First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tough Guy Tulsi The Parent Expert" went up earlier tonight.
If you missed it, SUPERMAN AND LOIS got another season. It was announced yesterday. But it's only ten episodes. Lois' cancer nonsense ran off the audience even more. So it will most likely be cancelled next year. In it's 'fourth' season. With only 51 episodes. It was a good show before they decided America wanted to see Lois Lane go through cancer. I won't miss it. If you abuse your audience, you don't deserve to be on the air. And, yes, that goes to YOUTUBE personalities as well.
The governor's clash with Disney (DIS) - Get Free Report has been a conflict, famously, for a long while.
Now, the state's Government and Corporate Activism Act, which will be implemented July 1, has caused a bank to reconsider its location in Florida.
The controversy surrounds environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The legislation would penalize state-registered banks if they deny services to specific businesses.
Oil, gas and weapons businesses are spelled out as points of contention.
In reaction, Climate First Bank, a St. Petersburg firm that says it is dedicated to the environment and sustainability, is thinking about leaving the state.
"The environmentally focused de novo, which launched in 2021, bills itself as a 'values based-bank,' focused on promoting sustainable business practices by providing banking services and loans to firm’s with a strong environmental, social and governance mission," Banking Dive reported.
Picture Disney World: adults embracing their inner child, kids beaming in Mickey Mouse hats, babies asleep in their strollers.
So why were about 15 people waving Nazi flags outside the theme park over the weekend, along with flags supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?
Disney has recently tried to be a beacon of inclusivity – perhaps making it an easy target. DeSantis has also fought publicly with the corporation. But jumping from displeasure to outright hatred and flaunting Nazi paraphernalia are very different messages.
"We are aware of these groups that aim to agitate and incite people with antisemitic symbols and slurs. They are also aware of the law," the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate." Neither Disney nor DeSantis responded to USA TODAY requests for comment.
For a politician, that silence can speak volumes. Because when leaders don't discourage fringe views, they flourish. Experts say not condemning hate only fuels its fire.
"There is nothing subtle about the swastika," says Alvin H. Rosenfeld, director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University – Bloomington. "No symbol is more potent in its expression of hatred and the will to dominate. Anyone who displays it knows as much."
Ron DeSantis is disgusting. We need to make that clear. He is disgusting and he is encouraging and egging on others to be vile and disgusting. We are better than Ron DeSantis in this country, we need to remember that.
Zachary B. Wolf (CNN) observes:
While much of the country spent the week fixated on a former president and his indictment related to alleged mishandling of classified documents, parts of the American right were more consumed by fear of transgender rights.
The latest example stems from the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptists, some of whom apparently fear a slide toward acceptance of LGBTQ rights – would rather expel one of their largest and most successful congregations, Saddleback Church in Southern California, than accept women as pastors.
If it seems like a stretch to tie the Southern Baptist effort to eliminate women pastors with LGBTQ rights, look at this video prepared in favor of an amendment to more broadly prohibit churches from having women hold any pastoral title. It was recorded by Mike Law, pastor at Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia.
He refers to a “a culture that is seeking to undermine the good and God-given distinctions between men and women” and argues it will be a slippery slope from allowing women to allowing gay and lesbian pastors.
“Here’s the trajectory of doing nothing,” Law says in the video. “Soon, Southern Baptist churches will start supporting homosexual clergy, same-sex marriage and eventually, transgenderism.”
Anyone who has been paying attention to Fox News or the Republican political conversation already knows that backlash to transgender rights, at the state and corporate level, is a key platform to appeal to the party’s grassroots.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
EIGHT WEEKS after September 11, a pair of Americans entered the gleaming marble lobby of Beirut’s Intercontinental Hotel La Vendome, where they were greeted by a group of Iraqi expatriates. The Americans were reporters—New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges, who’d just been put on the Al Qaeda beat, and Christopher Buchanan, an associate producer of PBS’s Frontline—there to meet a mysterious Iraqi defector with information about Saddam Hussein’s secret weapons program. Hedges and Buchanan were ushered to an elegant suite overlooking the Mediterranean, where they interviewed Jamal al-Ghurairy, an Iraqi lieutenant general who had fled Iraq. Ghurairy claimed to have witnessed foreign Islamic militants training to hijack airplanes at an Iraqi terrorist training camp.
Buchanan had been given the assignment just a few days earlier and knew very little about the interview’s subject. “It was all very hush-hush,” he says. “His life might be in danger. I didn’t know much else.” Buchanan recalls the general as thickset, “fierce looking,” and having a military bearing. “He looked the part,” he says. Hedges adds that the general “was definitely Iraqi and struck me as having spent a lot of time in the military.” The general’s entourage—including Nabeel Musawi, the political liaison of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which had arranged the interview—“were all wearing leather coats. They were slick and well organized,” says Buchanan. “Very well organized, very well set up,” Hedges concurs.
The general hadn’t been told he’d be filmed, and it took Musawi almost an hour to persuade him to go on camera. The general himself then spent several minutes making sure his face would be blacked out when the tape rolled. The resulting television interview, for which Musawi acted as translator, was stilted and brief. It would become only a small segment of the Frontline piece, which also featured an interview with another INC-provided defector, Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi captain whose identity was not concealed. Buchanan recalls that “as soon as the lights and camera were switched off, the general began to talk.” He says the general then spent more than an hour with Hedges in an adjoining room of the suite while he left the hotel to transmit the tape via satellite uplink. When Buchanan eventually returned to the empty suite, he found coffee cups and saucers filled with cigarette butts that he felt indicated an intense conversation. Hedges says that after the interview was completed, he “spoke to the U.S. embassy in Turkey”—where the general had fled after leaving Iraq—“and asked if the general was credible. They confirmed he had recently been debriefed.”
Two days later the story that spun out on the front page of the New York Times was as shocking as it was convincing. Ghurairy claimed that as a senior intelligence official, he had witnessed foreign Arab fighters training to hijack airplanes at the Salman Pak military facility south of Baghdad. About 40 foreign nationals, Ghurairy said, were based there at any given time. “We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States. The Gulf War never ended for Saddam Hussein. He is at war with the United States,” the Times quoted Ghurairy as saying. Ghurairy also claimed a German scientist was working in a section of the base that produced biological agents. The report noted the role the INC had in setting up the interview, but no serious questions were raised about the general’s provenance.
The Emperor's got no clothes on
No clothes? That can't be; he's the Emperor
Take that child away
Don't let the people hear the words he has to say
One small voice
Speaking out in honesty
Silenced, but not for long
One small voice speaking with the values
we were taught as children
So you walk away and say, Isn't he divine?
Don't those clothes look fine on the Emperor?
And as you take your leave
You wonder why you're feeling so ill-at-ease
Don't you know?
Lies take your soul
You can't hide from yourself
Lies take their toll on you
And everyone else
One small voice speaking out in honesty
Silenced, but not for long
One small voice speaking with the values
we were taught as children
Tell the truth
You can change the world
But you'd better be strong
-- "One Small Voice," written by Carole King, first appears on her album SPEEDING TIME
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has spread a right-wing claim that Starbucks forced employees to take down Pride decorations. A Starbucks spokesperson denied the allegation and said the company encourages stores to celebrate Pride Month.
On Tuesday afternoon, Boebert re-tweeted the following message from Charlie Kirk, leader of the rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ conservative group Turning Point USA: “Starbucks has banned Pride decorations in its stores halfway through Pride Month, the company’s workers union has revealed. Leftwing Trans activists claim this means Starbucks is ‘caving.’ Good! Keep the pressure on, folks.”
Kirk based his claim on a June 13 tweet from Starbucks Workers United (SWU), a group that seeks to unionize Starbucks employees. SWU said that workers had complained that the “company is no longer allowing Pride decorations in-store.”
Starbucks says none of this is true.
In a statement to LGBTQ Nation, the company wrote, “We’re deeply concerned by false information that is being spread especially as it relates to our inclusive store environments [and] our company culture.”
“There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June,” the company added. “Starbucks has a history that includes more than four decades of recognizing and celebrating our diverse partners and customers – including year-round support for the LGBTQIA2+ community.”
In related news, community member Sabina e-mailed to urge everyone -- who eats candy -- to be sure to get their Pride Month skittles at Wal-Mart and remember skittles will be donating a portion of your purchase price to Pride.
WE'VE GIVEN UP OUR RAINBOW SO THAT THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY CAN SHARE THEIRS.
This Pride Month, we're amplifying stories within the LGBTQ+ community for all to discover. We begin by showcasing the designs of five talented artists on our SKITTLES Pride Packs, each with their own story to tell.
OUR MISSION IS TO SUPPORT THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY BY AMPLIFYING AND CELEBRATING THEIR STORIES. THAT'S WHY WE'VE PARTNERED WITH GLAAD FOR THE FOURTH YEAR TO REWRITE THE SCRIPT FOR LGBTQ+ ACCEPTANCE.
We will donate $1 per every SKITTLES Pride pack sold to GLAAD in support of their ongoing efforts to work through media to combat anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.*
According to the district attorney, the victims say “the unknown male suspect was following them on foot while simultaneously aggressively shouting anti-LGBTQ language. The suspect then threw a glass object at them causing the 40-year-old male victim to sustain a non-life-threatening injury.”
The men called 911 and provided a description of Abdullah, who was spotted a short time later near Mission Dolores Park. After a foot chase, cops apprehended the assailant and booked him into county jail on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of committing a hate crime and one of resisting arrest.
DeSantis apparently has decided on a strategy to cope with the fact that, the more people know about him, the less they like him. The strategy consists of sucking up to every goober in America with sufficient enthusiasm that said goober doesn't notice how much he is coming to loathe Baby Huey Long. From the Charlotte News & Observer:
The presidential candidate was touting Republican successes in last year’s midterm elections in Florida, and in North Carolina, amid disappointing results in the rest of the country, when he brought up the recently renamed installation. “I also look forward to, as president, restoring the name of Fort Bragg,” DeSantis said to raucous cheers from the crowd. He added that he would “thank the people that have served there, and they’re proud of their service there.”
“It’s an iconic name and an iconic base, and we’re not going to let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis said as the crowd continued to cheer.
Sure, Bragg went to arms against the lawful government of the United States. Sure, he was one of the biggest boobs in the history of warfare. Sure, he shot his own men like partridges. Sure, he was such a complete incompetent that he enraged Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was no bowl of strawberries on his best day. The Butcher of Fort Pillow purportedly once threatened to serve up Bragg en brochette.
Braxton Bragg was a slave-owning racist and failed military leader, sometimes described as the worst general of the Civil War. The question should be, why would anyone name a military base after him in the first place? Nevertheless, Gov. Ron DeSantis is defending him.
The governor is upset that the U.S. military changed the name of North Carolina’s Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty earlier this month. He called it “political correctness run amok,” and said he would restore the name if voters elected him president.
But Braxton Bragg is no cancel culture martyr. The military base should never have been named in his honor, not when Camp Bragg opened in 1918, and certainly not now.
[. . .]
By definition, Bragg was a traitor to the United States. He was at best a middling military leader and, at worst, so inadequate that he helped cost the Confederacy the war. Celebrate his failures and treachery? How un-American.