Chris Christie Tells a Flummoxed Chris Wallace That NYT’s Bombshell on Trump’s Taxes is a ‘Good Story’ – WATCH
Chris Christie went on Fox News on Sunday and told anchor Chris Wallace that The New York Times’ bombshell about Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return was a “good story” for Donald Trump.
According to the Times, Donald Trump declared $916 million in losses in 1995 which meant that under current tax law he could have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years.
Attempting to spin the story, Christie, the beleaguered governor of New Jersey and head of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team (should he be elected), told Wallace, “This is actually a very good story for Donald Trump.”
Wallace was incredulous. “Wait,” he said, “You’re saying it’s a good story for Donald Trump that he failed to pay any federal income taxes–first of all, that he took a billion dollar loss–and that he failed to pay any federal income taxes for years, that’s a good story?”
Christie came back with, “You don’t know that he didn’t pay any federal income taxes.”
Wallace drew attention to Trump’s response to the Times’ story, which he called, a “non-denial denial,” adding, “I assume that if [Trump] had paid lots of taxes over those years he would have told us so.”
Christie responded, “That’s a big assumption on your part.”
Wallace pressed Christie again, asking, “Just to sum this up: as a top Trump advisor, as the head of his presidential transition team, your reaction to the story in the Times today is no apologies?”
Said Christie, “Oh for gosh sakes, no apologies for complying with the law.”
Watch Tom Daley And Greg Louganis Syncro-Dive Together
Tom Daley saw one of his lifelong wishes come true over the weekend. The 22-year-old Olympian got to do some synchronized diving with his icon, fellow gay Olympian Greg Louganis. And, lucky for us, they had a camera in tow.
Philly Gay Bar Owner Caught Using Racial Slur On Hidden Camera
ICandy Philadelphia owner Darryl DePiano, via PhillyGayCalendar, YouTube.
Gay barICandy Philadelphia owner Darryl DePiano has been captured on hidden video referring to African American customers as “n—–s.”
DePiano is heard calling customers who ask for free drink passes the racial slur.
DePiano admitted the voice on the video was his own and apologized, via Facebook.
The issue of racism at LGBTQ bars and clubs was one of concern even before this video came to light. A group called the Black and Brown Workers Collective led protests last week in the gayborhood, stopping at several places including ICandy.
Their policy of not allowing patrons wearing Timberlands into the establishment, while allowing in those wearing other types of boots, was seen by many as racially motivated.
A protest over the footage of DePiano using a racial slur took place on Thursday. G Philly was there live streaming.
Protesters handed out “free drink tickets” that quoted DePiano.
DePiano took the stage at his club on Friday night, along with “Drag Race” star Shangela, to once again address the issue and apologize. He promised that there would be more than just words, but also actions, as staff will be going through diversity training and the Timberland ban has been removed.
On the heels of his disastrous debate performance on Monday night, Trump decided to double down on his attacks on former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado during a phone interview on Fox & Friends. While none of the hosts brought up Machado, Trump felt it necessary to invoke her and again body-shame her.
Of the Fox & Friends‘ hosts’ reactions to Trump bringing up Machado apropos of nothing, Oliver joked, “You can see them thinking, ‘What are you doing?’ Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it’s wrong to degrade former beauty pageant winners? We at Fox recently learned that due to the circumstances of Roger Ailes’ departure from this very company.’”
Trump couldn’t seem to let go of the Machado issue as the week progressed and he ultimately devolved into an “online meltdown in the early hours of Friday morning” in which he told people on Twitter to watch Machado’s (nonexistent) sex tape.
“That is a candidate for president of the United States urging America to check out a sex tape,” Oliver said. “Just do me a favor, look up into the sky right now. Higher, no higher still. Do you see that way up there? Way up, above the clouds? That’s rock bottom. And we are currently way down here.”
Oliver then showed archival footage of a 1997 CBS interview Trump did alongside Machado where he fat-shamed her to her face. Deliciously, Machado beat him back without missing a beat. So, as Oliver quipped, “Donald Trump really should have been prepared for Monday night because he’s been losing televised debates to women for 20 years now.”
POLLS. Clinton up 6 points in new Politico/Morning Consult national poll: “Clinton leads Trump 42-36 in the four-way race for the White House. Gary Johnson garnered 9 percent, Jill Stein got 2 percent and 10 percent remain undecided. It’s a dramatic bump for Clinton: Trump led by one point before the debate, and in a POLITICO/Morning Consult survey conducted immediately after the debate, Clinton led by four points.”
OBAMA ON TRUMP. I see a straight line from Sarah Palin: “I see a straight line from the announcement of Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee to what we see today in Donald Trump, the emergence of the Freedom Caucus, the tea party, and the shift in the center of gravity for the Republican Party.”
ANTI-LGBT BIAS. Obama urged to sign executive order on federal contractors: “Citing several barriers broken “largely to the Obama Administration’s efforts,” a NGLCC policy memo says “the next step to cementing this Administration’s legacy as the most proequality in our nation’s history is prohibiting discrimination against LGBT Business Enterprises (LGBTBEs) in federal procurement and subcontracting.” NGLCC estimates that the nation has 1.4 million LGBT-owned businesses.”
EMPIRE. Mariah Carey teams up with Jussie Smollett for the new track “Infamous”.
MARKETPLACE. Facebook comes for Craigslist with new feature: “Marketplace opens with photos of items that people near you have listed for sale. To find something specific, search at the top and filter your results by location, category or price. You can also browse what’s available in a variety of categories such as Household, Electronics and Apparel. Use the built-in location tool to adjust the region you’re looking in, or switch to a different city altogether.”
BEAR ATTACK. Montana man attacked by Grizzly bear posts video to Facebook before driving himself to hospital (WARNING: graphic): “About three miles in, I stepped out into an open meadow and hollered again. A few more steps and I spotted a sow Grizzly bear with cubs on the trail at the upper end of the meadow. The sow saw me right away and they ran a short distance up the trail. But suddenly she turned and charged straight my way. I yelled a number of times so she knew I was human and would hopefully turn back. No such luck. Within a couple seconds, she was nearly on me. I gave her a full charge of bear spray at about 25 feet. Her momentum carried her right through the orange mist and on me.”
FIRE ISLAND. Hurricane Sandy breach gives new life to Great South Bay: “It was almost instantaneous,” Marshall Brown, co-founder of Save the Great South Bay, an environmental group, said of the effects of the breach. “The life just flowed into the bay — fish, seals and sea turtles. It’s been an unqualified boon. It has shown us what the Great South Bay once was, and what it could be again.”
PIXEL. Google phone leaked two days before launch? “Sorry Google, the party has been spoiled. UK store Carphone Warehouse posted its Pixel and Pixel XL product pages a bit prematurely, and though the company has taken them down fast, we managed to grab screenshots and a full set of specifications for both devices. ”
‘Stonewall,’ ‘Sleepy Hollow’ and Other Films Streaming in October
Looking for something to stream while you Netflix and chill? Check out our picks for new additions to streaming services this month below, including campy Halloween movies like The Witches and Sleepy Hollow.
The Witches (1990), available on Amazon Prime Oct. 1
When it comes to Halloween season, there’s no shortage of delightfully campy movies about witches to choose from. We’re partial to Hocus Pocus, personally, but you could do worse than this Roald Dahl adaptation featuring kween Anjelica Huston (seen recently on the brilliant third season of Amazon’s Transparent).
Sleepy Hollow (1999), available on Hulu Oct. 1
Speaking of campy Halloween films, this Johnny Depp-led period spooktacular is lighter on scares than it is on style. Co-starring Christina Ricci and Christopher Walken, the Tim Burton-directed flick breathes a little afterlife into the old tale of the Headless Horseman.
Deadpool (2016), available on HBO Oct. 1
OK, so maybe this isn’t exactly how we’d choose to see Ryan Reynolds go (very briefly) full-frontal on film, but we’ll take it. Even if you’re not streaming this one for a glimpse of what Reynolds is packing, there’s plenty to love about this foul-mouthed superhero flick that stays remarkably true to the spirit of the fourth-wall breaking comic book satire.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), available on Netflix Oct. 1
It hardly gets more classic than Audrey Hepburn’s iconic turn as Holly Golightly. Whether you’ve ever asked a man for a fifty for the powder room or crushed an impending case of the mean reds with a pastry outside the window of Tiffany’s, it’s hard not to relate in some way to Holly’s determination to stake out a life and identity for herself in New York City.
Stage Beauty (2004), available on Hulu on Oct. 1
Billy Crudup plays the cross-dressing stage sensation in this period drama, also starring Rupert Everett as King Charles II. Claire Danes plays Crudup’s character’s dresser, helping him achieve his female appearance. Of course, she’s an aspiring actress herself, and soon her ambitions come between them.
Stonewall (2015), available on Hulu and Amazon Prime Oct. 3
Now’s your chance to see what all the fuss was about with Roland Emmerich’s white-washed version of the Stonewall riots (assuming you didn’t want to spend the money to see it in theaters).
HRC & Pediatrician Groups Release Guide to Supporting Transgender Children
Human Rights Campaign has partnered with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians to release Supporting and Caring for Transgender Children. The new publication explains what it means for a child to be transgender, what experts know about helping transgender kids grow up healthy, and how community members can show support.
Doctors and mental health professionals who work with transgender children shared their expertise for the guide. As the publication explains, these clinicians play a crucial role in the lives of young transgender children: they help families and schools figure out the best ways to support and affirm a child’s evolving gender identity. For older transgender kids, they may also recommend medications that put puberty on hold, temporarily halting changes that can be distressing for the child.
The guide also explains the difference between gender-expansive and transgender children. Many kids stretch our expectations about how boys and girls act—HRC describes these children as “gender-expansive.” For a smaller group of children, the gender that everyone expects them to be feels completely wrong, and living as that gender can be agonizing; these children could be described as transgender.
A recent HRC-commissioned poll found that 35 percent of U.S. likely voters know someone who is transgender. Just 12 percent of that group knew a transgender child or teen, but that number is growing as more families decide to affirm their child’s gender identity. That crucial decision is backed by emerging research: one recent study found that transgender children whose families support them are as psychologically healthy as their non-transgender peers.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), founded in 1830, represents 64,000 pediatricians across the U.S. The American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians (ACOP) represents osteopathic physicians regarding policies and social issues focusing on the health and well-being of all children. Many osteopathic pediatricians work in rural areas, serving families who may live far from a hospital-based gender identity program.
Pediatricians and other healthcare providers are crucial advocates for transgender children. Earlier this year, AAP president Benard Dreyer penned a letter urging his colleagues to support their transgender patients, and a group of pediatric gender experts spoke out against stigmatizing laws and policies in a moving HRC video.
To learn more about HRC’s work to support transgender children and youth, visit www.hrc.org/trans-youth.
Post submitted by Ames Simmons, HRC’s Board of Directors
Ms. Cheryl Courtney-Evans was a giant not only in Atlanta’s transgender community but across the nation. At the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations, news of her passing early Sunday morning was met with both deep sadness and gratitude for all she’d done.
Ms. Cheryl founded a support group called Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, or TILTT. Like many transgender Atlantans, I met Ms. Cheryl early on in my own journey, and heard her speak on many panels and march in many protests over the past almost 10 years.
I spent time visiting with Ms. Cheryl in February at Sean Dorsey’s ground-breaking “Missing Generation” dance performance, which gives voice to longtime survivors of the early AIDS epidemic. Ms. Cheryl’s oral history was included in the performance along with other transgender women from Atlanta, and Ms. Cheryl was recognized by Sean at the performance. While many are familiar with the impact of HIV on gaymen in the 1980s, less visibility has been given to the onset of HIV among transgender women. Ms. Cheryl included this memory in Sean’s performance:
Girls were just disappearing. If you missed seeing a girl that you were accustomed to seeing every night or all the time and you weren’t hearing about her being busted in some sort of sweep or raid or getting picked up, if you weren’t hearing about her calling somebody to bring some money down to the jail and you hadn’t seen her, you generally assumed that she was in the hospital. If you didn’t see her [after] about a week or two weeks, well, she’s gone. And we knew they were in a pauper’s grave somewhere…we didn’t know their legal names, the names that we could find them under. So they would just disappear and we would just assume, well, there’s another one gone.
More recently, Ms. Cheryl spoke at a Trans 101 continuing legal education seminar this summer facilitated by the State Bar of Georgia that I also attended. There she compelled lawyers in attendance to care about transgender justice and to center transgender lives in their work. She was to be recognized this weekend as Grand Marshal of Atlanta Pride for her work.
I spoke to my friend, Cierra Ray, the volunteer engagement co-chair for HRC’s Atlanta-based steering committee, yesterday about Cheryl’s passing. “I just want people to know how much she affected all of us, and how I want to continue her work through love the way she did,” she said.
We will all try to carry on the legacy Ms. Cheryl left behind. Rest in power, Ms. Cheryl.
“GENIUS” #DONtheCON KEEPS DIGGING; HILLARY CLINTON CONTINUES CALLING UPON OUR BETTER ANGELS: Over a you-can’t-make-it-up weekend, Donald Trump became increasingly unhinged, lashing out after The New York Times reported he likely hasn’t paid federal taxes since 1995 when he claimed a massive $916 million loss because of his huuuuge business failures. Reeling from the blockbuster report, and his disastrous debate performance earlier in the week, #DontheConmocked Hillary Clinton’s recent bout with pneumonia; questioned her loyalty to her husband of more than four decades, former President Bill Clinton; and yesterday sent out the sorriest squad of surrogates in the modern era of presidential politics to argue, hilariously, that avoiding taxes makes Trump a “genius.”
Once again #DontheCon appears to have dodged his duty — now on taxes. Always pointing fingers, never doing his fair share. #ImWithHer
HILLARY CLINTON CALLS FOR RACIAL HEALING IN CHARLOTTE: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continued to demonstrate her leadership, heading to Charlotte, NC, and making a powerful call for racial healing while addressing congregants at Little Rock AME Zion Church following the recent fatal police shooting of Keith Scott. “Protecting all of God’s children is America’s calling,” Clinton said. “Our entire country should take a moment to really look at what’s going on here and across America, to imagine what we see on the news and what we hear about, imagine it through our children’s eyes.” Read more in The Charlotte Observer.
In advance of tomorrow’s VEEP debate, check out how the Trump-Pence ticket would roll back LGBTQ equality, and how Mike Pence has made anti-LGBTQ animus a cornerstone of his political career. As VP candidate Senator Tim Kaine told HRC’s supporters last week in Orlando, “Do you believe in LGBT equality? If you do, we’re with you & the other guy’s against you.”
IF LGBTQ PEOPLE VOTE, CLINTON WINS. SIMPLE AS THAT: In an interview with Hana A Khalyleh (@hana_khalyleh) of The Arizona Republic, HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) said that “if Latinos, women and LGBT people vote, Hillary wins. It’s as simple as that… No one wants to see a headline that Trump became president just because a few people didn’t vote.” Arizona has more than 200,000 LGBTQ adults — a significant portion of the voting bloc. In many key battleground states, the number of LGBTQ adults exceeds the margin of victory in the 2012 presidential election for the state — including Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Florida (check out this Orlando Sentinel piece on the Florida equality vote). Griffin traveled to Phoenix last week to kick off a phone bank staffed by HRC volunteers working to turn out the pro-equality vote.
.@HRC is getting out every single vote. See what we’re doing to #turnOUT all 200,000+ LGBTQ voters in AZ. t.co/RDcyqT44jL
While in Florida this weekend, openly gay former NBA star Jason Collins (@JasonCollins98) urged students at the University of Florida to vote for Hillary Clinton. More from The Independent Florida Alligator.
LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH/#TurnOUT FOR EQUALITY: October is LGBTQ History Month, and this year, it’s more consequential than ever. Mobilizing the pro-equality vote will make the difference between waking up on November 9 to a Trump-Pence administration — or celebrating the election of trailblazing champions to the White House.
MONDAY MUST WATCH: Watch as The Daily Show with Trevor Noah puts North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ law, HB2, to the test. It’s a hilarious, but harrowing, look at the law, and a stark reminder of stigma still existing around being perceived as LGBTQ.
VICTORY IN ALABAMA! ROY MOORE IS #NOMOORE: On Friday, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended anti-LGBTQ Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from the bench for the remainder of his term for unethical and extralegal actions surrounding marriage equality. He will be unable to run for the office of Supreme Court justice again in Alabama as he will be past the office’s age restriction. In a unanimous decision, the nine-member Court of the Judiciary found Moore guilty of all six charges brought against him. “Roy Moore has flagrantly and willfully attempted to block marriage equality at every turn in Alabama, using his position of power to push a personal, radically anti-LGBTQ agenda. We are thrilled that justice has been done today and he will no longer be able to use the bench to discriminate against people he had taken an oath to to protect,” said Eva Kendrick, state manager for the Human Rights Campaign, Alabama. #NoMoorehere.
RECAP: Earlier this year, HRC Alabama initiated the #NoMoore campaign to remove Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court for his blatant legal and ethical failings. HRC Alabama called out Moore’s discriminatory behavior with a billboard in downtown Montgomery, and held rallies and press conferences outside each of Moore’s ethics hearings — including last Wednesday’s final hearing.
HB2 FALLOUT CONTINUES AS CIAA MOVES CHAMPIONSHIPS OUT OF NC: On Friday, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) announced it is moving championship games out of North Carolina due to the state’s anti-LGBTQ HB2 law. Eight of the CIAA’s 12 member schools are based in North Carolina. “Make no mistake, the fact that more championships are being moved out of North Carolina is a direct result of Pat McCrory’s stubborn refusal to repeal HB2,” said HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin). “McCrory’s reckless response to the mess he created by signing HB2 into law continues to inflict serious harm on the state. Lawmakers who continue to ignore the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians and business leaders demanding the discriminatory law be repealed do so at their own risk come November.”
HRC ENDORSES RUSS FEINGOLD OF WISCONSIN FOR US SENATE: HRC has endorsed Russ Feingold, who has dedicated his career to making sure that LGBTQ people are treated equally under the law. Feingold’s opponent, Ron Johnson, believes in a world where companies can fire an LGBTQ person because of who they are or whom they love. Feingold championed LGBTQ equality long before it was politically popular. HRC looks forward to working with Feingold to pass the federal Equality Act. More from HRC.
THE UN APPOINTS FIRST EXPERT ON LGBTQ DISCRIMINATION: The United Nations (U.N.) officially appointed Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand to serve as its first-ever Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. More from HRC.
READING RAINBOW
Philstar looks at Orlando Cruz’s journey to becoming the first openly-gay world boxing champion… PBS Newshour interviews a photographer documenting the diverse beauty of the LGBTQ community… The Week explores the unique dangers of being LGBTQ in the Middle East… Gay Star News and The Pride LA say goodbye to the leading LGBTQ publications, as the publisher closes its doors, while other local LGBTQ publications say they’re “here to stay”… While hosting Saturday Night Live, Margot Robbie rocked t-shirt advocating marriage equality in her home country of Australia…
