Charles Barkley Defends Gay and trans people

[quote] If you’re gay, bless you. If you’re transgender, bless you. If you have a problem with that — f*** you.”

Barkley has always been awesome.

Always.

I certainly hope so since is son is openly gay.

On a business errand for my firm 15 or so years ago, I was in an elevator in a Midtown Atlanta high rise when it stopped at a condo unit floor & Charles Barkley stepped inside.

He and I were the only 2 car occupants and within seconds he engaged me in pleasant conversation that lasted throughout the remainder of our ride together. As it happens, he told me that he owned a unit in that building as well as a rural property near Auburn, Al. where he attended college.

From that brief experience, I came away with the impression that Sir Charles was outgoing and confident and also that he was most likely a decent person. Nothing since then has led me to have second thoughts about those conclusions.

So, as this rant goes, "Good on Charles Barkley!"

...and supports Bud Light.

[quote]“Drink this. I want ya’ll to drink this f**ing beer,” Barkley said. “I got three cases of Bud Light, and hey, I want to say this. If you’re gay, bless you. If you’re transgender, bless you. If you have a problem with that — f*** you.”

I love Charles. I especially love his disdain for DJT, Skip Bayless, and social media/keyboard warriors.

I love him for his strong (and absolutely correct) defense of Larry Bird and the other great players of that 80's NBA revival. These younger guys - even Lebron - don't give them the respect they deserve.

Right now, in today's NBA even with today's creampuff fucking refs, Larry Bird would completely dominate and KILL these candyass motherfuckers.

Chuck and Shaq defend police against Kenny Smith. This clip has a section with Ben Carson. Stop when you see him.

Shaq and Chuck were just okay. Ben Carson freaked me out, same as always. What kind of fucking retard would allow that man to perform brain surgery on them? Who?

It's crazy.

R2, are you sure you’re not confusing Barkley with Earvin Johnson?

[quote] Charles Barkley met Maureen Blumhardt in the late 1980s and fell in love with her shortly after. The couple married in 1989 and have been together ever since. They have one child, and her name is Christiana.

No gay son for Sir Charles but he's a great ally, that's for sure.

In his playing days, there used to be lots of chatter over time that Charles was a future candidate for Governor of Alabama … as a Republican.

In Barcelona on the '92 Dream Team, Barkley used to go out walking around. He'd pose for pictures, talk to tourists there for the Olympics while other big name players (Jordan, Bird, Magic etc.) stayed in their hotel.

Barkley was a great ambassador for the United States during those games. I like Charles, he knows his basketball, seems like a decent dude, he's witty. When Barkley may (or may not) have been contemplating a run as a Republican, that was back in the day. Still shitty, cheap, mean bastards but not the out of control domestic terrorists we have in today's GOP. Charles may be somewhat more conservative than we are but he's not MAGAT material.

[quote]Asked about Trump by reporters, Barkley was blunt as usual: “When you waste time calling people names and things like that, nothing gets accomplished."

[quote]Barkley said he wasn't "ready to make a formal choice” on who he'd support as a democratic presidential candidate. He praised Vermont senator Bernie Sanders' performance in the first debate, calling him a "live wire." Elizabeth Warren greeted Barkley in the spin room, saying: "I'm a real fan girl."

[quote]Barkley identified as Republican during his playing career in the 1980s and '90s but turned Democrat by the 2000s.

Trump has brought about a seismic political realignment. So many formerly hated republicans now find themselves firmly in the Democratic fold. And unfortunately, so many former Democrats - especially Trump’s much beloved “poorly educated” - are now lost to the party.

Love him. Have always loved him. Smart and sexy man.

[quote] Charles may be somewhat more conservative than we are but he's not MAGAT material.

Mr. Barkley is a fiscal conservative, not a social conservative. Fiscal conservatives think it more important to give the poor ways to work their ways out of poverty, not just dole out money hand over fist and raise everyone else's taxes to pay for it. Fiscal conservatives believe the government is far too easy to throw away the people's tax money on useless projects including handing it out to foreign entities who are not real friends of the US.

Social conservatives are lowlife scum who want to keep poor people poor and desperate for fear if they get out of poverty they may end up moving too close to them. They want to return the USA to the 1950s when all white people had a "colored" maid they paid $1.25/hr. They want it make legal for them to treat all people who are not the same as them like crap. Charles is a fiscal conservative.

I understand him. I'm a dyed in the wool democrat, with a fiscally conservative bent.

R7 is a racist who bangs the racist basketball fans’ drum that white player Larry Bird is better than LeBron. Dream on.

R20 is a major racist who can't comprehend the post that made him so triggered. The poster said that Larry Bird isn't given the respect he deserves from younger players - even LeBron. Nowhere did he say that he was better than James, but to suggest that a white player could be dominant in the contemporary league must be anathema to R20, since he's a racist.

But, of course, the Bird discussion has nothing to do with Barkley defending gays.

The way you can spot a racist in basketball is when someone won't acknowledge Bird's greatness simply because he's white.

You know who never got the best of Larry Bird? Michael Jordan, and he'll tell you that himself. The greats always give Larry his due, they know what a savage he was on the court and just how hard it was to win against him. It's these so-called fans who imagine that today's players are the best there have ever been. They're not.

The RACIST at r22 also hates Meghan Markle.

Sick racists at DL.

Charles has been supportive for decades.

[quote]Larry Bird would completely dominate and KILL these candyass motherfuckers.

I haven't heard "candyass" since I was in high school.

The company needed a hard smack to remind them to respect their customers. But this has been accomplished. Now it's just boring.

The product just isn't worth a culture war.

Charles has always been a good guy. Now Karl Malone is an asshole on every count.

Speaking of how much the Republican Party has changed, George W. Bush had a reception for the reunion of his Yale undergrad class. A transgendered classmate met him in the receiving line, telling Bush that he would remember her as “Peter.” Bush warmly greeted her, saying how nice it was that she had returned as herself.

Nothing's changed, R29. It's just that the attitudes have become public now that Repubs realize that they can raise major funds from persecuting trans people, just as they have continued to do with gays. MAGATS have also enabled the culture war in order to draw attention from the felon and traitor they will nominate for president.

R2 maybe you meant Magic Johnson?

Nice story about W., R29. I can’t imagine a Trump or DeSantis ever mustering such decency.

R30, your belief that “[n]othing’s changed” about the Republican Party flies in the face of the reality of “The Great Realignment.” So many former Republicans - & not just the ones who appear on MSNBC - count themselves as Never Trumper Democrats. And so many former Democrats - many of them among the “poorly educated” Trump famously said he loved - are now firmly in the Republican camp.

Nothing's changed about their attitude toward trans people. It doesn't matter how they vote - their attitudes remain the same; only the surface conditions change.

Trannies and drag queens pose the greatest existential threat to the United States ever!!!

So pay no heed to those men behind the curtains, like Donald Trump and the Republicans, trying to destroy American democracy.

In video that circulated on social media on Monday, Barkley offered to buy a round of drinks for the crowd at a bar in Lake Tahoe, Calif., where he was reportedly competing in a celebrity golf tournament.

“So I’m gonna buy some drinks for y’all and I’m gonna buy Bud Light,” he said.

“Hey, lemme tell you something. All you rednecks or a–holes who don’t want to drink Bud Light, f— y’all. Hey, y’all can’t cancel me!” he added to a mixture of cheers and boos.

"Hey, y’all can’t cancel me!” he added to a mixture of cheers and boos."

Sir Charles could buy and sell the moronic yahoos booing him a couple of times over.

Chuck " blasted" by NBA player no one has ever heard of. Uses the tired" think about the children" shit.

R33, you keep using these words, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

I know exactly ZERO Democrats who have "switched over" to becoming hardcore Dump supporters - none.

Your fantasy that all these Democrats have switched to being Dump fans is laughable and kind of sad. Your fellow Republicans have gone crazy and deserted you. You will be unable to prop them up by pretending tons of Democratic voters have "switched" over to the Dark Side of the Force. Didn't happen, won't happen. Sorry, kid.

R41, have you not heard of “The Great Realignment”? I take it you concede my point about the existence of a large number of more educated Republicans who have left their former party. But it wouldn’t be a Great Realignment if it was just a one-way migration. As such, more & more working class whites have deserted the Democratic Party to become a core part of Trump’s base. And this also includes a growing number of Blacks & Hispanics.

Nonsense, R42. There is no "great realignment" it's a fantasy.

The man you want is Ronald Reagan, dear. Lots of Democrats switched over to Reagan and stayed there UNTIL Obama. Some of them flirted with Dump, got burned, came back to Biden and they're staying with Biden.

Of course Republicans and Independents have fled from the GOP in droves. No one disputes that. Dump has been an unmitigated disaster for that party. It's this fantasy you have about zillions of Democrats and Hispanics flocking to Dump for no reason at all that is such a total fucking loser. Didn't happen, won't happen. Have another drink, hon. You can still fantasize.

[quote] Speaking of how much the Republican Party has changed, George W. Bush had a reception for the reunion of his Yale undergrad class. A transgendered classmate met him in the receiving line, telling Bush that he would remember her as “Peter.” Bush warmly greeted her, saying how nice it was that she had returned as herself.

What? The transgendered classmate is going to remember Bush as "Peter"?

People are getting all soft on Bush. It's crazy. He's stupid (can't pronounce nuclear), got the US into a long, expensive war with the wrong country.

Wake up.

In R43’s, ahem, “fantasy” world, with the political migration going only one way, the Democrats have no worries. They have future elections all but guaranteed to end in their favor.

R44, you seem to have somehow misunderstood the story. The transgendered former classmate wasn’t going to remember BUSH as Peter; she believed Bush would only remember HER as Peter.

DL’s Log Cabin Brigade trying to stealth normalize W. Sickening.

The Bushes never voted for Trump. 44 speechwriter, Peter Wehner, describes Trump as a grotesque man leading a grotesque party. So many Bush voters have transferred their political allegiances. Are there any DLers who don’t welcome that support?

Barkley graduated from Leeds high school the year before I played benchwarmer on JV for Huffman HS. He was a force of nature, but also somewhat of an ass back then.

I really didn't like his foray into the GOP, but grew to like him as he evolved. I think he is somewhat of a contrarian, but have grown to really like him.

I'm not a Log Cabinet. I've never voted for a Republican for POTUS since I started voting back when Carter ran. If I had to choose between Dump and W, I'd take W every time.

Anyone who wouldn't join me in that vote doesn't understand the awfulness of Dump.