Tuesday, November 19, 2024

A few film thoughts

I like this news:


Renny Harlin was once the heir apparent to the coke-soaked '80s action empire built by John McTiernan, Joel Silver, and Shane Black. So the news of the Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2 director returning to high-octane cinema with The Beast is exciting for action fans who grew up with his follow-the-fun approach to filmmaking.

The Beast also reunites Harlin with Samuel L. Jackson, who he directed in the proto-shark-sploitation film Deep Blue Sea and the truly GOATed Christmas movie The Long Kiss Goodnight. The film's roster also includes Suicide Squad standout Joel Kinnaman and Guy Burnet of Oppenheimer. 



So-so on McTiernan and Silver but I love Shane Black.  I love him as a writer but also as a director (THE NICE GUYS is a brilliant movie) so I wish he were directing.  But it's great that Renny Harlin and Samuel L. Jackson are also attached to this.  And Joel Kinnaman is a hugely underrated actor.  He was so great in THE KILLING

I wish they'd work Craig Bierko into the cast.  Could you imagine that?  Samuel L. with Craig and Joel?  Craig's the villain in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.  That's a film that's great until the last five minutes.

In the 90s, a strong woman had to faint at the end basically so a man could rescue her.  That's what happens to Geena Davis here as her husband -- who's just a teacher -- suddenly is a spy on her level.  Or take THE RIVER WILD where Meryl Streep's ridiculous husband becomes her equal -- I remember people laughing at that nonsense and shouting at the screen things like, "Oh, look who's MacGyver all the sudden!"  It really was sad and it harmed those films.  Geena Davis is amazing in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT until this assassin and spy has to be on the same level as a school teacher.  

I hate films that have strong women as a main character and then, after the film's climax, they tack on some embarrassing garbage like that.  It's like the comedy WOMAN OF THE YEAR where Katharine Hepburn's character Tess is so good at her job that they have to end it by 'cutting her down to size' and she can't even manage to cook breakfast.  Or in that awful BODY OF EVIDENCE when Dafoe comes after Madonna to make up for the fact that she was in charge in the earlier sex scene.

They didn't pull that garbage with THE LAST SEDUCTION and that's why that film remains a classic.


Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, November 18, 2024.  The exodus from Twitter continues, the silence on Black women also continues, Hegseth is not qualified for the role of Secretary of Defense, and much more.



You ready to get off Elon Musk's plantation?




. Elon Musk was born and grew up in South Africa and he loved it.  Until apartheid began to crumble.  The thought of Black people having the same rights as he did caused him to flee South Africa.  The racism is ingrained in him and that's the only 'free speech' that he ever tolerates.

THE GUARDIAN, The Free Press, Gabrielle Union, Jamie Lee Curtis and so many others are doing the right thing and leaving the racist's social media.  He's lost money on Twitter but that doesn't matter to him because he has influence as long as he owns it -- if it remains popular.  If we leave it, it's over.  It's nothing but a nest of racists, sexists and homophobes and then it has no cachet and popularity.  

Over on Blue Sky . . .












"I-I-I-I-I-I Ain't Gonna Tweet on TWITTER (Ava and C.I.)" -- let's all say goodbye to X and to Twitter and to racists who actively work to destroy our lives.



Let me note one more to join Bluesky.



I called Alyssa out two weeks ago for not being on BlueSky.  Now the reason most give me is that they're afraid they'll lose their following.  Most of the people refusing to budge -- racist Katrina vanden Heuvel of THE NATION, for example, don't have a following.  Alyssa built up her TWITTER following and has huge numbers.  Knowing Alyssa,  I doubt she's stopped Tweeting but at least she's also gone to BLUESKY.  And I will say thank you and I will applaud.  

Or I will applaud those of you going to BlueSky.  

If, on the left, we can't even do that -- and do it to oppose racism, sexism and homophobia -- it says a great deal about our lack of priorities.  

Run X into the ground and Elon Musk is just another ugly man with ass hair implanted on his scalps and jowls.  


Now let's note this from Reshonda Tate on THE DEFENDER NETWORK.
 



Community member Keesha weighed in on that video above noting that this is the big story of the post-election period "but no Democracy Now segment, nothing on The Majority Report or at The Progressive or In These Times or The Nation.  The same outlets that ignored us in the lead up to the election are ignoring Black women after the election.  I guess they couldn't do all their lying if they had to listen to Black women.  So they just ignore us instead.  I'm registering and I doubt I'm the only one who is."

It is very hard to ignore the silencing that's taking place.

An e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) is from a woman asking how long she should sit it out?  You'll know when -- and if -- you're ready to take part again.  Some will need longer to take care of themselves and to heal.  Some will never come back (and I don't blame you if that's what you need to do).  

This is a very important time and you need to take care of you because the 'left' has demonstrated that they won't -- not just before the election but also, as Keesha points out, after as well.

Don't let them steal your joy -- we've all heard it.

But damned if they didn't try, right?

Kamala was the first Black woman to run for the presidency on a major ticket.  And to even be joyful about that brought attacks from others.  Brought nonsense about Gaza.  

Most political nominees aren't tasked with solving the world's problems before they're even elected president.  Not so with Kamala.  She had to solve everything and please everyone and do so before she was in the Oval Office.

Yeah, let's pretend like she was being judged by the same standard.  That's what so many on the left who helped derail her campaign want us to believe. 

We're not that stupid.

We grasp that every column attacking her, every segment attacking her, every speech attacking her was devaluing her -- intentionally devaluing her.  

And they try to act like she's the failure.

My state's still got 6% of the vote to count but per the official results nationwide right now, Kamala got 48.3% to Trump's 50%.  

That's a less than 2% difference.  For a candidate who had to hit the ground running in August.

But don't the White men like Seth Prissy Moulton want to attack.  Hey, Seth, unlike you, she had a general election opponent.  You didn't.  So you should have gotten 100% of the vote -- running uncontested.  But you didn't, did you?

So maybe you're the last White windbag that needs to be speaking right now and maybe people need to grasp that when you speak -- running unopposed, he couldn't even get 100% of the vote this time. 


Let's note Satanic Trump's unqualified nominees.  Pete Hegseth is not qualified to be the secretary of any department.  You didn't have to go left to find a qualified candidate.  There are people serving in leadership of the military that could have been elevated.  There are people in the Senate who are Republicans who would be qualified -- Joni Ernst, Mike Rounds, Roger Wicker, Bill Cassidy, etc. 

They have the knowledge base.  Hegseth doesn't have the knowledge base or the experience.  What he does have is a sad and drunken assault.  It was seven years ago.  It is not the distant past.  He was 37 years old.  David Kurtz (TPM) notes:


More details emerged over the weekend about the sexual assault claim against Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of defense.

The WaPo was first with extensive new information about the circumstance of the alleged sexual assault, based on (i) a memo it obtained that was provided to the Trump transition team late Wednesday by a friend of the victim; and (ii) a statement from Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore.

The woman later reported the alleged assault to police, but no charges were ever filed:

According to the police statement, the complaint was filed four days after the encounter, and the complainant had bruises to her thigh. The police report itself was not released.

Hegseth settled the woman’s claim for an undisclosed amount, and she signed a nondisclosure agreement.

Trump is standing by Hegseth in the face of the undisclosed settlement of the sexual assault claim.


That's reason enough not to confirm him.

But he's also not qualified for the job.


He shouldn't be confirmed.  He shouldn't even be nominated.  He's not fit to oversee the Pentagon -- he does not have the background.  If the nomination was to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs, I'd have a few problems -- mainly around the issues of female veterans.  And I would also question his ability to oversee any department because he just doesn't have that experience -- not in his military service and not in his civilian experience.


This is a huge department that is taxed with many, many duties including ensuring the US military is prepared.


What in Hegseth's past experience argues that he knows a thing about hiring or recruiting, for example?


The last Senate hearing on military readiness was eleven months ago. 

At that hearing, US Army Maj Gen Johnny Davis spoke on a number of topics including the statements below:


Today's youth are far more likely to pursue education beyond high school. Currently,
high school seniors and recent graduates account for more than 50% of our annual
contracts. However, they only represent 15-20% of the labor market. We will transform
our prospecting to expand into a greater representation of the labor market and enter
the larger prospect pool. In addition to the high school market, we will target those with
more than a high school diploma, this includes a college degree, some college, or a
technical certification. By FY 2028, it is our goal for one third of new recruits to have
more than a high school diploma.  We are growing our analytical capability to incentivize and position our recruiting force, tailor marketing based on segmentation, and place our recruiters in the right place with  the right training, products, and tools. Our quarterly Industry Engagement Program allows us to identify new tools to improve operations across the enterprise.
As we transform how the Army prospects for talent, we will continue to innovate and
leverage data analytics, artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) to quickly
identify the right talent and provide tailored messaging to potential talent. We are
expanding our presence on both social media and digital job boards to communicate the
Army's Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Expanding our market is critical to
accomplishing the mission today and in the future.



What does Hegseth know about hiring practices, recruitment and retention?  Nothing.  Can he address, off the top of his head, the issue of evidence-based learning capability?  Does he know what a command wide retention surge is?  If so, does he approve or does he think it's a waste of time.  Each of the four branches needs to be adequately staffed (the Air Force didn't make the goal in 2023).  How does Hegseth plan to address this.  Does he have an overall plan or is he going to propose piece meal strategies?


He wants this office why?  How does he see himself delivering in this office?  

Where does he stand on waivers?

Due to his plethora of body markings, I'd assume he is okay with tattoos.  But what about age restrictions -- what his top end for someone serving in combat?  On drug tests, what's his wait window on retesting -- 60 days, 90 days, less, more?  And why?  Drug testing does include testing for alcohol.  

ESaR has been a semi-successful recruiting tool for the Navy (Every Sailor a Recruiter).  Is that a policy Hegseth agrees with?  Why or why not?

The Navy's "Make Your Name" series has been successful in recruiting -- noting women's roles and experiences serving in the Navy.  It's a fairly inexpensive recruiting tool and it has been successful.  Does he endorse this recruiting tool?  If not, why not?  If not, is it because he has a limited view of what women can do in the military?

Grasp that -- without him -- women have been moving up in the ranks in the military.  Are these women going to hit a glass ceiling if he becomes the Secretary?  How is he planning to address these issues?  How is going to maintain the US military's competitive edge?


Guess what, those are very basic questions about basic duties and that's before we get beyond workforce issues.  I see nothing in his background that demonstrates experience with those type of issues.  

Again, we still haven't gotten to other issues that include oversight, combat, military exercises and partnering with the VA to improve the transition from veteran to soldier.  On that last one?  I don't think he has expertise but I think his experience -- personal -- could compensate for the lack of expertise.  I do not feel that way about any other responsibility that he would be tasked with should he become the Secretary of Defense. 

The US Army is supposed to be refocusing with an emphasis on LSCO (Large-Scale Combat Operations).  That is one of the defined 2025 goals.  Hegseth will pursue that how?


These are not minor details.  And you can't learn it on the job, not as Secretary of Defense.  That means being over the defense of this country so Americans are entitled to expect someone in that role to have actual experience.

Hegseth has none.

Again, this isn't a right-or-left issue.  There are Republicans who are qualified for this post.  Hegseth is not one of them.  Any sitting senator on the Armed Services Committee is qualified for the post.  

They would know the issues needing to be addressed before they were even sworn into office.

Hegseth doesn't know the issues, he's never overseen any workforce -- let alone a workforce as large as the Defense Dept -- and he would put military readiness at risk as the whole world had to wait for him to learn on the job and familiarize himself with tasks and concepts that he's honestly not suited for.




The following sites updated:






Posted by at

Monday, November 18, 2024

A country of hate

A country that could elect a hate monger like Donald Trump is a country with a lot of hate, racism, sexism and homophobia in it.  Kim Bellware (WASHINGTON POST) reports:


More than a week after racist text messages threatening Black people with enslavement were sent by anonymous numbers to recipients across the country, similar threats have been sent to people in Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, according to the FBI.

“Some recipients reported being told they were selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp,” the agency said in a statement Friday, adding that some threats were sent by email as well.

The latest round of hate messages follows a spate of texts sent to Black people, many of them teens and young adults, after the Nov. 5 election. Some of the messages that targeted Black students at universities claimed they were sent by a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump or from “the Trump administration,” according to screenshots shared on social media and local news.

A Trump campaign spokesperson previously stated the campaign had “absolutely nothing to do” with the post-Election Day messages.

The messages targeting Latino people seemed similarly skewed toward young adults and college students, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights organization. Proaño told The Washington Post that many of the text messages flagged to LULAC were sent to students in California and may have been targeting people enrolled in the University of California system.

“Our expectation is that we’re going to see more of this as we get closer to Jan. 20,” Proaño said, referring to the date of Trump’s inauguration.

The FBI did not immediately clarify when the latest round of messages began to appear or how recipients were identified, but their emergence comes as some Latino and LGBTQ+ groups express growing fears over their rights and safety in a second Trump term. Trump and his allies leaned into anti-trans rhetoric for the closing message of his campaign, while Trump has for years disparaged Latino immigrants as part of his core message about “saving” America.



Columbus residents are working to mobilize local leaders after a group of neo-Nazis reportedly marched in the Short North over the weekend trying to spread a message of hate.

A number of concerned residents dialed 911 around 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon to report the group, according to Columbus, Ohio public safety dispatchers. About ten individuals were seen sporting black pants, shirts and head coverings with red masks over their mouths while marching down North High Street.


Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Monday, November 18, 2024.  While Free Press, THE GUARDIAN, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danielle Moodie and others leave the vile TWITTER, notice the racists unable to take a similar brave stand.


The lesson?  They'll always make room for a White man.  Talking about the left.  Talking about the nonsense Brett Wilkins wrote for COMMON DREAMS about how  "progressives" are "rip"ing apart US President Joe Biden.


But you read on and "progressives" becomes one person on TWITTER and that one person is conspiracy nut and antix-vaxer Lee Camp


Journalism standards are out the window before we even get to the Camps of Hell and Brimstone whose biggest 'action' was taking place and signing off on the faux nonsense Rage Against the War Machine and Jacob Crosse (WSWS) noted of that racist action:


On February 19, in Washington D.C., the Libertarian Party and “People’s Party,” along with disoriented middle class elements and outright fascistic individuals, organized what was marketed as the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally.

The event, billed by organizers Angela McArdle of the Libertarian Party and Nick Brana of the People’s Party as an attempt to bring the “left and right” together in opposition to the war in Ukraine was, the World Socialist Web Site noted, a “reactionary political freak show.”

The World Socialist Web Site will be further analyzing the main organizers and speakers at the event, confirming its thoroughly reactionary character. This article focuses on the Libertarian Party and its overt orientation to the fascistic right.

The central political perspective behind the rally was provided by the Libertarian Party, which was listed as the main organizer—above the People’s Party on the official “Rage” website.

Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle moderated the “Rage” rally along with Brana. Of the 19 speakers, three were or are currently members of the Libertarian Party: Ron Paul, Scott Horton and Daniel McAdams.

Commenting on the leading role of the Libertarian Party in organizing the event, Max Blumenthal of the Grayzone, in a February 16 podcast promoting the rally with fellow speaker Scott Horton, noted that the event was “substantially planned by the Libertarian Party.”

Besides providing the political perspective, the Libertarians also financed much of the rally. The Mises Caucus donated at least $1,000 to be one of five “Silver Sponsors” for the rally.

While Libertarians have always advanced a far-right hyper-capitalist economic program, following the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and a further shift to the right by the American ruling class as a whole, members of the party, chiefly represented in the Mises Caucus, have made a marked turn toward fascist militias and anti-Semitic forces.

The Mises Caucus is the largest faction within the Libertarian Party and took control of the national apparatus in 2022 following the national convention in Reno, Nevada. McArdle was the California organizer for the caucus and a former board member.

As part of her campaign to seize the chair of the party last year, McArdle, with the backing of the caucus, spearheaded efforts to overturn limited vaccine mandates in Los Angeles County.

After earning the support of the anti-vaccine contingent of the party, McArdle shored up her candidacy when she refused to condemn vicious anti-Semite Bryan Sharpe, also known as “Hotep Jesus,” at the Libertarian Party’s Alabama State Convention in March 2021.

Sharpe had previously been invited to the Conservative Political Action Conference and been interviewed positively on Fox News.

On his blog, Sharpe previously praised the far right for not being “afraid to call out the Jews.” He also defended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, writing that the “Blacks are so removed from reality... this is not a demonstration against blacks. This is a dispute between right and left—Liberal versus Conservative. Maybe even White vs. Jew.”

At the 2021 Alabama convention, a Libertarian Party member asked McArdle how she could have invited Sharpe to the national convention given his history of “anti-Semitic views.”

McArdle responded, “I reject the premise of your question. I don’t actually think that someone who’s trying to be a truth-seeker and understand what’s going on—and asked the question about whether or not Jews run Hollywood is an anti-Semite.” (Emphasis added)

The Mises Caucus, the Mises Institute and Jeff Deist

An early indication of this shift to fascistic politics within the Libertarian Party was expressed in the takeover of the party by the Mises Caucus.

The Mises Caucus, named after the Mises Institute, which is currently led by Jeff Deist, was founded by Michael Heise on August 20, 2017. Several leading Libertarian Party members, including current chair McArdle, have been board members of the Mises Caucus, and many are “trained” by the Institute, located in Auburn, Alabama.

The Ludwig von Mises Institute, named after the reactionary Austrian economist, was founded by Llewellyn Rockwell Jr. in 1982, with financial backing from Ron Paul. A 2000 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) categorized the Mises Institute as “Neo-Confederate.”

In a January 11, 2023 interview on Reason.com, Heise pointed to the “Rage” rally as an example of the new type of “outreach” the Libertarian Party was undertaking under the leadership of the Mises Caucus in an attempt to grow the party.

Heise explained that the “anti-war rally” would be an example of the “first harvest” reaped of the new “fruits” cultivated under the far-right Mises Caucus leadership.

Jeff Deist, the president of the Mises Institute, is close to both Heise and McArdle, appearing on podcasts and right-wing events with both of them.

Deist has been at the Mises Institute since at least 2014. Before he was the president of the Institute, Deist, as he explained in a recent interview with fascist Patrick Casey, a co-organizer of the Unite the Right rally, “worked on Capitol Hill with Ron Paul.”

Casey was one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa and assumed leadership of the organization following the Unite the Right rally, which Identity Evropa played a main role in organizing. After Casey took control of the organization, in an attempt to distance the group from Charlottesville, he tried to rebrand the group as the “American Identity Movement.” However, this was not successful, and Casey stopped actively organizing within the group in 2020.

In 2019, Casey teamed up with Hitler-lover Nick Fuentes to promote the “groyper” army and launch the “America First Political Action Conference.” Leading up to January 6, the pair backed Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign by mobilizing their followers in support of the coup. Both Fuentes and Casey were at the Capitol on January 6, though neither have been charged.


Someone like that, you might assume COMMON DREAMS would be holding accountable but apparently COMMON DREAMS sees its role today as promoting those tight with neo-Nazis.  Do you remember how many articles COMMON DREAMS printed daily attacking Kamala Harris while she was running for president but it's only rah-rahs for Lee Camp.


Again, there's always room -- at least at COMMON DREAMS -- to pimp and promote a White man.  All Lee had to offer this election cycle was Jill Stein promoting.  Since then, the loser has jumped on Adam McKay's ship that it's time to destroy the Democratic Party.


Hope that works out for him better than that failed Academy Award bid.  As the person who ensured that he and David Sirota lost that category, I don't see that happening.  I don't see much happening to his tired career. 


But that's the state of COMMON DREAMS today: Praise and recognize Lee Camp despite his prancing around stage with Neo Nazis.


And we wonder why COMMON DREAMS took months to get on board with Kamala.  It's really only the last three weeks of her campaign that they stopped attacking her in every article.


But again, the lesson, they will always make time for a White man and that -- not his nut job conspiracies, not his prancing around the stage with Neo Nazis and not his attacks on Kamala Harris to promote grifter Jill Stein -- prevents him from being covered and embraced by COMMON DREAMS.


When the left can't stand up to racism, it's not much of a left.  While COMMON DREAMS works to make us all a little more stupid, The Free Press issued this:



For years, Free Press has sought to hold social-media companies accountable for amplifying hate and lies that undermine public health, safety and democracy. We have pushed for meaningful reforms that would protect users and have extensively documented the platforms’ failures. None of these companies has fallen so low as X under Elon Musk’s ownership.

Free Press will no longer be posting on X, effective immediately, and we invite you to join us in ceasing activity on Musk’s platform. We refuse to give X any legitimacy.

Free Press is committed to ensuring that people have a voice in the decisions that shape our media system. Musk, quite simply, is not. X is now the premier platform for white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. It is designed to amplify the ideas of racists, misogynists, xenophobes, antisemites and transphobes. Musk’s reckless oversight of the platform has endangered people on the receiving end of his abuse and threatened our democracy.

Musk has reinstated the accounts of white supremacists and conspiracy theorists who’ve repeatedly violated X’s own inadequate standards. He has personally amplified bigotry and normalized violent extremism. He has harassed those who seek to shine a light on his misdeeds, filing lawsuit after lawsuit to silence researchers and activists who have worked to hold him accountable. He has even bullied advertisers who elect to spend their ad dollars elsewhere.

Two years ago, in response to Musk’s dangerous behavior, Free Press helped organize the #StopToxicTwitter campaign. This organizing contributed to the mass exodus of advertisers from the platform. The company subsequently lost $35 billion in value.

We have fought to reform X, because we remember the community that it once had, which gave ordinary people the means to speak directly to the powerful in our society. But it’s clear that X will not correct course under Musk’s leadership, and it’s time for Free Press to exit.

To prevent malicious actors from impersonating Free Press, we will not delete our account. But we will no longer post on the platform.

We hope to stay connected with people who believe in Free Press’ vision of a more just and democratic media system. You all have contributed so much to this essential work. Please find us on our website or follow us on other social-media platforms.

Free Press Email List

Free Press Bluesky

Free Press Facebook

Free Press Action Instagram 

Free Press Threads

Free Press TikTok

Free Press YouTube


Good for them.  Good for Jamie Lee Curtis and Danielle Moodie and the others leaving TWITTER.  Good to all the people leaving the hate speech site. 






In the days since the election, many Black women have made clear that a number of groups are now on their own.  Couldn't be bothered to vote for the first Black woman president of the United States but did vote for Donald Trump?  You made your racism clear and many Black women are now on vacation.  They're not showing up for your Gaza protests or your other actions.  Black women will work on Black women's healthcare but your marches in DC that depended so much on the work and presence of Black women?  Good look to you and maybe a few years we'll see you again.


In reply to that, some people -- mainly White women -- have foolishly asked what they could do now?


As we noted last night in "Media: White supremacy won the 2024 election (Ava and C.I.):"


Some of the racists are asking what they can do now?  In the face of Black women saying no to free labor, no to showing up at your protests, no to all you nonsense, some have asked: What can we do -- with the "now" implied.


Golly gee, what could you do?


Isn't it kind of obvious?

Get the hell off of TWITTER.


And why do you have to be told that.  


TWITTER is the home of racism, sexism and homophobia.


It is owned by Elon Musk who used all three and the money you help him make to destroy Democratic Party chances in the election.


Why is it that, except for Jamie Lee Curtis, this is a conversation taking place only among Black Americans?


White Americans, you shouldn't have to ask others what you can do.  You should just be getting off TWITTER.  Do THREADS, do BLUESKY, do whatever, but get the hl off of TWITTER.


Can Bernie do that?  Can racist Katrina vanden Heuvel?  In fact, how dare you purchase a magazine started by abolitionists and then take to a racist platform like TWITTER.


The best thing the Democratic Party can immediately do to save itself is to get off TWITTER.  And it doesn't cost them a damn cent to do this and stand against racism, sexism and homophobia.

[. . .]


I-I-I-I-I-I ain't gonna Tweet on TWITTER?  Until you can say that, just accept that we all see you as the racist that you truly are.  


TWITTER going under isn't going to hurt Elon Musk's pocket book.  But he didn't buy the successful social media tool to make money, he bought it to have influence.  And after what he pulled in this election -- this non-American (I don't recognize triple citizenship and don't believe America's founders would have either) who grew up a racist in South Africa and never cared until apartheid was falling and that's when he elected to flee South Africa -- his toy needs to be severely damaged, it's reach limited.  


And yet, Katrina vanden Heuvel -- the racist who owns THE NATION and can only see Black women as maids or mammies -- can't take a principled stand and announce she's leaving the platform.  Were it not for people being able to take stands against racism, THE NATION magazine never would have existed in the first place.  But Katrina doesn't care about that or, apparently, much of anything.  That's why THE GUARDIAN can leave TWITTER but THE NATION refuses to do.


What are you missing leaving TWITTER?  Glynneth Greenwald's latest hissy fit.  He's attacking right-wing feminist Bari Weiss for not cheerleading Tulsi Gabbard for the post of Director of National Intelligence.  Staying on disasters nominated by Satanic Donald Trump, let's note this from  Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY):


A late Saturday report from the Washington Post that Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of defense paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault and that he was admittedly "visibly intoxicated” at the time may have created more problems for his confirmation.

  According to the Post, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth "paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual."

On CNN, Sunday morning, reporter Daniel Strauss claimed the latest revelation won't help with an already embattled nomination.


Today on MSNBC's MORNING JOE, the Hegseth nomination was addressed.


REMOVED.  Click here.  Didn't stream the video below, have no idea if it talks about more than the DoD nominee.  But I'm in agreement with this take.  No more videos from that program. I get it that it's scary -- for all of us -- that Trump is going back into the White House.


 Video is removed.  As soon as Joe and Mika had the chance, they ran to Trump to kiss the ring.  


And ABC NEWS reported on Trump's disaster nominee for Attorney General.





Evan Blake (WSWS) focuses on another disaster nominee, Robert Kennedy Junior:


No other individual could be less qualified or more inadvisable for this position. It is akin to placing Al Capone at the head of the Department of Justice, or climate change denier and Chevron CEO Mike Wirth to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency.

After ending his own presidential campaign and endorsing Trump in August, Kennedy played a central role in Trump’s campaign, especially at its final events. Speaking at his fascist Madison Square Garden campaign rally last month, Trump pledged to let Kennedy “go wild on health.” Trump added, “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on medicines.”

The implications are far-reaching, as Kennedy has openly opposed vaccines, pasteurization, water fluoridation, and other long-established scientific practices, while promoting every quack medicine under the sun. On October 25, Kennedy tweeted:

FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.

Under conditions in which H5N1 bird flu is spreading widely among dairy cattle across the US and scientists have explicitly warned that the consumption of raw milk could facilitate human infections and the danger of another pandemic, Kennedy has continued to advocate this dangerous practice. Historically, bird flu has a 50 percent fatality rate.

Under the banner “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy and Trump will facilitate the emergence of the next pandemic and the revival of long-eliminated diseases like measles and polio. In fact, the same day that Trump announced his pick of Kennedy, news reports noted that measles cases in America are now four-fold higher than last year, primarily due to declining vaccination rates.

Speaking at an anti-vaccine conference last November, while still a candidate for US president, Kennedy pledged to fire 600 workers at the NIH if elected, adding, “We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

In other words, the man ostensibly in charge of preventing pandemics and infectious disease outbreaks has explicitly stated that he will work on behalf of the pathogens instead of the public.



The following sites updated:





Posted by at

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Joni

 Larry Klein was Joni Mitchell's second husband. The bass player was married to Joni from 1982 through 1994. He spoke to GUITAR WORLD:


Watch On



"Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody" was the best thing on WILD THINGS RUN FAST.  For me, that's the worst album Joni ever did.  I listen to about every five years to see if there's anyway I can enjoy it and there's not.  It's a lousy album.  It got good reviews.  I think it was just because of the fact that a lot of fans wanted Joni out of her jazz period.  


DOG EAT DOG was her follow up album and it was savaged.  But DOG EAT DOG is actually a great album and one of her greatest.  It's up there with LADIES FROM THE CANYON, BLUE, FOR THE ROSES, COURT & SPARK, THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS, HEJIRA, NIGHT RIDE HOME, TURBULENT INDIGO and SHINE as classic A-grade quality albums.  The other albums are just good -- just good; most artists with they could have an album as strong as DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER or MINGUS or CLOUDS, etc -- and then there's WIL THINGS RUN FAST which is just awful.  


Is it the production?  I don't know.  I'm looking forward to the next set or archive releases which should cover that album because then we can hear some demos and alternate takes.  Hear what the album could have been. 


Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, November 15, 2024.  Donald Trump wants to make America a s**thole country, as many do the right thing and leave Twitter note that racist Katrina vanden Heuvel feels perfectly at home there, Tulsi Gabbard is a threat to national security, and much more.

Trashy Garbage aka Tulsi Gabbard.  Donald Trump wants to make her the Director of National Intelligence.  Let's note this:



Catholics Against Cults

As Catholics in THE COMMON ILLS community, we lodge a strong objection to the notion that two term Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard is qualified to be the next Director of National Intelligence.

We are troubled by her reported appearance on a governmental watch list and that this resulted from members of the National Guard complaining about her priorities being something other than the United States.

We are troubled by her conspiracy theories that can be found all over her Twitter feed.  

We are troubled by her cozying up to Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Syria.  She met face-to-face with him when he was designated as an enemy of the United States.  That would concern us less if she were an individual member of Congress currently.  But someone who wants to be the Director of National Intelligence is not someone who should be making her own self-determined 'diplomatic' missions with someone the US is at war with. 



The former congresswoman has also been dogged by her long-standing ties to the Science of Identity Foundation and its founder, Chris Butler. The Science of Identity Foundation is an offshoot of Hare Krishna that former members have described as a cult.

Within minutes of the announcement of Gabbard’s nomination, national media outlets like CNN predicted that her selection and the choice of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. attorney general would set up major confirmation fights.

The position Trump nominated her for, director of national intelligence, requires Senate confirmation. The director leads the U.S. intelligence community, which oversees and directs implementation of the National Intelligence Program.


There are more than enough problems with Tulsi Gabbard.  But when Donald I'm A Christian Trump thinks he can get away with installing a member of a cult as our Director of National Intelligence, we object.  And we think many Christians would join us in that objection.  We realize, as well, that the cult objects to Islam and would argue that if the Jill Stein Freaks could buy a clue, even people in Hamtramck and Deerfield would object to the nomination as well (though we are aware that this is a group of people who struggle to ever call Donald Trump out).  

Of the man who 'guides' Tulsi, WIKIPEDIA notes:


Chris Butler, son of a communist anti-war activist, had entered the spiritual counterculture in 1960s, while enrolled at University of Hawaiʻi.[1][2] Soon, he joined the burgeoning Hare-Krishna movement as a guru, taking the name Sai Young, and amassed a group of disciples.[1]

However, after being publicly denounced by Swami Prabhupada, the leading exponent of the movement in U.S.A, Butler initiated under Prabhupada himself, joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and received the name Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa.[3][2][4] But in a few years, their relationship turned sour as he deviated from ISKCON's ways, choosing to marry and allowing his disciples to keep their heads unshaved.[3][2] After the death of Prabhupada in 1977, Butler broke away from ISKCON and founded SIF, then known as the Hari Nama (lit. Holy Name) Society.[5] Simultaneously, he began to deemphasize ISKCON's rigid adherence to Vaishnava texts and promoted a range of eclectic views.[1][3]

In 1976, SIF's disciples launched a new political party — called the Independents for Godly Government — presenting themselves as a "multifaith coalition of conservative-minded reformers", and ran for the House of Representatives and Mayoral elections; the candidates did not disclose their links with SIF and explicitly claimed to have no affiliation with any religious organization including the Hare Krishna faith.[1] The party was funded by a variety of businesses, including two local newspapers and a health-food store chain, run by the disciples themselves.[6]

In the 1980s, he ran a late-night television show called "Chris Butler Speaks" on Channel 13.[7] Since the 90s, Butler has kept a low profile, rarely speaking in public; in 2017, The New Yorker reported that Butler presents himself less as a Hare Krishna dissident and more as a member of a worldwide Vaishnava movement.[1] Butler's wife Wai Lana has received acclaim for popularizing yoga through the Wai Lana Yoga show; in 2016, she was conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.[8]




But scratch beneath the surface and another mysterious backstory emerges — Gabbard and hubby Williams' ties to a shady Hindu offshoot cult that's for decades sought a back door into mainstream politics.


Critics have branded the secretive group, called the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), as intolerant of women, gays, and Muslims, while treating its reclusive leader Chris Butler as some kind of all-powerful deity.

Murky ties to Butler's group, which straddles Hawaii and New Zealand, could well complicate Gabbard's bid to secure congressional backing for a senior cabinet-level post as Trump's top advisor for his key decisions on national security.

Williams, a part-Māori, part-Samoan filmmaker and surfer from Auckland, New Zealand, reportedly met Gabbard, a former Army officer, during her first run for Congress in 2012, when he volunteered to shoot her campaign ads.

That year, Gabbard made history by becoming the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu in Congress.

The pair bonded over their shared love of watersports and started dating about 18 months later.


But most importantly:


In a damning tell-all interview with The Independent in 2022, Gabbard's aunt, Dr Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, lifted the lid on what insiders call a homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist cult.

She told the publication that her niece's career is all about the pursuit of power, and her bid for the presidency in 2020 was the culmination of four decades of Butler's efforts to seek political influence.

'Once again I find my niece's apparent penchant for parroting extremist toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling,' said the retired University of Hawaii professor.

'​It gives me no pleasure to ​note that Tulsi's single governing principle seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.'



Tulsi Gabbard is free to belong in a cult.  But her international cult membership should disqualify her from serving as the Director of National Intelligence.  And when you add everything up, she does not belong anywhere near US government intelligence.


-- Kat, Trina and Mike




   Paul Eaton, a retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets, said in a statement that "putting Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our intelligence, which keeps Americans safe here and abroad, is dangerous and reckless. In Gabbard, Trump has a complete and total loyalist who will use and wield our intelligence to Trump's benefit, not to protect America and our Constitution."

"In combination with many of Trump's other appointments and nominations, we see a picture coming together of an administration made up of unqualified, marginal zealots who will constantly be trying to please their leader rather than fulfill their oath to put the Constitution and the safety of the American people above the president's ego," he added. "Many warned that Trump would dispense of all guardrails in a second term, so every whim of his would be carried out without question or protest. We are now seeing exactly what that looks like." 


All of Trump's choices are lousy but there's no one lousier than Tulsi.  

And if you don't grasp that, you may be to young to remember 9/11.

Donald Trump wants this raging incompetent who is also a security risk to be the DNI.  That post was created after the US government determined intelligence failures led to 9/11.


Most of us pray never again to a terrorist attack on US soil like 9/11; however, a number of Americans who are terrorist experts maintain such an attack is highly likely.

If you think the outrage over Tulsi's mere nomination is big and wide -- and it is -- and for good reason -- imagine another 9/11 under her watch.  And it won't just be her that the American people will be out for, it will be Trump as well, the idiot so stupid to nominate her in the first place.

Donald Trump, with his nominations, is demonstrating that the last thing he is interested in is making American anything but a s**thole country.  For Health and Human Services, for example, he wants to install the non-medical nut job Robert Kennedy Junior who will wreck healthcare because he's a nut job.  





He wants a man the House Ethics Committee believes assaulted a 17-year-old woman to be Attorney General (Matt Gaetz).



As for the awful Secretary of Defense nominee, let's just include ZETEO.

PETE HEGSETH MONOLOGUE.mp4
 
 

6 Things About Trump’s Hawkish New Defense Secretary That Should Scare the Hell Out Of You

Meet Pete Hegseth: Fox host, Iran hawk, Christian Zionist, and more.

President-elect Donald J. Trump sent shockwaves through the Pentagon this week, after announcing his pick for secretary of defense: Fox weekend host Pete Hegseth, who has zero experience in government. 

But frankly, it’s not the lack of experience or his association with right-wing media that should worry people the most – it’s his clear love for war, war crimes, and war criminals. 

With apologies to Donald Rumsfeld, he may be about to become the most extreme defense secretary in American history. 

Watch the short video above to see Mehdi unpack six of Hegseth’s insanely war-mongering views and ideas, all of which are bound to break Trump’s ridiculous promise to bringing lasting peace – to the Middle East, or anywhere else!

Upgrade to paid







They're all so awful that Kristi Noem -- the Michael Vick of politics -- might pass for the normal one.


Tulsi's a cult member and she's a security risk see Betty's "Cult member Tulsi Gabbard cannot be trusted with national intelligence."


Here are some discussions taking place.






If Trump installs the unqualified Tulsi as DNI and there's a terrorist attack that she fails to protect the country from, that's on him.  She is not qualified and there are too many issues that go to the fact that the American people can't trust her.  We don't need members of any cult serving in our government. 


An e-mail to the public account states that I am trying to rush people into action.  I'm not trying to do any such thing.  With one exception and I'll get to that.

The writers is Black and a lesbian so she's targeted by Donald on three levels (race, sexuality and gender).  I'm not telling anyone to "suck it up" as the writer states and "You don't feel you have anything to lose."

Let's start with that last part.  Friday was not a good day last week but I made it through.  At the end of the day, I was headed home with a friend and realized I needed to stop and grab some artificial tears. I'd had shots in one eye and the other got cauterize -- I've never had that before, it hurt like hell and it seemed to never end -- it was like a strobe light that repeatedly went off, then I'd have a blink a few times, hold my eye open again and the process repeated over and over. So I go in and I always try to be nice to people.  And people coming up on one side of me, got nice.  Yeah, I'd do selfie, yeah, I'd sign something for them.  On the other side?  I had no peripheral vision on that side.  And I was spooked over and over and about the seventh time, I just wanted to get out.  

So, yeah, I know what it's like to be scared and were it not for Satan being voted back into the White House, I don't think I would have been as bothered.  But there, in my city that went for Kamala by a huge margin, with impaired vision, I was bothered and scared.

So I think we all know what it's like to be scared.  

I was kidnapped and raped as a child.  The only way I survived that was by focusing on getting out.  And that's what I do in life. If it gets too dramatic, I go cold and go into planning mode.  Don't deny it, never have.  

Another tale, I didn't deal with my mother's death until seven years after.  I wanted to initially but then everyone else was falling apart and I had to hold it together to make sure every funeral request came off and that warring family members didn't act out.  And I was successful on the latter except for one family member who showed up stoned and then began to sob loudly throughout the ceremony and then, of course, skipped out.  "It's so hard on _____," I had to hear from one relative after another.  And, yes, I was pissed.  It was my mother and I loved her and the drama queen who didn't even make it to the burial?  If she was crying for any reason, it was guilt.  She'd stabbed my mother in the back and they hadn't spoken in seven years.  But I just had to nod along with these idiots and get through the day because my mother loathed a scene (which is probably the main reason _____ put on such drama).

So my natural mode is to move forward.  For me.  I didn't expect that from anyone else in the family and, to those I was close to, I encouraged them to grieve and feel what they were feeling.


We were stabbed in the back by racists.  Some of those racists are on the left.  

We're always asked -- excuse me, we're always expected to turn out and we do in election after election and then one of us has the presidential nomination and she's attacked over and over and over -- on the left.  By Gaza Freaks and Jill Stein nuts.  And by DEMOCRACY NOW!, THE NATION, IN THESE TIMES, THE PROGRESSIVE, and many, many more.

Their actions depressed turnout -- bad enough.  It also trashed those of us excited to see someone like us with a chance of becoming president.

We were spat and we were stomped on.

I don't expect anyone to ever get over that.

And those who need to check out, do so.  Take care of you.  THE NATION, DEMOCRACY NOW!, Jill Stein, Gaza Freaks, IN THESE TIMES and THE PROGRESSIVE sure didn't worry about taking care of us.

So you take all the time you need.  If that's a month, if that's four years, if that's longer, you take it.  In fact, you don't ever have to come back to giving your free labor to the Democratic Party.  Whatever you want, I am fine with.

I get it, in the 21st century we saw racism win and it didn't win just because of the right wing, the left helped it a lot.

And that's why --

Let me get to the one thing I'm asking.



What I'm asking is that we leave Twitter.  (See Marcia's "Death to Twitter.")  Jamie Lee Curtis is.  Applause to her.  I mean that sincerely.  But I'm saying that those of us hit the hardest leave Twitter.  Danielle's transferring to BLUESKY and others are going to THREADS or elsewhere.  Musk is a racist who was born under apartheid and only left South Africa as apartheid was crumbling and he'd have to deal with Black people as free people.  That scared him.  

Jamie Lee's leaving and, again, applause for her.  But notice who isn't leaving? Racist Katrina vanden Heuvel who used her magazine to rip apart Kamala every day.  She's upset that people are calling her a a racist and noted her grandfather's long history of racism that enriched the family.  That bothers her.

Supporting Elon Musk by using Twitter doesn't bother racist Katrina.  She, in fact, embraces racism and the only thing that bothers her about racism is when people notice how racist 'left' Katrina really is. 

All I'm asking is for you please leave Twitter.  I'm asking you to reject racism.  Black women can and are doing that.  They're not the only ones.  Again, Jamie Lee Curtis, thank you.  Her decision is based on her child Ruby who is now a target in a Trump administration but she's doing it to show her support for equality across the board.  I thank her for that.  

But Katrina vanden Heuvel, a 'leftist' who owns THE NATION and presents herself as the last word in NYC lefties?  She isn't leaving Twitter.  She's a racist.  She doesn't care about Black people.  That's why she lives on the money her grandfather stole from Black artists and it's why her White ass lives in a Harlem mansion.  She is no friend to Black people.

Trump is on a drive to destroy our country and, watch closely, we see what happened in the election as White 'leftists' are too concerned about their social media stature to do the right thing and leave Twitter.

I was shocked Saturday night to learn that Alyssa Milano had not left Twitter.  I was doing that post and typed hold on while I went to check.  She loathes Elon.  She made such a big deal about getting rid of her Tesla.  But she didn't get off Twitter.  Under Elon, it is the home of racism, misogyny and homophobia.  

But that doesn't bother her.  She self-presents as a social justice warrior but the reality is that she won't stand with Black people.  Or LGBTQ+ people.  Or women.  It's more important to her that she be on Twitter than that she take a real stand. 


Let's wind down with Roland.




The following sites updated:

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)