The World Today Just Nuts

Sunday, January 1, 2023

2023 arrives, 2022 be gone

My "THE PEW loses it" just went up. I'm surprised how popular THE PEW became as a recurring comic. During Barack Obama's two terms as president, I was able to lean into Valerie Jarrett when I didn't feel like I had anything and THE PEW (Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Green Taylor and Tulsi Gabbard) appear to be serving a similar role during Joe Biden's presidency. Only Valerie was always cheerleading for the administration whereas Lauren, Marjorie and Tulsi loathe the administration. I'm glad so many of you enjoy it. It didn't start out to be a recurring piece. I just did a comic "House Reject, House Mess and House Dunce" with the three and then realized they were hateful enough to do their own version of THE VIEW.

What else did I find out this year? Book reviews are popular here. I felt bad because my last post was a book review. I felt everyone probably hated it. But it's one of my six most popular posts here for 2022. Who would have guessed? Who could have guessed?

2022 is in the rear view mirror, thankfully. I hope that 2023 is so much better for all of us.

Here's the list of community year-in-review pieces: Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "THE PEW loses it," C.I.'s "2022: The Year of WTF," Kat's "2022 in music," Ruth's "Ruth's Report: Networks and Streaming," Martha and Shirley's "2022 in Books (Martha & Shirley)," Stan's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" and Ann's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" Trina's "Labor story of 2022," Mike's "Idiot of 2022," Marcia's "The Most Disgusting Person of 2022" and Elaine's "What album am I looking forward to most in 2023?." C.I. compiled it and I swiped it from her site.

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

Friday, December 30, 2022. REUTERS lies for Moqtada again, ISIS remains active in Iraq (as CENTCOM admits), a former prime minister denies abuse allegations made by THE WASHINGTON POST, Glenn Greenwald and that Mother Tucker Carlson continue their "Bad Bromance" and much more.

2022 is not over but it is winding down. In his last column for the year, Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH) looks back at the year and notes many things including:

+ Glenn Greenwald’s insta-column posted soon after the Buffalo massacre is one of his most revolting. It read less as a defense of his pal Tucker Carlson than a “manifesto-by-proxy” of Glenn’s own rancid views on immigration…

+ After Greenwald’s full-throated defense of Replacement Theory, you wonder how much longer he’ll have any utility at all to the rightwing roosts he’s been perching on for years, where he was only useful because they portrayed him as a left-winger attacking the Left. Now he’s clearly just another reactionary craving the spotlight to air his writhing knot of grievances. But Glenn’s not nearly as entertaining as the 100-proofers Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dan Bongino or Gregg Gutfeld. More & more, his airplay on Fox will be “replaced” by Gabbard.

[. . .]

+ Five minutes after Paul Gosar (Bigot-AZ) claimed that the Ulvade mass murderer was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien”, Glenn is lamenting to his soul(less)mate Tucker Carlson how the left is politicizing the shooting…

It's been quite a year for Glenn. Not one of accomplishment. He hasn't accomplished anything in 2022. He's Tweeted. He's rolled dogged -- not raw dogged -- with his buddy Tucker Carlson providing cover for Tucker to hide behind as Tucker continues to attack the LGBTQ+ community. Glenn did that in college too -- he chuckled at anti-gay 'jokes' and cozied up to the anti-gay people. made him feel cool in his acid washed jeans and he liked being the token.

It's a difficult time for him now. His husband could die at any moment, for example. Glenn's decided that instead of hanging around the hospital -- the way, say Debbie Harry did when Chris Stein got ill -- a boy's just got to Tweet and start a new daily talk show. He's so Jules in ST. ELMO'S FIRE, oh-oh.

Apparently, Glenn does believe in some sacrficie -- hair and make up staff are non-existent on his show and we get to see how ugly Glenn's face really is when no one can put powder on him.

But he's being remembered this year. For example:

Glenn Greenwald and that Mother Tucker, the bromance of 2022. Picture this, indeed.

Over to Iraq . . .

Eve Ottenberg (COUNTERPUNCH) observes:

The American republic morphed well over a century ago into an empire of many endless wars. With U.S. troops still in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and numerous African countries, with over 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and a war budget of roughly one trillion dollars a year, it’s no surprise that one of our main exports is weapons and that arms merchants call the shots in Washington. Presidents come and go, but the wars don’t: they drag on. And when a president does manage to extract the country from one of these military quagmires, as Biden did in Afghanistan, he gets nothing but grief.

Troops remain everywhere. And there's been no ending to the Iraq War. Eve asks a question and then provides the sad truth:

How long will U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq and Syria? Let’s just say that at the current rate of political change, if your grandchildren enlist, they could wind up there. The only real hope is that another president will do there what Biden did in Afghanistan, though maybe without the sanctions

Need more proof that the war drags on? CENTCOM is claiming they killed 700 members of ISIS in Iraq and Syria this year. No, the year's not over yet but they made the announcement yesterday. Maybe ISIS told CE NTCOM that they were taking off today and tomorrow? Here's the CENTCOM release:

Dec. 29, 2022
Release Number 20221229-1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TAMPA, Fla. – Throughout 2022, US Central Command and partner forces conducted hundreds of operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These operations degraded ISIS and removed a cadre of senior leaders from the battlefield, to include the emir of ISIS and dozens of regional leaders as well as hundreds of fighters. All these operations were part of the mission to degrade the terror group’s ability to direct and inspire destabilizing attacks in the region and globally, to include against the US homeland.

During calendar year 2022, CENTCOM conducted 313 total operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria as follows:

 In Syria:

 108 partnered operations
 14 US unilateral operations
 215 ISIS operatives detained
 466 ISIS operatives killed

 In Iraq:
 191 partnered operations
 159 ISIS operatives detained
 At least 220 ISIS operatives killed

These operations were conducted under the authority of the CENTCOM commander, who retains authority for operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and under the command of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve. No US forces were injured or killed in these operations. Our local partners—the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi Security Forces—have and continue to play a critical role ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS.

One year ago this month, the US security relationship with Iraq fully transitioning to a role of advising, assisting, and enabling Iraqi Security Forces. Iraqi Security Forces are now leading successful unilateral offensive operations at the brigade level and making impressive strides in combined arms operations.

“Over the past year, Iraqi Security Forces demonstrated an ability to continue operations to degrade ISIS, to aggressively pursue the terror group in Iraq, and to improve security and stability within Iraq,” said General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, CENTCOM commander. “Today, they display a high level of competence, professionalism, and progress in leading tactical operations, but there is still much work to be done.”

“In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces continue to display the will, skill, and ability to aggressively root out ISIS leaders and fighters,” Kurilla continued.

“The emerging, reliable and steady ability of our Iraqi and Syrian partner forces to conduct unilateral operations to capture and kill ISIS leaders allows us to maintain steady pressure on the ISIS network,” said Major General Matt McFarlane, commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.

ISIS maintains malign intentions regarding the al-Hol Displacement Camp and the more than two dozen detention centers in Syria secured by the Syrian Democratic Forces. ISIS also maintains the desire to strike outside of the region and continues to work with affiliates around the globe, most significantly in Afghanistan and Africa.

“CENTCOM sees ISIS in three categories,” said Kurilla. “First, ISIS at large. This is the current generation of ISIS leaders and operatives we are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria. While we have significantly degraded its capability, the vile ideology remains unconstrained. We must continue to pressure ISIS through our partnered operations.”

“The second category is ISIS in detention. There is a literal ‘ISIS army’ in detention in Iraq and Syria. There are, today, more than 10,000 ISIS leaders and fighters in detention facilities throughout Syria and more than 20,000 ISIS leaders and fighters in detention facilities in Iraq.” The January 2022 ISIS prison breakout in Al-Hasakah, Syria is a reminder of the risk imposed by these prisons. The ensuing fight to contain the breakout resulted in more than 420 ISIS killed and more than 120 partnered forced killed.

“Finally,” Kurilla continued, “we have the potential next generation of ISIS. These are the more than 25,000 children in the al-Hol camp who are in danger. These children in the camp are prime targets for ISIS radicalization. The international community must work together to remove these children from this environment by repatriating them to their countries or communities of origin while improving conditions in the camp.”

“CENTCOM remains focused on supporting these security forces as they diligently work to improve conditions at the camp. However, the only viable long-term solution remains the successful repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of the camp residents back to their country of origin.”

The mission to defeat ISIS will continue in 2023 as CENTCOM and its Coalition partners remain committed to the enduring defeat of the terror group in order to maintain and enhance global security, stability, and human rights.

“We are committed and, more importantly, our partners in Iraq and Syria are committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said McFarlane.

As we have said over and over, since the White House and Iraq insisted in 2014 that ISIS was vanquished, ISIS has not gone away.

A terrorist group carries out activies to strike fear. It really doesn't occupy and control land. ISIS, however, did manage to do that. All that 2014 accomplished was freeing Mosul and other areas from ISIS' control. They remain active. We were laughing at SKY NEWS' realization of that fact earlier this year. ISIS hasn't gone away.

And you don't 'defeat' terrorism with military measures. You defeat it by overturning the conditions that allowed to breed to begin with.

Military measures? That's like setting off a fogger in a room your house or aparment. That just sends the bugs to another room. That's all military measures do as well.

Despite the fact that ISIS continues to terrorize, the Iraqi government is (again) moving to shut down camps where displaced Iraqis have taken shelter. ANADOLU AGENCY reports that the plan is to shut them down over the next six months:

Iraqi Immigration and Displacement Minister Ivan Faik Jabro stressed that as part of the government's 2023 planning, the camps will be closed in about six months and migrants sent back to their homes.

He noted that other ministries will also support the project and necessary positive living conditions will be provided to migrants where they will return.

Jabro emphasized that the infrastructure of places belonging to immigrants that became unusable during [the] terror group attacks should be re-zoned.

"Infrastructure, water, electricity and municipal services should be provided in the immigrants’ areas as soon as possible,” said Jabro. “In the next six months, the relevant ministries must definitely fulfill their duties.

So it will be taken of? Great. Now the took the school project, right? What's that? They put it on hold:

Iraq is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,000 schools under an agreement with Chinese companies but the project is delayed by the war in Ukraine, an official has said.

Chinese firms agreed to construct the schools in Iraq’s 15 governorates under their 2019 oil-for-projects accord which stipulates supplying companies from China with crude oil in exchange for projects they undertake in Iraq.

The project to build 1,000 schools has achieved “good execution rates” but there are obstacles, said Nazim Hameedi, School Projects Director at the Iraqi Cabinet Secretariat.

“These obstacles include land allocation and logistics problems…most of these obstacles have been tackled except for funding from the executing companies due to the war in Ukraine…as a result Iraqi firms undertaking such projects for their Chinese partners are trying to seek domestic loans to complete these projects,” Hameedi told Aliqtisad News.

They're "pushing ahead with plan" even though "the project is delayed." What great spin for a project that's been dragging on since 2019. Doesn't instill trust that, after the kick the refugees out of the camps, the places for these displaced Iraqis to live will actually have been built.

These stalled and never completed projects go to the extreme corruption in Iraq. Robert Tollast and Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) report:

In October, Iraq’s acting finance minister Ihsan Jabbar shocked the world by announcing an investigation into $2.5 billion that had gone missing from Iraq’s General Commission for Taxes, a department in the Ministry of Finance. It was described as the heist of the century.

The money had been given to five shell companies set up last year and investigations are ongoing, but experts tell The National that while several political parties have been implicated, senior officials are unlikely to be punished.

Earlier this month, it was alleged that attempts to toughen anti-corruption efforts by former prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi ended in a series of raids against rivals resulting in the death of one suspect under torture.

New Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani has placed a former intelligence chief and Iran-linked enforcer in a new anti-corruption team, while the new head of the country's biggest anti-corruption body is close to the Iran-linked Badr Organisation, stirring fears of more purges that do little to get to the root of the problem.

“If you look at the people in positions linked to the organisations where the theft happened, or those reported to be involved, you get a lot of political actors. From the Popular Mobilisation Forces [a largely Iran-backed militia force] to [former prime minister Mustafa Al] Kadhimi to [Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al] Halbousi to the Sadrists. It's unlikely that such a big theft went on without a major player taking a cut,” says Hamza, a consultant in Iraq who used to work for the main government auditing body. His name has been withheld for security reasons.

Mustafa? Earlier this month, Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) reported:

Kadhimi, who left office in October, came to power in 2020 after mass anti-corruption demonstrations felled his predecessor. His government’s high-profile campaign to tackle graft in one of the world’s most corrupt countries drew widespread international encouragement.

Central to the effort was a series of highly publicized night raids in late 2020 on the homes of public figures accused of corruption, conducted under the authority of the Permanent Committee to Investigate Corruption and Significant Crimes, better known as Committee 29. The architect of the raids was Lt. Gen. Ahmed Taha Hashim, or Abu Ragheef, who became known in Iraq as the “night visitor.”

But what happened to the men behind closed doors was far darker: a return to the ugly old tactics of a security establishment whose abuses Kadhimi had vowed to address. In more than two dozen interviews — including five men detained by the committee, nine family members who had relatives imprisoned, and 11 Iraqi and Western officials who tracked the committee’s work — a picture emerges of a process marked by abuse and humiliation, more focused on obtaining signatures for pre-written confessions than on accountability for corrupt acts.

Those interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters or, in the case of detainees and their families, to protect their safety.

“It was every kind of torture,” one former detainee recalled. “Electricity, choking me with plastic bags, hanging me from the ceiling by my hands. They stripped us naked and grabbed at the parts of our body underneath.”

In at least one case, a former senior official, Qassim Hamoud Mansour, died in the hospital after being arrested by the committee. Photographs provided to The Post by his family appear to show that a number of teeth had been knocked out, and there were signs of blunt trauma on his forehead.

Allegations that the process was riddled with abuse became an open secret among diplomats in Baghdad last year. But the international community did little to follow up on the claims and the prime minister’s office downplayed the allegations, according to officials with knowledge of the issue. Although a parliamentary committee first revealed the torture allegations in 2021 and Iraqi media have raised the issue sporadically, this is the fullest attempt yet to investigate the claims and document the scale of the abuse.

Mustafa has responded. Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) reports:

Iraq’s former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Wednesday responded to the allegations of torture and extortion committed by an anti-corruption committee during his tenure, saying that the accusations lack “legal evidence” and that the committee had operated “in accordance with judicial rulings.”

A nine-month investigation by the Washington Post earlier this month concluded that Iraq’s Permanent Committee to Investigate Corruption and Significant Crimes, also known as Committee 29, had used extreme methods of torture, including sexual violence, to extract pre-written confessions from former Iraqi officials and businessmen. The report relies on interviews with several of the detainees, their family members, as well as Iraqi and Western officials.

In his first remarks since the publication of the article, Kadhimi stated that, during his time in office, he had always worked towards upholding human rights and preventing the “reoccurrence of any violations” in the interrogation process, adding that a report from the Attorney General at the end of 2021 stated that the committee had “adhered to all international standards of Human Rights.”

Mustafa, no one believes your lies. Most outlets aren't even taking the time to note that two days ago -- two days -- you denied the allegations. Bark, guilty dog, bark.

As the year winds down, Reporters Without Borders looks at violence aimed at journalists around the world. They note that over the last two decades (2003 to 2022), approximately 80 journalists have been killed a year for a total of 1668. And they note:

During the past two decades, 80% of the media fatalities have occurred in 15 countries. The two countries with the highest death tolls are Iraq and Syria, with a combined total of 578 journalists killed in the past 20 years, or more than a third of the worldwide total. They are followed by Afghanistan, Yemen and Palestine. Africa has not been spared, with Somalia coming next.

Sadly, there's no journalistic bravery at REUTERS these days. That explains their latest tongue batch of cult leader and killer Moqtada al-Sadr. "Now here are some scenes from the next episode of MOQTADA AL-SADR, MOQTADA AL-SADR," the article seems to say. To their credit, they do note that he flopped as a 'kingmaker.' But, before we praise them for that, two things. First, his failure as a kingmaker is hard to deny at this late date. Second, they were among the biggest of those pimping the lie -- starting in October of 2021 -- that he was a kingmaker.

While they were pimping that claim, we were scoffing and disputing it. A year later?

They want to lie that Moqtada has left politics -- since August. Really? From December 3rd:

Need more reality? Moqtada al-Sadr is scum of the earth. He leads a cult and, over the years, the US press has decided to go soft on him and present as a leader (he's not) and a kingmaker (never) instead of as the cheap ass thug he actually is. He's flaunting his true colors again. Daniel Stewart (360 NEWS) notes:

"I vow to confront homosexuality or the LGBTQ community through ethical, peaceful and religious means, against this violation of the innate characteristics on which humanity is built," according to a statement accompanied by his signature and posted on Twitter by his spokesman Salé Mohamed al Iraqi.

The cleric has reiterated his message by calling for the creation of an abolition of the alleged law of homosexuality in Iraq because "it cannot be a door to generalize this affliction".

In reality, homosexuality has been legal in Iraq for 20 years because the country does not have a law explicitly criminalizing it.

However, it does have a regulation prohibiting "immodest acts," probably the one Al Sadr was referring to, which Human Rights Watch has described as a "vague provision that could be used to target minorities."

Poor, dumb and uneducated Moqtada. He can never by a religious leader above 'cleric' because he doesn't have the background and couldn't get it even when he ran off to Iran in 2007. Poor idiot Moqtada.

And, please don't forget, that two years ago, he explained 'the gay' caused other things as well:

And maybe those who've been stupid enough to promote Moqtada over the last three years could wake up to reality?

All that stuff we noted above? REUTERS never reported on it. They are a news agency. Moqtada has spent the last three years demonizing Iraq's LGBTQ+ community (something he began doing in the '00s) and REUTERS has never, ever felt the need to comment on that. They've given him one tongue bath after another. In December, he announced he was confronting gays and that's not political, REUTERS? What a joke that outlet has become. And, remember, I say that as someone who publicly called them out here when they installed a CIA agent in Iraq as a reporter. That was right after Barack Obama became president. The 'reporter' made no (journalistic) mark at REUTERS and, in fact, did such a bad job that the cover of 'reporter' hasn't been used by the agent since. You'd think that would be REUTERS worst moment in Iraq, however, the tongue bath that they continue to give to Moqtada puts the knowing employment of the CIA agent to shame. (To be clear, some at REUTERS told me in real time that it wasn't known the 'reporter' was CIA until after being hired and deployed to Iraq. Regardless, the 'reporter' was enployed for a long time after everyone knew about it.)

As for Moqtada, it's a shame he can't live in the US where he could be best buddies with Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor-Greene and do things in front of the camera with Mother Tucker Carlson. Or live in Brazil where Glenn Greenwald could be his bodyguard -- the Kevin to Moqtada's Whitney.

The following sites updated:

Read on ...

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Trying to read about comics?

I've got a new comic going up tonight. So look for that. For now, I want to talk about books. KINDLE UNLIMITED is an AMAZON service and, as such, it apparently has to appeal to everyone.

It doesn't appeal to me when I'm looking for books about comics. About. History, critique, that sort of thing. I read three 'books' yesterday.

MARVEL SUPER HEROES UNKNOWN FACTS is pure garbage. It's not about the comics it's about MARVEL characters in film and it's a lousy overview of even that. I don't think a 9-year-old would take this 'book' seriously. You'd get more information on the back of a sports trading card. Avoid at all cost.

X-MEN GRAND DESIGN may please some. The art is interesting, for example. But there's something seriously sad about MARVEL taking old stories and putting with new art. They have nothing else to do but go back to the sixties and grab those stories? Look, when I was a kid, I loved MISSION IMPOSSIBLE the TV show. But in the 90s when they brought the series back during the writers strike and used old scripts with new actors? It seemed cheap. So does X-MEN GRAND DESIGN.

The winner of the three? MARVEL COMICS GROUP AND THE SILVER AGE OF COMICS: VOLUME ONE: 1961-1965. Joseph William Marek goes back to his childhood when he first encountered MARVEL COMICS and offers a month-by-month overview of the MARVEL COMICS he liked back then. You'll learn about The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Wasp, Giant Man, Thor, Hulk and others (including Millie The Model). It was an interesting approach and a book worth reading. The only one of the three worth reading, in fact.

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

Friday, November 25, 2022. Ask yourself what kind of a left we are when we will set a place at the table for right-wing men but won't for people of color, women and LGBTQ+s?

Daniel Villareal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Barely three days after a shooter at an LGBTQ club killed five people and injured dozens, right-wing media figures have been blaming LGBTQ people for causing the violence. Others are also attacking the military veteran who stopped the shooter.

Their claims continue a years-long campaign of stochastic terrorism in which they’ve accused queer people and their allies of grooming children for sexual abuse through LGBTQ school content and drag shows, and also of mutilating children’s genitals through gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.

While genital surgeries aren’t conducted on minors and no kids have ever been molested during a drag show, none of these figures have spoken as passionately against forced genital surgeries for intersex kids or the literal thousands of child rape cases that have occurred in U.S. churches, nor have they promoted organizations that actually work against child sex abuse and trafficking.

[. . .]

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, —host of the network’s most-watched program and a man who celebrated the murder of gay politician Harvey Milk and once bragged about beating up a gay man — mocked those who said the shooting was caused by people complaining about “the sexualizing of kids… people mutilating the genitals of children, [and] … ads on Instagram promoting kiddie porn.”

But then he said the connection between LGBTQ activism and the above things is “a very specific religious ideology that’s true, is happening and is “absolutely real.”

He then said the shooting has become “a pretext for yet more censorship of [conservative public] speech.”

“You are responsible for this, they told you, because you said the wrong things,” Carlson told his viewers. “You are guilty of stochastic terrorism, inspiring violence by your beliefs. Anderson Lee Aldrich [the Club Q shooter] committed mass murder because you complained about the sexualizing of children. Every time you object to drag time story hour for fifth graders or point out that genital mutilation is being committed on minors — which it is — every time you say that, you are putting people’s lives at risk.”

He added, “The truth is that some adults in this country, apparently a growing number, have a deeply unhealthy fixation on the sexuality of children — when you say that out loud, you get people killed.”

In response, Twitter user Kat Abu published a thread that included the numerous broadcasts in which Carlson has talked at length about children’s sexuality and their genitals.

Giulia Carbonaro (NEWSWEEK) observes:

Florida political operative Jaimee Michell, founder of the controversial anti-trans group "Gays Against Groomers," told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs "was expected and predictable" and to be blamed on the LGBTQ "evil agenda" of gender-affirming care.

Talking to Carlson about the mass shooting, Michell claimed that what's really hurting the LGBTQ community is labelling "groomers"—a term that falsely equates non-heterosexual sexualities and non-cisgender identities with pedophilia—an anti-LGBTQ slur, and said that tragedies like the one at Club Q will keep happening "until we end this evil agenda."

Anderson Lee Aldrich is accused of opening fire at Club Q just before midnight on Saturday, killing five people and injuring 18 others.

Activists have denounced "Gays Against Groomers" as an anti-trans hate group that stokes anti-LGBTQ hate by regularly calling gay people "groomers" and accusing the LGBTQ community of sexualizing children. A couple of months ago, "Gays Against Groomers'" Twitter account was banned from Google, Venmo and Paypal after the group was accused of anti-trans hate.

Michell, the group's cisgender gay founder, frequently appears on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News, repeating and amplifying conservatives' moral panic over the alleged "grooming" of children blamed on liberals and queer people.

I don't know how your Thanksgiving worked out -- hopefully it was pleasant and fun -- but 'Aunty GiGi' was denounced loudly by several gay activists at my home. 'Aunty GiGi' is how some are now deriding Glenn Greenwald for his idiotic support of Tucker Carlson and others who spread this crap. Yeah, people who had to stand up against this s**t in the 70s when Anita Bryant was spewing it aren't in the mood for precious GiGi to give his tacit support for it.

As he rightly loses influence and his 'brand' weakens, maybe Lauren Boebert can become his hag? Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) notes:

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) defended her anti-LGBTQ rhetoric after she was widely denounced online in the wake of the Club Q shooting for stoking violence against LGBTQ people.

“That is completely false,” she told Ross Kaminsky on KOA, an AM radio station. “I have never had bad rhetoric towards anyone and their personal preference as an adult.”

Sexual orientation is not a “personal preference” and minors can have sexual orientations. In fact, Boebert herself got pregnant for the first time when she was in high school.

This past Saturday, a shooter entered the LGBTQ bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killed five people, and injured 18 with an AR-15-style weapon before being subdued.

Boebert released a statement saying that “the victims & their families are in my prayers” and was immediately slammed online after spreading hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ people for years, something people said may have contributed to anti-LGBTQ violence.

“You encourage this type of hatred,” Chasten Buttigieg – the husband of out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – responded. “Get off Twitter and start looking inward.”

It didn’t take long in the radio interview for Boebert to go back to bashing LGBTQ people.

“What I’ve criticized is the sexualization of our children,” she said, an expression conservatives use to refer to a wide range of actions, including teaching kids that some families have two mothers or two fathers and allowing LGBTQ clubs to form in high schools. It’s unclear exactly what she was referring to.

“And I’ve criticized men dressing up as caricatures of women,” she continued. Drag is an art form with deep roots in LGBTQ culture, and the idea is to play with gender, often to express one’s own femininity, masculinity, or androgyny.

Lauren is disgusting but, sadly, so much is and that includes on our side -- the left.

Have you noticed the silence? I'm looking at e-mails. Garcia notes that Margaret Kimberley has Tweeted repeatedly over the last days but never managed to note the tragedy in Colorado Springs -- nor did BLACK AGENDA REPORT. Good catch, Garcia.

Equally true, I counted over 200 Tweets from Tara Reade this week and she never bothered to Tweet about it.

Tara. I believe her ex explained it best when he said she only cares about what happens to her. That is why, in the Tweets this week, she can reTweet convicted pedophile, registered sex offender Scott Ritter. Tara loves her some Scotty. Any man who harms others is Tara's buddy.

That's the truth. Tara thinks she deserves sympathy but -- as her ex explained in a roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin -- she doesn't have sympathy for others.

We've now seen that with all of her actions long before she started using her Twitter feed to pimp registered sex offender Scott Ritter -- who went to prison.

She won't do anything to help others because she's never cared about others her whole life. That's why she bailed on her bills and her loans from friends. She's a self-centered bitch.

And she won't help other women but she'll constantly demand attention.

A deadly attack took place in Colorado Springs and Tara couldn't be bothered with it because it's a gay thing and, please grasp this reality, gay things don't matter to the ultra left.

You'd think they would. But you'd be wrong. You'd be wrong today and you'd be wrong historically.

Tara Reade is the poster girl for obesity and for hatred.

Thanks, Tara, for showing your true self. I should disclose that for pointing out here what a whore she is to promote a registered sex offender, Tara banned me. I laughed then and I laugh now.

Reality, Tara was assaulted by Joe Biden. Didn't make her a nice person. Didn't make her a saint. Didn't make her anyone who could be considered an ally. Six days where she has Tweeted and reTWeeted and she couldn't once be bothered with an attack on the LGBTQ+ community.

That's who Tara is.

She'll never, ever help another person. Her narcissistic nature is what it is. She's also a deeply stupid person. Someone should have told her long ago to sue Joe Biden for her employment records. Someone should have pointed out to her that when Joe declared the pandemic over, there was no excuse to hide behind it regarding access to his records at the university.

But she's a deeply stupid person so let's not be surprised that she's so incompetent she can't even help herself.

I'd love to say she gives the left a bad name. She's part of the reason we have a bad name though.

The left is huge. It includes the group that votes blindly for the Democratic Party and think partisanship is being political. It's not. Parroting is not political. Then you have Democrats who can self-criticize but can't see too much beyond domestic issues. You've then got Socialists, Communists, Socialist-Democrats and then you're moving into the hard left which probably takes you all the way to anarchist which wraps around to the right wing because politics is circular and not linear.

Historically, on the left, we have not supported gay rights. The Communists in certain eras especially did not want to support gay rights. Occasionally, an individual would get support but that support was always tentative. Look at Walter Jenkins, embraced by the partisans and seen as a genius in certain ways. So they all pretended he wasn't gay. But then he gets arrested in 1964 and they're afraid that it could harm LBJ's re-election chances so they turn on him and sacrifice him while LBJ lies and pretends like he never knew Walter was gay (he knew, the FBI knew, the 1959 previous arrest was not a secret) and starts trying to save his own ass by lying and suggesting that mean Republicans must have drugged Walter's drink and that, as a result of being drugged, Walter found his mouth watering for dick and, due to the drugs, ended up at a YMCA bathroom where he was busted with his mouth around a cock.

Now back then, and this is an important point to grasp, oral sex wasn't thought to be as common as it is today. Marlon Brando infamously posed with Wally Cox's penis in his mouth and people act like it didn't happen even when writing Brando's obituaries. Marlon was one of our finest actors. His affairs with men didn't make him any less great. And that Wally Cox photo is a striking image.

But in the 50s and 60s, for many, anything beyond missionary-position male-female sex was time to clutch the pearls. (Though, traditionally, look at the studies, anal sex has always been popular among Catholics in the US as a way to prevent pregnancy.)

These days, straight couples peg. These days oral sex is common and noted as such. Tossing someone's salad, etc, etc.

So when an idiot starts talking about orifices and their 'true' intentions -- as many did on message boards this week in light of the shooting -- they look like idiots and defeat themselves. We've come far enough to be honest about sex and how sex can take place and those trying to police what they pretend is morality lose any argument right at the get go because this isn't the 1950s. We know what our bodies are capable of and we know about enjoying our bodies.

Nancy Friday, Dr. Ruth, Audre Lorde, Dan Savage and many others have done their part to allow us to be grown ups.

And this has impacted politics -- as it should. Awareness and education in any area has impact on other areas. You can go into a whole spheres of justice argument off that -- though I wouldn't because Michael Walzer ripped off the Torah for his argument and didn't even grasp the importance of the sphere of din -- telling -- and proof of the points we're making because din, of course, can be associated with the feminine and the feminine and LGBTQ+ issues have traditionally been dismissed in this country -- especially in this country's political maneuvering.

If you know the left's history, you know that Sly's "Everyday People" wasn't just a popular song, it was a portrait of our history:

There is a blue one who can't accept the green one

For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny oneAnd different strokes for different folksAnd so on and so on and scooby dooby doo

Oh sha sha we got to live together

I am no better and neither are youWe are the same whatever we doYou love me you hate me you know me and thenYou can't figure out the bag I'm in

I am everyday people, yeah yeah

There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hairFor bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor oneAnd different strokes for different folksAnd so on and so on and scooby dooby doo

-- "Everyday People," written by Sly Stone, first appears on Sly & The Family Stone's STAND!

We hear the Jimmy Dore's insist that identity politics are destroying the left.

No, identity politics are what made the left. It's what forced the Communist Party to move beyond their limited White world and to give support to efforts to end lynchings in the US. It's what brings us together when we can get over our own pig headedness. When we can embrace the blue one and the long hair and the poor one and everyone. It's how we build a society and it's how we've always built a movement.

The Jimmy Dores don't understand that because they're unintelligent. They don't understand how things work, they haven't studied anything and they're victims of the atomistic age -- an age where we, as a people, were taught how to tear apart but not how to put back together. The synthesis is the missing step and people like Jimmy (who is not a bad person and who I would note still were it not for his promoting Scott Ritter -- a sex offender; I'm sorry, Jimmy, I can't big tent convicted offenders) don't even grasp it because they can regurgitate but they can't think.

If you want a powerful left, you're going to have to stand up for rights and that's not just your own rights. Don't be a Tara Reade offended by your own assault but caring so little of others that you'll promote a registered sex offender.

You've got to look beyond your own interests. You've got to support others. If you don't do that, the left goes no where. And that's been the case throughout history though those who short cut it -- due to ignorance or personal interest -- never pass that lesson on.

Here's Dove Cameron on Sunday saying what a lot of others need to be saying.

Instead? Instead our left outlets on YOUTUBE gave us silence. Our left voices on Twitter gave us silence.

As Keesha noted last night in the roundtable, Betty was right when she wrote "Hard truths."

Everybody wants sympathy and attention when it is them or their primary group but they don't seem to want to build bridges for other communities.

You can't even get women on half the YOUTUBE programs for the left so it's not a surprise that the LGBTQ+ is rendered invisible on so many of these same programs or that African-Americans are largely ignored by White hosts on these same YOUTUBE programs. For the left, understand, made for the left and by the left.

We need to do a much better job. Lives are at stake. If we can't offer inclusion and we can't share the spotlight, we might as well be Republicans.

Oh, excuse me. The Jimmy Dores and Glenn Greenwalds will feature Republicans -- it's women, LGBTQ+ and people of color that have to fight to be on left YOUTUBE shows and get left Twitter attention.

It's really telling that they will set a place for neocons and others at a left table but not for women, LGBTQ+ and people of color.

Stephen F. Eisenmen (COUNTERPUNCH) explains:

The shooting this week at Club Q in Colorado Springs was as horrendous as it was unsurprising. Though the city has changed a lot since 1992, when local, anti-queer activists championed the passage of a statewide, constitutional amendment prohibiting municipal anti-discrimination ordinances, the area retains pockets of deep reaction. Colorado Springs representative Doug Lamborn, like fellow Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, this year supported federal anti-trans legislation in Congress. Since at least 2016, Lamborn has attacked what he calls the “madness,” and “politically correct absurdity” of federal protection for transgender students. Boebert has described trans people as “depraved” and their defenders as “groomers” bent on turning innocent children into trans people themselves.

Their statements condemning the recent violence were strictly pro forma, condemning “senseless violence,” praising first responders for “their rapid response,” and calling for prayers for “the victims and their families.” Neither mentioned that the victims were at a queer nightclub or that fatal attacks upon LGBTQ folks have reached a record high. And first responders failed both to prevent the attack and had no role in stopping it. Police handcuffed and detained the good Samaritan who stopped the shooting spree, retired U.S. Army major Richard Fierro, and kept him confined for an hour in a police car while his family and friends were left to struggle with injuries and death.

Some Americans were probably surprised to read that Fierro went to Club Q with his family to celebrate a birthday. In the United States, it’s still rare for families to visit gay bars together or watch live drag performances. (On TV, RuPaul’s Drag Race has been a fixture for more than a decade.) The night of the shooting, the club featured a drag show titled “Delusions” hosted by a local drag queen with the stage name Del Lusional. The audience for that event was limited to guests 18 y.o. and older, but a drag-brunch open to all ages was scheduled for the following day.

Fierro was having a great time when the shooting began, he told a NYTimes reporter: “These kids want to live that way, want to have a good time, have at it….that is what I fought for, so they can do whatever the hell they want.” It’s not yet clear what were the precise motivations of the shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, but he faces murder and hate crimes charges. His lawyers claim that he is non-binary himself and prefers to be addressed using they/them pronouns and the honorific Mx. in front of his name. The assertion may be a subterfuge to undercut the hate crimes charges and establish mitigation.

Family attendance at drag shows has risen in recent years, so much so that it has attracted literally delusional reactions from the Republican-right. In June, Florida governor Ron DeSantis threatened to order the state’s department of protective services to investigate parents who take their kids to drag shows: “We have child protective statutes on the books,” he said. “We have laws against child endangerment.” State legislators in Florida, Arizona, and Texas have proposed laws to criminalize drag entertainment, and armed militia groups have threatened the lives of drag performers across the country. It remains to be seen if the recent massacre will cause any retreat in the legal and vigilante onslaught.

The proposed laws against drag are patently unconstitutional infringements of free speech and would likely be struck down in court – even by conservative justices. Apart from first amendment considerations, such laws would be largely unenforceable because of the multitude of liminal cases. Drag performances have long been a staple of theatre, film, and television, from Twelfth Night to Some Like it Hot to Kinky Boots. Would they all be banned? And the fashion industry is predicated upon playful subversion and compliance with gender norms – men in skirts and heels, women in trousers and work boots. Corporate America profits from trans.

Gender itself is a form of performance, the philosopher Judith Butler long ago noted, though one that by its repetition, shapes our identity. On that basis, almost any theatrical entertainment could be described as a “drag show” and its sponsors and performers trundled into court. But the point of the proposed laws is not to legislate costume, comportment, or performance, much less identity – it is to supercharge hatred and promote violence, thereby creating an atmosphere of crisis that can be exploited for reactionary (fascist) ends.

In other news, ARAB NEWS reports:

Online propaganda campaigns that targeted Middle Eastern countries including Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria were linked to US military, technology firm Meta has claimed.

In its latest adversarial threat report, the company said the network that coordinated the campaigns used fake social media accounts to promote pro-Western narratives and was taken down in August after an independent research group flagged the profiles to Facebook’s parent company.

The findings of the report said: “The US network — linked to individuals associated with the US military — operated across many internet services and focused on Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.”

The social media giant said 39 Facebook accounts, 16 Facebook pages, two groups, and 26 Instagram accounts had been removed for violating its policy on “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” a term used to describe the coordination of accounts and adoption of techniques to publish, promote, and spread false content.

The campaigns, believed to be the first of their kind, were designed to discredit Russia, China, Iran, and other countries, while promoting American views and values.

The tactics adopted by the US network were similar to those used in anti-Western campaigns, such as the use of fake people and the dissemination of artificially generated photos across multiple platforms.

“The people behind this activity posted primarily in Arabic, Farsi, and Russian about news and current events, including terrorism concerns and praise of the US military, as well as content about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic — some of which we removed for violating our misinformation policy,” the report added.

Although experts believe the campaigns were largely ineffective and their reach was very limited, Meta argued that the operations ran across many internet services, including Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, VKontakte, and Odnoklassniki.

“Although the people behind this operation attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the US military,” Meta said in the report, adding that, “the majority of this operation’s posts had little to no engagement from authentic communities.”

Hillary Essein (PEOPLE'S GAZETTE) also covers the story.

And that's going to have to be it. I am very sick this morning. This has been dictated in pieces and I'm sure it's very disjointed, my apologies.

The following sites updated: