Bobservations

A couple of programming notes … my father has postponed his New Ankle™ surgery for the time being so I won’t be heading out West for an extended stay. He may reschedule; he may not.

On the Carlos front, he’d been a bit worried about his mother since his father passed away; she’s staying with family in Querétaro, outside Mexico City, and they’re keeping her busy and taking good care of her. But the other day, Carlos was speaking to her on the phone and after he’d finished, he hung up and said to me:

“I can’t believe it.”

“What?”

I was telling my mother something, and I made a little joke and she laughed.”

“I can’t believe that anyone would laugh at one of your jokes.”

“No, seriously, this was the first time I’d heard her laugh in I don’t know how long.”

“Well, if you think about all she’s gone through, in the last month that we know about, not even considering that last few years, she probably hasn’t had the chance to laugh much.”

But that was all it took to ease Carlos mind about his mother; a little laugh during a phone call. I am so glad he got to hear that.

Sidenote: I told him that I was kinda happy not to have to go to Oregon for five weeks; and he said:

"Awwww, you'd miss me?"

"You? I'd talk to you five times a day, but Tuxedo doesn't have a phone! What would I do?"

What can I say, what Tuxedo and I have is real, and it's fabulous.

Plus, you know, being away from Carlos would make me crazy.

Shortly after Talabama Governor Kay Ivey signed that extreme anti-abortion bill into law,  she attended the  execution of Michael Brandon Samra, who took part in the quadruple murder of the family of a friend.

Keep that in mind when she says she’s all about the sanctity of life because she attended an execution. In fact, since Ivey assumed office two years ago, Talabama has executed six other men, including convicted serial bomber Walter Moody who, at 83, was the oldest person executed in the nation’s history; and don’t forget Ivey’s attendance at the execution of  Domineque Ray after the Supreme Court refused to issue a stay when Ivey’s government denied the condemned Muslim inmate access to an imam in the death chamber, although it does provide a Christian chaplain.

Keep in mind that California has the nation’s largest death row with 735 condemned inmates, Alabama has the highest per capita rate of death sentences.

So much for Ivey’s notion that the new abortion ban “stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.”

Every life is precious?

Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, bigot and homophobe spoke out in opposition last week after the House of Representatives passed the historic Equality Act, which expands existing civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ people.

Lee said the legislation, which heads to the Senate but has little chance of being brought to the floor for a vote, is unnecessary because:

“LGBT people don't need protection because Americans are becoming more "tolerant."

Funny, cuz all that tolerance was nowhere on display last December when GOP bigot and homophobe Mike Lee blocked the renomination of a lesbian to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission because he said her views on marriage were "radical."

LGBTQ Americans need protection from asshats like GOP bigot and homophobe Mike Lee.

Last week Robert F. Smith, the billionaire investor who founded Vista Equity Partners and became the richest black man in America, gave the commencement speech at Morehouse College and kind of went off on a tangent when he …

… told all 396 graduates that he and his family would pay off the entire graduating class’s student debt so they could start their lives without student debt hanging over them.

That’s right. In this last years, full-time tuition at Morehouse was $25,368, with other expenses such as room and board, books and fees, pushing the total to over $48,000.

And :::poof::: it’s gone, thanks to Mr. Smith.

Guess which judge will be hearing _____’s appeal on turning over his taxes to the House?

Wait for it.

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it.

Merrick Garland.

Kris Kobach, the GOP asshat and former Kansas secretary of state, has given the White House a list of requirements that he needs if he is to become the administration’s “immigration czar,” a job _____ has been looking to create to coordinate immigration policy across government agencies.

Here’s what  Kobach needs:

Seriously? What a little bitch. Money, private planes, weekends off. Who does he think he is? Ivanka?

This week Beto O’Rourke “rebooted” his campaign because, after starting off big, he’s really gotten nowhere, so it’s like a do-over.

How about a stop? Full stop.

I like Beto, but if after a few months of campaigning you’re getting nowhere and think you need a reset, you really need to take a seat.

He’s at it again … totally-not-gay-at-all former Republican Congressman, noted homophobe  Aaron Schock was snapped poolside at the Standard Hotel in West Hollywood by a gay tourist visiting from New York.

The closet case was accompanied by an attractive speedo-clad young man lounging at the pool, until he got into the water and tried “chatting up” another young man.

Aaron? Come out already you big queer. And then go away, because after all the years and effort you spent denying the LGBTQ community representation and equal rights, we don’t want you or your turquoise belt.

Come out. Go away.

The oh-so-dreamy Adam Senn was born in Paris, France, but grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, outside of Houston. He studied theater as a child and throughout high school, but then moved to New York City where he began smoldering up my internet searches and modeling for Dolce & Gabbana, among others,

‘In 2016 he began acting, most notably playing a bisexual basketball player in VH1's Hit the Floor for two seasons; why it gotta be ‘bi’?

Anyway, it all boils down to Adam is hot and sexy and cool and just what I needed today …

Just sayin’.

The Baldwin Promise: Send Every High School Graduate To College

So, Baldwin, Michigan; ever heard of it? Yeah, me neither, but that’s about to change.

See, about a decade ago, less than half of the graduating Seniors — and it’s a small number, yes, but still — chose to go to college, and of those that did and then graduated from college, well, that number was two.

This year, nearly every single graduating student is going to college; so, what happened? In 2009, the Baldwin Promise was created; a fund which offers to pay up to $5,000 a year for any student from the Baldwin public schools to attend a public or private college in Michigan.

The Baldwin Promise was started by Rich Simonson, a Baldwin native who left the area for his career in politics — he ran Gerald Ford’s campaign in Michigan — and then returned to Baldwin when he retired. One day while having breakfast with friends, Simonson came up with a proposal: Why not ask everyone they knew to give some money to the community so that every local student could go to college?

Now, most people thought that idea kind of crazy, but Simonson did not; he began asking everyone he knew for $500. He even convinced school employees to donate and then asked Baldwin’s summer residents to give, too. People who couldn’t afford $500 all at once made payments to the Baldwin Promise; Simonson’s goal was $140,000, but they raised over $160,000.

Sure it sounds easy. Get people to donate and then give the money away. But it’s more than a check and a handshake. It starts with the kids in school, and the change in mindset that college is not something for other people an unaffordable dream, but something for everyone if you work toward that goal.

Now, when figured into the cost of higher education — a private college might cost $31,000 a year —  $5,000 doesn’t sound like much, especially considering things like the Kalamazoo Promise — funded by anonymous donors — which is a “first-dollar” scholarship that pays 100% of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities, and can be added on top of Pell Grants. The Baldwin Promise is a middle-dollar scholarship, which means it comes after the student has applied for Pell Grants and institutional scholarships.

But … the Baldwin Promise came about because of Simonson and because the town and its people changed the way they talked about education, the value placed on education. From their first days in kindergarten — where students are taught to excel — and through elementary, middle and high school, students, teachers, administrator and parents, and the town itself, think about college and life after Baldwin schools.

And that’s the change; sometimes college seems like a lofty goal, an expense maybe out of reach, but in Baldwin, it’s talked about from the moment you start school, and talked about, and taught, all the way through; and when you grow up realizing there might be a helping hand, heck, in Baldwin, there will be a helping hand, you’re more apt to think that college is something for you, and not something for everybody else.

And to be fair, the Baldwin Promise is not the answer to the high cost of higher education, but if it helps even the students in one small town, and it helps those students from day one to understand and strive to go to college, then think about all those Baldwin kids and what they’ll take away from this.

And what they’ll make of it.

Read more at The Atlantic