I Didn't Say It

Eric Swalwell, Democrat Congressman from California, to his GOP counterparts regarding legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21:

“Are you here for our kids, or are you here for the killers? Because if you were here for the kids, you would do all you could to protect the next school shooting that’s about to happen, and we know it’s gonna happen in America. You would vote to raise the age on purchasing an assault rifle, you would vote to ban high-capacity magazines, you would vote to require safe storage and you would vote to address ghost guns, which are ravaging communities across America. But if you’re here for the killers, you would do everything to make it easier for the next school shooting to happen.”

Or simply do nothing other than cash those NRA checks while offering meaningless prayers for the dead.

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Louie Gohmert, Texas GOP Congressman, responding to Swalwell:

“I don’t think that it’s very effective for the children to have people on the other side of the aisle come in and accuse Republicans of being complicit in murder. And that we put our right to kill over others’ right to live, to infer by rhetorical supposed questions, who are you here for, we must be here for the gunman, is an outrage. How dare you. You think we don’t have hearts? We care about people. We care about their lives, and lives have been so trivialized. We care deeply. How dare you. How dare you, you arrogant people, attributing murder to those of us that want to do things to stop it. Because we’ve seen what your ideas do, they create more murder.”

Democrats create murder? This from the party that sucks at the teat of the NRA, Loonie Louie, who has taken more than his fair share of blood money. This from Loonie Louie and his party who offer NO response other than arming teachers or doctors or more Americans as a solution to gun violence

The good news is that Loonie Louis Gohmert will be leaving Congress at the end of the year, hopefully to never be heard from again.

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Bill Cassidy, Louisiana GOP Senator, on a proposed ban on assault weapons … he’s against it:

“If you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the, whatever, the middle of Louisiana. They’ll wonder: ‘Why would you take it away from me?' I’m law abiding, I’ve never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.”

What a typical NRA-loving GOP asshat who thinks there an explosion of feral pigs in Louisiana, and that the the only weapon capable of killing feral pigs is an assault weapon.

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Gabe Kapler, manager of the San Francisco Giants, speaking out about the United States of Guns:

“The day 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered, we held a moment of silence at sporting events around the country, then we played the national anthem, and we went on with our lives. Players, staff, and fans stood for the moment of silence, grieving the lives lost, and then we (myself included) continued to stand, proudly proclaiming ourselves the land of the free and the home of the brave. We didn’t stop to reflect on whether we are actually free and brave after this horrific event, we just stood at attention. When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t. I don’t believe it is representing us well right now.

This particular time, an 18-year-old walked into a store, bought multiple assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, walked into a school with an armed resource officer and its own police district and was able to murder children for nearly an hour. Parents begged and pleaded with police officers to do something, police officers who had weapons and who receive nearly 40% of the city’s funding, as their children were being murdered.

We elect our politicians to represent our interests. Immediately following this shooting, we were told we needed locked doors and armed teachers. We were given thoughts and prayers. We were told it could have been worse, and we just need love.

But we weren’t given bravery, and we aren’t free. The police on the scene put a mother in handcuffs as she begged them to go in and save her children. They blocked parents trying to organize to charge in to stop the shooter, including a father who learned his daughter was murdered while he argued with the cops. We aren’t free when politicians decide that the lobbyist and gun industries are more important than our children’s freedom to go to school without needing bulletproof backpacks and active shooter drills.

I’m often struck before our games by the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents. We stand in honor of a country where we elect representatives to serve us, to thoughtfully consider and enact legislation that protects the interests of all the people in this country and to move this country forward towards the vision of the “shining city on the hill.” But instead, we thoughtlessly link our moment of silence and grief with the equally thoughtless display of celebration for a country that refuses to take up the concept of controlling the sale of weapons used nearly exclusively for the mass slaughter of human beings. We have our moment (over and over), and then we move on without demanding real change from the people we empower to make these changes. We stand, we bow our heads, and the people in power leave on recess, celebrating their own patriotism at every turn.

Every time I place my hand over my heart and remove my hat, I’m participating in a self-congratulatory glorification of the ONLY country where these mass shootings take place. On Wednesday, I walked out onto the field, I listened to the announcement as we honored the victims in Uvalde. I bowed my head. I stood for the national anthem. Metallica riffed on City Connect guitars.

My brain said drop to a knee; my body didn’t listen. I wanted to walk back inside; instead, I froze. I felt like a coward. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want to take away from the victims or their families. There was a baseball game, a rock band, the lights, the pageantry. I knew that thousands of people were using this game to escape the horrors of the world for just a little bit. I knew that thousands more wouldn’t understand the gesture and would take it as an offense to the military, to veterans, to themselves.

But I am not okay with the state of this country. I wish I hadn’t let my discomfort compromise my integrity. I wish that I could have demonstrated what I learned from my dad, that when you’re dissatisfied with your country, you let it be known through protest. The home of the brave should encourage this.”

That is everything Americans need to know.

That and registering to vote, and casting a vote against each and every politician who takes blood money from the NRA.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Gabe Kapler, San Francisco Giants manager, on being the first manager in Major League Baseball to take a knee during the National Anthem:

“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t pleased with the way our country has handled police brutality, and I told them I wanted to amplify their voices and I wanted to amplify the voice of the Black community and marginalized communities as well. So, I told them that I wanted to use my platform to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with the way we’ve handled racism in our country. I wanted to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with our clear systemic racism in our country, and I wanted them to know that they got to make their own decisions, and we would respect and support those decisions. I wanted them to feel safe in speaking up.”

Good on Gabe for stepping up, or kneeling down. This needs to be addressed and it needs to be fixed because we all … all of us … deserve equal treatment under the law.

That said, is it hot in here or is it just Gabe? Lord …. Look at him! You could slice cheese on that jawline.

Note to self: start watching the Giants.

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Chuck Todd, MSNBC, on _____’s return to COVID-19 press briefings as an excuse for a daily campaign rally:

"Folks we can't emphasize this strongly enough. It isn't a public health emergency that's bringing the president back to the White House briefing room at 5 p.m. today. It is a political emergency due to declining poll numbers. So, with that said we're going to bring you the president's remarks as soon as they begin as the US reels from a record-setting surge in virus cases over these last few weeks. Hospitalizations are approaching record levels. Deaths have surpassed 140,000 as local communities scramble for the resources they need. And as the economy faces a historic and now prolonged crisis, we're gonna make sure to bring you the proper context of these presidential remarks. And we will be fact-checking his comments in real-time if we find it necessary. The president has tried to downplay the severity of this crisis. He's repeatedly made a number of misleading claims that are refuted simply by the data on your screen. And we will be putting up that data when necessary as he may repeat some of these claims again. So, let's be clear. The surging cases cannot be explained away by an increase in testing. The surge in hospitalizations proves that this virus is a serious health risk. And the rise in deaths is only expected to get worse."

I want y’all to start acting like Chris Wallace. Call the lies out to his face; demand a real, truthful answer—which you won’t get lest that orange blob sitting atop his shoulders implodes.

Do your jobs.

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Thom Tillis, North Carolina GOP Senator, lying in his claim that Hispanics in his state don’t wear face coverings as much as other people, which is why they make up a higher percentage of COVID-19 cases:

“Just wear the mask out of respect. And I will tell you, I’m not a scientist and I’m not a statistician, but one of the concerns that we’ve had more recently is that the Hispanic population now constitutes about 44 percent of the positive cases. We do have some concerns that in the Hispanic population we’ve seen less consistent adherence to social distancing and wearing a mask.”

Funny how he says he is not a scientist or statistician and then proceeds to act like one.

And his lie Hispanics aren’t wearing masks as frequently as other demographic groups is utter nonsense. In fact, polling shows that White Americans are consistently less likely to report wearing a mask or supporting the use of face coverings compared to African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics.

I mean we aren’t seeing very many Black Karens or Latina Karens, are we?

Karens screaming about masks are generally white.

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James Hawley, British pro boxer, deciding to share his opinion of gay men and transgender people, even though no one asked:

 “I 1,000, 1 million per cent do not agree with this stuff. Listen, I can understand girls get with each other all the time at parties and all things like that. I don’t care, not a problem. I’d want them to get with each other in front of me. But boys on the other hand, and transgenders, there’s something seriously wrong with you. What in the earth makes you want to change your gender and get f**ked in the ass. What is up with you dirty c****? I feel sorry for your families.”

Hawley’s promoter, MTK Global, which also represents boxers Tyson Fury and Carl Frampton, dumped Hawley after the rant:

“It has always been our mission to make boxing accessible to all, embracing individuality and being a safe space where community can express themselves and support one another. MTK Global does not in any way condone, or support the views that were shared in any way, nor will these comments ever be considered as acceptable from any of our fighters hence the decision that was made by management.”

Bye Felicia.

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Jerome Adams, U.S. Surgeon General, on Fox News saying people should wear masks but it should not be law:

“If you’re going to have a federal mandate, you have to have a federal enforcement mechanism. And right now … I would rather help people understand why they should cooperate with wearing a mask and how they benefit from it versus just saying we’re going to force you to do it particularly by sending in federal troops or enforcing federal mechanisms. It relies on the individual people of America to do the right thing. That’s why I’m pleading with your viewers, I’m begging you, please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering. We are not trying to take away your ability to go out when we say keep restaurant capacity under 50 percent. We are saying if we do these things, we can actually open and stay open. We can get back to school, to worship, to jobs. We can do this. The power to stop this epidemic is in the hands of the American people.”

Why’d you wait so long, doc? If masking is so good, why did you say nothing for all these months?

Oh yeah, the Mob Boss.

As a doctor you should be ashamed of keeping silent about a potential way to really slow the spread of COVID because _____ might be pissy with you.

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Andrew Gillum, former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate, on his fall from grace after being discovered in a Miami Beach motel room with crystal meth and two other men, one of whom was a gay escort:

 “I didn’t want to talk emotionally or really deeply about what had happened in the race for governor because it was a constant reminder of failure and my own personal failures. It was a reminder that I had let so many people down. All the things I wanted to suppress and numb and forget about, that depression around what I was experiencing there became far too much for me to keep down. And that’s the real crazy thing about depression. A lot of time we think we’re dealing with it, we’re strong and we’ll put on a brave face and it bubbles up on the inside but eventually what bubbles up on the inside is going to come out. [But] don’t be like me. Don’t suffer in silence. Get access to the help that you need. Nobody has it all together.”

I ain’t trying to out anybody, but let’s just say that, ALLEGEDLY ,you ran for political office and poured your heart and soul into it, and then lost. And you are, again ALLEGEDLY, struggling with your sexual orientation. That’s a bad mix.

Hopefully, Andrew gets his life together.

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Valentina Sampaio, on being the first transgender woman to be featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue:

“I was filled with so many emotions of happiness when I heard the news. The feeling was surreal. Being in SI Swim has always been on my bucket list of things to achieve in my career. It’s a dream come true on so many levels. SI has been a deeply meaningful achievement. To come from a space of fear and marginalization, to now being included in one of the most iconic magazines that truly embraces and celebrates diversity—it is life changing. [And] as a community, each personal success is a step forward for all. I am very grateful to God and all whom have helped me along my journey so far. I honor the challenges of those who have paved the way for me directly or indirectly. They have made where I am today possible. I am committed to keep growing and push boundaries, so that I can in some way, pave the path for others. We are here, we always have been here, and we always will be."

Last year, Sampaio broke ground as the first trans model to partner with Victoria's Secret, appearing in a campaign for the lingerie brand's PINK line. Her goal is to become the first trans woman to grace the cover of Vogue.

And I’ll be buying that issue.

Congratulations Valentina for opening a door for others in the trans community.

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Chris Colfer, Glee actor, paying tribute to fellow Gleek,  Naya Rivera, who died last week:

“I’m not sure anyone on Earth could give Naya Rivera the tribute she deserves [but] the process of losing her has been such a nightmare, I find myself wondering if Naya was even real or if she was just a dream all along. How could a human being be that talented, that hilarious and that beautiful at once? How could one person be responsible for so much joy and be the subject of so many wonderful memories? … Her heroic and groundbreaking portrayal of Santana Lopez on Glee inspired millions of young people around the world, especially in the LGBTQIA community, and it will be treasured for generations to come.”

Naya’s character, Santana, was one of my favorites on Glee because she was a bitch with a heart of gold … kinda like me.

RIP Naya

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