Tuesday, February 14, 2023

The Idiot Corey Chichizola

Corey Chichizola is an idiot.  At CINEMA BLEND, he writes:


It’s almost hard to believe it, but we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Academy Awards. Aside from the awards of the night, this event is perhaps best known for Will Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock on national television, shortly before being awarded Best Actor. There’s been a ton of discourse around how the Academy reacted to this viral event, specifically how Smith was permitted to stay for the rest of the event and even accept an award after the altercation with Rock. And upon further review, the Academy admitted it didn’t handle the Oscars slap very well. Let’s break it all down.

[. . .]

There you have it. While Will Smith issued a number of apologies over his behavior at the 2022 Oscars, it sounds like he’s not the only one who is taking responsibility for what went down during the star-studded event last year. The Academy claims that it’s making positive changes, but hopefully no more violent incidents in the near future. Although that would seemingly be the time to show the work that’s been done regarding safety and discipline.

[. . .]
As for Will Smith, he’s been in the midst of a long and gradual Hollywood comeback. Following a few months of isolation, he finally began stepping out in public again and using social media. And after issuing a number of apologies over his actions, the recent Oscar winner hit the road to promote the release of Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation. 



What an idiot.  The woman was referring to the complaint that the Academy did not escort Smith out or have him arrested.  That is the complaint within the industry to the board.  They were no safe with him present.  He should have been removed but liars covered for him.  As for his 'apologies.'  Meaningless words.  

That was obvious when he uttered them.  But last November, when Will thought he might be able to get away with it, he revealed that right after the assault, for ten days, he and  Floyd Mayweather laughed about it over the phone daily.  

You don't do that when you're sorry for your action. 

Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock.  There was no excuse for it then and there is not one now.  Chris Rock was doing what he was supposed to and what he was hired to do.  

Will Smith clearly thought it was THE SOURCE awards.  He's too trashy to be allowed in public.  He assaulted Chris.  He should have gotten handcuffed and escorted out.  Corey Chichizola is an idiot.  This is from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER on the same topic:

The Academy previously addressed Smith’s behavior, at one point admitting that “we could have handled the situation differently.” They also called Smith’s actions “unacceptable and harmful behavior” and, once again, noted that they did not “adequately address the situation in the room.”




“This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented,” it concluded.

As Vanessa Williams says, "Get the message? Nuff said."









"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Tuesday, February 14, 2023.  The 20th anniversary to a massive global protest is tomorrow, a faux action loses their convicted pedophile speaker but still remains too toxic for most people to get on board with, toxic is what Iraq's become as a result of the never-ending wars, and much more.



On the weekend encompassing Friday 14 February to Sunday 16 February 2003 in Australia, coordinated mass protests against the impending Iraq War occurred around the world in over 600 cities. This global mass protest was described as the largest protest event in human history. According to the BBC 6-10 million people protested in a total of about 60 countries. In Italy the Rome protest involved about 3 million people, and in Spain the protest in Madrid involved 1.5 million people.

On Friday 14 February the protesters totalled  150,000 people in my city Melbourne (I and family were there with highly visible black on white STOP WAR placards). On 16 February 250,000 people protested in Sydney, and 100,000 in Brisbane. About 600,000 demonstrated against the impending Iraq War in cities around Australia [1-5]. Between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the world globe participated in some  3,000 protests against the Iraq War [5].

(A). The ongoing carnage anti-war demonstrators unsuccessfully tried to stop in 2003.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq War was conceived by the war criminal Americans as part of the absurdly named post-9/11 US War on Terror that in horrible reality  became a genocidal War on Muslims from West Africa to South East Asia. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was presaged by 13 years of crippling Sanctions and US, UK and Apartheid Israeli bombing that devastated Iraq  in the period 1990-2003. The US had “greenlighted” the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 but as soon as the invasion occurred the serial invader America and its allies turned on Iraq – 200,000 Iraqis perished in the 1990-1991 Gulf War and an estimated 1.7 million Iraqis (mostly children ) perished under genocidal Sanctions that devastated a formerly prosperous Arab country that had a secular administration.

The “excuses” for invasion of Sanctions- and bombing-crippled  Iraq in 2003 were utterly false. No Iraqis were involved in the 9/11 atrocity in 2001 according to the “official lying Bush conspiracy theory about 9/11”. However the US and UK governments presented their people and the world  with  utterly false assertions about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda terrorists  (the opposite was true, with the secular Iraqi regime being  opposed to Islamist terrorists), and with falsely alleged Iraqi possession of  “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMDs) that after the conquest of Iraq were simply not found. The invasion of Iraq by US, UK and Australian forces formally commenced on about 20 March 2003. The already economically and militarily devastated Iraqis having no air force, no navy and no defence industry were quickly defeated by the genocidal US Alliance “shock and awe” tactics.

Nevertheless Indigenous resistance continued. The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain was hunted down and killed (the same fate befell Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after the France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance invaded and destroyed Libya) [6, 7]. The US Alliance mostly left devastated Iraq in 2011 having installed a Shia-dominated government to their liking. The subsequent Sunni revolt gave rise to the Islamist ISIS and thence the excuse for the return of the US Alliance to further devastate Iraq, and to also wreck and Balkanize  Syria [6-20]. Fallujah (the City of Mosques) was destroyed  in the Iraq War but was again besieged and devastated a second time by the barbaric Americans in the subsequent war on the barbaric ISIS insurgents [17-19]. The western half of the huge city of Mosul was destroyed by the US Alliance together with the lives of 40,000 of the  residents (pre-war Mosul population 2 million) [19].

The Iraq War and the Syrian War continue. The US has a large number of temporary military bases in Iraq, mostly a type of forward operating base (FOB), plus  2 major airbases [21]. In January 2020,  the Iraqi PM, the Iraqi Parliament and the Speaker demanded that the US Alliance forces leave Iraq. The US, UK, Australia, Canada and Germany rejected the Iraqi Parliament’s Quit Iraq demand, with the US threatening to instantly collapse  what was left of the Iraqi economy by a banking freeze if Iraq  insisted on US Alliance withdrawal from its territory [22]. Syria is largely held by the Syrian Government with the help of Russia. However Turkiye occupies a northern strip, US-backed rebels occupy a north western enclave, Kurdish forces occupy a north eastern region, ISIS remnants still exist, Apartheid Israel has illegally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights, and the US illegally maintains  a major base in Syria. The active and passive killing of Iraqis and Syrians by the US and Apartheid Israel continues. Despite the immense earthquake horrors in north east Syria, the US and its allies maintain deadly sanctions against war- and earthquake-devastated Syria. Apartheid Israel continues to routinely bomb Syria and Iraq. Indeed Apartheid Israel tried to broker a Ukraine-Russia peace deal to bolster Russian cooperation over Israeli warplanes in Syria but this was scotched by the genocidal US [24].


Tomorrow is the anniversary of the massive, worldwide protests against the Iraq War.  You had people taking to the streets and making a huge statement.  You had people like Janeane Garofalo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Ani DiFranco and many others speaking out and being attacked for it.  And Meg Ryan.  She got trashed by Al The Pig Franken.  His embarrassment of a radio show needed guests because Randi Rhodes was outdoing him daily on AIR AMERICA.  So he gets Meg to be a guest while he's doing a show on a college campus.  Meg calls out the war and says the troops need to come home.  Al grins and chuckles and as soon as she's gone explains on air that she's just too stupid -- unlike him -- to know about stuff like war.  He was a piece of filth ahead of the war, by the way, urging Democrats in Congress to vote for the authorization.


Hans Blix, Clare Short and Tony Benn may be names from the past for many people in Britain but the wider world has not moved on from the war they tried to prevent in Iraq, says the filmmaker Amir Amirani, and neither has he.

After spending nine years interviewing such people for his film We Are Many, about the global anti-war marches on February 15, 2003, Amirani is still engrossed in the topic: working on a release in America, thinking of writing a book, and developing an offshoot project he is keeping under wraps for now.


Tim Stickings (THE NATIONAL) reports:


Hans Blix, Clare Short and Tony Benn may be names from the past for many people in Britain but the wider world has not moved on from the war they tried to prevent in Iraq, says the filmmaker Amir Amirani, and neither has he.

After spending nine years interviewing such people for his film We Are Many, about the global anti-war marches on February 15, 2003, Amirani is still engrossed in the topic: working on a release in America, thinking of writing a book, and developing an offshoot project he is keeping under wraps for now.

Hans Blix, Clare Short and Tony Benn may be names from the past for many people in Britain but the wider world has not moved on from the war they tried to prevent in Iraq, says the filmmaker Amir Amirani, and neither has he.

After spending nine years interviewing such people for his film We Are Many, about the global anti-war marches on February 15, 2003, Amirani is still engrossed in the topic: working on a release in America, thinking of writing a book, and developing an offshoot project he is keeping under wraps for now.


There were many brave people speaking out -- most are forgotten especially by the idiots propping up registered sex offender Scott Ritter.  I hit campuses starting in February of 2003, one month ahead of the war, filling in for a friend who got a more prominent campus speaking gig and needed to do that to reach a larger audience.  I was asked to fill in and I did that for years and years until the pandemic hit.  My point in raising that now is I never even heard of Scott Ritter until long after the war began.  He was not the brave voice everyone thinks he was.  He wasn't, for example, Katharine Gun -- but don't they try to rewrite history and make him that.

And on the rewriting of history: Sy Hersh.  I have a long history of him and I noted that when I reviewed his bad book here.  If you're late to the party, you can read Elaine's "Seymour Hersh" for a primer.  And, yes, I know it and Coretta knew it, that Sy was feeding information about us and others to his government sources in exchange for tidbits.  He's a snitch.  And I love how his 'greatest hits' being listed currently never acknowledge the reality that he had many, many 'scoops' implode over the years.  He's only as good as his source because he's just a stenographer.  The JFK book really damaged his legacy -- but don't expect the political equivalent of twinks to know about that.  We should all know that he pimped the narrative that Seth Rich was murdered not in a robbery but for leaking to WIKILEAKS.

Was Seth murdered by the DNC or the government?  I have no idea but my guess would be no.  Until Sy starts appearing on shows dropping crumbs here and there.  The fact that he's doing that means it may be true.  Or it could be a bad source.  Again, Sy is not an investigative reporter.  He writes what he is told.  That's all he's ever done.  Some sources are solid and some are not.  

It's a shame that the shallow are so shallow yet so convinced that they learned something.

Real actions took place 20 years ago today.

The Scott Ritter fan club is not holding a real action in DC.

Black Alliance for Peace issued the following:

The Final Deathblow to Imperialism Will Only Come Under The Leadership of  The Organized Colonized Masses

Efforts to marginalize, disregard, and erase the presence of radical Black-, Brown-, and Indigenous-led anti-imperialist organizations, as well as our political positions, is proving to be endemic to the politics of too many who consider themselves radical anti-imperialist and anti-war activists. For this reason, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) reiterates that the peoples who bear the brunt of the brutal and lethal practices of U.S. imperialism are at the forefront of the struggle to dismantle the global system of white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism.

The colonized within the U.S. settler state see more clearly than the privileged the holistic nature of the system as well as the interdependencies between our domestic repression and U.S. wars abroad. Some forces that claim to be anti-war have an unsophisticated understanding of peace.

We understand that peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement, by popular struggle and self-defense, of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament, and unjust war. A condition for real peace is the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy and white supremacy. Anyone with genuine concern for the well-being of humanity and the planet should be deeply concerned that some supposed “leftist” forces consider it easier to find common cause with right wing libertarian forces than with the Black radical movement, as BAP Coordinating Committee member Jacqueline Luqman writes in this Black Agenda Report piece.

And as Chair of the BAP Coordinating Committee, Ajamu Baraka points out: 

“The white left in the U.S. is deeply delusional. Elements of the left actually believe a radical movement leading to revolutionary change will be led by white activists with Black & colonized people as backdrops. #AntiWarSoWhite”

We cannot afford any confusion, complicity, silence, or outright collaboration with some “liberal/left” forces on armed intervention into Haiti, the reactionary role of NATO, the intensification of state repression in the United States, the plight of the working class being subjected to an induced recession, and austerity. For BAP, all of these contradictions reaffirm why it is absolutely necessary for colonized people to be organized or face an inescapable subjugation and eventual annihilation. The comfortable will dismiss this as hyperbole.

We—the colonized, the exploited, the oppressed—are in the midst of a war. It is clear that the colonial-capitalist rulers will continue to deceive, mislead and co-opt to maintain their dominance. Our responsibility in opposition is to keep the focus on the imperialists and not be confused by the machinations of their supporters. That task and responsibility will continue to inform our work in 2023.



It's amazing to look at these people -- THE CONVO COUCH, for example -- and note that they've been willing to spend years now rescuing the right-wingers, defending the hate merchants to build up to this moment.  They claim to be left but that time wasn't used to defend transgender people, for example, or to reach out to the left.  Mabye tht's because they'd need to do real work for that.  And, check out RT when Fiorella's on and you'll see she does no real work.  She just goes on air, Russia's own Judith Miller, and 'reports' by saying, "Russian intelligence has learned . . ."

Get your cash however you can, Fiorella, but be a smart whore: Get it up front.  Customer's always going to want to pay you less after he shoots his wad.

"Russian intelligence has learned"?

What a propagandist.  

And I've defended her.  She has every right to work for RT.  But when that's what she's 'reporting' -- spitting back out what a government -- any government -- has fed her?  She's a propagandist and I look at her with the same disgust I would if she were reporting for a US channel and saying, "The CIA has learned . . ."

They're idiots, this group of people.

They aren't going to sway anyone with her being seen as Tokyo Rose and registered sex offender Scott Ritter being their cause celebre.  Yes, at the end of last week, Scott Ritter finally took a hint and dropped out. Though there are rumors that he will show up and speak as a 'surprise guest.'  Parents, protect your daughters.  

But this is what it came to.  Fiorealla and other embarrassments and they're going to do something major.  No.  

They're bringing on homophobes, on a FOX NEWS personality who FOX fired because of complaints from young men that the judge was harassing them, they're a disgusting group of people.

And no one's going to take you seriously when you're putting on a White man convicted and sent to prison for being a pedophile.

White privilege is what kept Scott out of prison the first two times he was arrested for being a pedophile.  He was able to whine to the people he met while working for the UN and they wrote character letters insisting that Scott was wonderful and this was a momentary lapse of judgement.

The third arrest didn't work out for him.

No man of color would have been able to avoid prison on two arrests for pedophilia but White Scott Ritter did.  

And maybe that glorification of Scott by the group is really the glorification of White which is why it's a White Power 'action.'

You're putting people on the stage who attack Civil Rights, who attack LGBTQ+ persons, who attack women's right (including with regards to reproductive health) and you want to build that coalition.  It's not going to build for you.  Even if you hadn't spent weeks promoted pedophile Scott Ritter, it still wouldn't work.  Hate merchants are not the answer, they never are.

But the Jimmy Dores can't get accepted among the left so they'll be a face of the left for the extreme right.  That's how they'll earn their bread and butter, as trained monkeys doing the tricks that they were taught.  

Tara Reade will be there -- in all her girth and non-glory.  Marcia noted last night, "In other news, the ultimate Karen -- Tara Reade -- is now reTweeting Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Tara, we knew you were ugly and fat, we just did not know you were also a homophobe."

There's a reason that the so-called left speaking at this event don't speak out against the hate campaigns the extreme right launches -- they agree with them.  They would rather be around their friends and fellow-thinkers than defend the LFBTQ+ community.  Tara has destroyed her own reputation.  Some day they should make a movie out of her -- it would be a non-stop laugh riot.    


The combination of destroyed health care infrastructure, medicine shortages, limited resources, high levels of heavy metal contamination, and is likely to blame, they argue.

Antibiotic resistance, or AMR for short, is rising globally at an alarming rate and is expected to cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050, if nothing is done about it, point out the authors.

Largely attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, attention is now turning to other factors, such as heavy metals and disinfectants containing quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), which are widely used in the health care and hospitality sectors.

War has been implicated in the emergence of AMR as far back as the 1940s, but has received little attention, say the authors.

Iraq is a stellar example of this neglect, as the country has experienced a sequence of conflicts since the 1980s that have coincided with the emergence and spread of pathogens with specific patterns of , they highlight. 



The following sites updated:






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Monday, February 13, 2023

Beyonce's idiotic fans

I'm sick of the Beyonce cry babies.  Laraine e-mailed asking me if I would highlight this:


During a segment on National Public Radio's "Pop Culture Happy Hour," last Monday, host Stephen Thompson pointed to the star's history of losing the Album of the Year award, noting how her self-titled album Beyoncé lost to Beck's "Morning Phase" in 2015 followed by her 2017 defeat for her album "Lemonade" to Adele's 25. 

Thompson said he found it puzzling that her latest album, "Renaissance," which he described as a "monumental piece of craftsmanship honoring many decades of Black dance music," lost to Harry Style's "Harry's House" at the 65th Grammy Awards after both albums were nominated for Album of the Year.

"To have that record lose out to Harry Styles -- and, look, I like Harry Styles," he said. "None of this is to crap on Harry Styles. But that history of her kind of losing to very safe, very mainstream, very White artists in these main categories really stands out. It just can't be overlooked," he said.

NPR's culture desk correspondent Anastasia Tsioulcas agreed, telling Thompson she found it "infuriating" that Beyoncé was shut out of the night's top three categories, despite taking home four Grammys in other categories.

 

First off, what is "very White"?  I'd assume you were White or not White unless we're talking mixed like Barack Obama and Nikole Hannah-Jones.  I mean, they're half-White.  So maybe "very White" is supposed to mean Harry Styles is not bi-racial?  I don't know. 

As for Beyonce and Album of the Year?  She's not good enough.  It was theft when Stevie Wonder wasn't even nominated for TALKING BOOK.  But he deserved to win for INNERVISIONS and SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE -- deserved those awards.  He is an album artist.  Carole King deserved her win for TAPESTRY.  In 1999, Lauryn Hill deserved her win for THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL.  Alicia Keys has released a number of albums in the last ten years that were worthy but hasn't even been nominated.

I know Beyonce's fans are stupid.  So I guess I need to speak slowly: She hasn't made an album of the year.

An album of the year is not an album that has a hit or two or three or four on it.  It is an album that speaks to the time period.  It is an album that is more than just listenable.

No rap album or soul has topped Lauryn.  Now Beyonce makes pop albums and pop albums are disposable.  That's the very nature of the beast.

Harry made a huge, HUGE, progression with HARRY'S HOUSE.  Every one of Beyonce's albums?  Her fans insist that they deserve Album of the Year.  And I understand that because they all sound like the same album.  But they're not good enough and, honestly, neither is she.  She writes disposable pop songs.  She has offered nothing of lasting value.  

It's not about how many albums you sold, it's about art.

And Beyonce's stupid fans don't know art -- that's one of the reason that they listen to her to begin with.  She is the Barry Manilow of her generation.  And they are both a latter day Connie Francis -- disposable and forgettable pop that won't hang around ten years.  

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, February 13, 2023.  THE NATION is so broke and corrupt, it's using interns to churn out bad copy and we're all suffering as  a result.

ADDED: MARCI E-MAILED TO REMIND ME THAT I FORGOT TO NOTE ROSEANNE BARR'S COMEDY SPECIAL DEBUTS TONIGHT ON FOX NATION.  THANK YOU, MARCI.  (SEE "Libya, Roseanne.")


A little over 90 minutes ago, THE NATION published a piece by Zurie Pope:


If a State of the Union Address holds any real purpose, it is for the president to amplify his past accomplishments while giving a preview of what’s to come. Although President Joe Biden largely accomplished that goal on Tuesday, some topics were, of course, given more time than others. Biden rightly used his speech to alleviate concerns about inflation and corner Republicans on Medicare. But, unfortunately, as the right’s crusade against queer people intensifies, LGBTQ rights were scarcely mentioned.

Though the address lasted more than one hour, the totality of Biden’s comments on the subject could be found in two lines: asking Congress to pass the Equality Act, to ensure that “LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity,” and referencing the recently passed Respect for Marriage Act. “While the legislation was intended as a buttress against right-wing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, activists have criticized the Respect for Marriage Act for writing Republican religious liberty exemptions into law and focusing on an issue that impacts only a small and wealthy portion of the LGBTQ+ community,” wrote Theia Chatelle in The Nation last month.


We've already called out Joe for those two sentences -- and we noted them when we covered the State of the Union Address.  We didn't, like Theia Chattelle, play a dumb bitch.


Marriage equality does not just effect "a small and wealthy portion of the LGBTQ+ community."  What a stupid ass thing to write.  We were kind when it was posted and ignored because it was so stupid.  It's very telling that idiot Theia didn't write of the same legislation that it only "impacts a small and wealthy portion of the interracial marriage community."

See, the bitch is stupid, but she's not that stupid.


And maybe an undergraduate at Yale is the last person to talk about anything in terms of history or, for that matter, in terms of wealth.  In other words, zip up your pants, Theia, your dangling wealth and privilege are hanging out.  


Entitled and stupid, that's Theia -- a PUFFIN FOUNDATION winner on top of everything else.  The entitlement reeks off Theia like body odor.  


I was on the phone with a friend at THE NATION who had e-mailed saying, "Please highlight" the article we linked to and that THE NATION was finally going to take LGBTQ+ issues seriously.  




Bout damn time but THE NATION's still not quite there.


Maybe that's the problem when you highlight the immature?


First off, Joe Biden made a huge mistake in the SOUA by refusing to seriously take on the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.  It was the victory lap that he took for the 'meaningless' (to Theia) that helped his polling (briefly) climb.  Then came more stupidity from Joe with the classified documents being mishandled and people slowly grasping that the original claims put forward and attributed by Joe's lawyers were not accurate.  That brought Joe back down to his low polling numbers.


The speech could have influenced the numbers if Joe had spoken seriously about the LGBTQ+ community.  No, it wouldn't have won over the right-wing or the Jimmy Dore and Aaron Mates who hate gay people.  You're never going to win those freaks over.  But there is the segment of middle America that does not condone hate, that rallies against attack on LGBTQ+ people.  


They recoil in disgust when they read a report like this one by Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION):


A Catholic school teacher says the local archdiocese fired her after seeing a photo of her kissing her same-sex partner.

Maggie Barton wanted to share values from her religious upbringing with future generations, so she became a technology and media teacher at the All Souls Catholic School in Englewood, Colorado. For six years, she taught kindergarten through 8th-grade classes. She called the school community her “second family.”

She was fired after someone sent the archdiocese an image of her kissing her same-sex partner. The image was taken from the partner’s social media account, Barton said. While the archdiocese said it won’t fire Catholic school teachers for having same-sex attraction, it apparently will fire them for acting on it. 

“The school found it necessary to conclude the teacher’s employment because she did not honor the commitments she agreed to in her contract with the school,” the archdiocese said in a statement to CBS Colorado.

In Barton’s employee contract, she agreed to “personally exemplify the characteristics of Catholic living” and “[refrain] from taking any public position or conducting … herself in a manner that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church.” Her relationship violated that agreement, the archdiocese said.

Of course, she disagrees.

“I don’t think that being in a same-sex relationship or someone’s sexual orientation hinders your ability to [embody Catholic values],” she said. “It is hard for me to wrap my head around how these issues are still possible and things like this can still happen.”


This stuff took place all in the time in the past.  Lillian Hellman's THE CHILDREN'S HOUR was first staged in 1934, after all.  And Americans were bothered by it then -- not the lesbian teacher, but how she is treated because of who she is.  And Americans today are bothered by the firing of the teacher.  

Last week, when AOC noted the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, she rightly said of the GOP, "This is the party that cannot pick on anyone their own size."  (Words are easy for AOC.  We haven't seen any follow up or action from her.)


Joe was seen as fighting for something important -- unless you're the dismissive Theia who doesn't know about life because she's so immature -- and Americans liked that and the polls registered it.  When giving a State of the Union Address, a smart president plays to their strengths.  Joe didn't.  And no one cared.  The phony talk of how he landed a home room or accomplished anything were revealed, within 24 hours, as hollow lies.  The rating weren't there, the people just didn't care enough to tune in the way they had the year before.  


That's on Joe.  He had a home run with the legislation and he failed to capitalize on it.


Newsflash to THE NATION, I don't need to hear from mental midgets in their sophomore years of college about LGBTQ+ history.  You damn well better believe that I had lived and I had read before I started weighing in on feminism.  The ahistorical approach doesn't cut it for me.  Nor does having to put in the work by myself.  Yes, after we hit over and over for two weeks here on the reality that the ludicrous 'grooming' charges were a revival of Anita Bryant's hate mongering in the 70s, we did see some people begin to work that into their own writing.  But honestly, as always, I'm still thinking, "If I was smart enough to bring it up -- me, the dumb one -- how stupid is everyone else?"


I do not understand why this issue is being farmed out to glorified interns.  I do understand, at this moment and time, when we need to grasp history and roots, THE NATION employees useless (and elderly) writers like Joan Walsh and Kattha Pollitt but can't find anyone 30 or over to write about LGBTQ+ issues?


Because those are our issues.  I say "our."  I'm not a lesbian.  But these issues impact my life, impactmy understanding of democracy and equality. 


And I don't some little simp who thinks they're being brave by knocking something like marriage equality and claiming its only for the rich.  You stupid idiot, you deeply stupid idiot.


Rights are fought for and won and it allows other rights to emerge.  


I shouldn't keep calling these children stupid.  Clearly the stupid people are the one who waived these juvenile pieces of writing into print and online publication.


The article that I linked to by Pope is less stupid than the one he cites by Theia.  But it's still deeply stupid.  He wants to talk about how gay voters can't or won't go anywhere else with their votes.  That's not really the issue even if we're talking solely campaign politics -- which is all the young and stupid can conceptualize because that's all the left media offers as action (voting). 


Even if you're going to stay on his tiny island of a topic, the reality is that the Dems don't fear losing the votes.  What they fear is losing the money.  And they do lose money.


In 1988, a Dukakis staffer was speaking to me and two other women -- all of us donors.  She elected to tell us about this 'ridiculous' woman she met the other day and how that woman wanted to help and how that woman volunteered to do this and that and this and that and . . .


It was all so ridiculous, we were told, because the woman was clearly a d**e.  


And the staffer (also a woman) then paused for the laugh.


None was forthcoming.  As I again introduced the staffer to the woman on my left, I added, "You may have missed it but she's an out lesbian."


Yeah, the party's learned over time that they can't get away with that.  


Because lesbians like my friend won't let them and because allies like myself won't let them.

THE NATION needs to stop farming out serious work to interns.  If they have no other choice, they need to ensure that they are editing the pieces.  The ones that THE NATION have aren't smart enough -- not informed enough, not analytical enough -- to write for a national magazine not named SASSY.  That I have to point that out, is really sad.  Then again, I may be the only one who bothered to read their work.

Zachary B. Wolf (CNN) notes:

       

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, after trying for 10 years, is on the cusp of getting Congress to repeal the authorizations that led the US into war against Iraq in the early ’90s and again in the early ‘00s.

Along with a Republican, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, Kaine has support from the White House and a bipartisan coalition. He and Young told CNN’s Jake Tapper about their proposal on “The Lead” on Thursday.    


Ten years.  Ten years and they can't end the authorization.  Let alone bring US troops back home.  


Kat's "Kat's Korner: Carly Simon LIVE AT GRAND CENTRAL" went up Sunday.  The following sites updated:


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Friday, February 10, 2023

The moons of Jupiter

Let me start with this Tweet from Cynthia McKinney.



Cynthia was the Green Party's 2008 presidential nominee.  She was also a member of the US House of Representatives.  She was actually my House member when I lived in Atlanta.  

This is from Thursday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):


JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The first moons ever discovered around Jupiter were found by the famous astronomer Galileo over 400 years ago, and scientists keep finding more. Researchers have just added a dozen additional moons to the count. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports on why Jupiter has such an abundance of them.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Jupiter has so many moons, Scott Sheppard struggles to keep track.

SCOTT SHEPPARD: With this new haul, we're up to, I believe, 92 - actually have to check that.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He reaches over to his computer. We're in his office at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

SHEPPARD: I have a web page that shows all the ones and - yeah, so it's - 92 is the number that we have right now.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He and his colleagues are tracking some more that should put the total over 100 once they're confirmed. Sheppard has been discovering Jupiter moons for over two decades, using better technology and bigger telescopes to keep spying more Jupiter moons every few years. He says a moon is just an object that orbits a planet. Beyond that, it's not well-defined.

SHEPPARD: Like the rings of Saturn - there's thousands if not millions of particles in the rings of Saturn. Are each one of those a moon? No.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But how big does something have to be to count? He says it hasn't really been discussed.

SHEPPARD: The one thing I would say is that the International Astronomical Union has decided that they're not going to name any moons smaller than about one kilometer in size.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Some of the moons he's found around Jupiter are about that size. That's, like, half a mile across. You could walk it in 12 minutes. Sheppard says from Earth, these little moons look like flecks of light.

SHEPPARD: And so, you know, these objects are kind of jaggedy-edged (ph), elongated-type objects with probably many craters on their surface.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: They're fragments or shards. He says the way they move around Jupiter in clusters suggests that each cluster is the remains of what was once a larger moon.

SHEPPARD: So we think originally there were only a handful of parent moons that have been bombarded by either other moons or comets over the age of solar system and have broken apart. And that's why you get all these very small fragments.

And here is a video on this latest development.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS)

Friday, February 10, 2023.  The US government (and Tara Reade) stay silent about the murder of Tiba al-Ali, Tara is eager to share the stage with both a registered sex offender and a man fired by FOX NEWS because he was harassing employees. 




"The police always come late if they come at all."  Tracy Chapman nailed it.  Sadly, it's true of much more than just the police.  Next month is the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War (or the latest phase of an ongoing war that began in the last century).  US troops remain on the ground in Iraq to this day.  Last December, US Marine Staff Sgt Samuel D. Lecce became the most recent US service member to die in Iraq.  "Round and round it goes, where it ends, nobody knows."  That's supposed to be a slogan for roulette but it's become the US government's 'plan' for war.


AP notes:


Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that the Senate will vote to repeal two decades-old measures giving open-ended approval for military action in Iraq, raising the hopes of a bipartisan group of senators who want to reclaim congressional powers over US military strikes and deployments.

The vote, which would come after consideration in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could take place just before the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. It would repeal the 2002 measure that greenlighted that March 2003 invasion, along with a separate 1991 measure that sanctioned the US-led Gulf War to expel Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait.

“Every year we keep this authorization to use military force on the books is another chance for a future president to abuse or misuse it,” Schumer said. “War powers belong squarely in the hands of Congress, and that implies that we have a responsibility to prevent future presidents from hijacking this AUMF to bumble us into a new war.”


Igor Bobic (HUFFINGTON POST) notices the glass knocked off the table and now broken into shards on the floor and sees it as half-full -- why else would he write, "The push to repeal the 2002 Iraq War military authorization and the 1991 Gulf War authorization has steadily gained bipartisan momentum in recent years."  Grace Segers breathes a little more reality at THE NEW REPUBLIC:


Roughly 32 years ago, Congress approved its first authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, in Iraq. Another AUMF for Iraq was approved 11 years later, in 2002, approving further action in the country after the September 11 terrorist attacks. More than two decades later, Congress is a step closer to repealing these authorizations, formally bringing the Gulf and Iraq wars to a close. True AUMF buffs know that this isn’t the first time that lawmakers have tried to repeal these measures—but a new momentum is threatening the inertia that has kept them in place. 



Staying with the US government, yesterday the US State Dept issued the following:


Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein Before Their Meeting

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, D.C.

February 9, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning, everyone.

FOREIGN MINISTER HUSSEIN:  Good morning.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s a great pleasure to have my longtime friend Fuad Hussein, the foreign minister of Iraq, here at the State Department in Washington.  We have worked together for many years – too many years.  But it’s always wonderful to have you here.

But this is an important moment, an important meeting.  We have a Strategic Framework Agreement with Iraq, but we are now focused very intensely on the economic dimension of that agreement and the work that we can do together, the United States and Iraq, to continue to strengthen Iraq’s economy, its integration, reintegration in the region, in ways that make a material difference in the lives of the Iraqi people and Iraqi citizens.

One particular focus will be on energy, on electricity.  Iraq can and should be strongly energy independent, and this is something that I think the United States and others can continue to support Iraq as it moves in that direction.

So that’s the focus of our conversations, but I would just say as well that President Biden had a very good conversation with Prime Minister Sudani just a few days ago, and we look very much forward with the prime minister to strengthening the strategic partnership that unites Iraq and the United States.

Fuad.

FOREIGN MINISTER HUSSEIN:  Thank you very much, and thank you, Tony.  Thank you for your friendship – personal friend, but also you are a friend of the Iraqi people.  Thank you very much for your support in the fight against ISIS.  And we worked together, we fought together, we defeated the so-called Islamic State together, and we will continue working together on the basis of building and rebuilding our economy.  And with your support, with the American companies’ support – we are in need for your support in various fields, and we will continue our cooperation.

And thank you very much for your time and for receiving us here.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you, my friend.

FOREIGN MINISTER HUSSEIN:  Thank you.  Bye-bye.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, everyone.


Iraq came up at yesterday's State Dept press briefing moderated by spokesperson Ned Price.


NED PRICE:  And finally, today the Secretary hosted the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Fuad Hussain and his delegation in the first-ever economic-focused Higher Coordinating Committee of the U.S.‑Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement, reinforcing the strong relationship between our countries. The Iraqi delegation will meet with a range of U.S. officials to discuss strengthening Iraq’s economy, pursuing Iraqi energy independence, and combatting climate change. This is our first HCC since Prime Minister Sudani formed a new government, and we are looking forward to a robust discussion.

The United States supports a strong, stable, and sovereign Iraq, and we recognize the critical important of a healthy and growing economy for this end.


[. . .]

QUESTION: Thank you. As you know, the Iraqi delegation have come to talk about security relationship and politic and economy. My question is: Does the U.S. Government instead on it is demands on the Iraqi Government in terms of trade relations with the countries that are listed on your sanctions, including Iran and Russia?

MR PRICE: Our relationship with the Government of Iraq is one based on partnership. It is one based on mutual respect. It is based on our mutual interests and what works to the benefit of both of our countries. It is not our approach, whether it is the Government of Iraq or any other partner of ours, to issue demands, to issue decrees. When we engage with our Iraqi partners, we do often talk about the challenges that we confront in the region and well beyond. Many of those challenges are challenges to both of our interests. Iranian-backed forces in some cases pose a challenge to both of our interests.

So when we talk about sanctions, we don’t talk about it in terms of what we are demanding of our Iraqi partners. We talk about it in terms of what is good for both of our countries, and there is a lot that is good for both of our countries. That is the relationship of shared interests, mutual interests we have. The very fact that we have so many mutual interests allows us to have these conversations and allows us to arrive at common positions.

[. . .]


QUESTION: Thank you, Ned. Just to follow up on my colleague’s question about the Russian sanctions related to Iraq, what – I met deputy prime minister yesterday. He said that we owe the Russian companies, but the United States will not let us to pay them back because they are imposing sanction to us. Then my question is that: Are you going to waive Iraq from the Russian sanctions to pay their owes, their debts to Russian companies?

And my second question: Last week, the House Representatives Foreign Affairs chairman, he sent a letter to Secretary Blinken and said when you have a meeting with the Iraqi delegation, bring the dispute between KRG and also Baghdad into the table, because some of the disputes, they make problem for oil and gas companies to working in Kurdistan Region. Then – but I don’t hear you and Secretary Blinken to mention that. Have you touched this issue with the Iraqi delegation?

MR PRICE: So a couple of things. We’ll have more to say on the meeting, I would expect, later today. But this meeting was the first time the Higher Coordinating Committee met exclusively on economic issues. The fact is that we have a 360-degree relationship with our Iraqi partners. That means that, beyond our cooperation in the security and defense realm, we’re committed to expanding all facets of that bilateral relationship: fighting corruption, combating the climate crisis, growing the private sector, creating jobs, improving public services, expanding educational and cultural programming, establishing Iraq’s energy independence, and strengthening Iraqi sovereignty.

Now, today’s session is focusing on the economics of all of that, the climate impacts of that relationship, the energy elements of it as well. So I would expect the issues that you raise will be up for discussion. I suspect we’ll have more to say before —

QUESTION: What about disputes between —

MR PRICE: — the (inaudible). Go ahead.

QUESTION: The disputes between KRG —

MR PRICE: Let me – let me move around. I need to move to others. Yes.


Once the KRG came up, Ned rushed off to another journalist and another topic.  That's far from the only thing being ignored.



Tiba al-Ali.  Is there a reason that the US government has made a decision to ignore her murder?  Is there a reason that the press covering the State Dept and the White House can't get off their lazy asses and ask for a statement regarding the murder.

So-called 'honor' killings continue in Iraq.  And not just in Iraq.  And it's past time that the US government made a public response about this latest murder.


They're real good about starting wars, the US government, not real good about ending them (or winning them).  Maybe if they could use Tiba's murder to start a new war, they'd have something to say?


Savera UK issued the following:


Tiba al-Ali was killed by her father on January 31st, 2023, in a reported ‘honour’ killing.

The 22-year-old was in the southern province of Diwaniya when she was killed, reportedly because her father had been ‘unhappy’ about her decision to live alone in Turkey. Her death has sparked protests in Iraq, with dozens gathering on February 5th to condemn the killing. Savera UK stands with those protesting against her murder.

Afrah Qassim, Savera UK CEO and Founder, said: “Savera UK is appalled and heartbroken by the ‘honour’ killing of Tiba al-Ali at the hands of her father in Iraq. Yet we are not shocked. Each year around 5,000 people die as a result of ‘honour’-based abuse and violence. There has been a cry for justice raised worldwide for Tiba only because she was widely known as YouTube star and media personality. But we should reminded ourselves that many others lose their lives in ‘honour’ killings, and who calls for justice for them? Iraq’s penal code stipulates that killings with an ‘honourable motive’ are a mitigating circumstance for punishment. It also states that punishment for a man who kills or beats his wife, female relative or her partner (in the case of adultery) to death or causes them permanent impairment, is up to three years in prison, with the judge afforded discretionary power to reduce this punishment.

“If ‘honour’ continues to be a mitigating factor – and excuse for murder – thousands more like Tiba will die. We stand with all those calling for justice for Tiba around the world. She was a bright, 22-year-old woman with the whole of her life ahead of her. She had the right to chose to leave her family home in Iraq to live in Turkey. She had a right to live freely, happily and peacefully. But that right was taken away from her.

“There is no ‘honour’ in abuse and there is no ‘honour’ in murder.

“Justice for Tiba al-Ali. Justice for all those lost in the name of ‘honour’.”

If you are at risk of ‘honour’-based abuse or harmful practices in the UK, contact the Savera UK helpline on 0800 107 0726 (operates weekdays 10am – 4pm). 









There's a non-action coming up that's getting press attention for the pedophile they'll be putting on stage.  THE VANGUARD did a good job covering it in the video below.





Chuck Ross (WASHINGTON FREE BEACON) notes:

An anti-war rally slated for later this month has been thrown into disarray by disagreements about a convicted child sex predator’s participation, with many speakers threatening to pull out of the Libertarian Party-led event if it booted the pedophile.

Pressure mounted internally for the Libertarian Party to disinvite Scott Ritter from the rally after the Washington Free Beacon reported about Ritter’s criminal past, which includes a 2011 prison stint for masturbating online in front of an undercover cop he believed to be an underage girl. He was arrested twice in 2001 after showing up for what he thought were meetings with 14- and 15-year-old girls. But as of this writing, Ritter's status as a featured speaker for the "Rage Against the War Machine" rally is still in limbo.

[. . .]

Judge Andrew Napolitano, a former Fox News regular who is speaking at the rally, confirmed that he stood up for Ritter in an attempt to keep him in the event. He told Libertarian Party leaders that Ritter "is intellectually honest, personally courageous, profoundly trustworthy, and utterly fearless," according to an email he shared with the Free Beacon.

"He may be the most valued and knowledgeable public person in America in the Peace Movement today," said Napolitano, who lost his job at Fox News over accusations that he "sexually harassed numerous young male employees" at the network.

Other speakers rallied in support of Ritter, including Tara Reade, a former Joe Biden aide who said the president sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.

"It would be my honor to stand with" Ritter, she tweeted, adding that "Scott is a heroic anti war voice."

The Libertarian party has long been a home for those who have questioned the role of government in regulating sex between adults and minors. Just last year a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona named age of consent laws as something he'd move to change if elected. And in 2016 a Libertarian congressional candidate said all incidents of adults having sexual relationships with minors should be viewed on a case-by-case basis. "Hard age of consent laws don't take into account the actual maturity of the child," the candidate argued.


I told you Tara Reade was a bitch.  Some of you didn't like hearing the truth.  Doesn't mean she wasn't assaulted.  Just means she's not just an airhead, she's a really lousy person.  She pretends to support victims but apparently standing with registered sex offender Scott Ritter is her new hot thing.  Also note that the fact  Andrew Napolitano was fired from FOX NEWS for his harassment of young men.  I think Tara puts the "ME" in MeToo and honestly nothing else.  Again, she's a selfish bitch -- which is why she has that long list of former friends that she leached off of and never repaid.  Again, I believe she was assaulted.  I also believe she's a very bad person and she makes that clearer every day.  Right now, she's eager to share the stage with convicted sex offender Scott Ritter and workplace harasser Napolitano.  These are her people, please remember.

And this week, she couldn't stand with Tiba.  Of course not.  But she stood with another questionable man -- James O'Keefe.  Remember when Tara used to claim to be of the left?  She's so pathetic and her little con games always end with her exposed.



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