I'm not sure how to do this. I was in the middle of writing the post when I learned something. If you haven't heard, expect a surprise. That's your heads up.
THE GOLDBERGS last night was not the funniest episode but maybe it was important, maybe the most important one of the season.
It was funny. As usual, the laughs came from Erica, Barry, Geoff and
Bev as well as returning character Laney. Laney came back and Erica was
convinced that Barry was cheating on Geoff's sister and had gotten back
with Laney. She tried to get her to talk -- as Geoff and she worked
out -- by stating she wanted to cheat on Geoff, hoping that would open
Laney up. It didn't. In the end, Barry was revealed to be sneaking
around with Laney's father, not with Laney. They were watching sports
together. They were keeping it a secret. They didn't know how it ended
up a thing for them.
Erica
explained to them that they're both missing Murray (Erica, Barry and
Adam's deceased father) and they both watched sports with Murray so
they're bonding over their loss.
Bev
wasn't in that story. She had another story. Adam's new girlfriend
wanted an open relationship while he wanted to be exclusive. Bev
decided she would set him up with other women and that would drive the
girlfriend jealous and prove just how great Adam was to her.
That wittle Adam went to Mommy on this was embarrassing but so true to how disgusting Adam has become.
The
good news? Bev had to inform him that no one wanted to date him.
Turns out, she explained, a guy not in college, working at a diner,
living at home with his mother, with no real prospects isn't seen as a
catch.
Amen.
Maybe the writers are finally grasping that Adam needs to grow up?
I
hope so. I didn't hate Adam when he was a kid and the show came on.
But his inability to grow up all these years later? Can't stand him.
And the episode is meaningless. Stan called to ask if I heard? Heard what?
In May, the last episode of THE GOLDBERGS airs. This is season ten and ABC has just cancelled the show.
Well they wasted season ten.
They focused on Adam and he was immature and he was hideous and the show as hideous.
Barry, Geoff, Bev, Erica and Tim Meadows were funny.
Adam destroyed every episode.
They should have ended it with the childish Adam last season.
Instead, we had to have Morty dead (the father) and we had to see how awful Adam could be, immature, whiny, babyish -- destroying every bit of joy in each episode.
The show deserves to be cancelled for Adam alone. And it's not going out with a bang. It's going out with an embarrassment.
Thursday, February 23, 2023. Iraq activists are under assault, Anya
Panya and the faux activists from the weekend continue to be called out
for their racism and transphobia, look who took a plea deal, and much
more.
We get busy and things get dropped all the time as a
result. I was planning, months ago, to announce news in a criminal
proceeding. It's several months old, the Justice Dept's press release,
but I was talking to a veteran with a VSO yesterday and he brought up
when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House and shoved an unqualified and
corrupt member of Congress down a committee's throat. To give a little
background, the VA was having one scandal after another. The most
recent one ahead of this shoving was the VA's failure to deliver the
checks for veterans going to college. Veterans had to pay it themselves
or take out loans. They knew it -- the VA knew it was going to happen
ahead of the fall schedule. And, as Christmas approached, some veterans
still hadn't received their checks. Their family holiday was on hold.
It was disgusting and it was disgusting the way the media walked away
from the story long before it was over.
The
work of so many on that Committee -- Democrats and Republicans -- was
important in fixing this issue for the veterans. I especially would
cite Stephanie Herseth Sandlin whose work on a House VA Subcommittee
really helped get answers -- especially after the media had
Baby-cried-the-day-the-circus-came-to-town and moved on.
The Committee worked as a team to help the veterans on this issue . . . with one exception.
Wig woman.
Bad wig woman.
Corrine Brown.
The Snuffleupgus of K-Street herself, "Can you tell me how to be crooked, how to be crooked on K-Street."
There
was Corrine explaining how she stayed up late nights eating and
watching cable 'news' and FOX told her that this was the veterans fault
and if those dumb veterans had done their paperwork right, there never
would have been a delay and blah blah blah.
She
couldn't fix her wig, did we really not notice that over and over and
over. Con artist was blaming veterans to let the VA off the hook, even
after testimony in Stephanie's subcommittee hearing revealed that the VA
knew this was going to happen, was warned over four months before the
start of the fall semester that it would happen. But facts don't matter
to a con artist.
Over
the uproar of many veterans, Speaker Pelosi decided her friend was just
the crook to head the Democratic Party side of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. VSOs were
begging for Tim Walz. Walz was a member of the Committee, he was also a
veteran. Unlike Corrine, Tim spoke English.
But Pelosi installed her friend Corrine the Crook.
Where's Tim today?
Serving his second term as governor of Minnesota. Congratulations to him.
Hard
time in prison. It was supposed to be five years but COVID panic
allowed her to get an early release on April 22, 2020. She then thought
Florida voters were insane and would vote for her so she ran in the
Democratic Party primary for a seat . . . and came in fourth. But
Corrine isn't just a convicted felon. She's also a convict who doesn't
want to go back to the big house. A technicality from a lower court
meant she was facing a second trial set for May of last year. Which
is why she entered into a plea deal right before then:
Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown Pleads Guilty To Corrupt Obstruction Of The Administration Of The Internal Revenue Laws
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Jacksonville,
Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that
Corrine Brown (75, Jacksonville) today pleaded guilty to engaging in a
corrupt endeavor to obstruct and impede the due administration of the
internal revenue laws. After accepting her guilty plea, Chief Judge
Timothy J. Corrigan sentenced Brown to the time that she had already
served in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, specifically two
years, eight months, and nine days. Brown was also ordered to pay
$62,650.99 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
According
to the plea agreement, between October 15, 2009, and October 15, 2015,
Brown caused her certified public accountant to file individual income
tax returns for tax years 2008 through 2014 that did not include income
associated with cash deposits into her bank accounts. During the same
period, Brown also over-reported her charitable giving by inflating
total gifts to charitable organizations and non-profit entities. Brown
signed each referenced tax return under penalty of perjury, knowing that
each one contained false information. In addition, Brown caused two
Jacksonville non-profit entities to create letters that did not
accurately reflect her donations so that Brown could use those letters
during an IRS audit.
Brown was previously convicted by a federal jury for various offenses; after Brown’s appeal, her earlier conviction was vacated.
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service –
Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys
A. Tysen Duva and Michael J. Coolican of the Middle District of Florida
and Trial Attorney Michelle Parikh and former Deputy Chief Eric G.
Olshan of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section prosecuted
the case.
Crooked Corrine. The felon.
That's
who Nancy Pelosi put in charge for the Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs
Committee. Not Tim Walz, crooked Corrine, who suffers from both mush
mouth and a nasty addiction to bad wigs. Nancy 'knew' that was the
right decision and she rejected the leaders of every VSO to put Corrine
in charge.
When
they write about her legacy, Crooked Corrine should be a large chapter
in THE BOOK OF NANCY. And we should all wonder why Nancy refused to
employ a veteran to be the head of the House Veterans Affairs
Committee? She chose a crook over a veteran. That's her legacy -- that
and being Speaker when ROE V WADE was overturned -- and failing to push
for it to be codified in 2009 when she was also Speaker (running for
president, Barack Obama lied that codifying ROE would be the first thing
he would do as president).
I
need to correct the idiot Anya Parampil. When not expressing her
transphobia or cozying up to the right wing, she likes to insist that
she's smart. Pretense. She gave a bad speech on Sunday insisting that
four presidential candidates were present. Uh, no.
Anya The Transphobe apparently never learned to count.
One.
Not four.
One.
Use your fingers if you have to, Anya, but I'm pretty sure even you can count to one.
Jill Stein was the Green's presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016. The rest weren't
presidential candidates.
Tulsi
Gabbard was not a presidential candidate. She did not run for
president. You run for president, you're a presidential candidate.
Tulsi is a failed candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. Similarly, Ron Paul has run twice for a party's
presidential nomination (Republican) and he has not won it. Dennis
Kucinich also twice pursued a political party's presidential nomination
and twice failed. He's not
really a presidential candidate. A presidential candidate is on the
ballot in the general election -- or running as a write-in nominee in
the general election. It's kind of like saying Tulsi or Ron or Dennis
graduated
top of their class in medical school when, in fact, they applied but
were not accepted.
While we're
dealing with the transphobe Anya Parampil, let's note a few more things
about her and her racist action. She has a Tweet, by the way, where
people have again called her out and she's whining that's she's tired of
being called a racist and a transphobe.
She's tired of it.
I think the country's tired too -- of her racism and transphobia. Let's note some of the responses.
We could go on and on. And I'm sure the truth hurts for Anya Panya.
And
here's a truth, they could have had two past presidential candidates
participating in their fake action over the weekend. Cynthia McKinney
taped a video for them -- just like Roger Waters. Now maybe Anya used
too much time truing to strut on the stage? Who knows? But they
refused to show it at the rally. They did briefly post it to their
website before pulling it down.
She's not a
racist and it wasn't a racist event, they insist. But the only
African-American woman who was to speak was censored. Cynthia was the
2008 presidential nominee for the Green Party.
Tell
us again, Anya Panya, how you're not a racist and it wasn't a racist
rally but Cynthia was removed from the program? Former member of
Congress, former US presidential candidate.
And
everyone grasp that they decided to remove her after they were already
under fire for the racist nature of their rally. Grasp that. Anya
Panya better get used to being called a racist because she is one. If
she doesn't like being called that, she needs to do the work required to
end her own internal racism. She can start by publicly apologizing to
Cynthia McKinney. If she can't do that? She's just a liar.
Iraq’s environmental activists
are facing threats, harassment, and arbitrary detention by government
officials and armed groups, Human Rights Watch said today.
On February 16, 2023, leading Iraqi environmentalist Jassim al-Asadi
was released after being abducted on February 1 by an unidentified armed
group and held for more than two weeks. Al-Asadi said in a TV interview
that he was subjected to “most severe forms of torture” using
“electricity and sticks” during his captivity, and was moved from place
to place. Human Rights Watch confirmed with his family that the voice in
the interview is his. It appears he was released after intervention by
the Iraqi government. Al-Asadi’s kidnapping is the latest in a string of
acts of retaliation against environmental activists apparently intended
to halt their advocacy.
“Rather than taking decisive steps to solve Iraq’s critical
environmental issues, Iraqi authorities are instead attacking the
messenger,” said Adam Coogle,
deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Decimating the
country’s environmental movement will only worsen Iraq’s capacity to
address environmental crises that affect a range of critical rights.”
Government agencies have detained and prosecuted other activists for
speaking out about environmental problems. Salman Khairalla, another
environmentalist and co-Founder of Humat Dijlah
(Tigris River Protectors Association), told Human Rights Watch that he
believes armed groups and Iraqi officials are targeting key members of
the environmental movement to silence them and send a threatening
message to others.
In November 2022, Human Rights Watch released a report
documenting that Iraqi authorities have failed to ensure any
accountability for state security personnel and state-backed armed
groups responsible for killing, maiming, and disappearing hundreds of
demonstrators and activists since 2019.
Iraqi authorities should immediately hold accountable those
responsible for extrajudicial punishments such as kidnapping, stop using
the justice system to harass and retaliate against environmental
activists, and drop all abusive legal cases against them, Human Rights
Watch said.
Al-Asadi’s brother told Human Rights Watch that al-Asadi was driving
on the highway with his cousin on the morning of February 1 when two
cars stopped him six kilometers south of the capital. Armed men in
civilian clothes handcuffed him and forced him into one of the vehicles,
taking him to an unrevealed location and leaving his cousin in the car
on the side of the road. His brother said he did not know the motivation
behind his brother’s kidnapping but that many government backers were
not happy about his environmental activities.
Al-Asadi is the founder of the local nongovernmental organization, Nature Iraq, which aims,
“to protect, restore, and preserve Iraq’s natural environment and the
rich cultural heritage that it nourishes.” Al-Asadi has appeared
regularly in local and foreign media outlets to raise awareness of the
threats facing the country's southern wetlands, including drought and
loss of vegetation coverage.
His brother said that the family reported the kidnapping to a
National Security office in Baghdad and Iraqi security forces began
investigating the case. The case reached the attention of Iraqi Prime
Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who assured the family
“that there’s no armed force above the law and that everyone is subject
to the authority and law of the state.” A few days later, Al-Asadi was
released, but the reason for his detention and identity of the
kidnappers have not emerged.
Although the Iraqi government appears to have taken steps to
intervene and secure al-Asadi’s release, in other cases Iraqi
authorities themselves have been responsible for retaliation against
environmental activists in response to their efforts to draw attention
to human rights breaches linked to the country’s environment and
climate.
In late 2019, Iraqi authorities arbitrarily detained Salman
Khairalla, another environmentalist, prompting the then-UN special
rapporteur on human rights defenders to intervene to demand his release. After Khairalla was released on bail, he left Baghdad.
Another activist, Raad Habib al-Assadi, head of
Chabbayish Organization, an environmental organization, told Human
Rights Watch that during the 2019 and 2020 droughts that struck Iraq, he
criticized the Water Resources Ministry for its poor policies and
responses to the worsening water situation. He said that he published
basic information about the droughts in the marshes in Nasiriyah, such
as how much the water levels were dropping. The ministry retaliated by
taking him to court.
On October 5, 2020, Dhi Qar Federal Court of Appeals ordered Habib to appear in court under Article 434 of Penal Code,
which criminalizes insulting any person or imputing the reputation of
another, and carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and/or a
fine.
A court acquitted him in February 2021, but ministry representatives
subsequently filed a second case against him, under Article 229 of
Iraq’s Penal Code, which criminalizes insults or threats to, “an
official or other public employee or council or official body in the
execution of their duties or as a consequence of those duties.” This
“crime” is punishable by up to two years in prison or a fine.
Habib told Human Rights Watch that the court also acquitted him of
the new charges, with the final acquittal coming on December 10, 2022.
But ministry officials continue to appeal the acquittal.
Habib said he is forced to attend the appeal hearings to avoid prison
and believes that ministry officials are drawing out the case to punish
him. “Every Monday and Thursday I have to go to the court [to deal with
the appeals],” he said. “But nothing happens when I go to court. I
attend and then the appeal is delayed – one week or 10 days or 14 days.
But if I don’t attend, the authorities can issue an arrest warrant.”
He said ministry officials have offered to drop the case against him
if he pledges to stop criticizing the ministry, but he has refused.
“I did nothing wrong, I only shared information about the droughts in
marshes and they treated me as a criminal,” Habib said. “I can’t travel
or do anything because I have to go to the court every Monday and
Thursday. The ministry officials told me, ‘We want to quiet you.’”
“The Iraqi government’s muzzling of environmentalists who are trying
to raise awareness around the country’s grave challenges is part of a
broader attitude that sees civil society groups as threats rather than partners,” Coogle said.
It seems clear that now is the moment of truth as it is time for Iraq
to comply with American conditions as set out by US Ambassador Alina
Romanowski and as discussed in Turkey and finalised in Washington.
Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani has not hesitated to
inform the leaders of the Coordination Framework that the honeymoon with
the country’s Iranian neighbour is over. He warned that the time had
come to jump from Tehran’s sinking ship, otherwise they would all drown
because prevarication no longer works and everyone is under the
microscope of Federal Reserve monitoring.
The political system in Iraq has come under the supervision of the US
Treasury, whose decisions are more consequential than those of the
State Department and the Pentagon.
Iran can no longer receive a single dollar from Iraq, while Iraqi
banks that used to funnel dollars to Teheran are now threatened with
closure and loss of assets.
Sudani told his audience that any attempt to circumvent US restrictions would amount to playing with fire.
Let's wind down with this from Defending Rights & Dissent:
Australian publisher Julian Assange is a political prisoner. After being abducted out of the Ecuadorian embassy, he has languished in Belmarsh prison for nearly four years. In the intervening time, press freedom groups, major newspapers, and civil libertarians have all condemned the US’s unprecedented charges against Assange. After years of grassroots advocacy, now members of Congress are starting to speak out. But they need to hear your voice.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is currently circulating a sign-on letter calling for Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop the charges against Assange. Other members of Congress can join the letter, but this is an issue that demands courage. They need to hear from you, their constituents.
Will you write your members of Congress right now and ask them to join Rep. Tlaib’s effort? The future of the First Amendment is at stake!
Joe
Biden’s closest advisers have spent months preparing for him to
formally announce his reelection campaign. But with the president still
not ready to make the plunge, a sense of doubt is creeping into
conversations around 2024: What if he decides not to?
Biden’s
past decisions around seeking the presidency have been protracted,
painstaking affairs. This time, he has slipped past his most ambitious
timetable, as previously outlined by advisers, to launch in February.
Now they are coalescing around April.
But
even that target is less than definitive. People in the president’s
orbit say there is no hard deadline or formal process in place for
arriving at a launch date decision. According to four people familiar
with the president’s thinking, a final call has been pushed aside as
real-world events intervene. His cloak-and-dagger trip to Kyiv over the
holiday weekend took meticulous planning and the positive reaction to it
was seen internally as providing him with more runway to turn back to
domestic politics.
[. . .]
But
to the surprise of some Biden allies, they say he has talked only
sparingly about a possible campaign, three people familiar with the
conversations said. His daily focus remains the job itself. Except for
the occasional phone call with an adviser to review polling, he spends
little time discussing the election. While First Lady Jill Biden
signaled long ago she was on board with another run, some in the
president’s orbit now wonder if the impending investigations into Hunter
Biden could cause the president to second-guess a bid. Others believe
it will not.
A
decision from Biden to forego another run would amount to a political
earthquake not seen among Democrats in more than a half century, when
Lyndon B. Johnson paired his partial halting of the U.S. bombing of
Vietnam with his announcement to step aside, citing deepening “division
in the American house now.”
It
would unleash an avalanche of attention on his vice president, Kamala
Harris, whose uneven performances have raised doubts among fellow
Democrats about her ability to win — either the primary, the general
election, or both. And it would dislodge the logjam Biden himself
created in 2020 when he dispatched with the sprawling field of
Democratic contenders, a field that included Harris.
Be great if Joe didn't announce that he was seeking re-election. I wonder if Bernie would have been any better. I like to believe he would be but then I read something like this from Shannon Jones (WSWS):
Sometimes a politician sums up the real essence of their politics in a
few glib words. This was the case with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
when confronted by MSNBC columnist Eric Michael Garcia last week about
the role of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the toxic train
derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
After more than a week-long
silence on the rail disaster, Buttigieg appeared in an interview last
week when he complacently waved off the significance of the derailment
by citing the fact that more than 1,000 derailments occur every year in
the United States. After a sharp public backlash, Buttigieg was forced
to walk this back somewhat by issuing a stern-sounding but toothless
letter to Norfolk Southern. He still has not visited the disaster site,
vaguely claiming he will only do so “when the time is right.”
Sanders’
five-word reply to Garcia’s question—“Did he drive the
train?”—encapsulates the cynical arrogance and hostility to the working
class of this self-identified “democratic socialist.”
Sanders’ statement not only absolved Buttigieg and the Biden administration, but his own responsibility for the disaster. He played a key role
in the maneuvering which led to the passage of an anti-strike law
against railroaders last December. His statement also implicitly blamed
the rail crew, a disgusting slander in light of the unsafe condition of
the rail system that the Democrats and Republicans, including Sanders,
have created through their kowtowing to the massively profitable rail
corporations.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023. Hate merchants in the US continue to
sport their stupidity, Human Rights Watch notes the attacks on the LGBTQ
community in the Middle East and North Africa and much more.
An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale hit Nineveh
governorate in northern Iraq on Wednesday morning, according to a
statement issued by the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and
Seismology.
The Seismology Department of the Ministry of Transport mentioned in
the statement that the seismic observatories recorded an earthquake on
Wednesday morning, February 22, 2023, at 10:09 local time, 39 kilometers
southwest of Al-Hadar district in Nineveh governorate, the Iraqi News
Agency (INA) reported.
The statement confirmed that the earthquake was felt by the citizens in the area, and emphasized that no losses were reported.
No losses will hopefully continue to be the reality. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has issued a new report on the targeting of LGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa:
Government officials across the Middle East and North Africa
region are targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
people based on their online activity on social media, Human Rights
Watch said in a report released today. Security forces have entrapped
LGBT people on social media and dating applications, subjected them to
online extortion, online harassment, and outing, and relied on
illegitimately obtained digital photos, chats, and similar information
in prosecutions, in violation of the right to privacy and other human
rights.
“The authorities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia have
integrated technology into their policing of LGBT people,” said Rasha Younes,
senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While digital
platforms have enabled LGBT people to express themselves and amplify
their voices, they have also become tools for state-sponsored
repression.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 90 LGBT people affected by digital
targeting and 30 experts, including lawyers and digital rights
professionals. Human Rights Watch also reviewed online evidence of
targeting against LGBT people, including videos, images, and digital
threats. The research had support from members of the Coalition for
Digital and LGBT Rights: in Egypt, Masaar and an LGBT rights
organization in Cairo whose name is withheld for security reasons; in
Iraq, IraQueer and the Iraqi Network for Social Media (INSM); in Jordan,
Rainbow Street and the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA); in
Lebanon, Helem and Social Media Exchange (SMEX); and in Tunisia, Damj
Association.
Human Rights Watch documented 45 cases of arbitrary arrest involving
40 LGBT people targeted online in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia.
In every instance of arrest, security forces searched people’s phones,
by force or under threat of violence, to collect – or even create –
personal digital information to enable their prosecution, Human Rights
Watch found.
In reviewing judicial files for 23 cases of LGBT people prosecuted
based on digital evidence under laws criminalizing same-sex conduct,
“inciting debauchery,” “debauchery,” “prostitution,” and cybercrime laws
in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, Human Rights Watch found that
most of those prosecuted were acquitted upon appeal. In five cases,
people were convicted and sentenced to one to three years in prison.
Twenty-two people were never charged but were held in pretrial
detention, in one case for 52 days at a police station in Lebanon.
LGBT people who were detained reported facing numerous due process
violations, including officials confiscating their phones, denying them
access to a lawyer, and forcing them to sign coerced confessions. LGBT
detainees reported being denied food and water, family and legal
representation, and medical services as well as verbal, physical, and
sexual assault. Some were placed in solitary confinement. Transgender
women detainees were routinely held in men’s cells, where they faced
sexual assault and other ill-treatment. In one case, a transgender woman
held in a police station in Egypt said she experienced repeated sexual
assault for 13 months.
Human Rights Watch documented 20 cases of online entrapment on Grindr
and Facebook by security forces, who created fake profiles to
impersonate LGBT people, in Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan; and 17 cases of
online extortion by private individuals on Grindr, Instagram, and
Facebook in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, including by organized
gangs in Egypt and armed groups in Iraq. The six people who reported the
extortion to the authorities were themselves arrested.
Human Rights Watch documented 26 cases of online harassment,
including doxxing and outing, on Facebook and Instagram in Jordan,
Lebanon, and Tunisia. As a result, LGBT people reported losing their
jobs, suffering family violence, being forced to change their residence
and phone numbers, and deleting their social media accounts, fleeing the
country, and suffering severe mental health consequences. Most reported
the abuse to the relevant digital platform, but none removed the
content.
The targeting of LGBT people online is enabled by their precarious
legal status, Human Rights Watch said. In the absence of protection by
laws or sufficient digital platform regulations, both security forces
and private individuals have been able to target them with impunity.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,
social media companies have a responsibility to respect human rights,
including the rights to nondiscrimination, privacy, and freedom of
expression. Digital platforms, such as Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and
Grindr, are not doing enough to protect users vulnerable to digital
targeting, Human Rights Watch said.
Digital platforms should invest in content moderation, particularly
in Arabic, by quickly removing abusive content as well as content that
could put users at risk. Platforms should conduct human rights due
diligence that includes identifying, preventing, ceasing, mitigating,
remediating, and accounting for potential and actual adverse impacts of
digital targeting on human rights.
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia each have obligations under
international and regional human rights law to address violations
against LGBT people. The five governments should respect and protect the
rights of LGBT people instead of criminalizing their expression and
targeting them online, Human Rights Watch said. They should introduce
and enforce laws protecting people against discrimination on the grounds
of sexual orientation and gender identity, including online.
“Online abuses against LGBT people have offline consequences that
reverberate throughout their lives and can be detrimental to their
livelihood, mental health, and safety,” Younes said. “Authorities across
the MENA region should stop targeting LGBT people, online and offline,
and social media companies should mitigate the adverse impacts of
digital targeting by better protecting LGBT people online.”
Hate
spreads around the world. No doubt helped along by US hate merchants.
Which one of our Christian illiterates to start with today? How about
the high school drop out who struggled with her GED repeatedly after
disappointing her church and her family by getting pregnant out of
wedlock and underage? Sorry, Boh-Boh, those are supposed to be your
values. Maybe a little more repenting for violating your own church
teachings and a little less hate -- and stupidity -- would help you
out? Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports Lauren's latest stupidity:
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) took to Twitter to denounce an
international group of scientists that is working to make language in
the field of ecology and evolutionary biology more precise and
inclusive… and it seems she didn’t really understand what they are
doing.
“The ‘party of women’ really wants to erase women,” she tweeted in reply to a screenshot from a headline from the U.K.’s Telegraph.
There is a lot wrong with that statement that could be found in just a few minutes of searching online.
First, she is referring to the Democratic Party in the U.S. with the
expression “party of women,” but the article she is sharing is about the
EEB (ecology and evolutionary biology) Language Project, which is being
led by an international group of ecology and evolutionary biology
researchers. The British newspaper article she was referring to even presented quotes from English and Canadian scientists. None were from the U.S. or associated with the Democratic Party.
Second, the article isn’t about an attempt to erase any language in
common speech, but instead about a discussion of language used in
scientific articles. That is, literature that Boebert herself is not
likely to ever encounter.
Third, the specific complaint about “egg-producing” and
“sperm-producing” replacing “female” and “male” isn’t about women, which
is a word used for humans. Since they’re biologists, they are often
talking about other species that express sexual dimorphism.
How
humiliating. She's just reminding everyone what an uneducated moron
she is. Poor Boh-Boh, such a stupid idiot. Humiliated by her own
mouth and her own ignorance yet again. If stupidity were a felony,
Lauren would be serving a life sentence.
Former Trump administration official and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) kicked off the first rally for her new presidential campaign
on Wednesday in South Carolina with an invocation by John Hagee, an
evangelical pastor who opposes same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+
anti-discrimination ordinances. Hagee has also said that the Antichrist
is gay, that God sent Hitler to push Jews into Israel, and that God sent
Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for holding a Pride parade.
The following day, while speaking at an Exeter, New Hampshire town hall, Haley said of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law “I don’t think [it] goes far enough.”
While the law bans Kindergarten through third-grade teachers from
discussing subjects related to sexual orientation and gender identity,
which some say includes even mentioning LGBTQ+ people, a teacher’s
same-sex partner, or a student’s LGBTQ+ parents, she compared such
acknowledgment to sexual education.
At her South Carolina kickoff rally, Haley said
“Pastor Hagee, I still say I want to be you when I grow up,” after he
finished his invocation. The line was met with scant applause from the
audience. When she served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under
Trump, she spoke to Hagee’s group, Christians United for Israel, at its
annual summit. Hagee also presented her with an award for her support
of Israel.
Wait. Nikki wants to be Pastor Hagee? She wants to be a man? Did she just come out as transgender?
Regardless,
at 51, you should have already grown up long ago, Nikki. But thank you
for explaining that you hadn't and thereby giving the American voters
another reason to reject you.
Where there is hate there is always Marjorie Taylor Greene. Alex Bollinger notes Marjorie's fallen for another conspiracy:
While Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been under fire during Presidents’ Day weekend for calling for secession,
she also promoted an unlikely and unverified story about a transgender
teenager who regrets taking testosterone as part of hormone replacement
therapy.
The eccentric Canadian anti-transgender activist Chris Elston
posted a screenshot to Twitter of a story an anonymous person wrote on
Reddit. Greene decided to share that with her nearly two million
followers and wrote: “This is incredibly heartbreaking. We must pass my
bill Protect Children’s Innocence Act.”
Let's note THE DAILY SHOW again for Chelsea Handler's look at MTG.
Marjorie
Taylor Greene: I have people come up to me and say crazy things to me
out of the blue in public places that they believe because they read it
on the internet.
Chelsea
Handler: Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle QAnon. This
woman thought 9/11 was a hoax, that the Clintons killed JFK Jr. and that
Jews are in charge of space lasers. But please, don't come at her with
some crazy ideas -- she might believe them.
Some
are surprised that the great Glenneth Greenwald would make Marjorie his
gal pal. Why? It's just his way, as the 20th anniversary of the Iraq
War approaches, of Glenneth returning to his roots. He pretended to be
left but he never was. He was always a Libertarian and he was always
the pathetic ass that was cheerleader for the Iraq War. Naturally he'd
want MTG for his hag.
CODESTINK quickly. Yesterday's snapshot resulted in questions. I'm going to try to zip through this.
Medea
Benjamin and her ilk have betrayed many and that includes a number of
veterans who turned against the war. We could go into details on that
but the leadership is good at getting headlines and press coverage, but
they're not helping anyone -- and, in fact, they've left a number of
people hurt.
Grass roots activists have also been hurt.
And as DiFi finally goes packing -- finally -- let's call out Medea for her nonsense.
You need to step aside, old woman.
This was supposed to be a thriving and young organization. You and your old age are killing it.
Gloria
Steinem worked to kick Betty Friedan out of leadership on the feminist
movement when Betty was in her 50s. Gloria became everything she
accused Betty of as she refused to step aside and make room for young
blood. Now, in the early seventies, when some feminists (including
Gloria) were under fire for being unaware and unsympathetic to the
plight of feminists of color, Gloria went around (briefly) with one of
two African-American women. So she did know how to share the stage --
when she was afraid of being called a racist -- not so afraid that she'd
stay away from a millionaire racist later on and expose Alice Walker's
daughter Rebecca to the racist.
But the point
is, when it was good for her, she happily spoke with another woman.
Yet in the 80s, 90s on up to today, she never felt the need to partner
with a younger feminist and ease a transition in leadership.
Medea's become the new Gloria Steinem.
Too desperate for the spotlight to step aside.
CODESTINK
doesn't need to die with Medea. The young women have always been the
most interesting and most vibrant thing about CODEPINK.
And,
in fact, these are the women who opposed sharing a stage with convicted
pedophile Scott Ritter and forced Medea to step down from the stage for
that fake-ass event.
Medea whined about it on Twitter.
If
she were serious about a movement, Susan Benjamin would have said some
time ago that she was stepping down, that at 70, she's really too old
for this and that it's time for her to let other women, younger women,
lead the way.
But I Need Attention Benjamin would rather have her close up for eternity than end any wars.
