‘Notes on a Foreign Country’ is an American’s struggle to understand her country’s relation to the world 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Journalist Suzy Hansen wonders how she, an Ivy League-educated journalist, could have been so ignorant of the extent of the US’s role in remaking the post-World War II world.

…Istanbul immediately defied her expectations – she was shocked by how much nicer its airport was than the run-down one she had departed from in New York. “I had been invested in an idea of the East’s inferiority without even knowing it,” she confesses, “and its comparative extraordinariness shook my own self-belief.” Hansen was further jolted when everyday Turks spoke matter-of-factly to her about how Cold War-era American foreign policy, specifically military and economic aid provided as part of the Truman Doctrine to contain Soviet expansion, had helped shape current political conditions in the country. “Americans are surprised by the direct relationship between their country and foreign ones because we don’t acknowledge that America is an empire,” she writes. “It is impossible to understand a relationship if you are not aware you are in one.”

‘Notes on a Foreign Country’ is an American’s struggle to understand her country’s relation to the world – CSMonitor.com

hmmmm

Do Transgender Athletes Have an Unfair Advantage? 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

 

Do Transgender Athletes Have an Unfair Advantage? | HuffPost

Just a few truths for those out there simplifying the issue (and being duped by socially-conservative new sources and their flagrant disregard for fact.)

Because I encountered a few of those today and they were quite, well, obnoxious in their snarky disregard for the facts supporting an alternative view point.

…And well, stupid people piss me off. Smart people being completely stupid and all sorts of arrogant about their erroneous assumptions even more so.

Howard Dean: based on new evidence, Russia may have installed Donald Trump with “falsified votes” 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Up to now, the Trump-Russia investigation has centered around the role that Russian hackers played in accessing voter data, and allegedly informing the Trump campaign as to which voters and states it should target with its campaign efforts – thus using illegal tactics to convince people to vote in a certain manner. But now we’re talking about Russian hackers having actually changed people’s votes without their knowledge.

…The odds were infinitesimal of Trump conveniently winning every swing state he needed, even while badly losing the overall popular vote nationwide (akin to a football team scoring no touchdowns but winning by scoring ten safeties). It was even more suspicious that he won every one of those swing states by the same one percent of the vote, just enough to avoid an automatic recount. If this new evidence ends up proving Russian hackers did change people’s votes, then Donald Trump was not elected President of the United States.

Howard Dean: based on new evidence, Russia may have installed Donald Trump with “falsified votes” – Palmer Report

hmmmm

Jim Justice Made his money from coal. ….And Russians.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Jim Justice …is the billionaire owner of the Greenbrier Resort — the place of presidents and the summer home of the New Orleans Saints. He’s also the owner of coal mines he sold to the Russians five years ago for nearly $600 million but which he has recently bought back for $5 million.

Billionaire Coal Magnate Jim Justice Shunned By Coal Industry In W. Va. Gubernatorial Bid

Oy…..

Madison girls soccer team bristles at critics who say players are boys

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,Leave a comment

The U-11 Madison 56ers girls soccer team is standing up for their short-haired players who often times get called boys by the opposing side.

…What has taken the girls, their parents, even their coach by surprise is the impact of that style choice.

They’ve been ridiculed by opposing parents, coaches, even referees, all of whom refused to accept that they were not boys. At tournaments, they have been asked to prove their gender, and were told they didn’t deserve medals.

…”(Our girls) are just physical and are playing the sport the way it’s supposed to be played. When we tell a parent on the other team that they’re girls they just say, ‘Yeah right.'”

Once, the team went up to receive medals at a tournament, but didn’t get the congratulations that they thought they deserved. A referee told the girls they didn’t deserve to get medals because they played with boys on the team. 

“They say, ‘They’re too good. They move like boys,'” Julie Minikel-Lacocque, Adah’s mom said. “All these players have experienced the same discrimination, and I really would call it that. From teams demanding passports and accusations of cheating. It’s incredibly damaging to the girls.”

Madison girls soccer team bristles at critics who say players are boys

Is it really 2017?
Are we really still going through stupid, stupid nonsense like this?
Man alive, how surreal…

National Butterfly Center Founder: Trump’s Border Wall Prep ‘Trampling on Private Property Rights’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

National Butterfly Center staff discovered workers with chainsaws on the center’s private sanctuary clearing the way for Trump’s border wall in South Texas.

…The founder of the center wasn’t notified in writing by the U.S. Department of Justice, as required by law. Instead, he found out when a group of workers with chainsaws began tearing through specially planted habitat on the privately owned land.

National Butterfly Center Founder: Trump’s Border Wall Prep ‘Trampling on Private Property Rights’

sigh….

Democrats’ disastrous mistake on abortion 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

The party has said it would be open to backing anti-abortion candidates. It’s an option that should not even be on the table, is an insult to women and a losing strategy, writes Jill Filipovic.

Democrats’ disastrous mistake on abortion (opinion) – CNN

Ripping empowerment away from women makes the tent smaller, not larger.

…Of course it needs to be said that the DCCC is not the Democratic Party. At all. It is its own separate animal and heaping blame on the “party” when the blame belongs to the DCCC helps no one. It just confuses the issue.

And last but not least, progressives who gave Bernie a pass on saying the exact same thing a few months ago but are heaping scorn on the “Party” need to get their stories straight. It was OK when Bernie said it, and it’s not OK now. The old white guy needs to be chucked out to pasture with his bro-centric bullshit. anyone on the Left who is angry at the “Party” but not at Bernie for committing the exact same offense is full of shit and needs to get their head examined.

Geopolitical Information Blockades: A New Norm? 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Religion,Leave a comment

This is not the first time relations among the Persian Gulf neighbors have chilled, and indeed the Saudi-led bloc has made past calls for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, a news network often critical of their foreign policies, to be taken down. This summer, states blocked their citizens from accessing the news site outright and, in a rare move, authorities in each state publically announced their information campaign against Qatar, admitting to a practice that might have once left them named and shamed.

The campaign against Qatar is not the only context in which Middle Eastern blocs filter information based on geopolitical fault lines, either. For example, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all block websites affiliated with Iran and Hezbollah, and Oman joins Saudi Arabia and the UAE in blocking sites connected to both Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. The researchers also found that “tensions have led to increased filtering in the past year” as geopolitical conflicts—including civil wars in Syria and Yemen—have exacerbated regional rivalries.

Unlike the publicly-recognized Qatar campaign, much of the filtering efforts in the region are not justified on a political basis or as part of a larger foreign policy. Instead they are rationalized on social or faith-based grounds; however, these motivations often coincide with political motivations for censorship. This is especially true in regions where conflicts are largely religious or sectarian in nature—for example, several Arab states block Shiite content, and Iran blocks Sunni content. Political censorship is therefore shrouded in religious or cultural explanations.

Geopolitical Information Blockades: A New Norm? | Council on Foreign Relations

hmmmm

Israel to shut Al Jazeera offices and revoke journalists’ credentials

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,Leave a comment

Israel’s communications minister has said he wants to shut down pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera in the country.  Ayoob Kara, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Sunday he wants the news network’s press cards revoked and has asked cable providers to block their transmissions. He said he wants them banned altogether. No timetable for the measures was given.  Kara said the station is used by militant groups to “incite” violence. 

Israel to shut Al Jazeera offices and revoke journalists’ credentials | The Independent

Seriously? Fuck you, Israel.

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Gulf Coast Region,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

…After exhausting all stalling tactics, the Legislature had to relent, and the designated schools were to be integrated that November. Fearing there might be some civil disturbances, the federal district court judge requested the U.S. government send federal marshals to New Orleans to protect the children.

On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother five blocks to her new school. (biography.com)

 

 

Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Ruby. …Ruby was the only student in Henry’s class, because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Ruby’s class and send them to other schools. (bigraphy.com)

 

Ruby Bridges, then.

 

Ruby Bridges, now.

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. – Watch The Yard

Crazy, right?!!!

West Virginia governor Jim Justice announcing Republican party switch at Trump rally.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Here are some facts about Jim Justice:

  • He’s a billionaire who inherited a coal business from his father.According to Forbes, he is the richest man in West Virginia.
  • He became a registered Democrat in February 2015, shortly before he announced his entry into a the governor’s race. Before that, he was a Republican.
  • He not only owns a resort at which the PGA Tour holds an event, he owns a resort at which the PGA Tour holds an event on a golf course called “The Old White Course.”

In other words, the really remarkable thing here is that Jim Justice—an old white golf man who inherited a coal fortune, for God’s sake—was ever a Democrat at all.

West Virginia governor Jim Justice announcing Republican party switch at Trump rally.

hmmm

How the Nazis Made Art Fascist 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

German and Italian officials believed that modern states had the sacred duty to defend national art against the degenerative force of global cosmopolitanism. …Against vulgar American consumerism, laissez-faire capitalism, liberal democracy, and the threat of revolutionary Bolshevism, Nazi–fascist leaders offered an alternative framework for European society: spiritual rather than materialistic, organic and traditional rather than abstract and cosmopolitan, overseen by strong and racially pure states. Promoting these racist and anti-Semitic ideas, institutions like the Permanent Council and the Venice Film Festival also modeled a new style of global cooperation: a “totalitarian international” in which ethnic and racial differences were not transcended but rather proclaimed, celebrated, and deepened.

Schemes like these make one’s skin crawl. But the Nazi–fascist way of thinking about European culture found wide appeal, and it’s worth understanding why.

…New technologies had transformed the nature of work and the structure of politics, women enjoyed greater economic and sexual independence than ever before, and the continent was in thrall to American goods and the alluring spirit of mass consumption. Bedrock bourgeois values appeared to be under siege on every front—an impression worsened by a string of devastating economic crises that had erased middle-class savings and eroded livelihoods.

…It was Mussolini, after all, who had called cinema “the strongest weapon” of any political movement.

…inviting several thousand delegates to Berlin for a massive European film conference. The Nazis welcomed their guests with the formal trimmings of interwar diplomacy: dinners and flags and receptions; working sessions at the legislature and the opera house; tours of nearby film studios and the Reich Film Archive; and a formal ball presided over by a tuxedo-clad Goebbels. The event culminated with the creation of the Nazi-led International Film Chamber, a new venture formally announced several months later in Venice—during the Film Festival. Moviegoers then fêted the foreign premiere of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, an exemplar of Nazi ideology and a masterpiece of modern propaganda.

How the Nazis Made Art Fascist | New Republic

hmmm