Right-wing media took the congresswoman’s comments out of context then questioned if she’s an ‘American first.’

Fox & Friends and Republicans in Congress attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar this week after comments the Minnesota Democrat made last month began circulating online on Monday.

At a March fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles, Omar said, in part, that “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Conservatives interpreted Omar’s comments as minimizing the terrorist attack.

On Wednesday, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade questioned if the Somali-American is “an American first.” Then he proceeded to lecture her about her religious faith. “As a Muslim-American, you should be more outraged because they sullied your religion,” he said. “In the name of religion they killed Americans and still do it on a daily basis.”

A day earlier, the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel called Omar “anti-American.”

“Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives to Islamic terrorists on 9/11, yet Omar diminishes it as: ‘Some people did something,’” she said. “Democrat leaders need to condemn her brazen display of disrespect.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-crenshaw-rnc-attack-ilhan-omar-for-911-comments

Stephen Miller Sabotaged Nielsen By Showing Trump Bad Immigration News He Leaked to Washington Examiner: Report

Stephen Miller, the senior advisor to President Donald Trump, would have a sneaky way to ruin the day of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and get her to stop resisting new immigration policy proposals.

Quartz reports “former agency officials,” said Miller would leak the monthly number of immigrants apprehended at the border and those seeking asylum to the Washington Examiner, who would then publish a story about the high numbers.

Miller would then print out the story and give it to Trump. After seeing the story, Trump would then “pick up the phone and blast Nielsen…and she’d capitulate on the issue at hand.”

The story is just the latest in reports on how Miller is behind the “purge” at the Department of Homeland Security. Quartz added he is looking at getting rid of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Francis Cissna.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/stephen-miller-sabotaged-nielsen-by-showing-trump-bad-immigration-news-he-leaked-to-washington-examiner-report/

Mikael Chukwuma Owunna, a queer Nigerian-Swedish artist raised in Pittsburgh, has spent the past two and a half years photographing Black men and women for a series titled Infinite Essence. Hand-painted using fluorescent paints and photographed in complete darkness, Owunna’s subjects are illuminated by a flash outfitted with a UV filter, which turns their nude bodies into glowing celestial figures.

Owunna tells Colossal that the series was his response to the frequent images and videos of Black people being killed by those sworn to protect them: the police. The photographer’s friends, family members, dancers, and one person he connected with on Instagram serve as models for the project, which is named after an idea from his Igbo heritage. “All of our individual spirits are just one ray of the infinite essence of the sun,” Owunna explains. “By transcending the visible spectrum, I work to illuminate a world beyond our visible structures of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia where the black body is free.”

Having struggled with his own body image (and with his identity as a gay African man, which has inspired his previous work), Owunna says that the response to the project has been powerful, both from the public and from the models. “One of the models, Emem, broke down in tears looking at their pictures saying that they had always dreamed of seeing their body adorned with stars and that these images were beyond their wildest imagination,” he said. “They then told me – ‘every black person deserves to see themselves in this way’ and how the experience was life-altering for them.”









https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/04/black-bodies-photographed-like-the-cosmos-by-mikael-owunna/

Former senator Norm Coleman, chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is leading a Passover Dayenu (it would have been enough) in which Donald Trump replaces God. "Had President Trump ONLY passed the largest tax cut in history: say it with me. DAYENU."

"Had President Trump only put two conservative Supreme Court judges...Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, we would say: DAYENU. Had President Trump only appointed Nikki Haley ambassador to the UN, sending a powerful message that we will not tolerate the UN's anti-Israel bias: DAYENU."

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1114600625554239488

It’s filled with beautiful moss-covered rocks, bridges, and fantastic rock and tree formations that can be accessed by miles of winding pathways. Puzzlewood, used as a filming location for Merlin and Dr. Who, covers more than 14 acres and is considered one of the best examples of pre-Roman Celtic open cast iron mines.The paths were laid in the early 19th century by the owner at the time. It didn’t open to the public until 100 years later.

An enchanting place, Puzzlewood is said to have served as the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. A frequent visitor to the area, Tolkien may have considered Puzzlewood and the Forest of Dean when he created the Old Forest, Mirkwood, Lothlorien, and other places in his Middle Earth.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/puzzlewood?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page

Puzzlewood (grid reference SO578092) is an ancient woodland site and tourist attraction, near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England.[1][2] The site, covering 14 acres (5.7 ha), shows evidence of open cast iron ore mining dating from the Roman period, and possibly earlier.

Over a mile of pathways were laid down in the early 19th century to provide access to the woods, and provide picturesque walks. The area contains strange rock formations, secret caves and ancient trees, with a confusing maze of paths. Puzzlewood is said to be one of J. R. R. Tolkien's inspirations[3] for Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings.

Geology

The geological features on show at Puzzlewood are known as scowles. Scowles originated through the erosion of natural cave systems formed in the Carboniferous Limestone many millions of years ago. Uplift and erosion caused the cave system to become exposed at the surface. This was then exploited by Iron Age settlers through to Roman times for the extraction of iron ore. It is usually impossible to date open cast extraction precisely, although ores with a chemical signature consistent with those from the Forest of Dean were certainly used to make tools and weapons in the late prehistoric period.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzlewood