Pot.Kettle.MarcoRubio

Oh, Florida, how dumb can you be? I mean, you elected Marco Rubio as your Senator once and he, to be fair, did a terrible job. Then he up and told you he wasn’t even going to finish the job to which you elected him, and the job where you pay his salary, because he wanted to be president and he would never, ever go back to the Senate again.

So he stopped working for you, and ran for president and failed miserably at that job, too. And then he came crawling back home and suddenly realized he might become an unemployed has-been so he asked you to re-elect him to the Senate—the job he stopped doing, the job he said he no longer wanted, the job he stopped showing up for—and you voted him in again.

How.Dumb.Are.You? Don’t bother, it’s a rhetorical question and, actually, not at all the subject of this blog post. Nope, this is about the death of Fidel Castro, tyrant, dictator, human rights violator, and despot. And, yes, to be clear, a family man; father, brother, cousin, uncle ...

When Castro passed away over the weekend at the age of 90, President Barack Obama said:

“At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans – in Cuba and in the United States – with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him…”

There was no praise for Castro, just condolences to the family who lost someone they loved. But that wasn’t enough for Rubio, who then took to the media to call the President’s comments “pathetic”:

“Barack Obama is the president of the most powerful country in the world. And what I called pathetic is not mentioning whatsoever in that statement the reality that there are thousands upon thousands of people who suffered brutally under the Castro regime. He executed people. He jailed people for 20 to 30 years. The Florida Straits, there are thousands of people who lost their lives fleeing his dictatorship. And not to acknowledge any of that in the statement, I felt was pathetic, absolutely.”

But should we have expected more for lying, pandering, can’t get elected, can’t do his job, Marco Rubio? See, because after Castro’s death Marco Rubio ran to the media to talk about Fidel Castro’s history of oppressing gays.

Huh; oppressing gays? Who else has done that? Oh, wait ...Marco Rubio.

Marco Rubio who voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA] which would have protected LGBT Americans from being fired from their jobs based solely on their sexual orientation.

Marco Rubio supported the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] and was steadfastly against marriage equality even after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of it.

Marco Rubio has raised money for the Arizona Center For Public Policy, which advocates for "ex-gay" torture among other anti-gay positions.

Marco Rubio allowed his voice to be used in robocalls for the National Organization for Marriage [NOM].

Marco Rubio has vowed to do whatever he can to undo the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling which made marriage legal in the United States for same-sex couples.

Marco Rubio was a sponsor of the First Amendment Defense Act [FADA], which would legalize anti-LGBT discrimination nationwide.

Marco Rubio threatened to withdraw his own immigration reform bill if it were be applied to same-sex couples.

Marco Rubio declared that gay adoption is a “social experiment” that “shouldn’t be forced on children.”

So when Marco Rubio stands up and denounced Fidel Castro for being anti-LGBT—and to be clear, in 2010, Fidel Castro told the press that he took the blame for the “great injustices” suffered by his nation’s gay community—when he himself has been at the forefront in this country of many of the same vile ideas, he is nothing but a pandering lying asshat of epic proportions.

And please, let us not forget how Marco Rubio blatantly lied about his own family’s history with Fidel Castro, claiming that they fled Cuba after the revolution when in fact they were living comfortably in Miami years before Castro seized power.

Florida. This is what you elected to office ... again. A pandering asshat who knocks down Castro when, apparently, he and Castro share many of the same ideas—even if there is evidence that Castro had evolved on LGBT issues. A lying pandering asshat who can’t even tell the truth about how, and when, he arrived in America.

Marco Rubio. F**k off.

Issue Hawk

Random Musings

Carlos doesn’t see well in the dark, and his eyesight really suffers when we walk into a dark restaurant from the bright sunlight.

Last week, we ate at Cantina 76, a taqueria near downtown Columbia, and so, as I do, I walked behind Carlos in the restaurant telling him where to go. Sadly, I said,

“The hostess has our table right there on the right.”

And Carlos tried to sit down at a table that was already occupied.

Luckily we were able to giggle about that.

Bye Felicia … and Felicia …

This week in South Carolina voters sent a slew of incumbents to the unemployment line and here they are ….

Senator Mike Fair, who voted to remove books from colleges that, ahem, promoted the homosexual agenda by telling stories about gay people, is out. In the June 14 Republican primary, William Timmons unseated Fair, the twenty-one-year incumbent by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

South Carolina Senator Lee Bright, who tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed, to get a Bathroom bill passed in South Carolina, is also gone.

Sure, they were replaced by other Republicans, but being bigots and haters and anti-LGBT it’s nice to see them go … before someone dropped a house on them.

Remember when Mike Huckabee cheered alongside Kentucky Kounty Klerk Kim Davis at that rally last year while Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ blared over the loud-speaker?

Well, it turns out that failed and failed and failed Republican presidential candidate Huckabee will have to pay $25,000 due to copyright infringement. And when his campaign was sued for copyright infringement, an out-of-court settlement was reached and Huckabee was required to pay $25,000 for the error.

He paid half in May but the other half he tried to have listed as campaign “debts and obligations.” Huckabee petitioned the Federal Elections Commission to start a legal defense fund to pay the remaining amount, but the organization issued a statement saying he’d need to alleviate the debt on his own.

Basically, they gave Huckabee the finger and said pay for your own debts, you stupid asshat.

In Hot Men on TV …

Devious Maids trotted out a new gay character, hairdresser Fabian, who is Genevieve’s new Best Gay Friend, or Gaybian. He’s played by cutie Broadway vet, Christopher Hanke.

And over on Ray Donovan, we met sleeping-with-his-half-sister, boxer, Hector, played by Ismael Cruz Cordova; torts adorbs, and a little beefy man.

And lastly, back on Devious Maids, Ryan McPartlin plays a hot nerd, and I wish he’d be a Hot Gay Nerd but one cannot have everything.

In Sweet Gay news …

For Pride last week, the NYPD rolled out a new patrol car.

This one, a Ford Interceptor, unlike the traditional blue striped police vehicles, was emblazoned with rainbow-stripes and heart stickers that read “NYC Pride 2016,” and “Our ♥ goes out to Orlando.” And, rather than the slogan “Courtesy Professionalism Respect” this car said, “Pride Equality Peace” and “NYPD out and proud.”

Times change, y’all.

In other Stupid Politician News and from the She Isn't Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader File:

A ten-year old boy asked half-term, half-wit, former Alaska Governor Mama Grizzly Bore™ how she could endorse and support The Rump after his infamous "blood" comments and attacks on Fox News host Megyn Kelly:

“How come you're endorsing Donald Trump? How can you endorse someone who’s sexist?”

And how did the MGB™, who plays up the fact that, at least she thinks, she’s a good mother, respond?

“Donald Trump isn’t sexist. If he were, I wouldn’t be endorsing him.”

And then she walked away because, well, she’s not smarter than a fifth-grader.

NOM doesn’t know when to give up, though their supporters have abandoned ship.

Last week NOM held its fourth consecutive anti-same-marriage march … ironically nearly a year to the day after they lost that battle and literally fives of tens of people showed up.

Last year’s march drew about 3,000 haters but it was held just before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Brian Brown, the last NOM man standing, tried to spin that march as saying 15,000 showed up.

Can’t wait to see how he spins tens into thousands this year.

In other It’s Funny Cuz It’s True News …

It used to be that speaking at the Republican National Convention was kind of a career-maker and a way to get your name out there in front of GOP donors and activists; people begged to speak at the convention.

This year? Not so much.

A convention that will probably see The Rump crowned the GOP nominee will have little to no big names speaking because, well, The Rump. In fact, many in the GOP, those big names, won’t be going to Cleveland at all.

The Rump’s team is oddly silent about whom it’ll extend speaking invitations, but most of the party’s most prominent politicos aren’t interested.

Last I heard the biggest name was Mike Tyson and Clint Eastwood’s chair.

In Hot Cats On TV News …

It looks like Tuxedo is auditioning for Corpse # 4 on an upcoming episode of Major Crimes.

Meanwhile Ozzo will be playing Rip Van Winkle at Doggy Day Care, with MaxGoldberg in the audience. Consuelo Roca-Jones, Miss Jones to you, will be watching it all from her spot in the balcony.

Brian Brown Says Marriage Equality Will Lead To The Government Taking Away Your Guns

I kinda feel sorry for Brian Brown, of the National organization for Marriage [NOM]. I mean, there was that picture of him weeping openly after marriage equality became legal in one state or another, and he’s seen his little group lose battle after battle on the marriage issue, and battle after battle in courts regarding the secrecy of their donors list.

It’s hard to be NOM; which may explain why Brian brown has officially jumped the shark.

At CPAC last week Brown brought up two of the GOP’s favorite topics — gays and guns — and somehow managed to link them together in a Word Soup even the Mama Grizzly Bore™ couldn’t figure out.

He said that if Americans allow judges to find a right for same-sex couples to marry, they could also find a way to take away their guns.

Cue the choruses of ‘You’ll have to pry my gun from my cold dead hand!”

It was speaking with Fox News’ Sandy Rios — that vessel of truth and integrity :::giggle snort::: — Brown put it like this:

“We need to stand up against it because if they can do this on marriage, folks who are concerned about gun rights, taxes, anything, if we give the courts the power to rewrite our constitution at will, then we have lost our republican form of government and that’s something everyone should be standing up and saying ‘no we’re not going to accept this.’”

But the funniest thing about his lunacy is that he isn’t the first to try to link Taking-Away-Our-Guns with Same-Sex-Marriage. He got the idea from Louisiana’s wingnut Republican Governor and Bobby Jindal who said the same thing at a NOM event three years ago.

Funny, though, it didn’t happen after Jindal said it, and it won’t happen now. Brian Brown is desperate and wingnutted and asshatted and filled with WTFuckery, and will say anything to keep this fight going.

Here’s a tissue, Bri, wipe away the tears because you’re losing the battle ... and the war.

via NCRM

Random Musings

Carlos is letting his hair grow; or not.

But while deciding whether to trim his locks or let them run rampant, his hairstyles range from a Justin Bieber-ish looking "don't" to a Andrew Jackson pompadour to a Bob's Big Boy swirl.

I can't with it. I can't.

Well well well … look who’s married, legally, in South Carolina!

That’s right, the stay has been lifted after the US Supreme Court denied Attorney General Alan Wilson’s cry for an appeal.

South Carolina. Marriage equality. Who, besides me, never saw that coming so soon?

Last week was the Colonial Cup, the last event in the National Steeplechase Association season, an annual event here in Smallville, er, Camden. It brings about 60,000 extra folks to our little town, a boost for local businesses and our wee economy.

But this year I met Tony Bentley, the man who calls the races on the steeplechase circuit. Tony lives in New Orleans, but travels around the country to each event, announcing the races.

But that’s not the coolest thing about Tony Bentley. In having a conversation with him, the chat turned to American Horror Story: Freak Show. He asked if I watched; I said, Are you kidding? I’ve been hooked since the first episode!

Then he let me in on a little secret: Tony Bentley played Mr. Hanley, toy store owner, who had his head chopped off by Twisty the Clown!

He showed me all kinds of pictures on his phone; on the set with Twisty — played by John Carroll Lynch — and told fabulous stories about the divine Jessica Lange; apparently she really is divine.

But the last photo was one of Tony, holding his own special effects head in his hands.

Very cool! Who knew in Smallville I would ever meet one of Twisty’s victims!

Bill Cosby.

I don’t know if he raped those women — thirteen at last count — and I don’t know that he didn’t. I do know that he should quit playing this I won’t talk about it game and give an interview to either fully dispute the allegations or come clean.

Sidenote: before anyone says, Well, he paid off one victim, lets’ be clear that just because he settled the suit doesn’t automatically make him guilty.

Still, he needs to stop the dodging and answer some questions.

That said … Don Lemon.

He has now offered an apology to one of Cosby’s accusers, Joan Tarshis, after offering her advice, on air, on air as to how avoid getting sexually abused:

“You — you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn’t want to do it.”

Way to blame the victim, Don. And, as a man who says he was a victim of sexual abuse as a minor, you really should have known better.

So, One Direction's Harry Styles is adding even more fuel to the bisexual rumor fire when, during an interview, he and bandmate Niall Horan were asked about which celebrities they might hook up with and, after rattling off the Ariana’s and the Rihanna’s the interviewer suggested that perhaps he might choose a man. That prompted Styles to touch Horan’s knee and say, “Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it."

Now Styles has never said he was gay, or bisexual, but he’s playing it like a game, just like Nick Jonas and his crotch-grabbing, gay club going, shirtless antics, in an attempt to pander to the gay community to sell some music.

I find it insulting; neither man/boy is gay and this all reeks of just playing to gay men to make some money.

Don’t use us to sell a record, m’kay. Oh, and for the record, Nick, Joe is the cuter one.

Lotsa folks upset with People over their Sexiest Man Alive pick, saying it should’a been Chris Pratt.

I disagree. Chris Hemsworth oozes sex, in his eyes, in his accent, in his body, in that magnificent bum — take a peek at Rush to see for yourself.

But, howsabout having an openly gay man as the Sexiest Man alive? Or maybe a man of color? Here are my choices …

Child abuser, Adrian Peterson, running back for the Minnesota Vikings, has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the NFL season after he has “shown no meaningful remorse” over his child abuse charges.

The announcement came from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:

“You have shown no meaningful remorse for your conduct. When indicted, you acknowledged what you did but said that you would not ‘eliminate whooping my kids’ and defended your conduct in numerous published text messages to the child’s mother. You also said that you felt ‘very confident with my actions because I know my intent.’ These comments raise the serious concern that you do not fully appreciate the seriousness of your conduct, or even worse, that you may feel free to engage in similar conduct in the future.”

Sadly, Peterson makes some 20 million a year so I don’t really think he’ll be hurting much, and nowhere near as much as he hurt his own son.

And, since I Should Be Laughing is the go-to source for all things sports — now that's comedy —let’s dish a little about the Steelers’ backup halfback LeGarrette Blount, who was apparently so upset that he did not have a carry against in the Steelers win over Tennessee that he walked off the field and sat on the team bus.

Uh huh; like a spoiled child. At least one team-member thought they should leave him in Nashville.

And I agree.

I LOVE this!

According to analysis of the National Organization for Marriage’s 2013 tax filings done by the Human Rights Campaign [HRC], NOM raised $5.1 million in 2013, which amounts to less than half of what they raised the year prior.

And just two … two … 2 donors accounted for more than half of that five million.

Just further proof that NOM is done.

Well, it looks like Kathy Griffin will be taking over for the late great Joan Rivers on Fashion Police. 

I like Kathy; she’ll be good, but she won’t be Joan.

And the show won’t be on every week, but instead will air as special episodes after awards shows and big Hollywood events.

Like I said, Kathy will be good, and fun, but she won’t be Joan.

No one will ever be Joan.

Random Musings

The bathroom is coming along … slo-o-o-wly. It seems we can really only work on it over the weekends and every weekend we have something else that needs doing, or we have plans, or, well, we’re just lazy. But I have done the pin-striping along the walls and, if I do say so myself, it looks darn nice.

Here’s my tutorial [click to emBIGGERate:

Paint the walls the color of choice; mine was a dark gray, almost black. Then, lay out where the stripes should be drawn. This involves math and calculators and pencils and try-and-error. But I figured it out so that each of the four corners would be a space between stripes and then the walls would have equally spaced stripes on them.

Next comes the chalk-line, with Carlos holding on a mark near the floor and me, on a ladder — we have nine-foot ceiling so it’s hard — holding the line to the mark near the ceiling. Snap the line and voila!

Next came taping the lines, which I wanted to eyeball at about 1/8-inch wide, but I wanted them to not be perfect all though the room. I liked the more fluid nature of the lines that were 1/8-inch, then maybe narrowed a hair, and then came back to the original width.

After taping all the lines, you go back over the tape with the original wall color. This is done to prevent the lighter stripe color from bleeding under the tape; no matter how you press the tape down, you might get some bleed-through and this step solves that problem.

Finally, you apply the stripe color — I wanted a lighter gray — and paint the lines from floor to ceiling. Remove the tape and you have …

Pin stripes!

Carlos gave the “It’s too dark” speech and I told him I had a vision and we’d have to see it through before he played that card again.

The National organization for Marriage [NOM] got yet another smackdown this week, this time from the United Sates Supreme Court.

It seems NOM wanted to halt the recently legalized same-sex marriages in Oregon and had asked Justice Kennedy to do so. Kennedy, though, referred the issue to the entire court, and they all agreed to not get involved.

Snap! Smack.

Speaking of same-sex marriages, Melissa Etheridge had another one last weekend.

Etheridge married her partner of four years, Nurse Jackie creator Linda Wallem, and Tweeted that image of their happy day with this message:

“True love…so blessed. ‘By the power invested in me by the state of California…’ Thanks‘ “

This Etheridge’s second wedding but her first legal marriage. She previously had a commitment ceremony with Tammy Lynn Michaels back in ’03, and that ceremony took place when same sex marriage was not yet legal in California.

Now, Etheridge is fully, legally married, and let’s hope this one sticks.

Juts sayin’, marriage is hard, gay or straight.

Bianca Del Rio is the Drag Superstar, thanks to her victory on RuPaul’s Drag Race, but her next step might just be movie star!

Bianca — AKA Roy Haylock — has begun crowd-funding a new film, Hurricane Bianca, teaming up with director Matt Kugelman for the new comedy, and wants our help to fund the movie.

Hurricane Bianca is a feature-length comedy about a New York teacher [Haylock] who moves to a small town in Texas, gets fired for being gay, and returns disguised as a mean "lady"[Bianca] to get revenge on the people who were nasty to him.

I think this could be truly hilarious, and, if you decide to donate to the film’s expenses, in return for your donation, Bianca and Matt are giving away some prizes, including the chance for an appearance on a web series called "Bianca Hates You."

OMG! Bianca could read you! Loving it, and hoping the film gets made.

In discrimination news this week, for the 17th time, Exxon Mobil shareholders have rejected a resolution that would have instituted new policy within the company to prohibit discrimination against LGBT workers.

Yeah, seventeen times they’ve voted for discrimination, with just 19% of shareholders voting against discrimination.

Just the reason I need to never get gas at Exxon, for the seventeenth year in a row, I might add.

When the previews for Maleficent came out a few months back, and I saw La Jolie done up as the evil one, I told Carlos we were seeing the film; and I told him every time I saw an ad after that until the film finally opened, and then I said we’d see it last weekend.

I.Loved.It.

Carlos.Hated.It.

I’ve buried him under the house. Sssssh.

I kid. He did hate it, because he wanted her to be more evil, and I explained that she ::::Spoiler Alert:::: wasn’t supposed to be evil, and that the film explained why she did what she did.

He still wasn’t having it; he wanted an unrepentant Maleficent a la Joan Crawford, I think.

In fact, he hated the movie so much he didn’t even comment once on the cute Prince Phillip, played by the totes adorbs Brenton Thwaites.

Someday my prince will come and … oh hell, who am I kidding? My prince came along fourteen years ago.

Last week I praised Justin Bieber for his $500,000 donation to amfAR, and then I heard that he made some kind of racist joke, using the N-word. I was not surprised, thinking the little turd is just that, a little racist turd, but then I heard that he made the stupid “joke” back when he was sixteen or seventeen, and so I kinda wanted to give him a pass because he was even dumber then, you know.

But now another video has surfaced where he’s changed the lyrics to one of his own songs, and sings about “lonely n*****s” and killing one so he can join the KKK.

His people say he was just reciting what he’d seen a comedian do onstage, but he can’t remember that comedian’s name or where he saw him.

I’d say these last two instances are just some extra nails in the coffin that was his career.

Here’s hoping.

Former presidential and senatorial candidate, and major asshat, Alan Keyes, who once compared same-sex marriage to nose-picking … huh… and claimed that it leads to totalitarian regimes … what? … is back and locked and loaded again.

He is now saying that gay sex "is not 'sexual' activity at all." 

I’m saying he’s probably not doing it right.

Need another celebrity, a la Alec Baldwin, shouting homophobic slurs at paparazzi? Well, Jonah Hill is your man! After, he says, being followed and harassed by a TMZ paparazzo all day long, Hill finally shouted to the man:

"Suck my dick you faggot!"

You know the drill; it’s the worst thing you can call someone, the biggest insult. Gay = bad. But, and there’s almost always a but, Hill came out almost immediately and apologized, unlike Baldwin who played the ‘I’ve got gay friends’ card and the ‘I never said that’ card.

Jonah Hill:

"This is a heartbreaking situation for me...I'm upset...From the day I was born, and publicly, I've been a gay rights activist...This person had been following me around all day saying hurtful things. I played into exactly what he wanted and I said a disgusting word...It's bulls--t and I shouldn't have said that. I'm happy to take the heat for using this disgusting word. What I won't allow is for anyone - it would break my heart to think that anyone - especially with all the work that I've done and all the loved ones that I have - that I would be against anyone for their sexuality."

Well, that was more a Poor me, I’m really a nice guy speech and not really an apology, but then Hill apologized again:

"There was a paparazzi guy and he was antagonizing me and calling me names, attacking me personally, and my family personally, and I was genuinely hurt by this, and made angry by this, and in response, I wanted to hurt him back, and I said the most hurtful word that I could think of at that moment.

 “You know, I didn't mean this in the sense of the word, you know? I didn't mean it in a homophobic way And I think that, um, that doesn't matter. How you mean things doesn't matter. Words have weight and meaning, and the word I chose was grotesque. And, you know...no one deserves to say or hear words like that. I've been a supporter of the LGBT community my entire life and I completely let the members of that community and everybody else down when I used a word like that...I'm genuinely and deeply sorry to anyone who has ever been affected by that term in their life.

“I don't deserve or expect your forgiveness, but what I ask is that at home, if you're watching this, and you're a young person especially; if someone says something that hurts you or angers you, use me as an example of what not to do, and don't respond with hatred or anger. Because you're just adding more ugliness to the world. I'm so sorry."

He could have stopped with I’m so sorry because that’s all we want; oh, and to never hear him say those things again.

I’m hoping Hill opens up a Celebrity Apology Center, offering free admission to Baldwin and Bieber to show them how you really, sincerely apologize.

The documentary How To Survive A Plague, detailing the early days of the AIDS crisis in America and the rise of militant gay groups like ACT UP, hit theaters last year but came nowhere near Smallville.

Luckily, though, it played on PBS this week and Carlos and I watched it. An amazing documentary that reminded me of things I’d seen, and of things I hadn’t—like AIDS activists throwing the ashes of their loved ones who’d died from complications of AIDS onto the White House lawn.

Powerful stuff.

Powerful stuff, seeing those men who have been given a death sentence and didn’t dare crawl away and hide, but rather stood up and demanded respect and treatment and fair access to medications.

Powerful stuff, watching these men being told they have AIDS and will soon be dead, not giving up, and then, years into the plague, finding relief in AIDS drug cocktails that helped them survive, though didn’t cure them.

I kept thinking what it must have been like to be told that you have AIDS and that you will die, and you reevaluate your life, reassess your choices, and become a fighter, knowing you are dying, only to have a reprieve in the form of new drugs How hard it must have been to go from living to dying back to living, with AIDS.

Heroes all; and all of us, infected or otherwise, owe those men, and women, gay and straight, a huge debt of gratitude for not just lying down and dying.

And then on the reverse side of the coin comes this …

In a discussion about a recent incident involving Brad Pitt where a crazed “fan” latched onto his groin, HLN host Nancy Grace regurgitated the 1977 pie attack on Anita Bryant, calling Bryant a "sweet lady" that reminded Grace of her mother.

Grace made no mention of Bryant’s voracious anti-gay crusades in Miami that spurred on the pie toss, and a guest on Grace’s show actually says maybe the pie thrower was jealous of Bryant’s beautiful voice.

Nancy Grace is a moron, I’ve always known that; a media whore who says anything if it gets her a shot on TV, but to call, a woman who clearly wanted gay people out of way, by whatever means, I might add, out of jobs, and homes, and out of Miami, sweet is the height of stupidity.