THE DAILY BEAST notes Lauren Boebert getting kicked out of BEETLEJUICE and what the woman seated behind her had to endure:
“I’ve never seen anyone act like that before,” the unidentified woman told a columnist for The Denver Post on
Wednesday. Boebert’s “outrageous” behavior included vaping ad nauseam,
and simply replying “no” when the woman—who said she is
pregnant—requested she stop. The Republican representative also filmed
the show for long stretches at a time, and was “kissing the man she was
with,” according to the Post.
Surveillance
video captured during the "Beetlejuice" musical in Denver on Sunday
appears to show Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., vaping inside the theater,
which contradicts her aide's claim that the smoke was emitted from fog
machines.
The video,
obtained by NBC's Denver affiliate, shows Boebert sitting in the
theater next to a man she was with as people around her were still
getting seated. It then shows her raise one of her hands to her face,
and then a puff of smoke comes out of her mouth toward the person in
front of her.
The lights seem to be lowered in the theater, and the woman sitting behind Boebert leaned in to speak to her. The Denver Post said the woman was pregnant and asked that Boebert stop vaping, which the congresswoman refused to do.
Friday, September 15, 2023. The US Treasury Department's Elizabeth
Rosenberg meets with officials in Iraq -- including one that has some
shocked, Robert F. Kennedy Jr's poll numbers continue to drop, media
malpractice is all around as Ron DeSantis is allowed to lie repeatedly
on CBS EVENING NEWS and as Mike Pence lies about his state's law (just
as Ron did before him) and gets away with it because, goodness, my, oh,
my, it's so 'hard' for the media to fact check and do their damn job
apparently.
The US Treasury’s assistant secretary is in Iraq to meet with top
officials on combatting corruption and the smuggling of the dollar
abroad as the Iraqi dinar’s value continues to plummet and dollars
remain scarce in the market.
Elizabeth Rosenberg, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and
Financial Crimes at the US Department of the Treasury, arrived in
Baghdad on Tuesday to make “progress on int’l [international] anti-money
laundering & banking reform” to “help combat corruption &
support international invest in Iraq,” US Ambassador to Iraq Alina
Romanowski said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Rosenberg met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on
Wednesday, discussing joint US-Iraq financial cooperation “and the Iraqi
government’s measures to implement financial and banking reforms to
reduce corruption in all its forms,” said a statement from Sudani’s
office.
Not everyone was pleased with the meet-up.
October
11, 2020, Kataeb Hizbollah and the US government declared a cease
fire. That ended on both sides in February 2021. Kataeb Hizollah ended
it on February 15, 2021 when they attacked a US base in Erbil (KRG part
of Iraq). For the US government, it ended on February 26th when they
launched air strikes on Kataeb Hizbollah in retaliation for the attack
on the US base.
The group came to prominence in 2007 for attacks against U.S.-led Coalition forces in Iraq,[35][51] and was known for uploading videos of its attacks on American forces on the internet.[52] The militia's main tactics were to fire rockets and mortar shells at U.S. bases, sniper attacks, and detonate roadside bombs along routes where the forces moved.[53]
On 15 March 2007, four U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Baghdad when IEDs planted by Kata'ib Hezbollah detonated near their unit.[54][55]
On 25 September 2007, Staff Sgt. Zachary B. Tomczak was shot dead by a Kata'ib Hezbollah sniper in Baghdad. His killing was captured on video and posted online by the KH militia.[56][57]
On 4 October 2007, U.S. Army Spc. Avealalo Milo
was killed by a Kata'ib Hezbollah sniper shot in Baghdad. The attack
was recorded and subsequently published online by the militia.[58][59]
On 4 June 2008, Kata'ib Hezbollah conducted a rocket attack that
was meant to target Coalition forces but instead killed 18 civilians in
Baghdad.[60][61]
In mid-2008, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a crackdown against the group and the "Special Groups",
the US military term for Iran-backed militias in Iraq. At least 30 of
its members were captured during those months. Many of the group's
leaders were also captured and US officials claimed that "as result much
of the leadership fled to Iran".[62][63]
In December 2009, the group intercepted the unencrypted video feed of MQ-1 Predator UAVs above Iraq.[64]
On 12 February 2010, a firefight with suspected members of the group occurred 265 km (165 mi) southeast of Baghdad
in a village near the Iranian border, the U.S. military said. Twelve
people were arrested, it said. "The joint security team was fired upon
by individuals dispersed in multiple residential buildings ... members
of the security team returned fire, killing individuals assessed to be
enemy combatants," the military said in a statement. The Provincial
Iraqi officials said many of the dead were innocent bystanders, and
demanded compensation. They said eight people were killed.[65]
On 13 July 2010, General Ray Odierno named Kata'ib Hezbollah as being behind threats against American bases in Iraq.
"In the last couple weeks there's been an increased threat ... and so
we've increased our security on some of our bases," Odierno told
reporters at a briefing in Baghdad.[66]
On 6 June 2011, Kata'ib Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad killing six U.S. soldiers.[67] Another five soldiers were also wounded in the attack.[68]
On 29 June 2011, Kata'ib Hezbollah fired IRAM rockets that struck a US base near the Iranian border – COP Shocker. The attack resulted in the deaths of three American soldiers.[69] A videotape of the rocket attack was published online by the militia.[70]
In July 2011, an Iraqi intelligence official estimated the
group's size at 1,000 fighters and said the militants were paid between
$300 and $500 per month.[71][72]
The Al-Qa'im border crossing
has seen hastened military activity as the group is expected to play an
important military and security role as the crossing with Syria is
officially opened on September 30, 2019.[73][74]
Across the country, the hate merchants lie and sport
stupidity. Which was Mike Pence doing recently? Wednesday, NEWS NATION
held a townhall where former US Vice President Mike Pence, now running
for the GOP's presidential nomination, took questions. Charlie Nash (NEWS NATION) notes one mother asked the following:
Melissa McCollister: Good
evening, vice president. I am an LGBTQ member and I have trans
individuals in my family. Recent anti-LGBTQ bills have been signed into
law all around this United States, including here in Iowa. So far, in
2023, 15 transgender individuals and gender-nonconforming people have
been murdered. The vast majority of those people have been Black and
Latinx transgender women. It is very hard for me to ask these questions
after just hearing what I heard. What is your policy plan to protect the
transgender community, specifically Black and brown trans women from
historically high levels of violence?
You can read Nash's article for the long winded response
from Mike Pence. We don't have the time (as Ben Taylor sings). What we
do have time for is to correct the record.
It's
the same incorrect information that Ron DeSantis declared and we called
him out. He's the governor of Florida, he should know Florida law.
Pence was governor of Indiana until 2017. He should know the state's
law.
More to the point, when are journalists going to do their damn job?
I'm really not in the mood.
Here's the part of Mike Pence's response that is factually wrong:
For
me, what adults do in their lives, decisions that they make, including
transgender adults, is one thing, but for kids under the age of 18—
there’s a reason why we don’t let you drive ’til you’re 16. In the state
of Indiana, you can’t get a tattoo until after you’re 18, you can’t
drink until after you’re 21, that’s because we understand that kids
don’t fully understand the consequences of their actions.
"In the state of Indiana, you can't get a tattoo until after you're 18." No.
That is wrong.
It sounds wrong. It should sound wrong to everyone. And it is wrong. It was wrong when Ron lied about Florida law.
That, say it with me, requires parental permission if you're under the age of 18.
Okay,
I get ticked when reporters don't care about facts. A NEWSWEEK editor
can tell you how long I screamed over the phone at him in the 90s when
they did a filler article about sex on TV and talked about how Matthew
Perry's Chandler Bing on an episode of FRIENDS handcuffed Rachel's boss
(Alison La Placa) while they were in a sexual relationship.
Do you see the problem?
Chandler didn't handcuff her, she handcuffed him. And I still can't let it go. All these years later.
Or
the response which was, "It's just a TV show." It's a TV show you
elected to assign a writer to write about and then elected to publish an
article about. It does matter. It's also true -- and I raised this in
real time as well -- that the culture norms of the 90s were a lot more
comfortable with a man handcuffing a woman. Look at all the 90s films
with any BDSM elements -- I'm talking mainstream films -- the worst is
Madonna's BODY OF EVIDENCE but they're all pretty awful and they all
feel the need to have the handcuffed man or the spanked man assert his
'dominance' over the woman. (Reality, many S&M relationships have
women in charge.)
So they weren't reflecting reality, NEWSWEEK wasn't, but it was lying.
And
that's the case with the media that covered Ron DeSantis lie and NEWS
NATION covering Mike Pence's lie. They're just typing up remarks.
They're not doing any real work and they're certainly not doing
journalism.
If you are a
parent or plan to be a parent or hope to be a parent and you hear a
claim about how children can't do this or that, you're natural reaction
should be, "Really?"
And,
parent or not or not ever want to be, if you're in the media and
someone's making claims about laws regarding children, you should
immediately take five seconds to GOOGLE.
Lies have fueled the attacks on the transgender community.
At this late date, I don't feel like forgiving any 'journalist' who can't do their damn job on this subject.
Pence
lied in front of a group of people, cited the Bible, tried to play
caring and understanding while endorsing parents being stripped of
rights. It's not your damn business what medical attention a parent and
a doctor decide is needed. It's not your damn business.
But
to justify this break with basic rights, to act like it's normal, Ron
DeSantis and Mike Pence both resort to the exact same lie: You can't
even get a tattoo if you're under 18!!!
LIE.
In
Indiana, as in Florida, someone under 18 can get a tattoo if the parent
gives permission (Florida also allows medical tattoos -- Indiana law
makes no mention of them).
And
that's how it should be. If your parent (or legal guardian) says you
can get a tattoo at whatever age, that's not my business.
But
they lie -- Ron and Mike -- and the media helps them lie so that we'll
all cluck and say, "Oh, can't even get a tattoo why should they be
allowed to be on hormone blockers or have surgery"? Why? Because the
parent and the doctor have made the private, medical decision that is
legal and should remain that way.
THE
NEW YORK TIMES has done so much damage with regards to the trans
community and that goes far beyond their nonsense that egged on Bette
Midler to make a fool of herself on Twitter. (I'm with Kim Brown -- I
don't work for Musk, I'll call it what it's known as: Twitter.) The
paper has lied over and over and intentionally misled. People think
"liberal paper." No, not really. It not only did not lead on climate
change, it never leads on science. Look at their archives and see how
they responded to the science on extinction level events. That's not a
pretty tale and, time and again, NYT has been reactionary with regards
to science and medicine. Look at their hideous and homophobic coverage
of AIDS and grasp that we were calling that out in real time. Don't
say, "Oh, it was the 80s." Yes, it was the 80s and, yes, their coverage
was homophobic and, no, there was no excuse for it.
And
when politicians start insisting that they have the right to interfere
in your child's medical treatment that you and the doctor you have
elected to take your child to because, they lie, you can't even get a
tattoo when you're under 18, it is the job of the press to state, "This
is not true."
Instead, they keep letting Ron DeSantis and now Mike Pence lie.
Journalism
is supposed to hold the powerful accountable and that includes calling
them out when they lie -- or, if you prefer, when they misspeak -- out
of malice or stupidity.
It's not too much, especially on a charged topic like this, to expect journalist to do their damn jobs.
When
they fail to do so, they allow the lies and misinformation that created
the culture of fear to begin with to flourish. So do your damn job.
The hate merchants are very focused on the destruction they want to
carry out. If you're not up to the job of covering what's going on,
admit it and quit. Stop pretending you're a journalist if you're not
doing your job.
Another
128 school library books here are being reviewed — and will be
permanently removed if found to have sexual content, district officials
told the School Board this week.
All
the books stem from continuing challenges made by the local chapter of
Moms for Liberty, a conservative political group, over the past two
years.
[. . .]
Among
the books most recently removed: Alice Walker's "The Color Purple,"
which won a Pulitzer Prize; and "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison. New
York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult no longer comes up in a
search of books available in the district's libraries, as 20 of her 30
novels made the list of challenged books to review.
In
2022, Moms for Liberty asked for 156 books to be removed, citing sexual
or racial content. In February 2022, the School Board removed just five
of them. Since then, the group found an additional 98 books to be
challenged, said chapter President Jennifer Pippin.
In
Chester County, Pennsylvania -- a suburb of Philadelphia -- Ronna
Dewey, a mother with a recently graduated son, was alarmed when calls
for the removal of certain books started occurring in her district in 2021.
"Two
of the books in particular that they were targeting were written by and
about people who identify as part of [the LGBTQ] community," Dewey,
whose son is gay, told ABC News. "And so, it felt really personal to me.
It felt like a direct attack on my son and my family."
If you're wondering, Shannon Grady is the hate merchant there. She's a Moms For Bigotry hate merchant. ABC notes:
Schools
in many parts of the U.S. have become a battleground and parental
involvement is one of the topics at the center. Fights in school board
meetings, including in Chester County, have erupted over how race,
sexual orientation, gender and other topics are brought up, or taught,
in the classroom.
Moms for Liberty, in particular, has come under fire over
its political ties and its calls to remove material from schools that,
critics say, feature LGBTQ+ characters and promote racial inclusivity.
The group has responded to this criticism in the past, calling it “laughable” and saying it lacks credibility.
Some
parents are arguing their children don't need to be exposed to certain
topics at certain ages while some parents on the other side of the
debate say they trust the schools and teachers to determine which topics
and materials are age-appropriate for the students.
And who's unhappy? Not most parents with kids enrolled in schools:
Despite the seemingly contentious discussion about the state of the U.S. education system, a recent Gallup poll found parents are generally satisfied with the quality of their children's K-12 education.
At
least 76% of parents of K-12 students say they are "completely" or
"somewhat" satisfied with the quality of the education their oldest
child is receiving.
[. . .]
Katie
Paris, a mother in Ohio, and the founder of Red, Wine and Blue -- a
progressive political mobilizing group -- said she saw these topics
coming under attack during school board meetings.
"Anything
that mentioned words like 'diversity' or 'inclusion' or 'equity' those
all of a sudden, were becoming kind of lightning bolt controversial
phrases," she told ABC News. "But just this small minority of people who
were getting very loud … and I think parents were concerned about the
impact that this was going to have on their kids."
"Our
suburban communities are becoming more diverse, and we have a lot of
pride actually in the steps for the progress that we're making together,
in terms of better understanding [what it means] to really respect our
differences and grow together in these communities and thrive in a
diverse environment," she continued. "For me, as a parent, I know that
for my kids to be successful, they need to be exposed to reality, and
diverse viewpoints, learning real accurate history."
Elliot’s bill was introduced during a five-day special session that
was originally called to address redistricting legislation. Though the
bill ultimately did not make it to the floor, Elliot warned that this
would not be the end of his interest in the archives department,
telling Alabama Daily News, “What I was proposing was minor compared to what’s coming.”
This
is new territory for IHP, which is headquartered in Birmingham and
works to preserve LGBTQ+ history across the American southeast. Since
Dr. Sullivan and her cofounder, Josh Burford, launched their project in 2018, presentations have largely taken place without scandal. But in a political climate that is partly characterized by attacks on trans youth, gender-affirming care, and abortion services, it seems another element of queer culture is now under attack: history itself.
“There's something insidious about coming after archives, coming after history,” Dr. Sullivan tells Teen Vogue.
“It's like, 'Let's go after the people. Let's push them back in the
closet. Let's eradicate them from public view, and then let's erase any
trace of the progress that they had made and that they were here
previously.'”
Says
Molly Tepera, a digital archivist at the University of Texas at Dallas,
book bans are easier for politicians to execute because they’re about
censoring individual titles, not entire collections. Dr. Sullivan says
it’s all part of a broader “anti-intellectualism” trend.
In
other news of hate merchants, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Whiner and crackpot Junior. We told
you at the start of last month his support was dropping. That was
obvious, you just had to pay attention. In the middle of August, Katherine Fung (NEWSWEEK) had the hard numbers:
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows Kennedy with
13 percent support from Democrats or Democratic-leaning voters, a 3.5
percentage point decrease from June's survey.
The
most recent poll, conducted from August 10 to August 14 among 1,632
likely voters, also showed a slight uptick in support for self-help
author Marianne Williamson. She received 9 percent support in August,
compared to 8 percent in June. Biden also saw a bump from 70 percent
support to 72 percent in the last two months.
Those
numbers are part of a national trend that shows Kennedy on a downward
trajectory. He had a RealClearPolitics average of 20 percent in April, a
stronger-than-expected showing that fell to 16.8 percent in June. As of
Wednesday, his average from the polling data aggregator is 13.3
percent.
Last week the RFK, Jr. Redemption Tour took him to the friendly confines of the Jimmy Dore Show, where he continued to grunt out slanders about Palestinians: “We give 800 million a year to the Palestinian Authority, which uses that money to pay bounties to Palestinians
who kill Jews. Not government officials, but civilians. So if you go to
Israel…Uhm…So if you kill a Jew anywhere in the world and you’re a
Palestinian, the Palestinian Authority will pay you money for
that…There’s this mentality, especially on the liberal left, that
portrays Israel as a kind of occupying nation sitting on Palestinian
land and the whole thing is a lie from start to end.”
Speaking
of poor polling and likely voter drop off, Ron DeSantis. Mike covers
Doo-Doo Ron Ron Desantis at his site regularly, so be sure to check that
out. Due to poor polling, we're seeing a 'new' Ron of late. Why he
doesn't hate anyone. He's not racist, he's not homophobic, he won't
arrest women for having abortions.
In
case you forgot, as Aretha sang, Ron was supposed to be the front
runner. He's never been. And his support has slid down so far that
last week his campaign began saying that a second place win in Iowa
would be great. (In Iowa, the GOP does a primary. The Democrats do a
caucus.) In case you forgot, when he failed to live up to the polling
promises early in the campaign, they began calling mannish Casey
DeSantis his "secret weapon." Those days are long gone. Casey couldn't
save her friend's job on his campaign and she couldn't save Ron. There
are no more "secret weapons."
There
is only reality and that reality decrees Ron needs to drop his war on
'woke' because it has run off voters and because that jibes with recent
elections where the GOP's learned the hard way that 'woke' is not an
issue animating voters. So now Ron has to say new words.
And he wants to be believed.
But should we waste our time on that nonsense?
No.
Appearing on CBS EVENING NEWS yesterday with Norah O'Donnell, he lied over and over.
Florida Gov. and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis said the NAACP is
pulling a "stunt" by calling Florida hostile to Black Americans, other
minorities and LGBTQ+ people.
The NAACP has issued a warning that Florida is "openly hostile for
African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals." In an
interview with DeSantis, CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor
Norah O'Donnell asked if he would represent the entire country, and
whether everyone could feel welcome in DeSantis' America.
"A hundred percent," DeSantis responded.
No,
he would not. A real journalist who was prepared for the interview
would have immediately offered examples of how that is not his history.
Let's focus on that first part of the report. A "stunt." The NAACP is
pulling a "stunt." Yeah, sounds like he's changed (that was sarcasm).
In case you forgot, he 'revised' the Florida curriculum. This was done
by his hand picked crew. And they decided that slavery was nothing but a
government works program -- kind of like FDR's WPA? -- that imparted
valuable skills and knowledge.
And he has the audacity to accuse the NAACP of pulling a "stunt." We're
not done yet. Because of his actions, Ryan Palmeter killed three
African-Americans in a Dollar General shooting in Florida. The three
killed were 19-year-old Anolt Joseph "AJ" Laguerre Jr., 29-year-old
Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion and 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr. At the
press event to garner attention on the backs of the dead, Ron DeSantis
was booed loudly by the majority of African-Americans present. We're
still not done. Then he ran back to the campaign trail and when an
African-American who was a veteran of the US military 'dared' to
question him, Ronald exploded and had the man kicked out of the campaign
event.
And he wants to accuse the NAACP of pulling a "stunt."
He went on to toss out figures that really have no bearing such as, "But in Florida, our unemployment rate amongst African Americans is way lower than New York, California and these blue states." Florida is tied with Maryland with 3.6% unemployment rate among African-Americans. Per the data from the Economic Policy Institute for 2023,
the following states have African-American unemployment rates lower
than 3.6%: George, Alabama (the lowest of the 50 states with 2.2%),
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Maryland (which is tied with Florida) is a "blue state" as are New
Hampshire and Vermont. He continues to struggle when it comes to being
honest and truthful.
A state judge on Saturday rejected congressional district boundaries
affecting communities across North Florida, saying they
unconstitutionally restrict Black voting power and that Florida’s
Legislature must redraw them.
“By dismantling a congressional district that enabled Black voters to
elect their candidates of choice under the previous plan, the enacted
plan violates … the Florida Constitution,” Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in Tallahassee ruled.
In the 55-page ruling, he also noted that throughout history "Florida has been a state home to discrimination in voting."
Golly Ronald didn't mention that (and Norah O'Donnell didn't raise it). But it's the NAACP that's pulling a "stunt"?
Back to the report on the very bad interview:
Still, O'Donnell pointed out that because of DeSantis' policies in the
Sunshine State, some minorities and members of the LGBTQ community think
he would discriminate against them. DeSantis said some of the blame for
that lies with the media.
"Well, part of the reason they think that is 'cause of narratives that
are put out by media," DeSantis responded. "I mean, for example, when we
had the fight with Disney over the elementary education about, should
you have things about sex and gender identity telling a second grader
that their gender's fluid? We said, 'Absolutely not.' Parents in Florida
agreed. And throughout — the country I think agreed with that."
He wants to mention DISNEY?
With all the money he's lost Florida and is losing Florida because of
his war with DISNEY? Interesting.
He lies again -- did Norah not push back -- "over the elementary education." And then he wants to say second grader.
Why?
Because he's a liar who wants to make his actions seem far less extreme
than they were. If Norah didn't push back, shame on her. Here's
reality CBS NEWS viewers were deprived of:
The Florida board of education has voted to expand the so-called “Don’t
Say Gay” law, banning classroom instruction on gender identity and
sexual orientation to all grades.
Under the original Parental Rights in Education law,
which was signed into law last year, instruction on gender identity and
sexual orientation was banned for K-3 students, but teachers in grades
4-12 were allowed to offer this kind of instruction if it was deemed
developmentally appropriate. What developmentally appropriate means is
up to the Florida department of education to determine.
But under the expansion,
which was proposed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration last
month and approved on Wednesday, all public school students will be
banned from learning about these topics, unless required by existing
state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that
students can opt out of.
If that's the case, heads need to roll among her staff. Someone should have prepared her for that ahead of the interview.
No this doesn't end in elementary school and Ronald knows that. He lied to make it seem less extreme.
He is liar, a damn liar.
And only an idiot's going to believe him when he claims that he'd be welcoming of all Americans. Let's note that again:
In an interview with DeSantis, CBS Evening News anchor and managing
editor Norah O'Donnell asked if he would represent the entire country,
and whether everyone could feel welcome in DeSantis' America.
"A hundred percent," DeSantis responded.
No, he's not going to. And let's note that American citizens are people
born in this country (as well as those who seek citizenship). I can
forgive Norah for not knowing one thing. She's paid a lot of money to
sit at that desk but she's only one person. I cannot forgive her when
the entire interview is one mistake after another. He's going to be
welcoming to all Americans?
Andressa Reis, a 29-year-old from Coconut Creek, repeatedly refers to
her U.S. citizenship status as a “privilege.” She was born in Florida
after her newlywed Brazilian parents, who were in the United States at
the time, decided to start a family.
“It was pretty common within my community to have people who were
undocumented,” Reis said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “So I
grew up recognizing the privilege I had. I didn’t have to go through a
quarter of the fight that most people do.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, however, is promising that if he is elected
president, he will eliminate the constitutional guarantee of citizenship
for children born in the United States to migrants who entered the
country illegally.
DeSantis made the promise to end birthright citizenship this week as
he unveiled a host of hardline immigration policies meant to appeal to
conservative voters. Former President Donald Trump also vowed years ago
to do so through an executive order and, though he never followed
through, has renewed the promise for the 2024 campaign.
Norah let him lie on national TV. The media doesn't do their job over
and over and it's how these hate merchants get away with so much. We
long ago noted that the backlash against them had started and it has.
But let's never forget that the media helped publicize these hate
merchants and their programs by refusing to call out lies over and
over. People around the country suffer right now because the media
refused to do its job.
Ron DeSantis is only 44, but he may already have a kind of dementia that threatens US security, given this exchange with CBS News’s Nora O’Donnell on using the US military against drug cartels in Mexico…
O’Donnell: “Would you send missiles into Mexico?”
DeSantis: “We would use all available — the tactics, I think,
can be debated. If you have something you want to accomplish, people
would brief you on the different ways you’d be able to do it. So, that
would be dependent on the situation.”
O’Donnell: “But launching military forces into Mexico is a much different standard, that’s why I’m asking the question.”
DeSantis: “The reality is they’re overrunning our border … Do we
just throw up our hands and say there’s nothing we can do about it?”
Lastly,
I wasn't planning on reviewing Naomi Klein's new book. I like the book
but I wasn't planning on reviewing it. I'll look at my schedule for
tomorrow later and see if I have time to do a review on Saturday.
Warning, I don't do fluff. I have a serious problem with one aspect of
the book. If I do a review, I will probably focus on that because no
one else probably is. But I do think it's a good book and I do think
it's worth reading.
Lauren Boebert allegedly
called a pregnant woman a “sad and miserable person“ after she asked
the GOP representative to stop vaping during a Denver Beetlejuiceshow.
The right-wing congresswoman and a companion were escorted out of a Colorado theatre’s performance of Beetlejuice on Sunday night for allegedly vaping, singing, taking pictures and “causing a disturbance,” reported The Denver Post.
I don't know. That's fairly obvious to me but maybe it's not if you've not been pregnant. Boe-boe's been pregnant.
When
you're pregnant, you can have food cravings, absolutely. You can also
have your sense of smell go out of whack. Things that normally smell
good may not. The notion that you are going to vape tobacco near a
pregnant woman? Nope. That was so rude and that was so, yes, laughable
when you grasp that Boe-Boe is 'pro-life' because she 'cares' about
children -- as she vapes next to a pregnant woman? As American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation notes, vaping does result in second hand smoke. Tell us again, how you're pro-life Lauren Boebert.
But
c’mon, folks. Causing a scene and violating rules is a central tenet of
modern-day Republicanism, and Boebert, a dollar-store version of the
infamously disruptive Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, was just
doing what she does routinely in the halls of Congress and in front of
any television camera she can find.
Thursday, September 14, 2023. Efforts to ban books increase, the
family of a woman with dual citizenship (she's a citizen of Russia and
of Israel) wants the US to play "cops of the world," and much more.
The United States should use its influence to help win the freedom of a Russian-Israeli academic at Princeton University who
went missing in Iraq nearly six months ago and is believed to be held
by an Iran-backed militia regarded by Washington as a terrorist group,
her sister said Wednesday.
No, we
shouldn't. The woman is most likely a spy and, if not, she's an idiot.
Regardless, she had no business being in Iraq and she's not an American
citizen. She created her own little international incident and if she
needs help now, she can turn to Russia or to Israel -- those her
countries. Stop pushing your problems off on others. Deal with your
stupidity -- and it's stupidity either way, actually. She was stupid to
have gone to Iraq as an 'academic' or she was stupid as a spy for being
so obvious.
This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times of
London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have
been hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody
Laith al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused of
murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly
did so because his organization was not going to release any of the five
British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and the US
military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has nothing to
do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released him to
Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very
sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government,
the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept
the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put it in another
format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the
political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages.
And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join the
political process and release their hostages while their leaders are
behind bars or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for
hostages and they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to
people about it. At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters
were unable to even broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon
reporters did press the issue and got the standard line from the
department's spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the
prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't hand him over to any organization --
terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq did, Whitman wanted the press to
know, was what Iraq did. A complete lie that really insults the
intelligence of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were:
Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N.
Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of
Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York;
and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are
the five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais
al-Khazali are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states that
Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the release and
has declared, "They freed them? The American military did? Somebody
needs to answer for it."
There
was no reason for the US to be involved in that issue. Five American
servicemembers were killed. Their killers were in custody. Four
mercenaries from the UK and one computer consultant had been kidnapped
two years prior. Going in the chances were strong that every one of
them was dead. Turns out Peter Moore was alive (the computer guy).
(The four contractors were all killed: Jason Swindlehurst, Jason
Creswell, Alec Maclachlan and Alan McMenemy.)
Killers
of five US troops in US custody -- one of which was the ringleader of
the League of Righteous -- a terrorist organization. The handover was
beyond stupid and had no benefits for the US or for Iraq. It was a huge
mistake which is why so few people talk about today -- we must protect
Barack at all costs.
What he did was
outrageous. Not only was he making a deal with terrorists -- and
letting them set the terms -- he was releasing the killers of Americans
which was bad for the US. And bad for Iraq was letting these killers
out so that they could terrorize the Iraqi people -- which is what they
continue to do.
And on top of everything,
Barack looked like an idiot on the world stage and that's when the US
media lost interest in the topic. He gave the terrorists what they
wanted: the release of all killers in custody. And? They released
some. Some. Not all five. A few months later, in August of that year,
they were talking big to the press about how they'd do what they wanted
and they didn't trust Barack. Big talk was easy because Barack had
released the killers. Not handed them over to Iraqi courts and jails,
mind you, just released them, like turning a turtle back into the wild.
They mocked him, the Arabic press was all over that story.
There was no great win in that. And those five British citizens should have been the focus of their own government.
The
Israeli-Russia woman and her family need to appeal to the countries
she's a citizen of. She's not an American citizen and US interests do
not need to be wasted on her in Iraq.
Iraq has
enough issues and enough problems that the US government could help with
-- such as bringing people to the table to implement the Constitutional
article to determine the status of Kirkuk. When Bully Boy Bush was in
the White House, the Iraqi Constitution called for that to be
implemented. Then prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki
refused to do so. Brookings warned that the failure to implement it
presented real risks to Iraq's future.
We've now seen that even more so.
That's what our diplomatic mission should be.
And
if the governments of Israel and Russia want to use their diplomatic
resources to rescue the stupid woman, that's their business. But she is
not a US priority and she is not an Iraqi priority.
And
I'm not seeing any history of that woman or her sister advocating for
the release of Julian Assange or any other political prisoner so
apparently they only believe in themselves. Not going to rush to help
selfish people.
JEWISH NEWS SYNDICATE notes,
"While Tsurkov is not a U.S. citizen, Emma is pressing Washington to
use its financial support to Iraq as leverage to secure her sister’s
freedom." The US government is not and should not be the cops of the
world. Your sister has two countries who can help her due to her
citizenship: Russia and Israel.
Elizabeth
Tsurkov is not a US citizen, limiting the tools at the American
government's disposal and the direct ability of Washington officials to
secure her release. But Emma Tsurkov contends that the US government
still has substantial influence given that her sister has significant US
ties as a “graduate student in an American institution that is approved
and funded for research."
No
that does not create a legal obligation and instead of fighting
windmills, her sister should be using the resources she does have to
appeal to the governments of Russia and Israel.
Though
doppelgängers reliably elicit feelings of vertigo, I find the sudden
prevalence of doubles oddly comforting. For years I struggled privately
with a problem I considered rather niche: being perennially confused and
conflated with another writer and outspoken political analyst named
Naomi, Naomi Wolf, even though I bear only a passing resemblance to her.
(And I would see the same thing happening to her.) Once best known for
best-selling feminist books like “The Beauty Myth” and for a controversial role advising
Al Gore’s presidential run, Ms. Wolf has more recently distinguished
herself as an industrial-scale disseminator of vaccine-related medical
misinformation, as well as a fixture on pro-Trump shows like the one
hosted daily by Steve Bannon.
I
sometimes wondered what I had done to deserve my doppelgänger woes.
With popular culture feeling increasingly like a house of mirrors with
duplicated and simulated and similar selves endlessly refracted, many
more of us may soon be dealing with versions of doppelgänger confusion.
What role is this proliferation of doubles, twins and clones playing?
Doppelgängers, which combine the German words for doppel (double) with
gänger (goer), are often regarded as warnings, or omens.
In
an attempt to better understand the warnings carried by my doppelgänger
experience, I spent many evenings immersing myself in the rich
repertory of doppelgänger films. One that proved particularly helpful
was Jordan Peele’s “Us.” This 2019 horror film imagines a society much
like our own, only sitting on top of a shadowy underworld, inhabited by
warped doubles of everyone living aboveground. Every move above is
mirrored below in darkness and misery. Until the underground
doppelgängers get tired of the arrangement and wreak havoc.
Who are these underground people? one terrified character asks.
“We’re Americans,” comes the gut punch of an answer.
The
film has been interpreted as an allegory for capitalism’s entanglements
with racial and other forms of oppression, with the comforts of the few
requiring the exploitation of a shadow world. That understanding landed
particularly hard during the pandemic, when I watched the film. Those
of us who were part of the lockdown class were able to shelter in place
because we were being served by “essential workers,” many of whom did
not have the ability to call in sick. Doubles often play this role,
offering viewers and readers uncomfortable ways into their own story. By
showing us a character facing her doppelgänger, we are exposed to parts
of ourselves we can least bear to see, but at a slight angle, and
through a warped mirror.
[. . .]
We
are, once again, at a historical juncture where our physical and
political worlds are changing too quickly and too consequentially for
our minds to easily comprehend. This is why I decided to start regarding
my own doppelgänger as a narrow aperture through which to look at
forces I consider dangerous, and that can be hard to confront directly.
Rather
than worrying about people thinking that she and I were one and the
same, I got interested in the ways she seems to have become a
doppelgänger of her former self. Because I have been getting confused
with Ms. Wolf for close to a decade and half, I knew that she had been
dabbling in conspiracy culture for years. (I would periodically get
harangued online for positions she had taken.)
Before
the pandemic, her underlying values seemed somewhat stable: feminism,
sexual freedom, democracy, basic liberalism. Then, rather suddenly, they
appeared less so. In a matter of months, I watched her go from
questioning masks in schools to questioning election results alongside
Mr. Bannon. Next she was engaging in Jan. 6 revisionism, condoning the
Supreme Court’s assault on abortion rights, posting about her firearms
and also warning that “war is being waged upon us.”
This
is a phenomenon far larger than Ms. Wolf, of course. A great many of us
have witnessed it in people we know, once respected and even still
love. We tell one another that they have disappeared “down the rabbit
hole,” lost to conspiratorial fantasies, embracing apocalyptic language,
seemingly unreachable by affection or reason.
Naomi's
book came out this week. My apologies because I wrongly stated last
week that it had come out. I was reading a few weeks ago and thought it
was coming out Tuesday of last week. I strongly recommend the book and
it's entitled DOPPLEGANGER: A TRIP INTO THE MIRROR WORLD. That's by
Naomi Klein -- Klein.
Let's
note how far Naomi Wolf has fallen: She's now reTweeting Jordan
Peterson. If you're not getting it, Jordan Peterson is infamous for
insisting that women's studies programs should be defunded.
I've
said this many times before but I'm saying it again, should crazy get
off the drugs and try to return to the left, you're an idiot if you let
her. It's not just that Naomi Wolf is bat s**t crazy, it's that she's
done real harm to women and feminists do not need to be masochists. She
chose her side. There is no return from the dark side for her.. She
is not to be trusted. She's a right winger who wants to vote for Donald
Trump. She hangs out with homophobes and transphobes. Moms For
Bigotry have the Naomi Wolf stamp of approval. There is no forgiveness,
there is no salvation. She has stabbed feminism in the back and that's
where it should stop. We would be idiots to ever let her back in.
The
right-wing? They're fools to embrace her. Ava and I long ago -- back
in the '00s -- exposed how she stole the work of Judith N. Shklar for
her piece of garbage THE BEAUTY MYTH -- Shklar had given lectures Naomi
attended and cribbed for without doing any attribution. We've noted
how, in FIRE WITH FIRE (her second book), she praises the 'beauty' of
Victoria Woodhull while immediately then insulting the looks of Madam CJ
Walker. It was racist. And, point of fact, Walker was cute, Woodhull
had to be photographed from certain angles. Then came PROMISCUITIES
where she brunches the morning after with rapists and feels no concern
for the woman who was raped the night before. Hey, it's a frat house,
Naomi's down with the bros. MISCONCEPTIONS? A book on motherhood which
reads, naturally and obviously, like a book by someone who didn't raise
children. (Those kids were so lucky to have their father and
step-mother.) Crazy most recently took her dissertation -- which goes
to how lousy Oxford has become -- and turned it into OUTRAGES: SEX,
CENSORSHIP, AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF LOVE.
Want to read it?
You can't.
It was pulped. Her central thesis was based on her misunderstanding of historical records.
The publisher pulped all copies.
But,
explain this, Oxford didn't immediately pull her doctorate. Her
research -- that Oxford waived through -- was all wrong. Well, her
conclusions from her research. In the real world, that happens and you
get your dissertation pulled and the university involved issues a
statement if this was a public matter. (It was a public matter. Her
turning her dissertation into a book made it a public matter.)
She's
nuts. She's always been a huge question mark and we should be a closed
community to her at this point. She is not a feminist. She has used
feminism to grift and now she tries to use it to pretend she's not the
idiotic reactionary, tin-foil hat wearer that she is.
As
insane as she is, I haven't called for her book to be banned or
burned. And never would. We don't ban books, we don't burn them --
even badly written ones.
But the other Naomi, Klein, has a good book worth reading.
During a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about book bans,
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) read sexually explicit passages from two LGBTQ+
memoirs in order to justify censorship as a necessary way to protect
children from pornography and sexual grooming.
However, other experts during the hearing pointed out book
bans are also being used to ban non-sexual LGBTQ+ children’s books and
other books about the anti-Semitic Nazi Holocaust, Native American
genocide, and Black and Latino civil rights experiences.
However, Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) called the
Republicans’ focus on overly sexual passages “a distraction from the
real challenge,” adding, “No one is advocating for sexually explicit
content to be available in an elementary school library or in [the]
children’s section of the library.”
“I understand and respect that parents may choose to limit what their
children read, especially at younger ages. My wife and I did. Others
do, too,” Durbin said. “But no parent should have the right to tell
another parent’s child what they can and cannot read in school or at
home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their
experiences and help them better understand who they are.”
During her testimony,
Emily Knox, president of the National Coalition Against Censorship,
noted that the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for
Intellectual Freedom counted 2,571 unique titles targeted for in-school
censorship in 2022 — a 38% increase from the number of titles targeted
in 2021.
“Almost all of the books can be categorized as ‘diverse’ or books by
and about ‘LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people
with disabilities and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities,’” Knox
said. “These attacks on our freedom to read, our libraries, and our
schools are unconstitutional and unpopular. Seventy-one percent of
Americans oppose book bans in public libraries, and 67% oppose book bans
in school libraries,” she added, citing a March 2022 ALA survey.
The National Education Association (NEA) noted that recent book bans have targeted such titles as Art Speigelman’s Holocaust graphic novel Maus and numerous titles about the struggle for civil rights by people of color, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons, and Duncan Tonatiuh’s Separate is Never Equal.
Sam Seder addresses the hearing in the video below.
The League of Women Voters hosted a discussion on the topic of book banning this week.
As bomb threats earlier this week forced nearly half a dozen libraries in Chicago and the suburbs to evacuate, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias testified at a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing on the state's first-in-the-nation ban against book bans.
“…What I am concerned with is political attempts to ban books that
are driving libraries to close their doors, stifle creativity, make
librarians quit their jobs," Giannoulias said during Tuesday's hearing.
"And just a few weeks ago, literally have to evacuate due to numerous
bomb threats at multiple locations.”
The first-of-its-kind law, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 12, states that Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials
because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for
state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.
The American Library Association began observing Banned Books Week
in 1982. According to its website, it “celebrates the freedom to read
and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in
libraries and schools.” Teachers, authors, students, librarians and
supporters of the First Amendment can all come together this Oct. 1-7 to
bring awareness to this harmful form of censorship that affects our
nation as a whole.
Now more than ever, education is being censored. Topics like racism
and sexism as well as LGBTQIA+ themes being put to a halt in certain
places are disregarding all students’ First Amendment rights. Florida laws
like the Stop WOKE Act and the “Don’t Say Gay” bill don’t directly
prohibit any titles from being incorporated into the curriculum, but
they freely open the opportunity for books to be challenged and removed
from school libraries and lesson plans. Evidently, many have done so as Pen America named Florida as having the second-highest number of banned books between July and December of 2022 at 357 books.
In a similar, but not as severe situation is Ohio. There have been 79 titles challenged in total, but House Bills 322 and 327
that prohibit teachings of “divisive concepts” being passed could
increase that number quickly. The bills haven’t been dismissed but have
been in the House committee since 2021. With the growing popularity and
turmoil of such censorship, Ohio may follow the trend.
Bookshop.org,
a popular online bookstore, has an entry titled, “We Don’t Ban Books
Over Here” in which readers can purchase books that are typically
challenged or banned in some schools or libraries. It includes works
such as “Lord of the Flies,” “The Hate U Give” and “The 1619 Project.”
One of the more ironic ones found on this list, which has been read by a
large number of students who attended public high schools, is
“Fahrenheit 451.” While its significance went over my head as a
15-year-old, it is certainly one of the most crucial books for readers
today. Banning a book about banning books is a terrifying level of
censorship that is inexcusable.
Banned Books Week
is a week that highlights the undemocratic effort to ban books and
celebrates our right to read. This year, it will be October 1st through
7th. ALA notes:
“This is a
dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to
reading materials. Readers, particularly students, are losing access to
critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for
doing their jobs.”
- Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights
current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and
schools. For more than 40 years, the annual event has brought together
the entire book community — librarians, teachers, booksellers,
publishers, writers, journalists, and readers of all types — in shared
support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some
consider unorthodox or unpopular. The books featured during Banned Books
Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and
schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or
restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to
the harms of censorship.
In a time of intense political polarization, library staff in every
state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books.
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom ALA documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022,
the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling
data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. The
unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles
the 729 book challenges reported in 2021. Of the record 2,571 unique
titles targeted for censorship, most were by or about LGBTQIA+ persons and Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
The theme for Banned Books Week 2023 is "Let Freedom Read." When
we ban books, we're closing off readers to people, places, and
perspectives. But when we stand up for stories, we unleash the power
that lies inside every book. We liberate the array of voices that need
to be heard and the scenes that need to be seen. Let freedom read!
ADDED AT 10 am PST:
Dear fellow workers,
By
announcing Wednesday that the UAW will only call limited “stand up
strikes” at a few plants even without a contract, UAW President Shawn
Fain has admitted that the UAW bureaucracy is selling out the rank and
file.
Fain
is not calling on workers to “stand up.” He is demanding that we lie
down and accept what the companies want. The isolation of the strike to
only a handful of plants will ensure that it is as ineffective as
possible. By keeping production going, it will boost both corporate
profits and the UAW strike fund, which the bureaucrats have raided for
decades to pay their own bloated salaries.
The
decision against launching an all-out strike is not legitimate. It
contradicts the clear will of the rank and file, which voted 97 percent
to strike all three companies now. It was taken behind the backs of the
rank-and-file membership, at the behest of the corporations and the
Biden administration. It was announced by a president elected through
massive voter suppression with the support of only 3 percent of the
rank-and-file membership. Most workers never even received a ballot to
vote last year.
We cannot afford to leave things in the hands of these traitors!
The UAW bureaucracy has made clear what side it is on. This means we, the rank-and-file, must organize ourselves.
Hold
emergency meetings in your factories and warehouses tonight and
tomorrow to democratically discuss and plan how to countermand this
betrayal and what collective action is needed. If there is no contract
at midnight on Thursday night, we cannot be separated, as Fain wants. We
must all stand together—on strike!
Join
the next online meetings of the Autoworkers Rank-and-File Committee
Network Thursday at 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. EDT to discuss a strategy to
fight the UAW bureaucracy’s betrayal. Register here to attend.
