Thursday, March 30, 2023

Mark Russell

I did not find him funny but a number of people did. I am referring to Mark Russell who has passed away at the age of 90. His political comedy involved being at a piano and singing parodies about politics and politicians. Sharon Knolle (THE WRAP) notes:

For more than 50 years, Russell took shots at all sectors of the political spectrum with stand-up monologues and song parodies. He was best known for his PBS specials, which he taped six times a year from 1975 to 2004. His routines, which he sang and performed on piano, covered the latest political news with timely lyrical updates of classic songs.

He was remembered by former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, who said, "Mark Russell was a DC institution who did the hardest thing a comic can do...relentlessly and righteously mock his neighbors."

Do you watch FAMILY GUY? There is an episode of that show where Brian learns he has a song -- a human son (Brian is a dog). He is praising the kid through the roof and then saying something like, "Right? Am I right?" And finally Peter says "yes" just to get him to shut up.

Here's the clip.

Brian: Oh, we've got a young Adam Sandler here, I think. Right? Right?

Peter: Right.

That is what Mr. Russell always made me feel like, not that funny but I was supposed to agree with him.

Well Mr. Russell's comedy, for me, was always like Brian, constantly needing praise and support. I just did not have it in me.

WIKIPEDIA notes:

Beginning in the early 1960s, he was a regular entertainer at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.^[2] and did his first PBS show in 1975. From 1979 to 1984, he was a correspondent on the NBC reality TV show Real People. He also made brief appearances on all six episodes of the short lived Starland Vocal Band Show (CBS) during the summer of 1977. [1]

Russell's song parodies employed melodies from old standards with new humorous lyrics pertinent to the subject matter. For example, in 1990, following the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Russell did a parody song on his show to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". ("Pardon me, boys / Are you the cats who shot Ceauşescu?") Russell himself admitted that most of his jokes and songs are very topical and have "a shelf life shorter than cottage cheese".^{[citation needed]}

Russell's humor is known for having skewered Democrats and Republicans as well as third party, independent politicians and other prominent political (and sometimes nonpolitical) figures.^[3]

Russell wss often asked the question "Do you have any writers?" His standard response is "Oh, yes. I have 535 writers: One hundred in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives!" When asked if his views on current events are too caustic, Russell replied, "I follow the old newsman's adage. As they say, 'I don't make the news. I just report it.' And in my case, I don't even make the jokes. I just report them as they masquerade as news."^{[citation needed]}

For several years, on the Sunday before Labor Day, Russell made annual appearances on Meet the Press, which was hosted from 1991 to 2008 by Tim Russert, also a Canisius High graduate.

Now here is a clip of Mr. Russell in action. So you can judge for yourselves.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Tuesday, March 30, 2023. The US Senate votes in favor of repealing the AUMF, Senators Patty Murray, Jon Tester and Sherod Brown want accountability on the VA electronic record program, Mother Tucker Carlson continues to issue jihads against the LGBTQ+ community, and much more.

How long does it take to get something done in the US Congress? Maybe at least 20 years. Brad Dress and Al Weaver (THE HILL) report:

The Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal a pair of Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) with bipartisan support, taking a step toward closing the door on the Iraq War 20 years after it started.

Senators voted 66-30 to officially repeal the 1991 authorization for the Gulf War and the 2002 AUMF that opened the door to the Iraq War the following March.

At least 20 years. At least? It's not repealed yet. Mary Claire Jalonick (AP) explains, "If passed by the House, the repeal would not be expected to affect any current military deployments. But lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers they have given the White House over U.S. military strikes and deployments, and some lawmakers who voted for the Iraq War two decades ago now say that was a mistake." Yes, now we're waiting on the House of Representatives.

On the topic of Congress, March 17th's "Iraq snapshot" reported on the latest Senate hearing on the Electronic Health Record Modernization -- an effort that's gone on since Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House. Yesterday, Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

March 29, 2023

Murray, Tester, Brown Announce Comprehensive Bill to Overhaul VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Program

Senate Veterans’ Affairs and Appropriations Committees leaders spearhead effort to restructure, enhance, and improve the new EHR program while increasing oversight on behalf of veterans, VA personnel, and taxpayers

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are spearheading a legislative push to deliver a complete overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program.

The Senators will be introducing comprehensive legislation in the coming days that would require VA to implement a series of EHRM reforms to better serve veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. Their bill would restructure, enhance, and strengthen the entire EHRM program while also mandating aggressive reporting to Congress to increase oversight, accountability, and transparency following a series of challenges with the system and program, including those found in VA’s recent EHRM Sprint Report and a review from the Government Accountability Office. This is just the latest in a series of challenges related to the program which launched in 2017 and was deployed at the first VA hospital in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been clear from the start -- VA cannot continue with its current EHR system until it works for providers and keeps patients safe. This legislation will put into law the kind of aggressive oversight necessary to fix the current system -- that's my first priority,” said Senator Murray. “Importantly, this set of reforms will also overhaul the contracts and acquisitions process so that the issues we’ve seen these last few years can be prevented in the future. I want to make sure the dedicated providers at VA can do their jobs and that our veterans are getting the high quality care they have earned and deserve. Let’s pass the EHR Program RESET Act as soon as possible.”

“It’s clear that the new EHR system is failing veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers, and we need aggressive measures to right this ship and get a better return on investment through this contract,” said Chairman Tester. “That’s why my colleagues and I are putting forth comprehensive legislation to increase transparency and oversight over the new electronic health record system—holding VA and Oracle Cerner accountable on behalf of the men and women who risked their lives to defend our country. Veterans deserve nothing less, and I won’t back down from our continued commitment to safely deliver them the health care they need and earned.”

“Too many veterans and workers have faced confusion and unnecessary problems because of VA’s Electronic Health Record rollout. VA needs a reset, and must meet specific metrics on patient safety, cost, and VA employee productivity, to improve morale and improve veterans’ experiences when they turn to the VA for care,” said Senator Brown. “As VA employees at Chalmers in Columbus continue to work through issues related to Oracle Cerner’s product, I’ll continue fighting for them, and for the veterans they serve, to improve this program before the Department moves forward with any other VA facilities.”

Among its many provisions, the Senators’ legislation would require VA to:

Develop clear metrics to guide whether and how VA should go forward with the new EHR at additional VA facilities and require additional resources to support those facilities;
Require VA and Oracle Cerner to fix the technology features connected to the health safety and delivery issues found in VA’s March 2023 Sprint Report;
Not move forward with the new EHR at other VA health facilities until the data at the existing five facilities demonstrates an ability to deliver health care to veterans at standards that surpass metrics using VA’s VistA system or that meet national health operations standards as determined by the Under Secretary for Health;
Appoint a lead senior negotiator and leverage other federal agencies and independent outside experts to offer advice and strategies for managing aggressive EHR contract negotiations with Oracle Cerner to protect taxpayers and veterans;
Develop an alternative “Plan B” strategy for a new EHR in the event Oracle Cerner will not agree to new contract terms that protect taxpayers and increase accountability and penalties for poor performance or when VA data shows it cannot get the technology to work to serve veterans efficiently and safely;
Reform major acquisitions at VA to prevent future programs with poor contracting, oversight, management, and planning from occurring; and
Require an existing VA Advisory Committee to add health care experts with proven experience implementing EHR deployments to advise VA leaders on potential strategies on how to improve VA EHRM’s implementation based on prior lessons learned in the private and non-profit health sectors.

The legislation would also require the Department of Defense (DoD) to report to Congress quarterly on steps it is taking fix DoD information technology systems, including those which are outdated and are negatively impacting VA’s ability to deliver health care, benefits, and other services, including through the new EHR.

###

On Iraq, tonight, at 7:00 pm EST, WBUR will air ON POINT's latest episode "The American Invasion Through An Iraqis Eyes." Host Meghna Chakrabarti will be joined by Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. If your local NPR airs it, great, grab it off that. I'm sure the episode will go up at NPR's home page for ON POINT at some point. I'm noting the Boston station because a friend there is the one who provided the heads up. I've honestly never listened to ON POINT and didn't even know about it until the phone call. I will be listening tonight. And, no, Tom Bowman is not the voice of NPR. Many people with NPR are offended by his nonsense last week.

A friend at PBS asked for a link as well. No.

They're not getting it. Ava and I may rip apart what they wanted promoted this weekend. Otherwise, we'll just ignore the airing of lies on the public airwaves.

The editorial board of THE BEACON HILL TIMES points out:

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, a conflict that was broadcast into our living rooms on our TV sets in great detail thanks to the many reporters who were allowed to become “embedded” with U.S. troops as they made their way across the battlefields of Iraq.

Some commentators today refer to the War in Iraq as a mistake, but that implies a mere error in judgment. However, that assessment completely ignores the simple fact that the war was predicated on a deliberately-false narrative.

Someone at PBS needs to review that editorial with their staff.

Turning to the war on the LGBTQ+ community in the US, Skylar Baker-Jordan (INDEPENDENT) reports:

The bodies of the six innocent victims – including three precious children – killed in the latest school shooting weren’t even cold yet before the “don’t politicize tragedy” brigade was politicizing tragedy.

On Monday, a female-to-male transgender man shot his way into Covenant School – a pre-k through sixth-grade private school affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of America – in Nashville, Tennessee. The right quickly pounced on the shooter’s transgender identity, using it to target an entire community that it has already spent the first three months of this year targeting through state legislatures.

Republican Senator JD Vance tweeted that the left needed to do some “soul searching” over the Nashville shooting because the shooter was trans and targeted a Christian school. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican, blamed the “hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness” the shooter may have been on for the violence, adding that “everyone can stop blaming guns now.” Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, called transgender people the “natural enemy” of Christianity in a hateful tirade on his Fox News show.

These comments are all part of an emerging narrative on the right that seeks to turn an isolated incident – only three mass shooters out of over 300 since 2009 have been trans – into a rallying cry for further hate and violence against the LGBTQ community. We must reject this narrative because the reverse is true.

The right is the radicalized threat to public safety, not the LGBTQ community. I have the receipts to prove it.

[. . .]

If folks like Vance, Greene, and Carlson are concerned about sectarian violence in the United States – and we all should be, given its ubiquity in modern America – they ought to take a step back and consider the rhetoric they use to demonize and dehumanize their political opponents, the laws they pass targeting them, and the actions they take to harm them. They ought to also consider the use of violence on their own side.

Just last week, far-right extremists shut down an all-ages drag show in Kentucky with threats of violence knowing children would be present. In New Mexico, a defeated Republican candidate paid four men to shoot up the homes of four elected Democratic officials. Last year, a far-right extremist with ties to QAnon broke into then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and bludgeoned her husband, Paul, with a hammer. And then, of course, there was the January 6 insurrection – which was an act of far-right political violence whether Greene, Vance, or Carlson admit it or not.

For more on that Mother Tucker Carlson, see Gabriella Ferrigine's piece at SALON:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson stoked anti-trans fears in the wake of Monday's Nashville school shooting, warning of what he described as the rising threat of "trans terrorism."

Carlson cited the deadly shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school, to assert a broad and unfounded claim that trans people are waging a war against Christians.

"Why are some trans people so angry, and why do they seem to be mad specifically at traditional Christians?" Carlson asked.

What is FOX "NEWS" to do? Haters in poverty and struggling watch FOX NEWS over the airwaves -- a low income group which effects advertising rates. And when FOX NEWS owned FOX entertainment, that was good for the bottom line. But ABC-DISNEY-et all now owns FOX entertainment. So the free viewers continue. But advertising alone's not making it these days. Which is why they started FOX NATION. But, bit of a problem, the people who signed up for it -- a two week trial or even for a full month? They're leaving. And they're not leaving silently. The feedback FOX NATION is getting -- and they do ask for feedback when you cancel your subscription -- is that there are too many hateful attacks on LGBTQ+. They're getting comments like that. Some of the comments include statements such as "I'm not a supporter of gay people but even for me it's too much with the attacks."

Tucker brings in the freeloaders, no surprise there. But FOX "NEWS" is going to have to figure out another way to get people to pay for content because those who sampled the for-pay service are not impressed with Mother Tucker.

In the real world, people have to live with the hate Mother Tucker stokes. QUEER NEWS TONIGHT notes Nebraska state senator John Fredrickson.

It takes a lot of courage on the part of the LGBTQ+ community in this country as elements of the right-wing push for a holy war -- that's the only term for it -- against LGBTQ+ persons.

Meanwhile, Josselyn Berry has resigned. Who? The press secretary for Arizona's governor. Monday the shooting in Tennessee took place. Monday night, Hobbs Tweeted with a gif of Gena Rowlands in GLORIA, gun in each hand, adding "Us when we see transphobes." There's not a defense for it. It was a dumb Tweet. It also wasn't the end of the world. She was right to resign because she would have been a distraction to the governor's work. But it's also true that those whining that she was threatening them -- huh?

People can be stupid. That includes HUFFINGTON POST which (mis)covered this. Right-wingers, she wasn't talking about you. It was in a thread about how harmful transphobes on the left are. Oh, right-wingers, did you not know you could break bread with the left on this topic? I've got an elderly, one-foot-in-the-grave, self-identified Communist just waiting to meet you! (See Betty's "Shut your bigoted ass, Dr. Anthony Monteiro" for more on that fool.) It had nothing to do with the right-wingers, but you know how they love to play the victim, you know how they're always playing the victim and always running for a Mommy or Daddy to tattle because they're just victims (Mother Tucker Carlson projects victimhood onto others), so they got butt hurt over something that had nothing to do with them as usual.

Or maybe they were just whoring -- as usual.

Megyn Kelly knows she has to whore. She's got no career at FOX and no career at NBC and no one else will touch her so YOUTUBE's all she got. Remember that when she Tweets:

Thank God for the heroes at

@MNPDNashville

. Never ceases to amaze when you see courage like that on these tapes (of them taking out the shooter). Professionalism, bravery, respect for one another, honor.

The heroes?

I believe the police department did a very poor job.

A friend of the shooter's called the police department and was palmed off. Hours after the shooting ended, they finally showed up to take the woman's story. That's not good police work. Now I know Megyn's not very smart. But, let me repeat, that's not good police work.

Just reading the first Tweet she received over the phone to the first point-of-contact with the Nashville police should have been enough. The statement indicates the person texting has plans to harm someone and is about to act on that plan.

This should not have been fobbed off.

The Nashville Police Department needs to figure out how they failed.

Megyn appears to be praising those who shot the shooter.

I know that a certain Texas school shooting lowered everyone's expectations regarding law enforcement but that is the police's job. I don't know that those at the location did it well. I don't know that they didn't. But I know the Nashville police department failed Nashville when they treated the friend calling as something to push off and ignore.

Megyn's whoring isn't helping anyone and it won't make the people of Nashville any safer. But, hey, maybe it'll get some right-wing crazies to embrace Megyn again? For Megyn, it was either that or endorsing Blackface again -- she had to do something to rally her base.

Repeating, the first call should have addressed reality and done so immediately, then there was a second call and it didn't address the issue either. This is not a time for praise. A tragedy took place and Nashville Police needs to look at their actions and ensure more training so that they're not ignoring an impending shooting again when presented with clear information that someone's about to harm someone else in the city.

Related, "You are supposed to be a feminist! Trans 'women' are erasing women!" So claims an e-mail.

Uh, no, they're not. A lot of straight, cis gender women are erasing women. It's not your industry probably but I don't understand why, for example, actresses -- a noble profession -- are expected to want to be called "actors." I don't get it. Singer is an inclusive term. Songstress is not, but singer is. So fine and dandy. But if we're really worried about women being erased -- and our society never has been -- then I'd worry more about women being forced to adopt male terms than about people misgendered by birth. And then take a moment to grasp that this is happening in 21st century -- this notion that women should be happy with a male term. If we're going to rename the profession why not go with "actresses" for all? Why do we have to reward the male norm all the time? That's a better worry if you're worried about erasure. Then again, if you were worried about actual erasure, you'd be promoting Merlin Stone's WHEN GOD WAS A WOMAN and other books that deal with the actual erasure of women from history.

If Erica is transitioning or has transitioned, how is her being a woman erasing me? Help me with that because I don't see it.

The e-mail continues, "They are doing this just to win races!" Really? Most of the transgender people I know are over college age and not running or competing in any sport, first off. And while there probably could be economic incentive for someone born physically female to switch to male, there's no benefit to the reverse. Transitioning to male could allow an athlete to make a lot more money if they have talent at the sport. Anyone who transitioned to female to make money in sports had bigger problems than greed because society ignores women's sports in this country. The WNBA is mentioned most often to mock it. (That's not me saying they deserve to be mocked. They don't. But if, for example, FAMILY GUY mentions the WNBA, it's to mock it. And, no, the same thing does not happen with the NBA.)

Riley Gaines? Isn't that the loser's name. As Marcia's documented repeatedly, that woman has changed her story repeatedly. Maybe now that her sports career is over, she feels she can be honest? Here's some honesty, it's over because she wasn't that good. More reality, Marcia's right, she came in sixth in that race she keeps whining about which is why she didn't get the fifth place trophy at the swim meet. They had to send her a trophy. They were being kind to her and letting her have a fifth place tie -- when she actually came in sixth. No good deed goes unpunished which is how Riley ends up degrading us all today. And, dear, with those tiny breasts, I don't think you need to be insulting Lia Thomas. And maybe don't talk about others because, Riley, your shoulders and arms do not look normal for a woman. They don't look like normal swimmers shoulders, no. And look at the bulky arms and then the chest that looks like it has pecs and not breasts.

I get it, I really do. Lia didn't just beat you in the water, she also beats you in front of any mirror. Rachel McLish is a body builder who won many competitions and she never looked like she was juicing so I really don't get 'swimmer' Riley and all the testosterone that appears to be racing through her own system while she's attacking Lia. Same with Cory Everson. I started working out in the 80s -- like many, led there by Jane Fonda. I knew what I wanted my body to look like and what I didn't want it to look like. I wasn't going for Rachel or Cory's look but I didn't feel they lost any part of what made them a woman. They looked like women with muscles. Riley Gaines' body really doesn't look like a woman's body. Again, that might account for her bitterness.

As we wind down, let's note this in Michigan:

South Central Michigan Greens

=============================

Calhoun, Hillsdale, and Jackson Counties Local

https://www.facebook.com/SCMiGreens/

People and planet over profit.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2023

For more information:

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

Monika Dittmann Schwab, Local Contact/SCMiGreens

Moni.schwab@icloud.com

John Anthony La Pietra, Organizer/SCMiGreens

jalp5dai@catesby.org

South Central Michigan Greens to Hold Public Reading

of Dr. King's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech Sunday, April 2

=====================================================

Take "Time to Break Silence", Honor the "Other MLK Day";

Register on Zoom to Listen or Help Read Starting at 4pm

The South Central Michigan Greens local will hold a public reading of

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break

Silence" starting at 4pm EDT on Sunday, April 2 on the Green Party of

Michigan Zoom account.

Dr. King delivered the speech at Riverside Church in New York City on

April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis

while supporting a strike of local sanitation workers.

Local Greens celebrate April 4 as "the Other MLK Day", breaking the

silence about Dr. King's recognition that "the greatest purveyor of

violence in the world today" was "my own government."

Since April 4 is a Tuesday, the celebration is being shifted to the

previous Sunday and will start at 4pm EDT to make it easier for people

across the country to take part -- by being in the audience or by

joining in the reading.

To register for the event, visit this link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqfuGuqD0tHtLFF2YkF_CGsq3lJ8P7W_YN

The reading is also a post on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/events/213334007952325/

Recordings and scripts of the original speech, made to a meeting of

Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam, can be found online.

Organizer John Anthony La Pietra has taken an online transcript

(possibly of the prepared text) and adjusted it to match the speech as

Dr. King actually delivered it. A copy of this script will be made

available for the event.

To discuss details and news about the South Central Michigan Greens

local, please visit its Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SCMiGreens/

# # #

The Four Pillars of GPMI:

Grassroots Democracy

Social Justice

Ecological Wisdom

Non-Violence

For our Ten Key Values, add:

Community-Based Economics

Decentralization

Feminism

Future Focus/Sustainability

Personal and Global Responsibility

Respect for Diversity

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Issues with Ray McGovern

An e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) was flagged by Martha for me. A woman was asking about Ray McGovern and why "you are so mean to him?"

I actually have not been "mean" to Mr. McGovern in some time. That is because I largely ignore him. I will be mean in this post because the woman made look at his Twitter feed. But since Russia-gate began, I have praised Mr. McGovern for his coverage on that and I have noted (repeatedly) that he did not get the credit for his work on that issue that he deserved.

I believe that.

I also believe he is not that smart. And that is based on many years. It was not a spur of the moment judgment. It came from watching this former CIA agent making one mistake after another and thinking, "He worked in intelligence?" He was praising Diane Sawyer in the '00s, for example, and this was not just a passing moment. He wrote about her and was on three programs I caught talking about her over a two-week period. He did not know what he was talking about. He did not grasp what network she was on. He did not know where she got her start: Richard Nixon's corrupt administration.

I was never worried that Mike Nichols would be exposed as gay so I was not thanking Diane Sawyer for marrying him. Other than that, I do not what exactly anyone is supposed to be grateful to Ms. Sawyer for. This was the woman, please note, who used rigged footage to sell the lie that Howard Dean was screaming at a silent group of people. The video had stripped the reaction. The crowd was cheering him on which was why he was shouting. This is the woman who tried to shame the Dixie Chicks for their London performance where Natalie Maines said they were ashamed Bully Boy Bush was from Texas. This is the woman (rumored to have had some same-sex affairs in her own past) who tried to shame Ellen for coming out. I do not know at what point we are supposed to ignore all of that and pretend Ms. Sawyer has delivered much of anything to applaud in her career.

But Mr. McGovern saw a blond and a young -- to him -- woman and that apparently was all he needed.

I am sure he has areas of expertise -- he utilized them to successfully analyze Russia-gate.

But he cannot do a solid media critique because he does not know what he is talking about and has never put in the work on the topic. That is reality.

Reality is also that he is promoting Scott Ritter. Mr. Ritter is a registered sex offender. He was forced to register after being arrested three times for pedophilia and, on the third time, being sent to prison after he was convicted in a court of law. WIKIPEDIA:

William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector, and convicted sex offender.

Mr. McGovern reTweets Mr. Ritter. He buddies up to him. If Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity had any brains, they would have ejected Mr. Ritter from their group long ago. Instead, they have found themselves marginalized a little more each year by the corporate media and it is because they have a convicted pedophile in their organization.

That goes to the reality that Mr. McGovern is not very smart -- nor is the organization he co-founded.

When Mr. McGovern was covering Russia-gate, I was happy to praise him for that. And I did here for several years. But if you are going to accuse me of criticizing Mr. McGovern negatively, you better grasp that you are going back over five years. Maybe even six. And by bringing that up and asking for clarification, you led me to again criticize your personal hero.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Wednesday, March 29, 2023. The Great Glenneth rallies his fellow transphobes to froth at the mouth, FOX "NEWS" brings on an 'expert' who -- as usual on FOX "NEWS" -- doesn't know what the hell he (ibid) is talking about, and much more.

Glenn Greenwald spent the week thus far on Twitter and on his awful show -- it's the eyebrows, Rebecca, not just the at-home-out-of-a-box hair dye that make him look so awful these days -- offering conjecture and insisting others (people on the left) were forcing him to do that. He's a liar. He's always done that. If it weren't for conjecture he'd have nothing. His whole career is conjecture and his pretense that he's fair is a load of nonsense as well.

Monday, a shooting took place. It was The Covenant School in Nashville. It is not a Catholic school despite the claims of some. It's Presbyterian. (To anyone dismissing the difference, ask a Presbyterian and they'll tell you there's a difference. They have differences of opinion on many Biblical stories. In college, I did pre-K at a Presbyterian Church's day school as one of my many jobs.)

The shooter is said to be a person with the last name of Hale. As THE DAILY BEAST explains, "Police initially described Hale as a teenager, then a 28-year-old woman, later adding that Hale was transgender. A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast that Hale had 'relatively recently' started 'identifying as he/him'."

If you're not already grasping it, the possibility that the shooter identified as transgender is what got Glenneth Greenwald and his fellow transphobes in a dry-mouthed tizzy.

First off, anyone is capable of violence. You may not fit the profile but that's the thing about profiles, they're not 100% accurate. That's why they're called "profiles" and not "here's the killer." Of course a transgender person is capable of violence, any person is. It's like in BLACK WIDOW when FBI agent Alex (Debra Winger) is trying to convince her peers that she's stumbled onto a serial killer (Theresa Russell) who uses sex to lure in men and then kills them. Her boss won't believe her, it's not something you see a woman do, they insist. "Which part do you think a woman isn't up to? The seduction or the murder." Or as they note in Billy Eichner's BROS, "There are trans terrorists too -- Caitlyn Jenner."

Back against the wall -- or feeling that it is -- can make a person turn to violence. Isn't that the whole point of the nod-along that's always greeted "Thin Line Between Love And Hate"?

Second, we know three children -- Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs -- and three staff members -- Mike Hall, Cynthia Peak and Katherine Koonce -- were killed. Our thoughts should be with their loved ones. And I'm sure it was very awful for everyone present -- other children and other staff.

Third, I don't note these events in the immediate aftermath due to the whole attempt to use them as a political football. Disarm the government first. And drop the sense of entitlement that allows all the wrongful murders by the police to happen in the first place. You see the entitlement all over. For example, Afroman's home gets invaded by police and he does a music video including that footage and we're all supposed to feel that he's in the wrong? No. Cowardly police officers filed a suit against Afroman -- the most frivolous police lawsuit since Marcelo Rodriguez tried (and failed) to steal $10 million from George Michael because he was mocked in the "Outside" video.

If I'm remembering correctly, the Ninth Circuit found in this similar case, "Granting police officers immunity from actions for damages is one thing; granting them immunity from public criticism is quite another."

Per Dan Ladden Hall (THE DAILY BEAST), the police have some issues to address because Hale contacted Averianna Patton who attempted to relay information to the police:

Patton told WTVF that Hale had previously spoken to others about feeling suicidal so she knew to take the messages seriously. At her father’s instruction, Patton said she contacted the Suicide Prevention Help Line at 10:08 a.m. before calling the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office five minutes later. They in turn told her to call Nashville’s non-emergency line, Patton said.

“I called Nashville’s non-emergency line at 10:14 a.m. and was on hold for nearly seven minutes before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to my home,” Patton said. “An officer did not come to my home until 3:29 p.m.”

Patton said she shared Hale’s messages because she thinks officials should have responded to her information with more urgency. “After phone calls from friends and Audrey’s name was released as the shooter at Covenant Nashville school, I learned that Audrey was the shooter and that she had reached out to me prior to the shooting,” Patton said. “My heart is with all of the families affected and I’m devastated by what has happened.”

Here's The Great Glenneth Greenwald:

Who radicalized the Nashville shooter? What media outlets, pundits and politicians share and spread the murderer's ideology?

I don't know. You don't either but you went there. Could be the hatred aimed at transgender persons triggered the shooter. I have no idea. I know, as a nontransgender person, I want to scream as I keep hearing all the hate being tossed around. I can't imagine how I would cope if I were transgendered. It's been ugly and it's been awful. That might have radicalized the shooter. Might also have had nothing to do with it. But, Glenneth, just knows what's going on.

Really? With those jazz hands and that awful sweater that wouldn't look good on a slim-waisted 14-year-old girl? Friends of Glenneth should immediately take it upon themselves to thin out his closet of all age inappropriate items. And sit on those hands if you can't control them, Glenneth. First clue, if you're heads already moving back and forth on camera, you don't also need to punctuate every word with hand movement.

There are people who are saying that this or that person in the media is "defending the shooter." The examples they give do not read as people defending the shooter. (Terry Moran, of ABC NEWS, for example, was not defending the shooter in his Tweet.) But, for the record, I'm not defending the shooter. I don't know the shooter and I don't know their motives. If the shooter did go to the school, I will again note that schools have been intolerant in the past. I've stated before how hearing tales last summer about how then-young males were bullied in middle school and high school by teachers and principals, my response was that they should sue them. Even if it never went to court, the filing of a lawsuit would be news and knock a lot of shine off people who got away with bullying from a position of authority. I have no idea if the shooter attended that type of school or not.

If the shooter did attend that school, something traumatic could have happened there. Equally true, something wonderful could have happened there and in the messed up mind it was chosen for that reason. I have no idea. Neither do the people like Glenneth who keep running with their anti-trans narratives.

I wonder . . . Glenneth does grasp that his 'friends' will dump him if they ever get their way, right? That their hatred is aimed at the entire LGBTQ+ community and they need him to hide behind right now but they'll be the first to put him down (like a sick dog) or 'fix' him (I don't mean conversion therapy, I mean snip-snip) if they get their way?

I can't figure out whether he's that big of whore that he can't see beyond the money or if he's a masochistic bottom boi who can't get enough humiliation and punishment. Really, that would be the difference between being a bottom and being a sub. If it's the latter, can someone please build Glenneth a home dungeon? I'd offer to pay for any sessions he needed after it's built but I have a feeling that if you tell people Glenn needs to be whipped and punished, there'll be a line two blocks long in less than 30 minutes. Point out that the men can spit on him and piss on him as well and the line will be twice as long.

Meanwhile FOX "NEWS" brought on the failure that is Jonathan Gilman. There's a reason he hasn't worked in the media since 2004 -- other than spots on FOX "NEWS." It's cute the way his Tweets don't match what he says at the top of his Twitter feed -- his pinned Tweet from 2000. He wanted you to know that as an Air Marshall, Navy Seal and more, he knows the criminal mind. And the criminal mind is these people, "I was doing my research" he insisted, meaning he was listening to archived broadcasts of Candace Owens or someone similar, "and it is a fact that the majority of school shooters and mass shooters that we've had in the recent history of the nation are all people who have sexual identity dysfunction."

No, it's not a fact. Saying it on FOX "NEWS" is fitting since that's neither a fact nor news.

Here's a fact, from Columbia University Irving Medical Center:

The reality is that people with mental illness account for a very small proportion of perpetrators of mass shootings in the U.S., says Ragy Girgis, MD, associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

In 2021, Dr. Girgis, an expert in severe mental illness, and colleagues from Columbia’s Center of Prevention and Evaluation authored the first report on mass shootings using the Columbia Mass Murder Database (CMMD), which examined the relationship between serious mental illness and mass shootings.

Columbia Psychiatry News spoke with Dr. Girgis about the role of mental illness in mass shootings, the motivations behind mass murder, why the perpetrators of mass violence use guns, and more.

Are people with mental health disorders more likely to commit mass shootings or mass murder?

The public tends to link serious mental illnesses, like schizophrenia or psychotic disorders, with violence and mass shootings. But serious mental illness—specifically psychosis—is not a key factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder. Approximately 5% of mass shootings are related to severe mental illness. And although a much larger number of mass shootings (about 25%) are associated with non-psychotic psychiatric or neurological illnesses, including depression, and an estimated 23% with substance use, in most cases these conditions are incidental.

Additionally, as we demonstrated in our paper, the contribution of mental illness to mass shootings has decreased over time. The data suggest that while it is critical that we continue to identify those individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders at high risk for violence and prevent the perpetration of violence, other risk factors, such as a history of legal problems, challenges coping with severe and acute life stressors, and the epidemic of the combination of nihilism, emptiness, anger, and a desire for notoriety among young men, seem a more useful focus for prevention and policy than an emphasis on serious mental illness, which leads to public fear and stigmatization.

Look at that, an actual medical doctor refutes your trashy claims. Hmm. Well it's not like you had any real training -- in fact, I don't think there's been any brain activity in your head for decades.

And speaking to a friend a few seconds ago, a medical doctor published in professional, peer-reviewed periodicals such as THE HARVARD REVIEW OF PSYCHIATRY, he diagnosed Gilliam with OTRS -- Off The Rocker Syndrome -- as in, he's off his rocker.

Because, guess what, Jonathan Gillman is off his rocker and underwater demolition skills don't mean a great deal for the topic FOX NEWS brought him on to address. In fairness to Gillman, FOX "NEWS" only brought him on because they didn't want an expert on the subject. An expert would have rejected their line of smears and slanders instantly.

Lies, lies and damn lies. That's all too many have to offer. Jon Schwarz (INTERCEPT) takes on the liars at THE ATLANTIC:

The U.S. media has recently been filled with retrospectives on the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. Most of these outlets eagerly helped the George W. Bush administration sell the war, publishing lavish falsehoods about how Iraq posed a terrible danger to the U.S. (It did not.)

So you might hope that in the past two decades, the same publications have learned the most basic facts about Iraq — and would steer clear of publishing obvious and stupendous errors yet again. You would hope in vain.

One incredible example appeared in a March 13 article in The Atlantic by David Frum, who is best known for serving as a speechwriter for President Bush and coming up with the phrase “axis of evil” in the 2002 State of the Union address. Frum is now a staff writer at The Atlantic, which is probably the most prestigious magazine in America behind the New Yorker. The Atlantic is forthrightly endorsing Frum’s fabrication and will not respond to basic questions about it.

As you may have heard, Bush’s case for war was that Iraq had programs to produce “weapons of mass destruction” — that is, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. In his article, “The Iraq War Reconsidered,” Frum tells us in the first paragraph that Iraq was found to possess “an arsenal of chemical-warfare shells and warheads.”

This is false. You don’t even need to know the details to understand why.

Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, never said a word about this arsenal of chemical weapons that Frum says were discovered by the U.S. This means there are two possibilities:

Iraq did have an arsenal of chemical weapons, thus totally vindicating Bush and Cheney and proving that they were right about the most famous political issue on Earth. However, they never mentioned this because they’re super-modest.
Iraq did not have an arsenal of chemical weapons.

If you’d like to understand this subject in detail, you can read this long explanation I wrote a few years ago.

At THE NATIONAL, James Zogby adds:

The “big lie” about Iraq wasn’t just about the regime’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, but a preposterous deceit about the war’s costs and terms of engagement. Leading administration spokespersons actually testified that: the war would be over in a few weeks; US forces would be greeted as liberators; it would cost no more than $1 or $2 billion; and in the end, a new democracy in Iraq would be a “beacon for the new Middle East”.

Journalists and commentators echoed these fact-free claims making it the dominant narrative. Most politicians cowered, and because the overwhelming majority of the public couldn’t find Iraq on a map (according to a survey conducted days before the invasion was to begin), they went along.

During the months leading up to the start of the war, my wife and I were in North Carolina where I was teaching at Davidson College. At one point, I flew back to Washington to debate a resolution I had submitted to the Democratic National Committee urging the party to oppose sending our young people into a war without knowing its costs, terms of engagement, and consequences, in a country whose history and culture we did not know. The party leaders allowed me to present it but wouldn’t permit a vote. One even said: “We don’t want to appear weak.”

At the time, I was hosting a weekly live television call-in programme on Abu Dhabi TV and Direct TV in the US. ADTV arranged two live satellite shows connecting students at Davidson with students at Baghdad University. While the exchange exposed the Iraqi students to the debate about the war taking place on campus, my students had their eyes opened to Iraqi history, culture and sensitivities. After the programme, one of the Davidson students told me that it was so hard to be speaking with the Iraqis knowing that we were going to bombing them.

Because North Carolina is also home to military bases that were staging areas for US troops being sent to Iraq, it was especially painful to watch local news programmes interviewing family members about their loved ones heading to the war. Because of the lies they had been told, in interview after interview they tearfully repeated lines like “he’s a hero fighting to keep our country safe”, or “he’s fighting to make the world freer”. I feared for these young soldiers and their families, and in my heart I damned those who had taken advantage of their goodness (and lack of understanding) putting these young people at risk to fulfil their own blind ideology.

At COUNTERPUNCH, Jeffrey St. Clair offers:

With the UK’s unconscionable decision to send Depleted Uranium ammunition to Ukraine, it’s perhaps useful to revisit the environmental and health consequences of the US’s widespread use of such weapons in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Gulf War. This short essay is adapted from my book, Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature.

At the close of the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was denounced as a ferocious villain for ordering his retreating troops to destroy Kuwaiti oil fields, clotting the air with poisonous clouds of black smoke and saturating the ground with swamps of crude. It was justly called an environmental war crime.

But months of bombing of Iraq by US and British planes and cruise missiles has left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the US hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.

It took less than a decade for the health consequences from this radioactive bombing campaign to begin to coming into focus. And they are dire, indeed. Iraqi physicians call it “the white death”-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. The situation is compounded by Iraq’s forced isolations and the sadistic sanctions regime, recently described by UN secretary general Kofi Annan as “a humanitarian crisis”, that makes detection and treatment of the cancers all the more difficult.

“We have proof of traces of DU in samples taken for analysis and that is really bad for those who assert that cancer cases have grown for other reasons,” said Dr. Umid Mubarak, Iraq’s health minister.

Mubarak contends that the US’s fear of facing the health and environmental consequences of its DU bombing campaign is partly behind its failure to follow through on its commitments under a deal allowing Iraq to sell some of its vast oil reserves in return for food and medical supplies.

“The desert dust carries death,” said Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member England’s Royal Society of Physicians. “Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima.”

Most of the leukemia and cancer victims aren’t soldiers. They are civilians. And many of them are children. The US-dominated Iraqi Sanctions Committee in New York has denied Iraq’s repeated requests for cancer treatment equipment and drugs, even painkillers such as morphine. As a result, the overflowing hospitals in towns such as Basra are left to treat the cancer-stricken with aspirin.

Sanctions destroyed Iraq. Most on the left call out Mad Maddie Albright's support and defense of those sanctions. But some on the left look the other way with regards to convicted pedophile Scott Ritter who spent the 90s supporting those sanctions right there along with Mad Maddie Albright.

Let's wind down with some good news -- and, yes, I'm promoting a friend's news:

Diana Ross "The Music Legacy Tour" 2023!

I’m delighted to announce “The Music Legacy Tour” 2023: a celebration of my greatest #1 hits! I’m coming home to the US to sing hit after hit from my solo career and my time with The Supremes. It’s going to be a love fest. I am so looking forward to making memories and more memories with all of you ❤️

Tickets for this special tour go on sale this Friday 3/31! Stay tuned for more info and dates…

Share the #1 songs you would like to hear on social media with #dianaross #themusiclegacytour!