April 23, 2024

The left needs to handle its antisemitism problem - Now.

I am in total agreement with Matt Lewis on this. I know I haven't been vocal about it, but it needs to be said. I'm sorry if I have ever offended anyone with my posts. That was and is not my intention.

And, let me make this clear: I 100% condemn antisemitism from anyone! Period. There is no room for hate in a love movement for those of us who are trying to support the innocents in this conflict. I condemn all violence against people who just want to feed their kids and live peacefully with their neighbors. And I especially want to condemn those protesters who chant those offensive things, who assault or harass anyone for their cultural or religious identity.

It is my hope and prayer (as an atheist, lol) that these are all outside agitators, (it's been known to happen) masked neo-nazis who don't want to reveal their identity. I hope that ANYONE who calls themself the progressive left, would out these monsters and help to reveal their identity and finally, vociferously separate themselves from those monstrous haters. Before it is too late and they co-opt the message of living in peace in the Middle East. That's what the real progressive left wants.

In edit: I know well the differences between the left, the progressive left and the far left. I don't need that lesson. What I am trying to say is that the average American person does not. And corporate media isn't going to clue them in. They will continue to paint the Democrats with their large paintbrush. The corporate media will call ALL of us the far left. And they will say ALL of us are antisemitic if we don't loudly condemn this type of antisemitism displayed by the alleged far left at Columbia University. (I still think they're neo-nazi scumbags who infiltrated the group. Well, I hope so.) It is not in corporate media's best interest to let Democrats win, so we need to get ahead of this story and not let them paint us as even mildly accepting of antisemitism.

I would also add that I strongly condemn netenyahu and his government. And hamas for attacking a civilian party on Oct. 7. As much as I hate any violence, keep it military.

Matt Lewis:
"Trust me when I say this matters. When racists on the right voiced repugnant ideas, some of us on the center-right stood up and condemned it. We did so because it was morally correct and because we hoped to prevent evil actors from co-opting and discrediting the conservative cause. Sadly, it was too little, too late."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-left-needs-to-handle-its-antisemitism-problemnow

April 17, 2024

Why is this common knowledge, news?

Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk
An NBC News review identified 150 verified "Premium" accounts that have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content.

So, in other surprising news stories, water is wet and snakes are cold reptiles. Everybody knows musky is a fucking nazi himself.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-musk-nazi-extremist-white-nationalist-accounts-rcna145020

April 16, 2024

Mark Cuban on his $288 million tax payment: 'I'm proud to pay my taxes every single year."

As you grimace today signing that check for the IRS, it helps to keep in mind that things could be worse. You could owe what Mark Cuban did.

Cuban, in a weekend post on Twitter/X, disclosed what he would be handing over to the IRS this year: an eye-popping $288 million. At the same time, he took an apparent swipe at Donald Trump, the former president who faces accusations of underpaying on his taxes: “I'm proud to pay my taxes every single year. Tag a former president that you know doesn't.”

I love this guy!!! A true patriotic American.

https://www.aol.com/finance/mark-cuban-288-million-tax-160249377.html
(paywall)

https://fortune.com/2024/04/15/mark-cuban-tax-bill-2024-donald-trump/

April 14, 2024

In the latest "Still Not A Drag Queen" news, it was, wait for it...

AN EVANGELICAL PREACHER AND HIS WIFE!!

You can't make this shit up. Already charged with all kinds of child sexual abuse, the police think there are more victims:

"Charges against him include seven counts of aggravated rape of a child, six counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and two counts of violation of the child protection act, officers wrote Friday.

The wife, Shaantal Garlick, 30, now faces two counts each of facilitation of aggravated rape of a child and aggravated child neglect, cops wrote."

People can reach out to Detective James Wilkinson at 629-201-5612 or email 0846@murfreesborotn.gov.

https://ssnews.page.link/P2Sxo7WgoFwtj9pn6

April 11, 2024

Kari Lake and her fellow Republicans can't run from Arizona's draconian abortion ban.

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer

Pretending to be moderate is a lot harder when Democrats can just roll tape showcasing Christian right radicalism.
As far as symbols of what the GOP intends for American women, the revival of an abortion ban that predates women's suffrage could not be more fitting. The Arizona Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that the state should enforce a law outlawing all abortions, under criminal penalty of two to five years imprisonment, "unless it is necessary to save her life." The law was passed in 1864, which was not just before Arizona was a state, but 55 years before women obtained the right to vote. The symbolism of that, plus the electoral implications going into a presidential election, means this news is explosive even beyond the high levels of outrage that meet every Republican ban on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

Anger from the majority of voters over the loss of abortion rights isn't dissipating like Republicans thought it would, and now GOP politicians in the Grand Canyon State are scrambling. The most prominent of these, of course, is election denier Kari Lake, who, while still refusing to admit she lost the race for governor in 2022, is running for Senate. She wants everyone to think she's unhappy that Arizona women's medical care will be determined by a law written while many doctors were still rejecting germ theory. Claiming to "oppose today's ruling," Lake called on the actual governor, Democrat Katie Hobbes and "the State Legislature to come up with an immediate common sense solution."

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/11/kari-lake-and-her-fellow-cant-run-from-arizonas-draconian-abortion-ban/

April 11, 2024

Civil War

Oh, this looks interesting and I ADORE Nick Offerman!!

American democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of collapse, and writer/director Alex Garland exploits that feeling for unbearably despairing suspense and censure with Civil War, a vision of a near-future in which the United States is no longer united. Less interested in devising one-to-one parallels with our present than with laying bare the catastrophic consequences of the division, hatred, and apathy that currently run amok from coast to coast, the Annihilation and Men auteur’s latest, in theaters April 12, is a portrait of individual and societal breakdown that plays like a companion piece to his 28 Days Later, except that this time around the vicious monsters are all of us. Spearheaded by a poignant Kirsten Dunst performance, and rife with harrowing, pulse-pounding set pieces, it’s a towering genre film about a not-so-fanciful end times—one that both understands, and proves, the peerless power of the visual image.

In a New York hotel room, acclaimed war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) watches the country’s president (Nick Offerman) proclaim, not very convincingly, that a great government victory over the secessionist Western Forces campaign led by California and Texas is on the horizon. Outside, explosions boom, and as she lies in a bathtub, her face in her hands, Lee recalls some of the numerous unforgettable examples of man’s cruelty from her globe-trotting career. What once was distant and foreign, however, is now commonplace at home, as is reinforced when she and her journalist partner Joel (Wagner Moura) cover a city event that turns fatal, and which compels Lee to instinctively save the life of Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring photojournalist whose naivete is a grave threat to her safety.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alex-garlands-civil-war-review-explosive-warning-of-trump-takeover

April 11, 2024

You're either ridin' with Biden/Harris in 2024,

or you're helping the orange blobfather get elected. I don't care about your reason(s). I don't support everything Biden does and I don't expect I ever will. But, a "protest" of not voting or voting third party/independent is a vote to end democracy as we know it. It is a vote to let the fascist piggies win.

April 11, 2024

Having a trans daughter was a wake-up call for this man. This story just made me cry.

SMITHVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out. Before all that, Dusty Farr was — in his own words — “a full-on bigot.” By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ+.

Now, though, after everything, he says he wouldn’t much care if his 16-year-old daughter — and he proudly calls her that — told him she was an alien. Because she is alive.

“When it was my child, it just flipped a switch. And it was like a wake-up," says Farr, who is suing the Platte County School District on Kansas City’s outskirts.

Looking back, Farr figures his daughter, the youngest of five, started feeling out of place in her own body when she was just 6 or 7. But he didn’t see it, even as they fished and camped together.

https://www.aol.com/trans-daughter-struggles-father-pushes-041210754.html

April 11, 2024

Having a trans daughter was this man's wake-up call. This story just made me cry.

SMITHVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out. Before all that, Dusty Farr was — in his own words — “a full-on bigot.” By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ+.

Now, though, after everything, he says he wouldn’t much care if his 16-year-old daughter — and he proudly calls her that — told him she was an alien. Because she is alive.

“When it was my child, it just flipped a switch. And it was like a wake-up," says Farr, who is suing the Platte County School District on Kansas City’s outskirts.

Looking back, Farr figures his daughter, the youngest of five, started feeling out of place in her own body when she was just 6 or 7. But he didn’t see it, even as they fished and camped together.

https://www.aol.com/trans-daughter-struggles-father-pushes-041210754.html

April 9, 2024

To DU Muslims, Assalamu'alaikum.

Now, on the east coast, go celebrate and munch out! I myself am an atheist, but try to respect the rights of others to believe. So, peace be on you and may there be peace in the Middle East!!

Now, go have a feast!!