Zorro
Zorro's JournalAt Protests, Guns Are Doing the Talking
Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate.Across the country, openly carrying a gun in public is no longer just an exercise in self-defense — increasingly it is a soapbox for elevating one’s voice and, just as often, quieting someone else’s.
This month, armed protesters appeared outside an elections center in Phoenix, hurling baseless accusations that the election for governor had been stolen from the Republican, Kari Lake. In October, Proud Boys with guns joined a rally in Nashville where conservative lawmakers spoke against transgender medical treatments for minors.
In June, armed demonstrations around the United States amounted to nearly one a day. A group led by a former Republican state legislator protested a gay pride event in a public park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Men with guns interrupted a Juneteenth festival in Franklin, Tenn., handing out fliers claiming that white people were being replaced. Among the others were rallies in support of gun rights in Delaware and abortion rights in Georgia.
Whether at the local library, in a park or on Main Street, most of these incidents happen where Republicans have fought to expand the ability to bear arms in public, a movement bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling on the right to carry firearms outside the home. The loosening of limits has occurred as violent political rhetoric rises and the police in some places fear bloodshed among an armed populace on a hair trigger.
https://tinyurl.com/bdcn25aw
Democrats Are Ready for GOP to Make Hunter Biden the New Benghazi
Unlike the last time when Republicans used bogus hearings to smear a Democratic presidential candidate, Dems are prepared to punch back.It’s not Hunter Biden’s scalp they want. Rather, the House GOP caucus is poised to launch a two-year crusade to tarnish President Joe Biden’s character—and lower his poll numbers—just like they did with Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi hearings prior to her 2016 candidacy.
But things are different this time around—Democrats aren’t going to assume that voters can see through the partisan bluster, and are mounting a war room operation outside the White House. The Congressional Integrity Project (a pointed moniker, to be sure) will try to fend off the Republican barrage, and go on the offensive in the information war.
The existence of the newly revamped group, first reported by Politico, is an effort to mount a 21st-century war room with a response team that can “expose the political intentions behind the investigations targeting the White House,” says Leslie Dach, a senior adviser to the CIP, who is working with founder Kyle Herrig and longtime political activist Brad Woodhouse. All three have deep Democratic Party ties.
“This is a battle over narratives, and we believe we can win that war,” says Dach. “They’re (the GOP) saying it in plain English, they’re trying to hurt Joe Biden. It’s the Trump playbook of personal attacks.”
The group is funded by independent donors and foundations, and as a C-4 designated group, it does not disclose its donors. While independent of the White House, it is in close touch with Biden aides.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-are-ready-for-gop-to-make-hunter-biden-the-new-benghazi
Real Estate Tycoon Exposed as 'Boogeyman of Porn'
Mark Handel was a politically connected L.A. property developer but what few knew was he was also moonlighting as Khan Tusion—one of the most notorious figures in hardcore porn.Los Angeles-area real estate magnate Mark Handel was once able to get state legislation specially drafted to suit his developments, persuade the city council to give his projects an interest-free six-figure loan, and to cultivate ties with men who would later represent the region in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
But according to materials from a forthcoming documentary—which The Daily Beast corroborated through public records research and conversations with San Fernando Valley insiders—Handel, now facing federal fraud and money-laundering charges, maintained a parallel career as one of the most notorious and misogynistic figures in hardcore porn: Khan Tusion.
One of the directors behind the new film revealed to The Daily Beast that he first heard about Handel’s infamous alter ego while working on a movie based on a 2010 murder in the adult industry.
“People would mention this guy ‘Khan Tusion’—they would call him the ‘boogeyman of porn,’ ‘the Freddie Krueger of porn’,” said Lucas Heyne, whose prior film Mope premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. “He was known for being one of the most verbally abusive and physically abusive porn directors that’s ever existed.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/los-angeles-real-estate-tycoon-mark-handel-exposed-as-boogeyman-of-porn-khan-tusion
This is a really ugly story. Not for the squeamish.
Mars rover digs up intriguing clues in the hunt for life beyond Earth
The Perseverance mission has collected samples that hold life-friendly molecules ‘in pretty much every rock’On the floor of a shallow crater on Mars, the NASA rover Perseverance has hit what scientists are hoping is pay dirt. Martian rocks excavated by the rover show signs of a watery past and are loaded with the kind of organic molecules that are the foundation for life as we know it.
Scientists collaborating on the mission also say the rock samples, which the rover has cached in tubes for a future return to Earth, have the right chemical recipe to preserve evidence of ancient Martian life, if it ever existed.
The new Perseverance research is detailed in three extensive studies published Wednesday, one in the journal Science and two in the journal Science Advances. The journal reports are highly technical and devoid of hype — daring to be dull as dirt — but the scientists involved translate them into a more exciting tale.
“It’s amazing. In pretty much every rock we’re finding organics,” said Abigail Allwood, a geologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which operates the rover and the broader Mars Sample Return mission.
https://wapo.st/3VqxCXS
Marijuana Majority
Americans support marijuana legalization, but many of their political leaders do not.A decade ago, no American lived in a state where marijuana was legal to smoke, vape or eat recreationally. Today, nearly half of Americans do or will soon: Voters approved legalization ballot measures this month in Maryland and Missouri, bringing the number of states allowing any adult use to 21.
Legalization may not make major news often anymore, but it’s a big deal. It amounts to America’s largest change to its drug policy in decades. By aligning marijuana with alcohol and tobacco, rather than harder drugs, the policy change is giving birth to a new industry. And, over time, it could reduce the hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests made in the U.S. every year, freeing up police resources.
The change came about largely because of the support of voters, not politicians or lawmakers. While the public backs legalization, some prominent political leaders do not: President Biden has said he’s opposed. Donald Trump has characterized legalization as an issue for states to decide, but his 2020 presidential campaign said marijuana should remain illegal.
Voter support
A key reason for marijuana legalization’s success: It’s popular. About 68 percent of adults in the U.S. support legalization, a Gallup survey found last week. Even a majority of Republicans, who are typically more conservative on the issue, have told Gallup that they support legalization.
https://tinyurl.com/52p8en3r
Lindsey Graham testifies before Georgia grand jury in election probe
Source: Washington Post
After months of failed legal challenges, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) appeared Tuesday before a special grand jury investigating efforts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, the latest high-profile witness in a probe that is believed to be nearing conclusion.
A sheriff said that Graham entered Fulton County Courthouse around 8 a.m to appear before the grand jury, which is hearing testimony in private. Kevin D. Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, later said in a statement the senator testified for “just over two hours and answered all questions.”
"The senator feels he was treated with respect, professionalism and courtesy. Out of respect for the grand jury process, he will not comment on the substance of the questions,” Bishop said.
A spokesman for the Fulton County district attorney’s office, which is leading the investigation, did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/22/lindsey-graham-georgia-grand-jury/
Answered all questions. "I don't remember." "I can't recall." "It slips my memory." "I'm not sure."
Toddler Demands Full Investigation Into Why That Man Has No Hair
KAYSVILLE, UT—Calling on parental authorities to provide him with answers immediately, local toddler Elijah Schmitz demanded a full investigation Monday into why that man over there had no hair.
“What happened to that man’s head?” said the 2-year-old Schmitz, who was dogged in his pursuit to get to the bottom of whatever was wrong with the bald stranger sitting at the adjacent table, pulling no punches as he interrogated all witnesses at the scene, including the restaurant server.
“That man looks weird. Look, over there. That man right there. Where is all his hair? What happened to it, Mom? I want to touch that weird man’s head.”
At press time, the investigation had reportedly closed after Schmitz’s parents gently explained to their son that God was punishing the man.
https://www.theonion.com/toddler-demands-full-investigation-into-why-that-man-ha-1849797000
Where Republicans come from.
The Struggle to Unearth the World's First Author
Decades ago, archeologists discovered the work of Enheduanna, an ancient priestess who seemed to alter the story of literature. Why hasn’t her claim been affirmed?Around forty-three hundred years ago, in a region that we now call Iraq, a sculptor chiselled into a white limestone disk the image of a woman presiding over a temple ritual. She wears a long ceremonial robe and a headdress. There are two male attendants behind her, and one in front, pouring a libation on an altar. On the back of the disk, an inscription identifies her as Enheduanna, a high priestess and the daughter of King Sargon.
Some scholars believe that the priestess was also the world’s first recorded author. A clay tablet preserves the words of a long narrative poem: “I took up my place in the sanctuary dwelling, / I was high priestess, I, Enheduanna.” In Sumer, the ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia where writing originated, texts were anonymous. If Enheduanna wrote those words, then she marks the beginning of authorship, the beginning of rhetoric, even the beginning of autobiography. To put her precedence in perspective, she lived fifteen hundred years before Homer, seventeen hundred years before Sappho, and two thousand years before Aristotle, who is traditionally credited as the father of the rhetorical tradition.
The poem, written in the wedge-shaped impressions of cuneiform, describes a period of crisis in the priestess’s life. Enheduanna’s father, Sargon, united Mesopotamia’s city-states to create what is sometimes called history’s first empire. His domain stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing modern-day Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, including more than sixty-five cities, each with its own religious traditions, administrative system, and local identity. Although Sargon ruled from Akkad, in the north, he appointed his daughter high priestess at the temple of the moon god in the southern city of Ur. The position, though outwardly religious, was in practice political, helping to unify disparate parts of the empire. After Sargon’s death, the kingdom was torn by rebellion; the throne went briefly to Enheduanna’s brothers, and then to her nephew. In the poem, a usurper named Lugalanne—a military general who possibly led an uprising in Ur—drives Enheduanna from her place at the temple.
“He has turned that temple into a house of ill repute./ Forcing his way in as if he were an equal, he dared approach me in his lust!” Enheduanna says. Cast out of the city, she wanders the wilderness. “He made me walk a land of thorns. / He took away the noble diadem of my holy office, / He gave me a dagger: ‘This is just right for you,’ he said.” The full significance of the usurper’s crime is lost in a literal translation, but the language suggests sexual violation. (The verbs, one translator has noted, are the same ones used elsewhere to convey sexual advances.) It also suggests an incitement to suicide. Giving her a dagger, Lugalanne encourages her to kill herself. “This is just right for you.”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-struggle-to-unearth-the-worlds-first-author
Fascinating article for those who may be interested in Sumerian archeology.
Kari Lake Claims Her Voters Were Disenfranchised. Her Voters Tell a Different Story.
When he stepped inside a Phoenix polling place on the morning of Election Day on the way to work, Kevin Bembry was told that the tabulation machines were not functioning properly and he might want to vote somewhere else.
“I’ve never had that happen before,” Bembry, 57, a security officer, said in a video later posted online.
His testimony was one of many circulated on social media by activist groups, right-wing media outlets and Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, whose campaign posted Bembry’s video along with several others on Thursday.
Lake has vowed to keep fighting the election after her race was called by The Associated Press for her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. Lake has claimed her defeat was the result of the “disenfranchisement” of her supporters in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and where technical problems on Election Day introduced delays, confusion and conspiracy theories. On Twitter, Lake’s campaign has claimed that the election was compromised and said that “the appropriate thing to do would be to let Maricopa County cast their votes again.”
But a crucial element has been missing so far in all of these accounts: clear claims that any eligible voters in Maricopa County were actually denied the chance to vote.
https://news.yahoo.com/kari-lake-claims-her-voters-152451452.html
Videos claim to show home of Iran's late leader Khomeini on fire
Source: Al Jazerra
Videos shared on social media appear to show the house of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on fire, with activists saying that it was torched by protesters – a claim rejected by state media.
Reuters and AFP both said on Friday that they had verified the locations of video clips showing the home of the late leader ablaze, with crowds of anti-government protesters marching past, in Khomein city, Markazi province.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, however, denied that Khomeini’s house had been set alight, saying that a small number of people had gathered outside the house.
“The report is a lie,” said the Tasnim news agency, adding, “The doors of the house of the late founder of the great revolution are open to the public.”
News agencies could not independently verify the dates when the videos were filmed. Activist network 1500Tasvir said the incident occurred on Thursday.
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/18/social-media-videos-show-flames-at-home-of-late-leader-khomeini
Shit getting real.
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