I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Oh there is nothing like messy drama—and I don’t mean the Johnny and Amber type of messy that goes on years after the divorce—but the mess that is Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde.

The couple were together almost ten unmarried years and share two children, Otis and Daisy. They split in 2020 and the break-up messiness included Harry Styles, who began dating Olivia instantly, or perhaps slightly before. The break-up ALLEGEDLY hit Jason very hard as he was hoping that Olivia’s fling with Harry was just a phase, but Olivia and Harry are still together, so there’s been some drama.’

And the best part of the drama is that, while onstage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to promote the movie she directed, Don’t Worry Darling, starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, Olivia was handed a manila envelope. Now, nothing good ever comes in a manila envelope, especially one labeled “personal and confidential” and she asked:

“This is for me?”

She opened it and discovered it was papers from Jason’s lawyer suing her for custody of their children. Ouch. Sudeikis, for his part says he had no idea the envelope would be delivered to his ex onstage. Uh huh.

photo

As we already know, Khloé Kardastrophe admitted that she Photoshopped a photo of her daughter, True, into a Disneyland trip that True actually didn’t make. And because Big Sister Kim hates being left out of the drama and needed a break from the Blac Chyna trial, Kim explained why the picture was Photoshopped and it’s pure Kardastrophe myth and vapidness.

Kim held a press conference over on Instagram to admit that on the day in question her child, Chicago, was sitting next to Kylie‘s daughter Stormi, and Kylie doesn't want her child exploited like that …. Hold for laughter because the Kardastrophes are built on exploiting their children … and so Kim did what she had to do:

“[That picture] wasn’t going to mess up my IG feed. Chi was wearing pink and it matched perfectly. You know how much a good aesthetic means to my soul and I will be damned if Kylie will ruin that for me and mess up my IG grid. So thank you True for taking one for the team!”

Seriously, she did it for her Instagram feed, rather than oh, I don’t know, not posting a picture at all. Seriously this family are fame vampires.

photo

Last week, we learned that there was trouble on the set of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut film, Being Mortal, due to a complaint of “inappropriate behavior” but what does that even mean these days. Sexual harassment? Bullying? Name-calling? Dumb jokes?

Well, we now know the complaint was lodged against Bill Murray. There have been stories for years of Bill Murray’s temper—he threw an ashtray at Richard Dreyfus and got into a verbal altercation with Lucy Liu—and it seems Bill Murray was ALLEGEDLY “touchy” with the women on set, and those women complained and the film was shut down. A source says:

“He was very hands-on touchy, not in any personal areas, but put an arm around a woman, touched her hair, pulled her ponytail–but always in a comedic way. It is a fine line and everybody loves Bill, but while his conduct is not illegal, some women felt uncomfortable and he crossed a line.”

How many times do people have to be told to keep their hands to themselves? I mean, good on Bill for not throwing tchotchkes, or wrestling a co-star to the ground, but keep your hands off. Was Bill dozing the last few years or did he think #MeToo meant ‘I’ll have that also’?

Sheesh.

photo

I Didn't Say It

Kevin McCarthy, in his own words:

“I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened. And he needs to acknowledge that.”

And then McCarthy simply forgot all about it.

photo

Jeanine Pirro, Fox News beverage hostess, railing against Biden canceling college debt:

“Let me just finally say this. This asinine ‘I wanna pay off student debt’ is an insult to the senior citizens, to the people who pay taxes, to people who decide, you know, ‘Do I wanna buy meat this week or pay for my medicine?’ That’s hogwash. You’ve got so many jobs, you’ve got a great economy? Let ’em work and pay off their bills—just the way all of us do. That’s the end of it.”

Of note, because it proves that saying that everything a GOP wingnut rails against is something they themselves are guilty of, Judge Juicebox still owes vendors over $600,000 in her failed 2006 bid to unseat then-Senator Hillary Clinton.

Set down the chardonnay, Jeanine, and pay your own damn bills.

photo

Charlie Sykes, conservative political pundit, on McCarthy and his spot at leader of the GOP:

“Well, you know, what’s interesting about Kevin McCarthy’s groveling and lying about this particular incident is the nature of his lie. I mean, think about this. What he’s saying is, you know, ‘No, I didn’t really have a moment of decency, principle and duty, I never did anything about it, and I got over it very, very quickly.' Not only does he have to continue to lie about it, he has a pretend that one of those brief moments where he had some clarity about what was right and what was wrong needs to be memory-holed, so, yes, the Republicans have created an alternative reality. Things have gotten much, much worse than I expected, and I was not an optimist back then. It’s accelerated because [Thing 45] keeps raising the ante ... ‘How far can I push people? What can I get you to say? What can I get you to apologize for?' So it’s not surprising that we wake up on Monday morning and find that [Thing 45] is completely happy to have the next speaker of the House of Representatives, possibly, on his knees, apologizing to him and acknowledging that he has no political future except by believing and repeating [Thing 45’s] lies … [and] Republicans are more than willing to go along with this.”

When you bend over for a liar, you are fucked. Literally.

photo

Jean Schmidt, GOPQAnon congressperson from Ohio, taking a moronic pro-life stance:

"Rape is a difficult issue and it emotionally scars the individual, all or in part, for the rest of their life, just as child abuse does. But if a baby is created, it is a human life, and whether that mother ends that pregnancy or not, the scars will not go away, period. It is a shame that it happens but there is an opportunity for that woman, no matter how young or old she is, to make a determination about what she's going to do to help that life be a productive human being. Just because you have emotional scars doesn't give you the right to take the life."

Funny, though, that Schmidt is a member of the party that doesn’t give a goddamn what happens after a child is born, and the fact that gun deaths are now the leading cause of death of children in this country. Don’t abort the baby, when it can grow up and go to school and be murdered in homeroom.

Jean? Fuck all the way off. You and the GOP don’t care about children at all. 

photo

Elizabeth Warren, Democrat Senator, calling McCarthy a liar:

“Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor. That is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now, that they say one thing to the American public and something else in private. They understand that it is wrong what happened, an attempt to overthrow our government and that the Republicans instead want to continue to try to figure out how to make 2020 election different instead of spending their energy on how it is that we go forward in order to build an economy, in order to make this country work better for the people who sent us to Washington. Shame on Kevin McCarthy.”

The GOP has no ideas on climate change or infrastructure or immigration, all they have is fear and lies and insurrectionists in their midst.

photo

Bobservations

I’ve told y’all before that Carlos suffers from Retinitis Pigmentosa, which affects field of vision. Well, RP also sometimes comes along with Usher’s Syndrome which affects your hearing, and Carlos has long had hearing issues.

Now, sometimes he hears stuff, and sometimes he doesn’t, and sometimes I am surprised at the things he can hear. Case in point … the other day, strolling through blogland, I stopped in at Frank’s Reluctant Rebel. Frank and his husband live in New Mexico where they have some gorgeous scenery and some high intensity sand and dust storms. Frank’s husband, Leon, made a video of driving through a dust storm and I was watching it, the wind gusting and the dust and sand flying. Carlos enters the room and starts futzing with his trumpet, and then turns and says to me:

“Is the AC on?”

Cuz he heard the gusts of wind on a video of a New Mexico sandstorm on a blog on the computer. But it was 7AM, in April, and the AC would never be on.

I think he plays the hearing card so he doesn’t have to listen to me … not that I blame him, I do go on …

The word Karma has special meaning this week as we watched Tesla's stock plunge, losing some $100B in value, the day after Musk's announced deal to buy Twitter.

Sure, he’s still a very wealthy tyrant, but he did get a smack and I’m here for it.

For decades, auto accidents have been the leading cause of death among children, but in 2020 guns took the top spot,  with firearm-related deaths increasing 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, while gun deaths for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%.

And still the GOP wants to allow open carry, no permits, no background checks, so when they pass a law banning books, or a Don't Say Gay, and tell you it’s about “the children” remind them that they are also passing laws making it easier to shoot “the children.”

This is so funny, until you see it in your own house again and again, and then start plotting your husband’s demise. I kid. Or do I?

Anheuser-Busch InBev has announced it is selling its stake in a Russian joint venture, taking a $1.1 billion loss as the company joins a global move to end business with Russia for attacking Ukraine.

I might have to pop a Bud.

Photographs have surfaced that show Madison Cawthorn, the Hitler-loving Christian conservative  congressperson from North Carolina, wearing lingerie. Could it be one of the GOP orgies he talked about last month?

Cawthorn’s response was this:

“I guess the left thinks goofy vacation photos during a game on a cruise (taken waaay before I ran for Congress) is going to somehow hurt me? They’re running out of things to throw at me... Share your most embarrassing vacay pics in the replies.”

Trouble is, this conservative “Christian” also says men are a dying breed being weakened by wokeness, but he’s the one in women’s’ underwear.

PS Cawthorn was cited again for bringing a gun inside Charlotte Douglas International Airport this week. He may not be cited or fined for this breach but imagine it had been a Black man who’d brought a loaded firearm in his carry-on luggage. Yeah.

PSS Cawthorn may have violated federal insider trading laws for promoting a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency scheme at a party with James Koutoulas, a hedge fund manager and the ringleader of the Let’s Go Brandon cryptocurrency.

It’s worth noting that Koutoulas' crypto is virtually worthless after reaching a peak market cap of $570 million.

While masked up, I was asked again in the grocery store—why is it always the grocery story with these nuts—if I was going to keep wearing my mask and I said:

“And I’ll still wear my seatbelt, and I’ll still get vaxxed and wash my hands and use sunscreen and stop for red lights and stop signs.”

Then I picked out a pineapple and continued on my way.

Mark Meadows is clearly the largest perpetrator of voter fraud in America.

We learned that Meadows and his wife, listed a rusted-out trailer in a holler of North Carolina as their residence so they could vote in the 2016 election in that state, but now it appears Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three different states—North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina—according to state records.

Now, the overlap lasted about three weeks, but it might have continued if revelations about Meadows’s voting record had not attracted scrutiny in North Carolina.

Mark Meadows is still registered in Virginia and South Carolina.

I know next to next about model Yorky Burgos, though his name makes me think of horny little lapdog, and that’s not a bad thing. That said, Would You Hit It?

Architecture Wednesday: Restored Midcentury

I like this one because it’s Midcentury, because it’s in my old hometown, Sacramento, and because it was designed by local architect John Harvey Carter in 1968 for a family who went on to live there for fifty years. After hitting the market for the first time in 2020, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom 2,232 light-filled residence was restored and updated, with much of the original design still intact.

When you enter the home, you face the blue panel wall that shields the dining room from view. Down a hallway to the left is a sunken living room, anchored by a drop-down fireplace and features, not original, but appropriate, shag carpet, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a reflecting pool.

Yes, there’s a reflecting pool, ’all.

In fact, the formal living room, dining room, breakfast area, and family room all have stunning views of the side yard and the Zen courtyard reflecting pool. In addition to the courtyard, Carter was also influenced by other Japanese design influences, like the large overhanging eaves that shade the house from the California heat.

Past the dining room, with its own courtyard view, is the kitchen. Now, my one quibble might be the kitchen; while large, the double islands and overhead cabinetry, make it seem closed off in an otherwise incredibly open home. But, you know, a little remodel and the kitchen could still feel original.

Across from the kitchen, and across the reflecting pool from the living room is a more casual family room area. There are two bedrooms and a bath along one side of the home, while the primary suite and bath are along the other side.

I love the openness of the hose, and the quirky sunken living room; I also know the neighborhood where the house sits, and it is one of my favorites in Sacramento with large trees and wide lawns.

I think, and here’s another quibble, there’s no garage, that with a garage out front and with maybe a million or so in my bank account, I could really live in this house.

Dwell

Even before he was elected, the top Republicans in the House and Senate vowed allegiance to Thing 45, but on January 6, 2021, when the loser refused to admit, or accept, defeat he incited a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol and stop the certification of votes that would make Joe Biden the President.

And now we know that two of the wigs in the GOP—Leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell—turned against the soon-to-be ex-President in those days following the insurrection, only to then about face and start licking the boots of a traitor once again.

A The New York Times reveals that in the days after the attack, McCarthy was so disgusted by the riot, and the President’s part in it, that he planned to tell Thing 45 to resign.

“I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy told a group of GOP leaders, calling Thing 45’s conduct on January 6 “atrocious and totally wrong” and admitted that he believed the former president was “inciting people” to attack. He told his leadership team what Thing 45 “did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it,” and said he knew that Democrats would successfully impeach the president for a second time, and so he told his party that he was going to ask the president to resign, even going so far as bringing up the 25th Amendment.

At the same McConnell was telling his allies in Congress that impeachment was warranted, telling two of his advisors that “the Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us” referring to the upcoming impeachment, and adding, “if this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is.”

And then McConnell and McCarthy did nothing. Instead, they sat on their hands and watched as their own party bent to the will of  a lunatic and sociopath, and then climbed on board that train with them all.

Now, McConnell says that if Thing 45, a man he believed to have incited a traitorous riot against this country, were to run for President in 2024, Mitch McConnell would fully support him.

And McCarthy, even hearing the recordings of him saying he was going to ask Thing 45 to resign, says he never said that, and he wasn’t going to do that, and he also supports the ex-president.

So, Republicans, and I know there are some of you out there who haven’t had the Kool-Aid, why do you think this is? Are McConnell and McCarthy, and indeed the whole of the GOP, terrified of this man? Are they being bullied by a narcissist? Does Thing 45, as is his habit, have dirt on these two?

I don’t know of any other reason why, one day, they call for him to resign, call him a traitor, blame him for a violent attack on the nation’s capital, and then just a few days later, swear loyalty to him again.

Are they, as Leonard Pitts said, “spineless, craven little men?” And is what thing 45 has on them, or what he’s promised Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell worth more than whatever amount of integrity or loyalty to this country they have left?

Is this country falling going to be worth it to McCarthy and McConnell? And are the level-headed Republicans going to vote to keep these two in power, and to restore a traitor to the highest office in the land?

Is that America today?

Oh, and also important to note is that most Republicans have come out and said they support McCarthy even though they believe he lied. Let that sink in … they know he lied and they still support him.

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Trevor Jacob

I loathe Trevor Jacob, and I might like him arrested.

It seems that last year, Jacob, a social media addict, asshat and daredevil YouTuber, posted a video of himself parachuting out of a plane that he claimed had malfunctioned, purposely abandoning the aircraft and allowing it to crash into the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California.

Fact is, Trevor Jacob jumped, and crashed that plane, for views on YouTube, and while he got some views, he also lost the right to ever fly again. The Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] says Jacob violated federal aviation regulations and operated his single-engine plane in a “careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.”

The agency immediately revoked Jacob’s private pilot certificate, effectively ending his permission to operate any aircraft.

I think he should be arrested. Sure, maybe he saw to it that the plane would crash in an uninhabited area, but what if there were hikers, what if the plane caught fire and started a massive wildfire.

All that for a few clicks on social media.

Asshat.

The Bad and The Good ... Monday April 25, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile, because, literally, there are dumb people everywhere ... but that's what makes it so frightening. So this week, I decided to include some Good News as sort of a palette cleanser for the crazies …

BAD

FLORIDA

We know that GOPQAnon Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill to dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District last week, but now comes the question of who pays all the news taxes, and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph says:

“The moment that Reedy Creek doesn’t exist is the moment that that those taxes don’t exist. You’re literally taking $163 million a year of taxes that Disney pays for Reedy Creek and wiping it down to zero. I don’t see that Orange County doesn’t raise property taxes by 20% to 25%. That’s what Orange County would probably have to do to cover this financial situation.”

But, hey, DeSantis smacked a cartoon mouse!

FLORIDA [Again]

Dozens of books were recently taken off Walton County schools library shelves  and School Superintendent A. Russell Hughes said:

“I did it for just a welfare of all involved, including our constituents, our teachers, and our students. I’ll continue to do those things and perhaps add some.”

One of those books was “Everywhere Babies,” published twenty years ago as an ode to infancy. It has long been a staple of family bookshelves, libraries, bookstores, a recommendation in new parent groups, and a Best Seller. So, why was it removed? Don’t Say Gay.

Though there are not any explicitly LGBTQ persons depicted in the book, author Susan Meyers says she believes her book was banned due to a single drawing of a man with his arm on another man’s shoulder.

Sinful!

MICHIGAN

A fundraising message sent by GOP state Senator Tom Barrett, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the newly drawn 7th Congressional District, claims:

“President Biden is forcing 5-year-olds to learn about gender reassignment surgeries, gender identities, and other radical ideas. Every American needs to step up TODAY and stop this sick and twisted ideology from poisoning our children.”

Barrett’s original fundraising appeal came via text and appeared to be an appointment confirmation for “Your Child” to receive “Gender Reassignment Surgery Tomorrow at 9 AM”  and asks:

“If you would like to CANCEL this appointment because you do not believe in teaching young children about dangerous transgender ideologies, please sign your name NOW.”

He has zero qualifications or ideas so he runs on fear and lies.IDAHO

IDAHO 

Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, who is running for governor, will appear with Stew Peters for a political rally next month.

Stew, who? Peters is a white nationalist who supports Vladimir Putin, who, he claims, is “more honest than anyone in our government.” Peters is a racist who claims Russia is “the only country that’s not under the thumb of the criminal banking cabal.” He’s a white supremacist who popularized the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is actually a synthetic form of snake venom and has repeatedly called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be executed.

And Janet McGeachin wants to appear at a rally with him.

Seriously, Idaho? This is the best you can do.

TEXAS

Proving himself to be a huge asshat, Texas GOPQAnon Governor Greg Abbott’s rule that doubled the inspections for commercial trucks coming in from Mexico, because he says the trucks were carrying undocumented immigrants and drugs,  caused delays that cost the U.S. nearly $9 billion in gross domestic product.

The rule was in effect until, Abbott realized his dumbfuckery.

Another “government is too big Republican” costing millions, er, billions, to the American people because they haven’t a clue what’ s going on.

TENNESSEE

GOP lawmakers passed legislation making camping on public property a misdemeanor crime, a law which effectively criminalizes homelessness. 

Poverty is now a crime in Tennessee, y’all, and you can face a misdemeanor offense and a $50 fine or community service requirement if you don’t have a home.

ARIZONA

The Senate passed two controversial education bills last week, one that will empower parents to sue if they feel like educators are interfering with their right to direct their child’s upbringing, and another that would assist parents in monitoring their child’s library habits.

Let me say this, you wingnut GOP parents: rather than sue a teacher for doing his or her job, why not quit your job, stop going to Starbucks, buy a smaller house, and homeschool your precious babies so you can raise them to be ignorant fucks like yourselves?

GOOD

TENNESSEE

A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote after her probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating she was done with probation for a 2015 felony conviction.

For trying to register to vote. In case it isn’t obvious, because this is still America, land of the White Free, Pamela Moses is a Black woman.

Although Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January, she was granted a new trial in February after it was learned that her defense council has not been privy to certain documents in the hands of prosecutors.

Now, finally, the charges are dropped.

KENTUCKY

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings has temporarily blocked a state law that effectively eliminated abortions in Kentucky after the state’s two remaining clinics said they couldn’t meet its requirements.

The decision was a victory for abortion rights advocates and a setback for the GOP-led, anti-women legislature, which passed the law in March and then overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of the measure last week.

Both of the clinics have resumed healthcare services for the women who chose to make their own choices.

FLORIDA

I love a good Letter to the Editor and this one, clearly from someone living in Ron DeSantis’ Flori-duh is just spot on. Sadly, when I saw the phot, the name was redacted because I’d love to give proper credit to the author. Anyway, here goes …

“Gov. Ron DeSantis claims Florida is a ‘Free state.’ Baloney!

It’s a free state if you’re rich, if you give millions to his re-election campaign, if you’re a wealthy developer or if you’re a CEO of a big corporation.

Bit by bit. DeSantis is taking away everyone else’s freedoms.

Freedom to put solar on your roof? No! Freedom to vote? No! Freedom for women to make their own health care decisions? No! Freedom to be who you are? No! Freedom for local government to decide local issues? No!

Freedom for children to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? No! Freedom for businesses to offer diversity training for employees? No! Freedom to afford a place to rent? No!

Freedom to access affordable healthcare? No! Freedom for teachers to provide an honest teaching of history? No! Freedom to discuss sexual orientation in schools? No!

DeSantis’ ambition: Position himself in 2024 as the heir apparent to [Thing 45]. He wants to corrupt not just Florida but the entire country.

You can stop him, but you have to register and you have to vote! Let’s get rid of Gov. Ron and let Florida be a truly free state—again.”

In other words: CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

When Democrats vote, Democrats win.

The Funny Papers

Steve Breen, Marc Murphy, Drew Sheneman, Ted Littleford, Deb Milbrath, Randy Bish, Bill Day, John Cole,  Nick Anderson, Michael de Adder, Ed Hall, Jack Ohman, David Horsey, Walt Handelsman, Guy Parsons,