United Kingdom's Socialist Worker has this article:
Dapper Laughs’ gross sexism is part of a bigger trend
by Sarah Bates
O'Reilly in his offensive TV series (Pic: ITV)
He recently told an audience member she was “gagging for a rape”.
Thankfully grassroots pressure has given him a particularly bad week.
His ITV2 show Dapper Laughs: On The Pull has been cancelled.
Following public outcry O’Reilly has announced he will no longer perform as his “character” Dapper Laughs.
He built his popularity on social media. He has 500,000 followers watching his videos on Vine and 1.75 million Facebook fans.
The show Dapper Laughs: On The Pull reused a lot of his Vines material, giving “advice” to men on how to attract women.
O’Reilly recently released a “charity” Christmas album to raise money for homeless charity Shelter. It included a song called “A Walk To The Pub… With A Tramp”.
Shelter has announced it will not be accepting any donations from him.
Cardiff University students organised a petition to stop him appearing at their students’ union, which led to him cancelling his Welsh tour.
It remains to be seen if “retiring” Dapper Laughs is just an attempt to salvage his husk of a career.
Unfortunately, Dapper Laughs is actually symptomatic of wider problems of sexism within popular culture.
Threatening women with violence is neither funny nor edgy. This type of comedy is not satire.
The “lad culture” or “banter” seen on university campuses today is used as an excuse for misogynists.
O’Reilly panders to the most reactionary elements of an already deeply sexist society.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Shocking news out of England where the Iraq Inquiry appears to have come to some conclusions (finally). The Inquiry kicked off with Chair John Chilcot declaring:
This is an Inquiry by a committee of Privy Counsellors. It will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath. We will therefore be considering the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned. Those lessons will help ensure that, if we face similar situations in future, the government of the day is best equipped to respond to those situations in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country.
The Inquiry held public hearings starting in November 2009 and concluding in February 2011.
That was nearly four years ago and still people wait for the Inquiry to issue its findings.
Well . . .
It turns out only some people wait.
Some people already know the findings.
RT reports:
Letters containing in-depth conclusions of a public inquiry into Britain’s 2003 Iraq War have been dispatched to the probe’s primary participants. Critics charge that the brutal eight-year war divided Britain and blackened Tony Blair’s legacy.
Under UK law, any individual that faces criticism in a public inquiry must be issued with an official letter warning them of allegations in its findings. They are subsequently then permitted to rebut and counter unsavory or unsatisfactory findings.
The Daily Mail adds:
In May [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron said he expected the report to be published ‘before the end of the year’.
He added: ‘The public wants to see the answers of the inquiry and I think we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer.’
But
just four weeks of the Parliamentary term remain – making it unlikely
that it will be published before MPs recess for Christmas.
The big fear politically about the report has been Labour's fear that anchor around the neck Tony Blair will sink them all, that the report -- even if it's a whitewash -- has to hold the War Criminal accountable for his actions and words.
If the report doesn't come out by the end of the year, however, Labour could score points by painting Cameron (of the Conservative Party) as an obstructionist refusing to allow the British people to know the truth.
Space has already been created between the current Labour leadership and disgraced War Criminal Tony Blair. Demanding the release of the report and painting the Conservative Party as a barrier to the report's release could actually help Labour improve their numbers in Parliament.
As for the discarded Tony Blair?
Dominic Grover (IBT) notes:
Blair continues to be a deeply divisive figure in
Britain, due to his decision to back George W Bush campaign to topple
Saddam and the controversial "sexed up" dossier, which critics claim
mis-sold the need for war to the British people.
France's foreign minister recently said Blair was "not best placed" to issue advice on the Middle East, in light of his track record.
There have even been alleged threats to his life, with terror suspect Erol Incedal accused of plotting an attack on him.
To cap it all, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has chosen to compare the three-time New Labour leader to tyrant Adolf Hitler in a new book.Despite that, War Criminal Tony feels the world needs to listen to him on Iraq. The criminal doesn't want to confess, please understand, he just laughably believes he has expertise and wisdom to share.
He has nothing to share.
Blair fancies himself a Christian yet he's never taken accountability for how the Iraq War has destroyed the Christian communities in Iraq.
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Baghdad Patriarch: "I will not resign myself to an
#Iraq and a Middle East without Christians" http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Baghdad-Patriarch-hopes-to-see-Francis-in-Iraq-to-restore-Christians'-hope-32732.html …0 replies 25 retweets 9 favorites
CitizenGO
He may not want it but it may beyond his control.
Some people have a hard time giving up control -- even those who consider themselves servants of a God or god. John Bingham (Telegraph of London) presents the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby explaining that, "I think there is an answer that says we need to do more where there is really no choice but we also need to be deeply committed to enabling solutions to be found enabling communities that have been there for 2,000 years to remain there."
If Welby's so worried that Christians may vanish, he can always pack a suitcase and go live there.
The notion that Christian refugees should not be granted asylum outside the region?
I'm sorry, would you also go back in time and argue that Jews in Germany and surrounding areas not be granted asylum to safety because Jews might vanish from the region?
Because it sounds sort of like you would.
Too much time by 'caring' people has already been wasted with faux concerns about how refugees are vanishing from the region when the reality is that refugees want to leave and find safety. I don't know how this is confusing and I don't believe that this or that religious leader is honestly puzzled.
I think people are actively looking to look the other way just as they did during the Holocaust.
The Yazidis swooped in on the wave of outrage the targeting of Christians had created. I am not accusing the Yazidis of anything. I am saying that outrage was building and certain members of Congress were calling out the treatment of the Chaldeans which the US press was ignoring and then the religious minority (Yazidis) were trapped on Mount Sinjar and the press glommed on it.
It was an important story. (The fact that Yazidis remain trapped on Mount Sinjar is an important story -- even if the US press can't find it.) But somewhere along the way, the press -- the US press -- completely missed what was happening to Iraq's Christian community in the last months.
Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) reports, "At least 91 people were killed today, mostly militants, and another 24 people were wounded." In addition, Iraqi Spring MC reports the bombing of Falluja's residential neighborhood by the Iraqi military continues -- despite Prime Minister Haider al-Baidi promising September 13th that these War Crimes would end. Today, 3 civilians were injured in these bombings.
Moving over to food, Justin Worland (Time magazine) reports, "Iraq’s agriculture minister on Tuesday accused the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) of pilfering more than 1.1 million tons of grain from the country’s northern region and delivering it to militant-controlled cities in Syria." That news comes as US House Rep Rick Crawford's office issues the following:
Washington, Nov 18 | Mitchell Nail
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Congressman
Rick Crawford (AR-1) and U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) today urged
protecting American rice producers against unfair business practices in
Iraq.
In early November, the Iraqi Grain Board (IGB) paid $1.4 million more to buy rice from Brazil and Uruguay rather than accept the competitive, lower bid by U.S. rice.
“Given the considerable investment of resources by the American taxpayer in Iraq, it is critical that the United States be on ‘equal footing’ with its foreign competitors when it comes to the ability to win bids issued by the IGB. Simply deciding to pick winners and losers in bids for Iraqi rice tenders based on arbitrary reasons is not only unfair, it deprives rice farmers in Arkansas — a leader in rice production — and across America of a vital trading partnership with Iraq,” the members wrote.
A tender to buy 30,000 metric tons of rice closed on Sunday, November 16th. Winning bids are expected to be announced later this week.
To read the letter in its entirety, click here.
In early November, the Iraqi Grain Board (IGB) paid $1.4 million more to buy rice from Brazil and Uruguay rather than accept the competitive, lower bid by U.S. rice.
“Given the considerable investment of resources by the American taxpayer in Iraq, it is critical that the United States be on ‘equal footing’ with its foreign competitors when it comes to the ability to win bids issued by the IGB. Simply deciding to pick winners and losers in bids for Iraqi rice tenders based on arbitrary reasons is not only unfair, it deprives rice farmers in Arkansas — a leader in rice production — and across America of a vital trading partnership with Iraq,” the members wrote.
A tender to buy 30,000 metric tons of rice closed on Sunday, November 16th. Winning bids are expected to be announced later this week.
To read the letter in its entirety, click here.
We'll close with this from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America:
WHAT: Coming off Veterans Day 2014 and a week when politicians and lawmakers touted their support for the veterans community, IAVA urges members of Congress to now step up and take action to pass the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill of 2014. The bill, dropped Monday, was introduced by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
IAVA Legislative Director Alex Nicholson and Susan Selke, mother of Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who died by suicide, will be available for press ahead of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC) hearing on Mental Health and Suicide Among Veterans at 10 a.m. outside the hearing room in the Russell Senate Office Building SR-418.
Susan Selke will then testify before SVAC at 10:30 a.m.
WHO: Alex Nicholson, IAVA Legislative Director and Susan Selke, mother of Clay Hunt, Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and died by suicide in 2011
WHEN: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at 10 a.m.
WHERE: Outside Hearing Room- Russell Senate Office Building SR-418
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