Bobservations

I don’t have a Carlos story this week because, to be honest, I haven’t been home an awful lot until Monday of this week, so I’ll share my first experience with an Airport Karen.

Flying home, I went from Portland to Atlanta—long flight—and arrived to find I had to take a train and a hike to my gate to catch the flight from Atlanta to Columbia. As I tend to book flights that have at least an hour layover I had the time and soon I was at the gate for my next flight. I sat down, took out a bottle of water and began to wait when a woman rushed up to the gate attendant shrieking that she’d missed her flight:

“They just closed the fucking gate! I was there and they closed the fucking gate! The plane is sitting right there and they won’t fucking let me on.”

When I say she was shrieking, think of what you believe to be shrieking and multiply it by a hundred. But the man at the gate simply said:

“Ma’am, go to the Delta counter and they will get you rebooked as quickly as possible. I cannot do anything right here.”

“NO! You are gonna give me a free flight. You’re gonna give me a free fucking shuttle to my house and get my luggage off that plane and onto the new flight—"

“Ma’am that plane is leaving. There’s no way I can get them—”

“Fuck that! Get me someone to talk to right now!”

“Ma’am. Go down to the Delta counter and they can get you on a flight and take care of your bags and any questions you may have. I cannot do that for you here.”

The woman looks around and sees me and shrieks:

“Do you hear this? He won’t even fucking help. Do you hear this?”

And I said:

“No, ma’am, all anyone can here is you screaming and cursing at him—”

“Fuck you, too.”

“Well, now, if I was interested in that, which I am not, I at least arrived at my gate in plenty of time to make my flight.”

“Fuck youuuuuuuuuuuu!!!”

And then she ran off through the airport.

This is a repost from August 2009:

“Trying to help with the laundry. He's such a good boy.”

I don’t know what it is about the laundry basket that made him crawl into; even if the clothes were still warm from the dryer or cool from sitting for hours, this was his spot.

Shout out to South Carolina Senators Katrina Shealy. Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn, Margie Bright Matthews, and Mia McLeod—three Republicans, one Democrat and one Independent—for standing up for women and their RIGHT to make their own healthcare choices.

Not all of these women are pro-choice but all know that men should not be telling women what they can do with their bodies.

Speaking of South Carolina, GOP Senator Tim Scott says he will make a “major announcement” on May 22 about his presidential bid.

And on May 23 we will all become acutely aware that he has no chance of ever being President.

The other day a co-worker said to me:

“Everyone thinks you’re a grumpy old bitch.”

I smiled and replied:

“Odd, because I Googled ‘Who gives a fuck’ and my name wasn’t in the search results.”

Don’t come for me peasants.

Dwyane Wade spent years living in Florida and playing basketball for the Miami Heat before retiring back in 2019. But now, as a supportive dad and advocate for his trans daughter, Zaya, Wade and his family have decided that a Florida under the thumb of the likes of Ron DeSantis is no place to live, so the Wade’s have packed up and moved away.

Too bad more people don’t follow suit.

What’s good for the floral goose is good for the floral gander … Nashville’s FLWR Shop is refusing to serve a Republican National Committee [RNC] fundraiser featuring Thing 45 in protest over lack of action on gun control laws.

FLWR Shop said it hopes to encourage other Nashville businesses to refuse money from the RNC “until they begin to make the changes to gun laws that most Americans are calling for.”

To be completely fair the Met Gala isn’t about fashion, it’s about costume and showmanship, and this year the winner, for me, is Janelle Monae.

The theme this year was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty and some interpreted that nicely, and some took it to the Jetsons and beyond. Amirite, Janelle? Bitch looked like a dolled-up Rosie the Robot in a look that transformed itself on the carpet. At first glance, it looked like a very ornate overcoat designed to keep the wind chill away but then a pair of handlers stopped in and began removing the coat to reveal that she was wearing essentially a sheer wireframe gown with glittery bikini beneath.

I do hope there was a third look, otherwise Ms. Monae would have been standing the entire night.

Last week classical music lovers headed to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic concert perform, among other things, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and apparently one member of the audience was so overcome with, er, joy, by the performance that she experienced a full body orgasm.

Journalist Jocelyn Silver was the first to break the news on Twitter and even claimed that the orchestra stopped playing as the woman screamed and moaned, but others say that while the orgasm was loud, the band played on.

That must be some horny musical movement, eh?

This is French singer, songwriter, social media influencer and model Manu Noraced. And while he clearly has many talents this is a simpler question: Would You Hit it?

I Didn't Say It ...

Dwyane Wade, celebrating his 15-year-old trans daughter who just legally became Zaya:

"As your father, all I’ve wanted to do was get it right. I’ve sat back and watched how gracefully you’ve taken on the public scrutiny, and even though it’s not easy, I watched you walk out of that house every morning as yourself. I admire how you’ve handled the ignorance in our world. I admire what you face every day. As your father, my job isn’t to create a version of myself or direct your future, my role is to be a facilitator to your hopes, your wishes, and your dreams. Zaya, you’ve made me a better human just simply by being who you were born to be—a baby girl, Zaya Wade.”

That’s how it’s done; it’s not being woke, it’s being a parent and loving your child and standing with your child and letting your child become themselves in whatever way that means.

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Eric Swalwell, Democrat Congressman, taking asshat Matt Gaetz to task for having an accused murderer lead the Pledge of Allegiance:

“Mr. Gaetz wanted to offer an amendment to say the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s great. Every single person on our side supported that. Now, I don’t think he really genuinely cares about saying the Pledge of Allegiance, but he wanted to do it again to own the libs and to see if we would vote against it. We didn’t. But who did he bring in here to say the Pledge of Allegiance? Who did he parade in here? Someone he met at a gun club. Mr. Cicilline, you had the crazy idea that maybe we should vet the people who come in here, make sure they’re not insurrectionists. Mr. McClintock—I am not kidding you—Mr. McClintock said, ‘Well, it’s not like we’re gonna invite somebody who committed murder.’ No, he literally said that. ‘It’s not like we’re going to invite somebody who committed murder.’ Who did Mr. Gaetz bring? He brought Corey Beekman. Corey Beekman—in 2019—was in a standoff with the Michigan police. After, he was arrested and charged with murder, assault with intent to commit murder, and two counts of felony firearm possession. The family of the victims said Mr. Gaetz doing that, it was like getting a dagger stuck in our heart again. That’s why there’s a trust deficit here. You pull off a public stunt to try and own the libs, and what you did was you brought in the guy who allegedly shot two people and killed one of them. That’s where the trust deficit is. So you can play your games, conduct your stunts. We’re here to get shit done.”

Matt Gaetz is woefully inept at anything other than showboating and grandstanding and playing at being an elected official.

He’s a disgrace to Congress.

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Lance Gooden, Texas GOP Representative, attacking Democrat Representative Judy Chu because of her Chinese heritage:

“I question her either loyalty or competence. It’s not ‘xenophobic’ to question where her loyalty lies.”

Gooden also said that Chu should be barred from access to classified information.

Judy Chu was born in Los Angeles and as such is an American, but fuckwits like Lance Gooden don’t care about facts when there is bigotry to spread.

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Kellyanne Conway, talking to Sean Hannity … oh the irony … on Fox News, about liars:

“I want to challenge people watching tonight who don’t wear red hats, don’t consider themselves MAGA, don’t consider themselves very strong political people. I want to ask yourself how many times you’ve been lied to, not just by this government, but how many times have you been lied to by the people whose job it is to tell you the truth in the media all in the service of getting the president?”

Howsabout how many times you’ve been lied to by Thing 45 and Kellyanne ‘Alternative Facts’ Conway and Sean Hannity and Fox News and Tucker and Rupert and Laura and Jeanine and all the other basket of deplorables.

Oh, and Kellyanne? Kindly fuck all the way off.

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President Joe Biden, responding to Large Marge’s claim that he was responsible for deadly fentanyl overdoses that occurred during 2020 … when he was not the president:

“The interesting thing is, that fentanyl they took was during the last administration, and you know, a little bit more Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few more [lies], you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans running our way. Isn’t she amazing? Oof.”

Large Marge is the lying, treasonous, fool gift that keeps on giving.

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Harris Faulkner, Fox News daytime host, so we know she’s a liar, lying on TV to the family of a young man who died from a fentanyl overdose:

“You know what is remarkable about all of this, and I don’t mean in a good way, is how the president of the United States responded to your testimony that millions of people across the country with our hearts, with our spirits, who were right there with you, watched. President Biden for a moment discussed your family’s tragedy. He laughed at that. We have had people coming across that border drug cartels for quite some time. It has become a historic problem now. What do you say to the president of the United States?”

As Lying Harris Faulkner knows, President Biden was mocking Empty G’s blatant lie that those deaths occurred when he was in office … in 2020.

You’d think once the entre news organization and its owner admits to being liars, they should check and double-check, and then triple-check, and then, to cover their bases, say nothing at all.

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Jimmy Kimmel, comic and talk show host, about a report in Rolling Stone that said Thing 45 tried to pressure Disney to rein in Kimmel’s jokes about the traitor:

“In other words, President Karen demanded to speak to my manager, and you’d think the guy who fathered Eric and Don Jr. would know how to handle jokes, but I guess not. Wow, what a fragile little snowflake, [but] we have a First Amendment right that Americans a hell of a lot braver than [President Karen] died for and it’s especially hypocritical coming from someone who claims to be the biggliest anti-censorship defender of free speech.”

But he’s a widdoe snowflake who hates when people laugh at him, even if he is just a joke …

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I Didn't Say It

Chris Evans, actor and hunk and LGBTQ+ ally, who voices the main character in Pixar’s animated movie Lightyear, on people reacting negatively to a gay couple in the film:

“The real truth is those people are idiots. Every time there’s been social advancement as we wake up, the American story, the human story is one of constant social awakening and growth and that’s what makes us good. It’s incredible, and a real hats off to Disney and Pixar for having that kiss be a part of this story. The kiss is a greeting and a gesture of love that is tender. It does establish who they are as people, but it is not the singular identifier for who either of them are. Seeing a loving gay couple in a meaningful way is important for everybody. There’s always going to be people who are afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before, but those people die off like dinosaurs. I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward and embrace the growth that makes us human.”

While I agree in part about ignoring them and moving on as they, hopefully, die off, some of these bigots are in office and seeing things like a simple same-sex kiss as grooming of children and then use that as a weapon against the whole community.

We need to speak up, loudly, and we need to have our allies speak up even louder.

Case in point: Lightyear was banned in the United Arab Emirates because it depicts homosexuality, and Disney has been unable to secure permission to show it in 13 other Middle Eastern and Asian countries, including Saudi Arabia.

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Ron DeSantis, Florida’s fascist GOP governor, and now apparent dumbest man on Earth, responding to Elon Musk’s Tweet that he was leaning toward supporting DeSantis for president in 2024:

“I’m focused on 2022, but with Elon Musk, what I would say is, I welcome support from African Americans, what can I say?”

Musk is white and from Pretoria, South Africa.

DeSantis is white and a dumbfuck from Florida.

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Candace Owens, conservative wingnut, on Pride:

“I have been covering the wonderful month of Pride, for which I feel no pride for at all. I think it should be called shame month. It’s absolute debauchery. You’re seeing right now that adults are getting behind this narrative so they can have a woke t-shirt on and say, ‘I love my children. I allowed my child to pick their gender and pick their species.’ And they feel proud of themselves because they can go and they can say this on Facebook that they are wonderful, accepting, and loving adults. When, in reality, they are underqualified to have children. They should have their children taken away from them because it’s child abuse.”

Yes, Candace believes people can choose their gender or even choose their species, but the only thing Candace Owens chose was to be an ignorant, hate-filled, delusional, homophobic bigot.

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Dave Rubin, homocon podcaster, on the backlash he received after announcing that he and his husband are expecting two children via surrogate later this year:

“There’s a lot of mean people and trolls and clickbait people and all of that stuff. 99% of what I got, especially from the public people that I’m associated with. So are there gonna be some traditional religious conservatives that are not happy with same-sex marriage and same-sex couples having kids? Of course, there are, I believe in religious liberty. And, as long as your beliefs don’t impede on my life and my ability to have a family and all of that stuff, then I still think we can live in the same country. And I would hope that they can too. You’re allowed to believe what you want.”

Does anyone else find it odd that Dave Rubin is the same guy who recently said that Karine Jean-Pierre got her job as White Press Secretary because she’s a “Black lesbo” is whining that people are saying mean things about he and his husband having kids.

Look in the mirror, Dave, the hateful things are in you, too.

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Dwyane Wade, on why he fights for his trans daughter Zaya:

“Just being a father and seeing our child grow up every day, and doing what you are supposed to do as a parent [which is] is to make sure that you sit back and see what it is in life that they want to do and try to go there with them, and try to help them … and believe them when they tell us who they are. The moment when you were in the hospital and you grabbed your daughter and you looked at your daughter, all the emotions that went through your mind and how much love filled your heart at that moment. Don’t let that ever leave you—no matter what. The one thing we do as parents is: We find our mini-mes and we try to make them just like us, but our kids are going to be who they are.”

Believe your children, your friends, your co-workers, your family,  when they tell you who they are.

It really is that simple.

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Bobservations

Carlos and I were out and about Saturday in Smallville, and as we settled in for a hot coffee at Books on Broad, he said we needed to get home because he was doing a translation at DSS Monday and needed to get his papers ready.

At home, I asked if he minded while I used the computer for a hot minute before he started working on his papers; he said, ‘No problem.’

When I finished. I went back out to the kitchen and told him I was done, and that the computer was his. He said he was going to do something in the kitchen, and I said I was making a pizza for dinner and he could go work on his papers. He gave me a funny look, and said he was going to work on his papers in the kitchen because he needed to be at DSS early on Monday.

I asked why he was working on the papers in the kitchen and he said because we were having them with chicken and rice on Monday.

Then it hit me: Peppers. He needed to work on his peppers to make a sauce for Monday’s dinner because he’d be gone for a while that day.

Papers.Peppers.

Nearly twenty years in, and I’m still Lucy to his Ricky.

PGA Tour golfer Scott Piercy thought it would be homophobi-highlarious to share a meme about Pete Buttigieg’s decision to drop out of the race that read:

“Peter Pulls Out Early From Behind.”

The meme featured Pepe the Frog, the cartoon character co-opted as an icon by the alt-right, reading a news script for “QNN” about Buttigieg.

Even funnier is that as soon as people got wind of what a prick Scott Piercy is, he apologized for being a homophobic asshat. Um, too late, hon; at least three sponsors—Acushnet, Titleist and Scandinavian fashion brand J.Lindeberg—have ended their promotional relationships with Piercy.

Once again, in case you don’t get it: hate doesn’t pay.

Now, to a professional athlete who isn’t a bigot … NBA star Dwyane Wade, who has become an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights thanks to his transgender daughter Zaya, celebrated on Instagram as Zaya made her red carpet debut for  the Better Brothers Los Angeles 2020 Truth Awards, writing:

“Everyone allow her to re-introduce herself her name is Zaya Wade! Last night was Zaya’s first red carpet and we couldn’t have been prouder of how she handled the questions that were asked of her. She has emerged as one of the young faces and voices for the LGBTQ+ community.”

That’s how it’s done. Maybe Dwyane Wade could give Scott Piercy lessons??

Meanwhile, back to haters who are also complete morons ... Y’all know that Evangelical Christians, AKA Faux-Christians, have long blamed the LGBTQ+ community for natural disasters and diseases of all kinds so this comes as no surprise.

Steven Andrew, “pastor” with the USA Christian Church, an internet-based rightwingnut congregation, dubbed March “Repent of LGBT Sin Month,” which he says is necessary to protect “the USA from diseases, such as the Coronavirus” which you get because of The Gays:

“God’s love shows it is urgent to repent because the Bible teaches homosexuals lose their souls and God destroys LGBT societies. Obeying God protects the USA from diseases, such as the coronavirus.”

And he’s not the only Faux-Christian loon to link coronavirus to LGBTQ+ people. Florida “minister” Rick Wiles, founder of the media outlet TruNews, called the virus a “plague” sent by God to wipe out LGBTQ+ people and other “sinners.” Pastor E.W. Jackson warned listeners about the “homovirus” on his radio show.

Funny, because it seems like it’s a lot of elderly, gay and straight, people are most prone to the virus, so once again, your Faux-Christian leaders are lying.

This makes me sick … no, in enrages me … The remains of two stunning white giraffes that lived at a Kenyan wildlife sanctuary were found in a skeletal state, rangers at the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy , killed by poachers.

Just one white giraffe, a bull, remains.

Giraffes have lost 40% of their population in just 30 years from poaching and wildlife trafficking. Murdering …for sport.

While the Kenya Wildlife Service said those white giraffes were the only three left in the world, another known white giraffe was spotted in Tarangire National Park, in Tanzania, in January 2016.

It wasn't immediately known what happened to that animal.

Hopefully no one decided to just shoot it for fun.

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison on sexual assault and rape charges. Weinstein seemed stunned that a powerful rich rapist and sexual predator like himself would go to jail:

“I am totally confused. I think men are confused about all of this…this feeling of thousands of men and women who are losing due process, I’m worried about this country. This is not the right atmosphere in the United States of America.”

No, Harvey, it’s the perfect atmosphere; it’s telling men they cannot rape women, expose themselves to women, demand sex from women, sexually harass women, demean women, just cuz they feel like it.

Good luck in prison, bitch.

Weinstein still faces more serious charges in Los Angeles.

This is fitness model Joshua Lee Cummings,  a tall, flexible drink of water. He likes to ride a bike and roller-skate and jump a rope and be on, or, actually, in, TV.

He likes to skinny-dip and gang upside down.

I like him no matter what he does. Uh huh.

I Didn't Say It ...

Annette Bening, actress, on her son Stephen’s gender identity after transitioning from Kathlyn Elizabeth in his teens:

“He’s managed something that’s very challenging with great style and great intelligence. He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him. When I was younger, part of me thought I could save my children from having to suffer, which was, of course, ridiculous. They have to go through their struggles.”

That’s parental love; loving your children unconditionally, and being there with them as they make their way through life.

PS Is it just me or does Annette bear a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Warren?

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Barack Obama, my president, the greatest president, speaking at a leadership event in Singapore about women:

"Now women, I just want you to know; you are not perfect, but what I can say pretty indisputably is that you're better than us [men]. I'm absolutely confident that for two years, if every nation on Earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything ... living standards and outcomes. If you look at the world and look at the problems, it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way. It is important for political leaders to try and remind themselves that you are there to do a job, but you are not there for life, you are not there in order to prop up your own sense of self-importance or your own power."

Look at that! Barack and I are likethis on the issue.

Men have been fucking up this country for two hundred years. Now’s the time to let women take over and fix this shiz.

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_____, speaking like a fool, again:

“I never understood wind. I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous—if you are into this—tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”

You cannot make this shiz up: he said this.

Either impeachment is getting to him or he is the most illiterate person on the planet.

Or both.

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Mark Galli, Christianity Today editor, on _____:

“I am making a moral judgement that he is morally unfit, or even more precisely it’s his public morality that makes him unfit. None of us are perfect we’re not looking for saints, but a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality. My argument is not to judge him as a person in the eyes of God, that’s not my job, but to judge his public moral character and to ask has he gone so far that he evangelical constituency that we represent can we in good conscience do the trade off anymore. It strikes me as strange that for people that take the teachings of Jesus Christ seriously, teachings of the Ten Commandments seriously, that we can’t at least say publicly and out loud and in front of God and everybody that this man’s character is deeply, deeply concerning to us and in my judgement has crossed a line and no longer think he’s fit to lead the United States of America.”

_____ attacked Galli and called him unfit—nice comeback, I know you are but what am I—and those _____-vangelicals still support the drug-addicted pervert.

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Elizabeth Warren, promising to read the names of transgender people killed every year when she is president:

“I will make sure that we read their names so that as a nation we are forced to address the particular vulnerability on homelessness. I would change the rules now that put people in prison based on their birth sex identification rather than their current identification.”

Nice idea, but howsabout fully investigating the murders of our trans brothers and sisters and fully punishing those people? Howsabout stopping these murders and murderers so we never have to read their names?

Howsabout that, Liz?

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Dwyane Wade, NBA player, on accepting his queer 12-year-old child Zion:

“You want to talk about strength and courage? My 12-year-old has way more than I have. You can learn something from your kids. I had to look myself in the mirror when my son at the time was 3 years old and me and my wife started having conversations about us noticing that he wasn’t on the boy vibe that Zaire [Wade’s other son] was on. And, I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘What if your son come home and tell you he’s gay? What are you going to do? How are you going to be? How are you going to act?’ It ain’t about him. He knows who he is. It’s about you. Who are you? All these people that’s out there saying those things, look at yourself. Understand that you’re the one who got the issues. It’s not the kids. I watched my son from day one become into who—she—now eventually has come into. And for me it’s all about, nothing changes with my love. Nothing changes with my responsibilities.”

That’s how a parent acts if they truly love their child.

Kudos to Wade and his whole family.

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