a real media critic would have noted that the trans
hatred was fueled by 'the times' and had nothing to do with 'a few
stories of regret.' it had everything to do with the paper ignoring
science and ignoring medical experts. it had everything to do with
promoting fear based hate - to the point that bette midler did her
ridiculous tweet and then couldn't grasp why people were outraged.
because you fell for a hate trap, bette.
today, john stauber is just another transphobe.
he's an embarrassment.
if
'the times' wants to talk about the war on transpersons, they should
have the guts to admit that they're responsible for it and have helped
carry it out.
speaking
of taking responsibility, glenneth greenwald. his husband's barely
dead and buried and glenneth is back to tweeting and making idiot
statements like this:
Our return is in conjunction with a new, long-planned, exciting major ad campaign we're launching today to show what our program has done and where we're taking it:
'what
our program has done' - it's done nothing. i get why you have to lie.
you should have been in the hospital at your husband's bedside. but it
was more important to you, while he lay dying, to start your own talk
show - that no 1 watches - than to be there for your partner.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023. Another do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrite is exposed for the liar that they really are.
Damn
you, Paul Rudnick! :D I thought I was done dictating this snapshot
and then I said, "Wait, Paul's probably got something funny about this
on Twitter." He does. And he also makes a Dogpatch reference. So I
have to redo my sentence that originally opened the snapshot and we'll
just instead open with his Tweets. So here's Paul.
Those
two crazy kids were a match made in a blazing hell with Jesse Helms
smiling over them. In spite of -- or because of -- that, Josh Fiallo and Roger Sollenberger (DAILY BEAST) report, Lauren
Boebert served her registered sex offender husband with divorce papers
on Tuesday. He refused the papers but she confirmed to the press that
she had filed for divorce.
He
was taken by surprise which makes clear that hate merchant and alleged
Christian Lauren decided this was something she could do without God.
She didn't do counseling, she didn't discuss the decision with her
husband.
It's really
interesting to watch the Christian illiterates like Lauren stand in judgment of
others when, point of fact, they do whatever they want and then utter
some mealy mouthed words if anyone notices.
By
Lauren's beliefs, she will now be an adulteress as a result of this
divorce -- which per the Book of Matthew -- must be due to her "sexual
immorality."
I
was thinking about this yesterday. The Bible is very clear that sex
outside of marriage is wrong. But when Lauren's son gets an underage
girl pregnant, oh, well Lauren doesn't care what the Bible says.
However when it comes to a same-sex couple having sex, she's all about
citing
the Bible.
Anti-LGBTQ Christian nationalist Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) recently
gave a speech telling Christians to “rise up” and put “God back at the
center of our country.” She also said that LGBTQ people have created a
national “identity crisis” for children and families by “spitting in
God’s face” and perverting his creation.
Boebert made her comments last weekend at the three-day
conference hosted by Truth and Liberty Coalition, a Christian
nationalist organization that believes the U.S. must be a rigidly
Christian nation. The organization was founded by far-right preacher
Andrew Wommack, and the event was hosted at Wommack’s Charis Bible
College in Woodland Park, Colorado.
Republican Colorado representative Lauren Boebert has suggested that
children in public schools should be forced to undergo “biblical
citizenship training”.
Boebert’s chilling comments were made on an episode of FlashPoint, a Christian news show which airs on the Victory Channel, owned by the anti-LGBTQ+ televangelist Kenneth Copeland.
She added: “Maybe we need to have some sort of legislation that
requires… biblical citizenship training in our schools. And that’s how
we get things turned around.”
It's nonsense. It's two different standards. She's a hypocrite and so is anyone who goes along with her.
Ava and I called out the flaming pearl clutcher in that awful NETFLIX
documentary CALL ME KATE -- he had a heart attack that anyone might
wonder if Katharine Hepburn was a lesbian (she was) but he was fine
talking about her alleged affairs with men -- including with Spencer
Tracy who was married.
I'm
sick of it. I'm sick of the damn hypocrisy where you feign outrage
that Hepburn might be a lesbian (she was) while you dish about her
(brief) affair with the married Spencer Tracy and try to present that as
'normal' and 'love.' No, he was a raging drunk who hit her
repeatedly. Don't pimp the 'feminist' Kate lie while glorifying her
relationship with Spencer -- which lasted weeks only according to Garson
Kanin. I'm sick of it. And everyone knows about Hepburn and everyone
knew about her.
And
everyone knew Lauren Boebert was demanding that others live by this or
that in the Bible while ignoring the very book she claimed to follow.
Her own kind should pick up rocks and stone her -- that's in the Bible
-- but the rest of us should just point a finger and laugh anytime we
see her in public.
"Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women" -- isn't that in the Book of John? (It is.)
Citing a "crisis of legitimacy" they say is plaguing the U.S. Supreme
Court, a group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced
legislation aimed at thwarting Republican attacks on democracy by
expanding the nation's top court from nine to 13 justices.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Judiciary Act outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where they held a press conference.
"The
nation's highest court today faces a crisis of legitimacy that began
when Senate Republicans first abandoned norms and precedent to block the
confirmation of then-President [Barack] Obama's Supreme Court nominee,
Merrick Garland, only to later ram through
the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett a mere 10 days before Election
Day 2020, and while millions of Americans were already casting ballots,"
the lawmakers said in a statement.
"The stolen, far-right Supreme Court majority has since ruled to destroy 50 years of settled precedent by rolling back the fundamental right to abortion care in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and has become the subject of scandal, including new and resurfaced reports of Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose gifts provided to him by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and his spouse's more than $680,000 in unreported income from the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation," the statement noted.
Markey
contended that "Republicans have hijacked the confirmation process and
stolen the Supreme Court majority—all to appeal to far-right judicial
activists who for years have wanted to wield the gavel to roll back
fundamental rights."
"Each scandal uncovered, each norm broken,
each precedent-shattering ruling delivered is a reminder that we must
restore justice and balance to the rogue, radical Supreme Court," he
argued. "It is time we expand the court."
Johnson said that "it's
easy to take for granted that the number of justices on the Supreme
Court must be nine. But it is not written in the Constitution and has
changed seven times over the course of our nation's history."
Meanwhile, the Iraq War continues. The White House issued the following yesterday:
Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Stabilization ofIraq
On May 22, 2003, by Executive Order 13303, the President
declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to deal with the
unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign
policy of the United States posed by obstacles to the orderly
reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and
security in the country, and the development of political,
administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq.
The obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the
restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and
the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions
in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this
reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303, as
modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in
Executive Order 13290 of March 20, 2003, Executive Order 13315 of August
28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, Executive Order 13364
of November 29, 2004, Executive Order 13438 of July 17, 2007, and
Executive Order 13668 of May 27, 2014, must continue in effect beyond
May 22, 2023. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the
National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year
the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq
declared in Executive Order 13303.
This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
There
is virtually no ambiguity in Alabama law: Abortion is banned at any
stage of pregnancy, and anyone who performs one can be charged with a
felony. But there is one caveat: Under current law, a pregnant person
cannot be criminally charged in connection with her own abortion.
A
group of Republican lawmakers in the Alabama House of Representatives
are angling to change that. A new bill, sponsored by freshman Ernie
Yarbrough, would open the door for a pregnant person to be charged with
murder if she has an abortion — or even if she has a miscarriage.
1st
off, abortion should be legal in all 50 states. 2nd, we need to expand
the court immediately to get the corruption addressed.
3rd?
as
a woman who had 5 miscarriages before finally being able to carry to
term (and i wasn't planning that pregnancy, by the way, after 4
miscarriages, i had given up), i cannot imagine how outraged i would
have felt if the police were visiting me to 'follow up' on the
miscarriage.
it's nobody's damn business 1st and foremost.
but
let me be really clear that after a woman has a miscarriage, she's not
in a place where she's able to - or wants to - discuss it with
strangers.
how appalling
and disgusting and how typical of the g.o.p. don't give me your garbage
about 'family values' when all you are doing is increasing the pain of a
woman who has just miscarried. shame on them. may they spend the rest
of their lives with satan in hell - and i'm not joking.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023. A presidential visit to Australia looms as
Australians prepare to turn out for Julian Assange, women and girls in
Iraq continue to suffer as needed laws are not addressed, hate merchant
Lauren Boebert thinks she can lecture others when she should be hanging
her head in shame, and so much more.
May
24th may end up being an important day. US President Joe Biden is
expected to visit Australia. Australians are expected to let him know
what they think of his persecution of Julian Assange.
Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe
Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."
Julian's 'crime' was revealing the
realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the
information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.
And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.
For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War
Logs. Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes. Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the
Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident
US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have
leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters
and civilian killings in the Afghan war. The new logs detail how: •
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse,
torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct
appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a
notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after
they tried to surrender. • More than 15,000 civilians died in
previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no
official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081
non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical
evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or
ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric
shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat
The Biden administration
has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and
vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal
assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.
But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States
under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used
before for publishing classified information.
Whether the US justice department continues to
pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group
put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics
before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether
the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to
protect the press.
Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.
Granted, footage of defenceless civilians being picked off at close
range like videogame targets by a laughing helicopter crew does little
to uphold Americans’ projected role as the “good guys” – a façade that
is key in terms of justifying the country’s self-presumed right to wreak
international havoc as it pleases.
Had Assange wanted to save his own skin, he could have stuck to the sort of imperial propaganda
that functions as mainstream journalism, a field that was itself
instrumental in selling the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq to the US
public.
Instead, he is incarcerated at Belmarsh prison in southeast London,
awaiting extradition to the so-called “land of the free” while serving
as a veritable case study in prolonged psychological torture, as documented back in 2019 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Bruce Wolpe (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) addresses
a new rumor, "President Biden’s slated visit to Australia for the Quad
meeting – although there is now speculation that his deputy Kamala Harris might replace him
– has presented a powerful opportunity to further press the case." The
protesters will be there regardless of whether it's Joe or Kamala. And
a large protest against the US administration in Australia won't make
for happy headlines regardless of whether Joe's the visitor or Kamala
is.
Iraqi
activists are urging the government to pass legislation against
gender-based violence, as current regulations are so weak that they
allow many men to escape punishment.
The
country has been rocked by a string of brutal murders, including the
killing last week of a two-month-old girl by her father because of her
gender.
Soon after, a woman was killed by her father for refusing to marry the man he had chosen for her.
“Violence
against women and children is increasing and this is not a new
phenomenon,” Suhalia Al Assam, a women's rights activist and member of
the Iraqi Women's League, told The National.
“There are many cases that have not caught the attention of the public and they are crimes that must be stopped.
“The country does not have a specific law to tackle domestic abuse.”
Iraq's
criminal code outlaws violence within the family but does not specify
consequences for domestic abuse, nor does it stipulate penalties for
perpetrators.
“There
must be no impunity. We have been demanding this for over a decade and
no action has been taken. Hundreds of women have lost their lives to
this issue,” Ms Al Assam said.
The death on April 18 of a 20-year-old woman in Najaf, possibly at the hands of her husband, should act as a wake-up call for Iraqi
legislators to pass a law against domestic violence, Human Rights Watch
said today. Iraqi authorities should investigate and prosecute domestic
violence, and ensure appropriate sentences for violence against women.
“Domestic violence has always plagued Iraq,” said Belkis Wille,
senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We see
case upon case of women and girls dying at the hands of their families,
but Iraq's lawmakers have not done enough to save those lives.”
On April 12, a video surfaced on social media of the woman in a
hospital with severe burn wounds. Her mother told Human Rights Watch
that eight months ago her daughter married a police officer who had only
allowed her to visit her parents once since then. On April 8, her
mother said, the husband called to tell her that his wife had a “slight
burn accident” and was in the hospital.
The mother could hear her daughter screaming. She rushed to the
hospital, where the husband’s mother blocked her from seeing her
daughter. Police took the young woman’s statement while her mother was
blocked from the room, the mother said. On April 11, when she was able
to enter the hospital room, her daughter told her that her husband had
beaten her so badly on April 8 that she poured gasoline on herself and
warned him that unless he stopped, she would light herself on fire.
“I still don’t know if he lit her on fire or she did it herself, but
she told me she burned for three minutes while he just watched, and
finally his father, also a policeman, came in and put out the fire,” the
mother said. “She begged them to take her to the hospital but they
waited for over an hour before doing so. Her father-in-law then
pretended to the police that he was her father and said to them the fire
had been an accident.”
The young woman died on April 18. Najaf’s governor, Loai al-Yasiri,
told Human Rights Watch on April 15 that the authorities had established
an investigation committee and arrested the husband, father-in-law, and
the husband’s uncle. Al-Yasiri said that this case would likely be
resolved through a mediation in which the husband’ family’s ashira (clan) would negotiate with Samira’s family’s ashira to reach a non-judicial settlement.
Domestic violence remains a serious problem in Iraq. The Iraq Family Health Survey (IFHS) of 2006/7 found that one in five Iraqi women are subject to physical domestic violence. A 2012 Planning Ministry study
found that at least 36 percent of married women reported experiencing
some form of psychological abuse from their husbands, 23 percent verbal
abuse, 6 percent physical violence, and 9 percent sexual violence.
Following a series of confrontations, it seems an open war has broken out between the Catholic Caledonian Church and the Christian political party and militia of Babylon Movement.
In
mid-April, an Iraqi court issued a summons for Cardinal Louis Sako,
patriarch and archbishop of Baghdad, in response to an accusation by an
Iraqi businessman affiliated with the Babylon Movement over a property
belonging to the church.
On April 29, Rayan al-Kaldani,
secretary-general of the Babylon Movement, accused Sako of interfering
in politics and damaging the reputation of the church.
In response, Sako held a lengthy video conference May 7, threatening
to internationalize the Christian issue if the Iraqi government failed
to take action against Kaldani.
The
Babylon Movement was founded in 2014 as a paramilitary group of
Christians who fought against the Islamic State (IS). It was later
integrated into the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) under the name of
the 50th Brigade.
The movement has been implicated in illegal land
seizures in Ninevah province and Baghdad, as well as several other
corruption cases, particularly in the Ministry of Immigration that has
been under their control since 2020.
Babylon was accused of
multiple human rights violations during its fight against IS, which
eventually led the United States to impose sanctions on Kaldani in 2019.
More than two hundred Christians gathered in Tahrir
Square, in the center of Baghdad, on the evening of Friday May 12, to
show their solidarity with Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch of the
Chaldean Church, who became the subject of smear campaigns on social
media in recent weeks. The "solidarity demonstration", also included
nuns and priests who, like the others present, waved Iraqi flags,
candles, olive branches and banners bearing inscriptions calling on the
authorities to intervene to ensure that the electoral seats reserved for
Christians in the Iraqi parliament are not in fact occupied by groups
linked to the main parties.
Eleven different European countries, together with the European
Union, released a statement on Sunday evening affirming their support
for Iraq’s Patriarch Louis Raphaël Sako.
The Patriarch – who heads the country's Chaldean Church, and was made
a Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2018 – is facing criticism over comments
concerning political representation for Iraq’s ancient Christian
minority.
Sunday’s statement expressed the European governments’ “solidarity”
with Patriarch Sako, and stressed the importance of his “efforts to
protect the rights of Christians on the soil that they have inhabited
for two millennia.”
“So
many try to erase the impact of moms these days – calling us ‘birthing
people’ and ‘people with uteruses’ – but we know the truth.”
Sad
for Lauren, we do know the truth. We know the truth that she was
sexually active in high school with guys who didn't care about her and
she ended up pregnant, unmarried and had to drop out of high school.
Instead of learning from this and educating her own children, she raised
a son who got an underage girl pregnant repeating the cycle.
Again, we do know the truth. That truth is Lauren
Boebert may have competition for stupidest member of Congress; however,
she is the trashiest. That's how she ends up married to a
man who exposes himself to girls at a bowling alley and ends up on
probation.
Trash.
And
we'd leave it at that; however, she didn't just fail to teach her child
the facts of life, Bible-thumper forgot to teach him Hebrews 13:4:
Let
marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be
undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Lauren, you've got no high horse to ride. The only event you're racing is is the sewer derby. I'm sure you'll do quite well.
In the real world, Jacqueline Luqman Tweets:
We'll wind down with this from Will Lehman:
Power to the rank and file!
Brothers and sisters:
I urge all UAW members to support the 525 striking workers at the Clarios battery manufacturing plant in
Holland, Ohio, just outside of Toledo. These workers are fighting the
world’s largest auto battery maker and the powerful financial interests
behind it. The outcome of this strike will have major consequences for
the hundreds of thousands of GM, Ford and Stellantis workers facing
their own contract battles this summer.
Clarios,
formerly the battery division of Johnson Controls, was bought by the
private equity firm Brookfield Partners in 2019. Although the company
made $1.6 billion last year, its wealthy investors want to boost profits
by 30 percent in the next few years before they “flip” it for a massive
payout.
In
the last few years, workers have lost $10 an hour or more due to
repeated cuts in piece rates. They regularly work 19 days in a row and
12 hours a shift at straight time before they get two days off and do it
again. Exposure to toxic chemicals is so bad that workers must get
tested for high levels of lead in their blood, which can cause lifelong
disabilities and be passed onto their kids. Workers report that it is
commonplace for retirees to get cancer and die a few years after
leaving.
There are two more critical things about the strike that workers must know.
First,
the walkout would never have happened if rank-and-file workers had not
revolted against the UAW apparatus and rejected the deal Local 12
officials had negotiated by a margin of almost 99 to 1 percent. Workers
then made it clear they would not accept any more contract extensions
that would help the company stockpile batteries, forcing the UAW
International to sanction the strike on May 8, 11 days after the defeat
of the contract.
After
the strike began, UAW Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower told
reporters, “We’re not in the mood for concessionary contracts” and
“We’re not going backwards in today’s economy.” But it was Baumhower and
Local 12 officials who tried to push through a pro-company deal that
contained a miserable 3 percent raise and other concessions. And it was
the rank and file who threw this garbage into the trash.
Second, if this decisive strike is to be won, it is necessary for all UAW members to come to its immediate assistance.
The
company is digging in for a long fight. Chief Human Resources officer
Elizabeth Powers came to Clarios after overseeing a seven-month lockout
of 2,200 ATI (Allegheny Technologies Inc.) steelworkers in 2014-15 and a
105-day strike in 2021.
Right
now, trucks carrying thousands of batteries are being sent across the
strikers’ picket lines, and Lucas County sheriff’s deputies are
threatening workers with arrest if they don’t let the trucks through.
These batteries are being delivered to Ford, GM, Stellantis and other
plants in Toledo, Detroit and across the country.
As
one striking Clarios worker said, “We build 1,500 batteries a day for
the Ram 1500s at the Warren Truck plant alone. I would say to those
workers: Stop putting batteries into those trucks. We all got to stick
together. We should all go out at once.”
![Clarios workers on the picket line [Photo: WSWS]](https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.squarespace-cdn.com%2Fcontent%2F630c07a866378c7eaa3b78ba%2Fc9e49c11-d275-4f6c-8c9a-4771e92de95b%2Fclarios-picket.png%3Fcontent-type%3Dimage%252Fpng%26format%3D750w&t=1684197231&ymreqid=e39833aa-a0f4-8bd8-1c11-1603d9016c00&sig=d8zTnRc5Hvbd2refhinAjA--~D)
