Sunday, April 09, 2023

Tensions remain high after Turkey's attack

Fallout continues from Turkey's attack on an Iraqi airport on Friday.  I24 reports:

Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid on Saturday condemned bombardments attributed to Turkey in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region -- a flashpoint between the two governments -- and called on Ankara to cease hostilities there.

"Turkish military operations against the Kurdistan region continue to take place, the last being the bombardment against the Sulaymaniyah civilian airport," Rashid said in a statement.


ALJAZEERA notes the statement also called for Turkey to stop "intimidating civilians under the pretext that forces hostile to it are present on Iraqi soil."  The president wasn't the only one speaking out.  ASHARQ AL-AWSAT adds:

In an unusual statement, the First Lady of Iraq, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, strongly condemned Turkiye, accusing it of terrorism.

In a press conference in Sulaymaniyah, Ahmed accused "Turkish terrorism" of targeting citizens with drones and terrorist tools.

She warned that the "Turkish terrorist act" on the international airport affected the sovereignty of Iraq and Sulaymaniyah.


The rare comment is being noted.



And Turkey's attack is news -- apparently everywhere but the United States.  This despite three US service members being a part of the convoy that was attacked.  We'll note this Tweet:


 



Meanwhile, in the US, crazed bigot Marjorie Taylor Greene continues her descent into madness.  Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is the most outspoken member of Congress when it comes to LGBTQ+ equality, especially when it comes to transgender people. She tried to shut down Congress twice when it was considering the Equality Act, she has posters outside her office attacking trans identities, and she consistently brings up her antipathy for trans people in unrelated conversations and speeches.

And now she’s insisting that trans people just don’t experience discrimination.

“Trans don’t need trans rights because they are already equal and have the same rights as everyone else,” Greene tweeted.

She then followed that with a list of examples of ways trans people have the same rights as cis people, except she did such a bad job of picking examples that she accidentally created a list highlighting areas where transgender people often experience discrimination.

“Trans people can get driver’s licenses just like everyone else” was Greene’s first example. Many states make it difficult for trans people to get a driver’s license that shows their actual gender, with a few states having no process at all for trans people to correct the gender marker on their driver’s licenses.

Driver’s licenses are the most common form of identification in the United States. The ACLU notes that trans people are often afraid of calling the police if their ID could out them as transgender. In the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, 25% of respondents said that they experienced verbal harassment when using an ID with a name or gender marker that didn’t match their presentation, and 2% said that they were assaulted in such a situation.

“Trans people go to schools and receive education just like everyone else,” Greene wrote next.

In reality, Republican lawmakers have turned schools into one of the biggest battlegrounds for transgender rights, trying to take away trans students’ rights to do the same things that cisgender students take for granted. States have banned transgender students from using the appropriate restrooms (making it harder to make it through a long school day); banned transgender students from participating in school sports, which are an important part of education in the U.S.; and have been hostile to LGBTQ+ and transgender-specific anti-bullying efforts. 




Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY "Bigot Becky Barks" went up Saturday night and "Crooked Clarence" went up Sunday morning.  The following sites updated:






 

Posted by at