robert dance is about as convincing as a writer as totie fields was as an actress. totie was a comedian and considered funny so maybe robert dance has talents other than writing? but his book 'ferocious ambition: joan crawford's march to stardom' is like enduring totie fields bad acting (and constant screaming) in 'lucy, the other woman' - season five of 'here's lucy' where totie shows up as a woman convinced lucy is sleeping with her husband (a milk man).
it shouldn't have been this way and i wouldn't have paid for this damn book if the book hadn't been published by the university press of mississippi.
the university press of mississippi? i thought this would be an academic look at joan. it's not. an academic book wouldn't be riddled with errors and wouldn't have sentence like this:
Still, no one wants to be known as an abusive parent, least of all Crawford, who worked harder than any other stage or screen performer to create and then sustain a flawless image before her adoring public. and Christopher suffered terribly at the hands of their mother.
sentences like that pop up throughout the book.
i like joan crawford movies and have read many, many books about her.
i don't suffer from the belief that she was a saint. my favorite joan crawford book is shaun considene's 'bette & joan: the divine feud,' in fact, i'll note 4 more but 'bette & joan: the divine feud' is number 1 on my list.
4 others that i would strongly recommend are:
1) donald spot's 'possessed: the life of joan crawford'
2) lawrence j. quirk's 'joan crawford: the essential biography'
3) charlotte chandler's 'not the girl next door: joan crawford, a personal biography.'
4) peter cowie's 'joan crawford: the enduring star.'
for those who don't know, joan crawford became a film star during the silent movie era. as roger ebert and gene siskel once noted on their public television program decades ago, joan's role in 'our dancing daughters' had all the sexuality and star power as tom cruise strutting around in his b.v.d.s in 'risky business.' that was 1928. she'd started at 'm.g.m.' in 1925.
the 30s would bring sound to 'pictures' as they were called then. while some 'm.g.m.' stars would not have the voice or skills for 'talking pictures,' crawford was a natural and she became the money maker of the actresses at 'm.g.m.' she also became a fashion influence. in the 30s, she starred in 'shopgirl' roles often. she wanted more variety and was usually denied. in 'the women,' 1 of her classics from the 30s, she got her way after she wouldn't be denied the role of crystal - louie b. mayer didn't think she should play a bitch and argued it was a small role but it was the role that brought new steam to her career. she made multiple pictures with clark gable whom she also had an off-again-on-again affair with for years - the journalist adela rogers st. johns once caught them making out at a club. she said that joan later asked her if she didn't find it thrillng and adela confessed that she did. 'possed,' 'love on the run,' 'strange cargo' (all 3 with clark gable), 'the women,' 'dancing lady' and 'a woman's face' were some of her classic 'm.g.m.' films.
the 40s found her moving to 'warner bros' where her first film proper was 'mildred pierce' which resulted in her 1st academy award nomination and her only academy award win. her other hits at 'warner bros' include 'humersque,' 'flamingo road,' 'the damned don't cry' (1 of my favorite film noir movies) and 'possessed' - a different film than the 1 of the same title she made for 'm.g.m.' and this 2nd 'possessed' resulted in joan crawford's 2nd academy award nomination.
by 1952, she was done with 'warner bros' and went independent. 'sudden fear' would result in her 3rd academy award nomination. it's a classic film to this day. robert dance apparently is unaware that this is a film that martin scorsese has praised repeatedly over the years:
Scorsese has made no secret of his love for classic film noir, noting in his documentary “A Personal Journey Through American Movies” how crime was a source of fascination for many filmmakers in post-war Hollywood that “allowed them to probe the nature of evil and reveal the dark underbelly of American urban life.”
Joan Crawford earned an Academy Award nomination for her gripping performance in this 1950s movie as successful New York playwright Myra Hudson, who falls in love with a budding actor she just recently turned down for the lead part in her new play. Not long after the two get married in San Francisco, however, Myra begins to suspect her husband might be after her wealth and plotting to murder her.
Not only has this nail-bitter been identified as a personal favorite of Scorsese, landing on his best film noir of all-time list, but the director also likened Margot Robbie’s breakout performance in “The Wolf of Wall Street” to Crawford’s all-bets-off feistiness, raving how both actresses “instantly command your attention any time they enter the frame”.
it's the sort of glaring omission in a book about crawford that really makes you question robert dance's knowledge base.
there's 1 part that i'm especially convinced he's wrong about but i'll save that for the discussion with ava and c.i. at 'third.' it's major and it sounds wrong but it's so major to the book that i want to take it to c.i. who will know for a fact whether it's true or not.
but there are many inaccuracies in the book. joan crawford's big film of the 60s was 'whatever happened to baby jane?' she and bette davis starred in the film and both were nominated for the british academy film awards for best actress but the u.s. academy award only saw bette nominated. the film was a hit and led the 2 - who did not like each other - being reteamed for 'hush ... hush sweet charlotte.'
robert dance writes that they filmed on location in louisiana and then returned to los angeles and that after filming - no, let's quote it:
Cast and crew flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in late May to shoot location footage. They worked for two weeks before returning to Los Angeles. This is where the story gets complicated. Crawford’s biographer and longtime AP reporter Bob Thomas claimed that Davis was hostile to her costar from the beginning. “My God, is that the way she is going to play it?” Davis reportedly said to Aldrich within Crawford’s earshot. Thomas believed Crawford “felt powerless. She had never encountered an adversary as steel-willed as Davis.”11 Crawford began work in Los Angeles but soon took ill and was admitted to the hospital with what was reported as a respiratory condition, possibly pneumonia.
bette was hostile to her. while in baton rouge, bette held a press conference where she said joan was in a sour mood because the motel the cast and crew were staying at had not supplied joan with her required 'crates' (bette's term) of booze and then she gave joan's true age. she'd also do that - give joan's true age - at the governor's mansion where a dinner was held for the cast and crew - she would shout it out. joan shaved 4 years off her age so bette telling the press and then those assembled at the dinner that joan had turned 60 (not the 56 she claimed) was an attack on joan.
like an idiot, robert dance praises ryan murphy's 'feud.' that's the mini-series where susan sarandon played bette davis and jessica lange played joan crawford. that mini-series made up s**t and got a lot of stuff wrong. 'vainty fair' did fact checks on every episode and here's the 1 they did on 'abandoned' which covered joan's treatment during 'hush hush ... sweet charlotte.'
joan left baton rouge by plane. she then got into a car in los angeles. she did not report to the set (she wasn't due on it), she told her driver to take her straight to the hospital. here's e's fact check on that episode of 'feud:'
FACT: On June 12, the crew did forget about Joan in her trailer, where she woke up to find it was dark out. The crew had packed up and left her with no way back to her motel room.
FACT: The next day, Joan checked herself into Cedars-Sinai Hospital after returning to Los Angeles. She stayed in the hospital for five weeks, while her stand-in was used to film any scenes they could. She did then suggest changes to the script, including more beaus for her character, Miriam, as well as a ball to welcome back Miriam to the mansion.
so, no, robert dance, she didn't return to los angeles, resume shooting on 'hush hush' and then take ill. as soon as she landed in l.a., she had herself checked into the hospital.
let's deal with another issue where he can't get his facts straight:
Arriving late to the Photoplay dinner in February 1953, Monroe appeared in a skintight gold lamé dress with a neckline plunging almost to her waist and that was so snug it was difficult for her to take more than baby steps forward. A shimmering sex goddess was the look Monroe intended, and she was met with catcalls from the boys and host Jerry Lewis jumped on a table to show his admiration. Crawford was furious at the obvious display of carnality.
She was interviewed three days later by Bob Thomas and the intended topics were her Oscar nominated performance in Sudden Fear, and her plans for television. “What did you think of Marilyn Monroe at the Photoplay dinner?” asked Thomas. “It was the most shocking display of bad taste I’ve ever seen” was her reply. “Look—there’s nothing wrong with my tits, but I don’t go around throwing them in people’s faces.” On March 2, with Crawford’s approval, Thomas filed his story with the Associated Press. “It was like a burlesque show,” he quoted Crawford as saying, “the audience yelled and shouted…. Sex plays a tremendously important part in every person’s life … but they don’t like to see it flaunted in their faces…. The publicity has gone too far, and apparently Miss Monroe is making the mistake of believing her publicity.” Crawford should have been a bit savvier for her words caused a storm of notoriety for both women.
do you see any problems with the claims above? how about bob thomas could not have filed an 'a.p.' story in 1953 with the word 'tits' in it. that's just for starters. he's quoting not from the article bob thomas wrote but from bob thomas' book published decades later. want to read the a.p. report itself - the 1st, thomas did a series on this feud - click here. here's a later report - from march 27, 1953 - that bob thomas wrote.
does robert dance not know the importance of primary sources?
and his time line is f**ked up as well. february 9th was when the ceremony took place. bob thomas, in his march 2 report for the a.p. writes that he interviewed joan crawford that day: 'joan crawford today' is how the 1st sentence of the article opens. if he did the interview 3 days after - as robert dance maintains - that would be feb. 12th. if that is indeed the case, then bob thomas lied and, had a.p. known, they would have disciplined him - possibly even firing him. 'the associated press' is not 'modern screen' or 'photoplay.'
so did bob thomas defraud readers?
that would be a story.
robert dance ignores that. he does tell us that 'confidential magazine' met with the f.b.i. to determine whether or not joan crawford was arrested for prostitution or had made a porn film early in her life.
excuse me?
joan is thought to have made a porn film - that's nothing new - other books have said 1 of bette davis' husbands had access to it via a gentlemen's club that had a copy. arrested for prostitution? i have no idea. and i wouldn't hold it against if it were true - and i wouldn't hold it against her if it were true that she was arrested and if it was a good faith arrest. (many women were arrested for prostitution in the 20s and 30s who were not prostitutes.)
but here's the thing, the f.b.i. is not a fact checker. nor is the f.b.i. supposed to be the source for gossip.
robert dance writes that this attempt to obtain information on joan took place 'just after her marriage to steele.' may 10, 1955 is when joan married al steele. if 'confidential' editor howard rushmore was having conversations with the f.b.i. about joan crawford, that's news.
that's a whole book.
and if that magazine was doing that on joan, you better believe they were doing it on others.
so the f.b.i. was cooperating with the scandal sheet?
that's an abuse of governmental power - and idiot robert dance does not even realize that. he's such a dumb idiot.
he uses lucille ball's attack on joan crawford on the set of 'here's lucy' as though it's an indictment of joan crawford. this is the same lucy who tried to tell every 1 how to act, who snapped at every 1. richard burton wrote about in his diary, about how she told him he wasn't funny and he wasn't saying the lines right and how she was a holy terror to work with. his wife, elizabeth taylor, was in the same episode and when lucy started correcting her acting, liz shot back, 'how many oscars have you won?'
lucille and bob hastings had to be pulled apart when he guested on 'here's lucy' - pulled apart by the crew because he wasn't going to back down and take her abuse.
friends like red skelton worked with her on 'the lucy show' and refused to work with her again because of how bossy she was. and not in private. she called burton out in front of every 1. she did the same with danny thomas and with milton berle. jack benny got so tired of it that by the time he guest starred in a 4th season episode, he told her he wasn't taking her abuse on the set and that he'd direct himself (this was after his 3rd season spot where she screamed at him in front of everyone, 'your pauses are too long!')
i could go on and on.
oh, i didn't even talk about 'mommie dearest' or how robert dance treats it as gospel. forget other eye witnesses who say christina crawford lied, he doesn't even note the chronological problems with the book - events take place in the book that never cold have happened in real life because christina's timeline is all wrong.
what a stupid man.
and what a stupid university to publish his book.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
I wish all the Palestinian people would see this. I wish they can see that not all of America want them to die, that they are not disposable. They have a right to live. They didn’t ask to be born in occupation. And so I just want to thank you on the bottom of my heart. The dehumanization has chipped at my soul, and I can’t imagine what it’s made so many other people feel. So, you all being here to speak truth — because the warmongers are out, y’all. They are ready. They want to kill and not stop. It’s pure insanity.
I still remember the cry of Maya, who was being dragged out of that festival, crying for her father. But just like poor Shaima in Gaza, who was number one in her scores — I don’t know if you know anything about Palestinian culture, but it’s a big that somebody from Gaza could score number one on her — you know, it’s like the valedictorian for the whole Palestinian people. And both of them — both of them are victims. They’re victims of the oppression, of the violence. They both deserve to live. I don’t care what their faith is or their ethnicity. Maya didn’t deserve to be targeted. Neither did Shaima deserve to die. And that’s the common humanity that we all have to remember, because they’re trying to take it away from us. And we have to make sure it doesn’t happen, not on our watch.
I’m going to be real with you all. My colleagues, many of them — I usually don’t talk smack about them. No, I’m usually considerate, because I don’t like them policing me, so I don’t police them. But as an American, not just as a member of the United States Congress, I am ashamed. I am ashamed that they’re saying, “Not yet. Maybe next week.”
Biden’s speech was not a serious attempt to convince anyone or rationally explain US foreign policy. It consisted of a series of non sequiturs strung one after the other, with no coherent argument binding them together. Biden drew a parallel between Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin that, objectively, did not make the slightest sense.
But as he spoke, it became clear that the main aim of the speech was to “utilize the war in Gaza” to procure a “massive spending bill for the war in Ukraine” to prop up the Zelensky government following the failure of its summer offensive.
Indeed, the New York Times has reported that $60 billion of the $100 billion spending bill Biden proposed in the speech will go to fight the war in Ukraine against Russia. This figure is more than twice Biden’s initial request of $24 billion in August. Some $14 billion will go to Israel.
Despite its rambling and incoherent nature, the main import of the speech is clear: America is hurtling towards global war, and the president of the United States, the so-called “commander-in-chief,” is demanding $100 billion in additional funds, on top of the $1 trillion already proposed for all military spending, to finance this explosion of military aggression.
Roughly 24 hours before Biden's Oval Office address, senior U.S. State Department official Josh Paul resigned in protest of the administration's arms transfers to Israel, whose indiscriminate bombing of Gaza has drawn global outrage.
Paul's resignation appears to be part of an intensifying revolt inside the U.S. government. HuffPostreported Thursday that some officials believe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "are overlooking widespread internal frustration" and seem "uninterested in their own experts' advice as they focus on supporting Israel's expanding operation in Gaza."
One unnamed State Department official told the outlet that "there's basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels." Two officials told HuffPost that U.S. diplomats are crafting a "dissent cable" criticizing the administration's policy.
"Such cables are seen within the State Department as consequential statements of serious disagreement at key historical moments," HuffPost noted. "The dissent channel was established amid deep internal conflict during the Vietnam War, and diplomats have since then used it to warn that the U.S. is making dangerous and self-defeating choices abroad."
A CBS/YouGov survey released Thursday showed that 52% of U.S. voters—including 53% of Democrats—oppose sending more weaponry to Israel.
"Many young voters and Muslims and Arabs in swing states like Michigan will likely sit out the 2024 election or vote for a third party if Biden continues to take this incredibly risky bet on Netanyahu's far-right regime," Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid said in response to the survey. "Biden's on a path of political suicide getting and will alienate so many parts of his base ahead of 2024 simply to green-light Netanyahu's revenge plan which echoes the worst parts of Bush's reckless War on Terror."
NERMEEN SHAIKH: The death toll in Gaza is nearing 3,800 as Israel continues its aerial bombardment of the besieged territory for the 13th day. Dozens of Palestinians were killed overnight as Israel bombed southern Gaza in areas that were supposed to be safe zones after Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to vacate their homes. This is Raafat al-Nakhal speaking in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike.
RAAFAT AL-NAKHAL: [translated] We came from Gaza City. They told us to come to the south, so we came to the south. We found that the strikes intensified in the south. We stayed in a house. In front of us, there were strikes, and behind us, strikes. There’s no safety. There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. You have to be ready to die and to just stay in your house. …
There’s absolutely no difference between Gaza City, Rafah, Khan Younis, between the south, the north, the east or the west. They brought us to the south, and it’s been strikes every day. Every day there are martyrs in massive numbers. …
I’m over 70 years old. I’ve lived through several wars. It’s never been like this. It’s never been this brutal — no religion and no conscience. Thank God. We only have hope in God, not in any Arab or Muslim country or anywhere in the world, except for God.
AMY GOODMAN: Funerals were held earlier today in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike leveled a three-story building, killing 12 members of the same family. Relatives said the dead include seven children.
GRANDFATHER: [translated] What is this that has happened to them? Babies sleeping in their houses, five children and four women sleeping in their houses, no men. They were sleeping inside. The strike hit a three-level building on six babies and four women. What shall we say? Thank God. The children were all 5 or 6 years old. There was no warning, because it’s an Israeli despicable terrorist country and not an Islamic country, a terrorist American country.
UNCLE: [translated] These are seven babies. Four are buried here, and three are buried in another site. The total is 10.
GRANDFATHER: [translated] The children died, their mothers and their grandmother.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Meanwhile, in the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike trapped children under rubble. Dramatic footage shows Palestinians trying to rescue the children.
AMY GOODMAN: This all comes as Israel has amassed tanks on the border of Gaza ahead of what appears to be an imminent ground invasion. Protests have been growing across the Middle East after hundreds of Palestinians died in an explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. Palestinians say the blast was caused by an Israeli missile. Israel has denied responsibility despite attacking the same hospital just days earlier. According to the World Health Organization, 115 health facilities have been attacked so far in Gaza.
On the diplomatic front, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in Gaza. President Biden, who’s returned from Israel, is scheduled to give a primetime address tonight seeking $100 billion from Congress to help arm Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Israel now says they believe 203 hostages are being held in Gaza after being seized in the Hamas attack on October 7th that killed over 1,400 people in Israel.
We go now to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where we’re joined by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. He’s a Palestinian physician, an activist and politician, who serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative. He’s been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006, is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council.
Dr. Barghouti, welcome back to Democracy Now! If you can respond to —
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — all the developments? Most recently, of course, President Biden has just left. Your assessment of his visit and the Arab summit that was canceled by Mahmoud Abbas, who’s based where you are, in Ramallah, the head of the Palestinian Authority, the Jordanian king and the Egyptian president, after the attack on the hospital, and your assessment of what Israel is saying about that attack?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: You know, Amy, I don’t know where to start. The atrocities are beyond description. We are subjected now, as Palestinians, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank, to horrifying war crimes, ethnic cleansing, acts of collective punishment against the population of Gaza, where civilians are dying because they don’t have water, they don’t have electricity, they don’t have food, they don’t have medicines, and an act of genocide. Every five minutes, a Palestinian is killed in Gaza. Every 15 minutes, a Palestinian child is killed in Gaza. And it goes on. My last number is 3,785. I think it’s already wrong, because with the passage of each minute, more Palestinians are killed.
What did President Biden do? Instead of coming here and telling the Israelis — and he knows very well that the United States is the only country in the world that has leverage over Israel. Instead of telling them, “Stop this atrocity. Have ceasefire, so that you can at least save the prisoners that are in Gaza, the Israeli prisoners,” he came here to be totally complicit with Israeli war crimes and to push the United States into becoming a participant in these war crimes by sending soldiers to participate in the Israeli invasion and in the crimes that are committed against the Palestinian people.
He bought every lie that Netanyahu told him, and he kept repeating them. And I don’t understand how the American intelligence structure don’t tell their president that these are lies. I am sure they know that. The first lie about decapitating children, it turned out to be a big lie. The other lie about raping women, it turned out to be a lie, and that’s what Los Angeles Times apologized about. Then this huge lie about Palestinians killing themselves in their hospital, this huge lie that Israel distributed and the Israeli military did, as they usually do, by telling series of lies and changing them one time after the other.
Before I come back to President Biden, let me explain. Israel committed a terrible airstrike on the Baptist Hospital, run by the Anglican Church, killing no less than 300 — killing no less than 473 Palestinian people, mainly children and women, and injuring more than 300 others. Why? For what? It was all about the Israeli ultimatum that was already, according to WHO, sent to no less than 27 hospitals, including the largest hospital in Gaza, Shifa Hospital, to evict and evacuate so that Israel can conduct its ethnic cleansing of big parts of Gaza at the moment, with a plan of ethnically cleansing all of Gaza Strip. The strike was clearly Israeli. The type of explosion is something that no Palestinian militant group has, a huge blast that took the lives of almost 500 people instantly, in less than a minute. That’s a power that no Palestinian group has. So it was a big lie.
But Israel lied four times in justifying this attack. The first Israeli reaction was that they did the airstrike on the hospital — they admitted it in the first round, and they said they did it because Hamas militants were hiding there. Then they changed the story, and they said that Hamas is taking Palestinians as human shield. Then the third story, they changed the story and said it was Hamas rocket. And then the fourth lie, which is now dominant, is that it was a jihadi rocket.
How could the United States repeat these lies and accept them without verifying them? Israel did that before with the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, when they changed their story four times. Each time, in the beginning, they said she was killed by a Palestinian, and gradually they admitted that it was their crime. Believe me, these lies should not be continued.
And the United States should immediately support an immediate ceasefire. The meeting that should have been taking place with the Jordanian king and with the Egyptian president and with Palestinian president did not take place because all these three people realized that Mr. Biden does not want to support ceasefire immediately. And they realized that he’s practically supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt, something that Egypt refused and something that Jordan refused and something that all the Arab countries refused. That is the essence of what’s happening now.
And so, Israel now is changing the plan a little bit by pushing all the people from the northern part of Gaza and the middle of Gaza into the southern part. It’s already a very small area of less than 140 square miles, becoming now less than 60 square miles, with 2.3 million people. They say they pushed them down for safety, but they continue to bombard them in the south. The game is clear: They want to ethnically cleanse, completely, Gaza Strip. And they initiated acts of ethnic cleansing already in the West Bank, where 20 Palestinian communities have already been evicted by Israeli terror settlers, where more than 75 Palestinians already killed also in the West Bank. At this very moment, the Israeli army is attacking Tulkarem camp and Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem area, using drones and using also rockets against civilian population in a refugee camp. This is the situation that is getting worse and worse every day.
And the real plan, as I can see it, according to what an Israeli minister said, “We’re going to shrink Gaza’s size.” What does that mean? Annexing the northern part and the middle of Gaza? What will happen to all these hospitals? Let me read to you what World Health Organization says. The World Health Organization says that 130 attacks — 136 attacks were committed against health facilities in Gaza, during which time 491 Palestinians were killed, 16 health workers were killed, 370 people were injured, 23 Palestinian health ambulances were destroyed, and 26 facilities were completely destroyed or partially destroyed. Seventy-seven similar attacks also took place in the West Bank.
So nobody can convince us that it was Palestinians who killed Palestinians in that hospital. And nobody should give any justification for the behavior of President Biden. The only conclusion that one can come to is that he cares only about his reelection. He doesn’t care even about the lives of Israeli prisoners, neither him nor Netanyahu; otherwise, why wouldn’t they accept ceasefire? Why Netanyahu continues his airstrikes, although these airstrikes already killed 22 Israeli prisoners? They continue because they don’t care about Palestinian lives or Israeli lives.
And Mr. Biden should listen not to the lies of Netanyahu, but to the noble voice of the Jewish people, the American Jewish people who came to the American Congress to demonstrate and demand one thing: immediate ceasefire. I’m telling you, we’re calling on the whole world to immediately stand up, and instead of supporting the genocide and the collective punishment and the hysterical Israeli ethnic cleansing, to support immediate ceasefire, so we can stop the killings that are taking place, a ceasefire that could guarantee safe passage to the prisoners, but also that could guarantee humanitarian aid to Palestinians who are now dying out because of thirst, because of starvation, and, most importantly, because of lack of medicines and because of a possibility of an epidemic that could immediately start in Gaza because of the suspension of vaccinations for children and because of the destruction of sanitary infrastructure. We could see an epidemic of cholera very soon in Gaza. Is that what Mr. Biden wants? Is that what Mr. Netanyahu wants? This is atrocity that should stop. And anybody that don’t call — that doesn’t call, sorry, for a ceasefire immediately will be considered not only complicit with these war crimes, but a participant in them.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Dr. Barghouti, could you respond to the decision that Biden announced of Egypt opening the Rafah border for 20 humanitarian trucks to enter into Gaza, you know, and what you think the significance of that is, if there is any, and the specific concerns you’ve raised as a doctor, the tens of thousands of pregnant women in Gaza today, what the fate of patients there are, who are in urgent need of medical care, and none is available?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, one of the most striking scenes was the images of children who died in the uterus of their mothers, because they were pregnant and they were hit. But there are 5,500 Palestinian women who are giving birth this month, and we already received terrible, terrible information about them giving birth in the streets, because there is no place to go to. The south of Gaza does not have any space anymore, besides the fact that there is no safe space for anybody. Israel has already destroyed more than 80,000 homes and houses of people, and people have no place to go to. And there is very high risk now of an increased infant mortality, perinatal mortality and maternal mortality because of the situation that Palestinians find themselves in — no sanitary facilities, no drinking water, no running water, no proper sewage system. It’s a total disaster and total, total humanitarian crisis.
You asked me about something about President Biden. Can you repeat the question, please?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Yes, about the decision to let convoys, humanitarian convoys, 20, in from Egypt into Gaza.
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Imagine 2.3 million people already deprived of fuel, water, electricity, medications and food for 12 days. And you send 20 trucks for them? What does that change? It’s less than a drop in the ocean. That’s much less than what people need. It becomes only a cover of the crime that is happening. I’m not against, of course, bringing these trucks, whatever they can help, but that’s not what we need. We need an open corridor so that food, water, electricity, as well as medications can get to people. We have medical teams in Gaza. We have Palestinian medical relief teams working along the work of the Red Crescent, as well as the Ministry of Health. And they are calling us every day, telling us, “We don’t have any more medications. We don’t have even dressing to help the injured people. We don’t have proper sanitary facilities. How can we deal with patients in these conditions?” You know, patients were treated and surgical operations took place the other day on the stairs of the hospitals, because there were no beds left. And the massacre that happened in the Baptist Hospital was so shocking and practically brought the whole health structure down. And now, already, three hospitals stopped working, because they have no electricity, because they don’t have sufficient medications. It’s a humanitarian disaster that is building up.
And the only explanation is that Netanyahu wants to solve what he thinks is the demographic problem of Israel, being that the number of Palestinians today in West Bank and Gaza Strip and in Israel itself is equal to the number of Israeli Jewish people. He wants to eliminate that, first by ethnically cleansing the 2.3 million people in Gaza, pushing them out of Gaza and then annexing Gaza Strip, and then initiate a process of ethnic cleansing for Palestinians in the West Bank, first in Area C and then in the rest of the West Bank. That’s why the king of Jordan is so shocked about these plans, because he knows that he’s coming next. After they finish with Gaza, they will move to the West Bank. This is something that nobody should accept.
I never thought — I never thought, I admit — and I was wrong — I never thought that Israel could dare to conduct ethnic cleansing in the 21st century. And unfortunately, I was wrong. That’s exactly what they are doing today. And I ask the question. They say that Israel has the right to respond. OK, they responded. They responded. They already killed almost 4,000 people. How many thousands of children, how many thousands of patients, how many thousands of women and men should die before Israel decides it’s enough? Or should all the millions of Palestinians disappear from Palestine and disappear from this world so that these fascists — and I call them fascists and Nazis — that are governing Israel would be satisfied?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr. Barghouti, I just want to quote to you — I think this is the senior minister to whom you were referring, comments he made — Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, saying in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday — he said, quote, that “At the end of this war, not only will Hamas no longer be in Gaza, but the territory of Gaza will also decrease.” So, if you could talk more about that, elaborate on your point about what precisely they intend to do with Gaza, and then talk about what’s happening in the West Bank? You said it’s also the site of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing. But also the protests that are directed against the Palestinian Authority there — we had earlier in headlines that the protests across the West Bank have also taken aim at the ruling Palestinian Authority, which has launched a violent crackdown on demonstrations. A 12-year-old Palestinian girl named Razan Nasrallah was shot and killed by PA security forces Tuesday during protests in Jenin. So, if you could talk about that, the situation in the West Bank?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Yeah. I’m sorry, but you asked about something else before the West Bank?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Yes. I just cited to you the person whom I thought you were mentioning earlier, the Israeli foreign minister —
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Oh, Cohen, yes, yes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: — talking about — yes, please.
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Yes, yes, Eli Cohen. The foreign minister of Israel means that Israel is turning now, since Egypt is not allowing the ethnic cleansing of people in Gaza to Egypt up ’til now, is turning to plan B. And plan B is to remove everybody in the northern part of Gaza and in Gaza City itself — that is about 1.1 million to 1.2 million people — move them down to the southern parts of Gaza and then annex that area, cutting down the size of Gaza from 140 square miles to maybe now less than 50 square miles or maybe 60 square miles. This is the only explanation of what he said, shrinking the size of Gaza, bringing it down. And they think — the Israeli government thinks — that if they cluster all these 2.3 million people in such a small area, then the pressure will be so huge that Egypt will be obliged to open the borders and let them out of Gaza. And in that case, Israel would have achieved its original plan of total ethnic cleansing, pushing Palestinians out of Palestine into the Sinai. Mind you, 70% of these people have already been ethnically cleansed by Israel in 1948. They were displaced from parts of the 520 communities that Israeli troops erased to earth back in 1948, committing 50 massacres and pushing Palestinians out of Palestine. They want to repeat the same ethnic cleansing again.
But let me tell you, this is not the last plan of Israel. Netanyahu made it very clear. Maybe I’m repeating that. He carried the map of Israel in the United Nations in front of the whole world weeks ago, in which that map, the map of Israel, included the annexation of all of the West Bank and the annexation of all the occupied Gaza Strip. This is their plan: annexation, ethnic cleansing and committing genocide against the Palestinian population.
But in response to your question about West Bank, let me tell you the situation here is very dangerous, is very grave. First of all, Israel imposed practically a process of fragmenting the West Bank into 224 small islands or ghettos, if you want, separated from each other by no less than 640 military Israeli checkpoints, many of which are closed completely — for instance, Jericho now is totally closed — and then the wall, of course, itself and the so-called bypass roads, which are segregated roads exclusive for Israelis. Many, many Palestinians cannot move now from one area to another. Our health work is becoming very, very complicated in the West Bank because we cannot move medications, we cannot move medical teams.
And the worst situation is in the so-called Area C, which represents no less than 60% of the West Bank, where settlers are continuously attacking Palestinians. The other day, Israeli terror settlers attacked the village of Qusra, in Nablus area, killed three Palestinian civilians. The army, the Israeli army, came and killed a fourth one. The next day, when the people were having the funeral of these four Palestinians killed, the settlers came back again and killed two more people, a father and a son — six people in one village in less than 24 hours. The terror of settlers is everywhere.
But in addition to that, the Israeli army is conducting a wide-range campaign of arresting Palestinians. According to my information, no less than 750 Palestinians have been arrested during the last week. And the number is growing, which means that the number of prisoners in Israeli jails is more than 6,300 now, many of whom are held under the so-called administrative detention, which means they don’t know why they are in jail, they don’t have any legal due process. Their lawyers cannot even defend them, because they don’t know what they are charged for, including 260 children who are in Israeli jails at the moment.
Add to that the fact that already more than 75 Palestinians have been killed. And the Israeli army, now thinking that everybody is busy with what’s happening in Gaza, they are now conducting military operations against Palestinian civil areas, including Tulkarem refugee camp and, before that, Jenin refugee camp. And this can go on. So it’s a very dangerous situation and a very risky situation for all Palestinians.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Barghouti, we only have a minute, but what about, and why then, the Palestinian Authority violent crackdown on demonstrations, with the 12-year-old Palestinian girl, Razan Nasrallah, shot and killed in Jenin?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: That was also a crime, committed by Palestinian security forces, and it should not have happened. It is unacceptable to encounter demonstrators with gunfire. That is unacceptable. We’re not calling, of course, for chaos or internal division here among Palestinians. We have enough of what we have in front of us with fighting Israelis. But the reality is that the behavior of the security apparatus is unacceptable, including suppression of freedom of expression. People were mad. They were angry at what was happening in Gaza, about the killing of people inside that hospital. And maybe they made some — I mean, they went out of control. But responding to that by shooting Palestinians, that’s the last thing that we can accept or we should accept.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mustafa —
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: And for this —
AMY GOODMAN: — Barghouti, I want to —
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Sorry. I just wanted to say that they have to also abide by international law and stop this wrongdoing.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Barghouti is a Palestinian physician, activist, politician, serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.
Coming up, we’ll hear the voices of the historic Jewish-led protest in Washington, D.C. Thousands came out, hundreds were arrested, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Back in 20 seconds.
“Shame on [Davis Polk & Wardwell] for penalizing students for exercising their rights of free speech and to oppose genocide in violation of International law,” Chaumtoli Huq, an Associate Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law, said on social media. “[The] Legal community must speak up against this action by employers.”
The law students, who attend Harvard, Columbia, and New York University, had condemned Israel for the killing, occupation and displacement of the Palestinian people. According to the United Nations (UN), Israeli forces have killed a staggering 4,200 Palestinians in just 10 days, displacing over 1 million more. Since Israel started bombing Gaza on October 7, at least 11 Palestinian journalists, 28 medical staff and 14 UN colleagues have been killed. One Palestinian child has been killed by the bombings every fifteen minutes, and more than 100 children have been killed each day, according to a Palestinian nonprofit.
Claim:
In October 2023, former NCAA athlete Riley Gaines won a $10 million "defamation lawsuit" against TV talk show host Whoopi Goldberg.
Rating:
Labeled Satire (About this rating?)
On Oct. 9, 2023, SpaceXMania published an article claiming former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines had won a $10 million "defamation lawsuit" against "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg:
Breaking: Riley Gaines Wins $10 Million ‘Defamation Lawsuit’ Against Whoopi Goldberg
In a narrative that has threaded its way through courts, television studios, and the ever-buzzing hive of social media, Riley Gaines, a name now synonymous with legal victory, has ascended the proverbial podium once again. This time, she is not just basking in the ethereal glow of athletic accomplishment but is swathed in the vindication that comes from a triumph of a different sort—a whopping $10 million defamation lawsuit win against Whoopi Goldberg.
We found Facebook posts that included the article, as well as a YouTube video that nearly copied the SpaceXMania article word-for-word. In addition, multiple websites copied the SpaceXMania article in the same manner, including popularnews71.net/, newsc5.com, newsbina.fun, faithhopel.info, and lifestory25.com.
This story is not true. As originally published, the SpaceXMania article featured a "Satire" label above its headline.
The FBI released the report, which reviews crime data from law enforcement agencies across the country, on Monday. The report found that in 2022, there were 469 recorded hate crimes against trans and gender non-conforming people, compared to 353 in 2021. Altogether, that accounts for a 32.8% increase in hate crimes against both trans and gender-nonconforming people.
While violence against trans and gender-nonconforming people accounted for the most dramatic increase from last year, other parts of the community were affected as well. In 2022, there were 1,077 recorded hate crimes against gay men, up from 950 incidents in 2021. According to the report, recorded hate crimes against lesbians and bisexuals remained about the same.
A Morning Consult poll released on October 17 finds him trailing GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by 45 percent. And according to Fox News polling, Trump leads DeSantis by 46 percent.
Florida’s high-heeled tough talker was in Iowa recently, bragging about his house-cleaning of faculty at New College of Florida.
The Sarasota college, the smallest in the state university system — and one that had, until recently, been regarded as a real gem — has been functioning mostly as a besieged campaign target for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a kind of ground-zero for his war against “woke” in higher education.
I think you can imagine what happened next. The interim job for Corcoran was made permanent this month, even though students ranked Corcoran last among the three final candidates.
And instead of the approximate $300,000 annual salary Okker was getting, Corcoran — one of the most spectacularly underqualified college presidents in America — will have his interim pay of $699,000 a year boosted to nearly total compensation of $1.5 million a year.
All to run a small college with an enrollment of about 700 students.
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