Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Boe-Boe fits in nowhere

 

I saw Paul Rudnick's Tweet last night.



I laughed.  It's funny.  I didn't realize it was also true. Summer Concepcion (NBC NEWS) reports:



Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., was escorted out of a performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical in Denver on Sunday night for alleged disruptive behavior during the performance.

Two patrons were asked to leave the Buell Theatre in Denver during the performance, officials with Denver Arts & Venues wrote in an incident report obtained by the local NBC affiliate, which doesn't refer to Boebert or her companion by name. According to the report, the patrons were warned during intermission about behavior that allegedly involved “vaping, singing [and] causing a disturbance” and prompted three complaints from other attendees.

While Boebert and her companion aren't identified in the report, her campaign manager, Drew Sexton, confirmed the incident in a statement provided to NBC News.



Now put that together with this:


Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) barely won her reelection last year, as Democratic rival Adam Frisch fell short of ousting her by just under 600 votes.
Now Politico reports that Boebert has been getting a push from her advisers to tone down her "nonstop combativeness" in a bid to win re-election next year.
Among other things, the report notes that Boebert doesn't talk about Hunter Biden much when she goes home to meet with constituents and even boasts about the $2 million in earmarks that she has secured for his district while also touting her working relationships with Colorado's two Democratic senators.
Boe-Boe tone it down?  You're crazy if you think she can do that.  This is the woman kicked out of a performance of BEETLEJUICE while snarling, "Do you know who I am?"  Humility is not one of her qualities, nor is being calm and/or reasoned. 


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, September 13, 2023.  Julian Assange remains persecuted, Glenneth Greenwald continues to (mal)pracitce law, when you run for Congress and took money to conduct sex acts online there's no privacy shield there, Moqtada and his supporters get no punishment while Iraqi police officers get a slap on the wrist, and much more.



Starting with Julian Assagne.


Julian Assange remains persecuted, held for no real reason with no real charges in the UK while the US works to extradite him and charge him with the 'crime' of truth telling.  

After years and years, finally Australian politicians are listening to the Australian people somewhat.  A delegation of members of Parliament will be visiting the US later this month to lobby for the US government to end the persecution of Julian.  One of those MPs is Monique Ryan and she writes:

In 2006 Assange – a former computer hacker turned editor, activist and publisher – founded Wikileaks, a non-profit online document archive. In 2010, WikiLeaks published a trove of US intelligence about American activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. That data had been leaked by a US intelligence officer, Chelsea Manning, who was subsequently charged by the US government with 22 offences including violating the US Espionage Act and aiding the enemy. She pled guilty to 10 charges but was imprisoned for only three years before her sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2017.

The many tranches of documents released by Wikileaks were damaging and embarrassing for the US intelligence services; hence their ongoing, relentless attempts to secure Assange’s extradition to the US from the UK to face charges under the Espionage Act. Politically, the Democrats’ dislike of Assange was not helped by WikiLeaks 2016 publication of Hillary Clinton’s emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee. WikiLeaks subsequent release of the largest CIA leak in history in 2017 won Assange no friends in the Trump administration.

Assange has been an inmate of the UK’s Belmarsh Prison (dubbed “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay”) since April 2019, having previously taken refuge within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for almost 7 years. The US-UK Treaty under which Assange’s extradition is being sought explicitly bans extradition for political offences, but the proceedings continue despite the obvious political overtones of this case. Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers exposing US misconduct in the Vietnam War, was also prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Ellsberg, whose case was dismissed with prejudice. Ellsberg described Assange’s prosecution as a greater abuse of process than his own. Assange’s position has been defended by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, media and human rights organisations, and politicians from around the world.

Assange’s lawyer, London-based Australian Jennifer Robinson, has argued that his indictment represented “the most terrifying threat to freedom of speech in the 21st-century”. When she spoke at the National Press Club last year, Ms Robinson repeatedly referred to claims that in 2017 the CIA plotted to kidnap or assassinate Assange while he was a political refugee in London. She suggested that, if extradited, he might be subjected to Special Administrative Measures, a regime of extreme isolation described by human rights groups as inhumane and possibly amounting to torture.

There is some urgency to this mission because of the imminent possibility of Mr Assange’s extradition to the US, and his deteriorating physical and mental health. He had a minor stroke in 2021 and is described by family members as increasingly frail. His wife, Stella, has stated that she believes he will commit suicide if extradited to maximum security conditions in the US.

There have been mixed messages from the US Government this year: Caroline Kennedy, the US Ambassador to Australia flagged a possible plea deal in August. More recently, however, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stipulated that “The actions that he has alleged to have committed risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk – grave risk – of physical harm, and grave risk of detention.”

President Biden is perhaps constrained in his ability to intervene in this case by the ongoing legal cases against his predecessor and his son. The president has indicated that he is “committed to an independent Department of Justice”, but the commuting of Chelsea Manning’s sentence by President Obama seems at odds with the Biden administration’s ongoing pursuit of Assange. This is especially true given the absence of repercussions for the major newspapers which published the Wikileaks documents – media organisations like the Guardian, New York Times, Der Spiegel and Le Monde.




Turning to Iraq, a sentencing and what passes for 'justice.'  Following an Iraqi refugee burning a Quran in Sweden, a judicial verdict has been reached.  AFP reports:



An Iraqi court gave 18 police officers jail sentences of up to three years Tuesday for failing to stop protesters storming and torching Sweden's embassy in Baghdad, security officials said. 
Supporters of the powerful Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr set the Swedish embassy in Baghdad alight on the night of July 20, after a Stockholm-based Iraqi refugee desecrated the Koran in Stockholm.


Three years?  That's a joke but then so is refusing to punish the rioters who attacked the embassy and portly, plus-size model Moqtada al-Sadr who sicked his cult on the embassy.  Nothing was achieved with this 'verdict' and certainly justice was not restored.  

And "up to three years."  THE NATIONAL explains that sentence didn't even go to all 18, "Eight police received three-year jail terms, seven were given two years and three months, and three were sentenced to 18 months in prison, an Interior Ministry official confirmed."

That was July.  Earlier this month, in Kirkuk, 'violence' ensued.  Turns out, the four dead and the many wounded?  That violence was likely carried out by Iraqi security forces.  COUNTERVORTEX explains:

Iraqi security forces appear to have opened fire on demonstrators without prior warning in Kirkuk on Sept. 2, killing at least four people and injuring 16, Human Rights Watch has found. The violence comes amid months of increasing tensions between Kirkuk’s Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen populations. An inquiry into the incident opened by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani should be independent and impartial in its investigation of allegations of excessive use of deadly force by Iraqi security forces, HRW urged. “Time and again, the Iraqi government has responded to protests with lethal force and arrests of journalists,” said HRW Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar. “The government needs to take concrete steps that result in accountability for these actions.”

The tensions center around a building in Kirkuk that once served as the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the largest party in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The building has been occupied by Iraqi federal security forces since 2017, when central government forces seized Kirkuk in response to the Kurdish independence referendum. The tensions flared after Prime Minister al-Sudani ordered the return of the building to the KDP on Sept. 1 under an agreement made with the KRG when al-Sudani formed his government in October 2022.


Meanwhile, in the US, efforts at censorship and spreading hate continue.  Hate merchants like Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi, Max Blumenthal, John Stuaber, et al pretend to be concerned about censorship -- at least when they feel their inbred right wing buddies are being censored.  But when it's the kids of America?  They don't give a damn.   Hunter Buchheit (TEEN VOGUE) reports:


The silence on a recent sunny Friday morning outside Walton High School was broken by a car horn. I stood there, holding a sign that said, “You Can’t Love Freedom and Ban Books,” and watched the culprit in a tan minivan peel out of the parking lot and into the road in front of us. “Ban the perverts!” the driver screamed out her window. She was dressed in workoutwear, ponytail pulled tight, and sunglasses concealing most of her face.

Around me, on the sidewalk in front of the school’s carpool entrance, were adults and a few of my classmates with a smattering of signs, books scattered at our feet, and a “Read Banned Books” flag waving in the air. We were there that August morning to take a stand against the removal of several books from Cobb County school shelves. Normally, books are reviewed for violations after a parent complaint. As WSBTV reported, these were removed after Libs of TikTok, a right-wing social media account operated by former real estate agent Chaya Raichik, contacted county officials, concerned over the books’ “pornographic” subject matter.

One of the two banned books is Flamer, a graphic novel detailing the experiences of Aiden, the queer main character, at Boy Scouts camp in the summer between middle and high school. Taking inspiration from author Mike Curato’s own childhood, Flamer features sexual plot points integral to Aidan’s coming-of-age experience, but there are no visual depictions of genitalia or any other overtly explicit images. The other is Jesse Andrews’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a frequently banned book about a teen boy who befriends a girl who is dying of leukemia. It has been criticized for containing some sex scenes.

One of my fellow dissenters at the August 25th protest was Becky Albertalli, the author of the Simonverse novels, the first of which was adapted into the 2018 film Love, Simon.

When I spoke with Albertalli after the protest, she talked about the positive reactions we received from onlookers driving by, “People were so thrilled to receive books. Parents rolling down their windows and taking it all very seriously. Truck drivers waving in solidarity.”

Still, she says, she was most concerned about the parents who expressed their fury — not behind a screen, but directly to our faces. They were, Albertalli said, “real people with their full chest and whole face, shouting at their kids’ classmates’ parents.”

Amid the mix of support and shouting, one group was conspicuously absent: teachers themselves. A few weeks ago, Katie Rinderle,  a teacher at Due West Elementary School, was fired after reading My Shadow is Purple, a children’s book that discusses gender identity, to her fifth-grade class. She bought the book at the school’s book fair.

Soon after, Cobb County superintendent Chris Ragsdale recommended that she be fired and a tribunal composed of three former school principals convened. Although they found that Rinderle demonstrated a lack of judgment, the tribunal determined that Rinderle should keep her job. But she was fired anyway.

For Georgia, this type of state-sanctioned classroom intervention isn’t new. Laws passed in recent years have set the bar for governmental overreach in schools, like House Bill 1084, passed in 2022, which targets the teaching of vague “divisive concepts.”



KENDALL CIESEMIER [00:00:01] From the ACLU, this is At Liberty. I’m Kendall Ciesemier, your host. Welcome back to At Liberty! We missed you so much in the month of August. We’re so happy to be back with you and we’re excited to bring you some really important stories impacting students over the next few weeks. Back-to-school season is upon us, and here at the ACLU, we’ve been following the nationwide campaign to censor education. Be that the censorship of important historical and social context in school curriculums or the recent rise in book bans. All of these efforts threaten students’ right to learn. As we chart this issue our eyes are squarely on Texas. The state is banning more books than any other, eliminating libraries and through these decisions, targeting low income students of color. This year, some students in the Houston Independent School District—the largest district in the state of Texas—may be headed to schools with no libraries or librarians. In August, the state announced plans to convert libraries into disciplinary centers, eliminating librarian positions at 28 elementary and middle schools. Another 57 schools are being assessed for the same outcome, with the goal of “addressing low academic performance in certain schools.” This alarming change comes as part of a sweeping reform program led by the Houston Independent School District’s new superintendent, Mike Miles, and a new state imposed school board, both which replaced the district’s formally elected school board and superintendent in the spring.

FOX 26 HOUSTON [00:01:54] They say cut back. We say fight back. That fight back. The idea of turning a library into a detention room is nuts. And here’s what I’d say not only to the superintendent, to the board, would any of you put your children in a school that does not have a library? Hell no.

KENDALL [00:02:17] The situation in Houston signals what’s been happening and what’s also to come in schools across the country. Attacks on the freedom to read are on the rise, threatening the vital jobs of librarians. Despite this, librarians are still holding out hope and taking action.

BECKY CALZADA [00:02:39] Hello, my name is Becky Calzada. I’m a district library coordinator in a suburban school district northwest of Austin, Texas. I’ve been a library coordinator for just over ten years and a librarian for about 20. But I am starting my 36th year as a public education teacher, so I’m just thankful to be here.

DEBORAH HALL [00:02:59] My name is Deborah Hall and I started as a school librarian in 1972. Teachers were on strike and I had to cross the picket line to get to my first job. And I have been with Houston ISD for my entire career, serving in several libraries, and eventually I became the library technology administrator for the district.

KENDALL [00:03:27] Today, we’ll hear from Becky and Deborah about the value of librarians and what they’re doing to advocate for their profession. Then we’ll hear from the ACLU of Texas attorney Chloe Kempf, who will help us understand how the rise in education censorship infringes on students’ civil rights.

KENDALL [00:03:48] You both have decades of experience as librarians. And so I can imagine how frustrating it is to be both facing threats to your profession, but also to the entire function of what a library serves in schools. Deborah, I’ll start with you since you spent about 40 years as a librarian in the Houston Independent School District, which, as you know, has recently made headlines due to the changes being made to school libraries there. Can you explain to us what’s happening to libraries and librarians in Houston?

DEBORAH [00:04:26] One of the first things we heard from the new superintendent was “all librarians do is check out books.” And “I need this space because I’m going to be corralling a lot of kids who are not behaving. And then once they get themselves under control, they can go back to class.” That label of changing a wonderful room of learning to a detention center. And that’s what it’s been called a punishment center, a detention center.

KENDALL [00:04:55] What’s your understanding from being on the ground there?

DEBORAH [00:04:58] It’s all about test scores, that is the target. That’s why supposedly Houston ISD was targeted because of low test scores in certain schools. We’re a large, primarily urban school district with a very diverse population, but those schools weren’t performing that well on the state test. And so the district became vulnerable to takeover. And that is what happened 12—almost 12 weeks into a takeover by the state that removed our board and hired a superintendent who is not certified and who had a failing agenda in his last run at being a superintendent. And we’re under the gun to do his bidding. Communication is limited and a lot of things are happening behind closed doors. The teachers and librarians and various personnel are not encouraged to share information, so it’s not really forthcoming. In some cases, furniture is going to the warehouse, books are being boxed up. Children at those schools will not have access to the library as we knew it.

KENDALL [00:06:21] These changes are taking place in a district where nearly 80% of students are economically disadvantaged and students of color make up an overwhelming majority of the district’s enrolled population. The largest groups being Black and Hispanic students who account for 84%. But westward just outside of Austin, Texas, we see a different side of the story. There Becky works in a district where libraries are changing for the better and where white students make up more than half of the enrolled population.

BECKY [00:06:53] I think just like other libraries, we’ve had experiences with, you know, issues with censorship and that sort of thing, too. But in terms of changes, if we’ve had any changes, it’s been because we’re actually adding some programming to our campuses. So I know Deborah mentioned, you know, about there being books, and of course libraries will always have books, but we recently had a bond passage passed a couple of years ago. And so that bond package allowed us to bring some 3-D printers into our libraries. And it’s also going to bring some iMac computers so that we can do some video production. And this will be all elementary, middle and high school campuses. So this allows us to provide that kind of equipment at no cost to the kids, but also to allow them to have access, to build and create and think outside the box.

KENDALL [00:07:44] But what has impacted predominantly white schools, like the one where Becky works is a flurry of book bans. The bans are particularly targeting books written by LGBTQ+ and nonwhite authors or books that discuss the experience of people from marginalized groups. With all of this, school libraries and librarians have been thrown into the political fray, and Becky and Deborah are having to learn how to contend with that.

DEBORAH [00:08:12] These kinds of controversies can—when librarians and libraries are targeted because of what kinds of books we might have on the shelf or what we may be teaching. It’s scary. It’s concerning. But we just need to stick together and work to change the view and to erase the negativity and, you know, the contrast like in Houston to libraries, some libraries become a detention centers when before they were sanctuaries, you know, they were places where kids got support for learning, for social emotional support. It was a place where a student could get connected to other people, to a caring adult. It was a place where they could be listened to. And we have to counter with the reality and not the imagined evils that are lurking. Tyranny of the minority. The loudest voice is making decisions, and there’s a lot of silence that needs to be awakened and voices brought forward. Because if people knew what was happening, they would speak out. But so many people are not aware of it.

KENDALL [00:09:45] I’m wondering, you know, as educators yourselves, you both speak so beautifully and clearly about the value that libraries, librarians give to students. And I think people would be surprised to hear about all the ways that librarians support students. What would you want to say about the role of the librarian and the role of libraries and all the ways that libraries support students today?



The last thing the country needs is less libraries.  And grasp that Hunter and other young people around the country have been fighting censorship and doing so without any help from the so-called 'independent media' of YOUTUBE.  They're too busy sucking up to Tucker Carlson who is calling for the National Guard to shoot people from the Texas border.  That's who they stand with, not the children of America fighting the fight that these YOUTUBERs should have been leading.


They have plenty of time for nonsense, though.  For creating it and spreading it and being 100% wrong, yes, we are talking about Glenneth Greenwald.  We need to turn to a story Rebecca covered yesterday:





A Democratic candidate vying for a House of Delegates seat is under criticism after videos were allegedly found of her performing sex acts with her husband for tips.

The Washington Post was the first to report about several videos it says show Susanna Gibson and her husband performing sexual acts on a live website called Chaturbate. She neither confirms nor denies the online activity but calls the entire situation an invasion of privacy.

Gibson is running against David Owen in the 57th District, which encompasses parts of Henrico and Goochland counties. With less than 8 weeks until election day, The Post says these live Chaturbate broadcasts were recorded and put onto another website. Allegedly, Gibson, in the videos, is asking viewers for tips to perform certain acts.

The newspaper was tipped off by a Republican operative, who is said to have no ties to Gibson’s opponent.



I'm sure this is embarrassing for the woman.  But it's not a violation of anyone's privacy.  The videos were streamed live on CHATURBATE -- a porn site.  Sorry, you're an adult performer.  

You may be other things and I certainly don't condemn adult performers.  Conner Habib is a great guy, for example.  But if Conner ran for the House of Representatives and someone came out announcing he was an adult performer, they would not be violating his privacy.


The great Glenneth Greenwald, as Rebecca notes, insisted this was an invasion of privacy.  No.  Taking a photo of Jack Nicholson on his balcony to embarrass him -- taking it from a long distance away -- is an invasion of privacy in my opinion but in the eyes of the law it's not.  So you certainly give up any reasonable right to privacy when you broadcast yourself in a film online.  They made it a public act when they utilized Chaturbate.  


"I didn't know anyone was recording!"

Well, sorry, that's your problem.  You knew you were broadcasting yourself having sex and you should have known anyone could have recorded it and/or taking screen shots.  Your stupidity is not a valid legal defense.


Alex Griffing (MEDIAITE) notes, "A candidate in a high-stakes legislative contest in Virginia had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay them money in return for carrying out specific sex acts."


So she did do it for money.  


Sorry, Glenneth, it was never a privacy issue to begin with -- I'm so very glad you no longer practice law in the US -- but it was a source of income which makes it a job and, no, work history has no right to privacy in any instance but especially not when we're discussing someone running for higher office, someone running for public office.


Glenneth is an idiot and always will be one.  Starting to get why he's always wrong whenever he wades in with a legal opinion?  Some of us noted that reality back in 2005.



Can she win office?  Possibly.  Should she?  In terms of the Democratic Party, no.  Any thing she does in office, any thing she votes for or proposes will be under intense scrutiny.  If she'd come out and said, "Look, I did it.  Get over it." -- if she'd done that I might feel differently.  But her  mealy mouthed response indicates she can't handle pressure and she's just going to create a problem for the Democratic Party for the next two years if she makes it into office.


That said, the judges are the voters -- not the Democratic Party.  They'll determine whether or not to back her.



Let's now turn to stupidity on the campaign trail -- that of Chris Christie (seeking the GOP's presidential nomination) and that of MEDIAITE.  At MEDIAITE, right-wing troll Isaac Schorr writes:


MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski scoffed at former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s suggestion that his state allows abortion through nine months of pregnancy on Tuesday morning.

While making the case for state-by-state regulation of abortion law during an appearance on Morning Joe, Christie compared states with more restrictive statutes to New Jersey, which he said allowed “abortion up to nine months.”

“Okay, it’s not an abortion at nine months,” asserted an exasperated Brzezinski, “and there’s not a doctor that would do it, and it only happens in extremely severe circumstances. You can come back and bring me the evidence of women across the state of New Jersey having abortions in the ninth month. It’s not happening, Chris, come on.”

“You said this the last time you were on and I let it go, I can’t let it go again,” she added. “There’s no abortions in the ninth month.”

If that’s true — if no one would ever consider an abortion in the later stages of pregnancy — why did New Jersey’s state legislature pass and governor sign a bill ensuring that abortions could be performed at any stage of pregnancy last year?

The 2022 Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act argued that “governmental restrictions on reproductive choice, by their very nature, impinge on the constitutional right to reproductive autonomy” and included a provision stating that “Any law, rule, regulation, ordinance, or order, in effect on or adopted after the effective date of this act, that is determined to have the effect of limiting the constitutional right to freedom of reproductive choice and that does not conform with the provisions and the express or implied purposes of this act, shall be deemed invalid and shall have no force or effect.”



Let's bring some reality to this.  Isaac, I don't now if your mother should have had an abortion but I do know she should have your ears pinned back.  They're the only thing more ridiculous than your writing.   


Mika's right.  That is not what the law says.  It's the interpretation Chris Christie gives to it and that the idiot at MEDIAITE gives to it.  The law has no such writing in it.  An interpretation is just that and only that.  A court would have to rule on it.  The law itself does not say what Chris Christie says it says.  Or what MEDIAITE lies and says it says.  

Do we not the difference between an interpretation and a ruling?  Are we that stupid as a country?  

If it's not in the law, if it's not written into a law, if the wording is not there, it's open to interpretation.  That's why courts often have to rule on laws that seem so clear to lawmakers but, in fact, is not as clear.






The following sites updated:





Posted by at

How is a member of Congress repeatedly calling for secession not a violation of her oath?

Marjorie Taylor Greene -- the political equivalent of herpes.   She never goes away.  Michael Luciano (MEDIAITE) reports:



“If the Biden admin refuses to stop the invasion of cartel led human and drug trafficking into our country, states should consider seceding from the union,” she tweeted. “From Texas to New York City to every town in America, we are drowning from Biden’s traitorous America last border policies.”

It’s not the first time Greene has floated the idea of secession.

In February, she declared, “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.

Moskowitz was asked for his reaction to Monday’s tweet while appearing on the Medias Touch Podcast.

“What’s your response to that, Congressman?” the host asked.

“Well I mean, look, her husband called for a secession, which is why, you know, she has that in her personal life,” Moskowitz replied. “I mean, what do you want me to say? That’s just being said for ridiculousness. Remember, she called for a ‘national divorce’ again, you know? Divorce. This is the same thing for her. She’s definitely ratcheting up the commentary of late.”


Her repeated cries for secession make me wonder about the legality of a member of the House of Representative doing that.  An oath was taken to uphold the Constitution.  Lincoln felt that secession was unlawful.  I'm not getting how a sitting member of the House, who takes that oath of office, can get away with repeatedly calling for secession.  




Marjorie Taylor Greene marked the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by suggesting that red states secede from the US and calling President Joe Biden a traitor.

“If the Biden admin refuses to stop the invasion of cartel-led human and drug trafficking into our country, states should consider seceding from the union,” the Georgia Republican wrote Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “From Texas to New York City to every town in America, we are drowning from Biden’s traitorous America last border policies.”



I am serious, I do not get how her statements are not seen to be a repudiation of her Oath of Office. 

Let me note that THIRD posted many good things yesterday.


"Media: Hypocrisy, thy name is THE VANGUARD" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):
The media's role is to inform.  Part of discussing -- realistically discussing -- an election is talking about the potential after-effects of an election based upon our choices.


Randi Rhodes, in 2004, on AIR AMERICA RADIO, waylaid Patti Smith in the hall while Patti was leaving the taped interview she'd just done for a friend (Steve Earle).  Oh-Patti-I'm-one-of-your-biggest-fans-and-you-know-how-hard-it-is-for-women-in-radio-could-you-please-come-on-my-show-for-just-a-few-minutes-before-you-leave-the-studio?  Patti then made one of the biggest mistakes she'd ever made in her life:  She went on air with Randi Rhodes.

 

After a few laments on Randi's part that the Iraq War hadn't produced, in her opinion, any great music -- she seemed to feel the deaths and horror of the Vietnam War had been mitigated by numerous sixties tunes she kept reeling off -- Randi moved in for the kill and savaged Patti.  Just like she savaged Ralph Nader during a call in when she told him that we couldn't afford him -- we couldn't afford his running for president in 2004.


We don't say that.  Well, maybe we do when it comes to YOUTUBERS.  We can't afford YOUTUBERS lying.  If someone wants to vote Green, fine.  If they want to vote however fine.  But we need to know what our vote means.  We're not voting Green because there is a plan by the Republican Party to strip people of their rights.  That's dreamers -- born in this country -- that the Republican Party thinks they can strip of citizenship.  'B-b-b-but the Constitution!'  Doesn't matter.  Nothing does with an illegal and corrupt Supreme Court.  We saw it with ROE.  We saw it when it rewarded the hate merchant Lorie Smith out of Colorado.  'It would deny her religion if she had to design a website for a same-sex marriage but this Court opinion is not to be expanded upon, honest, pinky promise.'  It's already being used to deny the rights of gays and lesbians. And the GOP extremist goal is to overturn marriage equality.  Why?  Because they believe it is the first time the government has recognized legal rights for gays and lesbians. They think if they overturn this, they can overturn anything.  They have also defined same-sex relationships -- living together, marriage, dating, what have you -- as pornography.  They don't do that for straight relationships.  But they do it for same-sex relationships and their plan is to further attack LGBTQ+ rights by doing that and arguing that free speech does not apply to pornography.  They want to now move on to outlawing birth control.  They think they have the perfect Court to do this with.  They think they can achieve all their dreams and rebuke every advance this country has made in the last 70 or so years on race, gender and equality.  


That's why we're not voting Green.  If you are, we ask that you make demands of your party's eventual nominee.  Building a political party is reason enough to vote for the Green Party.  And we're not going to hiss at your or fault you for it. 


But we can't afford some of these YOUTUBERs.  

 

For example?

 

Jimmy Dore knows exactly what the f**k he's doing, Gavin, guys, that's what's so wrong about it that's what so f**king nefarious.  He's playing his audience like a fiddle and he's playing them to support a guy like Donald Trump when he could be playing them to support a guy like Cornel West. And that tells you everything you need to know about who he is as a person.

 

That's Zac on THE VANGUARD speaking and Gavin nods along with him.  And they don't seem to grasp what they're saying, what they're putting out online.


The problem, for them, isn't that Jimmy's lying.  It's that he's lying for Donald Trump.  And it's not that he's playing his audience, it's that "he's playing them to support a guy like Donald Trump when he could be playing them to support a guy like Cornel West."


We've done a lot of things here over the years, but we've never tried to play you.  And we never would.  Because that's manipulation and it's wrong.  That Zac can't see that reality indicates to us that when we call him "stupid," we may be giving him credit for more goodness than he actually possesses.

 

When Bette Davis exposes how she's lied and schemed in THE LETTER, it's great drama.  When Zac exposes he's willing to lie and scheme and abuse the trust his audience placed in him?  It's just embarrassing and should be career ending.



Along with that great piece, please check out "Everyone Sings The Beatles" which is a list of the various artists who have covered Beatles songs.  It's not complete.  But we plan to update it throughout 2023 and maybe into 2024.  

Not done yet, over the weekend, Marcia caught a MTG story I had missed so please read her "No one wants Little Minded Marjie."


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, September 11, 2023.  Freaks and fools, the world's full of them and we look at three: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Zac and Gavin of THE VANGUARD.


We've got a lot to cover.  We're starting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  He appeared yesterday on Neil Cavuto's FOX "NEWS" talk show.  

Junior declared,  "The Iraq War?  You know, we left Iraq worse off than when we found it.  We were lied to about that war.  We're now going to war in Ukraine -- a war, a war that could be catastrophic for the globe."

Wow, the bravery.  Wow, the inability to master the facts.

"We left Iraq worse off than when we found it"?  When did "we" leave Iraq?

Or is Junior so stupid that he doesn't know US troops remain on the ground in Iraq? 


Iraq and the US-led international coalition formed to fight ISIS in 2014 are to meet in the coming days to discuss what their co-operation will look like in the future, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani said on Monday.

Early last month, Iraq sent a high-ranking security delegation to Washington led by Minister of Defence Thabet Al Abbasi to meet US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and other officials for the inaugural US-Iraq Joint Security Co-operation Dialogue.

The two sides discussed the security co-operation in different fields and the continuing fight against ISIS remnants.

They agreed to form a joint committee to "determine the future relation between Iraq and the member states of the international coalition", Mr Al Sudani told local media outlets on Monday.


This morning, PRESS TV reported:

A convoy belonging to the US-led coalition has reportedly transferred military equipment, ammunition and fuel from American bases in Iraq to neighboring Syria.

Citing unnamed sources, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen news channel reported that the convoy had entered eastern Syria through the Faysh Khabur border crossing in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region on Monday night.

The US military has in recent months ramped up its military presence in Syria, a country gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since 2011 which has repeatedly denounced the deployment as “illegal”.

Last month, the Pentagon sent a convoy to the bases in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province through the Al-Waleed border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

Comprised of around 50 vehicles, the convoy reached US bases in the Koniko natural gas field and al-Omer oil field on August 14.


When, Junior, did US troops leave Iraq?

What an idiot.

And, no, we're not "now going to war with Ukraine."  The proxy war has been going on for some time.  

Later, while babbling -- that is the only term -- about 9/11, he said, "My memory of that, Neil -- and you can go back and check the record [. . . ], and I could be wrong about that [. . .] and I could be wrong about my history."  You think?

Not could, you are wrong when you say that we are "now going to war with Ukraine" and when you say that the US left Iraq.  

He speaks of an "aggressive posture" on the part of the US today with "800 bases abroad" and insists, "When I was a kid, everybody around the world loved America for its freedoms."

When was he a "kid"?  I'm going to assume we'll leave out the struggles with drug addiction.  But let's say 21, he stopped being a kid?  I'd love to do 18 but the press usually doesn't hold you accountable -- look at Bully Boy Bush's 'youthful' issues -- when you turn 18.  So let's go to 21.  That would be 1975.

Before 1975, "everybody around the world loved America for its freedoms"?  Really?  The people in Vietnam loved America for its freedoms?  Despite the war on Vietnam?  The people in Cuba loved America for its freedoms?  Despite the Bay of Pigs?  The people in Chile loved America for its freedoms?  Despite the CIA overthrow and execution of the democratically elected Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973?  

We could do this all day.

He is a stupid moron.  Most of Europe was anti-American following the Revolutionary War (and most of Europe did not see the French Revolution as a great thing because Europe was not a proponents of democracy).  America was not seen as a great thing among many European scholars in the 1800s either.

You don't know your history, Junior.  You just know that when all you were concerned with was playing with your toys and your penis, life seemed so much simpler.  

Your stupidity at this late date is rather sad and rather telling.




We've got to look at e-mails.  Two people have e-mailed the public account accusing me of hypocrisy -- they've read "Media: Hypocrisy, thy name is THE VANGUARD" and they both feel that I am also being a hypocrite -- like THE VANGUARD -- because I've not weighed in on the Danny Masterson rape and "more significantly," writes one, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis' remarks.  

First, how does that make me like THE VANGUARD?  If I were defending Ashton and Mila -- it would not happen -- maybe I would be like THE VANGUARD.  But I  just didn't say anything about it here Friday and Monday.

Christina Ricci did and that's a friend and I stand by what she said about the issue.  I do not like Bijou and I think she's trash -- that's rapist Danny Masterson's wife.  I thought she was trash from a young age.  Couldn't help it though, look at who her parents were. 

Late to the party?  Danny Masterson raped women and got convicted of drugging and raping two.  Last week was his sentencing.

Ashton and Mila wrote letters to the judge insisting he was a good guy and his sentence for his crimes shouldn't be harsh, he told them not to take drugs and he's a good father. 

Billy Baldwin apparently wrote a letter.  If I was waiting for anything, it was probably to read that letter.  That he wrote it doesn't surprise me, he's Danny's brother-in-law.  Chynna Phillips and Bijoua are half-sisters -- Mackenzie Phillips is their other half-sister.  Of the three, Chynna's been the most sane in her own life and that goes to what happens when you have even one solid parent (Michelle Phillips).  

I keep waiting to hear that Chynna wrote a letter.  If she did and it emerges, that doesn't surprise me.  She's always been there for her two half-sisters.  Bijou has made her adulthood a nightmare (her childhood was an embarrassment but that's on her parents) and Mackenzie, of course, aborted a pregnancy in which her father might have been the father.   I'm not condemning Mackenzie, she had a very rough childhood and she was a victim (and, yes, I do consider her a victim even during the time she says she was 'willingly' sleeping with her own father).  When Mackenzie came out with that story, I backed her and defended her.  My point in bringing all this up is to make clear that I believe no one should have written a letter but if it turns out Chynna did, then she did and I'm not going to have any comment on it because she's been the glue holding that fractured family (I'm referring to the John Phillips side of the family)  together for years now, she's had to repeatedly be the adult in the room for both of her half-sisters.

Ashton and Mila?

Trash.  I've called out Mila repeatedly here.  The idea that I'm hesitant to call that fake ass out?

When Demi (a friend of many years) had her book coming out, Mila began showing her true ugly self in public with a few remarks.  Those remarks were probably going to get worse.  Which is why I called Ashton and told him to curb his bitch because I'm not Demi.  Demi tried to be as kind as possible and put as much behind her as possible.

I'm not that sweet person. 

I made it very clear -- and I wrote about that here too when it happened -- that if Mila didn't cease and desist, I'd burn Ashton and Mila's playhouse down.  And I could still do that because they are nothing but liars. Their entire relationship is a lie.  Their actions offscreen?  A huge lie.

Demi gave into Ashton on many things.  He's a control freak who manipulates women.  "Oh, you could drink if you want to, you're just using 'addiction' as a crutch."  

That we're now shocked by Ashton goes to how pathetic celebrity is.  Demi told that tale in her book, where were you?  It's one of the few that made it into the book.  Her 80s addictions were well known.  And Joel Schumacher made it very clear that she go rehab or she wasn't going to be in ST. ELMO'S FIRE.  She went to rehab, she got the treatment she needed and she became this huge support system for many others (such as Ally Sheedy).  For Ashton to undermine her and to destroy her sobriety?

Where were you, concerned America?

He's garbage.  And the reason they broke up makes even more garbage.  If you think he pressured her to drink -- he did.  That's nothing compared to the pressure he was putting on her to do other things.  And she had the strength to walk away.  And she had the grace to leave it out of her book.  
 
So your notion that because nothing went up here about those two disgusting people since Friday afternoon when the news broke about their letters because I was/would try to cover for them?

No, you're just outright wrong.  

In terms of their video?  

They're lying garbage.  And don't say that you respect victims -- as they lie that they do -- and then lie that you weren't trying to influence the outcome.

Sentencing is part of the outcome.  Quit your lying.  Sentencing is part of the outcome.  You disrespected the women who were raped.  You tried to work over a sentencing after a jury handed down guilty verdicts.  You were clearly disrespecting the women and disrespecting the rule of law.

Everything they wrote was a lie.  Everything that they said was a lie.

And to bring up drugs, to lie that Danny kept them off drugs?  When Danny drugged the women he raped?

That's especially offensive.

Rebecca is covering this at her site. 

If you missed it, yesterday on THE VANGUARD, they were floating that Peter Daou might have been fired by Marianne Williamson.  

No one has ever made that claim before now.

Peter quit.  And I know why he quit and I knew in real time and you can go back to the archives and read about it.  I also know Marianne and have for years.  And Ava and I told you -- before POLITICO wrote its first story on what a nightmare she was to her staff -- how bad she was.  We told you.  Then the first POLITICO story comes out about it and THE VANGUARD and others -- including Krystal Ball -- want to trash the report and insist it's not true.  They attacked the second report as well although less strenuously.  Marianne is a nightmare to work for.

Peter quit for that reason.

He had no plans to make a statement and when Marianne worried how it was looking, he came out with the claim that he quit due to his family's health.  

Now he's gone to work for Cornel West's campaign.

What happened should be obvious.  

But because THE VANGUARD boys worship Marianne, they wanted to muddy the waters last night.

They also never understand a damn thing.

They are like Junior so much.

He didn't notice anti-American sentiment prior to his becoming an adult so he insists it never happened.

They attacked Peter in their segment without understanding a damn thing and only knowing what he did in 2016 -- when they were supporting the freak show that is Jill Stein.

Peter isn't someone we highlighted after 2008 here.  

We also didn't make a point to call him out after 2008.

For the same reason that I'm not going to call out Rickie Lee Jones or Meredith Brooks or any number of people.

You don't like what Peter wrote in 2016?

Well why did he write it?

Or is that too much work for you to do?

Rickie Lee gets a pass from me.  She supported Hillary Clinton in 2008.  And she saw the media work to destroy Hillary.  Peter supported Hillary in 2008.

You're crazy and insane if you don't think what the media did to Hillary was going to impact her supporters.

2008 saw the media attack her repeatedly with sexism.  When Katie Couric dared to note the sexism, Keith Olbermann attacked Katie as the worst person of the week.

They all engaged in sexism -- Keith, Bill Moyers, go down the list.  And Howard Dean played dumb as late as June 2008.

Just because you didn't live through it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.  

Hillary was mocked and made fun and lied about.  At its worst, Marjorie Cohn and Keith Olbermann and others were accusing Hillary of calling for Barack Obama to be assassinated -- Keith went on air with that claim.  

It was stupid for Hillary to run in 2016 for many reasons -- but the main ones were the media had painted her as a racist and the media had painted her as someone so desperate that she'd call for Barack to be assassinated. 

This was what the media was telling America eight years before her 2016 run.  

That's a lot to overcome with the public and, no, she did not have the charm skills to pull that off.

But they were very upset, her supporters, by the media's inability to play fair (something Donald Trump supporters can probably relate to).  So I never made a point to call out Rickie Lee or anyone else who had to endure that crap in 2008.  

That's not even a full history but it's more knowledge than THE VANGUARD boys can produce because they're idiots who never do the work required.

James H. Cone.

That's a name that the idiots need to learn.  They're crediting Cornel West with inventing every wheel in history.  James H. Cone, idiots, look him up.  W.E.B. Du Bois, learn the name.

The world did not start in 2016 just because that's when THE VANGUARD boys began paying attention.

And Jimmy Dore is many bad things but that doesn't excuse Zac, on THE VANGUARD last week, using "snatch" as a smear -- "snatch" not as in swipe but as in the female anatomy.

That's misogyny. And Zac did and Gavin laughed at it.  And then they moved on pretended like it hadn't happened.

Don't compare to those two morons.


They can't get their facts right, they don't know history, their political 'arguments' are laughable and they're just as likely to resort to sexism or to dismiss concerns about trans people as Jimmy Dore is.  


THE VANGUARD had another questionable segment last week.  It was about how Briahna Joy Gray had invited Sabby Sabs on to BAD FAITH and Sabby had lied.

 

Well what else would Sabby do?  Hey, Sabby, tell us about your parents?  You don't want to go there, do you?  


So Sabby was on with Bri-Bri and Bri-Bri lied.  And THE VANGUARD called her out and congratulated themselves for doing so. 


But the cowardly boys of THE VANGUARD lied for Bri-Bri


Months ago, a ridiculous exchange took place on REVOLUTIONARY BLACK OUT.  Sabby and the fat one had brought on Marianne Williamson and then, during the interview, the RBO homophobe and the one who rages out of control to the point that he's on the verge of tears joined the broadcast.  Marianne was not being allowed to speak.  She was asked questions and when she tried to answer them, she was cut off.


It was an awful interview.

 

And Zac and Gavin, last week, called Sabby Sabs out as she tossed aside facts and flat out lied over and over about what had happened.  Zac and Gavin played segments of the interview that had not been played on BAD FAITH including Sabby herself expressing her anger and frustration over the way Marianne was ambushed.


Last week, on BAD FAITH, Sabby lied and said that things went bad because Marianne had accused one of the RBN males of "mansplaining."  


Zac and Gavin played the clip of that and showed that Marianne was being cut off by the man when she tried to answer his question, she was being insulted by him and much more.  


Now go check in real time, we didn't make this RBN interview the big issue of the year, the month or even the week.  Why?  Because politicians don't need to be fawned over.  See, we're consistent.


The boys of THE VANGUARD?  If they didn't have hypocrisy, what would those boys have besides maybe crotch rot?


They went to town on Sabby.  And she deserved it.  She lied.  She flat out lied.


But the hypocrites of THE VANGUARD didn't go to town on Bri-Bri.  They didn't even try to hold her accountable.  This wasn't Sabby's program, it was Bri's.  Sabby was on Bri's BAD FAITH.  


The hypocrites know damn well that Sabby didn't select clips for Bri's show.  Bri and her staff selected the clips they wanted to play.  Bri was complicit in the lying.  She took part in it before it ever aired as she determined what clips would air on her show and what clips wouldn't.


Bri lied.  But THE VANGUARD gave her a pass -- that's something they do repeatedly for her and it's why they look like such hypocrites.



The airing of that segment on THE VANGUARD -- and the pass that they gave Bri -- should have led to reflection on Zac and Gavin's part but clearly they are not capable of self-reflection and that is one thing that makes them so dangerous.  Read the quote we provide of Zac at the end of our piece and you'll grasp the other reason that they're becoming so dangerous.  That's not what media does.

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