Random Musings

Last week Ryan Lochte apologized on social media—and did a round of The Mea Culpa on every news channel—for not being “more careful and candid” in the way he described events to Brazilian police about that “robbery” that never happened.

Careful and candid? Howsabout saying:

“I’m sorry I’m a drunken ass who vandalized a bathroom then lied to police about then fled the country while my friends were detained.”

Say that, then go away … and that very well may happen because in the wake of lying and being just a general douchebag, Lochte has lost 4 sponsorship deals, including Speedo:

“While we have enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone the behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for.”

And then Ralph Lauren, which outfitted Team USA for the opening and closing ceremonies, announced they would not renew their contract with Lochte either.

Good. Now go.

It seems like it was just a couple of years ago that we — the LGBT community, that is — were boycotting Target for donating to anti-LGBT political campaigns.

Cut to 2016 and there’s a new Target in town … Last week Target announced that it will spend $20 million to install gender-neutral restrooms in every single one of its stores, saying the change is part of an ongoing effort to make all customers and employees feel welcome. Most Target bathrooms are expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Good on Target.

Last Saturday night was Trash Movie Night at Casa Bob y Carlos so we enjoyed — and I use that word loosely — a disaster epic, in every sense of the word, called San Andreas.

The film starred Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock and I will say, he’s a horrible actor. But worse than is acting is that I couldn’t decide if he looked like a talking elbow or a taking penis.

Just sayin’.

In South Carolina LGBT News … Crystal Moore is the chief of police in Latta, South Carolina—population 1,400. Yup, a woman — in that small town — and a gay woman to boot. But Crystal Moore isn’t just content with being the chief of police, she’s set her sights on becoming the female sheriff in South Carolina and the first gay one, too.

South Carolina. Gay sheriff; female sheriff. Who knew?

Carlos and I make a trek to CostCo about every six weeks for supplies; we used to travel up to Charlotte, North Carolina, because that was the closest one and it was about a 90-minute drive up and a ninety-minute drive back.

But two weeks ago, they finally opened a CostCo in Columbia and so the drive is down to thirty minutes each way, but this story isn’t about CostCo. It’s about Dumbass South Carolina drivers.

On the way up I-20 we ran into stopped traffic; there was, most likely, an accident up ahead. We stopped very near a freeway off-ramp and so many cars were pushing to the right to get off the freeway and avoid the mess. As the driver, I noticed that up ahead the traffic was still moving, albeit slowly, so I chose to stay in my lane and get through.

As I also looked up ahead, I noticed that some drivers were doing u-turns and getting off the freeway via a freeway on-ramp and driving the wrong way up the on-ramp.

Stupid ass people. But then, just when you think people cannot be dumber, some of those using the ­on-ramp to get off, were backing up the on-ramp so as to look less conspicuous.

Seriously. I lived six years in  Miami where I saw crazy drivers every single day and I never saw anything like this is my life; South Carolina; it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.

I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and they were doing a piece on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show bandleader, Jon Batiste.

Talented musician, great fun, fabulous style, and oh so easy on the eyes … I may have to stay up late some time.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars starts tonight, with returning queens, Adore Delano, Alaska, Alyssa Edwards,  Coco Montrese, Detox,  Ginger Minj, Katya, Phi Phi O’Hara,  Roxxxy Andrews, and Tatiana.

I hope Ginger takes it all the way; I hope Adore isn’t allowed to speak because she has a voice only a non-hearing person could love; I hope someone pushes Roxxxy off the stage; I hope someone tapes Phi Phi’s catty mouth shut.

But that’s just me …

In news that is not surprising, it seems that Weston Imer, a twelve-year-old boy, is running Donald [t]Rump’s campaign office in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Imer’s mother Laurel is listed as the office’s official field coordinator but she says she’s allowed her son to organize volunteers as co-chair of the county office.

Makes sense, the candidate has the temperament of a self-indulgent twelve-year-old so …

I originally posted about Martin Blackwell  back in March — see post HERE — after he was arrested for pouring boiling water on a same-sex couple sleeping in an apartment, leaving them with severe burns that required surgery.

This week Blackwell was found guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert; the defense called no witnesses and presented no evidence. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The jury refused to accept Blackwell’s defense attorney, Monique Walker’s statement that this wasn’t about hate, but about “old-school culture, old-school thinking.”

I wonder if Monique would offer that same defense on a racist white man who poured boiling water on a black man. Hate is hate, Monique; stop trying to justify it as “old school” thinking.

Speaking of asshats … the price of life-saving EpiPens has jumped from an average price of $56.64 in 2007 to $317.82 today.

And conveniently enough, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, the pharmaceutical executive who oversaw the increase was given a raise from $2,453,456 in 2007 to $18,931,068 today.

Mylan purchased the EpiPen from Merck in 2007; each pen contains about $1 worth of epinephrine. Now you pay $300 for the dollar’s worth of medicine … oh, and you get the pen, too!

Heather Bresch; she’s the new Martin Shkreli. I hope she gets what he got.

I recently posted this to Facebook with the caption: Oh who am I kidding ... I don't shop! #ConsiderYourselvesWarned

Random Musings

I don’t watch America’s Next Top Model or Dancing With The Stars because, well, no next top model and no stars, but while perusing an 'Entertainment Weekly' magazine I came across one Nyle DiMarco, the winner of the last ANTM and a current contestant on DWTS,

DiMarco is deaf and actually said in the magazine that his dancing partner, Peta Murgatroyd, didn’t know he was and so she had to cancel their first rehearsal so she could “rethink” her method of instruction.

Um, I’m calling Bull sh*z because I don’t think for one second the producers of the show didn’t tell Murgatroyd that her partner was deaf. I mean, wouldn’t that be part of the chat: 

"Hey Peta, your partner is model, Nyle and he’s deaf.”

Sit down all you people on ANTMDWTS.

Ouch. If Georgia chooses to turn their Hate The Gays Because The Baby Jeebus Said so bill into law, the NFL is set to deny Atlanta the right to host a Superbowl, with all its millions and millions of dollars in revenue.

 “NFL policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard. Whether the laws and regulations of a state and local community are consistent with these policies would be one of many factors NFL owners may use to evaluate potential Super Bowl host sites.” — NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has hoped to land multiple Super Bowls in the team’s new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2017.

This isn’t the first time the NFL has punished haters: in 1992, after Arizona refused to recognize the Martin Luther King holiday, the NFL moved the Superbowl from Arizona to Los Angeles.

That’s how Hate gets removed. Money talks, and the bullsh*t walks.

We watched a Lifetime movie this past weekend … no, not a Tori Spelling movie. This was a remake of And Then There were None, based on the Agatha Christie story. And since it was produced by BBC One in England it was less Mother May I Sleep With Danger and more Masterpiece Theater. And starred a couple of hotties …

Rob Heaps, left, played playboy Hugo Marsten, though he sadly was … SPOILER ALERT … the first to die, while Aiden Turner, right, was the brooding hottie, and maybe hero of the piece, Philip Lombard.

Yum.

UPDATE: I posted about the man in Georgia who dumped scalding water on a sleeping gay couple because gay earlier this week.

Well, he was arrested and charged with assault, but since Georgia has no Hate Crimes laws — at least when it comes to The Gays — there would be no charges for his hate. But not so fast … 

The FBI has opened a hate-crime investigation and may file federal charges against Martin Blackwell for his attack on Marquez Tolbert and Anthony Gooden. Blackwell, the boyfriend of Gooden's mother, told investigators he was disgusted with Gooden’s relationship with Marquez Tolbert and poured “a little hot water on them.”

Tolbert was hospitalized for 10 days and had to undergo surgery. Gooden was released from a hospital two weeks ago.

Lock him in a tub filled with scalding water.

During a panel press conference with several cast members Ryan Murphy has revealed that he’s still working on two possible themes for season 6 of American Horror Story and that the entire cast of Hotel can return if they so desire.

 “I will tell you that every darling person up here that wants to come back can come back.”

And that means Lady Gaga, Angela Basset, Kathy Bates, Denis O’Hare, Sarah Paulson, Wes Bentley, Finn Wittrock, Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson will all be returning for next seasons’ AHS.

When asked about what the theme for the show would be, Murphy said:

“I think the show has always felt to me like an opera, so I think both of the things we’re writing right now will have a certain feel [though] I think I know what the winner is.”

Ryan Murphy also premiered his new show this year, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson, which is based on the infamous 1995 murder trial. American Crime Story will follow the same path as American Horror Story, with a different story explored in each season. Sarah Paulson is the only lead actor to appear in both shows so far.

Oh, and she’s brilliant in both.

Good news, for now, out of Tennessee.

Lawmakers have dropped their transphobic bill after the House Education Administration & Planning Committee, who had pushed the bill forward, met with a trans student.

The bill would have required that students prove their anatomy matches that of their original birth certificate as a condition of using the restroom though, short of hiring Penis and Vagina Police, no one knew how the law might be enforced.

Still, as I sad, for now, it’s a win in Tennessee.

In the Height of Hilarity and Stupidity File, Mama Grizzly Bore™ might be returning to television in 2017 as, get this, a Judge Judy-style TV judge. MGB™ has signed a deal to shoot a pilot episode.

Imagine an MGB™ ruling; a word salad so confusing that the litigants would step out of the courtroom and say, “WTF just happened?”

While MGB™ sits on the bench in some Forever 21 sequinned robe drinking a Slurpee and whining about the lame-stream media.

And while we saw the sickening news out of North Carolina this morning, where they have passed a rabidly anti-LGBT law, down in Georgia, their proposed Hate Bill is receiving even more heat.

Both the Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios have said that is that so-called religious liberty is passed into law they will take their business elsewhere:

“Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law.”

Marvel is currently shooting Guardians of the Galaxy 2 outside Atlanta, and Captain America: Civil War shot there last summer.

It’s like I’ve always said “Don’t f**k with Mickey!”