I Didn't Say It ...

Kamala Harris, California’s Democratic Senator and future Vice President, ripping Lady Graham a  new one at the confirmation hearings for SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett during a pandemic:

“This hearing has brought together more than 50 people to sit inside of a closed-door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus. This committee has ignored common sense requests to keep people safe including not requiring testing for all members, despite a coronavirus outbreak among senators of this very committee. By contrast, in response to this recent Senate outbreak, the leaders of Senate Republicans, rightly, postponed business on the Senate floor this week to protect the health and safety of senators and staff. Mr. Chairman, for the same reasons this hearing should have been postponed. The decision to hold this hearing now is reckless and places facilities’ workers, janitorial staff, congressional aides and Capitol Police at risk, not to mention while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, the Senate should be prioritizing coronavirus relief and providing financial support to those families. The American people need to have help, to make rent or their mortgage payment. Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a Supreme Court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people who are suffering from a deadly pandemic and a devastating economic crisis. Their priorities are not the American people’s priorities, but for the moment, Senate Republicans hold the majority in the Senate and determine the schedule, so here we are.”

COVID is the very reason _____ and Republicans are on the verge of losing the 2020 election. Their lack of any solution or plan, their continuing lies about the virus, borders on criminal negligence. The GOP deserves to lose the White House and the Senate as payback for allowing 218,000 Americans to die.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying he plans to stay in his post during the next president's term—no matter who the president may be, and that he never endorsed ______:

"I'm not going to walk away from this outbreak no matter who's the president. In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed, nor do I now endorse any political candidates," Fauci said in a statement. "The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials."

_____ campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the campaign would continue to run the ad despite Fauci's objections … be3cause lying and cheating and spreading misinformation, and COVID, is their gig.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, responding to Michael Elizabeth Pence’s debate statement about being pro-life:

"Just to be clear: there is nothing ‘pro-life’ about denying people comprehensive sexual education, making birth control harder to access, forcing others to give birth against their will, and stripping them of healthcare and food assistance afterwards.”

The GOP is pro-life  until the child is born, then they don’t really care. I mean, if they were truly pro-life, wouldn’t they have forced _____ and Pence to do something about COVID?

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Pete Buttigieg, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate, on _____’s  refusal to take part in a virtual presidential debate:

"I don't know why the President's afraid to participate in a debate. All of us have had to get used to virtual formats ... It's not something I think most of us enjoy, but it's a safety measure. And I think part of why the U.S. is badly behind the rest of the developed world on dealing with the pandemic is because every time there's been a choice between doing something that's more safe, or less safe, this president seems to push forward less safe."

Buttigieg wasn't wrong. The day after his appearance on Fox, news broke that _____ intended to hold a gathering at the White House, potentially with hundreds of people.

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James Longman, ABC newsman and English-Husband-In-My-Head, on his coming out:

“That’s part of why I think I dealt with depression in my early twenties—and why I think so many young gay men and women do today. Feeling that you are ‘less’ than other people—that you are essentially worthless—is an obvious route to a mental health crisis. I could never imagine then the life I have now.”

No one really thinks about the damage to one’s psyche, and mental, and physical, health while living a closeted life.

Day to day thinking, and seeing, and being told, that you don’t matter takes a toll.

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Sadio Mane, a Senegalese soccer star who plays for British team Liverpool, and makes $10 million a year, responding to fans who noted in a phot that the screen on his iPhone was cracked:

"Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches and two jet planes? What would that do for the world? I starved, I worked in the fields, I played barefoot, and I didn't go to school. Now I can help people. I prefer to build schools and give poor people food or clothing. I have built schools [and] a stadium; we provide clothes, shoes, and food for people in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people from a very poor Senegalese region in order to contribute to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips, and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me."

Lovely man; smart man; compassionate man.

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Random Musings

I’m’a keep this short ... Confederate statues and symbols should never be destroyed.

They should, however, be removed from places of honor—schools and courthouses and government buildings—and housed in museums of American History.

As much as we don’t like it, this is our history and we need to save it for those who chose—in my mind, wrongly—to honor it, and for those who choose to study it and for those who choose to never forget.

Soapbox closed.

Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic Congresswoman from California, introduced a new resolution last week suggesting that “President” _____ undergo a physical and mental health exam to help determine whether he is fit for office.

Cuz you know he isn’t.

Lofgren’s resolution specifically calls on Vice President Pence and _____’s Cabinet members to “quickly secure the services of medical and psychiatric professionals” to “assist in their deliberations” invoking the 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential removal procedures. Lofgren, and many, many others, think that such an examination would “determine whether the president suffers from mental disorder or other injury that impairs his abilities and prevents him from discharging his Constitutional duties.”

And after his Crazy Time in Arizona this week, he clearly needs to be examined.

I have often said I don’t “get” gay Republicans, like the Log Cabin Republicans—let’s not even get to why gay Republicans are in a Log Cabin unless they’re filming some old Falcon porn video—but this week the LCR has a planned event at a _____ hotel because, as LCR President, Gregory Angelo, said:

“Our desired original venue was unable to accommodate us on any of our desired dates [and] “the _____ Hotel gave us a very competitive deal.”

I just wonder if they’ll ban transgender military personnel from attending since that seems to be _____’s wheelhouse.

The LCR ... they can go eff themselves.

On the other side of the coin, eight major non-profits have canceled scheduled events at  Mar-a-Lago, _____’s resort in Palm Beach, after the “President” expressed support for white supremacists and neo-Nazis in response to their violent actions in Charlottesville.

The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the Cleveland Clinic, the American Friends of Magen David Adom, the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure have all pulled out of holding events at the site, with the Red Cross saying it would cancel its annual fundraiser at the club because “it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters.”

One of the cancellations cut close to home for the ____’s when the Big Dog Ranch Rescue announced it would no longer hold an upcoming event at the club and would instead move another facility nearby; _____’s daughter-in-law, Lara _____, was scheduled to co-chair the event."

Maybe he’ll finally get it—though I doubt it because he’s unhinged—since he’s getting hit in the wallet that his endorsement of hate doesn’t pay; the loss of these eight events will likely cost him between $800,000 and $2.2 million.

Or, to put it in terms he might understand, it’ll cost him Melania’s Botox Budget for the month.

In China, police arrested a gay man who orally assaulted and robbed an unconscious drunken man in Liuzhou.

The victim, given the pseudonym A’Jun—John Doe?—to protect his identity, woke up one morning after a night out with his wallet and phone missing, and his belt loosened.

He immediately went to police who begun their investigation by checking nearby surveillance cameras where A’Jun is seen stumbling into view and then falling asleep on a park bench. Two hours into his drunken slumber, two women can be seen sitting on chair swings nearby while a man in a vest and shorts walks by and sits on another bench. When the women walk away, the man then goes over and fondles the sleeping A’Jun’s genitals through his jeans, and then he, um, orally assaults A’Jun.

Just a note: I swear I was in Wilmington last week, and was nowhere near China.

Now, if this guy was asleep on a park bench, I would not be responsible for my actions ... just saying.

ABC News has recently hired former BBC News reporter James Longman and he is delicious; he’s cute, he has a nice body, he has an accent, and, best of all, he’s openly gay. And you know that cute gay men with accents are right up my alley.

Longman is a Middle East specialist and spent five years reporting for the BBC; he’s fluent in French, Arabic, and English and, um, well, my only question is, is Longman his name, or a description?

Asking for a friend.

In another testament to _____]s inability to drain the swamp, and instead drain the taxpayers’ wallets, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of the agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission because of the sheer size of “President” _____’s family and the efforts needed to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.

Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

Yeah, he’ll make America broke again.

Ron Gage and his partner, Henry McKinnon, were dining at DC restaurant The Prime Rib and were shocked when a waiter told them they couldn’t share a dessert from the same bowl because ... gay.

Gage and McKinnon had been joking around with their server all evening, in what Gage said had been a nice night until dessert:

“When it came time for dessert, we asked for one sundae with two spoons.”

The server he would bring it in two separate dishes because ‘It wouldn’t look right with two gentlemen eating out of the same sundae. It doesn’t go with the ambiance of the restaurant.’”

Now, to be fair, if I may, the restaurant placed some blame on the waiter’s Bulgarian nationality, saying English isn’t his first language, and that “there’s no way we would condone anything remotely like this.”

Still, Gage and McKinnon don’t intend to return.

Seriously; Carlos and I have been sharing desserts for seventeen years and have never been told it’s inappropriate ... well, except for that one night when we played Nekkid Key Lime Pie.

But that was a special occasion ... it was a Tuesday.

The other night ESPN removed an announcer from a Virginia football game because his name ... his name ... is ... wait for it ... Robert Lee.

You know, like that Confederate General ... well, except his name is Robert Lee and not Robert E. Lee and he is of Asian descent.

Sometimes political correctness is just too damned much.

Enough.

In How Stupid Is The GOP news ... the Arizona Republican party has used an ad from a 1994 sitcom about an Asian family—that's it up there—on their website to prove how inclusive the party is.

Yes, the Arizona GOP used a cast photograph of All-American Girl on their official website—until someone found out and then they removed it—with the caption “Asian Americans” on a page that says the GOP will never “demand special rights for certain races, push policies that favor members of one group over another, or single out certain ethnic or social groups with the promise of special favors or political privileges.”

Here's the photo for the TV show:

The star of All-American Girl is GOP-loathing comedian Margaret Cho, who said this about that:

“I find this similar to when I was a kid someone told me that Simon Lebon’s [real] name was “Mike Hunt” and so I went around school saying ‘I love Mike Hunt’ and even wrote it on my locker. I didn’t bother to research and paid the price of a dodgeball to the face. They got some bad information and ran with it. They deserve a dodgeball to the face.”

Oh, Margaret, they deserve more than that!