Category Archives: Just strange

Video: Police Break Up Rock Concert On Orchard Street, Arresting Two: Gothamist – act like thugs because they can get away with it!

“As soon as the cops pulled up the leaders of the event grabbed the permits,” he said. “They [the police] forced us to stop playing and grabbed our drummer by the shirt and dragged him through the crowd.”“We had the proper permits,” The Cast Owner Chuck Gaurino told Bowerie Boogie. “Taped to all the amps like we always do. In the years past, the cops would roll up to check to see if we have our permits, we show them, they say ok keep it cool, and they go on their way. It was an insane act of excessive force to say the least.”

Source: Video: Police Break Up Rock Concert On Orchard Street, Arresting Two: Gothamist

Hurricane Season Is Here, and Trump Doesn’t Care | Dame Magazine

Our local and state governments owe it to the American people to help with storm preparation and cleanup, and to do that we need organizations that are up and running. Should this happen again, I know I cannot count on the actions of President Trump; I know I cannot count on the wisdom of Gov. Scott. I will have to find my own way through the storm.

Source: Hurricane Season Is Here, and Trump Doesn’t Care | Dame Magazine

Trump’s Business Ties in Persian Gulf Raise Questions About His Allegiances – The New York Times

President Trump has done business with royals from Saudi Arabia for at least 20 years, since he sold the Plaza Hotel to a partnership formed by a Saudi prince. Mr. Trump has earned millions of dollars from the United Arab Emirates for putting his name on a golf course, with a second soon to open.He has never entered the booming market in neighboring Qatar, however, despite years of trying.Now a feud has broken out among these three crucial American allies, and Mr. Trump has thrown his weight firmly behind the two countries where he has business ties, raising new concerns about the appearance of a conflict between his public role and his financial incentives.Mr. Trump has said he is backing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because Qatar is “a funder of terror at a very high level.” But his stance toward Qatar, which is host to the largest American air base in the region, has differed sharply from the positions of the Pentagon and State Department. The secretaries of defense and state have stayed neutral, urging unity against the common enemy of the Islamic State.Mr. Trump is the first president in 40 years to retain his personal business interests after entering the White House. Other senior officials in the executive branch are required to divest their assets. Critics say his singular decision to hold on to his global business empire inevitably casts a doubt on his motives, especially when his public actions dovetail with his business interests.

Eric Trump’s Wedding Planner Put In Charge Of NY And NJ HUD Programs: Gothamist

Patton, who listed her job on LinkedIn as the event planner for the Trump family since 2009, wrote that the job entailed organizing celebrity golf tournaments and other upscale events. Patton also appears to have overstated her scholastic achievements, listing a law degree from Quinnipiac and an enrollment in Yale. Quinnipiac’s registrar told the News that Patton only attended law school there for two semesters, and HUD officials told the News they weren’t sure what Yale was doing on her resume.In addition to working as an event planner for Trump celebrity golf tournaments, Patton also planned Eric Trump’s wedding, and helped run the now under investigation Eric Trump Foundation from 2011 to January of 2017.The appointment of an inexperienced Trump loyalist could spell trouble for NYCHA, which was already facing threats under the proposed Trump budget for 2018. That budget would reduce federal money given to NYCHA for capital repairs from $300 million to $100 million, according to a City Limits report that examined the housing agency’s attempts to right itself before the Trump administration began.

Source: Eric Trump’s Wedding Planner Put In Charge Of NY And NJ HUD Programs: Gothamist

This Is What Kleptocracy Looks Like | Dame Magazine

Think of the CREW lawsuit as a lawsuit on behalf, essentially, of every private entity that will lose money to Trump over the years—restaurant owners, hotel bookers, hotel owners, wedding planners, and so on. Trump has already made clear he’s happy to promote his businesses generally by linking them to his presidency. Look at Mar-a-Lago: An official State Department website praised the virtues of Mar-a-Lago as the Winter White House. Trump doubled the cost of Mar-a-Lago membership (to a cool $200K) right after he took office. Actual people are losing actual money when foreign government personnel book with Trump instead of the competition.

Source: This Is What Kleptocracy Looks Like | Dame Magazine

Inoreader – Thursday Open Thread | Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known

The scope and sophistication so concerned Obama administration officials that they took an unprecedented step — complaining directly to Moscow over a modern-day “red phone.” In October, two of the people said, the White House contacted the Kremlin on the back channel to offer detailed documents of what it said was Russia’s role in election meddling and to warn that the attacks risked setting off a broader conflict.The new details, buttressed by a classified National Security Agency document recently disclosed by the Intercept, show the scope of alleged hacking that federal investigators are scrutinizing as they look into whether Trump campaign officials may have colluded in the efforts. But they also paint a worrisome picture for future elections: The newest portrayal of potentially deep vulnerabilities in the U.S.’s patchwork of voting technologies comes less than a week after former FBI Director James Comey warned Congress that Moscow isn’t done meddling.“They’re coming after America,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election. “They will be back.”

Source: Inoreader – Thursday Open Thread | Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known

Whitewashing by brown hands – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Kendall Jenner on the cover of Vogue India’s tenth anniversary edition is the tip of the iceberg. There are more disturbing goings-on in India and colourisation. The colour-struck media industry is seeking to destroy the idea that brown skin is beautiful by integrating more foreign actresses who have only the skill of light skin, through promoting skin whitening creams via Bollywood heavyweights and devoting entire shows to the idea that nobody would ever consider a darker skinned girl beautiful.Before we can confidently wage war on the lack of diversity in Western countries, we must work together to ensure that brown countries aren’t the first to jump at the chance to wash out brown beauty and talent.

Source: Whitewashing by brown hands – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

We Don’t Need Megyn Kelly To Shine a Light On a Dumpster Fire | Dame Magazine

The way Jones sees it, shadowy groups within the U.S. government orchestrated—or at least refrained from preventing—the 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon massacre, the bombing of Oklahoma City’s Murrah federal building, and the mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. He has even suggested that President Obama was responsible for the 2013 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. When Jared Lee Loughner went on his January 2011 rampage in Tucson, killing six people and severely wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Jones told Rolling Stone: “This whole thing stinks to high heaven. … My gut tells me this was a staged mind-control operation. The government employs geometric psychological-warfare experts that know exactly how to indirectly manipulate unstable people through the media.”Kelly’s assertion that many don’t know him is probably true. He only has around 600,000 followers on Twitter (though that number will likely jump post NBC interview). And even though that may be true it is irrelevant. In fact, it is actually a good thing.Shining a light? Honestly, Kelly missed the boat on that one. Jones has been outed, debunked, marginalized, and ridiculed into relative silence. And anyway, according to Jones’s divorce lawyer the Alex Jones on Infowars is just a persona, a character:

Source: We Don’t Need Megyn Kelly To Shine a Light On a Dumpster Fire | Dame Magazine

When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

the 12th (death threat), well, that’s the one that changes your life; it’s the picture of your home or your office, it’s the one with white powder in the envelope, it’s the one that mentions the hair color of your teenage daughter, or with screencaps of your teenage son’s Snapchats. It comes from a person who is really committed to fucking with you, the kind of crazy person you imagined was behind the first threat you ever received, it’s the one that makes the jaw of the cop who responds to your freaked-out call tighten as he tried to keep his poker face but you can tell he’s worried. It’s the one that makes you take an unscheduled vacation, or break your lease, or drop out of your political race or stop writing on the internet for a while; it’s the one that makes you question whether you should’ve been so sanguine about numbers one through 11, because maybe they’re more realistic than they sounded at the time.They’re the kind of threats that upend the basis of our democracy and our society, by silencing and scaring away and driving out everyone but  the people who would never be silent or scared, no matter how realistic the risk—and, goodness knows, having rational actors who think through risk and reward is reasonably important in government—and by driving out the people more likely to receive the more serious threats. They’re the kind of threats that true public servants, even those who benefit, ought to condemn and discourage, not dismiss and ignore.Or else, you’re essentially guaranteeing that there will be more. And, with 2018 coming, there probably will be.

Source: When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

Qatar: FBI says Russian hackers ‘planted fake news story’ that led to crisis – report | World news | The Guardian – Saudis and #TraitorTrump = dumb and dumber 2.0

US intelligence officials believe Russian hackers planted a false news story that prompted Saudi Arabia and several allies to sever relations with Qatar, according to CNN.FBI experts visited Qatar in late May to analyse an alleged cyber breach that saw the hackers place the fake story with Qatar’s state news agency, the US broadcaster said.Saudi Arabia then cited the false report as part of its reason for instituting a diplomatic and economic blockade of Qatar, the report said. The blockade was joined by several other Gulf states and has spiralled into the worst diplomatic crisis for the region in decades.

Source: Qatar: FBI says Russian hackers ‘planted fake news story’ that led to crisis – report | World news | The Guardian