Trina's Kitchen: August 2024

Friday, August 30, 2024

Chicken Parmesan With Spaghetti Squash in the Kitchen

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Miss Sassy Will Not Be Denied or Upstaged"

Chelsea e-mailed to note Taste of Home's Chicken Parmesan With Spaghetti Squash:

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash (about 4 pounds)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus more for topping
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon minced fresh basil or 3/4 teaspoon dried basil

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 jar (14 ounces) pasta sauce

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Halve squash lengthwise; discard seeds. Place squash on a microwave-safe plate, cut side down; microwave on high until tender, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly.

Meanwhile, sprinkle chicken with parsley, oregano and basil. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken; cook 7-9 minutes on each side or until a thermometer reads 165°. Stir in pasta sauce; sprinkle with cheeses. Cover and cook until cheese is melted, 3-5 minutes.
Separate strands of squash with a fork. Serve with chicken and sauce. If desired, top with chopped parsley.

Health tip Cup-for-cup, spaghetti squash is lower in carbs than white pasta, but it’s also higher in fiber and vitamin C.

Test Kitchen tips

Change up this recipe by using Alfredo sauce instead of a tomato-based sauce.

It's OK if the squash halves overlap while cooking in the microwave.

Chelsea is watching carbs due to new diabetes diagnosis. She loves pasta and sauces and grew up on them "and this is one of the few low carb versions that hasn't left me feeling robbed when I sit down to eat it."

It can be very difficult sometimes finding low carb recipes. You can look at any current (last few years) Weight Watchers cookbooks, for example, that will have low carb recipes and you can also search online just for low carb recipes.

Spaghetti squash is a very good substitute for pasta but some people are reluctant to cook it because it's new to them. If that's the case with anyone reading this, please note you can make the recipe above with 'pasta' spirals from the frozen food section. Birds Eye and other frozen vegetable sellers usually have -- in the frozen section -- 'pasta' made with vegetables. Some in spirals, some in rotini shapes.

But if you'll take a chance with spaghetti squash, you'll find it's one of the easiest vegetables to cook.

Jillian e-mailed that she likes the site because we talk food and we deal with issues that matter. She notes that she has a gay child like me (I have a son who is gay, she has a daughter who is a lesbian) and she is very scared about where the MAGA crazies want to mislead us. She asked if I could note this from GLAAD:

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is responding to Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the nomination of her party for President of the United States tonight.

Harris included LGBTQ Americans in her acceptance speech among the fundamental freedoms at stake in the election: “The freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities, and places of worship. The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all of the others, the freedom to vote.”

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GLAAD has documented Harris’ LGBTQ record here.

GLAAD has tracked the LGBTQ record of Harris’ runningmate, Gov. Tim Walz, here.

GLAAD has tracked nearly 350 moves for LGBTQ Americans made by the Biden-Harris administration, here.

Statement from GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her):
“Kamala Harris’ nomination for President is a groundbreaking moment for our nation, including for marginalized communities too often left out of the promise of liberty and justice for all. This historic milestone shows that diversity is embraced as a strength driving our country forward. LGBTQ people are an essential part of the American story. As the campaign moves ahead, candidates and reporters must accurately include LGBTQ people and all marginalized voices in conversations about a future where we are all more free and welcome to contribute to our country’s success.”

Additional research:

LGBTQ voters made the deciding difference in the 2020 election and are poised to do so again in 2024. More than 1 in 5 Gen Z Americans (ages 18-26) are out as LGBTQ, the most out generation in history. Nearly 30% of Gen Z women are LGBTQ.
GLAAD’s Accelerating Acceptance Study shows supermajority support for LGBTQ people, though support has dipped in the last year and Gen Z is increasingly a target for harassment and discrimination:
- 80% of non-LGBTQ Americans support LGBTQ equal rights, down from a record high of 84% one year ago
- 95% of non-LGBTQ Americans believe schools should be safe and accepting for all youth
- 93% say children should be taught to appreciate and accept people as they are
- 70% of Gen Z LGBTQ adults report discrimination based on their sexual orientation

Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ history is documented on GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Tracker, detailing more than 218 attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans.

Trump’s choice for Vice President, Ohio Senator JD Vance, has prioritized attacking LGBTQ people in his less than 18 months in the Senate. Vance’s record is tracked on the GLAAD Accountability Project, here.

- Donald Trump and JD Vance’s connections to Project 2025, a roadmap for authoritarian takeover of the federal government, criminalization and elimination of abortion and birth control, and elimination of LGBTQ protections and recognitions, are documented here.

GLAAD’s Guide to the 2024 Elections includes the top issues of the LGBTQ community and best practices for reporters to include and cover LGBTQ people in political conversations.

GLAAD polling shows LGBTQ registered voters are highly motivated to vote, with 94% indicating they are definitely (83%) or probably (11%) voting this year.
GLAAD polling shows 53% of both registered and likely 2024 voters say they would oppose “a political candidate [who] speaks frequently about restricting access to health care and participation in sports for transgender youth.”

GLAAD has documented the records of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on the top issues for LGBTQ voters: the economy (Harris, Trump), abortion (Harris, Trump), climate change (Harris, Trump), public safety (Harris, Trump), and education (Harris, Trump). Trump’s record on transgender people is available here.

About GLAAD: GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org or connect with GLAAD on Facebook and Twitter.

Yes, I can and I gladly will.

And, Jillian, we are going to protect our kids, our grandkids and our country by voting this fall for Kamala Harris. Let's get this done.

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

Thursday, August 29, 2024. New published interview with Kamala Harris that the media seems to be missing, if Gaza supporters need a recommendation they should start planning a January 20, 2025 action right now, James Carville shows up late as usual, DEMOCRAC NOW! covers Texas Governor Greg Asshole and Attorney General Ken Paxton's assault on democracy, and much more.

Starting with the US presidential election, I believe the whine goes something like this: "Kamala hasn't done any interviews!"

That's what the mail brought me yesterday. Page 48 kicks off Caroline Wanga's six page interview with the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. The two discuss a number of issues including the economy. I'll note this from the interview

Kamala Harris: I have been working on that issue for years -- with my colleagues from the CBC [Congressional Black Caucus] when I was in the Senate and now as Vice President. Why? Because Black women in the United States of America are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other women. And we know that there are a variety of reasons for that. But we also know that this is a health care crisis of the highest order, and it has received very little attention proportionate to the seriousness of the matter. So, I worked with my colleagues when I was in the Senate. We passed a number of ills. When I came in as Vice President, I continue to work on it. And one of the things I found is this: For women on Medicaid, which states can provide for postpartum care for two months up to 12 months -- and I realized when I came in as Vice President, only three states would extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum care from two months to 12 months. I don't have a problem shaming people sometimes, so I challenged the states to extend it. And now 46 states have extended Medicaid coverage for postpartum care. There is a direct connection between this and Black maternal mortality. But back to the other point about freedom of choice. The majority of Black women in America live in the South You know that in the South, we have some of the highest rates of Black maternal mortality. In the South, except for the state of Virginia, every state has an abortion ban. And what I find hypocrisy upon hypocrisy, by some of these extremists, is that the same ones saying they're passing these abortion bans because they care about women and children have been completely silent on the issue of Black maternal mortality. Don't come to us, gaslighting us about where you've been and where you haven't been, on important issues that relate to what we know every day affects our sisters, our mothers, our aunties, our grandmothers -- and could affect our daughters.

A few comments. The interview is not online. I have no idea if it will be posted or not. Currently at ESSENCE, Jasmine Browley has an article about Kamala and the opportunity economy that went up this week and Robyn Mowatt looks at political style. Second, the cover notes "COLLECTOR'S EDITION." If you're a subscriber like me, you may grimace. But they used a real sticker that peels off -- not a paper label that's basically glued to the cover -- and it's very easy and doesn't tear the cover when you remove it. After I removed it, I scanned for the image above (notice no tear in the lower corner) and took the cover off the magazine. It's now framed and up in my home office.

At NEWSWEEK, Menachem Z. Rosensaft writes:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares two important characteristics with former President Donald Trump: like Trump, Netanyahu is narcissistic, incapable of empathy for others who considers his personal interests and political survival to be of paramount importance, and, also like Trump, he desperately wants Trump to win the forthcoming presidential election in order for him to have a hope of staying out of jail.

That is pretty much all we need to know to explain Netanyahu's behavior some two months before the said election.

Trump's motivation is hardly breaking news. Most Americans—even hardcore MAGA activists who idolize Trump—understand that Trump's legal difficulties will either increase or decrease exponentially depending on who takes the oath of office next Jan. 21 as the 47th president of the United States. One scenario: he lives in the White House for another four years; the other involves at a minimum heavy fines and quite possibly an orange prison uniform.

What many observers outside Israel don't realize, however, is that Trump's Mini-Me Netanyahu is in the exact same boat.

Except that Netanyahu's situation is even more precarious than Trump's.

Netanyahu's present political situation is exemplified by the banana peel syndrome: he has one foot in political oblivion and the other on a banana peel.

[. . .]

And so, Netanyahu can be expected to continue trying to manipulate the world as he has done with an unfortunate degree of success over the course of the past 11 months. Except that he knows that Vice President Kamala Harris has his number. She is a former prosecutor, after all, and just as she has dealt with the likes of Donald Trump, she has bested antagonists who were far more sophisticated and less transparent than Netanyahu.

Harris made clear in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention that, "I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on October 7th. Including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival."

This is why Netanyahu must be panicking at this very moment. In many ways, Harris must be his worst nightmare. He realizes, I'm sure, that while she is very much a friend and supporter of Israel, she is neither in his pocket nor a pushover—which he probably considers Trump to be in light of their past history.

And this is why Netanyahu is panicked at the prospect of a Harris presidency. She is certain not to allow him to continue running roughshod at the expense of the majority of Israelis who want him gone and the non-Hamas-supporting Palestinians who see no hope for any future while he is in control.

Gaza?

Regarding yesterday's "Iraq snapshot," a number of e-mails complain that I provided you no answers. I'm the critic and I'm focused on the election in the US. It's not my job or responsibility to provide you with what you should be doing -- does no one know how to think for themselves? -- but if you're so lost and confused, January 20th.

January 20, 2025 is inauguration day. Whomever is elected -- I hope Kamala -- they will be sworn into office on January 20th. Tons of press will be in DC to cover that and to cover the various parties taking place. So I'd make January 20th a day for protest and demands so that whomever wins the election, they grasp, from day one, that voices for peace are out there and are demanding an end to the assault on Gaza.

And if by some miracle the assaults has stopped prior to January 20th? Ending the assault is important, it's a genocide. But if it stopped at noon today, the Palestinians would still not be living in an equal society. So if, prior to January 20th, the genocide -- or this wave of it -- ends, you use the protest to shift to other needed demands.

January 20th will be here before we know it. It's a key day where a message can be sent to whomever wins the election and DC will have much more journalists than it usually does. That's what I'd be organizing and planning for right now. Doesn't mean other actions can't be carried out between now and then but it does mean you don't wait until November or December to plan a massive mobilization with all that requires.

I should also point out something that should be obvious especially all these years later. I have little patience for stupid people who want to be stupid. I enter any room expecting to be the least informed person in the world. As I've noted here before many times, I lost my memory. I had to relearn or learn for the first time -- who knows -- many things in history, many things in my own life. And when I went to college, my degree plan was what I made it. Meaning I took classes I was interested in and got way more credits than I needed. There is so much that I still need to learn and it has been decades since college for me and I didn't stop learning in grad school.

I get that there's a lot out there but I also get that some people are just lazy and I'm not here to spoon feed or wet nurse for that matter.

That is my biggest bias in the world, people who are comfortable being uninformed.

I noted what was going on in Texas yesterday and that I hadn't wanted to write about it because I didn't know anything about it until Monday. I didn't write that much yesterday. But before I did, I read as much as I could on it and did a conference call with thirty Texas community members about what was going on so I would have some idea.

I'm smart enough to know that I don't know everything. And if I weigh in on something, I've done some level of research before weighing in.

DEMOCRACY NOW! did a segment yesterday on the topic.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to Texas, where the Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is raising concerns about voter suppression by targeting the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. LULAC was first founded to fight discrimination against citizens of Mexican descent in Texas. Now it’s responding to a series of raids of the homes of LULAC members, state lawmakers and other Latino leaders in the San Antonio area last week.

Speaking to the media Monday, longtime LULAC volunteer, 87-year-old Lidia Martinez described how armed officers arrived at her home at 6 a.m. with a warrant to seize electronic devices, swab for DNA, as they collected evidence of alleged vote harvesting and identity fraud.

LIDIA MARTINEZ: I was in my nightgown, and I thought it was my next-door neighbor. And I went to the door, and nine officers from the Attorney General’s Office walked in. And they had a search warrant, and they told me that they were there because I had filed a complaint that seniors were not getting their mail ballots. And I said, “Yes, I did.” And he says, “Do you have the names?” And I said, “I have a few of the names.” And they came in, and I said, “Can I get dressed?” They didn’t let me.

They sat me down, and they started searching all my house — my storeroom, my garage, my kitchen, everything. And after two hours of questioning, they took me outside in front of all my neighbors and all the officers around me and — for half an hour while they searched the living room where I had been sitting. And after half an hour, they let me go back in the house, and they continued the questioning and asking me about LULAC members, in particular. And I told them, “Why are you all doing this?” And he said, “Because there was fraud.”

AMY GOODMAN: LULAC is calling on the Justice Department to investigate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the raids. This comes as ProPublica and The Texas Tribune report Paxton has also used consumer protection law more than a dozen times to investigate a range mostly Latino-led organizations or groups who offer food and shelter to migrants and asylum seekers along the border. Paxton also tried to shut down the immigrant-led civil rights group FIEL in Houston, claiming it engaged in electioneering, but a judge recently shot down his effort.

All of this comes as prosecutors agreed in March to drop securities fraud charges against Paxton himself, that allowed him to avoid going to trial if he performed a hundred hours of community service. This is separate from more recent corruption allegations Paxton faced that led to his impeachment trial last year, in which he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate.

For more, we go to Houston, where we’re joined by Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, which is the Spanish acronym for Families of Immigrants and Students in the Struggle. And in Miami, Florida, we’re joined by Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights group in the United States.

Juan, let’s begin with you. Explain what happened last week in Texas.

JUAN PROAÑO: Well, good morning, Amy. Thank you for having me.

As you said, you know, last Tuesday, to our knowledge, over 12 search warrants were actually presented to Latino leaders, LULAC members in San Antonio. In the case of Lidia, as you just described, eight armed officers came in. But in another case, Manuel Medina, almost 40 officers, armed with AK-47s, SWAT gear, came in — tactical gear, came into his home at 6 a.m. His daughter was sleeping on the couch downstairs, thought someone was breaking into the home. He was upstairs with his wife and his other daughters. They came downstairs. And they were held, interrogated for over seven hours.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Juan Proaño, what does this tell you about the efforts of officials in Texas to intimidate Latino voters?

JUAN PROAÑO: Well, I mean, you know, it’s pervasive. You know, we’ve been, obviously, doing a lot of research here. And it didn’t start last week. You know, this investigation on election integrity started over two years ago, essentially, at this point, also referred by another Republican district attorney there with no evidence at all whatsoever.

In June, we saw that they sued the archdiocese of Rio Grande Valley, Sister Norma Pimentel, which provides migrants with services that are in this country legally. Then we saw last month with Annunciation House, which provides refugee services, as well, obviously with FIEL, too, and we also saw 12 other nonprofits that effectively have gone through the same search and seizure process.

At least what we’ve heard from the courts, that this is unconstitutional. Effectively, the tort law that he’s using to, essentially, sue nonprofit organizations because they’re providing — because they’re 501(c)(3) organizations and providing services to immigrants is really blatant discrimination.

You know, our expectation was that he would, obviously, come after LULAC and sue LULAC, but, certainly, we were very surprised when he started to go after Latino leaders and actual LULAC members. Of those 12 that we know of, four of them are LULAC members, three of them are women in their eighties. And they were told not to talk to anyone post the search and seizure. They took their cellphones. They took their computers. They took documentations. In the case of Lidia, they took her calendar, which is essentially where she keeps all her doctor’s appointments, personal contacts, information about her prescription medicine. And she had just been to the doctor the day before and had to go back in order to get that. And so, she was left without any communication device at all to communicate with her family, and had to literally leave her home, go to another LULAC member’s house to get assistance.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about the timing of this, Juan Proaño? For the first time in LULAC’s history, established in 1929, LULAC’s Adelante PAC, the political action committee, endorsed Harris and Walz, endorsed Kamala Harris to be president. Do you think that there is a direct link? And explain the different parts of your organization.

JUAN PROAÑO: Sure. And thank you, Amy, for that question. So, LULAC, to your point, was founded in 1929 in Corpus Christi. It was actually founded as a 501(c)(4) organization. That is the entity that everyone effectively knows and commonly refers to, essentially, as LULAC. We have over 535 councils around the country. Every single one of those councils is incorporated. They actually carry the LULAC name and seal. We have over 240,000 members in all 50 states, and we have actually those 535 councils in 33 states and 207 cities. So we are the largest Latino membership organization in the country.

In addition to that, we have a 501(c)(3), which is our LULAC National Institute. So, all of the programmatic work that we do to provide programs and services to the Latino community is actually done through our 501(c)(3). The 501(c)(3) is actually incorporated in the District of Columbia.

And then, more recently, we actually established the LULAC Adelante PAC. And so, it’s actually a super PAC. And actually it’s incorporated in District of Columbia.

You know, I don’t believe that it is actually connected specifically to the PAC, primarily because all of the lawsuits and, essentially, the pattern of lawsuits are primarily targeting nonprofit organizations, and specifically 501(c)(3) organizations. They also only have purview over corporations that are founded in the state of Texas. So, you know, Paxton cannot go after the LULAC National Institute, the 501(c)(3) or the LULAC Adelante PAC. But, you know, obviously, it was very close in time. I believe the date of the endorsement was August 9th or August 10th, so less than two weeks ago at this point.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Juan, I wanted to ask you about a separate matter also related to elections. On Monday, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, announced that the state has removed over 1 million names from the Texas voter rolls. Now, purges are common in many states, but that’s a big number, and it’s obviously coming so close to the election.

JUAN PROAÑO: Yeah. I mean, look, we actually saw that. It came out about 5:00. You know, we started our advocacy campaign on Thursday night. It literally took us two days to get information about Lidia’s case and to begin to gather all the facts relevant to this case.

Really, it is his form of deflection, right? It’s his effort to basically say, “Look, you know, we have a million people that are on our voter rolls that we effectively are removing.” I actually went through those numbers. Over 467,000 of them, essentially, are deceased, right? Another 400,000 or so are, effectively, what they call in the suspended mode, but only 6,500 of those are actually what are classified, effectively, as noncitizens. So you’re talking about .0065%. Less than 1% of those are actually noncitizens. And only 1,900, which is 1/1000th of a percent of that million, have actually any voting history at all whatsoever. But to say that there is systemic voter fraud and voter harvesting happening in the state of Texas is absolutely false.

AMY GOODMAN: Juan Proaño, in a minute, we want to ask about LULAC’s study of Project 2025. But we want to bring in Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL, Families of Immigrants and Students in the Struggle. Cesar, can you start off by talking about what happened in your new office, your old destroyed by a hurricane, about the serving of a lawsuit against you by the attorney general, who himself is under investigation and went through an impeachment trial, now is serving community service, but he’s also doing this?

CESAR ESPINOSA: Well, so, we, unfortunately, lost our office. FIEL has been here in Houston for the last 17 years. And in the 17 years, we helped out so many Houstonians, regardless of their immigration status, recover from natural disasters. So, just a few days after hurricane hit or a day after hurricane hit, Beryl hit — excuse me — I was talking to my family about the fact that I was ready to get back out there, ready to serve our community and serve people and help people get back on their feet.

Unfortunately, though, this was not the case. We were hit by two storms: number one, the actual physical storm of Beryl, and then, second, the first day we moved into our new building, we were served with a lawsuit by the state of Texas, which really took us off guard.

AMY GOODMAN: And what does this lawsuit say? What have you been sued for?

CESAR ESPINOSA: This lawsuit was stating that we were electioneering by a series of social media posts who were interpreted by the attorney general of Texas as advocating for a certain party or certain issues. But at the end of the day, our institution and our work is based on educating the community, empowering the community, and getting community members from all walks of life to be integrated fully into U.S. society.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the lawsuit was — Harris County Judge R.K. Sandill denied Paxton’s efforts? Could you talk about what the judge said?

CESAR ESPINOSA: Well, at the end of the day, the judge, Sandill, declared that the Attorney General Ken Paxton did not have standing in the case, that he was going too far. And at the end of the day, the case was dismissed. But this sends, really, alarms all over the state of Texas to many organizations who are trying to help our community and that they could be targeted, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what kind of support have you received across Texas as a result of this attack by the attorney general?

CESAR ESPINOSA: Well, we are really overwhelmed by the amount of community support that we’ve received, the amount of support online, a lot of people coming forward and saying that the attorney general has gone too far. You know, I always tell my wife never to read the comments in the articles or things like that, but I myself went in and read. And what I read and what I gathered from all the articles, all the — everything that was published, is the fact that people from all walks of life, from any side of the political spectrum, are feeling that this attorney general is going way too far.

And then, on the heels of this, we hear about what LULAC is going through. And it’s just one thing after another after another. Then they challenged the parole-in-place program. So, there’s so many things that they’re doing trying to disenfranchise, trying to disillusion Latinos from participating, that it’s really like we are swimming up — swimming against the current here in the state of Texas.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Juan Proaño, as we listen to what’s happened to Cesar Espinosa and you describe the raids on your members, including the home of an 87-year-old, 35-year volunteer of LULAC, can you talk about what you’re demanding of the Justice Department, a review of these Texas raids, and how Paxton’s actions fit into the changing politics and demographics of Texas?

JUAN PROAÑO: So, you know, first and foremost, we stand in solidarity with Cesar and FIEL. They are doing absolutely incredible work. And in regards to Lidia, not only is she 87 years old, Amy, she is a grandmother, she is a great-grandmother. Her five brothers actually served in the military. One of her brothers was killed in the Vietnam War and received the Silver Star. These are American U.S. citizens, right? And so, you know, for us, it really kind of sort of goes beyond the pale, in regards to what these actions are.

We have actually reached out to the Department of Justice. We have actually sent a letter requesting an investigation of these voter suppression tactics currently underway in Texas. We will continue to stand strong, and we are organizing our allies, both in the African American and the Latino community, as well. We’re going to stand, and we’re going to fight.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Juan Proaño, could you talk also about LULAC’s new report, “The Battle Ahead: Latino Civil Rights vs. Project 2025”?

JUAN PROAÑO: Sure, Juan. And I apologize. There was one part there that I didn’t answer for Amy, a little bit about the demographics. So, in the last U.S. Census report put out by the Census Bureau, they reported that 12.1 million Latinos in the state of Texas. For the first time — right? — and really for some time now, Latinos actually outnumber non-Hispanic whites, which is at 12 million, OK? So, when you take into account not just the Latino population in the state of Texas, but the African American and Asian population, and even if you factored in two races or more, the minority community in Texas now stands at over 60%. Texas is and has been a majority-minority state. And so, that large demographic shift that you are seeing, you know, is prevalent. And so, we see these, effectively, as tactics for the Republicans to actually stay in control of the government in Texas. The demographics are shifting. They’re not going to be able to change that anytime soon. And they are going to have to deal with that sooner than later.

In regards to Project 2025, LULAC actually published a couple weeks ago really the first and only report that I see that analyzed Project 2025 through a Latino lens. Obviously, it’s been very widely reported throughout. It was obviously very prevalent in the Democratic National Convention’s platform. In Chicago, we were there to listen to Vice President Harris and Walz actually speak to that.

You know, I was very concerned, shocked, when I was watching the Republican National Convention on that Tuesday and they came out with “mass deportation” signs. You know, somebody thought about that. Somebody designed those signs. They ordered them. They printed them. They passed them out to thousands of people in that convention center.

That’s only one part of what is in Project 2025. You know, they’re talking about, effectively, programs which effectively are for unserved communities, of gutting that, the Department of Education, as well, limiting different types of visas which allow for pathways for citizenship into this country. It is systemic all the way through. It would impact not only Latino communities but other immigrant and minority communities across the country. And not just minority communities, it would impact a significant number of non-Hispanic whites, because it really cuts across socioeconomic factors, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you both so much for being with us. Juan Proaño is CEO of LULAC. He was speaking to us from Miami, Florida. And Cesar Espinosa is executive director of FIEL in Houston, Families of Immigrants and Students in the Struggle. You can see all of our segments on the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and immigration and Project 2025 at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!

Now for the idiot Carville:

Author, actor, and political consultant James Carville warned his fellow Democrats that the polls may be over-projecting Kamala Harris‘s lead on Donald Trump.

Knewz.com has learned that this is not the first time the sentiment has been expressed and that Carville, like Harris’s inner circle, believes that she may have to work harder at winning the Electoral College.

One of the key reasons for his belief is that the former president has been historically under-represented by the polls—as seen in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

First? Cameos as yourself isn't really acting so let's lose the "actor" credit.

Second, while we shouldn't take anything for granted, it wasn't Carville who spent months and months ahead of the 2016 election explaining the polling and how it could be wrong and probably was. No, that was the work we did here. Do they even do research and methodology courses anymore?

We explained here that the polling was probably off. And we explained why.

Those reasons are gone in 2024.

Trump supporters, as we noted, were less than forthcoming. Why? They had made supporting Trump -- the media -- a bad thing. I did not invent my interpretation here. Anyone who studied polling -- especially political polling should have known (maybe they didn't want to say) that when there are values imposed upon answers, you're not likely to get honest responses.

Now I'm not in the mood to spend a great deal of time on this all these years later. But I think we can all agree that the MAGA crowd is not a crowd who can be embarrassed anymore. They're proud racists, proud bullies, proud lovers of Donald.

So I don't think we're going to see that issue -- Trump supporters being under-represented by their own statements -- this round.

Is the polling off on Kamala, it could be. I am only looking at raw data from the DNC and advising on what groups I'm speaking to and what areas the DNC should be emphasizing. And I haven't done that -- to this level -- in years.

But James Carville, as usual, has arrived eight years late.

Maybe all that time pursuing his 'acting' career has taken up too much time?

Gaza remains under assault. Day 325 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,602 killed, with 93,855 wounded." Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." Months ago, United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

THE NATIONAL's Sunniva Rose reports this morning:

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday that Israeli cabinet members are spreading “unacceptable hate messages against Palestinians”.

Mr Borrell described their actions as “incitation to commit war crimes”, as he arrived for arrived for an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

He did not give names of the Israeli cabinet ministers he was referring to, but has in the past criticised Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Mr Borrell said he would call for sanctions against the ministers but that it was up to the EU's 27 member states to decide whether they all supported such a measure – which is unlikely.

Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib said that “Belgium supports more sanctions against leaders of terrorist organisations such as Hamas and violent settlers”.

Her Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom, said there was a “growing problem” of extremist settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

“We’d also like to talk about listing more extremist settlers,” he said.

Last night, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Jill FrankenStein" and "Miss Sassy Will Not Be Denied or Upstaged" went up. The following sites updated:

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Delicious Tuna Salad in the Kitchen

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Jill FrankenStein" went up about an hour ago. It's hilarious and too the point. And Jill is a fake ass. I'm voting for Kamala.

Rita e-mailed to note a tuna recipe.

It's an easy recipe, you're just combining:

Tuna packed in Water
Mayonnaise
Eggs
Sweet Salad Cubes
Celery Seeds
Salt
Pepper
Sugar

News? Charlie Nash (Mediaite) notes:

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers hit back at CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings on Tuesday after Jennings called Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign “the most manufactured” campaign in history.

During a panel discussion about the criticism Harris has received for granting her first interview nearly 40 days after the launch of her presidential campaign, Sellers argued: “The American public does not want to hear us saying that, ‘Oh my gosh, she should do an interview on day 10 or day 12, or it should be with this person or that person.’ It’s organic. The entire Kamala Harris campaign has been organic.”

Jennings then interrupted: “What?! Organic?! This is the literal most manufactured presidential campaign ever. She didn’t even run! It’s the opposite of organic.”

Sellers shot back: “Can I ask you one question? You’ve been a part of a lot of campaigns, right? A ton of campaigns. How many campaigns in your manufacturing have you been able to manufacture 400,000 volunteers or $540 million? Or how about this, 4% of the electorate, 4% of the entire electorate in the state of Georgia has volunteered for Kamala Harris.”

I'd agree with Sellers, it is organic. As I've noted before I supported Rev. Jesse Jackson's two runs for president. I do see a direct line between Kamala and Jesse. Voting for Kamala is a continuation of Jesse's beliefs, campaigns and the Rainbow Coalition that has a place in it for everyone. Applause to him for doing the heavy lifting in the 80s. I would encourage you to read Marcia's "I'm supporting Kamala -- and noting the non-Blacks on the left who aren't" and encourage you to question when racism and/or sexism is used to attack Kamala. We should be long beyond that but, sadly, we are not.

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

Wednesday, August 28, 2024. Voter suppression and intimidation is taking place in Texas and we should all be calling it out but most left sites and YOUTUBERS aren't even noting it, Mark Zuckerberg lies again, Gaza supporters need to take a look at themselves because a number of you are hurting your cause.

Starting with the efforts of the GOP to Rig The Vote in 2024. Ken Paxton is the Attorney General of Texas. He has launched a series of raids targeting Latinos for being . . . pillars of the community. These are solid citizens who do more than is required. They give back to the community through unpaid public service such as voter registration. At a time when Democratic Party presidential nominee is polling very well in Texas as is Senatorial candidate Colin Allred (also a Democrat), the Republican Paxton sends armed officers to search and rummage through the homes of Latinos in what appears to be an attempt at armed intimidation.

Nicholas Liu (SALON) explains:

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), one of the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organizations, is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a series of raids ordered by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that have targeted Latino voting activists and political operatives, The New York Times reported.

Paxton, a Republican who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, ordered the raids be carried out as part of a larger inquiry against alleged voter fraud. In a statement last week, he said that the raids were part of an “ongoing election integrity investigation” into allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting, a specter raised by former President Donald Trump as an excuse for his 2020 loss.

Republican officials, following Trump's cues, have sought to pass restrictive election laws and purge voter rolls, despite experts noting that voter fraud is exceptionally rare.

But LULAC and other civil rights organizations and activists said that the raids disproportionately targeted Democratic leaders and volunteers, suggesting that they are meant not to uncover actual fraud but to suppress Latino voters.

Officers conducting the raids seized cellphones, computers and documents from people's homes, including the cellphone of Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running against former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin for a state House seat. Castellano told the Times that the raid on her home last Tuesday was "very frightening" and she did not know why she was targeted. “This is all political,” she said.

Another raid brought officers to the home of Manuel Medina, a consultant for Castellano and the chair of Tejano Democrats, a group that advocates for greater Latino representation in the Democratic Party. “I have been contacted by elderly residents who are confused and frightened, wondering why they have been singled out,” Rosales told the Times. “It’s pure intimidation.”

And it's outrageous. Fin Gómez and Nidia Cavazos (CBS NEWS) add:

In a letter first obtained by CBS News, LULAC requested that the Justice Department investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. The organization is accusing Paxton's office of carrying out illegal searches premised on voter fraud.

[. . .]

"Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members," Juan Proaño, LULAC's CEO told CBS News, calling the state AG's effort "point-blank" voter intimidation. "It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting."

Proaño said one of those targeted was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old who lives in San Antonio. Martinez has been a LULAC member for over 35 years and works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas.

She said that last Tuesday, there was a knock on her door in the morning, and she was greeted by nine officers in tactical gear and firearms who said they were executing a search warrant. Martinez was questioned for over three hours about her voter registration efforts in Texas.

Law enforcement seized Martinez's phone, computer, personal calendar, blank voter registration forms and her certificate to conduct voter registration, according to Martinez.

"This is a free country, this is not Russia," Martinez said Monday during a press conference denouncing the raid.

Kristin Dean and Zack Briggs (KENS) also cover the press conference:

Lidia Martinez, a volunteer and great-grandmother in her 80s, was woken up in the early morning hours on Tuesday. She said nine law enforcement agents searched her home and questioned her for hours.

"After two hours of questioning, they took me outside in front of all of my neighbors for half an hour while they searched the living room where I had been sitting. They continued to question me, asking about LULAC members," Martinez said. "I said, 'what do you want from me? I am an old lady, all I do is help the seniors."

Martinez said she's been politically engaged since she was a little girl growing up in San Antonio. She never imagined to be trapped in such activity.

“I said I feel like I’m in Russia," Martinez said. “I asked them why they were there and they said because of voter fraud. And I said I’m not guilty of that.”

Hogan Gore (AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN via USA TODAY) notes:

Paxton, who has vowed to investigate "every credible report we receive" pertaining to criminal activity tied to elections, argued that citizens have the ability to register to vote when renewing or registering for a driver's license with the DPS, "so there is no obvious need to assist citizens to register to vote outside DPS offices — calling into question the motives of the nonprofit groups."

When you can't win the votes, you seek to suppress turnout. Ken Paxton is a crook. And he's working with Governor Greg Asshole to destroy turnout in Texas. The above is one way. Another? Juan Salinas II and Natalia Contreras (TEXAS TRIBUNE and VOTEBEAT) report:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday that the state has removed roughly a million people from its voter rolls since he signed a legislative overhaul of election laws in 2021.

“Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting,” he said.

However, election experts point out that both federal and state law already required voter roll maintenance, and the governor’s framing of this routine process as a protection against illegal voting could be used to undermine trust in elections. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 already governs how states should keep their registration rolls accurate and up-to-date, and also includes protections to avoid the inadvertent removal of properly registered voters.

“Year after year, people are taken off the voting rolls for all manner of innocuous reasons,” said Sarah Xiyi Chen, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project.

[. . .]

In 2019, Texas officials flagged 95,000 voters whom they identified as “noncitizens” and accused broadly of voter fraud. After review, it turned out that many of the people identified on the rolls were naturalized citizens. The scandal resulted in the secretary of state resigning. The state abandoned the effort after numerous lawsuits, which resulted in the state setting new guidelines for future voter roll clean-ups.

ACLU of Texas attorney Ashley Harris points to the 2019 incident as an example of the state's lack of transparency about how it collects this data.

In addition, we should point out that there is no national law or Texas law that states you have to register at the DMV. Though Greg Asshole and Crooked Ken Paxton would never give credit where it's due, it is because of then-President Bill Clinton and Rock The Vote that people can register at the DMV across the country:

Signed into law on May 20, 1993, by President Bill Clinton, the National Voter Registration Act opens a new window, also known as the NVRA opens a new window, revolutionized voter registration across the country establishing voter registration requirements and policies to facilitate those requirements. The NVRA required each state to:

It is because of the NVRA that eligible voters can register to vote at their state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) earning the law the nickname “Motor Voter”.

It is also why eligible voters who submit an application by their state’s deadlines can vote in the upcoming election because it required states to process applications in a timely manner. The passage of the NVRA made registering to vote more accessible.

Why is making voter registration more accessible important?

Voter registration is the first barrier to voting. Even with the NVRA and policies like online and automatic voter registrations in some states, approximately 25% of eligible voters remain unregistered to vote, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. The registration gap is greatest among young people, particularly young people of color, young Natives, young people with disabilities and young people from low-income backgrounds. Every year, millions of eligible voters find themselves unable to vote because they miss a registration deadline, do not update their registration, or are unsure how to register.

How did Rock the Vote contribute to the passage of the NVRA?

In the early 1990s, Rock the Vote launched a major national campaign to support the passage of the NVRA. We partnered with the Recording Industry Association of American, MTV, Rolling Stone, major artists and actors of the era, and elected leaders to record and broadcast PSAs, testify at Congressional hearings opens a new window, and conduct public media interviews.

The whole point was to make it easier for people to vote by making registration easier. That's why at any county fair in the fall you will find a table set up for voter registration. We say we want more voter participation but the actions of the GOP make clear that they do not want greater participation. That's probably due to the fact that the statistical model shows that greater turnout tends to mean Democratic Party victories.

This is a major story. I didn't want to write about it. Because I'm not there, I didn't know the whole story and I'm tired and didn't want to learn. So when I learned of it Monday night, I thought, "Okay, I'll grab coverage. There will be in depth coverage from DEMOCRACY NOW! and from IN THESE TIMES and from . . ." And there's really nothing.

What Paxton is doing is outrageous. He's abusing his governmental power to order raids on citizens' homes in an effort to scare them off of voting and voting registration. This should land him in hot water.

But apparently our left can't see beyond Gaza. Yeah, I went there. Because I'm out there talking to groups of people and I'm hearing over and over the same message of anger and frustration that a US election can't be addressed with US issues but instead needs to be framed in Gaza.

I warned over a month ago that if you want to help the Palestinians you better pay attention to your presentations. But too many aren't. That's true on YOUTUBE and it's true in our left media.

We'll come back to it.

Paxton's a liar, a crook and an idiot. He reads closeted and self-loathing gay man so if that emerges, I wouldn't be at all surprised. But what's already emerged is scary enough:

Paxton was indicted in 2015 on state securities fraud charges relating to activities prior to taking office; he has pleaded not guilty. The case was delayed over various procedural issues, but in October 2023 his trial was scheduled for April 2024.^[12]^[13]^[14] In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office accused him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes."^[15]^[16] Paxton was impeached with bipartisan approval in May 2023 by the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives by a vote of 121–23, leading to his suspension.^[17] The articles of impeachment included allegations that Paxton gave preferential treatment to a political donor who bribed him, misapplied public resources and made false statements against whistleblowers, obstructed justice in the securities fraud trial against him, and made false statements regarding his financial interests.^[21] In September 2023, the Texas Senate voted to acquit Paxton of all articles of impeachment, ending his suspension from office.^[22]^[23] Paxton is separately being investigated by federal prosecutors for the same legal issues on coinciding federal statutes.^[24]

We could go into all of his raging homophobia but, again, he reads gay and he especially reads bottom with humiliation kink. I'm not interested in helping him get off.

Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

Paxton himself has little, if any, credibility for any of the allegations he makes. He has piggybacked on the right-wing anti-trans panic by calling gender-affirming health care “child abuse.” His raids against Texas Democrats follow punitive measures even against Republican critics. And then there’s the fact that his own party tried to impeach him last year. If anything, Paxton taking up the “Democrats are getting noncitizens to vote” myth gives it even less credibility.

Credit to THE NEW REPUBLIC for being one of the few left outlets that grasped how important this is. From liar Paxton to another, Mark Zuckerberg. META's anti-Christ is back in the news and see if you can spot the lie:

Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets that Meta bowed to Biden administration pressure to censor content, saying in a letter that the interference was "wrong" and he plans to push back if it happens again.

Meta's CEO aired his grievances in a letter Monday to the House Judiciary Committee in response to its investigation into content moderation on online platforms. Zuckerberg detailed how senior administration officials leaned on the company to censor certain posts about Covid-19, including humor and satire, and “expressed a lot of frustration” when the social media platform resisted.

FACEBOOK started as garbage. Sorry, I never had a FACEBOOK account. But you do see the lie don't you?

Ruth posted "There are numbers and then there are the fake numbers in Trump's crazy head" last night. Convicted Felon Donald Trump -- a worm apparently eating what was left of his brain -- was raving like a nut that in 2020 Joe Biden's White House was having him censored. Joe wasn't in the White House. Donald was.

So before you back up the liar Mark Zuckerberg, maybe revisit Kurt Wagner's March 30, 2020 report for BLOOMBERG NEWS entitled "Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Remove Posts From Bolsonaro" which opened:

Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google’s YouTube have all removed posts shared by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for including coronavirus misinformation that violates the social media companies’ rules against posting harmful content.

So FACEBOOK was censoring post on COVID in March 2020. Per Mark's testimony -- if you believe the liar -- that's due to the White House. Again, Joe Biden wasn't president in 2020. He's sworn in January of the following year.

Facts is hard for garbage like Zuckerberg. He wanted to endorse Donald a few months back but he was told it would be bad for the shares in the company -- so he claimed he wasn't endorsing despite calling Donald "bad ass." This is his way of endorsing him: Lying to Congress that FACEBOOK only censored COVID posts due to Joe Biden's White House.

Lie.

Liar.

Trash.

I can do this all day long. Want to drop back to February of 2021 (when Joe was president) and Michael Gryboski (CHRISTIAN POST) noted this:

In 2019, before the pandemic began, Facebook announced that they were looking to reduce the influence of anti-vaccination posts on their social media platform.

“We will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search. These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search,” stated Facebook at the time.

“When we find ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, we will reject them. We also removed related targeting options, like ‘vaccine controversies.’ For ad accounts that continue to violate our policies, we may take further action, such as disabling the ad account.”

Again, Joe was president in 2021. However, he wasn't president in 2019. That was Donald Trump. So if Zuckerberg was having his arm twisted to censor by a White House, in 2019 that would have been Donald.

April 17, 2020, Scott Bicheno (TELECOMS) reported:

Under mounting pressure to counter misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook is increasingly dictating what its users should see and think.

Facebook already downgrades any posts it doesn’t like the look of regarding the virus, but it’s apparently concerned that some of its users might still interact with the wrong content. It’s not Facebook users’ fault, you see, they’re just hapless plebs with not critical faculties of their own. Thankfully Facebook is on the case.

The social media giant’s VP of Integrity (an Orwellian job title if there ever was one), Guy Rosen, recently provided An Update on Our Work to Keep People Informed and Limit Misinformation About COVID-19. “We’re going to start showing messages in News Feed to people who have liked, reacted or commented on harmful misinformation about COVID-19 that we have since removed,” said Rosen.

Again, that would be when Donald Trump was president.

Legal idiot Jonathan Turley felt the need to Tweet:

Fox posted my column on Mark Zuckerberg's admission that Facebook did censor Americans under pressure from the Administration. He wants people to know that they are really regret now their role. It is the feigned regret that comes with forced exposure...

No, you fool, the censorship began under Donald -- as we took the time to document above. Jonathan, you're a damn liar and a bigger disgrace and disappointment than even Robert Kennedy Junior. Matt Taibbi and Glynneth Greenwald are equally stupid.

Deliver us from the idiots, please.

Again, Zuckerberg made statements that are being spun as truth but it is public record that the censorship began long before Joe was president.

I know Jonathan, Glynneth, Matt and FOX "NEWS" love to spin and lie. But facts are facts.

Philip Bump (WASHINGTON POST) offers this take on Zuckerberg's nonsense claims:

The actions of technology companies became a centerpiece of right-wing criticism, without a countervailing defense in the public conversation from the left. It is probably not surprising, then, that on Monday Zuckerberg responded to a request from the hard-right-Republican-led House Judiciary Committee with a letter broadly ceding the debate.

In his letter, Zuckerberg addressed three issues: Facebook’s approach to covid misinformation, the decision to limit sharing of the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop and the foundation’s contributions to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) aimed at backstopping resources for elections administrators.

On the first point, Zuckerberg criticized the Biden administration for its efforts to get Facebook to address coronavirus misinformation — a political win for his Republican critics.

“Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,” he wrote. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

The line between what Zuckerberg describes as “pressure” and that the decisions were ultimately Meta’s will be blurred. What’s more, the Supreme Court recently rejected the idea that the administration had crossed an unacceptable line. But this is almost exactly what Republicans wanted him to say.

[. . .]

It’s ironic: To alleviate pressure he’s felt from government actors, Zuckerberg once again sought to give them what they want.

At THE NATION, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Jennifer Taylor-Skinner write:

Black women have long understood the assignment in organizing for a cause, especially when the stakes are high. And we’ve always ensured that movements are a multigenerational and multiethnic effort; collective organizing is our superpower, especially when we are outnumbered and outspent.

Which is why as the unsung heroes of the Democratic Party, Black women didn’t miss the opportunity to showcase our fortitude and influence in Chicago last week. After all, Black women not only set the stage for Kamala Harris’s rise; the policies we have long pushed for are now an integral part of the national conversation.

When rumors first swirled about who would replace President Biden if he stepped down, Black women, who have consistently voted for Democrats, warned leadership within the party to not pass over Kamala Harris. Fast forward to July 21 and Biden immediately followed his announcement that he was dropping out of the race with an endorsement for the vice president. Within 12 hours of that announcement, Win with Black Women (WWBW), an intergenerational network of Black women leaders in the United States, kickstarted a new model for digital organizing for the newly announced Harris campaign. With more than 40,000 attendees present at its weekly meeting, WWBW not only changed the meeting capacity limits of Zoom; it also set off a cascade of fundraising calls across the nation among other affinity groups. To date, other groups that have organized around the campaign include White Women for Harris, White Dudes for Harris, Republicans for Harris, and Latinas for Harris—all groups critical for the Democrats to win up and down the ballot in November. In just one month, the Harris-Walz campaign raised a record-breaking $500 million, demonstrating the level of excitement and joy swirling around the vice president.

The enthusiasm has only become more infectious in the past two weeks. After Harris announced her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, both have continued to build momentum and electrify audiences across the country. Their big test as a joint ticket was the Democratic National Convention—a natural crescendo on their journey to November and another opportunity for Black women to show up and show out for Kamala Harris.

Supposedly, Black women are valued on the left. Supposedly. Racism and sexism aren't supposed to exist on the left. But they do. And whether its a student group, a woman's group or an elderly group that I'm speaking with -- and I'm doing a minimum of six groups a day (that extends into the evening) every day and will be doing that up until the day before the election, I'm hearing over and over the reality: That a very vocal part of the left wants to steal people's joy.

Those old enough to remember Barack Obama's two runs for the presidency point at how the left rallied around Barack. They include the whore Jill Stein in that. She never called out Barack and when he was on the ropes in 2012, she immediately attacked Mitt Romney. Today, she attacks Kamala Harris non-stop.

People are excited by Kamala and by what a Kamala presidency could mean.

And Americans are getting damn sick of everything needed to run through the Gaza Purity Filter.

You're overplaying your hand and you're pissing off the people you're going to need after the election regardless of the outcome.

You've become a group of spoiled brats because you're highly uneducated and fail to grasp that not everyone's as ignorant as you.

The country does not need another YOUTUBE video on the 'poor' -- ugly faced -- state official who is Palestinian-American that was 'denied' from the DNC stage.

You're really stupid for pimping that to begin with.

Reality, you don't wait until weeks before a convention to push for someone to speak.

And if you're going to push for someone to speak, they are either a rising star or an established one. Otherwise, they're not getting on the stage. Barack got on the stage in 2004 because he was a rising political star.

He also got on because he was a man.

Or do you idiots not know the story as you pimp for Polly Palestinian to be on the stage?

Hillary Clinton spoke at the 2004 convention. She was a US senator. She was the party's biggest fundraiser. And in December of **2003**, it was announced she wouldn't be speaking.

Why?

Because she was a woman. Let's not play around. We don't have the time. She was a nationally known figure, she brought in tons of donations and she wasn't going to be allowed on stage. So the push began. And the DNC after a bit said she could introduce her husband. And the push continued and Hillary became an official speaker.

That took months and months of pressure.

And, again, Hillary was a political star. She brought in the donations. She was in the US Senate, she was nationally known.

And you crazies thought you could wait until a few weeks before the convention to start tossing out names. And then you thought that less than two weeks of work on this political nobody was going to get her and your pet issue on the national stage at the DNC?

You're ignorant beyond belief.

In "Media: They don't know any better" on Sunday, Ava and I touched on this.

One e-mail Ty passed along had a good question: "So are you saying people shouldn't dream?"

No, that's not our intent and my apologies if it came off that way to anyone.

We can't create a better world without dreams.

But you need to know what's possible to expand past that. And you need to grasp that most change is incremental. If people knew just the 2004 story regarding Hillary, they would have known how difficult it was going to be to get anyone up on that stage. They could have then shifted to someone nationally known -- didn't have to be a politician -- and spend a couple of months advocating and making the case. The DNC's dates didn't change. The nominee did.

The assault on Gaza didn't start in June.

These are things that should have been aware and working on for months.

And there is growing sense of outrage over the attacks on Kamala Harris.

It's not what we've seen before. And it's even worse than it was for Joe Biden.

And maybe you're so gleeful in your attacks that you don't realize that your attacks are coming off sexist and racist.

Marcia always lets it hang out at her site. I'd suggest people read her "I'm supporting Kamala -- and noting the non-Blacks on the left who aren't." Marcia's a lesbian and she didn't let the homophobia of some Gaza commentators stop her from supporting the Palestinian people.

But now she's supposed to ignore her country's needs, her own needs and just vote based on what some zealot for Gaza says?

As she points out, she's a woman, she's Black and she's a lesbian. She's the first one Donald and Project 2025 are going after. And where is that understanding or recognition in Katie Halper's garbage or any of the rest of the crap ass YOUTUBERS?

The crap ass set all broadcasts as though they're straight White men and only understand straight White men.

Maybe that's why you don't get how much damage you're doing.

Marcia's an out and proud lesbian and she didn't let the homophobia of a lot of Gaza supporters stop her from calling out the genocide.

But as she votes to protect her wife, her marriage, her family, these jerks aren't going to support her?

Again, you're destroying your cause.

You're attacking Kamala but you're destroying chances for Palestinians.

This was a once in a lifetime moment. For the first time in large numbers, Americans got what the Palestinians went through. And that was something to build upon. Instead, you're destroying support and, honestly, this has gone on so long that the average person was already looking for a reason to check out on it. Fatigue had set in.

But apparently no one told you -- either they were too lazy to or they preferred you ignorant.

I had hoped to cover Gaza (despite e-mails to the public account, the attack you're speaking of in your e-mails did not take place in Gaza -- and Gaza supporters, there's something you can work on -- educating people that the West Bank is not in Gaza) and to cover James Carville's latest (greatest?) stupidity as well as Iraq. We'll try to pick those up tomorrow. But voter suppression and the refusal to note the very real differences between Kamala Harris and Donald are stories that are not getting covered in the US left media..

The following sites updated: