Architecture Wednesday: Point Lechuza

This architectural beachfront masterpiece is in a league of its own. It sits at the northern tip of Malibu and is the last home to have been designed by the renowned mid-century modern architect Pierre Koenig.

Gated and private—because, you know, Malibu—it is located at the end of a cul-de-sac. But private doesn’t mean simple; no detail has been spared in the composition of this peaceful beachfront retreat.

Built of glass, steel and concrete, the tri-level home bridges the gap cool contemporary architecture and the warmth of nature with breathtaking ocean views. And, as well as being a significant home, it is also environmentally conscious, it  runs on an innovative system with radiant heating and solar power.

However environmentally friendly it is, there are also luxuries. You enter the home to a car lift which leads to a gated underground garage.  On that same level is the theatre and a guest bedroom.  The middle level features the living areas, dining room and kitchen, with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout. The upper-level houses three bedrooms, all of which exhibit captivating views, while the master suite features a fireplace and floating walkway leading to a private balcony floating above the ocean.

Surrounded by beautiful Palm and Cyprus trees, the lower deck includes ample oceanfront entertainment space, a dipping pool/spa, and leads to a private retractable drawbridge to step directly onto the sandy beach.

It’s practically a work of art.

Dwell

A Tale of Two Tennessee's

It hasn’t been so long that I’ve forgotten how “gay marriage” was the weapon of fear used by the GOP to get themselves elected; they spread the fear that, by allowing homosexuals to marry, traditional marriages would be ruined or destroyed … though no one ever said how this might happen. They even attempted to spin the lie that if you allowed a same-sex couple to marry, then you’d have to allow men marrying children, dogs, their cars because, well, fear.

But look around, it’s been six years since marriage equality came to be and I haven’t seen one heterosexual marriage dissolve because I married Carlos, and I haven’t been asked to the wedding or man and machine, woman and animal, or even children. It was all fear and lies, spread by the GOP.

So, because they can’t use that any longer what will they do? Attack the trans community; the new “them”. It started with the bathroom bills of a few years ago when the GOP told us that men will dress as women so they can go into a woman’s restroom and sexually harass or even rape women, even though there has not been a single case of this happened.

Sidenote: men have been raping women since time began and never needed to slip on a dress and use the ladies’ room to do it.

And now, in Tennessee, because, well, Tennessee, a veritable hot bed of ignorant backwards thinking politicians, both chambers of the state Legislature have passed a bill that would require businesses to post notices that say they allow transgender people to use the building’s restrooms.

The bathroom bill is back, y’all, only now they want to punish a business that accepts everyone; you know, this way the bigots can go somewhere else to shop or eat or browse. And if signed, this bill—which would require signs at the entrances to the building and the door of every restroom that isn’t single stalled—would make Tennessee the first state in the country to adopt legislation seeking to single out trans-affirming businesses for allowing trans people to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

How proud Tennesseans must be.

The bill’s sponsor, state Representative and Republican, because, of course, Tim Rudd seriously believes his bill isn’t aimed at transgender people since it doesn’t ban them from using the restroom altogether, though it might make businesses refuse restrooms to trans people. Instead, he says it’s aimed at “the protection of women and children against sexual predators that could be taking advantage of policies, executive orders or legislation that may allow the opposite sex to enter a restroom, shower or locker that allows more than one person in the facility at a time.”

Oh, we’re back to rapists putting on dresses. How backwards of Tennessee.

This is the same state that tried to pass a Don’t Say Gay Bill …

… the same state where another Republican, Jason Zachary, introduced a bill to allow cisgender students to sue the school if they’re not given a “reasonable accommodation” if they don’t want to share facilities with trans people …

… the same state where another bill that passed the legislature bans books that mention LGBTQ+ people from public schools …

… … the same state where another bill seeks to make the Bible the official state book …

… the same state where another bill, currently on the governor’s desk, and he has until May 3 to act on the bill or allow it to become law, requires schools to notify parents if sexual orientation or gender identity are going to be mentioned in class 30 days in advance, and gives parents the ability to opt their children out so that they don’t have to hear that LGBTQ people exist.

Tennessee, where the state motto is “Agriculture and Commerce” but should be “Fear and Ignorance”.

LGBTQ Nation

But then, this also happened in Tennessee … Dalton Stevens, a senior at Franklin High School, wanted to make a statement for his senior year prom, so he decided on bold formal attire. His boyfriend, Jacob Geittman, says:

“He did his big ‘prom-posal’ and asked me to prom, and he decided he was going to wear a dress, and I’m like, ‘Okay! You’re going to look good in it!'”

Dalton chose a floor-length red dress:

“I very much view clothes as genderless. I was very confident. I knew that I felt beautiful, and I felt great.”

But prom night, while Stevens and Geittman were at the Harpeth Hotel in downtown Franklin taking pictures, a man later identified as homophobic moron Sam Johnson, CEO of a local telemedicine company, VisuWell, decided that, as a grown-assed man, it was his job to ridicule Dalton Stevens for his attire. Dalton tells it like this:

“Slander terms thrown towards me of like ‘You look bad,’ ‘You’ve got hair on your chest, you shouldn’t be wearing a dress,’ ‘You’re not a man,’ blah, blah, blah. The fact that he thought he had the audacity to come tell me what I was supposed to wear and what I was supposed to do because of his standards.”

Or his insecurities.

Or his jealousy that he couldn’t take a boyfriend to the prom?

When the video of Johnson stalking and verbally assaulting Dalton Stevens went viral, Johnson’s employer, VisuWell, fired him, and released a statement:

“We share the concerns that so many have expressed on this matter and look forward to announcing concrete steps we are taking in support of the LGBTQ community in particular over the coming weeks.”

Here’s the deal: what does it hurt? Who does it hurt? It’s clothing, and it made Dalton Stevens feel good, until Sam Johnson, whose masculinity was threatened, came along.

And now he’s out of a job, and Dalton went to the prom and had a fabulous time.

Good.

Joe My God

Tuesday Thought #3

Tuesday thought #2

 

Tuesday Thought #1

 

A Little Help for Trans People of Color

It’s been a year and then some that COVID-19 has smacked us all in our collective faces; some have lost jobs; or seen their jobs reimagined; some have lost businesses or homes or, worst of all, their lives. But think for a second about the way COVID has affected our trans brothers and sisters, especially our trans brothers and sisters of color who, due to systemic oppression, have long faced issues like underemployment, homelessness, incarceration, medical racism, and on and on …

But the good news is that, while many on the right are attacking our trans brothers and sisters simply for being trans, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute [MPJI ]—named for the LGBTQ+ activist and self-identified drag queen who figured prominently in the Stonewall riots of 1969—an organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of Black trans people, has established a COVID Relief Fund, which provides one-time direct relief payments of $500 to those Black trans or nonbinary identifying people; as of today the organization has awarded $250,000 to 500 people.

Funds will go towards replacing lost income, help with rent, families, groceries, medical bills, and more because, as MPJI notes, nearly 20% of transgender people and 26% of transgender people of color have become unemployed due to COVID-19. Even more staggering: 67% of trans people of color say they worry about not being able to pay their bills due to the pandemic’s impact.

Elle Moxley, founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute:

"We are so proud to be able to offer our own stimulus check, if you will, to Black transgender people from around the country. MPJI is one of the only organizations giving cash assistance directly to the people.”

And to people who deserve it most of all.

Bravo.

Check out the Marsha P. Johnson Institute

I'd Give Chris Christie an 'F' ... as In, Well, You Know ...

Chris Christie says he would give the twice-impeached, one-term loser an ‘A’ grade for his presidency.

A is for allowing millions to lose their jobs.

A is for allowing 500,000 Americans die.

A is for allowing your racist followers to riot at the nation’s capital.

A is for allowing the economy to tank because of your ego.

A is for accepting zero responsibility for a pandemic response.

A is for accepting Putin’s lies over your own government’s truths.

A is for adultery.

I’d give Christie a big F** F*** You,  but he also gets an A for being an Asshat.

The Funny Papers

JD Crowe, Bruce Plante, Kevin Siers, Jack Ohman, Ed Wexler, Dave Whamond, Drew Sheneman, Michael de Adder, Adam Zyglis, Clay Bennett, Steve Sack, Ed Hall, Phil Hands, RJ Matson, Ann Telnaes,

I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Kevin Spacey, former Oscar-winning thespian, current Hollywood perv, is, again, severely out of touch.

According to a new Hollywood Reporter piece detailing Spacey’s legal troubles, during a legal deposition, Spacey “sprung up from his seat” and performed a song-and-dance number.

Seriously. Sadly, no one had picked Kevin Spacey Channels Judy Garland During the Deposition on their Bingo card so there is no video.

But we do know from folks who witnessed the show, that Spacey’s performance happened during his legal battle with former employer, Media Rights Capital, who produced House of Cards, and are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages they suffered after the allegations against Spacey came out. Spacey, of course, countersued, saying they owe him money.

Anyway, after more than a year of private negotiations, the Spacey case was submitted to an arbitrator in February 2020, right before the lockdown began. And, like everything in Spacey’s world, the legal proceedings quickly turned bizarre when Spacey sprung up from his seat and performed a song-and-dance number in the conference room.

No word on what he sang, or if he brought tap shoes but I’m guessing he’s practicing his fancy footwork as a way of getting out of this mess. Not guilty by reason of being a showman?

And this lawsuit isn’t Spacey’s only legal battle. While three of his sexual misconduct accusers have died—illness, suicide, hit by a car—he’s still being sued for sexual assault by one of his ex-acting students from the ’80s—who was 14 at the time; Anthony Rapp is also a plaintiff in that suit, and he was also 14 when Kevin allegedly assaulted him. And then there are the six sexual assault accusations out of London, where Spacey lived while running the Old Vic theatre. The Brits are still deciding whether to press criminal charges against him, based on findings made by Scotland Yard’s Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command.

I wonder what he’ll sing at that hearing.

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In most of America when someone puts a For Sale sign in the yard, it means you wanna sell your house. But in Hollywood, people start wondering and gossiping.

Case in point: the recent story that 54-year-old director Sam Taylor-Johnson and her husband, 30-year-old Aaron Taylor-Johnson, put their house on the market is leading people to speculate that the Taylor-Johnsons are over after nine years of marriage.

Perhaps the rabid speculation spurred on by a For Sale sign is the relationship between Sam and Aaron. They met while filming 2009’s Nowhere Boy—she directed it, he played John Lennon; he was 18 at the time—just 6 years older than one of Sam’s children—and she was 42 and married, with two daughters. But Sam divorced her husband and started dating Aaron, and a year later they had a child together; 18 months later had their second child. And then they got married. So, she’s an older woman and she was his boss, so clearly there’s something creepy about all this and that’s why the rumors spread?

Or maybe they love each other and simply want to move, because everyone knows that, in Hollywood, if you want people to talk about your relationship ending, you take off your wedding ring around photographers.

But … but … if the story is true, and the couple are splitting up, and Aaron needs a place to stay, we have a lovely guest room here at Casa Bob y Carlos and it would take just a couple of minutes to move Carlos;’ things in there.

Just sayin’. I’ve seen Aaron fully nekkid in A Million Little Pieces and it’s spectacular.

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Once again Tristan Thompson has been accused of cheating on Khloé Kardastrophe.

Who did not see that coming? I mean, Tristan began dating Khloé after dumping his pregnant girlfriend for her; and then he knocked up Khloé and cheated on her while she was pregnant; and now, big surprise, he’s accused of cheating again with one Sydney Chase, an Instagram model.

Sydney is either a fool, the dumbest woman on the planet, or just a ho because she claims she had no idea Tristan had a girlfriend.

Khloé, on the other hand is either a fool, the dumbest woman on the planet, or just a ho because she doesn’t believe he cheated on her,

Again.

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Sure, these days you may know Alyssa Milano more from her work with the #MeToo movement, or her political Tweets, or her just plain outspokenness, but Milano made a name for herself on Who’s The Boss?, Melrose Place and Charmed.

So, recently, someone on social media went after Milano, claiming her career is basically over, and saying, “Sad how a washed-up actress is still trying to be important,” Milano was not having it. And because she’s the person who will respond to Tweets, she did so:

“I get a lot of those. Usually, it comes from people who identify as a different political party than I do. You see, I identify with the party who believes in equality and equity and opportunity for everyone, and also the party who fights for the most vulnerable and the marginalized communities. But beyond just that, just because you say something to be hurtful, it doesn’t make it true. I have consistently worked since I was 7 years old, and you can just fuck off now and move along.”

Zero fucks. I love that.

Simply put don’t come for Milano unless she sends for you.

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Huh. Maybe Thing #45 Did Bone Missus G.

I mean, let's be real, these two look more like brothers than Junior and The Dumb One do. Maybe that's why Rudy is so hooked to Thing # 45's ass?

I Didn't Say It ...

Nancy Pelosi, speaking to MSNBC and the GQP:

“What I’m concerned about is the behavior of members of Congress, who on the one hand, want to have the luxury of criticizing the president, and on the other hand not wanting to do anything about it. I will never forgive those people and the president who instigated the insurrection for the trauma that they caused to the workers in the Capitol. They messed up my office, they broke mirrors, they stole stuff, and the rest—who cares. But I do care that the impact, the negative impact, the fright they instilled in people because they were doing their civic duty in the Congress of the United States.”

Nancy has zero fucks to give and takes no prisoners.

I love that!

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Andrew Giuliani, Demon Spawn of Nosferatu Ghouliani, foot-stomping and whining about what happened to Daddy.

“It has to stop. If this can happen to the former president’s lawyer, this can happen to any American. Enough is enough. The only piece of evidence that they did not take up there today was the only piece of incriminating evidence that is in there, and it does not belong to my father, it belongs to the current president’s son. Any American, whether you are red or blue, should be extremely disturbed by what happened here today, by the continued politititation [sic] of the Justice Department. Enough is enough, ladies and gentlemen. We cannot stand for this anymore.”

Seriously, he thinks this shouldn’t have happened because his Daddy was the twice-impeached, one-term loser’s lawyer? And this tool is running for New York governor?

Bitch. Please.

PS Learn your worlds dear: it’s “politicization” not “politititation.”

PPS Is it me or does he look like Eric The Dumb One thirty pounds heavier? Did Thing #45 get frisky with one of the Missus Giuliani’s?

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, calling podcast host Joe Rogan “incorrect” for saying he would advise healthy young people against getting the COVID-19 vaccine:

“Well that’s incorrect, and the reason why is you’re talking about yourself in a vacuum then. You’re worried about yourself getting infected and the likelihood that you’re not gonna get any symptoms. But you can get infected and will get infected if you put yourself at risk. And even if you don’t have any symptoms, you’re propagating the outbreak because it is likely that you—even if you have no symptoms—that you may inadvertently and innocently then infect someone else who might infect someone who really could have a problem with a severe outcome.”

What is it with people on the right suddenly thinking they’re doctors or scientists? Rogan is a has-been actor, has-been comic, and a podcaster, so excuse the fuck outta me if I don’t want him dispensing medical advice.

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Joe Rogan, asshat, walking back his idiotic comments:

“There’s some legitimate science behind [these vaccines]. This is the thing about this whole thing, people being upset at me: I’m not an anti-vax person. I said, ‘I believe [the vaccines are] safe,’ and I encouraged many people to take them. My parents were vaccinated. I just said, ‘I don’t think that if you’re a young, healthy person, that you need it.’ [But] their argument was, you need it for other people. That makes more sense, but that’s a different argument. That’s a different conversation.”

Wrong idiot. We have learned all along that wearing the mask is for “other,” to protect “others.” And we were told that getting the vaccine is the same deal: to protect others.

You just wanted to be cute and edgy and, well, stupid. Almost as stupid as your audience because anyone Who takes medical advice from the likes of Joe Rogan over Dr. Anthony Fauci is an idiot.

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John Roberts, Fox News host, walking back the lie about President Biden’s ambitious climate change goals:

“That research from 2020 found that cutting back how much red meat people eat would have a drastic impact on harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The data was accurate, but a graphic and the script incorrectly implied it was part of Biden’s plan for dealing with climate change. That is not the case.”

Um, John, honey? Your news channel “implied”—and not how the word implied contains the word lied—about the data being part of Biden’s plan without one shred of proof.

Good reporting over there. Asshat.

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Lindsey Graham, Q-SC, says he does not believe systemic racism exists in law enforcement or other U.S. institutions because … Obama:

“No, not in my opinion. We just elected a two-term African American president … the vice president is of African American, Indian descent. [So] reform the police yes, call them all racists no. Within every society you have bad actors. Qualified immunity is a problem. It’s a pretty simple solution: Don’t sue the police officer, sue the department.”

First off, Aunt PityPat, you did not elect Barack Obama or Kamala Harris; I did. Along with tens of millions of others.

You, however, did, say, that:

“If you’re a young, African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal.”

Nope, nothing racist at all in that statement; you just act how Miss Lindsey wants you to act and you’re welcome in his state.

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I Had A COVID Prick

 And, no, by COVID prick, I don't mean Rand Paul.

Carlos and I went to our local health services department here in Smallville and, quicker than you can say "Is that hot black guy gonna give me a shot," we were pricked and on our way.

Easy peasy, and so far, feeling just dandy! In two weeks we go back for Prick #2.

Bobservations

Yesterday, after breakfast, Carlos announced that he was going to work in the yard trimming the azaleas and pulling weeds and such; he said he’d seen a vine growing up into one of the azaleas and wanted to pull it out and cut it down before it killed the plant.

He was outside about an hour before he came back in and said he couldn’t find the vine; he told me that he had coiled it up and left it on the ground the day before because he didn’t have his shears. I asked if he had checked all the azaleas along the fence and he snidely said, “Yeeeeessssss!”

I knew what I had to do.

“Perhaps it was a snake, and after you coiled it up it slithered away.”

And now he won’t go into the backyard either.

Tuxedo wants to play off of Carlson’s idea of berating people who wear masks by asking the entire country to berate anyone who works for, listens to, or believes Fox News.

Good news … in Arkansas, a bill that says teachers may teach religious creationism alongside the scientific theory of evolution failed to advance from the Senate Education Committee. GQP wingnut and bill sponsor, Mary Bentley, claims that “many” teachers asked her for the ability to teach “counter-theories”.

Hey Mary? Creationism is taught in church. And there is a Separation of Church and State—even in Arkansas—that comes into play here. I mean, unless you wanna have the theories of evolution taught in Sunday school.

Uh huh, Thought so.

As we watch state after state, well, the Republican ones anyway, try to discriminate against trans youth, we are getting more good equality news from the Biden Administration,

The Housing and Urban Development Department has recommitted to Obama-era protections that ensure transgender people experiencing homelessness can stay in shelters that correspond with their gender identities.

Another smackdown to the hate-filled agenda of the last guy.

In Flori-duh and Oklahoma, the state’s GQP Governors, Ron DeSantis and Kevin Stitt, have signed “anti-riot” bills into law that vastly increase law enforcement’s powers to crack down on civil unrest. But another thing they do? They grant civil legal immunity to people who drive through protesters blocking the road.

That’s right. If you are protesting, and in the streets, a wingnut Floridian or Oklahoman can literally drive into the crowd, injuring or killing anyone, and be granted immunity.

Think about that white supremacist who ran over and killed counter-protester Heather Heyer during the Charlottesville protests in 2017.  Under these two asshat’s new laws, if he’d said it was accidental he’d be free and Heyer would still be dead.

Oh, and make no mistake this is a direct result of the Black Lives Matter protests which means, without saying so, the laws target running down people of color legally.

This past weekend, following reports on Fox News, that bastion of criminally insane lying, a bunch of RepubliQAnon asshat politicians claimed that President Biden would remove hamburgers and steaks from every restaurant and home to combat climate change.

Seriously. These tools either are stupid enough to believe this or think their constituents are stupid enough to believe this.

Fox News was forced to retract their story because … lies.

A German police bomb squad was called to investigate a suspected hand grenade in a Bavarian forest and luckily determined that the object actually was a rubber sex toy.

Just another reason Carlos and I keep our real grenades in a separate box from the butt grenades.

In another case of Liars Gonna Lie, the New York Post—owned by the same company as lying Fox News—reported that a children’s picture book written by Vice President Kamala Harris was being handed out in “welcome kits” to young migrants at a shelter in Long Beach, California.

Fox News also aired the story until Long Beach city officials told The Washington Post that Harris’s book is not being handed out in welcome kits. A single copy of the book was donated during a citywide donation drive.

But hey, if a lie works, then spread it.

Josh Hawley, liar and insurrection-supporting traitor to his country, has written a book on the “Tyranny Of Big Tech.” And he took to Twitter to advertise the slim, 200-page book pamphlet treatise and tagged onto the message was a link to Amazon.com, the third-largest technology company in the world.

Oh, and Hawley did all this using the Twitter application for iPhone.

You seriously cannot fix stupid, but you can make fun of it all day long.

Ah, German Fontanini, a six-foot tall, brown haired, gray-blue-eyed Argentinean model. There is no need to say another word.