Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Truest statement of the week

“So if we’re not bringing back the hostages, all this is doing is causing more death on our side or the Palestinian side … I can't justify this military operation any more. I'm unwilling to be part of a military that's doing this.”

-- Tal Vardi to Ruth Michaelson and Quique Kierszenbaum "'I can't justify this military operation any more': the IDF reservists refusing to return to Gaza" (GUARDIAN).





A note to our readers

Hey --

Monday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:


The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen, 
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

 

And what did we come up with? 

 

An IDF reservist gets the truest.

 

Repost from THE COMMON ILLS.

Ava and C.I. cover the MAGA stupidity that will destroy everyone and everything on the planet given the chance.

None of us trust the fat defector Tara Reade anymore and this roundtable addresses why.

He really is disgusting but he's also really disgusting looking.

There is a world of difference.

And there is reason for excitement.

Paul Rudnick gets this.

What we listened to while writing this edition.

 Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.


Peace.

 

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.


Iraq and Gaza

For Iraq and Gaza coverage, we're reposting the Iraq snapshot.

Iraq snapshot

Monday, July 29, 2024. A woman was shot in the Green Zone and Iraqis say the shot came from the American Embassy, Iraqi women protest child marriage, the government of Israel continues bombing schools in Gaza, and much more.


Last night, we noted the following:

Iraq's the focus tonight.  There's too much going on and practically zero US coverage.  That includes an incident today that could end up international incident.  Dr Abdul Amir al-Hazali is an Iraqi MP.  His wife was apparently shot today and he is placing the blame on the US government.  The wife is reported injured, not dead.









 











 




Not really sure why the US media hasn't covered this.  Is this not a real story?  Is it made up?  Especially if it's made up -- some internet hoax -- that would be reason to note it. 



Though it remains uncovered by the US press, it's not made up.  The incident happened last week.  Abdul Amir Al-Ghazali spoke with ALSUMARIA and explained to them that the shooting took place on Friday while his wife was praying.  The Badr Organization accuses the US government of converting the US Embassy in Baghdad into a "military base," condemns the action citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, and, citing the Iraqi Constitution (Articles 1, 15, 50 and 109) calls for Iraq's legislative and executive branches to expel the US military from Iraq.


I did not have a good Sunday health wise, so maybe it's just me, but I fail to see how this news was ignored by the US media and continues to be.  Exactly what are they paid for.  This is rather basic.  Iraqis are outraged because a woman was shot and ended up in the hospital.  The shooting took place in the heavily fortified Green Zone and, they say, came from the US Embassy.  


The Badr Organization is part of the alliance that controls the Parliament.  


All by itself, a shooting of a civilian in the Green Zone is rare enough to qualify as news.  When the Iraqi people are saying that the shot came from the US Embassy, that makes it even more newsworthy and that's before you get to the fact that the shooting could lead to (something needs to) the withdrawal of all US military from Iraq.


In other news, IRAQI NEWS AGENCY reports on the death of an MP, "Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani offered his condolences on Sunday on the death of Member of Parliament Gandhi Mohammed Abdul Karim Al-Kasnazani, saying that "with this loss we have lost a national figure with a good impact."  The fifty-two year-old 


Baghdad's Tahrir Square was the scene of a protest Sunday.  SHAFAQ NEWS reports:


Hundreds of Iraqi women took to the streets of Baghdad on Sunday to protest against proposed amendments to the country’s personal status law, expressing particular outrage over provisions that would legalize child marriage.

Demonstrators, including members of women’s rights organizations, gathered in Tahrir Square, carrying signs that read "No to child marriage" and "The era of child brides is over." The protesters denounced the proposed amendments to Law 88 of 1959, arguing that they would roll back women’s rights.


Here are some photos of the protest. 





AP's Hadi Mizban has a photo of the protest hereALSUMARIA notes that some participants carried sings stating "THE ERA OF THE CONCUBINE IS OVER."  Not really sure why AL-MONITOR's Shelly Kittleson is insisting few turned out.   ALSUMARIA's video report here also doesn't bear out that only a trickle of people were present.  It also needs to be remembered that protesting in Iraq is not as easy as protesting in Iraq.  Those who protested showed determination and courage.


Turning to Gaza,  ALJAZEERA notes, "The Israeli army is investigating a video posted by its soldiers showing Israeli troops blowing up Rafah’s main drinking water tank, according to the Haaretz newspaper."  War Crimes.




 

Only 14 percent of the Gaza Strip is not under the Israeli military ongoing “evacuation orders”, according to the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

Recurrent mass enforced displacement is the dominating scene with the Israeli military ordering the residents of the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps to leave their homes.

The majority of the displaced population is flowing to the Deir el-Balah city that is already packed with displaced families and has no sufficient space or resources to accommodate people.


Community members e-mailed on Sunday asking that Monday's snapshot include a long section from Saturday.  I was responding to an e-mail from a crazy Jill Stein supporter.  They noted that it also responded to a segment on a show that we didn't highlight.  Honestly, I only heard the segment this morning -- and only part of it.  I'm real lucky that it didn't post here on Friday.  It's a topic that would normally get posted.  I got lucky.  It should never be posted and it will never be posted here.  And, yes, my comments to the Jill Stein supporter could equally have been addressed to the host and her two idiot guests.  So here's part of Saturday's entry that applies to who actually has power to end the US arming of the Israeli government and I'm putting it between dashed lines:

------------------------------------------------------------

Why don't you and Jill Stein put some pressure on Joe?

He's the only one who can stop the assault on Gaza -- the only American -- at this point.

In this community, we've focused on reality and what can be done.  That's why we've called out Josh Shapiro this entire month.  Elaine's "Hell no to Shapiro" and Ruth's "Josh Shapiro adds nothing to the ticket" and Rebecca's "shapiro not only supports genocide, he also covers..." and this from the July 5th snapshot:


Are you getting just what a piece of crap David Sirota is?  

Why bring this up now?

David's been in the conversation regarding the nominee.  David wants Joe Biden out.  Okay, he's not alone on that.  There are others who want the same.  But David's also pimping a replacement: Josh Shapiro the governor of Pennsylvania who doesn't believe in mask mandates or addressing climate change.  But for our focus here?  Let's note this from ALJAZEERA:

While he may not have the national name recognition that his fellow governors Newsom and Whitmer enjoy, Shapiro is considered one of the top candidates to potentially replace Biden.

The governor, who previously served as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, comfortably won his election in the Mid-Atlantic swing state in 2022. Since taking office, he has had positive approval ratings.

With regards to the war in Gaza, Shapiro has been a staunch supporter of Israel.

“The whataboutism used by some to justify Hamas’s unprovoked actions is ignorant and wrong,” he said last year. “There is no moral equivalency here. Israel has a right to defend itself.”

Shapiro has also been outspoken in denouncing what he describes as anti-Semitism by protesters who oppose the war in Gaza.

In April, he likened pro-Palestinian student protesters to the Ku Klux Klan. The campus protests, however, have been largely peaceful, and student leaders say accusations of anti-Semitism misrepresent their aim: to encourage their universities to divest from Israeli companies linked to the country’s human rights abuses.

“We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who are African American in our communities,” Shapiro told CNN.


And that's who David Sirota supports.  David wants Joe Biden out and he wants Shapiro in.  How exactly is David a progressive whatever it is that he calls himself these days?  (I just call him an ass regardless.)  Maybe David Sirota needs to sit his tired ass down and keep it down?  (For the record, he never apologized to Tina.)




This is a hopeful moment for the whole left-liberal coalition. The vibes, for once, are good. Almost every leftist I know is excited about Harris and thinks Trump is beatable. With a newly united party behind her, there are only so many ways Harris can screw it up, but one seems all too plausible: She could select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate.

On paper, it’s understandable why Shapiro is among the leading candidates reportedly being vetted by Harris. Like nearly all of the veep contenders, he’s a white male governor with a centrist reputation. At 51, he’s even younger than Harris and a fresh face, having only held his current job for 18 months. He has already shown himself to be a more than capable administrator, generating a lot of good publicity for repairing a damaged section of Interstate 95 within two weeks. Most importantly, Pennsylvania is the most valuable swing state in play, worth 19 electoral votes, and Shapiro is very popular there.

Unfortunately, Shapiro also stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine. It’s not just that he, like many Democrats, is an outspoken supporter of Israel—though he certainly is, having championed Israel’s war against Hamas consistently and without any apparent concern for Palestinian civilians. Shapiro has, moreover, done far more than most Democrats to attack pro-Palestine antiwar demonstrators, in ways that call into question his basic commitment to First Amendment rights.

In his previous role as Pennsylvania attorney general, Shapiro championed the state’s constitutionally dubious anti-BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) law against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream maker refused to license its product for sale in Israeli settlements. “BDS is rooted in antisemitism,” Shapiro wrote in a statement in 2021, as he condemned a company named for its two Jewish American founders. “The stated goal of this amorphous movement is the removal of Jewish citizens from the region and I strongly oppose their efforts.”

As governor, Shapiro’s particular animus against pro-Palestine activism has only grown more apparent and troubling. Last December, he played an active role in the GOP-orchestrated sacking of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. During a visit to Goldie, the popular Philadelphia restaurant co-owned by the Israeli-born celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, Shapiro condemned Magill’s testimony on alleged antisemitism on the Ivy League campus before Representative Elise Stefanik, the MAGA right’s grand inquisitor. “That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn,” Shapiro said, referring to Magill’s unwillingness to accept Stefanik’s slippery framing on what constitutes antisemitism. “Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.” Magill resigned four days after her testimony and three days after Shapiro’s statement, legitimizing the GOP’s wider assault on academic freedom, which would be repeated successfully against Harvard President Claudine Gay weeks later.

In April, Shapiro’s office baselessly claimed that a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment on the Penn campus threatened student safety. “If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law,” Shapiro told Politico at the time. In May, he urged Penn to shut down the encampment completely. “The University of Pennsylvania has an obligation to their safety,” he said, once again alluding to nonexistent threats to the physical well-being of Jewish students. “It is past time for the university to act, to address this, to disband the encampment, and to restore order and safety on campus.” The university complied; one day and 33 arrests later, Shapiro’s office said Penn “made the right decision.”

That same week, The New York Times profiled Shapiro as one to watch in his party with the headline “A Rising Democrat Leans Into the Campus Fight Over Antisemitism.” In that piece, Shapiro made clear the low regard in which he holds pro-Palestine campus activists. “If you had a group of white supremacists camped out and yelling racial slurs every day, that would be met with a different response than antisemites camped out, yelling antisemitic tropes,” he told the Times. (This echoed a statement made in an earlier interview in which he compared campus protesters to the Ku Klux Klan.) Then, in an executive order, Shapiro updated his administration’s code of conduct to forbid state employees from engaging in “scandalous or disgraceful” behavior, a vaguely worded instruction that civil libertarians immediately interpreted as threatening pro-Palestine speech.

Shapiro is an observant Jew with personal ties to Israel; on October 7, he tweeted, “Our family has shared many special moments in Israel and our hearts break for those living this horror now.” If selected as Harris’s running mate and subsequently elected, he would become the first Jewish vice president in American history (a distinction narrowly missed by the late Joe Lieberman when Republicans stole the 2000 election).



Get it?  You focus on what is doable.  If you want to call out Kamala, call her out for considering Josh Shapiro as a running mate.  He cannot be the running mate.  If you want to end the assault on Gaza before the end of the year, pressure Joe Biden who remains the president.


Need more realities?  Jill Stein's not going to be the next president.  Here's some more: And she shouldn't.  She's a Karen that traffics in racism and flies to Moscow to sit with a butcher -- sit at a table with a butcher and an abuser of human rights.  You can feel whatever you want about Ukraine.  You can be backing that government or you can be against it.  But that doesn't change who Vladimir Putin is and has been for years.  I do not want the US (further) involved in that war.  But long before that, Vladimir -- who's held power since 1999 -- had earned his reputation as a despot.  

Jill flew to Moscow to make nice with him, sit at his table and get her picture taken.

She's not fit to be president and, again, she fortunately never will be.

But she can mislead people, she can fool and trick people and, in doing so, still real votes.


Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday, claiming that "no president has done what I've done for Israel".

The meeting signalled that both men are looking to ease tension that developed since Mr Trump left office in January 2021.

Warmly clasping hands, Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu greeted each other outside the former president's home in their first face-to-face meeting in almost four years.

About 50 pro-Palestinian protesters were on the bridge leading to the resort.

Given a possible return of Mr Trump to the White House, Mr Netanyahu – whom CNN reported had requested the meeting – was expected to be driven to mend fences.


If you care about Palestinians, you're not voting for vanity candidate Jill Stein -- 74 years old and planning to be the Green Party's presidential nominee for the third time.  It's a wasted vote.

I don't say that about Chase Oliver or about Cornel West or about Claudia De la Cruz.  I don't think they're going to win but they are running real campaigns.  If they speak to you, you should absolutely vote for them.

But there are people who are not real candidates -- Jill Stein is one, Robert Kennedy Jr is another and Joseph Kishore is a third.  They're jokes, at best.  

You vote for who you want.  It's your choice.  I'm not going to judge you on it unless you vote for destruction and that's what a vote for Donald, Jill, Junior or Kishore is.

---------------------------------------------------------

Direct your criticism to Joe Biden.  He's the only one with the power to end this currently.  Otherwise, you're just wasting time while Palestinians die.


THE NATIONAL notes this morning:



Saturday, the government of Israel attacked a Palestinian school.   AP's Wafaa Shurafa and Sam Metz report, "Israeli airstrikes hit a school used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people including several children, as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators about a proposed cease-fire."  Since October 7th, the Israeli government has attacked over 200 schools and universities in Gaza. Along with the thirty killed, at least 100 more people were left injured.  NPR explains, "Blood was everywhere in the minutes that followed the strike, with pieces of flesh visible on the stairs and handicapped residents trying to flee, according to NPR reporter Anas Baba, who witnessed the immediate aftermath."  Australia's ABC notes, "At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, ambulances raced wounded Palestinians into the medical facility. Some of the wounded also arrived on foot, their clothes stained with blood."  This was supposed to be a safe area -- as defined by the Israeli government.  However, this week, they began demanding evacuations.  NDTV notes, "The United Nations said more than 180,000 Palestinians have fled Khan Yunis since the Israeli operation began on Monday."  NPR adds, "The United Nations currently estimates more than 80% of Gaza's residents -- more than 2 million people -- are under similar evacuation orders across the territory."
 

Gaza remains under assault. Day 297 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."   THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 39,363 killed with 90,923 wounded." Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


This morning, THE NATIONAL reports:


A six-year-old child has died of starvation at a hospital in central Gaza, taking the total official number of malnutrition-related deaths to 39.

Ali Anas al Tatar, 6, was pronounced dead at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, according to the official Wafa news agency.

Earlier this month, a group of UN experts said there was "no doubt" that famine is spreading across the enclave.

Images of emaciated children have become commonplace as Gazans starve, with aid deliveries blocked after Israel's seizure of the Rafah border crossing. 

The following sites updated:





Media: The Idiot Wants To Run (and Ruin) The Village

What Nancy Reagan once feared has come true.  Stupidity and lack of education is destroying the Republican Party.   Nancy, read Peggy Noonan's WHAT I SAW AT THE REVOLUTION, knew the great unwashed stupid that was glomming onto the GOP with their anti-choice positions and their stunted minds starved of education were the party's downfall.  MAGA wasn't the term yet but she could see the ignorant mob advancing.  Now maybe she was particularly insightful, maybe it was just common sense or maybe it was information passed on to her by Joan Quigley or Jeane Dixon or some other psychic advisor Nancy frequently collaborated with.


Regardless, what she saw is the reality of today's MAGA Republican Party.


Everything is a moment for MAGA to brag to the world,  "I am stupid and I am uneducated."



The opening ceremony of the Olympics.  They always go for arty.  France went for Greek mythology. 


And MAGA exploded. 

 

 Leigh Tauss reports:


Fringe religious conservatives melted down Friday night over the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, decrying the spectacle as “Satantic.”

The phase “mocking god” trended on social media following the opening ceremonies, which included drag performers and a singing — beheaded — Marie Antoinette.

“BOYCOTT THE OLYMPICS” wrote @online_shogun along with a short clip showing drag queens in colorful costumes at the ceremony. “This filth is a slap in the face of all Christians. I reject this from every fiber of my being. You Moloch worshipping scum, you are mocking God, and for this you will be punished. As long as faithful people are here to reject f--otry and blasphemy, God.”

[. . .]

“This isn't about Jesus or Christianity. It's an homage to the Greek mythology of dionysus. You are aware that the Olympics are from ancient Greece?” replied @FrenchGirlColo. “No one is mocking God but you are all making it easier to mock Christians who don't understand what they are seeing.”


Long before Leonardo da Vinci painted THE LAST SUPPER, there were many other artists who took a swipe at the terrain.  But Leonardo is the one that MAGA has latched onto.  Rather strange that the latching took place last week at the same time as JD Skidmarks Vance was in the news for calling childless people (as well as those who adopted and those with step-children) "cat ladies."  Donald Trump's running mate is aware that da Vinci fathered no children, right?  And he is aware that Leonardo was accused of of having had sex with male prostitute and model Jacopo Saltarelli (he was the model for a painting of Jesus Christ)  on April 9, 1476 and again on June 7, 1476, right?
 
  
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Giovanni Bellini, Dosso Dossi  and Titian painted FEAST OF THE GODS (above) -- that is what the opening ceremony was recreating.  From WIKIPEDIA:

 
Based on a narrative by Ovid,[5] it is the earliest of a cycle of paintings, all major works, on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso, I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara, for his camerino d'alabastro ('chamber of alabaster') in the Castello Estense, Ferrara. The subjects had been chosen by 1511, by the Renaissance humanist Mario Equicola, then working for the Duke's sister Isabella d'Este, and instructions apparently including some sketches were sent to the artists.[6] Later commissions were four large Titians (one now lost), and ten smaller works by Dosso Dossi, probably placed above them.[7] The three surviving Titians painted for the room are Bacchus and Ariadne (National Gallery, London), The Bacchanal of the Andrians and The Worship of Venus (both Prado, Madrid).[8]
 

 
All the MAGA whiners did was confess to how uneducated and uninformed they were.  And not just uneducated and uninformed about the world of art.  They also confessed to how uneducated and stupid they were about the Bible itself.  The last supper?  As Whoopi Goldberg noted this morning on THE VIEW, "There are too many people in the picture for it to be the twelve disciples and then the seven or eight other people who are in the picture."  But when did facts ever register with MAGA home of US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Green of whom Chelsea Handler once noted, "This woman thought 9/11 was a hoax, that the Clintons killed JFK Jr. and that Jews are in charge of space lasers.  But please, don't come at her with some crazy ideas -- she might believe them."


And if you think MAGA heads were exploding when they got confused over THE LAST SUPPER, they'll be reaching for the vapors when they read the news Jim Buzinski (OUTSPORTS) reports:


There are 191 out gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer and nonbinary athletes competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, a record. This includes more men than ever.

Outsports has revised its tally from the original 144 out LGBTQ athletes we posted on July 17. In the last 12 days, we have gotten submissions from many readers and several journalists, which allowed us to verify 47 more out athletes and update the list.

“Happy to join the team!” Team USA women’s rugby player Kristi Kirshe wrote Outsports when we reached out to her on social media about being added to the list.

 
Facts did not register with MAGA.  Facts never do. Kip Jones (MEDIAITE) notes:


Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director, told the French media on Sunday that he was not mocking anyone but merely putting on a “celebration of Greek mythology.”

“There is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there because he is the God of celebration in Greek mythology,” Jolly told BFMTV, according to an interpretation from NBC News. “The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”


MAGA soiled itself as it whined and cried and it was joined by other idiots. The laughable CSPIRE (available in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee) pulled it's 'big money' (chump change) and advertising as a result of being stupid and uninformed.  THE NEW YORK POST clutched its pearls and stupidity to insist this was an attempt to "denigrate Western culture."  Like MAGA, idiots don't know the first thing about culture.  Second, France is the West as is Greece where the Olympics hail from.  

 

 
As MAGA exploded, please register that they appeared to be looking the other way at a country allowing a pedophile to participate.  Mike noted this development Saturday.  Sunday, Barry Svrluga (WASHINGTON POST) reported:


Let’s get to the most important part first. Somewhere in Milton Keynes, England — or maybe in some remote corner of the globe, should she be seeking an escape — there is a woman in her early 20s who has lived for a decade with a vile, unspeakable crime against her. She was 12 years old. She met a Dutch man online. He flew to meet her. And he raped her.

No amount of punishment to her assailant — not the four years he was sentenced to, and certainly not the 13 months he served — can change that. What thoughts must she wake with every day? Let’s hope they’re serene, happy, forward-looking. But who’s to say?

The focus at the Paris Olympics is on the rapist. He is Steven van de Velde, and he is here representing the Netherlands in beach volleyball — in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, in a stunning setting that blends the thumping bass of modern sport with the sky-scraping ode to the French Revolution — because Dutch Olympic officials made a choice.
He had done his time, they said. He was remorseful, they said. He earned the spot, they said.

Asked about the optics of appearing to be protecting a child rapist, John van Vliet, a spokesman for the Dutch team, said, “We are protecting a convicted child rapist to do his sport as best as possible, and for a tournament which he qualified for.”

Read those words again, if you can.

“We are protecting a convicted child rapist to do his sport as best as possible.”


MAGA flaunted their ignorance of art and of Christ but they were suddenly reticent when it came to a pedophile.  Yeah, that tracks.  Marjorie Taylor Greene had pedophile promoter Milo Yiannopoulos as her Congressional intern -- well, we don't know that she 'had' him, we have no idea who she was sleeping with besides her husband back then -- and she's never apologized for that.



Facts and reality don't matter to MAGA.  They live forever in denial.  He's just like them! -- they tell themselves.  Really?  They've been divorced three times as well?
 

This ignorance is why they embrace Donald Trump.  An educated mind hears Donald call Kamala Harris a "bum" and proclaim that she's the most unsuccessful vice president in the United States ever and immediately grasps that Kamala's running to be the next president.  That's the dream of every vice president.  She's achieved the dream so how is she unsuccessful?  


And "bum"?  It's Donald, not Kamala, who has filed for bankruptcy six times.

 

But MAGA lies to themselves and insists Donald's a success.
 
 
They are divorced from reality and their brains are starved from a lack of education.  The damage that they have already done is enormous and it needs to stop there.  You don't let the idiot lead the village.
 
 
 
 

The Tara Reade Is Disgusting Roundtable

Jim: Roundtable time. Participating our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.


Roundtable
 
 
 
Jim (Con't): So Trina calls out Tara Reade tonight in "The proof is in the pudding" and let me read from that:


Fatty Patty Tara Reade got even more disgusting.  The bitter and obese "defector" -- her term -- to Russia can't stop showing us she really was.

We no longer need to believe her that she was assaulted by Joe Biden.  It was her word against his.  I was fine supporting her based on how she self-presented.  Turns out, she lied about everything.  Everything.  Fatty Patty claimed she was a liberal and she was left and she was a Democrat and she cared about preventing assault of women and this and that.

But Fatty Patty took off to Russia -- where she should stay -- and she now reTweets convicted pedophile and registered sex offender Scott Ritter.  And it just gets worse for her.  She reTweets repugnant people like Marjorie Taylor Greene.  And now?  Libs of Tick Tock.  I don't think she can go back to her hometown in California now even if she wanted to.  That's really the last straw. 

Let's also not forget the many White nationalists she is forever reTweeting.  

She's garbage.  Human filth.  And she lied about all of this.

So why should anyone believe her about being assaulted by Joe Biden.

It was her word against his.  

And I believed her.  But now she's shown her true nature.

That's not how someone assaulted behaves.  They may be hurt and lash out but they don't start embracing racists and homophobes.  That's not a response to being assaulted.

It is the sign of someone who lied all along.

Jim (Con't): By the way, I asked her to post that.  She told me what she'd written and was going to post when we were done here and I told her if she'd post it right now, we could do a roundtable and use that as the starting point.


Ruth: I think Trina makes some strong points.  It was always Tara Reade's word against Joe Biden about whether or not anything happened.  We have to make a judgment based on character.  And, at the time, I was fine with going against Goliath and siding with whom I perceived was David.

Marcia: I was as well but let's remember that we had to do a leap of faith even then.  Her mother's phone call to CNN on Larry King's show?  It did not say that she had been assaulted.  It only spoke of an unpleasant work experience.  I do believe that was her mother, by the way.  I know some people do not.  But her mother did not say her daughter was raped or assaulted.

Kat: It's also true that her stories -- her self-recounting were all over the place.  That doesn't mean she wasn't assaulted.  That does mean it's something else to factor in.  She said he sniffed her or something, then he pressured her, then he assaulted her, it kept changing.  Like her weight, her story back then was in a constant state of flux.

Jess: Her ex-husband, who does not like her, did vouch for her and I weighted that -- it was one of the main reasons I believed her.

Dona: But we also had people stating that she had called them and asked them to say that she had told them Joe assaulted her when he hadn't.

Betty: For me, the first step away was her embrace of Scott Ritter.  If you are assaulted, you do not reTweet and platform and praise a convicted pedophile, a registered sex offender.  That was it for me.  She either wasn't assaulted or she's one sorry sick f**k.  Either way, she hugs a child molester, she's not anyone I stand with.


Ann: I would absolutely agree with that.  And I have been raped.  I've written about it at my site.  Many times, I've written about it.  She's a drama queen.  She claims this was so traumatic.  I don't believe her that it happened.  She's not helping anyone.  That's what stood out for me.  She claims she was raped -- by Joe's finger, that's not minimizing but that is to clear it up because the rape is another change in her story and some people may wrongly think we're saying -- I'm saying -- that Joe inserted his penis.  No, she's claiming he tried to penetrate her with his finger.  Again, I was raped.  You won't catch me fluffing for any registered sex offender.  Equally true, Caleb Maupin is accused -- and I believe his accusers -- yet Tara keeps reTweeting him as well.  I was in therapy -- including group therapy -- after I was raped for three years.  And no one I ever encountered, not one survivor, would have used their platform to promote convicted -- and in Caleb's case, admitted -- assaulters, abusers, rapists, what have you.  I'm left with the reality that she's a fat girl who just wanted attention.


Isaiah: She is so fat.  And that worked against her because people think rape is about attraction.  So they'd look at her -- and she's a whale -- and they'd think she couldn't have been raped.  But she could have, even at her current size and, of course, in the 90s, she was a little thinner.

Wally: A little.  What does it for me is she was an extra in LA BAMBA.  One film, an extra.  Yet, she bills herself as an actress?  That's not an actress.  So I'm left with the reality that her "acting" that she wants credit for is the scam she pulled on American when she pretended she was a victim of assault.

Ava: I would agree with acting.  When C.I. and I read her book, as we noted in our review, it didn't add up.  She may be creating the whole thing or she may be inflating one aspect but the book makes clear that the story is not what happened.  That could be a result of trauma.  I'll leave that to others to decide.  But the story she put on paper is questionable.  

Rebecca: And suspect.  I think Trina's correct.  Could it have happened?  Yeah.  But.

Ty: But why should we believe her?  And now, many years after she told -- or finally told -- what she says happened, there's no reason to believe her.  The reality is that she is a disgusting person and she can only blame that on herself.  She's a liar, she's a fake.  I withdraw all support for her and any belief in her story.  I don't support homophobes.  I don't support racists.  I hope she's happy with her gang because no one else is going to take her back.  And let me add that when African-Americans like Margaret Kimberley defend her or reTweet her, they look like idiots.

Cedric: Agreed.  Margaret Kimberley had that dollar store weave that she's finally gotten rid of.  But as embarrassing as that way, it was nothing to when Margaret was hissing online: Stop calling her a defector!  That's the word she used, Margaret Kimberley, buy a damn clue.

Mike: I think Tara Reade is a grifter.  If you look at the people she's surrounded herself with -- Sabby Sabs, for example -- they're grifters too.
 
 
Jim: Good points, all.  This is a rush transcript.  Thank you to Ava and C.I. who took notes and who will also be typing this.