- With the World Cup being held in Qatar, a country that doles out 7-year jail sentences for simply being gay, there has been an international LGBTQ+ boycott of the games. In response, a prominent local journalist, Abdulla Alemadi (who may or may not work for Al-Jazeera) tweeted that Qatar is “not honoured to welcome such abnormal ideas and tendencies” and his upcoming delight in enjoying a “clean sporting event without homosexuals”. He further added it would be a “blessed moment” to not have LGBTQ+ fans (who he also equates to "demon worshippers") in attendance for the World Cup. Well, that's one way to handle it.
Meanwhile, FIFA, soccer's international body which governs the World Cup, has been facing mounting criticism from both fans and players for choosing Qatar as the site of this year's Cup, in light of the country's stance towards the LGBTQ+ community, as well as its other numerous human rights violations. Heckuva job, Brownie.
And speaking of gay panic...
- The gay-hookup-gone-wrong scenario that wingnuts have been pushing vis-a-vis the Paul Pelosi Sr. attack (or rather, the attempted assassination of Speaker Nancy Pelosi), originated with a half-assed report from a SF-based Fox (who else?) "journalist" who has since retracted his story. The wingnut universe has not, however. My take is that the reporter knowingly put out this bullshit on purpose so that assorted MAGAts would disseminate it and then he'd retract it to cover his ass, after the damage was done.
- Overlooked in the wake of the Pelosi attack is the news that the DoJ has added David Raskin, an accomplished terrorism prosecutor, to the Mar-A-Lago stolen documents case against the Orange Turd. WaPo reports that experts on the matter believe the DoJ bringing on heavy hitters such as Raskin is a strong indication of the seriousness with which the DoJ is taking this case. (Espionage charges, maybe? Fingers crossed.)
- There are reports that defeated incumbent Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro had ordered that roads in districts heavily favoring his opponent, President-elect Lula da Silva, be closed on election day to make it harder for those folks to vote. Watch the MAGAts pull that bullshit here.
- This past weekend when the GOP's candidate for Pennsylvania governor (and confirmed bigot) Doug Mastriano was questioned by an Israeli reporter about his ties to anti-Semites as well as his dog whistles about his opponent, current PA AG Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, Mastriano's wife stepped in (it) and intercepted her husband with “I'm gonna say we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do.” Yup.
What she didn't clarify was that her "love" of Israel does not extend to Jews, and that's all part of an Evangelical fundamentalist End of Days prophecy in which all the Jews return to Israel and either convert to Christianity or are slain. To these people Israel only matters as a place to fulfill this prophecy; Jews not so much. So I guess the reporter got the answer he needed. And so did we.
- During the telecast of the first World Series with no African-Americans on the field since 1950, Fox Sports is airing what the LA Times called "openly racist" ads by "Citizens for Sanity", a group which includes the involvement of the spawn of Satan himself, Stephen Miller, among other former aides of the Orange Turd. Many baseball fans, Hispanic and not, were incensed over the ads in which immigrants are portrayed as “drug dealers, sex traffickers and violent predators”, and have lit up social media with their rabid complaints.
Listen, Fox Sports is supposedly a separate entity under the Murdoch umbrella, but this assholery does not surprise me one bit. That doesn't mean I wasn't pissed off when I saw the ads but, you know...
#USPolitics #Pelosi #Israel #Josh Shapiro #Brazil #Lula #WorldCup #Qatar #LGBTQ
