Friday, September 29, 2023. More on Wednesday night's debate, a new
candidate has entered the presidential race and we'll provide the
detailed biography, Ronald DeSantis continues his war on freedom,
democracy and humanity, a woman doesn't seem to grasp that the US
doesn't need to help her and that her insults don't make want to help
her, and much more.
I'm really sick of
people who can't handle their own problems. I'm referring to one ____
in particular who is working my last damn nerve. Emma Tsurkov.
Her
sister may or may not be a spy. Her sister is the stupid woman who
went to Iraq -- despite being Israelie -- to 'research' terrorism. Now
her sister is a citizen of Israel. And she's a citizen of Russia. Yet
for some reason the ___'s family can't get it through their damn heads
that a kidnapping in Iraq of a non-US citizen, isn't this country's
problem.
Last week, ahead of
the face to face Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani was to
have with US President Joe Biden -- a fleeting moment -- Emma and her
crowd got to Shady Senator Robert Menendez and had him insisting that
the matter be addressed between the two leaders -- an outrageous
demand. There would be time to address one or two issues -- and address
just means brought up, not really discussed. There is an Australian
man held by the Iraqi government, Robert Pether, who has done nothing
wrong but is being held in prison as Iraq tries to get a better deal
with his company.
He
didn't go to Iraq to spy and he didn't go traipsing in like some stupid
bimbo who fancied herself Kim Aldrich in some children's book
adventure. He didn't invite what happened to him. But an idiot who
goes to Iraq when they know how hostile that country is to Israelis and
to Jews -- they ran all but three of them out of Baghdad -- yes, the
five Iraqis left in Iraq after 2010 is now supposed to have been reduced
to three -- an idiot who chooses to go knowing she is at risk and, on
top of that, wants to nose around in terrorism -- for a college paper!
-- is really not a US issue.
But her stupid sister can't stop trying to drum up support for her. All she's doing is turning off people in the US.
Emma
Tsurkov has now gone whining to THE DAILY BEAST -- we're not linking to
the garbage article. This is from the sister's garbage:
“Princeton has been one of the most infuriating institutions or
organizations to deal with throughout the process,” said Emma, who has
been engaging with American lawmakers, the U.S. State Department,
Israeli officials, and several other advocacy groups on the case. “I’m
feeling that it’s being treated as a PR problem that needs to be
handled, rather than a life or death matter for its graduate student.”
Someone
let the stupid idiot know that Princeton's done more than it had to.
Campus safety officers patrol the campus, they don't go to other
countries and Princeton has no military force to deploy.
One
of their students kidnapped? I know they've expressed their concern
and I know that they've tried to get attention for the student's
plight.
They've done more than they had to and they continue attempts to drum up support for the kidnapped victim.
It's just not there. And it won't be. You're pushing in the wrong country, you pushy stooge.
You
need to stick with the "Israeli officials" and you need to pick up some
Russian officials -- because that's what you are, citizens of Israel
and Russia. Your plight is not our problem. The stupidity of your
sister (if she's not a spy as the group holding her believes she is) is
not our problem.
And if Joe Biden were to spend
time on one of the two issues -- the plight of Robert Pether matters a
lot more. We know what he is -- a working father of many children. We
know why he really went to Iraq -- it was part of his job. We know his
location and we know how he ended up (wrongly) imprisoned.
By
contrast, Emma, you and your sister are the portraits of privilege and
you make that clear with each day as you become ruder and ruder while
supposedly 'asking' for help. Now you're attacking Princeton?
Go
work with your own governments to free your sister. She's not an
American citizen. You've given one interview after another attacking
American officials and now Princeton. Clearly, nothing the US could do
would ever meet your approval so take your problem back to your own
countries. Again, countries. You and your sister have dual citizenship
so take it up with the governments of Russia and the governments of
Israel. Unless you just enjoy making a spectacle of yourself.
Let's move on to a different topic. What the hell has happened to WSWS?
There's
really no excuse in the 21st century for them not being able to post
about a debate the night of the debate. From approximately 9:00 pm EST
to one in the morning EST, their new content goes up. So Wednesday
night's debate really should have been covered Wednesday night to early
Thursday morning. That did not happen and I'm not surprised. But that
they didn't cover the debate in the articles they posted last night does
surprise me. The candidates attacked labor repeatedly while pretending
otherwise. It's really something when, for example, Tim Scott feels
the need to dog whistle ("right to work"). Why don't you just say what
you mean, speak to everyone on the same page? It's a public debate.
"Right to work" is not about any individual's right to have a job.
"Right to work" is about killing unions and their memberships.
Apparently, that's not a pressing issue to WSWS.
The Republican “debate” at the Reagan Library seemed like an exercise in
collective madness. And 24 hours and half a bottle of Jameson’s later, I
still don’t know what’s crazier, Nikki Haley saying that she’d solve
the health care crisis by letting patients negotiate the price of
treatment with hospitals and doctors, Tim Scott’s assertion
that LBJ’s Great Society program was harder for black people to survive
than slavery or Ron DeSantis’ pledge to use the Civil Rights Act to
target “left-wing” prosecutors:
“I will use the Justice Department to bring civil rights cases against
all of those left-wing Soros-funded prosecutors. We’re not going to let
them get away with it anymore. We want to reverse this country’s
decline. We need to choose law and order over rioting and disorder.”
At last night’s Republican presidential debate, former Vice President Mike Pence said, “We’re going to pass a federal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country.” LGBTQ Nation
contacted his campaign asking if he intended to outlaw gender-affirming
care for all people, regardless of age. His campaign hadn’t responded
by the time of publication.
While Pence’s comment also mentioned “protecting” kids from
“radical gender ideology,” his response caught the attention of
Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at
the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic. Caraballo posted a video of
Pence’s comment on Wednesday night and wrote via Twitter, “They’re going to ban care for trans adults too. It was never about protecting kids.”
“While most anti-transgender healthcare bills in recent years focus on
minors, anti-LGBTQ forces ultimately seek to ban all forms of
transition-related care, regardless of age,” a recently released report by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), an organization that tracks policies on LGBTQ+ issues and voting, stated. “They are pursuing this goal in a variety of ways,” the report added,
“including: defining ‘minor’ to include at least some adults; by banning
state funds from covering this medical care (e.g., in Medicaid, state
employee health plans, and for those in incarceration); explicitly
allowing private insurers to refuse to cover this care; and more.”
Most of the time, GIF-like zingers aside, the debate was really just an exercise in click-bait extremism. Why were college students burdened by so much debt? Well, DeSantis opined, partly because so many colleges were teaching gender studies to their captive students. Why were Americans feeling so much economic pain? Well,
said Ramaswamy, in addition to Bidenomics, there was the problem that
“the Federal Reserve is an agency that has gone rogue.” Did the candidates agree with Florida’s new education guidelines, championed by DeSantis, for how to teach about slavery?
No, said Scott, it was wrong to minimize the atrocities of slavery.
But, he continued, perhaps suddenly aware that he had come off as too
moderate for the GOP crowd, Black families did indeed survive slavery
only to be destroyed a century later by LBJ’s Great Society and its
expansion of family-destroying welfare programs. Ramaswamy came up with a
novel interpretation of constitutional law that would allow him to
instantly end birthright citizenship. Pence advocated a massive increase
in use of the federal death penalty.
The candidates were quick to spout nonsense on one issue after the
next. Yet on the elephant in the room, most of them had nothing to say:
There was a deafening silence on Trump’s myriad malfeasances, such a
silence that it was hard to take anything they said about the importance
of the rule of law seriously.
Yesterday’s debate showcased a Republican Party consumed by anger: anger
at themselves, at Donald Trump, at Mexico, at the whole wide world.
Voters looking for a positive conservative vision of the future should
look elsewhere. This GOP is fixated not on building a better future but
on settling scores both foreign and domestic without concern for the
long-term consequences. The American people must reject a Republican
ideology that would lead us into civil strife at home and years of
global conflict abroad.
It was a mess. It's a shame WSWS found nothing worth correcting or calling out.
As for me, I have no idea whether it's true or not that, in his
spare time, Ronald DeSantis puts on a girdle and dress to go marching
with Moms For Bigotry. But if he did, it wouldn't be at all surprising,
he's joined at the hip with those hate merchants. And if you're not
getting how much hate he and Moms For Bigotry (who he keeps appointing
to state positions) are spreading in Florida,
AP reports:
Top
officials at a Florida school district ordered the removal of all books
and material containing LBGTQ+ characters and themes from classrooms
and campus libraries, saying that was needed to conform to a state law
backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that critics have dubbed “Don't Say Gay.”
Charlotte
County Schools Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s
attorney, Michael McKinley, were responding to questions from the
district's librarians at a July meeting asking whether the bill,
officially the “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” required the
removal of any books that simply had a gay character but no explicit sex
scenes.
“Books
with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or
school library media centers,” the pair responded, according to a
district memo obtained under a public information request by the Florida Freedom to Read Project. The nonprofit group, which opposes the law, provided the memo to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The
district later backed off a bit, allowing some exceptions for high
school libraries. But Charlotte's policy remains one of the more
stringent policies adopted by the state's 67 countywide school districts
to enforce the bill.
So
no biographies on John Wayne even? He became a dedicated homophobe in
later life but he put out for men all the time early in his career. Let's out
them all. Let's out everyone of your right-wing heroes for the closeted
men they were.
I'm fine
with it. If it makes you hate John Wayne to know he had sex with men,
great. Maybe I won't have to see his garbage films on TCM anymore? Do
we need to talk about Gary Cooper and his long term affair with Anderson
Lawler -- which Lawler couldn't keep quiet about when they were living
together and only grew more vocal when he was dumped. I heard about it
from Katharine Hepburn who was friends with Anderson -- we were
discussing what an awful actor Cooper was -- everyone's heard of it
except apparently homophobic right-wingers who don't seem to grasp that
they have known gay people their whole lives. We can do that too. You
love some Gary Cooper on the right because he was a right-winger who
named names to the House Unamerican Activities Committee. You embrace
him so embrace his sexuality.
LGBT+ people, many of who are born and raised in the state, are fleeing Florida as legislators led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis continue to clamp down on LGBT+ rights.
One expert, who works supporting LGBT+ people and
has lost count of the number of people leaving Florida for more liberal
parts of the country, told the Mirror DeSantis' culture wars is
"putting a target'' on their backs.
The
Sunshine State has become one of the most oppressive parts of the US
for LGBT+ people as DeSantis desperately tries to boost his profile as a
culture warrior in support of his ailing 2024 Presidential bid. Amid
the growing numbers of anti-LGBT+ laws brought in by Republican
legislators, bigots feel more empowered to lash out at LGBT+ people.
Mr
Smith puts the responsibility at the feet of Republican legislators. He
said: "When you pass all of these hateful laws as Ron DeSantis has
done, it is putting a target on the backs of LGBTQ people. Governor
DeSantis and his term coined the term 'groomer' a year ago during the
debates around the 'Don't say gay' bill. And that has escalated online
attacks against LGBTQ people making baseless accusations about how gay
and trans folks are a danger to children."
He needs to be held responsible for the hate that he has spewed -- and for that modified Mo Howard hair cut he sports.
Alex Henderson notes:
Ron
DeSantis' hardcore supporters continue to hope that he will turn his
struggling presidential campaign around, but polls released in late
September are showing no signs of that happening. The far-right Florida
governor, according to polls, is trailing 2024 GOP presidential
frontrunner by 39 percent (The Economist/YouGov), 43 percent (Morning Consult) or 38 percent (Monmouth University).
Like
most of his rivals in the primary, DeSantis has offered only tepid and
lukewarm criticism of Trump. The Florida governor has made his
"anti-woke" agenda a key theme of his presidential campaign, arguing
that he is tougher on "wokeness" than Trump. So far, however, that
messaging isn't resonating with most GOP primary voters.
DeSantis is also campaigning on his economic record. But according to The New Republic's Tori Otten, DeSantis' "anti-woke" obsession is costing Florida taxpayers a fortune.
As Marcia noted last night,
a new candidate has declared that they are
running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. Already Randy
Tolar (Green Party icon) and Cornel West (political gadfly who most
recently had the presidential nomination of The People's Party) were
vying for the nomination and now
58-year-old Emanuel Pastreich has entered the race. Let's do some
background since no one else will. Emanuel got his BA at Yale and his
masters at the University of Tokyo. Of
the Nashville, TN born Emanuel,
WIKIPEDIA notes:
Emanuel Pastreich (born
October 16, 1964) is an international relations expert who serves as
the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in
Washington DC, Tokyo, Seoul and Hanoi. He is also a senior fellow at the
Global Peace Foundation where he strives to solve geopolitical tensions
in Northeast Asia. Pastreich was briefly an independent candidate for
president of the United States 2020.[1] In September 2023, Pastreich officially became a candidate for the Green Party’s presidential nomination in 2024.[2][3] Trained as a scholar of Asian studies, Pastreich writes on both East Asian classical literature[4][5][6][7] and current issues in international relations and technology in multiple languages.[8][9][10][11]
Fluent
in four languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean), he's written
over 20 books. He has two children and he lost his wife in 2022 (after
25 years of marriage). His mother is painter Marie Louise Rouff who
has over 20 individual exhibits and had her works included in at least
20 group exhibits. In 2018, Hermine Hull (MARTHA'S VINEYARD TIMES) covered an exhibit and noted:
“High
Square” is the first painting on the left as you enter the program
room. A glowing not-quite-square floats in the upper third of the
painting, surrounded by hints of other lightnesses that could be parts
of other squares. Or not. By glazing with thin washes of paint mixed
with lots of medium, the artist has produced a surface of luminosity,
with shadows of lightness and darkness on an overall ochre face. There
is a sense of redness underneath, and charcoal drawing that begins to
describe something, then disappears or fades off. A change of color or
value appears to heighten the sense of descriptive meaning of those
charcoal lines.
Dad? In 2016, Peter Pastreich became the interem director of the American Conservatory Theater and AMERICAN THEATRE noted:
Pastreich comes from a background in managing symphony orchestras. He served as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony for
21 years, during which time the symphony more than sextupled its
budget. Prior to his time with the San Francisco Symphony, Pastreich
served as executive director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. He has done management consulting in Europe, and from 2009 to 2012, he served as executive director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
He has two sisters -- Anna Schlagel (Director of Annual Giving & Events at 10,000 Degrees) and Milena Pastreich (who is a cinematographer and a director (most recent direction was of the film PIGEON KINGS) ) -- and one brother. Brother Michael has also had a career in the arts. Sarah L Kaufman (WASHINGTON POST) reported at the end of July, 2020:
“I
was in the midst of purchasing a business before coming to TWB,”
Pastreich wrote. “With all that is happening in the world right now,
this seems like a very opportune moment to return to the business buying
path.” He indicated that he does not yet have a specific business
target and that a decision on that will “take months to do well.”
[. . .]
Greenberg
wrote in an email that Pastreich’s brief tenure is ending at “a natural
pivot point. There will be huge shifts in leadership and greatly
reduced staffing in all organizations, especially those in the arts
community, during the global health crisis. Michael’s decision to leave
was his own, but supported by all.”
Adam
Gasner, a criminal law attorney in San Francisco, is Emanuel's
step-brother. His step-mother is Jamie Garrard Whittington, the former
Director of Development for the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
Let's wind down with a Tweet from Paul Rudnick.
The following sites updated:
