I Didn't Say It ...

Mark King, HIV/AIDS activist, looking back on his life, and the struggle today, of living with HIV and how it compares to the dark days of this regime:

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“My joy is a big fuck you to AIDS. My joy is a big f**k you to [Cankles]. Even in the most murderous days of the AIDS epidemic, we had a sense of humor … Putting an enormous condom over the home of Senator Jesse Helms was hilarious. Crisis hotlines are being unplugged. HIV prevention and treatment is being unplugged. People will die. It might not seem as immediate and in your face as what I had to face, but it’s there. I’m tired of internalizing that. I am fucking fabulous. I’m not going to take on the characteristics that people have put on this disease. If it’s going to live in me, it’s going to take on my characteristics, not the other way around. The collective voices of HIV positive people … are a roadmap to how we deal with adversity. It might be a cliché in the gay men’s community, at least, that you have a certain expiration date. Suddenly, you are invisible in the bars and the grocery stores. It takes a certain generosity of spirit from somebody like me to not want to go around and just tell my tragedy and instead say, this is something that happened to me that gives me the capacity to have more empathy for someone else, and that I can bring that experience into any conversation without saying it. All of those cameras in the ’80s trained on all of those white bodies. Why weren’t they trained on the Black allies that were there beside us? Because Black people dying was nothing new. It was new that white, privileged people were dying … The resistance today looks a lot more like our actual community. They often say about this current administration that cruelty is the point. Racism is the point. Transphobia is the point. That’s a winning strategy for them… So we cannot shy away from those political talking points that we think are losing points for us just because it makes people uncomfortable. There’s nothing wrong with being uncomfortable. It’s growth, and we need that growth in our own community. Don’t let them lop off letters from LGBTQ as if it will hold the wolves at bay a little longer. It’s not going to. They’re coming for all of us. [But] we paved the way. We put our bodies on the line so that somebody else might live better, longer, healthier. That’s good enough for me. Find the joy in the next piece of cake. Write outside the lines. Do something naughty… This is as corny as it gets, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in 40 years, it’s that we are here to help somebody else. This life can be scary… and we’re here to make the ride a little less scary for someone else. Help somebody else. That’s the sort of thing you’re supposed to knit into a throw pillow, but it’s true.”

King has been through it all, more than once, and is here and still fighting HIV/AIDS stigma and now also fighting this fascist hate-filled regime.

Join in.

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Mark Hertling, retired Lt. General, on Pete Hegseth’s speech before the military leaders:

“This was a disciplinary approach in public so the whole nation could see. And it was an attempt at separating the military institution from the people they defend. And I guarantee you that the people in that audience will not execute any illegal orders. We’ve been saying that for a long time.”

I hope he’s right; I hope our military leaders stand up against this authoritarian regime and stop this.

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Pink, singer and activist, on this regime:

“Let’s be clear: if you believe the government belongs in a woman’s uterus, a gay person’s business or marriage, or that racism is okay—then please, in the name of your Lord, never fucking listen to my music again. And also, fuck right off. We good?”

This is resistance and standing up and speaking up and we need more of it from our leaders and from our friends and neighbors.

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JB Pritzker, Illinois Democrat Governor, taking on the madness of Cankles:

“This is a man who’s suffering dementia. This is a man who has something stuck in his head. He can’t get it out of his head. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t know anything that’s up to date. It’s just something in the recesses of his brain that is effectuating to have him call out these cities. And then, unfortunately, he has the power of the military, the power of the federal government to do his bidding, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Remember when he and the GOP attacked Joe Biden? That’s the strategy; every GOP accusation is an admission.

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Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Representative and icon for the people, on Democrats versus Republicans:

“Democrats who created Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, all of that, are now being asked to reject that so we can give a tax cut to the rich. We’re not doing it. It isn’t a question of, ‘Let’s come back together so we can discuss it.’ That isn’t going to happen.”

Pelosi, putting the needs and wants of many, the ability to help those that need it most, over the greed and wants of a handful of narcissistic billionaires.

Once again, Nancy stands up to Cankles.

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Steve Schmidt, GOP strategist who ran John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign , on Cankles:

"[Cankles] has been the worst president this country has ever had. And, I don't say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And, he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a [Cankles] presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness. When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don't use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We've never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities. It's just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he's the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he's brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And let's be clear. This isn't happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you're the most likely to die from this disease. We're the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are, because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.”

Take no prisoners. Every single vile, hate-filled, racist, fascist, criminal thing that happened here, from erasing history and transgender Americans, to invading our own cities, to denying healthcare to the poorest among us, can be traced back to the gelatinous, cankled traitor at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Bobservations

A new Mexican restaurant opened in town and Carlos I decided to give it a go even though there are already three Mexican restaurants nearby that we love. But … the Reposado Margarita, made with a splash of Tamarind Juice was spectacular—so good that I will be stocking the juice at Casa Bob y Carlos permanently—and the food was also delicioso. Better still, our server Marcus was a hot nugget with an ass you could bounce a quarter off of … though I didn’t try.

Best part of the evening? Dessert; Carlos has a major sweet tooth—I told Marcus he was a dessert head—and usually orders dessert and I take a bite and then I’m done. But a mistake was made in the kitchen and we ended up with two different desserts and I took a bite of each and watched as Carlos polished them both off. Marcus came back to the table, where both desserts were finished off, the dirty plates sitting in front of Carlos, and said:

“Wow. You really are a dessert head.”

And that’s Carlos’ reputation in Camden continues to spread. And he’s good with that.

This week’s Tuxedo Memory comes from February 2012

“Tennessee Tuesday: Tuxedo Is Not At All Pleased With You

He loves 'Modern Family'. He has two daddies, too.”

For the record, back in 2012, Modern Family was dragged into Tennessee’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill when GOP asshat state Senator Stacey Campbell declared the TV comedy a bad influence for kids because it featured two gay dads.

And that sent Tuxedo into politics.

Goddess I adore Pink, and now I have another reason for doing so.

She has teamed with free-speech advocates PEN America and Books & Books, a bookseller founded in 1982 , to distribute 2,000 copies of four books that have been banned by various public schools.

Read the banned books.

Roof EZ, a Florida roofing company, owned by Jason Pollym has started the 'Roof and Gobble' promotion, giving away a turkey and an AR-15 to anyone who buys a roof. Gun nut Jason Polly says:

“Everybody should have an AR-15. Everybody should have the means to protect their homes and their family. It’s not really catered to anybody, any state, any political view, anything like that. It’s all about safety.”

Sure, asshat. It’s strictly catered to Gun Nuts, Republicans and MAGAts.

After Lauren Boebert helped get Marjorie Taylor Greene kicked out of the House Freedom Caucus, Greene started channeling her inner mean girl to pay back her frenemy by calling her a whore after Bobo’s crotch-groping night at the theater.

Yes, the woman whose husband divorced her after she had an affair with a gym owner, and maybe the gym owner’s friend and may even another guy, is tossing around the word “whore.”

Look in the mirror, Marge, if you dare.

Thirty-five years after Tracy Chapman’s iconic track 'Fast Car' was released, the singer-songwriter became the first Black artist to win Song of the Year at the Country Music Awards; Luke Combs also won the CMA for Single of the Year for his cover of the song. While Chapman wasn’t present at the CMAs, presenter Sara Evans read a prepared statement from the musician:

“There is this genuineness and pure authenticity in folk music. I’m sorry I couldn’t join you all tonight. It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years after its debut. Thank you to the CMAs and a special thanks to Luke and all of the fans of ‘Fast Car.’”

Congrats to Tracy on this honor.

PS I like her version better.

Last week the Final Jeopardy category one night was “The Catholic Church” and as I like to do I began shouting the answers before even hearing the question:

"Who are Nazi sympathizers? Who cares more about money than the poor and the unfed? Who are pedophile priests? Who denied eyewitness reports of mass executions during the Holocaust? Who did the church burn at the cross for dressing like a man? Who absolved sins for cash payments, including sins that hadn’t yet been committed?"

The answer was: 

"The 1456 posthumous annulments of this woman’s sentence by the church was witnessed by her mother Isabelle?"

And the answer was: 

"Joan of Arc."

I was close.

This is Spanish model Sergi Salamanca who looks good in jeans and briefs and jocks and suds and especially without pants, but … Would You Hit It?

Meme Dump

I Didn't Say It ...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, on the disproportionate toll that AIDS took on the gay community and how COVID-19 is similarly affecting the African-American community:

“I couldn’t help sitting there reflecting about sometimes when you’re in the middle of a crisis, like we are now with the coronavirus, it really does … shine a very bright light on some of the real weaknesses and foibles in our society. And as some of you know a greater proportion of my career has been defined by HIV/AIDS, and if you go back then during that period of time when there was extraordinary stigma particularly against the gay community. And it was only when the world realized how the gay community responded to this outbreak with incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism —I think that really changed some of the stigma against the gay community. Very much so. I see a similarity here because health disparities have always existed for the African-American community. Here again with the crisis, how it’s shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is because, yet again, when you have a situation like the coronavirus, they are suffering disproportionately … it’s not that they are getting infected more often, it’s that when they do get infected their underlying medical conditions—the diabetes, the hypertension, the obesity, the asthma—those are the kind of things that wind them up in the ICU and ultimately give him a higher death rate. So when all this is over and, as we said, it will end, we will get over coronavirus, but there will still be health disparities which we really do need to address in the African American community.”

The disparities exist because of the racism that still runs this country, starting with the Racist-in-Chief.

What I love is that Fauci made the remarks as Michael Elizabeth Pence stood there watching. In 2000, Pence said that he was in favor of sending money allocated to care for people with HIV/AIDS to organizations that provide conversion therapy.

Snap. Fauci.

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Bill O’Reilly, former Fox News liar and sexual predator and all-around perv, talking with Fox News, and _____ lapdog, Sean Hannity, about the pandemic:

“Oh man I wish I could[fix this], you know? But we’re making little steps. Bernie Sanders, you know, he’s—he’s gone, that’s really good for everybody. The projections that you just mentioned are down to 60,000, I don’t think it will be that high. 13,000 dead now in the USA. Many people who are dying, both here and around the world, were on their last legs anyway, and I don’t want to sound callous about that.”

Remember the Ebola outbreak during Obama’s presidency? Well, O’Reilly, pandering fuck that he is, ripped Obama for the response to that outbreak which killed two people, but isn’t really all that upset about 15,000 Americans dead, or projections of up to 100,000 because … politics.

Fuck off.

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Michael Atkinson, fired Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, took the unusual step of saying he was fired by _____ for doing his handling of whistleblower complaint that led to _____’s impeachment:

“I am disappointed and saddened that President _____ has decided to remove me as the inspector general of the intelligence community because I did not have his ‘fullest confidence. It is hard not to think that the president’s loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspectll oor general.”

Snap.

_____, ever the chickenshit pissant Obama wannabe, fired Atkinson in the dead of night amid chaos over the coronavirus crisis.

Like no one would notice the criminal doing his dirty work.

Thank you, Mr. Atkinson, for doing the job you were hired to do, and doing it correctly, even if it cost you that same position.

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Pink, having recovered from COVID-19, is donating $1 million to fight the virus:

“Two weeks ago my three-year old son, Jameson, and I are were showing symptoms of COVID-19. Fortunately, our primary care physician had access to tests and I tested positive. My family was already sheltering at home and we continued to do so for the last two weeks following the instruction of our doctor. Just a few days ago we were re-tested and are now thankfully negative. It is an absolute travesty and failure of our government to not make testing more widely accessible. This illness is serious and real. People need to know that the illness affects the young and old, healthy and unhealthy, rich and poor, and we must make testing free and more widely accessible to protect our children, our families, our friends and our communities. In an effort to support the healthcare professionals who are battling on the frontlines every day, I am donating $500,000 to the Temple University Hospital Emergency Fund in Philadelphia in honor of my mother, Judy Moore, who worked there for 18 years in the Cardiomyopathy and Heart Transplant Center. Additionally, I am donating $500,000 to the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Emergency COVID-19 Crisis Fund. THANK YOU to all of our healthcare professionals and everyone in the world who are working so hard to protect our loved ones. You are our heroes! These next two weeks are crucial: please stay home. Please. Stay. Home.”

Those last three words.

Do that, for the sake of everyone else.

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_____, once again proving himself unfit and ill-equipped to handle a pandemic, when talking about model projections for viral spread and possible death:

 “The models show hundreds of thousands of people are going to die and you know what I want to do? I want to come way under the model. The professionals did the models and I was never involved in a model. At least this kind of a model.”

Seriously. This fuck wants to talk about his sexual prowess—which is solely based on his ALLEGED bank account, when the discussion is about the 100,000 or more Americans who may die in the coming weeks.

If this does not disgust you, you need help.

If this does not make you vote for ANYONE else, you need help.

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Rachel Maddow, MSNBC host, appealing to _____’s ego in an effort to get him to put someone in place who’s qualified to lead the national battle against COVID-19:

“We have the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world. We’ve already got more than 7,000 dead Americans. We don’t have a treatment. We don’t have a vaccine. We don’t have a cure. We don’t really even have testing in this country on any widespread basis. The only thing we’ve got to try to stop this virus is to keep people from giving it to each other. It is insane that we have no federal policy in this regard. Mr. President, there are things that only you can do here, but the most important thing that you can do is put somebody in charge. You know, you’ll love it, because whoever you pick, you can blame that person at the end when there are still 100,000 or 200,000 dead Americans piled up in the nation’s funeral homes and crematoriums and cemeteries. Pick somebody you’re looking forward to scapegoating and blaming and saying that it was all their fault from the beginning. I think that we could take that as a country, if putting somebody in charge, who is actually in charge, might also mean that we’ll keep the numbers that low. Because as long as we don’t have a federal response that is being run by anyone, there’s no guarantee that the numbers will stay within that massive range that you’re talking about. The sky is the limit in terms of what it could be [but] you may want to get your son-in-law out of the way here.”

But Jared’s fucking his daughter, so clearly he’s the best man for the job?

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I Didn't Say It ...

Alan Dershowitz, law “professor” and member of _____’s impeachment defense team, speaking of _____ and of The Clinton Foundation in 2016:

“When you compare that to what _____ has done with _____ University, with so many other things, I think there’s no comparison between who has engaged in more corruption and who is more likely to continue that if elected President of the United States. So I think what we’re doing is we’re comparing, we’re saying, look, neither candidate is anywhere close to perfect, let’s vote for the less bad candidate.”

And yet in 2020 Dershowitz is saying the opposite.

Why? Coins and media coverage. That’s what Dershowitz craves. Coins and media coverage.

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Bowen Yang, SNL cast member, on being a survivor of gay conversion therapy and his relationship with his parents today:

“The first few sessions were talk therapy, which I liked, and then it veers off into this place of, ‘Let’s go through a sensory description of how you were feeling when you’ve been attracted to men.’ And then the counselor would go through the circular reasoning thing of, ‘Well, weren’t you feeling uncomfortable a little bit when you saw that boy you liked?’ And I was like, ‘Not really.’ He goes, ‘How did your chest feel?’ And I was like, ‘Maybe I was slouching a little bit.’ And he goes, ‘See? That all stems from shame.’ It was just crazy. Explain the gay away with pseudoscience. I had this second coming out [to my parents] while I was in college and went through this whole flare-up again with them, where they couldn’t accept it. And then eventually, I just got to this place of standing firm and being like, ‘This is sort of a fixed point, you guys. I can’t really do anything about this. So either you meet me here or you don’t meet me.’”

It pains me to see parents put their children through this therapy torture rather than just loving them and understanding them and accepting them.

It’s the parents who need therapy, not the LGBTQ+ kids.

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Ron Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, on what his father would think of _____:

“My father would—although he might not use words like this because he was a fairly genteel person—my father would pinch _____’s empty head off and shit down his flabby neck. My father would have been ashamed of this Republican Party. He would have been embarrassed and ashamed that a president of the United States was as incompetent and traitorous as the man occupying the White House now. He’s a disgrace to the office of the presidency.”

He’s not the only one embarrassed by the GOP; they’ll be embarrassed themselves when the populace turns on them; embarrassed they aided and abetted a traitor.

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Robert De Niro, accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 SAG Awards:

"I can imagine some of you saying, 'Alright, OK, stay out of politics,' but we're in such a dire situation, so deeply concerning to me and to so many others, I have to say something. And I thought I said it pretty well to Variety the other day, so I'm going to quote myself. There's right and there's wrong, and there's common sense, and there's abuse of power, and as a citizen I have as much right as anybody, an actor, an athlete, a musician, or anybody else to voice my opinion."

Citizens have the right to speak up, and if your job, your position, affords you a larger stage from which to speak, so be it.

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Pink, singer, in a letter to herself about aging:

“Dear Me, you’re getting older. I see lines. Especially when you smile. Your nose is getting bigger. You look(and feel) weird as you get used to this new reality. But your nose looks like your kids, and your face wrinkles where you laugh. And yeah you idiot … [you] smoked … Continued note to self: Every once in a while you consider altering your face, and then you watch a show where you want to see what the person is feeling … and their face doesn’t move. I’m cannot get behind it. I just can’t. I want my children to know what I look like when I’m angry. I’m fortunate because I’ve never really depended on my looks. I’ve decided that my talent and my individuality is far more important than my face. So get on board cause I am about to AGE THE OL FASHIONED WAY (in a tutu ruling shit at 30 mph 100 ft in the air over 40) yasssssssss!”

That’s a message a lot of people, women and med, need to hear.

Pink rocks.

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I Ain't One To Gossip But .... A 'Stupid Girl' Edition

Oh Lindsay, why do you speak off-the-cuff? You're a line-reader; you should not be talking, Tweeting, Instagramming; nothing.

Remember her tweet to Obama after this Tweet from him:

“I’ve cut taxes for those who need it: middle-class families, small businesses.”

Lohan tweeted back:

“@BarackObama we also need to cut them for those that are listed on Forbes as “millionaires” if they are not, you must consider that as well.” 

I know! And now she’s wading into the waters of politics again, only this time into Brazilian presidential politics. Tweeting this:

“I support @aecioNeves, for presidential candidature [sic]. His platform brings positive changes in Brazil.”

Lohan says she has a good reason for supporting Neves because her “Brazilian contacts” like the guy and — “she has plenty of contacts there and has several business trips to the country.”

What Lohan failed to mention is that Neves owns a company that owns a helicopter that was seized by the federal police because it was carrying 4.5 tons of cocaine.

Oh. Cocaine. Lohan. I get it now.

Bruce Jenner so graciously revealed his new girlfriend — his soon-to-be ex-wife's former bestie — this past week, and since That Woman is not to be outdone, ever, she trotted out her own new love interest at once!

Kris Jenner has been spotted out and about with the dude who is said to be her newest acquisition, er, boyfriend, and he’s none other than Corey Gamble, who works with Scooter Braun who is part of Justin Bieber’s team.

Expect a sex tape with That Woman and that little boy soon, because that’s how those two roll.

Or maybe it’s a set-up so That Woman can keep her name out there, because Cory Gamble said this about the photos:

“I don’t know how anyone had those pics because no one was seated across from us. That worries me and I’m hoping it’s not a setup from Kris because I do really like her.”

Kris Jenner? Set up a photo op? Why, I can’t believe it!

So, Bruce and Demi’s daughter, Rumer Willis. Well, she’s not what you might call a classic beauty, but, you know, she must have “something” because designer Franziska Fox hired Willis for her 2015 lookbook.

You’d think Rumer would be thrilled for the job, but when the photos came out she’d been photoshopped to within an inch of her chin and is now saying:

“I think I would have felt very differently if I was a model who was hired to be a part of the brand. I get that there are certain things they want to change or whatever. But, if you’re hiring me to be a representative of your brand and you’re changing who I am – like drastically changing how I look [while] everybody knows how I look [by] taking away the muscle. I just thought it was odd, you know? My stylist told me about it and I was like, ‘Well, that’s fucked up.’ Then I immediately called my manager and said, ‘You know, this is unacceptable, because that’s not what I want to put out in the world and what I want to represent anyway.’”

First off: Rumer Willis isn’t a model? I’m devastated because … okay, I kid. Still, she’s upset about what they did to her face? Look what they made her wear!

That’s a travesty.

More Lohan … Lindsay has been starring in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow over there to London town and it’s been a rocky ride, what with her not knowing her lines, or her cues, or the audience openly laughing during her performance.

But now this … While Lohan’s much-hyped stage debut garnered a lot of press, and a huge audience at the beginning, now tickets for the play are on deep discount, nearly half off, according to ads in the papers:

“Save 50% on tickets to ‘Speed-the-Plow’ starring Lindsay Lohan. Top price seats were £59.50, now just £29.75, saving you 50% when you book by Saturday,”

And some tickets can be had for $24.00! Why, that’s not enough to keep the star in vodka for more than half an hour.

And then, oddly enough, with ticket prices falling faster than her career, Lindsay  Tweeted that she couldn’t make the night’s performance because she was too “ill.”

Uh huh.

Remember a few years back when Kanye showed up at the MTV Video Awards with the bottle of brown juice on the Red Carpet? And then he stole the microphone away from Taylor Swift so he could publicly kiss Beyoncé’s ass? I kinda liked him then, because anyone who can take the spotlight off that Auto-tuned-Aw-Shucks-Gee-Whiz-Who-Me-Can’t-Sing kewpie doll is okay in my book. But this isn’t about those tools; it’s about the tool who married the tool who brought the brown juice to the show, Kim Kardastrophe.

Kim is tired of not being taken seriously — after all she’s Mister Kanye West — and she is now blaming her “reality” show for putting a negative connotation on all she has accomplished; in the words of the immortal Barbara Walters, “Wet’s wisten in ….”

“I pride myself with my work ethic, and I work really hard. I think when people hear that I might have gotten success off of a ‘reality show,’ they take that as a negative. We’re in our tenth season. We have more episodes than ‘I Love Lucy.’”

A-a-and we’ll stop. She’s comparing herself to Lucy? Seriously? I don’t remember exactly how Lucy got the role on her iconic comedy show that has been airing around the world from some sixty-plus years, but I’m sure it wasn’t because she  released a tape of herself flat on her back, heels to God, being schtupped by one of Desi Arnaz’ roadies.

But she doesn’t stop there y’all …

“I wake up every single day at 6 am, and go to the gym, get my daughter up, feed my baby, film all day, sometimes don’t finish until 8 or 9 pm, and that’s every single day, six days a week, for five months straight while we’re filming … I don’t think reality TV gets the respect it “

A-a-and we’re stopping again. She.Works.Hard. She has to go to the gym! She has to wake up her own child!! She has to walk around, dragging that enormous ass, while cameras follow her! She gets paid $500,000 by Tao nightclub in Vegas to appear at her own birthday party!

It looks like Kimmie has been nipping at the brown juice, too.