Here’s a photo of Katy Perry at the Starkey Hearing Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday night. She headlined the charity concert in a giant ball gown (pictures below) and she posed with some big guns. Specifically, Katy posed with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. She captioned her photo, “42, 43, 46?” This led people to cluck their tongues at the playful implication that Katy’s running for president. Which is hilarious, but I have to admit being impressed that Katy knows how many presidents we’ve had in the United States. See, she’s not as vacuous as she pretends to be.
Katy also got political on Twitter following the theater massacre in Lafayette, Louisiana. In doing so, she joined the growing number of celebrities who have tweeted their thoughts. Katy made her opinion known:
Do we all personally hv to lose someone from a gun to hv a real opinion on gun control or can we just literally start taking this SERIOUSLY.
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 24, 2015
Not everyone will agree with Katy’s stance on guns, but she does deserve credit for thinking about the bigger issues. Katy’s not a big selfie queen, which I appreciate. She also doesn’t tweet a million times a day, so it’s notable that she chose to speak out on an important issue. Girlfriend will never be president, but that’s fine. She makes more money as a pop star anyway.
For what it’s worth, Katy also posed with Gene Simmons at the Starkey Hearing Foundation.
Photos courtesy of Katy Perry on Instagram, Fame/Flynet & Getty
I love her outfits. It was a good thing she did for charity.
She looks great.
She does look great. I like the natural hair.
She looks alive next to the two wax figures of presidents.
Just the fact that powerful men are referred to as “big guns” says a lot right there.
Also Dubya still seems to have a thing for ladies’ shoulders. Cringe.
Katie is probably too young to know that the NRA worked out of his Oval Office. Glad she spoke out.
I feel like George and Bill probably snuck off to the bathroom to smoke a joint and fist-bump about this photo after it was taken.
As Bill pulls a bag of McDonald’s French fries out of his breast pocket, George coughs and says, “I touched her shoulder bro.”
*insert same cheesy grin from above photo*
You got it.
HA! That is a laugh I desperately needed, thank you.
Excellent, somewhat queasifying vignette. Thank you!
Lost it at pocket fries. Brava!
Speaking out in favour of gun control always makes me respect someone a little bit more, even when it’s someone I don’t generally care for. As a Brit, America’s gun situation terrifies me.
As an American, America’s gun situation terrifies me.
Same here.
+2
You took the words right out of my mouth, Lilac
*claps for lilac*
+1000 I’m literally paranoid in the f*cking grocery store.
You said it, Lilacflowers. Yesterday, I was walking down the street and saw a woman out of the corner of my eye carrying what I thought was a rifle and moving very fast. I was just about to tackle my husband and yell “hit the dirt!” when I realized it was the paddle for her paddle board. Ok, I had my contacts in and they don’t correct my distance vision. But that’s what kind of loony bin we live in now that it would even occur to me that this woman might actually shoot us.
Ditto ditto ditto
Living in Canada you don’t have to hit the ground every time you hear a truck backfires … you can be pretty sure it’s a truck backfiring.
For the people not killed, maimed or disabled by gunfire, the unchecked proliferation of guns is still a terrible psychological burden. It’s hard to live in fear.
I love you all you guys.
As another Brit who sees all this awful gun violence coming out of the US in story after story, it’s so easy to fall into the way of thinking that all Americans must be either a) violent psychos themselves or b) terminally stupid to put up with it.
Then I come here and see that most of you are NORMAL. It’s fab.
@Sixer,
*flips hair because normal and fab*
With you. And I’d add that the outrageously disproportional lobbying power granted the NRA nauseates me.
@lilac, I cosign.
Not sure our sample is representative either. USA is just obsessed with guns and NRA propaganda has, without a consistent and clear a counter-message, paid off for manufacturers and dealers.
http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm
People who support tighter regulation have come to feel helpless, but advocates keep trying as the country lurches from one mass shooting to another.
Katy Perry’s right, until it happens to them, people think this stuff only affects the “other.”
When you all can figure out a way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, let me know. You can make all the gun control laws you want, but that doesn’t stop those that can get guns illegally. Just look at Chicago.
Ah yes, the Chicago argument. The Chicago situation, of people shooting one another with illegally obtained guns is a different problem from and requires a different solution from the problem of the mentally ill or violent history people obtaining guns LEGALLY and using them for mass shootings, no matter how much those who make the Chicago argument want to believe otherwise
Somehow we managed to get rid of a bunch of legal guns in Australia and yet there aren’t a multitude of criminals running the show with illegal guns, go figure. Buying guns illegally is EXPENSIVE and not something your average low level crim can do.
It is the result of mistakes made when the constitution was written, giving each state, no matter the population, the same number of senators, and the establishment electoral college instead of a straight vote are two examples. Also we can look to the way campaigns are financed, the way congressional districts are drawn, and voter suppression in urban areas. All of these things contribute to the dilution of the voices of the majority and can make us all seem like crazy gun nuts to the rest of the world.
She looks positively stunning.
I do like how 42 and 43 are friends. It’s nice to see presidents who can act like grown ups.
There are already so many laws regarding gun control on the books. What is missing from the conversation is the mass closure of a lot of mental health facilities which came about after the book/movie “One Flew Over the Cukoos’ Nest”. Many people who should be institutionalized or in some type of program are left without them.
Also, I work in hospitals, and the lock down units for stress disorder and depression are so stark and bleak. I really wish there would be a push for more mental health programs which seem to still be a dirty little secret if you have any issues.
I thought the mass closings of mental health facilities started under the Reagan regime when the Mental Health Systems Act was defunded.
And when Reagan pretty much threw mentally disabled vets out of VA hospitals – my uncle was a VA psych nurse at the time, says it was the worst thing he ever had to deal with.
Willowbrook as a catalyst for closing abusive state institutions, too?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willowbrook_State_School
Just jumping in here to agree that the breakdown in mental health services happened during St. Reagan’s regime. As a matter of fact, we still haven’t really recovered from policies & entrenched attitudes that were ushered in during his regime. As a result of that time period, the country shifted rightward & corporate democrats followed (the money).
There are laws on the books, but they are all over the place, in terms of strength, based on different locations. It should be tightened up, and there should be a federal registry.
Getting back to institutionalizing is a sticky wicket, in that you are substituting loss of one freedom for another. It’s not easy to get people locked away for mental illness, nor should it be. If you look back in history, you will find many abuses of the process driven by politics and also prejudice. I’m not saying that no one should be institutionalized, but the gun problem exists beyond the line of mental health issues. You have gun trafficking from lax gun law states to stricter law states, for which gangs and criminals are the recipients. Every single gun that is manufactured should be in the system. Sure some will slip by, but ignoring a well regulated gun registry and a tougher application process, in favor of ‘it’s only the crazies’ misses the larger issues.
I had to renew my driver’s license. To say that the staff was tough on people trying to game the system is putting it lightly. We have some tough rules for driving, which at least serves a purpose of travel, although cars can kill. We have a lax system in place for guns, whose only purpose is to kill. THAT is insanity.
You know what gets me, Kiddo, is the lax regulation. Steal cable & see what happens to you? Gerry-rig your electricity & see what’s happens to you? Don’t pay your taxes? See what happens to you. Drug Kingpin? Gun-runner? Sink a world economy? (Ok, I just had to throw that last one in😁.) Please. Not sh*t in relative terms. Law enforcement around those issues are a joke. Looking at it comparatively & at what society, politicians (corporate employees) and by extension–the people–will tolerate and value, just kills me. Just kills me.
Mystery solved! George W is Left Shark.
Is it bad that I really wish this was true? haha. I’m not American, so I never had to directly deal with him. But the man amuses the hell out of me post-presidential career. I know he did a lot of things that pissed people off – but he had some good in there too… and the fact that I can 100% just picture him attempting and failing at Katy’s choreography kind of makes my morning.
I picture W as a goofy frat boy. Dick Cheney was the truly evil one who manipulated him. IMO, DC sits at the right hand of Satan.
Bush did a lot more than piss people off. He destroyed the economy, gutted scientific research, waged criminal war, endorsed the use of torture, backed fundamentalist Christianity as a state religion and neglected the welfare of his fellow Americans in disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
My boss pisses me off sometimes. My teen pisses me off sometimes. GW Bush … that he is walking around free and entitled is a non-amusing travesty.
Yeah, I don’t recall any of the good, at all. By the same token, I think Bill Clinton gets a free pass on his F_ckery during that presidency. He was a moderate corporatist Republican who also set in framework that helped to collapse the economy. I can see why he and dubya might be friends.
I’ve said it before around here but I had the chance to see Cheney speak at a large conference I went to a few years ago and I was the only one who stayed in my exhibiting booth during his speech. THAT’S how much I hate that man. In contrast, at a conference last year I saw George W speak and I found him to be really likable, funny, and fairly interesting as well.
There. I said it and I’m not taking it back.
Anyway, as much as I HATED GW’s presidency, I always understood why a faction of our population loved W. He’s the bumbling, “aw shucks” everyday man you love to laugh at. He’s an unthreatening, untoward, and slightly clumsy personality. He was also incredibly spineless, foolish, weak-willed and ineffectual as a president. He let evil masterminds Cheney and Rove run the show and consequently run this country into the ground. That’s not to absolve GW of any responsibility in the matter either, it’s just to say that I think that the GW presidency was a real love story between Stupid and Destructive, with Destructive being the more dominant partner in the relationship.
Yes to Clinton not getting a pass either. And there’s always that Time Tunnel question: if he didn’t screw around, would Al Gore have been president?
“Bush did a lot more than piss people off. He destroyed the economy, gutted scientific research, waged criminal war, endorsed the use of torture, backed fundamentalist Christianity as a state religion and neglected the welfare of his fellow Americans in disasters like Hurricane Katrina…. that he is walking around free and entitled is a non-amusing travesty.”
YES. A thousand times, YES.
Like I said – I didn’t have the same kind of direct effect that American’s would have – and I was only 19 when his presidency ended. The majority of my interest in politics came towards the end of his presidency, and after that. My exposure was mainly limited to my father/grandfather watching the news in the background, and brief mentions of American politics during very Canadian and WWI/WWII/ Acadian/First Nations centered history classes.
I don’t think he was a good president overall, though I don’t believe he’s a 100% evil man either. It’s not completely black and white like that. I think along the lines of what Kitten said – he has that ‘aww shucks’ way about him, and like Kitten said – his stupidity was a large issue.
Bush worked on protection of marine life, by creating sanctuaries for marine birds and sea creatures. He worked on the No Child Left Behind initiative, Housing First, and Medicare reform I believe? Do I think he should have been president? No. But I think he did have SOME good intentions. I’m in no way trying to say that he was good at his job – I was just saying the man is kind of amusing and interesting POST presidency.
I get the outrage, but I didn’t think my comment would spark that much – so sorry on that regard. It wasn’t intended, and maybe commenting on it with 3 hours of sleep wasn’t super wise either.
I get it to a degree though – A tonnnn of people hate Prime Minister Harper. But just like anyone else- there is good in there. My grandfather met him a couple of years before he passed, and the man was incredibly interested in what grampy had accomplished in his career, and took much more time out to talk to him than he ever had to. And it was a flash of the person, rather than the persona during that time because this was a small town and there was very little media presence around, and they had stepped aside to chat. It’s just really shitty that the bad affects such a massive scale when it comes to leaders of a country – though I don’t think at least the majority of people are 100% corrupt, but I do tend to think that every single politician will have giant flaws – you don’t get into politics and advance by being super passive and by letting people walk over you.
Re: Bush and No Child Left Behind initiative, Housing First, and Medicare reform I believe?
– No Child Left Behind subjected children to dumbed-down, regimented lessons that did not get results and instead punished “low achieving” (IE in poorer areas with poorer families, usually black) schools by stripping funds and redirecting them to charter schools that cherry-picked students to attain high scores
– Housing First – I’d have to look this up, but Bush’s emphasis on the “ownership society” and lack of oversight of the financial/credit sector led to predatory lending practices and a massively burst housing bubble that destroyed lives, neighborhoods and wealth
– Medicare reform. “Reform” is one of those loaded words. And, if you’re in Canada, US Medicare is for 65+ in age only. What Bush did was ram, with the help of Big Pharma and private insurers, a bill through Congress that inserted a private plan (Medicare Part D) into Medicare’s successful long-time public offerings and created a very costly universal drug benefit that had a gaping hole in reimbursements (only slowly being plugged now) and, even worse, made it illegal for governments to use their buying power to negotiate for lower drug costs.
Maybe I’m humorless, but as an American who witnessed the devastation and death that man and his administration brought not only to his own people but millions more around the world — I’m comfortable condemning him without limitation because all I care about is how he acted in the public sphere. (As a colleague of mine used to say sarcastically, “Hitler liked puppies.”) There are plenty of other stupid and folksy (which is an act for him, by the way; he grew up blue-blood Connecticut) people around who don’t do what he did.
As for Harper, a lot of Canadians hope he will have more time in his hands starting this fall to get to know many more of his fellow citizens. He certainly doesn’t go around talking to them now. Most secretive prime minister ever, the least openness with the press ever, and the only time he seems to give a press conference is when he’s out of the country, to build his image as a “statesman.” If that’s a secretly nice guy, he can pursue that aspect of his personality from some other, less powerful station.
@Alice, in my opinion, DC IS the hand of Satan
@Erinn, Bush tried to eliminate Medicaid, which covers our low income children, disabled, and just about every elder receiving nursing home care and in addition to the Medicare pharma mess described here that affects most elders and disabled, he cut Medicare coverage of teaching hospitals and lowered reimbursement rates to primary care docs, contributing significantly to our dire shortage in that area. He also cut funding for Medicare/Medicaid fraud investigations and directed that investigators focus on recipient fraud (those welfare moms) and not provider fraud, which is where millions are stolen each year by hospitals, pharma, and doctors
The push for subprime motgages actually has its roots in the Clinton presidency. I believe the intent was good, but the outcome was tragic.
GWB doesn’t get enough credit for his efforts to make HIV medication and vaccines available to African children. Moreso than any president before, or I believe since.
Dick Cheney will someday have to face his maker. I trust in that.
Cheney and Bush – evil-doers both. Smart or stupid, evil is as evil does.
I 100% agree with you.
I mean, the end-result is the same in either scenario, right?
But I do think it’s worth evaluating the political motivations, personal agendas, and the individual personality traits that made up the George W Bush administration. It gives you a greater understanding of the dynamics that were happening there at the time.
Kitten, it made me sick that Cheney got a heart transplant while some more deserving person may have died waiting for that heart.
That ENRAGED me, Alice. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even just thinking about it makes my heart pound. Sick entitled f*ck.
Kitten, great analysis, spot on. All of it. As for Cheney’s “heart,” yeah, I couldn’t even figure out how to put my feelings into words.
Where are the war crimes trials for these people? Where is even the discussion of any attempt to approach justice for what they did?
(And for Nixon, and LBJ…now I’m depressed.)
Sorry Katie..your marriage to Russell B instantly removes you from the ‘has good sense’ list and must be factored into your future judgments/commentary…hehehe
Russell B is a smart cookie. I would think his judgement would be called into question for the marriage, rather than the other way around, based on intellect incompatibility.
+ 1. I think it was more about the intellect of his penis in that particular situation.
lol
+2 for Kiddo’s comment and -1 for stupid peen.
I’ll take you seriously when you start typing “have” instead of “hv”.
Twitter has space limits so she’s cutting down on basic words so she can fit more of a single idea into a tweet.
That’s hardly a new thing.
She would have had room for the a and the e had she not shoehorned a LITERALLY in there.
I can’t with the Twitter speak. It makes even intelligent commentary sound like silly, meaningless babble.
Also, we need to stop with the incessant barrage of “literally” and “like”.
Signed,
An Old Fart
Well, Katy Perry did recently say she wish she’d gotten more schooling…
She must have something going on between the ears, she should just hire a tutor.
Kitten, I literally like your comment.
*why does it stink in here?*
It needs to be said because sadly the ‘safe’ places in this country keep getting smaller and smaller and the fervent band of idiots who think plopping down with their semi’s and trucker hats as defense are only adding to the tension and fear.
Maybe that’s how we’ll finally get some damn movement on this topic, when certain industries (ala movie theaters) suddenly see a huge down-swing in profits and start out paying the NRA.
Hey, you may be on to something. Commerce is the primary mover of America, so what industry would be even more powerful than the gun lobby? Medical insurance? Private hospital corporations?
It would be like medical insurers taking on the sugar/salt food lobbies. King Kong vs Godzilla. Now that would be a fight!
Also, Gene Simmons is gross.
Ugh, look at his tongue!
Good for her. You can make powerful enemies by speaking out for gun control; she is showing she has a backbone.
For all her seeming vapidity there still seems to be someone home in there. And that gown is utterly lovely on her.
Much smarter way to go than going the girl on girl attack. Stay basics of being a smarter and socially aware performer. Katy’s definitely smarter than she portrays with her bubble gum songs.
I cringe to think that Gene may have been highly aroused in that photo.
Gene Simmons is so gross!! But her picture with the Presidents is great!
So good to see some Americans who are pro gun control. Gun culture is terrifying and I am so glad it only took one massacre incident to crack down on gun control here in Aus… although it would be much better if they’d done it before anything like that had happened. When will the US learn? How many people have to die so that the gun brigade can have muh rights?