Thursday, May 11, 2023

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a psycho

If yesterday was Lauren Boebert's day to dull, today it's her old pal Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Heard Madge on the radio trash talking AOC.  'AOC's ugly and old,' Marjie, of the fat and jiggly upper arms, declared. 


But she was a manic tear, sporting more than enough crazy to fill an entire psych ward as she insisted, "And by the way, Trump won the 2020 election.  I would object to Biden's electoral votes everyday again and again I I could because they were stolen."  She's an election denier.  Crazy.  Psycho.





The Supreme Court cleared the way for a transgender woman from Guatemala to appeal her deportation from the United States in federal court.

The woman argues that she should not have been deported back to her home country because she will face sexual discrimination and assault. She lost her appeal before an immigration court.

The majority opinion by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will make it easier for non-citizens to challenge their removal orders in federal court even if they did not fully challenge their removal before immigration authorities.

It comes as immigration courts are already experiencing long delays and backlogs. The case does not impact the impending end of Title 42 at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The case involves Leon Santos-Zacaria, a transgender woman from Guatemala who is seeking asylum in the United States after she said she experienced sexual assault, death threats and harassment in her home country due to her sexual orientation. 


I know it's not the wedding of Krystal Ball but I think it's important news.  (If you missed it, read Marcia's "Useless Idiots Katie Halper and Briahna Joy Gray.")


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, May 11, 2023.  The bees in Iraq, democracy in the US -- what are things that suffer currently?




The American Taliban.  You think so many can't call it out because they're in bed with it?  Tucker Carlson defenders, for example, who call themselves post-left.  Nick Pemberton (COUNTERPUNCH) notes:

Upon Tucker Carlson’s firing the position of the post-left became even more clarifying. Consider these tweets from the Post-Left Watch: “These people went on Tucker Carlson: Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Maté, Max Blumenthal, Michael Tracey, Russell Brand, Dennis Kucinich, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Oliver Stone, Matt Taibbi, Roger Waters, Lee Fang, Tara Reade, Jimmy Dore, Cornel West, Ro Khanna, Krystal Ball…. Other people who went on Tucker Carlson: Anya Parampil, Zaid Jilani, Stephen F. Cohen, Andrew Yang, Jill Stein, Matt Stoller, Angela Nagle, Rod Blagojevich.”

I'm sorry, who on that list is supposed to impress me?

Stephen F. Cohen is someone I knew and he went on there to get the word out on Ukraine.  He didn't do testimonials for Tucker.  As for the rest?  Where's the person that's supposed to impress me?  A bunch of do nothing self-promoters.

Glenn Greenwald -- libertarian, not left.  Dennis Kucinich?  He sold out his followers at the 2004 DNC convention.  It's not my fault that people don't know their history.  After that? He talked a big game about universal healthcare, said it's what we needed, said ObamaCare wasn't that (he was right) and swore he would never vote for it.  Then Barack got on that plane with him and explained how easy it would be to primary him and get him out of Congress.  When that plane landed, Dennis was all for ObamaCare.  Here's the joke -- well, Dennis is always the joke, here's the punchline: Barack forced Dennis to vote for it and in the next election cycle still had Dennis face a real primary challenge and Dennis was out of Congress.  Tulsi Gabbard -- homophobic, transphobic, cult member.  Cornel West?  Tavis Smiley is a friend, I don't care for people who stab my friends in the back.  Who on this list is supposed to impress me.  Rod Blagojevich?  The man who tried to sell Barack's Senate seat.  Rod went to prison, he's a corrupt politician.  Do these idiots -- these post-lefters -- not know a damn thing?  That would explain why they all cozy up to convicted pedophile Scott Ritter.  Tara Reade?  Tara may have been assaulted.  Didn't give her super powers, didn't make her a nice person and she's never was that left and ran to the right as soon as she could.  She pretends to believe all victims while promoting Scott Ritter, the registered sex offender that was sent to prison.  

It's the American Taliban that's threatening democracy and human rights.  And they can't call it out because they're too busy defending it.  Tara's gal pal, for example, is Marjorie Taylor Greene.  

And while they stay silent, the American Taliban destroys a little  bit more each day.

Lorena O’Neil (JEZEBEL) reports:

After a truly eyebrow-raising hearing on Wednesday, Louisiana’s House criminal justice committee voted against adding rape and incest exceptions to the state’s abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country.

Pastor John Raymond of Slidell, La., testified against the bill, saying that an abortion in the case of rape would make it so there are two victims instead of one–a talking point parroted by anti-abortion activists throughout the discussion. Women will “clamor to put old boyfriends behind bars in order to dispense with the inconvenience of giving birth,” he said.


That's the world we live in now thanks to DOBBS -- you know, DOBBS, it's the decision that they never want to talk about -- the 'post-left,' the Mother Tuckers. 


I'm going to assume that most people reading this -- even drive-bys -- can get how offensive John Raymond's 'reasoning' is.  So let's instead talk about another offense.  The Louisiana House brought that piece of filth to testify.  He's filth.  He's under charges.  He abuses children.


Is that why he's opposed to abortion?  He thinks banning abortion will give him more children to bully and threaten and physically abuse?

Why didn't you ask the 'pastor' to testify about this:


On April 7, 2022, Slidell Police in St. Tammany Parish arrested Pastor John Raymond, 60, of Lacombe, on three counts of cruelty to juveniles.

Raymond is the headmaster of Lakeside Christian School in Slidell.

In late March, Slidell Police said they received a complaint from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) about potential child abuse at Lakeside Christian School. The complaint stated that Pastor/Headmaster John Raymond taped multiple students’ mouths shut as a form of discipline. Slidell Police launched an investigation into the allegations.


NBC NEWS noted:


A Louisiana Christian school headmaster, a pastor and former "Survivor" contestant who was arrested last week after he taped students’ mouths shut as a form of discipline, is defending his actions, claiming the pupils were bullying their teacher.

John Raymond, 60, headmaster of Lakeside Christian Academy in Slidell, was arrested Thursday on three counts of cruelty to juveniles, the Slidell Police Department said in a news release.

A police investigation found that on March 18, Raymond used a roll of packing tape to tape the mouths of three 13-year-old students shut after they were removed from a class for "excessive talking," according to the release.

He wrapped the tape "around their heads" and sent them back to class for about 45 minutes, police said. Another school administrator felt uncomfortable and allegedly removed the tape from the children’s faces, according to the police account.

Police said the tape had to be removed with scissors because it was wrapped around the students’ heads. 

“During the encounter, the students claim they had trouble breathing and that the removal process was painful,” police said. 


Lorena notes in her article:


Raymond, mind you, currently faces numerous criminal charges for cruelty to juveniles, including multiple allegations of physically abusing a 4-year-old, once allegedly holding him upside down by the ankle and whipping his butt. The pastor has also been accused of taping three 13-year-old boys’ mouths shut after they refused to stop talking in class.


This is the American Taliban.  These are the people saying 'save the children.'  But they don't give a damn about children.  They work to gut student breakfast, student lunch, to gut any program that helps children.  They hide behind children to attack drag queens.  They're liars and they're whores.  


These are the people need to be called out but they're the people that Tara Reade promotes on her Twitter feed.  


Last night, Trina's "Mark Ruffles Ruffalo, Hate Merchant Kelly Craft" noted the trump-ette Kelly Craft, as she runs for governor of Kentucky, promising voters that "we will not have transgenders in our school system."


The American Taliban has declared war on the United States and a group of idiots have decided they'd rather be collaborators.  

So they ignore the real issues.  And they ignore what 2024's election is about.  


Why is that?


There was a poll -- one poll -- and didn't it get covered like crazy.  You have to wonder about that.  Now I know BREAKING POINTS and the other crap-fests are staffed with political idiots.  I know they never sat their ass in research and methodology in college.  So I know they don't grasp that one poll isn't news.  When the next poll came out refuting the strange findings of the first, they didn't rush to cover that, did they?


But when a single poll told you that Donald Trump would beat Joe Biden in a match-up in 2024, they ran with that like crazy.  Because they're whores.  They lie for whomever they're for.  That's what whores do.  John Nichols lied about Hillary Clinton because he hated her (lied that she was going to steal the Democratic nomination at the 2004 convention, lied that she was the one, not Barack!, saying NAFTA would remain in place, etc, etc).  They're not honest brokers.


In "THE VANGUARD," Ruth said she didn't know who I would be voting for.  I don't either.  If I pick one, I'll note it.  But I will be voting Democrat in the presidential election.  That is not me telling anyone else how to vote.  You're a grown up, it's your vote, use it as you feel you should.


We are up against an American Taliban.  And when I'm speaking to groups -- mainly on Zoom -- that's what I'm hearing.  That's what frightening voters.  So many times, the Democratic Party has had to work to frighten voters into turning out but this go-round they've got pool of voters who see what's going on and are frightened for good reason.


The successful campaigns will be the ones that can contrast what one group stands for and what another one does.  Do we believe in equality and fairness or do we believe in hate?


The successful campaign will be the one that notes our basic beliefs and principles and contrasts that with Crooked Clarence Thomas and George Santos.  They are the face of corruption. They refuse to take accountability.  In other times, both of them would have resigned their posts immediately.  Now both con artists hope and pray that they can ride it out.


It is a question as to where we are going as a nation. 


Emily Chudy (PINK NEWS) notes:


Speaking at the graduation ceremony of TSU’s class of 2023 on Saturday (6 May) the legendary talk show host said her advice was to be good to at least one other person every single day, and that fulfilment is found in “making a difference”. 

Winfrey, who has long been a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, told graduates that while the political landscape is difficult right now, they can use their education to make a difference.

“You’ve witnessed the storming of the Capitol and the death of civility,” she began. “You’re acutely aware that voting rights are being gutted. Women’s rights are being dismantled, books are being banned, history is being rewritten. The Supreme Court is being corrupted… the LGBT+ community is under attack. 

“The leaders are behaving like children. Children are being gunned down by military-grade assault rifles. We live on a planet where there’s more than enough wrong to keep you busy trying to make things right for the rest of your natural life.”




Here's her speech.

 



At JACOBIN, Matt McManus tackles hate merchant Matt Walsh:


A media commentator for the Daily Wire, Walsh tackles big questions like the scientificity of a black mermaid and the fertility of sixteen-year-old girls. But Walsh has become most well-known for the relentless bile he directs at the LGBTQ movement, particularly in his widely cited documentary What is a Woman? and its sister book.

While the competition has become stiff, Walsh’s truly obsessive fixation on what people do with their genitals has made him the US right’s homophobe and transphobe in chief. And he pairs this bizarre preoccupation with a crusading right-wing Christianity, on full display in Church of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians.

[. . .]

Adding to this, we can ask whether it should be an ethical norm to not misgender people. Some, like Walsh, insist that they will refuse to call anyone by their identified gender since it deviates from (crudely conceived) biology. But as Ben Burgis points out, this is an absurd claim that doesn’t even conform to already-existing social expectations. For instance, when someone describes their adopted child as “my daughter,” no one except Matt Walsh would take issue with it by saying “she wasn’t born that way and I’ll never call her your daughter!”



Turning to Iraq . . .






Saturday, Baghdad kicked off the three-day International Water Conference.  Let's note some Tweets.














Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reported:


Iraq on Saturday called for emergency assistance from the international community to help restore the flow of water in the country's two main rivers.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani made the plea for “urgent international intervention” at the start of the two-day Baghdad International Water conference.

“The issue of water has become a sensitive one not only in Iraq but in all countries,” Mr Al Sudani said.

Water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which account for more than 90 per cent of Iraq's freshwater reserves, have declined significantly over the years, partly as a result of the construction of dams and diversion of water upstream in Turkey and Iran.

The Prime Minister warned that a shortage of water compounded by climate change would have a substantial impact on Iraq's economic development and environment, with wider ramifications for regional stability.


KURDISTAN 24 adds:


The KRG Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Begard Dlshad, is heading the delegation to present the Region’s perspective on water issues such as drought, that has negatively impacted Iraq in recent years, the minister told Kurdistan 24.

The United Nations is also participating in the conference along with representatives of neighboring countries, including Iran and Turkey.

“The KRG’s dam construction project aims to reduce the reliance on water flow from neighboring countries,” the minister told Kurdistan 24 and added that 30 percent of Iraq’s water reserves are in the Kurdish region.


The 45-year-old Begard Dlshad Shukralla has her degree in biology and has previously held the following posts: 2011 to 2013 head of the PUK's Office for Monitoring and Follow Up, 2013 to 2017 MP in the Kurdistan Parliament and, in 2017, Secretary of the Kurdistan Parliament.

 

Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) reports:                                                                             



Iraq is among the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the United Nations. It is facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation and higher temperatures, and waste and mismanagement. The crisis is worsened by dams upstream in Turkey and Iran that have led to a significant decrease in the volume of water entering the country. 

A visit by Sudani to Turkey in March saw measurable success after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to double the water releases in the Tigris River for a period of one month, saying the decision was made “in order to relieve Iraq’s distress.”

“The government has set the water file as one of its priorities, and has taken many policies. And it was necessary to identify the problems with upstream countries so our meetings with the countries emphasized the need to give the full share of water,” Sudani said. 

During the conference, Sudani also pleaded for “the efforts of all friends” of the international community to “urgently” assist Iraq counter water insecurity.

In one of the latest stark warnings of the threats a heating climate poses to Iraq, a report by the Ministry of Water Resources late last year predicted that unless urgent action is taken to combat declining water levels, Iraq’s two main rivers will be entirely dry by 2040. 


The Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary General spoke at the conference.  Here's what Ghulam Isaczai stated:

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests, good morning.

Today, I have the honor of speaking at the 3rd Baghdad International Water Conference, at the invitation of H.E. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq, and H.E. Aoun Diab, Minister of Water Resources.

I would like to begin by highlighting some positive developments related to the water agenda that have taken place in recent months, thanks to the joint efforts of the Government of Iraq and the United Nations.

Specifically, I would like to congratulate Iraq for being the pioneer in the region to accede to the UN Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. This accession will open new opportunities to enhance transboundary water cooperation, while strengthening national water policies and practices, and enhancing intersectoral cooperation and stakeholder participation.

From our side at the United Nations, we have established a Water Task Force comprising water experts from different international organizations and think tanks to provide technical assistance and advice to the Government of Iraq on water issues. Our advocacy and engagement on water challenges in Iraq have increased significantly, reflecting our commitment to supporting Iraq in addressing its looming water crisis.

At the national level, there is a need to:

  • Initiate a national dialogue on water and around SDG6 on Clean Water and Sanitation leading to development of a national Water Roadmap.
  • Make water resources management as a national priority, while allocating sufficient funds towards research, analysis, innovation, and transfer of efficient technologies for integrated water resources management.
  • Invest in national capacity building, water infrastructure including dams, irrigation systems, and wastewater treatment plants, to maximize water usage.
  • Promote water conservation measures: such as repairing leaky pipes, introduce water-saving technologies, and enforce regulations on water usage.
  • Revive traditional Rainwater harvesting practices such as building catchment systems, to collect and store rainwater for future use.
  • Establish water monitoring systems for river and ground water, and take regulatory, technological, and behavioral measures to prevent water pollution, while also investing in urban water recycling.
  • Combat desertification through integrated and adaptive land, water, and forest management.
  • Launch education and awareness campaigns to promote responsible water usage and conservation.

At the regional level there is a need to:

  • Strengthen regional cooperation to develop equitable and eco-friendly water use policies, while developing a negotiated strategy encouraging riparian countries to sign river-basin-management agreements based on a win-win approach.
  • Conduct regional water assessment of the economic, environmental, regional integration and political benefits costs of non-cooperation on water resources.
  • Actively leverage relevant global legal instruments on transboundary water.

To effectively address Iraq’s water challenges, we must work jointly and transparently. The cross-cutting nature of water means that challenges must be addressed through a whole of government and whole of society approach, and approach that is inclusive and engages the Iraqi people, that is those most directly affected by the water situation.  

On our side at the United Nations, we will continue to actively engage with our government counterparts, through the Water Task Force and the Inter-agency working group on climate and environment.

Let me close by saying that all technical solutions to the water problems are within our reach; what we need is effective policies, investments, incentive mechanisms, regulations, and enforcement actions.

The United Nations stands ready to support. I wish you all a fruitful conference.

Thank you.

 

The following sites updated:








Posted by at

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Crazy Lauren Boebert has a new conspiracy

As sure as the sun will rise, Lauren Boebert or her former friend Marjorie Taylor Greene will say something stupid. Today, it's Boe-Boe.  LGBTQ NATION reports:


Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is angry at a school in her state for having a Genders and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) available for kids.

She linked a Fox News story where the mother of a kid who attended a meeting said that an outside speaker came to the group to talk about LGBTQ+ identities. The student was allegedly told that she didn’t have to tell her parents that she attended the group’s meeting.

She also said schools who teach about “same-sex sex” should have their funding cut.

“Secret clubs at schools that talk about ‘sexuality’ and gender. This shouldn’t be allowed,” Boebert wrote.

Sadly for the little nutcase who cried conspiracy one time too often -- well two hundred times too often -- no one's believing her or the mother who was not present at the meeting.

It is noted that if her son had attended some sort of meet-up like that, she might not be about to become a 36 year old granny.

Poor Boe-Boe.

"TV: No, MARVEL movies do not make stars" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):

Olsen rode to fame on THE AVENGERS franchise.  She came on weak as Scarlet Witch's Wanda.  We don't know which was worse -- Scarlet as a delicate flower or that thick accent Olsen insisted upon using for the character.  After several films as Wanda, she ended up in the hideous MARVEL series WANDAVISION -- a sexist storyline, a sexist approach and yet because women were involved behind the scenes and these women told the press that they were 'tweeking' anti-women tropes, the sexist show was passed off as 'enlightened.'

Again, The Water Cooler Set.

That barely watched characterization hit a wall of criticism when it was carried over to DR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

We couldn't stop laughing as various critics declared their horror that Scarlet Witch was bad and that, as usual with a female superhero, she couldn't handle her powers.  

Exactly where did they think WANDAVISION was leading?

This is why we objected in real time.

B-b-b-but Elizabeth didn't object!

She's an airhead.  A little bimbo who attends The Met gala each year because she's mistaken herself for a model. 

Having viewed LOVE & DEATH, we're happy she spends a lot of time trying something other than acting.


If 2023 sees any name celebrity deliver a worse performance, we'll be shocked.  

Elizabeth Olsen really is awful in LOVE & DEATH.  She sinks the series. 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, May 10, 2023.  The UK returns some of the loot to Iraq, the GOP playbook is right there out in the open but 'left' YOUTUBERS would rather cover their friends' weddings than the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.




Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, has argued that his party could win the 2024 elections if it continues its anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

The governor said during a televised interview on Monday (8 May) that he believes Americans think that Democratic representatives have “gone too far” in protecting the LGBTQ+ community.

He claimed that if Republicans continued to dismantle queer rights, the party would be sure to “win” when Americans go to the polls in November 2024’s presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections.

What do you think?

The media has normalized hate against the LGBTQ+ community.  People don't want to address that reality because it would require pointing a lot of fingers at themselves.  THE NEW YORK TIMES has yet again walked from science -- they do that all the time -- to target this community.  They did it during AIDS.  At the height of AIDS, the paper was run by the most homophobic editor at any US publication.  And they're just reclaiming their old image these days.  But, please note, as bad as that is, it's the silence that's worse.

The mushy middle of America goes back and forth.  That happens for a reason.  They have no core beliefs and they just go with where the wind blows.  So when THE TIMES and FOX NEWS and others attack the LGBTQ+ community and the rest remain largely silent, the mushy middle goes along with the only group speaking.

In other words, that band of useless YOUTUBERS -- straights who think the whole world should be grateful if an aside in a one hour podcast mentions LGBTQ+ persons -- won't say anything, then, yes, that hate merchant in Oklahoma is probably correct.

THE VANGUARD?  Zac and Gavin present as allies.  Present.  But then, see Ruth's "I do not question THE VANGUARD's ethics, just their focus," this program that can never devote the full hour -- or even 15 minutes -- to the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, wasted three hours on the wedding of Kyle and Krystal?  

Time and again, they make time for everything but defending the most at risk in the current climate.  That's THE VANGUARD, that's all the ones with White hosts pretty much.  BLACK POWER MEDIA grasps what's going on while so many other play obtuse. 


Louisiana representatives on Tuesday passed a "Don't Say Gay" bill, advancing it to the Senate with a vote of 67-28.

Driving the news: House Bill 466 prohibits K-12 public school employees from teaching or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom.

  • It also regulates pronouns and names, saying they must match birth certificates.

The big picture: New Orleans has one of the largest concentrations of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S., with 4.7% of the adult population identifying as members of the community.

  • A 2021 analysis from UCLA's Williams Institute estimates there are about 46,000 LGBTQ+ community members here.

Zoom out: Including the "Don't Say Gay" bill, Louisiana lawmakers are debating five anti-LGBTQ+ bills this session that could affect nearly every facet of life, particularly for youth.

Issues include:

Pronouns: House Bill 81, called the “Given Name Act” by its author, requires students to use the name and pronoun on their birth certificate. It passed 61-33 in the House on Monday and now heads to the Senate.

  • It has an exception if there is written consent from the parent, but teachers can reject the parent’s choice if it conflicts with the teacher’s “religious or moral convictions.”

Health care: A bill that prohibits doctors from offering gender-affirming medical care, such as hormone treatments or puberty-blocking drugs, to anyone younger than 18 advanced out of committee and heads to the full House.

I'm sorry but that?  It's much more important than Krystal's late-life wedding.



When John Stauber and Jonathan Turley mis read the actual backlash to Bud Light because they don't realize that LGBTQ+ people are pissed at the brewer and done with Bud Light?  It's because they apparently don't know any gay people.

And I have to wonder if the bulk of the left -- positioning themselves as spokespeople and media -- know any.

Maybe if you did, you would use your time on YOUTUBE or wherever to actually talk about things that mattered -- that will never, ever be your friends' wedding, not when you're claiming to do a political show.

So many people walked through school unscathed.  So many, because of the age, were too focused on themselves to grasp what was going on around them.  But for a lot of LGBTQ+ people, school was a living hell and it was made worse by adults who laughed and encouraged attacks on the ones seen as different. 

And now we've got hate merchants who want to return to those times.  I don't know why you wouldn't call this out. 

But grasp, those of you so worried that someone votes for Joe or Robert or Marianne, your silence is going to destroy the Democratic Party's chances in 2024.  You need to get off your candy ass, deal with whatever issues you have that make you silent, and come out in defense of a group of people who are now under daily attack.


A Wisconsin community is outraged after the local school board renewed the contract of a teacher who allegedly used racist and homophobic language in class.

At a school board meeting in Wausau, Wisconsin, on Monday night, nearly 30 speakers testified for an hour-and-a-half in support of a gay student of Hmong-Lao descent who recently filed an official complaint against Robert Perkins, alleging that the Wausau East High School band instructor directed racial and homophobic slurs at him. 

Nevertheless, following the public comment period, the school board, which had previously dismissed the student’s complaint, renewed Perkins’s contract for the following school year, the Wausau Daily Herald reports.


Hmong-Lao is required, by law, to attend school.  He is a kid and he's taking abuse at school.  That's outrageous and it only becomes more outrageous when you grasp that it's an adult abusing the child.  There needs to be a lawsuit immediately.  

This crap went on in the past and was outrageous then but in 2023, a teacher mocking a child, spitting hate at the child, oh, hell no.

Robert Perkins should have been fired.

But let's talk about Krystal and Kyle's wedding instead, right?


In a better world, high school musicals would have become more friendly toward LGBTQ+ people than my Catholic high school was when it required our production of Spamalot to replace all utterances of “gay” with “happy.” Unfortunately, as the Washington Post reports, school districts across the country are canceling high school theatre productions for including LGBTQ+ content and characters, as well as frank discussions of race and racism and anything else administrators deem inappropriate.

This kind of censorship made national headlines in January, when, halfway through rehearsals, school board members in Ohio canceled a Cardinal High School’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The school board objected to it because it had, among other perceived infractions, a character whose fathers are gay. Although the musical was eventually staged with some revisions after Spelling Bee creators Rebecca Feldman and Rachel Sheinkin reached out to the board directly, other schools haven’t been so fortunate.

As the Post reports, high school theater productions have been stopped across the United States, often because they include LGBTQ+ content or depictions of racism. Examples range from a gender-bending reimagining of Robin Hood (titled Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood) being scrapped in Indiana because of phone calls complaining about the play’s queer characters, to the axing of a Florida production of the play Indecent, which centers on an affair between women.



Where's that defender of art, Richard Dreyfuss!  You know, the man's who has given the same performance since his bit part on BEWITCHED back in 1966.  He hid behind art to flaunt his hatred of others but he won't defend actual art.  He'll just go out the joke he always was as the American people laugh at his whining that he can't wear Blackface and those of us in the arts laugh about that as well but also about the fact that he thinks he can do Shakespeare.  


The Republican Party has made this the campaign issue for 2024.  If you're not up to defending the LGBTQ+ community, you're not up to running for president.

I'm looking at you, Robert, and you, Marianne.

Joe's old, he's old as dirt, there's no denying that.  There's also no denying that he's the only one of the three grasping the GOP playbook and the only one of the three tackling this issue.



Pulse Nightclub shooting survivor, Brandon Wolf, did not mince words for disgraced "journalist," Megyn Kelly, after she made disgusting comments on Twitter attacking gun reform activists. 

Kelly, a former Fox News Channel anchor, who was fired from NBC in 2018 over blackface comments on the air, tweeted, “Serious q for gun control advocates: you’ve failed to effect change. Pls face it. You can’t do it, thx to the 2A. We’re all well aware you don’t like that fact, but fact it is. What’s next? Must we just stay here sad, concerned, lamenting? Could we possibly talk OTHER SOLUTIONS?”

Kelly’s post, which was tweeted while police were still canvassing the crime scene at the Allen, Texas outlet mall mass shooting, leaving eight dead over the weekend, was not only callous, it’s inaccurate. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, contrary to Kelly's claim that gun reform advocates have 'failed,' Connecticut now actually has the sixth lowest rate of gun deaths, after enacting laws there in the wake of the mass shooting deaths of 20 first graders and six adults in Newtown in 2012. It’s not only safer in Connecticut, but it’s also safer in surrounding states. Additionally, as of 2021, Connecticut had the eleventh lowest rate of crime gun exports. Texas, which has continued to expand access to guns, has the 28th highest gun death rate in the country, including the horrific deaths of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde last year.

Wolf, an LGBTQ civil rights and gun reform activist, who's currently serving as the press secretary for Equality Florida, responded to Kelly’s tweet and invoked his own horrific mass shooting encounter at Pulse in Orlando: “I refuse to believe that dead children on a sidewalk must be the price of admission for being an American, that my best friend’s mutilated body on a nightclub floor is just the way the cookie must crumble.”

"No. I refuse to accept this nightmarish experiment as inevitable," he added on Instagram. 

In the wake of the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs and the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, which was the second deadliest in US history, LGBTQ Americans feel especially at risk and unsafe as it pertains to gun violence, which has become an epidemic. As of May 7th, The Gun Violence Archive reports there have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2023.

The issue of mass shootings has become so commonplace, that other nations around the world are issuing travel advisories against their people visiting the United States. CNN reports that Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, France, Germany, Mexico, Japan, and New Zealand have all issued travel warnings to anyone considering traveling to the United States. 

In an interview with GLAAD, Wolf said that his message is simple: "It does not have to be this way. We do not have to serve our children up as sacrifices to the profit-obsessed gun lobby. We do not have to sit by while our neighborhoods become war zones, content to throw up our hands and refuse to address the common denominators. No matter your gaslighting, we know the truth. It's the guns. And we can do -- and expect -- better."

"The LGBTQ community is under assault. Extremists are wielding the power of government against us while they use fear and intimidation to try and force us back into the closet. That reality is making life less safe for us. But we have been here before. We have long been demonized, dehumanized, and used as a cultural wedge issue. But we have forged ahead, securing civil rights protections and greater social acceptance than ever before by refusing to be erased and being unapologetically us. This moment calls for us to raise our flags higher than ever and send a message that we will not be erased," Wolf added.

Wolf also told GLAAD that we all have a stake in this fight and encouraged everyone to take action in their own way: "Every day Americans must be on the frontlines in the fight against gun violence. Find an organization building grassroots power and volunteer or donate. Start showing up in the state legislature. Become a voter for whom refusal to support gun safety reforms is a dealbreaker. Educate and induct your neighbors into the fight. Do not wait until it is your child lifeless on the sidewalk or your best friend who never gets the chance to return your call."

Most of all, "Act now," Wolf said.


Megyn doesn't want to talk about that shooting because she and Glenneth can't pin it off on a transgender person.  She also doesn't want people exploring the roots of that shooter because they lead back to her and her hatred.

On that, some asked in e-mails, "Are you going to be nicer to Glenn Greenwald?"  Because his husband died?  Hell no.  I warned Glenneth as far back as October that his husband was going to die and that he needed to put the talk show on hold, get his ass to the hospital and stay there.  He made his choice.  Now his Twitter feed is one sad Tweet about David after another. Maybe that helps Glenneth but it doesn't thing for David.  Dropping everything and being there for David would have meant something to David.

I've buried a husband, I know what I'm talking about and that's why I publicly called him out in real time over this.  Glenn's never going to get over the guilt.  That's his own problem.  He made a choice.  

His failure to do what was needed goes to his ego.  

If you're sad for him right now, grasp how pathetic his future relationships are going to be.  He was at his most 'left' when he met David and he also looked a lot better.  Now he's a transphobe cozying up to homophobes and he's going to try to find a new man?  Lots of luck with the selections available to a self-hating gay man who looks about sixty and has that ridiculous hair color (from a box).  




Let's move over to Iraq.



The media working overtime trying to normalize what just happened.


You show up at my door in a pickle because your curling iron shorted out and I lend you mine.  You keep it for a week or even a month before returning it, then you did borrow it.  You keep that curling iron for 100 years?  You stole it.  

This was never borrowed property.  It was stolen.


More than 6,000 ancient artefacts have been returned to Iraq, bringing the total recovered in five years to 34,000.

The birthplace of the world's earliest recorded civilisation is home to thousands of artefacts. Many have been lost and stolen through conflict and by opportunistic poachers and have yet to be found or returned. Others were on long-term loans.

The latest items were handed back by the UK after they were borrowed more than 100 years ago.

“We have succeeded, through diplomacy, in returning 34,502 artefacts since 2019 until now,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al Sahaf told The National on Tuesday.



According to the Iraqi Presidency statement, President Rashid attended a ceremony at the Iraqi Embassy in London to retrieve the 6,000 antiquities that Britain had “borrowed” from Iraq for “scholarly purposes” since 1923.

The move occurred on the eve of Rashid’s journey to the United Kingdom to attend King Charles III’s coronation ceremony, during which Rashid chose to bring the relics back to Baghdad and hand them over to the Iraqi National Museum.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Ahmed al-Sahaf, announced in a statement that Iraq is getting 38 crates containing Iraqi antiques borrowed by Britain.

Hakim Al-Shammari, Media Director of the Iraqi State Board of Antiques and Heritage (SBAH), noted that the retrieved antiques are a vital indicator of Iraqi diplomatic achievements under the current administration.

Iraq declared the greatest recovery effort for smuggled Iraqi cultural relics and jewels, returning some 17,000 precious artifacts from the United States at the end of July 2021.


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