I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
Remember when Joe Biden appeared to dose off and the right went into outrage mode. Turned out it was edited doctored video. Fox entertainment played the doctored video repeatedly and their rage emotions host made it sound like Biden needed to sleep every other hour. Yet not a mention of the tRump falling asleep. Hug
The excitement of a trip to Saudi Arabia apparently didn’t last long for 78-year-old U.S. President Donald Trump: In fact, the special welcome ceremony appeared to be a snoozer.
Trump landed in Riyadh on Tuesday as part of a four-day tour of the Middle East, where he claims he will secure billions in investments and trade agreements with Gulf nations. (He may also pick up a free plane.)
But the long red-eye flight from the U.S. appeared to have taken its toll; Trump was frequently seen with his eyes closed and once appeared to jolt himself awake during a special ceremony held in his honor at the Saudi royal court byCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, whopreviously ordered the killingof Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, was on the tarmac to greet Trump. But once the welcome ceremony began, a seated Trump appeared keen to rest his weary eyes.Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via Reuters
The prince was more forgiving of Trump’s inattention, but it was noted by those watching on social media.
“Trump is having a hard time keeping his eyes open in Saudi Arabia,” reporter Aaron Rupar wrote while sharing a clip of Trump appearing to nod off on X.
Another X user posted: “Sleepy Don can barely keep his eyes open while representing the United States in Saudi Arabia. If this were President Biden, there would be nonstop coverage of his cognitive condition and physical fitness. Where is the media outrage?”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung denied that Trump wasn’t paying attention.
“It’s clear that President Trump was fully engaged and listening intently as he finalized historic deals on his return to Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The Daily Beast should perk up and stop slacking instead of taking their cues of liberal liars who have shown a history of deceiving the American people.”
A weary Trump was given a gold-accented throne-like chair to sit in during the welcome ceremony. At moments, he seemed to be enjoying the change to take the weight off his eyelids.Brian Snyder/Reuters
The napping habits of his predecessor, of course, prompted Trump to call President Joe Biden, “Sleepy Joe.”
But Trump, who will overtake Biden as the oldest sitting president in U.S. history during the final year of his second term, has often faced accusations of dozing off in public.
One of the most high-profile incidents came during his 2024 hush money trial, where reporters inside the New York courtroom said that he appeared to fall asleep during the historic proceedings.
Trump claimed he was fully conscious throughout the trial in posts on Truth Social during the proceedings.
“I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!” Trump wrote.
Whether Trump was simply trying to “take it all in” with his “beautiful blue eyes” closed in Saudi Arabia remains unclear.
Philadelphia is turning up the volume during Pride Weekend, starting with its iconic Pride flag, which is back and bigger than ever.
The massive flag — now stretching to 600 feet — will debut on Friday, May 30 during ride Around the City, a powerful display of LGBTQ+ visibility and unity.
You can catch the flag traveling to iconic locations across the city starting at the Art Museum and ending in the Gayborhood.
The flag will then lead the 2025 Philadelphia Pride March on Sunday, June 1, 2025. This popular march will form at 6th and Walnut at 10:30 a.m. and end in the Gayborhood as well.
All LGBTQ communities and allies are welcome to join the march, with no registration required.
When the march reaches the Gayborhood, organizers said the festival will begin, running from noon to 7 p.m., on Walnut to Pine streets, and Quince to Juniper streets, with other select roads closed around the festival footprint.
This year’s festival will feature more than 200 small businesses and organizations, performers, entertainers, artists, vendors, local bars, food trucks, community organizations, stages and much more.
Philadelphia Pride March and Festival is open to all to attend with no admission, and all food and drink are pay-as-you-go.
Also don’t forget to check out Pride Promenade, a night of music, performances, and community connections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on Saturday, May 31.
Among those transgender service members that Hegseth is kicking out is Commander Emily Shilling, who has served in the Navy for almost two decades. A naval aviator with over 60 combat missions under her belt, she is the lead plaintiff suing the administration to overturn the ban. Shilling told Women Rule that it’s her duty not only to follow lawful orders but to challenge those she believes to be unlawful.
She has proved that Transgender people are no different to anyone else that serves and in many cases their service is over the top.
Hegseth a National Guard weekend warrior and Trump the draft dodger are not good enough to lick the boots of the commander. I say this as a retired US army disabled vet. I hope the two of them die in their travels and the world and country would be better off.
Their goal is to copy Russia. The goal is to wipe the LGBTQ+ community from society, from the public view. They want to make us illegal like in the most hateful countries or again to be like Russia under Putin. I used to think these people wanted to return to the 1950s but now I think I was wrong. They want to return to the early 1930s when the Nazi party was very active and strong in the US. I kept telling the people who wanted the LGB to let the t go to protect the rest that it was a divide and conquer strategy and that they would come for the rest of us next. And they are doing that. Just being gay or fighting the haters trying to deny gay people rights is a security risk to nation according to them. Hugs
There’s a new “Axis of Evil” in the Trump administration cosmology and it’s not al Qaeda or North Korea. Instead, the preeminent threat to national security, according to the hapless folks at Donald Trump’s personal law firm, is anyone who ever donated money to LGBTQ civil rights organization GLAD. At least that’s the government’s new working theory as it tries to justify its retaliatory executive order against Susman Godfrey.
Had Susman, for example, taken on that GLAD challenge pro bono, the allegation would still be risible, but when the whole argument hinges on the firm generally donating to a prominent non-profit it crosses into professionally embarrassing.
Aside from trying to tag Susman for its charitable contributions, it’s also deeply troubling to suggest that filing a federal lawsuit is a “dangerous effort to undermine the effectiveness of the United States military.” In a rule of law society (I know, I know, but humor me on this idea for the moment), “going to court” isn’t sedition, but the system working as intended. Checks and balances and all that stuff. To call a federal lawsuit an effort to undermine the government, requires adopting the premise that it’s a threat to make sure the government isn’t doing anything illegal. Courts can get the law wrong, but the point is that we encourage people to take grievances to court and not storm federal buildings… you know, the behavior that we traditionally considered a “dangerous effort to undermine” the government. Not so much these days.
There’s no bright line between the GLAD challenge and any other discrimination case brought against the DOD. If the government chooses to contest a suit for any reason, under this standard, it’s an effort to undermine the effectiveness of the military. Frankly, there’s not much keeping the DOJ from expanding this rationale to any other case brought against the government. That would put us a little beyond warnings about a slippery slope and into “that point where Wile E. Coyote hasn’t noticed he’s off the cliff yet.”
Not that GLAD’s challenge would’ve dangerously undermined effectiveness. General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated unequivocally that there isno problem with transgender troops if they meet standards. But as a career soldier, Milley cared more about merit and the ability to do the job. A civilian talk show host more interested in texting war plans to his buddies might have… different priorities.
Though all of this remains far afield of the instant issue: Susman Godfrey, giving money to an organization that has in the past filed a civil rights challenge, is not even in the same universe as a threat to national security.
But you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, I guess.
I can not understand the kind of hate or anger at different groups to want to cost yourself hundreds of dollars and possible jail time. To damage the books doesn’t erase the people they were written about and it doesn’t change history. It only hurts the library and the community which pays for the library. Hugs
Man accused of checking out books on Jewish, Black, LGBTQ history from Cuyahoga County Public Library and burning them on extremist website
A man checked out 100 books on topics including Jewish history, African American history and LGBTQ education before allegedly burning them in a social media video.
Credit: City of Beachwood, Ohio/Facebook
CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga CountyPublic Library officials, in a police report obtained by 3News, accused a man of checking out 100 books on Jewish history, Black history and LGBTQ education last month before filming a book burning and posting the video on a social media site described by advocates as a hub for white supremacist, neo-Nazi and extremist content.
According to an investigative report filed last week by the Beachwood Police Department, the man went into the Beachwood library branch on Shaker Boulevard and applied for a library card on April 2. He was approved for the card and checked out 50 books by the library’s proper procedure.
A library official told police that the Princeton University Bridging Divides Initiative, a non-partisan research effort that tracks political violence in the United States and monitors suspected hate crimes on social media, notified the library that the man posted a photo to Gab.com of a car trunk full of books. The post came with a caption that referenced “cleansing” the libraries, the official told police. The books in the photo “appeared to match the topics” of the books the man had checked out and also had Cuyahoga County Public Library stickers on them, the police report states.
According to the Anti-Defamation League‘s Center on Extremism, Gab is a platform known for lax content moderation policies that is widely used by “conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, members of militias and influential figures among the alt right.”
On April 10, the man returned to the Beachwood branch and borrowed another 50 books relating to similar topics. The man told a librarian that his son was a member of the LGBTQ community and he was trying to learn more about it. According to the police report, the librarian found the man’s behavior to be “very odd and concerning,” but the man did not make any threats during the encounter.
The Princeton researchers later reached out to the library again, this time saying that the man posted a video they believed depicted him burning all 100 books. The police report again states that the books in the video, a copy of which was obtained by police, “appeared to match the theme and titles” of the books that were checked out from the library. One of the books shown in the video had a CCPL sticker and was an exact match of one of the books the man withdrew, police said.
At the time the police report was filed on May 2, the man was not facing any charges in connection with the allegations. Police said the library staff were calling only to “document the incident,” and that the borrowed books were not yet overdue. The library told police that the man would be sent a bill once the books became overdue, and that the bill would be sent to collections if it was not paid.
The books had a combined total value of $1,700, the report stated.
Police told the library staff that “since a contract was entered and payment would eventually be billed,” the incident was likely a civil matter. The investigative report states the Beachwood city prosecutor would be consulted to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.
The library plans to ban the man from its property in the future. Police told the library staff to contact them for help issuing a trespass warning if the man returned.
