Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Crazy Lauren Boebert

Crazy Lauren Boebert is in the news:


Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) objected on Monday after a former Colorado state representative said she was "rancid on the inside."

In a tweet on Sunday, Colorado Democratic National Committee member Joe Salazar, a former state lawmaker, blasted Boebert over a photo she posted.

"I really don't care if @laurenboebert has makeup on or doesn't," Salazar wrote. "I don't care if she's well educated or not."

"She is rancid inside and her poison pollutes our society. She needs to be replaced," he continued.


The statement is, of course, true and we all know the way Lauren battles with the truth.  She slammed back insisting that it is sexism.  I don't think so, Boe-Boe.  First off, it's true and second there's not a history of stereotypical attacks on women for being rancid.


With crazies like Lauren, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley and others, I often talk about how it must be embarrassing to be a constituent.  I don't do about Lauren too often because, clearly, her constituents grasp that they deserve better.  That's how an underfunded candidate managed to beat her and lost by something like 600 votes.  (He is now funded for a serious campaign.)  


It's also true that Lauren's constituents make it clear how she does not represent them.  This is from a letter to the editors of THE DURANGO HERALD:


Voters still have responsibility for the people we elect, and I ask The Durango Herald and other newspapers to step up and speak to the character of our elected leaders. They were elected to work together for our benefit. Colorado has gone to great measures to protect abortion and to improve gun control – Boebert is against these and subscribes to MAGA principles, which the district does not.

In recent weeks, Boebert has also spoken against LBGTQ people, voted against government funding, sparred with a witness at an oversight meeting and presented an impeachment bill. A majority of the district does not accept many of Boebert’s positions and her preaching at the federal level.

Regarding Boebert’s character – Many of us are embarrassed and the press depicting her as an obstruction to even GOP bills is disturbing. Our representation should be professional and behave with character and compassion, and work together for our benefit.

Larry Wegrzyn

Durango


Good for Larry Wegrzyn.  With a little focus, Boeboe can be replaced in Congress.  Boeboe should be replaced.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, July 10, 2023.  The persecutions against Julian Assange continues, TotalEnergy signs a deal with Iraq that's good for TotalEnergy, tourism is up in Iraq but down in Florida -- just like Ron DeSantis' polling numbers, Junior continues his bizarre campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential campaign with more people noticing serious problems, and much more.






 Ben Cohen, co-founder of popular American ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, was arrested Thursday outside the Department of Justice while protesting in support of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange.

Cohen had shared in a tweet on Wednesday that he planned to “protest the criminalization of the free press and the prosecution” of Assange, acknowledging that the move would "risk arrest." 


Julian is being persecuted for the 'crime' of journalism.  Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.


 


On the 30 June, Stella Assange and her two children were granted a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Mrs Assange has reported that the Pope is well aware of the urgency of the situation her husband Julian is in, as he awaits his appeal against extradition from England to the United States to face charges of violations of the US’s 1917 Espionage Act. 

[. . .]

In light of her audience with Pope Francis last week, I caught up with Stella Assange in London earlier today to ask her about her own faith and the role that faith has played throughout the ordeal. 


Anthony McCarthy (AM)

Can you tell us what the audience with the Pope meant to you and your children? 

Stella Assange (SA)

The audience with the Pope was a moment of humanity and compassion at a human level and contrasted with much of the day-to-day fight where we are confronted with the opposite. The prison, which is a place that we spend a lot of time, and which Julian is in all the time, is where humanity and compassion and dignity is denied in a systematic way. We felt the exact opposite in meeting with Pope Francis, where we were greeted with great warmth. I have huge respect for Pope Francis and I am very grateful that he allowed for this meeting to be publicised.  
AM

Can you tell us more about what the Pope’s letter to Julian meant to him at the time it was received? 

SA

The Pope sent a message in March 2021 to Julian via the Catholic chaplain of the prison. It came at an especially low point, as the lower court in UK had ruled that Julian’s treatment in the US would not be humane, but the court, despite this finding, did not grant him bail. The letter was a significant event and it was very important to Julian that he received this message, which also coincided with some very difficult days – he had lost one of his close friends to suicide in the prison just a couple of months previously and it was during the cCvid lockdown period, so there was much isolation. While these communications are private there is much significance in these gestures and Julian has found much comfort from the pastoral care of the Catholic chaplain at Belmarsh, who also blessed our wedding. It was this same chaplain who verbally read to Julian the Pope’s message through the prison door. 

[. . .]

AM

Is there any final message you would like to give to Catholics in the British Isles ?

SA

I would like to thank everyone who has been praying for Julian and supporting his freedom. I think that many people whom I have met along the way are both deeply concerned and disgusted about the dehumanisation and mistreatment of Julian, but also share my understanding that what is being done to Julian is a bigger attack on the truth and on people’s right to know the truth. And without the truth we can never have justice. The most important thing is not to allow Julian to become a taboo issue. This case is so flagrant, it concerns the exposure of the killing of thousands and thousands of men, women and children and what the punishment is for exposing that. Justice here should not be seen as a taboo subject.

We all have a responsibility to ensure that injustice isn’t allowed to carry on in silence. It’s crucial that people don’t remain silent in the face of this. That is why I am so grateful to the Pope for having decided to highlight this in this way. 

Turning to Iraq where the big news, according to the media, is a business deal.  THE CRADLE reports:

Iraq sealed a $27 billion energy deal with French oil major TotalEnergies on 10 June to develop the nation's oil, gas, and renewable energies sectors over 25 years in a step toward achieving energy self-sufficiency.

"This is the starting day, and we'll deliver the project in the next four years for the benefit of everyone in Iraq," TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said during the signing ceremony in Baghdad, stressing that this was a “historic day.”


OIL & GAS notes, "The deal between both parties was initially signed in 2021 with an investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years, but it was delayed amid disputes between Iraqi politicians." At its website, TOTAL notes, "We have been operating in Iraq since the late 1920s in oil and gas exploration and production. Today, we are also active in the retail sector. "  Not noted in most of the coverage is that fact that this has been an on-again-off-again deal for some time.  For example, last year on Valentine's Day, Aref Mohammed, Rowena Edwards and Dmitry Zhdannikov (REUTERS) reported, "A $27 billion deal between France's TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and Iraq that Baghdad hoped would reverse the exit of oil majors from the country has stalled amid disputes over terms and risks being scrapped by the country's new government."  It would be over a year later, April 3, 2023, before the deal again had any real movement.  Ahmed Rasheed and Maha El Dahan (REUTERS) reported, "Baghdad has reached an agreement to hold a 30% stake in TotalEnergies TTEF.PA long-delayed $27 billion Iraq project, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The deal was signed in 2021 for TotalEnergies to build four oil, gas and renewables projects with an initial investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years." The 'new' deal?  Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) explains, "The finalized deal saw TotalEnergies holding the lion’s share with a 45 percent stake in the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP), followed by Iraqi state-owned Basra Oil Company with 30 percent, and QatarEnergy with 25 percent."  Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) adds, "Baghdad had wanted a 40 per cent stake but the French company insisted on a majority holding." Of the deal struck, ZAWYA notes:

The four contracts include:

  • Building a seawater treatment plant to provide water injection for pressure maintenance to increase regional oil production
  • Development of nearly 600 million cubic metres of associated gas and several oilfields in South Basra governorate
  • Boosting output from the Artawi oilfield
  • Developing a 1 GW solar power plant to supply electricity to the Basrah regional grid.

In other Iraq news, TRAVEL AND TOUR reports:

In the five years from the time the Islamic State terrorist group was compelled to get out of the country, Iraq has had a comparatively peaceful time.

In spite of some persistent economic and political disputes, the northwestern Kurdish highlands of the country have witnessed a huge rise in tourism as stability in the country has been reinstated.



Convention organizers are pulling out of Florida, which is devastating knock-on tourism and causing panic over the future of the industry, experts warned in a report Friday.

When asked for a reason why they were scrapping plans, one organizer wrote simply: “Governor DeSantis.”

More than half a dozen planned conventions in Broward County, which encompasses the Fort Lauderdale area, have been scrapped in recent months, according to a list drawn up by the county’s tourism promotion group Visit Lauderdale and reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“We lost this program due to political climate,” Visit Lauderdale notes on a decision by the Supreme Council of America Inc., Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Masons to cancel its meeting, planned for August next year. It also canceled 855 hotel rooms


Imagine that, people happy to visit The Sunshine State are less inclined to visit in its latest incarnation as The Hate State.  Who could have guessed?  Anyone with a brain.  Which leaves out the state's governor Ron DeSantis and Ronnie's chief cheerleader Jonathan Turley.  Poor dumb Ron, Mike handed him "Idiot of the week" for the way Ron's campaign is imploding.  On the imploding campaign:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is sinking into oblivion – and that's filling Floridians with dread, columnist Fred Grimm writes for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

“Somehow, DeSantis has failed — so far — to captivate Republican voters despite his relentless exploitation of crafted-for-MAGA issues like race, abortion, immigration, guns, gender dysphoria, gay rights, drag queens, the Disney Company," Grimm wrote.

Grimm notes that despite DeSantis’ efforts to project a “tough guy” image of Trump without the baggage, MAGA voters are sticking with what they know.


William Spivey (LEVEL) observes, "The good news is that the American public has seen Ron DeSantis for who he is and rejected him. In addition to him having almost no social skills, his likability levels are near zero. His entire campaign was based on appealing to hate, and he’s now been exposed."



Turning to another imploding campaign, this time in the Democratic Party, Robert F. Kennedy Jr's bid for the party's presidential nomination becomes more of a longshot with each passing day.  John Gallagher (LGBTQ NATION) notes:

For example, last month Kennedy said that chemicals in the water are turning kids trans. His proof? It’s happening to frogs.

“There’s atrazine throughout our water supply,” Kennedy claimed. “If you, in a lab, put atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there. And 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs. If it’s doing that to frogs, there’s a lot of other evidence that it’s doing it to human beings as well.”

If this particular rant sounds familiar, it’s because Alex Jones has used it as well. No one has ever suggested that Jones, who claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, was a credible presidential candidate.

Kennedy has also said he opposes trans athletes participating in sports. “I am against people participating in women’s sports who are biologically male,” Kennedy said on CNN last April.

Kennedy’s disdain for the health of LGBTQ+ people extends to HIV as well. In his worldview, AIDS is actually caused by poppers. In a nice blame-the-victim touch that would have made the Reagan administration proud, he also sounds as if he believes gay men were at fault for their own deaths.

“A hundred percent of the people who died in the first thousand [with] AIDS were people who were addicted to poppers, which are known to cause Kaposi sarcoma in rats,” Kennedy said. “And they were people who were part of a gay lifestyle where they were burning the candle at both ends.”

Kennedy believes that AZT, one of the earliest treatments for AIDS, killed more people than the disease itself would have if left untreated. (It didn’t.) He has blamed Anthony Fauci for deliberately sabotaging treatments that were cheaper and more effective and even accused Fauci of essentially murdering 80 Black children in a clinical trial and burying them in a mass grave. Kennedy recently endorsed a book that argues that HIV does not cause AIDS.

Kennedy’s fringe (to be polite) beliefs will no doubt come out as the campaign wears on. But it’s in the interest of the far right to promote him as a legitimate alternative to Biden during the primary. The more votes Kennedy might siphon from Biden, the weaker Biden will appear, softening him up for the general election.

That’s the apparent reason why such Trump-world figures as Steve Bannon and Roger Stone are singing the praises of Kennedy. Bannon actually encouraged Kennedy to run for president as, in the words of CBS reporter Bob Costa “a useful chaos agent.” Stone has said that a Trump-Kennedy ticket would be a “dream.” Michael Flynn and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk have also expressed their admiration.

The right is certainly doing its best to create a race between Biden and Kennedy. “With RFK Jr. … surging in the Democratic primary, is Biden in trouble?” Sean Hannity asked on one recent show. As it turns out, Kennedy is rising in the polls – among Republicans. Democrats have had an increasingly unfavorable opinion of him as they learn more about him.

That’s a problem for someone who is running as a Democrat. The other problem Kennedy has is that his family isn’t lining up to support him either. Three years ago, two of his siblings and a niece wrote an op-ed in which they said they loved him but called his anti-vax stance “tragically wrong” and “an outlier in the Kennedy family.”

Meanwhile, the foundation named after his father, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, is carrying on exactly the kind of mission that Junior is not. It has decried last week’s Supreme Court ruling allowing selective discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, criticized the attack on books, and, most telling of all, advocated for the rights of trans people.

The president of the group is Kerry Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s sister. 


Junior is not carrying his father's legacy, he's just a little boy -- an elderly little boy -- who wants to play in the right-wing sandbox.  As we noted last week:


Junior stands for nothing and that's why he's not increasing his support.  He's far too busy reaching out to the most pathetic of panhandlers -- Glenneth, Matt Taibbi, Tulsi Gabbard, Bari Weiss, serial plagiarist Chris Hedges, Col Douglas Macgregor, Joe Rogan. Jordan Peterson, et al.  He should have known that he'd be judged by the company he keeps.   And that we would notice how he apparently doesn't know a single person of color.  It's a monochromatic world for Junior.

[. . .]

Junior is not bridging a gap between middle class and poor nor between Whites and African-Americans.  

Junior's in bed with racists.  Maybe he expects non-racists to just trust him but why should they?  


His father, as a candidate in 1968, did not bridge the gap by glorifying racists.  Nor did he just pose with and visit White people.  

The Kennedy image is supposed to be about uplift.  It's Eunice starting The Special Olympics, for example.  It's Caroline leaving private life to become a US ambassador.  It's not Teddy drunk in his 80s feeling up an actress (true story, by the way) during a public dinner.  It's not acting like a frat boy (William Kennedy Smith, Junior and so many more examples).  

The Kennedy luster has been squandered by Junior.  People wanted to be inspired.  They wanted to right a wrong (the assassinations of JFK and RFK).  They want to believe -- as so many films and novels tell them -- that the child emerges as an adult to right the wrongs done to the family.  Instead, he became a boring frat boy, hanging out with every extremist White person he could, refusing to speak to people of color -- as a general rule, if you're trying to reach out to people of color you don't make White bread Dennis Kucinich your campaign manager. 


He failed to inspire.  He instead came off like so many others born with every opportunity who only identifies with those just like him.  

That image could be turned around but the campaign doesn't appear to have a clue and has instead focused on the low hanging and rotten fruit like Moms For Liberty.  You can believe that no other Kennedy, past or present, would have been stupid enough to get entangled with them or any other identified hate group.


He shows no leadership at all.  Claire Thornton (USA TODAY) reports:

Days after the Supreme Court's ruling that businesses can deny same-sex wedding services if it clashes with their religious views, new data says most American voters disagree with that position.

Last week, the nation's high court sided with a Colorado business owner who argued a state nondiscrimination law could not compel her to make same-sex websites.

The survey, conducted by Data for Progress, found 65% of voters believe businesses should not be allowed to turn away customers who are of a particular sexual orientation because of the business owner's personal beliefs. Data for Progress describes itself on its website as "a multidisciplinary group of experts using state-of-the-art techniques in data science to support progressive activists and causes."


The following sites updated:





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Sunday, July 09, 2023

ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTMARES

"I'll probably be popped off by some loony."  I learned in Staci Layne Wilson's ROCK & ROLL NIGHTMARES: TRUE STORIES, VOLUME 2: TRUE CRIME & STRANGE STORIES ABOUT ROCK STARS that John Lennon said that.    He said it in 1965, I learned when I checked to make sure the quote was accurate (he said they'd either die -- the Beatles -- in a plane crash or by being shot).  

That may be something you knew, I didn't.  I remember when John Lennon was murdered.  I just felt shocked and numb.  I didn't read anything about it.  I remember a Sunday where radio stations across the country had a moment of silence to note John's death.  


I think of John's music all the time, I listen to it to this day.  I really don't read about him since the death -- by choice.  It was a big loss.  Personally, it was a loss.  Culturally, it was a loss.


So anyway, that's something I learned from the book. 


It was an AMAZON suggestion -- based on my past reading with KINDLE.  I wonder about that.  But the title seemed different from what I normally read so I went ahead and read the book.  The author notes that true crime books are all the rage these days and she thinks that might help garner eyeballs.


So we learn about John Lennon's death.  We . . . something about Sam Cooke's death.  Learn?  I don't feel that we learn.  I don't feel that we even learn some good rumors.  I also didn't feel that needed to hear about Bobby Womack in that section of the book.  No one then or since has ever thought Bobby Womack had a thing to do with Sam Cooke's murder so I was really puzzled by the many references.  There are real questions, to this day, about the murder.  So I was disappointed in that.


Marjorie Taylor Greene did pop up -- in my mind.  Crazy Marjorie.  I was reading about this and that person who killed John Lennon or tried to kill someone, I was struck by how many of these unhinged people were acting on 'orders' -- in their head -- from God.  Kind of like Marjorie or her former friend Lauren Boebert.  Maybe the next time one of the two or another freak goes off on transpeople with some lie, we should turn around and hit them with the fact that killers and would-be killers, in large numbers, claim to be Christians.


A would be killer?  AC/DC's Phil Rudd (drummer 1975 to 1983) was arrested for planning a hit on a former employee.  He entered a guilty plea to lesser charges of drugs and making "a verbal death threat."  He did a brief stint in prison and, by 2020, was back in the band.  Register that and then register how that awful band has fired so many members.


True crime?  Along with murder and attempted murder, other crime topics are dealt with.  Stealing, for example, is another.  Vanilla Ice was sued for theft.  "Ice Ice Baby" did not list David Bowie and Queen as songwriters despite stealing the hook from "Under Pressure" which Bowie and Queen wrote.  They sued.  They won.  Vanilla Ice has since claimed that after the verdict he bought the publishing to the song.  


There's the theft of money stories -- Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen and Harry Nilsson being three stories covered. There's statutory rape -- it's amazing how creepy so many are.  That includes Ted Nugent.  He's one of several male music celebs who gets a parent to sign off guardianship of their daughter so a man can take her across state lines.  I really think Ted Nugent and others need to be sued for ever doing that.  A guardian is not someone who has sex with you.  You have defrauded the court when you become a guardian of someone to have sex with them.  There may be a statute of limitations on assault but I don't believe there has ever been a statute of limitations on defrauding the court.


There are crimes of impersonation covered, crimes of every nature you can imagine.  It's an interesting book and, if you are into true crime, you'll probably enjoy it. I did tune out during a long section about Judas Priest (among others).  Not because I have anything against Judas Priest (I don't) but because I remember that frenzy of stupidity over Satan! Satan! Satan!  I don't watch the garbage movies like the one playing right now with the guy from PASSION OF THE CHRIST or whatever and I didn't and won't see the ridiculous Happy Christians of the 70s movement film that had to straight-face the gay man.  I don't like their reactionary garbage.  In the late 70s and 80s, these same freaks were insisting that everything in music was Satan -- a cover, a lyric, a phrase you only heard if you played it backwards,  It was irritating and it was obviously con artists and crazies in real time.  Life's too short for me to relive that garbage, sorry.  If you didn't live through that nonsense, you'll probably find that an interesting section.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, July 7, 2023.  The hate merchants demonstrate that hate is all around,  MEDMIA MATTERS documents RFK Junior's reliance on the hate merchants, MTG gets kicked out of one hate group, Caitlyn Jenner leaves another -- hate, the right-wing is soaking in it, as Madge from Palmolive might say.


Who is Salwan Momika?

A better focus than the government of Sweden.  Or for Iraqi rage, a better focus.  Salwan Momika is an Iraqi who has sought refuge in Iraq.  FMT reports:

The Iraqi prosecutor general’s office has sent an arrest warrant to the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) for Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi-born refugee in Sweden, who burned a Quran in Sweden’s capital Stockholm in late June, Sputnik quoted Iraqi broadcaster Al Sumaria’s report Thursday, citing the country’s Supreme Judicial Council.

The council’s statement said that the prosecutor’s office has sent an information sheet and a special arrest warrant for Momika and requested Interpol to notify Baghdad should he be arrested.

 
Cult leader and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returned to 'political life' as he organized pretests against . . . Sweden.  Sweden did not burn a holy book but Moqtada needed a hobby and masturbation doesn't provide him the umph it used to so this is what he went with.  And he then tried to enrage all of Iraq over Sweden.  Thought his small cult continued to turn out for rage-fests, the rest of Iraq largely ignored it.

But if you were going to take offense, it was never the country of Sweden you should have taken offense to.  It was one of your own, Momika, that burned the holy book.  

Oh, look, here's an idiot.



Death sentence?  You truly are an idiot, Mansuri, and a hateful one at that.  Also Monika doesn't have "the face of a dog."  He's rather photogenic.


Salwan Momika: I have a message to every Muslim and every Islamic clergy calling for me to be killed and to those street protesters: Why did I not hear you shouting like this when the Yazidi women [in Iraq] were taken like war bounty sex slaves?  Or when their children, young men and elderly got killed in front of your eyes?  Why did you not protest aggressively the way you are doing now?  Why did you not protest the same way you protested against me burning the Quran?  All I did was reject this book that endorses hate, reject others and terrorism. Yes, I will say it again, this is a book of terrorism.  It should be banned. And I will work to get it banned in compliance with Swedish law. Therefore you have proven today what I said about the Quran is true because today one million people have called for my murder just because I expressed my opinion about the Quran and stated that the Quran is a book of terrorism.  All I wanted to do, dear Muslims, is wake you from your slumber because you have been deceived.  You are victims of Islam before Yazidis, Christians and atheists become your victims -- [and] Jews and Sabeans.  We are all victims.  That is why I do not have anything against you.  The difference is that I don't have anything against you personally.  My problem is with the ideas -- theology.  The difference is that I fight the ideas but you fight the person of Salwan Momika and you call for the killing of Salwan Momika.  I will continue my journey and I am not afraid of you. 


The rage against Sweden was a political ploy used to increase the profile of certain struggling politicians and to distract from the rot in Iraq's government.  


The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, called on the Swedish government to hand over the person who burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm to the Iraqi government to appear before an Iraqi court.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry mentioned in a statement that Hussein received a phone call last Friday from his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom, where they discussed the repercussions of the incident.

 
The book may matter to you but it's not a crime to burn it.  I'm opposed to all book burnings and bannings.  But there are no international laws against book banning.  And the Iraqi government knows this but they're trying to distract and they know Interpol from previous engagements.  They were able to make a vice president of Iraq appear guilty to the gullible (and deceitful) US press by filing with them before.  This is no different.  Nothing will come of this.  

As for their efforts to get Sweden to turn him over to Iraq?  He's in Sweden as a refugee.  Any country that turned a refugee back over to its country of origin in a matter like this would be a joke on the world stage.
 
While everyone's talking about this -- and really gabbing about the non-story that we noted at the top of yesterday's snapshot -- is anyone paying attention to the governmental reordering that's taking place?  Suadad al-Salhy (MIDDLE EAST EYE) reports:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has announced a major shakeup of the country’s security and intelligence services, appointing an influential spymaster ostracised by his predecessor as the head of national security.

Officials in Baghdad told Middle East Eye that the changes unveiled on Wednesday were intended to consolidate Sudani’s grip on power and to exclude a number of officials and employees suspected of involvement in corruption under the previous government.

One of the main – and most prominent - beneficiaries of the reshuffle is Abdul Karim Abd Fadhil, also known as Abu Ali al-Basri, who was named by Sudani to lead the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS).

Basri replaces Hamid al-Shatri, who was appointed by Sudani’s predecessor as prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi.


And dig deep into the report and you'll find this:

Another senior appointee, Ali Shamran Khazal, the new director general of the INSS’s Governorates Security Department, is seen as an ally of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, sources said.

[. . .]

Security officials told MEE that most of the appointees were chosen on the basis of "partisan quotas".

"Some of those assigned are qualified and have been promoted. This cannot be denied, but the selection of all was subject to political quotas," a senior INSS official told MEE.

“Most of the appointees are either close to Maliki, Halbousi, or the prime minister. No one in Iraq is named to occupy these positions solely for his competence or for career progression.”


But instead of focusing on that, the hate merchants -- hatriots -- scapegoat and rage to distract the American people.  And, no, defending those being scapegoated is never a distraction, it's a required stance in any functioning democracy.







Hate merchants like Marjorie Taylor Greene need to be confronted -- you need to stand up to them and to their hate.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other conservatives are falsely claiming that a recent mass shooter was transgender. Like Greene, the shooter supported gun rights and former President Donald Trump.

On the evening of Monday, July 3, a shooter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killed five people. The gunman also shot two boys and injured two others who survived. Police arrested a 40-year-old male suspect named Kimbrady Carriker and charged him with murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and weapons charges.

[. . .]

In a statement condemning right-wing claims about the suspect’s gender identity, Asa Khalif of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s LGBTQIA advisory committee said Carricker identified only as male.

“The language that is spewed out by the conservative press is violent and is dangerous and is targeting trans women of color,” Khalif said, according to The Daily Beast. “It’s rallying the community to be violent and we’re better than that.”

Khalif noted that trans women and men “are the most vulnerable to violence,” adding, “They want to live their lives and they have every right to do so, and we will not allow conservative bigots to use that type of language to attack trans people. This is about someone who used violence to hurt and harm our city and our community, and I’m sure they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law but we will not allow trans women, and particularly trans women of color, to be the scapegoats of bigots.”

However, right-wing figures like Greene and other conservative media outlets have repeatedly claimed that trans people are dangerous. Shortly after a late March school shooting by a possibly trans individual, Greene blamed the shooting on hormone medications that the shooter may have been taking. However, there’s no indication that the shooter was actually taking hormones, that such medications contribute to violent behavior, or that the shooter’s gender identity in any way motivated their behavior.

In late March, Greene claimed that a trans-affiliated “antifa” group in Washington, D.C. was organizing a violent protest event called the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” There was no public evidence that anti-fascist activists were in any way involved in the event. The event’s organizer said the event’s name was merely a play on the Trans Day of Visibility, the day upon which the subsequently-cancelled protest was scheduled to occur.

At the time, Greene wrote, “A day after a mass murder of children by a trans shooter? The people need to know about the threat they face from Antifa & trans-terrorism!!!”

In April, Greene’s colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said that affirming trans people’s identities will lead to school shootings. She said that being transgender and learning about societal oppression “radicalize” students and make them mentally ill, causing them to shoot up schools.

For the hatriots, there's never enough hate.  Which is why, see Elaine's "Marjorie gets kicked out and learns about it from the press," Marjorie just got kicked out of her fanatic caucus -- and, as Elaine points out, learned of her expulsion from the press reports.  

A drive-by e-mail from a hatriot wants to explain that Andrew Tate is right about transgender people.  I'm sorry?  Andrew Tate.  Isn't that one of Glenneth Greenwald's buddies?  And didn't he just get arrested for human trafficking?  Don't invite me to that party, I won't show.  But you can pass your e-mail along to Katie Halper.  A human trafficker?  She platforms registered sex offenders like Scott Ritter.  A stupid [your swear of choice] like that should love a human trafficker -- she and Aaron Matty can probably do two weeks giggling and playing footsie with Andrew Tate.

But those of us with standards?  We'll take a pass on the supposed insights of a hate merchant.

Hate merchants don't have insights -- they just incite violent behavior.  Curtis Brodner (AUDACY) reports:

A man threw hot coffee on another man at a Port Washington Starbucks while shouting an anti-gay slur on Saturday, according to the Port Washington Police Department.

The victim is a member of the LGBTQ community, and police are investigating the attack as a hate crime. 



NEWSDAY says residents are shocked by the anti-LGBTQ+ violence.  It is shocking and it's also true that it steps forward when people don't call the hate out.  Various individuals -- including Glenneth Greenwald -- have stoked hate against the LGBTQ+ community.  We are seeing the effects of that hate.

We have to stand up to this and we have to call out. Shaanth Kodialam (SACRAMENTO BEE) reports:


Bonita A. experienced a flood of emotions as she headed back from a walk to her front porch: anger, worry, confusion and frustration. The East Sacramento resident, who requested her full name be withheld due to fear for her safety, was one of many in the city who who found flyers with anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic messaging on her doorstop. Packaged in plastic sandwich bags with gravel and other material as weights, authorities and residents found them in multiple Sacramento neighborhoods and other California cities in mid-June. Some employed the phrase “White Lives Matter,” while others featured a conspiracy demonizing LGBTQ+ people and Jews, specifically targeting those who hold both identities.
 “It totally messes with my sense of justice,” Bonita A. said. She soon alerted her fellow neighbors to the incident, and now wants to support anti-hate activities in her own neighborhood, recognizing that it’s also on folks like her who aren’t Jewish or LGBTQ to speak out. “When you’re the one being targeted ... it must be scarier for them.” “I do want to show the support, I want to show them they’re not alone, and that they have more than just their own community supporting,” she said.



Ads from major companies that claim to support LGBTQ rights are appearing on Rumble videos that spread extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including on videos that spew anti-LGBTQ slurs and on one that alleges that the LGBTQ movement’s “end game is to sterilize humanity.” 

Rumble is an extreme right-wing video-sharing platform that is backed by various high-profile right-wing figures and dominated by QAnon content. Marketing itself as a defender of “free speech”, the platform has big ambitions to compete with a range of other tech companies and provide the infrastructure to make figures that have been banned elsewhere “immune” from so-called “cancel culture.” Rumble has also partnered with the Republican National Committee to host the official livestream for the first Republican presidential primary debate on August 23.

The platform technically has a policy against “Content or material that is grossly offensive to the online community, including but not limited to, racism, anti-semitism and hatred” — but it doesn’t mention anything specifically about sexuality- or gender identity-based hate speech, and has previously failed to elaborate on its evidently limited enforcement practices. Rumble also has a documented history of profiting from homophobic, white nationalist, and antisemitic content on its site. In March, Netflix pulled advertisements from the website after Media Matters reported that they were appearing alongside videos espousing Holocaust denial.

This Pride Month, Media Matters identified ads from over 50 major companies that appeared alongside Rumble videos that spread extreme anti-LGBTQ hate. These companies include:

1-800 Flowers, ABC Mouse, Aleve, Alibaba, Allianz, Amazon, Ancestry, Apartments.com, Aussie, Capital One, Chevrolet, Crate&Barrel, CVS, Dave’s Killer Bread, eBay, Fiverr, Fortnite, Genesis, GoDaddy, Grainger, GrubHub, Intel, LG, Maybelline, Mazda, McDonalds, National University, Norton, Office Depot, PBS Kids, PlutoTV, Pods Moving & Storage, Ruggable, Salomon, Shopify, SimpliSafe, Spinbrush, Street Fighter 6, Target, Tempur-pedic, Temu, Toyota, Trint, UNICEF, Uniqlo, UPS, Viator, Welch Allyn, Western Union, and Wyndham.

Despite this, several of these companies, including Capital One, Maybelline, eBay, Uniqlo, UPS, and Amazon, have celebrated Pride Month on social media — seemingly expressing support for the LGBTQ community.


My money doesn't support hate.  I won't be using the above.  I may even bring a lawsuit agaisnt eBay which is offering for sale various autographed photos of me -- photos I didn't autograph, it's not even a good fake of my signature.  As the signee -- the supposed signee -- the one whose name is being used to sell this fake merchandise, I believe I have standing in court to sue eBay.  Let's see if I calm down as the morning goes on or tell my attorney to send eBay a cease-and-desist letter.


My money doesn't support hate or hate merchants.  Brandon Hovek (DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL) reports:


Oddity Bar has received fervent backlash after a doorman used an anti-gay slur in an argument with customers during a concert by Delaware metal acts ABYDOS, Bastion's Wake and Candlewax. A short video clip from the June 23 show posted on Facebook by ABYDOS bassist Zach Schroeder shows an argument ongoing about moshing. ABYDOS had stopped performing.

"Then don't invite metal bands to play," one man is heard saying before the doorman says, "F----t."

A woman immediately responds, "Whoa. You can't use that slur. Hold on, hold on. Using that slur is not OK."

Hernandez, who has owned Oddity Bar for the past year with his brother Manny, was nearby as the doorman said the slur. Members of the bands and patrons have criticized Hernandez for a lack of an immediate response.

"[Hernandez] seemed very indifferent towards everything and was not apologetic at all. He just kind of took the doorman's side the whole time," Candlewax bassist and vocalist Josh Deckman said. "I literally told him, 'Look at me: I have nail polish on and I'm flamboyant. As a member of the [queer] community, what am I supposed to think? That I'm not welcome here.' They were dismissive of that."


Let's turn to the illegitimate Supreme Court. For an overview, here's Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) recapping:

In another setback for equal rights, the Supreme Court also ruled Friday in favor of a Christian Colorado web designer who refused to create websites for same-sex couples even though the state bans such discrimination. The justices were again divided 6 to 3 along ideological lines. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent that the decision was “heartbreaking” and a “reactionary exclusion.”

Following Friday’s rulings, California Congressmember Ro Khanna and other Democrats reintroduced a bill imposing 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices and giving presidents two appointments during a White House term. President Biden last week said the current Supreme Court is “not a normal court,” but rejected calls to expand it. We’ll have more on the latest Supreme Court rulings later in the broadcast.




The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to allow a homophobic website designer to discriminate against gay couples because it violated her faith was hardly a surprise. The conservative majority on the Court has made it loud and clear that its role is to fulfill the fantasies of the right. It may draw the line at some of the wilder dreams, like the idea that legislatures can overturn popular votes, but on core beliefs it has been extraordinarily consistent. The decision last year to overturn five decades of precedent allowing abortion removed any doubt.

Still, the decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis is shocking for its unalloyed willingness to discount LGBTQ+ protections and even mock the Court’s minority’s vigorous defense of them. In his majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch has picked up some of Justice Samuel Alito’s sneer as he chastises fellow Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the author of the dissent, for engaging in “an unfortunate tendency by some to defend First Amendment values only when they find the speaker’s message sympathetic.”

While the full impact of the decision will take a while to unfold, some things are already clear. Here are five takeaways from the decision.

This was always going to be the outcome. The right wing of the Court has been looking for an excuse to elevate the rights of conservative Christians at the expense of LGBTQ+ people for a while. This case was the perfect vehicle. So what that Lorie Smith, the owner of the firm in question, never made a wedding website in her life. So what if no one actually asked her to make one. So what if the case included a fake request from someone who turned out to be a straight man. None of that mattered.

A normal Court would not be ruling in the case of someone who is asking hypothetical questions. Smith hasn’t suffered any harm, a basic threshold for seeking redress. Instead, this Court plowed ahead because it has been heading in this direction for years. From its ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, granting a corporation the right to withhold contraception access in employee health care plans because the owners are Christian, to its rulings allowing a public school football coach to pray on the field and allowing anti-gay Christian schools to get public funds, the Court has been elevating the rights of conservative Christians. The most recent ruling is just the logical, if reprehensible, next step in that progression. 



The Supreme Court’s decision represents a huge setback for equal protections for LGBTQ people and our rights across the nation.

Although the precise question presented before the Supreme Court was whether a website designer would be required to prepare a wedding website for a hypothetical LGBTQ couple despite her religious objections to same-sex marriage, the impacts of this decision will reverberate throughout the American economy as businesses may feel emboldened to more freely discriminate against LGBTQ people on the basis of the private religious beliefs of their owners or employees.

In other words, the impacts will extend to more than just wedding websites.

To LGBTQ Pennsylvanians, the latest ruling may feel like simply an extension of the recent backlash we’ve been experiencing.

In Pennsylvania, we have seen campaigns against transgender kids come to our local school boards, most prominently in Bucks County, where some districts have launched a crusade against all things LGBTQ-related. Whether banning Pride flags in classrooms, removing books containing LGBTQ content from school libraries, or censoring teachers for acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people, opponents of equality have recently found new life in the commonwealth and will certainly be invigorated with new ideas spurred by this Supreme Court.



Meanwhile the hate merchants turn on one another.  We see it with MTG's expulsion and we see it in reaction to Ron DeSantis' homoerotic but anti-LGBTQ+ ad.  Ari Drennen breaks it down in this Tweet.



She is so right and it is really hard to feel sympathy for Caitlyn Jenner who may very well be the dumbest woman alive today (unless Casey DeSantis holds that title).  Chelsea Steiner (THE MARY SUE) notes:

As Ron DeSantis fumbles his way toward the Republican nomination for president, he’s made headlines for his inability to resemble a human being while running for office. And after pissing off white women and displaying less charisma than Jeb(!) Bush, DeSantis has alienated yet another potential group of voters: LGBTQ Republicans. Thanks to his bizarre homophobic campaign ad, the Florida governor now finds himself at odds with the Log Cabin Republicans, New York Rep. George Santos, and even Caitlyn Jenner.

Of course, it’s absurd that these Republicans were considering supporting DeSantis in the first place, given his deeply homophobic and transphobic track record. But that rarely stops gay Republicans from voting against their own self-interest. I mean, you have to be aggressively homophobic to turn off these voters. After all, they’re fine with Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but they draw the line at supercuts of Patrick Bateman, GigaChad, and drag queens!



LGBTQ Republicans say they feel misled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) after the GOP presidential hopeful’s “war room” shared a bizarre video widely seen as inflammatory.

The video bashed former President Donald Trump’s (R) support for the LGBTQ community and leaned into conservative state policies passed under DeSantis this year that were criticized as anti-LGBTQ.

LGBTQ conservatives, reacting to the video, said DeSantis had shown his true colors as an “anti-LGBT champion,” undermining his arguments that his support for the policies were about protecting children and parents’ rights.

“It’s like he’s going mask off,” said Brad Polumbo, a Michigan-based libertarian journalist. “The cat’s out of the bag.”

Polumbo said he’d have considered voting for DeSantis at one time.

“I’m somebody who has my fair share of policy disagreements with DeSantis, but I was considering voting for him in the primary before he entered the race officially,” he said. “Since then, he’s done thing after thing that really makes me increasingly write off that possibility.”


Surprise, surprise, you weren't really welcomed by the haters.  David Brock made that mistake in the 90s.  MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA is one way he tries to help others avoid making the same mistake he did.

That said, I beg to differ with this paragraph:


While Trump’s first run for president featured what seemed like signs of a thaw in the right-wing war on LGBTQ equality, his time in office was marked by policies that enabled discrimination against queer and trans people. The Trump administration banned trans people from serving in the military, advanced an interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would allow employers to fire people for being gay, and at one point threatened to define “transgender” out of existence.


A Fordham class reunion at the White House didn't see the occupant welcoming a trans woman.  No, kids, that was Bully Boy Bush and his Yale class reunion at the White House.



Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his organization Children's Health Defense are fans and promoters of James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler was a Rothschild” and “Hitler and the Nazis were one hundred percent completely and utterly set up … by the international banking community and the international crony capitalists.” 

Kennedy has thanked Corbett for his supposedly “extraordinary work for keeping the public informed,” and Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group has featured Corbett in numerous videos and at a recent symposium. 

Trump and several associates have been praising Kennedy’s presidential campaign, with longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone stating that the Democrat’s candidacy will help “soften Joe Biden up for his defeat by Donald Trump.” Right-wing media figures, including former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have also been propping up his candidacy. 

Kennedy’s connections to Corbett add to a growing list of the Democratic presidential candidate’s right-wing media associations, including but not limited to:

Corbett is a fringe online host whose website describes him as providing “breaking news and important issues from 9/11 Truth and false flag terror to the Big Brother police state, eugenics, geopolitics, the central banking fraud and more.” In a 2009 interview, Corbett said he was inspired to become a media figure in large part by the work of 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. 


Junior's destroying his own campaign with all the heavy petting he's been doing with these hate merchants.  Expect John Stauber's head to explode this morning as he rants about George Soros while attacking MM for their Junior report and bemoaning the fate of his MTG and the implosion of the group Caitlyn has just left -- a group that John Stauber approves of and has been promoting for months -- again, Rebecca called it months ago "john stauber is the 21st century david horowitz."

Again, the hate merchants need to be called out.



While Katie Halper has yet again made nice this week with convicted pedophile Scott Ritter, actual leftists on YOUTUBE have tackled real issues -- that's Olay above, that's THE VANGUARD, that's Kyle, that's Sam Seder and THE MAJORITY REPORT, Nina Turner, that's a lot of programs.  It's only Katie Halper that sticks her head in the sand and prefers to platform and promote convicted pedophiles.  


I thought that was the wind down, but something on two of my favorite people, two friends, was just drawn to my attention:


Grammy Winning Singer-Songwriter and Style Icon Jody Watley welcomes the fabulous Vanessa Williams as a guest to “The Jody Watley Show,” on SiriusXM’s The Groove, Channel 50 for Episode 5.

Tune in on July 9th and catch the Vanessa Williams interview on The Jody Watley Show. 3 P.M. PST, 6 P.M. EST.

Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in the entertainment industry today. 

[. . .]

Jody Watley, an iconic figure in her own right, is excited to welcome VanessaWilliams to “The Jody Watley Show” and engage in an enlightening conversation about Vanessa’s illustrious career and enduring impact on the entertainment industry.

The Jody Watley Show, a 2-hour monthly show airs every second Sunday exclusively on SiriusXM’s The Groove at 6 PM (EST) / 3 PM (PST) and on the SiriusXM app on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online.

SiriusXM reaches nearly 34 million subscribers monthly.

The Jody Watley Show is packed with the best of classic to contemporary R&B music and engaging conversations with surprise guests.

Watley is a celebrated singer, songwriter, producer, businesswoman, and one of the architects of 21st century pop, affectionately referred to as “The Queen of Cool.’

Renowned as one of the defining artists of the 80s with an influence on style, music and pop culture, Jody Watley forged the template that is now everybody’s playbook.


I will be listening, I hope you will be as well.


The following sites updated:

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