Facebook & Twitter Notes, March 25, 2019

This report is both unexpected and disturbing. ~~~

This one is also unexpected but less disturbing. 

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In other news Bibi is grooming a family member for politics. Does this remind us of anyone we know?

It's really amazing that there's been no mass outpouring of protest over Netanyahu transparently grooming his son to succeed him, thereby creating a dynasty typical of a banana republic / kleptocracy. https://t.co/6jj6n7llFw

— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) March 24, 2019

This is the reference.

Yair Netanyahu to Speak at AIPAC Youth Reception in Washington
Netanyahu's son was temporarily banned by Facebook for racist post, shared meme praised by neo-Nazi
 leader and said after Charlottesville that leftist 'thugs' were more dangerous than white supremacists

It's tempting to conflate faith and politics.
A certain subset of Evangelical Christians have been doing so for some time.
When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
What about When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and wearing a yarmulke?
Or When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Koran?
CAIR, AIPAC and CPAC are variants of the same idea with differing agendas in Washington.
See how easy that is?

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With her usual keen insight, AOC composed this tweet.

He can stay, he can go. He can be impeached, or voted out in 2020.
But removing Trump will not remove the infrastructure of an entire party that embraced him; the dark money that funded him; the online radicalization that drummed his army; nor the racism he amplified & reanimated.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 24, 2019

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South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) surged into third place in a poll of the Iowa caucus released Sunday.

Eleven percent of likely Democratic Iowa caucusgoers surveyed by Emerson Polling said they would pick Buttigieg to be their 2020 presidential nominee.
Overall, Buttigieg placed third behind Former Vice President Joe Biden, at 25 percent, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), at 24 percent.
The only other candidate to receive double-digit support was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who was the choice for 10 percent of respondents.
"The biggest surprise in this poll is Mayor Pete, last week we saw him inching up in our national poll, and now he’s in double digits in Iowa, America is going to be asking who is 'Mayor Pete'?" Spencer Kimball, director of the Emerson Poll, said.

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While AIPAC is said to have 100,000 members, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) says it has over five million & describes itself as the largest pro-Israel organisation in the United States.

Middle East Eye link.

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There are obviously many more transgender people in the population than recently discussed openly.

It's been six months since Westling began taking testosterone. He's upbeat and optimistic, unguardedly sharing details about his plans to get top surgery to reconstruct his chest, his plans to move back to New York, his plans to finally connect with the transgender community, his plans to return to fashion. (He hasn't taken on new work since walking at Paris Fashion Week last October.)

When Westling was 16, his mother pushed him into modeling, set on seeing her child -- who fit the young, tall, thin ideal -- realize her own deferred dream. Though he initially fought it ("I live on my skateboard, I'm so the opposite. No!"), Westling credits his experiences in the fashion world with helping him come to terms with his own trans identity.

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Another school shooting survivor is dead from suicide, the third in the last few days.

   

Jeremy Richman stood with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, as she held a photo of their daughter,
Avielle Richman, at the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, Conn., in 2013.
 Jessica Hill/Associated Press

Mr. Richman, a neuropharmacologist, earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona in 1992. He also had an appointment as a faculty lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. In 2016, Yale’s Department of Psychiatry honored Mr. Richman and Ms. Hensel with its Research Advocacy Award.

Mr. Richman and Ms. Hensel were among the Sandy Hook families who had filed lawsuits against the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the host of Infowars, a radio show and website. Mr. Jones has said that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax.

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I'm calling it a day. Back tomorrow.