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Today's News (2020/1/11)
Jan. 11th, 2020 09:46 pmTrump brags about "taking the oil" in Syria on Fox News:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1215834911015428096
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New Trump Adviser Jenna Ellis Is a Homophobe Who Said Gays Deserve HIV
[NOTE: She DID NOT use the word "deserve," but DID say LGBT men have high HIV rates because of "God's moral law and His supremacy," which pretty much worse because of the added dimensions, but is not the same word.]
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2020/1/09/new-trump-adviser-jenna-ellis-homophobe-who-said-gays-deserve-hiv
Yet another major homophobe has joined Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Jenna Ellis, recently named a senior legal adviser to Trump and his reelection campaign, comes with a long history of anti-LGBTQ activism and rhetoric, including defense of conversion therapy, along with anti-Muslim comments and other extreme right-wing stances, as documented by Media Matters for America.
“Christians cannot follow God and accept or condone or participate in homosexuality or adulterous behavior,” Ellis, a lawyer and Fox News contributor who has worked with several Christian right groups, wrote on Facebook two years ago. When President Barack Obama named New York City’s Stonewall Inn a national monument in 2016, she called the site “a national monument to our open embrace and celebration of sin.” She has also said gay and bisexual men have high rates of HIV because “we cannot escape God’s moral law and His supremacy.”
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Trump’s hit on Soleimani exposed a lot of uncomfortable truths
Terry Glavin: Tehran’s interference had tied NATO’s Iraq mission in knots, and the idea of ‘stability’ had become an illusion
https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/trumps-hit-on-soleimani-exposed-a-lot-of-uncomfortable-truths/
...
Not widely noticed is that the NATO military training and institution-building mission was already facing a looming crisis, and a dead end. Led by Canadian Maj.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, the NATO mission was on its last legs as a credible multilateral agent of “stability” in Iraq, no matter what U.S. President Donald Trump has or hasn’t just gone and done. It was only a matter of time before it was all going to unravel, because of a plainly untenable dilemma.
...
Iran’s proxy militias have been growing in influence in Baghdad ever since the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq in the final months of 2017. But the militias that helped fight ISIS back then filled the ISIS vacuum with scorched-earth tactics every bit as genocidal as the methods ISIS employed, and they’re now deeply embedded in Iraq’s military and security establishment.
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Inside the plot by Iran’s Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-soleimani-insight/inside-the-plot-by-irans-soleimani-to-attack-u-s-forces-in-iraq-idUSKBN1Z301Z
(Reuters) - In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad.
...
The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.
The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight. Soleimani’s plans to attack U.S. forces aimed to provoke a military response that would redirect that rising anger toward the United States, according to the sources briefed on the gathering, Iraqi Shi’ite politicians and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
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De Blasio says Trump Organization tax practices referred to DA
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/01/10/de-blasio-says-trump-organization-tax-practices-referred-to-da-1248913
The de Blasio administration has referred findings from a review of the Trump Organization's property tax filings to the Manhattan district attorney's office, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday morning.
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"We're sending more to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia's paying us for it. ... I said to Saudi Arabia... I said listen, you're a very rich country. You want more troops? I'm going to send them to you, but you've got to pay us. They're paying us. They've already deposited one billion dollars in the bank. We are going to help them, but these rich countries have to pay for it."
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1215836306162372608
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[Thread, starting at tweet, linking to article]
Cis people—TERFs & right wing Christians—have constructed & spread a vicious stereotype of trans women as sexually predatory men, deserving of violence & incarceration.
They're using that stereotype as a tool in policing the boundaries of ALL women, both cis & trans.
https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1216086463655354368
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Right-wing white Christians are now ‘praying’ that God ‘exposes’ Michelle Obama as transgender
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/10/right-wing-white-christians-god-michelle-obama-up-front-in-the-prophetic/
[Note: The article describes this as "a new one," but they were throwing this out there back during the Obama administration.]
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Mitch McConnell doesn’t care if you criticize his sham trial for Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/08/mcconnell-doesnt-care-if-you-criticize-his-sham-trial-trump/
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now announced that he has the votes to begin President Trump’s impeachment trial with no agreement on whether witnesses will be allowed to testify. In other words, McConnell (R-Ky.) seems intent on making the trial as brief and perfunctory as possible, lest it be allowed to further besmirch Trump’s reputation by airing too much discussion of his misdeeds.
If you’re asking “Can he get away with that?,” the answer is: Of course he can. If you think that he cares how much criticism he gets for it, you don’t know Mitch McConnell. And you don’t know what he knows about how the American public sees the goings-on in Washington.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1215834911015428096
-----
New Trump Adviser Jenna Ellis Is a Homophobe Who Said Gays Deserve HIV
[NOTE: She DID NOT use the word "deserve," but DID say LGBT men have high HIV rates because of "God's moral law and His supremacy," which pretty much worse because of the added dimensions, but is not the same word.]
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2020/1/09/new-trump-adviser-jenna-ellis-homophobe-who-said-gays-deserve-hiv
Yet another major homophobe has joined Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Jenna Ellis, recently named a senior legal adviser to Trump and his reelection campaign, comes with a long history of anti-LGBTQ activism and rhetoric, including defense of conversion therapy, along with anti-Muslim comments and other extreme right-wing stances, as documented by Media Matters for America.
“Christians cannot follow God and accept or condone or participate in homosexuality or adulterous behavior,” Ellis, a lawyer and Fox News contributor who has worked with several Christian right groups, wrote on Facebook two years ago. When President Barack Obama named New York City’s Stonewall Inn a national monument in 2016, she called the site “a national monument to our open embrace and celebration of sin.” She has also said gay and bisexual men have high rates of HIV because “we cannot escape God’s moral law and His supremacy.”
-----
Trump’s hit on Soleimani exposed a lot of uncomfortable truths
Terry Glavin: Tehran’s interference had tied NATO’s Iraq mission in knots, and the idea of ‘stability’ had become an illusion
https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/trumps-hit-on-soleimani-exposed-a-lot-of-uncomfortable-truths/
...
Not widely noticed is that the NATO military training and institution-building mission was already facing a looming crisis, and a dead end. Led by Canadian Maj.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, the NATO mission was on its last legs as a credible multilateral agent of “stability” in Iraq, no matter what U.S. President Donald Trump has or hasn’t just gone and done. It was only a matter of time before it was all going to unravel, because of a plainly untenable dilemma.
...
Iran’s proxy militias have been growing in influence in Baghdad ever since the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq in the final months of 2017. But the militias that helped fight ISIS back then filled the ISIS vacuum with scorched-earth tactics every bit as genocidal as the methods ISIS employed, and they’re now deeply embedded in Iraq’s military and security establishment.
-----
Inside the plot by Iran’s Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-soleimani-insight/inside-the-plot-by-irans-soleimani-to-attack-u-s-forces-in-iraq-idUSKBN1Z301Z
(Reuters) - In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad.
...
The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.
The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight. Soleimani’s plans to attack U.S. forces aimed to provoke a military response that would redirect that rising anger toward the United States, according to the sources briefed on the gathering, Iraqi Shi’ite politicians and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
-----
De Blasio says Trump Organization tax practices referred to DA
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/01/10/de-blasio-says-trump-organization-tax-practices-referred-to-da-1248913
The de Blasio administration has referred findings from a review of the Trump Organization's property tax filings to the Manhattan district attorney's office, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday morning.
-----
"We're sending more to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia's paying us for it. ... I said to Saudi Arabia... I said listen, you're a very rich country. You want more troops? I'm going to send them to you, but you've got to pay us. They're paying us. They've already deposited one billion dollars in the bank. We are going to help them, but these rich countries have to pay for it."
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1215836306162372608
-----
[Thread, starting at tweet, linking to article]
Cis people—TERFs & right wing Christians—have constructed & spread a vicious stereotype of trans women as sexually predatory men, deserving of violence & incarceration.
They're using that stereotype as a tool in policing the boundaries of ALL women, both cis & trans.
https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1216086463655354368
-----
Right-wing white Christians are now ‘praying’ that God ‘exposes’ Michelle Obama as transgender
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/10/right-wing-white-christians-god-michelle-obama-up-front-in-the-prophetic/
[Note: The article describes this as "a new one," but they were throwing this out there back during the Obama administration.]
-----
Mitch McConnell doesn’t care if you criticize his sham trial for Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/08/mcconnell-doesnt-care-if-you-criticize-his-sham-trial-trump/
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now announced that he has the votes to begin President Trump’s impeachment trial with no agreement on whether witnesses will be allowed to testify. In other words, McConnell (R-Ky.) seems intent on making the trial as brief and perfunctory as possible, lest it be allowed to further besmirch Trump’s reputation by airing too much discussion of his misdeeds.
If you’re asking “Can he get away with that?,” the answer is: Of course he can. If you think that he cares how much criticism he gets for it, you don’t know Mitch McConnell. And you don’t know what he knows about how the American public sees the goings-on in Washington.
