WWIII

To keep his promise to kill an achievement of Obama’s, Trump has been willing to break his promise to get us out of wars in the Middle East. Read HERE.

Remains of the Day (10/31)

Foxwoods: Jennie and Tori took my advice and are taking this show on the road

Instagram: Alessandro Cavagnola models low-slung black Speedo

The Hill: Michelle Obama: "I can't make people not afraid of black people"

Express: Sophia Loren, 85, dazzles as she accepts lifetime achievement award (presented by son Carlo)

Back2Stonewall: Happy HOMOween! The Haunted Gay Carpe Diem Guesthouse in Provincetown

Towleroad: Another gay Republican sells his soul for notoriety ... and I actually know this one

Rolling Stone: Obama calls out online call-out culture: "That’s not activism"

Instagram: Steve Grand in a black Speedo at the Hotel Riviera Maya

Tennis: Federer withdraws from inaugural (and unnecessary) ATP Cup citing family needs

The WoW Report: Andy Warhol’s trans/drag series “Ladies & Gentlemen” featured at the Tate in London

Newsweek: ICE allegedly detaining LGBT asylum seeker in defiance of court ruling

Boy Culture: Terry Miller in pink animal-print briefs

Baseline: Alexander Zverev looking adorable answering questions and singing "We Are the World"(!)

Dlisted: A lot more than you would ever want to know about Suzanne Somers

Eater: Eat your foie gras now, New Yorkers

Greg in Hollywood: Pro golfer Tadd Fujikawa: “Many gays are femme-phobic when it comes to dating and sex”

Metrosource: This is how Mare Winningham surprised Café Carlyle

Intelligencer: Is there a good solution to the Uber crunch at airports?

ORANGUTAN ADOPTS THREE TIGER BABIES pic.twitter.com/uqVNMCaMjc

— Sha (@sha_ji1) October 20, 2019

Hot Cat of the Day: Looks like Mom's got her hands full!

Stika Shock

Good question.

Didn't We Almost Have It All?

From HERE.

For a moment there it really seemed like everything was going in the right direction. Now it seems the American Dream is dead on arrival. 

Michael Moore Offers Compassion, Insight on Roseanne Barr: She 'Seems to Be Suffering From Some Sort of Madness'

Michael Moore

21 hrs · 

I have known Roseanne Barr for over 25 years. I've known her as Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold, just "Roseanne", then back to Roseanne Barr. I've spent time in her home, criss-crossed the country with her to help remove George W. Bush from the White House, appeared on her shows, been there for her when she needed something, and connected her with one of my producers who did an insightful, one-of-a-kind documentary into the genius and the tragedy that is Roseanne Barr.

On Tuesday Roseanne posted hateful, slanderous tweets directed at four people: George Soros, Valerie Jarrett, Chelsea Clinton and me. A few hours later, she was fired by ABC.

For the past few years, Roseanne has been posting the craziest stuff on Twitter, like claiming Hillary was part of a child sex abuse ring being run out of a DC pizza place. She's claimed that the Clintons have murdered people. And anyone who criticizes Benjamin Netanyahu is a "nazi."

Roseanne seems to be suffering from some sort of madness. It's more than just saying she's a racist. She operates in the same sewer of lies, conspiracy theories and bigotry that's been rising in America for years and that has now succeeded in electing our current president. Totally nuts.

Here's who's not crazy: Donald J. Trump.

Trump, though he shows all the signs of being absolutely bonkers, is not insane. He's the real deal. His racism and hate is real, it's well thought-out, he's the true master of manipulation, a brilliant performance artist, and an evil genius. He outsmarted a nation of liberals and Democrats and won the White House by losing the actual vote of the people. He neutered and then destroyed the Grand Old Republican Party. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Roseanne, on the other hand, is a person who long ago broke through and brought an authentic voice of working women and men to television via one of the greatest TV series of all time. It was groundbreaking because the TV industry had historically either ignored, ridiculed or patronized those of us who grew up in the working class. Roseanne changed that.

But she is also a damaged soul. Most people don't know that she has suffered her entire life from a massive head injury she received during a serious car accident when she was a child. Her brain injuries were immense and she spent months in the hospital struggling to recover.

I also have no idea what it was like to grow up, as she did, as a Jewish girl in Salt Lake City. Not a tolerant state, to be sure. She told me how her parents, who owned an apartment building, were asked by the U.S. government after World War II if they would be willing to house Holocaust survivors who had come to the U.S. as refugees. Her parents took dozens in, and Roseanne's childhood was spent with these survivors as her "family." "The stories they told me," she said, "were filled with unimaginable horror. I've always wondered what effect that had on me as a little girl."

Now, sadly, for the past few years, Roseanne has been in a downward spiral, ranting like crazy on Twitter, spreading conspiracy theories, attacking the people she used to love, supporting Trump, and being just an outright hateful and racist person. It has been a difficult decline to witness. She has repeatedly attacked me, and on Tuesday, after calling George Soros a "Nazi" (he's a Jew and a Holocaust survivor), Valerie Jarrett an offspring "of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes," and saying that Chelsea was "married to" a Nazi relative of George Soros, she then retweeted a disgusting new word for me because I have spoken out against the Netanyahu government and its killing of Palestinians -- "#JewHater". Nonstop insanity and sickness.

I guess there might be 20 million Americans (out of 320 million) who probably agree with her. She has thrown down with the lowest of the low, and who knows if she’ll ever recover from this descent into her own personal hell.

To close, I want to say just how great the new Roseanne show was. It was funny but brutal to watch because it showed how our system of greed has hurt millions of families like the Connors of Illinois. On the final episode last week, Roseanne was addicted to opioids because she couldn't afford the knee surgery she needed, so she suffered along in agonizing pain. Dan, her husband, in order to raise money for her surgery, decided to take a non-union job -- and Roseanne berates him for doing so and letting his union brothers and sisters down. There are a couple quick knocks on Trump, making it clear that the real Roseanne was not writing or running this show. For the past 9 weeks, the new Roseanne show has shined a powerful and necessary light on what it means to be working class in 2018. Her blended family on this new series was white and black and LGBTQ, and her generous neighbors next door were Muslims who forced her to confront her own bigotry.

If only her art could have helped her in her real life.

(Also, let me say this: There's no reason the show has to go just because she's gone. Over the years, TV has found ways to bring Bobby Ewing back from the dead on “Dallas”, forced us to accept the two Darrins on “Bewitched”, and found ways for hit shows to survive when their stars bolted after a year or two [David Caruso on "NYPD Blue", Pernell Roberts on "Bonanza"]. The smart people who were writing this Roseanne series can surely find a way to let the non-bigoted portion of the America's working class [which I can tell you is the VAST majority] have their voice heard on network television. Why should it be silenced by one lost soul?)

Bravo to Michael Moore for expounding on what I’ve been saying for a long time now: Roseanne Barr is mentally ill. This is in no way to minimize or excuse other traits about her: she is also a hateful racist. (Both things can be true.) But his firsthand knowledge is chilling and unsettling. And while there are hundreds of thousands of sick people who need compassion and support more than this enormously rich and famous (and awful) woman, there’s still a part of me that hates to see *anyone* this ill. Here’s hoping she gets the help she has so clearly needed for years. #PTBPD #celebritydetox

Houston, We Don't Have a Problem

We’ve come a long way as a society when four former presidents and their wives show the world that sex workers deserve to be treated respectfully, too.

A post shared by Kenneth M. Walsh (@kenneth_212) on Apr 22, 2018 at 10:52am PDT

Try Telling This to Lou Dobbs

From HERE.

Lou Dobbs says Obama should be arrested for implying Trump needs a filter

WATCH: Dramatic footage shows massive wildfires raging near Interstate 405 in California pic.twitter.com/d8mQp2fhyq

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 6, 2017

And imagine how much worse this would be if climate change weren't a Democratic hoax ...

Fun Couples: Prince Harry and Barack Obama

Jesus. How tall is Prince Harry that he seems to have a good inch or two over the best president in U.S. history?

Page 1 Roundup (02/08)

What DA's battle with Facebook could mean for your privacy / Read HERE.

Columbia University alum found dead in Panama was likely strangled, report says / Read HERE.

After Trump's Botched Raid, Yemen Withdraws Permission for U.S. Antiterror Ground Missions / Read HERE.

Eat Your Vegetables! Those Poor People In Europe Don’t Have Any / Read HERE.

The 'Right' Stuff

For those playing the home game: 

Obama signing executive orders = executive overreach and treason 

Trump signing executive orders = getting on with business

Donald Trump Is Sworn in as 45th President, Promising ‘Only America First’

What kind of country puts ONLY itself first? I told my sister to sit my nephew and niece down today to explain to them that if you demean and sexually assault women, make fun of the disabled, lie, refuse to follow the rules, belittle immigrants and people of different religions and have your daddy give you millions of dollars then they too can rise to the highest office in the land. I never thought I could be ashamed to be an American ... until now.

Damian and our friend Greg went to the oldest gay bar in New York City last night to toast Barack Obama, the president who finally recognized us -- and all Americans -- as equal. Something tells me I will be spending a lot more time there in the next few years. #neverforget

Watch Ellen DeGeneres and 25 other celebrities send a big thank-you to President Obama HERE!

Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

I've never had a really strong opinion about the Chelsea Mannings and Edward Snowdens of the world. (I feel like Manning was duped in a way because what ever good WikiLeaks set out to do has been negated by its founder, who has been revealed to be a predatory partisan hack.) But I do know Manning has been living in hell the past seven years -- so I can only applaud President Obama for showing mercy on this clearly damaged person, who will be freed in five months rather than in 2045. 

 Manning made a direct plea for a pardon from Obama recently, begging for her freedom following two suicide attempts in the past year. “I am not asking for a pardon on my conviction,” she wrote in a November statement. “I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members.” Read HERE.

UPDATE: In his final presser, President Obama explains his reasoning HERE.

Page 1 Roundup (01/11)

Landry got engaged to Kirsten Dunst?! Read HERE.

THIS is not fake news.

I hear Obama's farewell speech was a real tearjerker -- "from Selma to Stonewall" -- but I couldn't even bring myself to watch it. And I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to be able to function when this Meryl Streep thing has only made it even clearer that we live in a world of truly reprehensible people. Didn't we almost have it all? 

China thinks we ride escalators incorrectly. (Let me guess, you're supposed to stand on top of each other.) Read HERE.

John Kerry Issues Formal Apology for State Department's Decades of Discrimination Against LGBTI People

Moving words from our secretary of state, which mean a lot to people who have been hurt by our country's policies over the years. Don't expect anything remotely close to this to happen again in the foreseeable future.

"In the past -- as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades -- the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place. These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today."

Read the full statement HERE. Meanwhile, the Air Force has upgraded the discharge of a gay veteran to "honorable," paving the way for him to have the military funeral he has requested. Read HERE.

And here's something else you won't be hearing -- and will probably be missing. Read HERE.

Angelique Kerber Meets President Obama

Love seeing this! Read what else the world number one has been up to since that embarrassing loss in the WTA Finals HERE.

Obama Calls Trump Unfit, Urges Republicans to Repudiate Him

As much as I feel President Obama felt compelled, for love of country, to speak out against Donald Trump's candidacy, I really wish we'd keep focused on the fact that it's the Republican platform that we're running against here, not one person. Trump rose to the top of the heap by feeding into the GOP's delusion that white people are the victims of a changing society. And now that he's finally being called out on all of the horrible things he's said/done, he's portraying himself as a victim who is being unfairly ganged-up on -- just as longtime racists who are finally being called out on their crap are. (Now "billionaire" Donald truly is "one of them"!) In short: They're all this awful, he's just a bit louder. You need only look at what happened when bluish North Carolina went completely red again to know what I'm saying is true. One minute it's 2009, the next it's 1949.

Page 1 Roundup (08/03)

Jogger founded slain in Queens / Read HERE.

Obama should have illegally sold the Iranians weapons and lied about it and then he'd be considered the greatest president of all time! Read HERE.

As much as I feel President Obama felt compelled, for love of country, to speak out against Donald Trump's candidacy, I really wish we'd keep focused on the fact that it's the Republican platform that we're running against here, not one person. Trump rose to the top of the heap by feeding into the GOP's delusion that white people are the victims of a changing society. And now that he's finally being called out on all of the horrible things he's said/done, he's portraying himself as a victim who is being unfairly ganged-up on -- just as longtime racists who are finally being called out on their crap are. (Now he truly is "one of them"!) In short: They're all this awful, he's just a bit louder. Read HERE.

JFK's Airport Dentist Braces for Change / Read HERE.

Turning of the Tide

Speaking of people insisting there isn't much light between the Republican and Democratic parties. Take a look at this New York Times article Gay Marriage, a Year Later. It features my friends Scott and Daniel and look what Scott said!

Mr. Prendergast: My husband’s parents are immigrants from Korea. They were a bit hesitant and frightened by the idea of a big public wedding. They wanted us to keep the whole thing more private, discreet. It was very helpful to have the actual president of the United States on television saying this was a good thing. The tidal wave of news and social media posts about gay marriage gave us some legitimacy at the exact right moment.  

We got married three months after the Supreme Court ruling. The parents had a great time at the wedding. In the end, I think they wished they had invited more family. And despite their initial requests for discretion, the national public embrace maybe made it easier for them to tell family back in Korea.

Transgender People Will Be Allowed to Serve Openly in Military

I just become enraged when people -- especially LGBT friends -- say there is barely any light between the Republican and Democratic parties. Do you really think any of this would be possible under Presidents McCain or Romney? 

The New York Times reports:

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Thursday removed one of the final barriers to military service by lifting the Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the armed forces. The decision pushes forward a transformation of the military that Mr. Carter has accelerated in the last year with the opening of all combat roles to women and the appointment of the first openly gay Army secretary. He made his feelings on ending the transgender ban clear last year, when he called it outdated and ordered officials across the military to begin examining what would need to be done to lift the prohibition.

Military to Lift Ban on Transgender Service on July 1

We knew it was coming, but the timing of the announcement couldn't be more perfect. Details of and timeline for implementation have yet to be finalized, but will be decided in the coming days. Read HERE.