Bobservations

In addition to his Retinitis Pigmentosa, Carlos is also color blind; he cannot see red or green at all. The other day, as I worked on the computer, he came into the office and asked if the shirt in his hand was red. I turned, looked, laughed, and said:

“It’s white … and green … and dark blue … and gray. It’s striped.”

“It is?”

“Yes, but the shirt you have on is red.”

“It is? I should buy clothes in only one color from now on.”

Never a dull moment.

This week Kansas voters voted “YES” to protect abortion rights by rejecting a measure to allow the GOP-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright. Sure, it was just one state, albeit a deeply Red State, but heavy turnout—meaning more Democrats got off their asses and voted—was a major victory for abortion rights advocates.

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

The US House passed the Respect for Marriage Act on July 19, by a vote of 267 to 157, with 47 Republicans surprisingly siding with the Democrats and voting Yes.

Tammy Baldwin, the Senate’s first openly LGBTQ+ member, is leading the charge to get the bill passed, but with the Senate equally split between Democrats and Republicans, she’ll need at least 10 Republicans to break the inevitable GOP filibuster. She says she  has five Republicans publicly committed—Susan Collins. Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Thom Tillis, and Ron Johnson—and said, “five additional members have indicated they are leaning in support.”

The Senate recess begins this week so the vote may not happen until September, but here’s hoping Baldwin can get the other five Republicans, and maybe a few more, to so the right thing.

Atlanta’s long-running Music Midtown festival at Piedmont Park was scheduled for next month but has been called off because, industry sources say, recent changes to Georgia gun laws prevent the festival from banning guns on to the publicly owned festival grounds.

So, guns have killed a music festival, too.

Last weekend’s LIV Golf event at the Thing 45 National Golf Club in Bedminster Bloodminster New Jersey was kind of a dud. Fewer than 1,000 people watched the Facebook Live feed for the first two rounds, and on the course, there were far fewer in attendance.

Tickets sold for $75 per day but could be had on the secondary market for $1 apiece.

A dollar.

I could get behind being Amish if this is the drag I get to wear, though I’d like to add a large hat.

And speaking of Bloodminster, Ivana Trump, the first ex-missus Thing 45, was buried at the Thing 45 National Golf Club where Thing 45 himself plans to be buried one day, though there’s no word on Melanie’s final resting place.

And he buried the ex-wife there because New Jersey land used for cemetery purposes comes with a significant tax break, so Ivana’s corpse was used to make coins for her ex.

Pig.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed legislation to further protect access to reproductive health care services in the state following the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The legislation codifies several measures that were first included in an Executive Order issued by Baker last month, and also adopts several new or expanded measures to protect access to reproductive health services in the Commonwealth.

From a Republican.

I don’t know about you, but this looks to me like someone in the crowd is throwing hamburgers and Thing 45 thinks it feeding time.

This is Hugo Sanges Galuppo Trufelli, a thirty-one-year-old actor and model from São Paulo, Brazil. Would You Hit It?

Would you hit it knowing Hugo has an identical twin?

Architecture Wednesday: The JW Ellis Residence

This gorgeous, older, refurbished home is said to be the ‘only verified surviving Bunker Hill home in Los Angeles.’ The home dates from 1883 and as the Bunker Hill neighborhood was razed to make way for redevelopment, the stick-style Victorian structure was painstakingly relocated … not once but twice … and is now a fixture of the Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.

And during those moves, and after, the six-bedroom home—for sale at just $2.995 million—has been meticulously restored, with carved mantles, pocket doors, stained glass, and bay, windows and door hardware are all original. The wiring, electrical, plumbing, HVAC have been modernized, and the chef’s kitchen is custom, with porcelain counters and Douglas fir flooring integrated with the original.

There are two bedrooms—including the primary suite—on the first floor and three additional bedrooms, and a second kitchen, on the upper floor. There is also a separate guesthouse with vaulted bow-and-truss ceilings above the garage. 

This is an historical home, with an incredible history, and while real estate investors tend to raze older homes and create gaudy McMansions, the Ellis residence clearly stands out as a top shelf restoration in one of the most historic neighborhoods in the City.

As always, click to emBIGGERate …

 The Spaces

Meme Dump

Republicans Fist Bump Over Screwing Veterans Out Of Healthcare

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democrats, comedian and activist Jon Stewart, a great many Americans, and me, all over Twitter, railed against a group of Senate Republicans who voted against legislation to help veterans suffering from ailments related to toxic burn pits.

The PACT Act, which the House passed earlier this month, would enable additional healthcare coverage for more than three million veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits and Vietnam-era veterans exposed to the deadly herbicide Agent Orange. The House passed the PACT Act by a 342-88 vote about a month after the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 84-14. But this week the Senate had to retake the bill up because the House passed some minor changes in its version, and that’s when Republicans held out their middle finger to our vets..

We send these men and women off to wear to fight and when they come home, we, well, the GOP mostly, turn our back on them, as Jon Stewart pointed out:

"So ain't this a bitch? America's heroes, who fought our wars, outside sweating their asses off, with oxygen battling all kinds of ailments, while these motherf**kers sit in the air conditioning walled off from any of it? They don't have to hear it. They don't have to see it. They don't have to understand that these are human beings. Did you get it yet? [If] this is America First, then America is f**ked. … I'm used to lies. I'm used to hypocrisy. I'm used to their cowardice. I'm not used to the cruelty, the casual cruelty ... a bill they had fought for, for more than a decade."

Stewart lays a great deal of blame at, who else but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who, he says, lied to veterans by saying "we'll get it done" and then voting against the bill. He also criticized Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican retiring at the end of his term:

"Pat Toomey didn't lose his job. He's walking away. God knows what kind of pot of gold he's stepping into to lobby this government to shit on more people. I'm used to all of it, but I'm not used to the cruelty. Senator Toomey is not going to hear that because he won't sit down with [Veterans] because he is a f**king coward. You hear me? None of them will hear it. And none of them will care. What just makes the gut punch that much more devastating is that these people all came down here so that they could finally tell the men and”—Stewart started to tear up—"Their constituents are dying. And they're gonna get it done after recess? You don't … tell their cancer to take a recess, tell their cancer to stay home and go visit their families."

Stewart apologized for his foul language, but then outlined what the senators were voting against, with a veteran saying the bill "gives them health care, gives them benefits, lets them live from become an addict, keeps veterans from committing suicide."

It’s that simple.

Pat Toomey declined to comment on Stewart's earlier criticism, saying:

"That's not worth responding to."

Veterans’ healthcare being denied is not worth responding to, because Toomey is leaving his cushy job and literally does not give a fuck; this whole ‘No’ vote was a slap to veterans because the GOP did not want to give Biden, via the Democrats, a win, as you could see when Republicans stood in the Senate chamber and fist-bumped denying healthcare to our veterans; they cheered.

It’s clear, as I Tweeted out over the weekend, remembering the GOIP cheering the end of Roe v Wade, the GOP refusing to acknowledge the heroic efforts by DC and Capitol Police on 1/6, and many in the GOP vowing to end marriage equality:

They spit in the faces of heroes and women and the LGBTQ+ community, and children being slaughtered in schools. What will it take for some of you to see that the GOP doesn’t represent We The People, doesn’t stand for this country?

They represent only their own interests, their own bank accounts, and their own party,

November is coming … CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

PS In addition to voting against veterans, women and the LGBTQ+ community, they also voted against codifying same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage, into law, voted against contraception, and voted against sending out Amber Alerts when there's an active shooter.