Vermont Veterans Group Gets Big Help Because Trump Lied Again

Donald Trump said his foundation gave $1,000 to a Vermont
veterans organization. He didn't, but GoFundMe
donors came to the rescue

There's a nice little group who helps veterans here in Vermont which actually got a big boost because of Donald Trump.

Of course, the catch is, the big boost is because it appears Donald Trump did something rotten.

IRS tax forms from 2013 indicate the Donald J. Trump foundation gave Friends of Veterans in White River Junction, Vermont $1,000.  

The veterans group said they never got the Trump donation.

According to the Concord Monitor, a GoFundMe page was set up to help Friends of Veterans, to "Help the Vets That Trump Forgot." The goal for the fundraiser was $2,000. At last check, Friends of Veterans was set to get $21,400 from at least 480 contributors, says the Concord Monitor.

Says the Monitor:

"'It kind of knocked me for a loop,' said Larry Daigle, the organization's president and a Vietnam War veteran who has volunteered with the nonprofit for 15 years. 'We're still kind of analyzing things ourselves.'"

Trump might have confused Friends of Veterans in White River Junction with Friends of Veterans in Palm Beach, Florida.

However, that donation to Florida helped pay for a parade, which is nice, but not as nice as actually helping veterans cover security deposits for housing and head off eviction notices, as the Vermont organization does for veterans in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Friends of Veterans in Vermont has a $150,000 annual budget, so this latest GoFundMe windfall will surely help.

Good work, donors!

Homeless Guy NAILS Styx Song; He's Now Suddenly Famous

Donald Gould at the piano in Sarasota, Florida. 

I've seen this kind of thing before, but I always like it when it happens.

A homeless guy, the kind of person a lot of us go out of our way to ignore, does something brilliant.

Here, Donald Gould finds a piano in the street in Sarasota, Florida and starts playing the Styx classic "Come Sail Away." He's brilliant.

The video, just uploaded on June 30,  has gone viral, with nearly 6 million views as of Monday morning.

Everybody's talking about him now. He's been all over social and mainstream media over the past few days.

A star is born!

The pianos, like the one Gould found were placed in various areas around Sarasota by the Art and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.

A follow up video features an interview with Gould, who says he plays the piano on the street every day to collect tips. He used to play the clarinet in the Marine Corps.

Gould says he has been homeless for six or seven years, when the economy tanked and he got laid off. Unemployment benefits kept him afloat for a couple years, but that ended. He says he has a construction background and can do that, but I agree with the woman in the follow up video that maybe a career in music would be better.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Gould, and that has raised about $29,000 as of Monday morning. So that will at least get a roof over his head.

Here's the video of Gould playing "Come Sail Away."

"Relentlessly Gay" Baltimore Yard To Get Even More Relentless

The stupid note somebody left and the "relentlessly gay"
decorations in front of the house.  

If you're going to be a jerk about what you think of your neighbor's yard decor, prepare to suffer the consequences.

An anonymous person in Baltimore is finding that out big time after that person left a note complaining about the "relentlessly gay" decorations in front of one house.  

Here is the note, in full. Capital letters and bold letters are the work of the person who left the note on Julie Baker's Baltimore front door, says the Baltimore Sun:

"Your yard is becoming relentlessly gay. Myself and others in the neighborhood ask that you Tone It Down. This is a Christian area, and there are Children. Keep it up and I will be forced to call the Police on  you! Your kind need to have Respect for GOD. --A Concerned Home Owner."

The offending decorations were a string of rainbow colored solar lights. Words on the solar lights spell out "Love" and "Ohana," a Hawaiian expression of family unity.

I'll be Captain Obvious for a moment here and dissect the absurdity of the note the idiot left.  "Relentlessly Gay?" It's not like Baker is holding a major gay pride parade every day.

A Christian area? Home decor now must be conducted by some sort of Christian designer? And who designated the neighborhood Christian? What if a Jewish person wanted to move in? Isn't there laws against preventing the Jewish or atheist person or whatever from moving in to the house next door?

There are children in the neighborhood. Who will see the rainbow lights and go "how pretty." I don't think a few colored lights will make kids turn gay, do you?  Call the cops? Um, putting up a string of lights doesn't exactly qualify as a violent crime.

Anyway, Baker is fighting back the best way she knows how. Her property will now really, REALLY become "relentlessly gay."

The Baltimore Sun says Baker started a GoFundMe page with the following pitch:

"Needless to say.....I need more rainbows. Many, many more rainbows.....I ams starting this fundraiser so I can make my Home even more relentlessly gay."

At last check, Baker had collected something like $26,000. She should probably paint her whole house in rainbow colors.

I can just see the neighbor who left the stupid note fuming like crazy.   She should just give up and make her house "relentlessly Christian." Whatever that is. And I'm afraid to find out.