Like Maria Said Paz

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Bad legal analyst (Turley) got it wrong, Ava and C.I. explain reality re 'religious' excuses

Jonathan Turley, the hypocrite homophobe, really seems less and less an expert on the courts. Take this for example:

Abortion rights groups have raised concerns that a Donald Trump-nominated federal judge approving an anti-contraception lawsuit is proof the GOP will go further restricting the procedure post Roe v. Wade.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, recently issued an opinion on the case of Deanda v. Becerra, a lawsuit filed by a Christian father hoping to block the Title X federal program.

In his suit, Alexander Deanda argues that Title X, which approves family planning services be available for anyone, including minors, violates his constitutional right as a parent.

[. . .]

The opinion meant Kacsmaryk became the first federal justice to approve a challenge to the right to contraception in the wake of the overturning of Roe. V. Wade.

Abortion rights and pro-contraception groups say the ruling is proof fears conservative judges will use the Supreme Court's overturning of the landmark abortion ruling to push forward with further restrictions are coming into fruition.

This wouldn't happen insisted 'expert' Jonathan Turley. It is happening. Again, thanks Jonathan Turley, you idiot. On legal, I loved a recent piece.

"Those fake ass 'religious' litigants (Ava and C.I.)" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):

Again, we're confused. Crackpots tend to confuse us.

Vivian Geraghty is stating that she can't use pronouns (that she doesn't agree with) or names (that she doesn't agree with) due to her religion?

What's her next excuse? The dog ate her homework?

We ask because of Matthew 22: 15 - 22.

For those unfamiliar, it's a book, chapter and verse in THE BIBLE.

We'll assume Viv Geraghty is among those unfamiliar with it.

It's where Jesus talks about "render unto Caesar."

Remember that, Viv?

Seems to us this is a render unto Caeser moment if this is any kind of 'religious' moment at all.

The government is telling her to use pronouns the students prefer, she's being told to call them by their preferred names. And Viv's pissing her panties and screaming like a mad woman. Where, in the Bible, is she finding her religious belief?

More to the point, where is her common sense?

If DANCING WITH THE STARS' Mark Ballas were in her class, what would Viv call him?

Would she call him "Mark"? Or would she insist upon calling him "Mark Jr."? Because he is Mark Jr. He doesn't go by it, but that is his name. If Will Smith were in Viv's class, what would she call Will? His name isn't Will. It's Willard Carroll Smith Jr. Would she insist upon calling him "Willard"? "Willard Jr."? If Robert Redford were in Viv's class, what would she call him? "Robert Jr."? Or "Charles"? Charles is his first name (full name Charles Robert Redford, Jr.). And if Beau Biden had been in her class, would she have refused to call him Beau? Joseph Robinette Biden III was Beau's legal name.

Our point here is that children are called preferred names every day in every US school and it's nothing new.

Has Viv stuck to their legal first names with her students? If not, why is this suddenly a problem?

It's a problem, let's be honest, because Viv hates a certain group of people and wants to be a test case for the law. Oh, Viv, you're so embarrassing. We picture your God of choice, up in heaven, clucking his head and determining that this sort of behavior is exactly the reason he will banish you to hell. You're trying to justify hate in His name but His son Jesus was very clear that you should ''Render unto Caeser the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

Exactly. People are saying "religious" but it has nothing to do with their religion. If it goes against what Jesus says in THE BIBLE, then Christians can't say, "My religion does not allow for this." Jesus Christ, right? Christianity stems from his life and death -- the Holy son.

A lot of grifters have been objecting because of their personal opinions and trying to shove it off on Jesus. Doesn't work that way. The charlatans need to have their cases dismissed.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, December 20, 2022. US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange -- even as calls for his release continue and, in fact, increase, ISIS is not 'back' in Iraq because it never left (and their acts of terrorism are getting harder and harder to ignore), and much more.

Starting with Julian Assange.

Julian Assange remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden. Last week, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reported:

Press freedom and rights organizations on Thursday expressed "grave concern" about the Biden administration's "relentless pursuit" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian who is jailed in London while he fights against extradition to the United States.

"It is more than a year since our coalition sent a joint letter calling for the charges against Assange to be dropped," 21 groups wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. "Today, we repeat those concerns, and urge you to heed our request. We believe that the prosecution of Assange in the U.S. would set a harmful legal precedent and deliver a damaging blow to press freedom by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers."

For those who've forgotten, Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs. And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own. For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs. Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:

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

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

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

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

Eric Lichtblau (GUARDIAN) observes:

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

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

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

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

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

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write:

President Joe Biden is pressing ahead with a controversial criminal case against Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, a whistleblower website. Assange has been languishing for close to four years in the UK’s harsh Belmarsh Prison while appealing extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage and computer intrusion charges that could land him in a maximum security prison for 175 years. Meanwhile, the U.S case against Assange is facing mounting criticism here at home as a threat to press freedom. In a twist this month that could have far-reaching implications for the case, two people are asking the Justice Department to indict them as well. John Young, who runs a Wikileaks-like website, Cryptome.org, and legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg are demanding they be indicted for publishing and/or retaining the same documents for which Julian Assange is being charged.

In 1971, Dan Ellsberg gave the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to several newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. The resulting stories sent shockwaves through the nation, further eroding public support for the war. President Richard Nixon was furious, and orchestrated a criminal campaign to destroy Ellsberg and to block further publication of the papers. Nixon failed in both efforts, and the case against Ellsberg was thrown out of court.

Today, Dan Ellsberg, sharp and alert at 91, sees stark parallels in the case against Julian Assange which, he says, invalidate the government’s case.

“Assange, like me, was illegally surveilled. In his case, even his lawyers’ and his doctors’ discussions were surveilled,” Ellsberg said this week on the Democracy Now! news hour. “Discussions were made of kidnapping and killing him or poisoning, just as a dozen CIA assets were brought up from Miami on May 3rd, 1973, by President Nixon with orders to ‘incapacitate Daniel Ellsberg totally’.”

John Young’s website, Cryptome.org, actually published the same set of “Cablegate” documents days earlier than Wikileaks, and the material is still available on the site. “I’m unclear why, if they’re charging him, why they’ve never charged someone like us,” Young, who turns 87 next

And Amy spoke with both on DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: Pressure is growing on President Biden to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who’s been jailed in Britain since his arrest in April of 2019. The Biden administration is asking the U.K. government to extradite him to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage and hacking charges if he’s found guilty at trial. WikiLeaks says Assange could be extradited within weeks. Assange was first arrested 12 years ago this month, on December 7th, 2010. After a period under house arrest, he lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum, from 2012 to 2019.

Five major news organizations, including The New York Times, which once partnered with WikiLeaks, recently called on the Biden administration to drop charges against Assange, writing, quote, “This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” unquote. The letter goes on to say, “Publishing is not a crime.” The letter was signed by The New York Times, The Guardian in Britain, Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany and El País in Spain.

Meanwhile, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg recently revealed he was in possession of confidential documents containing evidence of U.S. war crimes leaked by former military analyst Chelsea Manning and given to him as backup by WikiLeaks. In a recent message to President Biden and the Justice Department, Ellsberg wrote on Twitter, quote, “I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges,” unquote.

The founder of the website Cryptome.org has also written to the Justice Department asking to be indicted, as well. Cryptome’s founder, John Young, says he should be added as a co-defendant in the prosecution of Assange because he published some of the same leaked government documents at the center of the U.S. case against Assange. Cryptome is a website that began in 1996 and is seen by many as a precursor to WikiLeaks. Young also helped Assange start WikiLeaks in 2006. While Assange faces 175 years in U.S. prison if he’s extradited and convicted, the U.S. government has never moved to prosecute Young, who says he published the unredacted State Department cables two days prior to WikiLeaks. The U.S. government has never even asked Young to remove the documents.

Well, today, in a Democracy Now! exclusive, we’re joined by both Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dan Ellsberg in Berkeley, California, and Cryptome’s John Young here in New York.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Dan Ellsberg, let’s begin with you. Why don’t you lay out what you’re asking the Justice Department to do?

DANIEL ELLSBERG: I’m asking them to look closely at the charges they have brought against, actually, past whistleblowers, all past, and Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, potentially against me and John Young, because, as lawyers said at the time of my first trial back in 1971 — Melville Nimmer, the leading scholar of law of information at that point, said that if the Espionage Act were used against someone who had done what I had admittedly done — copy and distribute 7,000 pages of top-secret documents — that law was unconstitutional. And that’s been true ever since. It’s unconstitutional use against sources, as it has been done several dozen times, especially in this century under Presidents Obama and Trump, and now Biden. It’s also unconstitutional use against journalists. That’s blatantly unconstitutional. They never tried it, even under President Obama, when President Biden was vice president. They backed off because of the clear unconstitutionality under the First Amendment, which says no law should be passed abridging freedom of the press.

And finally, by raising this constitutional issue, that I focus on in particular, I’m showing that the law can be used absurdly — at least absurdly, broadly — against someone like me, who admittedly retained and failed to deliver — these are the words of 18 USC 793 paragraph e. And I know that so well, as a nonlawyer — I’m a defendant — because I was the first person charged with that for giving information to the public. So, I am as guilty, in their eyes, as Assange. How come they haven’t come after me for this? I did much the same a year ago and raised this challenge. If the — at last, the media, who have been derelict in informing themselves on a law which was always potentially there to indict them, if they do this and really raise the issue of the necessity to abandon or strongly amend the Espionage Act so as to exclude journalists and exclude whistleblowers who are trying to inform the American public, they can — if they want to continue as they are, they can come after me, which means anyone who retains a copy of The New York Times which has the word “classified” in it, and who fails to turn over that copy to authorities authorized to receive it — mail it in to the Justice Department, I guess — is as guilty as I am under the plain language of that act.

A British-type Official Secrets Act is barred from America after our Revolution by the First Amendment of the United States, freedom of the press. They don’t have that. Since my prosecution, the Justice Department has been using the Espionage Act, intended obviously for entirely different reasons — spies who secretly give information to America’s enemies, especially in wartime — they’ve been using it as if it were an Official Secrets Act. If they succeed with Julian Assange, in extraditing him — which Biden could stop tomorrow, and should — if they succeed in that, prosecute him and convict him, we will not have a First Amendment. It’s as if we didn’t fight a War of Independence, actually, with respect to anything they regarded as related to national defense. Free speech is pretty much out the door.

And I want to raise the issue that the act even promotes the possibility of prosecuting people like me, who do not even publish — I was a backup for Julian Assange, didn’t have to publish — but can get anybody who handles that material, any secretary at the newspaper and any reader of The New York Times.

AMY GOODMAN: John Young, Dan Ellsberg is perhaps the most famous whistleblower in the world in releasing the Pentagon Papers. You are not as well known. You founded Cryptome.org back in the ’90s. Explain why you are saying, if Julian Assange is guilty, you should be jailed, as well.

JOHN YOUNG: Well, it’s pretty clear, looking at the indictment of Julian Assange and the 18 citations that he’s charged, as far as I could tell, all those apply to me and Cryptome, that we’ve been doing this now since 1996. We publish classified information, secret information from other countries, within the United States, and so that I’m unclear why, if they’re charging him, why they’ve never charged someone like us. By the way, we’re only one of dozens of people who are putting out this kind of information, from the Federation of American Scientists to the National Security Archive. This has been going on for quite a long while. So our sense is that they’re trying to use Assange as an example to frighten people. That, to me, is selective vindication against him, and he should not face this alone.

I think all of those of us who are doing similar kind of work to serve the public rather than the government should do more than just protest. I think we’ve got to raise more hell and take more legal action and publish more, and as our obligation as citizens, that I think the intelligence agencies are completely out of control. The national security people are completely out of control. They’re actually trying to use Assange as a threat against everyone else, not only in the U.S. but around the world. And this, to us, seems to be anti-democratic. And we’d like to help combat that by sharing the responsibility that Mr. Ellsberg and Julian Assange is facing. And we hope others will step up, as well.

By the way, we’re not publishers. We’re private citizens, practicing architects. And so we are not doing anything more than exerting our constitutional rights under the First Amendment. So, this accusation against Assange would be illegal against an American citizen. So we think it’s selective prosecution, and it should cease.

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, you filed this motion against the U.S. government for violating your constitutional rights to provide unlimited documents to the public. Now, specifically in the case of Julian Assange, you say you published at Cryptome.org, two days before WikiLeaks did, State Department cables. Explain. You’re saying the same thing that WikiLeaks revealed, and so you are guilty of the same crime.

JOHN YOUNG: Yes, except we don’t see it as a crime. It’s just revelation of privileged information. We don’t see it as criminal; we see it as free speech. And it’s all a citizen has to work with if they’re not part of the press, is to speak up and take responsibility for their views. So that’s why we did it, is that it was available, thought it worthwhile for the public to know. It’s been there now for 12 years, hundreds of downloads. No complaint from the U.S. government against us.

THE NEW YORK TIMES lied, so many lied. And so many whored. Whoring is part of US House Rep Nancy Pelosi's record -- especially on Iraq. She refused to impeach Bully Boy Bush.

You may remember that US House Rep John Conyers wanted to impeach Bully Boy Bush. Over fifty years in Congress and John felt there was a strong case for impeachment. Nancy just didn't want to be bothered. In the lead up to the 2006 mid-terms, she announced impeachment was off the table. John continued to try to pursue it and she blocked him repeatedly. Bully Boy Bush is a War Criminal and Nancy Pelosi covered for him and protected him. That is -- and forever will be -- a part of her legacy.

There were two battles in/for/on Falluja during the early years of the Iraq War. Neither were anything to brag about or take pride in. Boys were not allowed to leave the city and were treated as armed adult fighters for 'pacification' purposes. War Crimes were carried out. The US used illegal weapons. Nothing to be proud of.

Yet a US warship is being named after the battles.

PRESS TV notes:

The United States Navy has named a next-generation helicopter assault ship the USS Fallujah, almost two decades after the western Iraqi city was the scene of bloody battles that killed hundreds of civilians.

[. . .]

The US-led coalition conducted a devastating bombing campaign before their second attack, forcing some 300,000 civilians to flee.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 civilians remained trapped in Fallujah during the assault, living through what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described at the time as a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.

The ICRC announced immediately after the battle that some 800 Iraqi civilians were killed in the fighting. It later accused the US of using white phosphorus as a weapon to defeat the militants.

To this day, babies born in Fallujah have suffered disproportionately high levels of birth defects, including congenital heart disease, gastroschisis (where the digestive system is found outside the baby's body), and Spina Bifida.

One of the most documented reasons for the birth defects has been the lingering impact of uranium in the local environment, a remnant of the US bombardment.

Peter Maas (THE INTERCEPT) observes:

Fallujah is where, just a few weeks after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division opened fire on a crowd of civilian protesters and killed 17 of them; the U.S. military claimed that the first shots came from Iraqis, but there is no convincing evidence for that assertion and significant reporting to the contrary. Fallujah was a stronghold of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and for that reason, its residents fiercely opposed an unprovoked invasion that was, according to international law, flagrantly illegal.

Those killings were the prelude to a torrent of violence and destruction in 2004. The bloodshed that year included the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians; the point-blank murder of prisoners; and the torture of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, just 20 miles away. Fallujah’s punishment even extended beyond the brutal era of its U.S. occupation; in years after, there has been a spike in cancers, birth defects, and miscarriages, apparently due to America’s use of munitions with depleted uranium.

Instead of apologizing for what was done, the U.S. is choosing to celebrate it: The Pentagon announced this week that a $2.4 billion warship will be named the USS Fallujah. The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David Berger, made clear that the military has decided to double down on its fairy tale of Fallujah as an American triumph. “Under extraordinary odds, the Marines prevailed against a determined enemy who enjoyed all the advantages of defending an urban area,” he said in a press release about the naming. “The battle of Fallujah is, and will remain, imprinted in the minds of all Marines and serves as a reminder to our nation, and its foes, why our Marines call themselves the world’s finest.”

The announcement noted that more than 100 U.S. and allied soldiers died in Fallujah but said nothing about the far larger toll of Iraqi civilians killed, the flattening of swathes of the city through extensive bombings, the apparent war crimes by U.S. forces, the health impacts on civilians that continue to this day — and the inconvenient fact that U.S. forces were unable to keep their hold on Fallujah for very long. For the Pentagon, it’s as if none of it mattered, or it didn’t happen.

Sunday, BBC NEWS reported:

At least nine police officers have been killed in a bomb and gun attack in northern Iraq.

The attack took place near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, about 290km (180 miles) from the capital Baghdad on Sunday.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.

IS has already said it was behind the planting of a roadside bomb that killed three Iraqi soldiers near Baghdad on Wednesday.

AFP notes, "Suspected extremists on motorbikes stormed a village north of Baghdad late Monday and killed eight Iraqi civilians, officials said." ISIS is suspected in that attack.

ISIS was not vanquished in 2014. It was driven out areas that it was occupying. Terrrorists really don't occupy. They threaten, they scare, they carry out violent attacks. But during Nouri al-Maliki's second term as prime minister, that's how badly he had destroyed Iraq, areas of it could be held by a terrorist group. Since losing control of those areas, ISIS has continued to stage attacks.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Monday, December 19, 2022

Jeffrey St. Clair talks reality about the climate crisis

Reaching back two Fridays, this is from Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH):

+ The argument for not telling people just how truly f**ked the climate crisis is and how few options there are for a livable planet in 50 years has been that it will frighten them into complacency–which is, of course, the prevailing attitude now. So what’s to be lost by being brutally honest?

+ The Washington Post examined 1500 different scenarios for the planet’s climate future. The results weren’t encouraging: “When we look at those scenarios that have the temperature closing out the century below 1.5C, there is a big problem. With their dramatic plunges in greenhouse gas emissions levels by 2025 — just three years away — some of the scenarios, which were finalized in 2021 at the latest, increasingly conflict with reality. After all, the world just saw emissions rise in 2022…”

+ According to the latest data from NOAA, global heat content of the oceans has reached another record high…

+ A report from Carbon Tracker titled Paris Maligned discloses that world’s biggest oil producers are investing billions of dollars on fossil fuel projects that will only be needed if the world misses key climate goals. In 2021 and 2022, fossil fuel companies spent $58 billion to develop new oil and gas infrastructure and are prepared to shell out another $23 billion next year on projects that would insure the planet warms at least 2.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

+ Only a year after it pledged at COP26 to “consign coal to history,” the UK government approved a mammoth new coal mine that will be 1150 feet deep.

+ In 2021, India recorded 36 “heatwave days“. By last July, the country had already experienced 203 in 2022.

+ The northernmost town in the US–Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow), Alaska–hit 40 degrees on Monday, shattering an all-time record high for December. The previous record was 34 degrees.

There's more so use the link. But it was an important post and I meant to share it. I'm glad I remembered it tonight.

(Finally.)

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, December 19, 2022. Iraq has an athlete receiving worldwide attention, did Joe Biden lie about Iraq and Afghanistan, more antiquities returned to Iraq, we continue our coverage of the hearing on the rise in hate and violence aimed at LGBTQ+ individuals, and much more.

Starting in the United States:

US House Rep David Cicilline: I want to begin by reminding everyone here -- especially my Republican colleagues across the aisle -- what this hearing is about. It's called "The Rise of Anti-LGBTQI+ Extremism and Violence in the United States." And despite this hearing title, colleagues on both sides of the aisle have obviously condemned the attack on Club Q and violence more broadly, it's obviously more telling that the Republicans on this Committee -- with one exception -- did not ask any questions about anti LGBTQI+ extremism and violence. Instead, they've only wanted to talk about crime broadly or hate crimes against other communities. I'm disappointed, yet not surprised that a few weeks after a killer murdered five people at an LGBTQI+ nightclub, Republicans on this Committee could not bring themselves to discuss anti-LGBTQI+ violence and its causes with our witnesses. Our community is scared -- terrified that we'll be attacked going to the doctor, scared that we'll be attacked going to night clubs, scared that we'll be attacked for living as our authentic selves and, unfortunately, this fear is well grounded. The attack at Club Q is only the latest high profile attack against our community. In 2021, 20% of all reported hate crimes were motivated by hate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Let me repeat that: Despite the fact that LGBTQI+ people make up roughly 7% of the population, 20% -- or more than 1 in 5 reported hate crimes -- last year were motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity bias. My colleagues want to talk about anything but this anti-LGBTQI+ violence and their rhetoric that has contributed to it. This violence is impacting both LGBTQI+ individuals and their families.

He is exactly right. It was shocking to watch the hearing take place, know the title and witness one Republican Committee member after another practice Florida's "Don't Say Gay or Trans" throughout the hearing.

The stupidity and hatred was on full display from the GOP side. It reminded me of a scene in COMING HOME. Jane Fonda's Sally is volunteering at a VA hospital while her husband is serving in Vietnam. She tries to speak with other officer wives about what's going on in the hospital and what the veterans are needing. They have no interest at all. And they certainly don't want reality in their little newsletter.

The Republicans on the Committee turned their heads to reality just like the officers' wives in that film.

We're continuing our coverage of last week's House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. US House Rep Carolyn Maloney presided over the hearing -- she's the Chair of the Committee, James Comer is the Ranking Member. The hearing was held due to the rise in violence aimed at the LGBTQ+ community which includes last month's Club Q shooting. The shooting left five people dead:

Daniel Davis Aston, 28

Kelly Loving, 40

Ashley Paugh, 35

Derrick Rump, 38

Raymond Green Vance, 22

The shooting also left twenty-five people injured.

Michael Anderson, James Slaugh and Matthew Haynes survived the shooting and they made up the first panel before the Committee. The second panel was made up of Human Rights Campaign's Kelley Robinson, Pulse Nightclub shooting survivor Brandon Wolf, National Center for Transgender Equality's Oliva Hunt, Inside Out Youth Services' Jessie Pocock and The Williams Institute's Ilan Meyer.

For other coverage of the hearing, see Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" and Friday's "Iraq snapshot" and Ruth's "Allies are needed (House Oversight Committee)," Kat's "Respect for Marriage Act is only step one, more needed," "Cori Bush speaks some truth in Committee hearing," Trina's "LGBTQ youth need a safe nation (Dr. Jessie Pocock)," Mike's "Texas, come claim your idiot (House Oversight Committee)," Stan's "Shontel Brown, Chris Wallace, Wonder Woman" and Rebecca's "glenn greenwald wants to be the biggest bitch there is ."

You can stream the hearing below.

Testifying before the Committee, Matthew Haynes, founding owner of Club Q:

We have received hundreds of hate mail and e-mails. In the interest of time, I am not reading them all to ou. But here are a few examples. "I woke up to the wonderful news that 5 mentally unstable f**gots and lesbians and 18 injured. The only thing that I'm mad about is that the f**gots had courage to subdue the wonderful killer. I hope more shootings happen again. Have a blessed day." "The shooter was doing God's work, 5 less f**s not enough. Those that stopped him are the devil." "All gays should die." I could go on, but you get the point. I spoke Sunday with our hero Army veteran Rich Fierro and his wife Jessica. They told me they and their daughter have been receiving hate messages on their phones, e-mail and at their business. Most with the same basic theme: Condemning them to hell for stopping the shooter.

Brandon Wolf survived the 2016 attack on the Pulse Nightclub in Florida. He told the Committee:

For decades, we told young people that "it gets better." Those of us who grew up in schools where we had to hide to survive or face violence and abuse were told the tides were shifting and the world would finally let us simply be. And for a while, it did get better. But we are witnessing a violent backlash to that progress and I'm here to say we must recommit to the work of making America better than those who have placed a political target on the LGBTQ community, on trans youth and families, on our access to life-saving health care and who now seek to erase our existence from every school and every library. Being LGBTQ in America, in 2022, means looking over your shoulder before holding hands with someone you love. It means watching as your very humanity is litigated on every cable news network and across each social media platform, wondering which faces around the Thanksgiving dinner table will have been indoctrinated and emboldened to challenge your right to exist. It means wondering when those hateful words will come from someone with an assault weapon and the directions to the bar you and your friends are in seeking refuge from a world that has been made more dangerous by extremist rhetoric of extremists and opportunistic politicians.

These are real issues. It was surprising to watch how many on the left ignored these hearings. Less surprising was to watch self-loathing gay men dismiss and attack the hearings. Less surprising because that's what self-hatred prompts.

Some only identify as gay when they're pretending to care about their sick husband. But, let's be honest, if they really cared about their husband, they wouldn't be Tweeting and doing YOUTUBE and RUMBLE political commentaries or, for that matter, announcing that they didn't want kids (despite now having two). No, if they really cared about their sick husband who might die, they'd have their ass at the hospital every damn day.

They fake their way through life. They're pathetic.

The hearing was about reality. Molly Sprayregen (LGBTQ+ NATION) reports:

On Thursday, the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus released its Inaugural Report on the Conditions of LGBTQ+ People in the United States.

The report was spearheaded by the caucus’s chair, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), with the intention “to educate the public on the significant disparities LGBTQ+ people experience and serve as a benchmark by which the country can judge its progress on LGBTQ+ rights in the years to come,” according to a press release.

The report examines LGBTQ+ people in the areas of education, economic security, health care, and housing.

Unsurprisingly, it shows how LGBTQ+ people face disproportionate challenges in every single area.

It highlights, for example, a GLSEN survey that found 74.2% of K-12 trans students said they feel unsafe in school due to their gender, and that 76.1% of LGBTQ+ students who attended any portion of school in-person during the 2021-2022 school year endured verbal harassment due to their LGBTQ+ identity.

It also cites a 2020 Trevor Project survey that found 28% of LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 had been homeless or experienced housing insecurity at some point.

The list of challenges and disparities goes on.

“LGBTQ+ people deserve the same opportunities to thrive as their non-LGBTQ+ peers,” said Rep. Cicilline in a statement announcing the report. “The data presented in this report shows, however, that the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people are vastly different than those of our straight and cisgender neighbors.”

“With the increasing rise of violence against the LGBTQ+ community and the growing number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills being introduced in state legislatures and in Congress, it is especially critical that all levels of government work to ensure true lived equality for LGBTQ+ people.”

“This includes by finally enacting the Equality Act into law to ensure comprehensive explicit nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. Our ability to thrive in this country should not be limited due to our sexual orientation or gender identity. The fight for equality in this country will not be over until we address all of these disparities and create true equity for the LGBTQ+ community.”

More reality? Saturday, David Klepper (AP) reported:

In the days after a gunman killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado last month, much of social media lit up with the now familiar expressions of grief, mourning and disbelief.

But on some online message boards and platforms, the tone was celebratory. “I love waking up to great news,” wrote one user on Gab, a platform popular with far-right groups. Other users on the site called for more violence.

The hate isn’t limited to fringe sites.

On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, researchers and LGBTQ advocates have tracked an increase in hate speech and threats of violence directed at LGBTQ people, groups and events, with much of it directed at transgender people.

The content comes after conservative lawmakers in several states introduced dozens of anti-LGBTQ measures and amid a wave of threats targeting LGBTQ groups, as well as hospitals, health care workers, libraries and private businesses that support them.

“I don’t think people understand the state of danger that we’re living in right now,” said Jay Brown, senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign and a transgender man. “A lot of that is happening online, and online threats are turning into threats of real violence offline.”

Hospitals in Boston, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and other cities have received bomb threats and other harassing messages after misleading claims spread online about transgender care programs.

In Tennessee, masked members of a white supremacist group showed up recently at a holiday charity event at a bookstore because the evening’s entertainment included a drag performer. An upcoming holiday party at an adults-only gay nightclub scheduled for Friday was also the subject of threats. The party’s theme? Ugly Christmas sweaters.

“And they’re still coming after us? It’s just straight up bigotry and hatred at this point,” said Jessica Patterson, one of the organizers of the event, who noted that groups calling for violence against LGBTQ groups often espouse other bigotries too. “They just have to hate someone.”

Turning to Iraq, MMA Amir Albazi is making headlines.

Nolan King and Ken Hathaway (YAHOO NEWS) report:

At UFC Fight Night 216, Albazi (16-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) picked up his first TKO win in seven years when he finished promotional newcomer Alessandro Costa (12-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with a slick uppercut and follow-up punches at the UFC Apex.

After the fight, Albazi hammered home that he’s not playing around. He considers himself ready for the elite of the elite at 125 pounds.

“I wanted to come here to show not the same Amir,” Albazi told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “I’ve already submitted two blackbelts before, so I wanted to put on a really good performance to show I’m a different level than these guys and that I’m ready for the top five. I’m ready for that belt. I hope you guys saw that. I hope you saw that I have knockout power, too. I can put people to sleep standing up, and I can put people to sleep on the ground. Just keep them coming, and I’ll keep taking them out.”

Friday, US President Joe Biden spoke in New Castle, Delware at a Veterans Summit and PACT Act Town Hall. He was speaking at The Beau Biden National Guard Reserve Center -- a place he and Jill Biden last visited January 19, 2021 when "Jill and I stopped to say goodbye to Delaware as we were about to be sworn in in Washington, D.C. to take our Oath of Office."

NATION.LK and FOX NEWS are convinced that he lied about how many times he has visited Iraq and Afghanistan. FOX notes that, back in March, POLITIFACT found he had not been to the two "over 40 times" as he'd claimed them but 21 times. Clearly, he hasn't been to either since March so 21 is still the number.

The two outlets cite this quote from Friday, "I've been in and out, not as, obviously, a combatant, but in and out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and those areas 38, 39 times as vice president, only twice as president."

So did he lie?

I don't know and they don't either. He didn't Iraq and Afghanistan this time. He said "Afghanistan, Iraq and those areas." Those areas. What is he claiming there? Is he including Israel? I have no idea and neither do they which countries Joe was referring to by "those areas." And "those areas" must be the "twice as president." He hasn't been to Iraq once since being elected president. And he didn't even meet with Iraq's previous prime minister when the p.m. visited the US this fall to speak to the UN.

THE DAILY MAIL also gloms on the remarks about visiting Iraq and Afghanistan without appearing to notice that "those areas" are in Friday's remarks. THE MAIL's on stronger ground calling out this part of the speech:

He made the astonishing claims as he spoke to war veterans in Delaware and also told them a previously unheard story of how his uncle Frank Biden won a Purple Heart medal for his service during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 during World War II.

There appeared to be some glaringly inaccurate key details in his tale - including there being no evidence of such an honor ever being awarded.

Biden went on to explain how his father urged him have his brother, Frank, be awarded the prestigious medal normally given to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military.

The president claimed all of this happened when he had been elected as vice president, in 2008. However, his uncle Frank had passed away in 1999 and his own father died in 2002 making such a conversation impossible.

From The White House's official transcript of the speech:

You know, I — my dad, when I got elected Vice President, he said, “Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge.”   He was not feeling very well now — not because of the Battle of the Bulge. But he said, “And he won the Purple Heart. And he never received it. He never — he never got it. Do you think you could help him get it? We’ll surprise him.”

     So we got him the Purple Heart. He had won it in the Battle of the Bulge. And I remember he came over to the house, and I came out, and he said, “Present it to him, okay?” We had the family there.

     I said, “Uncle Frank, you won this. And I want to…” He said, “I don’t want the damn thing.” (Laughter.) No, I’m serious. He said, “I don’t want it.” I said, “What’s the matter, Uncle Frank? You earned it.” He said, “Yeah, but the others died. The others died. I lived. I don’t want it.”

Just like a generation — this generation in Vietnam — excuse me, in — in Iraq.

The story, as Joe tells it, could not have happened.

In addition, Harshwardhan Waghela (MEAWW) notes:

Frank Biden's obituary and gravestone allegedly fail to mention him as a Purple Heart recipient. Additionally, no one by that name is listed in a partial registry of known Purple Heart recipients, though this database is not extensive. The Nexis database and the Factba.se archives of Joe Biden's public utterances do not contain any prior references to Frank Biden getting the Purple Heart which honors injured and dead troops. Interestingly, Joe Biden’s brother and uncle were both named Frank. His uncle, Frank H Biden died in 1999.

What those concerned about the truth -- at least with regards to Joe -- appear to have missed from his speech is this section:

One of the last times I flew into Iraq, I went up in the cockpit. And they fly me with what’s called a “Silver Bullet” when you fly the President, and there’s a special container in the plane they stick you in.

And I went up with a — I went up with a group, and I was telling this to Beau’s father-in-law and my grade-school friend who’s sitting right there — and he’s taping it all because he’s going to use it against me here — (laughter) — Ronnie Olivere.

How is anyone supposed to interpret that? I think it can honestly be understood to be Joe saying that he visited Iraq as President and was in "what's called a 'Silver Bullet'" -- but the thing is, he's never visited Iraq once as President. The last time he visited Iraq was 2016. He wasn't president at that time.

So if you're concerned about a lie, there's one right there.

Staying on the topic of Iraq, The District Attorney's Office in Manhattan issued the following on Wednesday:

December 14, 2022

Pictured: “Stamp Seals”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., announced the return of antiquities to the People of Iraq that were looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003. The pieces were smuggled into the United States, where they were purchased through various galleries and online auctions by a private collector between 2004-2009. The antiquities were returned during a repatriation ceremony attended by Iraq’s Charge D’Affaires Dr. Salwan Sinjar and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tom Acocella.

“These stunningly preserved artifacts are just a few of the many antiquities looted from the Iraq Museum. Thanks to the thoroughness of our investigators and prosecutors, we discovered that these pieces were for sale online without the proper documentation. We are pleased that they are finally returning home to the museum where they rightfully belong,” said District Attorney Bragg.

“I’m grateful for the work by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for its efforts to repatriate these precious, historic antiquities to Iraq,” said Dr.Salwan Sinjari, Iraqi Chargé d’Affairs to the United States. “These pieces belong to Iraq—and belong in Iraq—and now they will help the Iraqi people better understand and appreciate our own history and culture with this connection to the past. This is another example of the longstanding cooperation, friendship, and partnership between Iraq and United States.”

“Homeland Security Investigations is proud to stand with our partners from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Republic of Iraq to return these ancient cylinder and stamp seals. These items were looted by thieves taking advantage of the confusion of war to turn a profit with total disregard to their cultural value,” said Ivan J. Arvelo, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York. “These artifacts date from as far back as 2700 B.C.E. and were a critical part of everyday life in the ancient world. Now, they will return to their rightful home.”

The pieces returned include four cylinder seals and three stamp seals dating to between the Mesopotamian (2700-2500 B.C.E.) and the Neo-Babylonian (612-539 B.C.E.) periods. These seals were an important part of daily life and are engraved with figurative scenes. The carved illustrations on these seven seals depict images of gods, human figures, animals, and other scenes of worship. Each unique seal served as a personal signature to guarantee authenticity of either an individual or a business, and appear today almost exactly as they would have looked to the ancient people who used them.

In March of 2021, one of the stamp seals was listed for sale in an online auction, leading this Office to begin an investigation into its origin and provenance. Our investigation revealed that the consignor of this stamp seal was in possession of six additional seals that were all purchased shortly after the looting of the Iraq Museum and lacked any documentation confirming that they had entered the art market prior to 2003.

Pictured: “Cylinder Seals”

The investigation was conducted by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit; Assistant District Attorney James Edwards-Lebair; Supervising Investigative Analyst Apsara Iyer, Investigative Analyst Giuditta Giardini; and Special Agent Bobby Fromkin of Homeland Security Investigations.

In 2022, the office has returned 892 antiquities, valued at over $104 million to 15 countries. Since its founding, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has returned over 2,400 antiquities, valued at over $200 million, to 22 countries.

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The following sites updated: