Bobservations

Back story … several times over the last few years Carlos has played his trumpet at the local Catholic church mass for Christmas and Easter; he has also played at events for the Hispanic parishioners.

And, because I cannot always drive him to his translations, he asked if he could put up a note on the church bulletin board to ask for rides and one woman, Diane, answered and said she’d be thrilled to drive him whenever he needs it.

Now, he and I take walks nearly every day that I am off on various trails in and around Camden, but he wanted to walk more so he asked the woman who drives him—is he becoming Miss Daisy—if she knew of a group from the church. Well, she didn’t but she created one and they had their first walk today and Diane told Carlos that some of the women questioned walking with him because he’s a :::gasp::: homosexual and Diane told them that if they took issue with him because he’s gay that they could just stay home and not be part of the group.

Last week, we had car wash Karen and this week we have Diane, proving there are all kinds of people, good and bad, in the world and we need to school the bad and thank the good.

PS Diane brought him Gatorade so he could hydrate during the walk! 

This Tuxedo says is from March 2021 …

Tuxedo wants y’all to remember that, not only is he saving lives with the vaccine roll-out, but he’s not running off in the middle of a pandemic to have a play date at our expense. 

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, who has been whiny and unhappy ever since conservatives lost their stranglehold on the state’s Supreme Court in 2023, just can’t take it any longer and so :::foot stomp head snap::: she’s not going to run for re-election in 2026. 

Bye bitch.

Snoop Dogg apparently pitched a hissy because he took his grandkids to the new Pixar movie and it featured a Lesbian couple who were having a baby, and one of the youngsters asked how two women could have a child together. And then Snoop went apeshit about the cartoon lesbian kiss.

Imagine living as a Black man, and a rapper, in America and surviving the censorship, and the police harassment and being labeled a threat to society only to turn around and do the same thing to another marginalized segment of society.

Do better, Snoop.

When you hit the voting booth, in every single election, remember that any politician who tells you who you can love, what gender you are, what books you can read, what history you can learn, and what religion you can be is not pro-freedom.

Vote accordingly.

That's Polish CEO Piotr Szczerek stealing a hat that tennis player Kamil Majchrzak had handed to a young fan at the US Open last week. A statement ALLEGEDLY authored by Szczerek went out claiming he was just faster at grabbing the hat than the kid; Szczerek denies he said that but issued this apology:

"All statements appearing online accredited to us were false and were not authored by us or our representatives. For years, my wife and I have been involved in supporting children and young athletes, but this incident has shown me that a moment of inattention can undo years of work and support. It is a painful but necessary lesson in humility."

Really? Cuz I learned the lesson about not stealing from children without ever stealing from children in the first place.

Of note, Szczerek did not apologize until the story broke and his company took a financial hit. So, as I said on Facebook, I imagine Szczerek probably prefers one of those red caps most of the time.

PS Tennis player Kamil Majchrzak met the young boy personally and gave him a new hat.

Blake Leahy is a male model based in London who is into positive well-being and more so are you positive … Would You Hit It?

Meme Dump

Meme Dump

Tuesday Thought #2

The Problem I Have With Rightwingnut GOP Christian Conservatives, Part One

There are all kinds of places for gay men to find other gay men for a quick hook-up … Craig’s List, Grindr, Scruff, Hornet, Jack’d, VGL, Surge, DaddyHunt, to name but a few. And yet there is one place you might never have thought about: the Republican Party.

I mean, it worked for Wesley Goodman, an up-and-coming Christian conservative family values, anti-LGBT asshat who served in the Ohio statehouse and thought he might, one day, run for the US Congress.

Now? Not so much.

The married Goodman—Good Man, that high-larious—was elected to the Ohio statehouse after working for the Conservative Action Project but this week he resigned his seat after House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger was alerted to Goodman's "inappropriate behavior" with a :::gasp::: man in his state office.

 Goodman released one of those “Oops, I Got Caught” statements:           

"We all bring our own struggles and our own trials into public life. That has been true for me, and I sincerely regret that my actions and choices have kept me from serving my constituents and our state in a way that reflects the best ideals of public service. For those whom I have let down, I'm sorry."

 No harassment complaints have been filed against Goodman—the other man was not a Statehouse employee or legislative member—and it appears the two men had a consensual “office visit.” Yet after that story broke, so did the dam. Suddenly all kinds of information came out about Goodman’s “double life.” It seems he liked to exchange salacious texts and emails with gay men he met on Capitol Hill, send sexually explicit messages to young men he met through conservative circles, and have sex with other closeted gay Republicans.

One of those men, Johnny Hadlock, met Goodman back in 2010 when Hadlock was a staffer for another GOP congressman; he confided in Goodman that he was a closeted gay man and the two began exchanging racy text messages, though they never engaged in physical sexual acts:

"Wes never sexually harassed me—we both knew what we were doing and we were both fine doing it.”

Hadlock went on to work for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and said he last talked with Goodman in 2014 in private Facebook messages that Goodman initiated when he said his wife was out of town and when she was asleep. In one conversation, Goodman said he was in his underwear and asked if Hadlock was sexually aroused.

And another conservative with Ohio ties—who chooses to remain anonymous … go figure—claims Goodman engaged in predatory behavior toward younger men, sending inappropriate material and propositioning them through text and Facebook messenger. He claimed Goodman would target college kids and offer himself as their “mentor” and many were too scared to report his sexual advances because they didn't want to damage their own careers.

Another former GOP congressional staffer, Chris Donnelly says Goodman replied to a Craigslist post on a board for men seeking men, and the two had a sexual encounter in 2008. In an email account using the name Brady Murphey, Goodman described himself as a "straight/curious" guy who needed to be discreet:

"Maybe we can hang and see what's up, no expectations really, but your post seemed cool so let me know bro." 

Donnelly said Goodman was "all over Craigslist" and responded to several ads posted by Donnelly and other gay men: 

"It became a running joke between me and my gay friends on Capitol Hill. It's not like it was some one-off thing." 

Hadlock and Donnelly now say they reached out with their stories because they were disappointed Goodman would push anti-LGBT policies while secretly seeking out and being intimate with other men, except …

It was back in 2009 when Goodman saw Donnelly at a conservative event to support an Ohio Defense of Marriage act. So, um, yeah, why wait another eight years to speak up? Oh, yeah, because that was when Goodman was caught, perhaps with his pants down. If either of those two men were so adamant about Goodman’s anti-LGBT leanings they would have come forward years ago. But, hey, he’s a closeted gay man sexually harassing college boys so we’ll look the other way because … GOP. It’s that same mentality as those still supporting Roy Moore; as long as he pushes the GOP agenda they can harass young men and fondle young girls.

Donnelly says he warned Ohio Republicans that Goodman's behavior didn't match up with his so-called socially conservative views, and Donnelly shared his information with Kenny Street, political director for the Ohio House Republican Caucus, after Goodman won election in 2016. Donnelly says Street told him he would take the matter to Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and that the caucus planned to confront Goodman. 

That never happened; Rosenberger says he never heard the allegations until this latest Goodman Hook-up, and had not heard allegations about Goodman sending inappropriate messages to younger men at all. So, Kenny Street took this information and did nothing with it because nothing matters more than party to the GOP, to conservatives, to Christians.

And therein lies the issue: the GOP is riddled with self-loathing closeted homosexuals who places ads for hook-ups or tap their feet in airport men’s rooms because they are afraid of coming out; they work tirelessly on anti-LGBT issues to cats aside any doubt that they are Christian conservative family men who only bend over for other guys sometimes when their wives are out of town or are asleep in the other room.

This is the problem I have with Christian conservatives; the holier-than-thou crap; the beating of the Gay Hate Drums so they won’t be found out.

And it isn’t just Republicans in office … stay tuned for Part Two.

Cleveland.com

The Funny Papers

David Horsey, Nick Anderson, Darrin Bell, Adam Zyglis, Mike Luckovich, Mike Smith, Steve Sack, Clay Bennett

Texas Lt. Governor Defends Bathroom Bill, But Does Nothing About 171 Dead Children

Earlier this week I posted about Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who, even though the Texas Legislature isn’t in session, has jumped on the Bathroom Bill Bandwagon of Hate by promising to rid the restrooms of transgender folk who just want to pee—see that post Texas Wants Some Of That North Carolina Hate On Their Books, Too.  Never mind the fact that transgender Americans have been using the bathroom of the gender with which they identify forever, without incident or attack or sexual misconduct because, again, they just need to pee.

But still, this is Patrick’s new target, and Target; he’s worried about children being in a bathroom with a trans female because of what might, but has never, happened. But what Dan Patrick is not concerned about, are the 171 children who died of abuse and neglect in his state. Not even after a federal judge declared that the state of Texas failed neglected children by medicating them “instead of addressing their trauma.” The court also found that state officials routinely ignored signs of sexual abuse for years while placing children in the care of overworked caseworkers.

But by all means let’s pass a Bathroom Bill, something Dan Patrick claims is a priority of the “highest order;” he has come hard against a Fort Worth school policy that allows transgender students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity and puts into action protections that shield LGBT kids from bullying, harassment and even physical harm.

He wants that stopped, but doesn’t have an issue with 171 dead kids because they weren’t killed by a trans female in a bathroom. And the funny, and by funny I mean sick, disguising, Republican, conservative part of this whole mess is that Lt. Gov. Patrick has no direct authority over local school policies, including bathroom use, but he is responsible for Texas’s Child Protective Services and the Department of Family and Protective Services.

And those 171 dead children.

According to the Star Telegram — that story is HERE — Texas has more than 108,000 confirmed cases of child abuse, to which “Patrick held no press conferences. There’s no public statement on his website. He waved no banner for their well-being;” stories like …

Four -year-old Leiliana Wright who was tied by her wrists, choked, left in a closet and slammed into a wall until she was fatally injured. Her abuse had been reported to CPS months before.

Dan Patrick. Responsible for Texas’s Child Protective Services and the Department of Family and Protective Services was silent.

And what about two-year-old Adrian Langlais who was brutally beaten to death. A few months earlier, CPS had been sent pictures of bruises all over his body.

Dan Patrick. Responsible for Texas’s Child Protective Services and the Department of Family and Protective Services once again was silent.

And was silent 169 other times, too. And yet he’s running around to every single media outlet he can find to talk about trans women in bathroom:

“We will not back down from blackmail by the president of the United States. There is no compromise on this issue. This is a modern day come-and-take-it issue and the president of the United States, like the superintendent of Fort Worth, is not coming and taking our children.”

But Dan Patrick, responsible for Texas’s Child Protective Services and the Department of Family and Protective Services, let’s the lives of 171 children be taken on his watch.

He doesn’t care about children, he cares about his own hate-filled, fear-mongering, anti-LGBT agenda. He talks about that all the time, but is silent on a hundred thousand abused children and 171 dead children.

DEADState