Wednesday, April 12, 2023

The Peabody Awards

Stan has a lot to cover and this is Ann's church night (so she tries to be brief because she's got two kids, she's worked all day and she's gone to church).  He asked if I might be able to pick up a topic.  I will do gladly.

The topic is The Peabody Awards?  The what?  You probably already know, but if not, from WIKIPEDIA:


The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys[1]) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and online media. The awards were conceived by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1938 as the radio industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes.[2] Programs are recognized in seven categories: news, entertainment, documentaries, children's programming, education, interactive programming, and public service. Peabody Award winners include radio and television stations, networks, online media, producing organizations, and individuals from around the world.

Established in 1940 by a committee of the National Association of Broadcasters, the Peabody Award was created to honor excellence in radio broadcasting. It is the oldest major electronic media award in the United States. Final Peabody Award winners are selected unanimously by the program's Board of Jurors.[3] Reflecting excellence in quality storytelling, rather than popularity or commercial success, Peabody Awards are distributed annually to 30 out of 60 finalists culled from more than 1,000 entries.[4][1] Because submissions are accepted from a wide variety of sources and styles, deliberations seek "Excellence On Its Own Terms".[5]

Each entry is evaluated on the achievement of standards established within its own context.[1][6] Entries, for which a US$350 fee (US$225 for radio) is required, are self-selected by those making submissions.[7]


So that's what they are.  Yesterday, they announced the nominees:


ATHENS, GA (April 11, 2023) – The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors today announced the 27 nominees for the Documentary and News categories selected to represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in 2022 across broadcasting and streaming media. The nominees were chosen by a unanimous vote of 17 jurors from over 1,200 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and multimedia programming.

The nominees for the remaining categories – including Entertainment, Arts, Children’s/Youth, Podcast/Radio, Interactive & Immersive, and Public Service – will be announced on Thursday, April 13. The winners of the 83rd annual Peabody Awards will be announced on May 9 and then celebrated on Sunday, June 11 at a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. This will be Peabody’s first in-person ceremony since 2019, as well as the first time ever in its history that the Awards will take place in Los Angeles.

“Whether covering breaking news on the front lines or illuminating historically significant figures, these documentary and news nominees told compelling stories that kept us informed and enriched our understanding of the world,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody. “Among a wide selection of excellent stories, Peabody is proud to celebrate each and every one of these worthy nominees.”

“Shining light on a wide range of people, places, and struggles, these nominees demonstrate the best of journalism and the best of storytelling,” Jones added. “We look forward to honoring the winners in Los Angeles, a first for our storied organization.”

The Peabody Award nominees for Documentary and News, listed by category and in alphabetical order (network/platform in parentheses) are:

 

DOCUMENTARY

 

“Aftershock”   

After the deaths of two young women from childbirth complications, their families galvanize activists, birth workers, and physicians to face America’s grave maternal health crisis in this eye-opening film.

A Malka Films and Madstone Company Inc Production In Association with Good Gravy Films and JustFilms | Ford Foundation Impact Partners Presents (Hulu)

 

“Batata”   

This unprecedented film spans ten years in the life of Syrian migrant worker Maria, a Muslim woman, and her journey from days of farming potatoes to life in a refugee camp in Lebanon, demonstrating the spirit of a woman who puts family above all else.

Saaren Films Inc., Six Island Productions Inc., Musa Dagh Productions (Streaming platforms)

 

“Children of the Taliban”   

In this affecting documentary, viewers meet four children—two boys and two girls—living in Kabul, Afghanistan, and learn how dramatically their lives have changed since U.S. troops withdrew from the country and the Taliban came to power. While the girls face the obvious serious difficulties under the patriarchal regime, some of the most chilling footage shows how young boys are radicalized.

Moondogs Films production (Channel 4)

 

“The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone”   

This short documentary spans most of the 22-year life of Georgie Stone, a young Australian trans activist, revealing her memories as she grows up, affirms her gender, finds her voice, fights to change laws and public perception, and becomes a role model for other trans kids throughout the world.

A Netflix Documentary in association with Screen Australia / A Closer Production (Netflix)

 

“George Carlin’s American Dream”   

This two-part documentary from Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio illustrates how legendary comedian George Carlin evolved from late-night-standup hack to a wordsmith, a countercultural hero, and, ultimately, a truth-teller who used dark humor to illuminate key issues of our time like sexual assault and climate change. Archival footage of Carlin himself, as well as extraordinary access to his diaries and letters, helps to paint a complete portrait of a man who wouldn’t settle for anything less than expressing his authentic voice.

Apatow/Rise Films Production in association with Pulse Films (HBO Max)

 

“Independent Lens: Missing in Brooks County”   

Migrants go missing in the rural area of Brooks County, Texas, more than anywhere else in the United States, and activist Eddie Canales is the one who helps their families find them. PBS’ documentary profiles Canales in this subtle, specific, and alarming take on U.S. immigration.

ITVS, Fork Films, Engel Entertainment (PBS)

 

“Independent Lens: Writing with Fire”   

Fearless journalists staff India’s only all-female newspaper in an intensely patriarchal landscape, painting a portrait of courage and hope. Filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh spent four years in India’s Uttar Pradesh state capturing the women’s daily work lives as well as the larger context in which they operate: India’s caste system and its far-right religious movement.

Black Ticket Films (PBS)

 

“Lucy and Desi”   

Director Amy Poehler explores the surprising story of how Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, a woman and a Cuban man, became TV’s most powerful couple in the 1950s, transformed numerous aspects of television production, and pioneered the American sitcom as we know it.

Amazon Studios, Imagine Documentaries, White Horse Pictures in association with Paper Kite Productions and Diamond Docs (Prime Video)

 

“Mariupol: The People’s Story”   

This terrifyingly crucial feature-length documentary tells the story of the essential coastal Ukrainian city of Mariupol through those who lived there as it was destroyed by Russia.

Top Hat Productions / Hayloft Productions (BBC Select)

 

“POV: Let the Little Light Shine”   

This captivating documentary tells the story of a South Side Chicago neighborhood where a high-performing, largely Black elementary school is threatened by the forces of gentrification—a story that reflects larger struggles with the historical impacts of institutional racism and the ways demographic shifts affect education.

A co-production of SCHOOL FILM LLC, AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY | POV, ITVS and BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA (PBS)

 

“The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks”   

Rosa Parks was more than an “old” lady who was too tired to go to the back of the bus, as this documentary demonstrates, delving deep into the Civil Rights icon’s historic role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott beyond her traditionally assigned role in school textbooks.

SO’B Productions (Peacock)

 

“The Territory”   

This immersive, awe-inspiring documentary looks at the tireless fight of the Amazon’s Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers.

National Geographic Documentary Films Presents A Documist And Associação Jupaú Film in association with Time Studios, Xtr, Doc Society Climate Story Fund / A Production of Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava (Disney+)

 

“We Need To Talk About Cosby”   

Writer/director W. Kamau Bell weighs the life and legacy of Bill Cosby as a peerless groundbreaker and dominant cultural force against his crimes as a convicted sexual predator through difficult and candid conversations with comedians, journalists, and survivors in a potent examination of problematic artist versus art.

SHOWTIME Documentary Films Presents, A Boardwalk Pictures Production, In Association With WKB Industries (Showtime Networks)

 

NEWS

 

“60 MINUTES: The Declining Mental Health of America’s Kids”

This 60 Minutes report delves into the mental health crisis striking kids across America and explores its root causes: the isolation and fear of the pandemic and the addiction and toxicity of social media.

CBS News 60 Minutes (CBS)

 

“ABC News Digital: Buffalo: Healing From Hate”

Through four in-depth video profiles, ABC News Digital tells the personal stories of those killed in the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, spending time with their families to paint tender and detailed portraits of those lost and making sure their lives and legacies are not forgotten after the onslaught of news coverage.

ABC News Digital (ABC)

 

“FRONTLINE: Crime Scene Bucha”

FRONTLINE, The Associated Press, and SITU Research teamed up on an exclusive visual investigation into Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha during a month-long occupation, drawing on hundreds of hours of closed-circuit television footage, intercepted phone calls, and a 3-D model of the town to map the deaths of 450 people in the soldiers’ “cleansing” operations.

FRONTLINE (PBS) with The Associated Press and SITU Research (PBS)

 

“FRONTLINE: Michael Flynn’s Holy War”

Truly terrifying in its implications, this FRONTLINE episode asks how Michael Flynn went from being an elite soldier overseas to waging a “spiritual war” in America, emerging as a leader in a far-right movement that puts its brand of Christianity at the center of U.S. civic life and institutions, attracting election deniers, conspiracists, and extremists around the country.

FRONTLINE (PBS) with The Associated Press (PBS)

 

“FRONTLINE: Putin’s War at Home”

This report takes a deep, documentary approach to profiling the defiant Russians risking imprisonment as they push back against President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on criticism of his war on Ukraine, with extraordinary footage from inside the country.

FRONTLINE (PBS)

 

“FRONTLINE: Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack”

FRONTLINE provides a dramatic and intimate look inside the Russian assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, following the displaced families trying to survive underground, civilians caught in the war, and first responders risking their lives.

FRONTLINE (PBS)

 

“The Gap: Failure to Treat, Failure to Protect”

A year-long investigation by local Minneapolis-St. Paul’s KARE 11, revealed systemic failures to treat people with mental illness who were declared incompetent in court and resulted in state-wide reforms that were deemed lifesaving by the mental health community and lawmakers.

KARE-TV (NBC/KARE-TV)

 

“Guns in America”

Faced with repeatedly reporting on the endless cycle of mass shootings across America, PBS NewsHour raised the bar, providing context while also telling empathetic stories across different segments throughout the year dealing with victims, survivors, and their communities in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

PBS NewsHour (PBS NewsHour)

 

“Inside An Armed Bank Raid in Lebanon”

In a gripping piece that illuminates complex issues, VICE News reports from inside an armed bank raid for 16 hours in Lebanon as desperate bank customers demand their own savings despite the country’s limits on how much people can withdraw from their accounts amidst a crushing economic crisis.

VICE News (VICE TV)

 

“Myanmar: The Forgotten Revolution”

A team of courageous filmmakers spent more than a year inside the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, bringing viewers inside a largely ignored and forgotten civil war in which more than 20,000 people have been reported dead and thousands are fighting a military coup that removed their elected government.

Evan Williams Productions (Channel 4)

 

“No Justice for Women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan”

Women’s lives drastically changed after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021. VICE takes viewers inside a justice system tipped against women facing physical and sexual abuse and the underground shelters where women turn to escape violence at home for a devastating look at the country’s inequality.

VICE News (VICE News)

 

“One Day in Hebron”

American Al Jazeera host Dena Takuri returns to Hebron, the once-vibrant Palestinian city where her father was born and raised to see what Israel’s military occupation has done to his hometown: segregated streets, traumatized residents, shuttered businesses, and the remaining Palestinians erecting nets to catch the trash thrown at them by settlers.

AJ+ (Direct From)

 

“The Price of Care: Taken by the State”

This local news investigation from ABC10-KXTV in Sacramento uncovered how the California Department of Developmental Services gained conservatorship powers over hundreds of adults with disabilities, only to separate them from their families and neglect them in care facilities. The reporting resulted in changes to California’s conservatorship laws, adding protections and additional funding to enact them.

KXTV/ABC10 (KXTV/ABC10)

 

“Shimon Prokupecz: Unraveling Uvalde”

After the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, the CNN team led by Shimon Prokupecz relentlessly pursued the glaring, unanswered questions about the law enforcement response to the Uvalde, Texas school shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers. A gut-wrenching interview with one surviving teacher underscores the horrific question, “Why didn’t anyone help sooner?”

CNN (CNN)

 

About Peabody Awards

Respected for its integrity and revered for its standards of excellence, the Peabody is an honor like no other for television, podcast/radio, and digital media. Chosen each year by a diverse Board of Jurors through unanimous vote, Peabody Awards are given in the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, public service, and interactive and immersive. The annual Peabody winners are a collection of  stories that powerfully reflect the pressing social issues and the vibrant emerging voices of our day. From major productions to local journalism, the Peabody Awards shine a light on the Stories That Matter and are a testament to the power of art and reportage in the push for truth, social justice, and equity. The Peabody Awards were founded in 1940 at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and are still based in Athens today.

For more information, visit peabodyawards.com to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social:

Twitter:       @PeabodyAwards

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Facebook:    Peabody Awards

YouTube: PeabodyAwardChannel

Website: https://peabodyawards.com/ 

Hashtags:     #PeabodyAwards #StoriesThatMatter

 

About Grady College

Established in 1915, the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, entertainment and media studies, journalism and public relations. The college also offers several graduate degrees. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.

 

Media Contact:

Julie Cloutier / julie.cloutier@ledecompany.com 

Emma Parker / emma.parker@ledecompany.com






Best Documentary?  I'd go with WRITING WITH FIRE.  That really was the best.  I would be fine with many others winning but I did find that the most inspired documentary of the year.  There are other worthy nominees.

However . . .

Amy Poehler's garbage about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz should not even be nominated.  Ava and C.I. covered that nonsense:

We were reminded of that as AMAZON served up another trashing of facts regarding the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  Apparently, it was not enough to mangle the facts and outright lie in BEING THE RICARDOS, now get more garbage with LUCY & DESI begging the question what the hell did Lucille Ball ever do to Jeff Bezos?


The latest garbage is from Amy Poehler -- in fact, it's laughably billed as "An Amy Poehler Film."  After the tepid response to WINE COUNTRY, no one has been clamoring for another Amy Poehler film.  That she thinks this garbage qualifies as either a documentary or a film just reminds everyone of how stupid Poehler truly is.  


Amy wants you to believe in Lucy and Desi as lovers of all time and that what ended the marriage is that Desi drank and worked too hard.


As Lucille herself said on numerous occasions, what endedt he marriage was that Desi couldn't "keep his cock in his pants."  You'll never know that from the 'documentary.'  You'll never know, for example, that their last year of marriage was her sleeping in the main house and him sleeping in the cabana.  You'll never know how his cheating destroyed her trust in people and effected everything that followed.


Lucille Ball was not Lucy Ricardo and Desi Arnaz was not Ricky.  They were a TV couple onscreen.  They were a married couple off screen who had plenty of problems before they ever shot an episode of their famous sitcom.  His cheating is why she wanted the sitcom in the first place, to get him off the road so she could keep an eye on him.  Before the sitcom even started, she'd already called in a favor from Bob Hope who made Desi the bandleader on Hope's radio show for NBC to keep Desi off the road.  


These are facts and they are facts that Amy chooses to ignore reminding us of that awful appearance a decade ago on THE MAJORITY REPORT (AIR AMERICA RADIO) where she babbled on about Bully Boy Bush with no definitive remarks and couldn't condemn the Iraq War or say that it was wrong.  Current events, you understand, were just too difficult for her.  (They weren't too hard for her when she devoted an episode of her show PARKS AND RECREATION to attack Hugo Chavez.)  People who find facts challenging should never aspire to make a documentary.


Did Desi love Lucy?  If you're making a documentary about them today, you should explore that.  But you can't just say that they loved each other and you can't lie and say they broke up because he drank too much booze and he worked too many hours.  Lucille boozed and worked too, those were mutual habits they both shared.  The dividing point was his inability to be faithful to her.


Everyone watching Amy's garbage who knows anything about the two actors knows that Desi cheated.  The 2003 CBS TV movie LUCY didn't shy from the topic anymore than Lucy ever did.  It makes Amy uncomfortable?  Well then she doesn't need to make a documentary about a couple whose marriage breaks up because of cheating.  


Desi may very well have loved Lucille.  He married her.  He had two children with her.  But he had hundreds of women he slept with while he was married to Lucille.  


We're not slamming him for it.  We weren't married to him.  As an entertainer, he provided us with a lot of joy.  He was a TV pioneer who understood the medium better than anyone else in the 1950s and he changed everything as a result.

 

We have praised his work and his insight many, many times and, as long as we cover TV, we will continue to praise him.  


But we're not covering his marriage or how faithful he was.  Amy Poehler made the decision to do a documentary about his marriage to Lucille Ball.  She is required to cover it as a result.  


Instead, she's ignored facts and trashed the very real lives of two people. 

 

"With Lucy and Desi, Amy Poehler Gets to the Heart of a Marriage" insists THE NEW YORK TIMES.

 


Well that's the same paper that used lies to sell the illegal Iraq War.

But if a marriage was plagued by infidelity and if that is what ended it, then it's not a story of a marriage unless it includes those very public facts.


It's not much of a documentary at all.  People who are paid to write about it, who presumably watched it, write garbage like this:

 

 

They bought RKO, the largest independent movie studio in Hollywood, and renamed it Desilu, where they produced some of the most successful television series of the 20th century, from the original “Star Trek” to “Mission: Impossible” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”



Wrong.  Wrong.  And wrong.

 

DESILU did not produce THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.  DANNY THOMAS ENTERPRISES produced that with MAYBERRY ENTERPRISES and CBS.  Let's not erase the accomplishments of an early Lebanese-American TV pioneer.  The sitcom was filmed on  DESILU soundstages.  


If DESILU had produced THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, Lucille would never have sold the studio.  DESILU had bled money since I LOVE LUCY went off the air.  THE LUCY SHOW and THE UNTOUCHABLES were their only big hits when Lucy and Desi ran DESILU.  Which brings us to the other two lies.  Lucille and Desi did not develop STAR TREK and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.  Lucille had bought Desi out of the company in 1962.  Lucille was the one who supported STAR TREK and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and MANNIX.  She did so in the final 12 months of running DESILU (Desi had been gone from DESILU for over five years by that point)  Those three shows were multi-season programs and had she found them two years earlier, it's doubtful she would have sold DESILU when she did.


Over and over, Amy offers bogus facts and confuses viewers.  That doesn't qualify as high praise for a documentary.  The only real purpose it is illuminating that, as we told you, Aaron Sorkin's BEING THE RICARDOS was nothing but lies regarding the press not covering Lucille during the attempt to label her a "Red" (multiple papers are shown carrying the story).



This is why, by the way, that the Peabody's are not as prestigious as they so want to be.  Because a celebrity made a bad documentary, she gets nominated.  It is an awful piece of work with one factual error after another.  Yes, NYT praised it but they weren't good about nailing down facts either (with regards to Lucy and Desi but, yes, you can apply that to the Iraq War or any other topic you'd like to). 


PEACOCK's THE REBELLIOUS LIFE OF MRS. ROSA PARKS is a worthy nominee.  A few other streamers got nominations but, of the streamers nominated, I think PEACOCK had the finest documentary.  



On the nominated news reports, I saw all but one.  I'm shocked.  Seriously, didn't see like I was watching that much.  The one I didn't see -- didn't want to -- was FRONTLINE's report on Ukraine.  I'm very skeptical of outlets covering Ukraine since they have so many factual problems and refuse to note basic facts -- like the rampant racism there lead the Peace Corps to warn people of color from going there and to be prepared for vast racism if they did go, or they don't want to talk about how the US government overturned a government there in 2014.  

So I skipped that.  It may be good, it may be bad.  I have no idea.

But the others were pretty amazing.  ALJAZEERA's ONE DAY IN HEBRON or 60 MINUTES' THE DECLINING MENTAL HEALTH OF KIDS would probably be the ones I was rooting hardest for but all the ones I saw were great -- even MICHAEL FLYNN'S HOLY WAR.  

Oh, on covering topics, Trina grabbed a passing yesterday, "Elizabeth Hubbard" -- Hubbard was most famous for playing Althea on THE DOCTORS and Lucinda Walsh on AS THE WORLD TURNS.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, April 12, 2023.  Corruption dances across the American landscape while THE ATLANTIC rushes to minimize it, 42-year-old member of Congress 'forgets' that she's not married (and has never been married),  and much more.






Will Crooked Clarence Thomas be punished?  Will he be removed from the Supreme Court to restore some legitimacy to the body?  Or is the whole system so corrupt that he'll be allowed to remain on the bench and pretend like nothing happened?  Barry Grey's WSWS report would argue for the latter since the whole system has become corrupt:

A common feature of the pervasive corruption of capitalist politics and politicians in America is the practice of using privileged information to make stock trades, particularly in the midst of the recurring crises that beset Wall Street. In such matters, as in passing laws to ban strikes by rail workers and impose contracts rejected by the workers, bipartisanship prevails.

Last month’s government bailout of rich depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the second and third biggest bank failures in US history, is no exception.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal, citing recent legally required disclosures, reported that three House members, two Republicans and one Democrat, two of whom were directly involved in secret bailout talks, made substantial trades in bank stocks in the initial days of the crisis. According to the Journal’s own investigation, New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer made trades that marked “the latest instance of congressional stock trading intersecting with official business.”

Malliotakis bought stock in New York Community Bankcorp (NYCB) on March 17, two days before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced that Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of NYCB, would take on Signature’s deposits. Signature, headquartered in New York City, had been placed in receivership by New York regulators on March 12.

Just days before she bought the stock, Malliotakis issued a statement (March 13) on her Twitter account in which she boasted of working closely with federal and state officials to address the failure of Signature.

“Both last night and this morning I have been meeting with the Federal Reserve, U.S. Department of Treasury, Governor [Kathy] Hochul and New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris to discuss the closure of Signature Bank,” she wrote, adding, “I have been assured all depositors will be made whole through the Deposit Insurance Fund which is made up of contributions from all member banks, not taxpayer funds.”

Malliotakis bought $1,001 to $15,000 in NYBC stock on March 17. The day after the March 19 announcement that NYBC’s Flagstar subsidiary would acquire Signature’s deposits, NYBC stock rose 32 percent, landing the congresswoman a tidy profit.

Rep. Malliotakis’s disclosure said the stock purchase was made by her spouse, a common excuse given by politicians who are involved in insider trading. Unfortunately for the congresswoman, she is unmarried. 


She forgot.  She forgot she wasn't married.  Just slipped her mind. A Greek Orthodox, 42-year-old woman and she 'just forgot.'  Kind of hard to believe that, kind of hard to believe it hasn't been a topic of conversation in her own Greek Orthodox family.  


Democratic senators are calling for the Supreme Court to investigate Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to disclose reported luxury trips funded by a billionaire Republican donor.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have announced they will hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics.

The panel also warned of legislation, if the court does not resolve this issue on its own.



Clarence Thomas is the dumbest U.S. Supreme Court Justice as well as the longest serving and the most sexually creepy, I always thought, although the limber Brett Kavanaugh bounced far ahead of him in the last category.

In 2016, Thomas asked a question in court, breaking a 10-year silence. For a decade, the man had nothing to say. Was he shy? He’s no longer shy, his confidence built up from hanging with billionaire Harlan Crow.

“What first attracted you to the billionaire Harlan Crow?” I’d ask Thomas. “What first attracted you to the non-bright and biddable Justice Thomas?” I’d ask Crow.

They’re a pairing made in American hell, a bad influence on each other and a terror to fellow citizens, particularly women. For 20 years, Crow has treated Thomas and his family to luxury cruises on his yacht, flights on his private jet, and stays at his East Texas ranch and his private Adirondacks resort, ProPublica reveals. His gifts, including portraits, have been lavish. Thomas keeps them secret. 


It is a horror show.  And note the silence -- still -- from so many 'left' YOUTUBERS.  And note the shameful whores rushing in to defend Clarence and/or his sugar daddy.  The always embarrassing ATLANTIC offers garbage from Graeme Wood who rushes to defend Nazi Harlan Crow -- Clarence's sugar daddy:


Recent reporting by ProPublica has suggested that that is what Harlan Crow in fact is: a sinister Croesus meddling in world affairs, chiefly by corrupting Clarence Thomas with gifts of private-jet flights and bottles of pricey French wine.
Crow also owns Nazi memorabilia, including paintings by Adolf Hitler, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and a set of swastika-emblazoned napkins. 

But, please note, Graeme insists that doesn't make him a Nazi.  After you question Graeme's sanity, the next one is to ask if Harlan is also Graeme's sugar daddy?

No, you don't own a signed copy of MEIN KAMPF unless you're a fan boi.  If you're disturbed -- the natural reaction -- by Hitler crimes and you somehow end up with a signed copy, you throw it in the trash.  You discontinue it as a collector's item in the interest of the millions who suffered because of Hitler.  That's before we get to the paintings and the "swastika-emblazoned napkins."  

Hon, Happy April 20th.  Clarence and Ginni are coming over, where do we keep the swastika-emblazoned napkins?

I've already placed them on the sideboard, right next to our commemorative Heinrich Himmler plates.  Happy April 20th.



The incident reflects the broader lack of accountability at the high court regarding off-bench behavior. Justices regularly brush aside reporters’ queries for specifics on travel and gifts, book advances and other extracurricular activities.

They have repeatedly spurned calls by members of Congress that they adopt a formal ethics code. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin made another such plea to Roberts this week as he also urged the chief justice to open an investigation into Thomas’ conduct.   

At the same time, the high court has long benefited from a certain degree of good will, free of the scrutiny watchdog groups and news media have given the legislative and executive branches of government.

They may have squandered that good will.

Polls show the public approval of the court – now controlled by a conservative supermajority – plunging. The pattern was accelerated after last summer’s reversal of longstanding precedent in multiple cases, most notably the decision dissolving nearly a half century of abortion rights precedent.   


It's an illegitimate court and its image is in tatters.  This cannot stand. 





There’s no need to demonize and dehumanize any group of people in a legislative process stacked in Republicans state lawmakers’ favor from the get-go. Those are the spoils of 20 years of gerrymandering, packing courts with partisans and voter suppression.

Florida Republicans hold a super-majority and have all the votes in the Legislature necessary to pass whatever bill they and their autocratic agenda-setting leader, Gov. DeSantis, could possibly desire.

But they carry the bully gene in their souls.

They’ve now advanced to quash the most vulnerable among us with evil verbal attacks that have no place in society, much less the Florida House.

At a committee hearing Monday, Rep. Webster Barnaby, a Deltona Republican, railed against transgender people, calling them “demons and imps” and “mutants from another planet.”




Disgusting behavior on many levels, but the lack of decorum and civility is especially galling because he’s targeting vulnerable people — misunderstood transgender people, who have the highest suicide rates in the country.






Last month in Nashville, widely regarded as the entertainment capital of the South, Tennessee lawmakers passed a law that bans one class of entertainer: "male and female impersonators," otherwise known as drag performers. However, a day before the nation's first anti-drag law was set to take effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked it for violating the First Amendment.



That is right.  It's a free speech issue.  You wouldn't know that from watching the endlessly pontificating Jonathan Turley as he climbed the cross for every right winger who got what was coming to them -- booed.  Booing is not free speech, he Tweets endlessly and he write over and over in bad columns for FOX "NEWS" and THE NEW YORK POST.  Once upon a time, before he became so disgusting, other newspapers would carry him.  Not now.  So Swirley shows up to whine of how uncivil and mean and wrong it is when a hate merchant gets booed (or claims that they were 'assaulted' when there's no evidence to back that claim up) but when lawmakers try to strip performers of their First Amendment right, that doesn't warrant a column -- after over a year of this, he will do a blog post -- where he pretends he just stop breast feeding his own children and -- having birthed children (and nearly gotten back that figure) -- he knows how disgusting drag queens are but . . .  maybe even they have some rights too?  Such is the decaying mind of what once the country's leading legal light.  




Back to Roman Feeser:

How did drag queens get dragged into politics? For that, we turn to the city of Jackson, Tennessee.

In March, Tennessee state Rep. Chris Todd, a Republican, indicated to the state Senate that it was his constituents who requested he take up the bill: "This past year in my community, we had a local group decide to do a, quote, family-friendly drag show. When they listed this as family-friendly, my community rose up."

The community of Jackson never even saw the scheduled Pride performance before opponents raised thousands of dollars in donations and filed an injunction to prevent it from taking place. Todd then introduced the new bill as an obscenity statute to prevent "adult cabaret performers like drag queens from performing in public spaces where children could be present."

Critics of the bill say an obscenity law is already on the books, and that this is specifically targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.




And it does target them.  That's why these laws are being proposed.  But that doesn't concern Jonathan Turley.  He's too busy throwing his lot in with Lorie Smith -- the web 'designer' who insists her free speech rights would be abused and denied if she were forced to design a website for a same-sex couple.  Jonathan's so deep in his homophobia that he can't even note that the woman has no standing.  She's not been asked to do this and said "no."  But, you know, maybe someday, it might come up, possibly.  So by all means let's waste the Supreme Court's time.  Once upon a time, law professors grasped standing, taught standing and questioned it when a case moved forward when the person bringing it did not have standing.


But when, like Jonathan Turley, you now drop to all fours and beg the bigotry to take you from behind, you can't be bothered with legal concepts.

If he didn't also agree to a ball-gag, maybe he could explain to us all how Lorie Smith has been injured?  She thinks she will.  She thinks someday a same-sex couple is going to come to her for a website -- they'd have to be really self-loathing to pay her any money -- and that, when that happens, she will be damaged.  Where's the injury right now?  There is none.



But that's what we have that no one wants to get honest about:  A crazed right-wing, motivated by hate, working to overturn the rights of everyone.  They plot in secret, they seek out idiots like Lorie Smith to pursue cases and they try to get those cases with the judges they want.  I'd argue the whole thing is a criminal conspiracy that is abusing the courts and is a threat to democracy.    As Nazi worshipper Harlan Crow demonstrates, big money gives you access.  Clarence Thomas' sugar daddy is all about pay-to-play and democracy and the law are destroyed as a result.  

But don't look to Turley to weigh in on that, he's too busy gazing up at the hate merchants as he kneels before them, ready to service their every need.


It's really sad when someone's kink is so out of control that they let it destroy their reputation but, boys and girls, that's how low Turley's sunk.



Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro visibly stumbled as he attempted to defend Republican billionaire donor Harlan Crow’s ownership of Nazi memorabilia and remnants from totalitarian regimes.


The Daily Wire founder used his latest podcast to defend Clarence Thomas’ from ProPublica’s report that the Supreme Court justice accepted luxurious gifts and vacations paid for by Crow, and Thomas never marked any of this down in his financial disclosures. This led to Shapiro fuming over the scrutiny Crow has received for his collection of historical pieces from toppled autocracies.



How sad, how very sad.  Billy on the "Unplugged" episode of DIFFICULT PEOPLE (Billy Eichner's character) was tempted by Cecil Jefford until he saw the man's collection of Nazi artifacts.  That was all it took for Billy.  Sadly, the same cannot be said for Ben Shapiro and, Ben, John Mulaney is not playing the part of Harlan Crow.  So exactly what is it that has turned your head?


(John Mulaney's next comedy special debuts on NETFLIX, April 25th, FYI.)


Ben Shapiro can take comfort in the fact that he's still young.  John Stauber can't claim to be young.  Or good looking.





For those who don't know, George Sorors has given to Human Rights Watch so John's furious.  I don't like George Soros.  I'm on record and that goes back to the '00s.  I had to go on record because Ava and I were accused of taking Soros money.  I don't take blood money.  And I'm not a whore.  I can't be bought.  Why did the rumor start?  Ava and I wrote a piece that numerous sites reposted (without our permission, which is fine) and many were, like Danny Schechter's MEDIA CHANNEL, sites that took money from Soros.  We did not take money from him.  We did not take money from anyone.  We were not asked by anyone if they could reprint and we were not told by anyone that they had reposted us.  I knew Danny offline.  When I found out that the Soros claim was because of Danny's reposting, I asked him if he realized that he had damaged our reputation and he replied with a list of other sites that had reposted Ava and my piece.  Those people may have received money from Soros (I know Danny did) but Ava and I didn't.  And we made clear of that and that we found the assertion offensive because George Soros has made his money off the blood of others. That is his line of work.  Others have to suffer for him to profit.  

Unlike John Stauber, I reject George Soros.  John kind of does.  He pretends he's enraged by everyone who takes Soros money and but then he reTweets Susan "Medea" Benjamin, for example.  Does he really not know how much money Soros has given Global Exchange?  

He's deranged.  (Actually both are, John and George.)



How stupid is John?  I mean, I know he's stupid.  Rebecca's rightly pointed out "john stauber is the 21st century david horowitz."  He's gone over to the right and offers his homophobia and his transphobia and reTweets the most objectionable people -- as Rebecca and Ruth have repeatedly documented.  (He also blocked me when I objected to his lying about a friend of mine in a Tweet.  John just makes up garbage these days.)   But has he lost all his marbles (Ruth was just saying he was senile with dementia.)  The reason I ask is it was last week that the new spokesperson was noted.  And yet FOX BUSINESS NEWS knows the immediate impact.  From looking at sales records?  No, from cherry picking a few bars.  Is it even five?  Bad writing bores me and I didn't make it through the whole article.  

Imagine that, FOX BUSINESS "NEWS" -- from the network trying to demonize trans people -- publishes an article with no real figures or, for that matter, data and former media critic John Stauber swallows it down to the hairy root.   Well, at least he's found a calling.  He's kind of like a priest . . . with too much time on his hands and unlimited access to minors.

On Iraq, MEMO notes:

The Iraqi government has called on Turkiye to apologise for an attack on an airport in the country's northern Kurdish region, Reuters news agency reports.

According to the report, the Iraqi demand on Saturday came as a Turkish Defence Ministry official told the Reuters news agency that no Turkish Armed Forces operation had taken place in that region in recent days.

Iraq's presidency said the attack on Friday took place in the vicinity of the Sulaimaniyah Airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, denouncing it as a "flagrant aggression" against its sovereignty.



The US press that has ignored this attack continue to ignore it.  




The following sites updated:



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