And so it begins...

[liberty]

Why don’t you guys wait and see what President Trump does before you start protesting him; wouldn‘t that be the fair thing to do?

And you guys really don’t want to see it, what if someone throws a bomb and takes out Trump; you wouldn’t want to see that happen?

[RayThom]

The Rolling Stones on Trump's presidency:



I'm sure they were asked and just as sure they turned down any offer -- regardless how much they would have been paid. Most performers do have standards, after all.

[liberty]

Why don’t you guys wait and see what President Trump does before you start protesting him; wouldn‘t that be the fair thing to do?

You guys really don’t wait see it, what if someone throws a bomb and takes trump out Trump; you wouldn’t to see that happen?

[Big RR]

Lib--why does anyone here (on either side) have to be "fair"?

[Econoline]

Why don’t you guys wait and see what President Trump does before you start protesting him

Ummm...because we've already seen "what he does": we've been watching him for years and he didn't change when he became a candidate, and he didn't change when he became the Republican nominee, and he didn't change when he became President-Elect.

• • • When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
      
      ~ Maya Angelou

[wesw]

they could play this one...

[wesw]

if you actually listened, what the stones said was not actually anti-trump.

after hearing them speak I think it more likely that they will play the gig..., and I d bet that if they do play that it will be for free, minus expenses of course....

[Guinevere]

Maybe he can book a Rolling Stones tribute band:

The B Street Band, who are set to play Garden State Gala on 20 January, appeared at both of Obama’s inaugurations and were booked for this year’s event in 2013

No celebration associated with Donald Trump’s inauguration was ever going to be able to secure the services of Bruce Springsteen to provide the entertainment. But a Springsteen covers band? More doable. And so the Garden State Presidential Inaugural Gala – New Jersey State Society’s bash for a new president, held in Washington DC at every inauguration – booked the B-Street Band, exactly as it had done for the Obama inaugurations in 2009 and 2013. This time, though, given Springsteen’s own denouncement of the incoming president, the response to the booking was swift and condemnatory.

Even E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent was angered, tweeting: “Please tell me this is more fake news. Or at least a joke.”

The B Street Band themselves have been shocked by the response. “I’ve been beaten down. I haven’t slept. I’ve been up all night,” founder member and keyboard player Will Forte told Rolling Stone. He has also pointed out the event is a non-political New Jersey event and not associated with Trump, telling Billboard: “We’re just working stiffs, working musicians … who got invited to play a ball for guys like us, regular jerks, and it’s non-political and just a celebration of the changing-over of power.”

In fact, the B Street Band were asked to play the 20 January New Jersey ball not only before Trump won the election, but long before he was even a candidate. Forte told Rolling Stone the band had been booked for the event just a week after performing at the 2013 inauguration.

In a statement to fans, he said: “In 2009, The B Street Band was honoured to be contracted by the NJ inaugural ball to perform at their gala celebrating Barack Obama’s election. The NJ State Society was so impressed, they immediately hired the band for their gala four years later in 2013. At that time we performed for President Obama’s successful re-election. The gala again enjoyed our NJ Shore-flavoured style and signed us a third time for the 2017 gala.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/ ... a-b-street

Probably not even a tribute band:

http://thehill.com/homenews/314475-spri ... -for-bruce

The B Street Band, a Bruce Springsteen cover group, has canceled its slated performance at the New Jersey State Society’s Thursday night ball marking President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The band announced the decision on Monday, after it said the planned appearance “generated a storm of national news, from New York to Los Angeles, particularly given Bruce Springsteen's clearly articulated feelings about President-elect Trump.”

“Our decision is based SOLELY on the respect and gratitude we have for Bruce and the E Street Band,” founder Will Forte, said in a statement.

Springsteen has been an outspoken critic of the president-elect, calling Trump a “moron” and his campaign "a tragedy for our democracy." Earlier this month, he questioned whether Trump is "competent enough" to be president.

[Bicycle Bill]

And you guys really don’t want to see it, what if someone throws a bomb and takes out Trump; you wouldn’t to see that happen?

There would be plenty of other chances to see it.  How many times did we see Zapruder's film of Kennedy getting shot?

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

And if all else fails we could google it.

I didn't watch much TV the morning of Sep 11, but saw videos of the building collapsing and the planes hundreds of times.

[rubato]

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

~ Maya Angelou

Well said.


yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

[liberty]

If that happens he will be a one term president if he makes that far.

[Bicycle Bill]

Are you aware that, as a POTUS, there will be some point in time when this man's face will appear on a postage stamp?
Good thing the USPS has gone to self-adhesive stamps, because too many people would spit on the wrong side.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

America's LGBT Centers Are Under Attack

On Sunday afternoon, a visitor to the Casa Ruby LGBT Community Center in Washington, D.C., physically attacked a worker, threw a brick through a window, and let loose a string of verbal assaults.

"I'll kill your motherfucking ass. Ya'll tranny motherfuckers think somebody won't fuck y'all up," the man screamed, according to a police report of the incident.

Two weeks earlier, a different man entered the same facility, made sexual advances toward LGBT youth, and then punched a hole in the wall. He was arrested, but returned the following week to repeat the crime, reports DCist.

The Casa Ruby center is far from alone in being the target of attacks. Last week at least one armed person shot 13 pellets at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in Tulsa, Okla., reports the Tulsa World. Hours later, a man entered the facility and began yelling expletives at the staff, telling them, “I wish you would all die."

"We're getting reports like this from all over the country," said Toby Jenkins, the center's executive director. "Gay community centers being vandalized; welcoming churches being vandalized; gay businesses being vandalized. Now it's happened in Tulsa."

Two days earlier, a pair of men in Asbury Park, N.J., shattered the glass door of Garden State Equality, the state's largest LGBT organization. Christian Fuscarino, the group's executive director, said the building was no random target — the broken glass was meant to send a message of terror to the LGBT community in New Jersey and beyond.

"This kind of incident shows that hate knows no boundaries. It is not restricted by geography, even in a state as historically progressive as ours," he told the Asbury Park Press.

Since the presidential election, hate crimes have spiked, confirms the Southern Poverty Law Center. This uptick includes an increase in attacks on LGBT centers, mosques, and Jewish cemeteries, which as symbols of their respective communities, have become targets in a divisive political clime.

“The truth is there’s been a lot of groups of people victimized since the election [in November], especially the LGBT community," Heidi Beirich, a director of SPLC, told Vocativ.

Last month, Vocativ counted at least five reported attacks on LGBT centers, including a smashed window at Equality Florida in Orlando and transphobic slurs scrawled on the side of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Three occurred after the Trump administration rolled back education guidelines protecting transgender students.

“We see the same pattern,” Beirich said. “Trump will attack a group of people and then we see incidents of hate crimes afterward.”

Kelly Love, a spokesperson for the White House, told the Washington Blade that President Trump denounced these attacks.

“President Trump condemns hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms, including attacks against the LGBT community,” Love said.

However, activists worry that anti-LGBT legislation and directives, such as the rumored "religious freedom" executive order, will exacerbate these crimes. JoDee Winterhof, the senior vice president for policy and political affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said Trump must be more vocal in condemning such hatred, and become the ally he promised to be on the campaign trail.

“Many LGBTQ Americans are scared right now — they’re scared of their rights being taken away, scared for their families, and scared that they may no longer be protected in the country they live in," Winterhof said.

"The president has done little to calm those nerves. He owes it to the LGBTQ community to not only disavow these acts of hate, but also to restore protections for transgender kids and totally rule out his license to discriminate executive order."

[Scooter]

Gay Couple Kicked Out Of Pizza Place For Holding Hands, Told ‘This is Trump’s America Now’

A gay couple in Cincinnati say they were threatened with expulsion by a bouncer in a pizza joint after they were seen kissing and holding hands.

Bobby Slavens and his fiancé say a bouncer threatened to throw them out of a Goodfellas late Saturday night when they were being affectionate with each other while waiting in line.

“We go all the time,” Slavens told WLWT5. “We love Goodfellas. We’ve never had an issue there before.”

“We were just holding hands. [We] didn’t think anything about it, then we gave a little kiss on the lips, a discreet peck,” he said, explaining that once they got to the bouncer to show their IDs, they were told to stop with the PDA.

“The bouncer came to us and said, ‘Hey, you guys need to stop that or you are going to get kicked out.’ We were dumbfounded.”

Slavens said they felt embarrassed and stopped holding hands.

“We have seen people in Goodfellas or any other establishment, great couples that were holding hands or kissing, and nothing was said to them. So we left.”

But before they could leave, he says someone tried to make the incident political.

“As I turned around, I heard, ‘You better get used to this, this is Trump’s America.’ After that, I was like, ‘Wow.’ I just walked away,” he wrote on Facebook. “I was very upset and kind of just in disbelief.”

Goodfellas manager Mike McLaren has issued an apology and already someone has been fired over the incident.

“Once we have all of the information together, individuals like that do not work for this company. We do not tolerate that kind of action or speech,” said McLaren.

[Guinevere]

I'm glad Goodfellas apologized. This is NOT Trump's America, but some assholes seem to think that it is.

[Big RR]

I agree Guin, but the story raises one question--what kind of pizzeria needs a bouncer?

[Lord Jim]

what kind of pizzeria needs a bouncer?

That question occurred to me too...

I have one answer for it...

"Not the kind of pizzeria I would ever care to frequent"...

That reminded me of when I first moved out here in the late 80s, and I took a lady I was seeing to popular Salsa club I had heard about...

When we got there, I discovered you had to walk through a metal detector to get in...

I really wasn't keen on going to a bar that was attracting the kind of clientele that required a metal detector...

[RayThom]

Goodfellas associate, Tommy DeVito, was quoted as saying, "In this day and age, what the fuck is this world coming to? I can't believe this, prejudice against a Jew broad, prejudice against Italians... a gay couple."