Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Whoopi -- the Boomer boring us all with bad film choices

Whoopi Goldberg went on Jimmy  Fallon's TONIGHT SHOW and declared that she didn't want audiences to be scared if they saw TILL.  Scared?


No.


Bored?


Yeah.  Whoopi produced it and plays granny in it.

It's a TV movie.  It's like that awful film she made with Rob Reiner where, because of good intentions, we all tried to pretend GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI was a film and not a bad TV movie trying to pretend to be a film.  


And if you think about it, Whoopi is stuck in the old days.  Over and over, if she's addressing any issue to do with race, she's back in the old days.  THE LONG WALK HOME -- the fifties.  SARAFINA! -- the 70s (practically modern times for Whoopi since this was a movie released in the 90s -- she whined in real life that the LA riots kept people from noticing the film -- really, that was the problem, not that it was out of date and in the past).  CORRINA, CORRINA -- set in the fifties.  GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI -- set in the 60s. 2010's FOR COLORED GIRLS -- set in the 70s.  


And then there's TILL -- released this year and set in the 50s.   Dull and obvious.  It was released in October.  I'm one of the few people who paid to see it. In seven weeks, it's made $8.7 million.  And last weekend?  It made $86,000 -- you read that right.


No one wants to see this film.


And that's on Whoopi because it's a pedestrian TV movie and because we have real problems today.  She won't deal with those but she'll go back to the fifties and the sixties.  


If you were 20 in 1952, you're 90 today.  Whoopi can't seem to grasp how long ago this is and how we have real issues to address today.


Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


 Wednesday, November 30, 2022.  The Respect for Marriage Act passes the Senate, Tucker Carlson's hate speech is written by his gay underling, chemical weapons attacks are apparently okay when carried out by Turkey, and much more.


Starting in the United States, Senator Tammy Baldwin's office issued the following yesterday:


WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released the following statement following the Senate vote, 61-36, to pass the Respect for Marriage Act.

“Today, an overwhelming majority of Senators stepped up to protect the freedoms and rights of millions of Americans in same-sex and interracial marriages. I’m proud to have worked across the aisle to get the job done for millions of loving couples in Wisconsin and across the country,” said Senator Baldwin. “Millions of same-sex and interracial couples made this moment possible by living openly as their authentic selves, changing the hearts and minds of people around them. This legislation will protect the hard-fought progress we’ve made on marriage equality and I look forward to the Respect for Marriage Act becoming the law of the land.”

Video of Senator Baldwin’s floor speech prior to the vote on final passage can be found here.  


and CNN) report, "The final vote was 61-36. The bill was supported by all members of the Democratic caucus and 12 Republicans, the same dozen GOP members who backed the bill for a procedural vote earlier this month.  The House will now need to approve the legislation before sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. The House is expected to pass the bill before the end of the year – possibly as soon as next week."  Ledyard King, Rachel Looker, Sean Rossman  and Savannah Kuchar (USA TODAY) note, "Senators approved the bill in response to concerns the Supreme Court – with a 6-3 conservative majority – would reverse its 2015 decision recognizing the legitimacy of gay marriage just as it overturned in June the Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion access."


Senator Lindsey Graham elected to vote against the measure.  But then, Lindsey's been showing 'respect for marriage' his entire adult life -- 49 years of confirmed bachelorhood.  He Tweeted, following the vote, about things being ''woefully inadequate.''  Lindsey, Lindsey, a little package shouldn't prevent you from getting married.  I'm sure there are many people who'd be okay with it -- not everyone's a size queen.  But you do you, keep being the nun of the Senate -- Sister Lindsey Graham, devoting himself to politics.  Praise be the upper house.  You grab that Legislative Branch, Lindsey, grab it with both hands. 


Burgess Everett (POLITICO) observes:


Some political evolutions develop over decades, then accelerate in an instant. That’s how it happened for Democrats, who were divided over same-sex marriage during former President Barack Obama’s first term until then-Vice President Joe Biden announced his support 10 years ago. Obama followed, and the rest of the party was not far behind.

It’s been a slower trickle for Republicans. Portman, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were on a fairly lonely island in favor of same-sex marriage for years. And as he left Congress in 2016, former Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) — another early supporter — castigated his party for being too intolerant on the issue.

This summer, 47 House Republicans’ surprising support for the same-sex marriage bill spurred a sustained push from Tillis, Portman and Collins to take action — a veritable GOP tidal shift. As former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) put it on Tuesday: “Times change. And senators change.”


Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) explains:


Rights groups and other supporters of marriage equality celebrated Tuesday after 12 Senate Republicans joined with all Democrats present to pass protections for same-sex and interracial partnerships.

The Respect for Marriage (RFM) Act does not confirm the right of same-sex couples to marry nationwide, as the U.S. Supreme Court did in Obergefell v. Hodges, but rather requires states to recognize their marriage licenses. It also does not block states from banning same-sex marriage if the high court's 2015 ruling is overturned—as Justice Clarence Thomas teased in his concurring opinion for the June decision that ended national abortion rights.

While some have criticized the legislation for falling short of what's needed and pandering to religious groups, the 61-36 Senate vote was still widely heralded as historic progress. The amended version is expected to again pass the Democrat-held House—which initially passed the bill in July—before reaching the desk of President Joe Biden, who reaffirmed that he "will promptly and proudly sign it into law."

"As the votes in Congress attest, LGBTQ+ people belong and are part of our families, our communities, and our country. This is a critical victory on the road to the day when all people are fully protected from discrimination and have the freedom to make decisions about their lives and families," said Mary Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), who argued the Obergefell case.


Dean McColl (GAY TIMES) points out:

The Respect for Marriage Act does not require all states to legalise same-sex marriage.

It requires states to acknowledge same-sex marriage from different states and ensures federal benefits for same-sex married couples.

It also includes a ‘religious liberties’ amendment, which allows non-profit religious organisations to refuse to host same-sex weddings.

Jim Obergefell, who led the case for the national legalisation of same sex marriages, said he is ‘frustrated’ with this amendment and its failure to enforce same-sex marriages in all states.

A recent Gallup poll found 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage becoming a legal right.


At CNN, Zachary B. Wolf offers an overview of The Respect for Marriage Act.  Following the Senate vote, US President Joe Biden released the following statement:


With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love. For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled. It will also ensure that, for generations to follow, LGBTQI+ youth will grow up knowing that they, too, can lead full, happy lives and build families of their own.
 
Importantly, the Senate’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act is a bipartisan achievement. I’m grateful to the determined Members of Congress — especially Senators Baldwin, Collins, Portman, Sinema, Tillis, and Feinstein — whose leadership has underscored that Republicans and Democrats together support the essential right of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples to marry. I look forward to welcoming them at the White House after the House passes this legislation and sends it to my desk, where I will promptly and proudly sign it into law.


Staying on the topic of elected officials, Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is now trying to speak directly to trans kids and talk them out of transitioning. It’s not going well.

“If you’re under 18 and people are telling you to cut off your breast or have a surgery that turns your penis inside out to make a ‘vagina’ you’re a victim of child abuse,” Greene tweeted. Gender-affirming genital surgery is not performed on minors and top surgery is only performed on minors in rare circumstances and is much rarer than breast augmentation surgery among minors.

“Get away from those people and find safe people who tell you that you’re already perfect,” she continued. “Grow up first.”

Conservatives like Greene have been trying to reframe their desire for transgender kids to change into cisgender kids as “they’re already perfect,” even though Greene and others like her are asking them to change their gender identities. Opponents of transgender rights often support conversion therapy for trans people, which inculcates the false notion that trans people are not “already perfect.”

People reacted negatively to Greene’s statement.


The break up of her 27 year marriage coincides with her 'reach out' -- wonder what that's about?  Poor nutty Marjorie.  Staying with insanity, let's turn to hate merchant Tucker Carlson as Michael Signorile lifts the curtain to expose the actual wiz behind Tucker:




On his first Fox News broadcast following the November 19th mass shooting at Club Q, the LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in which five people were murdered and at least 17 were injured, Tucker Carlson was undaunted, continuing his relentless smearing of LGBTQ people as “groomers” who are dangerous to children. 

After a perfunctory condemnation of the violence, Carlson pivoted back to railing against “drag time story hour for fifth graders” and “genital mutilation of minors” while a graphic image behind him blared, “STOP SEXUALIZING KIDS.”

The following night, Carlson promoted the grotesque view that the staff and patrons of Club Q — where a drag performance was scheduled on that Saturday night of the attack — had it all coming to them. He brought on a guest who said the shooting was “expected and predictable,” and that “it won’t stop until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children.”

Twisted enough. But even more shocking is the little-known fact that a gay man helped craft, mold and disseminate these bloodcurdling distortions and the horrendous demonization against his own community. 

A gay man supercharges Carlson’s promotion of Florida’s odious “don’t say gay” law, which stigmatizes queer kids, teachers and parents — a brutal campaign in which Carlson at one point said teachers who don’t comply “should get beaten up.” And a gay man empowers Carlson’s crusade against trans teens and and their parents, a crusade in which Carlson stated that hospitals should expect violent threats for providing gender-affirming care.

That gay man, Justin Wells, helped promulgate the kind of hate that leads to violence. A mass shooting that happened in the same kind of nightclub at which Wells, in years past, danced the night away in Miami Beach and elsewhere, liberating himself from the world outside and surely never imagining he’d be shot dead.

Now he’s aided the extremists who deny that sense of safety and liberation to every future generation of queer people.

Wells runs the entire Tucker Carlson operation, and is responsible for imprinting the Tucker Carlson brand, which is all about emboldening white heterosexual male grievance, furthering the racist conspiracy of  “replacement theory” and pushing an increasingly virulent anti-LGBTQ agenda. Wells is Senior Executive Producer of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and also holds the title of Vice President of Tucker Carlson Digital Products.

“He’s been promoted to a level that no other producer has been since, maybe, David Tabocoff at O’Reilly,” a former Fox employee told me, describing how Tabocoff, who was at Fox with Bill O’Reilly for 16 years, produced O’Reilly’s shows, all of his various specials and interviews, and oversaw his entire brand, including his merchandising. 

“I think that Justin has more power than Tabby [Tabacoff] ever had,” another Fox employee, a former producer, countered. “And there’s not another show that out-rates it. Influence-wise, everyone who’s conservative wants to be on Tucker.” Indeed, Wells has his own website, independent of Fox News’s site, JustinWells.com, something that surprised the former Fox News producer.

On the site, Wells touts his accomplishments: “Television Creator & Journalist. Senior Executive Producer & Vice President at Fox News Media.” It brims with photos meant to convey his power and importance: Wells, out on remotes with Carlson, helping to craft the story; Wells, shoulder-to-shoulder with military Special Forces in front of their Airbus chopper; and Wells, meeting with former President Donald Trump. The site describes Wells as “leading the Tucker Carlson Team across multiple platforms at Fox News Media,” and lays out the Carlson Fox empire he oversees.

Angelo Carusone, President and CEO of Media Matters, the media watchdog group that is laser-focused on Fox News and Carlson, observed, “It’s unlikely that any narrative would get broadcast by Tucker without significant buy-in from Justin.” In a clip highlighted by Media Matters in which Wells was interviewed by Carlson on Carlson's show last year as Carlson’s Fox Nation documentaries began launching, Wells brags about the latitude Fox News executives give him: “They believe in what we're doing and have since we launched ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’”

It’s beyond horrific to think a gay man has helped to shape and widely disseminate a message of hate against LGBTQ people. This story is not, however, about a warped closet case, tormented by self-loathing, hiding his true self while bashing those like him. And thus, this story is not an outing, which involves exposing someone who covers up their sexual orientation while publicly presenting as heterosexual — though it certainly may be a startling revelation to a great many. It is, rather, about connecting the dots regarding a reality that seems to have been hiding in plain sight.


Also note that REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT continued their conversation on the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.



Turning to Iraq, there's one story we have to note, from ANF:


Seher Aydar, deputy for the Red Party (R) presented a question to the minister of Foreign Affairs. The question reads as follows: “The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons as well as the destruction of such weapons. 193 countries have signed the convention, including Turkey, which is accused of using chemical weapons. The International Association of Physicians Against Nuclear Weapons (IPPNW) Switzerland and Germany write in a report that an independent investigation into possible violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention is necessary. The World Medical Association is also calling for an independent investigation.

Will Norway contribute to an independent investigation?”

The Minister for Foreign Affaris, Anniken Huitfeldt, said in her answer: “I am concerned about increased military activity in northern Iraq. Norway is concerned that warring parties in all contexts comply with international humanitarian law, including the rules on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. We expect all parties to respect international law.

Turkey, like Norway, is a party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC). The member states undertake to destroy any existing stockpiles of weapons. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) monitors that all member states comply with the Convention's provisions and carries out regular inspections. Chemical weapons are weapons of mass destruction, and the convention's total prohibition is an important contribution to global peacekeeping work. Turkey is a party to all basic international disarmament and non-proliferation regimes.

Allegations of violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention are something Norway takes very seriously. Norway, like the OPCW, monitors all information about possible violations of the convention. I am familiar with the report the representative refers to. These are so far unconfirmed claims and which have not been on the agenda of the OPCW's decision-making bodies. Norway will continue to have a dialogue with related countries on the matter.”


This is not the first time that we've noted Turkey's likely use of chemical weapons in northern Iraq.  Can someone at WSWS please explain what your organization's silence says?  Or, for that matter, your non-stop support of the Turkish government in every attack they carry out on Iraq?  Is it that you hate the Kurds or are you just so in love with the authoritarian regime in Turkey?

The possible use of chemical weapons has allowed even Noam Chomsky to find his voice on the issue.  So why not WSWS?


The following sites updated:


Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Julianne Moore, Jesse Eisenberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Tarantino and Chadwick

I hope the film WHEN YOU END UP SAVING THE WORLD is a hit for two reasons.  First, it stars Julianne Moore and she deserves a hit.  Second, if Jesse Eisenberg is successful as a director, maybe he'll stop acting.  I wish he would.  I can't stand his characters.  MODERN FAMILY had him at his most 'likeable' and that's not very likeable at all.  He played the annoying neighbor who had the water friendly yard (Lily said it looked like a cat litter box) and he attacked Mitch over using an air conditioner and many other things.  He was very good in that role, very real.  He can make a career out of being disliked.  In older days, he would have had a mustache that he twisted and we'd all hiss anytime he came on the screen.  

My girlfriend always asks how someone so ugly and unappealing keeps getting cast and points out that even Amy Schumer is "cute" but men like Jesse can be so unattractive and still get cast in one project after another.  She's right.

What's your favorite Julianne Moore performance?  I think mine is probably THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT but it varies depending on my mood.  I also love her in THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE and FAR FROM HEAVEN and THE HOURS.  But she's good in so much -- including BENNY & JOON.  She needs to lay off the partisanship.  She had a real career before she started coming off link a lunatic partisan.  If you're going to talk politics, talk politics.  Don't repeat partisan talking points. It only demonstrates how ignorant you are on whatever issue you falsely believe you are addressing.

Now to pick up on a continuing topic because Samuel L. Jackson has decided to weigh in:



Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson are longtime friends and collaborators, but they don’t necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to Marvel actors being movie stars. Tarantino ignited a fierce debate on social media this month when he said that Marvel actors are not movie stars. In Tarantino’s view, it’s the character of Captain America that is the movie star and gets people into the theater and not Chris Evans. Jackson somewhat challenged that claim during an interview on “The View” (via Entertainment Weekly).
“It takes an actor to be those particular characters, and the sign of movie stardom has always been, what, asses in seats? What are we talking about?” Jackson said when asked about Tarantino’s comment. “That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars. Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.”


Chadwick Boseman is dead and "you can't refute that."  In addition, I covered this already -- Chris Evans doesn't have box office hits unless he's dressed as Captain America.  Not a star.  Chadwick?  He had three films after he played Black Panther three times.  Not one of the three made money at the box office (two were moved to streaming quickly).  Sorry, Samuel L., Chadwick was not a star.

TITANIC is a huge box office hit.  If that's all Leo had, he wouldn't be a star.  It's all Kate Winslet really has and she's not a star.  Stars sell tickets.  And, no, Chadwick isn't a star.  Or rather, being dead, he's not a star.

 I dealt with this topic previously in "Simu Liu and Quentin Tarantino's cat fight'' and "Can a MARVEL movie make a star?"

 

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Tuesday, November 29, 2022.  Support for Julian Assange grows.


US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange.  Yesterday, five major outlets published an open letter:


Twelve years ago, on November 28th 2010, our five international media outlets – The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and DER SPIEGEL – published a series of revelations in cooperation with Wikileaks that made the headlines around the globe.

“Cable gate”, a set of 251,000 confidential cables from the US State Department disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale.

In the words of The New York Times, the documents told “the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions, the decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and money”. Even now in 2022, journalists and historians continue to publish new revelations, using the unique trove of documents.

For Julian Assange, publisher of Wikileaks, the publication of “Cable gate” and several other related leaks had the most severe consequences. On April 12th, 2019, Assange was arrested in London on a US arrest warrant, and has now been held for three and a half years in a high security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organized crime groups. He faces extradition to the US and a sentence of up to 175 years in an American maximum security prison.

This group of editors and publishers, all of whom had worked with Assange, felt the need to publicly criticize his conduct in 2011 when unredacted copies of the cables were released, and some of us are concerned about the allegations in the indictment that he attempted to aid in computer intrusion of a classified database. But we come together now to express our grave concerns about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and publishing classified materials.

The Obama-Biden Administration, in office during the Wikileaks publication in 2010, refrained from indicting Assange, explaining that they would have had to indict journalists from major news outlets too. Their position placed a premium on press freedom, despite its uncomfortable consequences. Under Donald Trump however, the position changed. The DOJ relied on an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during World War 1), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.

This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press.

Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.

Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists.  If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.

Twelve years after the publication of “Cable gate”, it is time for the U.S. government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.

Publishing is not a crime.

 

The editors and publishers of:

  • The New York Times
  • The Guardian
  • Le Monde
  • DER SPIEGEL
  • El Pais


For those who've forgotten, Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat


At WSWS, Thomas Scripps offers:

At long last, these publications have acknowledged that the material published by Assange was of vital public interest and importance, noting that what he released “disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale” and “decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and money.”

Even now, they write, “journalists and historians continue to publish new revelations, using the unique trove of documents.”

The letter stated, “On April 12th 2019, Assange was arrested in London on a US arrest warrant, and has now been held for three and a half years in a high-security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organised crime groups. He faces extradition to the US and a sentence of up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.”

The authors oppose the use against Assange of “an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during World War One), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.”

The letter concludes that this “sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press. Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker … it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.”

The open letter makes clear that Assange has been the victim of a monstrous campaign of state persecution, costing him years of his life and good health, for revealing state criminality, designed to set a chilling example for others.

But this raises the question: What took so long? Why did it take 10 years for the New York Times and Guardian to call for Assange’s prosecution to end?

The conduct of these newspapers over the past decade has been thoroughly reprehensible. Their efforts to poison public opinion against Assange, to give credence to the false claims and accusations made against him, facilitated the American state’s persecution of this principled and courageous journalist.



You know what?  I'm an adult.  I know we can't turn back time.


What we can do is work on freeing Julian Assange.  What we should do.  If an institution like THE NEW YORK TIMES is finally stepping up, great.  Where were they until now?  


Obviously, not helping.


You've made that point.  You can make it again when Julian's free.  How about we focus on freeing Julian right now?


And here's another point: The government of Turkey has been bombing northern Iraq for years.  So, if you're WSWS, and you're publishing a piece on how Turkey's been bombing Syria lately?  Maybe your hypocritical ass is in no real position to criticize THE NEW YORK TIMES?


We've long noted here that WSWS will attack the Kurdistan (for wanting to have autonomy, for example) and will otherwise ignore it.  Turkey has sent ground troops into the Kurdistan.  It has set up bases there.  It terrorizes the people there with drones and bombs.  And WSWS just doesn't want to deal with that.  The way some outlets turn a blind eye to the suffering of the Palestinians?  That's how WSWS behaves with regards to Kurdistan.


So maybe the high horse Thomas Scripps has just mounted should be traded in for a Shetland pony?


Margaret Kimberley Tweeted:



Probably correct.  He doesn't like being called out on Julian.  He has a grandchild who has begun telling him that this should not be his legacy.


At SCHEER POST, Matt Kennard notes:


The British government assigned at least 15 people to the secret operation to seize Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, new information shows. 

The WikiLeaks founder was given political asylum by Ecuador in 2012, but was never allowed safe passage out of Britain to avoid persecution by the US government. 

The Australian journalist has been in Belmarsh maximum security prison for the past three and a half years and faces a potential 175-year sentence after the UK High Court greenlighted his extradition to the US in December 2021. 

‘Pelican’ was the secret Metropolitan Police operation to seize Assange from his asylum, which eventually occurred in April 2019. Asylum is a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

The operation’s existence was only revealed in the memoirs of former foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan which were published last year. The UK government routinely blocks, or obfuscates its answers to, information requests about the Assange case. 

But the Cabinet Office recently told parliament it had seven officials working on Operation Pelican. The department’s role is to “support the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government”, but it also has national security and intelligence functions

It is not immediately clear why the Cabinet Office would have so many personnel working on a police operation of this kind. Asked about their role, the Cabinet Office said these seven officials “liaised” with the Metropolitan Police on the operation. 


ALMAYADEEN explains:


The secret operation named ‘Pelican’ to seize Assange from asylum, which eventually took place in April 2019, came to light after being revealed in the memoirs published last year by former Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan.

As foreign minister for the Americas from 2016 to 2019, Duncan was the key British official in the diplomatic negotiations between the UK and Ecuador to release Assange from the Embassy.

In his memoirs, the Former Minister revealed that he watched live footage of Assange’s arrest from the Operations Room of the Foreign Office alongside personnel carrying out the operation.

After the events took place and Assange was imprisoned, Duncan had drinks at his office for the operation team. “I gave them each a signed photo which we took in the Ops Room on the day, with a caption saying ‘Julian Assange’s Special Brexit Team 11th April 2019,’” he wrote. 

At DISSIDENT VOICE, Paul Haeder writes:


We are in a rape culture. We have a million examples in this neoliberal and neocon country of that. We have the fact of one out of 12 or 15 girls and women losing their viriginity through sexual assault. We have what — one out of five in this country experiencing sexual assault by the time they hit 40 years of age.

The reality is we have Clarence Thomas as one of the Supremes, with his sick attack on Anita Hill, as well as girls and women at large, and then the frat boy Kavanaugh, more male human stain. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, 55, is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University who grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC. She’s also a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. And her testimony was lambasted by a lot of men. Joe Biden attacked Anita Hill during her testimony to try and keep the Criminal Clarence off the bench. Dear reader, you can provide countless examples of rape culture, misogony, and the unending attack on women.


We'll pair that with this from IRAQI NEWS:


A conference was held last Sunday to launch the campaign for 16 days of activism to end violence against women, under the auspices of the Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, according to a press statement issued by the United Nations.

The campaign is in collaboration with the Department for Women’s Empowerment at the Council of Ministers, and in partnership with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWomen), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The conference highlighted the decisive role of Iraqi women in public life, through government positions, civil society, and human rights movements in preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, the statement mentioned.

The conference advocated for the ratification of relevant laws, namely the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, the statement elaborated.

In addition to Al-Sudani, the conference was attended by Iraqi MPs, members of the parliamentary women’s committee, the High Judicial Council, ministries of Labor, Interior, Social Affairs, and Health, as well as experts and academics, the statement explained.





Just walking along, shopping for food
Stepping out of the line of fire when people are rude
Cheap stuff made in China, someone calls it a sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail

Beat down in the market, stoned to death in the plaza
Raped on the hillside under the gun from LA to Gaza
A house made of cardboard living close to the rail
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail


And I feel the witch in my veins
I feel the mother in my shoe
I feel the scream in my soul
The blood as I sing the ancient blue
They burned in the millions
I still smell the fire in my grandma's hair
The war against women rages on
Beware of the fairytale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail

The noise of elections, the promise of change
A grabbing of power at the top, a day at the rifle range
Somebody's in danger, somebody's for sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail

-- "Somebody's Jail," written by Holly Near, first appears on her album SHOW UP.


Winding down, AP reports:

A member of the U.S. Navy who was injured while helping prevent further harm during a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado last weekend said Sunday that he “simply wanted to save the family that I found.”

Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas James made his first public comments on the shooting in a statement issued through Centura Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where James is recovering from undisclosed injuries suffered during the attack.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said that James was one of two men who helped to stop the shooter who walked into Club Q late on Nov. 19 with multiple firearms, including a semiautomatic rifle, and killed five people. At least 17 others were injured when a drag queen’s birthday celebration turned into a massacre.

James reportedly pushed a rifle out of the shooter’s reach while Army veteran Rich Fierro repeatedly struck the shooter with a handgun the shooter brought into the bar, officials have said.






The following sites updated: