and he's succeeding. i'm so done with aunt gigi and her pretense to be straight. girl, please. a grown man who bends over backwards to side with the homophobes? what a dumb bitch.
here's another issue, by the way, aunt gigi lives in brazil. why doesn't he just focus on that country. he's never been that smart. he does nothing for ed snowden - except a tweet!
he blamed 'the intercept' for turning in reality winner and maybe they did.
but who's to blame for not finishing publication on snowden's documentation?
seems like that would be glenn greenwald.
today, u.s. house rep. carolyn maloney chaired a committee on violence aimed at lgbtq+ and aunt gigi responds how? by doing a rumble video ... on how wronged poor republicans are.
shove it up your ass, glenn.
you are such a damn embarrassment.
my 1st husband was in the closet when i married him - yet, somehow, you're more embarrassing right now than he was back then.
if you streamed the hearing today, you heard awful things. you heard about threats. you heard about applause for violence. social media tweets and posts responding to the club q shooting by saying things like 5 dead f**gots wasn't enough. that the shooter was doing 'god's work.'
and glenn doesn't give a damn. it's kind of like how you wonder if he gives a damn about his husband. if flyboy were in the hospital, i think i'd be focusing on that and our kid. but not aunty gigi.
remember when glenn used to lie that he couldn't live in the u.s. because he and david couldn't marry here? that was 7 years ago. aunty gigi hasn't moved back.
fine.
stay gone.
but stay the hell out of our business. you don't want to live here than talk about the country you do want to live in and spare us all your nonsense.
he's defending the hate merchants because that's what self-loathers do.
brandon wolf is a gay man who was at florida's pulse club when it was attacked (49 people were killed). he testified to the committee today:
words have consequences...people
should be accountable for the things that come out of their mouths and
when you're willing to traffic in cheap shots and bigotry against a
marginalized community that is already seeing hate against it on the
rise, already seeing violence rising across the country, when you're
willing to traffic in those things to score political points, you have
to be accountable for what happens next. you have to hold yourself
accountable for the impacts of your words.
and they do have consequences. these words pouring out of the mouths of hate merchants have consequences.
don't be aunty gigi, face reality and don't excuse the hate merchants.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022. In the Kurdistan some women are setting
themselves on fire, in the US Joe Biden takes part in history (even if
the White House staff bungles it) and much more.
Yesterday, US President Joe Biden signed The Respect for Marriage Act into law. The White House issued the following statement:
On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the President signed into law:
H.R.
8404, the “Respect for Marriage Act,” which establishes statutory
authority for same-sex and interracial marriages and repeals provisions
of law that once prevented any State or territory from being required to
give effect to a same-sex marriage from another State or territory.
Thank you to Speaker Pelosi, Representatives Nadler, Cicilline, and
Davids, Leader Schumer, Senators Baldwin, Collins, Portman, Sinema,
Tillis, Feinstein, and Booker, and many others for their leadership.
Leave it to the White House to mess that up. This was a time to quote Joe.
A
few outlets do, for a minute or two, they say Joe declared, "For most
of our nation’s history, we denied interracial couples and same
sex couples from these protections. We failed to treat them with equal
dignity and respect. And now, law requires that interracial marriage and
same sex marriage must be recognized as legal in every state in the
nation." That's really not an accurate quote but NPR and others are
running with it. What he said should have been in the statement that
the White House released.
Was the communications team too busy chatting with a celebrity (one who, Marcia noted,
wanted to thank people for the passage of the act but couldn't think of
one gay person to thank)? This is embarrassing, the White House needs
to get its act together. Yes, it's very good that the spokesperson had a
talking to by legal and, yes, she stuck to her lane yesterday (even
noting the Hatch Act all by herself). But this was a historic moment
and Joe's remarks needed to be noted. The White House staff failed
him.
This was going to be the snapshot where
we could just note some good work done by Joe. Instead, we have to note
that the tiny statement above, in bold, issued by the White House (a)
isn't enough and (b) is so poorly written that when it appears to be a
quote (after the colon in bold), it's not really a quote. They bungled
everything.
Joe has his problems and issues and
we note them frequently here. But this was Joe's moment to shine --
and he did -- and he's let down by the people working at the White
House. How very sad.
Let's note some of what Joe said:
Hello,
hello, hello. Today's a good day. A day America takes a final step
towards equality, towards liberty and justice -- not just for some but
for everyone. Everyone. Toward creating a nation where decency, dignity
and love are recognized, honored and protected. Today, I sign The
Respect for Marriage Act into law. Deciding whether to marry, who to
marry is one of the most profound decisions a person can make. And as
I've said before -- and some of you might remember on a certain TV show
ten years ago [NBC's MEET THE PRESS] -- I got in trouble -- marriage, I
mean this with all my heart, marriage is a simple proposition -- who do
you love and will you be loyal to that person you love. It's not more
complicated than that. And the law recognizes that everyone should have
the right to answer those questions for themselves without the
government interference. It also secures the federal rights,
protections, that come with marriage -- like when you're loved one gets
sick and you're legally recognized as the next of kin. For most of our
nation's history, we denied interracial couples and same sex couples
from these protections. We failed -- we failed to treat them with an
equal dignity and respect. And now, the law requires interracial
marriage and same sex marriage must be recognized as legal in every
state in the nation. I want to thank all of you for being here today,
for being part of this important movement.
MONTANARO: Our latest
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which is going to be released Thursday,
shows 68% are in favor of same-sex marriage. You know, it was still a
bit of a surprise. I have to say, though, that the bill got through
because it wasn't clear they could get the 60 votes to overcome a
filibuster because Republicans really have been much slower to embrace
same-sex marriage. But a dozen Republican senators voted for it, 39
Republicans in the House did, too. And it's really reflective of how the
country, even Republicans, are changing, even though GOP support, you
know, has been much less in our surveys, less than a majority.
SHAPIRO: All right. We've been describing this as now a law that
protects same-sex and interracial marriage. Beyond that top line,
explain exactly what it does and does not do.
MONTANARO: Yeah. Not everyone's celebrating this as the be all,
end all - and it's not. You know, this was largely passed because of the
threat that the conservative supermajority at the Supreme Court after
the Dobbs ruling that took away the right to an abortion, you know,
could overturn other rights, including same-sex marriage. You know,
while this bill gives federal benefits to same-sex couples, make sure
those marriages are recognized across state lines, it doesn't guarantee
that states won't deny marriage licenses to gay couples again if the
court overturns it. You know, and I have to say, one of the most
overlooked things in this bill, you know, isn't just about same-sex
marriage, but also interracial marriages. Easy to overlook because 94%
in the latest polling say they approve, but majorities didn't approve
until the late 1990s, which isn't that long ago for some of us.
Now let's move over to Iraq where AFP reports 3 Iraqi soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb 20 miles outside of Baghdad. MEHR NEWS AGENCY reports:
On Tuesday evening, a heavy gunfire was reported in the US military base at the US Embassy in Baghdad, known as "Unit 3".
The
shooting was reported as eyewitnesses had earlier announced the flight
of as US military helicopter over Baghdad's Green Zone.
The shooting, the details of which are still unknown, happened in the
area of the US military base located in the US Embassy inside the
security and protected Green Zone of Baghdad, and some Iraqi sources,
such as Sabereen News Telegram channel embarked on broadcasting its
video clips.
Staying on the topic of violence, we'll note this from BBC NEWS.
Women in Iraq are facing
rising levels of domestic abuse. Cases of gender-based violence have
seen a surge of 125% between 2020 and 2021, according to the United
Nations.
In the
Kurdistan region, women who feel trapped in abusive households often see
suicide by self-immolation as their only way out.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has tried to combat violence against women, but many remain at risk.
The
BBC has been granted rare access to one of the main hospitals for burns
in Iraqi Kurdistan, where many women die of self-inflicted burns.
Meanwhile, the persecution of the LGBTQ community in Iraq continues. THE SIASET DAILY notes:
The Iraqi Parliament recently drafted a law to ban publications
regarding queer issues. This has alarmed the members of the LGBTQ+
community in the country.
The law would punish anyone who would for any reason “publish or
promote” homosexuality in state’s media, institutions, schools,
universities, social media platforms, books, cinemas, theatres,
publications, and in public.
On December 3, 25 MPs, mostly from
Shia group Coordination Framework, which opposes influential cleric
Muqtada Al-Sadr, who is also Shia, signed a bill proposing the
criminalisation of all publishing on LGBTQ+ topics in Iraq.
Individual citizens could be fined one million Iraqi dinars ($685),
while government agencies and companies could be fined millions more.
In
the US today, US House Rep Carolyn Maloney will chair a hearing about
the rise of violence aimed at the LGBTQ+ community in the US:
Dec 12, 2022
Press Release
New Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, Pulse Nightclub Shooting Survivor Brandon Wolf Also Slated to Testify
Washington
D.C. (December 12, 2022)—On Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m.
ET, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on
Oversight and Reform, will hold a hearing to
examine how the surge of anti-LGBTQI+ policies advanced by Republican
lawmakers and the proliferation of extreme anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric are
fueling a rise in violence against LGBTQI+ people in the United States.
The Committee will hear firsthand testimony from individuals impacted
by this violence, including survivors of last month’s mass shooting at the Colorado Springs LGBTQI+ nightclub Club Q that took the lives of five people.
“From Colorado Springs to my own
district in New York City, communities across the country are facing a
terrifying rise of anti-LGBTQI+ violence and extremism,” said Chairwoman
Maloney. “I am deeply grateful that survivors of these attacks are
coming before my Committee to share their stories with the American
people. Make no mistake, the rise in anti-LGBTQI+ extremism and the
despicable policies that Republicans at every level of government are
advancing to attack the health and safety of LGBTQI+ people are harming
the LGBTQI+ community and contributing to tragedies like what we saw at
Club Q. Next week, Republicans on my Committee and across the country
will be forced to face the real-life impact of their dangerous agenda. I
hope LGBTQI+ individuals across the country will see that Democrats in
Congress are fighting for them and will continue to push for policies
that protect and expand their ability to live authentically and safely.”
On November 19, 2022, a shooter
armed with an AR-15 style rifle opened fire on patrons and staff of the
LGBTQI+ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing five
people and injuring more than a dozen others.
The Club Q shooting comes as extremist, right-wing lawmakers at every level of government have advanced harmful policies that
undermine the ability of LGBTQI+ people to live authentically. In 2021
alone, state legislators introduced more than 340 pieces of
anti-LGBTQI+ legislation, including many that target LGBTQI+ people in classroom settings and health care.
Following the passage of Florida’s
anti-LGBTQI+ “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law in March, vitriolic social
media content alleging that members of the LGBTQI+ community were
“groomers” skyrocketed by more than 400%. Since 2015, hate crimes have increased by 40%, with the last two years being the deadliest on record for transgender and gender non-conforming people.
WHAT:
Full Committee hearing entitled “The Rise of Anti-LGBTQI+ Extremism and Violence in the United States.”
WHEN:
Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET
WHO:
Panel I
Michael Anderson
Survivor of Club Q Shooting
James Slaugh
Survivor of Club Q Shooting
Matthew Haynes
Founding Owner of Club Q
PANEL II
Kelley Robinson
President
Human Rights Campaign
Brandon Wolf
Survivor of Pulse Nightclub Shooting
Olivia Hunt
Policy Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
Jessie Pocock
CEO & Executive Director
Inside Out Youth Services
Ilan Meyer
Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy
The Williams Institute
Additional Witnesses to be Announced.
WATCH:
A livestream will be available on YouTube and the Committee on Oversight and Reform website.
MEDIA:
Seating in the hearing room is limited
and as a result, credentialed media must RSVP to the Oversight
Committee Democrats Press Office at oversightpress@mail.house.gov no later than 5 p.m. ET on December 13, 2022.
###
We'll wind down with this from Will Lehman's campaign:
Dear fellow workers,
I
am gathering information from UAW members about what was and was not
done to inform members about the UAW election, if you or your co-workers
had problems receiving a ballot and similar information. Please fill out this form to assist this investigation.
I
am filing a formal protest to the UAW Monitor over the fundamental
unfairness of the UAW election. In the first round of voting, less than
10 percent of the 1.1 million active and retired UAW members who were
eligible to vote cast ballots. This was not due to apathy but the
deliberate policy of the UAW apparatus to suppress the vote and
disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of UAW members.
Large
numbers of workers did not even know any election was taking place. The
UAW did not send out notices to inform them. Many workers never received
a ballot despite calls to local union offices and the UAW Monitor.
No
election in which 90 percent of the membership were excluded can be
legitimate. Neither Ray Curry nor Shaw Fain even received 4 percent of
the votes of the UAW membership. That is why I am asking the UAW Monitor
not to certify the results of this sham election. Instead, I am calling
on the monitor to include all five UAW presidential candidates in the
next round of voting and to compel the union to inform all members of
the new voting dates. Only in this way can every UAW member have the
right to meaningful vote in a free and fair election.
'the cleaning lady.' stop reading if you haven't watched, there will be spoilers.
the 2 hour season finale packed a punch and then some. it was a great way to go out.
kamdar
was convinced the tests were lying. he suspected every 1. nadia was
nervous (it wasn't a heart attack, remember, she poisoned him) but kept
trying to calm him. thony came by and he kind of thanked her for saving
his life. he asked her what it could have been. she went over a
number of options including that it could have been a drug that
interacted poorly with something else. nadia walked thony out and
whispered to her, with kamdar's men watching, that thony sold her out.
thony told her that kamdar obviously already knew that he might have
been drugged and he would have been more suspicious if she hadn't said
anything. nadia vowed to tell arman that thony sold them out.
thony
took luka to an amusement park. it was for his birthday. she left. i
think this is where she met with garrett (f.b.i.). he confronted her
on the fact that arman told him how his snitch/source died and not
thony. he yelled at her and only stopped when she had a call. it was
fi. she'd taken luka to the hospital.
luka's body was rejecting the transplant.
thony
made a receptionist call a 'code white.' told her that it was her son,
she was a doctor and that he would die if she didn't do it.
the doctors didn't take thony or fi very seriously.
the doctor in the case was a man who really didn't seem to care.
thony
knew she had to get the drugs she brought back from the phillipines for
luca. remember, a few episodes back, to get those drugs, she offered
to bring back other drugs for kamdar. then kamdar was putting the
squeeze on arman and arman decided to steal the drugs. kamdar wouldn't
know because arman had already worked it out for his wife nadia to
poison him. but then thony came in during the 'heart attack' and saved
kamdar's life.
thony told arman luka was dying and needed the drugs.
arman
took her to where he was hiding the drugs. they were trying to find
the specific drug for luka when the man hiding the drugs sold arman out
and kamdar's men arrived.
he had thony look for the drugs she needed for luka and he went to try to hold the men off.
he
had some success and might have had more but while thony was getting
the medicine, fi was calling her from the hospital - luka's nose was
bleeding and he was talking strangely.
they
heard the cell phone ringing and came into the trailer that thony was
in. she got on top of the trailer and tried to run away but lost her
purse (with the drugs in it) and arman ended up shooting every 1,
getting on a motorcyle with thony and as she reached down for her purse,
he shot the last bad guy.
the doctor at the hospital had already refused to use the drugs before thony went for them. they're not approved in the u.s.
thony
made it back to the hospital. she needed a ventilator to administer
them and they needed somewhere private - it would take 36 hours. the
smart thing would have been to have checked luka out or just left with
him. instead they holed up in the chapel and did it there.
of course, they were caught.
the doctor agreed to continue the meds on luca - they couldn't be stopped now.
but he also brought the police and a social worker. fi and thony were under arrest. the social worker would stay with luka.
they were both being hauled out of the hospital in handcuffs.
kamdar
has been acting like he trust nadia. but he doesn't. and he comes
behind her while she's in the bath and tells her he knows she poisoned
him. she denies it and he shoves her under water. she struggles and
finally comes up. she tells him to stay away from her and runs to the
bedroom. she grabs clothes, shoes and her purse while he's banging on
the door. she slips out another door and is almost out when one of the
men who works for kamdar stands in front of her. she begs him to let
her go but he says he can't and she looks behind her to discover kamdar
is right ther.
as
the police are trying to load fi and thony into the car, garrett shows
up. he flashes his f.b.i. badge and tells them they can't take thony
she's working with them on a case. he also tries to save fi but they
refuse to wait while he gets authorization.
thony has to tell fi's 2 kids what's going on. they're upset. fi's boyfriend's furious (i really hate him).
thony visits fi who says she doesn't want any 1 to see her like this. thony promises she will get fi out.
thony
meets with garrett and russo (garrett's boss and, this episode, his
romantic partner). there's nothing they can do. but kamdar's the
bigger target and thony talks about how he smuggled in street drugs and
she saw them. great. if they can prove that, they'll work on getting
fi out.
they can't find the drugs.
there's nothing they can do.
thony knows better. she said she can work kamdar. they don't want her going near him. he'd kill her on the spot.
they're watching kamdar.
which is how they learn thony ignored them.
kamdar
tells her he can't trust her. she says every thing she did, she did
for her son so he should be able to trust that. she also points out
that it's her connection in the phillipines. without her, he's got
nothing. okay, he says, but they move the drugs now. nadia says not to
trust her and then says that they should just leave for the caymans
like they planned. kamdar ignores her.
the f.b.i. follows.
they get to the location and garrett's brought arman in on it. he even gives arman a bullet proof vest.
kamdar doesn't see them. but he does try to kill thony.
she
runs off and garrett and arman move in shooting. garrett gets close to
thony and arman provides fire cover so they can try to make a break for
it. but they get exposed and garrett tells thony to stay down. he and
arman shoot at kamdar's men and garrett and thony manage to move back.
all the f.b.i. arrive in vehicles and kamdar surrenders.
thony notices garrett's bleeding. he dies in front of her as russo comes over.
russo has never liked thony. but she will make sure fi is safe and in the country now that they have kamdar. great, right?
bad about garrett, but great for fi.
woops.
kamdar posted bail. a judge let him out after he surrendered his passport. fi's safety depends upon a conviction of kamdar.
thony feels like she's done everything she was supposed to. russo's not moved.
thony
says he's going to flee the country. she says he has his own plane,
she talks about how he has customs in his pocket. and then she
remembers what nadia had said about the cayman islands and realized that
nadia was tipping her off.
does thony know where kamdar's plane is?
she does and she can take them there. so the fi deal is on.
and then it's off again.
why?
arman
tricks kamdar. he has his own men at the air field posing as kamdar's
men. arman walks up and kamdar's surprised to see 'his' men flee. he
tells arman that he can't kill him. arman hands the gun to nadia who
shoots him dead. they then flee on the motorcyle just as the f.b.i.
lands in a helicopter.
kamdar is dead.
the deal is off.
fi is taken off by ice and put on a plane back to the phillipines.
this is a very depressing episode. garrett's dead and now fi's being forced out of the country.
thony goes to arman's club. he sees her and they walk off to a room.
she
tells him that his killing kamdar meant fi got deported. that's not
going to be the end of it. fi is her family and he is going to help her
get fi back.
so how?
arman
and thony are going to continue to import drugs from the phillipines.
thony meets with the crooked custom agent. she tells him kamdar's dead
but their deal is still on. and he'll still be getting paid. but the
next shipment that they bring back, they'll also be bringing back a
person.
so that's the end. and thank goodness because to have gone out with no plan for bringing fi back would have been way too much.
it's bad enough that garrett's dead.
i
have no idea why arman is staying with nadia. but when nadia finds out
that he's back in business with thony, she's going to hit the roof.
Tuesday, December 13, 2022. Not in the mood for those trying to bridge build with homophobes and racists.
On a good day, I'm not in the mood for your crap ass bulls**t. On a good day.
Shut up, Krystal and Saagar, honestly just shut the f**k up.
It's not that you're trying to allude to what I had the guts to state last week.
I get it your chicken s**t. But I don't care about that. I'd rather
you allude then ignore. The only issue that the Twitter dumps have
offered of value is that the FBI which had possession of Hunter Biden's
laptop since December 2019, went to social media companies and lied in
the fall of 2020 that there was talk of disinformation from Russia,
maybe in the form of a hard drive and blah blah blah.
It would be great Saagar if you were strong enough to make the case I did and not just allude to it.
It is what will piss America off and what will force answers.
But you and your candy ass can't do that.
And, Krystal, honestly, stop your nonsense.
I just can't.
No one gives a damn that Donald Trump was banned from Twitter and they don't care why.
Elon Musk is controlloing the narrative and a bunch of 'reporters' are letting him.
He doesn't know what the hell he's doing. Nor do they.
Donald
Trump should not have been banned from Twitter. NYT should not have
apologized for running a column by a US senator. We took those stands
here. I didn't back off. I do believe in free speech.
I
also know those were unpopular stands and they're not going to rally
anyone at this point but a bunch of kooks -- a small bunch that's
already rioted in DC, to be honest.
You and the losers
doing the dumping seem to think that you can cobble here and cobble
there and you'll have an outraged coalition.
No, you won't.
And,
Saagar, if you really think that the next dump needs to be about Fauci,
you're much more stupid than I've ever thought you were.
I
think Fauci's a liar. And I've said it here before. And that's how I
know this is a losing story currently. People bought into, they made
arguments about those, they chose to persecute people for it. You're
not going to sway them in 2022. It's going to take a long time. Not
because they can't be honest about Fauci but because they can't be
honest about their own actions. They need time and distance so they can
rewrite what they themselves did to their neighbors, to their family
members and to their friends.
Russia-gate was a lie, a huge lie.
We were decrying it the moment it started -- and doing so on campuses.
It
was January of 2017 when my mouth dropped open over Russia-gate. I had
been hearing that nonsense from college students being misled by the
media. I was not prepared for someone my own age, someone that we all
think is so smart and has tons of fan boys, to tell me to my face that
it was true. With college students, I can talk through the issue and
debate it.
With a 'voice of the left,' I shouldn't have
to. And after 30 minutes of debunking his nonsense, I was done and I
was done with him.
We didn't talk again until the 2019 Democratic Party debates.
He
was now publicly decrying Russia-gate and acting like he always had
because that is the narrative that fits his reputation -- 'brave truth
teller.' He came up to me and I brushed him off. I wasn't in the mood.
Then, in a roomful of people, he whispered that he had been wrong and
that he was sorry.
Whispered.
I don't
think anyone was listening to our conversation. But his ego was such
that he feared they might. And now that Russia-gate was exposed as
crap, he didn't want to be caught holding the bag.
I
don't know what they teach communications majors -- if anything. But
it's not just about getting information. It's also about egos.
And
the Twitter dumps were always going to be a hard sell. The middle and
the left are not on your side and haven't been since the dumping began.
You're putting together nothing but a wall that's keeping out the
people you need to effect change.
The
left is not running with the dumps. You are losing the left. Legacy
media has turned the story -- and its 'reporters' -- into a joke. Your
only way to shape public opinion is to go after the FBI because its
actions are appalling and your amplification of what they did could move
public opinion.
This garbage of 'poor Donald.' It's
not going to play. You turn off more people with that garbage. Krystal
saying, "Pretend it's someone you hate . . ." A) It's not going to
work. And (B) this isn't a personal story. This is not about
personalities. This is about government abuse. This is about the FBI
trying to influence an election and trying to control what the American
people have access to from the media. Both of those things are illegal
for the FBI to do.
If you think you can grow up and
address the FBI, by all means do. But cut the crap and stop trying to
spit polish those dumps. No one gives a damn about Donald Trump being
off Twitter. And as Jeffrey rightly pointed out at COUNTERPUNCH, the
left was 'shadow banned' and worse. WSWS could also write about that
because it happened to them as well.
Krystal, get it
through your head that you aren't coming off impartial. You're coming
off a hand maiden to the right-wing. That's Saagar's job on BREAKING
POINTS. He doesn't need your help. You need to be shining the light on
how COUNTERPUNCH and WSWS and BLACK AGENDA REPORT and so many others
were harmed on social media and you need to be asking where are the
Tweets on that?
It's a niche story at present for the
right wing. It caters to them, it seeks them out and there have been
what, four -- five -- six -- dumps already.
Everyone's yawning and going home on this story.
Because
you know the 'reporter' who took the first dump, you keep pimping each
one. But no one gives a s**t beyond Donald's most radical fans -- an
increasingly small base.
And the left likes it that way
-- I like Donald being over and done. So when you stop focusing on the
FBI and start talking about what was done to Donald, boo-hoo, you're
losing people.
Now I don't think the 'reporters' taking
the dumps are smart at all. But they are hampered by some unknown
agreement that they have with Musk. BREAKING POINTS isn't. It should
be decrying what the FBI did every day and making that the focus.
That's the only way you're going to reach the number of people you need
to reach to make this matter.
Stop trying to promote
the latest dump from your friend and start zooming in and repeatedly
hitting what the FBI did. We don't need to hear Donald Trump. The
world has heard enough about him, thank you very much.
I
may soon walk from this story because I see how it's playing and we
don't need Krystal and Saagar feeding that crowd. One of the idiots we
rightly ripped apart for her stupidity and homophobia at THIRD is a big
fan of Glenn Greenwalds and all over these dumps . . . when she's not
trashing Brittney Griner for being African-American and gay.
You're
not going to build a coalition with the left. We're not going to be
paired with racists and homophobes. And that's not 'identity
politics.' That's self-respect and a belief in equality.
Get
out of your damn bubble where you talk to those 'reporters' and plan
what you're going to say. You need to take a real look at who these
dumps currently appeal to. It's not anyone I'd care to associate with.
One minute they're Tweeting "Great job, Bari" or whomever, the next
they're Tweeting that "homosexuality is Satanic behavior."
No,
I will not coalition build with those people and shame on you if you're
rejecting the left, if you're not trying to appeal to the left, but
you're catering your coverage to appeal to the homophobes and racists.
Amid a spate of recent attacks targeting LGBTQ communities in the United States, advocates say the government must do more to protect vulnerable citizens.
Late last month, a man opened fire at a gay and lesbian nightclub in
Colorado, killing five people and injuring at least 17 others. The
suspect has been charged with hate crimes, murder and assault.
Right-wing demonstrators have also increasingly targeted drag shows during a year in which President Joe Biden has warned of rising violence against LGBTQ communities.
Days after the Colorado shooting, the Department of Homeland Security
issued a bulletin highlighting the risk of terrorism against LGBTQ
citizens and other marginalised groups, noting that “lone offenders and
small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal
grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat”.
But while this acknowledgement is a step in the right direction, rights groups say, it is not enough.
“We are living in a time where there is this rising threat of violence from extreme far-right groups
across the spectrum of marginalised communities. It’s frightening, but
it’s not surprising, unfortunately,” Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for
the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group,
told Al Jazeera.
Across the country, right-wing extremists with guns have been showing up at libraries and churches
to intimidate parents and children attending drag queen story hours.
Groups such as the Proud Boys conflate the reading of books by members
of the LGBTQ community with the predatory "grooming" of kids.
Hospitals that provide gender-affirming care have received death threats after being targeted
by social media influencers like Chaya Raichik, the former real estate
agent who runs the "Libs of TikTok" account on Twitter, and featured in
prime-time diatribes by Fox News's Tucker Carlson.
Other soft
targets for the hard right have included gay pride parades. Over the
summer, 31 members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front were arrested in Idaho
after a concerned citizen reported seeing them loading up a U-Haul with
what looked to be a "little army" of men in riot gear.
By
the end of November, far-right activists took part in at least 55
public actions targeting members of the LGBT+ community — up from 16 the
year before, an increase of some 340% — with a corresponding rise in
violent attacks on people perceived to be gay or transgender, according to a report released this week by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.
A House committee this week in a first of its kindhearing
will hear testimony from LGBTQ people and policy experts to examine how
a surge in anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric has fueled increasing
violence against the community.
“Make no mistake, the rise in anti-LGBTQI+ extremism and the
despicable policies that Republicans at every level of government are
advancing to attack the health and safety of LGBTQI+ people are harming
the LGBTQI+ community and contributing to tragedies like what we saw at
Club Q,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said Monday in a statement announcing Wednesday’s hearing.
The panel will hear firsthand testimony from individuals impacted by
anti-LGBTQ attacks, including survivors of last month’s Club Q shooting
in Colorado Springs that claimed the lives of five people and a survivor
of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando – the deadliest attack
on LGBTQ people in U.S. history.
If BREAKING POINTS
wants to stand with homophobes, it'll be a lonely group. But, hey,
what is silence but standing with homophobes, right? Unless Saagar's
felt the need to attack gay men, BREAKING POINTS has ignored LGBTQ
issues. That's reality. Saager and Krystal may think they come off
caring, but to a lot of people, the reality has been that they're
bigots. They'll cover any topic in the world -- especially about the
'poor' right-wingers -- as long as they don't have to talk about 'the
gays.'
Sanctions-hit Iran is consolidating its hold over neighbouring Iraq,
an economic lifeline where pro-Tehran parties dominate politics, all to
the chagrin of the United States, experts say.
For years, Iraq has been caught in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies Tehran and Washington.
After a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Iraqi long-time ruler Saddam Hussein, Iran's influence has grown through political proxies.
Pro-Iran parties now dominate Iraq's parliament and in October they
named a new prime minister following a year-long tussle with their Shia
rivals, the followers of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Iraq has become an "economic lifeline" for Iran, said Ihsan al-Shammari, a political scientist at the University of Baghdad.
This is "even more so with sharpening Western economic sanctions and
nuclear negotiations that do not seem to be leading to a favourable deal
for Iran", Shammari said.
"Iran's role will be even more important than during previous (Iraqi) governments"
During a visit to Tehran late last month, Prime Minister Mohammed
Shiaa al-Sudani and Iranian officials urged greater bilateral
cooperation in all fields.
He thanked Iran which provides gas and electricity,around one-third
of Iraq's needs, adding this would continue until Iraq was
self-sufficient.
'minx' just got cancelled. 'hbo max' renewed it for a 2nd season. it was finishing filming that season when it learned it was cancelled.
stan
is right, 'DISCOVERY brought sexism to WARNER BROS' - there is the cancellation of the 'batgirl' movie, there
is the cancellation of 'wonder woman 3' and now they are cancelling
'minx.'
it is time for congress to get serious and address how 'discovery' lied to them so that it could purchase 'warner brothers.'
it is 1 sexist move after another.
i
cancelled our 'max' as it is now known. did so today. they offer
nothing that i want to see anymore. if they'd kept 'minx,' i would've
stayed despite everything else.
i
hope some 1 we subscribe to picks it up ('netflix,' 'paramount,'
'peacock,' 'apple+') but if some 1 we don't subscribe to picks it up,
that's my reason to start subscribing.
reminder, 2 hour season finale of 'the cleaning lady' tonight on 'fox.'
Monday, December 12, 2022. Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian
Assange, another Twitter dump, a fresh call for all US forces out of
Iraq, and much more.
8) CIA Discussed Plans to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange
The CIA seriously considered plans to
kidnap or assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in late 2017,
according to a September 2021 Yahoo News investigation, based on
interviews with more than 30 former U.S. officials, eight of whom
detailed U.S. plans to abduct Assange and three of whom described the
development of plans to kill him. If it had been up to CIA Director Mike
Pompeo, they almost certainly would have been acted on, after WikiLeaks
announced it had obtained a massive tranche of files — dubbed “Vault
7” — from the CIA’s ultra-secret hacking division, and posted some of
them online.
In his first public remarks as Donald
Trump’s CIA director, “Pompeo devoted much of his speech to the threat
posed by WikiLeaks” Yahoo News noted, “Rather than use the platform to
give an overview of global challenges or to lay out any bureaucratic
changes he was planning to make at the agency.” He even called it “a
non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors
like Russia,” a designation intended to grant the CIA wide latitude in
what actions it took, while shielding it from congressional oversight.
“Potential scenarios proposed
by the CIA and Trump administration officials included crashing into a
Russian vehicle carrying Assange in order to grab him, shooting the
tires of an airplane carrying Assange in order to prevent its takeoff,
and engaging in a gun battle through the streets of London,” Project
Censored summarized. “Senior CIA officials went so far as to request
‘sketches’ or ‘options’ detailing methods to kill Assange.”
“WikiLeaks was a complete
obsession of Pompeo’s,” a former Trump administration national security
official told Yahoo News. “After Vault 7, Pompeo and [Deputy CIA
Director Gina] Haspel wanted vengeance on Assange.” It went so far that
“Pompeo and others at the agency proposed abducting Assange from the
embassy and surreptitiously bringing him back to the United States via a
third country — a process known as rendition,” they reported.
(Assassination entered the picture later on.) Since it would take place
in Britain, there had to be agreement from them. “But the British said,
‘No way, you’re not doing that on our territory, that ain’t happening,’”
a former senior counterintelligence official told Yahoo News.
There was also push-back from
National Security Council, or NSC lawyers and the Department of Justice,
which wanted to put Assange on trial. But the CIA continued to push for
capturing or killing Assange. Trump’s “NSC lawyers were bulwarks
against the CIA’s potentially illegal proposals, according to former
officials,” Yahoo News reported, but the CIA’s own lawyers may have been
kept in the dark. “When Pompeo took over, he cut the lawyers out of a
lot of things,” a former senior intelligence community attorney told
them. “Pompeo’s ready access to the Oval Office, where he would meet
with Trump alone, exacerbated the lawyers’ fears. [The NSC’s top lawyer
John] Eisenberg fretted that the CIA director was leaving those meetings
with authorities or approvals signed by the president that Eisenberg
knew nothing about, according to former officials.”
“US plans to kidnap or
assassinate Julian Assange have received little to no establishment news
coverage in the United States, other than scant summaries by Business
Insider and The Verge, and tangential coverage by Reuters, each based on
the original Yahoo News report,” Project Censored notes. “Among US
independent news outlets, Democracy Now! featured
an interview with Michael Isikoff, one of the Yahoo News reporters who
broke the story, and Jennifer Robinson, a human rights attorney who has
been advising Julian Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010. Rolling Stone and The Hill also published articles based on the original Yahoo News report.”
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
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.
+ I’d like to see someone leak the Bari Weiss Files on Matt Taibbi’s
new partner’s ceaseless campaign to get Joseph Massad fired from
Columbia University.
+ According to Business Insider,
Musk has provided the anti-Palestinian zealot Bari Weiss access to
Twitter’s employee systems, added to its Slack, and given a company
laptop, a level of access to Twitter systems typically reserved only
for staff…
+ CounterPunch wasn’t just “shadow banned” on Twitter, we went into
total eclipse. For more than a year our followers remained static or
declined. We couldn’t even attract bots, Russian or porn. Its editor’s
Twitter account (mine) was permanently locked. But there’s never been a
single inquiry about this or any other suppressed Leftwing, animal
rights, radical green, Occupy Wall Street or pro-Palestinian Twitter
account. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the narrative Musk, Taibbi and
Weiss want to project. This isn’t about free speech–how could it
possibly be when an apex blacklister is in charge of determining what is
& isn’t a blacklist?
+ Bari may not know much, but she knows blacklists…
+ Amid the hundreds of rightwing (and neo-Nazi) accounts being
restored, I don’t know of any accounts associated with the Left or
pro-Palestinian accounts, like Stanley Cohen’s, having been resurrected
or are likely to be with Weiss calling the shots. Yet, the account of Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, is back up and running.
+ Looking forward to two-plus years of Congressional hearings over Hunter Biden dick picks, with expert commentary from men’s shower monitor Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert (spouse of a convicted flasher). Brace yourself, CSPAN!
+ MAGA accusing Sebastian Gorka of being part of a Deep State cover
up is the best thing to come out of Laptopgate. Well done, Matt Taibbi!
+ The
eXile was one of the best magazines to emerge in the 90s. The problem
wasn’t the satirical pieces–worthy of Paul Krassner–but Taibbi’s
cowardly renouncement of them–and blaming his partner Mark Ames, all to curry favor with people he once rightly despised and ridiculed.
+ Instead of Hunter Thompson, Taibbi’s morphed into David Horowitz…
+ Taibbi likes to think of himself as a “muckraker,” but I can’t
think of a single “muckraker” agreeing to secret conditions set by the
richest tech mogul in the world to run a story based solely on documents
given to him by the same tech lord to be run on that very tech lord’s
site. It sure ain’t the way IF Stone did it.
+ Over to you, Dr. Jung…
+ When the principle condition of the conditions constraining your
reporting is that you don’t name the conditions, you’ve got a problem.
You don’t know what the full story is if you’re only printing what your
clearly biased source has given you. This is exactly what Judith Miller
did with Curveball. Except it’s worse because in this case your source
owns the means of publication and requires it to be published there.
+ Mark Ames: “All Musk’s fanboys on this wretched site want nothing
more than to cancel their s**tlib-enemies’ accounts, you constantly see
them snitching and tagging their Hero, just as libs did to them. No
principle here, just a buncha snitches riding the oligarchy’s dopamine
rollercoaster…”
An
editor at TIME pointed out to me why the reporter keeps taking dumps on
Twitter and avoiding writing an actual report -- the minute he writes a
report he either gets honest or stops being seen as a journalist. To
write an actual report requires explaining exactly what terms you agreed
to. Failure to do so would make it clear you were no longer practicing
journalism. (Yes, Virginia, there is a line between journalism and
public relations.)
Iraq?
We like to point out here that Bully Boy Bush was in the White
House when Brookings identified the disputed areas as one of the
hotspots for future violence. And that nothing was ever done even
though Article 140 of Iraq's Constitution mandated that the disputed
areas be resolved by the end of 2007. For those who don't get it, RUDAW reports:
Dozens of resettled Arabs on Wednesday attacked Kurdish farmers in Daquq
district of Kirkuk province after ploughing on their land. Two farmers
were injured. Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called on
the Iraqi government to put an end such attacks.
Disputes over land ownership between Arabs, resettled to areas disputed
between Erbil and Baghdad by the Baathist regime, and Kurdish farmers
have existed for years, often causing violence.
Abdulqadir Mohammed, a Kurdish farmer in Daquq, told Rudaw’s Hardi
Mohammed on Wednesday that dozens of resettled Arabs had been ploughing
on his land for three days with the alleged support of the Iraqi army.
He said that when they tried to stop them, the resettled Arabs attacked
with stones and guns.
Mohammed said he has all necessary documents to prove the ownership of the land.
#mediadev spoke to Salam Omer, editor-in-chief of KirkukNow,
a news outlet based in Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. Launched in 2011, it is
the only specialised media platform for citizens in Iraq's disputed
territories.
#mediadev: Mr. Omer, your media outlet works in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious context. Who is your audience?
Salam
Omer: We cover the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, located north
of a line dividing the whole country from Syria to Iran. Our primary
audience is the population of these areas: Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Sunni
Arabs, Shia Arabs, Christians, Yezidis etc.
In addition to news in these areas, what do you focus on in your reporting?
Our
priorities are topics across the country related to freedom of
expression, press freedom and groups like women, internally displaced
people (IDPs), or the LGBT community. We reach around two million people
across all platforms.
What are the main challenges in your work?
I have
to look at three things on a daily basis: Are we secure? Do we have
enough money? Do we have access to information? And all that depends on
the ruling party, the ruling militia. That's the biggest challenge for
us. Other media organizations, the mainstream media, belong to a
political party. They have access to information, access to public oil
money and they are safe. We don't have anything. We believe in the rule
of law, that's the starting point for us.
You must face a lot of criticism for your work. How do you deal with it?
It
is a challenge. At the beginning, we were attacked by almost all sides.
For example, we published an article on the Kurds, and the next day,
people suggested that we were financed by Arabs and Turkmens. The week
after, someone else got upset. We built relationships with everyone to
always have a channel of dialogue. We needed a lot of time to prove that
an independent, impartial media platform can function. That needs work.
And dedication.
Following
the withdrawal of American forces, there would be no trace of ISIL in
Iraq, Qasim al-Kariti, commander of the PMU's 41st Brigade said.
Criticizing
the sabotage and obstruction of the Americans in the fight against
terrorism in Iraq, Al-kariti noted that the American forces influence
the process of security operations in this country.
Therefore, they should be expelled from the country, he stressed.
If the American forces leave the country, in a few days, there will
be no trace of ISIL terrorists, he said, adding that the war against
ISIL strengthened the determination of Iraqi youth.
