Shutdown

Image:  Facebook

In response to the ICE atrocities in Minneapolis, it's "National Shutdown" day. Activists want us to ditch school and work and not spend money on Jan. 30.

The citizens of Minneapolis pulled that off beautifully a week ago, but I fear there hasn't been enough time to mount a paralyzing nationwide strike.

Still, I'm in. I was supposed to do a happy hour with a couple of friends at one of Seattle's waterside restaurants today, but I let them know why I can't, in good conscience, be there. To acknowledge those killed in Minneapolis (and Chicago and Los Angeles), I can certainly forego shellfish and wine.

Not a sacrifice of heroic proportions. Giving up the chance to gossip, though, that was a little harder.

Alert The Hague

 

Gross

Image:  Facebook

Donald Trump is holding a televised cabinet meeting today.

You know what that means:  More fawning than a deer birthing season.

This Week's Quote

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The snow is coming down heavily across our city, and I can think of no better excuse for New Yorkers to stay home, take a long nap, or take advantage of our public library’s offer of free access to Heated Rivalry on e-book or audiobook for anyone with a library card.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a snowstorm press conference

Source:  Gay City News

The Helmet Hides the Nazi 'Do

 

When Your Closet Is a Locker Room

Image:  Facebook

How about some good news for a change? Good gay news at that. I might even charge you for the dopamine hit.

After being inspired by the smash HBO Max series "Heated Rivalry" about male hockey rivals-turned-lovers, actual hockey player Jesse Korteum came out. He wrote on Facebook earlier this month of growing up the youngest of four boys in hockey-crazed Minnesota. "I loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear. I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport," wrote Korteum.

Tough and masculine. Yes, I assume his dance card will be full in gay bars from Mankato to Manitoba.

Australian former pro basketball player AJ Ogilvy also came out recently in a video chat. The guy he was chatting with, Isaac Humphries, came out as gay while playing in the Australian league in 2022, and Ogilvy credited Humphries with giving him the courage, saying it was "hugely beneficial to have someone of your stature and attitude be able to step forward and say this is who you are."

Fans noted "Heated Rivalry" may've also had something to do with Ogilvy's revelation. What we know for sure is media representation matters, and individual athletes coming out matters.

I'm feeling greedy, so I hope at next month's Winter Olympics we'll be treated to more male athletes coming out. Flamboyant American former figure skater Johnny Weir will be in Milan to commentate on skating, but perhaps he could have a side hustle:  "Oh, yesterday a Canadian bobsledder came out, and today it's a Dutch speed skater! I'm not allowed to mention how good they both look in Lycra, so I'll just say they can go for my gold anytime!"

Norman Rockwell Now

This Week's Quote

Image:  Facebook

On CNBC Scott Bessent insisted that "most retirees own 10 or 12 homes." Scott wishes to be addressed as Milord and added, "Average Americans also have at least 30 crystal punchbowls, 58 gilded candelabra and 15 white stallions. I do."

Paul Rudnick

Source:  X

Brat Diplomacy

Image:  Facebook

The president of the United States, hot to acquire Greenland, actually sent this text to the prime minister of Norway over the weekend.

"Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America."

Petulant? It's crystal clear we're being led by Veruca Salt.

I Hope These Memes Never Stop

 

Now You Know What to Do With Them

 

The Art of the Steal

Image:  Facebook

The entire planet knows that Donald Trump lusts after the Nobel Peace Prize. This week he got it—sort of.

The 2025 winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, presented Trump her golden medal in a golden frame at the golden White House as a "personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people."

I assume Trump's booby prize, the hastily created peace prize FIFA awarded him last month, will now be moved to a West Wing bathroom.

The Nobel Prize committee said that Machado's decision to fork over the medal doesn't change who won. The prize can't be "revoked, shared, or transferred to others."

But Trump's grin on receiving the bribe—I mean gift—showed how happy he was to be the new owner of a lightly used, second-hand medal.

Machado didn't leave the White House empty-handed. She carried away a red gift bag bearing Trump's signature in gold on the outside. As to what, if anything, was inside the swag bag, my bet is a Steven Miller Pez dispenser.

This Week's Quote

Image:  Facebook

Pedophile protector!

Ford plant worker TJ Sabula to Donald Trump, who twice mouthed an expletive and flipped him off in return

Source:  The Washington Post

A Lesbian Represents

A friend in Vermont sent me this photo taken at an anti-ICE protest in Brattleboro this past weekend. I needed the levity.

Rough Start

Image by TASFIQ UR RAHMAN NABIL from Pixabay

American forces invade Venezuela to capture its president? An ICE agent fatally shoots a woman in Minneapolis?

That's what the Trump administration brought us in just the first week of 2026.

I want to turn this year in already, but I can't find the receipt.

Our Hopes and Wishes Go With You

 

This Week's Quote

Image:  Free-Images

You got to win the midterms because if we don't win the midterms, it's just going to be -- I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me. I'll get impeached.

Donald Trump to Republican lawmakers—and threatening the rest of us with a good time

Source:  ABC News

Fantasy History

Image:  Facebook

The White House today rolled out a new website for the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots.

CNN reports the new site claims the violence "was instigated by law enforcement and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It recasts the rioters as the victims that day, and depicts President Donald Trump as a hero for granting sweeping pardons for the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the deadly attack."

Sure. And George Washington grew up on the planet Venus, and currently works as a chiropractor in Poughkeepsie.

Pete Tweet

 

Just For Starters

Image:  Facebook

It's hard to know where to start with Donald Trump's having dispatched American forces to capture the Venezuelan head of state and his wife.

So I'll start with this:  Both Trump and Nicolás Maduro carry the title of president, but both are dictators. And both are as crooked as Steve Buscemi's grin.

When I heard the news of the capture this morning, I immediately wondered what Trump's base would make of this. They voted him in, we're told, largely to bring down prices. MAGA is allergic to foreign affairs, yet lately that's what Trump has been fixated on, while dismissing concerns about the cost of living as a Democratic hoax.

Will MAGA forgive him for blowing them off so he and his ego can earn a place in history? Heaven knows they've forgiven him for everything else, from sexual assault to Constitution assault, so the chances are decent, alas.

I also wondered, of course, why Trump took such an aggressive step. One answer is oil. Also, a friend reminded me that Trump sees the world as divided into his portion, Xi Jinping's portion, and Vladimir Putin's portion. Trump needs to shore up his piece of the pie. Which means the polar bears of Greenland better start worrying.

While thinking about what I'd write, I decided I needed to come up with new names for Venezuela, since Trump's narcissism has recently had him naming things after himself. "Trumpela?" "Donvenez?" "The Republic of The Donald?"

Then I found out the man-child beat me to it. In his press conference hours after Maduro was snatched, Trump invoked the Monroe Doctrine, but he called it the "Don-roe Doctrine."

Someone please explain to me how a man with an ego that size doesn't simply explode?

Crime Is Down Already