Cher has announced she'll have a new album shortly. Yea. It will have duets. Yes. It's a Christmas album. Blah. Five years of waiting for a new album and it's a Christmas album? So we'll listen from Thanksgiving to maybe New Year's? I want an album of power ballads. I'll be buying the album regardless but she's 77 so it's clear we're not getting a power ballad album. This will probably, in fact, be her farewell to recording. Barbra Streisand's 81 and, as I've noted for some time, I don't think we'll have any new material from her either. She'll keep releasing previously recorded material from the vault but she's probably done recording. Joan Baez retired four years ago and she's 82 now. I believe Carly Simon has also stopped recording. Her plan had been for THIS KIND OF LOVE to be her final recording and then Starbucks screwed her over. So she did NEVER BEEN GONE and I really think that's it for her as well.
Now here's a piece a group of community members wrote:
The 2024 Green Party presidential primaries and caucuses will be a series of electoral contests to elect delegates to the 2024 Green National Convention who will choose the Green Party's presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Major candidates include scholar Cornel West and party co-founder and leader Randy Toler.
Their strategy was a miserable failure, however. The Democratic alternatives were grossly inadequate. The Left asked absolutely nothing of Kerry, and guess what? They got absolutely nothing in return. That’s what you get when you give someone’s candidacy unconditional support, despite the fact that the Democrats mirrored Bush on so many crucial issues – from the economy to civil liberties to trade to foreign policy to the environment. It was textbook lesser-evilism and it was a loser. The left had succumbed to the plague of ABB [Anybody But Bush]. Their unconditional support made Kerry worse and undermined everything the Left supposedly stood for. And this is where I think we must be crystal clear as to what the costs of expedient choices are, even if the benefits seem predominant. As I argue in Left Out!, backing the lesser evil, like the majority of liberals and lefties did in 2004, keeps the whole political pendulum in the U.S. swinging to the right. It derails social movements, helps elect the opposition, and undermines democracy. This backwards logic allows the Democrats and Republicans to control the discourse of American politics and silences any voices that may be calling for genuine change.
The Green Party has existed for several decades now. There is no reason in the world for the party to look outside for nominees. It is a slap in the face of the rank and file to watch non-Greens (Cornel West, for example) run for the nomination. Chasing celebrities does not build the Green Party.
-- Ann of Ann's Mega Dub (Green); The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jess (Green), Ava, and C.I. of Third and The Common Ills; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty (Green) of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Ruth of Ruth's Report; Wally of The Daily Jot; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; and Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts .
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq's Federal Supreme Court decided Monday to invalidate a maritime
border agreement with Kuwait under which the two countries shared a key
waterway in the Gulf.
The decision against the Khor Abdullah agreement followed a trial related to an ongoing dispute over the deal, which was signed in 2012 and ratified in 2013 and concerned maritime borders and navigation regulations.
The court cited its inconsistency with the Iraqi Constitution, which mandates approval through legislation passed with a two-thirds majority in parliament, said a statement.
Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 833 in 1993 which determined the land border between Iraq and Kuwait.
However, the delineation of the maritime border was left to the two countries.
Several Kuwaiti MPs have called on the government to respond following a recent decision by Iraq’s top court to strike down a law that governs the sharing of a crucial waterway to the Arabian Gulf.
Abdullah Al Mudhaf, who heads the Kuwaiti Parliament’s foreign relations committee, confirmed on Tuesday that the panel had formally put in a request for a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss Baghdad's decision.
The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court annulled the law ratifying a 2012 agreement between Iraq and Kuwait on the Khor Abdullah strait in the Arabian Gulf, which regulated maritime navigation on the crucial waterway.
The Iraqi politician who introduced the bill into parliament is absolutely certain: Any behavior that deviates from heterosexuality is a danger to his country. This is why, in mid-August, Raad al-Maliki introduced a bill that would amend Iraq's "Law on Combatting Prostitution" from 1988 to make same-sex relations a crime, alongside any kind of expression of transgender identity.
Should al-Maliki's bill be passed, same-sex relationships in Iraq would be punishable by death or long prison terms. The bill also pertains to transgender women and sets a penalty of up to three years in jail or a fine of up to €7,100 ($7,700) for anyone who "imitates a woman." The latter is defined as wearing makeup or women's clothing or "appearing as a woman" in public.
The timing of this bill's introduction is no coincidence, said Rasha Younes, a senior LGBTQ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). It's connected to general discontent and public protests in Iraq. "It comes at a time when the Iraqi government has struggled to deliver on key demands made by protesters, leading to a further breakdown in the social contract between rulers and ruled," she told DW. "The weaponization of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation to mobilize a largely uninformed public against a marginalized group is a state strategy."
According to Human Rights Watch, which has seen a copy of the bill, the Iraqi draft law describes same-sex relationships as "sexual perversion" and also punishes what it describes as the promotion of homosexuality with up to seven years of jail time and financial fines of up to €10,600 ($11,500). The draft law does not explain what is meant by the "promotion of homosexuality."
Until now, Iraq has not had any laws explicitly against same-sex relationships, and authorities have tended to use morality laws to harass the LGBTQ community. "The introduction of the anti-LGBT bill follows months of hostile rhetoric against sexual and gender minorities by Iraqi officials, as well as government crackdowns on human rights groups," HRW said in its report on the law.
"Armed groups and individuals have for decades launched attacks against people perceived as LGBTQ to 'discipline' any non-normativity expressed in Iraq," Younes explained. "The arbitrary nature of the attacks and the fact that they occur in broad daylight in public testify to the climate of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, who know that they can literally get away with it."
Given all this, the new law is just adding "fuel to the fire," Younes continued. "It is an insult to individuals who are already trying to protect themselves from the armed groups that are hunting them down on a large scale."
THE HILL's RISING (or as out of touch elderly Cornel calls it, "The Rising"), THE VANGUARD, and so many more YOUTUBERs -- including the White woman who pretends to be Black (this leftist Rachel Dolezal is a YOUTUBE celebrity hiding in plain sight) -- all wanted to zoom in on Kyle.
Guess it lets them avoid Randy Toler.
Who?
The name that they won't mention. From BALLOTPEDIA:
Randy Toler (Green Party) is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Florida. He declared candidacy for the general election scheduled on November 5, 2024.
Toler is also running for election for President of the United States. He declared candidacy for the 2024 election.
Day after day Zac and Gavin on THE VANGUARD and all the rest rush to insist that Cornel is the Green Party's presidential nominee. They lie and lie again. Over and over. And then claim that they're not lying.
Zac and Gavin claimed that last Friday as they again misled their viewers into believing that the Green Party had selected Cornel. No such thing has happened. As we've repeatedly noted, the Green Party will hold their national convention in 2024 and they will vote then to decide who their nominee is.
It's funny to watch Zac and Gavin's hypocrisy. They are the ones, after all, who keep whining that Marianne Williamson won't be on the debate stage with Joe Biden. She's the one they want to be the Democratic Party's presidential candidate -- yes, they are two of the few rooting for Marianne. And we have to hear from them how unfair this all is . . . as they repeatedly pretend that Toler's not running for the Green Party's presidential nomination.
Do they even see their hypocrisy?
Probably not.
They are mad about others putting a finger on the scales but they're happy to do the same themselves.
Project 2025's nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, called "Mandate for Leadership," serves as a step-by-step guide for the incoming president, from proposing a comprehensive transformation of the Department of Justice to ending the FBI's efforts to combat the dissemination of misinformation. It even includes plans to intensify the prosecution of individuals involved in providing or distributing abortion pills by mail.
"The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors," the document says. "This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity ('SOGI'), diversity, equity, and inclusion Project ('DEI'), gender, gender equality, gender equity … and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."
There are suggestions to reverse the Biden Administration's use of the federal government's resources to "further the woke agenda" and erase them from all policy manuals, guidance documents and agendas.
"From gutting critical climate protections to dismantling checks and balances to put maximum power in the hands of the president, Project 2025 takes extremism to a whole new level," Herrig said. "The project — and the dark network propping it up — must be held accountable for their efforts to undermine our democracy."
Although presidents usually depend on Congress to implement policies, the Heritage Project embraces a perspective known to legal scholars as a unitary view of executive power. This perspective asserts that the president possesses extensive authority to act alone, as the AP report highlights.
The dangers of subordinating the entire federal government to the "whims of one person," is like pointing "a dagger at the heart of democracy," Dallek said.
"It's a central threat to democracy because what we would lose is some of the important checks and balances that are within the executive branch, and that frankly, we saw playing out in the run-up to January 6," he added.
GLAAD is documenting book bans and challenges around the country, monitoring local news and vital resources like Book Riot to note what is happening and who is responsible.
This week’s roundup shows three troubling trends:
- Book banners are following a familiar, increasingly violent trajectory. At least 10 libraries faced bomb threats over the last weeks, similar to the targeting of children’s hospitals and health care providers last year.
- Book banners continue to be few and fringe, but with absurdly outsized reach. A new report shows 600 of 1,100 book complaints in Florida since last July originated from two people, a teacher in Escambia County, and the 57-year-old Florida chapter founder of the extremist group “No Left Turn in Education.”
- Extremists might be wising up to the fact that book bans are deeply and broadly unpopular, though they’re still trying to do it. There are now reports about districts using methods normally used to remove old or damaged books to target current books about LGBTQ people, race and abortion, and board members accessing school libraries to scope out shelves without prior permission, using flashlights and false pretenses.
Here’s a brief recap:
Iowa, Illinois, California: Libraries Facing Bomb Threats
Book Riot reported last week about seven libraries in the Chicago suburbs receiving bomb threats, as well as two bomb threats at an Oklahoma school district and a threat against a Davis, California, public library.
“Several of those libraries received not just one bomb threat, but several over the course of the week,” Book Riot notes.
This week: more threats – Iowa City Public Library; the Vernon Area Public Library in Lincolnshire, Illinois; the Wilmette Public Library and the Park Ridge Public Library each reported a second bomb threat in a week. In Davis, California, the FBI is now investigating after the public library received its third bomb threat in a week that included anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and began when the library determined that a Moms for Liberty chapter could not use the library’s facilities for a speaker program because it would not comply with the library’s code of conduct.
Bomb threats are a tactic used by extremists and encouraged by extremist social media, including campaigns last year that targeted 24 children’s hospitals and providers in 21 states.
Florida: Escambia County Public Schools Hides Unreviewed Books
To comply with Florida HB 1069, which grants anyone the ability to object to books, Escambia County Public Schools’ media specialists recommended concealing unreviewed books, including plastering library shelves with black paper.
“Now it seems like the district is intentionally disguising what is actually going on,” Georgia Clarkson Smith said. “They’re just straight up masking what’s actually happening — It’s deeply unsettling.”
Clarkson Smith says lawmakers and groups like “Moms for Liberty” falsely push book bans as “parental choice” without considering her choices as a parent to have books accessible.
Florida: Two People Responsible for 600 Book Complaints
The Tampa Bay Times reported approximately 600 of the 1,100 book complaints that cropped up in Florida since last July have originated from two individuals: Vicki Baggett, an Escambia County high school teacher, and Bruce Friedman, who founded No Left Turn in Education’s Florida chapter. No Left Turn’s extremism includes spreading disinformation and racist rhetoric to protest teaching about slavery and racism, before turning its sights on LGBTQ books.
“We have probably spent more resources on Bruce than anyone else in the history of the school district,” Roger Dailey, Clay County’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, told the Tampa Bay Times. Dailey said Friedman contacts the district nearly every day, including twice while Dailey was on the phone with the Times.
Friedman’s objections have included a children’s picture book featuring the cartoon character Arthur. Baggett’s objections include protesting the picture book And Tango Makes Three, which tells the real-life story of two male penguins raising a chick together. The Times’ investigation noted exact quotes in Baggett’s complaints also appeared in a Moms for Liberty member webpage targeting LGBTQ-inclusive books.
Escambia County’s school board asked a federal judge to end a lawsuit filed in May by PEN America, Penguin Random House, LGBTQ authors and ally parents. The lawsuit noted the district’s removal of titles by LGBTQ authors and people of color violates the First Amendment (freedom of speech) and the 14th Amendment (the Equal Protection clause). Placing a temporary stay on the lawsuit, “the judge found ‘numerous reasons’ why the suit ‘may not proceed past the pleading stage.’”
Colorado: One Parent Pushes Four LGBTQ Book Bans (titles returned to library shelves)
A parent and founder of a Christian men’s group sought to ban four LGBTQ-inclusive books in Douglas County, Colorado, libraries: This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson, Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts), by L.C. Rosen, All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson, and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, by Lil Miss Hot Mess.
The board of Douglas County Libraries unanimously voted to keep the books on the shelves, though with the exception of one title, all are located in the library’s adult section.
Speaking with Denver’s ABC affiliate, library system executive director Bob Pasicznyuk refuted the book banner’s challenge that the books promote a ‘destructive homosexual lifestyle’: [this] is not an item which I can opine on. It’s outside the boundaries of what we, as a public library, would make a judgment about.” In rejecting the appeal, Pasicznyuk noted that “the books meet guidelines, they are available at national bookstores and there are programs that allow for guided exposure to book collections.”
Texas: Censorship in Secret
An investigation by KHOU in Houston found that Klein Independent School District, which serves more than 50,000 students in Harris County, misled voters about the number of books it pulled from school shelves. While the district claims to have “removed only one [book] in two school years,” they may have used a process called “deaccessioning” to dispose of 3,000 books dating back to 2020.
Klein ISD also removed at least 67 titles from all its libraries after they were banned or challenged elsewhere, KHOU reported. The Texas American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the district last year, writing, “Klein ISD has disappeared books from its libraries—it has secretly removed dozens of books from its shelves,” a “violation of the First Amendment, the Texas Constitution and Klein ISD’s own policy.”
In an equally sneaky move, two individuals were caught rifling through the library at Granbury High School, southwest of Dallas-Fort Worth. According to The Daily Beast, Karen Lowery, who serves on the board of the Granbury Independent School District, showed her school board identification to the school’s front-desk clerk. Lowery and a companion, Carolyn Reeves, who was granted visitor access to the cafeteria to participate with Lowery in a charitable event for disadvantaged students, instead entered the darkened library and began snapping pictures of books.
Lowery and Reeves were spotted by an assistant principal, and falsely claimed to have received authorization from the school’s principal and superintendent. Last week, the district’s school board voted 5-2 to censure Lowery, but The Dallas Morning News reports it “effectively served as a public reprimand” and that “the board has no power to ask or compel Lowery to resign.”
Iowa: Mason City Community School District uses ChatGPT to Aid in Book Removal
Iowa’s ongoing struggles to comply with Senate File 496 (Iowa’s version of Don’t Say LGBTQ) has led the Mason City Community School District to use ChatGPT to determine which books are “age appropriate.”
The review process includes providing the AI chatbot with “lists of commonly challenged books,” which are then integrated into “a master list of books that should be reviewed.” So far, this has resulted in the examination of 42 titles, 19 of which have been banned. Included among the titles was the 1990 nonfiction sports novel, Friday Night Lights which, as author Buzz Bissinger noted, does not contain an “explicit description of a sexual act.” Following review by the district’s Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Bridgette Exman, the book was returned to school shelves last week.
PopSci ran their own test on ChatGPT, providing it with the prompt, “Do any of the following books or book series contain explicit or sexual scenes?” The publication’s results contradicted those provided by the district, with only four titles being flagged as containing “explicit or sexual content.”
ChatGPT itself cast doubt on its ability to appropriately review books.
You can help alert your local school boards to these trends, and download templates to help your community fight back against book bans, via GLAAD’s Community Response toolkit.
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