I Didn't Say It ...

JD Vance, on Swifty’s endorsement of Kamala Harris:

“We admire Taylor Swift’s music, but I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music or are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans."

Has JD not met his running mate? You know, that billionaire celebrity who is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans?

Seriously, you cannot make this shiz up!

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, world famous liar, on Kamala Harris:

“It is absurd that she does not take questions from the press, from the American people, and so I think this is actually a much more important night for her because it’s so rare that we hear from her, that we hear her take questions, or that we know anything that she actually stands for. I think that’s why you’re hearing so much about the preparation for Vice President Harris because this isn’t something she does very often, and I think she has a lot to get ready for. I don’t think that she’s up to the challenge, in large part not just because I don’t know that she’s a great debater, but she’s so wrong on the issues that Americans care about, and she has a terrible track record to talk about.”

Wait, Huckleberry, you say that nobody knows what Harris stands for AND she is also wrong about everything she stands for?

What a moron.

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Raphael Warnock, Georgia Democrat Senator, on that school shooting in Georgia:

“I spent Friday night with the wonderful people of Winder, Georgia. And I thought about it as I was sitting there and thought about my own days as a high school student a long time ago. But it was Friday night. We should’ve been at a high school football game with high school students cheering on their classmates. Instead, they were mourning their classmates and two teachers. Look, we can do better than this. We—we have to begin with the fact that this is a tragic form of American exceptionalism. This doesn’t happen all over the world. Nowhere else—where you have a country that’s not at war—do you have this kind of routine random violence as just a part of the tragic everyday lives of people. Listen, 14-year-olds don’t need AR-15s, and we need to get these military-style weapons off the streets. 87% of Americans—Democrats and Republicans, according to a Fox News report last year—believe that we ought to have universal background checks and still we can’t even get that done in Congress. The reality is that in America, it’s not safe to be in our schools. It’s not safe to be in our shopping malls. It’s not safe to be in the spa. It’s not safe to be in a medical clinic. We’re all sitting ducks. And this does not happen everywhere in the world. The problem is that we have politicians in our country who are beholden to the gun lobby. And either based on ambition or fear, they go to work every day doing their bidding while the gun lobby lines its pockets with the blood of our children. The least we can do is move forward on the bipartisan spaces where ordinary people agree. Clearly, there’s a disconnect between what the people, the American people want and what they’re able to get out of their government.”

If We The People demand sensible gun control, the Congress should give it to us, and if they don’t: REMOVE THEM FROM OFFICE!

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Richard Grenell, homocon former cabinet member for The Felon, on how mean Kamala was to poor DonOLD:

“Millions of people are watching tonight for the first time. What the ABC moderators just did is completely prove to these millions of people that the media are out to get [The Felon]. We couldn’t have scripted this better. Both moderators were so over the top attacking [The Felon] and not attacking Harris. My phone was lighting up from my friends and family, people who don’t normally watch politics, who could vote either way, saying things like, wow, the media is so biased, look at them going after [The Felon]. I hope the media, who always say we don’t want personal attacks from [The Felon], recognize that all Kamala Harris did tonight was attack  [The Felon] in ruthless ways, mean-spirited ways. She was very nasty about that and I hope that she gets called out for that. She wasn’t talking about policies because she missed the opportunity to explain all of these videos that we’ve been seeing of her as a radical Californian. We know her policies, and she didn’t explain any of those. She just kept attacking [The Felon].”

Oh Dick—may I call you Dick since you’re acting like a Dick—wants to paly The Billionaire As Victim card. And the line about people calling him who don’t watch politics are now voting for The Felon cuz Kamala took him down is a typical ReTHUGlican lie.

Sit down, Dick.

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Roy Cooper, North Carolina Democrat Governor, on the presidential race in his state:

“It’s close here in North Carolina. It always is. This was Biden-Harris’s closest loss in 2020, only 1.3 percent. So the fact that Kamala Harris, as Vice President of the United States, has been to North Carolina 17 times shows that she cares about our state. She knows that we are in play. And she knows that if she wins North Carolina, she is the next President of the United States because [The Felon] has no other pathway. When we continue to get this information out to the American public, and to people here in North Carolina, that Kamala Harris has an economic plan that’s going to help lower the cost for everyday people, that’s going to help families thrive, that is going to protect women’s reproductive freedom. I think at the end of the day, that’s going to be what works here.”

Listen up NC.

Go toward the future or live in the past when women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ folks were less than.

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The Felon, in his literal 53RD post about the debate, inventing some loony tune “poll” in order to justify weaseling out of more debates, which he was calling for until the day after he bombed the debate:

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.’ Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate. She and Crooked Joe have destroyed our Country, with millions of criminals and mentally deranged people pouring into the USA, totally unchecked and unvetted, and with Inflation bankrupting our Middle Class. Everyone knows this, and all of the other problems caused by Kamala and Joe – It was discussed in great detail during the First Debate with Joe, and the Second Debate with Comrade Harris. She was a no-show at the Fox Debate, and refused to do NBC & CBS. KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

Every time I see his name now, all I hear is the shrieking: “They’re eating dogs!”

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Linda Ronstadt, singer, activist, LGBTQ+ icon, on The Felon holding a rally in Tucson’s Linda Ronstadt Music Hall:

“[The Felon] is holding a rally on Thursday in a rented hall in my hometown. I would prefer to ignore that sad fact. But since the building has my name on it, I need to say something. It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit. “I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance—although there’s that. For me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, [The Felon]Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture. There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused. [As for JD Vance] I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Ronstadt was the second rock legend with Arizona roots to speak out on politics; Phoenix-born Stevie Nicks encouraged fans to register and vote for “the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs” in a social media post she signed “Love, Stevie Nicks, Childless Dog Lady.”

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I Didn't Say It ...

Ron Howard, Academy Award winning director and former child star, responding to a Twitterer who asked “why is the smallest of achievements heralded as better than the second coming of Jesus when it comes to Obama, but with _____ it is only negativity from Hollywood & Democrats”:

“In the entertainment industry many who have known [or] worked [with _____ think that while his reality show was fun and ran a long time, he’s a self-serving, dishonest, morally bankrupt ego maniac who doesn’t care about anything or anyone but his Fame & bank account & is hustling the US”

Simple. Concise. Cogent.

Correct.

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Joe Biden, on maybe choosing a GOP running mate:

“I would but I can’t think of one now. There’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now. They’ve gotta step up.”

No, Joe, they gotta speak up and denounce the traitor in the White House, vote to impeach his flabby ass and then spend the rest of their lives apologizing for their silence.

Then, and only then, should anyone look to the GOP as being the leaders of anything.

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Linda Ronstadt, one of the greatest singers of all time, speaking to Anderson Cooper, on _____:

"I was sure that Trump was going to get elected, the day he announced. I said, 'It's going to be like Hitler, and the Mexicans are the new Jews.' The intelligentsia of Berlin, and the literati, and all the artists were just busy doing their thing. Hitler rose to power—there were a lot of chances to stop him, [but] they didn't speak out. The industrial complex thought they could control him once they got him in office, and of course, he was not controllable. By the time he got established, he put his own people in place and stacked the courts, and did what he had to do to consolidate his power. If you read the history, you won't be surprised [by the comparison between _____ and Hitler], it's exactly the same. I've read a lot on the history of Hitler, and people keep drawing comparisons. They're so staggering. It's step by step by step. He's isolating us, he's taking us out [of contact] with South America, Mexico, Canada."

Put his own people in power. Stacked the courts. Consolidated his power.

It was Hitler, and it is _____.

PS The Linda Ronstadt documentary, The Sound of My Voice is on CNN this week and it’s an amazing look at an incredible talent.

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Pete Buttigieg, on Biden, Ukraine and impeachment:

“There’s been no allegation, let alone finding, of wrongdoing [involving Joe Biden]. I think it’s the wrong conversation to be having right now, though, given the spectacular misconduct that we have already seen in facts that are not in dispute, where the only argument to be had is over whether it rises to the level of removal.”

It does. Because if we don’t stop him now, he will feel emboldened to do more.

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James Lankford, GOP Senator from Oklahoma, on _____:

“I said very early on in the campaign time period, when people asked me in 2016, ‘What are you looking for?’ Well, I said I always look for a president who can be a role model. I don’t think that President _____, as a person, a very good role model for a lot of different youth, but that’s just me personally. I don’t like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says—his word choices, at times, are not my word choices.”

He’s not a role model for anyone, except maybe grifters, con artists, rapists, adulterers, traitors, liars and cheats.

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Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, on the knife attack at a Hanukkah celebration at a New York rabbi’s home:

 “This is intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality. This is an intolerant time in this country. We see anger. We see hatred exploding.”

And we see it every single day from the Buffoon-In-Chief.

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Jamie Raskin, Democratic Congressman from Maryland, on Senators Moscow Mitch McConnell and Leningrad Lindsey Graham openly admitting they will not conduct an impartial impeachment trial against _____:

“The way the Constitution is set up in Article I, for impeachment purposes, the House acts like a grand jury and prosecutor. It brings the charges. Two charges have been brought forward, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in our investigation. Now, it goes to the Senate, and they must conduct a real trial. Senator McConnell said he had seen enough and was coordinating with the White House, and Lindsey Graham said he didn’t need to see facts at all. That’s a disgraceful abdication of their duty. And they have to have the others solemnly swear in the matter of impeachment of Donald _____ they will render impartial justice under the Constitution and the laws. It’s not impartial justice if you say you already made up your mind and don’t need to see facts and evidence. And that is true not just for Republicans but Democrats, too. Democrats should be open with the possibility they come forward with exculpatory evidence. We haven’t seen any, but maybe there is an alibi we haven’t seen yet.”

______ has dirt on both; Mitch’s wife and Miss Lindsey’s private life. No other explanation for why these two bootlicking goose-steppers could go from calling _____ the worst possible choice for president to being his lapdogs.

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Bobservations

One last Consuelo story … for now.

Once we got the little bitch our darling girl into the house, and into the guest room, and I was trying to get her out of the cage, Carlos said:

“Wait. Are we sure that’s her?”

Seriously. And if she ever gets out again, I now know I’ll just have to throw a dish towel on the floor by her food dish and he’ll think she’s still in the house.

Here’s a story I’d never heard …

Shortly after Rosa Parks defied segregation laws and sparked the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, she left the South for Detroit. In 1994 Rosa Parks was robbed and assaulted in her home at the age of 81. Damon Keith, a Detroit native and civil rights activist, helped Rosa Parks find a new, safer apartment in the city, and that’s when the amazingly sweet happened.

Mike Ilitch, the Little Caesars founder and Detroit Tigers owner who died last week, read the story in the newspaper and called Damon Keith and made an offer: he would pay for Rosa Parks' housing indefinitely, which he did from 1994 until the icon passed in 2005.

RIP Mr. Ilitch and say Hello to Rosa.

The nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees held in separate cages topped with barbed wire. The baby Jesus is wrapped in a silver foil blanket. Lead Pastor Karen Clark Ristine:

"We thought about the most famous refugee family in the world, the family of Jesus.  In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders. Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children have been the past three years."

Imagine that Deplorables? If Jesus, Mary and Joseph came to our borders today, you’d cheer as they were separated and jailed.

This weekend is the Kennedy Center Honors, honoring Earth, Wind & Fire, Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt, Sesame Street, and Michael Tilson Thomas. But before the show, the State Dept. held a  dinner for the honorees and Mike Pompeo, introducing Linda Ronstadt, paraphrased one of her biggest hits and asked when he would be “loved”.

When Linda Ronstadt got up to receive her award, she looked Pompeo dead in the eyes and said:

“Maybe when you stop enabling Donald _____”.

Icon. Hero. Deserves very honor.

Matt Gay, kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has been bullied his whole life because of his last name.

Now his nieces and nephews suffer the same, because … 2019 and people are still asshats. So, Matt has taken up the cause of anti-bullying and will wear special cleats to Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts:

“It’s so easy to hide behind a phone and say whatever you want. … I think it’s pure coward-ism for those who do it and there’s no place for it in this world. I got bullied and teased all the time for my last name and things like that. Luckily, I was stronger willed than they were and overcome it. There’s a lot of kids that get bullied in this world and have no way to stand up for themselves. Some of the messages I receive, it’s almost like people forget you’re an actual human being.”

Good on Matt because not only is the bullying ridiculous and must stop, the idea that calling someone gay is an insult has also got to go.

A new holiday ad for the H&M clothing chain features gay and lesbian love alongside straight couples in an ad entitled “Moments in Between”—that is the moments during the holiday season that come between the big events like Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Set to Judy Garland’s performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” many of the scenes shown aren’t romantic, and most aren’t LGBTQ. But there are two queer moments where two women are kissing under the mistletoe, and two young men kiss on a stairway.

Cute, right? Well, H&M is being forced to delete hateful comments about LGBTQ people under the post:

“We have a strong belief in love being for all and would like everyone to keep a friendly tone. Therefore comments that are extremely hurtful and not in line with our well-rooted values about equality have been removed.”

The comments are removed, but not the scenes of two same-sex couples sharing a kiss.

Take that!

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, has been selected as TIME’s 2019 ‘Person of the Year’, making her the youngest person ever bestowed with their honor.

Before 2019, the previous individual to hold the record for youngest Person of the Year was the first Person of the Year in TIME’s history: 25-year-old Charles Lindbergh, back in 1927.

Congratulations to a most deserving honoree.

Adrien France.

Yes; he’s French; I’m dreaming of that accent now. And then there’s that whole loves-to-model-in-his-underwear thing. He works the curly hair, works the sleek hair, works the 70s porn star look.

Just sayin’.

The Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame Inducts Linda Ronstadt

Yesterday was our monthly — well, really every five weekly — trek to the CostCo in Charlotte. It’s a nice drive through the country back roads and Carlos loves to visit CostCo for the snack ladies, but that’s another story for another day.

Back at home I perused the DVR for the weekend highlights. We had a Free HBO weekend, so I loaded up on movies — including, thankfully, and finally, The Normal Heart — and the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame telecast. This year’s inductees included Peter Gabriel, love him, Cat Stevens, like him, Kiss, thank goddess for fast forward, the E Street Band — who apparently were not inducted alongside Bruce Springsteen which makes no sense — Hall and Oates — Oates needs to lay off the surgery — Nirvana — the best part was Courtney Love getting booed— and Linda Ronstadt.

Well, I have been a Ronstadt fan, er, fanatic, since the very first time I heard her sing way, way, waaaay, back in the day. I could listen to her sing Country rock, Rock, Punk ,Pop, Operetta, Latina, Big Band and Blues and she sings them all flawlessly.

Seriously. I’m a fan. As a kid, the family took a motor home trip from California to Texas for a family reunion — yes, I have, had, have, family in Texas — and during a stop at the Grand Canyon, I found a cassette — for you youngsters, go ahead  and Google that — called Linda Ronstadt: a Retrospective. On that cassette she sang everything from “I Fall To Pieces” to “Hobo” to “Faithless Love” to “Rock me On The Water” to “Blue Bayou”.

And, during those long straight stretches of highway when my Dad would let me take the wheel of the motorhome I would pop in that tape and play it back and forth, round and round, again, and again, until Dad took me off driving duty or someone in the family threatened to jump out.

Like I said, fanatic.

So I was ready to hear me some Linda this weekend, but as she was inducted by Glenn Frey, of The Eagles, he told the audience that Linda no longer travels, and a quick Googling this morning revealed it’s because she suffers from Parkinson’s. And because, well, she’s Linda Ronstadt so let’s have her tell why she’s not really all that upset about missing it.

"I haven't given it one thought, I have to say. It wasn't anything I ever thought about. I never thought of myself as a rock' n' roll singer; I sang it, (but) it's just one of the things I sang. I sang a lot of different stuff. I didn't go the last two times I was nominated for a Grammy, either. I don't have anything against it; you just don't do things for those reasons. If you're working for prizes, you're in trouble. There's nothing wrong with it. I don't mind it. It's just not anything I ever gave a thought to." 



Linda never wanted to be a star, though with her voice she couldn’t help herself; she just wanted to sing, and to sing whatever struck her fancy, no matter the genre.

And so she did, and she did them all to perfection.

But I digress — again, fanatic. See, as I waited for her to sing, and then heard she wasn’t even there, I was disappointed. Then, when I heard there would be some women who called Ronstadt an inspiration paying tribute I was intrigued. The first person was, and my heart sank, Carrie Underwood. Luckily, though, there would also be Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris and Sheryl, because, well, Carrie Underwood. 

Here's Stevie, Sheryl,  Bonnie, Emmylou and Carrie.

But, first we heard Carrie. Now, I don’t mind Miss Underwood. I think she’s passable, but a little too slick, not enough heart; glitter and heels and not at all Ronstadt. But, she came out first to sing “Different Drum” and she knocked that sh*t out. Toned down, no glam, no back singers, no pyrotechnics; just a voice.

And it was beautiful — not Ronstadt beautiful — but a beautiful tribute to a great singer.

Happy Thanksgiving

Idina Menzel: "Defying Gravity" from Wicked

Sting "Fragile"

Crowded House "Distant Sun"

Linda Ronstadt "Someone To Watch Over Me"

Quote of the Day

"I had moved back to Tucson with my kids because I just thought it was quieter, and my family was there. But Tucson has turned out to be a very conservative place, and I didn’t want my kids coming home from school saying things like ‘That’s so gay.’ So we moved back to San Francisco, and I sent my kids to a school that actively taught that homophobic remarks are just… not OK, and my kids’ attitudes have changed as a result of it.
Look, my kids are going to be able to form their own ideas, but at least I wanted them to be able to question things. My son is super pro-gay rights, and even though he has a girlfriend, I wanted him to know that as he emerged sexually, he’d be able to do whatever he wanted to do. You know, that it’s not something you have a choice over." Linda Ronstadt
So, here's a little Linda for you....and for me....

Linda Ronstadt

Here's one of my all-time favorite singers, with a great, great song. I've been a fan of Linda Ronstadt for eons, even as a young gay lad. Of course, she didn't fit into the stereotypical gay boy tunes--Diana, Cher, Bette, Barbra, Madonna, Kylie on and on--but I have listened to her sing anything and everything over the years, and do so beautifully.