Saturday, October 08, 2022

Iraq, LGBTQ, Jonathan Turley is a homophobe, BROS and much more




Iraq is battling several years of drought, the governments of both Iran and Turkey are blocking the flow of the two big rivers running through Iraq (the Tigris and the Eurphates), everyone is expected to be effected by climate change; however, Iraq has been named the fifth most vulnerable country in the world.  Dust storms are increasing in frequency and in force.  Speaking to the United Nations on Tuesday, the US Deputy Rep to the UN, Ambassador Richard Mills, noted that climate change was one of the challenges Iraq is facing, "Complicated challenges face the next government – including passing a budget, developing oil and gas legislation that is acceptable to the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government, improving the provision of electricity, combatting climate change, promoting private sector development and job growth, and increasing women’s participation in the workforce."  Also this week, the International Organization for Migration pointed out, "Displaced families are likely to be among the most vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes that can impact livelihoods, food security and social cohesion. Sustainable return and rein-tegration can be determined by many factors but the role of climatic change and environmental degradation in return dynamics is insufficiently understood."

 
Susan Schulman (DAILY MAVERICK) reports:


Ninety-one percent of Iraq’s water originates in Turkey, Iran and Syria, leaving the country at the mercy of those controlling the taps upstream. Accompanied by a translator and fixer, I set out, travelling northwards from the very south, across the country, to explore the impact of these combined forces on those most directly affected – and what that might forebode.    

Poisonous snakes emerge from fields and slither into homes in Iraq, threatening people and claiming lives. In neighbouring Iran, crocodiles previously known for their “blissful” nature are attacking the same people with whom they have peacefully existed for as long as anyone can remember.  

Almost 120,000 people were sickened and admitted to hospital by contaminated water in Basra, Iraq. Large protests over water and electricity claimed 23 lives. Water protests roiled Iraq’s Kurdistan in August 2021.

[. . .]

Iraq is one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, ranked fifth in vulnerability to water and food availability and extreme temperatures in the UN Environment Programmes 2019 Global Environmental Outlook report. 

Temperatures have risen by at least 0.7℃ over the past century; extreme heat events are occurring more frequently. The World Bank estimates temperatures will rise 2℃ by 2050 while the average annual rainfall will decrease by 9%. 

President Barham Salih, in a recent piece in the Financial Times, noted that desertification affects 39% of Iraq and “increased salinisation threatens agriculture on 54% of our land”.  

Unicef reported in August 2021 that 60% of children in Iraq lack access to clean water, while half of schools have no water at all. With Iraq’s population of 40 million expected to double by 2050, demographic growth will exponentially worsen the situation. 

Meanwhile, dams in neighbouring Turkey and Iran choke Iraq’s famed rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, in the heart of what was once known as the Fertile Crescent.  



Iraqis are seeing the effects.  Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Iraqi farmer Abdullah Abdul Nabi, 32, is confused.

He has gone to great lengths to care for his palm trees, but their sweet date fruit has started to wilt, affecting not only its quantity but its quality.

“I still don’t know the reason why the dates are fading before harvest, but that is probably because of the unprecedented heatwaves and lack of water we experienced,” the father of one said.

“It’s really painful and heartbreaking.”

Worsening extreme heat and dust storms linked to the climate crisis, as well as drought and increased concentrations of salt in water, have taken a toll on date farmers in Iraq this year, experts said.





 

But they glorified him.  I didn't.  It was wrong for the US government to assassinate him and I said that.  But because the US government did wrong did not make Suleimani any less of a terrorist.  I wasn't the an idiot in CODESTINK acting as though Mother Teresa got taken out by a drone.  


In addition, to the history Joel's noting -- which we noted here in real time -- Sulaimani was also part of the movement to kill gay and transgendered people (and those perceived to be) in Iraq.  He and Moqtada al-Sadr?  Deeply homophobic.  

It's no loss to the world that Suleimani is no longer in it.  We're probably all a lot better off as a result.  That doesn't give the US government the right to kill him.


And I objected to the murder that was carried out while also noting how objectionable Suleimani was and what a threat he was (another group he was a threat too: the Sunnis).  But to watch left and 'left' Twitter when he was murdered was to see a lot of dumb asses in the United States glorifying a hideous man.  It may be the either/or thinking or it might just result from the huge ignorance when it comes to Iraq.


I mention that because we focused on BROS a great deal this past week.  And I think I'm done with it in the snapshots but I don't know that until each morning when I get ready to dictate them.  (I am not done promoting BROS.  But I don't plan on putting it into the snapshots unless there's a reason.  It's started a very real and important conversation so there may be more coverage of BROS in next week's snapshots.)


I don't think we missed anything on Iraq.  We continued to note Iraq in the snapshots.  And we noted the political stalemate continues and that it will probably continue on Monday.  Monday is October the 10th.  Iraq held elections October 10, 2021.  Sill no president, still no prime minister, still no cabinet of ministers.  AFP notes, "A year since Iraq's last elections, it remains without not only a new government but a budget too, obstructing much-needed reforms and infrastructure projects in the oil-rich but water-ravaged country."


The public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) had a number of drive-by e-mails, that's not uncommon.  These were homophobic, usually they're sexist (the drive-by e-mails). One was from a man who said this site had become ''gay central" and he didn't mean as a compliment.  I see you, I hear you.  :D  That's what I replied back.


What do you say to someone whining like that?  (I also replied to a person trashing BROS on Twitter with the same.)


We have upped LGBTQ content in the last months  It's always been here.  We were the first in the US to cover the attacks on the gay community in Iraq -- and when we were later ripped off -- word for word -- by a print publication it was amusing and it was fine because it's about the getting the story out there.  


While we have always covered the issue, we upped content because of DOBBS and, specifically, because of Clarry Thomas' opinion in the case which made clear he planned to next try to repeal birth control rights and marriage equality.


I guess I could stay silent like Jonathan Turley's done.  What a huge disappointment Jonathan's been.  And I know him.  And I'm so disappointed in him.  But maybe he doesn't like gay people?  If that's the case, he should make that clear.  

Maybe he has.  Maybe that's why, in light of Thomas on DOBBS, Jonathan's failed to write one word in defense of gay people.  Sometimes silence is the message.


And since he continues to be silent -- when not providing cover for homophobia -- I guess I have my answer.


Let's deal with the bitch Lorie Smith real quick because Johnny wants to make her his pin up girl.


I don't doubt that the homophobes on the Supreme Court currently will again show no respect for precedent or existing law.  They're assholes and the world will be much better off if Clarry can be impeached (that's what you could run on as a Democratic Party and turn out the vote).  


But the reality is that Homophobic Bitch Lorie advertises for customers and now wants to say, "Oops!  God doesn't want me to do websites that promote or endorse or even just tolerate same-sex marriage.  While I was busy finger-banging myself during a hate fantasy, God came to me and God told me, 'Lorie, you old whore, you're not getting into heaven because of all the sins you've committed, you horny slut.  The only way I can let you in now is if you show hate towards the gays.'  So I finger banged myself and promised God that I'd hate all the gays."


Something like that anyway.


No, you cannot deny customers.  And this isn't free speech, Johnny Homophobe.  This is goods, this is service.  It is not free speech.


Lorie is offering a service.  She wants to deny the service to gay people.  That's discrimination.  The government is not telling her what to say about marriage equality.  She can say whatever she wants.  But if she's a web designer, her job is to design websites and she can't refuse to design a website based on discrimination.  She's providing a service.  This isn't free speech and, as usual, Jonathan doesn't know what art is. 

And you know what else isn't free speech -- you might want to tell Bitch Lorie to pay attention to this -- advertising.


I'm not really sure how she gets business but most businesses have to advertise.  And most corporations don't want to be homophobic.  Meaning, Lorie, even if you win thanks to the CROOKED Supreme Court, you're still going to lose in real life.  Being the Queen of Discrimination -- even Crooked Supreme Court Kissed -- isn't going to allow you to advertise your business.  


Hope you grasp that.  There will be some homophobic outlets that will take your advertisements.  


But you're also going to find out that others won't.


And I invite everyone who hates homophobia to use their free speech rights to denounce Lorie Smith and ensure that hate doesn't win.


What a hateful bitch.


And, no, it's not free speech.  Jonathan Turley's become a damn nut.


Free speech is someone on the court leaking the DOBBS decision.  You may remember that Jonathan Turley got his panties in a knot over that.  Screaming and yelling, huffing and puffing.  


Right now he's defending the use of excessive force.  Someone was on a football field during a game doing a protest -- I don't know, I've got enough issues on my plate.  Jonathan wants you to know that two professional players tackling the activist was not abuse.  It was a citizen's arrest.


No, you NUTF**K, how stupid have you gotten, Jonathan.  Professional football players are wearing padding.  That wasn't a citizen's arrest.  Security was handling it and they should have stayed the f**k out of a peaceful protest.  It's amazing how 'free speech' matters to your homophobic ass sometimes and other times it does not. 


You get your saggy old man nuts in a twist if someone gets booed while speaking.


You claim that's an assault on free speech.  No, it's not you pathetic nit-wit.  Booing is free speech.  Your brain has clearly gone to mush, Jonathan Turley.


You have become the biggest hypocrite in the world, Jonathan Turley, and I'm embarrassed for you and I'm embarrassed to know you.


You really need to take a hard look at yourself in the mirror before you next dispense legal advice.


Your work at FOX NEWS has harmed you tremendously.  I've seen it before.  A person goes to work for a partisan outlet and they suffer attacks and they respond by identifying with their outlet a little more each day until they're no longer the voice that they were.

The LGBTQ  community is under attack.  We're in another backlash period for the left.


In many ways those of us on the left created it ourselves.  We can't be honest about that, we never can be.  You have the right pushing and you have the left pushing and then you have the middle.  The middle watches and, as it sees the errors of one side, it swings to another side.


Errors are not, for example, transgender activists demanding equality.  That's not an error.  It's never an error to defend humanity.


An error is hypocrisy.  Nothing turns people off more than hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy on the part of the left?  Recent examples would include the failure to speak out against the persecution of Julian Assange, the devotion (cult-like) to Hillary Clinton who is just a failed former First Lady (one who was part of the backlash against abortion -- both by her 2005 statements -- even NYT called her out -- and by who she chose as a running mate in 2016), the failure to call out Hunter Biden's shady business deals and so much more.


We made some good cases on the left and we fought for some good things.  The pendulum's swinging now because too many of us also sported a lot of hypocrisy.


How long will this backlash be?


It could last ten years. I doubt it.  


On most issues, the majority of the public is supportive.  Gender equality?  Supportive.  Reproductive rights? Supportive.  Marriage equality?  Supportive.  Fundamental rights for LGBTQs?  Supportive.


And the further you get away from Jonathan Turley's age cohort and older, the stronger the support for those issues.


It could last ten years because it may take that long for Clarry and others to die off and make the world a better place.  


But, and this really bends Jonathan out of shape, it's also true that the Supreme Court is ILLEGITIMATE.  And each decision it makes -- if it ignores precedent -- makes it more illegitimate.  At some point, even conservative assholes on the Court are going to have to ask themselves how much they're willing to trash the Court's image and legacy with illegitimate verdicts.

We covered BROS in "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- three snapshots.  I may cover it next week again.  It'll depend.  But if that bothered you, don't visit.  You didn't pay a subscription fee.  You just eavesdropped on a private conversation.  You can go somewhere else.


I don't need you.  The community doesn't need you.  We grew without help (NPR wanted to help but when they did -- years ago -- I asked them to stop and not mention this site -- by the same token, I asked ALTERNET to take this site off their blogroll -- those are only two of many, many examples).  This community is huge and I will be answerable to it.  But if you're a community member, you're e-mailing the private e-mail account.  

If you're not a community member, I don't owe you a damn thing.  And if you're a homophobe, you need to find somewhere else to go unless, like Lorie Smith of Colorado, you need to get angry and hateful as part of your finger-banging fantasies.  I mean, if hating what I write here (or even hating me), gets you off, glad to be your bedroom aid, hope your life found at least a moment of joy as a result.


BROS is a great movie.  This isn't the post  I thought I'd be doing when I started this.  Tomorrow, I may make comments on e-mails from community members.  That's what I was planning to do tonight.  But I have held my tongue on Jonathan Turley's silence and on his homophobia and I'm much angrier about it than I ever knew.  




BROS is a great comedy.  It's the best film of the year in my opinion.  It is not a bomb and it is not a flop.  It's a shame that so many homophobes don't know the first thing about films.  I don't know what BROS made on Saturday yet but it had a shooting budget of $22 million and through Friday night it has made $7.4 million.  If it disappeared from all theaters before a Sunday showing, it would still not be a flop.  This years has seen flops and bombs.  CYRANO being only one.  A shooting budget of $30 million and North America ticket sales of only $3.9 million?  That's a box office bomb.   I can go on and on with twenty other examples from this year alone.  BROS is not a bomb.  It hasn't finished its release.  It will make several million more dollars at the theaters and it should be a huge hit on home video.  Billy Eichner deserves tons of praise for what he accomplished.  



The following sites updated:


Bros Review - Bros Touched Me In Places...My Heart (feat. Mahan)

Veteran Black Panther on Kanye's "White Lives Matter" and Black Panther Father

''The War Of Public Opinion Is Over''

Ryan King reviews BROS

After Being Called the F-Word at a Straight Wedding, Gay Man Immerses Himself in the Queer Community

CIA co-opts HARRIET TUBMAN

The Problem With the Gender “Binary” | The Problem With Jon Stewart

The Movie Couple reviews BROS

EXPOSED: How Wall Street Made The Jackson Water Crisis | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Round 2: Lula vs Bolsonaro, What’s At Stake In Brazil?

 

Grumpy Dan Movies reviews BROS

 






































Interview Excerpt with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge | The Problem With Jon Stewart

 

What does Ms. mean to you?

 

New Issue of The Black Commentator Oct 6, 2022

The Black Commentator Issue #926 is now Online

Oct 6, 2022



On the Web at https://www.blackcommentator.com

Our postal address is:

BlackCommentator.com
P.O. Box 2635

Scientology secrets: Former executive flees church after abuse | Banfield

Bros - Movie Review

Diana Ross - Thank You / Q and A Segment (Oct 1, 2022 - Las Vegas Wynn Encore Theater)

Alanis Morissette: Self-Care is No Longer a Luxury

This Is Seriously Worrying.

Guilty Conscience Cheerleading for Biden | Reformists EXAGGERATE Biden's Pardon | Midterm Gimmick

Friday, October 07, 2022

Katie Halper: Fired for Criticizing Israel

 

Col. Doug Macgregor on Nord Stream and Nuclear War

Bros | This Is a Museum Not Schitt's Creek - Official Clip

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning's New Memoir And Her Media Tour To Publicize Her Book

Cher - Medley (with Teri Garr, Pointer Sisters, Freddie Prinze) (The Cher Show, 03/09/1975)

The Chris Hedges Report: Dystopia, octopus intelligence, and what makes us human

 

36,500 emails sent! Let's keep up the pressure

 

Newspaper clipping from AP News: GOP's Graham unveils nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks. If we [Republicans] take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we will have a vote

We need you to help keep the pressure on the Senate up.

Tell Your senators You Want a Vote on the ERA!

Take Action Now →

Senate Republicans wasted no time in introducing bills to restrict abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. If the Republicans control the federal government, abortion could be banned everywhere — even in states where abortion is already guaranteed like California and New York!

Making the Equal Rights Amendment the 28th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution will help stop abortion bans like the one Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced last month. (Not to mention it will ensure equality in so many other ways too!)

Join me in telling your senator(s) and Majority Leader Senator Schumer that you want a floor vote on the ERA.

We cannot let up.

We need the ERA now more than ever to provide a basic guarantee in the Constitution against sex-based discrimination to stop the denial of rights for women and the LGBTQ+ community. Attacks on gender equality are happening every day.

The House of Representatives has voted — TWICE — to remove the deadline on the ERA in order to further advance it. Now, 188 House members have co-sponsored House Res.891, which states the ERA has been ratified and is already a valid part of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to act for the ERAIt is well past time for the Senate to act. The public must see that Republican Senators are blocking an ERA floor vote with the use of the filibuster.

Take Action Now →

We need to flood senators’ inboxes with messages urging them to vote on the ERA right away. There is no time limit on equality. Your email to the senators makes it clear that they need to act.

An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults support Congress adding the ERA to the Constitution, and since the House of Representatives has now voted twice, it is high time for the Senate to act.

We owe it to ourselves and all future generations — we must add the ERA to the Constitution to protect and eliminate persistent gender discrimination. The ERA will prevent the denial of rights based on sex discrimination.

Email them, then call them, and then tweet at them! We must keep up the pressure and with more than 36,500 emails sent by thousands like you, it is working!

We must have a Senate floor vote so the public will know that Republican Senators are standing in the way of these words being enshrined in the Constitution:

“Equality rights under the law should not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”

For equality,

Photo of Eleanor Smeal, President

Eleanor Smeal
President

Iraq snapshot

Friday, October 7, 2022. BROS, Iraq, Julian Assange and much more.


On BROS, I made the points I wanted to make in the last two snapshots (here and here) and thought we were not going to cover it today.  Then came the online push claiming that FIRE ISLAND does what BROS did not.

No, it doesn't.  

You have no understanding of film if you believe that.  First off, FIRE ISLAND did not become a conversation.  Second, it wasn't a strong film.  The first act is slow and weak.  Ava and I covered it when it came out:


Jane shouldn't do stand up. Stand up comedian Joel Kim Booster shouldn't try to write screenplays. He wrote the script for FIRE ISLAND -- an update on Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. The first forty minutes are excruciating. Once we get into Joel's character and the film's Mr. Darcy, it begins to work. You actually care about those two.

Otherwise?

Too many movies -- and TV shows (think NAOMI) -- are just spitting out characters and confusing audiences.

The reason films used "types" -- Thelma Ritter and others for character roles -- was to help the audience follow. It's also why famous and semi-famous people are often cast in roles. Outside of Margaret Cho, most of the cast is unfamiliar to movie goers. Joel' screenplay starts with too many characters and they really needed to cast recognizable faces or at least distinct ones. CLUELESS, another update of Jane Austen, worked because it established characters and used 'types' -- the skateboarder, the preppie, etc.
  



There is also the fact that it's a celibate film.  Did no one notice that?  Honestly, a number of gay people on Twitter are pimping this as better than BROS but it's a chaste little film for the female/male lead.  If you don't get it, it's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen.  It's an adaptation.  Joel Kim Booster makes a lovely Elizabeth Bennett, but not much of a gay man living in 2022.  


The film has many things going for it.  But it's akin to an independent film like IT'S MY PARTY in terms of look and feel.  It wasn't an advance and considering Joel's remarks in his NETFLIX special -- his angry screeds -- I'm surprised anyone's pimping this.  Ava and I also noted that, "His persona may just be saying things for humor. If that's the case, keep it up. But if he's serious about getting complaints from gay people about his jokes, he might try grasping that he's not The Voice for Gay America."


I'm glad that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE still resonates.  But FIRE ISLAND reminds me of the play a famous blowhard wrote in college.  It was his life story.  He made himself front and center in the play.  And every other character existed to tell him how great he was.  They really weren't characters in their own right.  After he started writing films (and, later, bad TV), he just knew his play would connect with me.  (I'd passed on his previous projects.)  I was ambushed while having lunch (a friend tipped him off).  I was still a smoker then, thank goodness because I couldn't have made it through his play without a vice.  Indulgent was the kindest term.  


I told him it was as though Jules (Demi Moore's character in ST. ELMO'S FIRE) had written her own story.  There was no understanding of the world around her (I'm not talking politics or anything other than her immediate world) and that the other characters were all props for the main character (him).  There was no arc of growth.  It was just one indulgent scene after another.

I know screenplays, I've read a number, I've acted a number and I'm also good at plot points and finding where the beat should be (those last two are with regards to films I'm not a part of but that friends who are directors seek my opinion on). 

There are many reasons you can like a film.  It can be a hideous mess like 1987's ANNA but you can love it for Sally Kirkland's  outstanding performance.  Jane Fonda elevated KLUTE to film classic with her performance -- the finest performance by any actor or actress in a film that was released in the second half of the 20th century. You can love a film because the character reminds you of someone you love -- or of yourself.  A film can be a significant piece of art all around -- SOME LIKE IT HOT, for example -- and you love it for that reason.

And there are aspects to applaud with regards to FIRE ISLAND.  But, no, it's not on the level of BROS.  It's screenplay dithers at the start.  It's casting is way off.  It feels like a Greg Berlanti project and, no, that's not a compliment.  Greg wasn't the unnamed blow hard I was referring to above.  That blowhard is straight.

It may reflect your life onscreen and that's great if it does.  But by any critical measure it's just an okay film/TV movie.  

It's not revolutionary or brave -- I think Doris Day got more action in PILLOW TALK than Joel Kim Booster did in FIRE ISLAND. 

And to be clear, FIRE ISLAND isn't a bad film.  It's a weak film.  AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS is a bad film.  




Fire Island came out with a bang as not only was it released during pride month, but according to Mashable, it was the sixth most streamed film during the week of its release, outperforming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Meanwhile, Bros was unable to outgross the Avatar re-release and is currently being vastly outperformed by the new horror film, Smile.



May 24th is when SONIC 2 came out on streaming.  That means it was in its fourth week of streaming release when FIRE ISLAND 'beat it.'  JURRASIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is a 2017 movie.  And that week that is highlighted?  FIRE ISLAND is not the number one streaming film -- not even number one of rom-coms.  No, Sandra Bullock's LOST CITY is number three -- and it came out on streaming May 10th -- and weeks and weeks later it still beat FIRE ISLAND.  I don't know how you see that as a win but most people aren't stupid enough to scan Crapapedia and then write a report.  You can call it cribbing but let's be honest, it's plagiarism -- and plagiarism of a very bad source.


BROS came in number five last weekend.  It's harder to sell tickets -- a pandemic, Hurricane Ian, fears of harm over buying a ticket to a movie with a storyline about gay people, etc -- so don't compare the two -- but if the metrics were exact, BROS still did better.  Yet WE GOT THIS COVERED starts out their (mis)report insisting BROS bombed. (BROS sold 1.5 million in tickets -- that's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday -- Thursdays numbers will be released later today.  People are continuing to see the film.)

Another thing, stop writing about the movie if you didn't see it.  And I'm not really sure what you can understand about a film and its response in the United States when you're writing from Australia -- in other words, maybe butt the hell out.  It's interesting that BROS is said to be "less gay" than FIRE ISLAND.  That's not accurate.  Again, maybe don't comment on the movie you didn't see.  Aaron (Luke MacFarlane) is a "BRO" singular.  And Bobby (Billy) thinks Aaron only likes BROS.  But Aaron is the only BRO in the film.  (Some men in the club may or may not be BROS -- they don't have dialogue and we don't know.)   I'm sorry that idiots on Twitter who haven't seen the film have influenced an idiot at WE GOT THIS COVERED to write about something that's completely inaccurate.  There are tons of characters in the films -- gay, lesbian, bi, trans, etc -- Aaron's the only BRO.  We assume that his old friend from high school is probably a BRO. (Bobby makes that assumption when he's worried that Aaron doesn't find him attractive.)   But Aaron spent his life assuming that his hockey team buddy was straight.  And he's not acting very BRO when he's in bed with Aaron, Bobby and Steven. 

Jamyl Dobson's character may strike some as a BRO but a BRO wouldn't have a Barbra Streisand poster up on their wall.  Again, it helps, when critiquing a film, to have actually seen it.

There are a multitude of characters in BROS -- they are not all the same.

And that's what screenwriter  Joel Kim Booster doesn't grasp -- not everyone is alike, not everyone is the same.  Actors in FIRE ISLAND can only do so much with a weak script. 


The idiot at WE GOT THIS COVERED is repeating a false charge and that is why you really need to see a movie to comment on it.  The exception is commenting that you have no interest in seeing the film.  I'm fine with that.  I have always been fine with that.  But if you don't see the film you really shouldn't be talking about what it is or what it isn't because you honestly don't know.

I loved WORLD CAN'T WAIT and Debra Sweet (I know Debra).  But when she started slamming a film and calling for it to be censored -- when she hadn't seen it?  We dropped WORLD CAN'T WAIT.  

I'm an artist first and foremost.  And I'm not ever going to support cries of censorship to begin with.  But when you start attacking a work that you haven't seen?  

Go find another person to plug your activities because it won't be me.

You failed to do the basics before jumping into this conversation.  You're an idiot, Erielle Sudario for writing the article.  And it reveals how vested you are in attacking Billy and what he has done that you rush your ill thought out words into print.  They couldn't pass a fact check. Don't they teach journalism in Australia?

Equally true, since I'm now writing on the topic again, let me plug my friend Luke who is better looking than anyone in FIRE ISLAND.  He has true charisma.  Not just chemistry with Bobby, but true charisma.  And he looks hot as hell in the film.








We need to point out  the sexism involved in Twitter segment that WE GOT THIS COVERED elected to amplify.  A small group of gays are saying FIRE ISLAND is better because it's their life (they wish) and they're worried about representation.

Really?

Or are you just self-involved jerks?

Because I only saw Margaret Cho playing a lesbian in FIRE ISLAND.  

14 people in the main cast and only one's a woman -- and this is representative?  

If that truly reflects your life, what a sad life you live.

(There are 21 characters in the main cast of BROS.  I am counting Debra Messing who plays herself -- and is hilarious -- as a character because she's in more than one scene.  I am not counting Kenan Thompson, Ben Stiller, Amy Schumer, Seth Meyers or Kristin Chenoweth as characters -- they do cameos.  Explain to me also which FIRE ISLAND characters were bi, trans or non-binary?  Again, a small group of Twitter trolls are playing 'woke' but just sporting their hatred of women and anyone who isn't like them.)  


The unruly Twitter children are out of their minds as they drool over their own mirrored reflections.  It's why they rush to celebrate FIRE ISLAND -- a bunch of young, gay men -- and say BROS -- whose characters truly are LGBTQ and straight -- isn't 'representative.'


COFFEE AND TEQUILA has offered two strong pieces covering BROS this week.  We've already noted the first one in a snapshot but let's put it in this snapshot too.





And now here's the more recent one.





Let's note one more time that today is October 7th.  Why?  Monday will be October 10th.  It's very unlikely that, over the weekend, Iraq's politicians are going to pull their act together.  October 10, 2021 was when Iraq held elections.  Still waiting on the formation of the new government.  No new prime minister.  No new cabinet of ministers.  No new president.  

It will be one full year on Monday.  And there's no end in sight.  Blame it on a Biden?  Iraq's always struggled some but the last time it took this long?  Joe Biden was in charge of Iraq.  Then-President Barack Obama had put Joe in charge.  It was 2010.  It took 289 days for the government to be formed -- 289 days after the election.  

In that instance, the incumbent -- former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki -- refused to honor the results and step down.  So Joe oversaw The Erbil Agreement -- a contract signed by Iraq's political leaders which tossed the votes aside and gave Nouri a second term.

This go round, Joe's been notoriously absent from the scene of the crime.  Despite repeating urging from the Congress, he's done nothing.  Well, sometimes doing nothing is sending a message.  Noted failure Mustafa al-Kahdimi is the 'caretaker' prime minister at present since the Parliament still can't name one.  And Mustafa and Joe are not, to put it mildly, close.

Joe doesn't go to Iraq.  They don't talk.

Now Mustafa did visit the US last month.  He and Joe were both at the United Nations.  But Joe ignored him and didn't visit with him.  He met with many -- including the Prime Minister of Japan -- a man whose name the White House struggled with repeatedly in press releases announcing the visit.  They sent out a written message on each meet up.

There was no meet up with Mustafa and, as a friend with the State Dept stated to me, "That was the message."

Indeed.

Sadly, some didn't get the memo.



Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's visit to Erbil looks like a courageous step in the current delicate circumstances that Iraq, one of the most important countries in the region, is going through.

This step proves that Kadhimi, although he leads an outgoing government, wants to be the prime minister of all of Iraq and of all Iraqis.


Let's translate that whoring into reality.  This is what Khairallah's really saying:

My buddy Mustafa and I remain close and I don't disclose it anymore than various press outlets Mustafa used to work for ever disclose that Mustafa was their employee before he became prime minister.  That's why we pimp him as some great leader when he's an inept failure who has accomplished nothing despite being handed the post of prime minister.   The US Ambassador has told Mustafa that now is not the time for oil disputes -- not with Opec's recent moves and inflation -- and, Iraqi court verdict or not -- Mustafa was told to get his ass to the KRG and try to make some sort of peace between the KRG and Baghdad and do so quickly  because the US government is really tired of Mustafa.

You can pin a lot of the blame on the press that covered for Mustafa and pretended he wasn't the problem.  He didn't fix anything.  Things got even worse under his 'leadership.'

And that's before we get to the continued armed struggle in southern Iraq.  Daniel Stewart (360 NEWS) 'reports:'


Prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered armed groups under his control to suspend their activities in almost the entire country in order not to increase tensions after weeks of heavy clashes in Basra province between the cleric's forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of pro-Iranian militias.

No, Danny, not "all."  MEMO explains:


Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr today announced the freezing of all his armed factions across Iraq, except the northern province of Saladin.

Saleh Mohamed Al-Iraqi, a leader of the Sadr's movement, said the influential cleric also "banned the use of weapons in all provinces except Saladin and Samarra city."

It was not yet clear why Saladin province was not included in the ban.



Salih Mohammed al-Iraqi, a close associate of Sadr, said in a statement on behalf of the Shiite leader that they were freezing all armed factions, including the Saraya al-Salam, and banning the use of weapons in all Iraqi provinces except for Salahaddin to “avoid sedition” in Basra, adding “otherwise, we will take other measures later.”

Iraqi also called on the commander-in-chief of the armed forces Kadhimi to control the “disrespectful” militias of Qais al-Khazali, secretary-general of AAH, as they “know nothing but terror and money and power.”

AAH?  Danny gets that part right "the League of the Righteous (Asaib Ahl al Haq or AAH) militia."

January 10, 2020, the US State Dept designated Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq as a terrorist organization.  Prior to that, it was most infamous for killing US troops in Iraq.  You'd never know that from the sobbing some in the US gave when one of its leaders was killed.  Long before that happened, it was a terrorist group and Barack Obama was happy to make deals with the group.

For those unfamiliar with the League of Righteous, among other things, they kidnapped 5 British citizens in Baghdad and, when Barack Obama's administration entered into negotiations with them, released 3 corpses and 1 hostage alive (Peter Moore was the one alive) after their leaders were released from prison and, much later, released the corpse of the fifth British citizen.  The four turned over dead were  Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell,  Alec MacLachlan and (turned over much later)  Alan McMenemy The Obama administration's decision to enter into talks with the group was shocking considering the group also brags of their attack on a US military base in Iraq in which five American soldiers were killed.

Dropping back to the June 9, 2009 snapshot:


This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times of London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have been hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody Laith al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused of murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly did so because his organization was not going to release any of the five British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and the US military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has nothing to do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released him to Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for hostages and they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to people about it. At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters were unable to even broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon reporters did press the issue and got the standard line from the department's spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't hand him over to any organization -- terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq did, Whitman wanted the press to know, was what Iraq did. A complete lie that really insults the intelligence of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were: Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N. Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York; and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are the five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais al-Khazali are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states that Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the release and has declared, "They freed them? The American military did? Somebody needs to answer for it."


They never did answer for it.  People treated it as normal that a leader responsible for the deaths of five Americans was released from American custody.  Barack should have been called out.

Well he was.

In the Arabic media, the League of Righteous called him out, mocked and made fund of him, bragged about delaying the release of Alan McMenemy to show Barack who was running things.  

But he should have been called out in the US media.  The news of it registered with military families but otherwise it was just a headline quickly forgotten.

 As Joni Mitchell observes in "Dog Eat Dog:"



Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away

Dog eat dog
People looking seeing nothing
Dog eat dog
People listening hearing nothing
Dog eat dog
People lusting loving nothing
Dog eat dog
People stroking touching nothing
Dog eat dog
Knowing nothing
Dog eat dog


Land of short attention spans.  

US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange for the 'crime' of exposing War Crimes carried out by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Let's again note this Kevin Gosztola report on a British television discussion of Julian.






A segment on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored Program” yesterday provided its mass audience with a rare and unvarnished demonstration of the two sides in the case of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who is imprisoned in Britain and faces extradition to the United States for exposing American war crimes.

On the one hand, Assange’s wife Stella Moris outlined the dire precedent that the US is seeking to establish by prosecuting a journalist for publishing true information. She spoke eloquently in defence of the democratic rights of Assange and the population at large, as well as on the importance of upholding international legal norms.

On the other hand, John Bolton, a lifelong Republican politician and state apparatchik, ranted and raved as he asserted the “right” of the American government to ruin the life of anyone who gets in the way of its “national interests.”

The program was broadcast on British television’s TalkTV station, and has already been watched hundreds of thousands of times on social media. 

The response demonstrates the true public opinion of Assange, which is generally buried by the official media. Moris has received widespread praise for her thoughtful and principled comments, including her statements on Bolton’s own relationship to war crimes. Bolton’s remarks have been condemned as dangerous and frightening.

Morgan began by noting that Assange has been locked up in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison, a “very high security” and “grim” facility, for almost four years, following seven years of arbitrary detention at Ecuador’s British embassy. Where did Moris think the case would go, and what did she hope to achieve, he asked.

Moris, who is herself a widely-respected human rights lawyer, explained: “Julian faces a potential sentence in the United States of 175 years for doing journalistic work. For receiving information from a source and publishing it, and it was in the public interest. It was about US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he revealed tens of thousands of civilian deaths that had not been acknowledged before.”

Morgan said that he would play “devil’s advocate,” repeating the oft-repeated claim that while the Guardian and the New York Times had redacted the material from whistleblower Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks had dumped it online, placing individuals at risk.

Asked if she accepted this argument, Moris replied forcefully: “I don’t accept it, because it’s not true. WikiLeaks did actually redact all of those documents that Manning gave to WikiLeaks, and in fact it was in cooperation with those newspapers.”

WikiLeaks, Moris noted, had withheld 15,000 documents from the US army’s Afghan war logs, and had been criticised by some for extensive redactions of the Iraq war logs. The publication of 250,000 leaked diplomatic cables, in full, had not been the doing of WikiLeaks. Instead it was the outcome of Guardian journalists recklessly publishing the password to the tranche in a book.


While the US government persecutes Julian Assange, it meets-and-greets and celebrate nazis.  Jacob Crosse (WSWS) reports:

Last month leading members of both US political parties met with high-ranking soldiers of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at the Capitol in Washington D.C.

The week-long meetings in Washington by the fascist delegations, who were warmly greeted by Republican and Democratic politicians alike, have gone virtually unreported in the press.

In their posts first exposing the visit, journalist Moss Robeson revealed that one of the Azov soldiers that visited the Capitol was Giorgi Kuparashvili. Robeson wrote that Kupraashvili is a “a co-founder of the Azov Regiment and the leader of its Yevhen Konovalets Military School, named for the founder of the fascistic Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.”

The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014 by white supremacist Andriy Biletsky. The organization is teeming with fascists and racists who idolize Stepan Bandera, a fascist who as a member of the OUN-B collaborated with the Waffen SS during World War II in carrying out the Holocaust in Ukraine.

The embrace of neo-Nazis in the Capitol by both big-business parties obliterates any pretense that the US government is fighting for “democracy” or “human rights” in Ukraine, or anywhere else.

In publicly available Telegram posts, the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders, an organization comprised of family members of Azov soldiers, boasted that Kateryna Prokopenko, Yuliya Fedosyuk and Alla Somilenko joined Azov soldiers, Kupraashvili, Vladyslav Zhaivoronka and Artur Lypka in holding face-to-face meetings with Democratic and Republican legislators alike.


The following sites updated: