Time For A Change ...

I went for a new haircut this week and told the stylist I wanted to go a little retro this time, and this is what she suggested.

I'm still deciding ...

Citizen Journalist Darnella Frazier Honored by Pulitzer Board

Another week upon us and I need some good news to get things pumping, and I found it in Darnella Frazier.

She was the young woman who recorded a police officer, aided and abetted by other police officers, murder George Floyd. She stood on that sidewalk with her cell phone filming the entire gruesome vile episode in one single shot, and I believe it was her video that most convinced the jury to find Derek Chauvin guilty of murder.

And now the Pulitzer Board—yes, that  Pulitzer—has given Darnella Frazier a special citation for the  video that she says has haunted her since that day in May last year. The citation at the 2021 Pulitzer Prize ceremony is a rare instance of the board recognizing the journalistic achievement of someone with no professional experience in the field, something dubbed “citizen journalism”. The Pulitzer Board called Darnella Frazier an example of “the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice” and recognized her recording as a “transformative video that jolted viewers and spurred protests against police brutality around the world.”

And finally held a police officer fully accountable in the murder of a Black American.

Her video has been compared to the video—made by George Holliday—of Rodney King being beaten by LA police officers during a 1991 traffic stop, and the video of a New York City police officer—filmed by Ramsey Orta—choking Eric Garner to death for celling “loose” cigarettes.

Darnella Frazier was also awarded  the 2020 Benenson Courage Award from PEN America, presented to her by filmmaker Spike Lee.

On the first anniversary of Floyd’s murder, Darnella Frazier wrote about the lingering trauma in a message on Facebook.

“A lot of people call me a hero even though I don’t see myself as one. I was just in the right place at the right time. Behind this smile, behind these awards, behind the publicity, I’m a girl trying to heal from something I am reminded of every day.”

Darnella Frazier, in her own way, has started a healing in this country and so, yeah, I’d call her a hero.

The Funny Papers

Michael de Adder, Jack Ohman, Steve Breen, JD Crowe, Mike Luckovich, Matt Wuerker, Marc Murphy, David Horsey, Nick Anderson, Dave Whamond, Bill Day, John Darkow, Darrin Bell, Deb Milbrath, Clay Bennett, Bill Bramhall, Kevin Siers, 

I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Last week learned—as if we didn’t already know—that all Kim Kardastrophe cares about is her soon-to-be-ending “reality” show. I mean, she was planning on being a lawyer … hold for laughter … but she failed the baby bar months ago but said nothing until she could whine about it in front of cameras. So, is it any surprise that she’s now doing the same thing about another failed marriage?

In one of the latest episodes of Keeping up With The Kardastrophes—and, no, I don’t watch—Kimmy broke down in tears, tears I say, over the end of her marriage to Kanye West. The scene was filmed around Thanksgiving of last year, and Kimmy filed for divorce in February.

In the clip for her show, Kimmy cries about how she can’t deal with Kanye moving “to a different state every year” and says he deserves someone who will live with him on his Wyoming ranch—of note, Kimmy, Wyoming is just one state—and support his every move because she can’t, and it played out like this:

KIM (crying): I just like honestly can’t do this anymore. I can’t! Why am I still in this place where I’m stuck for years? Like he goes and moves to a different state every year. I have to be together so I can raise the kids, you know? He’s an amazing dad, he’s done an amazing job.

ONE OF THE SISTERS (Kuz they are interchangeable): He still will be. He still will be. He’ll be better without you there, like…

KIM: I think he deserves someone who can go support his every move and go follow him all over the place and move to Wyoming. I can’t do that. He should have a wife that supports his every move and travels with him and does everything and I can’t! I feel like a fucking failure that it’s like a third fucking marriage. Yeah, I feel like a fucking loser! But I can’t even think about that, I wanna be happy!

So, there you have it; she doesn’t wanna be a wife who supports her husband—of note, she doesn’t really have a job that doesn’t allow her to travel because she travels all the time, just not with her husband—because she wants to be the one her husband follows around to a “different” state, er, just Wyoming.

Maybe Kimmy should stay off TV and out of marriage, because she’s not very good at either one.

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Cuba Gooding Jr. has been keeping his lawyers very busy over the past few years., what with the dozens and dozens of various misconduct allegations against, but this is about just one of his drunken nightclub groping accusations.

In October 2019, Cuba was accused of getting handsy with Natasha Ashworth, a server at the Tao nightclub in New York and was hit with criminal charges. Despite there being legitimate security camera footage of the incident, Cuba pleaded not guilty to the charges. But Ashworth then filed a civil lawsuit against Cuba, but he lost that case because he ignored it.

Seriously.

The server also hit Cuba with a civil lawsuit, which he just lost, because he ignored it. In fact, even after getting served he didn’t hire a lawyer, so Ashworth went to the judge and requested the case go ahead with or without Cuba.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Alexander Tisch approved Ashworth’s default judgment request for her assault and battery claims. But just because Judge Tisch granted a default judgment that doesn’t mean this situation is over. Ashworth’s lawsuit was also seeking damages for emotional distress, and a new trial date will have to be set to determine how much, if any, damages would be awarded.

I bet Cuba shows up for that. I mean, with so many cases against him, he’s gonna have to watch his coins.

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Cue a Little Tommy Cruise hissy fit.

Back in February 2020, production on the seventeenth Mission: Impossible movie was shut down in Venice because of Coronavirus, and Tommy went nuts, shrieking at the film crew, actors and extras that he was not having this!! He had high-tech  Coronavirus-safe bunkers built and was renting cruise ships to keep people isolated. But then he saw a crew member not socially distancing, and that’s when he went off!

Well, Mission Impossible 70: Tommy’ Getting Too Old For This Shiz, has been put on the breaks once more after ten crew members have tested positive for COVID-19 … with more ALLEGEDLY ion the way because the cast and crew just filmed a huge nightclub scene. Now, every member of the cast and crew, including Tommy, has been told to self-isolate for the next fourteen days.

Really? I mean, couldn’t Tommy just summon Xenu to come back to Earth and rid us of this plague? I mean, $cientology firmly believes that their cult can cure the ills of the planet, and this little old virus has Tommy stuck in a hotel room for two weeks.

So sad.

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Erika Jayne of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is currently divorcing her husband, 81-year-old lawyer Tom Girardi, who is in the middle of major legal trouble and has been accused of stealing millions to fund his and Erika’s lavish lifestyle, and her :::coughcough::: music career. Tom is facing several lawsuits and Erika is wrapped up in it too because it’s been alleged that the Girardi divorce is just a front to hide assets and her involvement in Tom’s many schemes.

Erika, on RHOBH, tries to keep her private life private, except for her many, many discussions of her wealth and her private planes and the myriad of people who slap a wig, some makeup and a spandex suit on her before she goes out, but now that’s all about to change.

You see, on June 14, Hulu will release an ABC News Original documentary about the scandal called The Housewife and the Hustler. In a teaser for the special, various legal experts, those accusing Tom of embezzlement and Real Housewives stars speak on the scandals surrounding the former couple, all of which came to light following Erika’s divorce filing last year.

Erika went from Real Housewife with a Private Plane to wannabe pop star whose career is just about over since Daddy ain’t cutting checks to her anymore.

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I Didn't Say It

Barack Obama, on the GQP standing in line to support the Big Lie:

“Suddenly, everybody was back in line. Now, the reason for that is because the base believed it. The base believed it because this had been told to them not just by the president, but by the media that they watch and nobody stood up and said, ‘Stop. This is enough. This is not true.’ [Well] I won’t say nobody. Let me correct it. There were some very brave people who did their jobs, like the secretary of state in Georgia, who was then viciously attacked for it. And all those congressmen started looking around and they said, ‘You know what? I’ll lose my job. I’ll get voted out of office.’ Another way of saying this is, I didn’t expect that there would be so few people who would say, ‘Well, I don’t mind losing my office because this is too important. America’s too important.'”

Sorry, Mr. president, but you’re acting as if those GOP Senators and Congressman care more about their country than they do their own wallets, and they don’t.

Which is why we need to vote every single one out of office in every election until they are all gone.

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Chris Wallace, Fox News host, challenging Democrat Republican Senator Joe Manchin, who is refusing to support filibuster reform to pass a voting rights bill:

“You said you oppose scrapping the filibuster. The question I have is whether or not—and you say that you hope that will bring the parties together—the question I have is whether or not you’re doing it exactly the wrong way? … If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn’t that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate because old Joe Manchin is out there and who knows what he’s going to do? By taking it off the table, haven’t you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?”

Yes, he has, but, again, like a Republican, he is more concerned with his own job and his own paycheck, than he is with making voting easier for Americans not more difficult.

Joe Manchin can kindly fuck all the way off.

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Joe Manchin, answering Wallace, trying to prove he’s not a traitor to his party and this country:

“I don’t think so, because we have seven brave Republicans that continue to vote for what they know is right and the facts as they see them, not worrying about the political consequences. I’m just very hopeful and I see good signs. Give us some time.  I’m not being naïve. I think [Mitch McConnell’s] 100% wrong in trying to block all the good things that we’re trying to do for America. It would be a lot better if we had participation and we’re getting participation.”

Not enough asshat, and when you have the leader of the other side blatantly saying they will not help this president and you do nothing to change that, then you are clearly on their side.

What—and I cannot stress this enough—the fuck?

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Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary liar, on reports that successor Jen Psaki was being photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue magazine:

“Instead of the glowing profiles [on the women in the twice-impeached, one-term loser’s camp], there were hit pieces repeatedly, time and time again. It’s just so sad that you have a fawning press corps like this, a fawning media sycophantically covering members of the Biden administration.”

Oh Barbie, this is seriously what you’re upset about? That Vogue didn’t take your picture? Maybe if you hadn’t carried water for a murderous traitor, you could be prom Queen.

Then again …

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Franklin Graham, throwing a hissy because, once again, after four years of ‘It’ the State Department will allow our embassies to fly the Pride flag:

“Shame on our State Department for allowing the American Embassy at the Vatican to fly the LGBTQ pride flag. What an insult to the Catholic Church! This flag is promoting an agenda, not a country, and to give it equal billing with the American flag is wrong. It seems that the Biden Administration has no limits on how far they will go to offend the Catholic Church. President [Twice-impeached, One-term Loser] had a one-flag rule—only one flag could be flown on the American flagpole at our embassies—and that was the American flag. Isn’t that how it should be?”

Short answer you bigoted twat: Nope.

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Chasten Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband, taking a shot at RNC head Ronna McDaniel’s Tweet about the GOP’s support of LGBTQ+ rights:

”Those with "deeply held religious beliefs" are often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street. I've met with those kids. 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ. Re-visit your party's platform before you open your mouth about Pride.”

Snap.

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Bobservations

A couple of years after buying this house, we had it painted but, for some reason, we never had the “barn”—folks around here say barn, we say shed—painted. Recently Carlos began giving English lessons to a Hispanic couple in kind of a bartered deal; lessons for painting the shed.

This week the barn shed went red, and it looks, I know, like a little barn. Carlos also wanted the interior painted white so he could see better when he went in there and we cleaned everything out.  But before putting things back, I suggested we thin that shed herd a bit and began separating things into piles of Keep, Toss, Donate.

There was an old fireplace screen we removed from the house. Habitat for Humanity. Check. Old boxes. Trash. Garden tools? Keep. A small tabletop charcoal grill. He says keep; I say donate. But, he says, we use that, and I say …

“Tell me one time in the last twenty years we used it, and remember, we don’t have charcoal or lighter fluid or anything for it.”
I think in Miami I cooked chicken on it once.”

So, sometime, over fourteen-and-a-half years ago, you slapped a chicken on the grill and you think we still need it?”

“It can go.”

This hoarding sense of his explains the cluster of 80s silk shirts in the back of the closet that he doesn’t wear but needs to keep … just in case.

PS She's kina purty now, isn't she?

Tuxedo never went to school, and so he doesn’t know from mathematics, but even he can see how this seems all kinds of wrong!

Last weekend the San Francisco Giants became the very first Major League Baseball team to incorporate LGBTQ+ Pride colors into their on-field uniforms.

In honor of Pride month, players will sport an SF logo Pride Patch on the right sleeve of their home jersey as well as a custom cap with the 11 colors of the Progress Pride Flag, which incorporates black, brown and the transgender pride flag colors with the original six rainbow stripes.

Bravo!

Why don’t these anti-choice politicians and states just use “thoughts and prayers” to stop abortions. I mean, that’s what they do when people murder actual live children in schools.

Just a thought.

The twice-impeached, one-term loser’s blog, where he shared his thought [singular] after larger social media companies banned him from their platforms, has been permanently shut down.

His people made some excuse about it being planned to shut it down, but it had only been a month and was getting less traffic than my little bloggy thing here.

Sorry not sorry.

JP Morgan Chase & Co will resume making political donations to U.S. lawmakers … but not to any Republicans who voted to overturn President Biden’s election victory.

Good. Hit ‘em in the only real place their care about, their wallets.

In other Thing #45 news, he is set to do a series of rallies around the country will fellow sexual assaulter Bill O’Reilly that I have dubbed Sexual Predator-a-Palooza.

And I hear Matt Gaetz is going to open for them.

This week, during a House Natural Resources hearing, Texas Representative Louie Loonie Gohmert asked if the Forest Service or the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] can alter the orbit of the moon or the Earth in order to fight climate change.

Gohmert represents 725,000 Americans, just so you know.

Alex Sewall is a 30-year-old model from Chicago, and a former football player at Indiana State University, who played for a brief time in arena football before beginning a modeling career.

Alex also is very smart, noting that his ass … and it’s real and it’s spectacular is “is usually the thing that gets the most comments and compliments” and he has no problems showing skin.

He seems to love his country, he seems to love music, and he appears to like the sports ball things. Plus, any man that can pull off a hat, after pulling off everything else, is all right in my book.

That’s all.

Architecture Wednesday: Allamanda

And here we have another house on another beach, though this one is on a private island in the Bahamas rather than clinging to the edge of California.

Allamanda is a one-of-a-kind home on the secluded island of Kamalame Cay and is elevated on stilts 14 feet above sea level, designed to maximize sweeping views and ocean breezes. Every space in the 3,175-square-foot, two-bedroom, three-bathroom home is designed to take in the beauty of the surrounding landscape, especially the large 1800 square foot covered porch and the home’s 150 feet of beachfront.

The porch has areas to dine, to socialize, to relax, to nap, all under cover with ceiling fans to enhance the natural ocean breezes.

The home’s two bedrooms—each with its own bathroom—are at opposite ends of the home; an outdoor shower outside the third bathroom provides a place to freshen up after an ocean swim.

The living, dining and kitchen, with soaring ceilings and bright white walls, sits in the center of the home and are open to that sea-facing veranda. It’s all very simple and clean and elegant and relaxing, and can be used as a private home, or as part of the resort on the island.

Residents can stay to themselves or enjoy access to the resort’s concierge services, culinary experiences—like wine-paired dining—and special events.

Personally, while I might enjoy a wine pairing feast, you’d have a hard time getting me off that porch to go anywhere.

Click to emBIGGERate ...

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