8/22/2023

kevin sorbo whines and whines

trump raging

 


Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Raging Trump" went up saturday night and i loved it and i loved  Kat's "Kat's Korner: Joni (live) at Newport" which went up sunday.


 what i don't love?

whiners!



Ask nine out of 10 people why they think Kevin Sorbo doesn’t work much anymore and they’ll tell you it’s because he’s Kevin Sorbo. On the very rare occasion, the tenth guy will say that Kevin Sorbo doesn’t get jobs because he’s a Christian – but only if the tenth guy is Kevin Sorbo. 

Sorbo — who has racked up 13 IMDb credits in the last 32 months and has over two dozen more projects slated for release in the near future — was speaking with Fox News when he made his beliefs known: That he, the former star of the second most beloved Hercules from the ‘90s, wasn’t getting work because of his faith. This was while he was talking to Fox to promote his upcoming film, Miracle in East Texas. 

It’s never easy, hearing a performer who’s actively promoting a movie he made go on national television to explain why nobody will hire him to make movies or be on national television. It’s even harder when the work they can’t get that they’re promoting went away for no reason — not one single, solitary reason — besides their deeply-held beliefs. 


i really hate whiners.  thing is, this is usually a jill st john.  (not a pamela tiffin.  she's a smart 1.)  wah wah i don't get hired.

you are 64 years old, sorbo.  you were never an actor.  you were beefcake.

well sex bombs implode.  grasp that reality.  and when it comes to acting, you're right down there with doug barr.  has he worked lately?  looked it up, the former 'fall guy' co-star hasn't acted since 1994.  he does direct and that was smart.  as an actor, he was only hired for his looks.  some 1 break it to sorbo that he looked better in the 90s. 

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'


Monday, August 21, 2023.  Supporters of Julian Assange demonstrate against Merrick Garland, Bagdad is outraged by what pops up on their electronic billboards, two French soldiers die in Iraq, Moms For Bigotry continue their assault on democracy in the United States and much more.




Supporters of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, gathered outside the home of Attorney General Merrick Garland in Maryland on Sunday. They held a vigil urging Garland to drop the charges against Assange for publishing classified U.S. military documents. The documents were leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning and exposed war crimes, torture, and rendition by the U.S. government. Some of the Assange supporters gave speeches, arguing that the charges against him are an attack on press freedom. Martha Allen, the director of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, emphasized the importance of independent media and freedom of the press. Assange is currently fighting extradition to the U.S., where he would face multiple charges under the Espionage Act. If extradited, he could face up to 175 years in prison. 

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


In recent days, there is talk of some sort of 'plea deal.'  This undefined and only hypothetical deal has already led to criticism from some parties who note that Julian Assange has broken no law.  Here, I'm not going to take a pro or anti position on a plea deal.  If one is offered and Julian decides to go for it, that's his business.  Last week, Paul Gregoire (Sydney Criminal Lawyers) noted:

US ambassador Caroline Kennedy told SMH on Monday that a plea deal could be on the cards in regard to Australian journalist Julian Assange, who’s been held in a UK maximum-security prison at the behest of the White House in prolonged isolation for more than four years now.

Kennedy said that as the US justice department is dealing with the case, “it’s not really a diplomatic issue” but “there absolutely could be a resolution”, although she did note US state secretary Anthony Blinken’s recent curt words as to the “very serious harm” the WikiLeaks founder had posed.

Townsville-born Assange published thousands of classified US military files regarding US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaked to him by US army soldier Chelsea Manning, in 2010. Having redacted these documents first, Assange then exposed the war crimes and lies of the US empire to the globe.

The potential deal has been likened to a “David Hicks-style plea bargain”. Hicks was an Australian man detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for over five years ending in 2007, due to his having visited an al-Qaeda training camp, and our government did nothing to assist him.

Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton asserts that Kennedy’s flagging the deal reveals that the Biden administration want Julian’s case “off their plate”, and with an escape route laid out in the raising of the Hick’s solution, this development may bode well for the long-tortured Australian citizen.



Lara Giddings, who was Premier of Tasmania from January 2011 until March 2014 as well as being Attorney-General in that State from 2008 to 2011 also voiced her concerns about the treatment of Assange. “Regardless of what views people might have of Julian Assange, this man has had his freedom taken away from him for over eleven years. His on-going detention cannot be justified regardless of the rights or wrongs of his WikiLeaks exposé. He does not deserve to be left to the mercy of the United States legal system, where, if found guilty, he may well die in jail,” Ms Giddings said.

Tasmania’s first female Attorney-General Judy Jackson, who held the role from 2002 until 2006, also expressed disquiet about the plight of Assange.

“His treatment, as opposed to Australian journalists, is deeply troubling, given that in both cases the right of the public to know about war crimes, wherever and whenever they are committed, is crucial,” she said.

Former Queensland Attorney- General Rod Welford said that the indefinite jailing of Assange was unjust and had to be brought to an end.




Julian Assange recognises the harmful impact that his case will have on media freedom the world over, and is grateful for the support that journalists have given him since he was detained. He expressed concern that if the United States applies its domestic laws to prosecute an Australian journalist, publishing in Europe, nothing will stop China, or any other country, from doing the same.

Assange was speaking to Dominique Pradalié the president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), who visited him in prison earlier today (Tuesday 8 August). She was able to tell him that journalists, and many others, around the world are campaigning each day for his release and that his International Press Card has been renewed. Assange is a long-time member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (the Australian journalists’ union).

Pradalié said: “I visited as a friend of Julian’s wife, Stella. I am pleased to say that he was in good spirits and maintains a keen interest in world affairs”.

The International Federation of Journalists, which represents 600,000 journalists in more than 140 countries, has campaigned against Assange’s extradition since publication of the US charges.

Pradalié said: “The charges against Julian – finding a whistleblower and encouraging them to share evidence – are actions that any investigative journalist might take. If this prosecution is successful, it will pave the way for the US to pursue any reporter who is handed classified documents, as well as legitimising repressive regimes the world over when they try to make the lives of journalists difficult. It is also worth noting that the truth of Assange’s revelations has never been disputed.”

Assange reports that he has a caged window in his cell, and a radio that allows him to keep up with the world outside. He does, however, request, that he be granted a typewriter, so that he may efficiently record his thoughts. He has lodged a request with the prison authorities that he be allowed one, but to date one has not been forthcoming.

Pradalié undertook to press the issue of a typewriter, and promised to return to visit again in the near future.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries




A French soldier has been killed in a tragic road accident in Iraq while actively engaged in a training mission for the Iraqi armed forces, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot “was very seriously wounded when his vehicle went off the road,” France’s armed forces ministry said, as AFP cited.

After receiving immediate medical attention at Arbil Hospital, the soldier, unfortunately, succumbed to his injuries despite undergoing emergency surgery. Meanwhile, the ministry said another soldier accompanying him during the incident is currently undergoing treatment at a military hospital in Baghdad.


AFP explains, "France has around 600 troops taking part in what it calls Operation Chammal in Iraq aimed at bolstering the Iraqi national forces and fighting against the Islamic State extremist group."

And while it was one dead, it is now two: Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot and Adjutant Nicolas Latourte have been identified as the fallen.

 



In Baghdad, advertising screens were banned on Sunday.  Why?  Mallika Soni (HINUDSTAN TIMES) explains:

Authorities in Iraq's capital Baghdad ordered the shutdown of LED advertisement screens installed across the city after a hacker showed a pornographic film on one of them, security forces said. The suspect has been arrested, officials said. “A person managed to hack into an advertising screen in Uqba bin Nafia Square” which is a major intersection at the centre of the city, AFP reported. The hacker "showed a pornographic film for several minutes before we cut the power cable," the report added quoting an official.




Sofia Geraghty (BANDT) adds:


The “immoral scenes” led to the authorities turning off all advertising screens in the capital while they reviewed their security measures. 

The interior minister also announced that a suspect had been arrested, but didn’t give details. 

Screens that usually show adverts for household goods and political candidates were also reportedly switched off on Sunday morning. 

Conservative Iraq announced in 2022 that it was banning p*rn websites, although many still remain available. 

The government has targeted many social media content makers in recent years, accusing them of sharing “indecent content”. 


CNN reports this morning, "Some, but not all, of the screens are now back in operation, CNN has confirmed."  



The Emtidad party formed by Tishreen (October) protestors on Monday announced they are withdrawing from the Iraqi provincial council elections scheduled for December, citing issues in electing new leadership. 

In a statement, the movement said that it “will not participate in the provincial council elections at its upcoming date due to the delay in convening its first general conference to elect a new leadership.” 

Iraq will hold provincial council elections on December 18, the first of their kind since 2013. The councils, created by the 2005 Iraqi constitution following the fall of Saddam Hussein, are powerful bodies that hold significant power in the country, including setting the budgets for several sectors such as education, health, and transport. 

The provincial elections will mark the return of the controversial Sainte-Laguë voting method, reverting back to the single-constituency per province system instead of the multiple-constituency system that was adopted for the 2021 parliamentary elections. 


Voting was one of the topics on Olayemi Olurin's show yesterday.




Meanwhile, Jordan Blumetti (GUARDIAN) reports on the hate group aligned with Ronald DeSantis, crackpot Naomi Wolf, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and many other hate merchants -- yes, we're talking Moms For Bigotry and how they're destroying Florida's libraries.  We'll note this from the conclusion:

The future of public school libraries in Florida seems to be imperiled in the debate over book challenges. Last year, Julie Miller purchased chairs instead of new books. And she has not been cleared to make any acquisitions for the approaching school year either. DeSantis’s new law does away with earmark percentages of school district funding for specific departments, allowing school boards to curtail or redirect library funds to different categories if they so choose.

All of this suggests it might be easier to defund libraries and winnow collections rather than venture the social and political risks associated with fighting a culture war with a governor who’s currently using the state legislature as his personal armory.

In a Clay county school board workshop meeting from last month, the chief academic officer Roger Dailey seemed to cast aspersions on the very utility of libraries, referring to them as glorified copy rooms, and admitting that his own teenage children have never checked a book out of their high school library because they “consume their literature in different formats, most of it digitally on their devices”, he says.

“I don’t even know if my own sons know where the library is in their school.”

Then maybe you shut up and back off because if you're children aren't using it -- as you brag -- then it's really not impacting your life.  Paul Rudnick Tweets:





With its purported membership of more than 120,000, Moms for Liberty is still a very new organization. When Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice, and Bridget Ziegler launched the group in 2021, seizing on fights to stop schools from implementing Covid-19 mask and vaccine mandates, they positioned themselves as just ordinary moms, and their group as grassroots and nonpartisan. Of course, all three women have served on school boards, and Ziegler, who left the organization later that year, still does (her husband, Christian, is also the chairman of the Florida Republican Party). She had even worked on the Florida parental rights legislation that led to Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. So when the Republican hopefuls came to Philadelphia to address the joyful warriors, it was a reflection of how much Moms for Liberty has transformed the GOP agenda into its own “parental rights” one—banning books and history curricula, excluding LGBTQ people, denying anti-Black racism, decrying anything and potentially anyone that does not belong in its God-fearing America. Such actions are just common sense, say Moms for Liberty members, and necessary to secure the future of their children.

Drafting more joyful warriors, as the summit was set up to do, involves its own indoctrination, a process that may feel more like being given secret knowledge about how things really work—including such vintage conspiracy-theory stuff as secret Communists recruiting in every schoolhouse. The more contemporary threat, according to Moms for Liberty, is that a “dangerous cult” is seeking to “trans” children. This is part of the ubiquitous ­anti-trans panic at the summit and on Moms for Liberty social media feeds. If you take up the group’s cause, you will be given a mission. As Tiffany Justice put it after the summit, Moms for Liberty is “redrawing the boundary between school and home.”

But whose home? And redrawn by which means? In her afternoon session at the summit, Hermann armed her audience with a version of the Constitution, one that maximally protects the preferences of—for instance—parents who deny their child is trans and want to force their child’s school to misgender them. There’s not much of a legal argument here, only marching orders: The Constitution is on their side, and what they want as moms represents the real America. Yet when one Texas mom of a queer child reached out to a Moms for Liberty chapter for guidance, members convinced her to deny him access to counseling from an LGBTQ youth support project, claiming the group wanted to make her son trans. When the child later attempted suicide, a Moms for Liberty member then advised the mother to sue the support project. “They were trying to indoctrinate me to be a foot soldier for their cause,” she later said.

Such maternalist recruitment, marketed as extending the domain of motherhood into the public square, has been an underrecognized yet persistent force in American politics for decades—back to the mid-century’s massive resistance to desegregation, and even earlier, in the temperance movement of the nineteenth century. Moms for Liberty operates in an updated version of this well-worn style, in which mothers and children are presented as fundamentally innocent, and mothers who flex political power are just doing what any mother wants: to decide what is best for their children. “Because no one is going to fight for a child like a parent,” Justice told an education reporter at the summit. “Love is an expertise.”

Moms for Liberty members can position themselves as just regular moms somehow outside politics because, as religion scholar Sara Moslener has argued, white womanhood and white Christian nationalism reinforce each other. The mothers’ moral authority is perceived to endow them with perpetual innocence, and the United States is perceived to inherit its moral authority from Christian founders—rendering both the mothers and the nation incapable of committing injustice. The several hundred protesters outside the summit, some of them mothers themselves who held signs about protecting free public libraries and celebrating trans kids, aren’t like these moms at all, co-founder Tiffany Justice told the closing-night gala dinner guests. Inside the convention hotel, “we’re having a great time,” she said, adding abruptly and ominously, “If you don’t stand now, what is the future for your children? It will be bleak, it will be dark, there will be death.”

This is the kind of political work—preparing themselves, much as a militia might, for a coming conflict between good and evil—for which Moms for Liberty was designated this year by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an “anti-government extremist” group. Descovich and Justice accused SPLC of “[n]ame-calling,” while Ziegler called it “a leftist attack.” But there have long been traceable links between Moms for Liberty and two of the groups that played a leading role in the January 6 insurrection. Some Moms for Liberty members maintain relationships with the Proud Boys. Moms for Liberty even invited a member of the Oath Keepers to speak at the Philadelphia summit.

That is the true face of Moms for Liberty. It’s not that white Christian nationalists are somehow using these “regular moms” for their own ends. That would absolve these women, who in fact share those ends. And they are working toward them, methodically and unapologetically, in far more public view. 




Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Raging Trump" went up Saturday night and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Joni (live) at Newport" went up Sunday.  The following sites updated: