need someone.”

Listen.

Hot male model Taylor Phillips. Dressed or undressed. Jeans or long johns.

Undressed, I think.

And limber.

Random Musings

Poor Ryan Lochte ... he’s talking about that “incident” at the 2016 Rio Olympics and claiming he was suicidal in the aftermath of his drunken, lying about being robbed at gunpoint antics ...

“After Rio, I was probably the most hated person in the world. There were a couple of points where I was crying, thinking, ‘If I go to bed and never wake up, fine.’ I was about to hang up my life entirely. You can be at the all-time high and then the next second the all-time low.”

Um, Ryan, the low you felt came about because you got drunk, you trashed private property, lied to the police and then fled the country. You acted like a spoiled, self-entitled brat, an ugly American and a narcissistic tool.

It’s all you, baby. Grow a pair.

The _____’s are criminals who steal from cancer charities.

There ... I said it; and so did Forbes, who claimed that Eric _____’s Foundation—he’s the dumb one ... one? I kid ... they’re all dumb—holds an annual golf tournament to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital but has been siphoning money earmarked for cancer research back into the _____ Organization.

Grifter say what?

The lure of DumbEric’s tournament was that, because DumbEric could host the event on a free _____-owned golf course, all of the proceeds could be donated to St. Jude’s.  Except ... per recent tax filings, the courses were not free and more than $100,000 in donations were funneled through the Eric _____ Foundation back into the golf courses, ultimately showing up as revenue for the _____ Organization.

Like I said, grifters. And furthermore, over the last 10 years, over $500,000 in donations to the Eric _____ Foundation—money promised to help children with cancer—was re-donated to other charities “connected to _____ family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at _____ courses.”

If this doesn’t bother you then, well, you can f**k off because you have no heart or soul. Stealing from children’s cancer patients ... that’s the _____ way.

So, every year I start to watch Food Network Star, where the network pretends to find a new cook for a new show, only the winner does about 6 episodes of their “show” and then they are almost never seen again; except for Guy Fieri who must have something on a network exec ... but I digress.

Every year the show features the same stereotypes: the home cook, the sassy black female cook, the beefy black male cook, the country bumpkin cook, the pretty woman cook, the Martha Stewart wannabe cook, the gay cook and the hot guy cook ... or any combination of the above, as in the Hot Gay Guy Cook ... or the Sassy Black Beefy Male Cook.

This year was more of the same, though there were at least two Hot Guy Cooks who gave off the Ambiguously Gay Vibe and one of those was Blake Baldwin, the healthy food cook. Alas, the healthy food cook rarely lasts long and Blake, looking so sleek, and so sexy, and so kinda Clark Kent, was sent home. And so I decided to stop watching one episode in ... though I did manage to find Blake’s website with some of his healthy food recipes ... and some pictures of Blake looking hot.

Hot Cook.

I love clothes and oftentimes I wear things that are a bit avant-garde for the Smallville crowd, but I like what I like and wear what I like and y’all are haters.

Where was I? Oh yeah, odd clothes ... like lace shorts for men. Um .... no.

We all know _____ thinks life is a reality show; we all know he has a habit of signing executive orders that don’t actually do anything, and he likes to do it on camera, but this is beyond ....

This week _____ announced his support for privatizing America’s system of air-traffic control, and held an event in the White House East Room as though he was signing major legislation ... which he isn’t because he’s passed nothing yet.

Anyway ... _____ signed a letter outlining his principles for overhauling the air traffic control system and even handed out pens to lawmakers who had been invited to attend, while he reveled in several rounds of applause.

But _____’s announcement did not have any binding effect ... it was nothing; a show.  _____ surrounded himself with GOP members of Congress, who accepted ceremonial pens, but _____ didn’t sign any legislation. There wasn’t even an executive order.

It was #FakeNews. A White House aide told reporters _____ had simply signed a “decision memo”—a document in which the president says he’s gonna support an idea—which basically means nothing.

Like a _____ presidency.

The other morning, driving to work, I was listening to an oldies station and Carlos, who knows zilch about pop culture, pop music, pop ... anything ... heard a song on the radio and said:

“Rod Stewart?”

“What?”

“Isn’t that Rod Stewart?”

“No. It’s Bette Davis Eyes ... by Kim Carnes ... a woman.”

Oy. Blonde women are Madonna and raspy voiced singers are Rod Stewart.

I Tweeted to the president this morning ... “Bad news? Your approval ratings are down. Good news: the impeachment numbers are up.”

If this was his reality show it would have been canceled by now.

Margaret Court, a former tennis pro from Australia is decidedly anti-marriage equality and anti-gay—she says tennis is “filled with lesbians” and that transgender children are brainwashed with techniques akin to those used by Nazi Germany and devil worshippers—and now former American tennis pro John McEnroe is smacking back at her, saying her hatred of The Gays stems from the fact that Margaret Court lost her 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match to Bobby Riggs, who was later bested by ::::gasp:::: lesbian player, Billie Jean King.

“Margaret Court is telling us, ‘Tennis is full of lesbians.’ The way I see it, there are three options regarding this statement. Number one―this is true, and who gives a fuck? Number two―this is not true, and who should give a fuck? And number three―this is half true, and should we really give a fuck?”

And so many professional tennis players—including ::::gasp:::: lesbian Martina Navratilova—are calling for Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena to drop Court's name in advance of the Australian Open, but McEnroe has a better idea:

“Keep the name and when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Australia, I will personally call my good friend Elton John to host the biggest same-sex, mass wedding ceremony ever seen — in Margaret Court Arena. ... That’s just the kind of guy I am.”

I.Love.That.

California just signed an agreement with China to expand cooperation on renewable energy and zero-emission vehicles.

“The president has already said climate change is a hoax, which is the exact opposite of virtually all scientific and worldwide opinion. I don’t believe fighting reality is a good strategy.”—California Governor Jerry Brown

The President-For-Now might not “believe” in climate change, but others around this country, do, and will do the work the president will not.

Good on Brown, and California, and all those other mayors and governors who will do what’s right and what’s best for the world, not just the One Percent.

First Bette Midler is Dolly Levi on Broadway and now ... Cher: The Musical???

There was apparently a top-secret read-through in January and now the show is a go! Cher even Tweeted:

“Just got off phone w/writer & director of musical. There will be performance in theatre with actors, dancers, singers!! It’ll be on Broadway 2018.”

The show will feature songs from Cher’s catalog and chronicle her life—from her childhood to singing backup vocals as a teenager, to meeting Sonny Bono and how they made it to the top of the music business. After their 1975 divorce, Cher reinvented herself as a pop music icon and movie star, winning an Oscar in 1988 for “Moonstruck.”

A casting notice was posted in the trades last fall looking for the characters of Babe, Lady and Star ... who represent Cher at different moments. In addition to Cher’s parents, the show will also feature Bob Mackie, David Geffen, Gregg Allman, Robert Altman, Rob Camilletti and Sigmund Freud among its characters.

Wait. Did Cher date Freud?

Seriously, could Broadway get gayer?