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Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Dumb Doo-Doo DeSantis (and I weigh in on Palestine)

Doo-Doo DeSantis is such a dumb-dumb. David Badash reports:

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is keeping the pressure on Ron DeSantis, blasting the Florida Republican Governor for struggling to say Republicans should not be dining with Holocaust deniers.

“A very simple question -- should Republicans dine with a holocaust denier?” Gov. Newsom asked on social media, posting video of DeSantis speaking with CNN earlier Wednesday.

“It takes Ron DeSantis 4 questions, 3 attempts at a pivot, and over a minute to give an even semi-coherent answer,” he observed. “Listen for yourself…”

DeSantis was being asked about Nick Fuentes, a Christian nationalist and self-avowed white supremacist and antisemite. According to the Anti-Defamation League(ADL), “Nicholas Fuentes is a white supremacist leader, organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.”

ADL says that “Fuentes believes that he is working to defend against ‘leftist’ cultural changes that are destroying the ‘true America:’ a white, Christian nation,” and “Fuentes has been embraced and praised by far right-wing and mainstream conservatives, providing him a larger platform for elevating the America First movement.”

Doo-Doo probably got thrown by the word "dine." He's not very bright. I had an e-mail about Israel and Palestine. I love all people -- even if I'm not crazy about some of their governments. I am sad that the fighting is taking place. I am of the opinion that as long as the Palestinians continue to be oppressed, there will be violence. That's not an uncommon view in the world or even in Israel. Right now we're buried under a wave or propaganda, I know. But we were colonies in the 1700s and we also colonized. The effects of oppression should not be a surprise to any American who knows even a little bit of history. The Palestinians have been denied their rights and their dignity. If violence right now bothers you, call for a Free Palestine because that's the only way this ends instead of flaring up repeatedly over and over. My opinion. Like it or hate it. But I was asked.

I'll note this from JACOBIN's Ben Burgess:

In other words, as Israel begins military operations, funded by generous US aid that will leave who knows how many thousands of Palestinian civilians dead, almost the whole mainstream American political spectrum is united in cheering it on. The only politicians offering any kind of real dissent are democratic socialists like Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib.

They don’t always get this stuff right. I’ve criticized their foreign policy views when I’ve thought criticism was warranted. But right now they’re the only ones acknowledging Palestinian humanity and talking about the roots of the cycle of violence in the ugly realities of Israeli apartheid. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Notice that you don't see fake ass Barbara Lee's name in there. I remember when she fake-assed her way into Nancy Pelosi's lap when Pelosi was abusing Cynthia McKinney. Babsie-Lee takes care of Babsie-Lee. Good for Tlaib and Bush.

Back to Doo-Doo, Nikki Haley is not going to play with him. Julia Johnson reports:

Supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley's presidential run are ramping up criticism of Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R-FL) 2024 campaign as she looks to oust him from his second-place status behind former President Donald Trump.

Stand for America Fund, the super PAC supporting Haley's 2024 bid, labeled DeSantis's most recent swing in Iowa the "DeSantis DeSperation tour" as the governor looks to complete his visits to all 99 counties in the state.

In a press release, the super PAC said the Florida governor's campaign is "floundering."

"Florida Man is working his way across the Hawkeye State to save his campaign ahead of the Iowa caucuses. 99 counties in 99 days is a lot of ground to cover to really convince the voters and donors that his campaign isn't flatlining," it read, referencing the 97 days until the Iowa first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses take place.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Wednesday, October 11, 2023. The Middle East remains on fire.

Starting in the Middle East, Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) notes, "The United Nations' emergency relief coordinator warned Tuesday that devastating violence in Israel and Gaza has pushed the entire region to a 'tipping point' and demanded an immediate cessation of all attacks as the civilian death toll continues to climb." Alex Lantier (WSWS) writes:

On Sunday, three days after Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip launched an offensive against Israeli occupation forces blockading the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s regime announced a siege of the Gaza Strip. After Netanyahu pledged to extract an “unprecedented price” in lives from Palestinians in Gaza, the Zionist regime is preparing bloody mass repression.

The fascistic outlook of top Israeli officials was bluntly expressed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. After of a meeting Monday morning of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Southern Command in Beersheba, which is currently carrying out large-scale bombings of Gaza, Gallant declared: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”

To justify his decision to target Gaza’s entire population of 2 million, Gallant compared them to animals, saying: “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

In a nationally televised speech yesterday, Netanyahu stressed that Israel’s current bombings of Gaza are “just the beginning” of the planned onslaught against Gaza. He declared, “I said that every place from which Hamas operates will turn into ruins. It is already happening today, it will happen even more in the future.” He echoed Gallant’s langauge, calling the Palestinians “animals.”

Netanyahu added in a post on Twitter, “We will extract a price that will be remembered by them and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come. … They are savages.”

That's not the rhetoric of peace, it's the rhetoric of unhinged madmen. It does not need to be applauded, it needs to be called out. Olivia Roseane (COMMON DREAMS) explains, "Gaza is a 141-square mile stretch of territory where 2.3 million people reside. Around half of its population are children, and at least 140 of them have been killed in the bombardment so far, according to CBS. Israel has blocked all entrances and exits to Gaza except for the border crossing into Egypt at Rafah, which was shuttered Tuesday due to nearby bombing, according to AP." Yesterday on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted:

Israel’s military says it has retaken control of the Gaza separation barrier breached by Hamas and is laying landmines in the area. On Monday, an Israeli airstrike hit the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, temporarily closing the territory’s only link with Egypt. The crossing was reportedly struck again on Tuesday, injuring two people and leaving a crater obstructing the movement of people and supplies across the border. This comes after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to completely cut off the Gaza Strip and its 2 million inhabitants from the outside world.

Yoav Gallant: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by Israel’s siege of Gaza. The U.N.’s top human rights official wrote in response, “The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”

When you slaughtering people, you don't want it reported and you target journalists -- just like Bully Boy Bush did in Iraq. So although saddening, it's really not surprising that the government of Israel is doing the same thing. Zane McNeill (TRUTH OUT) reports:

Israel’s ongoing shelling of the Gaza strip has killed at least six Palestinian journalists over the past few days, press freedom watchdogs say.

On Tuesday, journalist Saeed al-Taweel, editor-in-chief of Al-Khamsa News, was killed while reporting, along with two other members of the press. “Unfortunately, they have sent a warning notice to the Hiji building just now that it will be bombed,” al-Taweel said shortly before being killed, according to Al Jazeera. “The area has been evacuated entirely. Women, men, the elderly, kids have all completely fled the area.”

Al-Taweel and the other members of the press had been standing hundreds of meters from the stated target, but the air attack instead hit a building closer to them. All members of the crew had been wearing clothes and helmets that clearly identified themselves as members of the media.

On Saturday, two other journalists, Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi and Mohammad Jarghoun, were shot dead while reporting, according to the Palestinian press freedom group Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) and the Journalist Support Committee (JSC). The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also reported on Saturday that freelance journalist Mohammad el-Salhi had been shot dead in the central Gaza Strip. Two Palestinian photographers, Nidal al-Wahidi from the Al-Najah channel and Haitham Abdelwahid, have been reported missing since Saturday.

Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. We’re joined now by Mohammed El-Kurd, Palestinian journalist, poet, writer, correspondent for The Nation, culture editor at Mondoweiss, born and raised in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Mohammed, can you comment, overall, on this situation right now and what you think needs to happen?

MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I honestly —

AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed — Mohammed, you’re muted. We cannot hear you.

MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I think —can you hear me now?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.

MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I honestly do not know what to tell you. It feels to me as though we are living in the very first few days of an unfolding genocide. I mean, not only are Israeli politicians and journalists alike and global forces calling for the annihilation of the Gaza Strip, for bombing it into the Stone Ages, declaring that they are interested in inflicting damage and not really precision, but these images that we are — these images that we are seeing coming outside of the Gaza Strip are so harrowing and devastating that one wonders — one wonders how much bloodshed, how much Palestinian death is necessary for people to realize that violence begets violence and that the occupation and the colonization of Palestine, the blockade of the Gaza Strip needs to end for all of this violence to end.

I mean, I am incredibly angered that word-of-mouth, unverified reports of, quote-unquote, “rape and decapitation,” which obviously draw on Islamophobic tropes, have garnered more and more political and global outrage than those very images, than a video of a nurse announcing and screaming in distress that her husband has been killed in an Israeli airstrike. And, you know, the PR strategy of the Israeli regime throughout all of this has been to invoke those Islamophobic sentiments, like calling it Israel’s — quote-unquote, “Israel’s 9/11.” And media outlets and journalists who have taken on this framing without any questioning not only work to equate the violence of a besieged, politically isolated group like Hamas with the violence of al-Qaeda and ISIS and so on, but they are also doing the dirty work for Israelis. They are preemptively justifying the genocide of hundreds and thousands of Palestinians. They are justifying a brutal onslaught that is about to come globally. And that should be alarming.

I mean, we have seen this unfold during 9/11. We have seen this unfold in history, the utilization of Islamophobia, the dehumanization, the constant dehumanizations of Palestinians, the refusal to see them as human beings who have the right to resist and to defend themselves and to be angry and to want the right to self-determination and to not want to live in siege anymore. All of this refusal to see all of this is contributing, is contributing to this oncoming onslaught, where Israeli politicians can just call Palestinians “human animals,” can just say that they are not really concerned with saving anyone, can threaten to bomb aid envoys coming in from Egypt. This should be concerning to everybody around the world. It is terrifying times we are living in.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And this whole issue [inaudible] hostage situation, as well. Hamas has reported that in one of the bombing attacks, some of the hostages were killed along with those Hamas militants who were guarding them. What do you think the Israeli government posture will continue to be on this issue of the hostages?

MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I mean, so far Hamas has said that they are willing to release all of the female detainees, if Israel is going to release the 36 Palestinian female prisoners currently lingering in Israeli prisons, but the Israeli government has refused to negotiate. In fact, Israeli ministers, like Smotrich, have said that they could not care less about the hostages, and their goal is to inflict as much damage as possible on the besieged Gaza Strip.

And I also want us to get one thing correctly: Holding 2 million people under blockade is a very serious hostage situation. This is what we’re dealing with, the fact that the Israeli regime has been holding Palestinians in Gaza as hostages to exert political pressure on groups like Hamas. The fact that a quarter, 25%, of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prison are held without detention — are held without trial or charges is a hostage situation. The fact that even in death, Palestinian corpses are held in mortuary chambers to be used as bargaining chips is a hostage situation. But time and time again, we are shown by the world its double standards. We are told that the only violence that matters is the violence inflicted upon Israelis, and the only lives that matter are the lives of Israelis. Palestinians have been living as hostages for the past 16 years in this blockade. That must, must end. And it is incumbent upon us as journalists to make this context clear.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds, Mohammed El-Kurd. You’ve been in the United States a lot. Of course, you live in Sheikh Jarrah. President Biden is about to give an address. What do you want to hear him say?

MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Well, I know what he is going to say about his biggest, biggest ally in the region. But I also know that my family and my neighborhood have experienced settlers attacks, who — they throw Molotov cocktails overnight. I know that settler violence has been intensifying both in the Old City of Jerusalem and all around the occupied West Bank and even in 1948 territories. And I know that lip service from Biden is not going to address it. But the world needs to know that as long as the occupation persists, as long as the apartheid system persists, resistance to it is going to persist. It is not a difficult equation to understand. People deserve dignity and freedom and to live safely in their homes.

AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed El-Kurd, I want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian journalist, writer, correspondent for The Nation, culture editor at Mondoweiss.

Some members of Congress has mistaken Israel for the 52nd state of the United States (they already believe that Ukraine is the fifty-first). It is not. And all this talk from various members of Congress -- on both sides of the aisle -- is distressing for a number of reasons. First, we've gone from the police of the world to the credit union? Is that what's happening because Americans aren't seeing any financial improvement. Second, it's really past time to tell the Israeli government to get their feet off the neck of the Palestinians. Third, this is an ally? How many times are spies for Israel caught in the US? Or let's drop back to 1967:

SC No. 01415/67

Washington, June 13, 1967.

THE ISRAELI ATTACK ON THE USS LIBERTY

The US Naval technical research ship Liberty was attacked by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats off the Sinai Peninsula on 8 June. The following account of the circumstances of the attack has been compiled from all available sources.

1. The Liberty reported at 9:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. Washington time) on 8 June that it had been orbited by two delta-wing jet fighters, presumably Israeli Mirages. At 3:05 p.m. (8:05 a.m.) the Liberty was strafed by unidentified jet aircraft. The Liberty apparently was not able to establish communications with other units of the US Sixth Fleet during the air attack, and the first information available to the US commanders was after the subsequent attack by unidentified torpedo boats, which occurred at 3:25 p.m.

2. At 4:11 p.m. (9:11 a.m.) the US Commander in Chief, Europe, notified the National Military Command Center in Washington that the Liberty was under attack and was listing to starboard after being struck by a torpedo. The Commander of the US Sixth Fleet declared the attacking units hostile and sent attack aircraft from the carriers America and Saratoga to protect the Liberty. A good part of the ship’s communications equipment was destroyed by the crew during the attack but emergency communications were soon established with the Saratoga and with the naval communications station in Greece. Because of the tenseness of the situation and the communications delays, the initial reports from the Liberty were sketchy and somewhat confusing.

Specifics of the Attack

3. According to these reports, however, the sequence of events took place as follows. The ship was attacked at 3:05 p.m. (8:05 a.m.) by [Page 470] unidentified jet fighters, believed to be Israeli, at position 31–35N, 33–29E. Six strafing runs were made by the jets. Twenty minutes later three torpedo boats closed at high speed and two of them launched torpedoes after first circling the Liberty. One torpedo passed astern, and the other struck the starboard side of the ship in the spaces occupied by the SIGINT collectors. One of the boats was later identified as Israeli and the hull number of one unit was noted as 206–T. Some 50 minutes later two Israeli helicopters arrived on the scene.

Israeli Identification of the Ship

4. None of the communications of the attacking aircraft and torpedo boats is available, but the intercepted conversations between the helicopter pilots and the control tower at Hatzor (near Tel Aviv) leave little doubt that the Israelis failed to identify the Liberty as a US ship before or during the attack. Control told (helicopter) 815 at 3:31 p.m. (8:31 a.m.) that “there is a warship there which we attacked. The men jumped into the water from it. You will try to rescue them.” Although there were other references to a search for the men in the water and although US units later searched the area, no survivors were recovered from the sea, nor were there any indications that any of the 22 missing personnel from the Liberty had been lost overboard.

5. A subsequent message from the control tower to the helicopter identified the ship as Egyptian and told the pilot to return home. Although the Liberty is some 200 feet longer than the Egyptian transport El Quesir, it could easily be mistaken for the latter vessel by an overzealous pilot. Both ships have similar hulls and arrangements of masts and stack.

6. The weather was clear in the area of attack, the Liberty’s hull number (GTR 5) was prominently displayed, and an American flag was flying. The helicopter pilot was then urgently requested to identify the survivors as Egyptian or English speaking (this being the first indication that the Israelis suspected they may have attacked a neutral ship). The helicopter pilot reported seeing an American flag on the Liberty. In another intercept between an unidentified Israeli controller and the helicopter number 815, the pilot reported that number GTR 5 was written on the ship’s side. The controller told the pilot the number had no significance.

7. Thus it was not until 4:12 p.m. (9:12 a.m.) that the Israelis became convinced that the Liberty was American. This was about 44 minutes after the last attack on the ship and the attack had apparently been called off, not because the ship had been identified, but because it seemed to be sinking. (The US Defense Attaché in Tel Aviv reports that Israeli helicopters and the three torpedo boats searched the area until 6:04 p.m. (11:04 a.m.).) The Israeli offer of assistance was declined [Page 471] because of the sensitive mission of the ship. According to US Navy reports, the ship was saved only through the efforts of her crew.

Damage and Personnel Losses

8. The ship suffered heavy material and personnel casualties. A hole estimated to be 39 feet wide at the bottom and 24 feet wide at the top near the waterline was opened by a torpedo. The ship is flooded below the second deck between frames 52 and 78 (36-inch frame spacing). The crew carried out emergency destruction of classified communications and radar equipment, but the ship’s engineering plant is intact. Several flash fires and cannon holes throughout the superstructure caused some minor damage and the ship’s motor whale boat and virtually all of its life rafts were lost. Personnel casualties include 10 killed, 90 wounded, and 22 missing, most of whom were probably trapped in the flooded compartments. The wounded and the dead have been removed from the ship and some additional crew members put aboard. The ship is expected to arrive in Malta on 14 June for dry docking and hull repairs. Security precautions are being taken to protect the classified intercept equipment in the flooded spaces. The US Navy has convened a board of inquiry to look into the incident.

The Ship and Its Orders

9. The USS Liberty is a converted Victory class merchant ship utilized as a SIGINT collector. The unit had moved from its normal station off West Africa to provide additional SIGINT coverage of the Middle East crisis. Official US statements, however, have described the Liberty as an electronics research ship which had been diverted to the crisis area to act as a radio relay station for US embassies.

10. The Liberty sailed from Rota, Spain, on 2 June under orders to patrol no closer than 12.5 miles of the UAR coast and 6.5 miles of the Israeli coast. A modification of orders issued by the Commander of the US Sixth Fleet at 12:17 p.m. (5:17 a.m.) on 8 June had not been received aboard the Liberty, according to the ship’s commanding officer, before the Israeli attack. This change, together with messages from other commands which ordered the Liberty to approach no closer than 100 miles of the coasts of the UAR and Israel and 25 miles of the coast of Cyprus, was delayed in transmission in part because of a misunderstanding of responsibilities for delivery.

11. At annex is a listing of events in chronological order.

That's not THE NATION or THE PROGRESSIVE or COUNTERPUNCH (though COUNTERPUNCH has reported extensively on the above attack), that's from the office of the historian of the US State Dept and that's a memo prepared by the CIA.

The state of Israel was placed on top of occupied land, the Palestinians' land. They are the ones occupied. It's a basic point made and, as Jacquie Luqman said on BLACK POWER MEDIA's THE MORNING REMIX SHOW yesterday (video below),

Jacquie Luqman: I'm not sure whatpeople think decolonization is supposed to look like? Like what ya'll think that's supposed to be? What ya'll think happens? The Palestinians are supposed to --

Kamau Franklin: Ask nicely.

(He was being sarcastic).

Jacquie Luqman: Right! Seriously, you're going to ask your imprisoners not to nicely? You're going to ask the people who've stolen your land and are in the process of ethnically cleansing you from the land that's yours? You're going to ask the people who have penned two-and-a-half million of you into an open air prison, keeping you from your own homes that you still have keys for -- that the government, this illegitimate government has given to a bunch of White people who don't live there, ain't from there? You supposed to ask them people nicely?

While the White House and members of the US Congress cheer this destruction on, it looks different to the rest of the world. REUTERS notes:

Hadi Al-Amiri, a powerful Iraqi politician close to Iran and a key figure in the cross-party alliance backing Iraq's government, has threatened to target U.S. interests if Washington intervenes to support Israel in its conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Amiri leads the Badr Organisation, a Shi'ite political group supported by Iran that makes up a big part of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the state paramilitary organization that contains many Iran-backed factions.

"If they intervene, we would intervene...if the Americans intervened openly in this conflict...we will consider all American targets legitimate ... and we will not hesitate to target it," al-Amiri said during a tribal gathering in Baghdad on Monday night.

Staying with Iraq, the northern section, the Kurdistan, remains threatened and terrorized by the government of Turkey. Turkey violates the sovereignty of Iraq by bombing the Kurdistan, by sending troops in, by setting up bases, by burning down forests. All in the name of fighting 'terrorism.' AFP reports:

Turkey's president on Wednesday vowed to intensify strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Turkey has been bombing sites in northeast Syria since Thursday, hitting civilian and military targets and infrastructure and causing casualties, according to Kurdish authorities.

"We have already intensified air operations and we will continue, and show the terrorists that we can destroy them anywhere and at any moment," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, referring to fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Monday, MINA ISMAIL and LENA MASRI (REUTERS) reported:

Seventeen-year-old Samir Saado was finishing his cleaning shift at the village medical centre when an airstrike hit the building.

"I didn't see anything other than dust and smoke," said Saado, a member of Iraq’s minority Yazidi community. "My leg was stuck under the rubble. I called for help and people were coming but the planes kept striking.”

At least four civilians were killed that day, Aug. 17, 2021, local officials said. Among the dead was Saado’s father, who worked as a cook at the centre in Iraq’s northern Sinjar province, about 100 km (62 miles) from the Turkish border. Saado suffered a broken pelvis and a cracked skull.

The strike was part of escalating attacks by Turkish aircraft and drones in mainly Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria, which have since continued, a Reuters data analysis shows. Western firms have supplied critical components for the drones, which Kurdish and Iraqi officials say Turkey is deploying with increasing frequency.

[. . .]

Reuters analysed violent incidents recorded by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a global research organisation that collects reports from media outlets, government reports, non-governmental groups and other sources. This analysis shows that in 2022, Turkey carried out at least 2,044 airstrikes in mostly Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria, a 53% increase on the previous year and the highest number since ACLED began documenting strikes across the two countries in 2017. The figure is likely a conservative estimate because Reuters’ analysis excluded airstrikes that may have been conducted in battle.

ACLED draws information about airstrikes in northern Iraq and Syria from sources including the PKK’s military wing, the Turkish state-owned news agency Anadolu and conflict monitors the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Airwars and Liveuamap.

We're moving over to film and Julia Ormond. I am not a friend of Julia's so keep that in mind -- I'm not rushing to rescue her. She is one of the two foreign actresses that CAA tried to pimp out to Harvey. Last Friday, she came forward with a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein, MIRMAX, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY and CAA. That day's snapshot originally had two paragraphs about this but they were pulled for space and also because I thought that they could have been worded better. Kept meaning to get back to it. In the meantime, e-mails. I'm silent it must mean she's lying! I could be silent just because I don't know anything. In this case, I do know. This did happen to her. We've noted her and another actress who were basically set up -- noted them for five years now? They were both non-Americans and they both appeared in a few hit movies and then were disappeared due to Harvey.

Julia's telling the truth. I believe her because I heard about it repeatedly. Many women were offended by it and a few left CAA as a result. Again, I'm not Julia's friend -- we aren't close and never were -- but I did hear about that over and over. As I noted when mentioning the two unnamed actresses, they need to sue. I'm glad Julia is suing. The other actress works constantly in film but she doesn't make films many films in the US as a result of Harvey blackballing her. (You have to go back over 40 films to find her in a US production. She works constantly but not in the US.) CAA willingly and knowingly set actresses up with Harvey and the actress was always told it was about a job when there was usually no role being offered or considered.

Staying on films, SOUND OF FREEDOM. The right-wing tried to make it a cause celebre over the summer. It's apparently some fright wing fringers idea of a family movie. CRAPAPEDIA notes:

While the film does not mention any QAnon conspiracy theories,^[78]^[79]^[80]^[81] some critics and anti-trafficking experts have opined that the film embellishes the reality of child exploitation and stokes QAnon conspiracy theories,^[5] referring to a "belief that a core group of devil-worshiping elite run the world".^[82] Both Ballard and star Caviezel have been public about their belief in conspiracy theories of the QAnon movement.^[75]^[83]

On NPR's All Things Considered, Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, argued that the film is "being marketed to QAnon believers, it's being embraced by this community, and its leading actor is a huge part of the QAnon community".^[84]

Ballard has criticized those drawing a connection between the film and QAnon, saying, "They make zero connection to the actual story. It's very difficult to make that connection when it's actually based on a true story." He told The New York Times, "Some of these theories have allowed people to open their eyes, so now it's our job to flood the space with real information so the facts can be shared."^[76]^[85]

In addition, embarrassments and closet cases rushed to endorse the film -- Mel Gibson, Elon Musk, Jewel (she showed her true self on that COMEDY CENTRAL roast, didn't she?), Donald Trump and Ben Shapiro.

So we've had the charges of child kidnapping filed against one of the funders and we've had another producer bragging about grabbing women's breasts. As Elaine noted last night Tim Ballard is now being sued for abuse and harassment by five women. And then Ryan Smith (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Eduardo Verástegui, one of Sound of Freedom's producers, has shared footage of himself engaging in target practice as he suggested it represented the actions he would take against members of the LGBTQ+ community, among others.

The actor and singer, who has officially filed the paperwork to run as an independent candidate for Mexico's 2024 presidential race, shared the video footage and accompanying caption on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Dressed in a black ensemble, Verástegui is seen aiming a firearm at a target while standing outdoors in a walled space. The 12-second footage showed him firing several rounds.

While Verástegui did not speak in the footage, the 49-year-old's choice of words in his accompanying caption captured the attention of social media users.

"Look at what we are going to do to the terrorists of the 2030 agenda, climate change and gender ideology," read the caption, which was written in Spanish. "I'm reading you [your comments]."

It was always a leering film but especially now it need to be called out for the garbage it is. There's a reason the film sickened so many -- it was made by sick people and for all the pretense that it was about ending exploitation, there's not a single shot in that film that doesn't qualify as exploitation.

That so many crooked and hateful people were involved in the project is no surprise -- that's made clear with the final product shown on screens.

Staying with hate merchants, Aila Slisco (NEWSWEEK) reports on a woman apparently assaulted in NYC because a deli worker thought she was transgendered:

A New York City woman has sued a deli, alleging that a former employee assaulted her as he mistook her for being transgender.

Jasmine Adams, a 35-year-old mother of two, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that she was attacked by a cashier during a visit to purchase marijuana for a friend at Staten Island's West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill on July 28, according to New York's Daily News.

Following a dispute over the marijuana—which has become widely available at retail stores in the city since it was legalized in 2021—the worker purportedly became hostile and threatened to call police, prompting Adams to urge him to follow through with the threat.

Adams, who is bisexual and was wearing an Apple Watch wristband featuring rainbow Pride flag colors at the time, alleges that the worker then called her a "transvestite" and flew into a violent rage.

"I heard him call me a transvestite," Adams told the Daily News. "I'm like, 'Transvestite? I'm a whole female. I have lady parts.'"

The lawsuit accuses the deli worker of spraying Adams in the face with mace before running from behind the counter to further assault her. Adams said that she attempted to hit him with a coffee pot when he grabbed her hair and dragged her out of the store while calling her a "b****," according to the suit.

A video of the incident reviewed by the newspaper purportedly shows the worker dragging Adams down a set of concrete stairs as bystanders react with shock. With Adams on the ground, the worker proceeds to kick her in the head.

"Next thing I know when I opened my eyes, I was outside next to my car on the floor," said Adams. "I said to myself that I gotta get outta here because I don't know if he's going to kill me."

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

We all laugh at Doo-Doo DeSantis

Haven't noted THE SIMPSONS in a while, so this is from SCREEN RANT:

While The Simpsons season 35 didn’t necessarily commit to changing one of the show’s strangest patterns, episode 2 did at least address this odd mystery. The Simpsons has a so-called “Elastic canon.” This means that any given character’s backstory, age, country of origin, or name can change without warning solely for the sake of a gag. This is great for writers coming up with one-off jokes but can spell trouble for viewers trying to make sense of the show’s universe. For example, various episodes of The Simpsons depict Marge and Homer attending high school in either the early 1970s or the late 1990s.

While The Simpsons season 35 did not quite put a stop to this approach, the best episode of the season so far did address one major mystery that this narrative style causes. Viewers can understandably end up a little confused about the age of the titular family from time to time. After all, Bart and Lisa were both young children during episodes that were canonically set in the 1990s, but later episodes depicted their teenage, unwed, childless parents attending high school in 1999. However, The Simpsons season 35, episode 2, “A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream,” acknowledged this in a story that saw Marge face her empty nest syndrome.

Bart’s teacher Rayshelle Peyton noted that he would soon be entering the fifth grade in a meeting with Homer and Marge. This soon sent Marge into a night of uncharacteristically heavy drinking and a subsequent fear spiral about her son’s childhood ending. It seemed that, according to the episode’s storyline, Bart would finally grow at least one year older in season 35. In answering the mystery regarding whether the characters can grow older, The Simpsons has opened the door to more canonical aging.

I used to love the show but I haven't been into it of late. Not sure why that is. Maybe not enough Ralph? He really is one of my favorite characters. One of my least favorite characters? Doo-Doo Ron Ron DeSantis. WEALTHY LIVING reports:

In a recent development, the state of Florida has found itself embroiled in a contentious debate over the curriculum of its Advanced Placement (AP) psychology course.

The controversy began with the enactment of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in March 2022.

Signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, the legislation prohibits public school teachers from engaging in conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity in their classrooms.

Although initially targeting primary-grade levels, the law was expanded in April to encompass all grades, following the governor’s request.

Against this backdrop, the College Board overseeing standardized tests like the SAT was asked to ensure that its AP courses, including AP Psychology, adhered to the state’s regulations.

Specifically, the College Board was asked to sign an ‘assurance document’ attesting to compliance with Florida’s laws and rules.

In a noteworthy turn of events, the College Board declined to sign the ‘assurance document,’ expressing concerns that it would necessitate the omission of discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity from the curriculum.

Doo Doo wants to destroy the chances of Florida students getting gainful employment at good jobs and we wants to then do the same to children across the land. He is a danger to our children's future.

In other news of Doo-Doo, Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) notes:

For the past several days, people on social media have been mocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for allegedly wearing boots that contain internal heels to make him look taller.

And now Donald Trump has joined in the mockery.

The allegation that DeSantis wears “hidden heels” – also known as lifts or elevator shoes – comes from several pictures of him in shoes with floppy, curled-up toes and noticeably large heels.

In one set of images being shared on social media, there are three pictures of DeSantis in such shoes with the words “Tell me he’s not wearing hidden heels” and the supposed outline of his foot inside the shoe. Trump shared this on his Twitter clone, Truth Social, without any caption.

We're all laughing at Doo-Doo -- even Donald Trump's laughing. And Doo-Doo just continues to struggle:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' hardcore supporters continue to hope that his presidential campaign will recover from its current slump, but according to countless polls, he is still way behind frontrunner Donald Trump among GOP primary voters. Polls released in early October have found DeSantis trailing Trump by 56 percent (Survey USA), 48 percent (Morning Consult) or 45 percent (The Economist/YouGov).

Moreover, DeSantis' campaign — according to a report published by NBC News on October 10 — is suffering a "huge problem" when it comes to fundraising.

NBC News reporters Jonathan Allen, Henry J. Gomez, Matt Dixon and Natasha Korecki explain, "The Florida governor's presidential campaign entered this month with just $5 million in cash available for the primary — a sum that reignites doubts about his solvency, budgeting and ability to gain ground on frontrunning former President Donald Trump. The pain is so acute that DeSantis is redeploying aides from his Tallahassee headquarters to Des Moines for the stretch run of a do-or-die January 15 Iowa caucus."

A DeSantis donor, interviewed on condition of anonymity, laments that the Florida governor's fundraising has gone from bad to worse.

The donor told NBC News, "The cash crunch has accelerated in the past month. It's a huge problem. If it continues to trend downwards and Trump continues to poll ahead, at some point, they're going to have to figure out if it makes sense to pull out and save face for 2028."

Now some disturbing news from the world of professional hockey. Cyd Zeigler (SB NATION) reports:

On top of this — and most egregious of all — Outsports has learned that the NHL has issued a league-wide ban of Pride Tape on the ice with the players during warm-ups, games and even practices. A league spokesperson has confirmed this change in policy with Outsports.

This is, as far as Outsports is aware, the most stifling, anti-LGBTQ policy any pro sports league in North America has ever issued.

The message the NHL is sending: Hockey is not for everyone.

And people in and outside of hockey are outraged.

In just 10 months, years of important, positive advancements in the NHL and men’s hockey at large have been eclipsed by disastrous choices marginalizing or outright erasing the LGBTQ community.

The only North American league to never have a current or former player or coach come out publicly — the NHL — has, in 2023, decided to change policy to bar what has become an important element of LGBTQ support individual athletes in the league can demonstrate.

Shame on the NHL. And I was a hockey fan.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, October 10, 2023. Iraq's prime minister goes to Moscow, the Iraqi people stand in solidarity with the residents of Gaza, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issues a statement, Junior and Cornel carry out their vanity runs, and much more.

Iraq continues to increase its presence on the international stage. Today, for example, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is in Moscow meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin -- the first such visit for an Iraqi prime minister in eleven years. Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) explains, "The meeting will take place against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza that has seen thousands killed since the weekend." Yesterday? Mariam Nihal and Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) explain:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday in Baghdad and discussed a wide range of issues, including the escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel.

Saudi ambassador to Iraq Abdulaziz Al Shammari, and Abdulrahman bin Arkan Al Dawood, director general of the office of the minister of foreign affairs, also attended.

The events taking place are the big story of the week and in the US there is a lot of posturing and a lot of nonsense. Nonsense? How about the selective start point? The pretending that all was well until Hamas launched an attack? The notion that such an attack is a complete surprise and no one can figure out what it was launched? As MINT explained over the weekend:

In a statement, Hamas commander has said that it launched attacks on the Israeli territory ‘in defense of Al-Aqsa’ which was stormed by Israeli settlers a few days ago. Al-Aqsa has been the flashpoint between Palestine and Israel. Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif, who released a recorded message after the attack, said the strikes were in retaliation for Israel’s “desecration of the Al-Aqsa" mosque in Jerusalem.

At COMMON DREAMS, Julia Conley notes a corporate media segment she finds worthy of praise.

We'll note this from DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go from Orly Noy right now in Jerusalem -- you can hear the wind blow on her mic as she talks to us about the Israeli reaction — to Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza. I want to go to you quickly, Raji, because I understand you’re experiencing unprecedented bombing in your area. Can you describe what’s happening in Gaza? The media in the United States, there’s almost no one in Gaza to bring us voices of Gazans. Raji, can you hear us?

RAJI SOURANI: — the last 60 hours, I mean, Gaza subject to nonstop bombing. It’s ongoing all over the place. There is no single place you can call a safe haven in Gaza, airplane fighters, drones ruling all over the sky. And it’s your lottery number, whether it’s an apartment, whether it’s tower with hundreds of apartments, whether it’s a house, whether it’s a hospital, whether it’s a school, a shelter used by UNRWA. I mean, even the marketplace of Jabaliya, the biggest refugee camp in the Middle East for Palestinians — 300,000 Palestinians there — were bombed, and almost 80 have been killed, I mean, this morning, and tens injured in very, very critical situation. And all this is happening in the daylight, and no one is caring about that.

Netanyahu says Gazans should leave Gaza. Where to? Even we don’t have safe passage. And the minister of defense say, “We are going to cut electricity, water, food, oil” — everything, I mean, will be cut on Gaza. So, 2.4 million civilians in Gaza are subject to unprecedented situation, which it’s very genocidal.

It’s coming from the highest level in Israel. If they have a problem with Hamas, we have no problem. They can contact them. If they have with Jihad Islamic, with Fatah, with the fighters of the resistance, that’s fine. This is not our area of interest. But our area of interest, it’s the civilians, and the civilians who are really in the eye of the storm, and they are the subject for the Israeli ongoing crimes.

And still Mr. KK, the ICC prosecutor, keeps silent, doing nothing, moving nowhere in this conflict, and doesn’t hold Israel accountable for the ongoing crimes they committed over the course of years — suppression, oppression, killing, blockade, apartheid — name it. I mean, all the menu of the crimes are there, which listed at Rome Statute, and no one is moving. No one is moving to provide any level of protection toward Palestinian civilians.

Once and again, this is going on now. At the course of these 60 or 70 hours, I mean, we’re having hundreds of people have been killed. Just children, we have above 100 children have been killed. Women, almost the same number. And the worst yet to come. We are sure, and we know that.

AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli prime minister has told Gazans to leave. It’s unclear, of course, where you’d be able to go. Then they said that he was misunderstood, that he was saying you should leave the Hamas sites in Gaza. Can you respond to this, Raji Sourani?

RAJI SOURANI: This is nonsense. This is nonsense. He is leading Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. He is leading people who say Palestinians don’t exist, and who said, “Palestinians should leave. This is the land of Israel. This is the historical land of Israel, and we are taking over. There is no other state, and there is no other people. There is one people. There is one self-determination. It’s for the Israeli Jews.” So, he’s a big liar. It wasn’t a slip of tongue. He came after cabinet meeting and after a meeting with his top security and military people, and he was reading from a paper. So, it cannot be a mistake. He knows what he said, and he meant what he said. And I do believe what they are doing, deliberately, will lead to that, if this is continued and they don’t stop.

AMY GOODMAN: What level of support does Hamas have — Hamas is the government of Gaza — right now, since Saturday morning, the actions of the thousands or so Hamas fighters breaching the wall?

RAJI SOURANI: I don’t think it’s matter — I don’t think it’s matter of the people’s support or not. You have to know, when you are suppressed deeply by a criminal, belligerent occupation, when you are suffocated — do you hear? Do you hear the bombing?

AMY GOODMAN: We hear it.

RAJI SOURANI: And here right now the entire house shaking, while I’m talking to you. I’m living in the best area of Gaza — all right? — and should be away from every problem, but everything around us has been bombed. And you don’t know, never, your lottery number, when it can be. There is no safe haven in this place. I lived all my life in this part of the world. I lived the mathematics and the chemistry. But I never, ever witnessed anything as such. And I’m telling you, I mean, if the Israelis made it — and they did — the land incursion, situation will be much, much worse than this. Massacres will happen, I mean, to civilians.

AMY GOODMAN: You have heard, I assume, that Israeli tanks and military equipment are making their way to Gaza right now. So you’re being bombed by the air, but the question is: Will there be a total land invasion? Can you respond to what this means? Just to give people a sense, you’re talking about this strip of land, Gaza, that’s about the size of Detroit. There are about 600,000 people in Detroit. We’re talking about 2.4 million people. It’s one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. Raji, if you could take it from there?

RAJI SOURANI: Exactly, Amy. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, as you know. And if the army comes in, it will be like elephant in the garden. But I don’t think any would love to be a good victim. They want to strip us not from our own security. They don’t want to strip us from the food of our children. They were not satisfied of having this criminal, belligerent occupation. They are not satisfied with the blockade. They are not satisfied with the killing and the bombing and [inaudible] wars that’s been happening in the last 10 years. But they want to do more. I think it’s not human to be a good victim. We are the stones of the valley. We have been here since ever. We will continue here forever. And I think, I mean, if the Israelis did that, that means they are just melting the people of Palestine, of Gaza, just to be one body defending their very existence. This is our right and obligation. As the French say, resistance, it’s not only, I mean, right, it’s your dignity, Amy. And people shouldn’t be good victim for a criminal, belligerent occupation.

When Russia invaded Ukraine and occupied Ukraine, the whole world stopped, and they said, “We cannot support Russia, and we have to support the Ukrainians against the occupation of the Russians. And we will support them not only politically. We will support them with money. We will support them with arms. We will support them with all what we can.” And they asked all the free people of Europe and U.S. to go and join the forces and to join the resistance in Ukraine against the occupation.

I don’t know why Palestinians, if they die, are a criminal; if we think, we are a criminal and terrorist; if we do peaceful intifada, we are terrorists. And when the Israelis doing massacres, one after another, they’re just being supported, as had happened yesterday, by U.S. and by major European countries. It’s shame. It’s shame to leave Israel practicing the rule of jungle in this way against the Palestinian civilians.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m not sure if the —

RAJI SOURANI: All what we want — all what we want is simple and clear: end of occupation. We want dignity and freedom, period, like any other people on Earth.

AMY GOODMAN: Raji, I’m not sure if this is the blast we just heard, but Middle East Eye is reporting Israel just bombed the Islamic University of Gaza. Is that near you?

RAJI SOURANI: It’s exactly 800 meters from me. And that’s when I wasn’t able, Amy, to talk to you. I mean, the entire building was like collapsing on our head..

PRESS TV notes:

Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has urged all Muslims across the world to help the Palestinian people amid the Israeli regime’s relentless strikes on the Gaza Strip.

“We call on all Muslims to come to the assistance of the Muslim people of Palestine [and] respond to their loud cries for help,” the senior cleric said in a message on Monday.

Grand Ayatollah Sistani also urged all Muslims to do their utmost to "deter the aggressors," reclaim the usurped rights of Palestinians, and save them from Israel's onslaught.

He added that the Islamic land of Palestine should be saved from "usurping aggressor."

Calling up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, Israel has declared a long war on Gaza in response to Operation al-Aqsa Storm, which started on Saturday.

The resistance fighters say they have waged the operation against the occupying regime in response to its decades-long campaign of bloodshed and destruction against Palestinians.

There are plans for a large protest in Iraq on Friday. How large? It must be pretty large because Moqtada al-Sadr -- cleric and cult leader -- has injected himself into it after others started the real work in putting it together. That is how he gets the media to promote him as 'powerful,' by the way, glomming on to the work of others.

Speaking of those with nothing to offer . . .

Is he wearing Blackface? Is he trying to out Trump Donald Trump? And it's a screen shot, I'm not interested in posting his video.

Philadelphia has survived so much including the Moyamensing Killers and the Blood Tubs war in the 19th century, 1844's Nativist Riots . . . Yesterday, they had to endure political gadfly Robert F. Kennedy Jr delivering his salute to Joan Crawford.

Yesterday, he used the city to launch his latest vanity campaign -- he will now seek the US presidency by running as an independent. Last week, Cornel West cultists and crazies were praising Cornel's move to do the same because . . . well, they're stupid.

Renee Johnston spoke with Dr Jared Ball last Saturday on BLACK POWER MEDIA (video above) and offered the facts others didn't -- namely that state-by-state registration will be a headache with different rules from state-to-state and how an independent campaign often lacks those on the ground to gather signatures, etc.

Dan Farber and Evan George (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE via COMMON DREAMS) write:

Till now, he had run as a Democrat, garnering a polling average of about 15% in the primary, according to RealClearPolitics. What will happen running as an independent is unknown. Some observers think Kennedy might pull more votes away from Trump than Biden, but the election is too uncertain and too crucial for comfort. A poll conducted by John Zogby Strategies for the American Values 2024 PAC, which supports Kennedy, looked at a matchup among Trump, Biden and Kennedy as the independent candidate. The result: Trump and Biden tied at 38% with Kennedy at 19%.

A victory over Biden by any of the Republican candidates would be a serious setback for the climate policies advanced by the Inflation Reduction Act, various White House initiatives and regulatory rulemaking. But a second Trump administration would create a climate catastrophe. Trump dismantled climate policies and rolled back more than 100 environmental rules governing clean air and water — without being particularly organized. In a second term, he’s pledged to radically transform the civil service, including environmental agencies. The stakes are too high and the margins are potentially too close for anyone concerned about the environment to view Kennedy as a safe vote for the climate.

We're going to bear down on that topic in just a minute. But let's note that John Stauber Tweeted his sadness because he wanted Junior to run as a representative of the Libertarian Party (what is about these crazies who think non-party members can just push ahead of everyone in line and claim a nomination due to their name) because he "could have had 50 state ballot access." Yes, that is a comparison to Cornel West. Ruth noted: "No one knows who he would draw from. But he has no chance at winning and he should not be running."

Exactly.

And that's true of Cornel as well. Both men have decided to step away from political parties and instead run their own campaign as independents.

They're not going to win.

I have stated before and it has been the position here since this site began 19 years ago that your vote is your vote and you should use it however you want (which includes making the decision not to vote). That remains true.

That's voting. Running for office? That's a different thing. Junior and Cornel need to drop their vanity runs. They're not going to win. They have nothing to offer -- look at the push back to Cornel's embarrassing statements on what's taking place in Gaza -- and all they're going to do is pull votes from others.

They're not going to win.

Now someone will, for example, get the Green Party nomination. And they're going to run for president. That's fine. They can use that run to build the party.

There is no party that Cornel or Junior are trying to build. These are vanity runs. There's no point to them running.

And there's no point in just calling out Junior. That's bothering me a lot. The same wasted campaign --wasting money, wasting press coverage -- is being run by Cornel. See Ava and my "Media: What was the plan? (There was none)" for why Conrel decided to run as an independent -- it was too much work to run for a party's nomination. He's now running a vanity campaign as is Junio. They're both distractions -- at best.

Jacob Crosse (WSWS) notes:

Leading up to Monday’s announcement there had been some speculation that Kennedy would announce he would seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. Last month, the New York Times reported that in July, Kennedy spoke privately for over an hour with antisemite Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian Party, while both were attending a conference in Memphis, Tennessee.

“He emphasized that he was committed to running as a Democrat but said that he considered himself very libertarian,” McArdle said in an interview with the Times on the summer meeting. “They agreed on several positions, including the threat of the ‘deep state’ and the need for populist messaging,” the Times added, with McArdle claiming that she and Kennedy were “aligned on a lot of issues.”

“My perspective is that we are going to stay in touch in case he does decide to run,” McArdle said. “And he can contact me at any time if that’s the case.”

Further cementing his ties with the far right ahead of his “independent” launch, on October 6, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) announced that Kennedy and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would headline the CPAC “Investor Summit to Save America” in Las Vegas, Nevada, from October 18-21.

CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp praised Kennedy Jr. for “ensuring the constitutional right of medical freedom,” a reference to his anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Schlapp said that Kennedy joining the event was a reflection “of the splintering of the left-wing coalition that has gone full woke Marxist to the point that traditional liberals don’t feel welcome anymore.”

A who’s who of Trump co-conspirators will be joining Kennedy at the CPAC later this month, including Steven Bannon, fascist War Room host and former special adviser in the Trump White House; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; and Kash Patel, an intelligence operative who was chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Like Trump, Kennedy Jr. is able to exploit the broad antiwar sentiment in the working class by professing opposition to Biden and the Democrats’ escalating war in Ukraine. However, Kennedy’s antiwar facade suffered a serious blow this weekend following his latest pledge for unstinting military support for Israel’s war against the Palestinians.

Catherine Lucy (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:

Four of Kennedy’s siblings said in a statement Monday that his independent run was “dangerous to our country.” It went on: “Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.” The statement was signed by Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

It needed to be said especially since he can't stop using his late uncle to try to grab the presidency. "Let's put another Kennedy in the White House" is tacky and it's offended a lot of the family -- as it should. But if the grifter couldn't stand on his uncle's shoulders, he would be polling even worse than he currently is.

Rachel Looker (USA TODAY) noted:

"I'm here to declare myself an independent candidate for president of the United States," he told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia. "But that's not all − I'm here to join you in making a new Declaration of Independence for our entire nation."

A new Declaration of Independence. Hmm. What's wrong with the old one, Junior? It opened:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Let's note the film PROTOCOL starring Goldie Hawn. Her character Sunny Davis takes a group of visitors to view the Declaration of Independence and later reflects:

You know what I read the other day? The Declaration of Independence. I mean, the real one. You know, the original, the one in the Archives? Boy, those guys knew how to say what they thought. Talk about simple. I mean, all that stuff about happiness. What government talks about happiness anymore?

But by all means, let's allow a crackpot to write a new 'and improved' Declaration of Independence.

The press can't seem to get Junior or Cornel right. They are not making a third-party run -- as Rachel Looker -- among others -- wrongly states in her USA TODAY report. The two men are running as independents. They are not affiliated with any party. (Although Cornel may still have the Socialist Alternative's backing.) There's a world of difference between an independent candidate and a third-party candidate just as there's a world of difference between a swing-voter and an independent voter to note another term the press struggles with annoying those of us who actually majored in political science. Not only is it the wrong jargon factually, it also ignores that yesterday Junior stated he declared his "independence from the Democratic Party and independence from all parties."

(I also dispute Rachel Looker's label of "ultra-conservative" for Alex Jones when the far more apt term is "conspiracy nut." She mentions Alex Jones because he's a Junior supporter. AP bills him as "a conspiracy theorist" suggesting that he spends time in a medical lab testing out his hypotheses. )

The following sites updated: