Hope everyone's having a good day. Well, maybe not everyone. There are a few on my s**t list. Let me revisit the topic of Valerie Bertinelli because she's back in the news:
There is no love lost between Valerie Bertinelli and her now ex-husband Tom Vitale.
In a video posted to her social media, the Food Network star
and actress couldn't contain her glee as she learned from her lawyer
that the correct papers were signed and would soon be filed.
"I'm
at the airport. About to go see Wolfie. And my lawyer just called. The
papers are all signed. They're about to be filed. On 11/22/22 I am
officially f---ing divorced," she whispered into the phone.
Trash.
Look, Val, I didn't ask to get to know your husband. I didn't ask you
to tell me about him. But you did. Over and over. In your cooking
show. You couldn't stick to cooking. You had to tell me how great he
was. How great your life was. You had to do episodes revolve around him.
Were you lying then? Or are you lying now?
Maybe don't whore your husband for TV? Just saying.
I liked Valerie for decades but ever since Eddie Van Halen passed away, she's become unhinged and it's not an attractive look.
And, sorry, Val, I liked the Tom you sold on your show. He seemed like a nice person.
At a Monday press conference the victims were identified: Kelly
Loving, who just turned 40 and was "like a trans mom" to friends;
Ashley Paugh, a straight 35-year-old mother who worked to find homes for
foster children; Raymond Green Vance, 22, who was at the club for the
first time to celebrate a birthday with his girlfriend and her family;
Derrick Rump, 38, a "lively, loving" bartender and performer at the club
who "made it what it was"; and Daniel Davis Aston, 28, a trans
bartender and performer who'd just completed his medical transition and
was, said his mother Sabrina, "the happiest he had ever been." Growing up, she recalled,
Daniel told her at age four he was a boy and wouldn't wear girls'
clothes: "Those are our children - we don't care how they dress or what
they identify as. It doesn't harm anybody." After he began living as a
trans man in such hateful political times, she "always worried" about
him. "It's just unbelievable. He had so much more life to give," she
said. "I didn't want to be part of this, the losing a child club." In a
dark twist, he and the others were murdered minutes before Transgender
Day of Remembrance, which honors the memory of trans people killed in anti-transgender violence." Club Q had planned to mark it; instead, people gathered at inter-faith events to denounce "theologies of hate" and ensure "our arms could be as wide as possible to embrace a community that's hurting."
Eerily
echoing other massacres, from Columbine to Pulse to Uvalde, a makeshift
memorial went up Sunday outside Club Q - flowers, candles, a plaintive
sign for "Love Over Hate." (Maybe.) Police who'd arrived
the night before praised the "incredible act of heroism" that ended a
shooting that could have been even worse. For that, they can thank
Richard Fierro, a 45-year-old brewery owner and veteran of four Army
deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan who was there celebrating a birthday
with his wife and daughter; when he saw the flash of gunfire, he
instinctively "went into combat mode." Charging through
the panicked crowd, he tackled the gunman, who he said weighed over 300
pounds, yanked a handgun away from him, and started beating him with
his own gun while yelling for other patrons to help. A man shoved the
shooter's AR-15 - another one! - away, a drag performer stomped on
the gunman with her high heels, and Fierro kept pummeling as he and the
gunman screamed curses at each other; he was so bloody police at first
arrested him. Fierro was a major with two Bronze Stars when he left the
Army in 2013: "I was done with war." He "never thought I'd have to deal
with that kind of violence at home, (but) everybody in that building
experienced combat that night...they were forced to." His wife's two
best friends were shot; his daughter, who broke her knee running for cover, lost her longtime boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance.
The
gunman, identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, remains
hospitalized; he has been charged with five counts of first-degree
murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime. He is the grandson of former mayor and outgoing
California GOP state assembly Randy Voepel, who was almost expelled by
colleagues after he praised the Jan. 6 attack with, "This is Lexington
and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny." Aldrich's mother Laura
Voepel praised her father online: "You work hard to improve our lives." In 2021, she also called police to report
her son was threatening her with a homemade bomb and multiple weapons;
after he refused to surrender, a tactical support unit evacuated nearby
homes, a crisis negotiator was called in, and a standoff ensued. Aldrich was eventually arrested and charged with
five felonies, including felony menacing and kidnapping, but charges
were inexplicably never filed, thus allowing him to evade Colorado's Red
Flag law and buy a shiny new AR-15, because America. Aldrich was living
with his grandparents at the time, said a former landlady who recalled
his "aggressive side," but he'd visit his mother to watch movies with
her when not threatening to bomb her. She in turn often went online asking church
members for help for her son: Does anyone have a fan to donate to him?
Can anyone recommend a trauma/PTSD therapist? And in May, saying "he's
made huge life changes," did anyone know a private boxing coach? "He's
6'6" tall," she wrote, "and hits like a freight train."
Nervously
careful law enforcement officials have said the mass shooting at a gay
nighclub is being investigated "through the lens of a hate crime." Ya
think? You mean it might be connected to a right wing that
deems every queer person and half the country's Democrats "groomers," or
to a rise in rabid anti-gay, trans and drag show rhetoric, or to
hundreds of state bills curbing the rights of "others," or to emboldened
fascists proclaiming who should or should not exist? Or to bellicose
Proud Boys disrupting
peaceful Drag Story Hours in t-shirts that say, "Kill Your Local
Pedophile"? Or to a Florida GOPer proposing to charge with a felony and
terminate the parental rights of any adult who "brings a child to these
perverted sex shows"? Or to the hate-mongering
and bomb threats against hospitals offering health care - aka
"castration" - to trans kids? Or to Herschel Walker, a day or so after
the shooting, still running a trans-phobic ad with a young Aryan college swimmer whining
"a man won a title that belonged to a woman, and Sen. Warnock voted to
let it happen." Or to, let's not forget, Tucker Carlson, who accuses
trans-supportive schools of "sex crimes," declares "no parent should
put up with this for one second," and tells viewers their "moral duty"
is to dole out "instant justice...no matter what the law says. "This is
an attack on your children," he intones, "and you should fight back." On
Twitter: "This language will get people killed." And so it has.
Finally,
there's Colorado's gun-toting, queer-bashing, deeply hateful Lauren
Boebert, who had "the f**king audacity" to fake-grieve the "absolutely
awful" shooting and declare, "The victims & their families are in my
prayers." Wait. Is this the same Boebert who's ceaselessly trafficked
in anti-LGBTQ hysteria? Who's attacked the left as pedophiles and "sick, demented groomers," warned drag
queens to "stay away from our children," equated LGBTQ-inclusive flash
cards with "indoctrination," charged a kid-friendly drag show was
guarded by masked Antifa guards with AR-15s - "Remember, they only want
YOUR guns. They want to use theirs to protect their depravity" - and
urged, "Take your children to CHURCH not drag bars," though God knows
how many children have been molested in church; in drag bars, evidently
zero. The furious response:"This is on you...You are to blame...LGBTQ
people like me are less safe in this country because (of) people like
you...Conservative identiy politics puts homicidal jerkoffs into
motion...You are the hate that leads to violence." And from one woman,
when Boebert tried to make it about generic crime - "This lawless
violence needs to end" - "Good gosh she's an awful thing." Ditto, said
AOC, who called out the hypocrisy: "You don’t get to 'thoughts and prayers' your way out of this. Look inward and change." And change your grotesque Christmas cards - same to the other MAGA freaks -with your four spawn clutching AR-15s. Fred Guttenberg: "This is what grooming looks like."
When
Lauren Boebert starts using the term "grooming,'' press outlets need to
note in every story that her husband Jayson is a groomer who was
arrested for exposing himself to young females and who entered a plea of
guilty.
These are facts.
Her
lunatic assessment that drag queens, transgender persons or gay people
are grooming anyone need to be confronted because the only known groomer
in Colorado Springs is her husband Jayson Boebert. So if she wants to
talk about groomers, the media should help her out by pointing to
Jayson.
She lives with a groomer. That's why it's always on her mind.
And
when she lies that he's innocent, the press needs to note that he
entered a plea of guilty, that he was convicted and that he had to serve
two years probation. Again, these are facts.
She married a groomer.
Stop
letting her smear innocent people while she lies to cover up her
groomer husband and insists that his arrest never happened and he was
innocent and blah blah. Shove the truth down her hypocritical throat.
Alastair and Zachary Patton-Garcia broadcast on their YOUTUBE channel and cover a variety of topics.
At
the end of the video above, Alastair and Zachary touch on the Colorado
Springs attack. They make many solid points. Alastair notes that this
grooming nonsense is an attempt to other the community. And he is
correct and I want to make two points here.
Whether
you choose to recognize it or not, there is a war in this country
against the LGBTQ+ community. It is an ongoing war that's lasted
decades. In the 70s, the freak show was Anita Bryant. Lauren
apparently wants to be the 21st century Anita Bryant.
Not only is silence not an option in this war, inaction isn't an option either.
There
are members of the LGBTQ+ community who wanted to see BROS and didn't
go to the theater because they were frightened of what might happen.
They waited for digital (BLURAY in stores now). That's why straight
allies needed to step up.
Comedy isn't for
everyone. And no one has to see a movie. But if you had the money to
go to the movies when BROS was in theaters and you saw something else,
you weren't a good straight ally. If when Billy Eichner was getting
attacked, you didn't defend him, you weren't a good straight ally.
A
group of homophobes hated the film before it came out because of a
statement one character made in the trailer (and they didn't even get
her line right). Oh, it's making fun of straight people!!!!
If
it had, after the years and years of jokes and 'jokes' about the LGBTQ+
community, fine. Handle one movie and pretend that gives you an idea
of all the TV episodes and all the films over the years that the
community had to deal with.
But that's not the film Billy co-wrote.
The
film he co-wrote made fun of everyone. It made fun of straight people,
it made fun of gay people, it made fun of trans people, it made fun of
bi-people, it made fun of ageists and this and that and it made fun of
celebrity (Debra Messing deserves so much praise for her scenes in the
movie). There was no sacred cow.
And all the
people whining about ''woke'' -- many of whom trashed BROS -- missed the
whole point that Billy's character Bobby has to live with that, has to
work with that, and it's one of the things he learns (tolerance) and
it's something all the ones griping about ''woke'' should have been able
to relate to.
The film is pro- humanity. It's
not anti-straight. It is the straight couple, two of Bobby's friends,
who are most supportive and encouraging that he date and then get back
together with Aaron.
We've covered it here --
and I'll get to that point in a moment -- and Ava and I've covered it
repeatedly at THIRD -- most recently with "BROS: An American Film Classic (Ava and C.I.)" -- and it seems like people are being willfully blind to what took place.
We
let up a little last week on BROS coverage because other things came up
(and I'm also recovering from another eye surgery) but we've covered
since the beginning and that means see what people are saying.
The homophobia has been off the charts.
I'm
bothered by it and it's not directed at me. It's directed at Billy
mainly and I have no criticism of him over how he's handled himself. I
don't think I could have been as reserved as he was.
It's disgusting when you read these homophobic rants on Twitter.
It's
even more hurtful when you see a certain group of uneducated Twinks on
Twitter who feel the need to trash BROS in order to praise the very sad
and very bad rip-off of Jane Austen that is FIRE ISLAND. Underfed of
body and of mind, these Twinks keep insisting that FIRE ISLAND is better
because it's more diverse. I'm not remembering an African-American
character. I know there's only one women in the cast. I think some
people look in the mirror, see only themselves and make that their
measure of diversity.
Equally hurtful is the
attacks on the film and Billy coming from gay conservatives -- but when
you're let in on a pass, you know you have to attack the designated
targets.
ADDED:
Drive-by
e-mails say, "The shooter's gay!" I've not seen that in anything but
e-mails since the snapshot went up. What I saw before the snapshot went
up? The shooter allegedly uses non-binary pronouns. If the shooter
does use those -- are they used for real? I have no idea.
But
as I noted about the gay conservatives on Twitter attacking BROS above,
buy a clue, in a climate of hate others will tag along.
That's
what's so frustrating about Glenn Greenwald -- have you never seen my
critique of him? I know his type. I am not shocked but I am offended
frequently when he mouths garbage like Clarence Thomas is a good
person. No, he's not. Good people do not try to destroy others. Good
people don't harass Anita Hill.
Glenn
is the gay conservative who hit the campuses at a time when he could
slowly ease out about being gay and his right-wing friends would sort of
accept him. Sort of -- ask David Brock what sort of acceptance is.
That's why David turned to the left.
So
Glenn learned to make all the meek comments that he makes and learned
to take any insult or hit because it proves (in his mind) he's tough and
sneers at everything. That's b.s. And he needs to lose that attitude
because it's not helping his husband or their children. He feels no
need to help the LGBTQ+ community -- which is how he ends up on TV,
after DOBBS, blathering on about how good Clarry Thomas allegedly is.
Good people do not work to overturn progress. Good people are not bigots.
So
the shooter may be non-binary. May not be. Shooter lives in a society
where bullies -- Marjorie Greene who can't keep a husband, Lauren Bo-bo
who married a groomer -- scapegoat others. Shooter most likely
internalizes that hatred.
Like
the gay conservatives on Twitter who make a point to attack Billy
Eichner and BROS. They think it makes them look tough and that by
attacking the 'soft,' they (like Glenn thinks) will be accepted.
Ask David Brock how that worked out because it never works out.
You
can try your best but you're never going to be who they want. You can
parrot every one of their talking points but you can't change who you
are and they don't accept who you are.
Clarry's concurring opinion in DOBBS should have made that clear to everyone.
Clarry's
as disgusting as Candace Cameron Bure. They act like they accept you
-- Candace even lies that she loves you -- but they don't. All along
Thomas has been waiting to gut due process. All along Candace has been
waiting for a homophobic outlet to open up.
Saager and Krystal had a segment this week. And it grated on me when Saager was presenting it.
I don't think we let the homophobes grab religion.
There
are many religious people in this country. There are many who are
LGBTQ+ and that can be hard on them because of historic discrimination
and historic violence. I don't think we make it harder on them by
identifying these homophobes as the religious -- which is how Saagar set
it up -- the religious against the gays.
He
did that because he was tying in some other issues and I grasped that.
But it just grated on me because this isn't abstract for me. It's not
like I'm watching WILL & GRACE (a great show) and saying, "There are
some gay people, that's what they look like!" I have many friends and,
again, when it comes to religion, the most common gay couple I know is
one where one is deeply religious and the other isn't (like many
straight couples).
People like Clarry are not good people.
Glenn
can pretend all he wants but he's never going to fit in with the crowd
because at the end of the day they are laughing about what he does in
bed behind his back.
Again,
The Three Hags of Apocalypse were happy to pretend to be David's friend
but they weren't. I have many negative critiques of David Brock but,
to his credit, he didn't play a fool for life, he was able to learn.
Whatever Shooter is, the targets were marked by the bullies and the shooter played along with what was declared acceptable.
The right attacked BROS and ran with the attack.
Before
the film came out, I stated it was not going to make the box office
prediction and I explained why -- it wasn't playing enough. Opening
weekend, some theaters were only showing it once or twice a day. It was
the same length as SMILE but, around the country, you had SMILE being
shown in a theater six times a day and BROS twice. It was never going
to be able to make the same amount of money.
And
when it didn't make that same amount of money, the right wing started
using it as proof that the country was sick of LGBTQ+.
That's part of the attack that took place, the physical attack in Colorado Springs.
That
idiot Josiah and others on YOUTUBE and their preaching that BROS had
gone too far and that it was time for the straight people to rise up.
I'm sorry, I'm not here to make you feel better.
These attacks on the film are part of larger attacks and that's why it was important for straight allies to turn out for BROS.
We largely didn't.
And Billy was right in his initial comment that was treated like a herasy.
We
need to support one another. As I've noted over and over, the LGBTQ+
community has decried the overturning of ROE, they have spoken against
it, they have shown support.
We need to start
showing more support for them. It can't just be our wiping away a few
tears at the next tragedy. We need to be true allies.
Second
point, this a private conversation in a public square. We already
built this online community. So it's surprising when outsiders think
they can dictate or intimate.
A number of
drive-bys have been bothered by the coverage of BROS here. One of the
e-mails that made Shirley laugh (Martha and Shirley read the bulk of the
e-mails to the public e-mail account) was the one that insisted we'd
gone "gay, gay, gay!" A three-gay rating in fact. And the e-mailer
wanted it known that there were other issues.
There
are other issues. And there are over 100 posts that go up here each
week. If all you're seeing is gay that might go to your own bias and
discomfort.
This site is pro-choice. And we
came into it that way and shortly after we started the Democratic Party
tried to sell about abortion -- and we got attacked by various bloggers
for not going along -- bloggers supposedly on the left.
That didn't make me change our stance.
Your discomfort with the LGBTQ+ won't make me change our stance.
I do get it though.
As I see what REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT and BREAKING POINTS and THE HILL and Jimmy Dore and others cover, I get it.
You
could watch six months of those programs and never once know a gay
person existed in the US. I get it. It must, by contrast, be very in
your face to come to this site. Good. That's why we're still here.
We posted Matteo Lane's new comedy special yesterday but I also want to include it in a snapshot.
We
can't go back in time. But if you like comedy, you can stream the
above comedy special Matteo's done and you can show some support and
it's not even going to cost you the way a ticket would. We need to be
better allies.
Abbas Hashem fixed
his worried gaze on the horizon — the day was almost gone and still,
there was no sign of the last of his water buffaloes. He knows that when
his animals don’t come back from roaming the marshes of this part of
Iraq, they must be dead.
The
dry earth is cracked beneath his feet and thick layers of salt coat
shriveled reeds in the Chibayish wetlands amid this year’s dire
shortages in fresh water flows from the Tigris River.
Hashem
already lost five buffaloes from his herd of 20 since May, weakened
with hunger and poisoned by the salty water seeping into the low-lying
marshes. Other buffalo herders in the area say their animals have died
too, or produce milk that’s unfit to sell.
“This place used to be full of life,” he said. “Now it’s a desert, a graveyard.”
Iraq is battling several years of drought, the governments of both Iran
and Turkey are blocking the flow of the two big rivers running through
Iraq (the Tigris and the Eurphates), everyone is expected to be effected
by climate change; however, Iraq has been named the fifth most
vulnerable country in the world. Dust storms are increasing in
frequency and in force. Speaking to the United Nations at the start of October, the
US Deputy Rep to the UN, Ambassador Richard Mills, noted that climate
change was one of the challenges Iraq is facing, "Complicated challenges
face the next government – including passing a
budget, developing oil and gas legislation that is acceptable to the
Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government, improving the
provision of electricity, combatting climate change, promoting private
sector development and job growth, and increasing women’s participation
in the workforce." Last month, the International Organization for Migration pointed out, "Displaced families are likely to be among the most vulnerable to
climatic and environmental changes that can impact livelihoods, food
security and social cohesion. Sustainable return and rein-tegration can
be determined by many factors but the role of climatic change and
environmental degradation in return dynamics is insufficiently
understood."
Iraq
must take quick action to combat climate change as its affects would
make it one of the most water scarce countries in the world, the UK’s
ambassador to the country told The National.
Iraq
is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate breakdown, impacted by
high temperatures, droughts and frequent dust storms, presenting a
serious threat to the public’s livelihood, according to the UN.
“There
are a range of challenges for Iraq, reduced rainfall, desertification
and increased droughts. There’s a wider list of things that needs to
happen for Iraq to curb climate change,” Mark Bryson-Richardson told The National.
He
said the new government in Baghdad must focus on water management as a
“real priority” to improve its usage and prepare for and manage
droughts.
“It’s
going to be a challenging journey, Iraq will be one of the most water
scarce countries in the world in the coming years,” Mr Richardson said
during a visit to the UAE this week,
The diplomat’s comments come as world leaders gather for the UN climate summit in Egypt this week.
You really don't watch TV much? Brady e-mailed that.
Not really. There was a period of time, right before COVID, when I was
TV every Sunday night, GET TV. They were airing THE SONNY & CHER
SHOW and CHER. I'd watch those because I do like the variety format.
If I wake up in the middle of the night, I may turn it on and look for
some show from long ago -- some 70s procedural or THE MOD SQUAD. About
the most recent for me is WILL & GRACE. I'll put that on and watch a
little bit of it.
I have
some streams but usually don't watch them unless someone tells me
there's something good on there. I probably watch NETFLIX the most (I
need to cancel APPLE+, I never watch it) and that's for their stand up.
I watched Fortune Feimster's latest NETFLIX special, for instance.
That was very, very funny. I really liked her first NETFLIX special as
well. The Hooters after church on Sunday, the Girl Scouts and her
yelling at Timmy to go away, her college experience with lotion. I'm
laughing as I type all that. I've only watched the new one twice so I'm
not up on it like I will be in a couple of months. (If you read this
site regularly, you know I'm lazy and you know my memory's not always
that strong. And I cop to both.)
Fortune's
probably my favorite female comedian right now. I used to love, love
Whitney Cummings. I stopped, stopped when she was doing some plugs for
some products and telling guys that they needed to use them because
their balls stink. Really? One of the things about second wave
feminism was taking on those products for down there and the shame that
they tried to instill in women. Now Whitney's going to do the same to
men?
Not interested. Hard pass.
I'll
also watch musical specials. I've watched, on NETFLIX, Taylor Swift's
various specials (I think she has two) and Barbra Streisand's concert
for NETFLIX. I've watched the Barbra TV specials from the 60s as well
when NETFLIX was briefly streaming those.
They don't do a lot of music.
And maybe that's why they don't have real variety shows.
I
THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE WITH TIM ROBINSON is a sketch comedy show and
it's funny. But they could have expanded it and made it a variety show
-- brought on musical guests, for example.
Tuesday, November 22, 2022. More details about the attack on the
Colorado Springs night club, the Kurdistan continues to be targeted by
bombings and drones, and much more.
A mass shooting that killed at least five people and injured at least
18 late Saturday at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado
will be investigated as a hate crime, a local district attorney told
reporters Sunday.
"This will be investigated and is being
investigated in that lens," Michael Allen, the district attorney for
Colorado's 4th Judicial District, said,
adding that authorities will consider a number of factors before
charging the suspect with a hate crime. Police have not yet described a
motive for the shooting.
The FBI is assisting in investigating the shooting.
A shooter, who was identified
as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, reportedly entered Club Q shortly
before midnight wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15 style assault
rifle. Police said a "long rifle" was used in the shooting and at least two firearms were found at the scene.
On Sunday morning at least two injured victims were in critical condition.
Police said the suspect was subdued by at least two patrons at the club, who stopped him from shooting more people.
The two who stopped the shooter were Thomas James and Rich Fierro.
As Diana Ross says, so much better if the world just danced.
Instead, hate.
REUTERS notes, "Fierro’s wife Jess Fierro said Monday that her husband, a decorated U.S.
Army Afghanistan and Iraq veteran and microbrewery owner, hit the
shooter with the suspect’s pistol before he and the other man pinned
down the gunman after five people were killed and 17 wounded." Cheynne R. Ubiera (THE SUN) reports:
The nightclub's owners said "dozens and dozens of lives" had been saved by their [Thomas James and Rich Fierro] actions.
"We owe them a great debt of thanks," added Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez.
One of the victims in the shooting was Raymond Green Vance, boyfriend of Fierro’s daughter Kassy.
“Boyfriend is an understatement,” she wrote in a heartbreaking Facebook post, along with a photo of her and Raymond.
"You are my forever. My future. My everything. I love you."
Kassy injured her knee after slipping and falling while trying to run away.
"My dad has always been a hero," she wrote in a separate post.
Meanwhile, the US State Dept notes that it is Iran and Turkey bombing northern Iraq.
Press Statement
Ned Price, Department Spokesperson
November 21, 2022
The United States expresses its sincere condolences for the
loss of civilian life in Syria and Turkey. We urge de-escalation in
Syria to protect civilian life and support the common goal of defeating
ISIS. We continue to oppose any uncoordinated military action in Iraq
that violates Iraq’s sovereignty.
If only the US media could also grasp this reality. Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) notes, "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that Turkey's
latest aerial campaign targeting Kurdish fighters in the Kurdistan
Region and northern Syria is not limited to an aerial operation, hinting
that a ground operation will follow."
The president of the Kurdistan Region on Tuesday met with the Iraqi
prime minister in Baghdad, during which both sides emphasized the
importance of cooperation in facing repeated violations on Iraq’s
sovereignty.
According to a joint statement from Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s
and President Nechirvan Barzani, one of the topics of the meeting
focused on discussing security on the Iraqi border areas.
“They emphasized cooperation to protect Iraq's sovereignty, reject
repeated violations, and work to prevent using Iraqi territory as a
platform for attacking any neighboring country,” the statement read.
The meeting comes as the Kurdistan Region’s borders have become an arena
of instability with Turkish bombardment in the north and Iranian drone
and missile attacks coming from the east.
Turkey launched an aerial operation, code-named Claw-Sword, early
Sunday, targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan
Region’s mountainous areas, mostly Sulaimani province, and the People’s
Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. One day later, Iran attacked
Iranian-Kurdish armed groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
(KDPI) and Komala, in the Region’s Erbil and Sulaimani provinces with
missiles and drones. Both campaigns have claimed the lives of several
people, including civilians.
The Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that it
“categorically rejects and strongly condemns the Iranian bombardment of
the Kurdistan region of Iraq with drones and missiles.”
“The repeated attacks carried out by the Iranian and Turkish forces with
missiles and drones on the Kurdistan region are a violation of the
sovereignty of Iraq, and an act that contravenes international covenants
and laws that regulate relations between countries,” it added.
Closing with BROS.
Many love the movie BROS and today it's out on DVD and BLU-RAY.
Please read Elaine's "TANGO IN THE NIGHT is a hideous album" -- I loved it and I wish I'd written it. TANGO IN THE NIGHT is a hideous Fleetwood Mac album. I'd rank it as the worst since Stevie Nicks joined the band. And I think Elaine makes a strong, strong case.
Chase Rice is releasing a new album in 2023. Wish it was already out. But let me note this:
Monday, November 21, 2022. Joe Biden turns 80 -- but still makes time to persecute Julian Assange.
Joe
Biden turned eighty yesterday. He's feeble, weak-minded and easily
confused. There should be no attempt at a second term as president. At SLATE, Christina Cauterucci argues:
When
Kamala Harris launched her bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 2019, she was considered one of the party’s brightest
rising stars. An early frontrunner, she was a young, highly
accomplished, relatively charismatic Black woman in a party built on
Black women’s support. She had built name recognition by devouring conservatives in viral moments at Senate hearings. Her actual politics were hard to pin down (a former prosecutor running on criminal justice reform?), but that might have worked in her favor if she’d run a strong campaign down the middle.
Instead, Harris’s presidential campaign will be remembered as one of the worst of that election cycle. Internally, it was a disastrously mismanaged mess. Externally, it offered a series of mixed messages,
short-lived slogans, and attempts to backpedal along the ideological
spectrum. Her dazzling presence in planned speeches and gotcha moments
flickered out when she was forced to think—and relay a coherent policy
position—on her feet. It was a spectacular letdown that contained a
lesson about electoral politics: candidates who looks promising on paper
can easily flounder under pressure.
As Joe Biden weighs a run for re-election
even as he becomes the first octogenarian U.S. president in history, he
should think back on what it was like to watch the Harris campaign
flame out. A second Biden term would mean even higher stakes
for a vice-presidential pick—not only because Biden is older than he was
the first time around, but because the VP serving when he leaves could
be the de facto frontrunner in the 2024 Democratic primary. Harris, a
proven dud of a presidential candidate who has done little to
distinguish herself since, is not a good choice for the Democrats’ top
billing. For his second term, should he seek one (he shouldn’t!), Biden should tap someone else.
Yeah, because Kamala is the problem with a second term of Biden.
What if he dies in office? The world's better off, that's what.
Much
scarier is an 83-year-old idiot in office with no clue what's going on
around him. Joe's dementia is already evident and it's only going to
get worse. Stop defocusing and pretending Kamala's the problem when the
real issue is a man who can't understand his surroundings but is
allowed to have the nuclear codes.
IF
JOE BIDEN and the Democrats dither for two years deciding, while the
selection process winds down, whether an 80-year-old man should be
president when he is 86 -- that is a profound disservice to the nation,
in good times or bad. That's without analyzing whether he would win.
While
Joe celebrated, or thought he did, he continued to persecute Julian
Assange. Julian Assange remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden
and a
host of people who should be supporting him stay silent or heap scorn on
him. 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 death.
As most international legal luminaries had predicted, the British
government succumbed to pressure from the US and is fast-tracking the
process of deporting Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to that
country to face trial on the serious charges of espionage. British Home
Secretary Priti Patel, notorious for her tough stance on immigration,
gave the green light for his deportation.
The Supreme Court of
the UK ruled in February that Assange could not appeal the decision of
lower courts in his extradition case. In April, a magistrates’ court
ordered Assange’s extradition under laws relating to the US’ Espionage
Act.
Under British laws, Assange had a month’s time to appeal to
the Home Secretary against the Supreme Court’s ruling.. In a statement
in mid June rejecting the appeal, the British Home Office claimed that
the UK could comply with the US government’s long-standing extradition
demand because “the UK courts” have come to the conclusion that it would
not be “oppressive, unjust or an abuse of power to extradite Mr
Assange”. It went on to say that the courts did not find that
extradition “would be incompatible with his human rights, including his
right to a fair trial and to the freedom of expression, and that whilst
in the US he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his
health”.
In early July, Assange exercised one of his last options to stay his
extradition by applying to the High Court for permission to appeal
against the decisions of the lower courts and the Home Secretary.
Assange’s legal team argued that the leaked documents exposed US war
crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and were in the public interest. The
documents showed that the US occupation forces in Afghanistan had killed
innocent civilians, numbering in the tens of thousands. This fact was
previously unknown to the general public in the US and the wider world.
The leaked files on Iraq revealed that 66,000 civilians were killed and
thousands more tortured under US supervision in notorious prisons such
as Abu Ghraib.
The
WikiLeaks files also threw light on the torture practices in the US’
Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. WikiLeaks released the
“collateral murder” video that showed a US Apache helicopter targeting
civilians in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 2007. At least 18 innocent
civilians were killed in that attack, which the Pentagon had kept under
wraps. The war crimes recorded in that video alone were clear violations
of the Geneva Conventions and the US Law of War Manual.
According to sources who spoke with The Mail
on Sunday, a WikiLeaks delegation will speak with Colombian President
Gustavo Petro tomorrow morning in Bogotá about press freedom and the
"political nature" of Assange's prosecution.
Following their meeting with Petro, the
activists—which include WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and
Assange's Chief of Staff Joseph Farrell—are scheduled to meet with six
other regional heads of state.
They hope that by gaining support for
Assange and appealing to the Hispanic and Latino community in the US,
their tour of South America will have an impact on the White House.
In other news, under Iraq's previous prime minister, $2.5 billion was
stolen. It's one of the reasons that Iraq has one of the most corrupt
governments in the world. Simona Foltyn (GUARDIAN) explains:
Iraqis have called it “the heist of the century” –
a brazen multibillion-dollar plundering of state coffers that has
gripped the country.
The theft of $2.5bn was
apparently facilitated by some of the highest offices in the land,
according to sources and a series of government letters issued in the
summer of 2021. The documents, signed by various government institutions
including the then prime minister’s office, cancelled the audit of
withdrawals from the Iraqi tax commission’s accounts.
The letters did not attract attention at the time. Iraq had been rocked by two years of turmoil and was heading for early elections.
Parliament had been adjourned. The media and international community
had their eyes set on the October 2021 ballot, which came on the back of
mass protests demanding the toppling of a corrupt ruling elite.
But behind the scenes, the stage was set for the
embezzlement of tax revenues in what has emerged as the biggest
corruption scandal under the then prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s
western-backed government – remarkable even for a country that ranks
towards the bottom of Transparency International’s corruption index.
The
$2.5bn in tax moneys was withdrawn by shell companies with almost no
paper trail with the help of corrupt officials, according to an internal
investigation’s 41-page report seen by the Guardian, and laundered
through real estate purchases in Baghdad’s most affluent neighbourhood,
according to multiple sources.
The scheme was
allegedly masterminded by a well-connected businessman and executed by
employees in the tax commission, who enjoyed the support of an
Iran-aligned political faction called Badr, the Guardian has found.
CENTRAL BANKING adds,
"An internal investigation by the finance ministry earlier this year
found some of the minitry's own officials had helped embezzle around
$2.5 billion. If ound that officials had written cheques worth 3.7
trillion Iraqi dinars (around $2.5 billion) to five companies."
As of this writing, at least five people are dead and 25 more are
injured following the latest mass shooting in the United States, which
occurred late Saturday evening.
The shooting took place at the Q Club, the longest operating and largest gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In a press conference Sunday, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian
Vasquez said that emergency services began receiving multiple calls
concerning a shooting at the club at 11:56 p.m. and that police were on
the scene by midnight.
Vasquez acknowledged that police did little
to stop the rampage, noting that by the time police arrived, two people
inside the club had already subdued the gunman.
“We owe them a great debt of thanks,” Vasquez said Sunday morning.
Police
have identified the suspected shooter as 22-year-old Anderson Lee
Aldrich, a local resident. This author was unable to locate any social
media profiles linked to Aldrich. However, this is not the first time
Aldrich has had significant police contact and there is no question
police knew of Aldrich before Saturday’s incident.
In June 2021,
Aldrich was arrested on multiple and serious charges after his mother
called the police and, according to a statement from the El Paso County,
Colorado, Sheriff’s Office, warned that “her son was threatening to
cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and
ammunition.”
[. . .]
Colorado Springs is politically dominated by the Republican Party,
which has increasingly made anti-gay agitation a part of its right-wing
propaganda, creating an atmosphere conducive to such acts of homicidal
violence.
So far this year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has
documented “more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills” introduced in 23 states by
Republicans, aimed at limiting the rights of transgender persons. This
includes Florida’s “Don’t say gay” bill, enacted earlier this year.
Deadly
attacks against LGBTQ persons have continued throughout 2022. Last
Wednesday, HRC reported that at least 32 transgender people had been
murdered in the US thus far in 2022, compared to 57 last year. HRC notes
that the figures are likely a vast undercount, given that many trans
persons are misgendered following their death.